Chapter 304:
After Harland's army and the Grizzly Bear Army in the Lothar Basin won the key battle, the orcs immediately chose to withdraw their troops across the board.
The first to withdraw was the legion of the Kobold Dukedom. After the Harpies detected that the main force was defeated, the orc legion in northern Salt Lake County immediately chose to withdraw from Taney Canyon. Then the orc legion in the swamp basin also got rid of Harland. The leading troops struggled and retreated along the Platos Valley into the high mountains.
These two legions had the advantage in the field, and withdrawal was relatively easy.
Without the support of the main army, the two orc legions entering the Gascoigne Province became very dangerous. These two orc legions are confronting the two legions of the Wild Lion and the Northern Territory. It is not easy to withdraw.
But under the current situation, retreat is inevitable.
If Harland and the Grizzly Bear Legion are allowed to free up their hands and block the retreat of the two Orc Legions, the situation will become more serious.
The two orc legions cooperated in a tacit understanding, and decisively chose to alternately cover the withdrawal, and withdrew along the Kea River towards the Earl of Downey Martins. During the retreat, they also annihilated a large group of the advancing Northern Army, but their own losses were not too serious.
More than half a month later, the four orc legions successfully returned to the Kobold Dukedom.
In this battle, the kobold Duke Kilam invaded with six orc legions. As a result, the Grant Kingdom annihilated nearly 50,000 main troops. The losses of the auxiliary troops were also very serious, and 40,000 people were missing.
In just two months, the Kobold Dukedom lost nearly 100,000 troops and was already extremely weak internally.
Without the cooperation of the Kobold Dukedom, the other two orc armies did not dare to advance and retreated to their respective territories early. Instead, they had to defend against the invasion of the Grant Kingdom army.
After defeating the orcs in this battle, Li Cha and William naturally pursued the victory, weakening the national power of the Kobold Dukedom and creating a safe environment for the Harland Territory.
Joint Command of Harland Territory and Grizzly Legion.
Richard pointed to an area on the map and said to his father William: "The Losa Basin is one hundred and thirty kilometers away from the Fort. It is the forward base for the Kobold Dukedom to cross the Eagle Mountains. According to the information we obtained from interrogating the prisoners
, , there are more than 200,000 human slaves living in this area. They grow oats, mine ores, and manufacture weapons. They are a very important logistics base for the Kobold Dukedom, and are also the core supply base for the orcs to cross the Eagle Mountains. My opinion is to take advantage of the opportunity
. As the orcs lose their footing, we seize the Lothar Basin, then seal off the Hurricane Canyon in the north, and build a castle to block the orc army. In this way, the
geographical advantage of the Eagle Mountains is within our control."
William looked at the map and suddenly His heart surged. Although he was not particularly close to Richard, he admired his son's abilities greatly.
William is a man who thinks very highly of himself. He thinks he is a rare figure in the Grant Kingdom. From a frugal ordinary man, he struggled to become the commander of the main army in the northern Xinjiang. He received the title of nobility and led the Harland family to change their class. .
But compared with Richard, his ability is like a firefly and a bright moon, there is no comparison at all.
Normally speaking, it takes at least a hundred years of accumulation for a baron family to be promoted to a count family, and several generations of hard work can lead to success.
Each generation of Viscount Roman has talents, his abilities are almost as different as William's, and his foundation is extremely strong. He has not been promoted to earl, obtained the status of a great noble, and changed his class.
In the past 100 years or so, only two families, Harland and Martins, have been promoted from minor aristocrats to major aristocrats. As for the number of big nobles who lost their territories, there were as many as three. The number of great nobles in Grant Kingdom is actually one less than a hundred years ago. From this we can see how difficult it is to cross this level.
And the earl is far from the end of the Harland family.
After this battle, the Harland family will obtain the third earldom. According to the decree enacted by the Grant Kingdom's Parliament of Nobles, the three earldoms can be merged into one duchy.
In a few months, a new Duke will be born in Grant Kingdom.
The Haaland family will once again jump up the pecking order.
After listening to Richard's deployment, William did not object. He pointed to several mountain forks in the Harland Valley and said: "I will lead the Grizzly Bear Army to set up a stronghold here to guard your retreat. The Losa Basin depends on You have captured it. The most important thing in this battle is speed. You must capture this area before the orcs can react.
As long as you can capture this area, we can make a request with Nolan. After the war, Luo When the Sa Basin is merged into the territory, the Harland family will span the north and south of the Eagle Mountains and become a powerful mountain duchy." After discussing it, the
two immediately decided to divide their forces. William led his troops to set up forts at several mountain forks in the Harland Valley to prevent the orcs from cutting off Richard's retreat. Richard then led his troops to attack the Lothar Basin.
The Losa Basin is already at the northern foot of the Eagle Mountain Range. If one does not master the passage of the Harland Valley, and wants to attack the Losa Basin, one must first climb over the main peak of the Eagle Mountain Range, which is four thousand meters high.
With a large number of troops marching and without suitable logistical supply bases, it must be a very difficult task to walk hundreds of kilometers of mountain roads and climb over a mountain with an altitude of 4,000 meters.
Moreover, the orc army has a large army stationed at the northern foot of the Eagle Mountain Range. Even if they cross the Eagle Mountain Range, the situation will be extremely dangerous when facing the orcs who are waiting for work.
Therefore, for hundreds of years, the Grant Kingdom has rarely been able to penetrate the Eagle Mountains and enter the orc territory.
Counting this battle in the past twenty years, they have only penetrated the Eagle Mountains and invaded the Orc Empire twice.
The first time was when Count Downey Martins wiped out the Orc Army. Before the Orc Army could react, he occupied the Kelania Valley and entered the Wild Boar Dukedom. During the retreat, the Northern Army successfully captured Seize the fighter plane and kill the legendary quilboar. That battle was also a rare victory for the Grant Kingdom against the orcs in recent decades.
Both Richard and William had personal experience of the battle twelve years ago. At that time, Richard served as the commander of the Noble Alliance in Heihe County, and William served as the captain of the main army. They were both middle-ranking members of the Grant Kingdom's army.
Because of his military exploits in this war, Richard gained noble status and the first fiefdom in his life. This fief is located near Sophia Castle. The discovery of iron ore in this fief has greatly promoted the development of the Harland family.
After this battle, the Grant Kingdom actually had the opportunity to control this valley and share the location of the Eagle Mountains with the orcs.
It's just that if you want to defend the nearly 300 kilometers of supply lines along the way, you must station a large army. At least one and a half main legions must be stationed to repel the orcs.
Stationing one and a half of the main army in the barren mountains consumes a huge amount of funds every day. King Charles, who was making the decision at the time, simply could not make up his mind. In the end, due to the growing pressure from the orcs' counterattack, he had no choice but to withdraw his troops.
After the war, Downey Martins was granted the title of Earl and established the Earldom of Downey Martins, which controlled half of the Kelaniya Valley, greatly increasing the geographical advantage of the Grant Kingdom. It's a pity that the Martins family has a weak background. Nolan didn't give him enough support and failed to defend the key fortress. Every time the orcs attacked, they were able to penetrate the Earl of Martins.
For more than a hundred years, the Grant Kingdom has been committed to expanding to the north of the Eagle Mountains. The biggest results are the two counties of Martins and Harland. Although the expansion of the Martins Earldom was not very successful, the development of the Harland Territory was amazing.
After more than ten years of encroachment, the earldom of Harland now covers more than 50,000 square kilometers of land and has expanded to the middle of the Eagle Mountains. It has firmly guarded several canyons and well protected the province of Gedda.
Because the Harland territory had established a firm foothold, the province of Geda had not been plundered and invaded by orcs for almost ten years.
In recent years, with the expansion of Haaland's territory, it has also protected the Gascoyne and Lach provinces, and strongly supported the Grotta province.
As long as the Harland Territory develops better and better and blocks several key passages, the three northern provinces of the Grant Kingdom will become three inland provinces. By then, the financial pressure and national defense pressure will be greatly reduced.
Due to the death of the legendary kobolds in battle, a main army of orcs only fled back to the Lothar Basin with 6,000 people. The orc army had already become frightened. There were several dangerous military strongholds along the way, but no defenders were left at all.
Richard led the Harland Lord's force, chased the defeated soldiers along the way, penetrated the Harland Valley very easily, and came to the vicinity of the Losa Basin.
Although the defeated orcs have had a short rest, and although the Lothar Basin is the core of the Kobold Dukedom's operations, facing the attack of Harland's army, the defeated orcs have no desire to fight.
Without even holding on for a day, the orcs fled the Lothar Basin.
After controlling the Lothar Basin, Richard did not rush north to attack the core of the Kobold Duchy.
Although the soldiers in Harland Territory are elite, they are relatively small in number. The Losa Basin is an area that must be controlled. If they continue to go north, they must divide their troops.
Once the military strength weakens, the risk of losing the war will greatly increase.
After taking the Losa Basin, Richard immediately ordered the soldiers to divide into several groups, control the key points of the Losa Basin, and count the loot.
The Losa Basin covers an area of approximately 3,600 square kilometers. In the north is the last ridge of the Eagle Mountain Range. This ridge runs east-west. The only entrance to the north is subject to hurricanes all year round, making it not very suitable for survival.
The hundreds of square kilometers of land near Hurricane Canyon are also extremely cold after entering winter.
Richard personally went to Hurricane Pass to check the terrain. He observed the trend of the mountains and said to Charlemagne, the captain of the guard group beside him: "The terrain here is easy to defend but difficult to attack. As long as a castle is built at the entrance of the canyon, the orc army can be blocked. Now. It's April, and the window period in summer and autumn is very short. We must complete the construction of the castle before winter.
You lead the guard brigade, and I will give you two thousand auxiliary troops, and camp on the mountainside of the wind outlet. The conditions are relatively good. It's hard, please bear with it for a while."
In the battle with the legendary kobold, Charlemagne's injuries were not serious, but after magic treatment, the wounds had healed, but he would not be able to fight within a month or two.
Once he was able to move, Charlemagne did not stay in the rear hospital but returned to the military camp.
The competition among the troops in Harland Territory is now relatively fierce. Once Charlemagne goes to the rear to recuperate from his injuries, the position of captain may be replaced by Baggett. Baggett is also a fourth-level warrior and is qualified to serve as captain of the infantry brigade. Although Baggett has been his old comrade for many years and saved his life in battle, Charlemagne still does not want to give up his position.
"Please rest assured, Earl, we will definitely overcome the difficulties and defend this mountain pass."
"You were injured just now. How is your health?"
Charlemagne raised his chest and raised his head and said loudly: "As long as you don't use all your strength, there is nothing wrong with your health."
Li Cha patted Charlemagne on the shoulder and gave him a reassurance.
"Don't worry, I don't plan to replace the captain of the guard brigade. As for Baggett, I also have arrangements. This year, the territory will expand to two brigades. Baggett will serve as the captain of the 11th brigade. Now the territory is expanding every year. Excellent All officers can be promoted. In the battle with the legendary kobolds, the two of you stood up bravely, which left a deep impression on me. As long as you work hard to improve yourself, your future is guaranteed." Leave the guard brigade and part of
it Auxiliary troops built camps and guarded the mountain passes, and Richard led the main army back to the Losar Basin.
There are many water systems in the Lothar Basin, and orc slaves have reclaimed a large amount of farmland. The yield of these farmlands is not low and can feed hundreds of thousands of people.
With enough food, it can support the garrison of the army in Harland territory.
After taking control of the Losar Basin, Richard immediately ordered a large number of grassroots officials to be transferred from the rear of the Harland territory to the Losar Basin.
Time has entered June, and after more than a month of integrated statistics, the population of the Losa Basin has been clearly counted.
"According to our statistics, there are 243,000 human slaves in the Lothar Basin. Most of these people are the plundered population of our Kingdom of Grant. A small number are from the Grand Duchy of Stanik, and there are also some people from the Kingdom of Lane.
Through questioning prisoners of war, we know that most of the human slaves in the Kobold Principality live in the Lothar Basin, and this area is already the economic center of the Kobold Principality.
In addition to human slaves, there are about 80,000 orcs living in the Lothar Basin, of which 20,000 are satyrs, 40,000 are kobolds, and 20,000 are orcs of other races.
..."
Richard listened to the officials' report and issued the order decisively.
"The captured orc prisoners of war were taken into custody and sent to the rear, the satyrs were sent to the animal husbandry department, and some of the remaining orc prisoners of war were kept for mining, and the rest were All are sold in exchange for funds.
As long as the rescued human slaves are confirmed to have noble status, they will be given a gold coin to go home, and the rest will be required to sign a five-year indentured servant contract and serve the Harland leader for five years before they can become free citizens.
Agricultural production is a top priority and must be properly arranged. Manpower must be mobilized as soon as possible to speed up the construction of the Wind Gate Castle to ensure that the castle is completed before winter.
In addition, the castle garrison must reserve fuel to keep out the cold in winter, so that the rear can send people to transport it to the vicinity of the wind camp.
..."
(End of chapter)