The Lord of the Rings: Lords of Middle-earth.

Chapter 1001 The Nobles of Rohan
"Hi! Thorin!" Bard greeted Thorin and his party with a smile in his eyes.

"Hello! My brother!" Thorin was very respectful and went up to bump fists with Bard.

"This is quite a commotion! You didn't even bring thirteen people down the mountain?" Bard jokingly punched Thorin in the chest.

"By Turin! Aren't you afraid Roland will scold you to death for doing this?" Thorin retorted irritably.

"How many men did you bring?" Bard looked up and asked.

"Eight hundred dwarf warriors! How about that? Awesome, right?" Thorin swung his arm.

"Hmm...wait a minute? You're coming too?" Bard's gaze sharpened, only then noticing Thorin carrying a shield and the Orcrest (the Beastbite Sword, actually a knife!).
“Of course, I don’t trust anyone else to go!” Thorin nodded.

"Aren't you going too?" Thorin slapped Bard on the shoulder, the sound of his hand hitting the chainmail echoing loudly. Judging from the longbow on his back, Bard was also preparing to go to war personally.

"Does the River Valley have anyone capable of commanding troops?" Bard's lips twitched as he looked at the five hundred lightly armed infantrymen standing in neat rows behind him.

"Militia?" Thorin followed Bard's gaze and saw that although the soldiers were well-equipped, their old peasant aura was undeniable!
"Yeah, if I don't bring them along, they'll break down when they encounter a tough opponent!" Bard sighed. The saying "a general's courage is the greatest virtue in the Central Plains" is absolutely true. This is also why it's hard for ordinary generals to stand out. After all, the enemy can really dismantle your command system!
“Let them follow us! Dwarves are good at positional warfare. I see your men are all carrying crossbows; they can at least supplement our ranged firepower!” Thorin thought for a moment and said. Among the kingdoms in the North, the Woodland Kingdom, the Akvia Kingdom, and the Lagrange Kingdom are all self-contained systems. Only the Erebor and Vale Kingdoms cooperate and complement each other! Historically, during the War of the Ring, King Brand, grandson of Bard, and Dain joined forces at the Erebor to resist the Orcs and the Eastern Chariot Peoples. Although they ultimately defended the Erebor, both kings perished.

“Alright! This way we’ll be safer!” Bard didn’t refuse Thorin’s offer; cooperation between the two families was already the norm! Their forces were intermingled along the northern defense line.

"Will the North be alright? We've taken thousands of people with us..." Bard said worriedly, looking towards the north. After all, the scene of the earth serpents digging through the mountains to send out the orc army during the Battle of Lonely Mountain was still vivid in his mind!
"Probably not. The Kingdom of Lagrang won't stand idly by and watch the North be destroyed. Our outposts and border troops haven't been mobilized..." Thorin shook his head. Fortunately, the autumn harvest was over, freeing up a large number of militia. Plus, with the harsh winter, the orcs would all find places to hibernate. Apart from powerful tribes, no orc could cross the Grey Mountains! This meant that Lonely Mountain only needed to retain a portion of its guard forces!

"Shall we go to the Woodland Kingdom now?" Bard asked.

"Yes, let's go straight to the Woodland Kingdom! From there, we'll take a boat to Magic Stream!" Thorin nodded. This time, the army wouldn't take the Old Forest Road because Roland didn't want to alert the orcs' scouting. Although the orcs didn't have much ability to invade now, Roland was disgusted by their presence. If these scoundrels got involved, Yun Feng would be busy all winter! He'd probably kill someone trying to patch up all the holes.

……

"My lord, this is a sixth-rank lord from the North..." The knight led Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso and his companion to a camp. Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso observed along the way and finally determined that there were only about a thousand cavalrymen in the camp, and only a few knights.

"Hmm! Who did you bring into the military camp?" The middle-aged noble-looking officer looked at Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso and his companion, then at the knight who had led the way, and his face immediately hardened as he prepared to reprimand them.

“It was I who requested to see you, and it turns out you’re even worse than I thought!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso sighed and shook his head helplessly. “Bastard! You!” The nobleman from Rohan was about to speak when he saw Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso and his companion’s battle auras rise.

"Watch your mouth before you speak! If I call you trash, then you're trash! What's the difference between a border army that can't even protect its own people and trash?" Oakrian Ryukin blocked Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso's path, raising his longsword horizontally.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t be so agitated…” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso deflected Oakrian Ryukin’s sword and stood calmly before the middle-aged nobleman.

"Orcs are rampaging through your territory! Don't use the wolf riders as an excuse; those are just roaming orcs! There's not a trace of wolf riders!" Grand Duke Okrian Yaso said calmly. He had scouted the village ruins himself and found no trace of wolf riders. Moreover, the orcs had looted thoroughly, taking almost everything they could! They even gnawed on the fattest parts of the corpses! Clearly, this wasn't an orc force with supplies. Wolf riders, as an elite orc unit, wouldn't be so poor as to plunder!
"Who are you?" The middle-aged nobleman's face stiffened, but his attitude softened after a series of changes in expression.

“I am a nobleman from the Kingdom of Lagrang in the North… You can call me Duke Yaso!” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso nodded.

“This is my lieutenant, the Golden Sword Saint!” then Grand Duke Oakrian Yasso introduced.

"Earl of Wodeland, East Mark Region—Lemon!" the middle-aged nobleman announced his identity.

"What brings you here, Your Grace, Duke?" Count Lemon asked earnestly. Regardless of whether these two were real or fake dukes, their titles of "Your Grace" were genuine! After all, identity can be faked, but sixth-tier combat power cannot be faked! That suffocating pressure almost scared everyone to death.

“Tell me about the situation. We two are heading south to gather intelligence, since the orcs are becoming increasingly active! It’s possible that the old alliance will be rebuilt. My king ordered me to investigate the situation in the southern countries!” Grand Duke Okrian Yaso shook his head.

“In fact, the situation is even worse than I, the king, estimated! I thought you would hold the Anduin River defense line…” Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso rubbed his temples.

"..." Earl Lemon looked awkwardly at Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso, his lips twitching a few times without saying a word. After all, his kingdom was indeed incompetent, with its borders retreating again and again.

"I heard that a force of hundreds or even thousands of orc wolf riders has entered your kingdom? Is that true?" Grand Duke Oakrian Yaso asked curiously.

“That’s true. Our unit is the vanguard of sentries… responsible for scouting their movements!” Count Lemon nodded.

"Do you even know that there are still villages, large and small, scattered in the east? Are you just going to abandon your people like this?" Okrian Ryukin sneered, his eyes full of contempt. Even the free knights who opposed the imperial court knew to protect the people and retreat first, while these Rohan cavalrymen ran fast...

“It’s really difficult for us to notify those nomadic villages, and they’re located in the northeast corner, where the orcs haven’t yet spread their influence, so they’re relatively safe for now!” Earl Lemon explained. They had actually been organizing the evacuation, but relocating those villages required time and resources; it wasn’t something that could be done on a whim!