Duke had asked himself countless times, why did Stormwind City have elite soldiers from Lothar's teaching, but they still couldn't defend it?

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

Or is it something else.

After traveling to the world of Azeroth for so long, Duke finally figured out a truth, because the seven human kingdoms all practiced an extremely fucked aristocratic feudal system, so some things were destined to be irreparable.

Unlike any centralized state, the backward feudal system has its inevitability. In this era of extremely bad transportation, it is simply a matter of time to concentrate troops in one place and let the four sides mobilize food and materials to provide them.

Just to bring the grain over, the bad mud and the rainy and wet weather were enough to consume half of the food. In order to avoid excessive food loss, the state often arranged troops in various regions, and let the nobles provide for themselves.

The king only had the right to order when and where a nobleman should be given, how many troops he had to send according to the rank of the knight, what equipment he had, where he went, and where he would attack. The king could not order a knight under the command of a nobleman to do anything.

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

The king had the power to order the nobles what to do, but the nobles could also influence the king's decisions according to the forces at their disposal.

The orcs have invaded, spreading like a plague across the continent of the eastern kingdom of Azeroth.

From the very beginning when some nobles insisted that this was a fuss and demanded more information, the situation was like getting on an express train to hell and plummeting down.

Three days later, all the Stormwind higher-ups knew about the orcs was an extremely majestic corpse that had been brought back by a griffon.

Other than that, what exactly are the orcs, how powerful are they, how many are there, and where are the targets?

The Stormwind Kingdom doesn't know anything about it.

Yet the nobles are still pressing the front lines to send back more 'definite' news, refusing to contribute money and effort for an illusory invasion, and refusing to send the entire kingdom to war.

Endlessly arguing with the nobles in the Stormwind Fortress makes Ryan and Andu physically and mentally exhausted by it.

When the bunkers near the triangular junction connecting Elwyn Forest and Red Ridge Mountain were all captured by the orcs, the nobles panicked.

Because this not only means that the Stormwind Kingdom has lost its connection and control over its eastern territory, the Red Ridge Mountain, but also means that once the orcs break through the Red Ridge Mountain area, they will be able to enter the richest area of the entire Storm Kingdom, the Elwyn Forest.

Compared to the steep terrain of the Red Ridge Mountains, the Elwyn Forest, perched on the plains, is truly unsafe.

There are more than 100 human settlements in the tens of thousands of square kilometers of Elwyn Forest, and if the orcs are willing, they can completely ignore the defense of the human towns, first divide and surround each town, and then encircle and annihilate them one by one.

And these settlements are the fiefs of the large and small nobles of the Storm Kingdom, and they are also where their core interests lie.

"Don't let those damned beasts invade the kingdom!"

"Yes, we will fight to defend our homeland. ”

"For the Stormwind Kingdom, for Azeroth!—"

The nobles, who had been slow to react, suddenly agreed within an hour, and they unanimously asked King Ryan to organize a blockade battle at the pass from the Elwyn Forest into the Red Ridge Mountains, using the treacherous mountain gorge to stop further Orc attacks.

Finally sending away the great nobles, Ryan sat down on the throne and greeted Anduin in a weak voice. In this empty and huge inner court, there is only him and Lothar as a monarch and a minister.

"What do you think of this resistance battle?"

"Your Majesty, I am not optimistic. Intelligence showed that the giant green beasts were extremely adept at mountain warfare. I don't think the location alone is going to stop them. ”

"So what's going to do? let them invade the Elwyn Forest and destroy the essence of the entire kingdom? hell, if Medivan is here...... God, why do I always forget that he is most likely the culprit of this incident?" Ryan covered his face in pain.

"Actually...... I think we should ask Duke for his opinion. After all, the news that the front line reacted back was that the Naga-trained troops performed significantly better than the others. Lothar whispered.

"He may be a little clever, but he's too young and too lowly. And the big aristocrats won't put up with a hairy boy pointing fingers at them. ”

"Alas!" Anduin felt more and more good about Duke as preparations for war unfolded.

Before the soldiers and horses arrived, the grain and grass went first.

Fighting a war is never without logistics, and in order to mobilize the food needed by the army, Ryan had to order the food from Stormwind to be transferred to the front line near Red Ridge Mountain.

However, the spring rains in March made it extremely difficult to transport grain, and the section from Stormwind south to Shining Gold was extremely smooth because of Duke's road. The stretch of road from the town of Shining Gold to the east of the Red Ridge Mountain Pass is so bad that Lothar scolds her mother.

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

"Why is the road from Stormwind to Shining Gold so good, and the rest is so bad!?" Because of the need for war, the Lion King's Pride Inn in Shining Gold has been turned into a temporary command post in Lothar. Here, Losa, looking at the map, slapped the table and cursed.

At this time, one of the non-commissioned officers whispered, "Originally, Sir Marcus was willing to pay for the construction of a road from Stormwind City all the way to Red Ridge Mountain, and replace all the dirt roads with cobblestone roads. However, only Duke Berval Vertagen agreed among the nobles, and as a result, only the section from Stormwind to Shining Gold was built. ”

King Ryan and Anduin were speechless at the same time, but there was a faint feeling in their hearts—could it be that Duke boy had even expected this?

No way!

On April 1, the first year of the Dark Gate, which was later called.

Despite the harsh conditions, the Stormwind Kingdom gathered 10,000 direct troops and nearly 6,000 noble private soldiers to form a coalition army, which was deployed in the Red Ridge Mountain Pass.

Looking down at the Red Ridge Mountain, which itself looks huge, there is a bare and crimson barren mountain with almost no trees, and then a sea of green forests in the distance, as far as the eye can see, it is like a vista that can be expanded infinitely, making everything seem small in front of it.

The Red Ridge Mountains are huge, but unfortunately, this V-shaped twin peaks in the westernmost part of the Red Ridge Mountains region are like islands on the Endless Sea in front of the wider and more vast Elwyn Forest, which seems so lonely and helpless.