Chapter 76: The Gate of Darkness (Part 2)

Duke had asked himself countless times, why couldn't Stormwind City have the elite soldiers taught by Lothar?

Is it because Lothar was forced to raid Karazhan at a critical moment?

Or some other reason.

After traveling to the world of Azeroth for so long, Duke finally understood a truth, because the seven human kingdoms all implemented the extremely fucked aristocratic enfeoffment system, so some things were doomed to be irreversible.

Unlike any centralized country, the backward enfeoffment system has its inevitability. In this era of extremely bad traffic, it is simply absurd to talk about concentrating troops in one place and asking the Quartet to mobilize food and supplies to support them.

Just by transporting the food, the bad soil and rainy and humid weather are enough to consume half of the food. In order to avoid excessive loss of food, the country often arranges its troops in various regions and allows the nobles to support themselves.

The king only has the right to order when and where a nobleman must send how many soldiers according to the rank of the title, what kind of equipment, where to go, and where to attack. But the king couldn't order the knights under the command of a certain noble to do what.

This is the so-called vassals of the king's vassals, not the king's vassals.

Although the king has the right to order the nobles to do what, but the nobles can also influence the king's decision in turn according to the strength of their own hands.

Orcs have invaded and spread like a plague across the continent of the Eastern Kingdoms of Azeroth.

From the beginning when some nobles insisted that this was a big deal and demanded more information, the situation was like getting on an express train bound for hell, falling straight down.

Three days later, all the high-level officials of the Stormwind Kingdom knew about the orc was an extremely majestic corpse brought back by a griffin.

Besides, what the hell would an orc do? How is the combat power? how many people? Where is the target of the attack?

The Stormwind Kingdom knew nothing about it.

However, that group of bullshit nobles are still forcing the front line to send back more "definite" news, and refuse to send troops, money and effort for a illusory invasion, and refuse to enter a state of war for the entire kingdom.

Arguing endlessly with the nobles in Stormwind Fortress made Ryan and Anduin exhausted physically and mentally.

The nobles panicked when all the bunkers near the triangular intersection connecting Elwynn Forest and Redridge Mountain were captured by orcs.

Because this not only means that the Stormwind Kingdom has lost its connection and control over its eastern territory, the Redridge Mountains, but also means that once the orcs break through the Redridge Mountains, they will be able to enter the richest area in the entire Stormwind Kingdom - Elwynn Forest.

Compared with the precipitous Red Ridge Mountains, the Elwynn Forest located on the plains is truly safe from danger.

There are more than a hundred human settlements in the tens of thousands of square kilometers of Elwynn Forest. If the orcs are willing, they can completely ignore the defenses of the human towns, first divide and surround each town, and then encircle them one by one.

And these settlements are the fiefs of the nobles of the Stormwind Kingdom, big and small, and where their core interests lie.

"Never let those damn beasts invade the kingdom!"

"Yes! To defend our homeland, we will fight to the death."

"For the Kingdom of Stormwind, for Azeroth! Fight—"

The nobles who had been slow to react before suddenly reached a consensus within an hour. They unanimously demanded that King Lane organize a blocking battle at the pass of Elwynn Forest into the Redridge Mountains, using the dangerous gorge to prevent further orcs from invading.

After finally dismissing the great nobles, Ryan sat slumped on the throne and asked Anduin in a feeble voice. In this empty and huge inner court, there are only him and Lothar.

"What do you think of this blocking battle?"

"Your Majesty, I'm not optimistic. The intelligence shows that those huge green beasts are very good at fighting in the mountains. I don't think that they can be blocked by the location alone."

"Then what to do? Let them invade Elwynn Forest and destroy the essence of the entire kingdom? Hell, if Medivh is here... God! Why do I keep forgetting that he is probably the culprit in this incident? Ryan covered his face in pain.

"Actually... I think we should ask Duke for his opinion. After all, the news from the front line is that the Naga-trained troops performed better than other troops." Lothar suggested in a low voice.

"He may be a little clever, but he is too young and his status is too low. And the big nobles will not tolerate a brat telling them what to do."

"Ah!" As the preparations for the war began, Anduin felt more and more kind to Duke.

Before the soldiers and horses arrive, the food and grass go first.

Wars have never been separated from logistics. In order to mobilize the food needed by the army, Ryan had to order the food from Stormwind City to be transferred to the front line near the Red Ridge Mountains.

However, the spring rain in March made it extremely difficult to transport grain. The section from Stormwind City to the south to Gold Shining Town, because of Duke's road repair, the transportation was extremely smooth. But the road from Gold Shining Town to the east to the pass of Red Ridge Mountain is so bad that Lothar scolds his mother.

The muddy dirt road almost paralyzed the entire transportation plan. A large amount of food, ordnance, and various supplies were piled up in the Gold Shining Town and could not be transported out.

"Why is the road from Stormwind City to Gold Glitter Town so good? The rest is so bad!?" Because of the need for war, the Lion King's Pride Hotel in Glitter Gold Town has become a temporary command post for Lothar. Here, Lothar, who was looking at the map, slapped the table and cursed.

At this time, a non-commissioned officer whispered: "Originally, Sir Marcus was willing to pay for the construction of roads from Stormwind City to Redridge Mountains, and replace all the dirt roads with cobblestone roads. But among the nobles, only Bolvar Fordragon The Duke agreed, and in the end, only the section from Stormwind City to Gold Shining Town was repaired."

King Ryan and Anduin were speechless at the same time, but there was still a faint feeling in their hearts—did Duke even expect this?

impossible!

On April 1st, which is called the first year of Hellgate by later generations.

Despite the harsh conditions, the Kingdom of Stormwind still gathered 10,000 directly subordinate troops and nearly 6,000 noble private soldiers to form a coalition army, which was deployed at the pass of Red Ridge Mountain.

Looking down on the Red Ridge Mountain, which looks huge in itself, there is a bare red barren hill with almost no trees, and then there is a green forest in the distance, stretching as far as the eye can see, it is like a distant painting that can expand infinitely, let Everything looks small in front of it.

The Red Ridge Mountains are very large, but unfortunately, the V-shaped twin peaks located in the westernmost part of the Red Ridge Mountains, in front of the vast and vast Elwynn Forest, are like an isolated island on the endless sea, looking so lonely and endless help.