Chapter 125: Population Increase

Besides conducting some minor experiments on his spoils of war, Allen also checked his fief in the continent of Calradia as soon as he woke up; after all, it brought in several thousand Dinar in income each month, and with the end of the war between Swadia and the Rhodok Kingdom, the borders of the two nations had gradually stabilized, and commerce had immediately begun to recover.

Thus, with Wincode Castle guarding a river, its tax revenue was also gradually increasing in these days; if accumulated over a year, there would be tens of thousands of Dinar, and this money was enough for Allen to purchase dozens of sets of chain mail in the Simulator. Although the quality could not compare to the chain mail or plate armor crafted by the Dwarf, it was fast, and since it was purchased directly from the Simulator, it meant there was no need for any expenditure in Middle-earth, which was very important for increasing the strength of Wilderness Town.

However, there were some side effects, namely that Allen needed to open the Simulator from time to time to check his fief for any emerging problems, especially wars between nations; if someone wanted to attack Uxhal, a castle like Wincode Castle would certainly be the first to suffer a siege by a large enemy force.

In previous simulations, Allen, as a landed noble in the family, had traveled to Uxhal to attend a family banquet; the envy and jealousy of family members and relatives went without saying, and it was also within Allen's imagination that some people who felt they had special skills would want to defect to Allen to gain a share of power, but there was one old acquaintance who made Allen feel somewhat uncomfortable.

That person was the bearded commander who had directed the crossbowmen to shoot at Allen when Allen, disguised as Hunter, went to Uxhal to rescue prisoners. Of course, this meeting would certainly be a harmonious scene, but such a situation made Allen wonder if, after simulating enough times and gaining a foothold in every country, he would implicitly achieve the "Six Kingdoms Seal" achievement, or even encounter a situation where he was fighting against himself in future battles.

Thinking a step further, if he were to randomize into a member of a royal family and become the king of various countries, wouldn't that be a disguised unification of the continent?

Of course, these were extremely distant matters; during the month Allen was in a coma, the Kingdom of Swadia still had a small friction, the main cause of which was a conflict triggered by Allen's fief.

Within the territory of Wincode Castle, there was originally a village named Yerege; the village and the castle were originally one entity, much like the relationship between Wilderness Town and Horse Pasture Village.

After the war broke out, most of the villagers of Yerege would enter Wincode Castle to avoid looting by enemy lords, and in normal times, the villagers of Yerege also had the obligation to provide supplies and services to the garrison in the castle.

However, these two pieces of land now belonged to different families, and especially since Allen had obtained the castle in a way that was "a little bit" inappropriate, the consequence was that the two families inevitably had some conflicts in their interactions.

Although the Simulator, while in custody, maintained the cooperation between the two places according to Allen's personality—mainly by spending some Dinar to purchase services and supplies, that is, preferring to suffer some losses to maintain peace between the two—there were always some subordinates who were good at guessing people's hearts and reported the matter to Count Delinard.

As a powerful family in the kingdom possessing one town, three castles, and over a dozen villages, they naturally could not turn a blind eye to such a provocation; of course, the main thing was that most people in the family wanted to incorporate Yerege into their own family's management, as there were a large number of young descendants without fiefs.

Therefore, amidst the irritable shouting of Count Haringoth, the family to which Allen belonged launched a battle of considerable scale on the plains around Dherim against Count Tredian, who occupied Tibert, and the result was naturally obvious: Tibert soon fell into a state of being besieged.

Finally, under the mediation of King Harlaus, Count Haringoth took out a large sum of Dinar to "purchase" the title of Yerege from Count Tredian. Such things rarely happened on the continent of Calradia; to Count Tredian, this was simply a humiliation, but as he was already a prisoner, he could not care too much about such things—freedom was very important to anyone, especially nobles.

Subsequently, Yerege was enfeoffed to Allen's cousin; being of the same family, the obligations between the two fiefs returned to their previous state. The benefit to Allen was that he saved a large sum of Dinar, increasing his income by about a quarter, reaching 2500 Dinar per month. It should have been more, but cousins still had to give gifts to each other, and the gifts Allen gave were more valuable, which could be considered a disguised payment of some fees.

But Allen, lying on the bed and looking at the briefing provided by the Simulator, always felt that the Kingdom of Swadia was about to launch a civil war of considerable scale. Count Haringoth was so jumpy that King Harlaus could not endure it for long, so his cheap father in the Simulator would inevitably be implicated, and he might have to capture King Harlaus again amidst thousands of troops.

Besides these, during the time Allen was in a coma, Rhovanion had actually undergone significant changes. After a battle at Long Lake, the strength of the Easterlings had suffered considerable losses, and the Ashu people, with their tribe, occupied the most fertile land in the Running River basin and settled down just like that.

Even at the instigation of Sauron, Ashur sent envoys to Thorin II, Thranduil, and Allen, the King of Men; besides expressing a desire for peaceful and friendly coexistence, they also wanted to redeem their soldiers who had been captured in battle.

Peace was the result both sides wanted. The leaders of the three factions agreed to the request of the Easterling envoys, but both sides were very cunning and did not specify how long the peace would last, nor did they sign their names on any credible documents. This kind of verbal agreement was actually completely useless and was just a trick to deceive the other side; everyone knew this well.

Allen agreed because he needed time to develop his strength; as for why Sauron would do this, Allen could not guess the thoughts of this Dark Lord for the time being.

As for the other condition, it was certainly impossible to return them. At this moment, all the Easterling prisoners were mining for the blacksmiths of Wilderness Town in Orc Town. Allen could not return these prisoners of war, who could play a huge role on the battlefield, to Ashur, even if their condition was a one-for-one release of Northern slaves.

It was not about whether the value matched, but that exchanging enemy warriors for the old, weak, women, and children—or even the able-bodied—among the Northern Men was extremely irresponsible to his own soldiers. Who could know what kind of harm these released guys would cause to his subordinates on future battlefields?

Allen would rescue those oppressed Northern Men when the time was ripe, but not in this way.

However, what made Allen strange was that the envoy did not mention the Magic Ring left by the Nazgûl. He did not believe that Sauron did not know that this ring had already fallen into his hands, but since Sauron did not mention it, Allen naturally enjoyed the quiet; he did not want to face the face of Saruman at this time.

Allen, who lacked a good impression of this White Wizard, could naturally refuse Saruman's request with the help of equipment. In terms of strength, Saruman, who had not yet begun to train Uruk-hai, could not beat Allen either. However, Saruman was the leader of the White Council; if he persuaded the other members of the White Council with his tongue, Allen knew it would be difficult for him to offend Lady Galadriel, Lord Elrond, Cirdan, and his friend Gandalf in succession.

At that time, he couldn't just say empty-handed that Saruman would join Sauron's camp in the future, right? At this time, it was hard for anyone to believe such words; after all, just last year, Saruman had just caused considerable losses to Sauron with the other members of the White Council.

Allen felt that such troublesome matters should be left for a while until he had planned it out. By then, even if Saruman did not come to find Allen, Allen would find a way to attract his attention; after all, this ring was of no use to Allen at all.

As for how to attract Saruman's attention, Allen had already thought of it. There was a ready-made candidate by his side, namely Radagast who lived in Rhosgobel. As long as he showed this ring slightly in front of this Brown Wizard and said it was found near the Anduin River, then Saruman would inevitably receive such news very soon.

It was not that Radagast was Saruman's spy, but compared to Gandalf who traveled abroad all year round, Saruman paid more attention to the Brown Wizard, and the communication between the two was more frequent. Although Saruman really looked down on this colleague of his, it did not prevent him from using Radagast's abilities to accomplish his own ideas.

For example, a long time ago, Saruman began to use Radagast's birds and beasts to monitor the Anduin Valley, especially the Iris River area, and the purpose was naturally for the One Ring. So, upon hearing that Allen had picked up a ring nearby, this White Wizard would inevitably rush out of Orthanc in a hurry, and then Allen could use other methods to get what he wanted from the Orthanc tower, which would be without a Wizard.

As for what method, Allen had not thought it through yet, and Allen only knew that the "Star of Earendil" was in the secret room of Orthanc, but the specific location was not clear. In short, this matter still required a long period of planning and was very difficult; for now, developing his own strength was more important.

Under the attack of Ashur, the Northern Men living in the eastern part of Mirkwood suffered a devastating disaster; most of the able-bodied died in the war, and a portion of the old, weak, women, and children became slaves of the Easterlings.

But a large portion of them still escaped the fate of being enslaved under Allen's guidance. The two thousand or so people from Red River Town were now settling in the area between the Old Ferry and the Iris River. With the help of Wilderness Town, they soon established a brand-new large village and began to reclaim their own fields on the surrounding land. The village they established also had a new name, Ioviah.

This name was taken by Yamila under Allen's suggestion. This was the name of a village in the Rhodok Kingdom and also the place where Yamila's mother was born; it was a name with great commemorative significance.

As for the old, weak, women, and children rescued from the valley, they were migrated to various areas according to Allen's previous ideas. At this time, the population of Wilderness Town, under various supplements, had reached nearly thirteen thousand. Under Yamila's arrangement, they were distributed across this vast and fertile land with Wilderness Town as the center.

This land was already close to a state of saturation at this time; unless the utilization rate of the land could be increased again, the future increased population would have to migrate to the vicinity of Ioviah.

The ruins of Long Lake Town also increased by a considerable population in this battle. In addition to the hundreds of people who originally lived there, hundreds of Northern Men were rescued from Kurda's camp, and they were now also settled in Long Lake. A portion of the people rescued from the canyon also arrived there not long ago via the road of the Woodland Realm. Now the population of Long Lake Town had reached nearly two thousand.

As for the Northern Men in Hamish's camp, they fled toward the direction of Dale under Allen's guidance, and Bard, the lord of Dale, also sent an envoy and sent a letter a few days ago, stating in the letter that he would definitely take good care of these Northern Men who had lost their homes.

Therefore, after a slight count, Allen suddenly discovered that the people he ruled had actually expanded by nearly double after a battle; this did not even count Heidelberg and Dale, which he could indirectly rule, as well as the hundreds of Easterling prisoners mining in Orc Town.

With the explosive growth of the population, various problems followed one after another. First was the problem of food. Fortunately, Manid finally returned from Eriador. When he was investigating in the Bree and Shire areas with the help of Bill and the owner of the Prancing Pony, he was found by Cress and Grim.

Why was it lucky? If Manid had really entered the Lindon area according to Allen's instructions, it would have been very difficult for the unfamiliar Cress to find this colleague of his with the help of Bilbo.

Manid's return also brought several merchants belonging to the Bree area. The resource-rich Shire naturally would not lack food, and the honey that Allen's side had begun to produce in small quantities also attracted the attention of these merchants. At the same time, the gold and silver treasures Allen took out also blinded their eyes.

Under the promotion of various conditions, trade naturally began. Allen also promised these merchants that he would not collect taxes from anyone this year, on the condition that these merchants needed to bring a large amount of food to Wilderness Town; of course, Allen was paying.

The food problem was solved quickly after Manid's return, but the shortage of troops was difficult to solve in a short time.

More than half of Allen's soldiers were still near Heidelberg, guarding against possible attacks by the Easterlings. Although the two sides had reached a verbal peace agreement at this time, Allen would not relax his vigilance because of Sauron's promise.

In addition, there were two hundred soldiers under the leadership of Fulei managing the Easterling prisoners mining in Orc Town. To these barbaric and dark Easterlings, kindness could not make them grateful, and it was very easy to make these people harbor bad intentions, so only violence and a certain amount of torture were the best means.

Allen did not provide them with sufficient food and water, but instead let them use the mined ore to exchange for the daily necessities of survival, making them consume all their energy on the goal of staying alive.

Of course, out of consideration for production, and because Allen did not really want to starve them to death, he did not instruct his soldiers to abuse them, but let them maintain the rules on the scene so that those Easterlings would not fight among themselves for some food.

Due to the difference in environment, staying in the dark for a long time was also something that humans could not endure, so after the peace, Allen spent wealth to invite a number of Dwarf craftsmen to begin a certain scale of transformation of Orc Town, trying to make this place have an environment that humans could adapt to.

At the same time, the name Orc Town was no longer suitable for this intricate cave. Allen gave it a new name, called Stier Mining Town, and those two hundred soldiers also needed to take on the responsibility of guarding this mining town.

This number of people was actually not enough; after all, there must still be a portion of Orcs living in Moria, and they could launch attacks on their former territory at any time.

But Allen had no more troops in his hands; he couldn't empty out Wilderness Town, could he? To deal with this situation, Allen also sent two envoys, carrying his letters, to call Fatis and Alayen back.

He prepared to convene his Cabinet members to reorganize his army and change the way the army served.