Galen spent this year's Winter Veil with exceptional joy.
This was a rare relaxing holiday for him. For the past decade or so, he had been busy with training every day, and Thoras had also played the role of a stern father. Only when Danath occasionally returned from the army on leave did Galen have a playmate.
This time, four or five people of his age were celebrating the New Year with him in Stromgarde. Galen even indulged in a rare childlike whim and, together with Turalyon, dressed up as Greatfather Winter to deliver gifts to the children in the city.
The New Year had just passed, and Galen was already fourteen years old. Just when he thought he could continue to relax for a while, trouble came knocking.
The Archbishop arrived at Galen's courtyard with a somewhat solemn expression. Before Galen could ask, the Archbishop spoke first.
"Galen, my child, I need your help!"
Galen was puzzled. The Archbishop was one of the most influential figures in the human world, with at least tens of thousands of followers and hundreds of thousands of fanatical believers under his command. What matter could require him to specifically seek Galen's help?
"Archbishop, just tell me what's wrong!" Despite his confusion, Galen was happy to help the Archbishop, a man of high moral character and universally admired.
Northshire Abbey, located in the southern reaches of the Kingdom of Stormwind, safeguards an ancient tome known as The Book of Divinity—a sacred artifact revered by the Church of the Holy Light.
The Archbishop fell into reminiscence, sighed, and continued, "Not long ago, I heard that a mysterious monster had appeared in the south, constantly harassing the borders of the Kingdom of Stormwind. At this critical moment, 'The Book of Divinity' was stolen by unknown individuals, and King Llane attached great importance to this matter, dispatching members of the Brotherhood of the Horse to track them down!"
"This team has been missing for a long time, and everyone assumed they had met with misfortune. Last night, the Holy Light gave me a revelation that this team is trapped underground in the southwest, in a very critical situation!"
"Galen, I want to ask you to lead Uther and the others to the south to rescue this team and retrieve 'The Book of Divinity!'"
After the Archbishop finished speaking, Galen fell into deep thought. 'Wow, this feels so familiar. Have I triggered some kind of quest?'
Galen remembered that this was the content of a battle in Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and judging by the time, the Archbishop shouldn't have received the revelation so early. Could it be that the birth of the paladins has made the Archbishop's faith more profound? And his connection with the Holy Light even stronger?
Galen recalled his plan. This year, he planned to pursue two paths simultaneously. On the one hand, he would continue to develop the colonies in the western continent, and on the other hand, he would help Durin strengthen his influence among the Dark Iron dwarves. Currently, Durin had already paved the way with money and subdued Rendar the mountain lord of Castforge, south of Thorium Point, and the situation was excellent.
However, since the Archbishop had already come to his door, going to the south wouldn't be a bad idea. It was only the beginning of the year, and the main force of the orcs hadn't fully arrived in Azeroth yet. He could meet them in advance.
"No problem, Archbishop. I will lead a team to the south. Please help me notify King Llane!"
"I will write a letter to the brothers and sisters in Northshire, informing them in advance that you will be leading members of the New Order to the south to provide support!" The Archbishop indicated that there was no problem and that he would help him make arrangements in advance.
The Church of the Holy Light originally only had a group of priests, and the main force of guards was still warriors among the believers. Now, with the birth of the New Order, paladins serve as the main force of protection, although their numbers are still small, but this path is the right one.
And Galen was the strongest among the paladins, so the Archbishop hoped that he would lead the other paladins to the south, not only to provide assistance but also to test the potential of the paladin class.
This was assistance regardless of national boundaries, all for the sake of the Holy Light.
After agreeing with the Archbishop to gather the knights at noon, there was no time to delay, and they would set off in the afternoon.
After seeing off the Archbishop, Galen first connected to the Heart of Origin to check the status of the recent branch bases.
Currently, his nine bases in the Eastern Kingdoms were operating normally. Among them, the grain and wine trade in Hamerfall was thriving, and the weapons and equipment and grain production base in Eastpoint was also generating good profits, especially the newly opened trade route with the Wildhammer clans of the Hinterlands, which brought huge profits to Galen. This was also the confidence Galen had to spend money and show off.
The grain and wine from Hamerfall were partly sold domestically and partly exported to the dwarves in the Khaz Modan mountains. The grain from Eastpoint was shipped by sea to Refuge Pointe, which, after more than a year of effort by Hammon Karwn, had become the commercial center of the Hinterlands, attracting various Wildhammer clans scattered throughout the highlands.
Galen also had another way to make money, which was the production and construction corps led by Cliff. Last year, they completed his father's order in the Arathi Highlands. Due to their amazing production capacity, Thoras added another batch of farm construction. Afterward, a group of royalist nobles, led by Count Dabyrie, also began to seek Cliff to build new magical farms, which was simply minting money every day.
The trolls of Witherbark were still undergoing ideological education. While ensuring their basic needs, they were sent to the mines to mine during the day, and at night, farmers acted as scholars to teach them the history and common language of Azeroth.
The other bases were all working hard to train new soldiers and farmers, and farms were also being added continuously on the basis of ensuring the economic chain. As a person with Chinese thinking, it's never wrong to hoard more food.
The farms in the Northward had already begun to cultivate various basic herbs while ensuring the soldiers' rations, preparing supplies for the war in a few years.
Thanks to the efforts of the town halls in each base, after upgrading to level three castles, more than 30,000 new farmers were added. Currently, 90,000 people are working for Galen in mines and farms. The collection of wood resources is still in transition, with only a small number of farmers engaged in logging, and most of the workload is borne by 10,000 sprites.
Another point that Galen was most concerned about was that since he established the base two years ago, a small number of male and female farmers had chosen to marry. The first batch of hundreds of babies had already been born. According to Cliff, the minister of the Production and Construction Corps, after the babies grow up, the Heart of Origin will instill different knowledge into them according to their physical fitness.
In other words, whether they become farmers, soldiers, or wizards and priests in the future depends entirely on their future physical fitness and talent.
In terms of the military, five barracks are training infantry and riflemen. In the past four months, 9,600 new soldiers have been added, enough to form a regular legion.
The other ten barracks mainly train high-level knight troops. Currently, there are 800 knights, 400 of whom have been incorporated into Galen's Galewind Legion and are stationed at Fort Friend in the Western Continent.
The remaining 400 knights have just received the order to assemble and are rushing to Minas Tirith non-stop.
Among the other arms, there are currently about 2,000 priests, half of whom have been incorporated into Galen's various legions to assist in combat, and the other half have been sent to the Arathi and Hillsbrad regions to heal the wounded and promote the doctrines of Minas Tirith.
There are 3,000 wizards. This is Galen's secret force. Except for a part in Gandalf's Tidefury Legion, most of them have been hidden by Galen as trump cards.
Then there is the output of the workshops. Currently, 2,000 aircraft, 400 steam tanks, and 800 mortar frames have been produced. The most difficult thing is the training of operators. Even with the knowledge instilled by the Heart of Origin, it takes a lot of time for the trainers to become familiar with the equipment. Only half of the aircraft can take to the skies.
There are also the gryphon riders. Galen has six gryphon nests in his hands. In the past four months, 480 gryphon riders have been trained, which is enough for a large squadron.
Anyway, Galen has already had Makay and Fastrad of the Firebeard Clan jointly sign 1,000 graduation certificates. The instructors are their sixteen students.
When the time comes, the gryphon riders will each have an official graduation certificate, striving to be a flying knight with a diploma!