Chapter 426: How to Retreat

The Horde's main force spent two days traversing the snow-covered mountains, descending westward into the hills. So far, the orcs had not seen a single human. Some warriors even grumbled about missing out on the opportunity to kill. But the conquerors from Alterac, who had caught up from behind, stimulated their nerves.

Their Warchief assured them that the opportunity would come soon.

Indeed, it would.

Three days ago, when the news of Alterac's destruction spread, a fierce argument broke out in Lordaeron, and even throughout the entire Alliance.

In the command tent of the Lordaeron front, located between Silverpine Forest and Tirisfal Glades.

A noble-born general was roaring like a madman: "That boy sitting in the position of deputy commander is a fool. We gave him an army of fifty thousand, yet he still let the Horde sneak under our noses!"

Mograine, who knew Duke best, scornfully mocked the man: "If you were leading, you would only give those barbaric green monsters fifty thousand trophies."

"Retreat! Failure! Loss of the kingdom! This is the second capital lost in the Alliance!? Who's next? Lordaeron? Ironforge or Stromgarde? Are we competing to see who falls faster? No, we must take the initiative into our hands in Lordaeron. King Menethil, you should use your influence to reclaim the positions of the Alliance's commander and deputy commander!" Another duke jumped out, banging the table forcefully, attracting everyone's attention. His proposal immediately received the unanimous support of many nobles.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

He banged the table, and Mograine hammered the table. As one of the few nobles with exceptional martial prowess, Mograine was second to none in making noise.

"Watch your mouth! Duke Montclair! Changing commanders in the middle of a battle will only create greater chaos!" The veins on Mograine's muscles bulged like whiskers: "The two commanders you mentioned have done a splendid job. Under their leadership, we've killed five hundred thousand orcs. The only reason for the current situation is that there are too many of those damned green skins."

The man named Montclair was still not convinced: "If King Menethil were leading, we could kill a million orcs!"

Indeed, this was a very skillful flattery.

At any other time, King Terenas would have accepted it with a chuckle. Unfortunately, this was a time when the Alliance needed the most help from its allies. Sitting at the highest position, the King of Lordaeron calmly said: "If I were the commander, there would be no Alliance."

The nobles below immediately shut their mouths.

The white-haired King Terenas rubbed his temples, turned his head to look at his most capable commander - Highlord Mograine.

"What's your opinion, my Mograine?"

"We can only retreat. The best soldiers of Lordaeron City have been transferred here, and the remaining city guards can't possibly cope with the Horde's core elites... If the Horde's forces are as terrifying as Deputy Commander Marcus describes..."

Several nobles immediately bristled like cats with their tails stepped on, but Terenas raised his hand, making a gesture for silence, and they had to hold their tongues.

Terenas added: "Even at the cost of the entire Tirisfal Glades?"

Ignoring the murderous glares of the nobles whose territories were in Tirisfal Glades, Mograine gritted his teeth: "We don't have enough troops to maintain a two-front war, so my answer is: 'Yes, my King. Lordaeron City must not be lost.'"

Everyone understood the logic, but it was a different story when it came to personal matters. Everyone knew that the Horde was like a swarm of locusts, consuming the resources of wherever they went. The Horde, at its core a nomadic hunting tribe, had no concept of sustainable development.

Once the forest's wildlife was hunted to extinction and the trees were cut down, in a desperate situation, peons would feed livestock with whatever plants were available. For instance, pigs confiscated from humans were quite to the orcs' taste.

After fighting in Silverpine Forest for so long, they had almost completely destroyed the forest. Despite it being summer, it was hard to find a tree with green leaves. Once the defensive line retreated, Silverpine Forest would be the template for the future Tirisfal Glades.

Seeing the grim faces of the lords of Tirisfal Glades, the lords of Silverpine Forest, who had suffered for a long time, suddenly felt a sense of schadenfreude.

However, retreating to Lordaeron City was also a painful option. Once encircled by the Horde from the east and west, it was easy to imagine that Lordaeron City would be cut off from all contact with its own territory. To get supplies, they would have to rely on Lake Lordamere.

To the east of the lake were mountains, to the west was the devastated Silverpine Forest, and to the south was Dalaran, which was never known for its grain output. Ironically, the Stormwind refugees who had huddled in Hillsbrad as refugees controlled the grain-producing areas and had become the food pillar of the Alliance a year later.

"Alright, the next topic, since we've decided to retreat, how do we do it?"

The Horde in Silverpine Forest clearly received the news. In the past two days, their probing attacks had become more frequent.

"We can't just abandon our positions and retreat. If the Horde catches up, we'll be annihilated," Mograine warned solemnly. "In principle, we must leave troops behind to cover our retreat."

Upon hearing about covering the retreat, many lords' facial muscles twitched, they lowered their heads, and some even quietly stepped back, fearing that their king would pick them.

Terenas looked grim, he raised his hand, and immediately a servant handed Mograine a note.

"I'm not too proficient in military matters. This is an idea that Duke sent through a magical message. What do you think?"

Mograine took a look and his eyes lit up, he said excitedly: "He truly is a military genius!"

Grom Hellscream led another assault on the northern line of Silverpine Forest. As a pure warrior, he didn't understand much about strategy. Since Orgrim had sent a letter asking him to keep the northern troops occupied, he kept sending small forces to attack.

Humans performed differently when they had solid positions compared to when they were in open field battles. If these guys were allowed to return to Lordaeron City, it would definitely increase the difficulty of the attack several times.

In the past few days, the northern line had been constantly sounding drums, as if telling the Horde 'we are prepared'. Indeed, as soon as the Horde's troops approached, the drumming would become more intense, and more human troops would pour out from the camp according to the scale of the Horde's attack.

Those annoying paladins disappeared for two days, then came back. The Silver Hand even personally took action to kill small groups of troops.

This situation lasted for three days, then Grom suddenly realized something was wrong!

"Not good! The humans are escaping!"