Lord Harland

Shortly after the Commodity Expo, the flour manufacturing industry ushered in explosive development. Especially in areas not far from Harland, the demand for white flour is extremely strong.

The situation of the Malan Nisolan family is not unique. Many nobles not far from Harland Territory once again placed orders for the Harland Territory Flour Mill. Both the Graveson Flour Mill, a government-owned enterprise, and the Salamander Flour Mill founded by Odaye have experienced rapid development.

In order to provide sufficient supplies, not only the two major flour mills worked overtime, but the machinery processing factory was also busy. Multiple sets of steam flour mills were produced throughout the winter, and four new steam flour mills were built in the territory, half of which are private industries. .

In just over a month, more than 20,000 tons of white flour were exported, bringing Harland a gross income of 120,000 gold coins, and a net profit of more than 70,000 gold coins. Nearly 30,000 tons of grain were consumed in a month. In order to avoid food shortages, Richard ordered the trading stations in the territory to purchase grain in other areas and transport it back to the territory to earn money for processing. Although you earn less this way, you are safer.

One day in early December, Bellman, deputy commander of the Losa Basin garrison, personally crossed the snowy mountains and rushed to Fort William to deliver urgent information.

Behrman is Sophia's distant cousin, and he comes from the Stork family like Vito. However, he has not accumulated enough military exploits, and his family is not as prosperous as Vito's, and he is still far away from becoming a knight.

Bellman has also served the Harland territory for more than ten years. His talent is not outstanding. He has only been promoted from a third-level warrior to a fifth-level warrior in more than ten years. Bellman is already over fifty years old, and he has only accumulated two major merits and six intermediate merits over the years. Even if he can serve the territory for another twenty years, it is estimated that this generation will not be able to be knighted.

Bellman, Vito, Soros and others are all from the aristocratic class, and their foundation is much better than that of professionals from civilian backgrounds. They have the breathing method passed down from their families and do not need to expend additional merit to redeem it. Their wealth is far superior to that of Jennings and others. People can purchase some additional basic medicines from the market, and normally they can go further than civilian class professionals.

The Lothar Basin is the key defensive area of ​​the Haaland territory. There are a total of 7th, 8th, 9th, 12th, 21st, and 226th infantry brigades stationed in the area. In addition, there are 1st Scout Cavalry. Brigade, the Sixth and Eighth Magic Hot Air Balloon Squadrons, the Guard Squadron are stationed around the Losa Basin, plus two thousand auxiliary troops and one thousand city defense troops, the total strength exceeds thirteen thousand.

The garrison in the Losar Basin is temporarily under the command of the Central Army Corps, and Richard is their direct commander.

Richard, the commander of this army, appointed Graeheim, the military judge-general of the Harland territory. After Morgan retired and returned home to run the territory, he took over Morgan's position as the captain of the cavalry reconnaissance brigade. After more than ten years of hard training, Graham's professional level has been promoted to the sixth level.

Including the 6,000 new recruits who are about to complete training this year, Haaland's regular army is close to 50,000.

These more than 50,000 regular troops were organized into two and a half legions.

The eastern route army is the Grotta Army, and the army commander is Soros, who is responsible for operations in the direction of the Grotta River.

The West Route Army is Richard's Central Army, responsible for operations from the Fort William area to the northern part of the Losa Basin.

The center army is the weakest, with only half an army. The commander is Jennings, who is responsible for operations in the direction of Nitburg and Imburg.

In addition, nearly 30,000 city defense troops, security troops, and auxiliary troops operating trebuchets cooperated with the operations in three directions.

After hearing that Behrman had crossed the snow-capped mountains himself, Richard thought to himself: "Could it be that the orcs chose to send troops in winter? This would be too stupid."

With doubts in his mind, Richard immediately met with Behrman.

Seeing Richard, Bellman respectfully performed a military salute, cleared up Richard's doubts, and said directly: "Dear Duke, three days ago the reconnaissance brigade was conducting reconnaissance in the western part of the salt lake in the basin and discovered many undead creatures. Commander Graham The official did not dare to neglect, and immediately blocked the news, and ordered me to cross the snow-capped mountains and inform the Duke."

Upon hearing the news, Richard's expression suddenly changed. The Dawn Plane encountered an invasion by the Undead Lord in ancient times. This invasion brought a lot of trouble to the Dawn Plane.

In order to master the Dawn Plane, the Undead Lords opened many plane passages in the two worlds and left many ruins. These things are very troublesome to deal with.

More than ten years ago, Richard participated in the battle to block the passage to the plane of the dead, and his body was almost taken away by the lich. He still doesn't want to recall all this.

But after receiving information about undead activities, Richard could not ignore it. Undead were found in the territory, and it was his duty as the lord to eliminate this scourge.

After receiving the news, Richard immediately went to the Dawn Cathedral south of Fort William and informed Archbishop Homera Yana, who was in charge of the Harland Diocese.

Homela Yana is a high-ranking cleric who entered the Haaland territory last year. She is over ninety years old and has reached the ninth level of priest. She is a relatively rare female archbishop.

Ninth-level priests are considered high-level clergy at the headquarters of Dawn Church and are rare. Seeing the white-haired and wrinkled archbishop, Richard seemed to see a holy feeling on her face.

Ever since Richard was promoted to a great noble, the Church of Dawn's power in the Harland territory has continued to strengthen.

Although the clergy of the church did not participate in the battles of the secular nobles, they rarely went to the front lines. However, their magical power can be used to rescue the wounded in large numbers.

Generally speaking, a duchy parish has one senior priest and two to three hundred clergy.

It's just that most of these clergy are warriors and knights. There are only about thirty priests and magicians in total, and there are only about sixty including apprentices.

These clergy, scattered in six counties and more than a dozen counties, need to run nine churches. Normally, there are only two or three legal clergy in the Dawn Church in a county. In some border counties, not even the Dawn Church has been built.

After meeting Archbishop Homela, Richard asked Behrman to tell him the intelligence he had detected. Upon hearing the news of the appearance of undead creatures, Archbishop Homela also took it very seriously. He personally wrote a letter to Archbishop Senna of Grant Kingdom Diocese explaining the situation, and then began to recruit personnel from Harland Diocese.

In the current climate, heavy snow has already sealed the mountains. If you want to go to the western area of ​​Losa Salt Lake, you need to enter the mountains in winter.

Entering the mountains in winter is far more dangerous than in summer. Ordinary soldiers are physically weaker and unable to enter the mountains in winter. Therefore, this operation could only deploy elite soldiers and generals. In the end, it was decided to deploy the first squadron and 60 iron horned horses to enter the mountains. The Harland Territory Mage Association also wants to mobilize its core members to participate in the war.

The lion cavalry dispatched a small team to accompany the main force in the battle. The Wyvern team was unable to participate in this operation because it needed to hibernate.

The vassals of Harland's territory also had to mobilize elites to participate in the war. High-level professionals such as Viscount Bolton, Baron Vito, Baron Gruman, Baron Vader, and Baron Sharp could not stay away and had to participate in the action.

Richard prepared for three days, and on the eighth day of December, he led his team to cross the snow-capped mountains.

Because of the Star Bottle and the Legendary Space Bag, the team carried a large amount of supplies, including more than thirty tons of coal alone. With sufficient logistical support, even if the weather was very cold, there was no attrition in the team.

After crossing the Eagle Mountains, a large number of brick houses began to appear.

The Harland Territory has controlled the Lothar Basin for two and a half years. The Lothar Basin is rich in resources. It not only has a large amount of farmland, but also silver mines and magic crystal mines. The strategic location is also very important, and it is the focus of the territory's financial investment.

In two and a half years, a large number of new industries were built in the Losa Basin. Rogge mobilized a large number of manpower from the Fort William area to build brick kilns, lime kilns, and glass kilns in the Losa Basin. A simple steel rolling mill and a steam engine repair station were set up, and construction was carried out in two and a half years. Because the Losa Basin was densely populated, a large number of brick and tile houses were built. The simple thatched huts and underground huts used to live in have been eliminated and replaced. Even wooden houses are few and far between.

Last spring, the mining exploration department of the Halland Territory made another new discovery. A second coal mine was discovered in the eastern area of ​​the Losa Basin. It started a small amount of production last autumn. This year, due to the use of steam engines, the output of the mine is already considerable. , the annual coal production has exceeded 20,000 tons.

This year the construction of the second shaft of the new coal mine will begin, and it will be put into operation in October. Next year, the coal output of this coal mine will exceed 50,000 tons. With the gradual putting into operation of No. 3 and 4 mines, the output of this coal mine will reach 150,000 tons in three years, which is only slightly worse than the coal mines near Fort William.

With the successful development of coal mines in the eastern part of the Losa Basin, coal production in the Territory will approach 400,000 tons. The income from coal mining will also become more and more substantial.

Richard led the team all the way west, through the frozen salt lake, and arrived at the place where the undead was found.

Richard sent scouts to investigate for most of the day, but found nothing.

"Where is the scout who discovered the undead?" Richard turned his head and asked Graham.

"I sent three groups of scouts successively. Except for the first group of scouts who returned successfully, all the remaining two groups were missing. Because the intelligence was unclear, I did not send any more personnel."

Archbishop Homela pushed aside the guards on both sides and walked to the front. With one finger of both hands, she released a powerful magic to detect negative energy. In an instant, a holy white light suddenly appeared. The white light fell on the ground in a large area, and a thick gray smoke suddenly appeared.

The thick smoke slowly drifted into the distance and gradually gathered at a location five kilometers away.

Archbishop Homela is old and frail, and needs to be carried on horseback along the way. She wears a thick leather coat to keep warm. She looks like she is dying, but the magic power in her body is very powerful, even though she can detect negative energy. A ring of magic, when used in her hands, was extremely powerful.

"Negative energy has gathered in this area, and it has been buffered and resolved through special methods. There must be a high-level magic circle a few hundred meters away. Everyone should search carefully and dig carefully."

Under the careful instructions of Archbishop Homela, everyone focused on the core of negative energy gathering and searched carefully within a radius of 500 meters, and soon made a big discovery.

Centered around the negative energy gathering core, six giant stones were dug within a few hundred meters nearby. These stones were about seven or eight meters high and had already been buried underground. If it were not for energy detection magic, it would be basically difficult to find them.

The boulder is completely black and the material is very hard. It is obsidian, a common second-level extraordinary material on the market.

The price of obsidian is not high, only a few gold coins per kilogram, slightly more expensive than orichalcum.

But the six giant obsidian pillars add up to more than a few hundred tons and are probably worth more than a million. However, putting such a large amount of obsidian on the market will greatly affect the selling price. In a short period of time, obsidian may become worthless in areas near the Grant Kingdom.

Generally speaking, obsidian is usually used to make magic mirrors. In addition to acting as a mirror, it can also add a second-ring positive energy spell to the mirror surface. I heard that at the headquarters of the Church of the Radiant God, a large amount of obsidian is used as floor tiles.

With such a huge amount of obsidian discovered, the Harland Mage Association will not be short of this material within a few hundred years. The second-level magic mirror, the Harland Mage Association, can be used by everyone.

The six obsidian stone pillars are exactly in the shape of a hexagon. It is estimated that there are special energy pipes connected at the bottom of the stone pillars, forming a special magic circle, trapping the undead in a special environment.

There are more than 200 soldiers under Richard's command. They are all powerful professionals. After working hard for two or three days, they have dug out most of the ruins.

This area was a battlefield in ancient times. The Undead King used super powerful forbidden spells to transform the people who died in the battle into a huge army of kings, forming a very large cemetery.

After the end of the ancient war, the surviving human mages organized a magic circle to seal off this large cemetery.

As time went by, the magic circle gradually became damaged and could no longer seal all the undead. A small number of undead began to infiltrate outside.

Just as everyone continued to dig, suddenly several strong explosions echoed around.

A large amount of soil was lifted up, and a huge cave appeared in the ruins.

The 1st Squadron led by Haaland was an elite all-professional infantry. After hearing the explosion, he immediately gave up the excavation work at hand and quickly rallied to protect the magician behind.

Richard squinted his eyes and discovered that a large number of undead appeared in the underground cave. The diameter of this cave was seventeen or eight meters wide, like a highway tunnel that was common in Richard's previous life. There is a huge white crystal coffin placed at the entrance of the cave. The crystal coffin emits a light curtain to block the undead army inside the cave.

A dozen lichs and vampires released a large number of negative energy spells, impacting the magic restrictions in the ruins area. It seems that the lockdown is already shaky and will not last long.

Homera looked at the sky and found that the sun had set in the west and it was not far from dark.

Richard stared closely at the undead behind the light curtain and thought secretly.

"Once it gets dark, the negative energy becomes more active, the power of the undead becomes stronger, and the power of the restriction will become weaker. I'm afraid these undead can break through the restriction."