Lord Harland

The Hope is a large ship, with a load of about 400 tons. On this voyage, the cabin was filled with brown sugar and white wine, Harland's specialties. Of course, there was also some soap and cotton cloth in the cabin. Some iron products and medicines were also loaded.

Compared to Kingdoms such as Heath and Lane, the Kingdom of Palame is relatively friendly to the Kingdom of Grant because of its belief in the Goddess of the Dawn.

On May 3, after a forty-six-day voyage, the Hope arrived at Hawkins Castle. The total mileage of this voyage has exceeded 5,000 kilometers.

After leaving the province of Rex and entering the second half of the voyage, sailing mainly relied on sails. The small amount of coal loaded in the hold can only be used at critical times, and the steam turbine can be turned on for three or four days at most.

After entering the port, the residents of the capital of the Kingdom of Palame warmly welcomed the Harland Kingdom fleet.

Because the Harland Kingdom fleet is willing to spend money every time it docks, they will buy a large amount of fruits, vegetables, grains, meat, and even fresh water. At the same time, the Harland Kingdom fleet will also sell some goods that are urgently needed by local residents. The relationship between the two parties is quite harmonious.

It has been seven years since Richard started operating the Red Moon Plane.

In the past seven years, with the opening of ocean routes, the products of the Kingdom of Harland have entered the market of the Kingdom of Palame, winning the favor of the Palame people.

The first thing to enter the Kingdom of Parame was medicine. In order to open up the market, the Harland Kingdom distributed a small amount of medicines to the Palame people for free, and then sold them to make money after confirming their effects.

Then there are the iron products. Even after traveling across the ocean and across a coastline of 5,000 kilometers, the price of Harland Kingdom's iron products is far lower than that of local products. The cost difference was more than ten times, which directly destroyed the local iron-making industry.

With the continuous introduction of iron products from the Harland Kingdom, the iron mines near the capital area have begun to close, and a large number of blacksmith shops have gone bankrupt.

Cotton cloth has less impact on the local market of Parame. Because the Palame Kingdom has a manor economy, most of the noble manors have textile industries, and some of the cotton from the Grant Kingdom can only be sold to urban freemen.

Liquor, brown sugar, and soap are completely new industries. These in-demand commodities are mainly sold to the aristocracy, and the price is more than ten times that of the local market.

A cargo ship with a load of 300 tons can earn 4,000 gold coins from a trip to the Palame Kingdom.

Moreover, you can also make a lot of money when you return. The Kingdom of Palame has a large number of magic plantations, rich in various magic plants. There is also a large copper mine in the south of the Kingdom of Palame, rich in copper materials, and occasionally a small amount. Orichalcum for sale.

Orichalcum is a natural super-magic metal. The market price of one ton in the Harland Kingdom is six thousand gold coins, while the local market price is less than five thousand. You can make a lot of money by transporting one ton back.

Of course, the output of orichalcum is very small. Even the Pereira copper mine produces no more than ten tons a year. The share that can be sold to the Harland Kingdom is only about three or four tons.

The number of ships running the route of the Kingdom of Parame every year is as high as dozens. The good job of transporting orichalcum is basically the task of escorting warships, and it is not the turn of private shipowners at all.

Even if it is impossible to transport orichalcum, you can still make a lot of money by buying a batch of copper materials and shipping them back.

The Hope successfully made a trip to the Kingdom of Palame, earning five thousand gold coins for one round trip.

If you successfully run three times a year, you can earn back a boat.

With such huge profits, it's no wonder that Giggs didn't even become an officer and focused on entering the shipping industry.

Giggs sold the ship's cargo wholesale to a Viscount of Parame, then sailed south to the port of Bajir with the gold coins.

Bagir Port is located to the east of the Pereira Copper Mine. After the copper ore is mined in Pereira, it will be uniformly transported to Bagir Port for preliminary smelting and smelted into 30 kilograms of copper ingots.

Three hundred kilometers south of Bagir Port is the Grand Duchy of Caroline. The southern part of the Grand Duchy of Caroline is a large tropical desert. The temperature in summer can reach 50 or 60 degrees. Only a few heat-resistant plants survive. Animals and plants are very rare. Basically The desert is uninhabited.

In the entire eastern part of the continent in the Dawn Plane, starting from the Kingdom of Harland in the north and the Grand Duchy of Caroline in the south, there are five coastal countries of Harland, Grant, Hiss, Palame, and Caroline, with a coastline of 6,500 kilometers. Far.

The northern part of the Harland Kingdom is the northern prairie, the northern part of the northern prairie also has the boreal forest and the northern ice field, and the southern part of the Grand Duchy of Caroline is the tropical desert.

According to the estimation of the ancient magician Terence, the north-south span of the Midcontinent is a little more than 10,000 kilometers. This legendary magician once completed a feat and circled around the planet Dawn.

According to the rough map drawn by Terence, the southern part of the Central Continent is the Boiling Sea. Sailing a thousand kilometers from the southernmost tip of the continent, the temperature of the sea surface will exceed 100 degrees. A large amount of water vapor will cover the entire sea surface, and entering it will feel like being evaporated. Averagely cooked. Passing through the Boiling Sea is an endless ocean, and continuing to sail for more than 10,000 kilometers will reach the Arctic Sea.

After purchasing a batch of copper ingots at Bagir Port, the Hope began its return trip.

When we went south, we were attacked by murloc professionals, but when we returned, it was relatively smooth. Although they encountered a sixth-level black-headed octopus, Heath and Giggs led their men to defeat the opponent without any danger. Not only did he obtain a sixth-level magic core, but the octopus materials could also be exchanged for a lot of money.

During this voyage, the Hope not only obtained a sixth-order magic core and reserve magic energy, but also made a profit of 6,500 gold coins. After returning to Xinghui Castle, the insurance company also paid out a few hundred gold coins in pocket money.

With enough gold coins in hand, Giggs first paid pensions to the sacrificed and disabled crew members, and then discussed with Heath and decided not to pay dividends for the time being and continue to strengthen and modify the magic ship. Especially the super magic alloy plate on the bottom of the ship must be thickened this time. In addition, the newly invented weapon of the Harland Kingdom, the deep water alchemy bomb, must be installed.

The deep-water alchemical bomb is a weapon recently developed by the Kingdom of Harland. According to an idea proposed by Richard, the arsenal department spent six years constantly transforming the alchemical bomb. Delayed contact fuses were used, the charge was increased, the super-magic metal shell was re-developed, and depth bombs were successfully created.

In order to accurately use deep-water alchemy bombs, the Harland Mage Association also installed sonar detection devices on the magic ship based on the principle of sound wave reflection.

With the sonar detection device and the deep-water alchemy bomb, it is enough for the magic ship to deal with some undersea threats.

The depth alchemy bombs and sonar detection equipment are new weapons of the Harland Kingdom Navy, and people outside do not understand them at all. Giggs is a retired mid-level and senior-level naval officer. He accidentally got the news when he was gathering with his old comrades, so he wrote a letter to the Naval Shipyard and applied to install the new weapons on his magic ship.

Under normal circumstances, the military ministry would not approve the sale of new weapons to private individuals, but Richard also pushed hard to develop into the ocean. Last time, with Richard's support, even magic crystal cannons were sold to private shipowners. Depth alchemy bombs are defensive weapons and are actually less sensitive than magic crystal cannons.

With the support from the top, shareholders such as Giggs and Heath have signed confidentiality agreements. The Hope once again completed the transformation, thickening the super-magic alloy plate on the bottom of the ship, and installing sonar detection devices and depth charges.

This time the modification cost another six thousand gold coins. Since Giggs entered the shipping industry, he and Heath have invested more than thirty thousand gold coins in the Hope, and the second-hand steam cargo ship in their hands has gradually become a real magic ship.

However, compared to the magic ship of the Harland Kingdom Navy, the Hope's defense is slightly worse, and its firepower is far from comparable to that of the warship. The warship is a small magic ship equipped with twelve magic crystal cannons, with firepower exceeding two batteries of land cannons. The Hope was only equipped with two twelve-pound guns.

If the Hope engages in a naval battle with a regular warship, it will be easily crushed by the warship. However, when encountering a small number of murlocs and deep-sea monsters, the Hope's survivability has been greatly enhanced and can deal with most threats.

After completing the modification, Heath and Giggs seized the time and sailed to the Auxerre Castle again, active on the Parame route.

Time flew by like this, and in a blink of an eye it was June of the year 3290 in the Dawn Calendar.

In the next six years, relying on huge profits, Hiss and Giggs' fleet has expanded from small to large to four magic ships and nine steam ships. The assets in their hands have already exceeded 300,000 gold coins. . The power of capital is stronger than that of factory owners such as Odaye and Immortun.

Over the past six years, the power of the capitalist aristocracy such as Odaye has expanded. There are now four merchant barons in the Kingdom of Harland: Odaye, Immorton, Rand, and Sampson. However, compared with the huge military aristocracy, their power is still very weak and they cannot get on the stage.

Although Odaye and others were excluded and discriminated against by the military nobles, their political status was far stronger than that of Heath, Giggs and other large merchants.

With their assets growing to such a scale, Giggs and Heath certainly want to become hereditary barons.

In a centralized militaristic country like the Kingdom of Harland, when business reaches a certain scale, it must be incorporated into the national system. Only by becoming a hereditary noble will you have legal privileges, will you not be attacked and discriminated against politically, and will your property be protected by future generations.

Moreover, in their subconscious minds, Giggs and Heath also wanted to make meritorious deeds and obtain knighthoods.

Heath came from the serf class, and his living environment since childhood made him envious of everything the nobles had, and deep down in his mind, he wanted to be knighted for meritorious service. Giggs himself was a baron from the East Coast. After being defeated and surrendered, he saved his life, but lost everything. His lifelong goal is to regain his title and regain his lost family honor.

After discussion, the two decided to let Heath prepare for the knighthood first.

Heath has served Harland for more than twenty years and has accumulated three major merits and six medium merits. The merits he accumulated after retirement were not exchanged for gold coins, medicines and other resources.

In the past six years, no fighting has broken out in the Kingdom of Harland. Of course, there cannot be a naval battle. Heath and others have no chance if they want to make meritorious deeds.

Now with enough assets in hand, Heath could only focus on the north.

In order not to affect the maritime industry, Heath directly borrowed a huge sum of 80,000 gold coins from the Duke's Bank, and then borrowed some money from Giggs. With enough gold coins in hand, Hiss recruited some members who planned to retire from the fleet to form a mercenary group and went to the Puliland area for hunting.

Over the years, more than hundreds of thousands of mercenaries have poured into Prilan. Now there are thirty hereditary nobles in this area, and the number of undead they have killed exceeds tens of millions.

Nearly half of the undead that escaped from the ice seal in the North were hunted down by the mercenaries.

Nowadays, scattered undead creatures are very rare near Pulilan. If you want to get soul crystals to exchange for merit, you must go deep into Bolton Forest.

Compared with twenty years ago, the road to hunting undead knights has become more difficult.

Of course, none of this was a problem for the wealthy Heath. While he organized a mercenary group to hunt the undead, he directly used gold coins to purchase soul crystals. Within a few months, he was successfully knighted.

After being ennobled, Heath did not focus on managing the territory. After all, for him, farming was far inferior to making money by running a boat. He distributed part of the land to the mercenary group who followed him, and then used the cultivated land to recruit some landless free people. He handed over the fiefdom to his son to manage and continued his shipping business.

Soon after Hiss was knighted, their fleet began to support the knighthood of Giggs.

In May of the Dawn Calendar 3292, Giggs was also successfully knighted.

At this moment, in addition to factory owners and merchants in the Harland Kingdom, maritime trade merchants also stepped onto the stage and received knighthoods.

The knighthood of Hiss and Giggs led a large number of merchants to invest in maritime trade. In just eight years, the number of registered ships in the Kingdom of Harland increased fivefold, and there were already more than 800 motor-driven sailing ships on the sea.

More than half of the eight hundred motor-sail boats are under official control.

In recent years, the Kingdom of Harland has successively established the South Sea Trading Company, the North Sea Trading Company, and the Royal Shipping Company, playing an important role in the maritime industry and leading the development of ocean trade.

Relying on profits handed over by state-owned shipping companies and with state financial support, the Kingdom of Harland has built more than 20 warships in the past six years.

In just eight years, the navy has doubled in size and now has fifty-three magical ships.

Because it is equipped with magic crystal cannons, the magic ships of the Harland Kingdom have powerful combat capabilities. They can fight one against five. Their combat effectiveness on the sea is stronger than that of the Holy Radiance Empire.

The Holy Radiant Empire only has more than 200 magic ships, and it has to take care of both the east and west oceans. Its East China Sea Fleet only has more than 80 magic ships. Compared with its navy alone, its combat effectiveness is no longer comparable to that of the Harland Navy.

However, when a war breaks out between the two sides, it will inevitably be a battle of comprehensive strength on land, sea and air.

Even if the Harland Kingdom's navy has the upper hand, it may not be able to defeat the enemy's flying dragons, lion cavalry, and Pegasus Knights.

Although the Kingdom of Harland also attaches great importance to flying units, its foundation is shallow after all. The cultivation of Warcraft flying units is relatively slow. Although it can dominate the eastern countries, it has no chance of winning a war with the Holy Glory Empire. Of course, it is not too difficult for the Kingdom of Harland to deal with the three legions stationed by the Holy Glory Empire in the east of the continent.