Lord Harland

Clemen was busy for more than half a month before drawing up the list. In the end, there were more than 10,000 people who received the Medal of Outstanding Railway Workers on the Eastern Loop of the Eagle Mountains, and those who received the Harland Territory Meritorious Service Award added up to 1,400 people. Multiple people.

It took Richard five or six days to distribute medals and meritorious deeds to these more than 10,000 people.

Meeting two to three hundred people every day, it took a long time to say a few words for the occasion. Repeating the same few words made Richard's cheeks hurt, but he finally finished the formality.

Although Richard was a little impatient in his heart, and it was impossible to recognize more than a thousand members of the railway department who had made meritorious services, for ordinary people, these short two or three minutes are probably the most glorious time in their lives. This wonderful time Memories filled their hearts. So even though he was a little impatient in his heart, Richard still smiled and showed his best side.

Among the more than 10,000 people who have been rewarded for their meritorious service, there are more than 100 magicians.

In order to open up the extremely difficult tunnel to build, almost all members of the Harland Leader Mage Association took time to participate in railway construction. Even Richard and Sophia personally acted as magic tool men and continued to release spells every day. , draining his magic power. This process lasted for two or three months.

It was precisely because of the full assistance of the magician that Harland led the engineering designers to build a super project that clearly exceeded the productivity level. After all, a magician like Richard could dig tunnels better than a shield machine.

It stands to reason that Richard is the most important contributor to the development of the railway, and is more important than Bonoit. However, Richard is the master of the Halland Territory, and it is impossible to compete with his subordinates for credit, and to issue medals and official positions to himself. He is not a medal-lover, nor is he a mighty general, nor is he possessed by a drama queen who has arrived as the best actor.

Not only Richard and Sophia, but also Wendy, Eve and other Harland-led high-level mages, Richard did not award them any meritorious service.

Harland leads high-level mages who often participate in wars and have no shortage of meritorious deeds.

Wendy has accumulated more than 30 great achievements in her name. If she exchanges it for a title, her territory will be expanded three times and she will be promoted to the Viscount class. However, Wendy does not value the merits in her name.

As long as she has a hereditary noble status and will not be discriminated against by others, Wendy will be satisfied. Although she is nearly forty years old, she has never been in love or married. As Wendy gets older, this situation also gives Richard some headaches.

In the early years, due to the unstable foundation of the Harland Territory, Wendy had mastered almost all the magic inheritance of the Harland Territory. Richard did not want her to get married or get married, and he was somewhat indifferent to Wendy's marriage. As the situation in Harland became more and more stable, and Wendy got older and older, Richard gradually became anxious, and thoughts of regret often appeared in his heart.

Although Richard has introduced some rising stars in the territory to Wendy in recent years, judging from Wendy's intentions, she has no idea of ​​getting married, starting a family, or having children. She spends almost all her time indulging in magic research.

As the most important aristocrat in Harland, Wendy doesn't like aristocratic banquets, lofty talks, and waste time traveling. She also doesn't like men or women very much. She has almost no worldly desires and is completely immersed in knowledge. in the ocean.

In addition to meditating and resting, Wendy spends her daily time in the library, laboratory, and occasionally going to the observatory. It is very boring and stable.

Sophia herself is already a fanatical fan of magic and an extreme workaholic. Because having children has delayed her learning of magic, she has complained to Richard to this day. Wendy's situation is more serious than Sophia's, making Richard suspect that she is a magic tool person. Perhaps it was because of such persistence that Wendy was promoted to an eighth-ring magician at the age of less than forty.

Richard continued to issue medals to Ministry of Railways employees who had made meritorious service. Many people on the list of meritorious service had died, and it was their family members who received the medals. During the construction of this railway, more than two thousand indentured slaves were killed or injured. Especially in the severe cold winter, the project was not interrupted, although some of the indentured slaves recovered after treatment. However, the total number of indentured slaves who died or became disabled because of the construction of the railway was 1,200.

As early as twenty years ago, Richard issued a decree that all indentured servants who were disabled in the line of duty would be pardoned for their families. The civil affairs department will also provide a certain level of subsidies.

In the early years, Harland's fiscal revenue was average, and subsidies were relatively small. Only some grain, oil, brown sugar, and liquor were able to help his family live a good year.

Compared with disabled soldiers in the army, the treatment is very different.

As the financial level of Harland's leader continues to improve, the intensity of subsidies has gradually increased. By this year, not only will two silver coins be distributed every month, but more various materials will also be distributed.

In order to prevent grassroots management from embezzling life-saving money, Richard has formulated very harsh penalties. Once someone embezzles disability or death benefits, not only will he be executed, but everyone in the family will be implicated. Immediate family members will be demoted as slaves and sent to the mines to live with orcs, and basically live less than half a year.

At the same time, department colleagues and officials from higher-level departments who fail to fulfill their supervisory responsibilities will also be implicated. Once something like this happens, the entire department will almost be uprooted. In the past twenty years, Richard has dealt with four cases of embezzlement of death benefits. , more than hundreds of officials have been dismissed because of this kind of thing.

Haaland led the way in punishing corrupt officials, which almost made bureaucrats blush.

In this world where extraordinary power exists, it is almost impossible for ordinary bureaucrats to use lies. A four-ring magic power word can make most professionals below high level tell the truth. Because of the presence of magical power, managing and governing is relatively simple.

A world where extraordinary power exists greatly suppresses conspiracies and lies. The underlying logic of this world is that strength determines everything.

Most of the fights are straight forward and relatively simple.

This year's celebration was held. Not only did a lot of money be spent on the occasion, but those who won the medal could also receive an additional silver coin subsidy every month. For the railway department alone, this year's subsidy will be increased by 10,000 gold coins, and Not a small amount of money.

After the Eastern Eagle Mountain Railway Loop was opened to traffic, Richard held a very large celebration at Double Star Castle. All workers who had participated in the construction of this railway received invitation letters from the government.

If you get this invitation letter, you can take the train for free before the celebration, live in an official hotel for free, and during the celebration, you will be given exquisite gifts of extraordinary value.

By mid-January, the number of workers who came to Double Star Castle to participate in the celebration had reached 150,000 or 60,000. The remaining tens of thousands of workers have basically transformed into professional railway workers. Because the railway construction schedule is too tight, representatives can only be sent to participate in the celebration.

After the opening ceremony of the railway, Richard also took out a sum of money from the Duke's funds. Everyone who participated in the construction of the railway was given two silver coins as a subsidy.

Two silver coins are roughly equivalent to half a month's work for an ordinary person. Although it was not a large amount of money, the total of more than 200,000 people was equivalent to 35,000 gold coins.

All the costs were added up, and it cost hundreds of thousands of gold coins to hold this celebration.

Although a lot of money was spent to support the scene, half of the gold coins were equivalent to subsidies. People in the railway department have made great contributions to the territory, and Richard has the responsibility to make their lives better.

Compared with more than 20 years ago, although the scale of Harland's economy has expanded hundreds of times, due to the continuous import of people, the labor force is still very sufficient, and the average monthly wage has increased from three silver coins to twelve copper coins to four Silver coins and twenty copper coins.

Although wages have not increased much, there is almost no inflation. Major commodities have been sold at reduced prices, especially bulk commodities produced by Haaland, such as steel, alcohol, brown sugar, cotton and other livelihood necessities, which have been reduced to a level that even poor families can consume, and food prices have also stabilized at the baseline.

In fact, in terms of the living standards of ordinary citizens, average life expectancy, social security, and class mobility, Harland is already at the forefront of the Dawn Plane.

The income of farmers is relatively better. An ordinary family of six with 30 acres of land can harvest 6,000 kilograms of grain a year and earn six gold coins. In addition, they do odd jobs and engage in breeding during the off-season. They start a business and grow some flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees. On average, a family's income exceeds ten gold coins, and their life is obviously better than that of the citizens.

A considerable part of the citizens of Harland Territory are freedmen who migrated from other territories, and some are second-born children who are unwilling to leave home and settle in the city with the help of their parents.

Because they were allocated land, they transformed from serfs into wealthy squires. Peasants were the class that supported the territory the most. They were very keen to let their children join the army and fight for their lords.

Now with more than seven million free people, Harland's territory has gained a firm foothold.

If you want to defeat the Harland Territory, you need to fight with a population of 7 million. When guarding the territory, under extreme mobilization, the Harland Territory can pull out a million well-equipped troops.

As of the end of January 3277 in the Dawn Calendar, the length of the Harland Railway had reached 1,900 kilometers, and more than 300 steam locomotives were in operation on the main sections.

The western region railway line is also being planned. Construction started in March this year and has been built from Philip Castle to Flame Castle.

Prepare to go all the way west from Flame Castle, across Maple Leaf Castle, to the side of Stanik Grand Duchy.

Richard is also preparing to negotiate with the Grand Duchy of Stanik to build a north-south artery in the Grand Duchy of Stanik, and then connect it to the railway network in the Harland Territory.

Eventually, this railway will be built to the Earldom of Philip, connecting the northern and southern parts of the Harland family.

If the construction of this railway network is completed, the steam train will only need two days to travel the more than 1,000 kilometers. By then, Earl Philip will not have become an enclave. With the help of the railway line, military mobilization and logistical supplies will become very simple. .

But Grand Duke Jonathan was not a fool. As the Harland Railway continued to expand, the great nobles were already quite familiar with this new machine.

In the past two or three years, some big nobles from the Grant Kingdom have come to Richard for testing, hoping to exchange railway construction technology.

Railways are the product of industrial development to a certain extent. Without a qualified industrial base, even if railways are built, they will be water without a source and a tree without roots.

Considering the situation in the surrounding areas, Richard did not plan to export industry in the short term, so he clearly rejected the requests of several nearby nobles.

Because Harland has a series of advanced technologies such as steel manufacturing, mechanical processing, red rubber grass extraction, coal mining and production, alloy steel smelting, etc., in a short period of time, Richard was not afraid of his neighbors stealing technology and imitated Harland to build the railway. .

If you want to transplant a series of technologies from Harland, you not only need Richard's cooperation, but also need to carry out some system reforms to better adapt to the development of industrialization, and establish education to cultivate a population suitable for industry.

Even if everything goes well, it will take at least ten years to establish an industrial foundation.

Although the Dawn Plane puts extraordinary power first, Richard will not let the industry go out easily. He has already made preparations in advance. All important factories are state-owned enterprises.

Political considerations of state-owned enterprises always come first, and they will not engage in industrial exports because of economic interests.

Although there are private capitalists in Harland, they are all developing in secondary industries. For example, Odaye, Immortun and others are developing in the flour manufacturing industry. Such businessmen with strong capital have entered the intelligence department's watch list. Haaland leads the government and will not allow them to move factories out of the territory and cause technology leakage.

Moreover, in the Harland territory, they all became hereditary nobles, realized the value of life, and led their families to achieve a class jump.

Without full trust, capitalists will not easily leave Harland territory and enter unfamiliar areas for development.

Because Richard attaches great importance to technical confidentiality and has a large number of intelligence personnel in the factory, it has become very difficult to rely on spies to steal technology and develop the industry.

Moreover, the great nobles of the Grant Kingdom did not dare to provoke Richard, and they did not have so many high-quality personnel under their command.

Talents who are literate and understand basic mathematics are basically nobles. Nobles have very good development prospects and are less willing to act as spies.

Moreover, the railway project is a systematic project that involves all aspects and requires a large number of industrial talents to build it. The difficulty of copycat building is very high. It is not like brewing distilled wine, which can be learned at a glance.

If the big nobles want to imitate the industry, they need all-round development of industry. Even if they fully learn everything Harland leads, it will take at least fifty to a hundred years without anyone's guidance.

Entering the dawn calendar year 3277, according to the census of the civil affairs department, the population under the direct management of Harland has reached 10 million, and the population controlled by the 63 vassals under his name is about 800,000.

The territory directly has a population of 10 million, of which there are already 7 million free people. The 5 million people captured by the annexation of the Delong Kingdom have completed the five-year contract. This wave of people were promoted to freemen this year, almost changing the demographic structure of Harland Territory.