Chapter 102: The Easterlings, the Bartra

Just as Allen was explaining to everyone the next plan the dark forces might take, several large camps surrounded by massive wagons had already been built in the east of the Redwater River, and a meeting was currently being held in the largest one among them.

The meeting place was beside a bonfire in the center of the camp; on the nearly extinguished fire, a whole roasted lamb with a golden hue was being grilled, and several blond youths, dressed in rags and wearing shackles but cleaned very thoroughly, were carefully carving the lamb on the fire with short daggers.

Soon, the fragrant roasted lamb was carved up and placed into two large silver platters inlaid with red and green gemstones, and the youths carried them, walking step by step toward an extremely huge, luxurious carriage decorated with gold and silver.

Inside the carriage sat five fierce-looking, burly men; especially the one sitting in the middle seat of honor, not only was he taller than those sitting on either side, but the scars crisscrossing his face made his already fierce countenance appear even more ferocious under the candlelight.

At this moment, the four slave youths carrying the lamb walked up along a slanted wooden ladder, and the first platter of lamb was successfully placed on the wooden table inside the carriage; the two youths who set down the silver platter stood on either side inside the carriage, lowered their heads, and let out a soft sigh of relief, the sound so faint that it seemed they were afraid of being heard by the others in the carriage.

When the second platter of lamb was also successfully placed on the table, the leader sitting in the seat of honor seemed to sense something, let out a soft hum, and his vicious eyes locked onto the two youths who had just set down the silver platter.

With just that hum, one of the youths collapsed to the ground, the shackles bound to his body also making a "clattering" sound, while the other youth moved with extreme speed to take the dagger used for carving the lamb from under the silver platter and threw it at the leader in the seat of honor, then, regardless of the result, turned and prepared to flee.

However, as a slave, the shackles on his legs greatly limited the youth's speed in fleeing; a bald burly man sitting at the end of the table reached out with extreme agility, gripped the youth's slender neck, and gave it a slight twist, seeing the youth's face clearly.

The youth whose neck was being gripped beat his fists incessantly against the bald man's muscular arm, his face turning bright red from suffocation, and his mouth kept emitting painful whimpers.

The bald man burst into loud laughter, then turned his head and said to the leader sitting in the seat of honor: "Lord Ashur, this brat is the son of Aljernon; he's here to take revenge."

The ferocious-looking Ashur rubbed his hand gently over the luxuriously decorated gold hilt of his sword, recalled for a moment, discovered he did not know this name, and asked: "Aljernon? Who? Take what revenge?"

The burly man sitting at the end of the other side stroked his full beard and said with a chuckle: "Kurda, why are you wasting your breath? Just tell the Lord that he's the one who was tied behind the carriage and dragged to death last week."

Only then did Ashur say with a look of sudden realization: "Oh, that Northman who wouldn't work properly and kept clamoring for a rest, right? I remember now, no wonder."

Kurda, with an expression of anger appearing on his face, used one hand to forcefully press the struggling blond youth to his knees, then glared fiercely at Hamish who had interrupted, but he did not flare up immediately; instead, he lowered his head and said to Ashur: "Yes, my Lord, this is his son, Brendon."

Ashur raised an eyebrow, glanced at the kneeling youth, and laughed loudly: "Hahahaha, what a courageous youth indeed. Kurda, give him twenty lashes, hang him at the entrance of the camp, and let the vultures gnaw on his flesh day and night. Hmm, and kill these other three as well."

As soon as the words fell, the youths who had been standing on the sides with their heads lowered, not daring to speak, collapsed to the ground trembling, and were subsequently dragged out by the Easterling soldiers called over by Kurda amidst their screams.

A moment later, "thwack," "thwack," "thwack"—the sound of the whip lashing mixed with a few exceptionally shrill cries reached inside the carriage, followed by more screams of agony that could not be endured; these shrill sounds did not affect the five burly men in the carriage, as they tore into the roasted lamb with gusto, occasionally gulping down mellow ale, as if what was happening outside had nothing to do with them at all.

The whole roasted lamb was soon eaten clean by the five burly men, and after gulping down another large mouthful of ale, Ashur asked the subordinate on his left: "Baal, what do the Northmen of Red River Town say? Are they willing to surrender?"

Baal, who had fair skin and kept himself extremely neat, said: "My Lord, the people of Red River Town have offered a large batch of ale and some grain, hoping that we can spare their town. I haven't given them a definite answer yet; what do you think?"

Ashur laughed contemptuously upon hearing this and said: "It doesn't matter whether they give it or not. Since they are so ungrateful, you and Akad's tribes together should have over four thousand people, right?"

To Ashur's right sat a burly man with messy hair and dark skin, who was none other than the Akad mentioned by Ashur; he said respectfully: "Yes, my Lord, this time I have brought everyone here under the orders of the Dark Lord."

"That's good!" Ashur's sinister gaze swept over Baal's face and he continued: "Then starting from tomorrow, you two tribes prepare to attack Red River Town. Half of all captured slaves, wealth, and supplies are to be turned over, and the rest will belong to you."

At this moment, a reluctant expression appeared on Baal's fair face; as a branch of the Bartra closest to the Redwater River, he often led the tribal cavalry under his command to conduct raids on the plains west of the Redwater River.

Although some Northmen who overestimated their strength had launched resistance against the troops led by Baal, the result was often being killed or becoming slaves, until four years ago, when he discovered a small human town in a dense forest at the confluence of the Redwater River and the Running River.

After two bloody battles, the Northmen of Red River Town had no choice but to submit; in the wild, they simply could not beat these exceptionally fierce Easterlings, and could only fight to a draw with the invading enemies from behind their wooden walls.

But they still had to live, needed to go out of the city to cultivate fields and pick wild fruits; being besieged in the city was nothing but a dead end. Subsequently, the lord of Red River Town proposed an agreement with Baal: Red River Town would offer a large batch of ale every year in exchange for peaceful coexistence with Baal.

Baal had also suffered the loss of many tribal warriors in the two battles to attack Red River Town, and he was already considering the gains and losses; forcibly attacking Red River Town, even if successful, would cause his tribe to suffer heavy losses, and among the various Easterling tribes, the weak are prey to the strong—even if they belonged to the same people, as long as their strength weakened, they would become prey circled by vultures.

Baal, who had suffered no small losses, actually already had the intention to retreat.

And the proposal from Red River Town was exactly what Baal wanted; in the following four years, Baal traded the ale offered by Red River Town to tribes of other peoples in exchange for a considerable number of slaves and weapons, and his strength gradually grew; he was now the second most powerful force among the Bartra.

However, Baal had hidden all of this, because once Ashur found out, he would inevitably want a share, or even have it all taken away.

Now, not only would this ale be unobtainable, but he would also have to share a portion with Akad; Baal was naturally unwilling, but no matter how unwilling, he had to swallow this resentment and still answer respectfully: "Yes, my Lord, I will prepare immediately after I return."

What Baal did not know was that his leader Ashur had known everything three years ago, but simply hadn't acted on it, and Ashur saw the reluctance on his face clearly.

But Ashur did not care; pigs only need to be slaughtered once they are fattened. If it weren't for the mission Sauron had arranged for him this time, he would have annexed Baal's tribe in the near future, and now Ashur had simply extinguished Baal's desire to continue gaining benefits.

He very much enjoyed the feeling of making others angry and fearful while they were powerless against him.

What Ashur was doing now, and what he had originally planned to do, was nothing among the Easterling tribes, and Sauron only cared about whether these Easterlings were obedient; as for how the Easterlings played their power games among themselves, he did not care at all, as long as some Humans died.

About three months ago, Sauron had arranged for Khamul to summon Ashur and ordered this current leader of the Bartra to attack the northern region of the Running River and occupy the vast plains there.

Sauron had not thought about wiping out the Northern Men and the Dwarves in this single operation; not to mention whether these Bartra could do it, if the war became too intense, it would inevitably trigger a full-scale counterattack from the Elves, Rohan, and Gondor.

He did not want to break out into a full-scale war with other forces in Middle-earth yet; Sauron's preparations were likewise insufficient.

It was just that Azog's complete failure at the Lonely Mountain made Sauron somewhat unbearable; if Azog could have caused some losses to the Elves or Dwarves, even if a king of the Elves or Dwarves had died, Sauron would not have been so angry inside.

After all, he had plenty of Orcish; if they died, they died, but having no results at all made Sauron unable to accept this outcome.

Now, the Dark Lord, who was angry from embarrassment, naturally would not let the Humans and Dwarves of Rhovanion have an easy time, which was why he sent out the Bartra, an Easterling tribe of over ten thousand, to let these servants properly target the two races that had embarrassed him; as for the Elves hiding in Mirkwood, Sauron naturally had other means arranged.

However, Ashur certainly did not know about Sauron's other plans; he was just faithfully executing the Dark Lord's orders, and of course, he would also get what he wanted in this operation.

And Akad and Baal, having received the orders, immediately returned to their tribes to prepare for the matter of attacking Red River Town.

Kurda and Amishi, who had not gained any benefits, walked out of Ashur's luxurious carriage, ignored the three headless bodies nearby, and amidst the sound of dog barking, roughly picked up Brendon, who had received twenty lashes, and dragged him to the entrance of the camp; the blood seeping from his wounds drew two crooked lines of blood along the youth's scarred feet.

Subsequently, Kurda rubbed his bald head and, amidst loud laughter, watched as Amishi hung up the battered blond youth, after which the two of them each mounted their horses and rode away.

It was also at this moment that several figures revealed their heads on a hill far from the camp gate; they were the six Twilight Knights led by Holimion, along with Malherbe of Red River Town.

Their party had arrived at Red River Town just half a month ago, but before everyone had rested for long, and the horses that had galloped all the way had not gained much fat, Baal had led a small number of tribal cavalry to appear at the gate of Red River Town, clamoring for the people of Red River Town to surrender obediently.

Baal was also overconfident, thinking that he had an agreement with Red River Town and that there had been no problems for all these years, so he had only brought a few dozen cavalrymen, not knowing that he had walked around the gates of hell.

Upon learning that the Humans before him were enemies of his liege, Holimion immediately took out his Noldor Rune Bow, prepared to shoot them, and was then desperately stopped by the terrified Malherbe.

Holimion did not take these few dozen Human cavalrymen seriously at all; he and the six Twilight Knights could rely on the extremely fast and highly enduring Elf Horses, as well as their own powerful archery, to chase and kill the enemies to their deaths on the vast plains.

But Malherbe certainly could not let such a thing happen; after Holimion killed Baal, he would just dust off his hands and leave gracefully, and the remaining aftermath would have to be cleaned up by Red River Town.

As for what would happen then, it went without saying; it would likely result in the destruction of the city and the death of its people.

It was Malherbe's father who came out to communicate with Baal, and in the end, the Easterlings drove off with a large number of wagons, leaving Red River Town.

And Holimion led the six Twilight Knights, following the tracks left by Baal at night; after several days of tracking, they arrived at the bank of the Redwater River, where twenty or thirty Easterling soldiers were guarding a simple wooden bridge.

After a brief observation, Holimion prepared to lead the Twilight Knights to rely on the speed of the Elf Horses to forcibly cross the bridge and eliminate the enemies before them.

But Malherbe, who had followed, stopped them and led Holimion and the others to cross the Redwater River at a shallow ford downstream.

However, Holimion still did not let those twenty or thirty enemy soldiers go; he divided the six Twilight Knights into two teams, took two of them to run upward from the east bank of the Redwater River, while the other four provided support from the west bank, and with the blessing of surprise, killed the soldiers guarding the bridge.

Subsequently, they continued to follow the tracks, galloping on horseback for a while, and arrived at the entrance of Ashur's main camp; after observing for a while, they saw the scene of Brendon being hung on the crossbeam of the gate.

However, when Malherbe looked at the boundless Easterling camp from the hill, his heart was filled with despair; he knew that with such strength, the enemy could never be moved by such a small amount of supplies; it was obvious that his father had been played by Baal.

And Holimion did not care what Malherbe was thinking, nor did he care about the fate of Red River Town; he was here to scout the enemy's situation, and once he had figured it out, he could go back and report to Allen.

It was just that the way the Easterlings set up camp was quite different from anything he had seen before; some of them slept in tents, while others slept directly in wagons, and Holimion had no way to calculate the approximate number of enemies based on the number of tents.

Holimion was considering whether to take some risks, capture a prisoner, and extract some enemy intelligence.

Just at this moment, Brendon, who was hanging from the crossbeam, regained consciousness from his coma; even though his body was very weak now, he still made some slight struggling movements, and this scene was caught by Holimion.

Afterward, Holimion signaled to those behind him, "The commotion might be a bit loud in a moment, so as not to have a large number of enemies come out, I will leave you here."

Malherbe did not know what Holimion and his group were going to do, but the battle that took place by the river made this Northman realize just how powerful a combat force Lord Allen of Wilderness Town had arranged to escort him.

That's right, thinking of this, Malherbe's eyes suddenly lit up; there was also the Lord of Wilderness Town. Having thought of some things, Malherbe nodded to Holimion, rode his horse, and ran quickly toward the road he had come from; he was desperate to go back and have a chat with his father.

Meanwhile, the Easterling soldier guarding the camp gate looked at Brendon, who was dripping blood while struggling, and yawned out of boredom. He had seen this kind of scene many times; every so often, some people who didn't know better would be hanged here, and they weren't necessarily all slaves.

After yawning, the Easterling soldier took a waterskin from his waist, took a shallow sip, smacked his lips, picked up the waterskin again, tilted his neck, and took another drink.

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What was in this waterskin was some ale, which had just been distributed by Ashur earlier that day. In the Easterling tribes, ale produced in Red River Town was already a fairly good drink.

Ashur had also seen that his soldiers had been traveling very hard these days, so he took the ale that Baal had brought back and distributed it all to his confidants, which was why it was no wonder Baal was unwilling to report his harvest to Ashur.

And as for this soldier drinking the ale, before the second mouthful of liquor had slid down into his stomach, a Cone-headed Arrow had already pierced through his neck, tearing his carotid artery, and blood mixed with ale gushed out from his mouth.

Sharing the same fate as him were more than a dozen Easterling soldiers standing on the roofs of the wagons on both sides of the gate. In a short amount of time, they fell to the ground one after another after being struck by arrows, and this commotion quickly attracted the attention of other Easterling soldiers in the camp.

From the darkness outside the camp gate, a Cavalryman charged out quickly; it was Holimion riding an Elf Horse. The Noldor Rune Bow he held, already pulled to its full draw, was suddenly released, shooting and snapping the rope that held Brendon. Brendon, who had been hanging, widened his eyes, looked in surprise at the Knight charging toward him, and then landed heavily on the ground.

Holimion, in the middle of his charge, slightly lowered the speed of the Elf Horse, then leaned his body down and lifted Brendon up with one hand. Afterward, he tugged at the horse's head, changed direction, and under the angry gaze of the Easterling cavalry, charged out of the camp gate.

The first batch of Easterling cavalry to react shouted at the horses between their legs and chased in the direction of Holimion.

At this moment, waves of arrow rain flew out from the darkness, shooting the Easterling cavalry who wanted to rush out of the gate off their horses one after another.

Meanwhile, Holimion disappeared into the darkness within this short amount of time; a sound of hoofbeats arose, gradually moving away from Ashur's main camp until it vanished.

A moment later, a large group of Easterling cavalry with hunting dogs chased out of the camp gate amidst Ashur's angry shouts.