Lord Harland

After Richard returned to the territory, it was already early June.

He went eastward to hunt in March and returned in midsummer.

This autumn, 240,000 indentured slaves have expired. They have served Harland for more than four years and were pardoned as freedmen by Richard in the spring. In addition to the 240,000 freedmen this year, Harland will lead 680,000 free people.

A free citizen is allocated six acres of wasteland. In addition to this year's land reclamation task for government-run farms, two million acres of farmland need to be reclaimed this year. For Harland's more than 900,000 indentured servants, the task is very heavy.

After all, there are only 600,000 young and middle-aged indentured slaves, and a large part of them need to build infrastructure, herd cattle, and work in factories. Only about 360,000 people can actually participate in land reclamation.

On average, each person cultivates more than five acres of wasteland, which is not an easy task.

Land reclamation requires cutting down trees, digging tree roots, building canals, picking up stones, and filling in swamps. Even with the help of large animals, it is still physically strenuous work.

According to statistics from the territorial agriculture department, eight and a half laborers are needed to cultivate one acre of wasteland, even with large animals. This is still opening up wasteland in plain areas and building terraces in the mountains. Just cutting down trees and digging roots requires dozens of work. Building terraces is also not easy.

The Harland Territory is now sparsely populated and there is no need to build terraces. The farmland reclaimed this time is mainly in the Tanit Valley, the Im River Valley, the areas on both sides of the Grotta River, the Swamp Basin, the Losa Basin, and Graveson. Part of the land was cleared.

In order to complete the wasteland reclamation task, Rogge found the territorial garrison, hoping that the territorial garrison could take on part of the wasteland reclamation task.

The system of Harland's territory is almost entirely in Richard's hands.

The only thing that the city hall can influence is the second-line army, the city defense army. Even the cross-regional transfer of the city defense army requires Richard's approval.

Richard is not in the territory, and Rogge cannot mobilize the garrison at all. Although the Stowe family has great influence in the Harland territory, the garrison will not listen to Rogge's words.

In the end, Rogge could only find Audrey through a personal relationship, and asked the lion cavalry to venture into the vicinity of the kobold cave. He sent a letter explaining the whole story and brought back Richard's order to mobilize troops.

Counting the second-line auxiliary troops, Harland's army has expanded to more than 70,000 people. There are many professionals in the army, and the power of these people far exceeds that of civilians. With the help of the garrison and more than half a month of voluntary labor, this year's wasteland reclamation task was successfully completed.

After land reclamation came spring plowing. This year's spring plowing went relatively smoothly. Not only did we get a well-timed spring rain, but there was no war damage.

In the past decade or so, peace has been a luxury for the people of Harland Territory.

Fortunately, the Harland Territory has established basic industries and developed a relatively high-level magical civilization. New weapons are invented in an endless stream. Although it cannot crush the orcs, it can successfully defend the territory.

In recent years, we have basically been fighting overseas, and the damage to territorial production has not been serious.

This year's battle was smaller in scale, with more than 600 people mobilized twice, and the impact on the territory was lighter.

This year, there were two battles against the legendary dragon, and many people made meritorious deeds. Among them, Wendy and Vito have accumulated ten great merits, and will each be awarded a barony.

Wendy is the sister of Richard's mother. Unlike other nobles, Richard is not willing to put her territory on the border.

But it would not work to seal the Wendy Territory near Fort William, because the vicinity of Fort William is the core of the Harland Territory. In order to set an example for future generations, Richard made a rule that the core territory could not be divided. In the end, Wendy's territory was sealed near Flying Eagle Castle.

This territory is located on both sides of the Black River, adjacent to the Baron of Jose. The area is not very large, only more than 800 square kilometers, but the land is very fertile. More than 80% of it is flat land, and more than 800 square kilometers can be cultivated. Millions of acres of farmland. The territory has already been lightly developed, and 4,000 slaves purchased this year have been assigned to farm the territory.

According to the political system of the Grant Kingdom, hereditary nobles have great independence. Although Wendy is her own vassal, she can decide on her own policies and laws in the territory.

Richard already has seven vassals under his name, and they have formulated different laws and policies. These vassals are basically very traditional, and they will not allocate fields to serfs, nor have they enacted a decree to amnesty free people.

The living standards of the serfs in the vassal territory and the free people in the Harland territory were very different, and their political status was even more different. In Harland's territory, as long as you work hard and have good luck, you have a high probability of achieving a class jump even if your talent is average.

Because it is too close to the Harland Territory, news will flow naturally, and the problem of runaway slaves is very prevalent in the vassal territory.

When dealing with the issue of escaped slaves, vassals and duchies often had some frictions and conflicts. It's just that the strength gap between the two sides is too big, and the vassals can't afford to offend Leader Harland.

In fact, even his uncle Soros came to visit him several times because of the issue of escaped slaves. However, Richard was determined not to give in. He only sent back the escaped slaves and never revised the Haaland Land Law.

Soros has been in the army for many years, and of course he knows that pardoning serfs will greatly improve the strength of the territory.

Turning serfs into free citizens can not only increase production enthusiasm and greatly increase crop yields, but also increase the prestige of the territory among the people and greatly increase the morale of serfs who join the army.

Harland led the army with strong fighting power, conquered hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land, and severely damaged the orcs several times. In addition to the invention of new weapons and equipment exceeding the orcs, high morale was also a key reason.

In order to maintain this high morale, Richard vigorously improved the social status of soldiers and established a pension security system for soldiers, an honorary reward system for soldiers, and a clothing and clothing system for soldiers. A law was also enacted to pardon indentured servants and allocate land to freedmen to win over the people.

Soros is a senior official in the territory and has participated in various policy discussions many times, so it is impossible for him to not understand. But he wanted to maintain the monopoly of the Dake family, wanted to be a prince for generations, restricted the upward channels for the lower class, and wanted to avoid competition between the middle and lower classes and the Dake family.

Even if a person is very wise, once his own interests are touched, he will immediately become furious. After all, touching his interests is more painful than touching his soul.

Although Soros is Richard's biological uncle, he has a very close relationship with Richard. When Richard was getting rich, the Soros family also helped him a lot, which can be said to be a deep kindness.

But when it comes to major political policies, Richard is very determined. As long as he lives for a day, the system of amnesty for serfs will definitely be implemented in the Harland Territory. Soros's opposition will not affect Richard's determination at all.

Wendy has been Richard's follower since she was a child, and her outlook has been deeply influenced by Richard. The fiefdom has enacted the same laws as the Duchy of Harland.

She almost completely handed over the management of this territory to the bureaucratic class arranged by Richard. Wendy herself still lived in Fort William, focusing on studying magic and not enthusiastically participating in the management of the territory.

Vito is Sophia's distant cousin, who is close to seventy years old. He defected to the Harland Territory very early and was one of the earliest squadron leaders in the Territory. After struggling under Richard for more than ten years, he was finally knighted before his retirement.

Although Sophia's brothers Rogge and Otto hold high positions in Haaland and are among the top people in the civil service system, the resources they can mobilize far exceed those of a hereditary baron. But social status and family honor are not comparable to hereditary nobles like Vito.

Vito's knighthood was regarded by the Stowe family as another revival.

The Grant Kingdom is a country that attaches great importance to strength and military merit, and has an extremely stubborn tradition of militarism. Without military merit and hereditary nobility, one is considered an inferior person in terms of political status.

Senior officials in the territory such as Rogge and Alto had to dismount and bow when meeting hereditary nobles. They could not speak loudly during arguments and quarrels in meetings. They could only swallow their anger when beaten by hereditary nobles. In future generations, as long as the Vito family holds on to its territory, it will still be at the top of the Duchy of Harland. However, there is a high probability that the descendants of Rogge and Alto will disappear from the crowd and fall into the ordinary professional class.

Even if it is left to Nolan, a court earl can influence the country's major political policies, but when meeting hereditary barons at various celebrations, they must also be polite. Because the court earl is only a reward from the kingdom, while the hereditary baron has made great contributions to the country.

In fact, the Grant royal family often selects people from the hereditary aristocracy who have repeatedly made military exploits when selecting court earls.

Baron Vito is located in the north of Double Star Castle, adjacent to the three baronies of Vida, Gruman and Morgan. This territory covers an area of ​​1100 square kilometers. Although the area is larger, the population carrying capacity is far less than that of Wendy. Barony.

The Vito family can be said to have a large number of people. There are more than 20 children and grandchildren who have reached adulthood, including 13 professionals, most of whom are in the military.

Even among the aristocratic class, there are only some who have the inheritance of the breathing method, can endure hardships, are willing to practice the breathing method since childhood, and can persevere. The northern Xinjiang region is better. Due to the years of war, most members of the nobles can persist in practicing breathing techniques. In the capital Nolan region, only about a quarter of the nobles can be promoted to professionals.

In order to avoid the decline of the nobility, the Grant Kingdom also enacted a professional succession law. If you are unable to become a professional, you will not be able to inherit the title. Even so, this daughter, the second son of a nobleman who gave up his right to inherit, still spends his days drinking and participating in various banquets and being active in entertainment venues.

However, these nobles with no military exploits could not gain a foothold in the upper echelons of the Grant Kingdom and did not get any respect.

Richard never participated in various aristocratic gatherings, nor did he like various aristocratic activities. He even had conflicts with many nobles in the country. This did not prevent him from being one of the top five most powerful nobles in the Grant Kingdom. Even princes and princesses would be jealous when they saw him. Take the initiative to bow and be careful when speaking.

Vito's second son, Warren, was the most talented, surpassing his father. He had just turned forty and was already a fifth-level warrior. He served as the captain of the 15th Brigade, almost equaling his father.

After Vito was knighted, he discussed with his children and grandchildren and decided to retire to run the territory. Warren and some of his tribesmen continued to stay in the army.

The Vito family was originally from a noble family, and with its large number of people and a relatively prosperous economy, everyone tried their best to come up with 13,000 gold coins. In addition to part of Sophia's funding, they actually bought 3,000 gold coins from the slave market in one go. Thousands of people.

The Vito family itself has no shortage of professionals. It has recruited more than a dozen veterans from the army and hired dozens of mercenaries. With these people as the backbone, it has trained 500 soldiers.

Including the Baron of Vito, there are already four baronies near the Double Star Castle, and the total number of noble coalition forces has reached 1,600 people. It is also a big supplement to the defense of the Duchy of Harland.

When Richard returned to his territory, the summer harvest had already begun. He looked around and found that the weather was going well this year and there would be a good harvest.

The focus of Harland's land reclamation this year is around Nitburg and Imburg. Both castles are located in the river valley and are surrounded by towering mountains.

The Imburg area, in particular, is located near a mountain ridge with towering cliffs on both sides of the Imburg River.

Because there is a lot of melt water in the mountains, the Im River has relatively abundant water. However, due to terrain restrictions, it can only flow into the large salt lake. It is the most important water source around the salt lake.

On both sides of the Im River, there is also a large valley and flat land, but the Im River is located deep in the Eagle Mountains, making it difficult to develop.

This year, as many as 260,000 acres of farmland were reclaimed on both sides of the Im River, and 36,000 new freedmen moved in.

These freedmen were all civilians of the Grand Duchy of Stanik. They were captured in the Harland Territory because of the war. After four and a half years of being indentured slaves, they finally regained their free status.

Some of this group of indentured slaves come from the middle and upper classes of the Grand Duchy of Stanik. Some of these people are urban citizens, and some even come from professional families. Because of their ability and knowledge, they gradually established prestige among their fellow villagers and became managers and leaders of the same batch of indentured slaves.

Because the Grant Kingdom provoked a war and destroyed their hometown, the army led by Richard killed their relatives and demoted them as slaves, so they felt resentment towards the Harland Territory in their hearts.

After more than four years of hard work, they gritted their teeth and persevered. This year they finally became free citizens. At this moment, they were very happy in their hearts.

The higher the middle and upper level, the deeper the knowledge. They were very satisfied with Richard's decree to pardon the serfs, but they also hated Richard's invasion of their country and the killing of their relatives.

If given the chance, this group of people would definitely stir up trouble and seek revenge. However, the disparity in power between the two sides was as big as a firefly and a bright moon, so they did not dare to hold grudges at all. After all, they have experienced war, have a deep understanding of troubled times, and know that Richard is not a soft-hearted person.

If you jump out now, your life will be in vain. They didn't even dare to say bad things about Harland's territory easily. They could only sing praises without sincerity, feeling extremely aggrieved in their hearts.