Lord Harland

Harris went to the Duke of York, while Simone went to the Duke of Harland to ask Richard to send reinforcements.

The two nobles, Harland and Edward, live in the same country and sometimes need to cooperate in the noble council. Although the relationship between the two families is average, the relationship in terms of face is still maintained.

Therefore, Richard could not directly refuse Simone's request to marry into the Haaland family and obtain a dowry fiefdom.

The situation is now very obvious. Maple Leaf Castle is under siege and will inevitably fall in the short term. Harris's status is already very prominent, and there is a high probability that he will be the next Duke Edward. The marriage between the two families is a perfect match. Unfortunately, the Harland family currently has no suitable candidate for marriage. Philip and the royal princess Vivian are about to get engaged. Richard cannot let Harris's daughter be the palace wife for Philip. This is completely wrong for the Edward family. Humiliated.

It is even less possible to find King Roger to regret the marriage and offend the Grant royal family.

Richard has not yet given birth to a second boy, unless he is married to Margaret, but Margaret is extremely talented and has already drank the water of life. She was promoted to a second-level professional at a young age. Her marriage to Richard has already It's hard to interfere, and it's basically impossible for her to get married.

If other Harland family members were to marry Harris, both their status would be unequal and it would be equivalent to giving up a large territory. Richard would also be unlikely to agree.

Without a suitable marriage partner, asking the Edward family to cede territory would be a direct slap in the face.

As the saying goes, a person lives by his face, and a tree lives by its skin, and nobles attach great importance to face. As long as the situation does not collapse, the Edwardian territory can still support it. Simone does not want the Harland family to be slapped in the face and unable to hold their heads high as a human being.

With the two legions of the Duke of York entering the Duke of Edward, the situation has greatly improved and gradually stabilized. Simone is prepared to wait for changes and wait and see how the situation develops before making the next decision.

Simeone came to Harland to ask for help, and messengers also went to the three provinces of northern Xinjiang. Because of the cold weather, the Gascoigne Province formed a coalition of nobles. Although the nobles of this province suffered heavy losses due to their involvement in the rebellion of the Venus family. However, Gascoigne Province has a deep noble background and can still organize a coalition of 12,000 nobles to help the Edward family stabilize their situation.

In just half a month, 60,000 reinforcements entered the Dukedom of Edward, helping the remaining soldiers of the Dukedom of Edward to maintain the front line.

In this way, the two sides continued to be in a stalemate. In April, the war had spread to the entire Duke of Edward, and a large number of refugees entered the Harland Territory in groups.

In just half a month, more than 30,000 war refugees were added to Harland's territory. Richard knew that as the war continued, the number of refugees would increase significantly, even by more than ten times.

In mid-April, the legendary gnolls saw that the situation was at a deadlock, and immediately mobilized two legions from the rear to join the front line. As the orcs from the two legions joined the battlefield, the Duke of York's reinforcements were suddenly unable to support them.

In just a few days, the Grant Kingdom suffered heavy losses. The defense line was breached by the orcs, with more than 30,000 soldiers lost.

The Duke of Edward's defenders retreated again and again, and the orc forwards even penetrated the Duke of Edward and entered the territory of the Duke of York. This shows how dangerous the situation is.

The war situation suddenly changed, and Simeone immediately received an urgent letter from Harris.

Before Simone could meet Richard, bad news came. After half a month of fierce attack, Maple Leaf Castle also fell two days ago, and the successor, Duke Edward Plot, died in the battle.

Plot is a powerful ninth-level epic knight and the first heir to the old Duke. He had just inherited the title for more than ten days when he died at the hands of orcs. Only two or three of Plot's children were not in Maple Leaf Castle and escaped.

Although according to the law of aristocratic succession, Plott's children have the highest inheritance rights, in reality, only Harris can take on the important task of taking over as Duke Edward.

If Plot's children were unwilling to give up their inheritance rights, they would most likely not be able to save their lives in the brutal struggle between the nobles. The battles between nobles are often very cruel and bloody, and close relatives will also bleed and die. Faced with powerful power, it is difficult for fathers, sons, and brothers to have true feelings.

In recent years, Plott and Harmon have been divided into two factions, fighting for inheritance rights, which has made Edward's leadership a mess. Unexpectedly, in this orc invasion, the top leaders of the two factions suffered heavy losses. The leaders Harmon and Plott both lost their lives. On the contrary, It was Harris who inherited the title, and the result was quite magical and shocking.

The orcs stepped up their offensive, and more refugees from Duke Edward's territory poured into Harland. In late April, the number of refugees had exceeded 50,000.

Except for a few nobles, these 50,000 people were all organized into a team of indentured servants by Richard. After entering Harland's territory, they were asked to sign contracts and press fingerprints.

This group of people settled on the west bank of the Rania River, on the southwest border of the Duchy of Harland. This part of the population settled on the border and developed for a year or two. With food and supplies, they could provide logistics for the conquest of the ogre army.

In order to protect this group of people who were opening up wasteland, Richard also dispatched 5,000 soldiers to the southwest area of ​​​​the Raniya River.

This spring, because the pressure on the Beishan defense line has been reduced, Richard has drawn a large number of troops from the Beishan defense line and mobilized 11,000 soldiers to the western region to strengthen the presence in the western region of Harland Territory and consume the ogre soldiers.

In the spring of this year, the railway department also accelerated its operation and went all out westward, preparing to build a 160-kilometer railway from Malte Castle to Songtao Castle.

If this railway is built, the Harland Territory can easily transfer supplies from the core area to the Earl of Martins. When the time comes to conquer the ogre tribe, Songtao Castle can be transformed into an advance base to provide sufficient resources for the army.

Although Simeone had promised to cede land and ask for reinforcements, Richard still decided to show off this person.

Since the decision has been made to weaken the Dukedom of Edward, of course the attack must be ruthless. Anyway, the two sides will have a grudge and it will be difficult to resolve the conflict. At this time, of course, they must strive for the maximum benefit. At this time, Richard was not afraid of offending anyone at all.

Richard spoke directly and asked for the cession of 30,000 square meters of land before dispatching three legions to help defeat the orcs.

As the situation became increasingly critical, Simeone was forced to agree to Richard's request after communicating with Harris.

At this moment, it was already late April, and Harland's army was slowly gathering and appeared at the border of Duke Edward.

By the time Harland's army appeared, the orc army had already been plundered.

After more than a month of fighting, the orc army captured more than 600,000 people in the territory of the Dukes of Edward and Fox, as well as countless amounts of food and baggage. Even the gold coins of the Kingdom of Grant exceeded one million in many battles.

The amount of money destroyed and burned by the orcs was incalculable. If all the losses were calculated, it would probably make Harris vomit three liters of blood.

Although the Grant Kingdom gold coins are not circulated in the Orc Empire, the Orc Empire has planted many spies in the Grant Kingdom. This batch of gold coins can provide resources for the spy network. In addition, orcs have frequent trade with the magical countries in the southwest, and many multinational chambers of commerce are involved. The gold coins of the Grant Kingdom can also be exchanged for resources with multinational chambers of commerce, and the gold coins of the Human Kingdom are also of great use to the Orc Empire.

The orcs were so full of food that they were naturally unwilling to fight hard against the powerful army led by Harland.

Seeing Richard appearing with his troops, the orc army immediately made plans to retreat. It's just that the orcs' opponent is Harland leading a strong force, and retreating will not be easy.

On the sixth day of May, Richard appeared near Palani Castle with 50,000 Harland troops, directly threatening the logistics line of the orc army.

This year, Harland led the lion cavalry to expand again, with the number increased to sixty. The number of bipedal dragon knights also increased slightly.

Harland led the increase in the strength of the flying force, but the Orcs had not yet filled the vacancy due to their defeat last year. As the lion cavalry and the flying dragon appeared on the battlefield, they directly suppressed the harpy.

The lessons learned last year have made the Orcs afraid to lead a large-scale decisive battle with Haaland.

After discovering that the situation was not good, the two orc legions at the rear immediately chose to abandon the prisoners and disperse to break out.

Discovering that the orcs had divided their forces to break out, Richard made no effort to catch up.

It is very troublesome to clear out the scattered orcs. Harland needs to lead the army to break up and disperse the troops to pursue and intercept them.

Small-scale battles cannot take advantage of the Starlight Bomb, and the sum of countless battles will also cause large-scale attrition to Haaland's army.

Anyway, this time the orcs invaded, the two duchies, Edward and Fox, were lost. If he could drive away the orcs, Richard would have fulfilled his promise to send troops. The purpose of sending troops this time is to find an advantage. It is impossible to fight a tough battle and fight for attrition.

In order to successfully break out of the encirclement and buy time, the orcs did not massacre the prisoners, but left the burden of hundreds of thousands of people to Richard to hold back Richard's army.

A population of hundreds of thousands is a very valuable resource. In order to settle these people, Richard did not send soldiers to chase them. After several battles, he only annihilated three thousand orcs.

By late May, the orc army in the Dukedom of Edward successfully returned to the northern prairie.

This time the orcs invaded, directly changing the situation in the northern Xinjiang region, and achieved a brilliant victory.

This same war directly hit the Dukedom of Edward hard.

In order to obtain reinforcements, the Edward family paid a huge price and ceded 30,000 square kilometers of land to the Harland Territory and 16,000 square kilometers to the Duke of York.

After the cession of territory, Duke Edward's territory was reduced by less than half. Most of the remaining 60,000 square kilometers of territory are on the mountain front, and his strength has been reduced by more than 50%.

What was even more serious was the loss of population. After the war, the Edward family gathered the refugees and found that the population in the territory was less than 500,000.

In recent years, the expansion of the Grant Kingdom has been going very smoothly. Duke families such as Edward and Fox have all taken advantage of it, and their power has increased.

Before the war, the Dukedom of Edward already had a population of 1.4 million, and the Dukedom of Fox had a larger population, reaching 1.8 million.

After a war, Duke Edward lost nearly one million people. If calculated in gold coins, it was equivalent to losing five million gold coins.

Even the Harland family, which has a large business, will suffer such a heavy blow and its development will be stagnant for many years and will be unable to recover. The Dukedom of Edward is far inferior to the Dukedom of Harland. After suffering this heavy blow, its actual strength is the same as that of the Southern Earldom.

More than one million people were lost, more than 300,000 were robbed by the orcs, and about 200,000 were plundered by the Harland leader. The total number of people displaced to Gascoigne Province is 70,000 to 80,000. Some of the remaining lost population died of hunger and war, and some became refugees and fled deep into the mountains.

A large part of these people who fled into the mountains were hunted by ogres, and the number of people who could actually survive in the Eagle Mountains was pitifully small, with almost no people.

The losses of the army were also very serious. Before the war, the Duke of Edward had two legions of regular troops and 20,000 auxiliary troops. After the war, there were only 13,000 regular troops left and less than 8,000 auxiliary troops.

After the two armies were reorganized, they reluctantly formed a legion with weak combat effectiveness.

This army suffered a heavy blow and it was very difficult to restore its combat effectiveness.

Not to mention the material losses, hundreds of years of accumulation were destroyed in one fell swoop.

The Dukedom of Edward was almost destroyed by the orcs, and the Dukedom of Fox did not escape the disaster.

Although the Dukedom of Fox lost relatively little land, after this war, its population also lost more than 200,000 people, and its army lost 20,000 people.

Although the Fox Dukedom can barely bear the loss, the most troublesome thing is that the situation has changed.

It can be seen from this Orc invasion that the focus of the Orcs' attack has shifted, from the Harland family to the two Dukes Edward and Fox.

Although the two Dukes Edward and Fox were not weak, they had a combined army of one hundred thousand soldiers. This huge force, even the Grant royal family, has to compromise with them. But when encountering the orcs with strong soldiers and horses, this power is far from enough.

After this war, the situation in northern Xinjiang gradually became clear. Whether it was Edward or Fox, it would become the situation of the Martins family. In brutal wars, their strength was drained by the orcs.

Unless the two great dukes can get the best possible rescue from the royal family and the Harland family.

The two great dukes, Edward and Fox, have a normal relationship with the Harland family. The four great dukes are all developing in the northern Xinjiang, and the competition is very fierce. In addition, the two great dukes, Edward and Fox, have average vision and do not have the discernment to recognize talents. They rush to befriend Richard before he gets rich, which has resulted in the current embarrassing situation.

Compared with the two Dukes Edward and Fox, the Harland family has a closer relationship with the Grant royal family and the Jonathan family, especially with the royal family. Marriage between the main members is very common.

It may be that the Harland family has been prosperous for a short period of time. The two Dukes, Edward and Fox, were jealous of the Harland family's rapid development, but at the same time they looked down on the Harland family's background and thought they were rude and barbaric.

It's hard to get sincere support from the Haaland family. Getting help from the royal family is also very difficult.

In the past ten years since the Kingdom of Roger came to power, the Grant royal family has been bent on developing towards the south. First, they put down the rebellion of the three southern earls and captured the three southern provinces. Then, by fighting against the Kingdom of Delong and the United Kingdom of the East Coast, they captured three more provinces. Province, and also divided out a Earl Steven.

Over the past ten years, the royal family has expanded its territory to a smaller area than that of Harland, but it is richer and more valuable.

Because of the expansion of a large amount of territory in the south, the royal family directly transferred the central army in the north.

Currently, the royal family's garrison in the three provinces of northern Xinjiang only has one Mad Lion Legion left, which is unable to help the two Dukes Edward and Fox maintain the situation.

The Harland family could not count on it, and the royal family was also unable to support them. Although the Duke of York wanted to help Edward and Fox maintain the situation, their strength was average. Three legions were thrown in, but they were unable to help Edward and the Dukes of Fox maintain the front.

The situation has developed to this point. There are smart people in both the Edward and Fox families, and they are all thinking about the future development.

If they can't find a way, the two dukes will also face the situation of Count Martins, and shed their blood in brutal wars with the orcs.

After the war, Richard submitted an application to the Parliament of Nobles, requesting to redraw the boundaries with the Dukedom of Edward.

Although the two parties signed an agreement before the war, the Harland family still encountered a lot of criticism in the Parliament of Nobles. Many small and medium-sized nobles spoke generously at the meeting, believing that the Harland family ignored the overall situation and asked Richard to abandon the contract he signed.

In the Parliament of Nobles, the Harland family also has great influence. There are more than a dozen nobles under Richard's name, and they have considerable voting rights. The nobles of Gedda Province also moved closer to the Harland family. In addition, Richard already had two duchies under his name, and William was still developing in the south. The influence of the Harland family was stronger than that of Edward and Fox combined.

The noise of the noble council would not affect the development of Harland's territory at all. By mid-June, Richard had quickly cut through the mess and completed the demarcation.