Lord Harland

Although Clemen's professional level is not high and he cannot stand out in the military, he has always been one-of-a-kind, with a magnanimous personality, very enthusiastic about his work, and his speech is not only down-to-earth but also very authoritative.

Of the three core cadres of the railway department, Richard actually valued Clemen the most.

Richard and Clemen walked around a few tents at random and found that the tents were leaking badly. Richard turned to Clemen and said, "This is not possible. We must provide workers with a place to shelter from the wind and rain. If they are wet for a long time, Rain can cause serious damage to the body. Every indentured servant is an important property of the territory.

Especially with collective life and indentured slaves who have worked on major projects, their value is somewhat higher than that of farm serfs. After being trained in this kind of collective life, it is easier to adapt to the factory. "

"The railway line is advancing every day, and the workers can be said to have no fixed place to live. If we build a settlement every ten kilometers, it will undoubtedly increase a lot of costs. Limited by construction funds, we can only live in tents. In fact, not only are the indentured slaves If you live in tents, supervisors, engineering and technical personnel must also live in tents.”

Seeing that Clemen looked a little embarrassed, Richard turned to ask Green. "How much mobile funds do I still have on my account?"

As government operations become more formalized, Richard's private expenditures are gradually separated from those of Haaland's government expenditures.

Nowadays, the finances of the Harland territory are managed by the government cabinet, but an annual annuity of two hundred thousand gold coins is given to the lord's court. In addition, Richard's Duke's Office has 300,000 mobile funds a year. The Duke's Bank will also provide a portion of gold coins to Richard as dividends every year. Coupled with the income from some private farms, the funds that Richard can use are about 600,000. Gold coins up and down.

Richard's personal wealth now exceeds that of an earldom.

Green is Richard's deputy chief and has very heavy responsibilities. He now has more than a dozen office staff under his command, responsible for connecting with the military and various government departments. As the head of the Adjutant's Office, Green controls all of Richard's mobile funds.

"The Duke's mobile funds invested 60,000 gold coins in the technology research and development department this year, and now there are still 240,000 gold coins that can be used freely."

"Give Clemen 20,000 gold coins and let them build two settlements along the railway line for indentured slaves to live in." Before Green finished speaking, Richard immediately gave the order.

Seeing a smile on Clemen's face, Richard was afraid that he would make a mistake, so he reminded him a few words: "The railway department will be established soon. I plan to appoint you as the Minister of Railways. The only thing I ask of you is fairness." Integrity. I hope you can be worthy of my promotion and not be sent to the gallows like many corrupt officials in the past.

The reason why I revealed this news to you in advance today is that I hope you can withstand the test.

Don't let me down, Clement. "

"Don't worry, Duke. I will always reflect, suppress greed, and be a loyal and honest person."

Richard waved his hand and said, "I hope you can do this. I don't want to hear anything about your determination."

Returning from Graveson, Richard received letters from Driffin, Sutton and others.

After being assigned to the east coast province last winter, Richard specially dispatched a small team to explore the coastal areas.

Although this team is small in number, its members are all carefully selected. Sutton serves as the leader of the expedition team and Driffin serves as the deputy leader. The expedition team has a total of more than sixty members, each of whom is a professional and has rich wilderness survival experience.

There are three bipedal dragon knights, four high elves, and Sutton, a ninth-level knight, among the team members. There are as many as eight high-level combatants. As long as the legend does not interfere, they can run rampant in most areas.

The East Coast Province is a large area with almost no development. There are no human settlements on this land, and there may be a small number of savages living on it.

The expedition led by Sutton and Driffin may have been the first time that the human kingdom penetrated into the Eastern Province.

Sutton and others set out in January along the Black River.

The upper reaches of the Black River are very dangerous from August to October every year because of the backward spawning of snow crystal fish. Hundreds of millions of snow crystal fish will swim upstream from the Black River. Even a legendary magician will not be able to face such a huge swarm of fish. The Snow Crystal Fish population did not dare to act rashly.

In fact, during the snow crystal fish spawning season, the 200-kilometer stretch of the Heihe River near the mouth of the sea is not suitable for human activities at all.

The Black River was still frozen in January. During this period, most of the monsters living in the Black River migrated to the deep sea. Sutton and others found it very easy to walk on the frozen Black River.

It only took more than ten days to arrive near the mouth of the Heihe River. In the next period of time, Sutton and Driffin mainly investigated the terrain near the mouth of the Black River.

In the middle of last month, Sutton discovered a teenage elf during a patrol.

Since Sutton has half-elf blood and his elf characteristics are very obvious, the two parties had a brief communication. Shortly thereafter, Sutton took the initiative to lead the high elves and quietly entered the camp of the elven tribe.

Arriving at the Elf Tribe, Sutton thought to himself: "It seems that the rumors are indeed true. There are indeed a small number of Elf activities in the eastern coastal forests. Not long after our expedition team entered the East Coast Province, we discovered an Elf Tribe. , but this elf tribe is too small, with only a dozen people in total, half of whom are underage elves."

"We are so presumptuous as to come here rashly. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Sutton. My father is a legendary mercenary and my mother is an elf from the Chenhui tribe."

Sutton had just introduced himself, and a seventh-level high elf Signis continued: "Sutton's mother Sylph is a great legendary elf and the queen of our Morning Glory tribe. Which one are you from? Elf tribe?”

The elven tribes of the Eastern Continent have always had a tradition of discriminating against half-elves. But for the Morning Glory tribe, Sutton and Silver were life-saving to the Morning Glory elves and created a safe habitat for them. Although the elves needed to contribute to Richard and participate in wars they did not like, This is already the best living environment that the Chenhui tribe has obtained in these years.

In order to prevent the strange elf from saying anything nice, Signis intervened first and pointed out Sutton's background.

Although the elves in the Eastern Continent discriminate against half-elves and do not regard half-elves as their own kind, they still have the tradition of respecting the strong. High-level professionals from the elves are not uncommon, and there are many high-level professionals from the larger elven tribes. However, it is also extremely difficult to advance to the legendary elves.

A large elven tribe with more than a thousand people, with over a hundred high-level elves, and only one or two elves who can be promoted to legend. Small and medium-sized elven tribes rarely have legendary elves in charge.

Originally, the leader of the elf camp secretly held some contempt for Sutton, but when he heard that his mother was a legendary elf, he was suddenly shocked.

Hearing Signis' question, the elf leader in the camp was slightly startled and said, "I am Atem, the elf of the Twilight Tribe."

"I have heard about the Twilight tribe. I heard that your tribe is very large, with more than two thousand elves. There is a tree of life growing where the tribe is located. There are two legendary elves in the tribe, Night Ranger and Sun Archer. You are so powerful. , how could it be possible to end up in this predicament?" Upon hearing about Twilight's tribe, Signis was suddenly a little surprised, with a trace of doubt on her face.

"What you are talking about is all in the past. Fourteen years ago, the Twilight Tribe was invaded by the Elven Court. We suffered heavy losses, lost our territory, and even the Tree of Life fell into the hands of the Elven Court. Shortly thereafter, the Twilight Tribe was invaded by the Elven Court. When the slave-catching group attacked, most of our remaining warriors were killed or wounded, and more than sixty elves fell into the hands of the slave-catching group.

When the slave-catching group returned, the magic ship was attacked by a giant beast in the deep sea. In the end, the magic ship was damaged and drifted into this sea area. We were rescued by a nearby elf tribe, and they attacked the slave-catching group inside and outside. At this time, Twilight There are only about forty elves left in the tribe. What's going on with your Chenhui tribe? "

Signis recounted the situation of the Morning Glory Tribe. After hearing that there were only twenty-seven elves left in the Morning Glory Tribe including Sylph, Atem seemed to recall some tragic memories, with a painful expression on his face. .

"The camp is full of elves from the Twilight Tribe?" Sutton glanced around and found that there was actually a half-elf in the camp. The tree houses built were also different, so he took the liberty to ask.

Atemu shook his head and said: "No, the Twilight tribe has become a thing of the past. There are a total of sixteen members in my tribe, coming from three different elf tribes. Now we all call ourselves coastal highland elves."

"Why are there still half-elves in your territory?" Sutton finally couldn't hold back his curiosity and asked.

"Some captured elves were insulted by the slave group and became pregnant and gave birth to half-elves." Atem reluctantly explained a few words, and Sutton and Signis immediately showed expressions of realization.

Because of their belief in the God of Nature and Life, elves have a custom that prohibits abortion. Although some female elves do not like or even hate these children because of this unbearable experience, they still follow the custom and raise half-elves.

Hearing the meaning in Atem's voice, Signis asked doubtfully: "Listening to the meaning in your voice, there are many elven tribes in the eastern coastal forest. I don't know why they don't gather together, but choose to disperse their activities. .”

"It's not that we don't want to concentrate, but there are slave-catching groups in the nearby waters. The slave-catching groups have domesticated some griffons and even wyverns. Once we establish a larger settlement, we will face attacks from the slave-catching groups. In order to avoid the slave-catching group, we can only disperse the tribe, reduce the time for making fires, and try our best to satisfy our hunger with fruits and vegetables.

At the same time, we cannot move in one area for a long time and need to move frequently. When a slave-catching group comes ashore, we have to dig holes and move to caves.

I heard from some elves who fled to this area in the early years that there were more than 300 elves in this area more than fifty years ago, forming a medium-sized tribe. This tribe was renamed the Blood Moon Elves. They were preparing to develop to the west of the coastal highlands in search of A natural magic well. As a result, before the Blood Moon Elves could take action, they were discovered by a large slave-catching group. The Blood Moon Elves fought a failed war. The slave-catching group captured more than a hundred female elves. Almost all adult male elves They were all slaughtered, only a few elves escaped the disaster, and the Blood Moon Elf tribe also disappeared in the long river of time.

Today, among the elven tribes in the coastal highlands, there are some people from the Blood Moon tribe. After this disaster, the elves in this area could only choose to disperse their activities. "

Through Atem's narration, Sutton's mind became somewhat clearer about the surrounding situation. "How many slave-catching groups are there in the nearby waters and how big is their scale? Which human kingdoms are they mainly from? Do you have any information on this?"

"In the past ten years or so, we have also arrested some members of the slave-catching group and tortured some of the information. In recent years, there have been mainly more than a dozen slave-catching groups operating in the nearby waters. These slave-catching groups vary in size. Some slave-catching groups numbered more than a few thousand people, while smaller ones numbered two to three hundred people.

Generally speaking, large slave-catching groups are very expensive and will not stay in this desolate sea area for too long. Smaller slave-catching groups may continue their reconnaissance activities in this sea area for three to five months.

There are slave-catching groups from all countries, but most of them are from the Holy Radiant Empire, and a few are from the Kingdom of Palame. Occasionally, slave-catching groups from the Grand Duchy of Caroline can be seen operating. I heard that in recent years, nobles from the Sith Kingdom have also built magic ships and were involved in slave-catching activities. "

Sutton knew in his heart that the so-called slave-catching groups were basically the private armies of the great nobles. A few slave-catching groups were backed by legendary professionals. Even the Elf Royal Court could only protect itself and could not interfere with the private hunting of human nobles. slave activities.

At today's market price, the capture of an elf girl can be sold for more than 10,000 gold coins at a large-scale auction, of which 70 to 80% of the profits belong to the slave-catching group, and the remaining profits are divided between multinational chambers of commerce and local nobles.

The profits are so high, even if catching elves is very risky, countless coastal nobles have entered this industry one after another. Slave-catching groups of all sizes are almost uncountable, and the total number is estimated to be hundreds of thousands.

The slave-catching group is composed of professionals, and their combat effectiveness is quite strong. If the human kingdoms can gather hundreds of thousands of professionals, it will be enough to severely damage an army of orcs in the governor's region.

After finding out the situation of the elves in the East Coast Province, Sutton immediately became interested in recruiting them.

The Morning Glory tribe where Sylph belongs now only has female elves, and this is not an option in the long run. If the elves from the coastal highlands can be brought under their command, the elves in the Morning Glory tribe can quickly recover.

If the Elf Tribe becomes stronger, it will also be a good thing for the development of the Sutton family in the Harland Territory. The stronger one is, the higher the value of the united battle will be.

Sutton's experience of nearly a hundred years makes this point very clear.

Although they intend to annex the coastal highland elves, the relationship between the two parties is not familiar. I am afraid that the coastal highland elves are also wary of Sutton. If you want to take the elf name under your command, you need a special opportunity. It would be best to wait until the Highland Elves' situation becomes critical.

After establishing a relationship with the coastal highland elves, Sutton immediately wrote a letter to Richard, requesting to establish a stronghold near the mouth of the Black River, and hoped that his mother Sylph would come forward to make friends and win over the highland coastal elves in advance.

After all, Sylph is a legendary elf, and when dealing with the elves on the eastern coast, her cards far exceed those of Sutton. The Sutton family is now Richard's in-laws, and the growth of the Elf tribe is also beneficial to the development of the Harland territory.

After receiving Sutton's letter, Richard transferred a hundred professionals from the Demon Hunter squadron, and then transferred 200 professional veterans from the army led by Harland, and then asked Sylph to lead the team to form The advance detachment established a stronghold at the mouth of the Heihe River, integrated its forces, and prepared to seize the opportunity to recruit the elves in the coastal areas.

In order to strengthen supplies, Undine lent her mother her legendary space bag.

Undine's legendary space bag has a space of 120 cubic meters, which is filled with food, enough for the advance team to eat for four months. With this part of the baggage guarantee, plus fishing and hunting, it is enough for Sylph to lead people into the Black River. Haikou gained a foothold.