Chapter 118

Mid-April, summer, the scorching sun was like fire.

Even beside a lake like Long Lake, Allen could not feel much coolness. Because of the humid heat, he thought with a face full of sweat that the sun of Middle-earth must be the fruit borne by Laurelin, one of the Two Trees, before it perished, then driven by a Maia on the Sun-ship to fly around Arda, bringing warmth and light to the earth.

Since Arda is the center and there is no talk of it rotating or revolving around the sun, why are there seasonal temperature changes? Could it be that Arien changes the distance between the ship and the earth every so often? What for? Is it a requirement of the Great Music?

As a Dwarf with extremely high tolerance for high temperatures, Balin, with a natural expression, certainly did not have the strange thoughts that suddenly appeared in Allen's mind due to the humid heat. This old gentleman with white hair and beard was talking about the arrival of the Easterlings.

"Three days ago, the first tribe of the Easterlings began to enter our reconnaissance range. One day ago, they camped at Long Lake Town. Judging by the number of people, it should be around four thousand. At that time, Kili and the two of us suggested taking troops across the river to launch a surprise attack on these guys who had not yet established a firm footing."

Speaking of this, old Master Balin smiled and exchanged a glance with Dain, while Dain helplessly blew on his already white beard, shook his head, and said:

"I will say it again, I refused such a proposal. The number of our warriors is too small, only three hundred. Most of the others are young lads who have never been on a battlefield. Moreover, the enemy's second team will arrive soon, and their numbers are also over three thousand. If we had spent time then to force a river crossing to attack them, what we would likely face would be an enemy with a total strength of over seven thousand."

At this time, Kili, who was sitting to the side looking somewhat embarrassed, seemed to have suddenly remembered something. He stood up with his brows tightly furrowed and said: "Today I received news from other brothers that we might not just be facing the people in front of us. Not far from here, there is another team. Their numbers are even greater, and combined, they might exceed the two tribes camped across Long Lake. At this moment, they are also rushing toward us, and it is estimated that they are at most only one day's journey away."

Allen, sitting to the side, synthesized the existing information and, enduring the stuffiness in the room, said to the three Dwarf friends before him: "Gentlemen, according to the information I have obtained, this is destined to be a difficult battle. Our enemy is an entire Easterling tribe, composed of five clans. The leader is named Ashur, and his clan should have nearly ten thousand Easterlings. The remaining four are Baal, Kurda, Amishi, and one who is already dead, Akad."

As he spoke, Allen picked up the ale in front of him, which was already somewhat warm, and took a sip to quench the thirst caused by talking. Then, under the gaze of the three Dwarves, he took out a wooden barrel specifically for holding maps from his bosom, took out the map of Rhovanion, and spread it out on the table.

Subsequently, Allen pointed to the location of Long Lake Town and said: "Right now, the tribes of Ashur, Kurda, and Amishi are already camped near Long Lake. According to the information I obtained earlier, their numbers should be around fifteen thousand, however, after occupying this area—"

Allen's hand swept from Long Lake to the Redwater River.

"Their numbers have clearly increased; now they should be able to reach about seventeen thousand to eighteen thousand. But we don't need to worry; the increase should be captives of the Northmen. Moreover, I personally witnessed a battle between them and the Northmen before, and the losses were at least over a thousand."

Allen said, licking his dry, cracked lips, and continued: "According to my observations, every time they move, they bring the entire tribe, including slaves and the families of the soldiers. So, the warriors they can actually field are not over ten thousand, but roughly between seven thousand and eight thousand, and the enemies we actually need to guard against are about six thousand."

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In fact, through a period of observation, Allen knew that among these Easterling males, except for very young children, most others would step onto the battlefield. The able-bodied men of the three tribes of Ashur, Kurda, and Amishi, plus the slaves willing to fight for them, could barely scrape together a force of eight thousand. Moreover, they suffered heavy casualties in the battle at Iron Wall Town, so now it is roughly just over seven thousand.

Of these, more than four thousand should be under Ashur's control, and the other two thousand-plus under the control of Kurda and Amishi.

Furthermore, to Allen's knowledge, young females in some Easterling tribes also receive military training. They often stay in the camp with the elderly and young to protect their homes from enemy attacks. Therefore, when Allen calculated the Easterling military strength, he also included them, so Allen's estimated strength is eight thousand.

After all, with them guarding the camp, the male Easterling soldiers could fight abroad with peace of mind.

After finishing the situation at Long Lake, Allen pointed his finger at the location of Red River Town and continued: "At this location, there are also two Easterling tribes. According to the information I received, the number of people should be around five thousand. They have already treated this place as their own land."

As he spoke, Allen moved his finger to the location of Heidelberg.

"At this moment, my men are here constantly guarding against their attacks. I am very sorry, I have no way to bring too many soldiers here to support you. I can only do my best to provide some information. So, gentlemen, the above is all the information I currently know related to the Easterlings."

Kili, Balin, and Dain looked at the map and fell into silence, after which the three began to discuss.

Being blocked at their doorstep by such a large number of Easterlings was unacceptable to the three Dwarves. The young and impulsive Kili had proposed attacking them just as the Easterlings had settled down, but was stopped by Dain in the end. That was indeed very dangerous; the Durin Dwarves, having experienced the Battle of the Five Armies, could no longer afford to suffer too many casualties.

Moreover, in this place of Long Lake, the strength of the Woodland Realm is the greatest. At this moment, at least two thousand Elf Warriors are hiding in the forest. If they could persuade the Elven King to dispatch them to fight together, then they would certainly be able to take advantage of this one-day window to defeat the enemies in front of them first. But the Dwarves have no face to speak of in front of the Elves, so this matter still requires Allen to speak.

The first to propose this suggestion to Allen was old Master Balin. He was not asking Allen to negotiate for nothing; he promised that as long as the Elves were willing to fight, the Dwarves could serve as the vanguard, standing at the very front against the enemy, and the Elves only needed to join the battlefield at the right moment.

Balin made such a promise, of course, with his own plans. Currently, Allen's Human soldiers need to defend against the Easterlings at Red River Town and cannot leave at all. At Long Lake, there are fewer than two hundred Cavalry, while the Dwarves can scrape together eight hundred Heavy Infantry at most, of which only three hundred are true warriors, and the others are rookies who have never been on a battlefield.

Facing an Easterling army of two or three thousand, it is not that these soldiers cannot fight, but after the fight, regardless of victory or defeat, there would certainly be few people left. After all, the combat effectiveness of the Easterlings is much stronger than the Orcish of the Misty Mountains.

If Allen could persuade the Elves to join the battle, then the strength would be three thousand against three thousand, and the combat effectiveness of their own three thousand would be much stronger than the Easterlings. With the support of the Elves, winning against the Easterlings would not result in heavy casualties for the Dwarves.

In fact, Balin had long thought about contacting the Elven King, but the relationship between Dwarves and Elves...

Anyway, Balin felt that none of the Dwarves present could get a word in with the Elven King, and even if they did, they would likely start bickering within three sentences.

Now that Allen had come, it required Allen, a friend of the Elves, to negotiate with the Elven King. Naturally, the Dwarves needed to make some sacrifices during the negotiation, which is why Balin, after communicating with Dain, made the promise to serve as the vanguard.

Upon hearing Balin's proposal, Allen was slightly stunned. As the weakest of the three forces, Allen had never considered the idea of actively launching an attack at this time. He had always thought that since he had the help of the Simulator, he could endure for ten or eight years, and his strength would soon surpass Ashur's. At that time, contacting the Dwarves to launch a counterattack would surely defeat the enemy with overwhelming force.

As for the Elves, Allen had never thought about persuading the Elven King; the probability of success was not high. Moreover, according to Allen's estimation, the combat effectiveness of both sides at this time was actually on par. If they launched an attack, even if they could win, the losses suffered would be unbearable for the Elven King, Thorin, or himself.

There was really no need to pay such a painful price for a momentary victory or defeat.

But at this moment, he felt that Balin's proposal might be the best choice at present. About one thousand Dwarf Heavy Infantry, combined with a large number of Elf Bow archers, plus the cooperation of his own one hundred and sixty Cavalry, might very well result in a glorious victory before the enemy had fully gathered.

And for some reason, Ashur did not arrive at Long Lake Town at the same time as the two Warlords under his command, but staggered by about less than a day in between. Was he not worried that his troops would be defeated one by one after being separated?

At this moment, Ashur, who was torturing the captives of Iron Wall Town, was indeed not worried about such things. In the intelligence he received, the relationship between the Elves and the Dwarves was very poor, and whether they could barely stand together to defend was unknown, let alone unite to launch an attack on his troops.

Moreover, Ashur letting Kurda and Amishi set off a day early also had his own thoughts. He did not believe that the people of Iron Wall Town only consisted of these able-bodied men; their families must be hidden in places he had not yet found.

Ashur was determined to get these slaves. With the growth of the forces of the several Warlords under his command, his own strength must also increase more and faster, otherwise, he would easily be overthrown by the combined forces of the Warlords. Such things were not uncommon in Rhun.

The weak are prey to the strong; survival of the fittest.

It was just that his Cavalry troops were currently suppressed by an unknown third-party force, making it difficult to carry out large-scale search work on the wilderness. Thus, Ashur, wanting to obtain a large number of slaves, could only spend time prying open the mouths of those captives.

At the same time, letting Kurda and Amishi go first also meant that as soon as they received news, they could divert to receive those slaves. Then, Ashur, who arrived early, would have absolute ownership of the distribution of the slaves. Whether to give them, and how many to give, would be entirely up to him.

If he let Kurda and Amishi receive the news at the same time through spies in their own camps, then when the three parties arrived together, Ashur would inevitably have to give at least half of the slaves to the two Warlords under his command.

This was not a result Ashur was willing to see.

It was just that the slaves, who in Ashur's eyes were already as good as in his grasp, had already been taken away by Allen for the most part.

And having made up his mind to attack the two tribes of Kurda and Amishi at this time, Allen immediately bid farewell to the three Dwarves, left Balin's barracks, and then took a few personal guards, riding horses to the edge of the forest to find the Elven King, who was directing the Elven defense.

Facing the attack of a large-scale enemy army, the King of the Woodland Realm, who had already allied with the Dwarves and Humans, naturally could not stay comfortably in his own home watching his allies fight to the death outside.

Upon receiving Allen's information, he had already been organizing the army of the Woodland Realm and began to arrange defensive work.

At this time, the Elven King himself was camped in the forest not far from Long Lake. Now, this Elven King had already had a very obvious change in his perception of the Dwarves. Except for the Elven reconnaissance squads sent out, most of the Elven army was gathered by his side.

Such an arrangement could ensure that when the Dwarves by Long Lake were attacked, the Elves could help them in time. It must be said that the Elven King, this Sindar Elf, was truly very kind.

Allen's arrival made the Elven King very happy, besides being surprised. In his thoughts, Allen should be defending against the enemy's attack at that important position of Mirkwood Road right now; after all, after passing through that road, it was Allen's base camp, where tens of thousands of Humans lived.

However, unlike the Elven King who valued the lives of his kin, although Allen was also very concerned about the life and property safety of his own people, he was more concerned about the outcome of the war. Moreover, Allen was actually uneasy about the Elves and Dwarves cooperating together, which was why he would put down the matter of Mirkwood Road and run to Long Lake.

Of course, this also had to do with the fact that the majority of the enemy's army was at Long Lake. If Ashur were near Mirkwood Road at this time, Allen would definitely not have left there.

After the two sat down and exchanged a few pleasantries, Allen requested the Elven King to take the initiative to attack the enemy. The Elven King, who was holding iced Wine, hesitated after hearing such a request, which did not surprise Allen.

Allen was right; the Elven King was not willing to let his people leave Mirkwood to participate in the battle. This was not the time to go to the Lonely Mountain to deter Thorin.

At that time, the Expedition led by Thorin only had a dozen people, while he led three thousand troops of the Woodland Realm, so there was no way he could lose. The extremely disparate military comparison would not even cause casualties to the Elves.

But at this time, across from Long Lake were six thousand Easterlings. Of course, the two thousand Elven troops gathered around the Elven King could still win against these Easterlings, and it could even be said to be quite easy, but casualties were also inevitable.

In the past, the Elven King had personally seen the battle between the Easterlings, the Northern Men, and the Dwarves in the Anduin Valley, and he had to admit that these Dark Men who believed in Sauron still had decent combat effectiveness.

Allen could naturally see the hesitation of the Elven King, but he had to do his best for this proposal.

"Your Majesty, according to the intelligence we have received, there is another, larger force of Easterlings advancing toward Long Lake. Once they all arrive, it will be inevitable that they take the initiative to attack us. If we can defeat Kurda and Amishi beforehand, then relying on Ashur's own strength alone, there is a high probability that he will retreat, and this region will then be safe. Right now, there is not much time left for us, so please make your decision as soon as possible."

Thranduil was also able to think of what Allen had said; this moment was indeed the best time to launch an attack, and the fact that the Dwarves had promised to charge at the front line of the battle also put the Elven King in a pleasant mood.

Under the gaze of Allen's eager eyes, Thranduil finally nodded: "Very well, for the sake of our previous alliance and the friendship between you and me, I accept this proposal. Let the time of the attack be set for tomorrow at dawn. Go back and have those Dwarves make their preparations."

After saying this, Thranduil thought for a moment and added: "Furthermore, leave the matter of crossing the river to me to handle."