Chapter 228: The Unreasonable Number

Duke was choked by the drink he had just swallowed, causing Terenas and Anduin to chuckle at his expense.

Cough cough cough, "Why me? Shouldn't it be a paladin introduced by Archbishop Faol?" Duke whispered his confusion.

At the long table, Terenas elegantly set down his wine glass.

"That's also a choice." Terenas looked at Anduin, who instantly responded with a knowing glance.

Anduin continued, "I think it's similar to the reasoning behind my election as the Alliance's Grand Marshal. Without you, Duke, the kings of the seven nations might have chosen a more neutral 'paladin' introduced by Archbishop Faol for the position of Alliance's Deputy Marshal."

As if echoing each other, King Terenas added, "The dwarves only need assistance, and once they receive enough support, they won't have mobile forces for a short period. However, it's different for the kings of the seven nations. They need to consider whose hands they entrust their armies to. Besides, they've all committed their elite troops this time. We trust Sir Lothar, but there are times when we need to divide our forces in military matters. In fact, finding a candidate with strategy, decisiveness, fairness, and acceptance by all nations is not easy."

Anduin chimed in again, "I understand that the Archbishop hopes for the 'paladins' to perform a miracle, but why take an unnecessary risk when there's a better and safer option?"

Terenas chuckled, his silver hair rippling. Duke now found him somewhat endearing, "Choosing an unknown newcomer over an existing, acknowledged, accomplished, and sufficiently neutral candidate? That's the real absurdity."

Duke felt a bit embarrassed but also a sense of finally altering history.

Yes, he had forgotten; he was the most suitable candidate.

In history, Lothar had ventured to the northern continent almost single-handedly. Hailing from Stormwind City, he naturally had no influence over the interests of the five nations and Kul Tiras in the northern continent. The same went for Duke. Duke's interests lay in the southern continent, and his series of successes, like yielding command of the fleet, had won over the kings, leading to his rise.

Turalyon, who was originally on the verge of a meteoric rise, still made progress in his discussions with Lothar, but only halfway. Turalyon continued to be Lothar's second-in-command, but as a military deputy rather than the Alliance's Deputy Marshal, let alone independent command.

In the eyes of King Menethil and Lothar, there was no dissatisfaction from Archbishop Faol for not granting such a high position to the so-called paladins. This was entirely out of respect for the Archbishop. After all, paladins were a combat profession, not commanders from a strategist academy or military school.

"I'm sorry, Turalyon..." Duke thought with a bitter smile.

During the banquet, they discussed many topics. Terenas talked about forming the Knights of the Silver Hand with paladins at the core. It wasn't a short-term matter, as recruiting members from Lordaeron and the entire northern continent would take at least a month. Then, training, reorganizing, instilling faith – it would take at least three months to form a combat force.

But the Horde's invasion across the sea was imminent.

In the afternoon's military conference, hastily built structures were assembled.

The main attendees and their Alliance military ranks were:

Grand Marshal Anduin, Deputy Marshal Duke, Admiral Daelin, Major General Mograine, Brigadier General Abidis.

The main reason was that most of the kings had returned to their countries to mobilize their troops, and King Terenas of Lordaeron was not adept at military matters. His contribution was providing troops and funds. The kings had made a private agreement and explicitly forbade Terenas from interfering with the command.

Daelin Proudmoore, a king himself, had seamlessly assumed the role of the Alliance's Grand Admiral, showing respect for Lothar as the Supreme Commander.

"The current situation is that my fast reconnaissance ships have discovered the Horde building a large number of medium and small transport ships, but none of them compare to our destroyers," Daelin reported.

"A large-scale sea crossing without any cover?" Lothar rubbed his forehead in frustration. "This is completely against common sense."

"That's human common sense," Duke responded calmly. "Ordinary humans wouldn't have been able to scale the cliffs east and north of Stormwind to attack the lower walls, but the Horde did, and Stormwind fell because of it."

No one refuted Duke's point.

Lothar looked up. "Does anyone have a more reasonable hypothesis?"

Duke glanced at Grand Admiral Daelin and pointed to Southshore on the massive map. "If I don't have good shipbuilding technology or enough time to build a large number of warships to match my enemy, but I have plenty of troops, I would use a vast number of transport ships to drown the enemy."

Daelin looked at Duke with a slightly displeased expression. "I'd like to remind the Deputy Supreme Commander that the first fleet of Kul Tiras has already arrived at the docks of Southshore, and the second and third fleets will arrive within five days. The Stormwind fleet, which the Deputy Supreme Commander transferred command to me, is also stationed in Southshore."

The implication was not to underestimate Kul Tiras' dominance in naval warfare.

"Good confidence, Grand Admiral. How many warships do our four fleets have in total?"

"Twelve reconnaissance ships, 312 destroyers, 89 cruisers, and 18 large warships," Daelin replied proudly. "If the Horde comes with only these moving targets, the Kul Tiras navy can annihilate them at sea."

"Those are impressive numbers, but what if the Horde's invading transport ships number more than ten thousand? Twenty thousand? Thirty thousand? What if the number of enemy ships far exceeds your total firepower?" Duke pressed further.

Daelin's expression finally faltered. "That... shouldn't be possible, right?"

Duke pulled up a 3D video of the Horde's peons being used as cannon fodder to attack Stormwind.

"See this? These are the Horde's peons. They have no value in the eyes of the orcs and can be casually used as cannon fodder. The known Horde warriors number over 500,000, and this does not include these peons. If I were holding these cards, I would build 20,000 transport ships. The first 5,000 would be filled with the bare minimum number of peons needed to maintain the ships' navigation, even using ships to tow other ships to consume the human side's ammunition. Only when your ships have exhausted their ammunition and your cannons are about to explode would my main force arrive."

The generals were horrified by the prospect. Lothar took a deep breath. "Is there a better solution?"

Duke smiled. "Allow me to introduce you to the Southshore Defense Line."