Originally Posted by
Ielenia
/snip
Since all of this apparently lies on the position that the only two choices were kill everyone or abandon the city entirely, here is what I'd propose as a better solution.
1. Evacuate a portion of the population, enough that your soldiers can handle without being overwhelmed
2. A traveling military unit knows how to set up temporary camp so you allocate your forces between watch duty and construction of simple quarantine spaces
3. Separate the evacuated people into groups, small enough to be monitored by your soldiers
4. When the infected inevitably begin to turn, they're isolated enough to be dealt with before they can cause rampant destruction
5. Use the knowledge you have gathered to further break the groups down into low vs high risk
a. Even if the transformation is quick, the plague still takes a few days between consumption and transformation
b. The grain arrived from Andorhal X days ago, and it takes some time to distribute and put to use
c. Separate those who can confidently say they haven't eaten anything baked over the past X days
d. It's not perfect since it relies on memory and honesty, but it's a start and would help to separate out more manageable groups
6. By actually informing people of the situation, the quarantined can also assist with managing the spread, allowing the soldiers to evacuate more people
With this system Arthas would have likely kept the aid of Uther and his knights as well as Jaina. Yes, much of the city would have been lost, that part is a foregone conclusion. The difference is that this is action taken to save lives rather than indiscriminate murder under the guise of "a better fate" or "the greater good".