Marcus felt a deep sense of disappointment and unhappiness.

The Stone Fort is the only large fortress located on the border of the Red Ridge Mountain, and it is also an important support point for the northern and eastern defense lines of the Red Ridge Mountain.

The northern defense line of Red Ridge Mountain is dotted with various strongholds—a small fortress at the mountain pass between Red Ridge Mountain and the Burning Plains, three camps, and eleven watchtowers—where two regiments of the 16th Brigade of the Third Legion of the Stormwind Kingdom are stationed, responsible for supporting the Kingdom's outposts in the Burning Plains, monitoring the movements of the Black Iron Dwarves, and blocking the Blackstone Trail from entering the Red Ridge Mountain. On the eastern defensive line, in order to blockade the Garradel Valley, one of the strongholds of the jackals in the Red Ridge Mountains, and to fight against the Stone Fort Falls and the Fish-Man tribes, various outposts, towers, and camps were established, and another regiment of the 16th Brigade was deployed there.

Stationed in the Stone Fort Fortress is the Seventeenth Brigade, a main brigade of the Third Legion of the Stormwind Kingdom. On paper of the kingdom's military, the area where this fortress is located should have a full 3,000 standing troops, echoing the station of the 18th Brigade, a large military camp south of Zhishui Lake.

However, according to what Marcus had seen and heard, there were only about 600 people in the large fortress where the main brigade was stationed, and there were only about 600 people in the fortress on weekdays, and there were no one in the fortress except for a lame commander of the 33rd Regiment, Major Karon, who was lame.

In particular, a series of nobles, led by Count Arthur, were nobles who came to gild to be exact, and the officers who came to gild themselves basically used the town as their place to stay. His villa in Lakeside Town is the brigade headquarters of the brigade, and it is also the command center in a sense. And in the barracks outside the lakeside town, there were more people stationed in the fortress than in the fortress.

Only the officers and their soldiers who were not treated well by Count Arthur were stationed at the Stone Fort in the damp conditions, the several subordinate towers and towers around the Stone Fort Fortress, or on patrols and to keep the roads clear.

In order to deal with the gnolls from the Red Ridge Canyon not far north of Lakeside Town, the lords of Lakeside Town and other places also welcomed Colonel Arthur very well. Colonel Arthur also had a good reason to guard against the gnolls at the invitation of the lord of the land, although the task was clearly out of his zone, not even in the entire zone of the Third Legion.

Of course, Colonel Arthur would still come to the fortress two or three times a year, and occasionally go to the fortress for inspections, but he would never stay at the fortress for more than two nights at a time.

In addition, in order to protect the large lumberyard not far west of the Stone Fort Tower, an important material gathering base in the Red Ridge Mountains, the 17th Brigade also set up a camp there, also manned by officers who the colonel did not appreciate.

So, in order to complete the reporting mission, Marcus had to set off with the messenger sent by the fortress to Lakeside Town. Although he was only a small second lieutenant, according to the requirements, he had to report to the highest commander of the 17th Brigade and assign his duties. Gain's Count of Lothar did not assign him any specific position, but only asked the military department to give him the rank of second lieutenant, and let him report for duty.

Marcus himself, who had no opinion on this arrangement, was very satisfied when he heard that the Seventeenth Brigade was a well-known elite of the kingdom. It wasn't until he saw the so-called basic travel situation of the brigade that he became unhappy with this arrangement.

As he had expected, he made his way to Lakeside without seeing Colonel Arthur himself. After not handing the squire a few coins and withdrawing his identification with the coat of arms of the Elan family, Marcus waited in the colonel's waiting room for a long time, and then one of his attendants came out with a swagger, and gave him a new stamped document along with the paper, and appointed him a squadron leader, stationed in the outermost watchtower of the Stone Fortress, quite close to the range of the Garrad Jackal tribe.

That was pretty much the most dangerous part of the 17th Brigade, and that was exactly what he wanted.

The war between the Stormwind Kingdom and the Gnolls has been going on for many years. It can be said to be over, but it can also be said that it is not over.

The end is because it has been a long time since the kingdom's army has fought a large-scale decisive battle with the gnolls, such as the scale that requires the Third Legion to come out. In the past decade or so, there has not even been a large-scale cleanup of the gnolls by more than one regiment. However, it is not unreasonable to say that there is no end. Not only the Third Legion, a standing army established to deal with the threat of the gnolls, to this day, towns and people throughout the kingdom are still dealing with various small-scale attacks by the gnolls.

Of course, in general, the trend is still developing in a good direction -

Over the past few years, many different human kingdoms have flourished throughout the Eastern Kingdoms, the smallest and most isolated of which is the Kingdom of Stormwind. The kingdom prospered over the years, and as the population of the Stormwind Kingdom grew, many towns gradually developed, stretching across the nearby Elwyn Forest, Red Ridge Mountains, and the Sunshine Glades, to the Western Wilderness, once known as the granary of the kingdom.

The kingdom's lands are constantly expanding, and so are the threats. As the kingdom grows, so do the threats. From the very beginning, a large number of fierce but simple-minded gnolls have taken these new humans as easy prey, and have gone on to attack fleets, farms, and towns in the Stormwind Kingdom. For this reason, the Stormwind Kingdom sent its valiant knights and other soldiers to patrol in order to defend their lands.

However, more and more gnolls have tasted the sweetness, and even distant tribes are gathering towards the kingdom. Stormwind was once a refuge for refugees who had been driven from their homes. This impregnable city brings not only physical safety, but also spiritual guidance. For decades, the burgeoning Church of Light has sent a number of devout priests from Lordaeron all the way south to spread their faith. Upon arrival in the Kingdom of Stormwind, the pious people established an organization known as the Sacred Order of the Northern Priests, who provided wisdom and solace to the kingdom in times of hardship.

The priests soothe the people of Stormwind with the power of the Light, and the army patrols the kingdom's borders. Although their watchfulness saved the frontier territories from death, the threat of the gnolls did not go away.

By the time King Baracen Wryn came to power, the growing threat spiraled out of control. The gnolls began to attack Stormwind in a blatant manner, but what was more, these attacks were nothing more than a ploy - when the lords came to support Stormwind with their recruited soldiers, the farms in the Wild West or Red Ridge would be destroyed.

This kind of tactic is unusual for a Gnoll. If anything, the reason for this is probably that there has never been a leader of decent minds among the gnolls. And the Eeltooth King is such a cunning Red Ridge Jackal—a Jackal tribe from the Red Ridge Canyon. It has spent years conquering the other gangs of gnolls around it, and now it has the best of both worlds: on the one hand, it has an army of ruthless marauders for it to drive, and on the other hand, it has the means to put it to good use. Within a year of this campaign, the Gnolls had already looted a third of the settlements outside the city.

King Barathans then sent emissaries to Lordaeron, Gilneys, and the other human kingdoms for help, but no one came to their aid—it was unprofitable for the many kingdoms to come and clear the threat of the poor country. The Kingdom of Stormwind is a self-sufficient place, and since it has little trade with other kingdoms, not to mention their ideas that are quite old-fashioned to others. The humans of the Stormwind Kingdom have no choice but to find their own way out.

Enraged by the reluctance of the other realms to help, Barathon resolved to settle it himself: if the Gnoll King dared to attack Stormwind with impunity, he would have to resort to the same bold tactics.

So, the king left the city under the cover of night with a well-equipped army of elite knights, and they set off from Stormwind and into the Red Ridge Mountains in one fell swoop. Soon, they saw an opportunity - the Gnoll King had all his strength for the offensive, but he had not gone with the army himself, and like the other Gnolls, Eelfang was willing to leave the trouble to others.

However, now that the army is gone, the weak garrison of the Red Ridge King can be said to be exposed.

Barathan led the crowd into a battle with Eelfang and his guards for a day and a night, and it was the king's own blade that finally swept the throat of the gnoll king. Half of the knights died, and the remnants were bruised, but the rule of the Eelfang came to an end at Barathan's hands.

As soon as the gnoll army heard the news of the death of its leader, it was immediately plunged into civil war. Several gnolls vying for the position of eel fangs are competing with each other for the position of eelfang, but none of them are as cunning and cunning as him, and these gnolls who have been greatly reduced in the number of cannibalistic battles are no longer able to penetrate into human territory. King Baracen then took advantage of the Gnolls' infighting, gathered his soldiers and attacked the Red Ridge Mountains in one fell swoop, killing most of the remaining Gnolls. While these hostile creatures will continue to roam the land in hordes and continue to be hostile to humanity, they will never again be as serious a threat to the Stormwind Kingdom as they once were.

As for King Baracen Urien, he has since earned the title of "Rock" and has been celebrated as a hero, and this victory has since established confidence in the subjects of the Stormwind Kingdom, believing that even without the support of other human kingdoms, all dangers can still be solved in front of them. In the years that followed, the relationship between the Kingdom of Stormwind and the other northern kingdoms became even more estranged.