With the decision in mind, Richard immediately returned to his homeland with Queen Sophia.

Although Richard is open-minded and will not pursue Martin who comes forward to give advice, Sophia secretly resents it, and if it were not for Richard's strong opposition, she would have been ready to attack Martin.

Although Sophia, the queen family, is not as powerful as the court lady Wendini's family, and her influence in the army is insufficient. However, Sophia herself is a legendary magician, and the Stowe family is relatively strong in the mage class.

When the Harland Mage Guild was founded, it was still an apprenticeship system, and the magicians mainly relied on Sophia and Wendy to teach them personally. Because of this historical connection, the two were very influential in the early apprentices.

Most of these early apprentices are already the backbone of the Mage Association. After nearly thirty years of accumulation, Sophia has promoted many talents and trained many students from the Mage Guild. Margaret and Philip have always been protected by many magicians.

Although Wendini also joined the Mage Guild in the later period, her influence among mages was far from enough compared to Sophia.

Sophia's elder brother Rogge has also served as a civil official for nearly 20 years, and although the civil officials of the Haaland Kingdom are not as high as the generals, they have no small power. If the Stowe family made a move against Martin, there would naturally be countless overt and covert ways to make the Martin family extremely uncomfortable.

But in this way, the queen's side will inevitably have an infighting with the conservatives in the army.

Now Richard is still in charge, and he can suppress the infighting between the major forces.

Once Richard has an accident, the internal contradictions may not be suppressed.

When contradictions erupt, there will inevitably be a brutal bloody aftermath. The situation will only be stabilized when the final winner is determined by the outbreak of conflict, which is the path that almost all kingdoms must follow.

Even the bloodline of the gods of the Divine Radiance Empire, the creator of the country has become a demigod, and he has come step by step like this, powerless to stop the children and grandchildren from fighting among themselves.

Richard was very open to this point, and in his thoughts, he could suppress it for as long as he could, but he couldn't hold it down, so he simply let it go. However, with Richard's own prestige, it can be easily suppressed in one or two hundred years.

As for the future, he can't even recognize his own descendants, and of course he won't have any deep feelings, it all depends on their own abilities. If you lose your position of power if you are not capable enough, Richard will not interfere.

After returning to his homeland, Richard continued to convene important ministers on both sides of the military and government to discuss countermeasures, and soon unified their opinions, and then wrote to consult Soros and Sylph on the Red Moon plane.

After unifying the opinions and making a decision, Richard appointed Deputy Foreign Minister Stevens Hogan as a plenipotentiary envoy to deal with the affairs of the Delong Kingdom.

Of course, in fact, it is still Martin who holds the decision-making power in the front, after all, it is up to Martin to mobilize the resources of Rex Province.

Martin's position and status in the Kingdom of Haaland are far greater than Stevens. There is no need for Martin to use Stevens, it is completely for the sake of restraining the big and the small and provoking contradictions, and Richard himself has enough prestige to use this kind of power trick.

After Stevens arrived in the province of Rex with a part of his attaché, he immediately contacted the four dukes of the border and took the initiative to interfere in the internal affairs of the Delong Kingdom.

At this moment, it has been about three months since the outbreak of the civil war in the kingdom of Delong.

Although King Anton's army was strong, it was opposed by the vast majority of the nobles in the country, and it was impossible to put down the rebellion in three months.

After all, the rebellious nobles have a strong foundation in the local area, even a small baron, has built a strong castle, and has hoarded a large number of weapons, grain and grass in the castle, and the private army under his command is not a weak brigade, but is completely an independent warlord.

According to the historical tradition of the Dawn Plane, it often takes a long time to quell the rebellion of the local nobles.

King Anton's army was under the castle of Sierra Leone, and its head was broken and bleeding. Even King Anton himself went out to the top of the city of Sierra Leone, but was desperately repelled by the defenders.

Sierra Leone is only a county, and behind the rebel aristocracy there are three dukedoms of Marcel, Peron, and Ram to support, and if they want to defeat the domestic aristocratic forces, it will take at least a few years without external forces to intervene.

After all, in terms of strength, the balance of power between the two sides is evenly matched, if it weren't for Isaac, the two dukes of Hubble would have lost their territories, and the power of the hereditary nobles might have been even stronger.

Of the six dukes of the Delong Kingdom, only the Sith Duke family, which has been married to the royal family for generations, expressed their support for the reform. The remaining five dukes have all raised the banner of rebellion, and they will not give up until the new law is repealed.

The struggle between the two sides was unusually brutal, and three months after the outbreak of the civil war, King Anton had already breached seventeen castles and executed seventeen hereditary nobles who had rebelled.

Until it was blocked by the Sierra Leone citadel.

Sierra Leone Citadel is a difficult place to go, and the Earl family of Sierra Leone has ruled the area for more than a thousand years.

For more than 1,000 years, the Sierra Leonean family has continuously raised the wall, which is now 26 meters high. It is difficult for low-level professionals to climb easily, and even if the army under the command of King Anton is brave and good at fighting, there is no way to take the fortress of Sierra Leone in a short time.

King Anton tried many ways, but he couldn't shake the fortified city. Sierra Leone was besieged, hoping to deplete the castle and force the defenders to surrender.

It was in this situation that Stevens rushed to the border of the Delong Kingdom.

In fact, after the war between the two countries began, Martin entrusted Odaye to lead a caravan from the province of Rex to the territory of the Fourth Duke on the border to negotiate the purchase of serfs.

In just three months, Haaland paid a lot of supplies, exchanging 300,000 serfs from the four major dukes of Allen, Krien, Visiah, and Guevara.

The four dukes on the border of the Delong Kingdom were originally the four marquis of the eastern part of the Grant Kingdom, and these four families have been married to the Grant royal family for generations, not only local nobles, but also have great influence in the center, and are actually part of the central ruling class, from their hearts, they don't want the Haland Kingdom to eat too many people.

But the reality of the situation is not dictated by their will.

First of all, the kingdom of Haaland is now their neighbor, whether it is Allen, Guevara, Kerryn, and Vesia, they are very afraid of Richard, the tiger.

If you provoke the tiger, you want to eat people, once the thirty years of peace contract have passed, offending the Harland Kingdom too hard, it will give Richard an excuse, and after the war broke out, the fourth duke knew that his side was by no means an opponent.

If you are not careful, you will become a landless noble. Therefore, even if they were worried in their hearts, there was not enough reason for them to refuse the caravan of the Haaland Kingdom to buy serfs.

Secondly, because of the outbreak of war in the Delong Kingdom, a huge wave of refugees has formed in the border area, and even if the local nobles desperately try to stop it, they can't stop it at all. In just three months, about a million people poured into the territory of the four dukes on the border. This part of the population, with the exception of a few fleeing nobles, was reduced to slavery by the fourth duke.

The population has increased by one million, but the food supply is not sufficient. In order to avoid a possible food crisis, the four dukes all need to sell some of their slaves in exchange for supplies.

Moreover, in order to replace people, Haaland will also sell alchemy bombs, magic hot air balloons and other in-demand materials.

The trade of people for weapons is also good for the four dukes of the border.

Because of the above reasons, the transaction was successfully completed, and the participants almost achieved a win-win situation, and even the businessmen such as the handling staff Odaye also received a lot of benefits.

After Stevens arrived at the border of the Delong Kingdom, he immediately visited Marcel, Peron, Ram and other powerful nobles in person.

Although the rebel alliance of the Delong Kingdom is led by five dukes, Isaac and Hubble have lost their territories, and the backbone has also died. Although he has not been demoted over the years, and there is only an empty name left, the reason why he can still maintain a false title now is also relying on the support of his in-laws in the past dynasties, and the actual power he holds is not as good as that of the four hereditary earls.

Now among the rebels, the ones who really speak are Marcel, Peron, and Ram.

After the Haaland Kingdom sent envoys, although Marcel, Peron, Ram and other big nobles were entangled in their hearts and did not like foreign forces to intervene. But in order to win the war, in order to survive, they still respectfully received the envoy of the Haaland Kingdom, and there was nothing unusual on the surface.

Most politicians have deep city halls, and it is impossible for people to easily see through them.

Stevens visited in person, and soon became a guest of the three dukes, beginning trade negotiations.

The main issue is the exchange of people for materials. Whether it is because of the destruction of the war, the serious reduction in the production of food, cloth, weapons, armor, or even alchemy bombs, magic hot air balloons and magic crystal cannons are all on the list of sales drawn up by Richard.

The price of goods transported to the border areas is only about 40 percent. If the three dukes transport it themselves, the Kingdom of Haaland can be sold at the original price.

In addition to the population, the Haaland Kingdom will also accept heavy metals such as bronze, silver, and gold, and as for the currency of the Delong Kingdom, because it is not circulated in the territory of the Haaland Kingdom, it can only be sold at a discount after deducting the fire consumption.

Of course, the most favorite of the Haaland Kingdom is the magic crystal, and if you pay the bill with the magic crystal, you will also give a small discount.

The three dukes, Marcel, Peron, and Ram, have fought with the Harland family and the Grant Kingdom for many years, and are very aware of the power of alchemy bombs, and have also seen the power of magic hot air balloons. Of course, what impressed them the most was the magic crystal cannon, with the magic crystal cannon in hand, the strong city fortress immediately turned into a chicken and a tile dog.

Seeing that Haaland was willing to sell even the killer weapons on the battlefield, the three dukes immediately turned red. They have expressed their willingness to exchange the serfs in the territory for food, cloth, weapons, and armor, as for the alchemy bombs, magic hot air balloons, and magic crystal cannons, the more the better, to ensure that enough serfs are captured for the Harland Kingdom.

According to the price catalogue drawn up by Stevens, an alchemy bomb costs fifteen gold coins, which is equivalent to three serfs.

A set of magic hot air balloons costs 7,000 gold coins and costs 1,400 people.

Of course, after buying a magic hot air balloon, it still needs to be trained before it can be used, and the training cost is not expensive.

The most expensive is the Crystal Cannon, a Crystal Cannon costs 24,000 gold coins, and it needs to be sold for 4,800 slaves. Of course, the use of the magic crystal cannon also requires training, and the training cost is two thousand gold coins, which is equivalent to another four hundred people.

At the same time, a magic crystal cannon will come with thirty alchemy shells, which can only support a fierce battle. And the purchase of one shell costs one hundred and twenty gold coins, and one hundred rounds pay for two thousand four hundred people.

The price of super magic weapons is so expensive, ordinary materials are much cheaper, a set of steel armor only costs ten gold coins, and a set of leather armor is only about two gold coins. A spear is a silver coin, a steel knife is forty copper coins, an iron-inlaid heavy shield is only about two silver coins, a meal of grain is only three silver coins, a roll of linen cloth is two silver coins, and a roll of cotton cloth is three silver coins, which is only about thirty or forty percent higher than the market price before the outbreak of war.

In order to raise enough funds, the three dukes began to collect a large number of people, and they even sent Warcraft cavalry to attack the empty rear of the royal territory, and the goal of the battle was to capture serfs.

For a while, the front line became extremely chaotic, and taking advantage of the opportunity, when Stevens was negotiating with the nobles of the Delong Kingdom, he placed a part of the spies in the Delong Kingdom through the relationship of the caravan.

The intelligence power of the Haaland Kingdom within the Delong Kingdom is also very strong, and more than 20% of the population in the country comes from the Delong Kingdom, such as Jennings, Sula, Odaye and others, whose hometowns are in the Delong Kingdom.

Because of the same food habits and cultural customs, Richard could easily select intelligence agents and infiltrate countries such as Delong, East Coast, Grant, and Starnick.

Already with a strong ability to move, coupled with the outbreak of the civil war in the Kingdom of Delong, the intelligence services even infiltrated the hands of hereditary nobles. Many hereditary nobles of the Delong Kingdom have secretly expressed their attitude and are willing to serve the Haaland Kingdom.

Less than half a year after Stevens entered the Delong Kingdom, he had sold 60,000 alchemy bombs, 120 sets of magic hot air balloons, 18 magic crystal cannons, 40,000 sets of leather armor, 20,000 sets of steel armor, plus some scattered materials, and exchanged 600,000 slaves for Haaland, plus 300,000 people exchanged with the four dukes of the border earlier. Less than a year after the start of the war, the kingdom of Haaland had already eaten a large piece of fat from the kingdom of Delong, adding more than 900,000 to its population.

In the civil war of the Indron Kingdom, not only the Haaland Kingdom ate meat, but also the four dukes of the border, the southern royal territories of the Grant Kingdom, and the Mayan Kingdom all ate a mouthful of oil.

According to the intelligence department's rough estimates, in the nine months since the outbreak of the war, the Delong Kingdom has lost about four million people, equivalent to about 15 percent of the total population.

Only a small fraction of the four million people lost were killed in the war massacres, and most of them became war refugees, fleeing the borders and falling into the hands of neighbouring countries.

(End of chapter)