At the base, the 10,000 gold coins that Galen recharged had long been exhausted. Currently, the base's mines relied on farmers working in two shifts to collect gold, and they had barely achieved a slight surplus.
The town hall and barracks of the base were constant training units in full sequence, and the farms were constantly replenished to avoid food shortages and newly trained populations having nowhere to live at night.
The gold in the resource column had always been scarce, and at this stage, wood was only needed for musketeer training. In addition, Galen had researched the technology to improve the logging technique at the lumber mill, allowing farmers to bring back ten more units of wood, so a large amount of wood had accumulated.
As a last resort, Galen had to send all the new farmers to the mines to work and earn by the number.
Finally, on the afternoon of Fardel's visit, they gathered enough gold for the second barracks, and Galen couldn't wait to deploy the double barracks.
A few days after Galen added two barracks, the base's population finally exceeded one thousand.
While Galen was still immersed in the joy of the thousands of people inhabiting the base, good news arrived: a cavalry regiment that Thoras promised to send Galen arrived in Stromgarde.
With the arrival of the cavalry regiment, Galen knew that his plan to form an army was on the agenda.
Ten days had passed since his father agreed to his request. During these ten days, Galen had been making preparations, using falcons to send messages to summon Harmon Kaven's caravan and the guards who served as escorts, and at the same time informing them to meet up with the three soldiers waiting for the caravan on the road and return to Stromgarde together.
At the same time, Omar was asked to recruit citizens in Stromgarde who were willing to join the army, with a limit of 400 people.
Fardel was also running around trying to curry favor with the noble children who had no inheritance rights.
Galen asked Thoras for 700 sets of standard kingdom armor and 1,000 battle armors. He also paid out of his own pocket to order more than 1,000 red linen cloaks from a tailor shop.
Everything was going smoothly, and everything was prepared.
Galen went to the castle to ask Thoras for the transfer order of the cavalry regiment, and then went to his temporary base to first understand the strength of this team.
The Highland Cavalry of Stromgarde was founded by Galen's father, King Thoras, when he was young. Later, when Thoras inherited the throne, the cavalry regiment absorbed the strength of the royal guard and also served as the royal guard. They were the elite among the elite of the kingdom.
They arrived at the small military camp next to the castle, where a cavalry regiment was conducting training. These more than twenty men were tall and strong, and their training shouts were deafening.
According to the information Galen obtained from Thoras, this squadron consisted of twenty-four people and was one of the most elite squadrons in the cavalry regiment, with an average strength of level five.
Azeroth was a planet blessed with unique natural conditions. The physical fitness of the creatures living on this planet was far superior to that of the ordinary world. This was also one of the reasons why the Burning Legion's offensive was frustrated here. The strength of a single creature was insignificant, but when they united, they would become extremely powerful.
Human civilians in Azeroth basically had strength close to level one after reaching adulthood, ordinary regular troops could reach strength around level two, and level three was considered elite.
More than twenty level-five warriors could already act as a sharp knife on the battlefield. If used well, they could even change the situation of a war. It could be seen that apart from the fact that the treasury was tight and could not allocate funds to Galen, Thoras really spared no effort to help him in other aspects.
Thoras did not express any opinion on dividing the mining rights among a single person, regardless of whether it was right or wrong. He let him do everything without interfering too much, just to see how far Galen could grow in the future.
Galen also understood that this was a way for the old king to maintain the prestige of the crown prince.
The future King Terenas treated Arthas with such good intentions. Arthas disbanded the Knights of the Silver Hand in Stratholme, deposed Uther, and finally massacred the city. Terenas saw all this but never expressed any objection, because his son was the crown prince, and for the sake of his son and the succession to the throne, the future king must not have any blemishes.
These were all the good intentions of his old father.
Galen was deeply moved by Thoras's support and secretly vowed in his heart that he would not let him down and would revitalize Stromgarde.
When Galen entered the barracks, the soldiers recognized the prince. After all, the cavalry regiment was also the royal guard, and they were very familiar with the royal members.
"Your Highness." The team leader in the front row was the first to salute Galen, and a group of team members behind him also saluted in unison.
Galen walked over and saw the captain, whom he knew: Amor, the commander of the palace guard and adjutant of the Highland Cavalry Regiment. He was Galen's half-teacher and the person who taught Galen the most besides Thoras.
"Teacher Amor, why are you here?"
"Your Highness, I am now the captain of this team. His Majesty has recruited us to serve as your personal guards."
You are the adjutant of the cavalry regiment. We need you on the border. How can you come to my small unit that is not yet formally established? No, it's a waste of your talent. I will talk to my father and ask him to transfer you back to the cavalry regiment.
"No, Your Highness. His Majesty has dismissed me. I came here of my own volition."
After listening to Amor's explanation, Galen learned that in the recent violent conflict between the Cavalry Regiment and the Kingdom of Alterac, one of the protagonists on both sides was the team in front of him.
As king, Thoras was also the commander of the cavalry regiment. When dealing with government affairs in Stromgarde, Thoras would bring part of the cavalry regiment to Stromgarde, and the part left on the border would be commanded by Amor.
While patrolling the border, the team encountered the guards of the Kingdom of Alterac. Both sides accused each other of crossing the border and eventually fought each other until reinforcements arrived.
To avoid creating a larger conflict, the generals of Alterac, Has, and Amor stopped fighting, made peace, and returned to their camps.
Thoras was furious about this, mainly because he didn't win, and also because he had to argue with Aiden, whom he hated. The cavalry regiment was strong, but it only had a small team, while the Alterac side had a large number of people. The two sides fought with restraint and it was not a life-or-death struggle. The cavalry squadron was restricted in its actions and only managed to knock down most of the enemy's men.
He patted Amor on the shoulder and expressed his condolences. He was completely angry because his father hated Aiden Perenolde so much. He had no way to advocate for him.
He informed Amor that five days later, in the morning, he would hold a ceremony to establish an army in public at the castle training ground, and he would also hold a small military parade for the people of Stromgarde.
The reason why it takes five days was that the Archmage Gandalf was already on his way with three hundred base combat units. Because the Archmage had no coordinates, he could not perform group teleportation and had no war horses, so it took him twice as long as Amor and his team to arrive.
This time, the team led by Gandalf consisted of two hundred infantrymen and one hundred musketeers. This third-level team was sure to shock the entire audience.
There were more than a hundred infantrymen and more than forty musketeers stationed at the base. If necessary, there were also six hundred farmers who could be transformed into militiamen through the town hall's summoning, so there was no need to worry about security.
When he returned to his study, he saw a piece of parchment on the table with several lines of messy writing. These were the military numbers that Galen had been thinking about these days. Now it was time to choose one that he was satisfied with as the final result.
He thought of the red uniforms of the Stromgarde soldiers, their armor with red outlines, and the main red color of his own base's buildings.
Finally, Galen tapped the parchment on the table with his index finger and marked two words with a pen.
"Scarlet Flame."