Chapter 233 Lightning Tower
Because the Venus family built an artificial magic well and built a magic energy channel to supply energy to the mage tower, the defense of this mage tower is pretty good and can release fire storms ten times a day.
The half-finished mage tower built by the Tower of Death uses the magic core of the legendary monster as the core of the energy room. Even if it uses the legendary magic equipment thunder staff to save magic energy, it can only release ten consecutive lightning bolts.
The defense power of the two mage towers is actually not very different. One has stronger magic power, and the other is blessed with legendary magic equipment. Even if there are only low-level mage in the magic tower, it is enough to withstand the sneak attacks of high-level mage. Even in Mark The Magic Kingdom of Home is considered a high-level mage tower.
After Richard occupied the mage tower, he immediately destroyed the teleportation altar and dismantled the teleportation gate.
The teleportation altar is the coordinate of space teleportation. Destroying the teleportation altar is equivalent to erasing the teleportation coordinates. But this mage tower was built by the Venus family. I wonder if the Venus family left a secret door?
If you are unprepared and are attacked by the Venus family, you may suffer heavy casualties.
Nowadays, the number of magicians in Harland Territory is small and their strength is weak. It is not suitable to be scattered in two strange magician towers. Moreover, there are many magic research laboratories in Fort William, and some people need to be left behind.
Biting off more than he can chew, Richard is not ready to leave any magicians in the Venus family's mage tower for the time being.
This mage tower is mainly used for magic research, focusing on the study of magic wells and magic energy supply.
Richard planned to focus his business first on the half-finished mage tower built by the Tower of Death.
This mage tower was named the Lightning Tower because Richard had engraved a series of lightning defense spells on it.
The Lightning Tower will take another two months to complete. After the mage tower was completed, Richard decided to move most of the mage power in Harland's territory to the Lightning Tower.
Richard moved the magic organization to the swamp basin, and with the garrison protecting the mage tower, the population of the swamp basin has exceeded 10,000 people.
Although the swamp basin has been developed for more than a year, because not much effort has been invested, only more than 10,000 acres of paddy fields have been reclaimed, a ditch has been built, and only a few floors of the Master's Tower have been built.
With this result, more than dozens of mature slaves died of illness.
Even though the Harland Territory belongs to the mid-temperate zone, where the number of mosquitoes is relatively small and there is no serious malaria, developing the swamp still requires a lot of lives.
With the presence of magicians and troops, the Harland Territory's investment in the swamp basin will greatly increase. At least when it comes to building infrastructure, magicians can be of great help. When repairing drainage ditches, the magic of turning mud into stone can play a key role.
After the goddess's birthday, He'an Primary School started school again. This year, because the tuition was reduced by half, the number of new students reached 300.
There are now more than a thousand students in the Harland Territory. It will take a few years for all these people to graduate, which will greatly promote the development of the territory.
Among the more than 300 freshmen, seven have magician qualifications. Berica has the best magic talent and has a medium earth element affinity. These seven children with magical talents cannot be counted on for the time being. Before learning the meditation method, you need to learn basic knowledge. At least a few months later, you can start practicing the meditation method after knowing some words and understanding some magic terms.
Counting these seven new students with magic qualifications, the Harland Territory Mage Association will have more than forty members.
The forty-member magician organization has exceeded the size of the four eastern marquis territories. Today, the Harland Territory Magic Association is already among the top ten magic organizations in the Grant Kingdom.
The countries in the northern part of the Central Continent are economically backward and socially impoverished. They are considered to be magical deserts. A magic organization of forty people can only be considered a small magic organization in the Markholm Magic Kingdom and cannot be ranked at all.
There are more than 3,000 wizard towers in Markholm Magic Kingdom, and more than 1,000 large and small magic organizations. Even the Holy Halo Empire felt a headache when seeing thousands of mage towers on the map.
Even though the Magic Kingdom on the southwest coast is very disrespectful and often challenges the authority of the Holy Halo Empire, the Holy Halo Empire has no intention of sending troops to conquer and fight a war with little chance of winning.
According to Sophia's story, if the Harland Territory Mage Association is placed in Markholm Magic Kingdom, it can be roughly ranked three hundred.
From the Venus family's hidden base, Richard obtained weapons that could equip two thousand elite soldiers.
This batch of equipment is very sophisticated, no less than that of the Nolan Guards. Enchanted armor, enchanted bows and crossbows are all available, and now they are all cheaper for Richard and equipped with the infantry of the Haaland Territory.
Weapons and equipment became abundant, and Richard immediately decided to expand the army on a large scale, forming two new recruit brigades and expanding the army by 1,600 people.
The Recruit Brigade temporarily trains four recruit squadrons. After completing the recruit training, they will be mixed with veterans of the 3rd and 4th Infantry Brigades.
After completing the army expansion, Harland Territory will have six infantry brigades, two cavalry brigades, plus guard squadrons and headquarters personnel, with a total strength of more than 6,500 people.
Recruits were mainly selected from indentured servants to save costs.
Last year more than 76,000 indentured slaves were added to the Harland territory, and it was easy to select 1,600 soldiers.
As long as the serfs at the bottom are given a chance, in order to change their fate and stand up, the serfs will actively join the army without fear of death or sacrifice.
Entering late February, the recruitment work has been completed. Now that the territorial army has been formalized, there are dedicated personnel responsible for the training of new recruits, so Richard does not need to worry about it.
Because of the large influx of people last year, the task of spring plowing this year is somewhat heavy.
In order to complete this year's spring plowing task, Richard also asked the army to participate in spring plowing.
The area near Graveson Castle is a key area for spring plowing this year. From last year to this year, a population of 65,000 will be arranged here and 300,000 acres of farmland will be reclaimed.
The terrain of this area is flat, with easy access to water on both sides of the Black River, and great agricultural potential. Unfortunately, it is on the front line of the orc invasion, so it has not been effectively developed.
Now the Harland family is building the Flower Castle in the north of Graveson. If they can block the orc army in the Flower Castle, Graveson Castle can become the rear area, making large-scale development feasible.
However, there are still great risks in developing the area near Graveson Castle.
Once the Blossoming Castle is lost, or the orcs bypass the Blossoming Castle, Graveson Castle will be easily attacked by the orcs, and the population living in this area will be captured by the orcs.
To develop the land near Graveson Castle, one must be strong.
After analyzing the situation, Richard believed that as long as the main force of the orcs did not invade from the direction of Geda Province, the power of the Harland family could withstand the attack of most of the orc army.
Although the Harland family's fiefdom is large, there are relatively few areas suitable for agricultural development.
The two territories of Dirham and Stopa have been basically developed successfully. If you want to get more farmland, you can only build terraces and develop hills.
Building terraces requires a lot of labor. According to the current manpower in the Harland Territory, building terraces is half the effort. The territory currently has an insufficient population and a lot of arable land per capita.
It’s not yet time to build terraces and reclaim hillside farmland.
Although some farmland can still be developed in the river valleys near Fort William and Fort Sophia, there are many factories and mines here, which is the core of Harland's territory. In order to prevent technology leakage, it is not suitable to arrange too many people. The only areas suitable for agricultural cultivation are near Graveson Castle and in the swamp basin.
The farmland near Graveson Castle, which is less difficult to develop, began felling trees and digging up tree roots last autumn.
After this spring, first dig the isolation zone, then set fire to the wasteland, burn all the dead grass, vines, and shrubs, pick out the stones in the land, and plow deeply with the iron horned horse.
As for the water conservancy project, part of it was built last year, and the remaining canals can be repaired after plowing.
Large areas of farmland in Graveson are on both sides of the Black River, and water from the Black River can be lifted into canals using waterwheels.
This area can cultivate one million acres of fertile farmland, enough to feed five to six million people.
In addition to Graveson, which was the focus of development, Richard also arranged more than 10,000 people near the prosperous castle and the military station.
There are a lot of roses growing near the Flower Castle, and Richard plans to use these wild roses to make rose perfume and sell it to Nolan's noble lady.
According to Richard's observation, Nolan does not yet have a perfume manufacturer, and there is no need to compete with vested interests in making rose perfume. When the rose perfume is manufactured, a monopoly product will be added to the Harland territory to earn profits for the territory.
Even if someone is envious and develops a perfume formula, they will not be able to compete with Harland's territory without a large number of rose resources.
In April, Richard and Sophia's second child, Philip, was born. Philip was born successfully, and Margaret was no longer Richard's only heir.
Because it was the second child, Philip's birth went very smoothly.
In the past year or two, the surgery department in Harland Territory is still developing. The obstetrics and gynecology department has been separated from the surgery department. Now the hospital has formed four major departments: internal medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and gynecology.
But except for surgery, the other three departments still can only rely on the experience of doctors to treat diseases.
After Richard's guidance, the hospital invented forceps. With the help of a magician, caesarean sections could also be performed. The mortality rate of pregnant women and newborns in the territory was greatly reduced.
Due to the development of medicine, the average life expectancy of people in the Harland Territory has far exceeded that of the royal capital Nolan. According to statistics, it has increased to forty-six years, reaching the leading level in the Dawn Plane.
Five years ago, Richard took advantage of the Blood Horn to launch a rebellion. Richard snatched 18,000 refugees from Brenner County. By this fall, these people will be full, plus a group of slaves purchased from the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
By this fall, more than 20,000 freedmen will be added to the Harland Territory.
By the end of the year, there may be more than 60,000 freemen in the territory.
For wealthy freedmen with a population of 60,000, the annual fixed land tax is 15,000 gold coins, and a small-scale consumer market has also been formed.
With the consumer market, the Haaland family's hematopoietic ability will be greatly improved.
The current economic income of Harland's territory mainly relies on various monopolized commodities, and most of the market is under the control of others.
Once trade channels are cut off and markets are lost, the primary industries established due to information gaps will fall into an irreversible situation.
The territory has no funds, and the only thing Richard can do besides squeezing the people in the territory is to disarm.
The Harland family's current influence relies on thousands of elite soldiers.
After disarmament, the influence will inevitably decrease, and it may not be able to withstand the continued attacks of the orcs.
Only when the territorial market is cultivated, internal strength is developed, and the domestic demand market is expanded, will the foundation of the economy be stable. With a stable economic foundation, the Harland Territory can maintain the size of its army and even use it to expand its army. As the army increases and you gain more territory through military exploits, you can improve your title and increase your influence, forming a positive cycle.
Every time a freeman is added to the Harland territory, the foundation of the territory becomes stronger.
After receiving the Venus family magic technology, Richard was immediately attracted by this technology.
The Venus family has been studying the elemental furnace of the floating city for many years. They have also successfully built an artificial magic well. They have also done a lot of research on the operation of magic energy and created new magic runes.
By studying these magic runes, Richard gained another level of understanding of magic energy.
His mind was very active, and he thought of the rechargeable batteries in his previous life, and immediately wanted to study the magic batteries in this world based on his knowledge of magic energy.
The materials are also readily available, which are magic crystals that have exhausted their magic energy.
Magic crystal is a special kind of crystal in the Dawn Plane. A standard magic crystal is worth ten gold coins, and the magic energy contained in it can be used to release a second-level spell once.
Generally, the magic crystals that have exhausted their magic energy will be ground into powder and cast into gold coins together with gold.
The magic crystal that has exhausted its magic power can also be considered a low-level magic material and has many functions. Generally speaking, the price of this kind of abandoned magic crystal that has exhausted its magic power is about four silver coins.
If we can develop the technology to charge abandoned magic crystals, we will earn thirty times the profit.
If you want to study this technology, you need to first know the structural difference between a magic crystal full of magic power and a magic crystal depleted of magic power.
To study the macrostructure of the two crystals, advanced microscopes must be used.
The Harland Territory established an optical research department very early to train mirror grinders in the hope of manufacturing microscopes.
But Richard underestimated the difficulty of this technology. Even after several years of research, the project has made little progress. Although the mirror grinder's skills have continued to improve, he managed to produce a monocular telescope only two years ago.
Of the more than 20 mirror grinders we have trained, only two have reached a certain technical level in a few years, are proficient in some optical knowledge, and can stably grind telescopes with high precision.
The remaining mirror grinders can only be trained into ordinary craftsmen and used to manufacture ordinary telescopes with lower precision.
In the past two years, Harland's army has been equipped with a large number of monocular telescopes. Everyone at the squadron level, plus the backbone of the scouts, has a monocular telescope in their hands.
(End of chapter)