"Sir Lothar, could I request that Gavinrad lead the team assisting Gran's Village?" Galen seized the opportunity, revealing his true intentions, chuckling inwardly!
"That's a small matter, Galen. I'll arrange for Gavinrad and Windsor to each lead a team to assist you!" Lothar had already considered this and directly agreed to Galen's request.
The banquet ended, and Galen and the paladins got up and left Stormwind Keep. They would return to the Mirror Lake camp, waiting for Lothar's men to come and join them.
On the high platform of Stormwind Keep's third floor, Lothar and Llane quietly watched the paladins' departing figures.
"Llane, why did you agree to send them to the border? If anything happens to them, we won't be able to explain it to Stromgarde and Lordaeron." Lothar asked his good friend.
"This is a good opportunity. Ever since my father's time, Stormwind's connection with the northern kingdoms has become distant. This time, I have a feeling the orcs are a great threat. I want to connect with the north and form a strong alliance to deal with them!"
Llane revealed his plan. During his father's reign, Stormwind encountered an unprecedented crisis: a gnoll horde besieged the city. The old king asked the northern kingdoms for help, but none of the northern brother kingdoms came to help. In the end, the old king went deep alone, risking his life to kill the chiefs of the gnoll tribes, and resolved the crisis.
Since then, Stormwind entered a glorious era. The people were full of confidence in the royal family, and the whole country united to enter the era of great expansion.
And the Kingdom of Stormwind gradually became estranged from the northern kingdoms.
The orc crisis, coupled with Llane's firsthand observation of these northern young talents, especially Galen of Stromgarde and the four hundred high-ranking knights, awakened him from the beautiful dream of Stormwind's growing national power.
"Lothar, assign Varian to the team going to Gran's Village, and then send more experienced knights on both sides."
"No problem, Llane. I will personally go to the to oversee, supporting Gran's Village to the south and heading straight to Lakeshire to the east!" Sir Lothar saw that his good friend valued the northern allies so much and decided to go himself to ensure nothing went wrong.
"Thank you for your support, my brother! It's a pity we can't contact Medivh, otherwise he alone could solve this crisis!"
After saying that, Llane and Lothar were speechless, sighing endlessly. If only they knew.
On the other side, Galen and the others did not leave the city immediately but chose to stroll around Stormwind City for a while.
Uther and the others wanted to appreciate the customs of the southern country, while Galen wanted to see Stormwind City before the First War, after all, every glance was one less.
After touring for half a day, Galen felt that Stormwind Kingdom, in the late era of pioneering, had a growth in national power that completely surpassed the rate of revival of Stromgarde in recent years. Sitting on the fertile lands of Elwynn Forest and Westfall, they could make a fortune growing anything.
Moreover, there were many gold mines in these two lands. Fargodeep Mine, Jasperlode Mine, Jangolode Mine, Gold Coast Mine, and Hope Mine made Stormwind's gold reserves astonishing.
They had money, they had food, they had people. If the arrival of the orcs hadn't broken Stormwind's momentum of development, it wouldn't have been impossible for it to surpass Lordaeron and become the number one human nation in the next few decades. In fact they did after the fall of Lordaeron.
It was getting dark, and the paladins reluctantly left the city and returned to the Mirror Lake camp. Omar and the others had built the camp very well. More than a hundred ogres were quietly tied up in the corner of the camp near the lake, and fifty knights were guarding them.
Uther and the others returned to their tents to rest, while Galen walked towards the ogres alone.
Turok and his Blackrock orc mistress, Griselda, were nestled in the center of a group of ogres.
Ogres averaged over three meters tall, and female orcs were about two meters tall. He could tolerate the height difference, but the volume difference was too much, like a 2.5-liter cola and a 500-milliliter cola placed together!
"How's your consideration going? Do you want to submit to me?" Galen cast Arcane Intellect, trying to persuade the ogre leader to surrender.
"What can you give me? Humans?" Turok wasn't an inflexible ogre. The fact that he, a one-headed ogre, could become a mage among ogres, and that he could hook up with the daughter of the Blackrock chieftain, the current warchief of the Horde, showed that he was no ordinary ogre.
"I can give you a new home, on another continent, where there are no enemies taller than you. You can live in peace, without worrying about Blackhand and Gul'dan chasing you down!" Galen directly gave his conditions. He believed that this smart chieftain was a pragmatic ogre.
"I accept!"
In the end, this ogre tribe named Vorgol chose to pledge allegiance to Galen. This was inevitable, otherwise, all that awaited them was the death of their leader and the dispersal of the tribe, with some eking out an existence in the Sunken Forest and others remaining in the Deadmines.
The next thing was easy to handle. Galen notified Gandalf to teleport to the camp, and then brought all one hundred and twenty-odd ogres back to Galenport, letting them temporarily live in the northern territory of the Bristleback quilboar, the Sweetwater Oasis near the Wailing Caverns.
The next day, Stormwind's team arrived at Galen's camp. Again, four hundred knights, moving in perfect unison, were clearly elites.
The leaders were indeed Gavinrad the Dire and Reginald Windsor, but Galen saw Lothar's son, Varian Lothar, among the knights.
Lothar was really generous, sending his own son to the front line.
Varian had just turned eighteen this year. His mother died early, and he grew up in his father's training and love. After adulthood, he chose to join the army, hoping to become as great a person as his father.
As for his strength, well, it was not bad, just stepping into the threshold of high rank, but Galen felt that he should have been growing up under his father's wings, with a naive look on his face, just like himself before, never leaving Stromgarde, burying himself in hard work at home.
"Oh ho, you're here! Gavin, Reggie, good morning, we meet again!" Galen greeted the two enthusiastically. He sincerely wanted to befriend the two, who were of high moral character.
Of course, digging corners where he could was also necessary.
"Good morning, Prince Galen, good morning everyone!" Gavinrad and Windsor dismounted and walked into the camp, greeting everyone.
"Are you ready? When do we leave?"
"We've been ready for a long time, just waiting for you to lead the way. Danath, Turalyon, and I will go to Gran's Village with you. Uther and Tirion will go to Lakeshire with Reggie."
This was the team that had been assigned last night. Fifty-eight paladins were divided by region, the Arathi followed Galen, the Lordaeron followed Uther. The four hundred knights were divided into two teams, each leading half of the priests and wizards.