Chapter 273 Seal of the King
After signing the territory exchange agreement, it still needs the approval of the Noble Parliament before it can take effect in law.
The Jonathan family has a great influence in the Noble Parliament, and the Harland family also has a high voting right in the Noble Parliament. They are the leaders of the nobles in the Geda Province. The two great nobles jointly promote it in the Noble Parliament. As long as the royal family does not object, it is not difficult to pass the territory exchange proposal.
The Grant royal family facilitated the westward migration of the Jonathan family's power, so naturally they would not oppose the territory exchange.
After the exchange of territories, Richard began to prepare to withdraw his troops.
After several months of expedition, the soldiers' homesickness has become very serious. In addition, Richard has been very strict with military discipline and prohibits soldiers from killing and indulging, so morale has been very low.
Many noble officers came to Richard to write letters, hoping to withdraw as soon as possible.
However, the situation in the Grand Duchy of Stannik is unstable, and the 100,000 intervention troops cannot be withdrawn all at once.
The three army commanders communicated several times and decided to withdraw according to the priorities.
The northern army has the most soldiers, and Duke Jonathan's army has completely controlled the situation. The Iron Lion Army began to withdraw first.
Next is the three-province coalition army. According to the conditions negotiated between Richard and Duke Jonathan, the army will begin to withdraw in mid-July.
The southern army has the most complete supplies and needs to contain the great nobles in the south. The withdrawal time will be later, and it will need to wait until early September.
If all three armies withdraw, only Duke Jonathan's direct army will be left in the Grand Duchy of Stannic. Due to the loss of personnel caused by the war, Duke Jonathan's number of soldiers is about 40,000.
However, after the war, Duke Jonathan incorporated about 20,000 Linus Guards, and he directly controlled a total of 60,000 troops.
Compared with the power directly controlled by the Linus family, the Jonathan family has about 40,000 fewer people.
Moreover, after incorporating 20,000 surrendered soldiers, the internal situation is also slightly unstable.
Today, the Jonathan family's control over the Grand Duchy of Stannic is far less than that of the Linus family.
Compared with the great nobles of Stannic, the power of the Jonathan family is already somewhat unbalanced.
In order to maintain the balance of the country, either continue to transfer troops from the Kingdom of Grant or expand the army as soon as possible.
Duke Jonathan trained three legions of regular troops, two of which were transferred to the Grand Duchy of Stannic. It is impossible to give up the territory of the Kingdom of Grant, and expanding the army is imperative.
Fortunately, the territory directly under the Stannic royal family is relatively rich, with a good economic foundation, and the financial expansion of the army is relatively loose.
The only difficulty now is that the grassroots officers and elite soldiers trained are temporarily insufficient.
Time passed quickly, and more than 20 days passed in a blink of an eye. The coalition forces of the three provinces have made preparations and are waiting for the order to withdraw.
One day in mid-July, Duke Jonathan brought his entourage and came to the Ria Castle.
In the past month, the Ria Castle has been the garrison of the three-province coalition.
The vicinity of the Ria Castle was not affected by the war, and the summer grain harvested more than 8,000 tons. Richard was allocated 2,000 tons of grain, completely getting rid of the problem of food shortage.
During this month, the coalition forces of the three provinces lived very comfortably and peacefully.
After arriving at the Ria Castle, Duke Jonathan went around the military camp. After returning to Richard's tent with a blank expression, the Duke said, "The soldiers don't seem to be in high morale."
"It has been five months since we set out in February. The soldiers are homesick, and they have won a lot of spoils. Now they all want to go home and have no intention of fighting."
Duke Jonathan nodded and said, "The Earl's ability to lead soldiers is very good to win the battle with such soldiers. Even I can't do this."
Although the three-province coalition army is not a mob, it is the first time for Richard to fight with soldiers who are not united. The key reason why he can firmly control the troops is that rewards and punishments are fair.
Every time Richard fights, he does not avoid arrows and charges in front, which plays a good role in leading the soldiers and establishes a high prestige.
In several key battles, Richard led the soldiers of Harland Territory as the backbone and played a decisive role.
Relying on the soldiers of Harland Territory, the three-province coalition army was controlled. Only by being fair and just in the distribution of spoils can the majority of noble officers be united and the balance be maintained.
After this war, Richard felt that his ability to lead troops had been greatly enhanced, and his ability to unite officers had been greatly improved. However, in the next war, Richard was unwilling to continue to lead the noble coalition to fight. Fighting with the noble coalition always requires weighing the pros and cons and maintaining internal balance, which is too worrying.
A team with inconsistent people's hearts is a mob.
Giving Richard 5,000 soldiers from the Harland Territory is enough to sweep away the 15,000 coalition forces of the three provinces.
Hearing the praise from Duke Jonathan, Richard hurriedly said modestly: "Your Excellency, the Grand Duke is too kind."
Duke Jonathan said: "It's not an exaggeration. In my opinion, officers who can lead the noble coalition to victory are all excellent generals. Moreover, in this war, you also played a key role in leading the three-province coalition. Otherwise, I would not have granted you an earldom.
Let all the strangers go out. I have something to talk to you alone."
Richard waved his hand and drove out the staff and guards in the general's tent. Seeing that they had gone far away, he whispered: "What does the Grand Duke want to ask?"
"Have you invented a new type of alchemical bomb?"
"The Harland Territory has indeed invented a new type of alchemical bomb. Because it is used more on the battlefield, Richard did not hide it and chose to tell the truth.
Since alchemical bombs were used in large quantities in the war, Richard had prepared himself mentally in advance and had plans to trade with Duke Jonathan and the Grant royal family.
"Is the cost of making this alchemical bomb high?"
Alchemical bombs are not rare, and the cost is the key.
"The cost of making an alchemical bomb is not high. The material cost adds up to about sixteen silver coins, plus labor costs, less than two gold coins, which is much cheaper than the alchemical bombs made by the Heart of Elements."
"Could it be that your alchemical bomb does not require fire crystals?"
"Your Excellency the Duke guessed right. With the addition of fire crystals, the material cost will increase significantly, and it will definitely exceed thirty gold coins. It cannot compete with the alchemical bombs made by the Heart of Elements."
Seeing that Richard knew everything, Duke Jonathan was very satisfied. He said happily: "Are you willing to exchange this alchemical bomb manufacturing technology with me? I will pay enough, You will be satisfied. "
"Your Excellency the Duke, the Harland family is no longer short of general resources. Unless it is a treasure that is very important to us, we are unwilling to exchange it. Even if we agree to exchange the alchemical bomb manufacturing technology, we have additional conditions. First, Your Excellency the Duke cannot spread the alchemical bomb manufacturing technology, and secondly, the Jonathan family cannot sell alchemical bombs to the outside.
In order to ensure the transaction, a royal power contract must be signed. At least ten people in the Duke family must sign the contract. These twenty people must be important members of the Jonathan family. I need to ensure the security of the transaction. "
The royal power contract can only bind professionals below the legendary level.
Duke Jonathan is already a legendary level 2. If the Duke signs the contract, as long as he is willing to pay a certain price, he can be exempted from the royal power seal attack. Therefore, Richard requires that the contract must be signed by other important members of the Jonathan family.
If a small noble negotiates a deal with the Jonathan family, Duke Jonathan can get rid of it with a few melons and two dates, and will definitely not agree to harsh additional conditions.
But when trading with a big noble, it can be relatively fair. The Harland family is already a hereditary earl, and has enough power to negotiate with the Jonathan family.
The main purpose of the Jonathan family trading alchemical bombs is to defend the territory and fight against the enemy.
Although the Linus family was defeated, the Grand Duchy of Stannic lost 80,000 soldiers. Even if the Jonathan family brought two legion soldiers into the St. Jonathan Castle, the number of soldiers in the Grand Duchy of Stannic was reduced by 40,000.
Facing the attack of the orcs, the pressure on the front line will increase a lot with 40,000 fewer troops. Even if the Jonathan family expands the army immediately, the combat effectiveness of the new legion in two years will be average and cannot fill the gap at all.
Duke Jonathan is very worried about whether he can stop the orcs in two years.
Equipped with cheap alchemical bombs, the combat effectiveness of the army can be increased by at least 30%. Each squadron is equipped with dozens of bombs. Even if the army is not expanded in two years, Duke Jonathan is confident that he can defeat the orcs with the current strength.
Duke Jonathan said: "We can consider the request of the Harland family. Since I came here in person to discuss the deal, I naturally have the resources that the Harland family urgently needs. I have a royal seal here, which can be exchanged for the alchemical bomb manufacturing technology."
The royal seal is a replica of the artifact and an important resource for the Royal Church to control the nobles.
The value of each royal seal is equivalent to a legendary magic prop.
The value of legendary magic props cannot be exchanged with gold coins or magic crystals.
Although the Harland family has a shallow foundation, Richard has good luck. So far, the family has three legendary magic equipment. Whether it is the lightning staff or the starlight bottle or the starlight necklace, Richard cannot take it out to exchange for common resources such as gold coins and magic crystals.
Relatively speaking, there are more royal seals, and their value is slightly lower among legendary magic equipment.
But for the nobles, the royal seal is still a very important magic prop, which is related to the ruling power of the nobles.
After Richard was promoted to earl, he immediately went to the Royal Church to report and queue up, hoping to trade a seal with the Royal Church. Normally, if the earl wants to exchange a seal, he needs to wait in line for thirty years.
The Jonathan family has a deep foundation and has been a noble family for more than seven hundred years. They used to be the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Stannic and have seven royal seals in their hands.
Although the royal seal is very important to the Harland family, the Jonathan family does not lack such treasures.
After all, according to the strength of the Jonathan family, it is simply unable to expand seven main central corps, and it does not need seven royal seals.
The royal seal that Duke Jonathan took out for trading came from the escaped Linus family.
Although the Linus family has a slightly shallow foundation, it is also a noble family for hundreds of years. It has controlled the Grand Duchy of Stannic for more than a hundred years and has six royal seals in its hands.
Because of the internal strife in the Linus family court, three royal seals were lost in the war.
After the Jonathan family controlled the Grand Duchy of Stannic, they found two lost royal seals through divination magic. After careful consideration, Duke Jonathan decided to take out a seal to exchange with the Harland family.
The treasure that Duke Jonathan took out immediately impressed Richard.
The Harland family had developed to this point and was in urgent need of a royal seal.
Both parties were very satisfied with this transaction. Richard immediately drew up a contract in the military tent, signed his name, and then rode the iron-horned horse with Duke Jonathan back to St. Jonathan Castle to let important members of the Jonathan family sign the contract.
After signing the contract, Richard wrote down the alchemical bomb formula, shell manufacturing process, and explosive rune manufacturing technology, and obtained the ownership of a royal seal.
With the royal seal in hand, he has control over the middle and lower levels.
It will be more difficult to spread the breathing method and meditation method.
Some advanced industrial technology and magic technology have become much easier to keep secrets, and the pressure of anti-espionage has been reduced.
After completing the transaction, Richard returned to the northern border with the three-province coalition army. After returning to the territory, it was already mid-August.
Starting from early February, he went out to fight for half a year and finally returned to the territory. With the three-province coalition army, there were also 5,000 captive soldiers and more than 30,000 captive soldiers' families.
Although these captive soldiers are experienced in war and can skillfully use various equipment, it is very rare to practice breathing methods, and there are not many officers among them.
The noble officers in the central part of Stanik all have the blood of the Linus family. These people rarely surrender, and basically follow Viscount Nero to escape into the Kingdom of Delong.
Most of the small nobles do not like the spread of breathing techniques, especially in the central region of the Grand Duchy of Stannic, where the pressure of orc invasion is relatively small, and the nobles are mainly on guard against internal challengers.
Those who can practice breathing techniques basically have noble blood and are members of the noble branch.
Even if they have not practiced breathing techniques and their physical fitness is very average, Richard is ready to recruit all of these captives.
Although these people have average physical fitness, they have many years of war experience after all. They only need to practice breathing techniques to grow into qualified soldiers, and the training cycle is shorter.
After Richard returned to the territory, he began to hand over the territory to the Jonathan family.
Earl Roger has four castles, more than 30 villages, and a population of about 96,000. This territory is very close to Harland's territory, and Richard easily gained control.
In late August, Richard settled the families of the captives near the King's Castle in Duke Roger's territory and began to mix the soldiers.
Many of the newly recruited soldiers are illiterate, and if they want to practice breathing techniques, they need to learn from scratch. Only after learning the commonly used characters can you understand the content of the breathing method. Generally speaking, this process takes about a year.
Soldiers with average talent can be promoted to professionals and become squadron-level officers ten years after joining the army. If a soldier with better talent has a complete breathing method, it will take three to five years.
The intervention war lasted for half a year, and the casualties of the soldiers in the Harland territory were relatively small, with no more than 200 deaths, and there were not too many seriously injured soldiers who retired from active service, which would not affect the expansion of the army.