Just when the Duke of Deep Shadow held a banquet in his own territory to entertain all the noble families in the southern part of the forest, the situation in Lordaeron changed further.
Under Calia's initiative, Alsace, who was forced to respond urgently, was obviously somewhat unprepared.
As expected, the first shot of this small-scale civil war was fired in the King's City of Lordaeron. The city defense teams belonging to the two forces "accidentally" fired during the confrontation with each other.
This explosive musket shot completely ignited the sparks, and the two sides, who were already tense, subconsciously attacked each other as if they had received a signal.
Sarlayan has always believed that those large-scale events that can affect the pattern of the continent are all composed of many small things that happened by chance and were pieced together step by step.
From this perspective, there seems to be nothing questionable about this incident.
However, Sarlayan never believes too much in inertial judgments. He needs to see more practical evidence.
Under the in-depth investigation of the elite thieves of Backlight Blade, they really discovered something suspicious.
"Evil energy? Are you sure?"
"Sure."
With a serious expression, Valeera placed a small fragment of the broken gun barrel left behind by the blast on Sarlayan's desk.
"This is evidence sent back by Daniel Hunter, the head of the Lordaeron Intelligence Department. It has been initially inspected by the arcanists at the front, and there is still a trace amount of evil energy remaining in the barrel."
Sarlayan turned his head to look at Stellagosa on the side with a solemn expression. Little Xingxing understood and put his plain white hands on the barrel of the gun to check carefully.
As a burst of blue-white soft light swept across the broken barrel, Stellagosa frowned.
"The frontline arcanist's judgment is correct. An extremely small amount of evil energy can be detected in the barrel. I'm afraid the reason for the explosion of this gun is not that simple."
With the internal fighting among the city defense teams as the trigger, both the inside and outside of the Royal City of Lordaeron fell into chaos.
The two forces loyal to Calia and those loyal to Alsace finally stopped hiding and tried impatiently to completely overwhelm each other, hoping that the heavy bets placed by their respective families would see returns as soon as possible.
Under the constraints of Alsace and Calia, they did not go too far, at least for the time being, the war did not spread to the ordinary people in the royal city.
At this critical juncture, Gilneas, Alterac, Dalaran, Stromgard and other countries have all prepared seeds and are waiting to see the show.
However, they had no intention of taking advantage of the situation and sending troops.
Now that Lordaeron has no external worries for the time being, the two siblings can rest assured to devote their energy to each other.
Once a foreign enemy invades, Calia and Alsace, who already have a good relationship, are likely to quickly make peace, just to vent their internal conflicts on the leader.
Maybe there will be a race between the two parties to see who can solve the problem first and gain extra points in the battle for the throne.
The leaders of other human kingdoms are not stupid, and they will not foolishly jump out to be the leader at this juncture.
The most intense fighting today is near the satellite town of Brill outside the royal city.
In addition to Tirisfal Glades, which is under the direct jurisdiction of the Menethil royal family, the lords of Hearthglen, Andorhal, Darrowshire, East Weald and many other places also took sides.
However, these outside lords have not started fighting with the nearby neighbors who have different positions for the time being...except for those who have deep conflicts with each other and just take the opportunity to give each other a little color.
Tirion Fordring, the Lord of Hearthglen, still adheres to the position of the Knights of the Silver Hand and remains neutral between the two parties.
But in fact, Tirion's heart prefers Princess Calia, who has a more stable ruling style. However, due to the choice of the late King Terenas, he can't say anything, so he simply doesn't help anyone.
As the most important granary in East Tirisfal Glades, Andorhal's position is crucial.
Unfortunately, Andorhal is the territory of the Grand Crusader Saidan Dathrohan, and he has never made a clear choice between the two forces.
Compared with the relatively peaceful East Tirisfal Glades, East Wilder, which is further away from the royal city, is another story.
The two administrative districts of East Weald, South and North have taken completely opposite choices.
Darrowshire is firmly on the side of Arthas, while Stratholme is influenced by Quel'Thalas and clearly supports Princess Calia.
As for the Hand of Tyr and the Holy Light's Hope Chapel, which are affiliated to the Knights of the Silver Hand, both of them, not surprisingly, chose neutrality.
From this we can see the influence of the core members of the Silver Hand in the Kingdom of Lordaeron, and the Knights can be seen at almost every important node.
According to intelligence from Stratholme, the new Baron Rivendell, who has just succeeded his retired father, has sent troops through the Darrowmere Trail in an attempt to control the crossing from East Tirisfal Glades into East Weald.
The river must pass through a bridge.
As long as they can gain control of the shores of the Sodorir River, Stratholme can completely cut off the road from the direction of the Royal City, leaving Darrow County without any new supplies.
In order to ensure its own supply route, Daron County was naturally unwilling to be outdone. The vanguards of both sides had already clashed several times on the east bank of the Sodorir River.
Far away on the island of Keldaron on the other side of Lake Darrowmere, the Barov family belonging to the Kingdom of Alterac were watching the fun with gloating.
The Barov family was severely hampered by Lordaeron when it came to Alterac's inheritance.
Although they vented their bad breath through the Battle of Alterac, Alex also saw clearly the true colors of his two sons Alex and Wilton, who had high hopes for them, and could only give up their hope of continuing the family legacy.
On the youngest daughter Jandis.
Alterac, which is still recovering, does not intend to participate in the internal fighting in Lordaeron, but this does not prevent the Barov family from watching the show up close.
"Um……"
Sarlayan looked thoughtfully at the tattered gun barrel in front of him: "Stella, you mean, someone injected evil energy into this barrel in advance and detonated it through remote control at the most critical moment?
"
Stellagosa nodded solemnly: "There may be some discrepancies in the details, but the general idea should be correct."
"This local dispute was planned by someone a long time ago. Those with evil intentions may not be able to wait any longer."
During the Battle of Alterac, the Dreadlords who were hiding in the secrets of Lordaeron and plotting plots jumped out to cause trouble, but they failed to cause any big disturbance at that time.
The Dread Lords are a very difficult species to deal with. Emperor Denathrius's original intention in creating them was to make them the best spies and insert them into various forces in the universe.
Dreadlords are not only good at disguise, but their powers are also very compatible.
The Nathrezim clan comes from the Shadow Realm, and it is natural that they normally use the power of death.
But ironically, the most well-known background of the Dreadlord species is from the Twisting Nether controlled by the Burning Legion. Most people's deepest impression of their power is the evil energy.
According to the barrage, even Zera, the Mother of Holy Light, has a rare great bat of Holy Light, Losaxon, who is probably a spy deliberately planted by Denathrius into the Legion of Light.
The source of the struggle for the throne of Lordaeron comes from Calia and Arthas' mutual desire for the throne, but behind them there will inevitably be other forces adding fuel to the fire.
There is no need to think deeply. First of all, Ner'zhul will definitely not let go of this excellent opportunity. The Burning Legion will naturally invest more in this civil war. They all hope that Lordaeron will become more chaotic.
As a target for Sarlayan to deliberately step in front of the stage to attract firepower, Lordaeron has completed its "mission" very well over the years.
At least at this stage, the Backlight Blade, which has been on high alert, has not found any traces of being infiltrated by the Dreadlord in Quel'Thalas. Most of the Burning Legion's spies have gone to Lordaeron, the strongest kingdom in the Eastern Continent.
Sarlayan has no intention of directly intervening in the competition between Calia and Arthas. Once such interference in other countries' internal affairs is exposed, it will definitely have a huge impact on his personal reputation and the image of Quel'Thalas.
But if a suitable entry point can be found, Sarlayan can participate for the right reasons.
Helping the "friendly neighboring countries" who are temporarily busy to catch Burning Legion spies is a perfect reason, and now, this excuse has been sent to Sharlayan.
Sarlayan, who had already made plans, just pondered for a moment before making up his mind.
"Valila, send a message to Calpurnia, asking her to publicly inform Alsace and Calia of the results of this investigation through the channels of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the grounds that external forces are intervening in the civil war."
"In addition, inform Daniel Hunter to continue the operation. It is best to catch the tail of the cursed sect."
Sarlayan looked up at the huge map hanging on the wall: "You are neutral in the civil war. If you fight against the Burning Legion and the Scourge, there is no reason for you to stay still, right?"
"Silver Hand, once you break the original plan and start moving, it's not up to you to stop it."