Chapter 306 – Promotion to Duke
Chapter 306 – Promotion to Duke
On the night of the Harvest Festival, in a humble square, the Harland Leader Opera Company began their performance.
There were no curtains, no speeches, and only a wooden board separating the front stage from the backstage.
Catherine appeared on the humble stage for the first time, looking at the crowded audience, the mood was a little nervous and excited. She was a veteran performer with two years of acting experience and the most popular actress in Williamsburg.
This kind of nervousness, Catherine had only felt when she first took the stage. Catherine was a person with a big heart, and the bigger the spectacle, the more passionate her performance became.
She looked around and realized that there were many orcs among the audience.
Even though Richard had sold forty thousand orc prisoners of war, there were still about forty thousand orcs living in the Lothar Basin. These remaining 40,000 orc slaves were relatively docile, and most of them were goat-bodied.
The intermingling of humans and orcs was also a special landscape in the Losar Basin.
“The story takes place in a village near Fort William, where Sam was sold by a slave trader to the Harland Territory …….”
As the narrator plays, the background of this opera begins to be introduced.
The name of today’s opera is A Beautiful Life, and it is about a man named Sam who is captured by a slave trader and sold into the Harland Collar. After five years of being reduced to an indentured servant in Harland’s Collar, Sam became a free man, was given land, started a new family, relied on his hard-working hands to earn rich gold coins, and gained a new life.
The opera is heavy on the male lead, with Catherine playing Sam’s wife, Irene.
There isn’t much of Irene in this production, and as the narrator plays, Catherine slowly walks out into the middle of the stage. She is dressed in a dirty gray gown, with her hair in a messy coiffure on top of her head and her face patted with black ash, looking more like a woman from a poor family.
The play was new, though, and after a good two days of rehearsal, the whole flow of the play was familiar to Catherine.
In this age of scarce entertainment, the opera was performed in a very novel form, easily attracting a large audience, and the performance had just begun, causing a sensation.
Steven stood under the humble bleachers and watched the performance with great interest, his eyes fixed on Catherine.
A middle-aged officer looked around, and after seeing Steven, he pushed his way through the crowd and slapped Steven hard on the shoulder.
“Man, I heard from the people in the logistics department that you came to the Losar Basin, we haven’t seen each other for five years, how have you been doing?”
The person who spoke was Norman, the brigade leader of the third brigade of the Harland Collar, he was Soros’ nephew, who had already been promoted to a sixth-rank warrior, he was an old comrade in arms with Stevin, and his friendship was very deep.
Steven was born as a serf in the northern border, when he was young, he became Baron Barton’s serf soldier, then he was bought by Soros and joined Soros’ mercenary corps, as the mercenary corps was merged into Harland Collar, Steven also became a veteran soldier of the third squadron.
With this relationship, Steven was naturally close to the officers who came out of the old Third Squadron.
“It was just like that, after I retired from the army, although I earned a lot of money, it was as if my life had lost its direction, and I couldn’t get up the spirit to do anything.”
Hearing Steven say this, Norman shook his head and said, “It’s not good for you to be in such a mental state, I think you lack a family life and can’t adapt after leaving the military camp, you should find a woman you like and get married.”
Stefan stared at Catherine on the stage and said thoughtfully, “Maybe you’re right. What do you think of that girl on the stage?”
“Excellent condition, I heard she’s the star of Williamsburg, but you’re old enough to be someone’s father.”
“But I like her, and after the show, I’ll ask her to marry me.”
Seeing Steven with determination on his face, Norman, as if looking at a madman, pulled his arm and said, “Listen to me, you’ll scare the little girl like that. Talking about your girlfriend and getting married is not an easy thing to do. You need to approach her first, attract her with your good qualities and arouse her curiosity about you before you can succeed.
Just like when we fight a battle, we work on scouting first. After the reconnaissance is completed, you have to be decisive in the battle and commit your troops, you can’t hesitate to be brave at this time. If you listen to me, I guarantee you will get this woman.”
Even as the two of them rambled on, the envoy from Nolan arrived at the Losar Basin.
It was now two months since Richard had killed the Dragon Vein Doghead, the orcs had long since retreated in full force, and the Grant royal family had begun to reward the meritorious officials.
This year, the Grant royal family would divide four fiefdoms, one earl’s collar, three baron’s collars, and two noble titles were promoted, including Earl Harland’s promotion to duke.
The birth of a duke’s collar would greatly affect the power structure of the Grant Kingdom and even the stability of the regime.
According to King Roger’s heart, he didn’t want a new duke to be born. However, Richard had made real war achievements, so it was simply unreasonable not to promote him to the rank of Duke.
If the Harland family was suppressed, it meant that the noble promotion system lost its authority.
The noble promotion system was the foundation of Grant Kingdom.
It was by relying on this system that it was able to attract generations of outstanding talents to serve the Grant Kingdom. It was only through the joint bloody battles between large and small nobles that the orcs were stopped from invading again and again. Relying on the eight main legions of the Grant family alone, it was impossible to stop the orc army.
If we break this system, not only will we become enemies with the Harland family, it will also affect the stability of the situation in the northern border.
Through this battle, King Roger had made it clear that the Harland family was already full of wings, and even if he didn’t promote Richard to the title, he wouldn’t be able to stop the expansion of this family.
By stepping in and suppressing it himself, he can only suppress it in name, but in reality, he is a villain in vain.
After carefully weighing the pros and cons, King Roger still decided to abide by the noble title reward system, to promote Richard’s title and reward him with a new earl’s collar. Anyway, most of the fiefdom Harland family fought down, are wild mountains, the Grant family only pay is nominal, do not need to invest much capital.
This year’s battle, not only Richard harvested a lot, soon to be promoted to duke, William also accumulated enough battle merit to obtain a second baronial collar.
If it wasn’t for the fact that he had consumed a lot of merit to exchange for the breathing method, William would have had enough merit to obtain a third territory and be promoted to Viscount. William’s first territory was now the core of Harland’s territory, which, although it nominally belonged to William and hadn’t been merged into the Earl of Harland’s territory, was actually under Richard’s control.
This piece of territory, even if William divides it among the other heirs, will not have any say in it, but will instead be the bane of his life. Brothers such as Ron and Hayden, Richard’s brothers, simply could not make the soldiers of Fort William follow orders.
Once caught in the battle for succession, the power disparity Ron and the others did not have a single chance to win.
This area near Fort William, Richard simply will not let others, who dares to hit the idea of this territory, even if it is a brother Richard will be ruthless. Once the nobles are involved in the struggle for territory and inheritance, it is often very bloody.
The people of the Harland family, in their hearts, also have a tacit understanding that this piece of territory is let to Richard’s inheritance.
Nowadays, there are three hereditary nobles in the Harland family, in addition to Richard there are William and Bernie. Bernie’s fiefdom was inherited by his second son Gavin, and the second fiefdom that William got will establish a new heir.
In fact, when the Harland family held a banquet the year before, William discussed this matter with Richard and Bernie.
According to William’s opinion, if he gets a new fiefdom, he will let Ron and Hayden inherit it according to the order of inheritance, and this time, the new fiefdom that William gets will be handed over to Ron to operate.
William’s new fiefdom is near the former Harden Castle, adjacent to the Duke of Harland’s territory. The northern part of this territory is the last beam of the Eagle Mountain Range, and the southern part is the impact plain of the Kaiya River, a tributary of the Black River, the area of the territory is not very large, only nine hundred and thirty square kilometers, but the area of flat land is very large, and only thirty percent of the territory is mountainous, and there is also a river passing through the territory, the endowment of agriculture is a lot better than that of the vicinity of William’s Castle.
According to the prospector’s introduction, this territory can reclaim 300,000 acres of paddy fields and feed 200,000 people.
Before Nolan’s envoy arrived, this territory had already been demarcated, and Ron retired from the Wild Lion Legion to start the territory’s operation.
Ron’s talent is very average, twenty years of service in the Wild Lion Legion, has not yet been promoted to the fourth rank, the position is only a lieutenant, a lifetime only accumulated a large merit, four medium merit.
Before retiring from the army, Ron exchanged all these merits into potions and prepared to use them to train his son Kane.
Ron’s eldest son Kane is already nineteen years old, this child of the Harland family is more talented, probably inherited William’s genes, and has already become a professional at a young age, and now serves as the deputy lieutenant of the Grizzly Bear Legion.
Ron had lived near the Flaming Fortress for twenty years, and despite not being very successful in the first half of his life, he was also a direct descendant of a great noble, and his conditions far exceeded those of ordinary people.
Over the past twenty years, Ron had also made a lot of connections in the Wild Lion Legion, and with his third uncle Bernie taking care of him, he was already a local snake within the Wild Lion Legion, and had barely put down roots in this legion.
When Ron traveled to the territory, Richard took out five thousand gold coins from the vault, which was considered to be the start-up capital for him. In addition to the five thousand gold coins supported by Richard, in the past twenty years, Ron served as an officer in the Wild Lion Legion and also represented a portion of the Harland Territory merchandise, saving up about three thousand gold coins of property, and William also subsidized a portion of it, so he had about ten thousand gold coins of cash in his hands.
Ron had served in the Wild Lion Legion for twenty years and had gathered quite a few retired soldiers around him. This time, he ran the territory and recruited one hundred and twenty people at once. With these one hundred and twenty people as the core, along with more than three hundred serfs, Ron quickly pulled up five hundred soldiers.
Ron’s start, was already a few points better than Richard, at the very least, he didn’t have to take on debt, and the location of the territory was also very good, not only could he get support from Harland’s Territory, but it was also very close to Flame Fortress.
While the baronial territory was easy to demarcate, the demarcation of Richard’s new territory was more troublesome.
The territory Richard wanted the most was Viscount Nelson’s territory.
Because of Soros’s intentional water release, the orc Gatling division captured Ferrin Castle, and the Nelson clan suffered another heavy loss. In less than ten years, the castle fell twice and the clan was massacred by the orcs by sixty to seventy percent.
With the Harland family as a neighbor with ulterior motives, the Nelson family could not turn around at all.
Of course the Nelson family has smart people, after seeing this clearly, of course they are not willing to continue to run the territory, but are prepared to talk to the Harland family and ask for a large sum of money.
Only Richard thought that they were asking for a large sum of money and never agreed. Anyway, Viscount Nelson’s territory was surrounded by the Harland family on three sides, and could not escape Richard’s hand at all.
In the end, the Nelson family was unable to hold their breath and agreed to sell the territory for 20,000 gold coins, which has been recognized by the Noble Council, and Marquis Allen, the Speaker of the Noble Council, has also approved it.
Viscount Nelson’s territory is about 6,000 square kilometers, due to two invasions by orcs, now there are almost no free people left. The serfs in the territory have also been sold off by the Nelson family.
After taking Viscount Nelson’s territory, the territory that was divided to Richard was basically barren mountains. The northern territory of Salt Lake County, the western territory of Grota River County, and a large area of land between Fort Hyrule and the Losa Basin were all divided into the new Duke Harland’s territory.
The miscellaneous territories added up to an area of about 38,000 square kilometers, a few points larger than the territories divided in the previous two divisions.
Counting the new territories, the Dukedom of Harland had a total of ninety-three thousand square kilometers, second only to the three dukes of Jonathan, York, and Edward in terms of area. It is a few points larger than the Dukedom of Guise, the Dukedom of Fox, and the Dukedom of Lorain, and roughly equal in size to the Dukedom of Durand.
Among the new territories, except for Viscount Nelson’s Territory and the Losa Basin, the rest are basically lofty mountains, and if no mineral veins can be found, only the two sides of the Taney Valley, which have agricultural development value.
The Losa Basin has been a mature territory after years of operation by the Dogman Duchy, and the basin is densely populated and rich in produce. A small magic crystal mine was also found nearby, which can dig out about a thousand or so hundred magic crystals every year.
Although Viscount Nelson’s territory no longer had many people, it was also a territory that had been in operation for many years, this territory had already built castles, dug wells, reclaimed farmland, and as long as enough manpower was invested in its development, it wasn’t difficult to resume production. Investing very little resources would bring profits to the Harland family.
Despite the delay in spring plowing, after getting this territory, Richard immediately purchased 20,000 serfs and migrated to this region.
The envoy from Nolan was still Richard’s old acquaintance, Maurice Allen, who personally rushed to the Loza Basin, not only to knighthood Richard, but also had a few things to communicate with the Harland family.
The first matter was the mating of the Lion Rash. Because the Harland family and the Grant royal family divided the lion wasp population, resulting in the two families’ lion wasp populations being smaller, they could only borrow each other’s seed. Last year, it was the Grant royal family’s Lion Rashers that came to Harland’s collar to breed, and this year, it was Harland’s turn to lead the Lion Rashers to Nolan’s collar to breed.
The second thing, King Roger wants the Harland family to take more responsibility in the northern border, first of all, to seal the two canyons of Platos and Tani, and secondly, he wants Richard to station his troops in the Iron Lion Castle, and cooperate with the Wild Lion Legion, to lock the upper reaches of the Kea River in the south and the north, and to avoid orcs from invading from this direction.
(End of chapter)