After Catherine and Marta and the Covenant defeated the body of the Red Moon Maiden, the power of the Church of Dawn once again prevailed in the Red Moon plane.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Dawn Papal State launched a counterattack against the enemy together with the Harland Leader, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the defeat of the Red Moon Maiden's Holy Body, the two armies easily broke through the enemy's defensive line, as if entering a no-man's land, and even the remaining troops of the Divine Radiance Empire seized the opportunity to rush over to pick up the bargain.

The three parties joined forces and dispatched 300,000 troops to directly expel the forces of the Red Moon Holy See from the Deen Continent, winning a brilliant victory.

This war completely hit the Red Moon Holy See, and Pope Golia was killed by Richard and Sophia, so that the soul could only be reincarnated, and even if it regained its strength in another twenty or thirty years, the life span of the soul was about to be exhausted. Unless a life-extending artifact similar to the eaux-de-vie can be found, or the goddess of the red moon is willing to bestow divinity, it is possible for Golia to prolong her life.

The body of the Sage of the Red Moon Goddess was also severely damaged by Catherine and the three.

Although the Dawn Church is not yet able to wipe out the Red Moon Holy See in one fell swoop, it has also taken control of the Middle Continent after this battle, seizing nearly four million square kilometers of land, equivalent to two and a half dukedoms of Haaland.

In addition to the Divine Radiance Empire, Haaland also made great contributions in this battle, and after deliberation, the Holy See of Dawn decided to give 600,000 square kilometers of land to Haland.

When the Divine Radiance Empire invited the Harland Leader to enter the Red Moon Plane, it gave up 1.2 million square kilometers of land, and with the 600,000 square kilometers sealed in this battle, the Harland Territory already owned 1.8 million square kilometers of land in the Red Moon Plane, which was much larger than the territory of the Dawn Plane.

But there is no comparison between the foundations of the two sides.

Haaland has a strong foundation in the Dawn Plane, with an army of 200,000, and after nearly thirty years of accumulation, it has developed a rudimentary industrial civilization, and the magical civilization has also advanced to a relatively high level.

After more than 30 years of operation, Richard has a high prestige in Haaland's territory. In particular, the local population of 10 million people has very deep roots.

And in the Red Moon plane, because of the bewitchment of the Red Moon Holy See, it is completely similar to the environment of the enemy-occupied area.

Even the 1.2 million square kilometers of land ceded by the Divine Radiance Empire were only barely managed, and the 600,000 square kilometers of Red Moon Holy See's land occupied were even more unpopular and in crisis.

The population here, whether it is the remaining nobles or serfs, is a believer in the goddess of the red moon and is eager to kill every enemy who invades.

Richard barely relied on 60,000 elite soldiers to suppress these people.

Because the microorganisms of the two worlds are slightly different, it is difficult for ordinary people to survive after immigrating to the Red Moon plane, and the cost of opening the plane passage is too high, and Richard cannot afford to immigrate to this world on a large scale. Therefore, the Red Moon Plane can only be ruled by restraints, on the one hand, it can win over the local nobles, and on the other hand, it has rewarded many hereditary heroes.

This group of hereditary heroes are mainly from the natives of the Red Moon Plane of the Dawn Papal State, and Haaland has been leading the Red Moon Plane for less than five years, and his roots are not deep. The highest indigenous soldier cultivated was promoted to a third-order warrior, and knighthood did not work at all.

As for the officers of the Dawn plane, Richard also thought it was not feasible after evaluation.

After all, a bare-bones nobleman can't control the territory at all. Without enough repressive energy, they will soon die in the wave of resistance.

Only the natives who have a foundation in the Red Moon Plane can stabilize the situation with the support of the garrison, and if they want to truly control the situation, Richard needs to mobilize 200,000 troops in the Red Moon Plane and cultivate a class to support him.

The Red Moon Plane is full of enemies, and it is impossible for Richard to carry out any industrial revolution in this plane, and even he is not ready to set up education, open up the wisdom of the people, and make the soil of the territory more suitable for industrial civilization.

In Richard's conception, the territory of the Red Moon Plane was completely a colony for a short time, on the one hand, it was used to collect taxes to raise troops, dump high-value goods, and on the other hand, to provide extraordinary resources, and by the way, to complete the mission of the Divine Radiance Empire, and wear the crown on his head.

After winning this divine war, the territory of the Dawn Papal State has been greatly expanded, reaching almost five million square kilometers, and the territory of the Harland Territory in the Red Moon Plane has also increased to 1.8 million square kilometers, and even the Divine Radiance Empire, which is preparing to evacuate here, has retained 600,000 square kilometers of land.

The three parties joined forces to divide the Red Moon Plane's Deen Continent.

Today, Haaland has 60,000 elite soldiers stationed in the Red Moon plane. Although the number is still small, the combat effectiveness of this army is quite impressive.

After all, the soldiers who entered the Red Moon Plane were all carefully selected, and the lowest was also a high-level apprentice with outstanding physical fitness, with more than 30,000 in number in the past five years. The natives selected from the Red Moon Plane have also undergone years of training, and many of them have come to the fore, with more than 1,000 people advancing to the professional class.

In addition, there are a large number of artillery, magic airships, and even the bipedal Wyvern Knights, who have basically all been transferred to the Red Moon plane.

Purely judging from the quality of the soldiers, the army of the Red Moon Plane is a few points stronger than the Dawn Plane.

It is precisely by relying on this strong force that the stability of the occupied area of the Red Moon Plane can be maintained.

After controlling 1.8 million square kilometers of land, Haaland has six magic crystal mines, which can mine 15,000 magic crystals per year.

Although the Red Moon Plane is less than one-tenth the land area of the Dawn Plane, the plane is not barren.

The most intuitive point is that the land of the Red Moon Plane has a huge reserve of magic crystals.

Although it is not as good as the Dawn Plane overall, according to the statistics of the Dawn Church, the Red Moon Plane's magic crystal reserves are equivalent to one-third of the Dawn Plane.

It is precisely because of such a huge reserve of magic crystals that the Dawn Church and the Divine Radiance Empire can open dimensional portals so frequently.

After seizing the new territory, the Harland Territory can mine 25,000 magic crystals in the Red Moon Plane Territory a year, which can basically cover the consumption of opening the plane portal.

Moreover, the magic plants planted from the Red Moon Plane and the magic potions refined can also earn profits for the Harland Lord.

Since Catherine and Marta are resident in the Red Moon Plane, the Church of Dawn, the Harland Leader, and the Holy Radiance Empire have decided to reduce the frequency of opening the plane passage once again.

Open the plane channel once a month, and you can let the two planes complete communication.

After reducing the frequency of opening the plane channel, Haaland can even earn a large amount of magic crystal profits from the red moon plane.

In order to maintain the stability of the situation, Richard continued to increase troops to the Red Moon plane, and by July, Haaland led the army to 80,000 troops in the Red Moon plane.

At this moment, it has been five full years since Haaland led him into the Red Moon Plane, and he has consumed 100,000 magic crystals before he can gain a firm foothold in the Red Moon Plane. If you want to recoup this investment, I'm afraid you will need the Red Moon Plane to maintain stability for six or seven years.

And that's not even counting the investment in gold coins, and the sacrifice of personnel.

Just the elite who entered the Red Moon plane from the Dawn Plane sacrificed more than 2,000 people because of battle and disease, and the number of wounded soldiers exceeded 10,000, but most of them could recover, and only 1,600 people were disabled.

These people receive a pension of nearly 40,000 gold coins every year. After all, they are not ordinary soldiers, and the soldiers who enter the Red Moon Plane are basically officer class, and many of them have a long military experience, and they have to pay higher pensions if they die in battle.

It took five years for the handover of the Harland Empire to the Divine Radiance Empire to be completed.

According to the agreement between Richard and Emperor Edward, after the transfer of the territory of the Red Moon Plane is completed, a crown will be worn on top of Richard's head.

Originally, according to common sense, the establishment of a frontier kingdom was a very complicated and troublesome matter in the ceremony.

Richard needed to take his elite legion to the Castle of San Siro, pass through the Arc de Triomphe, receive the cheers of the subjects of San Siro, take a wreath of flowers, and march along the San Siro.

After the parade and celebration, Emperor Edward VII will personally bring the crown to Richard with the blessing of the Holy See, so that the frontier kingdom can be recognized by the Holy Radiant Empire.

Haaland is more than 16,000 kilometers away from San Siro, and even if there are military stations along the way to replenish it, it will take a lot of time to make a round trip. Buying supplies along the way also costs a lot of money.

Moreover, after entering the Divine Radiance Empire, there is no guarantee of safety.

After considering the above factors, Richard decided to consult with Count Truss to simplify the ceremony of sealing the king, and it is best to let a prince of the Holy Radiance Empire enter the Harland Territory with the crown.

Compared with the false name recognized by the subjects of the Divine Radiance Empire, Richard is most concerned about getting rid of the shackles of the Grant Kingdom as soon as possible, gaining complete autonomy, and giving Harland a new look.

After Richard became king, the spirit of Haaland's subjects will become more confident, and they will not feel inferior after meeting the Nolans.

Auxerre Castle is the headquarters of the Church of Dawn, from which there is direct access to the ultra-long-distance teleportation array of San Siro of the Divine Radiance Empire.

Although it takes thousands of magic crystals to activate a teleportation array, it can only teleport twenty or thirty people at a time, and each person needs to bear hundreds of gold coins when it is apportioned, which ordinary people can't afford at all. Even small and medium-sized hereditary nobles can take a long-distance teleportation array a few times a year to lose their family wealth.

Even the great nobles of the earl class of the Eastern Kingdoms would feel pain when they opened a teleportation array.

But this level of consumption is already a drop in the bucket for the Haaland Lord, two years before entering the Red Moon Position, every year just by opening the plane portal, the Haaland Leader will have to share 36,000 magic crystals.

Richard directly paid for the Count of Trus to return to the court of San Siro to discuss the matter of crowning with Emperor Edward VII.

With the awakening of the goddess of dawn and the demigod Catherine to the lower realm, the situation in the plane of dawn has changed again.

Among the seven gods of the Dawn Plane, although the gods of brilliance, fairness, and justice are all powerful gods, according to the agreement signed by the seven gods, none of the four gods of brilliance, justice, wealth, and truth can truly descend. In the case that the real body cannot be a general, the power of the three gods of Dawn is even stronger.

In the past three thousand years, the three gods of Dawn have been hit hard and sleeping, so the Radiant Sect has developed the best, and the Divine Radiant Empire is the only one, and after the orc war thousands of years ago, it has completely surpassed the god of royal power and held the richest land in the Dawn Plane in his hands.

Now that the Goddess of Dawn has awakened, and the combat power at the highest level cannot be balanced, the Radiant Holy See must slowly relinquish its dominance according to the change of the situation, otherwise it will face a religious war.

Because of this background, Emperor Edward was unwilling to offend Richard, the goddess of the Dawn, and Richard's request was readily agreed to by the Divine Radiance Empire.

In fact, according to religious ethics, Richard's crown should be canonized by Pope Dawn. After all, Richard was the goddess of Dawn and had a very close relationship with the Dawn Church.

However, the goddess of Dawn has been asleep for more than three thousand years, and now the Divine Radiance Empire is the co-master of mankind on the Dawn plane. Most people believe in the God of Radiance, and in order to be recognized by the nobles, the Holy Radiant Empire must be canonized.

In August, Emperor Edward VII's third son, Henry, entered Fort William and placed the crown on Richard's head in the presence of the Pope's covenant party of the Church of Dawn.

Thirty-five years after traveling to the Dawn Plane, Richard went from an ignorant and fearful ten-year-old child to the first peak of his life.

The hereditary nobles of the Dawn Plane have come to this point and have reached the highest peak.

After the establishment of the Kingdom of Haaland, it had 1.54 million square kilometers of land, which was divided into the direct territory of the north and the dukedom of Rex in the south.

The Duke of William and the Earldom of Philip are branches of the Harland family, and they are still vassals of the Grant royal family, just like the former Duke of Jonathan.

In the future, if there is a chance to complete the exchange of territories, you can also negotiate with the Grant family to merge these two territories into the Kingdom of Haaland, of course, this will take opportunity and time.

The territory directly under the northern part covers an area of 1.26 million square kilometers of land, and it has a very large space for expansion, whether it is the northern prairie, the coastal forest, or the northern ice field, it is now considered a terra nullius.

As long as the Orc Steppe Governorate is defeated, this land is in the bag. Having controlled the Northern Prairie, the Eagle, and the Silver Wolf Mountains, the Harland Territory will become a powerful kingdom with an area of tens of millions of square kilometers.

If it can unify the more than 20 scattered countries in the south, the potential can be compared to that of the Divine Radiant Empire.

Now the only thing that can limit the rapid expansion of the Harland Kingdom is the population, there is not enough population, even if Richard now defeats the steppe governorate, he can't control the place.

According to this year's census, the population of the Kingdom of Haaland is close to 28 million, but compared to the vast territory area, many areas have not been effectively developed and look deserted.

Overall, the Duke of Rex is the most densely populated after years of development in the United Kingdom on the East Coast. Richard was ready to slowly draw the population from the Duchy of Rex to support the development of the eastern seaboard and even Prryland.

(End of chapter)