Chapter 306: Promoted to Duke
On the night of the Harvest Festival, in a simple square, Harland led the opera troupe to start their performance.
There was no curtain, no speeches, just a wooden board separating the front stage from the backstage.
Catherine appeared on the simple stage for the first time. Looking at the huge audience, she felt a little nervous and excited. She is a veteran actress with two years of acting experience and the most popular female star in Fort William.
Catherine had only felt this nervous feeling when she first took the stage. Catherine is a person with a big heart. The bigger the scene, the more passionate her performance becomes.
She looked around and saw that there were many orcs in the audience.
Although Richard sold 40,000 orc prisoners of war, there are still about 40,000 orcs living in the Lothar Basin. The remaining 40,000 orc slaves are relatively docile, and most of them are goats.
The coexistence of humans and orcs is also a special scenery in the Lothar Basin.
"The story takes place in a village near Fort William. Sam was sold to Harland Territory by a slave trader..."
As the narration began, the background of the opera began to be introduced.
The name of today's opera is "Life is Beautiful". It tells the story of a man named Sam who was captured by slave traders and sold to the Harland Territory. Five years after Harland became an indentured slave, Sam became a free man, was assigned land, founded a new family, earned rich gold coins with his hard-working hands, and gained a new life.
The highlight of this opera is the male lead, Catherine plays Sam's wife Irene.
Irene doesn't have many roles in this play. As the narration starts, Catherine slowly walks to the stage. She was wearing a dirty gray robe, her hair was messily tied on her head, and her face was covered with black ash. She looked more like a woman from a poor family.
Although this play is new, after two days of rehearsal, Catherine has memorized the entire plot flow.
In this era of lack of entertainment, the opera's performance form was very novel and could easily attract a large number of audiences. As soon as the performance started, it caused a sensation.
Steven stood under the simple stand, watching the performance with relish, staring closely at Catherine.
A middle-aged officer looked around. After seeing Steven, he squeezed through the crowd and slapped Steven hard on the shoulder.
"Brother, I heard from the people in the logistics department that you came to Losar Basin. We haven't seen each other in five years. How have you been recently?" The
person who spoke was Norman, captain of the third brigade led by Harland. He is the nephew of Thoros and has been promoted to a sixth-level warrior. He and Steven are old comrades in arms and have a very close friendship.
Stevin was born a serf in Northern Xinjiang. He became a serf soldier of Baron Barton when he was young. He was later bought by Soros and joined Soros' mercenary group. As the mercenary group was merged into the Harland Territory, Stevin Also became a veteran of the 3rd Squadron.
With this relationship, Steven is naturally very close to the officers who came out of the old No. 3 Squadron.
"Just like that, after retiring from the army, although I made a lot of money, my life seemed to have lost its direction and I couldn't muster the energy to do anything." Hearing what Stevin said, Norman shook his head and said, "You are like
this Your mental state is not good. I think you lack family life and cannot adapt after leaving the military camp. You should find a woman you like to get married."
Steven stared at Catherine on the stage and said thoughtfully: "Maybe you are right Yes. What do you think of the girl on stage?"
"The conditions are very favorable. I heard that you are a star in Fort William, but you are old enough to be a father." "
But I like her. After the performance, I will ask her to propose. ."
Seeing the determination on Stevin's face, Norman seemed to be looking at a madman, took his arm and said: "Listen to me, you will scare the little girl. Talking about getting married to your girlfriend is not a thing. It's an easy thing. You need to get close to her first, attract her with your advantages, and arouse her curiosity about you before you can succeed. Just
like when we fight a battle, we first work on the investigation. After the investigation is completed, In battle, you must decisively invest your troops, and you must not hesitate to be brave at this time. If you listen to me, I guarantee that you can get this woman."
While the two were chatting, the special envoy from Nolan rushed to the Losa Basin.
It has been two months since Richard killed the dragon-veined kobolds. The orcs have already retreated across the board, and the Grant royal family has begun to reward the heroes.
This year the Grant royal family will divide four fiefdoms, one earldom and three baronies, and two noble titles will be promoted, including Earl Harland's promotion to duke.
The birth of a duchy will greatly affect the power structure of the Grant Kingdom and even the stability of the regime.
According to King Roger's true intention, he did not want a new duke to be born. But Richard had made real military exploits, so it would be unjustifiable not to be promoted to a noble title.
If the Harland family is suppressed, it means that the noble promotion system has lost its authority.
The noble reward and promotion system is the foundation of the Grant Kingdom.
It is precisely by relying on this system that we can attract generations of outstanding talents to serve the Grant Kingdom. Nobles big and small joined forces and fought bloody battles to stop the orcs from invading again and again. The eight main legions of the Grant family alone cannot stop the orc army.
If this system is broken, not only will the Harland family become enemies, but it will also affect the stability of the situation in northern Xinjiang.
Through this battle, King Roger has understood that the Harland family has become fully fledged, and even if he does not promote Richard to a title, he cannot stop the expansion of this family.
If you step forward to suppress it yourself, you can only suppress it in name. In fact, you are a villain in vain.
After carefully weighing the pros and cons, King Roger decided to abide by the nobility title award system, promote Richard to a title, and grant him a new earldom. Anyway, most of what the Harland family conquered in the fiefdom were barren mountains and mountains. The Grant family only paid in name and did not need to invest much principal.
In this year's battle, not only did Richard gain a lot and was about to be promoted to Duke, William also accumulated enough military exploits to obtain a second barony.
If he hadn't spent a lot of merit in exchange for the Breathing Technique, William would have had enough merit to obtain the third territory and be promoted to Viscount. William's first territory is now the core of the Harland territory. Although this territory belongs to William in name, it has not yet been incorporated into the Earldom of Harland and is actually controlled by Richard.
Even if William were to distribute this territory to other heirs, he would not have any say in it. Instead, it would be the bane of death. It was impossible for Richard's brothers such as Ron and Hayden to make the soldiers of Fort William obey orders.
Once caught in a battle for inheritance, Ron and others have no chance of winning due to the disparity in power.
Richard would never give up the area near Fort William to anyone else. Anyone who dared to take advantage of this territory, even his brother Richard, would be ruthless. Once the competition between nobles involves territory and inheritance rights, it is often very bloody.
The people of the Harland family also had a tacit understanding in their hearts, and this territory was given to Richard to inherit.
Now there are three hereditary nobles in the Harland family. In addition to Richard, there are William and Bernie. Bernie's fiefdom will be inherited by his second son Gavin, and the second piece of territory obtained by William will establish a new heir.
In fact, when the Harland family held a banquet the year before last, William discussed this matter with Richard, Bernie and others.
According to William's opinion, if a new fief is obtained, Ron and Hayden will inherit it in order of succession. This time William will get a new fief and it will be handed over to Ron for management.
William's new fiefdom was near the original Haddon Castle and adjacent to the Duchy of Harland. The northern part of this territory is the last ridge of the Eagle Mountain Range, and the southern part is the impact plain of the Kaiya River, a tributary of the Black River. The territory is not very large, only 930 square kilometers, but the flatland area is very large, with only 30% of the territory. The territory is mountainous, with a river passing through it, and its agricultural endowments are much better than those near Fort William.
According to the prospectors, this territory can cultivate 300,000 acres of paddy fields and feed 200,000 people.
Before Envoy Nolan arrived, the boundaries of this territory had been demarcated, and Ron retired from the Wild Lion Legion and began to manage the territory.
Ron's talent is very average. He has served in the Mad Lion Legion for twenty years and has not yet been promoted to the fourth level. His position is only a squadron leader. He has only accumulated one great merit and four medium merits in his life.
Before retiring, Ron exchanged all these merits for potions, preparing to use them to train his son Kane.
Ron's eldest son Kane is nineteen years old. This child of the Harland family is relatively talented. He may have inherited William's genes. He has become a professional at a young age and now serves as the deputy squadron leader of the Grizzlies.
Ron has lived near the Flame Castle for twenty years. Although he was not very successful in the first half of his life, he is also a direct descendant of a great noble, and his conditions are far beyond those of ordinary people.
Over the past twenty years, Ron has also made many connections in the Mad Lion Legion. With his third uncle Bernie taking care of him, Ron has become a local leader within the Mad Lion Legion and has barely taken root in the Legion.
When Ron went to the territory, Richard took out five thousand gold coins from the treasury, which was regarded as start-up capital for him. In addition to the five thousand gold coins supported by Richard, Ron has served as an officer in the Mad Lion Army for twenty years, and also acted as an agent for some Harland products, saving about three thousand gold coins. William also subsidized part of it, and his He had about ten thousand gold coins in cash.
Ron had served in the Wild Lions for twenty years, and he was surrounded by many retired soldiers. This time he managed the territory and recruited one hundred and twenty people at one time. With these 120 people as the core and more than 300 serfs, Ron quickly raised 500 soldiers.
Ron's start is already a bit better than Richard's. At least he doesn't have to bear debts. The location of the territory is also very good. Not only can he get support from the Harland Territory, but he is also very close to the Flame Castle.
It is easy to demarcate the barony, but the demarcation of Richard's new territory is more troublesome.
The territory that Richard wanted most was the Viscounty of Nelson.
Because of Soros's deliberate attempt to escape, the orc Gatlin tribe captured Felin Castle, and the Nelson family once again suffered heavy losses. In less than ten years, the castle fell twice, and 60% to 70% of the people were massacred by orcs.
With the Haaland family as their neighbor with ulterior motives, the Nelson family simply couldn't stand up.
Of course there are smart people in the Nelson family. After seeing this clearly, of course they are not willing to continue to operate the territory, but are ready to talk to the Harland family for a large sum of money.
It's just that Richard thought they were too open-minded and never agreed. Anyway, the Nelson Viscounty was surrounded on three sides by the Harland family, and there was no way it could escape Richard's grasp.
In the end, the Nelson family couldn't calm down and agreed to sell the territory for 20,000 gold coins. This matter has been recognized by the Noble Council, and the Speaker of the Noble Council, Marquis Allen, has also approved.
The Viscounty of Nelson is about more than 6,000 square kilometers. Due to two invasions by orcs, there are almost no free people left. The serfs in the territory were also sold off by the Nelson family.
After taking over the Viscounty of Nelson, the territory assigned to Richard was basically barren mountains. The northern territory of Salt Lake County, the western territory of Grotta River County, and the large area of land between Fort Depot and Losa Basin were all divided into the new Duchy of Halland.
The total area of the miscellaneous territories is about 38,000 square kilometers, which is somewhat larger than the territory divided in the previous two times.
Counting the new territories, the Dukedom of Harland has a total area of 93,000 square kilometers, second only to the three Dukedoms of Jonathan, York, and Edward in terms of area. It is slightly larger than the Dukedom of Geese, the Dukedom of Fox, and the Dukedom of Lorraine, and is roughly the same area as the Dukedom of Duran.
In the new territory, except for Nelson Viscounty and Losa Basin, the rest are basically high mountains. If no mineral veins can be found, only the two sides of the Taney Valley have agricultural development value.
After many years of management by the Kobold Principality, the Losa Basin has become a mature territory. The basin is densely populated and rich in products. A small magic crystal mine was also discovered nearby, and approximately one thousand and hundreds of magic crystals can be dug out every year.
Although there are not many people in Nelson Viscounty anymore, it is a territory that has been operated for many years. Castles have been built in this territory, wells have been dug, and farmland has been reclaimed. As long as enough manpower is invested in development, it will not be difficult to resume production. Investing very few resources can bring profits to the Haaland family.
Although he delayed spring plowing, after obtaining this territory, Richard immediately purchased 20,000 serfs and immigrated to this area.
Nolan's special envoy was Richard's old acquaintance Maurice Allen. He personally rushed to the Losa Basin not only to confer a knighthood on Richard, but also to communicate with the Harland family on several matters.
The first thing is the breeding of griffons. Because the Harland family and the Grant royal family divided the griffon population, the two griffon populations were small and could only borrow seeds from each other. , last year it was the Grant royal family's griffin group that came to Harland for breeding, this year it was Harland's turn to lead the griffon group to Nolan for breeding.
The second thing is that King Roger hopes that the Harland family will assume more responsibilities in northern Xinjiang. The first is to block the two canyons of Platos and Tani. Secondly, he hopes that Richard will garrison the Iron Lion Castle and fight against the Mad Lion. The legion cooperated to lock the upper reaches of the Kaia River from the south to the north to prevent the orcs from invading from this direction.
(End of chapter)