Chapter 428: The Peril of Lordaeron Part 2

Prince Arthas was right. Only by doing so could he save the majority of his people. To make such a firm and decisive decision at such a tender age was indeed a commendable quality.

But Arthas was also wrong. In doing so, he was essentially abandoning his own people, even if it was only a small portion. In this era that valued sacrifice and courage, filled with the spirit of knighthood, most kings with enough valor would choose to dispatch generals, or even personally lead a counter-charge, to buy precious time for the citizens who had not yet entered the city.

Princess Calia covered her mouth and nose with her hands in shock, looking at Arthas incredulously, as if she was meeting him for the first time, not the brother she had loved and depended on for thirteen years.

"Sister! Father took almost all the generals and mages! He didn't even leave me any city-level champion knights!" Arthas complained a bit angrily.

Yes, even the bravest general couldn't lead a group of pigs to victory.

Blame it on the immense pressure from the west. In the Silverpine Forest to the west, Grom Hellscream's fierce attack was undoubtedly the best feint. King Terenas was forced to withdraw almost every professional soldier from Lordaeron City, except for the royal guards.

Now, the soldiers defending the city, apart from a few archers, were many who were farmers just a month ago, who could only handle pitchforks and couldn't even properly wear armor.

"Sister, you stay here." Having said that, leaving a stunned Calia behind, Arthas strode towards the tower below, with Morley following closely.

"Morley! Assign a squad of royal guards to stand by. If the east gate is broken, immediately take my sister west to find my father."

"Your Highness, what about you?"

"As long as the men of the Menethil family are not extinct, no one can take Lordaeron City from us." Arthas's words were firm and resolute: "Give the order, let all the standby generals lead their troops to the east gate."

He quickly put on a slightly large exquisite armor — this was a gift his father Terenas gave him when he was twelve. The precocious Arthas looked majestic, but that was all. His body hadn't fully grown yet, he couldn't lift the war hammer he wanted to use the most, so he gritted his teeth and picked up a large double-edged broadsword.

When he arrived at the east gate escorted by the guards, he was shocked to find that the city gate was still not closed. A large number of citizens from the towns and villages around Lordaeron City had not yet entered the city. Because they were reluctant to give up their lifelong possessions, they became even more chaotic when they heard the rumbling footsteps behind them, desperately trying to squeeze their belongings into the narrow city gate.

Arthas grabbed the city gate officer's breastplate: "I gave the order to close the city gate immediately! Why didn't you close the gate? Do you want to kill all three hundred thousand citizens of Lordaeron?"

The city gate officer defended loudly: "But they are all our neighbors and friends! I even recognize many of them, Sister Mary, the merchant Annon who always runs to the Silverpine Forest..."

"They're here!" Morley screamed.

Following the direction of the captain of the guard's finger, Arthas looked east.

Unlike the view from the tower balcony, from this angle, you first see a small forest a kilometer away, and then the lakeshore in the distance.

At this moment, the fastest group of orcs had already rushed out of the small forest.

The speed of the orc charge was quite fast, although not as fast as the fastest steeds, it was not much slower than a pack mule.

Arthas snatched a monocular telescope from a nearby officer's hand, and immediately saw a scene that shocked him.

These green-skinned beasts were as physically robust as the strongest humans, with explosive muscles and huge beast-like heads.

But he didn't see any large siege equipment, except for some heavy logs that he originally thought were huge war hammers, and some ladders that looked incredibly crude but were astonishingly long. What shocked Arthas was that, to his estimation, the height of these ladders matched the height of the walls of Lordaeron City!

Apart from that, what entered his field of vision were huge hammers, axes, and very blunt swords that humans could hardly wield, and he was sure they definitely had grappling hooks and ropes.

Unimaginable savagery, yet with remarkable wisdom.

"Ah ah ah—" The citizens under the city gate let out even louder screams. They were frantically trying to squeeze into the city, pushing each other. The more panicked they were, the more they jammed the city gate. The drawbridge over the moat was filled with people and beasts pulling carts. A cart that had overturned on the drawbridge made Arthas feel like his eyeballs were about to pop out.

A terrifying scene entered his and the other defenders' minds.

In less than ten minutes, those brutal green-skinned beasts would step over the bodies of these stupid people who were trying to squeeze into the city, kill their way into Lordaeron City through the city gate that was wide open because of these people, turn the entire city into a sea of fire, and push three hundred thousand citizens into hell.

"Shoot arrows! Shoot at those rioters!" Arthas's fierce shout was like a devil's.

"But those are our brothers and sisters!" The city gate officer shouted, looking like he was about to cry.

The next moment, his voice abruptly stopped. He never expected that he would be beheaded by the most respected Prince Arthas.

At least a hundred people witnessed this scene, each of them with their mouths wide open in shock.

"Bastards! For the safety of three hundred thousand citizens! I command you in the name of Arthas Menethil—shoot arrows! Either that or die with these rioters down there!"

The thunderous roar finally woke up the stunned archers. They shed tears, gritted their teeth, and began to shoot!

The citizens of Lordaeron who were panicking into the city let out even louder cries. They would never dream of a scene where their country's soldiers shot arrows at them. Almost instantly, there was no living creature left on the entire drawbridge. The citizens near the moat by the drawbridge screamed and fled outwards, trying to escape this death zone.

"Whoever dares to approach the drawbridge, shoot them!" Arthas, with tears streaming down his face, shouted: "Morley, you take people to push everything on the drawbridge down the river, and then raise the drawbridge as quickly as possible."

Morley did as he was told. They pulled every stunned citizen in the city gate into the city, pushed most of the bodies and debris into the river, but an overturned cart was firmly pressing on the drawbridge. This was a cart carrying food, the two draught horses were already dead, but the dead horse carcasses and the too well and too solidly tied, at least two tons heavy, food, were not something human strength could handle.

In the past, any such situation would take half a day to resolve. Now, to solve it in less than ten minutes was simply an impossible task.