Your war hammer is too fake

Byronos soon saw the "gift" that An Jiyue mentioned.

Because they were on the battlefield, Bing Ruolan completed the simple worship ceremony very quickly. Five hundred Zhendan people stood in more than ten rows in front of the tablet according to their status, and Bing Ruolan herself was at the front of the crowd. Under the leadership of Xiuyanqing, the Zhendan people held the lit incense sticks, bowed three times in front of the tablet, and then inserted the incense sticks into the huge incense burner one by one.

After this step was completed, Bing Ruolan chanted a spell, made hand gestures, and summoned a circular shape with purple-black mist flowing around the edge... a portal?

Under the shocked gazes of the surrounding dwarves, a group of translucent figures walked out of the "portal". Except for An Jiyue who was standing aside, all the Zhendan people present knelt on one knee with their weapons on the ground, bowing their heads to show respect to the ancestors who had returned from the underworld.

"Undead?!" Byronos yelled, "Why are there undead here?!"

"Calm down, Your Majesty Byronos Dragon Hammer," An Jiyue said in time before the King of Haimenguan rushed over with an axe to kill Bing Ruolan, "There are no dirty necromancers here, nor are they pathetic souls enslaved by undead magic. In fact, they are our ancestors, and they are here to help us, their unworthy descendants."

The dwarves were in a commotion, and it was clear that they could not accept An Jiyue's words. In response, the girl was prepared: "Think about it carefully, sons of the mountain and stone. As far as I know, sometimes you can also get help from your deceased ancestors."

"We won't use magic to disturb the rest of our ancestors," Byronos muttered, stomping his prosthetic leg hard on the ground. "Why are you doing this?"

"As a non-physical being, ghosts have a special magical vision," An Jiuyue explained. "Black Rock Castle fell three thousand years ago, and its design drawings have long been lost. Now no one knows how its secret passages and secret warehouses are set up. If we want to win the battle quickly, we must make full use of this lost knowledge."

Bairnos frowned, first looking at the motionless First Soul Army, then looking at An Jiyue: "You want to use the special vision of spiritual creatures to find those hidden secret passages?"

"It's too inefficient to let the engineering masters search slowly, especially since this fortress hasn't been maintained for three thousand years and has suffered countless damages during that time," An Jiuyue said. "We don't have much time, and...excuse me, you are a race that can't afford to die, and I'm trying to minimize your casualties. Talking to the old ancestor is the best option right now."

"As long as this is not undead magic, it is not a blasphemy against the warriors," said the dwarf king, who was known for his adherence to tradition. "After the battle, I will send the priests of Gazul (the dwarf god of death) to conduct the necessary inspections. If you refuse, in consideration of your previous help to the dwarves, you and your people can leave here safely, but you will never be able to set foot on dwarf land again in your lifetime."

"It's a reasonable request," An Jiyue nodded, "We are willing to accept any non-humiliating inspection."

……

The pace of the battle suddenly accelerated.

As a large fortress, Black Rock Castle had far more secret passages than An Jiyue had imagined. Even though a considerable portion of them had collapsed, become blocked, or were filled with deadly gas and could not be used due to various reasons over the long years, there were still a large number of secret passages available for the attackers to use.

The search efficiency of the First Soul Army was extremely high. As spirits, their special magical vision made all secret passages and secret warehouses invisible. In addition, the characteristic of spirit creatures that they were not subject to physical barriers allowed them to directly pass through the thick rocks and enter the secret passages to confirm their conditions... and by the way, they could also investigate the conditions at the exit of the secret passages.

The defenders soon found themselves surrounded and divided. The dwarf warriors would always appear from all sorts of inexplicable corners, attacking the weakest link in the defenders' battle line, or cooperating with the dwarves in charge of the frontal attack to attack the enemies who tried to hold their positions from front and back.

Under this all-pervasive infiltration attack, groups of hobgoblins were quickly defeated. The defenders' originally maintainable battle lines began to collapse, and the organized resistance soon turned into a chaotic fight. Now, what supported the hobgoblins to resist was no longer courage, but fear of the kashuzhan.

The commander of the hobgoblins, a darughachi who was as strong as an ordinary orc, had to deploy the general reserve two hours after the battle began: a thousand Qiexue troops, dozens of trolls of various species, and a giant. The task of these reserves was not to counterattack or consolidate the defense line, but to cover the entire army's retreat. The unknown darughachi believed that he could no longer hold the current position, so he took the initiative to abandon most of the city and prepared to withdraw his troops to the vicinity of the throne hall of Black Rock Castle.

The messenger who had asked Ke Shuzhan for help had already set out. Now all the hobgoblin army in Black Rock Castle could do was to hold their positions and wait for reinforcements, who knew when they would come.

On the siege side, Valentin Stoneheart issued an order to deploy the reserve troops almost at the same time. The theoretical commander-in-chief of the dwarf army, Agrim Ironfist, had already entered the lower city of Black Rock Castle and was currently fighting a Keddayi Destroyer (Note 1), a giant fire demon bound by steel and magic. He had no time to take care of other things for the time being, so the command work fell on the head of the King of Torrent Pass.

Cannons were pushed onto the streets, using shotgun shells to bombard the madly rushing hobgoblins at close range. Iron Dragon Hand artillerymen carried heavy flamethrowers and troll hammer rocket launchers, sweeping away every stubborn fortress with blazing flames and knocking down every oncoming monster with shrieking rockets. Thunder gunners and heavy crossbowmen fired alternately, weaving a dense web of fire with lead bullets and arrows.

Each burst of long-range firepower could wipe out large swathes of enemies from the battlefield. While the ranged units were reloading, the melee infantry would swing their hammers and axes, step on the corpses and blood on the ground, and break through the floating burning ashes, rushing up to rip open the greenskins.

The hobgoblins' reserve troops ultimately failed to complete their mission. The giant from the eastern steppe, which already had many traces of Chaos mutation, was concentratedly fired upon by the dwarven artillery as soon as it appeared on the battlefield, and fell down wailing; the trolls had just begun to charge, and the dwarven shield wall in front of them suddenly split to the left and right, revealing the iron dragon hand artillerymen behind them who had already replenished their ammunition... In the end, only the Qiexue troops, both men and wolves, who were wearing sophisticated armor, successfully reached the dwarven front.

These guards under the command of the kashuzhan silently formed a team, silently launched a charge, and rushed headfirst into the fierce firepower net of the dwarves. They ignored casualties and broke through the long-range firepower at all costs, driving the strong giant wolves under their crotches to slam into the dwarf shield wall. The moment the two sides came into contact, groups of dwarves were knocked down, and the strict shield wall suddenly broke open.

If their formation was still as neat as when they first charged, perhaps the dwarves' formation would have been broken - but there is no such thing as if in war. There is a price to pay for charging into the dwarves' firepower network. The Qiexue army, whose formation was disrupted by bullets and crossbows, dug deep into the dwarves' square formation, and was only one step away from breaking through it... However, even if the Qiexue army tried their best, they could not take this last step.

After a brief stalemate, the retreat horn sounded behind the Qiexue troops. Some of the Qiexue troops silently stayed behind to cover the rear, while the others turned around and tried to leave the battle line.

However, it was too late. When the Darughachi reluctantly issued the order to retreat, Bing Ruolan finally led her family generals to the back of the Qiexue army and blocked the retreat of these elite soldiers of the royal tent... When the last Qiexue soldier was hooked off his wolf back by a long halberd and chopped into pieces by a random knife, the earth elves began to collapse uncontrollably.

……

Note 1: This is the giant beast at the end of the Chaos Dwarves DLC trailer.

Chapter 28 Conjecture

"I just discovered something."

"what happened?"

"Since I came to this world, I have either been fighting, on my way to the battlefield, or..." An Jiyue looked around, "having a banquet with a large group of dwarves."

The time was the second night after the battle, and the location was the urgently cleared throne room of Black Rock Castle. For the dwarves, a race that had suffered many disasters but never lost heart, successfully retaking an ancient fortress that had been lost for three thousand years was undoubtedly a great victory, enough to erase a large number of entries in the Book of Hatred. More importantly, they not only completed the task assigned by the High King and cut off the retreat of the army of Koshuzan, but also suffered little loss in the process.

Since it was something worth celebrating, the dwarves had to arrange for "Let's do it!" according to their custom. Excited, the dwarves cleaned up the battlefield, treated the wounded, repaired the weapons, and gathered the bodies of the hobgoblins and burned them together, so that the remains of these killer mushrooms would not continue to torment the land.

The Sons of the Rock worked around the clock to deal with the aftermath of the war and tidied up the throne room of Black Rock Castle as much as possible. Then, a noisy celebration banquet began. Agrim opened a barrel of Bergman's special beer from his collection and drank with the other two kings and the long-bearded elders.

Ever since the famous Bergmann Brewery was destroyed by goblins, these high-quality wines have become extremely valuable as each barrel is consumed.

The Zhendan people were also invited to the celebration banquet. The performance of the Eastern warriors in the battle won them the respect of the dwarves. When An Jiyue and Bing Ruolan walked into the throne room side by side, every dwarf raised a toast to the two of them along the way.

The two of them found an empty seat and sat down. Bing Ruolan had just taken a few bites of the stewed yak meat when she noticed that An Jiyue seemed to be in a daze.

"what happened?"

"Thinking about the battle situation."

Koshuzan's army and its allies entered the World's Edge Mountains from Death Pass, and then marched west along this narrow corridor running east-west and captured Black Crag. Later, Koshuzan and its stubborn Chaos Dwarf allies had serious disagreements on the next direction of the march, so this army, which was huge even in the far east, had to stay idle in Black Crag for several months. In the end, Wolf Khan chose to compromise and the entire army marched north to attack the Eternal Peak.

The change of hands of Black Rock Castle again allowed the dwarves to regain some of the initiative in the battle. Although Shuzhan's army was in full swing, the Eternal Peak was not so easy to defeat. For the Wolf Khan, it was too difficult to capture the Eternal Peak. If it dragged on for too long, the situation would most likely take a turn for the worse.

If the opponent is just the dwarves, even if Shuzhan cannot take down the Eternal Peak, which is a high probability event, he still has the initiative at the strategic level. If it really doesn't work, he can just lead the army back to the Dark Land and choose a new route to Kislev. The dwarves, who have a small population and almost no high-mobility units, are incapable of pursuing... But if the war continues to stalemate, with Karl Franz's wisdom, the Empire will definitely be defeated, and even the high elves may come to interfere.

The current Phoenix King, Finubar the Seaman, has been trying to ease the relationship between the high elves and the dwarves, and even allowed humans and dwarves to settle in Lothern for the first time. As an outstanding diplomat, Finubar is likely to choose to help the dwarves at this critical moment, thus breaking the bottomless gap between the two races.

Even if the high elves didn't come, the Empire's army alone would be enough to give Shuzhan a headache. Facing the dwarves and the Empire separately on different battlefields far apart is a completely different concept from facing both at the same battlefield. Especially Carl himself is quite special. In the third Battle of Blackfire Pass in the original "history", Carl was suspected of being possessed by Sigmar once. If the big guy with the hammer also performed a scene of summoning the spirit this time...

"...In short, from your description, Keshuzhan's own strength should not be that outstanding." An Jiyue cut a lamb chop from the plate in front of her and chewed it slowly. "I'm afraid it doesn't have the courage to face Sigma on the battlefield, even if it's just Sigma's substitute Carl, not the incarnation of a god like in ET."

Warhammer is a magical world after all, and the role that high-end combat power can play on the battlefield is quite amazing. Even without considering the super deployment of the mechanical deity, the imperial army itself cannot be underestimated. According to An Jiyue's estimation, Rick and Ivy alone can put together a provincial legion of about 8. If the southern provinces of the empire are mobilized collectively, they may be able to put together an army of 10 to people... Although there will definitely be a lot of free militias whose equipment and training are worrying, and they can be said to be useless except for courage.

"Based on my understanding of Keshuzhan, it will not give up," Bing Ruolan shook her head and said, "It can give up Yongheng Peak. It didn't want to attack this fortress anyway. This is not in its plan, and there is no reason to do so. However, it will never give up the opportunity to become a god."

Kislev has been frozen for two years, and all travelers know what this abnormal climate means. Bing Ruolan hopes to reach an agreement with the Kislevites to cooperate in rescuing the bear god Ersun in exchange for Ersun telling her the whereabouts of her ancestor Shenzhu; while Ke Shuzhan hopes to take this opportunity to absorb Ersun's divine power and godhood to become a god.

After all, mortals are just chess pieces. Only those who ascend to the throne of God are qualified to jump out of the chessboard and become the chess player.

"Actually, I'm curious about several things. First, the missing Ersun should be imprisoned in the Soul Forge. The Soul Forge can extract the power of the Bear God and transfer it to a specific being through a specific ritual to make it a god. So the question is," An Jiyue cut off another lamb chop, "how did Shuzhan know how to use the Soul Forge? I don't think there is an instruction manual on this thing."

"Hmm," Xiugenqing frowned, "I haven't really thought about this question..."

"Secondly, I'm afraid Ke Shuzhan didn't tell the truth to his allies." The beautiful girl with silver hair and red eyes pinched the bone and gently pulled it out of the very soft ribs. "Ke Shuzhan's attempt to become a god is not in the interests of any force except himself. Whether it's the Chaos Dwarves or the rats of the Grinning Clan, if they knew Ke Shuzhan's true intentions, do you think they would continue to maintain their covenant with Ke Shuzhan?"

"How should I put it... The Chaos Dwarves might tolerate this in order to avenge their cousins, as long as Ke Shuzhan is willing to make enough concessions in the distribution of benefits after the war," Bing Ruolan thought for a moment and said, "But the rats will definitely stab Ke Shuzhan in the back, and they might even turn against him on the spot."

"So Ke Shuzhan must have concealed his real plan from his two allies," An Jiyue cut the boneless lamb ribs into small pieces, dipped them in yogurt and put them into his mouth. "This leads to another question. Since the real intention cannot be revealed, then from the perspective of the Chaos Dwarves and Skaven, what is the purpose of Ke Shuzhan's expedition to the Old World?"

"Do you usually think about these things all day long?" Bing Ruolan asked, turning her head.

"When I was still in my 'hometown', I taught myself a little bit about intelligence analysis and intelligence control," An Jiyue said casually. "My level is certainly not comparable to that of professionals, but it's enough to analyze information for the time being."

Bing Ruolan's facial expression was a little out of control: "Were you really just an ordinary office worker before?"

"Can't a social animal have some business hobbies?" An Jiyue asked. After a pause, she put down her shiny silver knife and fork and continued, "But Shuzhan was able to unify all the hobgoblin tribes on the Eastern Prairie and successfully integrate them into one. Even if it may have some kind of golden finger, at least it must not be a fool. Since it is not a self-righteous fool, it must have mastered the specific method of becoming a god, so it dared to covet the power of the bear god."

"So, where did it get this knowledge? There is no CNKI in this world. Not to mention CNKI, even Baidu doesn't have it. On the other hand, where do you think there is such knowledge?"

Xiu Yanqing's expression suddenly tensed. An Jiyue was cutting the mutton contentedly, and did not ask any more questions.

"...Subspace." After a long time, Bing Ruolan bit her back teeth and uttered a few syllables.

……

PS: I’m on a business trip and won’t be home until the 4th of next month.

Chapter 29: Interval Between Battles

Black Rock Castle was recaptured, but the real battle had just begun.

Dwarves from different fortresses worked tirelessly to clean up the ruins and try to repair the war-torn Black Rock Castle. This was destined to be a long-term task, so the dwarves focused their work on repairing the walls of Black Rock Castle, trying to restore the city defense system of Black Rock Castle to a minimum before the possible counterattack of the magicians.

Two groups of helicopters carried the news of victory to Haimen Pass and the south respectively. The former also carried a handwritten letter from Byronos. According to Byronos's order, Haimen Pass would send messengers to inform all the fortresses still controlled by the dwarves of the good news after receiving the news; while the latter would first go to Eight Peaks Mountain to tell the Angrand clan who were the nail households there, and then go to the last remaining fortress Iron Peak Fortress south of Eternal Peak.

As for Yongheng Peak, An Jiyue had to deliver the message. However, Shuzhan had an unknown number of thunderbirds working for him. These giant raptors from the Eastern Prairie, which could harness the power of thunder, blocked the sky near Anvil Mountain, forcing the Yongheng Peak Air Force to retreat to the fortress. Although the dwarf messengers could still enter and exit through some secret underground tunnels, this method of communication was inefficient and could easily be intercepted by Skaven ratmen halfway.

Agrim hoped to get the message to Thorgrim as soon as possible. After all, no one knew when Shuzhan would get the news that Black Crag Keep had been recaptured by the dwarves and its retreat had been cut off.

When they came here before, the dwarf army took ten days to complete the journey from the town of the Copper Hoe Clan to Black Rock Castle. When An Jiyue returned, she only took four hours to fly to the outskirts of Anvil Mountain, and this was because An Jiyue was not familiar with the terrain and could not fly at full speed. Compared with the last time the girl came, there were many more damages and scorch marks on the walls of Eternal Peak, and some sections even had small-scale collapses.

It was obvious that in the past ten days, the Chaos Dwarves had finally joined the battle. Even though she had not seen it with her own eyes, An Jiyue could imagine the tragic battle at that time from the various traces left on the city walls.

The Chaos Dwarfs' cannons were designed specifically for siege warfare, and they emphasized power and range over firing rate and mobility. These evil creations that combined engineering and magic skills had unparalleled destructive power. Even for the ancient walls of the Eternal Peak inlaid with countless runes, the Chaos Dwarfs' destructive artillery fire was a severe test... Fortunately, judging from the current battle situation, the siege party, at least on the surface battlefield, still stopped under the walls and failed to break through the Dwarfs' defenses.

Still landing at a distance from the Eternal Peak, and then using the [Earth Escape Spell] to escape underground, An Jiyue entered the interior of the Eternal Peak with familiarity. After showing the token given by Agrim, the girl was led to the city wall and met Thorgrim who was inspecting the defense deployment here.

Compared to the last time they met, Thorgrim's face looked not so good. Seeing An Jiyue, the High King nodded and said, "It seems that your mission was successful. What are the casualties?"

"Almost half of the butchers died. The good news is that the total number of casualties of other troops added together is not as high as that of the butchers," the girl said, glancing at the city. "Including those who died of their wounds after the battle, there were about 900 dead and 2,000 injured. In terms of the results of the battle, if we count Iron Rock, we killed 30,000 hobgoblins and about 400 Chaos Dwarves."

"Compared to Black Rock Castle, this level of loss is still acceptable." The High King was not moved by the casualties suffered by his people. As the leader of the Mountain Kingdom, he had already witnessed too many sacrifices. "Ancestors, you have done a good job. What do you think Ke Shuzhan will do next?"

"I discussed this issue with Agrim and the others before I came here. My opinion is that the possibility of Keshuzhan turning back to attack Black Rock Castle is less than 10%," An Jiyue said without hesitation. "Keshuzhan's destination is Kislev, and attacking the Eternal Peak was not originally in its plan. In essence, this move is the result of its Chaos Dwarf allies' willful behavior, which also led to the decision to kidnap Keshuzhan. I don't think the Chaos Dwarves can accept the result of giving up halfway."

Thorgrim stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Go on."

"The Chaos Dwarves will definitely insist on continuing to attack the Eternal Peak. But Shuzhan chose to compromise last time, so it will probably compromise again this time because it has paid too much for this reckless attack," An Jiuyue analyzed. "In my hometown, we generally call this sunk cost... Since the siege of the Eternal Peak cannot be withdrawn, if Shuzhan wants to retake Black Rock Castle, he will inevitably face the difficult problem of how much military resources to invest."

"Eternal Peak has a population of 9. Due to your special gender ratio, if you mobilize to the maximum, you can only deploy about 6 troops in the defense battle. So the question is, how many troops does Keshuzhan need to leave to keep an eye on you? From the perspective of the Wolf Khan, Black Rock Castle didn't even last a day. With such a dwarf army that is obviously the main force, coupled with Black Rock Castle's dilapidated but still impressive city defense facilities, how many men does it need to send to recapture Black Rock Castle? More importantly, can Keshuzhan afford the time cost of a protracted siege? I am not in a position to explain the specific reasons. I can only tell you that Kislev is Keshuzhan's real target. It can't afford to delay."

“Perhaps Shuzhan will choose to flee in disgrace, leaving his Chaos Dwarf allies to face our wrath alone,” Thorgrim said. “He is a hobgoblin. No matter how special he may be, he is still a hobgoblin, and his soul is inherently fickle and treacherous.”

"This kind of thing is indeed possible. After all, I don't know much about Ke Shuzhan... But based on the information I know, running away means it gives up an opportunity that may only come once in a lifetime. If it finally succumbs to reality, then it will only temporarily escape the fate of destruction." An Jiuyue was not prepared to reveal certain secrets to the dwarf, so she could only say this. "Retaking Black Rock Castle is indeed a good move, but the initiative is still in Ke Shuzhan's hands. It can choose to fight or flee, and we can only wait for its response."

"How far is your expeditionary force from Eternal Peak?" Thorgrim suddenly asked.

"Don't think about it. That's just a vanguard," An Jiyue subconsciously glanced at a countdown that only she could see, "and right now, there are 300,000 greenskins and rats gathering outside your city."

An Jiyue was basically sure of the purpose of the War Codex, but she was not sure how many troops she could summon at that time. If she boasted too much in front of the Supreme King, she could not guarantee what would happen next...

"As long as we appear in the right place at the right time, a hundred warriors can be worth a thousand troops," Thorgrim said, leaning on his axe, the blade shining. "As long as you appear behind the hobgoblins, Koshuzhan must face this threat."

"That's true... I just hope they don't have to pay too high a price when they cross the dark land." An Jiyue actually hoped that the War Codex would give them more starting troops, "It would be best if there were no losses."

"How is that possible?" The High King laughed loudly, "Little Moon, are you ready to fight alongside the dwarves?"

"Honored."

……

Answer the question of the book friend "Demon Caesar Black Iron God":

Finubar became the Phoenix King in 2163 IC and reigned until ET, a reign of more than 1670 years. Except for Aenarion, all the Phoenix Kings reigned for more than years. The second Phoenix King (the unlucky one who was poisoned by spicy chicken strips) reigned for a full years...

The author says:

Author's words: The bad news is that the client is an idiot, and there was a problem with the business connection. I was supposed to finish the work and go home on the 4th, but now I have to go home until at least the 7th. The good news is that I don't have anything to do for the time being... I was slacking off in the hotel and wrote a chapter.

Chapter 30: A Visitor from Bafeng Mountain

After talking with Thorgrim, An Jiyue rushed back without stopping with the new order from the High King, and didn't even have time to meet Dagna.

There was a small incident on the way back. When flying over a valley, An Jiyue, who had been using the [Dharma Eye] to guard against sneak attacks, caught a glimpse of a fleeting green color from the corner of her eye. The girl immediately braked in mid-air, then drove the cloud closer to the abnormal point, and in the process did not forget to put on the [Spirit Armor Curse] on herself.

An Jiyue quickly found the object that was emitting a pale green light in the [Dharma Eye]: a Weeping Sword, a magical weapon unique to the ratmen of the Eshin clan. When the girl saw the weapon, most of its blade had sunk into the chest of a hobgoblin; and the hobgoblin's fine steel saber chopped horizontally into the neck of the owner of the Weeping Sword, almost cutting it in half.

There were more than 30 black-clad ratmen lying around, and only one hobgoblin died here. Judging from his attire, this hobgoblin should be a mid-level officer from the Keshig Army. He wore fine armor made of rhinoceros skin, and was equipped with a spear, saber, flail, shield, bow and arrow, and there was no rust on any of his equipment.

This level of maintenance is a miracle for the greenskins.

A giant wolf's body was lying more than ten meters away, its left front foot bent into a strange shape, and its furry body was pierced with more than a dozen poisonous darts. An Jiyue walked around the place where the giant wolf fell, and as expected, she found more than a dozen pits and two tripwires...

It was a carefully planned ambush, An Jiyue thought after inspecting the scene. However, the result of the battle was definitely beyond the ambushers' expectations. After suddenly losing his mount and being knocked unconscious, the ambushed hobgoblin officer still dodged or deflected all the poisoned hidden weapons thrown at him, and then killed the insidious ambushers with his weapons.

In the end, the hobgoblin and the leader of the ambushers, a death runner or an assassin, died together. From the traces left at the scene, An Jiyue tended to believe that the leader of the rats did not choose to fight head-on in the battle, but fully carried forward the glorious tradition of the Skaven: playing dirty. Its sneak attack was successful, but it did not expect that the hobgoblin officer could still swing a lightning-fast attack before he died, and with his last breath, he thrust his saber into the neck of the rat leader.

Since the ambushers were all killed, the battle scene was basically preserved intact. An Jiyue endured the nausea and fumbled around the body of the hobgoblin for a while, and then found a letter on the latter. It was called a letter, but it was actually a crumpled piece of paper with only one sentence on it:

"Khan, we've been badly beaten by the short guys, please send some more guys to help us fight!"

Obviously, this was a letter of help from the Darughachi who was in charge of guarding Black Rock Castle to Keshuzhan. However, the ratmen who were supposed to be Keshuzhan's allies killed the messenger on the way. This reminded An Jiyue of the previous battle to attack Black Rock Castle, when she found several bodies of hobgoblins in a secret passage, and the wounds on the bodies showed that they were killed by the black rats of the Eshin clan.

It's not surprising that Skaven backstab their allies. It's abnormal that they don't backstab their allies. But why? Skaven are indeed capricious and shameless, and even take pride in betrayal, but they always betray their allies for greater benefits. At least for now, what benefits can they get from betraying their allies?

An Jiyue returned to Black Rock Castle in confusion and told the others about it. The dwarves looked as if they were used to it. They didn't care why the rat betrayed Ke Shuzhan. They just wanted to know what the new order of the Supreme King was. Bing Ruolan took the news very seriously, but unfortunately she couldn't figure out why.

"Never mind the rat's tricks!" Urgrim urged impatiently. "What does Thorgrim want from us?"

"His Majesty Thorgrim believes that maintaining the status quo is the best option for now," An Jiyue shrugged. "Hold the fortress and do not retreat until Ke Shuzhan can no longer continue his offensive against Eternal Peak. He requires you to be ready to go at any time. In view of the rats' betrayal, Ke Shuzhan will not receive the news of the fall of Black Rock Castle in a short time. It will maintain the attack on Eternal Peak at the same pace as before... until it suddenly realizes that the supplies and reinforcements from the rear seem to have not appeared for some time."

An Jiyue and Thorgrim had surprisingly similar views on the next course of action. They just needed to stay put at Eternal Peak and Black Rock Castle. The biggest threat to Eternal Peak was the Chaos Dwarf artillery, and all the supplies for these black dwarves had to be transported all the way from Zar-Nagrund. They could still find a way to get food, but how about shells and spare parts?

Without the Chaos Dwarf artillery fire support, the hobgoblins and rats could only slowly conquer the Eternal Peak with human lives. As the second largest fortress in the Mountain Kingdom, the Eight Peaks Mountain was attacked from both sides by the rats and greenskins, but it still held out for two hundred years in isolation before it fell. If it were the Eternal Peak, which had stronger defenses and could receive reinforcements from the entire Mountain Kingdom, would Ke Shuzhan also be prepared to fight the dwarves for two hundred years? An Jiyue couldn't help but feel sorry for Ke Shuzhan for three seconds just thinking about it.

Of course, staying put does not mean that the entire army will hide behind the city walls and do nothing. Soon after An Jiyue returned to Black Rock Castle with the new order from the High King, teams of dwarf rangers were sent out to establish a series of hidden frontier strongholds east of Black Rock Castle to closely monitor any movements of the enemy in Death Pass.