Chapter 361 10. Battle of Ironforge. Preparations
The struggle in Stranglethorn Vale will last a long time.
Although the Blightcallers are menacing, the Gurubashi trolls have lived in this dense forest for thousands of years, and they also have their own advantages.
The troll city Zul'Gurub was a famous city during the Zandalari Empire, and it was carefully maintained and repaired by the trolls after the world collapsed. This ancient city has always existed as a holy city of priests. The power of at least 4 wild beast loa shrouded here. Under the protection of the weird voodoo power given by those loa, it is not so easy to break through this city.
Moreover, there is also the power of evil gods that has risen again amidst the panic among the people. In the history of the fantasy world, any guy named as an evil god is unlikely to be easy to deal with. What's more, Hakkar the Soul Reaper, an ancient evil spirit that has left a strong mark in the annals of Zandalari trolls.
But frankly speaking, the world did not pay much attention to the war in Stranglethorn Valley. For a civilization that has begun to turmoil, preserving its own existence is more important than paying attention to the evil beliefs of some barbarians.
On the snow-capped mountains of Khaz Modan and the wilderness of the Badlands, the frequency of undead arakkas appearing more and more densely, which means that a terrible reality is happening little by little, and the undead are swallowing up After conquering the entire Stormwind Kingdom, they only stayed for a short time before letting their iron hooves move forward again.
The dark clouds of war gathered little by little on the icy sky of Khaz Modan. Not only the Bronzebeard dwarves living in Ironforge felt the smell of gunpowder, but even Quel'Thalas, who had never been involved in mainland affairs, The high elves also responded to this.
Just 2 days ago, reinforcements from the human empire once again entered the defense lines of Ironforge, including a whole well-trained high elf ranger and accompanying mages. The 4th army of the dwarves is here, and it seems that the human emperor Lothar has finally reached an agreement with the kings.
They agreed to Ironforge King Magni's request for help, and deployed heavy troops in Khaz Modan to turn this cold snow-capped mountain into a strategic "buffer zone" to prevent the undead from approaching the empire's borders.
What's weird is that facing the alliance between the human empire and the dwarf kingdom, Khaz Modan will become more difficult every day, just like a beast of war with fangs and armor, it will become more difficult every day. Ferocious, but across the mountain, the number of undead legions stationed on the outskirts of Khaz Modan has not increased...
"Number is the absolute advantage of the undead. As long as Tyrion still has a little sense, he can't give up this advantage."
On the griffin soaring in the snowy sky, Danas Trollbane, the commander of the vanguard army of the human empire, wore a snow-white cloak, mixed with a group of Wildhammer griffin knights, and passed by the undead from a distance. Khaz Modan's frontline base, he looked down with a telescope, the undead built a large base in the plain of the snow mountain, they cleared the snow on the ground, from a distance, it looks like a snowy mountain slope An ugly black scar appeared in the middle.
It was a huge castle built of stones, surrounded by weird psychic towers. Above those stone towers, green magic eyeballs were floating, whether it would change the direction of observation, to ensure that no enemy could quietly Approach the fort.
"There are at least 60,000 undead here!"
Kurdran, the best Wildhammer Gryphon Knight, stroked the snowflakes on his beard, and said with a sullen expression:
"There are so many dead people. The vanguard alone is comparable to half of our army. Just looking at the walking corpses will make people feel dizzy."
"It does look tough on the surface, but that's just the appearance."
Danas fiddled with the magnification of the telescope. While carefully observing the defense of the undead fortress, he encouraged his comrades:
"But the Stormwind Kingdom has fought against them. A standard Dark Blade Legion has 70,000 people, but three-quarters of them are servants, skeletons or temporarily awakened walking corpses. For unarmed civilians, it may be very Difficult to deal with, but for well-trained soldiers, these servants are much less of a threat. The most troublesome thing is the remaining quarter, those death knights, dark warlocks, and some hell who occupy the command A vampire or something."
"His Majesty Lothar has fought against them, Kurdran, they are not invincible, and the destruction of the Stormwind Kingdom's army is not without gain. We have already seen their weaknesses."
"Snapped"
The general threw the binoculars into his rucksack. He had memorized the terrain of the undead fortress. He pulled the reins of the griffin and said to the dwarf:
"The best way to deal with the undead is not to be reckless, not to send yourself into the endless circle of dead people, the best way is to find their "head" and chop it off, the lower-level undead who lost the command will become chaotic , that's our chance."
A killing intent flashed in the general's eyes:
"Back then, all you needed was a fire and some oil to burn all these walking corpses."
"Fire and oil? Awesome!"
Kurdran's thick laughter spread far and wide in the wind and snow:
"Then we are lucky. As far as I know, there are many of these two things in Ironforge."
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"Welcome everyone to come to Ironforge at this critical time. On behalf of the Bronzebeard royal family and all the dwarves of Ironforge, I would like to express my most sincere thanks for your coming."
In the throne room of Ironforge, King Magni Bronzebeard is sitting on a high chair specially made for dwarves, which can barely ensure that he and other participants are on the same line of sight, and the table in front of him is full of The dwarves' delicious food and wine, this is a grand welcome banquet, and the Bronzebeard King in gorgeous robes also holds a delicate glass in his hand.
It stands to reason that at a time when the country is under threat, this kind of welcome banquet should be simple, but the character of the dwarves is so... "enthusiastic", not to mention, King Bronzebeard also wants to take this opportunity to inspire Take a look at the recent heavy atmosphere in the city of Ironforge, so in this huge underground city, every district has a public banquet today.
It has to be said that these noisy short guys are very talented in hosting a banquet, and now the whole city has become a sea of carnival.
Of course, for kings and commanders, banquets may be more about communication than pure pleasure.
"The dwarves have always been the most loyal allies of the human empire. When you are in need, we will not refuse."
General Danas restrainedly took a sip of the wine in his hand, and said to the dwarf king:
"Your Majesty Magni, I have participated in the orc war with you. We are comrades-in-arms, so let us stop wasting time on red tape and talk about the current situation... For those undead, the dwarves are How much do you know?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, this is also a matter of great concern to Quel'Thalas."
The Silvermoon Councilor came to represent Quel'Thalas. Archmage Rommath put down the wine glass in his hand very gracefully. His calm and wise eyes stared at King Magni. He said softly:
"When I left Quel'Thalas, the Sun King and Prince Kael'thas repeatedly told me to collect enough information about those undead... The news of the fall of the Stormwind Kingdom is really shocking. We have to face up to this new threat emerging from southern Xinjiang."
"All right."
King Magni sighed. He put down the golden goblet inlaid with precious stones, very dwarven style, stroked his beautiful orange beard, and said to the commander and envoys sitting in front of him:
"We do know more than humans. The source of these news is a person I cannot disclose, but I can guarantee that these news are true... In fact, long before the undead invaded the Stormwind Kingdom, they had already Under the surface of Azeroth, there are sabotage operations that we don't know about, Darkforge City, Blackrock Tower, these places that we have neglected, their fall was earlier than the Kingdom of Stormwind."
"As far as I know so far, the Thaurissan royal family in Darkforge City has been overthrown. Although on the surface this is an internal rebellion, the Thorium Brotherhood betrayed the rule of Darkforge City, but in fact, this incident The black hand behind it is the undead, to be precise, it is Tyrion Dawnblade, my daughter... cough cough, I mean, my secret agent saw his death with his own eyes on the day that Darkforge fell. figure."
"Well, that's bad news."
General Danas frowned: "This means that hundreds of thousands of Dark Iron Dwarves will appear in the army of the undead? This is enough for them to form at least seven more legions..."
"No no no no!"
King Magni shook his head, picked up his wine glass, took a sip, and said to Danas and the others:
"My spies told me that the undead didn't kill those Dark Iron dwarves, they just killed all their soldiers, so the number of Dark Iron dwarves joining the undead side will not exceed 50,000. Ironforge's spies have been in the city of Darkforge activities, there is now a group of demons dancing wildly, the nobles of the Black Iron clan have been thrown into the mine, and the civilians have been gathered and sent to work in factories... It is said that they are forging armor and weapons for those undead, and more It's unbelievable that the undead still pay them."
"Wait, they did the same in Darkforge City?"
General Danas stared wide-eyed. He looked at the other people who were puzzled, and after pondering for a moment, he explained:
"There is some news circulating within the empire. You may not be clear about it. The civilians of the Stormwind Kingdom were not all evacuated during the disaster of the kingdom's fall. There are still 120,000 to 140,000 people in the entire kingdom stranded on the original land, but with the Dark Furnace Like the black iron dwarves in the city, the undead did not kill them, but sent them back to their original land, and let the human traitors who served the undead forces manage them...Frankly speaking, this news made the nobles in the empire very worried .”
"Why?"
Archmage Rommath asked curiously:
"Why are the nobles worried? Isn't it a good thing for the people to escape from the fate of massacre?"
"Yes, the commoners escaped being killed, but the problem is that in the new system run by the traitors... no nobles, no kings, nothing we know, according to our spies Just a few words, the current administrative system there is a weird parliamentary system, they promote the idea of equality for all, and some traitors even confuse the common people, saying that they will... put the kings to the gallows, and then the people themselves Rule yourself."
General Danas spread his hands helplessly:
"This kind of thinking is very dangerous, and there are already a small number of civilians who are willing to accept the management of that weird new system. This is at least dangerous to the nobles. Therefore, in the past few months, they who felt that something was wrong "helped" We are too busy."
"Unbelievable."
Even though the Elven Archmage has lived for more than 2,000 years, he has never heard such a novel rumor in his extraordinary knowledge, but after a while, he scoffed at it:
"Splitting, provoking, captivity, there is no doubt that the commander of the undead is a smart man, but his purpose of containing these living people may not be so simple."
The archmage spoke eloquently to the others:
"The birth and growth of life is a natural law, and the undead appear against this law. During the war, Tyrion can easily make his group stronger, but the war will always end. After peace comes How can the undead ensure their continuation? Captive, raise enough living people in captivity, and accelerate their death in some evil way... This will allow the undead to have their own inheritance."
"Well, you are right, Archmage."
King Magni nodded:
"That's what my royal advisor told me, but my spies disagree, and Moira insists that the undead don't just keep Dark Iron dwarves in captivity, but have made some deals with them that we don't know about," she told I said that her entourage heard some conversations between Tyrion and the death lords in the city of Darkforge, and the king of the dark blade kept saying that a new order would be established."
The Dwarf Kingdom shook its head:
"I know she's reminding me, but my baby must be freaking out."
"Wait, Moira, a girl? Is she your spy?"
General Danas asked curiously, and King Magni, who had leaked his words, quickly became annoyed by this question. He left the wine glass in his hand on the table and stared angrily at Danas. After a while, he again become dejected:
"Well, Moira is my rebellious daughter, she is also Thaurissan's queen... this is my family business, don't be too curious, okay?"
"Alright alright."
General Danas shrugged. He picked up a document in his hand, glanced at it a few times, then raised his head and asked:
"Last question, about the underground railway tunnel between Ironforge and Stormwind City, I heard that it is almost finished, but now Stormwind City is occupied by undead, so, what do you plan to do with that tunnel?"
"The undead are going to crawl down that tunnel and strangle us all, so what can we do?"
Bronzebeard threw a chicken wing into his mouth, chewing the bones and meat, and said vaguely:
"We can only blow it up."