Stormwind Wizard God-Chapter 275: Duke’s Scheme

Duke made no attempt to stop the trolls from joining the Horde.

It's a waste of effort.

It is almost inevitable that the trolls will join the Horde. In Azeroth 14,000 years ago, the native trolls of Azeroth established many large kingdoms, of which the Amani and Gurubashi empires were the largest. Both empires were under the rule of the Zandalari tribe.

Seven thousand years ago, Dath'Remar Sunstrider, along with the elven nobles who wanted to continue studying and using arcane magic, left their fellow night elves who were centered on the druidic doctrine of nature, accepted exile and migrated eastward to the northern continent of the Eastern Kingdoms, commonly known as the continent of Lordaeron.

These upper elves who migrated east evolved into high elves and established their own magical kingdom of Quel'Thalas. As a new immigrant country, Quel'Thalas and the local troll Amani Empire began a war that lasted for thousands of years due to the issue of territorial expansion.

It was not until 2,800 years ago that humans began to rise. Emperor Thoradin united the human tribes and established the Empire of Arathor. The high elf Kingdom of Quel'Thalas was defeated by the Amani Empire of the trolls. In desperation, they turned to humans for help and began to teach humans to use the power of arcane magic.

Arathor and the Kingdom of Quel'Thalas cooperated to completely defeat the Amani Empire of the trolls. The trolls never recovered and the Troll War came to an end.

It can be said that the trolls' hatred for humans and elves has been passed down for thousands of years. The blood and souls of each other were poured on this continent in the fierce battle, and the hatred has long been so strong that it cannot be dissolved.

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

For example, the Zandalari tribe that currently lives in Stranglethorn Vale are the ancestors of all trolls, also known as the primitive trolls. Generally speaking, trolls are divided into five categories. In addition to the primitive trolls, there are jungle trolls, forest trolls, desert trolls, and frost trolls. There are countless branches of different sizes based on their attributes.

Small branches like Sandfury, Icebow, Evilbranch, Bloodscalp, and Skullsplitter are negligible. There are seven or eight large clans at the Amani level alone.

Rather than letting Orgrim form an alliance with a bunch of random trolls, it would be better to leave it to the Amani. At least Duke can guess their Road of advance.

Of course, before dealing with Orgrim's elite army and the trolls, Duke still has one big thing to do.

Cover the retreat of Stromgarde's forces to Stromgarde and the Wall of Thoradin.

The most feared thing about retreat is collapse. Once the rear guard is destroyed, you can imagine the following scenario:

The green torrent representing the Horde orcs and the silver torrent representing the Kingdom of Stromgarde intersected across the entire Arathi Highlands, with the miserable silver being chased by the green from all directions. The human troops, who were seriously lacking in transportation, were torn apart by the orcs rushing up from all directions in the plains battle.

After fighting for so long, the Alliance and the Horde have already become really angry.

It is conceivable that if the retreat fails, not many people will be spared. The orcs with better endurance will catch up with every human who attempts to escape and kill them most cruelly.

There were no prisoners, no mercy, and only one soldier out of a hundred would be able to return to Stromgarde alive.

The Arathi Highlands where Stromgarde is located is not fertile. The characteristics of the plateau and mountains limit food output and also limit the upper limit of the total population.

Among the seven human kingdoms, the population of Stormgarde is only slightly larger than that of the pure mountain kingdom of Alterac. In a sense, Stormgarde is even 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 Stormwind is less than 250,000, and being able to muster the current army of 30,000 is already the limit for the people of Stromgarde.

Thoras Trollbane really couldn't imagine whether Stromgarde would still have a future if he lost all 50,000 people, including civilians, on the defense line of Thandol Bridge.

However, the most powerful troops of the Alliance were basically on the Western Front, fighting against the main force of the orcs, mainly the Warsong Clan led by Grom Hellscream.

The greatest support the people of Stromgarde received was half of the Scarlet Crusade led by General Abendis of Lordaeron. Abendis's men went to the Wall of Thoradin to replace the people of Stromgarde, allowing Thoras to have more troops to defend Stromgarde.

In addition, there are Duke's Mage Group and Alleria's Ranger Group.

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

"Don't get excited, Admiral Trollbane. I let Alleria go because I have enough confidence that I can successfully cover 90% of the Stormgarde soldiers and return to Stromgarde safely."

Thoras was stunned for five full seconds before he realized that the extremely young deputy commander of the Alliance standing in front of him had a more impressive record than the genuine Alliance commander Lothar.

Maybe Duke has not yet proven himself in offensive battles, but when it comes to defense, interception, and evacuating troops under extremely unfavorable circumstances, Duke is definitely an expert among experts.

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

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

"Offense? The Arathi people don't care about those little etiquette things. As long as I can save these people, I will let my son be your servant." Thoras sold his son without any scruples.

Duke still has great respect for the Arathi people, with Stromgarde as their core. In history, Stromgarde withstood the Scourge of the Undead. Even when only 3,000 people were left in the entire kingdom, no one gave up. They fought in various areas of the Arathi Highlands, declaring their resistance and indomitable spirit to the Horde and all invaders.

"No, no, no, I'm not shameless enough to ask a prince to be my attendant." Although doing so would undoubtedly make Duke feel very high-handed, "In fact, I have always advocated the smallest sacrifice in exchange for the greatest results."

"Well, Your Excellency Deputy Commander Edmund, what are you going to do?" Thoras paused for a moment, and still felt that he had to give Duke a little sweet treat: "If you succeed, you will undoubtedly become a hero in the hearts of the people of Stromgarde. I believe that there will be no less than a hundred Stromgarde Knight Candidates who admire your reputation and voluntarily become your followers."

100 would-be knights doesn't sound like a lot.

But considering that there are a hundred candidate lower-level nobles who are very capable in fighting and can help him manage his fiefdom, the weight of the matter is much greater.

Duke once doubted whether the people sent from Stromgarde would be loyal.

A knight who can fight is still useful, but it would be a pain if the object of his loyalty is someone else's king.

In fact, after "inspecting the goods", Duke found that he had thought too much. This is a world of feudal aristocracy. Even though the customs of the seven kingdoms are different, they are still the same in essence - the inheritance of the Arathor Empire, the descendants of Emperor Thoradin.

Being loyal to the great nobles of other human kingdoms is not as complicated as one might imagine.

In this era, only the eldest son can inherit the fief. The second, third, fourth sons, daughters, etc. can only take the place according to the following order. Generally speaking, the second and third sons may still have hope, praying that something bad will happen to the eldest son, but the rest don't have to count on anything.

Just like the Elwynn Forest in Stormwind Kingdom, the thousand-year heritage had already divided up every possible territory in Arathi Highlands. If they wanted new territory, they had to look outside or ask the royal family for help.

Across the strait south of Arathi Highlands is the territory of the Bronzebeard dwarves, the human allies. To the east is the sea, to the west behind the Wall of Thoradin is Alterac, and to the north, the Hinterlands is close to Arathi Highlands...it's still dwarven, but they are Wildhammer dwarves.

So the Kingdom of Stromgarde is completely unable to expand.

As the saying goes, poor mountains and bad waters produce brave people. The fighting power of Arathi soldiers is quite outstanding, and their reputation is well known. Apart from the factor of equipment, the land combat power of Arathi people is definitely one of the best in the seven kingdoms Of course, because of poverty and poor equipment, they are not as good as Lordaeron in terms of comprehensive combat power.

Duke also made a profit by having a hundred knight candidates. Anyway, Duke had no intention of making the people of Stromgarde suffer a heavy loss.

Those knight candidates also had a good impression of Duke. First of all, Duke was famous - the deputy commander of the Alliance, the killer of nearly 300,000 orcs, a great wizard with unlimited prospects, the inventor of new weapons, and the largest funder of the Stormwind.

Nothing makes people feel more motivated than a boss who can fight, make money, and help his younger brothers to obtain benefits.

If the Alliance is ultimately unable to defeat the Horde in this racial war, then this will be the end of humanity, and there will naturally be nothing to say at that time.

If the Alliance wins, it would be natural to kill all the orcs.

Once the Stormwind is restored, Duke's status will be exaggerated. He will be a grand duke and lord in the true sense.

The fertile eastern part of Elwynn Forest, a small piece of Nightwood, a large part of Redridge Mountains and the Deadwind Pass area. It depends on the situation, Duke's fiefdom may be more than this in the future. This is a piece of land that is bigger and better than the entire Arathi Highlands!

These Knight Candidates were so excited that they were almost going crazy. They couldn't wait to become Duke's followers and put on the uniform of the Edmund family.

Of course, there is a prerequisite for this, Duke must successfully lead 50,000 Stormgarde people to withdraw to Stromgarde.

20,000 elite soldiers, 10,000 auxiliary soldiers, and 20,000 craftsmen and militiamen.

If Duke was just a young man with no real achievements, or if King Thoras Trollbane had better ideas, King Thoras Trollbane would never let Duke take charge.

But he is Duke, the League hero Edmund Duke.

The weight of this name alone is enough to make Thoras trust Duke more than himself.

When Thoras asked "What are you going to do?" and Duke took out a thick stack of action guidelines that had been prepared long ago, Thoras was stunned for three seconds.

Without waiting for Duke to explain in detail, Thoras snapped his fingers at his generals and said, "I order you in the name of King Stormgarde and the Admiral of the Alliance Army. During the next retreat, all of you must obey the orders of Deputy Commander Edmund. Those who disobey my orders will be punished by my sword."

After saying that, Thoras took off his sword and handed it heavily to Duke.

Duke was stunned.

King Thoras smiled faintly: "I'm sorry, I'm the kind of person who can't help but rush into battle easily, and the people of the Trollbane family will only fight to the last moment... victory or death. If I stay here, it will interfere with your command and become a burden to you. I just hope that you will not let me and the people of Stromgarde down. At least 50,000 ladies are waiting for their men to return."

Duke's face turned grim. "Don't worry. Since I can lead 50,000 besieged Stormwind Kingdom soldiers across the sea, I can lead 50,000 people from Stromgarde back to their homes and become the last line of defense for Stromgarde."

That night, the orcs in charge of land reclamation in the Horde discovered changes on the other side of the river.

Compared to daytime, the orcs prefer to fill the sea at night, because at night, the accuracy of all the crossbows and slingshots on the other side will be greatly reduced. Often, the work completed in one night can be comparable to that of four days.

But this day was different.

Almost as soon as the orcs' reclamation troops reached the middle of the already shallow strait, a large string of glittering "flares" rose on the other side of the strait, making the area within a diameter of more than 100 meters around the light point as bright as day.

The next moment, accompanied by the sound of fierce war drums, the sound of countless bowstrings rang out on the other side of the river.

Large crossbows, small arrows, and rubble like flowers scattered from heaven all poured down on the vital points of the orcs who were carrying stones to fill the sea.

Not only do the attacks appear to be dense, but the striking effect is also very strong.

None of the more than 200 orc laborers who went up survived. They all died there, and not a single one came back.

Five minutes later, the orcs at a reclaimed area in the middle of the channel suffered the same devastating blow.

Five minutes later, the same thing happened downstream.

The orc commander was shocked.

What the hell is this?

As a last resort, they quickly called the Dragonmaw Orcs' Dragoon Regiment, but it seemed that the terrifying and terrible Elf Ranger was still on the opposite side. With the support of the High Elves' dark vision ability, the arrow of death still pierced the throat of the Orc Cavalry without any deviation.

Throughout the entire night, at five ferry crossings, the orcs lost the lives of two thousand laborers, but progress came to a complete standstill.

After receiving the report, Rend Blackhand, the son of the former chief, said nonchalantly: "Let Zuluhed continue to send out his precious red lizards. Keep up the offensive during the day. I want to see how long the humans can hold out."

Orcs do not have the talent for dark vision, and because of the red dragon's lack of cooperation, orc dragons are more effective when deployed during the day.

The attack on the Thandol Bridge continued, and the humans seemed to have concentrated their forces on the bridge, so the defense of the bridge was still impenetrable. However, in other places, the dragons successfully destroyed more than a hundred unattended ballistae and catapults on this day.

"This is progress, proving that humanity has begun to weaken." Rend laughed.

You know, when the full-scale invasion began, humans could use the high mobility brought by the wizard's teleportation and the sniping of two half-elf warriors to prevent the orcs from gaining any advantage.

(Of course, half of it refers to Lirath Windrunner. Although Alleria has a high regard for her fourth sister, there is always a difference between advertising and reality, isn't it? Lirath's archery skills are also very good, and her talent is also the best among rangers. But she lacks a competitive heart, which is exactly the most critical thing she needs to truly step into the realm of heroes.)

Now, even if the orcs still have to pay a heavy price, they can still use their strong capital to consume the strength of the Alliance at their own expense.

In the following days, this tug-of-war seemed to continue.

The humans only guarded the bridge, and at night they relied on long-range attacks to sniper the orcs' reclamation. While the night was coming, the craftsmen frantically built and repaired catapults and crossbows.

During the day, the number of human soldiers patrolling the defense line of Thandol Bridge was still so large that the orc scouts were dazzled.

Nothing seems wrong.

But the people of Stromgarde who remained on Thandol Bridge were moved to tears.

Why?

The main force has already withdrawn!

Except for the 5,000 elite soldiers and more than 3,000 craftsmen who stayed behind at the bridge, the rest of the people had been evacuated in an orderly manner at a rate of about 5,000 people per night over the past week.

Without torches, they just relied on the white cloth wrapped around each other's shoulders and walked back along the road under the guidance of the best scout.

The Dragonmaw Orcs' search range is limited. As long as they leave the northern position of the Thandol Bridge for more than 20 kilometers, they will disappear without a trace.

During the days of retreat, what Sylvanas did most was not to kill the enemy on the cliff, but to snipe the enemy scouts riding dragons who went too deep into the defense line.

The remaining small group of elven rangers, each with a few human scouts and a mage under Duke. Once a Horde dragon was found invading, Duke immediately took Sylvanas to the pre-set teleportation array and directly killed the Horde scouts. The scouts near the cliff defense line were ignored.

And every night, there is actually only one person responsible for sniping the Horde - Duke.

After being promoted to master Mage, the number of Mage Hands Duke could manipulate at the same time had actually reached 512.

Being able to do something does not mean you can do it for a long time.

It's like an adult man can lift a hundred pounds for a while, but it's hard to lift it for an hour. Only one in ten thousand people can do it.

For the past three days, Sylvanas, who had been following Duke, just watched quietly as Duke made all kinds of incredible efforts to save the lives of 50,000 people in Stromgarde.

Duke is obviously just a mortal, but he demands of himself as a superman.

As a noble wizard with a promising future, he not only fought on the front line himself, but also did the menial job of operating the crossbow with the wizard's hands.

From west to east, there are a total of 12 crossbow positions, each with more than 30 crossbows; 12 catapults; and 500 crossbows that are basically fixed, strung, and facing the coast.

And there is only one manipulator, Edmund Duke.

With the help of the system elves, he made perfect kills in every wave, not letting any of the hard workers escape. Almost as soon as he finished attacking one position, Duke immediately teleported to the next position.

Only after he left did the logistics team of no more than thirty people quickly come out and load bullets into each crossbow cart, catapult and crossbow.

It is no exaggeration to say that, depending on the Horde's attack situation, Duke would have to teleport back and forth between the twelve positions thirty or forty times in one night.

For Duke now, leaving aside the mages, the huge consumption of physical and mental strength alone is enough to drain ten ordinary master mages dry.

Duke is still holding on.

The people of Stromgarde marveled at Duke's strength, but were also moved to tears by his greatness.

Sometimes in the command post, Duke was so tired that he fell asleep while talking.

No one blamed Duke, he had done a good job. If it weren't for Duke, most people wouldn't have been able to return to Stromgarde alive.

On the eighth day, the most critical moment came.

According to the plan, all troops will be withdrawn tonight, leaving only Duke and Sylvanas to cover the rear.

This is simply an incredible thing.

If it weren't for the miracles Duke has performed in recent days, everyone would be completely against Duke.

"Sir! You have done enough and done well! If you want to sacrifice yourself in exchange for the survival of the people of Stromgarde, then we cannot obey your orders!" The last Brigadier General Outles shouted excitedly, his tone rising several notches: "Now it's time for the people of Stromgarde to bleed."

Not only Outles, but more than a dozen Stormgarde generals present also stepped forward, forming a wall of will and flesh and blood to block Duke: "Send His Majesty Thoras Trollbane's order, 'Even if we have to kidnap you, we must bring Sir Edmund Duke back to Stromgarde in advance. A great hero like Duke shouldn't die in such a meaningless retreat. The Alliance needs Edmund Duke more than Stromgarde'!"

"What are you doing? I know you have good intentions, but are you trying to rebel?" In no particular order, Sylvanas drew her dual swords and Gavinrad drew his warhammer and stood in front of Duke on the left and right.

Even though they both knew that most of the time they wouldn't fight, they still had to have an attitude towards everything.

Brigadier General Outles did not seem to expect Duke's men to react so violently, and his momentum was temporarily stifled.

Duke looked at Outlets with calm eyes - this future great man who would become a marshal in the future if there were no exception. Duke sighed, and then his eyes gradually became majestic.

"That's enough! I appreciate King Trollbane's kindness. But please remember, I'm Duke! Edmund Duke! The wolf-like wizard who will bite off a piece of flesh from the enemy even if he is defeated and has to retreat! Last time I evacuated, I burned 100,000 orcs to death. This time you want me to evacuate again. How can I be willing to do that without killing 100,000 orcs?"

When Duke said this, Outlets actually asked back, "Then where do we get the kerosene?"

Duke was stunned, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Asshole, who said I was going to set fire again?"

"Uh, Duke the Vulcan doesn't set fires?"

Damn, when did I become the God of Fire?

Duke was so angry at Outlets that he laughed until tears came out of his eyes: "Get lost! Who said I can only set fires? Let me tell you, the one standing in front of you today is - the evil Duke!"

Duke of Ghostly Conspiracy?

Does anyone give themselves a nickname these days?

Why is Duke the God of Fire known within the league? It's because Duke is good at using fire.

They burned half of Elwynn Forest and Stormwind City, and used the FFF regiment's flamethrowers to burn down the main force of the Horde's offensive in Silverpine Forest.

Most of Duke's famous battles were related to fire.

The nickname "God of Fire" is really a good idea.

Unfortunately, Duke was unhappy. frёeωebɳovel.com

How can a mere God of Fire compare to the chief of the four elements or the God of Magic who defies the heavens?

That's right! If I want to be someone, I'd better be a magic god!

Anyway, Duke is unwilling to be a Vulcan.

Duke knew very well that the previous retreat was mostly successful. If he could achieve this, he would surely be known as a "wise general".

This is not enough!

Orgrim must have landed in the Hinterlands.

For some reason, there has been no news from there, but Duke must deal with this side as soon as possible and mobilize troops to deal with Orgrim.

If the war in Stromgarde becomes very intense, Duke, the deputy commander of the Alliance, will not be able to leave and will not be able to mobilize troops in advance.

So if Duke wants to relieve the pressure on Stromgarde, the best way is to deal a heavy blow to the Horde again.

The strength of the Horde didn't seem to be decreasing, but Duke and the commanders of Stormwind, who had fought the Horde the longest, felt it the most. The Horde had already begun to decline.

For example, the Horde's combat power was 100 before, but now it is only 70 at most. As the war losses continue to expand, the Horde's strength will soon reach a critical value. Once it breaks through this critical value, it will change from quantitative change to qualitative change. At that time, the alliance will switch from defense to offense.

Seeing that General Outles and others wanted to say something, Duke gently pushed Sylvanas and Gavinrad away and waved at them.

"Gentlemen, thank you for your willingness to sacrifice for me. I appreciate your kindness. If I can't make it in the future, I will come to you. On the contrary, you can also come to me in the future. As long as I defeat the orcs, I will be a great lord." Duke shrugged and said, "But before that, please get out of here as planned. Unless you have the magic power, knowledge and strategy like me, your poor imagination will not know what I am going to do."

Duke's words were no longer just "impolite". If Duke had said this before, they would have picked trouble with Duke even though they had the king over their heads.

But men are such simple creatures. Once they have lived and died together, they become brothers.

No one in Stromgarde took Duke's words as an insult or provocation. On the contrary, after seeing their compatriots who had a great chance of dying in the battle successfully retreat to Stromgarde, they saw Duke shining with a sacred light.

Outlets gritted his teeth and said, "Promise me, you won't die here in battle."

"I don't need to agree to you, because I still have to deal with this place and find trouble with Orgrim. That guy covered in green paint is still occupying my territory." Duke made jokes, but the confidence in his eyes still conquered the people of Stromgarde.

Nearly twenty generals and officers of all ranks saluted Duke at the same time.

After dealing with those warriors, Duke gave instructions to Ilucia.

"Well, there are still two hours before the orcs' night attack begins. I'll get some sleep first."

Duke was so tired that even though the room he was staying in was so bad, with no spring mattress and no soft pillows, Duke still fell asleep like a dead pig.

In a daze, he seemed to feel that he was resting on a very soft and smooth pillow. Duke moved his neck to make himself more comfortable.

Well, this one is good, comparable to a space memory pillow.

Duke had no idea how long he had slept, but he was awakened by the warning from the system AI.

"Dear host, I'm sorry to bother you, but I'm afraid you have to come out of your happy time on my lap. Because the orcs are coming."

Duke woke up in a daze, and suddenly he realized a word - knee pillow.

The next moment, Duke opened his eyes and almost went blind.

What did he see?

His dog head was resting on two slender, round but not fleshy legs. Seeing the mage's long skirt wrapped around him, Duke immediately realized whose legs they were.

Not only that, Duke, who was eager to turn his head, bumped into something. It was a soft hanging object that was less than two centimeters above his head.

Uh...something seems to be wrong.

Duke's body stiffened instantly.

"Woo! I'm a salted fish! I'm a motionless salted fish, I didn't do anything just now..." Duke, a pure little virgin who has a lot of theoretical knowledge but zero practical skills, hypnotizes himself like a mentally retarded person.

At this time, Miss Barov was also awakened. She wiped her eyes and found that Duke was awake.

"I'm sorry, teacher... uh, Duke, I don't mean to offend, I just saw you sleeping very hard. You were mumbling something like 'the pillow is too hard', and when I came over, you..."

Duke was completely disappointed: "I just slept on your lap?"

Ilucia blushed, but finally nodded.

"Why don't you resist!?" Duke said almost in a crazy tone.

"I... I'm confused by what you said about the space pillow." Ilucia avoided the question.

In fact, Duke's actions were even more rude, and the eldest daughter of the Barov family was almost frightened, but she did not dare to resist. The body of a mage is fragile, and if she accidentally hurt Duke and caused the alliance's plan to fail, she would be guilty of a great sin.

And surprisingly, she didn't seem to object to this kind of thing that, according to legend, could only be done between lovers.

At this time, something that made Duke feel like a nightmare happened.

Suddenly, a soft cough was heard outside the window.

Even if Duke turned into ashes, he would still be able to recognize it. That was Sylvanas's voice...

"Ahem, I was worried that the deputy commander was too tired, so I came to remind him to prepare for a night attack on the Horde. It seems that the deputy commander has more important things to do!"

"No, actually I..." Duke rushed out as fast as he could.

Who knew that just as he stepped out of the door, Sylvanas 'accidentally' stepped on his foot.

"Ah! I'm sorry, I was so careless just now. My sister repeatedly told me to take care of you." Sylvanas put her hands on her hips and slowly retracted her feet.

At this moment, Duke finally understood the difference between being wild and being coquettish for a woman.

If a girl steps on your foot and scolds you, that's called being wild.

If a goddess with stunning looks steps on you and scolds you, and her body trembles when she is being mean to you, that is called acting like a spoiled child...

Well, although Duke didn't have any improper thoughts about Sylvanas, he just couldn't get angry.