Chapter 117: Settlement

Allen, who was lost in thought, was not considering whether to help these people, but rather how exactly to settle them.

After making a round of the stronghold in the canyon, Allen barely found a single able-bodied male between the ages of 15 and 50; it could be said that those left behind were truly the elderly, the weak, the women, and the children.

Wilderness Town, having been supplemented by Hank with people from three villages, plus a portion of the fleeing Northmen that Allen had brought back, was basically already at a state of saturation. If he wanted to settle them near Wilderness Town, he would have to open up new villages in the surrounding area not far away.

Although Allen had always had this intention, and had previously let the craftsmen rescued from Orc Town begin this work, Allen made a rough estimate and realized that this canyon was hiding at least two to three thousand people.

Putting them all into one village was simply unrealistic, so they would have to be required to build a village from scratch, which would be too difficult for these women. If they were forced to perform heavy manual labor, accidents would easily occur, but the problem was that Allen could not spare any more able-bodied men to help them.

"Auston, I can help you find a suitable place to live, but I would like to ask, do you all have to live together?"

"My lord, it is not necessary. These people originally came from different places, um..."

As Auston spoke, he quietly observed Allen's expression, wanting to see if this lord had any intention of making things difficult, but from those eyes full of pity, he did not see anything else.

"If possible, I still hope you can let the people from each place live together. They are familiar with each other, and with mutual help, they can settle down more quickly."

Upon hearing that they did not all need to be settled together, Allen felt less troubled in his heart. He nodded and said to Auston: "Very well, then go notify your companions and have their clansmen prepare to relocate. While the Easterlings' attention is fixed elsewhere, we still have enough time. If we wait until they return and truly take root in this land, then it will be too late to do anything."

Hearing that Allen had agreed to help them, Auston felt a great weight lift from his heart. He then bowed gratefully to Allen and said: "Thank you for your help, we will go prepare immediately."

Allen nodded, then observed this hidden canyon.

This was a canyon that appeared at the center where two hills converged. To get inside, one first had to find a crack in a small forest, and then face several forks in the road before finally arriving in this canyon.

There was very little space here that could accommodate residents; the three thousand or so Northmen hiding here made this canyon appear very chaotic and crowded. However, if it were only used as a place for a small-scale army to hide temporarily, it would be simply perfect.

Looking at the terrain here, Allen considered whether to station a cavalry battalion here in the future to scout enemy intelligence in the days to come, and to execute harassment tactics if the opportunity arose. After all, Fatis had told Allen before that these Easterlings' use of cavalry was very crude, and their strength was very weak.

Just as Allen was thinking, Auston had already gathered with his companions. If these people were adults who had experienced the vicissitudes of life, they might not have accepted Allen's help so easily, or even have dared to make a request to a stranger at all.

They had only been in contact with Allen for a few days, and previously had only heard of Allen's reputation from their elders. However, it was precisely because they were at an age where they worshipped the strong and were prone to trusting others, coupled with the pressure of managing their clansmen inherited passively from their elders, that drove them to grasp at Allen like a straw at this moment.

It was just that things were not progressing very smoothly in their hands. They were young and easily trusted others, but because they had not yet grown beards on their faces, it was difficult for them to be trusted by others, even if their fathers had once been the leaders of these people.

Moreover, the news these young people brought back was truly too painful. The total annihilation of the army meant that every household had lost at least one pillar, and some families had lost two or even three. On the first night of arriving here, Allen barely managed to fall asleep amidst the sound of crying.

And those who were too grief-stricken were simply unable to trust their lord's successor as they had before.

Under such circumstances, it was a normal phenomenon that Auston and the others' work was difficult to carry out. The vast majority of people, emboldened by a courage they had not possessed before, rejected the relocation proposal put forward by Auston and his group.

These people who had not received much education found it difficult to leave this place that was still considered stable. Most people would not consider what they should do once the food ran out; what they were thinking about more at this moment was that the enemy was exceptionally strong, this place was very safe, and there was still plenty of food, so they would hide for as long as they could.

Within such an ideological atmosphere, these young people spent an entire day, and only a few hundred people were willing to leave with them.

Seeing all this, Allen, out of helplessness, temporarily lent his subordinates to Auston and the others, while telling these young people that if it still didn't work, they could consider using force as a deterrent.

If there was a choice, Allen was not willing to use such means, but being unwilling did not mean he did not understand. Since coming to Middle-earth, his journey had been relatively smooth, and he had not experienced much deceit, but he had seen plenty in his previous life and had a certain understanding of human nature.

Coercion by force was definitely more effective than a smiling face, because the driving force of fear on humans was very strong. But the side effects of doing this were also great; once you used it once, you might become addicted, and when facing any matter, you would prioritize using violence to solve it, because violence was really damn useful.

But Allen did not want to turn himself into that. Violence represented absolute oppression and would plant the seeds of rebellion in the hearts of the oppressed. No one knew when these seeds would grow into towering trees, and when that time came, chaos would be inevitable, which would also cause more violence, and then form a vicious cycle, causing more strength and energy to be wasted in internal strife.

Therefore, Allen never hoped to use violence to solve problems.

It was just that he really did not have much time to waste here with these people. After finishing these matters, he still had to rush to Long Lake Town, but he was unwilling to let go just like that and leave these people here to wait for a certain death. So, a helpless Allen began to try to let his subordinates play the role of villains.

Sure enough, under the threat of blades, things progressed much more smoothly. It only took two days for most people to prepare for relocation. The remaining two or three hundred people were willing to risk death rather than leave, so Allen stopped forcing them. If the number of people was very small, they could survive in this place permanently; there was still enough land here to support the survival of a few hundred people.

After leaving enough supplies, Allen took the others and left under the hesitant gazes of those people. Of course, Allen would not really kill them because of their non-cooperation; scaring them was enough.

According to the map in his mind, Allen knew that this canyon was about a hundred kilometers away from Heidelberg. This was the straight-line distance. Now, moving these elderly and children, it would be impossible to reach the sphere of influence of Heidelberg in less than eight or ten days.

Allen did not have that much time. At this moment, the Easterling army led by Ashur had likely already approached Long Lake Town. He needed to rush there as soon as possible and participate in the war at the first opportunity, otherwise, it would be hard to explain why he, who provided the information, had not arrived before the enemy.

For this reason, after leaving the forest before the canyon, Allen handed over the two thousand or so elderly, women, and children to Fatis, letting him take these people to rest in Heidelberg first, and then relocate to Wilderness Town via Mirkwood Road, and also asked Fatis to convey his general ideas for settling these people to Yamila.

In Allen's impression, the population ratio of Wilderness Town at this time was already seriously imbalanced, with more than half of the able-bodied men already conscripted into the army and taken to the front line at Heidelberg.

If they were to stay, a tribe of about a thousand people could be left in the village near Old Ferry. Most of the people rescued from Orc Town at that time were able-bodied men; after all, the weak elderly, women, and children could not have survived in such an environment.

With these women and children supplemented, they could completely form families for a second time. In addition, as for Malhebi's side, the people of Red Leaf Town had migrated over completely and had not suffered any great losses; if they were willing, they could also accept a portion of the people.

As for the rest, Allen planned to pass them all through the Woodland Realm and settle them in Long Lake Town. That place was truly waiting to be rebuilt, and regardless of whether they were able-bodied or not, they could find a suitable job.

After making the arrangements, Fatis, with fifty cavalrymen and Allen's orders, led the massive migration team to set off for Heidelberg, while Allen took the remaining cavalry and his personal guards and began to gallop toward Long Lake Town.

Several days later, Allen crossed the Running River from a ford and advanced along the forest toward the direction of Long Lake. At this time, Allen suddenly saw the figures of Elves at the edge of the forest.

These Elves were specifically sent by Thranduil to scout the area of the Running River. The line from Long Lake Town to Mirkwood Road was the area that the Woodland Realm was responsible for.

Originally, these Elves were hidden extremely well and would never have been discovered by Allen and his party who were galloping. They recognized Allen and came out specifically to greet him. At the same time, they also conveyed a message to Allen that the Woodland Realm had already made preparations to deal with the enemy's invasion.

Apart from looking familiar, Allen did not recognize the identities of the Elves before him; after all, they were all handsome men and beautiful women, and it was easy to get dazzled. Facing the greetings of the Woodland Elves, Allen did not linger too long, but nodded to this scouting squad and continued to advance along the bank of the Running River toward Long Lake.

Two days later, Allen and his party finally approached Long Lake and saw from afar the defensive camp built by the Dwarves at the intersection of the Long Lake West Bank and the north bank of the Mirkwood River.

【Recommendation: Wild Fruit Reading is really easy to use for catching up on books, download it here. wildfruitreading everyone can try it.】

At this time, this defensive stronghold had already been built by the Dwarves to look quite decent. A simple pier connected the camp to Long Lake and the Mirkwood River. On both sides of the pier, an arrow tower was placed. The Dwarf warriors on the arrow towers kept a close watch on the Easterlings who had just begun to gather on the opposite bank.

At this time, several small boats were departing from the camp's pier and rowing toward the direction of Mirkwood Road. If nothing went wrong, they should be preparing to notify the Humans of Mirkwood Road that the enemy had already stationed themselves near Long Lake.

Besides the pier, this camp also had two other main gates. One was opened on the southwest side, and at the entrance of the camp, it connected to a simple bridge crossing the Mirkwood River. This place was quite close to Mirkwood, allowing the Elves in the Mirkwood Mountains to enter the camp for defense at the fastest speed, or to send soldiers to support the Elves who were skilled in forest warfare.

The other was opened in the north, allowing the Dwarves coming from the direction of the Lonely Mountain to enter the camp more conveniently. After all, after the Easterlings approached, going upstream in the river was too dangerous. After the war began, the land route might be the only choice for the Dwarves.

The walls of the camp were surrounded by rough logs nearly three meters high, and behind the wooden walls were wooden frames built by the Dwarves, which allowed the Dwarves to very conveniently resist the enemy's attack on the wall. At the same time, a part of these wooden frames was buried deep in the ground, increasing the wall's ability to resist impact.

Every certain distance along the wall, there was an arrow tower five meters high. The soldiers on the arrow towers could also overlook the surrounding environment to prevent the enemy from launching a surprise attack on the camp.

And outside the wall was a trench about two meters wide and deep, in which were densely packed wooden spikes sharpened to an extreme point. At this depth, as long as a person fell in, they would inevitably be injured by these wooden spikes. At the same time, the trench was very close to the river; as long as the Dwarves were willing, they could cut open the river at any time and lead the water into the trench, forming a simple moat.

Because part of the camp's edge was replaced by Long Lake and the Mirkwood River, this large camp, with the help of nearly a thousand Dwarves and several hundred Humans, only took nearly a month to complete its preliminary construction. Next might be the work of building some catapults or building some platforms that could accommodate repeating crossbows.

Of course, these things were what Allen paid the Dwarves to make. After this war was over, the new Long Lake Town would be built on the basis of this camp. For Allen, the more of these city-defending weapons, the better.

At noon on this day, Allen and his subordinates entered the camp through the simple bridge over the Mirkwood River. Arriving at the same time as Allen was a Goat Cavalry led by Kili, who had also just returned from patrol.

Kili had brought dozens of Goat Cavalry from the Lonely Mountain to here a week ago. At this time, the Dwarves who originally lived in the Iron Hills had all migrated to the Lonely Mountain. Thorin, having put down a major concern in his heart, dispatched a portion of the few Dwarf cavalry.

Their main task was to patrol the section of the Running River from Long Lake to the Lonely Mountain to prevent the enemy from crossing the river silently. Kili divided the cavalry into several squads, and his squad had just returned from patrol.

Upon seeing Allen, Kili, who had just settled his mount, waved at Allen. At the same time, the elderly Balin, who had received the news, also walked out from a barrack in the camp, and following behind Balin was Dain Ironfoot.

"Allen, over here."

Without needing this shout from Kili, Allen, who had just gotten off his horse and was covered in sweat, immediately saw his few Dwarf friends.

He let his Captain of the Personal Guard, Holimion, take the other soldiers first to settle into the living area of the Humans in this camp, while he himself strode toward his Dwarf friends.

At the same time, he said loudly: "My friends, in this dangerous moment, being able to see this camp and see your figures is truly a reassuring and happy thing."