Chapter 998: Injuring the enemy by one thousand and injuring oneself by eight hundred.
When it comes to the harsh environment in the country, Alterac, whose core territory is located in the snowy mountains, ranks first, followed by Stormgard, who lives in the Arathi Highlands.
It's not that the Arathi Highlands cannot produce food. The harsh environment in Stromgard is different from that of Alterac, which is a bitter cold land. This is mainly caused by human factors.
That's right, it's the Deadwood Trolls, the third largest clan of forest trolls that are still active in the highlands.
Oh, by the way, now we also have to add the Stonefist Ogres who fled here and settled here after the Second War.
Before the Troll War, the entire northern part of the Eastern Continent was the hunting ground for forest trolls. In the early days of the founding of the nation, Quel'Thalas was once suppressed in the northern part of Yongsong Forest and could only hide within the Bandinoril Barrier.
middle.
The sudden emergence of Emperor Thoradin led the Arathor Empire to form an alliance with Quel'Thalas, and together they defeated the once arrogant forest trolls, greatly reducing their scope of activities.
But even so, the three major forest troll clans still retain a considerable degree of combat effectiveness.
The overlord clan Amani has been fighting a tug-of-war with the high elf rangers in the southern part of Eversong Forest. It was not until a few years ago that the newly created Morning Frontier Legion unexpectedly captured the capital Zul'Aman and has been in decline ever since.
The second largest clan, the Evil Branch, is rampant in the Hinterland Highlands. They are not only at war with the Wildhammer dwarves living in the Eagle's Nest Mountain for a long time, but they are also merciless to other smaller clans who are also forest trolls.
But this is not bad news for Quel'Thalas.
The Maltooth clan, which had been suppressed and bullied by the Evilbranch clan for many years, was jointly persuaded by the high elves and Wildhammer dwarves to open the port on the eastern coast of Cintra to Quel'Thalas, allowing materials from the Eversong Forest to flow down the river.
Directly to the Hinterlands.
These high-quality supplies produced by the high elves greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of the Wildhammer dwarves.
In the past two years, Falstad Wildhammer has ordered the Wildhammer dwarves to switch from forced defense to active offense.
The Wildhammer dwarves have set up a large number of outposts along the northern and eastern lines of the Cintra Highlands to ensure that supplies shipped by sea can be smoothly delivered to the front line.
Due to their numerical disadvantage, today's Wildhammer dwarves are still unable to pose a sufficient threat to the Evil Branch Troll's capital of Zin'saro, but they can at least compete with them in the Hinterland Highlands.
The Wildhammer dwarves who switched from defense to attack attracted a lot of attention from the Vilebranch Trolls, and the pressure on the Vilefang, a small clan living near the sea, was greatly reduced.
This beneficial change convinced the leader of the Maltooth clan that his decision was correct, and he more firmly supported the Wildhammer dwarves in the frontline.
Unlike large clans like Evil Branch and Deadwood, which are determined to compete for the status of forest troll masters, small clans like Bad Teeth simply cannot consider such long-term matters. Being able to lead their clansmen to survive in the crisis-ridden Hinterlands is just a matter of
victory.
The last of the three major clans is the Kumu clan.
Although not as powerful as the Evil Branch clan who established the capital, the Deadwood Trolls also have their own territory in the Arathi Highlands - the Deadwood Village located in the southeastern corner of the highlands.
During the heyday of the Kingdom of Stromgard, most of the Arathi Highlands were under their control, and the Deadwood Trolls were suppressed in the Deadwood Village and unable to go out.
However, with the sudden death of Soras, the heroic leader of the generation, and the lack of abilities of Jialin who succeeded him, the Deadwood Troll saw hope of rising again.
They joined forces with the Stonefist Ogres, who had just arrived in Arathi, to press hard against Stromgarde, whose control was weakening day by day. They even invaded Stromgarde due to Garin's inaction, and even lured the wolf into the house.
Syndicate thieves who are greedy for money.
However, following the death of Duke Falkrest, the leader of the Syndicate, the Syndicate was officially recruited and reorganized by Alterac, and had already evacuated from Stromgarde.
After the Regency Council overthrew Galin's rule, they repelled the trolls and ogres who invaded the capital, and finally recaptured Stromgarde.
But the dilemma faced by Stromgard has not been relieved. The Deadwood Trolls and Stonefist Ogres, which are increasingly expanding their scope of activities, are gradually encroaching on the territory that should belong to Stromgard.
Caliya saw Stromgard's problem very clearly. To put it bluntly, it was caused by lack of money.
Arathi Highlands produces a lot of high-quality ores and herbs, but because Lordaeron, which has the strongest purchasing power, has cut off the trade routes with them, the goods hoarded by Stromgard, who is not strong at sea, have never been able to sell in large quantities.
From time to time, Kul Tiras would risk offending Lordaeron by sending merchant ships to the port of Faldir Bay to purchase minerals and herbs at low prices.
However, the wealthy Kul Tiras does not lack these resources. Since they have already broken up with the big seller Lordaeron, the amount they can eat is relatively limited, and they cannot fundamentally solve the problem faced by Stromgard.
Financial difficulties.
In fact, it is very simple to solve this problem. As long as Lordaeron reopens trade with Stromgard, their pressure will gradually be relieved.
However, both Terenas and Arthas were determined to put extreme pressure on Stromgard, preferably forcing them to surrender to Lordaeron and annex Stromgard.
But having been fighting trolls all year round, Stromgardians are rich in martial virtue. They may be lacking in other things, but they will not lack in spine.
To this day, the Stromgard Regency Council still stands firm and refuses to bow to Lordaeron. When it comes to asking for compensation, it straightens its back and reaches out to ask for it openly, without any intention of groveling.
Calia is not Terenas, and she does not intend to annex other human kingdoms in a forceful way.
Moreover, the impact of this kind of economic sanctions is mutual, hurting the enemy one thousand, and damaging oneself eight hundred.
Without the high-quality minerals and herbs produced in the Arathi Highlands, Lordaeron can only pinch its nose and purchase them at high prices from Quel'Thalas, which has a relatively friendly relationship on the surface, but this is obviously not cost-effective.
Quel'Thalas has not deliberately raised prices. Due to the high population cost, the basic materials sold in Quel'Thalas are just more expensive than other countries.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Kael'thas actually does not want to engage in this relatively low-end basic material trade. He uses the skills of high elf craftsmen to refine the materials and sell them directly.
The profit earned from the finished product will be higher.
In the later period of Terenas's reign, in order to realize his increasingly unrealistic dreams, he would rather harm some of the national interests to continue to hold on.
Calia will not do this. She plans to resume trade with Gilneas, Stromgard, Alterac, Dalaran and Kul Tiras, and exempt the Kingdom of Lordaeron from purchasing materials.
additional expenses.
The matter of rebuilding the alliance is very involved, and these representatives who serve as mouthpieces alone cannot make the decision, and the kings of various countries do not want to come to Lordaeron to discuss the matter with Calia for the time being.
Just like Calia herself said, they want to observe and confirm Calia's governance style before making a decision.
But for such a major event that can revitalize their own economy, the representatives will definitely send the news back to their home country as soon as possible, and the home country will send a professional diplomatic team to discuss it slowly with Lordaeron.
Sarlayan was playing a role in almost the entire congress. He had already discussed the matters that needed to be discussed with Calia in private, and the rest was nothing more than a formality.
As Lordaeron, which has been closed off for many years, reopens to the outside world, economic and trade exchanges in the northern part of the Eastern Kingdom will definitely become more frequent.
Without the naval blockade of Lordaeron, Quel'Thalas' merchant ships can sail down the west coast and safely transport their goods to Gilneas, Stromgard, and even further to Khaz Modan.
and Stormwind Kingdom for sale.
Calia's decision to open trade is obviously more beneficial than harmful to Quel'Thalas, and Sharlayan, who is happy to see the results, will certainly not jump out to cause trouble.
Not only were Stromgard and Gilneas enthusiastic about Calia's proposal to reopen bilateral trade, Rhonin of Dalaran also rubbed his hands and reached a preliminary cooperation intention with Calia on the spot.
After Dalaran took off, due to geographical factors, the only ones that could maintain direct trade with them, apart from Quel'Thalas, were Alterac, which had just been restored a few years ago.
Quel'Thalas itself is a magical country, and there is no shortage of Dalaran's specialty magic tools.
As we all know, Alterac, which is in dire need of development, is still relatively poor at this stage, and Dalaran cannot make much money from them.
Again, economic sanctions will have an impact on both sides.
After learning that Calia planned to reopen the Lordaeron market, Luo Ning, who had hoarded a large amount of goods, couldn't wait to make a fortune from Lordaeron.
Eyrie Mountain, which has nothing to do with them, Khaz Modan and Gnomeregan have no interest in the commercial issues discussed between human countries. The three representatives are gathering together and whispering at the moment.
Seeing that Calia was still arguing with several other human countries for a while, Sarlayan simply left Valeela to stay where he was, and sneaked to the dwarves and gnomes alone.
As both alien races, the relationship between Quel'Thalas and the dwarves and gnomes is not very good, but there is no conflict, and they have always maintained normal trade with each other.
This time Sharlayan came here specifically to find them, mainly for the representatives of the Wildhammer and Bronzebeard dwarves.
"Two representatives, please forgive me for taking the liberty of approaching you. I have been entrusted with delivering a proposal to your respective kings."
To this day, Sarlayan Deep Shadow's name is already very loud among the top leaders of various countries.
Seeing that the legendary Duke of Deep Shadow took the initiative to discuss the matter, the three representatives hurriedly stopped whispering among themselves and assumed a posture of listening.
Due to the good cooperation in the Hinterlands in recent years, the representatives of the Wildhammer clan are the closest to the high elves.
He took Sarlayan and put it on the table, looked at the brown slate with a deep dwarf style, and asked curiously: "Duke of Shadow, can I ask who this proposal comes from?"
"sure."
Sarlayan smiled meaningfully: "They are your distant relatives, the Dark Iron Dwarves."