Over the years, the Kaldorei Empire developed rapidly, and its national strength grew stronger.
With Darkmoon City as a rear base and Dalaran and Vashj'ir as bridgeheads, they left the Amani Trolls with no power to fight back.
Every twenty years, a new generation of young Trolls would grow, and the Amani would also recover some of their strength every twenty years.
Whenever this happened, the Amani chieftain would want to attack Dalaran, wanting to reclaim the lost land.
However, facing countless mages and weapons that countered them, the Amani Trolls, even with their loa, gained no advantage.
Instead, after each attack, a large number of young Trolls would either die in battle or be captured.
The Amani Empire would once again fall into weakness, while the Kaldorei Empire, having captured a large number of prisoners, would gain a large amount of additional labor.
With this ebb and flow, the Amani Trolls were no longer a match for the Kaldorei Empire.
Thus, they sought aid from outside.
This time, they did not seek out the Frostmane Trolls.
The Frostmane Trolls had recently lost tens of thousands of troops and a large number of Mammoths, then had four of their loa killed by Gale, crippling the Frostmane Clan.
Finally, they encountered an invasion by a spider army, which had already left them severely weakened, and they were still licking their wounds.
Therefore, they changed their plea for help to the Gurubashi Trolls.
After Vashj'ir was established, the Kaldorei Empire's reach had already touched the borders of the Gurubashi Trolls.
Over the years, the two sides had constant friction, and the Gurubashi Trolls suffered greatly from bullying.
As one of the Empire's few female lords, Vaschi the Mage could be said to be extremely vengeful; as long as there were Kaldorei casualties, she would inevitably gather her army to retaliate.
Coupled with Azshara as her backing, many resources were funneled to Vashj'ir.
Vashj'ir developed very quickly in these years, already surpassing Darkmoon City to become the Empire's third largest city.
Yue Nu was very dissatisfied with this, but because he could not contact Gale, he could only endure it.
He could only keep a low profile now, preventing Azshara from settling accounts with him.
The profits of the mining company were getting lower and lower, and he began to regret coveting these benefits.
But once he got on Gale's carriage, he could not get off, and could only follow Gale down the dark path.
Against this backdrop, the Gurubashi Trolls quickly responded to the Amani Trolls' plea for help.
They learned from the Amani's combat experience, gathered a large army, and invited their loa to accompany the army, before launching an attack on Vashj'ir.
Vaschi the Mage could not handle the situation and could only seek help from Sin'dorei.
Azshara immediately sent Yue Nu and Turann High Mage to reinforce Vashj'ir, and also had Royal Mage Toseyrin lead an army through a portal as support.
This Toseyrin was later Prince Tothsedrin of Ere Suras, but he was currently only a Royal Mage.
Toseyrin's strength was formidable, surpassing Vaschi the Mage and Tulan.
Moreover, he was also skilled at commanding soldiers, and had always been Azshara's capable general.
Upon arriving in Vashj'ir, Toseyrin immediately took over the defenses.
He quickly adjusted the defensive priorities, allowing the mages to cast large-scale spells from within buildings, and concentrated a group of excellent mages to use magic arrays to counter the loa.
Before long, the war situation stabilized.
Then, when Yue Nu and Tulan arrived, Toseyrin immediately launched a counterattack, defeating the Gurubashi Trolls with a pincer movement.
In this battle, many Kaldorei died.
Although Azshara was very annoyed, she did not take it to heart.
She did not hold Vashj'ir accountable; instead, she ordered her to attack the Gurubashi Trolls to avenge her fallen compatriots.
Soon, the entire Empire was swept into a frenzy of revenge.
This frenzy quickly spread to Andu Talla, and many mercenaries chose to go to Vashj'ir.
The departure of the mercenaries affected Andu Talla's economy, and Antalia was very anxious about this.
Gale, however, did not take it seriously, saying, "This situation will happen again in the future.
What we need to do is stabilize the people's morale and start increasing the population."
Antalia was a bit hesitant, saying, "My Lord, this is a bit difficult.
We have always relied on attracting people as our strategy, and now many people have joined the army, so a decrease in population is unavoidable."
"Why not try to increase the newborn population?"
Antalia heard this and found it a bit difficult to understand, saying, "This isn't something we can decide, is it?"
"I didn't tell you to issue an administrative order that everyone must have children," Gale said with a smile.
"We are just encouraging childbirth."
"Starting today, for every newborn, their family will be rewarded ten gold coins.
Regarding education, we will set up professional mentors in Andu Talla.
Whether it's mages, druids, warriors, priests, rangers, or auxiliary professions like enchanters, blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, all primary education will be free.
Antalia was silent for a while before speaking, "But... if that's the case, our financial pressure will be enormous."
"The profits of the Forging Factory are more than enough to spend, and this war with the Gurubashi Trolls will bring in a huge profit.
So, don't worry about money.
Even if the Forging Factory can't supply enough, I will fill the deficit."
"With your words, I am relieved."
Antalia took her leave.
Gale then took out his magic map.
With the widespread application of the Asunite Eye Stone, Gale's magic map already covered almost all of the Empire's territory.
Each Eye Stone could provide Gale with location and vision, though there would be some delay for distant ones.
On the Redridge Mountains south of Vashj'ir, the Kaldorei were constantly hunting down Trolls.
As the Kaldorei's occupied territory expanded, reconnaissance outposts were continuously laid southward.
This situation happened every day, and in less than a month, they reached the area south of Redridge Mountains.
Having lost a large number of troops, the Gurubashi Trolls continuously contracted their forces.
Finally, they retreated to the vicinity of Stranglethorn Vale, relying on the rainforest and Zul'Gurub to block the Kaldorei's advance.
The Kaldorei were not well-adapted to the rainforest climate, and the resistance they encountered was too great.
Neither Vaschi the Mage nor Prince Tothsedrin wanted to incur heavy casualties.
So, they decided to divide their forces.
Vaschi temporarily withdrew to Vashj'ir to consolidate the occupied Redridge Mountains.
The Redridge Mountains had numerous open-pit mines; once all of them were exploited, the Empire's strength would once again rise to a new level.
However, doing so would mean all prisoners from this war would be assigned to the mines.
Azshara strongly supported Vaschi the Mage's decision, sending a large number of personnel as overseers for the mines, and ordering Lady Vaschi to complete the excavation as quickly as possible.
Prince Tothsedrin, on the other hand, attacked westward, sweeping through the Gurubashi Trolls' territory.
He fought all the way to the vicinity of Zandalar, where the Zandalar Trolls aided the Gurubashi Trolls, finally halting Toseyrin's army.
The Zandalar Trolls were completely different from other savage Trolls; they had an ancient civilization and walked upright.
In their capital, Dazar'alor, a large number of loa resided.
If Toseyrin were to forcefully attack Dazar'alor, it could easily trigger a full-scale war.
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