Westweald was already a sea of red!
This place once housed 400,000 people, but now only Hearthglen remains with 120,000 refugees!
Arthas's heart was bleeding. Now, with the 120,000 refugees plus the original 30,000 residents of Hearthglen, the entire Westweald province had less than half of its original population!
The number of lost lives equaled the size of the Scourge army!
Kel'Thuzad, even in death, could still appear in Arthas's mind as a victor!
Arthas was completely numb!
He was experiencing the weight of the crown for the first time.
He never imagined that the mighty Lordaeron would not be defeated by the Orcs, but would instead stumble because of an evil necromancer!
Fortunately, this was only Westweald, which was relatively close to Andorhal, allowing for rapid food transport. Arthas could only hope that the situation in Eastweald wasn't as bad!
Now that Kel'Thuzad was dead, the dreadlord Mal'Ganis, whom Kel'Thuzad had spoken of, was still lurking in the shadows!
Thus, our Lordaeron prince only rested in Hearthglen for one night, and the next morning, he prepared to lead his team eastward to continue the investigation. His target was Stratholme, the largest city in eastern Lordaeron!
In reality, the situation in Westweald was not as bad as Arthas had anticipated.
Indeed, Hearthglen only had 150,000 people, but no one said that refugees had to flee north to Hearthglen, right?
The base farmers had complete intelligence, and with Galen's command, in addition to the group heading north, there were also two groups of refugees.
One group crossed the Northpass River eastward and entered Darrowshire in Eastweald, and the other group took the fishing boats from Andorhal south through the small roads into the Hinterlands!
Therefore, the remaining living people, at most, numbered just over 100,000, and the Lordaeron army could easily suppress this group of mindless ghouls.
Of course, that was if there were no accidents.
Unfortunately, Arthas didn't know this. At this moment, he had already arrived at the gate of Hearthglen.
"Jaina, I need your help. Can you return to Hillsbrad and inform Uther of the situation here? I need reinforcements, a lot of reinforcements. Only you can bring Uther here in the fastest time!"
"Please! Jaina, every second is precious now!"
Jaina nodded and then opened a portal to Dalaran and walked in.
This move made the five in Hearthglen widen their eyes and secretly exchange glances.
Arthas looked at Jaina's disappearing back and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Lord Tirion, and everyone, I need to leave immediately to stop the spread of the plague in Eastweald. Hearthglen is up to you all!"
Arthas stared at the five people. Arthas sighed in his heart. The five people in front of him were all talented, but unfortunately, they didn't seem to have any intention of following him…
In fact, he had thought about forcibly conscripting some manpower from Hearthglen as the crown prince, but there were still hundreds of thousands of people here who needed protection. If he took away some of the garrison, the already weak defense force of only 500 soldiers would be even weaker.
"Prince Arthas, are you really not waiting for reinforcements to arrive before taking action!"
Tirion tried to dissuade him. With the Scourge in the wilderness now numbering hundreds or thousands, Arthas's team of several hundred could easily be wiped out. Tirion's dissuasion could be considered fulfilling his responsibility as a Lordaeron lord.
"No, every minute I delay now brings Andorhal's grain closer to Stratholme. I must leave as soon as possible!"
"Safe travels! Your Highness!"
"May the Light protect you!"
"Let's hope so…"
Arthas flicked his cloak, leaped onto his horse, and then led his team away.
After Arthas and the others had gone far away, Tirion sighed.
"Actually, I admire him quite a bit. If it were me, I wouldn't venture deep into Eastweald with only these few hundred people!"
Although the Weald region is divided into east and west, the situation in these two regions is very different except that the land is equally fertile.
Not to mention anything else, the east has half again as many people as the west, and the terrain is more expansive. If the situation there is the same as in Westweald, then the number of Scourge is also several times greater!
"Currently, we can only hope that the Light protects him, after all, we ourselves don't have enough manpower!" Bridget also looked at Arthas's back.
Unlike the Fordring family, the Abidis family was not only a Lordaeron noble family, but also served in the kingdom's army. If the prince held a grudge...
"There's nothing we can do about it. Tirion only has 500 guards in his hands, and the few of us have just come of age and don't have any subordinates!"
Renault didn't care. The Mograine family, like the Fordring family, was an ancient noble family that could even be traced back to the Arathor Empire era. Their family history was even longer than the Kingdom of Lordaeron.
These families in the Kingdom of Lordaeron were veterans. If pushed too hard, they could completely take their family fief and join other countries like the Barov family.
"Alright, the prince is still just a prince, not yet a king. The refugees in Hearthglen are our current focus!" Maite Whitemane sneered. She was the most indifferent. If she couldn't stay in Lordaeron, she could go to Stromgarde. Anyway, she could get by anywhere. If her parents weren't still in Lordaeron, she would have been prepared to stay permanently at the Cathedral of Holy Light.
"That's right, Hearthglen is our top priority, which is related to whether we can make a great career!" Renault clenched his fists!
Loyalty to the royal family was indeed a broad road to promotion, but Renault wanted to prove his ability and surpass the elder Mograine, so he had to take the most difficult path!
Now that his good brother Tirion had inherited the territory and title at a young age, coupled with the kingdom's crisis, as long as they protected Hearthglen, settled hundreds of thousands of refugees, and then sent troops at the right time to defeat the Scourge, if they could recover Andorhal or even the entire Westweald, then they would be famous in the history of the Kingdom of Lordaeron!
The five had never dreamed that they had simply come to Hearthglen to celebrate for Tirion, but one of them turned out to be a try-hard…
"I know where we can get help...
Stromgarde!"
Several people said in unison!
"That's right, when I was in the Cathedral of Holy Light, I heard about the Helm's Valley in the northwest!" said Tirion
"That is an important grain-producing area in Stromgarde! I heard that the grain produced there in a year is enough to feed the people of the whole country, and it is even exported to the dwarves and the southern Kingdom of Stormwind! Maybe it can help with our grain situation!"
"As long as we contact Brother Galen!"
"That's right, let's ask Brother Galen to buy grain!"
"Then find Master Gandalf to open a portal!"
"That's really a good idea!"
The five people perfected a simple plan with each other's words.
"The problem is…we can't take it for nothing…"
"Don't look at me, all I have is this armor and this warhammer that are worth some money!"
"This…the Fordring family still has some savings."
"Then how do we contact Brother Galen?"
"When Lady Jaina comes back, let's ask her to open the door and go to the Cathedral of Holy Light!"
"But! We don't know the public teleport coordinates of the Cathedral of Holy Light!"
At this time, Maite Whitemane said triumphantly: "I know them!"