Chapter 328: The Cunning Duke, Part 1

Duke had no intention of preventing the trolls from joining the Horde.

It would be a futile effort.

The trolls joining the Horde was almost a certainty. Fourteen thousand years ago in Azeroth, the native troll race established many grand kingdoms, among which the Amani and Gurubashi empires were the largest. Both empires were under the rule of the Zandalari tribe, hence also known as the Zandalari Empire.

Seven thousand years ago, Dath'Remar Sunstrider led the elven nobles who wished to continue studying arcane magic away from their night elf brethren, who were centered around druidic natural teachings. They accepted exile and migrated east to the northern continent of the Eastern Kingdoms, also known as the Lordaeron continent.

These migrating high elves evolved into high elves, establishing their own magical kingdom of Quel'Thalas. As a new immigrant nation, Quel'Thalas and the local Amani troll empire began a war that lasted for thousands of years over territorial expansion.

Until 2800 years ago, humans began to rise. Emperor Thoradin united the human tribes to establish the Arathor Empire. The Quel'Thalas kingdom of the high elves, unable to resist the Amani Empire of the trolls, sought help from humans in desperation and began teaching humans the power of arcane magic.

Arathor and the Quel'Thalas kingdom cooperated to completely defeat the Amani Empire of the trolls. These trolls were thus defeated, and the Troll Wars ended.

It can be said that the trolls have a grudge against humans and elves that has been passed down for thousands of years. Their blood and souls have been poured onto this continent in fierce battles, and the hatred has become so intense that it cannot be dissolved.

Moreover, there are too many troll tribes. Even if Duke dealt with the Amani tribe in advance, there are still countless other tribes on this continent.

For example, the Zandalari tribe currently mixed in Stranglethorn Vale, they are the ancestors of all trolls, also known as primal trolls. Generally, trolls are divided into five major types, in addition to primal trolls, there are jungle trolls, forest trolls, desert trolls, and frost trolls, with countless branches according to attributes.

Small branches like the Sandfury, Frostmane, Vilebranch, Skullsplitter, and so on are negligible, but there are seven or eight large tribes at the level of the Amani.

Rather than letting Orgrim ally with a mess of trolls, it's better to leave it to the Amani, at least Duke can predict their route of advance.

Of course, before dealing with Orgrim's elite corps and the trolls, Duke has a big task to do.

Cover the retreat of Stromgarde's troops to Refuge Pointe and Thoradin's Wall.

The most feared thing about retreat is disintegration. Once the rear guard is annihilated, one can fully imagine the following scene:

The green tide representing the Horde's orcs and the silver representing the Kingdom of Stromgarde intertwine across the entire Arathi Highlands. The desperate silver is chased by the green from all directions. The human troops, severely lacking in transportation, are torn apart in plain warfare by orcs rushing from all directions.

After fighting for so long, the Alliance and the Horde have already fought real battles.

One can imagine that once the retreat fails, not many people will be spared. Orcs with better endurance will catch up with every human trying to escape and give them the most brutal slaughter.

No prisoners, no mercy, in the end, the soldiers who can live back to Refuge Pointe are absolutely one in a hundred.

Refuge Point

e, located in the Arathi Highlands, is not fertile. The characteristics of the plateau and mountainous area limit the output of food and the upper limit of the total population.

Among the seven human kingdoms, the population of the Kingdom of Stromgarde is only slightly more than the pure mountain kingdom of Alterac. In a sense, the strength of Stromgarde is weaker than Stormwind, which has lost its territory.

Without saying anything else, at least the fertile Elwynn Forest feeds hundreds of thousands of Stormwind citizens.

The total population of Stromgarde is less than 250,000, and being able to pull out this army of 30,000 is already the limit of the people of Refuge Pointe.

Thoras Trollbane can't imagine that if he loses all of these fifty thousand people, including the civilians on the Thandol Span defense line, whether Refuge Pointe will have a tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the most capable troops of the Alliance are basically on the western front, holding back the Horde's main force led by Grom Hellscream's Warsong clan.

The biggest support the people of Stromgarde got was half of the Scarlet Crusade led by General Abbendis of Lordaeron. Abbendis's people went to Thoradin's Wall to replace the people of Refuge Pointe, allowing Thoras to have more troops to defend Refuge Pointe.

Apart from that, there are Duke's mage group and Alleria's ranger team.

When he heard that Alleria was worried about something happening in the country and took her people away, if it weren't for the close relationship between Duke and Alleria, Thoras would probably have cursed in public.

"Calm down, General Trollbane. I let Alleria go because I have enough confidence to successfully cover ninety percent of Stromgarde's soldiers to safely return to Refuge Pointe."

Thoras was stunned, and it took him a full five seconds to realize that the young Alliance deputy commander standing in front of him had a more impressive record than the official Alliance commander, Lothar.

Perhaps Duke has not yet proven himself in offensive battles, but for defense, for interception, for retreating troops under extremely unfavorable conditions, Duke is definitely an expert among experts.

"Uh, it seems you can't burn the entire strait defense line with a fire blast?" King Thoras asked a very funny question.

"Pfft!" Duke laughed out loud: "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you..."

"Offend? The people of Arathi don't care about those ceremonial things. As long as this group of people can be saved, I will let my son be your attendant." Thoras shamelessly sold his son.

For the people of Arathi centered on Refuge Pointe, Duke still has a lot of respect. In 'history', Refuge Pointe was able to withstand the Scourge, and even when the entire kingdom was left with only 3000 people holding on, no one gave up. They fought in various areas of the Arathi Highlands, declaring their resistance and unyieldingness to the Horde and all invaders.

"No, no, no, I'm not shameless enough to have a prince as my attendant." Although doing so would undoubtedly make Duke feel full of force: "In fact, I have always advocated achieving the greatest results with the smallest sacrifices."

"Alright, Deputy Commander Marcus, what do you plan to do?" Thoras paused for a moment, still feeling that he should give Duke a little incentive: "If you succeed, you will undoubtedly become a hero in the hearts of the people of Refuge Pointe. I think there will be no less than a hundred knight candidates in Refuge Pointe who admire your fame and voluntarily become your followers."

One hundred prospective knights, doesn't sound like much.

But considering that these are a hundred very capable individuals who can also help manage his fiefdom, the weight is much heavier.