Lord Harland

Hiding gold coins in the treasury is actually of no use to economic development. Richard planned to use most of the 930,000 gold coins in stock to purchase serfs.

Purchasing more than 100,000 serfs at one time is undoubtedly a huge business, and the number far exceeds the supply of the Grant Kingdom's slave market.

There are two major slave markets in the Grant Kingdom, one is in Nolan, and the number of slaves can sell 30,000 people a year. One is in Heihe Fort. The market is smaller and can sell about 10,000 people a year.

Due to the limitation of the scale of the slave market, the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Duran would also sell slaves in St. Jonathan Castle, and they could sell 20,000 people a year.

In fact, the nobles in the southern part of the Grant Kingdom could capture hundreds of thousands of slaves a year, more than half of whom died on the road, and only 60,000 to 70,000 could be sold a year.

In the past ten years, about 200,000 slaves have been sent to Harland, and Richard has paid more than one million gold coins.

Since William led his troops south, the Harland family has gained significant influence in the south. Relying on this level of influence, the territory opened up a southward commercial channel. This channel can not only smuggle goods, but also people.

The Harland Territory has established thirteen trading stations on this trade road. These trading stations are located in different territories. The trading stations stock a lot of goods, which has extended the Harland Territory's tentacles to different territories.

Through these trading stations, you can purchase a large amount of materials from nearby lords and merchants, and the cost of purchasing slaves will also be reduced a lot. If you take gold coins south and count the losses along the way, on average, purchasing one person will cost about three gold coins, eight A silver coin.

Because the slave market had insufficient capacity, after the goddess's birthday, Richard decided to personally lead his troops south, negotiate with the Duke of Guise, the Duke of Duran and other southern nobles, and purchase a group of serfs with half a million gold coins.

In order to protect the safety of this huge sum of money, Richard dispatched the First Brigade, the Guard Brigade, the 28th Brigade, and the Second Warcraft Cavalry Brigade, a total of 6,000 regular troops to go south.

The army going south could not only protect Richard's safety, but also maintain order and escort the serfs on their way back. Moving hundreds of thousands of serfs at one time would be impossible without the protection of elite soldiers.

Five hundred thousand gold coins, based on the current cost of slaves purchased by Harland, can buy approximately 130,000 indentured slaves.

This year, Harland's food supply was not enough to feed the extra 130,000 indentured servants. Richard also needed to spend 100,000 gold coins to purchase 50,000 tons of food, with a total cost of nearly 600,000 gold coins.

As for the remaining 330,000 gold coins, the liquidity of the territory is maintained.

Not long after the Goddess's Birthday, the temperature in February had just warmed up and the snow had begun to melt.

The first brigade, the guard brigade, the second Warcraft Cavalry brigade and other elites crossed the Eagle Mountains, merged with the 28th brigade, and marched south.

Before moving troops south, Richard had already rushed to send an envoy to Nolan, explaining the reason for the troop movement south.

In late February, Richard had led his army into the Dukedom of Guise.

In order to dispel the suspicion of Duke of Guise, Richard ordered the soldiers to camp outside the city, and he entered the castle of Duke of Guise with a small number of followers.

When he went south, Richard had already sent a messenger to explain the reason to the important nobles in the south.

The Duke of Guise welcomed Richard into the castle, arranged accommodation, and immediately held a welcome dinner.

After drinking and eating, the Duke of Guise said: "The war last year was not going well. We only captured 30,000 serfs in our territory, 10,000 of which have been sold. I only have 20,000 goods left. Look at Brother Richard. I'm afraid the goods in my hand are far from enough to satisfy my appetite.

Since I am moving my troops south this time, you might as well join me and go south to the Delong Kingdom to clear grass valleys. As long as you capture a few castles, you will have everything you want. "

After hearing this, Richard immediately shook his head and said: "There is no intention to mobilize troops south this time to join the war, and the material preparation is still insufficient. I will talk to Duke Duran and several central legions first. If we can gather enough serfs, , we have no need to join the war."

"If the number of serfs in the hands of the southern nobles is not enough, brother Richard can't go back empty-handed, right?"

Richard smiled and replied: "If this is the case, I have to ask Brother Gis to be my host."

After the banquet, Richard delivered gold coins the next day and purchased 20,000 serfs from the Duke of Guise.

For the next period of time, Richard continued to send envoys to purchase serfs from the small nobles in the south.

The small nobles in the south all work part-time as slave traders, and slave trading is an important income for the dukes such as Guise and Duran.

Even several central legions, which had not been in the southern region for a long time, also started selling slaves.

In order to earn this kind of bloody gold coins, great nobles such as Gis and Duran would organize people to go to the Delong Kingdom to clear grass valleys every year.

The small nobles lacked strength, and each family sold a small number of serfs. Because they were in a slave-producing area, the price of serfs here was very low, about one-third cheaper than the Nolan market.

If you buy a complete family of four, you only need about thirteen or four gold coins.

Twenty thousand serfs were purchased from the Duke of Guise, and only about 3,000 serfs were purchased from the small nobles of the southern region. The caravan under Richard's command has been active for more than ten days and has traveled all over the southern region. Counting Duke Duran and the Central Army, they only purchased about 50,000 people in total.

The number of serfs purchased was far from enough, so Richard had no choice but to agree to the Duke of Guise's request and go south to thresh the valley together.

During this period of time, Richard also took the time to go to the front line and visit his father William. Perhaps because of the tense situation and the high pressure on the front line, Richard always felt that something was wrong with William's state, which made him somewhat worried.

On March 16, Richard led the army led by Harland and once again entered the land of the Delong Kingdom.

After several years of tug-of-war, the border areas of the Delong Kingdom have become deserted, and the country has lost about four million people.

In more than two years of war, many troops and generals were lost. The Kingdom of Delong strengthened its army and its combat effectiveness was slightly higher than two years ago.

Nowadays, a very wide buffer zone has been formed between the Kingdom of Delon and the Kingdom of Grant. Going southwest from the Duke of Guise, the width of the buffer zone reaches about 200 kilometers.

This buffer zone, which covers an area of ​​tens of thousands of square kilometers, has become a no-man's land. In this area, neither side can hold it.

The morning sun slowly descended from the east, tearing apart the darkness of the earth, and the hazy light reflected the frost on the ground.

March is already the beginning of spring, and it is still a bit cold in northern Xinjiang. The snow has not yet melted in some areas. People who are frozen in the early morning have joint pain and it is not very comfortable to move around.

But in the Delong Kingdom, the climate will undoubtedly be much better. Everything has recovered, green grass has grown on large areas of land, and the morning air is also somewhat fragrant.

At four or five o'clock in the morning, before dawn, the Huotou Army had already started to light a fire for cooking. Richard and other senior officers also got up early and started patrolling the camp.

As an officer, you cannot be lazy. Diligence is the most important quality.

The reason why Harland led the army was able to enforce orders and prohibitions. Richard took the lead and set an example for the officers and soldiers, which was also a very important factor.

Normal infantry would need to walk for more than ten days to pass the 200-kilometer buffer zone.

The soldiers led by Harland were well-trained and could walk sixty miles a day. When marching in the wild, there are no military stations to supply supplies on the road. If you can walk sixty miles, you are already an elite soldier and a strong general.

Throughout the Grant Kingdom, marching in enemy-occupied areas without supplies, it was extremely rare for an army to be able to travel sixty miles a day.

Even a few northern Xinjiang legions that have been fighting the orcs all year round can only travel about forty or fifty miles a day.

In fact, Harland led the army and spent most of his time setting up camp. Building a camp is a very troublesome task. It requires finding water sources, cutting wood, digging trenches, and setting up tents.

It was not easy to walk dozens of miles a day and build a camp.

It often takes six hours to build a camp, another hour to eat, another hour to pack the luggage and tent, two hours to rest on the road, and seven hours to sleep. The time schedule is very full, and only six or seven hours can be used for marching. .

If there are camps and depots for supplies along the way, Harland's regular army can march one hundred and twenty miles a day. But in enemy-occupied territory, the marching distance was only about half.

With the development of the territorial economy, Haaland leads the army to build better and better.

Now there are six to eight Huotoujun in a squadron. The Huotoujun team carries more than ten war horses and three carriages. Generally speaking, it carries half a month's rations.

Ordinary squads also have carriages accompanying the army, which are used to carry the soldiers' armor, weapons, living tents, etc. Clad in heavy iron armor, the soldiers simply do not have enough endurance to march long distances. Only when passing through dangerous roads such as canyons and woods, soldiers will wear iron armor and form a tight formation.

Generally speaking, if a squadron of soldiers wants to move in enemy-occupied areas, they must carry at least fifty pack horses and a dozen carriages. If they move in the wild or mountainous areas with poor roads, they must increase the number of pack horses. With sufficient logistical material support, soldiers can move outside military stations and strongholds.

Richard has the bottle of starlight on him, and Undine has the legendary space bag. Together, the two can carry five hundred tons of wheat.

Five hundred tons of wheat seems like a lot, but six thousand strong men, two thousand war horses, and seven hundred warcraft horses consume more than thirty tons of food every day, which can actually supply this army for about half a month.

If Harland leads an army of 100,000 people, even a legendary fourth-level magic item like the Star Bottle will be a drop in the bucket and far from enough.

On the third day when Richard led his army into the Kingdom of Delon, he walked halfway through the buffer zone and just set up camp when Drifen landed in the camp on a bipedal flying dragon.

This time when going south, Richard did not mobilize the lion cavalry, but he transferred the bipedal flying dragon cavalry that had just finished hibernation to the south.

Although the number of the flying dragons led by Harland is small, they have no natural enemies in the Kingdom of Delon. They can dominate the air. As long as they don't encounter the legendary knights, they basically have no opponents.

"Are there any special circumstances?"

Seeing Drifen coming back from the investigation, Richard immediately asked.

"There is indeed an enemy situation. A cavalry of 3,000 people has appeared near us. This cavalry is about forty kilometers away from us in a straight line. It should have met our scouts soon."

There are two types of scouts in Harland's territory: aerial and underground. The cavalry reconnaissance brigade on the ground generally operates within thirty kilometers of the main force. The magic hot air balloon in the sky depends on the wind direction and is mainly used for observation. The reconnaissance range of the lion cavalry and the flying dragon cavalry is very large, usually more than one hundred kilometers. Sometimes the reconnaissance distance is very far away, and they even operate three hundred kilometers away from the main force.

After hearing the enemy situation reported by Drifen, Richard immediately issued an order: "Let all our scouts withdraw and only operate within ten kilometers of the camp."

"You want to use this camp as a trap to attract this cavalry to attack?"

"Do you think they'll fall for it?"

"If the enemy has a smart commander, they will not use cavalry to attack the infantry camp. As long as they appear near us and want to cut off our food routes, it will give us a headache."

Richard pointed at the map and said to Drifen: "Since this cavalry appears near us, we must eat him. If the enemy is not fooled, we will dispatch the Warcraft Cavalry and take the initiative to kill the enemy."

The Warcraft Cavalry is very fast, and its endurance and combat power far exceed that of ordinary cavalry. If the Warcraft Cavalry is targeted, it is basically impossible to win without a numerical advantage of more than six or seven times.

The enemy only has three thousand cavalry, which is no match for the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade.

After discovering the enemy's traces, Richard showed weakness to the enemy, hid the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade, deliberately defeated the reconnaissance cavalry, and successfully attracted the enemy troops to the camp.

The cavalry commander of the Delong Kingdom was more cautious and did not attack the strong camp rashly. But at this time, the enemy army was already approaching, saving time to pursue the enemy. In the situation at this moment, there was no use in being cautious or not.

Richard led three brigades of infantry to attack frontally, while the Warcraft cavalry brigades attacked the flanks, easily defeating the three thousand cavalry of the Delong Kingdom.

In this battle, Harland led soldiers who lost less than 100 soldiers and suffered only 300 casualties. He defeated the enemy, killed more than 700 cavalry, and captured more than 2,000 horses and 1,400 soldiers. The number of the defeated enemy troops was about nine hundred.

This cavalry of the Delong Kingdom has been training for a year and a half. Although their tactical skills are still very average, they are also a regular army. Of course, Richard cannot release such a regular army with combat effectiveness on the spot. After release, it can only enhance the combat effectiveness of the Delong Kingdom.

But when they are sent back to Harland, they have to be escorted by troops from the main force. Now that the enemy's situation is unclear, Richard is naturally unwilling to divide his troops.

Of course, there is a simple and crude way to kill prisoners, but it is a pity to kill prisoners. These prisoners are all young and strong, have certain military skills, and are worth more than 30,000 gold coins in the slave market. Secondly, killing them is a pity. Capture will strengthen the enemy's will to resist. Richard would not take this step unless he had to.