Remember [New] in a second! Eastern Tirisfal directly borders the Forest of Eversong, and Stratholme City is separated from the Temple of Dythom where the Tree of Life Sas'ara is located.

Although the distance was very close, after all, they belonged to two countries, and it was the first time that Sharlayan had entered the big city of this neighboring country.

The Stratholme region is one of the most wealthy territories in the Kingdom of Lordaeron. The Rivendell family, the lord who manages this place, has received invitations from all parties in Lordaeron all the year round.

There is and not only the House of Menethil.

In a feudal kingdom like Lordaeron, the lord is hereditary like the king.

No one has the right to go beyond the lord and issue direct orders to the local people unless the king orders an attack and forcibly recovers the territory for a major crime such as treason.

King is no exception.

A sentence from a netizen in the different world sand wither described this phenomenon very well.

A vassal of my vassals, not my vassals.

To translate, the people (subordinates) under the king's lord are not the direct subjects (subordinates) of the king.

For the kings of all countries, this is so frustrating.

The subordinates appointed by Baron Rivendell will only be loyal to the baron himself, and the king has no right to order them.

This leads to a pretty **** up situation.

For example, an amazing talent appeared in the Baron of Stratholme, and was known by the king and the baron at the same time.

Unless Terenas can rush to recruit Baron Rivendell before Baron Rivendell makes a move, otherwise this talented person will inevitably fall under the command of the local lord, Baron Rivendell.

If Terenas wanted to recruit this talented person, he had to get the opinions of both Baron Rivendell and the recruited party.

Who wouldn't want such a capable direct subordinate?

From the standpoint of Baron Rivendell, why should I provide the king with talents from my own territory? I want to keep it to myself, if you have the guts to whip me.

The king wanted to recruit talents, but most of the time he was forced to look for them among the nobles directly under his own control.

How many nobles can be directly governed by the king, and how many common people in the entire kingdom? Which side has a higher probability of producing talents?

The answer is... hard to say.

In this feudal era, which was hailed as a dark age by barrage, the education rate of civilians was appallingly low.

Even if civilians have a higher population base, it is not easy to select talents from them. Occasionally, a genius with a genetic mutation will be encountered.

On the other hand, the powerful aristocrats with territories generally do not follow the king at any time and wait for orders.

Wouldn't it be nice to be domineering in one's own territory? Why do you have to go to great lengths to advise the king?

So under normal circumstances, the advisers around the king are all from minor nobles, and they are just fighting for a better future, not really serving the country and the people.

According to the information detected by the Blade of Backlight, Emperor Shan Gao's Far Stratholme has never been fully loyal to the royal family of Menethil.

The Rivendell family has long been accustomed to waiting for the price, and whoever pays better will fall to that side.

Just like Quel'Thalas, the Kingdom of Lordaeron is not monolithic, and there are also various forces.

During the war, Terenas was able to knead all the nobles together with a strong wrist and make them unanimous.

But once the war is over, the nobles will never kneel and lick with the king all the time, and most of them will lead their troops back to their territories.

In the eyes of those high-ranking nobles, the so-called royal family is nothing more than the largest noble in the country, and they still have to compete with them according to the established rules, and they can't do it blindly, otherwise it will lead to civil uprisings.

The people here do not refer to the common people at the bottom of society, but the landlords and wealthy families in various noble territories.

A territory is a small kingdom, and the lord, like the king, needs smooth and experienced skills to control the landlords and gentry in his territory.

The Rivendell family has been operating in Stratholme for many years, and has already integrated the entire region seamlessly.

Terenas has always been jealous of Stratholme's prosperity and wealth, but he dared not attack the Rivendell family casually.

Once the rules are broken, he, the king, will be attacked by a large number of powerful nobles in the country.

Facing the food delivered by the high elves in time, the baroness Anastari only thought about it for a moment, then forgot about the possible displeasure of Terenas, and readily agreed to pay for the food.

Kael'thas is a generous and honest man. He didn't intend to use this batch of grain to make a fortune. He just considered the transportation cost. According to Stratholme's average grain price, it went up by 20%.

Anastari can understand this price increase, and it is completely acceptable.

Of course, Kael'thas is not doing charity, and there are other demands for transporting this batch of food to Stratholme.

However, there is no need to tell the baroness about these things in detail, even if she has some guesses in her heart, Anastari will pretend that she doesn't know.

Stratholme was too close to Quel'Thalas, and too far away from the royal city of Lordaeron. There was no need to offend the high elves for Terenas' personal preferences.

When she learned that Earl Deep Shadow had personally delivered food to Stratholme, Anastari was quite surprised, and politely welcomed Sarlayan and others into the lord's mansion.

As for the grain, there would naturally be experienced businessmen who would discuss it in detail with the procurement officials from Stratholme, so Sharlayan didn't need to worry about it.

…

By the time Quel'Thalas' ration party arrived in Stratholme, the battle at the East Wall tower was drawing to a close.

Due to the lack of food, Baron Rivendell's army's fighting spirit was relatively low, and its performance in the face of the mossy trolls who were short of soldiers and armor was not satisfactory.

The two sides launched a tug-of-war in the east wall sentry tower area. You came and went for several days, and it was difficult to tell the winner.

The Rotten Moss troll is relatively calm, anyway, barefoot is not afraid of wearing shoes.

Baron Rivendell became more and more anxious as he fought.

Since the road to Light's Hope Chapel was blocked by moss trolls, the Stratholme army could not recover without supplies.

Seeing that the little food left was being consumed day by day, Baron Rivendell scratched his head anxiously.

Just as he was about to let the soldiers eat their last full meal and broke through the defense line of the east wall sentry tower desperately, the Moss troll camp where the old **** was originally was suddenly rioted.

Baron Rivendell didn't know what happened, he ordered his soldiers to be vigilant and ready to attack at any time.

However, to the baron's surprise, the moss troll left the East Wall sentry tower without any hesitation and hurried back north.

"...what the hell?"

Baron Rivendell looked at the mossy troll receding like a tide with a dazed expression.

Reminded by the attendant, he shook his head vigorously, forcing himself to concentrate.

"It doesn't matter, take back the east wall sentry tower first, let Mu La go to the Holy Light's Hope Chapel to ask for food and grass support, hurry up!"

"yes!"

It wasn't until 2 days later that the courier who had eaten and drank and set off again brought Baron Rivendell the latest news from Stratholme City.

Quel'Thalas' dragon knight troops blitzed the Moss troll's stronghold of Zuma'shal, forcing them to hand over the Amani remnants who had fled here.

Knowing that his hometown was attacked, the chief of the Rotten Moss troll could only let go of the idea of ​​continuing to expand his territory, and hurriedly led his army back to help.

"High elf..."

The contemporary Baron Rivendell is a middle-aged man with an extraordinary bearing. When he learned that Quel'Thalas had sent a troop of dragon knights to force the mossy troll to withdraw, he couldn't understand the reason behind it for a while.

"With the arrogance of the high elves and the confidence in their own national power, it's impossible to be frightened by Terenas' threatening words, right?"

"So why did they send troops?"

The Holy Light's Hope Chapel is an important base of the Silver Hand in the Eastern Tirisfal region~lightnovelpub.net~ There are a large number of paladins who died heroically in the Second Orc War.

At the same time, the headquarters of the Knights of the Silver Hand, the Temple of the Holy Light, is hidden under the cathedral.

After receiving the invitation from the Holy Light's Wish Chapel, Baron Rivendell didn't dare to be too condescending, and rushed to the cathedral with a few attendants himself.

When arriving at the destination, Baron Rivendell unexpectedly saw two people who should not have been here.

"Alfred, Barry? Why are you here?"

Alfred Abedis, Lord of Tyr's Hand, one of the senior paladins of the Knights of the Silver Hand.

Barry Weswin, Captain of the Lordaeron Navy, his fleet docked at the port behind Tyr's Hand all year round, closely monitoring the movements of the High Elf Navy in the north.

Baron Rivendell's political sensitivity is not low, and the simultaneous appearance of these two people made him have some guesses.

"Do Terenas's subordinates have any orders for me? You two might as well just say it."