After a night of dealing with state affairs, the sun An'she once again unconsciously cast its radiance into Stromgarde, the golden sunlight filtering into the Stromgarde royal palace.
Looking at the golden sunlight, Galen Trollbane gave a wry smile because, in the time of an entire night, only a very small portion of the piled-up state affairs had been handled. To finish processing all of them, he estimated it would take a few days without sleep or rest.
Handling these state affairs was even more exhausting than fighting Akira the Lich Summoner.
Just as Galen Trollbane was stretching, a Stromgarde guard walked in and reported, "Your Highness, a man claims to be your friend and says the cargo has arrived."
"All right, I understand." Although his identity was not directly stated, it was obvious that the other party was from the Assassins League, and the so-called cargo must be the missing Trade Prince Revilgaz's stone statue.
Galen Trollbane, who had originally wanted to rest for a while, instantly perked up. The treasury inside the stone statue of Trade Prince Revilgaz was the foundation for the revitalization of the Kingdom of Stromgarde and must not be lost under any circumstances, so Galen Trollbane decided to go and receive it in person.
Galen Trollbane directly led a thousand-man Stromgarde cavalry unit toward Thoradin's Wall. He had already learned from the Rogue sent by the Assassins League that Jorach Ravenholdt had already transported the stone statue of Trade Prince Revilgaz to Durnholde Keep in the Hillsbrad Foothills.
The terrain of the Arathi Highlands was very suitable for cavalry to gallop across, and furthermore, there was a wide road leading from Stromgarde to Thoradin's Wall that had long ago been built by the Kingdom of Stromgarde.
It did not take long before Galen Trollbane arrived beneath Thoradin's Wall.
The battles with the Scourge had made the already dilapidated Thoradin's Wall even more battered.
Therefore, Marshal Oslett had the 30,000 Stromgarde militia troops stationed at Thoradin's Wall repair the wall while remaining on guard against a Scourge counterattack.
Half a month's time was not enough to repair such a massive engineering project as Thoradin's Wall, but one could still intuitively see that, thanks to the clearing efforts of the Stromgarde militia troops, the moss had been cleaned away, and the stones of Thoradin's Wall had also recovered their original pristine white appearance.
On the southern side of Thoradin's Wall, which was the location of Galin's Fall in the original history, there was a small encampment set up with simple tents.
Those living here were definitely not the Stromgarde militia troops garrisoning Thoradin's Wall, but refugees who had defected to the Kingdom of Stromgarde from beyond Thoradin's Wall.
In half a month's time, the news of the victory in the Battle for Arathi had spread throughout the Eastern Kingdoms. However, during this period, only refugees from the Hillsbrad Foothills, which were close to the Arathi Highlands, had been able to rush to Thoradin's Wall to seek the protection of the Kingdom of Stromgarde.
Long before Galen Trollbane went to Booty Bay, he had already given instructions that refugees seeking protection could be accepted after vetting, and provided with living quarters, food, and protection.
In doing so, Galen Trollbane was putting on a show for those refugees who were still taking a wait-and-see attitude, demonstrating that the Kingdom of Stromgarde was willing to accept refugees and provide them with good treatment.
Because even if all the exiled population of the Kingdom of Stromgarde returned, the kingdom would still only have a population of 700,000. To contend with the Kingdom of Stormwind in the southern Eastern Kingdoms and prevent the Kingdom of Stromgarde from becoming a vassal state again, Galen Trollbane had to seize this opportunity to push the population of the Kingdom of Stromgarde past the one-million mark.
With Galen Trollbane leading the way, the Stromgarde cavalry unit directly passed through Thoradin's Wall and entered the Hillsbrad Foothills.
Previously, the corpses of the Scourge outside Thoradin's Wall had been cleared away, but some traces of dark blood could still be found.
At this time, the Syndicate had not yet developed to its peak, but was just beginning to rise, so the Syndicate had not yet occupied Durnholde Keep.
Durnholde Keep was once the Alliance's largest orc concentration camp. Hundreds of thousands of orcs had once been imprisoned here, and this was also the place where Thrall, the Warchief of the New Horde, grew up.
After Thrall, the Warchief of the New Horde, used shamanistic earthquake magic to destroy the walls of Durnholde Keep, kill the ambitious Lieutenant Blackmoore, and rescue the orcs, the shattered Durnholde Keep was left unoccupied.
The Assassins League had not truly occupied Durnholde Keep either, merely using it as a temporary trading post. The Rogues of the Assassins League hid in the shadows, making Durnholde Keep look completely devoid of human presence.
During the process of entering Durnholde Keep, Galen Trollbane relied on the sharp attentiveness of a Heroic Rank Warrior to discover some members of the Assassins League hidden in the dark corners. The number of Rogues capable of evading a Heroic Rank powerhouse in Azeroth did not exceed the fingers on two hands.
In the plaza of Durnholde Keep, the huge stone statue of Trade Prince Revilgaz was placed right in the center of the plaza.
Galen Trollbane did not know what methods Duke Jorach Ravenholdt had actually used to transport the stone statue of Trade Prince Revilgaz intact from Booty Bay all the way to the Hillsbrad Foothills.
However, none of that mattered anymore. Since the stone statue of Trade Prince Revilgaz was already in his hands, Galen Trollbane would simply take possession of it directly.
The thousand Stromgarde cavalrymen were all direct-line troops loyal to the Trollbane family, equivalent to royal guards and royal knights. They would never betray Galen Trollbane, so Galen Trollbane had the Stromgarde cavalrymen directly blast apart the stone statue of Trade Prince Revilgaz, conceal the countless treasures blasted out from inside into carts found from within Durnholde Keep, cover them with black cloth, and have the Highland Steeds of the Stromgarde cavalry unit haul them back to Stromgarde.
Galen Trollbane roughly calculated that the treasury inside the stone statue of Trade Prince Revilgaz was worth at least tens of millions of gold coins.
"Go back and tell your Duke Jorach Ravenholdt that he can come to Stromgarde to collect the commission for this mission at any time." Before the return trip, Galen Trollbane called out toward a seemingly empty pile of hay.
The members of the Assassins League hiding in the shadows would definitely relay Galen Trollbane's words; this time, his cooperation with the Assassins League was considered complete.
When returning to Thoradin's Wall, almost all of the thousand Stromgarde cavalrymen were pulling carts. Although it looked extremely bizarre, the Stromgarde militia troops garrisoning Thoradin's Wall were in no position to closely inspect the carts personally brought back by Galen Trollbane.
Just like that, the wealth that Trade Prince Revilgaz of Booty Bay had accumulated over half a lifetime all became Galen Trollbane's.
At the same the time, Galen Trollbane had 5,000 troops detached from the 30,000 Stromgarde militia troops garrisoning Thoradin's Wall to head for the Hillsbrad Foothills and occupy Durnholde Keep.
Although the Kingdom of Stromgarde was currently powerless to expand into the Hillsbrad Foothills, it would not be long before the Kingdom of Stromgarde revived once again, and then the Hillsbrad Foothills would become the best location for the Kingdom of Stromgarde to expand outward.
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