The Lord Of Blood Hill

Chapter 547: The Use of the Heart-Piercing Lotus

For Henwell, this incident is a painful lesson.If he does not make changes, he may not have such luck next time.

If the Veil had sent anyone other than a bloodline spellcaster this time, Henwell would still have had to flee in disarray against a Glory Rank.

By then, the fact that he is already an Iron Knight would quickly spread.

In fact, several sides have already begun to suspect Henwell's true status.

It is only because Henwell has just fought a brutal battle against Veil members that none of them can directly test him.

In addition, only an Iron Knight can test Henwell's true strength. It cannot be a newly advanced Iron Rank professional either. It has to be a veteran Iron Rank professional.

Unfortunately, existences at that level are no minor figures. They absolutely will not risk coming to Peace Haven merely to test Henwell.

The castle law of this world is quite powerful. No matter who it is, if they force their way into Peace Haven without proper cause, Henwell has the right to kill them.

So as long as Henwell keeps himself inside Peace Haven, no one can truly confirm his strength.

Next, every faction will certainly try every possible method to lure or force Henwell out.

Henwell must keep steady and immerse himself in developing of Peace Haven.

At present, Peace Haven has added the Fourth Legion and the Second Garrison Legion.

Peace Haven now possesses six field legions, a total of one hundred thousand elite troops.

In addition, there are twelve garrison regiments scattered across the fortress defense lines along the border.

Counting all kinds of armed forces, Peace Haven already has two hundred thousand troops.

For Peace Haven, whose population does not exceed three million, this is already an enormous burden.

In the short term, as long as Henwell does not expand outward, he will not establish any new armies.

In Henwell's plan, Peace Haven needs at least five to ten years of stable development.

If Peace Haven does not expand its army next, it will save more than five million gold coins in annual finances.

Henwell will invest all of that into public welfare and technological development.

Education, agriculture, industry, medicine... all of these are bottomless money pits.

Because of the purge against the Veil, a large number of nobles in Billie Kingdom have fallen, creating a large slave population.

Henwell has already communicated with Catherine. Over the next year, more than three hundred thousand slaves will be sold to Peace Haven.

For this, Henwell will have to pay nearly five million gold coins.

Among these people, quite a few are nobles and their dependent populations.

They are far better than specialized serfs who know nothing and cannot read a single word.

As plans for experimental zones are implemented in various places, large numbers of Peace Haven's basic agricultural talents are being sent out.

At the same time, the experimental zones are also beginning to attract freemen who have gone bankrupt, or are on the verge of bankruptcy, to migrate toward Peace Haven.

In the near future, Peace Haven's population will enter a period of very obvious growth.

In addition, as Henwell builds primary medical stations and large general hospitals in Peace Haven, the birth rate and survival rate have already begun to undergo a qualitative change.

As for the food supply, Henwell is not worried. Peace Haven already has more than three thousand square kilometers of arable land.

Because of Henwell's massive investment in agriculture, the grain produced from this land can feed between seven and eight million people.

Furthermore, Peace Haven's strategic grain reserves are astonishing.

As experimental zones advance in various places, Peace Haven will also purchase a considerable amount of grain.

As long as no one starves to death, there will be no fatal policy failure.

For industrial goods, as the experimental zones advance, Henwell will pry open the channels of every side.

Whether it is the cooperation with Prince Sundike of Ogiro or the cooperation with Prince Obilian of Lumir, there is no need to worry about markets for the goods.

As for the regions that stubbornly resist Peace Haven, Henwell has no intention of letting them go either.

The smuggling merchant groups and the Military Intelligence Office will join hands and begin deliberate dumping against their territories.

This can easily shatter the handicraft production systems in those territories, until they have no choice but to open their markets to Peace Haven.

The area Henwell most needs to guide is still the Technical Research Institute.

In the days that follow, Henwell visits the Technical Research Institute once every week.

After improvements through the cat-and-mouse game, the Technical Research Institute's protective system has improved enormously compared with before.

Henwell is very satisfied with this and prepares to continue this kind of cat-and-mouse game in another key department.

Inside the Technical Research Institute, the key project Henwell cares about is not cannons or extraordinary alloy, or extraordinary potions. It is the Heart-Piercing Lotus.

When the Veil strongholds were being cleared in Billie, this weapon gave a very obvious boost to middle-level combat forces and also exerted a certain suppressive effect on high-end combat forces.

More than once of several Battle Knights surrounding and killing a Grand Knight with Heart-Piercing Lotuses.

Even against an Iron Rank, as long as the opponent is not a veteran powerhouse, several Grand Knights can still create a threat with Heart-Piercing Lotuses.

Although killing the target may be impossible, they can at least maintain deterrence, or even force the target to retreat.

That is enormously useful for tactical operations.

After many rounds of improvement, the Heart-Piercing Lotus has formed four grades.

Level One breaks through the Fighting Spirit and armor protection of knight-level opponents.

Level Two can injure Battle Knights.

Following that logic, Level Four can pose a certain degree of threat to Iron Ranks.

Could mass deployment of high-grade Heart-Piercing Lotuses kill an Iron Rank?

Of course not. First, there is an Iron Rank's reaction and movement speed. Only Grand Knights can catch those.

Battle Knights are completely helpless in that regard, much less ordinary knights.

And up to now, Peace Haven does not have enough Grand Knights for Henwell to form a high-end combat team.

Peace Haven does have dozens of Grand Knights, but they are scattered among various departments.

High-ranking army commanders alone occupy nearly half of that number, while the rest are in secret units like the Technical Research Institute.

Compared with forming a high-end combat force, the positions these people currently hold allow them to play a greater role.

In addition, Heart-Piercing Lotuses are not cheap produce.

Their cost is quite high, especially Level Four Heart-Piercing Lotuses, which use extraordinary alloy and quite a few extraordinary materials as support.

Even with mass production compressing the cost, one unit still costs more than twenty thousand gold coins.

Money can be spent, but it cannot be wasted.

So Level Four Heart-Piercing Lotuses are only special tools. They have value only when needed.

For now, only Level Two and Level Three Heart-Piercing Lotuses have good practical value.

After all, Battle Knights and Grand Knights are the main combat forces in the current stage of warfare.

The vast majority of wars on the continent are centered around forces at these levels.

The problem is that Henwell keeps walking into high-level "dungeons." Most people never see a Grand Knight in their entire lives, much less stronger existences above them.

Whether in small-scale battles or large-scale wars, these two grades of Heart-Piercing Lotus can reverse the battlefield.

When Grand Knights or Battle Knights of the same level are fighting, landing a Heart-Piercing Lotus from an unexpected angle can immediately establish an advantage, even if it cannot kill the opponent.