East Tirisfal is directly bordered by Eversong Forest, and there is only a mountain between Stratholme City and the Temple of Dysholm where the Tree of Life, Sath'ala, is located.
Although the distance is very close, they belong to two countries after all. This is the first time for Sarlayan to enter this neighboring city.
The Stratholme region is one of the most prosperous territories in the Kingdom of Lordaeron. The Rivendell family, the lords who manage this area, have been receiving solicitations from all parties who come to Lordaeron all year round.
There was, and not only, the royal family of Menethil.
In a feudal kingdom like Lordaeron, the lords and kings are hereditary.
Unless someone commits a serious crime such as treason and is ordered to attack by the king and forcibly reclaim the territory, no one has the right to directly give orders to the local people beyond the lord.
The King is no exception.
A sentence said by a netizen of Different World Shadiao describes this phenomenon very well.
The vassals of my vassals are not my vassals.
To translate, the subjects (subordinates) under the king's lord are not the direct subjects (subordinates) of the king.
This is very embarrassing for the kings of various countries.
The subordinates appointed by Baron Rivendell will only be loyal to the baron himself, and the king has no authority to order them.
This leads to a pretty fucked up situation.
For example, a talented person appears in the Baron of Stratholme and is known to both the King and the Baron.
Unless Terenas can recruit him before Baron Rivendell takes action, this talented person will inevitably fall under the command of the local lord, Baron Rivendell.
If Terenas wants to recruit this talented person, he must get the opinions of both Baron Rivendell and the person being recruited.
Who wouldn’t want such a capable direct subordinate?
Thinking from the perspective of Baron Rivendell, why should I provide talents produced in my own territory to the king? I want to keep it for myself. If you have the guts, you can whip me.
When the king wanted to recruit talents, most of the time he was forced to look among the nobles directly under his jurisdiction.
How many nobles are under the direct jurisdiction of the king, and how many commoners are there in the entire kingdom? Which party has a higher chance of producing talented people?
The answer is...hard to say.
In this feudal era, which was hailed as a dark period by barrages, the education rate of civilians was appallingly low.
Even if civilians have a higher population base, it is not easy to select talents from them. Occasionally, you will encounter a genius with a genetic mutation.
On the other hand, the powerful nobles with territories generally do not always follow the king and wait for orders.
Isn’t it nice to be domineering in one’s own territory? Why do you have to spend so much time advising the king?
So usually, the advisers around the king are from small nobles. They are just trying to fight for a better future, and they are not really serving the country and the people.
According to the intelligence detected by the Backlight Blade, Stratholme, a high-mountain emperor, has never been completely loyal to the royal family of Menethil.
The Rivendell family has long been accustomed to waiting for a price, and whoever offers the better reward will be rewarded.
Just like Quel'Thalas, the Kingdom of Lordaeron is not monolithic, and there are also various forces.
During the war, Terenas was able to use his strong hand to bring all the nobles together and deal with the outside world in unison.
But once the war is over, the nobles will never kneel with the king all the time. Most of them will lead their troops back to their territories.
In the eyes of those nobles with high status, the so-called royal family is nothing more than the largest noble in the country. They still have to compete with them according to the established rules and cannot do it blindly, otherwise it will trigger a civil unrest.
The people here do not refer to the common people at the bottom of society, but to the landlords and wealthy families in various noble territories.
A territory is a small kingdom, and the lord, like the king, needs a smooth and sophisticated approach to control the landlords and gentry in his territory.
The Rivendell family has been operating in Stratholme for many years and has already integrated the entire region without leakage.
Terenas has always been jealous of the prosperity and wealth of Stratholme, but he did not dare to attack the Rivendell family casually.
Once the rules are broken, he, the king, will be attacked by a large number of powerful nobles in the country.
Facing the food delivered by the high elves in a timely manner, Baroness Anastali only thought about it for a moment, put aside the consequences that might make Terenas unhappy, and readily agreed to pay money to purchase this batch of food.
Kael'thas is a generous and honest man. He has no intention of making a fortune with this batch of grain. He just takes into account the transportation cost. According to Stratholme's average grain price, it has increased by 20%.
Anastali can understand this price increase, and it is completely acceptable.
Of course, Kael'thas is not a philanthropist, and he has other requirements for transporting this batch of food to Stratholme.
But there is no need to tell the Baroness these words in detail. Even if she has some guesses in her heart, Anastali will pretend she doesn't know.
Stratholme is too close to Quel'Thalas and too far away from the Royal City of Lordaeron. There is no need to offend the high elves for Terenas' personal preferences.
When she learned that Earl Deep Shadow had personally delivered food to Stratholme, Anastali was quite surprised and politely welcomed Sarlayan and others into the lord's mansion.
As for the grain, there will naturally be experienced merchants who will discuss it in detail with Stratholme's procurement officials, so there is no need for Sharlayan to worry about it.
…
By the time Quel'Thalas' food convoy arrived in Stratholme, the battle in front of the east wall tower was drawing to a close.
Due to lack of food, the army under Baron Rivendell was relatively low in fighting spirit, and their performance was unsatisfactory in the face of the Moss Rotten Trolls who were short of soldiers and armor.
The two sides started a tug-of-war in the area around the east wall guard tower. They went back and forth for several days, and it was difficult to tell the winner for a while.
The Moss Trolls were relatively calm, since they were barefoot and not afraid of wearing shoes.
Baron Rivendell became more and more anxious as he fought.
Because the road leading to the Light's Hope Chapel was blocked by the Moss Rotten Trolls, the Stratholme army's status was unable to recover due to lack of supplies.
Seeing that the little food left was being consumed day by day, Baron Rivendell was scratching his head and head anxiously.
Just when he was about to let the soldiers have their last meal and break through the defense line of the east wall sentry tower in a desperate attempt, the Moss Rotten Troll camp where the old god was originally present suddenly broke into commotion.
Baron Rivendell didn't know what was happening. He ordered his soldiers to be alert and ready to attack at any time.
However, to the baron's surprise, the Moss Rotten Troll abandoned the victory it had finally taken, and left the east wall sentry tower without any hesitation to return north quickly.
"...What the hell?"
Baron Rivendell looked at the Moss Rotten Troll retreating like a tide with a confused expression.
At the reminder of the attendant, he shook his head vigorously and forced himself to concentrate.
"No matter what, let's take back the east wall sentry tower first, and let Mulla go to the Holy Light's Hope Chapel to ask for food and fodder support. Be quick!"
"yes!"
It was not until two days later that the messenger, who had eaten and drank enough and set out again, brought the latest news from Stratholme City to Baron Rivendell.
The dragon knight troops of Quel'Thalas stormed the moss-rot trolls' stronghold of Zumashal, forcing them to hand over the remnants of the Amani who had fled here.
After learning that his hometown had been attacked, the Moss Troll Chief could only give up the idea of continuing to expand his territory and hurriedly led his troops to return for reinforcements.
"High Elf..."
The contemporary Baron Rivendell is a middle-aged man with extraordinary magnanimity. When he learned that Quel'Thalas sent dragon knight troops to force the moss-rot trolls to withdraw, he couldn't understand the reason behind this for a while.
"With the high elves' arrogance and confidence in their own national power, it's impossible that they were frightened by Terenas' threatening words, right?"
"So why did they send troops?"
The Holy Light's Hope Chapel is an important base of the Silver Hand in the East Tirisfal region. Here lies a large number of paladins who died heroically in the Second Orc War.
At the same time, the headquarters of the Knights of the Silver Hand, the Secret Palace of Holy Light, is hidden underground in this cathedral.
After receiving the invitation from Holy Light's Hope Chapel, Baron Rivendell did not dare to ask for help and rushed to the cathedral with several attendants.
When he arrived at his destination, Baron Rivendell unexpectedly saw two people who shouldn't have been there.
"Alfred, Barry? Why are you here?"
Alfred Abbendis, Lord of the Hand of Tyr and one of the senior paladins of the Order of the Silver Hand.
Bali Westwin, captain of the Lordaeron navy, has his fleet docked at the port behind the Hand of Tyr all year round, closely monitoring the movements of the high elven navy in the north.
Baron Rivendell's political sensitivity is not low, and the simultaneous appearance of these two people made him have some guesses.
"Does Terenas' subordinate have any orders for me? You might as well just tell me."
