After the coronation, Aurex returned to Stratholme.

He had a few days to sort out the household affairs before taking up the post of "Hand of the King" to track down the untraceable Cult of the Damned.

He is now the "Hand of the King", and he has been assigned a royal mage who has studied in Dalaran, so he no longer has to travel time and effort to return on a griffon. It is also said that he has been wronged, but the dignified royal mage of Lordaeron has come to deign to be his personal bodyguard and teleporter.

Although the knighthood and the assassination of the king and queen all happened yesterday, the news has not yet reached this side.

He spoke one by one to Langton in the manor, who had come to greet him.

"Earl for life, hereditary viscount. Also, there are ...... District Special Administrator? Young master, doesn't this mean that one-third of the land has become the family's de facto fief? ”

At first, the old housekeeper was overjoyed, and soon burst into tears, tears in his eyes, and said that this was what the old man dreamed of before his death, but now the old man is gone.

But when he heard the rest of the story, Langton was shocked.

"His Majesty the King, he ......"

"Yes, you heard it right." Oryx sighed and nodded.

He didn't expect that history would advance in this way - Terenus died, Arthas became king of Lordaeron, and the seeds of hatred were planted deep in his heart, and he declared all-out war on the Scourge for this.

As for the direction he will drive in the future, he doesn't know in his heart, let's take one step at a time.

"I have been appointed Hand of the King, and I am solely responsible for the Cursed Sect's purging of suitability. "The purpose of coming back is to explain some things and deal with the territorial issue properly," Oryx pointed to the two officials behind him who were holding large stacks of files, "The specific scope of the territory, as well as the villages, population, and taxes that govern the land in the name of the special administrator, are all in their hands. Help me sort it out and connect it with the affairs of my family's existing territory as soon as possible. ”

Old Langton nodded, and went to the two officers.

Looking at the back of the old butler, Oryx was a little helpless.

The territory has suddenly become dozens of times larger, but the things to deal with are far more than dozens of times more. He had no one at hand, only Old Langton. Even if he was tired to death, Old Langton couldn't finish so many things. The two officers, whom Alsace had assigned to him to alleviate this predicament, followed the Special Administrator to take up their posts and share the pressure of work.

In fact, it stands to reason that the corresponding position should be transferred from Stratholme City. However, Arthas did not do that, and according to Oryx, this move also had some idea of tying himself firmly to the royal chariot.

Entering the parlor, Oryx saw Jandis Barov, who had been so busy for the past two days that he could not remember for a moment why the lady was here, and only after a while.

Jandis and the group of mages were sent by Dalaran to protect him, a prophet of light, who had already worked deeply with the Knights of the Silver Hand. After he was called to the capital, these people waited at his house.

"Hello ma'am, I'm sorry I forgot you're still here." Oryx bowed.

"Congratulations, Lord of the King's Hand, this is an unprecedented honor for Lordaeron." Jandis smiled slightly, got up and said.

Apparently she had heard from other sources, but she had not expressed any courtesy regret over Terenus' death.

Come to think of it, according to the history presented by this world, the royal family of Minethir is about to bring down the Barov family, and they have taken Brill, Southsea Town, and Tarunmere into their own possession, and the culprit is none other than King Terenus, who doesn't hate him.

However, in the face of the new big celebrity of the Minethil royal family, this "housemother" refused to even express symbolic condolences for the grief experienced by the family she worked for, which shows that this person is also a lover.

Of course, Orix won't open any pot without mentioning which pot, "Madam has won the prize." ”

Jandis turned to something else, "We've laid a perfect protective spell in the mansion for the past two days, and it seems that it is no longer useful. ”

Oryx said regretfully: "Yes, after taking care of the family affairs, I will soon set off for the west to perform my duties." Is the lady going back to Dalaran? ”

"No, we have received a new appointment and will follow you on our way to deal with the Cursed Sect......"

Oryx listened for a while before he understood.

It turned out that before the coronation ceremony, Arthas met with the envoys of Dalaran to discuss the tracking down of the Cursed Sect. Whether it was due to the hatred of His Majesty the King or his resolute actions, in short, there was no embarrassment that the matter was not settled after lengthy consultations, and the two sides quickly finalized a series of details, and immediately launched in-depth cooperation to fight together against the Scourge Legion's aggression in the north.

Jandis Barov also received a new order.

She will continue to be with Orrix, protecting her and accompanying Lordaeron's "Hand of the King" as the responsible person for Dalaran, representing him in the search for the remnants of the Cursed Cult.

"I know that it looks like there will be more trouble for the next period of time...... But I still have some things to attend to here, and the lady can go there first. ”

Orix hasn't taken office yet, and it is estimated that there will be a lot of people on the Silver Hand side at that time, but he feels a lot of pressure and his hair will fall out.

"We're gone, who's going to protect you? By your fellow workers who see magic as a miracle? Jandis Barov pouted.

Oryx was speechless, and after a while, he suddenly remembered something, and couldn't help asking, "By the way, how are things going on in Northrend?" ”

When he went to the capital to receive his knighthood, the Silver Hand and Dalaran did not stop, still investigating the Scourge in Northrend, and he was very concerned about the progress there.

"There's one thing you need to know...... "We've got the help of a red dragon named Borrell." He has helped us a lot, and now we have set up secret reconnaissance sites on the northwest coast and southeast of Icecap Glacier, and are preparing to conduct further reconnaissance into the depths of Icecap. ”

Oryx couldn't help but laugh dumbly, and secretly said that was indeed the case.

When the Gargoyle was besieged by Gargoyles in the Crystal Song Forest, he suspected that the red dragon who came to his rescue was Crassus, the consort of the Red Dragon Queen who hid in the form of a High Elf in the Council of Kenrito.

Now it seems that nine times out of ten, it will be him.

And......

Jandis doesn't seem to be telling the truth.

In Orix's view, the rise of the Scourge is imminent, and when the four dragons are exhausted, Crassus is eager to cooperate with mortals to deal with this evil existence that poses a great threat to the world.

Perhaps, for the sake of convenience, Claiostraz would not disguise herself as a human mage named "Borrell", which would be too much. Perhaps the red dragon has confessed his identity to the Kenrito Council. Of course, the parliament still has to help it hide it, but high-ranking people like Jendis Barov should also know the secret.

So Jandis Barov did not tell the truth.

But there's nothing wrong with that, Oryx knows that he's an outsider after all.

"You foresaw this, too?"

"Maybe there is, maybe not." Oryx said inscrutablely.

……

For the next three days, Oryx stayed in the mansion.

Old Langton and the two experienced affairs officers sorted out the territory data and handed it to his desk.

Oryx's new fiefdoms, combined with the family's existing fiefs, totaled 120,000 acres (720,000 mu, since the use of metric or municipal) fiefdoms, amounting to a sixfold expansion of the territory, and were mostly fertile farmland. Speaking of which, if he had obtained these fiefs half a month ago, he would have picked up a big bargain - either the grain produced on them belonged to him directly, or the landowner had to pay a large amount of grain tax to his lord.

And one-third of the land under his jurisdiction as the special administrator of the Stratholme district covers an area of more than 6,000 square kilometers. If you look down from the sky, it is a relatively regular square, each side is about eighty kilometers long, which is about one-third of the capital city before he crossed. As for why this embodied world presents a much broader area than the official history, we will talk about it later.

Look at the big? Yes, it's big, it's big, but it's not much use, because it's all mountainous, sparsely populated, and the land is scarce—the Minasil royal family put him in charge of this land for many reasons.

The land under his "special administrator" began with the Sodoril River, which separates the Andorhar region from Eastern Lordaeron, and is the leftmost third of the Stratholme region, covering the western and southern mountainous areas.

His own fiefdom accounted for one-thirteenth of them, located exactly at the corner of the mountains to the west and the south, in the small recess at the top of the map.

Looking at the 6,000-square-kilometer area of more than 80 kilometers horizontally and vertically, the area that can be cultivated and has a large population is only 13 of them. The rest is mostly mountainous or barren land, with little output.

Since there were no large towns in this land, the population of the land under his jurisdiction was 20,000 people—yes, more than 6,000 square kilometers, just 20,000 people, because the western and southern mountains were basically no man's land.

Of the 20,000 people, 10,000 were piled up on his own territory, which stretched 80 kilometers horizontally and vertically, totaling more than 400 square kilometers, because only this side was suitable for farming. This part of the people is his real people, not the population under the jurisdiction of the special chief executive.

In the final analysis, the fief of more than 400 square kilometers granted to the earl is not unheard of in the history of the Seven Kingdoms of mankind, but it is also very rare, and this kind of earl belongs to the earl with very large real power.

It is already a bit too much for the Minethil royal family to reward him in this way, but he has the two behemoths of the Knights of the Silver Hand and the Church of the Holy Light behind him, and the future is also promising for all to see, so it is not an exaggeration to use this to attract the opposition of other nobles.

However, in the name of appointing a special administrator, more than 6,000 square kilometers of land equivalent to one-third of the capital cities were given to him in disguise, and the output was only paid to the double taxes of the region and the kingdom, even if it was not a fief in the legal sense, it was no different from a fief, which was a bit sensational.

First of all, this is enough to see how many points the Minethil royal family weighed the pros and cons, and the huge believer base represented by the aura of "Holy Light Chosen One" on Orrix's body.

But because in the history of the Seven Kingdoms of mankind, no nobleman has ever owned such an area of "fiefdom". Therefore, the royal family of Minahir had no choice but to compromise and hand over the barren mountainous area to him, otherwise if it was all fertile land, it would have to attract the unanimous opposition of the nobles of the whole country.

But to say a thousand things and ten thousand, this is much bigger than the kind of "village and town hegemony" that Orix knew about in the Western Middle Ages before he traveled over.

He always felt that since it was a story written by Westerners, then World of Warcraft should also be a battle for hegemony in villages and towns. The Tempest had been annoyingly obscure about the population of Azeroth, and he only remembered reading about the numbers in an official novel. It seems that in the battle of the Black Stone Tower in the 6th year of the Black Gate calendar, the total number of alliance vanguard troops who went to pursue the remnants of the tribe was only more than 10,000 people - he couldn't remember it clearly.

In short, even if the rainstorm has been blurred, it is also in line with the tone of the Western story, very small, very little, like playing at home.

But for the Chinese people who have long accepted the setting of the 800,000 army of the Chibi Cao Army at every turn, this is indeed too much "village and town hegemony". But there is no way, what can Westerners say about it.

However, this concrete world does not follow this style of "village and town hegemony", the world area has been enlarged, the population has increased many times, and it is indeed too much reasonable, but the intensity of war must be countless times more terrible than the official history.

The 50,000 gold coins of the royal reward are on the way.

Oryx gave Langton full authority to handle the funds, and he only asked for one thing, and first recruited the 3,000-strong private army as soon as possible. He doesn't care where people come from, and in this era, he can't go to other people's resumes to be innocent or not. As for how to train and where the armament will come from, he doesn't care. Anyway, the two affairs officers sent to him by Arthas were specially designed to help him with these problems.

So the loyal old butler hurried on the way to intercept the 50,000 gold coins, saying that he wanted to take the royal arms purchase order, and procure the outdated equipment that had been eliminated by the regular army from the arsenals along the way, and bring them back to the territory.

As one of the most militarily powerful kingdoms in the Seven Kingdoms, Lordaeron's regular army units rotate their equipment once a year. If it is eliminated, it will be preferably maintained and sealed for emergencies.

According to Lordaeron's laws, the latest equipment will not be given priority to the liege's private army. Leaders everywhere either build their own equipment or go to the arsenal and buy this obsolete equipment at a price below the market price.

If it were in the past, of course, the latter was more cost-effective, and it was better than the time-consuming, laborious, and expensive blacksmith to buy mineral smelting metal to build equipment.

But now it's after the Second War. Lordaeron is heavily in debt to keep the orc asylum running. The regular army has to remember bittersweet memories, except for those few guaranteed regiments, the rest of the standard equipment has not been updated for many years, and has been taking the equipment that has been eliminated in the past...... All the time, the new three years, the old three years, and the sewing and mending are another three years.

In this way, it is strange that the arsenal can be exchanged for better quality mothballed equipment, so Oryx did not agree and stopped Langton. Tell him to only recruit people and recruit veterans for training, and then talk about equipment or something.

In terms of training, he actually felt that he could also ask for the Silver Hand Knights. I am a saint, and I am famous for everything, and I am not training the private army of the territory to fight against that miserable future, so I should find some paladins from the knights who have nothing to do, and help me train and train new soldiers.

No need for nothing.

This thing is decided, and there are many more things, one after the other, which makes Oryx anxious.

Old Langton and those two affairs officers even found out a lot of stealing from previous years. Tax Leakage. The status of the tax. When Old Langton was old, Oryx took a clerk and spent two days walking around the fiefdom.

He was shocked by the results.

In his own fiefdom, the registered population was 10,000, but the actual population was nearly 3,000 more. Why are there three thousand? Because the previous managers deceived their superiors and subordinates, they collected more taxes and reported less taxes, and the difference was all in their pockets.

The angry Oryx immediately sent someone to arrest those corrupt officials and escort them to the city of Stratholme for trial on a certain day, and the result was soon rumored to be a good talk in the city - the saint personally punished the wicked, worthy of the chosen by the Holy Light!

Three days passed, and Oryx was almost crying.