The two corps commanders, Soros and Jennings, were once again knighted for meritorious service, and the Fourth Legion once again sat on the cold bench.

In order to stabilize the morale of the army, Richard personally went to the Fourth Army Corps to talk to Wang Deer and other backbones, promising them that they would be used for meritorious service in the next war, so as to appease the restless people.

After the Battle of Priran, Haaland was rewarded with a viscount, four barons, and about 7,000 square kilometers of land to hereditary vassals.

It seems that Richard seems to be very generous, but in fact, compared to the territory Richard received, the vassal was allocated a small amount.

After winning the Battle of Pryland, hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land in the nearby area will fall under the control of Haraland.

In fact, last year's annihilation of the legendary ogre, 100,000 square kilometers of nearby land fell into the control of Haaland.

Today, Haaland's territory is more than a million square kilometers in a broad sense, but there are hardly many people in more than half of the territory. The territory that has really been developed to a certain extent is still the former Haaland Territory and the three northern provinces of Xinjiang. Even the richer territories such as Edward and Fawkes have not yet recovered from the pain caused by the war because of the orc invasion.

The vast northern savannahs and coastal forest areas are now largely deserted.

After the end of the war with the orcs, due to the huge logistical pressure, Richard has discussed with the railway, finance and other departments many times, and decided to increase investment this year to build a railway across the Eagle Mountains and through the north and south.

Haaland now has three railways into the Eagle Mountains, and the western section of the railway extends to Songtao Castle and is slowly advancing towards Martins Castle.

The eastern section of the railway also extends northeast from Eagle Fort into the Eagle Mountains.

The middle section of the railway has the longest mileage, and the 200-kilometer railway line from Fort Bingzhan to Fort Heihe has been put into operation, and now it has begun to slowly advance towards the Lothar Basin.

Richard planned to increase the construction of the middle line first, starting from Station 10 and extending north and south to Hurricane Castle.

Last winter, the 120-kilometer railway from the No. 3 military station to the No. 10 military station was opened to traffic, and the original plan was to extend it to the No. 4 military station. Then along the canyon castle, the Norman castle, all the way to the king's castle.

However, after careful calculations, the railway planning department found that the construction of this railway was more difficult, and it was better to use the power on the middle section of the railway first, which could be opened to traffic in a shorter time.

At present, there are 680,000 people in Eagle Province, and the human resources are relatively sufficient, and it is very feasible to add 10,000 strong laborers to build railways.

In order to connect the north and the south as soon as possible and reduce the cost of logistics and transportation, Richard personally ordered Clement to reduce the investment on the eastern route, and asked him to transfer a group of backbone personnel to be responsible for the construction of the middle line railway, and the government will increase the budget of 300,000 gold coins, and Richard will also take out 100,000 gold coins from the mobile funds to invest in this key project.

The construction of the Middle Line was very difficult, especially on the section from Fort Hundo to the Lothar Basin, which required the excavation of three tunnels. In order to strengthen the progress of the project, Richard put the Haaland Commander Corps into the construction of the railway.

He even put down his body and participated in the excavation of the tunnel.

Mages can use fossils to turn mud into hard stone, or they can use mud to stone to provide strong support for tunnels.

Richard's magic power is far beyond ordinary people, and he has also awakened the multiplication of magic power and the talent of powerful spellcasting, one person can use it for ten high-level magicians, Sophia and Wendy's spiritual power also exceeds forty points, and they have awakened two major talents, one person can use it for seven or eight high-level magicians, and the three of them join forces, which is equivalent to more than twenty high-level magicians participating in the construction.

More than 200 magicians were involved in the tunnel construction project, plus Richard and other high-level officials, thousands of fossils were released as mud spells every day, and the effect was a few points more powerful than several shield machines.

In just six months, all three tunnels, which add up to more than 10 kilometers long, were opened, allowing the railway to enter the Lothar Basin.

At the same time, Clement was on the northern line, and had already repaired the railway from the No. 10 military station to the No. 7 military station, covering a distance of 50 kilometers.

By October, only 120 kilometers of the line had not been completed. Seeing that the climate is getting colder and colder, but under Richard's strong request, the middle section of the railway still cannot be stopped in winter.

From the Losa Basin to the No. 7 Military Station, although the road is also mountainous terrain, but it has crossed the main peak of the Eagle Mountains, most of which are relatively gentle hilly terrain, and there are no high mountains blocking the way, although it is still more difficult to build than the plain area, it should be able to open to traffic smoothly next summer.

At that time, relying on this north-south artery, the grain from Heihe Fort can be transported to the No. 10 military station within two days.

Five steam units can replenish 300 tons of supplies for the No. 10 military station in two days. Such a supply is enough to support an army of forty or fifty thousand.

Five steam locomotive groups, at most twenty train drivers, a few hundred maintenance workers on the railway line, plus one or two hundred stevedores, can supplement the logistics of 50,000 troops.

And now to transport the same materials from Heihe Fort to the No. 10 military station, using manpower and animal power, Harland needs to use tens of thousands of indentured slaves, thousands of large animals, it takes twenty days, and more than 3,000 tons of materials are consumed on the road.

When this railway is opened, it will greatly reduce transportation costs.

While Haraland was desperately trying to build the railway, scattered spirits began to appear near Priland.

The first to discover the undead were the Lion Cavalry in the Priland region, and when the Lion Cavalry reconnoitred north, they found dozens of undead two hundred kilometers north of Priland.

After discovering the anomaly, Grumand attached great importance to it and strengthened the reconnaissance force in this direction, and soon found that many undead had traveled south from the Northland Ice Sheet into the savannah north of Priland.

Now that Haaland has led the main army south, the hoarded baggage is not enough, and it is impossible to use troops on the Northland Ice Field. Moreover, humans cannot be as thick-skinned as orcs, and morality does not allow for supplementing logistics by eating people.

So for these infiltrated undead, Haaland can only let it go.

There are many kobold tribes in the north of Priland that can act as a shield for Harland, and now the undead and kobold tribes are at war.

Four months have passed, and the scattered undead have been getting closer and closer to the city of Priland, and a small number of undead have been found in the northernmost countryside of Priland.

These undead are as if no one is manipulating them, relying on instinct to attack the living.

Because of the change in the situation in the direction of Priland, Richard first asked Sylph to enter Priland City with elven archers, and then let the Fourth Brigade of Warcraft Cavalry, Harland lead the mage regiment, and the Knights of the Wyvern to reinforce Priland City.

With the end of the autumn harvest in September, this year's Xiongying Province ushered in a bumper harvest, with 240,000 tons of grain laid, and the local people need to leave 180,000 tons of rations to grow grain, which can provide 60,000 tons of food support logistics for the army.

60,000 tons of grain can supply 120,000 soldiers for a year, even if you add large livestock and Warcraft War Horses, it is enough to ensure the food supply of 80,000 people. In addition, a lot of cotton and ramie were planted in the Eagle Province, and a garment factory powered by a steam engine was also established in the northern suburbs of the No. 10 Military Station, and military uniforms did not need to be transported from the south of the Eagle Mountains.

With the gradual development and maturity of Eagle Province, there is a certain foundation, which greatly reduces the cost of the northern Xinjiang garrison.

After late September, because there were more and more undead in northern Priland, Richard personally appeared in the northern suburbs of Priland, and through several battles with the undead, Richard found that the undead coming down from the northern ice sheet were basically unmanned.

Judging from the clothes, weapons and other antiquities on the undead, these undead came from the Dawn plane before their deaths, which is relatively close to the undead in the tomb of Princess Olfaran.

"I don't know how many lives died on the Northland ice sheet in the wizarding era, and it hasn't been cleaned up for thousands of years."

After the undead appeared on the outskirts of Priland, Harland strengthened the reconnaissance intensity of the flying troops, and the bipedal Wyvern Knight even braved the very uncomfortable weather to come to the edge of the Northland ice field to observe the scattered undead heading south.

According to the rough estimation of the flying arms, there are more than one million undead who have gone south this year, basically scattered in the northern part of the prairie, operating on hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land.

Now that the foundation of the Priland region is unstable, it cannot provide a lot of logistics, and Richard cannot send a large number of soldiers to clean up the undead, so he can only take two methods, the first is to send bipedal dragon knights to sweep in the northern region of Priland and clean up the undead close to Prilland, and the second is to recruit more mercenaries and witchers in countries near the Grant Kingdom, and increase the strength and price of purchasing soul enchantments and undead materials, hoping to rely on profits to attract some professional mercenaries and witchers.

In order to deal with the legendary dragon, Richard established the Demon Hunter City in the eastern part of Sutton's territory, and eventually developed a good stronghold, and then slowly attracted professional Warcraft hunters and formed a demon hunter army. Without spending too much money, a full-career army of 800 people was built.

Now Richard is once again recruiting undead hunters through the commercial channels of Haraland's territory.

……

Kanas Castle is the capital of the United Kingdom on the east coast, very close to the coastline, and looks more prosperous than Nolan because of the maritime trade.

The Fire Rose Tavern is a large tavern in Kanas Castle, supported by Kanas gang forces and hereditary nobles, and is a place for the daily pastime of mercenaries near Kanas, which has been established for more than ten years, but in the last three years, this tavern has gradually fallen into the control of Harland.

With a large number of United Kingdom soldiers on the east coast being captured by the Harland Lord, there was naturally no shortage of people who cooperated with the Harland Lord.

Since seven years ago, the Harland Territory has been secretly deployed in the United Kingdom on the East Coast, and now it has developed a tight intelligence network, although it is difficult to find out the upper level of intelligence, but this intelligence network has also infiltrated the system of the United Kingdom on the East Coast.

Even several hereditary nobles on the East Coast cooperated with the activities of Haaland's intelligence department because of business interests, family security and other factors. More than 1,000 intelligence officers have been developed on this intelligence network.

Through this vast intelligence network, Haaland can not only smuggle goods into the United Kingdom on the East Coast, but also spread the news to Kanas City.

It was in this situation that the Fire Rose Tavern gradually fell into the control of Haaland.

Of course, the apparent owner of this tavern is a hereditary nobleman who lost his territory due to the war. This man's name is Stevens Hogan, who ostensibly lost his title due to the encroachment of the kingdom of Grant, and was forced to come to the capital to join relatives.

In fact, Stevens is only the second son of the baron, after being captured by the Harland army, he soon became a member of the intelligence department, and he has become the head of the Kanas intelligence station in Kanas over the years, and there are hundreds of intelligence officers under his command.

After losing his territory and being defeated and captured, Stevenson had a great obsession in his heart, hoping to regain his status as a hereditary nobleman.

The intelligence department wants to be knighted for meritorious service, and it does not need to fight for its life on the cruel battlefield, but it needs to constantly send important information to the Harland Territory.

Although Stevens did not send back strategic-level intelligence, he also built a huge intelligence network, controlling the United Kingdom smuggling market on the east coast, and accumulated three great achievements in total. The speed at which he accumulates feats is a few points faster than that of the captains of the regular army.

Front-line intelligence commanders like them are actually more likely to be knighted and meritorious than intelligence officers at headquarters.

This time, Stevens once again passed on the news of Richard's recruitment of mercenaries to the right people through the intelligence network of the United Kingdom on the East Coast.

A considerable number of the mercenaries on the East Coast were retired soldiers, and the main officers were from the distant aristocracy.

The nobility of the Yuanzhi also possessed a certain degree of transcendent knowledge and was an important class in the kingdom.

In general, this class developed mainly in the military, accumulating merit for becoming a hereditary nobility. If there are not many opportunities for the army, these nobles with distant blood will often form mercenary groups. It is hoped that the military system will be bypassed and merit will be established. Richard's uncle, Soros, was born in such a class.

After receiving the news of Richard's recruitment of mercenaries, several high-level mercenary groups of larger mercenaries were already discussing activities in private. In these mercenary gatherings, there are quite a few people arranged by Stevens.

"The Duke of Haaland recruits mercenaries, do you say it can be trusted?"

"I heard that the captain of the Soros legion, an important figure in the Haaland leader, is a mercenary captain, and since there is already a mercenary captain who has been promoted to a hereditary noble, he should not discriminate against us."

A well-informed mercenary heard this, and said with contempt in his tone: "It is rumored that Soros is the uncle of Duke Haaland, and if you want to become a hereditary nobleman, I am afraid that the reincarnation technique will not work." ”

Another mercenary retorted: "Whether you admit it or not, many of the hereditary nobles led by Haaland are from mercenaries, retired warriors, and slave soldiers. Duke Richard will leave more opportunities to the bottom than our king. Moreover, even if we can't be knighted, as long as we get the soul crystal, we can also exchange it for extraordinary materials and merits from Haaland.

According to the standard established by rumors, a first-order soul crystal can be exchanged for a small merit, a fourth-order soul crystal can be exchanged for a medium merit, and a seventh-order soul crystal can be exchanged for a great merit. ”

In the midst of all the discussions, many mercenary groups decided to try their luck in the Harland Territory, and in just three months, more than 1,000 mercenaries from the East Coast United Kingdom entered the Harland Territory.

The mercenaries who dare to go north are all ambitious people, and the quality of this group of people is generally good, and the total number of professionals in more than a dozen mercenary groups in the United Kingdom on the east coast is nearly three hundred. And Stevens was rewarded with two intermediate merits by the headquarters for mobilizing a large number of mercenaries into the Haaland territory.

(End of chapter)