The Warchief's Wisdom

Thrall left fifty thousand troops at Crossroads to build a Horde fortress. He had naturally recognized Crossroads' importance, so he appointed his advisor Sok, a powerful, courageous, and resourceful orc, as the garrison commander there.

Over two hundred thousand Horde troops, along with tens of thousands of Tauren, began marching south to rescue the Tauren and bring them into the Horde.

Along the way, the Horde swept through and rescued large numbers of small Tauren tribes besieged by centaurs. The Horde learned that, in the Barrens, besides the local centaurs, countless centaurs had pursued them all the way from Desolace. The five great centaur clans had mobilized in full force, intending to wage a war of extermination against the Tauren. They had not expected the Horde to suddenly intervene, creating a three-way division across the vast Barrens between the Horde, the centaurs, and the quilboars.

Following the advice of Varok Saurfang, the outstanding commander who had served as a commander since Blackhand's era, Warchief Thrall had the Horde swiftly break through the centaurs' defenses before they could react. They thrust straight from Crossroads to the future site of Camp Taurajo, with Mulgore at their backs, standing against the centaurs to the north and the quilboars to the south.

Cairne was thus able to settle the Tauren civilians rescued along the way, then contact the forces that had already reached Mulgore. The Tauren's three strongest clans were Bloodhoof, Grimtotem, and then Runetotem. Their chieftains were Cairne Bloodhoof, Magatha Grimtotem, and Hamuul Runetotem respectively. The three were a powerful warrior, shaman, and druid.

Hamuul had always firmly supported Cairne. Upon hearing that the Horde was willing to help them fight the centaurs, Magatha, who bore a blood feud against them, also agreed to join forces with these foreigners she disliked to fight the centaurs. Though she disliked the Horde as outsiders, she hated the centaurs even more.

Thus, the chieftains of the three great clans joined together and organized over one hundred thousand Tauren warriors. The Horde now had more than three hundred thousand warriors.

Yet compared to the centaurs and quilboars, three hundred thousand was somewhat too few. The five centaur clans together had nearly a million troops, roughly the usual total number of centaurs. The quilboars were even more formidable, with Razorfen and Razorfen Downs as their homeland behind them; the entire quilboar population numbered three million. That was the terrifying aspect of these savage races: their reproductive capacity and their tactic of making every citizen a soldier. It was hard to imagine that the quilboars and centaurs possessed such enormous populations. But numbers did not represent everything. Though centaurs possessed great combat strength by nature, against the Horde it still took five centaurs to match one regular Horde soldier. The quilboars were even worse; against centaurs, it was still three to one, with three quilboars needed to equal a single centaur.

Even so, the Horde had to proceed cautiously. If they fought head-on, even if the Horde won, the losses would be far too great.

This battle was mainly a conflict between the Horde and the centaurs, but the quilboars also had grudges against both sides. And with the fighting at their doorstep, they had no choice but to prepare for battle.

The quilboars had their homeland behind them and no path of retreat. The Horde had Mulgore behind them and likewise no retreat. The centaurs had come to exterminate a race, and they would not simply watch the Tauren escape safely into Mulgore.

The best method Rend could think of was to find a way to make the centaurs and quilboars wear each other down first, then have the Horde step in to disrupt things. Only then could they win at the lowest cost.

But how could they make the centaurs and quilboars clash? The quilboars clearly only wanted to protect their small territory in the south and had no desire for a large-scale conflict with the two behemoths, the Horde and the centaurs. Either one had the power to destroy the quilboars.

The centaurs were to the north, while their targets stood in the middle. The centaurs could reach Mulgore's doorstep and fight them without ever coming into contact with the quilboars.

That was the heart of the problem. As long as they could lure the centaurs onto quilboar territory, it would work. But how could they make the centaurs abandon their assault on Mulgore and choose to head south instead?

Rend agonized over the question, so troubled that he kept tugging at his thick beard and long hair.

Moreover, according to what Rend had learned, the centaur tribe he had wiped out in the Barrens had been part of one of the five great clans, the Kolkar clan. Their khan, Dez'hep, had even been killed by Rend in a desperate counterattack. The Kolkar clan had been nearly annihilated, and their khan had been slain. Maraudon was enraged. Centaur clans could slaughter one another, but when outsiders dared to do it, it provoked public outrage. If the first-generation centaur khans had not been unable to leave Desolace immediately in their spirit forms, someone might have come to kill him already. Even so, Maraudon issued an order for Jehn Khan of the Magram clan and Shaka Khan of the Gelkis clan to bring their clans together with the surviving Kolkar clansmen, forming an army of one million. They were determined to exterminate the Tauren and avenge Khan Dez'hep.

When Rend received this news, his heart turned cold. It was over. The centaurs were going to fight the Horde to the death. Of the five great centaur clans, two had brought half-million armies here.

With no other choice, Rend could only ask everyone for their opinions during the meeting. After all, two heads were better than one. They needed to pool their wisdom.

"The centaurs, quilboars, and we Tauren are all sworn enemies. We all bear grudges against one another. But it seems the quilboars do not intend to get involved, and the centaurs' main target is us. I can't think of any good solution." As the leader of Kalimdor's native races and the person who understood Kalimdor's situation best, even Cairne had no solution.

"Given the situation, why don't we think in reverse? Rend, before this, you were trying to lure the centaurs onto quilboar territory and force them to defend themselves. So why don't we change our approach and make the quilboars leave Razorfen and attack the centaurs on their own? Since Warchief Cairne said that the centaurs and quilboars also have a grudge against each other, we can frame the centaurs. We can disguise ourselves as centaurs and continuously raid quilboar villages. Under pressure, the quilboars may very well take action. After all, outside the Barrens, the quilboars have always held the dominant position. Pressured into it, they will surely show the centaurs what they are made of." Thrall was indeed a wise orc possessed of human knowledge. While everyone else was trapped in straightforward thinking about how to lure the centaurs onto quilboar territory, he thought of turning it around. After all, the local power had to suppress a powerful outsider crossing into its territory, or how could it preserve its dominance over the Barrens?

Everyone was suddenly enlightened. They had all been misled by conventional thinking. Yes, why not turn it around? Just as if someone came to cause trouble on Horde territory, the Horde would also teach them a lesson. It was a matter of a local overlord's control over its territory. No matter how cunning the old quilboar hag Karga Spine was, she had to set an example. Otherwise, Ram'thas, the leader of the war faction, would challenge her position.