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

Chapter 859: Layout? Backstab?
"The elves in the valley don't want to get entangled with those sticky people anymore, so our Duke Apophis Breo can only retreat back to the territory." Rul shook his head regretfully. The King's Lion family is an old player in using the opponent's strength to defeat him, and dragging the elves into the water this time was something Apophis Breo had planned for a long time in advance.

"It seems that my Duke of Junling has miscalculated!" Roland said with a smile. He really didn't know these things in Lagrande City. As a noble family with real titles, Junling family naturally has the qualifications to declare war and make peace. They have no obligation and need to ask Roland for instructions on everything.

"In essence, they succeeded!" Ruhr shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Roland asked curiously.

"What the Queen and the King mean is that the elves' dominant position needs to change. If we want to become an empire, there cannot be any forces stronger than us around us. There cannot be two overlords in one area! The elves... need to be weakened." Ruel looked at Roland meaningfully and said.

"Hiss..." Roland took a deep breath. Sure enough, this person's bloodline was pure enough! He was a genuine Lagrangian!

"What on earth have you done that you didn't tell me?" Roland felt a little bitter. As expected of a noble who had emerged from the political cesspool of the Lagrande Empire, it was no good when two families came together. No! It was three families! Roland would never believe that the Vladivostok family had no hand in this!
As the Hand of the Tide, a powerful political family that controls half of the personnel power in the empire, no one would believe that this family, which has maxed out its skill tree in the political field, has no hand behind the scenes!
"In addition to Nyx and Apophis Breo, Duke Joltea is also a driving force behind this!" Roland said quietly. It is even possible that the "man behind the scenes" is Duke Joltea. As a well-known diplomatic and political troublemaker in the Lagran Empire, he possesses a balancing ability comparable to that of Great Britain. It is no surprise that the Hand of Rapids created this Roland.

"Yes, Your Majesty has a keen eye!" Ruel flattered. He guessed that Roland would quickly guess the role of the Hand of the Rapids, but he didn't expect Roland to guess it in an instant.

"Alas, what are they going to do? We can bleed the elves, but not now!" Roland rubbed his brows. Roland had no objection to bleeding the elf in the Valley, but it was not the right time yet. In a few decades, there would be a war that would affect Middle-earth and they would have to sacrifice themselves!
"It is said that it will cause the elves and the orcs north of the Misty Mountains to engage in a tug-of-war!" Rul thought about it.

"The elves of Rivendell are so obedient? They just go into the mountains and fight the orcs?" Roland said in disbelief.

"Of course not. We have our people leading them! The brave warriors under Duke Apophis Breo are leading them. After all, the elves will not attack alone." Ruhl shrugged calmly.

"Wait? How many people do we need to sacrifice?" Roland felt something was wrong. He pulled Rul. After all, it didn't make sense that those elves were killed, but ordinary human soldiers who were even weaker than them could survive!
"Of course, but according to Duke Apophis Breo, King's Landing can sacrifice 10,000 people for the Lagran people, but the elves cannot bear the death of a thousand people!" Ruhl said as a matter of course.

"..." Roland frowned. He still couldn't agree with sacrificing himself to weaken his competitors.

"Your Majesty, a merciful army cannot be commanded! Human lives are just a string of numbers in front of the country. All we can do is to make their sacrifice more meaningful!" Ruhl saw Roland's struggle and tried to comfort him. Loving the people like one's own children is a good phrase, but sometimes this phrase should not be used!
"Stop Apophis Breo! We don't have enough people to take the blame for the elves of Rivendell! Contact Riverstorm now! Stop these activities!" Roland turned around and called the guards. He knew that the War of the Ring had weakened the elves enough to bleed them, so there was no need to do this.

"Didn't I just say that even if you want to continue now, you can't do anything. After all, the elves are no longer playing! Elrond - King Elrond has withdrawn the elven garrison. Unless our King's Landing is breached by the orcs, they will not go up the mountain again!" Ruhl shrugged and smiled awkwardly.

"How many people did you kill in Rivendell?" Roland suddenly felt that these people had made a big mistake without telling him! After all, it was so difficult to stop Elrond, so one could imagine what these shady strategists like Raglan had done.

"Not much, I just took the elves to attack the Goblin Kingdom in the north." Ruel pointed at the map. Roland took a look and saw that it was the address of the new underground kingdom where the other goblins moved after Thorin and his team killed the Goblin Queen. The kingdom's reconnaissance team had figured out their location again, so it was not surprising that they were found.

"How many of our people were killed or wounded? How many of the elves were killed or wounded?" Roland looked at Ruhl.

"We had a team of 500 warriors who stayed there forever."

"As for the elves... probably close to a thousand, who knows?" Rul said nonchalantly.

"Nearly a thousand? You are fighting Goblins? How could these Goblins kill nearly a thousand elves? Did they bring in the Ringwraiths and Sauron?" Roland opened his mouth wide. He thought his people were making a big fuss, but he didn't expect to poke a hole in the sky! Nearly a thousand elves! Are you trying to kill Elrond? You killed all the elves before the War of the Ring! No wonder Elrond ran away. If it were him, he would have killed Apophis Breor! Besides, could Goblins kill nearly a thousand elves?
"Our people detonated several forbidden scrolls... underground." Rul scratched his head and said sadly.

"The assassins of the Junlin family?" Roland narrowed his eyes. Only the assassins of the Junlin family could take on such a deadly underworld mission. If this incident were to be leaked, it would be fatal to the entire Lagrande.

"..." Ruel looked around subconsciously and nodded.

"Enough! This matter ends here! Don't mention it again in the future, let everyone forget it! The families of the soldiers who died will be supported by the kingdom and given the highest pension!" Roland rubbed his brows. No wonder! How could the goblins make such a fuss? It turned out that the assassins of the King's Landing family had buried them.

All I can say is that Apophis Breo is really ruthless. He did this just to eliminate potential future competitors. After all, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Raglan is basically the only one in power in the North now. The orcs in Gunbadda Fortress are also stretched thin in the face of the increasingly powerful Raglan. The pace of the empire's revival and the kingdom's expansion is bound to overtake the local power of the Rivendell elves!

"It's still too early. The elves should not be weakened at this time! And we need this ally now!" Roland shook his head and sighed.

"You guys actually made such a big noise? Yun Feng didn't even notify me?" Adolf Heinrich, who had been listening for a while, quickly walked in and closed the door.

Ruhl looked at Adolf Heinrich without saying anything. With the sage's mental power, he could hear himself speaking from a long distance.

"Yeah! We almost poked a hole in the sky!" Roland frowned and said helplessly. He had no choice now that things had come to this point. After all, they didn't know the future history and it was impossible for them to predict the situation of the elves in advance, so they took action early.

(End of this chapter)