Lord Harland.

Chapter 267 Duke Edward's Difficulty
Seeing that Viscount Nero was determined not to leave the city, Richard had no choice but to besiege Nero Castle with [-] infantry.The two thousand cavalry dispersed and entered nearby villages to capture serfs and rob food and grass.

Commanding the cavalry is Captain Morgan of the Scouting Cavalry, and Danon, Captain of the Third Squadron of the Warcraft Cavalry.

After years of development, Harland Territory has formed three squadrons of monster cavalry, and there are fifty monster cavalry in the scout cavalry, adding up to a total of 350 monster cavalry.

The number of Warcraft cavalry is comparable to that of the Grizzly Legion.

Today, Harland's territory's financial income is close to 30 yuan a year, and with a little squeeze, it can buy hundreds of Warcraft horses.The reason why Richard did not expand the Warcraft Cavalry on a large scale was mainly because he did not have suitable soldiers.

A monster cavalry squadron must have at least [-] professional officers in order to unleash the power of the monster horses and form a powerful combat force.If the quality of the soldiers is not high, even if you buy a Warcraft horse, forming a Warcraft cavalry is empty-handed, and you cannot fight the Warcraft cavalry of other nobles.

In order to form the third squadron of the Warcraft Cavalry, this year's newly promoted professionals in the territory were swept away, and more than 70 veterans who were proficient in horse warfare were also transferred, resulting in the infantry unit not being replenished with new officers for a year.

According to the current speed of training officers in the Harland Territory, at most one hundred Warcraft cavalry can be expanded every year.

Morgan and Danon led their cavalry to plunder an area of ​​more than 1 square kilometers, guided by aerial reconnaissance arms, and looted dozens of villages in just a few days.

Li Cha saw that the Warcraft horse was full of food, and the captured serfs were mixed among the cavalry, looking particularly chaotic.

"Hurry up, send the prisoners to the barracks, and don't block the gate." The officers at the grassroots level kept shouting to maintain order.

Li Cha waved his hand and asked the young staff officer beside him to help him. After working hard for an hour or two, he escorted the captured serfs to the place of detention.

"How's it going, are the statistics of the seizure clear?" Seeing that the logistics staff had returned, Li Cha asked.

"Counting today's seizure, we have robbed [-] tons of grain and a population of [-]."

Hearing the news reported by the logistics staff, Li Cha's face changed.

To send these serfs back to Harland's territory, it would take forty or fifty days on the road. Even if each person consumed an average of one and a half catties of grain per day, they would consume two thousand tons of grain on the road.

Now [-] tons of grain have been grabbed, which is not enough for the serfs to eat on the road, let alone supplement the gap in army rations.

"What about the livestock? How many?"

"More than 6 sheep, hundreds of cattle, and more than 1000 mules and horses were caught."

Li Cha calculated in his mind that the number of animals seized was relatively small, and a large part should be concentrated in Nero Castle.The captured [-] sheep, let the serfs eat [-] on the way, saving hundreds of tons of grain

The remaining [-] sheep remained in the army, which would allow the army to last for a longer period of time.

It is now April, and there was a spring rain a few days ago, the grass and trees have sprouted, and it is the spring plowing season.

Li Cha will arrange special manpower to graze the sheep. Goat milk and mutton can be used as military rations. In addition to the rations stored in the army, they should be able to eat until June.

Besides, although the supplies in the rear are intermittent, there will be some more or less.

The western part of the Felaman Mountains is already the hinterland of the Grand Duchy of Stanik. This area is located in the middle of the Grand Duchy of Stanik, and has not experienced war for more than a hundred years.

More than 100 years of peace and continuous population growth have made this area a relatively densely populated area. There are more than 1 people living on a land of more than 60 square kilometers.

In terms of population density, the population density of this area is four times that of Harland's territory.

About 60 of the 50 people gathered in Nero Castle, and the remaining [-] were scattered in rural villages.

However, in the face of the war, the nearby population fled one after another, some of the population entered the deep mountains, and some of the population migrated to the west to stay away from the war.Only one-tenth of the total population was captured by the coalition forces of the three provinces.

Through aerial reconnaissance, Li Cha knew that the land with a radius of more than 1 square kilometers had been reduced to no man's land in just a dozen days. In the desolate villages, only a very small number of people returned, lingering.

The destructive power of war on the territory can be seen from this?
As long as this rich land encounters a war, there will be no chickens crowing for thousands of miles, and the bones will be exposed in the wild.

There are more than 60 people in this area. In order to escape the spread of the war, it is estimated that more than tens of thousands will starve to death on the road, much more than those who died directly from swords and arrows.

"Go, call Lost, I have something to discuss with him."

Not long after receiving Li Cha's order, Lost rushed to the main tent of the Chinese army.

A few days ago, Lost fought against the Silver Knight Viscount York. Although he contained the enemy, he suffered internal injuries and needed to rest for more than ten days.

Seeing Lost, Li Cha asked, "How are your injuries?"

"It's not a big problem, but I can't get up my strength these days, and I shouldn't be able to fight in a short time."

Li Cha took out a box from under the bed of the tent, and when he opened it, it immediately released a golden light.

"There are already more than 6 serfs in the camp, and they are in disarray. You lead the second brigade and are responsible for escorting the serfs back to Harland. I can only give you 30 tons of grain and [-] sheep. You can only eat the batch of food, fodder and luggage for [-] days, and you need to solve the remaining gap on the way. This box of gold coins is your funds, so you should keep it carefully."

Hearing Li Cha's order, Lost asked hesitantly: "The second brigade is gone, what should we do when we need to attack?"

In the army led by Li Cha, the second brigade is the backbone of the infantry and the backbone of the army in Harland's territory.In the last battle in Ferraman's Valley, relying on the second brigade of soldiers, they broke through the Viscount York's shield in one fell swoop and won the victory.

If this elite soldier is transferred back, it will have a great impact on the combat effectiveness of the Allied Forces of the Three Provinces, which is why Lost has this question.

"Through the test in the past few days, I found that the commander of Nero Castle is a mature and prudent person. It seems that they hope to pass through the fortified wall to clear the field and retreat when we run out of food.

Even if you go back, we still have 1 soldiers, while the enemy only has [-]. They will never dare to fight our main force.

Second, escorting the serfs back to the territory of Harland is very critical to our development. I don't feel at ease about sending others. This task can only be undertaken by you. "

After explaining the task, Lost led the second brigade to escort [-] serfs back the next day.

Now there is no resistance in the eastern part of Felaman, and there are barracks and military stations along the way, protected by more than 700 soldiers from the second brigade, so the road is very safe.After walking for seven or eight days, Lost returned to Burson Castle smoothly.

After a day's rest at Burson Castle, he walked for two days to Patin Castle and entered the Fox Dukedom.

Patin Castle is a typical frontier castle, and the products are not abundant. Lost only bought dozens of tons of grain, and emptied the grain store of Patin Castle.

Dozens of tons of grain can only feed more than 6 serfs for a day.

After continuing to walk for 20 days, Lost led the serf army into Palani Castle. Although he bought some supplies along the way, there was not much food left in the team, and he could only last for three days.

During these 20 days, Lost led the army of serfs and ate up all the livestock.Even the precious farm cattle were all stuffed into their stomachs.

Marching with more than 6 serfs, the speed was much slower than normal.At the supply points along the way, the food on the market was also wiped out by Lost.The food stocks in several towns add up to [-] tons, which is only enough to feed this huge team for six or seven days.

Palani Castle is located by the Black River. It is an important transportation node in the Duke of Edward and the third largest city in the Duke of Edward. The population of the castle is as high as [-], and the size of the city is no less than Fort William.

When Li Cha brought the intervention army into the Grand Duchy of Stanik, he replenished food and grass here for 20 days.

When Lost sent people into the castle to buy grain and grass, he was made things difficult by the castle's grain merchants.

"What, how could the price of food have skyrocketed fifty times?"

Hearing the story of the merchants accompanying the army, Lost came to the grain store in person and decided to negotiate with the grain merchants.

"We are the army of the Earl of Harland. The serfs we escorted are the spoils of the nobles of the three provinces. Are you sure you want to rob us?"

Lost brought the soldiers to show up in person, and the faces of the grain merchants became very ugly. In the end, they still couldn't bear the pressure and revealed some inside information.

"Dear Lost Knight, this matter was explained by the superiors, and we are also very embarrassed. If you really need food, you can exchange it with slaves. One ton of grain can be exchanged for one hundred slaves. This is the price set by the Duke's Mansion. Please don’t embarrass us lowly businessmen. This matter was decided by a big man, and you can’t solve the problem by forcing us.”

At a normal market price, a slave can exchange two and a half tons of grain. The transaction price set by the Duke Edward's House is obviously a public robbery.

Lost carried [-] gold coins, [-] of which were spent on the road, and now there are only [-] gold coins left. According to the price of food in Palani Castle, he can only buy [-] tons of food.

[-] serfs and [-] soldiers needed [-] tons of grain to eat [-]% of their food every day.All the gold coins carried by Lost are used to buy food, which can only be eaten for half a day.

After hearing the news, Lost's face changed greatly. He never expected that he would encounter difficulties from the Duke of Edward.

Lost is not a rootless person, behind him is the powerful Earl Harland.

Although the grain merchants in Palani Castle were relatively greedy, they only increased their prices by [-] to [-] percent at most.Under normal circumstances, they dare not offend the Harland family at all.

Even if a businessman has the support of a big noble behind him, he would not dare to offend an earl who is in the limelight.

Now that the grain merchants in the castle have unified their caliber, it must be the Duke Edward's mansion who has come forward in person.

Now the Harland family has become a hereditary earl. Although the strength is weaker than that of the Edward family, the difference is not very far.

The Duke of Edward has a population of 120 million and about [-] soldiers.However, the soldiers under Duke Edward's command were averagely equipped, and their quality was not as good as the three main armies in the northern border.

The elite soldiers in Harland's territory are enough to fight against three with one.

If a conflict breaks out between the two, the Duke of Edward does not have a [-]% chance of winning.

Both parties are great nobles from northern Xinjiang. Under normal circumstances, the Duke of Edward would never provoke the Harland family.Moreover, the spoils escorted by Lost belonged to the Allied Forces of the Three Provinces. Although the Harland family took the lead, they also wanted to share the benefits with the hereditary nobles of the three northern Xinjiang provinces.

In doing so, the Duke of Edward offended the nobles of the three provinces, and it was even more troublesome to deal with.

Lost decided to talk to the mayor of Palani in person after he got stuck with the grain merchant. This person is a direct member of the Edward family and should have certain authority.In the end, the door was shut down, and no members of the Duke Edward's family were seen.

Palani City Hall, after Lost left, Mayor Simone sighed: "This time we have seriously offended the nobles of the three northern provinces. Even if we eat half of the serfs according to our calculations, the sequelae will be very troublesome. From a long-term perspective, I am afraid that the benefits obtained cannot compensate for the losses.

Offended the nobles of the three provinces, and when we encounter a crisis in the future, the nobles of the three northern provinces will definitely not come to support.

The most important point is that the soldiers of the three northern armies all come from the three central provinces, and are closely related to the hereditary nobles of the three northern provinces.Even if the capital ordered reinforcements, and the nobles of the three provinces were bent on playing tricks, if we walked slowly on the road, our losses might be huge, and the main force might be surrounded and wiped out by orcs.

Besides, I heard that Earl Harland has a very bad temper, and he is not a person who can swallow his anger after suffering a loss. When he returns with his army, what will happen if he plunders inside our territory? "

Simeone is the cousin of Duke Edward, and he is considered an important member of the Duke of Edward.His face was full of worry, and from his original intention, he was unwilling to provoke the Harland family.

But Duke Edward of Maple Leaf Castle issued an order, and Simeone could only execute it, and the people above did not listen to his objections at all.

"The old man is very confused now. As long as someone slanders the court, he will make a foolish decision."

The speaker is also an important member of Duke Edward's family. His name is Harris. He is a seventh-rank silver knight and the fourth son of Duke Edward.

Harris is over 50 years old, and has no hope of advancing to legend. He is not the first heir of the Edward family, and he speaks very boldly in private.When talking about his father, he didn't have a few good words. It sounded very mean and there was no respect at all.

Simeone has a close relationship with Harris, but because he is far away from Maple Leaf Castle, the core of the Duke of Edward, the news is somewhat blocked.After all, he couldn't bear it anymore, and asked Harris quietly: "The old duke is 84 this year, and he has been very confused since last year. The orders he passed down are messy, and there are many contradictions. Have the core members of the family discussed it?" , let the old duke retire to enjoy his old age?"

When Simeone said these words, he implied that he was seriously dissatisfied with Duke Edward. Strictly speaking, such words are very taboo.

Now that this kind of public rebellion is being uttered by the core members of the Edward family, it can be seen that there is a serious problem at the core of the Edward family, which has become unbearable for many people.

(End of this chapter)