Galen, overjoyed at intercepting the paladin unit, impulsively teleported to the Barrens in the Western Continent. Since Gandalf's breakthrough to the hero rank, his group teleportation could span the Endless Ocean, allowing him to travel back and forth between the Azeroth and Kalimdor.
The coordinates for this teleportation were provided by an adventurer team Galen had dispatched a month prior.
This was a ten-person adventure team, led by two seventh level paladins who had trained in the Cathedral from the beginning, equipped with four musketeers and two priests. In addition to the eight base units, the team also included two rogues from the Dark Division. The base soldiers were responsible for mapping, while they were mainly responsible for gathering intelligence.
Galen checked the map they had scouted. The adventure team was currently located in the northern part of the Barrens, at the Sweetwater Oasis near the Wailing Caverns.
At this time, the night elf Archdruid Naralex should not have entered the Wailing Caverns to investigate yet, and the Fang Druids had not appeared either. Everything was still early; Kalimdor was still in an undeveloped state.
One of the Dark Division members in the adventure team was named James. Because of his gray hair, he was known as Gray James. He was the captain of the Dark Division's Third Team and one of the most outstanding secret agents in the Dark Division.
Through his conversation with James, Galen realized he had made an empirical mistake. Ratchet was indeed a goblin-built port city, but it didn't exist yet.
Gray James and his team had been brought over by a Kul Tiran merchant ship. They told the captain they were going to Ratchet in the Western Continent, and the captain was puzzled, saying he had never heard of such a city. Fortunately, Gray James had a rough map provided by Galen, and Prince Derek's influence was significant. After the captain took them west to the coastline of the Western Continent, they disembarked on the southern coast and explored their way to the vicinity of the Wailing Caverns.
The establishment of Ratchet would not occur until twenty years later, when the orcs crossed the sea to Kalimdor, settled in the eastern Barrens, and prepared to establish a new orc kingdom, Orgrimmar. Thrall contracted the construction of Orgrimmar to the goblin merchant Gazlowe.
Because the orc Warchief Thrall gave Gazlowe a good price, he decided to build a port on the coast of the Barrens to facilitate future business with the orcs.
That's right. At this moment, the Barrens was only inhabited by backward and plundering quilboars and scattered centaur tribes. They were warlike and barbaric. Given the goblins' profit-seeking nature, doing business with them was not as good as trading with trolls. Without trading partners, there was no need to spend huge sums of money to build a port here.
Their absence is good news.
Ratchet hasn't been built yet? I'll do it myself then.
Based on Gray James's intelligence and Galen's previous life's knowledge of this land, this resource-rich area was currently under the control of the quilboars.
However, the quilboars' power was mainly in the Razorfen Downs and Razorfen Kraul in the south. The north was mainly occupied by small quilboar tribes and some scattered centaur tribes. Occasionally, tauren wandered in the Barrens, but they had not yet begun their full-scale migration.
The quilboars' territory is free real estate. Land-grabbing maniac Galen began to do some calculations.
Currently, most of the land north of Ashenvale on the continent of Kalimdor belonged to the night elf race. They won the War of the Ancients ten thousand years ago, and their entire race was blessed by the Red Dragon Queen, granting them endless life. Over ten thousand years, even a pig would have become a spirit. The night elves have grown for ten thousand years, and there are too many masters; they are not easy to provoke.
In the central region, Galen vaguely saw the eastern Barrens, the Barrens, and Dustwallow Marsh beckoning to him. As for Mulgore and Stonetalon Mountains, in order to win over the tauren, Galen decided to give them to the tauren as their new habitat.
This is the eternal theme of Azeroth: war, a war to seize territory. Whoever has the bigger fist can obtain land for survival. However, Galen was not a cruel and evil person. He only needed to establish branches in areas rich in mineral resources and did not need to occupy the entire Barrens.
The Barrens had not yet been affected by the Cataclysm and divided into two by the Great Divide. Currently, the northern and southern Barrens were still a whole. However, this land was too large, so Galen would divide it into the southern Barrens and the northern Barrens.
He only needed to drive the quilboars to the south of the Barrens, and occupying the northern and eastern Barrens would be more than enough.
Perhaps he could try a gentle approach instead of using force to solve the problem.
However, now that he had just arrived in the Western Continent, he should first find a place to establish a base. The original site of Ratchet on the eastern coast was Galen's first choice.
With his strength, starting from the central part of the Barrens, dividing the north and south, and then occupying the north, was not a problem at all.
What worried Galen was which legions to use to achieve his land-grabbing goals in the Kalimdor.
Currently, in addition to the garrison troops, Galen had the strength of six legions. The Scarlet Flame Legion could not be moved from Hamerfall. Although the Scarlet Flame Legion had fought several battles with Galen and was the oldest unit, Omar and the others were still under the tutelage of Amor and needed more time to complete their training.
Moreover, Galen wanted to keep the operation in the Western Continent covert, so it was not suitable to use the Scarlet Flame Legion, which was a mixed unit of base soldiers and highlands infantry.
The Thunder Legion was newly formed and under the command of Durin and could not be moved easily. The Tidefury Legion and the Silver Legion could be pulled out to fight and use the quilboars to practice.
In addition to the above four legions, Galen had not established regimental numbers for the strength of two legions. Bringing them all over this time, the larger the scale, the more Galen felt that his strength was not enough.
In the middle of the northern and eastern Barrens, a rushing river divided the two lands. This river was called the Thundering Water.
The future location of Ratchet was at the southern mouth of the Thundering Water, on the east coast of the northern Barrens. This was a sunken valley. Except for the cliffs on the north and south sides, there was only one road to the outside world in the west. It was a strategically important place, no wonder it would be favored by the goblins in the future.
Galen was currently in the center of the valley, looking out at the distant sea, wondering what he was thinking.
The mouth of this Thundering Water River was half-surrounded by mountains, forming a huge fjord, which was a natural deep-water port with a superior geographical location. It could directly attack the eastern Barrens in the north and deter Dustwallow Marsh in the south. When the islands along the coastline were occupied, the Barrens' maritime defense would be impregnable.
The goblins didn't do business with the quilboars and centaurs because they disliked their barbarism, but Galen didn't care. As long as they had money, there would be enough food. He didn't care if they would rob, anyway, they couldn't beat him.
In the deep night, under the starry sky and a bright moon, on the great plains of the Barrens, gazelles, prairie lions, cheetahs, and striders paced back and forth. It seemed that airships were flying in the sky, and the familiar background music seemed to be ringing in his ears.
And those familiar lines: 'I can't use this spell, not enough mana,' 'Too far, out of range!'
Galen felt his eyes were a little wet, and suddenly took out a battle flag from his backpack and stuck it in the center of the valley!
This land, from now on, belongs to Stromgarde!