The reason why Ironforge Fort is great is not only because it is the pearl of the mountains, the precipitation of the dwarven civilization for thousands of years.

All the more because, it's Dan Morrow.

If you think that the ring of city behind the thick gate on the top of the hill and the great forge of lava are the Ironforge Fortress, then you are very wrong.

That's just the tip of the iceberg of Ironforge, and it's not an exaggeration to say it's just a balcony on the third floor of Ironforge.

Some human historians know from ancient texts that the Ironforges of the Copperbeard Dwarves still exist in the Old Town, but they do not know that the so-called Old Town is only a small part of the Ironforge.

What is a Railway Fort?

A city built by a dwarf hollowed out by a mountain peak?

Hmph, seemingly loyal dwarves can also play psychological warfare.

For thousands of years, dwarves have hollowed out not a single mountain, but an entire mountain range!

As Carlos followed Hermit through the underground passage, he couldn't help but be amazed by the magnitude of the project.

I also understand why the Copperbeard Dwarves, with a population of at least one million, have been able to hold out for so long under the blockade of the orcs.

Because the orcs can't seal the Iron Forge.

The twists and turns of the mountain road outside the main gate of the Iron Fort with a drop of nearly a kilometer made it impossible for the orcs to fight against the dwarves with superior forces. And blocking the main entrance of the Ironforge Fort, the dwarves have dug for thousands of years, like a labyrinthine underground tunnel, radiating hundreds of kilometers around the Ironforge Fort.

Through these secret passages, the mountain rangers delivered a steady stream of supplies to the Iron Forge, saving their compatriots from famine. Behind the steep mountain walls, beneath the snow-capped cliffs, countless passageways keep Ironforge connected to the outside world.

"It's spectacular, but aren't you afraid that the orcs will discover these passages and surprise Ironforge?"

Carlos couldn't help but ask.

"Impossible. First of all, many of these passages are semi-finished, with passages and entrances separated by rock walls of at least one meter or more. Orcs, those stupid big ones can't find them. Secondly, these underground passages, without maps, even we dwarves ourselves have the possibility of getting lost. Finally, we have hundreds of listening stations keeping an eye on our network of underground tunnels whenever an anomaly is detected. Boom, just blow up, trying to attack Ironforge from the ground, through the passage built by our dwarves, is simply self-defeating. ”

Hermit said proudly.

Hemmit's good that he didn't say anything in his loud voice, but as soon as he finished speaking, everyone who heard this, including Carlos, couldn't help but shudder, the passage wouldn't collapse......

However the dwarves built the works. The quality is really good.

Obviously short in stature, the height of one meter forty-nine is considered a great figure within the group, but building an underground passage is the standard of five meters wide and three meters high, and Carlos, a tall person, walks in it, and he doesn't feel the slightest sense of depression.

The faint heat from the torches was not enough to change the coldness of the nasal passages, but along the way, the oil smoke blackened the top wall.

Once again, praise the dwarves' civil engineering abilities, and the good road conditions ensure the speed of the march. But Carlos didn't know how many times he drank along the way. Let the front row leader keep the speed down.

The reason is simple, even if there are four people in a column. The team of more than 3,000 people also pulled out a long queue of nearly two kilometers, and in the dark and oppressive underground passage, people will pay special attention to the changes in the queue. The person in front of him accelerates a little and walks quickly, and when the person behind finds that the team is disjointed and needs to chase with the speed of a wild run, it is a devastating drain on physical energy.

Experienced veterans know these details. But humans are not dwarves, and the oppressive feeling of the underground passage makes them lose their sensitivity to speed, and in the end, Carlos can only walk to the front by himself, and he insists that no one is allowed to go beyond him.

"Your Majesty Carlos. Don't be too anxious, we'll be back on the surface in just over an hour, and the scenery is pretty good. ”

Although Hermit did not have much contact with humans, he also found that human soldiers were not suitable for a long time underground life, so he simply strode to Carlos's side and talked to him.

"Yes. Can you tell me what you dwarves think of orcs? Not that politically correct statement, but your true opinion, your personal opinion. ”

Holding his steps, Carlos also tried to find something to talk about.

Hermit pondered for a moment. The dwarven officer wasn't thinking about how to describe the orcs in his eyes, but rather whether he should respond to Carlos's topic.

"Ferocious, terrible, sane beast."

Hermit finally sighed deeply, and then said.

If calculated by age, each adult dwarf is the grandparent of the human grandfather. It's not going to be a pleasant exchange. Therefore, in the process of interacting with humans, dwarves will ignore the issue of age and only look at your words and actions.

In Hemmit's understanding, Carlos is a respectable and formidable human warrior.

Hemmett. Necinvari didn't want to lie to Carlos.

"If it's one-on-one, I'm not afraid of orcs. Dwarves suffer a bit in weight, but in terms of strength, especially arm strength, we are no worse than orcs. One-on-one fighting, the orcs can't please us. But in a ten-on-ten battle, ten orcs can easily defeat ten dwarves, because the difference in size is magnified. It's ironic that our battle with the orcs on the ground was lost due to the loss of air supremacy. The flying axes and throwing spears of the orcs are too much of a threat to our backs in such a small group battle. And the battle of a hundred against a hundred, the situation is different, our goats are no match for the orc wolf, but the dwarves who form a battle formation are not afraid of the orcs. The battle of a thousand against a thousand men became a battle of cannons and trebuchets, and individual bravery no longer played a big role. I also worked as a ranger when I was younger, and although I am now serving in the Legion, my hunting skills are not unfamiliar at all. ”

I was completely convinced, Carlos nodded pointedly, and watched as Hemet pulled out his jug and took a sip of water.

Carlos thought for a moment, motioned for the guard to hand him a bag of wine, and handed it to Hemmit.

"Oh, I think we're best friends already, the smell of wine, I can smell it through the sheepskin."

Food was scarce in Ironforge Fort, and wine became a luxury. But Hemmit's wolf-like wine bag only pulled out the stopper and took a small sip. Then he handed the sac to the other dwarves who were with him.

This move raised Carlos's overall evaluation of Hemit.

"By the way, I said the mountain ranger. Each of our Copperbeard Dwarves is a skilled hunter. But even so, in the war against the Orcs, the death rate of the Mountain Rangers is higher than that of the regular legions in frontal combat. What that means, I think you all know in Hilbride. ”

"Yes. The scouts of the orcs are very powerful, and we humans are no match at all, and without the help of the High Elves, we will lose the protection of the forest. ”

Carlos did not shy away from it, speaking out about the shortcomings of the human army.

"Those long ears, yes."

Hermit thought about it, but finally didn't take up the topic, because it was too easy to cause racial strife.

"There's also a very serious problem that we dwarves have paid a great price to understand."

"What is it?"

"Population."

"Population?"

"I know that some within the Alliance have questioned why we dwarves don't send more troops to Hilbride to help you humans. But you have overlooked one problem. ”

"I didn't think so."

Carlos hurriedly brushed it off.

"Don't be so sensitive. We're friends, aren't we. ”

"Hehe, okay."

"My son is forty years old, but he is about the same age as you human ten-year-olds, and he only knows how to play and play all day long, and he is supported by my and his mother's salaries. You know, I was already hunting in the mountains of Danmoro when I was twenty years old, and I wasn't a pleasant stinky boy at all. Well, but you can't blame him. The orcs are coming. ”

You're done talking, how can I take it......

"But orcs. Orcs are different, we know from the captives that forty-year-old orcs are already old orcs, and some fourteen-year-old orcs have become fathers. In the early days of the war, His Majesty Magni led us through a number of Legion battles, with the help of the gnomes. I've played some nice battle loss ratios. But it didn't work, considering the growth cycle between the two races, each dwarven warrior is equal to four orcs, even if the battle loss ratio reaches one to three, we will suffer. Not to mention that it is far from reaching. ”

That's it. Chatting all the way, the long underground passage road came to a fork.

Hermit turned like a fork, took out a hexagonal object from his bosom, and tinkered for a while in a hidden inlet, and the stone door not far away slowly rose under the action of the mechanism.

"Wow!"

Carlos couldn't help but exclaim.

Outside the stone gate, there is a mountain platform of about five square kilometers, in the distance, the majestic figure of the Iron Fort looms in the darkness, diagonally below, the orc camp in the plain area is faintly lit, in front of it, there are duck down-like snowflakes flying with the cold mountain wind.

"Let's rest here tonight, walk for another two hours, and we'll be out of the tunnel. But out of the tunnel, there is no place for everyone to rest, and I don't think you humans will be too comfortable to stay in the tunnel all night. ”

Hermit explained.

"Thank you."

Carlos expressed his gratitude from the bottom of his heart.

"You're welcome, we're friends, aren't we?"

After seeing the light of day, all the human soldiers were visibly feeling a little refreshed, and Carlos agreed to use a small amount of fire oil to boil the water because of the lack of firewood, and the soldiers had to nibble on dry food with hot water. Naturally, he didn't need Carlos to command the camp tent, standing on the edge of the platform, looking into the distance, and a sense of grandeur filled his heart.

Suddenly, Carlos noticed that there seemed to be a meteor slipping down in the distance, but the trajectory was strange, and then, the meteor shower appeared.

No, that's not a meteor, it's the trajectory of artillery fire!

It took about half a minute for the faint sound of a shell explosion to reach his ears, and Hemet walked over.

"Ironforge is on the move, orcs don't want to sleep tonight, hahahaha."

The dwarf said happily.

An artillery bombardment of this magnitude is as fast as that of Dalin. Prodmore's main fleet fired a salvo.

Carlos, who had the privilege of seeing a salvo from the naval fleet, couldn't help but look at the scene in front of him with wide eyes.

Then, after the initial panic, the orcs seemed to come to their senses, and on the handle of the trebuchet, stones that ignited the grease roared out, drawing their own light and shadow.

It's a pity that the dwarves are condescending and have too much advantage in shelling.

Is that really only 10,000 orcs?

Carlos looked at the battle in the distance and couldn't help but wonder.

And in the Burning Plains, Orgrim couldn't help but slam his fist on the table.

"If I had enough trebuchets, the alliance of human elven dwarves would have been doomed long ago! But do I have it? No. Listen, you idiots, my failure is not your capital to gloat. The Alliance is coming, they're coming, they're coming to wipe us out! And what are you, no, us, and our tribe doing? We're fighting for power, and the orcs have given up on the supposedly existing levels and concentrated people in this place where birds don't, just to depose their big chief! If you don't act, it's too late! Tell Red. Black Hand, tell everyone who wants the position of the Great Chief, come and challenge me, win, the position of the Chief is yours! ”

Impatient with endless bickering, Orgrim decided to reassert his authority in orc fashion.

The wound he had received at Hillbride ached, as if to warn Orgrim that the Alliance had come. (To be continued.) )