(2-in-1 Chapter)

Just as the 100,000 Scourge soldiers were approaching Stratholme, on the other side, in the Chapel of the Light's Wish, a solemn-looking Uther was sitting upright in his office, and on the wooden table in front of him was an urgent document stamped with Stratholme's seal.

Long before the siege of Stratholm by the army of the undead, this document was sent to the Chapel of the Light's Wish by the Scouts, and was personally delivered to Uther.

After the end of the Northern Frontier Council, Alexandros Mograini, Ethan Leon, Whitemayne, Gavin Rad and others stayed in the Chapel of the Light's Wish, and in the face of the invasion of nearly 100,000 undead Scourges, Uther, as the temporary commander, decided to abandon Mareth's Farm, Taron County's Crown Watchtower and other places, and instead deployed all his forces in the Shield of Light and the Chapel of the Wish of Light.

These two places are the necessary places for the Scourge army to enter the Wraith Land, as long as he firmly defends these two places and shortens the battle line as much as possible, he can get stuck here for the Scourge army.

And as for Stratholme...

To be honest, it was just a decoy left by Uther, in order to attract the Scourge Legion, and after integrating the troops, he would cooperate with the troops in the city to contain the Scourge.

In fact, Uther's original plan was to abandon Stratholme and switch to the Shield of Light Tower and the Chapel of the Light's Wish, but the idea was immediately rejected by the Paladin.

It's not just Uther's compassion as a paladin at fault, but more importantly, he realizes his stupidity three seconds after he makes this decision.

What is the other party?

They are not ordinary humans, nor are they bloodthirsty and brutal orcs, but undead creatures who are not self-aware and can constantly replenish their forces through battle.

As war machines, they don't need to go to great lengths to train a soldier, as long as every time a living falls, the Scourge will immediately increase their combat effectiveness, and the way they replenish their resources is precisely from the Lordaeron soldiers who died in battle.

In this way, if Stratholme is easily regarded as an outcast, the consequences will be unimaginable.

After the Second Orc War, the population of Stratholme was not drastically reduced because it was not affected by the fighting, and coincidentally, after the outbreak of the plague and Uther's implementation of the strategy of clearing the wilderness, nearly 100,000 more people fled to Stratholme.

In this way, the population of Stratholme reached 300,000, which was already one-tenth of the total population of the entire Lordaeron Empire.

And if the Scourge Legion breaks through the city, then these more than 300,000 powerless civilians will be slaughtered immediately and resurrected into new undead creatures, which is an even greater hidden danger for them.

Therefore, Stratholme, as a strategic location, must not be abandoned.

But then Uther was again troubled by another problem—they simply didn't have enough men to come to Stratholme's aid.

In fact, the Chapel of the Light's Wish is not a barracks, let alone a wartime stronghold, as a place where paladins usually hold meetings, there are not too many soldiers stationed here, and Uther has even transferred all the soldiers stationed in Steinbrad, most of them are recruits, as well as the Knights of the Silver Hand, plus some of the remnants of the army brought by Alexandros, there are only about 8,000 people in total.

The Shield of Light tower had nearly 3,000 soldiers under the command of General Falar, but even if you count them, there are only about 12,000 soldiers.

Not to mention this amount to fight the Scourge head-on, even rescuing Stratholme is a problem.

After the end of the Northern Council, Uther and the dwarves, the elves of Quel'Salas, and the mages of Dalaran reached a brief agreement that they would provide unconditional military support during the time they fought together against the Scourge Legion, knowing that the Griffin Knights, the Griffin Knights of the Hammer Dwarves were as feared as the elven marksmen, and if they could send troops to help them, then the odds of victory against the undead would be one more point.

At this existential juncture, Solas Tolbairn, the man with the heavy army, chose to remain silent.

Gilneth made it clear that they would no longer engage in commerce and state affairs with other kingdoms until the Scourge of the Dead was eradicated.

It's been three full days since the Northern Frontier Council, and except for the dwarves and the mages of Dalaran who have sent letters and made it clear that they will send reinforcements unconditionally, the rest of the guys are either watching or building a wall to defend themselves.

And those elves...

Those elves had promised that they would send about 3,000 elven warriors and 2,000 archers, but now?

Thinking of this, Uther slammed his fist on the table in anger, and the quill pen that he flicked left an ugly mark on the letter from Stratholme.

The elven mongrels had been resting on their laurels for too long, like the Gilneth gang, completely unaware of the terrible nature of this catastrophe.

Each family swept the snow in front of their own doors, and at this time, this sentence was used to describe the various races in the eastern kingdom, and the awkward relationship between the various kingdoms could not be more appropriate.

"Uther, Stratholme is in danger right now, what are you going to do now?"

A rough and deep voice rang out, he knew it was Alexandros, but Uther knew better in his heart that not only old Mograine, but all the top leaders in this makeshift fortress were waiting for their decision.

Either stick to it or fight to the death!!

"Is there any news from Stratholme?" asked Uther, without looking up.

The paladin's attention was now preoccupied with the military map spread out on the table, and Alexandros could see clearly as he approached, on that map Stratholme's location was crossed out, and then altered to become a black dot that was barely clear.

Alexandros sighed, in the past two days, everyone's hearts have been depressed, and Uther must have been entangled for a long time on the issue of Stratholme.

Stratholme can't help it, but how can he save it with these soldiers alone?

This becomes a big headache.

"The situation is not optimistic, it has been surrounded by the undead, three layers inside and three layers outside, the people inside can't get out, and our scouts are also far away, desperately trying to bring us these news. ”

Alexandros found a chair and sat down, his seemingly relaxed expression was actually trying to suppress his anxiety.

What is the scene of nearly 100,000 undead besieging a city?

He didn't know, and he had never seen it with his own eyes, but just listening to the description of the scouts who had returned to the fortress to report, he also knew that Stratholme was probably on the verge of despair at this moment.

One day, this is his conservative estimate!

Originally, with Stratholme's city fortified, Alexandros wanted to extend this period to two days, but when he remembered that the undead did not eat or sleep, and that there were many of them, he had reason to believe that if Uther did not respond effectively, it would probably only take one day for Stratholme to fall completely...

"What happened to Tirio Fording and his Valley of the Hearth, and what about the Andorjar region?"

"I don't know, but places like Andohar and East Dalongmir may have completely fallen into the hands of the undead. ”

Alexandros sighed.

The Valley of the Hearth was too far away from here, and the road was full of corrupt land and wandering undead, their people couldn't get through at all, and the heralds of the Valley of the Hearth couldn't get out, which almost cut off all ties between the two, and directly led to the failure of their deployment to join forces with Tirio to surround the undead.

Perhaps what the emaciated lord did not expect was that it was none other than his son, Renaud Mograini, who led his troops to besiege the Valley of the Hearth at this time, and confined Tirio Ferdin.

Hurtel felt a headache as the bad news came one after the other, and he closed the map on the table, rubbed his temples, and got up and walked to the window.

Under the dim canopy of the northwest, a lonely city stood.

At this time, Uther realized that he was powerless, even after the Second Orc War, his personal strength broke through to the lord level, but in the face of an army of nearly 100,000 natural disasters, his personal strength other than the demigods was now almost negligible.

Moreover, according to Alexandros after the defeat, the leader of those undead scourge is also a strong man whose strength is close to the lord level, and he is not completely sure that he can defeat the opponent just one-on-one, not to mention that there are nearly 100,000 scourge troops under the command of that guy.

Rushing out now and fighting for it was a death call, and all he could do was wait and pray—wait for reinforcements to arrive soon, and pray that Rivendell guy would hold out a little longer.

Other than that, there is no other way...

Now they only have two chips to fight against the undead forces, one is to wait for reinforcements from the Hammer Dwarves and Quel'Thalas, and if he calculates correctly, the reinforcements will arrive soon today and tomorrow.

And second...

Thinking of this, Uther turned to look at Alexandros, "Has that thing arrived at Ironforge? How long will it take Magni to build?"

The archpaladin's eyes were suddenly filled with hope.

If...

If they can use the Ember Messenger to defeat their leader in a short period of time, then the leaderless Scourge Legion, no matter how numerous it is, will not be able to make waves.

I have to say that Uther's idea is perfect, if the plan can really be implemented so thoroughly, then it can completely solve the problem of the Scourge once and for all.

But Alexandros' outstretched two fingers made the paladin's eyes gradually darken...

"Two days?!"

Well, Uther shook her head, reluctantly accepting the brutal truth.

It took two full days to forge the artifact, plus three days to get from Danmorro, but the dwarves usually rode extremely fast griffons, so they could be there in about a day, adding up to three days.

Three days...

With the current strength of the Allied forces, it shouldn't be a problem to resist the army of the undead for three days.

And just as Uther stroked his short beard with his hand, bowed his head and thought, preparing to deploy a new plan with the upcoming artifact, Alexandros' helpless voice rang out again.

"Uther, I think you misunderstood, I don't mean two days, but... Two months..."

"Two months ??!!"

The paladin wondered if his ears had misheard, he spread his hands, his eyes widened, and he looked at Alexandros with a helpless expression, "Damn, two months??

"You don't know what two months means, Mograine, by that time, not to mention the entire Silvermoon City and Quel'Thalas, and even the entire northern part of the Eastern Kingdom, will be completely reduced to the death shelter of the Scourge!"

Uther almost couldn't resist the urge to punch someone.

"You know, I know the consequences better than you do, but Uther, please calm down. ”

Alexandros stood up and pressed down with his hand, motioning for Uther to calm his excitement.

He had no doubt about the terrifying undead fighting power, but forging artifacts was an extremely time-consuming and energy-consuming task, and even those dwarven blacksmiths who were good at forging and polishing weapons couldn't shorten that time.

You know, when Alexandros got the news from those dwarves, he almost jumped to his feet in anger.

"I'm sorry, my friend..."

Uther, who was over forty years old, was not a young and vigorous Artace, and soon the paladin came out of his anger, and he knew that it was useless to talk about it at this time, and it would only increase the estrangement between his colleagues.

"Mograine, how long do you think Rivendell and his Stratholme will be able to hold up?"

Uther reopened the strategic map and pointed to Stratholme's location with a calm tone that looked like two people just now.

Looking at Uther, who had taken just a few minutes to free himself from his anger, Alexandros was both shocked and relieved, and the Great Lord looked in the direction of Uther's finger and gave his answer with a solemn face,

"One day, this is my conservative estimate, I had direct contact with the undead, those guys... It's hard to deal with. ”

One day...

Uther stared at the map on the table, but his mind was racing.

Counting the half-day he had to rush to Stratholme, which means that he had to make a decision before noon tomorrow, the time can be said to be very short.

"Listen, Mograini. ”

Uther's face suddenly straightened, and Alexandros thought he was about to make a final decision, so he nodded and leaned forward.

"Lord Mograine, I order you to reorganize your troops tonight, keep your men well fed and drink, and join me at noon tomorrow to help Stratholme!!"

"Haha, got it!!"

Alexandros smiled heartily, he had known that Uther would make such a decision, after all, abandoning his companions and civilians was not something they could do with their silver hands.

"I can finally go to meet those crumbs!!"

The Great Lord was eager to try, and the joints between his bones and fingers were pinched and clicked.

And just then, a herald hurried up, crossed Alexandros, and went straight to Uther.

The herald whispered something in Uther's ear, and in the incomprehensible eyes of the great lord, he saw that the former's expression gradually changed from solemnity to joy, and finally showed a smile that he had not seen for a long time...

(End of chapter)