The Privy Council mobilized quickly within a short period of time.
Because this incident is relatively secretive, except for the top brass, the specific cause is basically unclear, but everyone knows that something big must have gone wrong in Stromgarde.
Otherwise, their prince would not have suddenly targeted Stromgard.
Terenas, on the other hand, maintained his usual non-interventionist style. Whenever the Privy Council and Alsace acted externally, he made no explicit remarks at all.
As for whether Terenas, as his father, had provided any help to Alsace in private, only the father and son knew.
However, in the entire operation, the most excited person was not Arthas or Nathanos, but Jorach Ravenholdt.
The owner of Ravenholdt Manor and the head of the Assassin's League is not a member of the Privy Council, but he is a loyal ally of another industry in Alsace, the Blackwater Company.
Blackwater's "business scope" is very broad, and the provision of security services and employment tasks is also within the scope of their services, and these activities inevitably require a large amount of intelligence support.
Blackwater has its own intelligence sources, and sometimes it can obtain intelligence from the Privy Council. Their level in the industry is undoubtedly above the first line.
Ravenholdt's intelligence chain is no worse than Blackwater's, but they are an alliance of assassins after all, and are more than a step behind Blackwater in terms of overall strength.
Coupled with the excellent business capabilities of Blackwater's salesmen, Ravenholdt realized that if the Assassin's League wanted to develop and survive, it really needed a qualified partner.
In the past, Ravenholdt was unique and unrivaled in the industry, but the emergence of Blackwater broke Ravenholdt's monopoly in just a dozen years.
Originally, Ravenholdt's senior management was very dissatisfied with this. They initially planned to deal with Blackwater to consolidate their position.
But there was always no news about the assassins they sent, and their intelligence pointed out that the boss behind Blackwater Company was not the goblin tycoon named "Rockefeller", but someone else.
The unexpected result left Ravenholdt in rare silence.
After the incident against Blackwater, Ravenholdt completely realized a fact.
Their people may become the nobles of Stormwind City and the Royal Advisors to the Dark Iron Emperor, but they will never be able to put people into the palace of Lordaeron.
It seems to have become a completely forbidden area for Ravenholdt's assassins, which was not the case more than ten years ago.
Jorach Ravenholdt connected the two things and immediately discovered that after Arthas came of age, those people who were placed in Lordaeron seemed to have disappeared from the world, and news would come out every now and then that they had lost contact. news.
He deeply realized that what Alsace usually showed was only the most superficial part, and the real iceberg was still hidden under the water.
The cunning Ravenholdt quickly stood up after this. They were originally paid to do things without any psychological burden - in terms of wealth, how many people in the world can surpass the Crown Prince of Lordaeron and the boss of Blackwater Company? ?
So Ravenholdt naturally became a controllable force in Alsace, and after they established contact with Alsace, they would also send some talents to the Privy Council.
However, Ravenholdt, who has great hands and eyes, also has something to worry about, and that is the Syndicate organization created by the Alterac nobles.
In the eyes of the people of Ravenholdt, this organization is just an amateur, but they are as disgusting as the ooze monsters. After killing a bunch of them, a bunch of them came out from other places.
Syndicate organizations led by professional bandits and nobles continued to appear in Ravenholdt's radiation range, and robbed a lot of their business. Ravenholdt really couldn't bear them. After Jorazi received the news from Alsace, , can’t wait to end this opponent.
In just a dozen hours, Ravenholdt's assassins have blocked all the important gates of Stromgarde. They will intercept any information and spies from the Syndicate organization after the operation begins.
Before Djarin is successfully stopped and the Syndicate is eliminated, Stromgarde will become an information black hole. No one can obtain the information in it, and no information will be transmitted from it.
Not long after Jorazi's men appeared in Stromgarde, Nathanos and her men had landed on the beach below the cliffs of Stromgarde.
After hiding their landing craft, the Privy Council agents quickly scaled the walls of Stromgarde using grappling hooks and anchors prepared by their colleagues.
Several guards guarded this area. After they saw Nathanos' grappling hook, they stood on the edge of the city wall and used torches to signal the privy council.
"My own men, move quickly." The ranger lord was like a light and vigorous lynx, climbing the high wall of Stromgarde effortlessly.
The agents followed closely behind, and under the cover of the guards, this small team quickly reached the commanding heights of the central fortress of Stromgarde without anyone knowing.
Nathanos took off the longbow, leaned against the bunker at the high point of the castle, and imitated the cry of an eagle. After a brief link, her vision projected onto a goshawk circling over Stromgarde.
After some searching, she soon discovered the figure of Galin - the prince seemed to have just returned from outside the city, and was walking quickly towards the palace wearing a large cloak.
"The target has appeared and is on his way to the palace."
…
Thoras Trollbane is planning to eliminate the strongholds of trolls and ogres in the Arathi Highlands, but Stromgarde's troops are obviously insufficient now, and it seems somewhat incapable of dealing with the enemies scattered on the highlands.
His son Garin has led troops to eliminate some trolls, but compared to the number of enemies on the highlands, it is a drop in the bucket.
Moreover, what worries Solas the most is actually the orcs who escaped from Hillsbrad. As someone who participated in the entire second war, he knows very well that the orcs who have escaped the physical and psychological shackles are not as good as those in the shelter. The coward in the house.
If their tribe is allowed to grow in the Arathi Highlands, Stromgarde may have to pay a considerable price to deal with this threat.
Solas frowned. He missed his days in the Alliance a little bit at this time, but when he thought of Terenas's face, he got a little excited.
"Your Majesty, His Highness Jialin is back."
The words of the royal attendant interrupted Thoradin's thinking. He temporarily put aside the worries in his heart and prepared to welcome his son.
Compared to Solas' nephew Danath Trollbane, Garin is slightly inferior in terms of strength and character, but Solas still believes that Garin can become a qualified heir.
However, Jialin looked a little embarrassed when he pushed open the palace door today. His armor was full of scratches and damage, and there were scars and blood on his face.
The large cloak was intact, but it was only used to cover up his embarrassment.
As soon as he entered the hall, he knelt on one knee in front of Solas, "Father, the orcs attacked us after we captured the troll post... We, we suffered heavy losses."
"What?! How could the orcs attack your troops in that place?"
Thoras' face was full of shock. Although Garin had only a few people with more than a hundred people, the troll stronghold he was ordered to eradicate was not far from Stromgarde. Orcs had never appeared so close.
"I don't know, father, but they are here. The soldiers and I fought desperately, but we just experienced a big battle..."
Galin's tone was low, obviously he was greatly shocked.
"How many people were lost?" Solas stood up from the throne, looked into Garin's eyes, and asked in a deep voice.
"I--"
"I ask you how many people you lost?" Solas's voice rose a little higher.
"Only less than half came back."
After hearing Galin's decadent answer, Solas sighed and returned to his throne, "I understand, Galin, go and rest."
"Father, I can't just rest like this. The blood of the soldiers cannot be shed in vain. The orcs just caught us off guard. As long as we are prepared, we will definitely destroy these beasts!"
Solas held his face with his hands and looked down at the marble steps at his feet, "I understand, Galin, you don't have to worry about this matter, go and rest."
When Jialin saw his father's appearance, he gave up the persuasion and did not show any expression. He just turned around and left the hall.
Solas waited until Galin left, then sat back on the throne and looked thoughtfully at the direction Galin left.
His intuition told him that something was wrong. The orcs appeared so close to Stromgarde without warning, and even attacked the troops of Stromgarde?
He didn't know the exact number of orcs who escaped from Hillsbrad, but it shouldn't be too many. He knew that most of the orcs had left the Eastern Kingdom.
In addition to the orcs who escaped from the shelter in the northeast, there are at most a few thousand orcs wandering in the Arathi Highlands. A considerable number of these orcs are old, weak, women and children. Instead of finding a place to hide, they come to Stromgarde. brow?
This makes very little sense.
If the orcs sent a team of more than a hundred to intercept caravans or raid farms, Solas would still think it was reasonable, but why would they intercept a small army?
The army led by Garin had very few logistical supplies, and there would be nothing of value in the troll outpost. If the orcs took this risk just for revenge, Solas would want to laugh.
If the orcs were really so reckless, he would have led his troops to eradicate all the orcs on Arathi.
Precisely because the orcs were not pure beasts, Solas felt that Garin's words were a little strange. However, Garin's injuries and condition were not fake, and the attrition of the army was easy to detect. There was no reason for Garin to lie to him. .
Solas finally decided to personally take people to see the situation in that outpost tomorrow. If there are really orcs who intend to replace the trolls and camp there, they can eliminate this too close threat as soon as possible.
…
Seeing Garin leaving the palace as if nothing happened, Jorazi and Nathanos guessed his plan.
The prince did not plan to take action in the city. After all, this was the place where King Solas had the strongest control, and if Solas died in his royal city, it would attract unnecessary attention.
Garin must have thought of some way to trick Solas away from Stromgarde, and then resorted to some means.
At this time, a piece of information allowed them, hiding in the dark, to roughly understand what Galin was thinking.
Earlier today, after Garin led his troops to remove several orc outposts, his team was indeed attacked, but it was not the orcs who attacked the Stromgarde army, but the Syndicate's people.
And the team led by Garin was mixed with cronies he had secretly cultivated. This was something that even Solas didn't know about.
Injured and exhausted, the soldiers of Stromgarde made little effective resistance due to internal and external factors, and were all eliminated by Djarin and the Syndicate's men.
The damage on Garin's armor and the injuries on his body were not caused by the orcs at all, but were left by the soldiers who were still loyal to Solas and Stromgard.
The Syndicate also cleaned up the aftermath for him after the battle, leaving a large number of traces of the presence of orcs at the scene: as their country had been destroyed by orcs, they knew the methods of orcs very well, and they also prepared orc weapons in advance to fight, and deliberately scattered them. Some are on the battlefield.
They even found the bodies of the orcs without knowing where they came from, and used the swords from Stromgarde to fake their injuries.
Encountering an ambush by orcs, Garin and his team were defeated in a bloody battle and led the remaining troops to escape.
Although the method seemed clumsy in the eyes of Ravenholdt and the Privy Council, it was a battlefield after all. If Thoras had not brought the body back to Stromgarde and sent someone to inspect it carefully, nothing unusual would have been discovered.
"This guy Galin is really well prepared..." Qiao Laqi took the information in his hand and his view of Galin changed again.
However, the sieve-like interior of the Syndicate allowed Ravenholdt's people to infiltrate easily, and obtained all of Garin's plans without much effort.
According to the script, his next plan is to use this incident to lure Solas out of Stromgarde, and then create the illusion of an orc attack, so that Solas can "die" in the chaos. Then he will Lin will be able to ascend the throne legitimately.
In this way, not only will no one doubt his legitimacy, but most of the conflicts and attention will be focused on the orcs. He can even use this matter to rejoin the alliance and use the power of the alliance to help Riptide. Fort to deal with orcs, and even trolls and ogres.
In a mansion in Stromgarde, dozens of privy knights and agency agents protected the mansion airtight. Arthas was sitting on the sofa in the living room of the mansion, holding the same information as Jorazzi. , face sinking like water.
——Garin not only wants to seize the power of Stromgarde, but also intends to extend his hand to the Alliance. In his eyes, the Alliance is just the next stepping stone for his "dream to come true."
