Lord Harland

Today, the financial income of the Harland Territory is equivalent to 28% of the royal family's income, surpassing the Dukedom of Jonathan, but not as good as the Grand Duchy of Stanik.

Although the income is high, the expenses are also increasing rapidly.

This year, the number of soldiers with citizenship in the regular army of Harland Territory has reached 41,000. There are only 9,000 indentured soldiers left in the regular army. With the subsidies and salaries of more than 30,000 second-line troops, the military salary expenditure has increased to 60 Ten thousand gold coins, an increase of 50% compared to last year, and military expenditure alone accounted for 38.9% of the fiscal revenue.

In addition, the pensions received by families of the disabled and those killed in battle also cost 34,000 gold coins.

Logistics expenses are also an important expense. There are 50,000 regular troops and 30,000 second-line auxiliary troops in the Harland territory. It consumes 130,000 gold coins a year to support the army. Plus the cost of replenishing equipment, the total cost is After calculation, the military expenditures spent this year amounted to 810,000 gold coins, accounting for 52.4% of the fiscal revenue, a slightly higher proportion than last year.

This year, the Harland Territory has recruited more than 800 civil servants. In addition to the new financial management department, it has mainly been enriched in various central systems. Counting the new recruits this year, the number of civil servants in the Harland Territory has reached nearly 9,000.

Of these 9,000 civil servants, more than 6,000 have attended elementary school. They are proficient in writing official documents and understand simple mathematics. Their quality is considered to be at a relatively high level in the Chenxi plane.

The annual salary of nine thousand civil servants is 80,000 gold coins. In addition, various subsidies and benefits issued by the government consume 96,000 gold coins.

Although Richard tried his best to suppress government spending, government spending could always catch up with fiscal revenue, accounting for about 6% of fiscal revenue.

Although their income is comparable to that of ordinary soldiers, in an environment like the Dawn Plane, the social status of civil servants cannot be compared to that of professional soldiers.

The social energy of the two sides is also incomparable. When a conflict breaks out and both sides have their own reasons, the top leaders of the territory like Richard will also favor the soldiers.

This year, three new elementary schools and one middle school were built in the Halland territory. There are now sixteen primary schools and four middle schools in the Harland territory, with more than 24,000 students. The funds spent on education this year are about 20,000 gold coins.

The medical department has built three new hospitals. Including maintenance costs, a total of 30,000 gold coins have been invested. Education and medical care have spent 50,000 gold coins this year, which is still at a low level.

Investment in scientific research is still expanding. This year, each research institute received 45,000 scientific research funds, and the research funds of the Harland Master Association have increased sharply, reaching the level of 52,000 gold coins.

The scientific research funding plus the researchers' salaries has reached a huge amount of one hundred and five thousand gold coins, which is a few points higher than the scientific research funding of some large organizations in Markholm Magic Kingdom.

The proportion of scientific research funding in fiscal revenue has also increased to 6.8%, which is already a very high level among major noble territories.

Over the years, Richard has invested a total of more than 300,000 in research funds in research institutes and mages associations.

All in all, this year's expenses amounted to 1,065,000 gold coins, with a balance of 480,000 gold coins.

Although 600,000 gold coins were accumulated last year, the auction cost more than 200,000, and the purchase of high-end materials to make the steel golem cost more than 100,000. Last year, only 200,000 gold coins were left in the accumulation.

At the end of the year, 690,000 gold coins were counted in the Haaland territory treasury. This money cannot be spent rashly. It must be used as next year's war funds and used to reward merit if necessary.

This year, the transportation department built sixty new transport ships, and Richard also transformed three thousand security troops into a navy army.

This naval force usually does some commercial transportation tasks, and has to survey the river channels and hydrology of the Heihe River Basin. Provide intelligence to the territorial staff and prepare for the use of troops in the Heihe River Basin

The target of the naval battle is not the orcs. The orcs are in the northern area of ​​the Eagle Mountains, and the navy is not needed to fight the orcs.

The reason why Richard built a navy was to guard against the Grant royal family and several other duchies.

With this naval force, Richard could quickly mobilize 10,000 elite troops at critical moments to storm important castles in the Heihe River Basin. If steam paddle wheels are added to these transport ships, the mobility of this navy will be greatly increased.

Of course, Richard will not establish a navy army openly and destroy the regional balance. This navy usually still operates under the name of a water transportation company.

After the annual budget and final accounts are drawn up, the birthday of the Goddess of Dawn is approaching.

Every year on the birthday of the Dawn Goddess, the Harland family holds a banquet to invite relatives to reunite and bond.

In the past, banquets were held at Black River Castle, with William and Mrs. Ola as the host and hostess. Now William and Mrs. Offa have gone to the south to develop, the banquet was held in Fort William, and Sophia became the hostess.

Since marrying Richard, Sophia has lived a very comfortable life. She never lived with her mother-in-law for a day, and there was no struggle in Richard's court.

Originally, Sophia should be worried about holding the family banquet, but unlike Mrs. Ola, she does not like to socialize, and she is not good at managing such things. All the large and small matters at the banquet were left to a palace maid. It was very simple to do and didn't cost much money.

After Richard took charge of the family, he expanded the scale of the Christmas banquet and invited people from the in-law families such as Stork and Duck.

Nowadays, there are hundreds of nobles, large and small, who can come to the Christmas dinner. There are already many nobles here who have inherited titles, including Morgan, Ron, Kent, George and others.

Especially since the territory that George inherited was in the south, he would start traveling in mid-November every year. He would come to the territory to attend the Christmas dinner and stay in touch with relatives for a while. It was already late February when he returned to the southern territory.

The reason why George worked so hard was not because of his deep relationship with Richard or how much he missed his relatives. After all, they didn't grow up together, so although they had some feelings for each other, they weren't actually very deep.

George's unwillingness to cut off contact with the north was mainly due to practical needs. He actually relied on his brother Richard to support him in running the territory in the south.

Without the powerful Dukedom of Harland, a small border lord like George might not be able to secure his position.

A few resources from Richard would be of great help to George. For example, the 600 alchemical bombs provided by Richard helped George defend his territory and win several key wars.

In addition, George had conflicts with other neighboring nobles, and the governors of the same provinces had conflicts, which offended the senior officials of the local garrison. Richard was able to mediate these problems and conflicts for him. When it comes to quarreling in the Parliament of Nobles, a duke's representative is far more capable than the baron himself.

In addition, attending the banquet were Bernie, Soros, Vito, Wendy and other first-generation military nobles. They have greater influence and are considered to be crucial people in the territory.

After more than ten years of expansion, the construction of Fort William has already differed from the original plan.

Because the Haaland territory is developing faster and faster, and the territory area is getting larger and larger, the old city gradually loses its defensive role.

Nowadays, the new urban area is mainly developing towards the south, covering all five or six square kilometers of the river valley and alluvial plain. The population living around Fort William has exceeded 100,000.

The East City, Middle City, and West City were completely reduced to the residences of high-ranking officials and nobles and various departments directly under the central government.

A mage tower was also built in the west of the XC area. The magicians built beautiful houses and villas near the mage tower, scattered in the mountains of the XC area.

Richard's mansion has also been expanded several times. Although it was built with four floors, for a duke, the mansion still seemed a bit shabby and the internal space was not enough.

After all, a ducal palace has hundreds of people serving it up and down, as well as personal guards. The small area is simply not enough.

Three years ago, Richard had re-selected the site and planned to build a seven-story Duke's Palace. The site of the Duke's Palace was located on the top of the mountain northwest of the city wall.

In the past three years, the construction workers of Harland Territory have sorted out a huge flat land on the top of the mountain. The magicians also used integrated technology to transform a large amount of soil into solid stone.

Then with the help of the magician, the new Duke's Palace was successfully built.

This year's Christmas dinner was held in the banquet hall of the New Duke's Palace.

A large number of magic arrays are used in the new Duke's Palace. The core nodes of these magic arrays are equipped with magic crystals. If the enemy attacks here, they can rely on the magic array to resist for a period of time, and then escape through the short-distance teleportation array into the swamp basin mage tower. .

A hidden secret passage has also been dug in the Duke's residence, through which one can enter the southern city. If necessary, one can also use the secret passage to escape.

This secret passage was dug by Richard, Sophia, Wendy and other core members of the Harland family using their free time with the power of magic. Except for a few close associates, no one outside knew about it.

The mansion uses steam pipes for heating, which makes people feel as warm as spring even in the cold winter.

The banquet hall of the Duke's Palace was brightly lit, and the gas lights had been turned on. The Harland family members drank and drank together, and many people stood by the windows to enjoy the snowy scene on the winter night.

The long table in the middle of the hall was filled with sumptuous food, and the maids shuttled around to pick it up, delivering glasses of white wine and fruit wine to the guests who needed it.

There is also a band playing in the corner, which seems to be of some level, and there are also beautiful actresses from the opera troupe, performing explicit dances hard, hoping to attract nobles, even if they become the lovers of nobles, they can also lead the family to achieve a class jump.

Richard clapped his hands, attracted everyone's attention, and said directly: "Ladies and gentlemen, the most fundamental reason why we can enjoy delicious food and enjoy the beautiful scenery here is that the development of Harland territory is stable. Because we They are the ruling class of Harland territory and the masters of this land.

After we enjoy everything we can enjoy, including power, money and beauty, we should bravely take responsibility and have a sense of ownership.

Therefore, no matter who disrupts the development of the territory, he is our enemy, even if he is our relative.

To maintain the development of the territory, we must fight against external and internal enemies. It is very easy to identify external enemies, but it is difficult to uncover internal enemies.

So I want you to think about, who are our friends and who are our enemies?

I hope you can give me an answer at next year's Christmas dinner. "

Richard's speech was as simple as ever. He was still the determined person, but after hearing his speech, many people had mixed feelings in their hearts, and some people were not very happy, feeling that Richard did not miss his old feelings too much.

But no matter what they think, as long as Richard is in charge and as long as the soldiers are willing to obey his orders, family members and in-laws must follow his baton. No matter who violates the rules and laws established by Richard, he will not be merciful in dealing with them.

When managing a country or a territory, the first thing you should take care of is your family. Only by managing your family well can you have the confidence to manage other high-level officials. If the high-level officials manage well, there will be fairness in the territory. Only with a fair atmosphere can the cohesion of the territory be improved. Only when the cohesion is improved can the soldiers' fighting will be guaranteed.

In recent years, the Harland family has not found anyone with outstanding talents. Among the previous generation, William had the best talent and had been promoted to a ninth-level warrior, but his potential had been exhausted and there was no possibility of being promoted to a legend.

The third uncle, Bernie, is very talented and was promoted to the seventh-level professional two years ago. However, he is close to fifty years old and has no hope of being promoted to the legendary realm.

Although the second uncle Powell has an extraordinary sense of smell, his talent for cultivation is very average. After retiring from the army, his career level has not been promoted, and he has transformed into a civilian employee in the Harland Territory.

In Richard's generation, except for brother and sister Richard and Wendy, everyone else's talents are also very average. Most of them in their thirties are in the second or third level. Ron was in his forties and had just barely been promoted to the fourth level. Adrian was better than the others and was promoted to a three-ring magician a year ago.

On the contrary, it is the distant branch of the Harland family, and both Anne and Noel have been promoted to the middle level.

Anne has just turned thirty and is already a fourth-ring magician. Noel is in his forties and has reached the sixth level of warrior. His advancement speed is almost as fast as William's.

Although the qualifications of the members of this generation of the Haaland family were average, there were some outstanding people among the people they married.

Richard's cousin-in-law, Zhan Nings, has been promoted to a seventh-level warrior in his early thirties and has great hopes of breaking through to the legendary realm.

Uncle Thoros's children are generally very talented. Morgan is already a fifth-level knight, and his cousin Audrey is even more talented, and she is also already a fifth-level knight at a young age.

He was afraid that the young people in the Stowe family generally had average talents. Rogge and Alto were both civil servants, not even professionals. Sophia's other brothers and sisters all died in the war.

Stowe is afraid of members of the distant branch, and his talents are generally better than those of Rogge and Alto. Vito was promoted to a hereditary baron, and his own professional level reached the seventh level. However, he was older than William and naturally could not become Margaret and Philip's assistant.

Stowe was afraid that the mother clan, the family, could not provide much help to the children.

On the contrary, Richard's eldest daughter Margaret was extremely talented. At the age of twelve, she had already completed eight years of middle school.

Margaret's magic level is also developing steadily. A few days before the goddess's birthday, she actually broke through the realm. The twelve-year-old first-level magician is even more talented than Sophia.

After becoming a professional, Margaret already had inheritance rights.

But Richard didn't want to announce the news to the outside world to prevent the child from attracting plotting from his opponents.

A seedling of talent like Margaret can be called a legendary seed.

Before a genius grows up, he is actually very fragile.

Once Margaret is attacked and encounters an accident because she exposes her talent, it will bring regrets to Richard and Sophia that they will never let go of.

Even the Grant royal family and the Jonathan family, which have close ties with the Harland family, may not be willing for Margaret to grow up.

Therefore, protecting Margaret has become an important task for Richard and Sophia. After Margaret graduated, Sophia decided to let her daughter participate in her magic research and protect her safety under her nose.

This winter, Margaret has finished middle school, and she has also taken advanced mathematics as an elective. Since there is no university established in the Harland territory, Margaret now has no school to go to, and she mainly focuses on developing in the field of magic.