Lord Harland

The formation formed by the orcs was thin on the two wings and thick in the middle. There were four brigades of orcs in the middle camp, and two brigades on each wing. One of the brigades was a half-orc battalion, and half-orcs were very powerful archers.

Orcs are a race that is a cross between some special types of orcs and humans, mainly of medium-sized orc blood such as werewolves and leopards.

Because they are half-human, half-orcs have more flexible hands and can shoot bows and arrows. Their strength far exceeds that of human soldiers, with an average strength of more than six points. If they are promoted to professionals, their strength will be greatly improved.

Because of their great strength, the orcs use strong bows and crossbows. Their long-range strike capabilities are very strong, far exceeding those of human elite soldiers.

If it weren't for the fact that half-orcs have difficulty in reproducing and their numbers are very rare, humans may not be opponents in fighting orcs.

Generally speaking, the orc brigade, like the serpentine heavy infantry and the Silver Moon Wolf Cavalry, are elite troops among the orcs, and will only be incorporated into the main legions with higher numbers.

The orcs broke out of their stronghold this time and mobilized many elite soldiers and generals. Not only did they include serpentine heavy infantry, silver moon wolf cavalry, and harpy scouts, but also a new special unit, the orc archers.

This orc brigade is very lethal to the soldiers led by Harland.

After breaking through the two echelons of the orcs, Richard saw that the cavalry group was somewhat sparse, and he immediately understood that the warcraft cavalry group had fallen behind and some of its men were behind. Seeing chaos in the orc mid-camp, the orcs broke out and attacked the third echelon formation.

In order to maintain the stability of the formation, the captain of the third echelon orcs immediately commanded the soldiers and began to kill the fleeing orcs.

Seeing that the orc camp was already crumbling, Richard knew in his heart that it was not time to save his strength, so he immediately activated the magic power in his body and released the second star bomb.

After being promoted to a seventh-level warrior, Richard's mental power increased a little further, reaching 53 points. According to the standard of the attribute panel, he had 1,272 points of magic power. Normally, releasing a star bomb requires 360 magic points. The magic power in Richard's body was slightly exceeded by releasing three starlight bombs.

The second white beam of light slammed into the third echelon of the orcs, shaking the mountain again, and the third echelon of the orcs immediately suffered heavy casualties. In just ten minutes, the orcs were bombarded by two starlight bombs in succession. The severe casualties destroyed the orcs' will to fight. In an instant, the orcs' central army formation could no longer be maintained.

After overcoming the orcs' central army, Richard still did not stop. He input the remaining magic power into the star necklace and released the third star bomb, this time aimed at the orcs' left wing.

The white beam of light suddenly fell into the orc group, another smoke cloud rose high, and the scene of the earth shaking appeared again. In the blink of an eye, with the explosion point as the center, a radius of several hundred meters suddenly turned into dust.

In order to take advantage of long-range projection, the orc archers formed a very dense formation and were suddenly exploded by starlight bombs. Although the quality of the orc archers was higher, the casualties were also heavy. Five to six hundred were killed on the spot, and more than a thousand were injured. Only a few orcs escaped, but they were already frightened and their will to fight collapsed.

Orc archers are elite orc soldiers. Once they are restored, they will still be a difficult opponent for Harland's army. Killing an orc may cost you a lot.

Seeing that the Orc brigade had collapsed, Richard commanded the Warcraft cavalry and charged wildly towards the Orcs' left wing. Richard showed no mercy to the injured Orc cavalry and drove them all to death before giving up.

The Warcraft Cavalry Brigade was like a storm, taking advantage of the chaos to defeat the Orcs' left wing and kill all the Orcs' wounded soldiers. In a group of two thousand orcs, only one or two hundred soldiers broke away from the formation and saved their lives.

The orc center and left wing collapsed. Richard saw that the orc right wing did not collapse, but stabilized the team. He did not want the Warcraft cavalry to increase casualties, so he slowly retreated.

Richard led the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade back seven or eight hundred meters, out of the attack range of the orcs, and immediately said: "Arrange the formation, each squadron will report their numbers."

"one two three four!……"

A sound of counting came. After each squadron reported their numbers, the losses were quickly counted. The Warcraft Cavalry led by Harland was an armored cavalry, and the soldiers were also equipped with force field shields. However, they were attacked by the Orcs with bows and arrows. There were still about seventy or eighty people killed or wounded. Thirty-six of them died in battle, and forty-three Warcraft horses were lost.

This casualty was already unbearable for the 900-strong First Battalion of Warcraft Cavalry.

The magicians accompanying the army immediately released healing spells to treat the soldiers' injuries. Richard picked up the arrow shot by the orc, weighed the arrow shaft, and murmured to himself: "Orc archers are really difficult to deal with."

The arrows shot by the orcs are one and a half meters long and weigh about four to five hundred grams. The power of such a heavy arrow is equivalent to that of a small crossbow.

Although the bed crossbow is powerful, it is not accurate enough, but a good orc archer can still fire heavy arrows with high accuracy.

Such heavy arrows can penetrate steel armor from a hundred steps away. Even a magical beast like the Iron Wild Horse, covered in heavy armor, cannot withstand it at close range.

In the army led by Harland, only professional officers have such power and accurate archery.

If Richard hadn't decisively released three star bombs to change the situation of the battle, the outcome of this battle would have been bad. Even if the Warcraft cavalry broke through the orc center camp, there would have been many casualties.

Richard led the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade and defeated the blockade of eight brigades of orcs. In this battle, more than 4,500 orcs were killed, and more than 4,000 orcs were injured. Including some of the defeated orcs, the final strength of the orcs gathered , only about five thousand people.

Most of the wounded orcs were captured by the army led by Harland. Due to the lack of medical treatment and medicine, it was not cost-effective to treat the wounded orcs, so they were quickly gathered together to kill them. The few wounded orcs who successfully evacuated could not keep up with the main march of the orcs in the cold weather. Very few people make it back to the starting camp, and most of them freeze to death on the way.

The giant commander of the Orc Eastern Front saw the battle from high altitude.

After this battle, Commander Giant Owl knew that Harland had mastered a powerful legendary fourth-level magic item. If this problem was not solved, it would be difficult to defeat his opponent on the frontal battlefield.

Although the Orc Empire also has legendary fourth-level masters, such as the Orc Emperor and the Red Dragon Prince, they are all masters equivalent to the legendary fourth level. But it is impossible for such a heavyweight to come to a remote place like the Eagle Mountains to deal with Richard.

The opponent of the Orc Emperor is a big shot in the Holy God’s Glory Empire.

The only thing Commander Giant Owl can count on is the help of the Prairie Governor-General. Relying on the legend of the Prairie Governor-General, it will be difficult to defeat Lord Harland who possesses legendary fourth-level items.

The battle line in this area may have to retreat.

In just over a hundred years, the Governor-General of the Grassland fought against the Grant Kingdom and suffered defeat after defeat. First, it was defeated in the Dragon Canyon and gave up the Black River Basin and the Dragon Canyon. Then, after more than a hundred years of tug-of-war, it was forced to leave the Eagle Mountains. The southern foothills were withdrawn, and now even the northern part of the Eagle Mountain Range cannot be defended.

In more than a hundred years, the orcs' front retreated about 500 kilometers to the north. If we continue to retreat again and again, we may not even be able to defend the northern prairie.

Thinking of the terrible scene in the future, the leader of the giant owl army was also very worried.

After Richard defeated the blocking orcs, the situation became more and more favorable to Harland's leadership. After finding that the battle situation was unfavorable and the strategic goal could not be achieved, the orc army had to retreat.

This time, the orcs uncharacteristically used their troops in winter, trying to fight at a higher point. They lost fifteen thousand troops but gained nothing, and in the end they could only withdraw in despair.

The total casualties of Harland's army were only about 1,400. Only more than 500 people were killed in the battle, far from being injured.

After this battle, the defense line in the northern part of Harland's territory finally gradually stabilized.

Richard defeated the orcs in the northern part of the Eagle Mountains, and the commodity fair in Fort William finally came to an end.

This year's commodity expo added Tenghui Potion, which brought extraordinary material income of 50,000 gold coins to the Haaland territory.

This batch of extraordinary materials has entered the territory and can greatly reduce cash expenditures.

On November 25, 3270, Dawn Calendar, there was a sea of ​​people outside Fort William. By this time, the commodity fair had already ended. The crowds who came to Fort William mainly came to see a new thing in Harland Territory.

Today is the completion ceremony of the railway from Fort William to No. 1 Coal Mine. Rogge, the Civil Affairs Officer of Harland Territory, and his sister Sophia rushed to the scene to watch the steam train departure ceremony in person.

Railways have appeared in Harland territory for more than ten years, but in the past they were horse-drawn trains, mainly built in mining areas, and the tracks were mainly made of wood. Better sections had thin steel plates nailed to the wooden cabinets.

As coal mine production increases, horse-drawn rail transport capacity is no longer enough.

In recent years, due to the discovery of rubber substitutes, Harland's industrial level has been improving rapidly. Last year, steel production reached 18,000 tons and iron production reached 30,000 tons.

As of October this year, the Duchy of Halland's steel production has increased to 22,000 tons, and iron production has reached 35,000 tons.

From the perspective of steel production capacity, the prerequisites for building railways have been barely met.

In addition, it took five years after the steam engine was invented, and the technical level has reached the standard for manufacturing steam boilers.

Although there were some problems in the design, the time for finalizing the production was a little short, and the launch of the railway was in a hurry, Richard still provided financial support. Thanks to a large amount of capital investment, more than 30 kilometers of railway lines were built in the Harland Territory this year.

As the flames in the steam engine boiler burned brighter and louder, the pressure finally increased. The cylinder pistons on both sides slowly performed work driven by the steam, and the connecting rod pushed the wheels to slowly rotate under the action of the pistons.

The steam engine used in this locomotive has a low horsepower of only 90 horses and consumes about 150 kilograms of coal per hour. The running speed of the train is not too fast, about 30 to 40 kilometers.

A coal and water carriage is hung behind the steam locomotive, which is loaded with one or two tons of coal and a small amount of fresh water, allowing the train to run continuously for more than ten hours. Twelve large wagons can be hung on the back from No. 1 Coal Mine to Fort William. It only takes one hour. A steam train can transport 120 tons of materials.

A steam train runs eight times a day and can transport more than a thousand tons of coal from No. 1 Colliery to Fort William. A steam train runs eight times in three shifts every day, requiring at most seven or eight train drivers, a dozen steam engine repairmen, and less than a hundred people including loaders and unloaders.

The total number of workers transporting coal from No. 1 Coal Mine now exceeds 800, not counting the cost of hundreds of horses.

With eight hundred people and hundreds of horses, it would be difficult to transport one thousand tons of supplies to Fort William on horse-drawn tracks. Because on any steep road section, it is impossible to climb up the horse-drawn track and can only rely on human transportation. The time of loading and unloading is very labor-intensive.

Nowadays, with high-horsepower steam engines, it is possible to carry more than one hundred tons of cargo over mountains and ridges. As long as the slope is not too big, it can be easily done.

Seeing the train emitting black smoke and pulling more than hundreds of tons of cargo, Sophia said in a slightly excited voice: "As long as the north-south railway in the Eagle Mountains is built, our supply will become very easy. Everywhere we go is our country.”

"There is a lot of snow in the Eagle Mountains. Even if the railway is built, it will be difficult to pass through in winter. However, the railway can quickly mobilize supplies, which will greatly promote the economic development of the territory.

The Barony of Harden and the Eagle Castle area are considered wealthy areas, but because they are far away from the coal mines, the price of coal is astonishingly high. When I went there to inspect, I found that the residents were reluctant to buy coal and wood, and even collected cow dung.

With railway trains, the dispatch of our supplies will be very easy in the future. A few coal truck trips a day can transport large amounts of coal to remote areas. With railways mobilizing supplies, we could easily maintain price stability, which was very helpful in stabilizing our rule. "

"The technology of steam boilers is not yet mature, and the failure rate of steam locomotives is high. In addition, railway construction requires high investment. It takes 1,500 gold coins to repair one kilometer. Railway transportation requires high costs, and the economic benefits are far inferior to water transportation.

However, water transportation is greatly restricted by terrain, but railway lines can be built deep inland. With railways, it is very convenient for us to mobilize troops. With a few locomotives, we can mobilize thousands of soldiers hundreds of kilometers away. Even if the territory tries its best, it still needs to connect the railway line.

If we build the railway line to Harden Barony this year, we can quickly deploy troops to defeat the orcs. The losses in this area would not have been so heavy. According to statistics from the civil affairs department, the orc invasion caused economic losses of millions of gold coins. If this money was invested in railway construction, it could build 700 kilometers of railway, enough to build the railway from the Harden Barony to the Double Star Castle. "

Standing next to Sophia, Powell looked very excited. Now Powell has transformed into a civil servant and is mainly responsible for managing the construction projects in Haaland's territory. This railway test line was built under Powell's leadership.

In the past decade or so, Harland's territory has developed rapidly, which has greatly impacted Powell's nerves.

Eighteen years ago, the men of the Harland family were still accumulating meritorious service and striving to be promoted to the nobility. Powell thought that if he worked hard for a lifetime, he would at most see William promoted to baron and his children promoted to the nobility.

Unexpectedly, eighteen years have passed and Richard has become the Duke of Grant Kingdom. The surname Harland has left a great name in Grant Kingdom and will definitely be included in the history books in the future.

In the past five or six years, new things have continued to appear. Machines have largely replaced labor, and productivity has been greatly improved. The emergence of the steam engine changed the way of production and greatly increased the national power of the Harland territory. These years of experience have left Powell somewhat overwhelmed, and he has to accept new things every year.

At this moment, Powell looked at the thick black smoke, and the huge cast iron train flashed in his eyes.

Under the wheel of the big era, everyone is a small person.