"Duke... Master, I have to go get ready too." Ilucia also stood up and saluted.
"Well, actually, it's a forced march next. If you think it's too hard, you don't have to go," Duke advised.
"No, it's better to be able to serve the Alliance than to stay in a safe place and deal with those false courtships." Ilucia smiled sweetly.
Looking at Ilucia's gentle and sweet smile, Duke felt... as if... as if... forget it.
Duke touched his head, then rolled to the next room to catch up on his sleep.
Eight o'clock in the morning.
Whether they like it or not, the Alliance bosses in Aerie Peak have all woken up.
Looking at Alleria who appeared beside Duke, and listening to the explanation of the military situation, Kurdran Wildhammer frowned, "Even though we know this is a feint, as long as the Horde army in the Hinterlands Forest is not destroyed, the homeland of the Wildhammer dwarves will still be threatened. This is not just a feint! I'm afraid that before ensuring the safety of Aerie Peak, the Wildhammer dwarves can't provide you with more assistance."
Duke pointed at the map and said, "The trolls have been here for thousands of years, and no one has ever been able to truly wipe them out. So it is unrealistic to completely clean up the Hordes and trolls in Hinterland."
"What are you going to do?" Kurdran stroked his big orange-red beard.
"We cannot allow this unknown number of diversionary forces to follow behind our main force or get ahead of us. I will let General Seamus take 20,000 elite troops to stay in Hinterland first to ensure that this forest is completely cleared. Then, we will create a treeless isolation zone at least two kilometers wide and build a series of sentry towers to ensure that every troll or orc will be discovered when passing by."
Looking at the straight line Duke drew in the middle between the troll lair and Aerie Peak, Kurdran was thoughtful.
"Aren't you afraid of burning down the entire Hinterland?"
"Trust me, I'm a professional. I've done this before in Elwynn Forest."
Kurdran was quite speechless and nodded: "Well, there are no druids among the dwarves."
Duke continued, "Then, when you have time, I want you, Seamus, to build a fortress here within a month."
Duke was referring to the location of the Northern Watchtower in the Eastern Plaguelands of later generations. There, it was just right to block the pass from the Eversong Forest of the Elves to the holy city of Stratholme.
"A month?" Kurdran was a little surprised.
"We've done this before in Stormwind," General Tom explained. "It's a new material called cement. Of course, with enough cement, I can build a wall from Stratholme to Lordaeron in a month."
"I have asked Makaro to prepare the cement in Stratholme."
"That's fine with me." Tom nodded in agreement.
The situation was decided, and Kurdran's brows relaxed.
"Thank you for your assistance." He said respectfully, "When Hinterland is safe again, my Griffin Knights and I will catch up with you and head north to deal with the remaining tribes."
"Thank you, King of the Wildhammer," Duke bowed, then turned to face the others: "Well, ladies and gentlemen, don't be stunned, take action - we have to reach Quel'Thalas within ten days!"
Three days later, Orgrim was almost mad with anger.
This should have been a seamless transition. Humans would panic, thinking that they were leading their army westward to break through the Poison Mist Canyon and attack Alterac, that they were afraid that they would attack Andorhal in the northwest and attack the capital of Lordaeron, and that they might even think that they wanted to attack the weakly defended Stratholme, but they should never have expected that they would go all the way north.
It was obvious that humans had predicted their Road.
I don't know if Edmund Duke, who deserved to be killed a thousand times, had expected this, but their way forward was blocked.
If that was an army of 100,000 humans, Orgrim would not be inferior.
The red light reflected in the eyes of the orcs. They were not unfamiliar with this dazzling light. Because the orcs who were determined to quickly capture Stormwind City had seen it once at almost the same time last year.
The first one was to the north, another to the northwest of the army, and a third to the northeast. The fourth one to the west was also shining brighter and brighter.
Along with the flashing red light, huge columns of black smoke also penetrated the clouds.
This forest fire, which had at least four flames and was obviously caused by human arson, was so fierce that it seemed to light up the entire cloud layer, turning the clouds into rolling and burning flames.
When it was clear that they were short of manpower, humans simply set fire to the forest to stop the Horde's advance.
Not all orcs come from the Blackrock Clan, who are naturally resistant to fire. Similarly, even if the trolls have excellent self-healing abilities, they cannot rashly cross a forest that is burning with flames.
Either move in or wait for the forest fire to be extinguished.
Since humans are already prepared, there is probably no point in turning back.
Orgrim gritted his teeth and ordered: "We will wait near Lake Miredal."
The orcs had won by time, but the humans were stalling for time. Although there were not many humans here, this was human territory after all. Originally, Orgrim had thought that he could quickly pass through this area and enter Quel'Thalas with the cover of the large forests here.
Now it seems that this idea has been scrapped.
Opening the map, for a moment, Orgrim thought about not fighting the high elves, but directly taking down the big human cities first, such as Stratholme and Lordaeron.
But he immediately noticed that Zujin was watching him to see if he would keep his promise.
The relationship between orcs and trolls is still very fragile.
Orgrim knew that trolls had the qualities that orcs needed. The orcs' talents determined that they were best suited to be warriors, and a few could be shamans or warlocks. Orcs lacked the talent for long-range attacks. The existence of trolls made up for this well.
Orgrim changed his mind: "Zul'jin, I heard that elves are the enemies of every troll?"
"You are quite right, Chieftain."
"The trolls here in Zul'Mashar seem to be some kind of moss clan?"
"The Rotten Moss clan." Zul'jin corrected Orgrim.
"Well, since our troops can't move forward for the time being, I'll give you a mission."
"Contact the Rotten Moss Clan and ask them to attack Eversong Forest together?"
A ferocious smile flashed across Orgrim's reddish-brown face. "Since we can't launch a sneak attack, let's just launch an open attack. I want you and your people to contact all the trolls that can be contacted nearby. Let's go big."