Chapter 14: The Aftermath of War

The Misty Mountains, Orc Town.

At this moment, the Orc King had already received news of the battle's failure; his fat, bloated face was filled with a look of resentment, and he sat dejectedly on his throne located in the center of Orc Town, with not a single Orc daring to stand within ten meters of him.

At this time, he had no mood left to inflict any further punishment on the personal guards who had fled back; after the failure of this battle, his losses were heavy, and the foreseeable troubles were numerous.

He was contemplating whether he needed to launch another battle to salvage the face he had already lost and trampled into the dirt.

He also understood that this would be difficult; the Orcs who fled back would surely exaggerate the terror of the enemy many times over when spreading the news among the tribe, and the cost of gathering another army in a short time would be immense; even if one were barely assembled, the desire to fight among everyone would not be high, and he was not Sauron, lacking that kind of Magic that could make his subordinates go mad.

Moreover, with nearly two hundred Wargs dead in succession, the leader of the wolf pack was no longer very willing to cooperate with him, and it would not be so easy to form Wolf Riders in the future.

Most importantly was the appearance of the Great Eagles; the Orc King and they were old enemies, as the Great Eagles often raided the Orcs in the Misty Mountains and disrupted their plans, yet the Orc King could do nothing about the Great Eagles. However, the Orc King knew that the Great Eagles were at odds with the Humans of the Wilderland, and he believed that there should not have been any Great Eagles appearing this time, but for some unknown reason, the Great Eagles had appeared yet again to ruin his good deeds, which left the Orc King feeling both resentful and a sliver of helplessness.

In the end, the Orc King gave up on the plan to attack Allen again; if he lost another battle, there would truly be no way to clean up the mess. Already, some Orc tribes had openly stated they would no longer pay tribute to him, and he needed to prioritize resolving this part of the trouble. Thinking of this, the fat Orc King shifted his long-seated buttocks and took a deep breath.

Subsequently, a sigh echoed for a long time in the empty cavern of Orc Town.

The impact of war does not stop the moment it ends; there is much aftermath work that needs to be handled.

On the battlefield, Allen collected many weapons and pieces of equipment left behind by the Orcs; those ordinary Orcs were holding very trashy weapons.

However, the equipment worn by the Wolf Riders was somewhat elite, and Allen felt many of the weapons looked a bit like Dwarf items; these were all decent pieces of gear.

Allen had people collect all of these things; whether to repair them or melt them down to re-forge them once he had a blacksmith in the future would depend on the blacksmiths' judgment.

Regarding those who sacrificed themselves in the war, not to mention those without families, for those who had families, Allen guaranteed he would support their children until adulthood and provide a large amount of food and a certain amount of Dinar as compensation for the warriors' sacrifice, and Allen wrote this clause on his seat in the Lord's Longhouse.

"Whoever dies in battle for me, I shall support their family; after I die, my descendants shall also abide by this oath."

The rather awkward part was that Allen knew neither the script of Calradia nor the script of Middle-earth, so this line of text was carved by James and Duosili together.

With this, the impact of the war could truly be considered to have come to an end, and the village finally ushered in a truly stable life. With the Great Eagles coming to deliver messages from time to time, Allen no longer had to worry about large-scale Orc raids on the village, and he had more energy to focus on the village's development.

Under the leadership of various persons in charge, the villagers entered into a prosperous and upward life. A large number of houses and roads were built through everyone's efforts according to Artimenner's planning. The Lord's Longhouse was also finished, and the perimeter wall was expanded significantly; it finally had the look of a village. Allen thought about it carefully, gave up on many aesthetic names, and decided to call it Wilderness Village, with plans to change the name to Wilderness Town or Huangye Cheng once it developed well, indicating his intention to take root in this place.

Immediately after, Karl told Allen that he had learned from Duosili that the current season was spring, and there was still one month until summer; if they hurried, they could still manage to plant a crop. Allen felt it made a lot of sense when he heard it; agricultural development could not waste time.

Thus, Allen ordered Karl to lead the villagers to start reclaiming wasteland in the surroundings. The Woodland Residents did not have much experience with this work, but for the Rhodok people, it was very simple.

Karl first led the villagers to pick up sickles and cut out firebreaks in the areas prepared for reclamation, then spread the cut grass to dry, laid a portion of it in the grassland with firebreaks, and ignited the grass with a fire. For areas that were difficult to burn, they kept adding dry wood and hay to the flames, and once the fire dried out the surrounding green grass, it would naturally be burned away, and with the isolation of the firebreaks, there was no need to worry about losing control of the fire.

After the fire went out, they used farm tools like hoes to loosen the soil, mixed the soil with the wood ash left after burning, and finally planted wheat in the reclaimed land.

Karl also arranged for specialized personnel to consciously collect everyone's daily excrement and pile it with green grass and soil to make manure, which could be used in the fields the following year.

Of course, these things had nothing to do with Allen. He spent his days wandering around the village, and most of his work was giving orders and making decisions. For Allen, who was rich in theoretical experience, this was almost equivalent to having no difficulty, which led to him being very idle—so idle that Yamila even had the thought of wanting to divide the work in her hands with him.

Because Aota had made a good start, in the period after the battle ended, people from three more villages came one after another to seek Allen's protection. Allen happily agreed, and for this, he specifically held a meeting with the leaders of these four villages (including Aota) to explain the obligations and responsibilities of both sides.

Several things were decided at the meeting: in terms of safety, all of them needed to move to Wilderness Village to live, so that when encountering danger, it would be easier to gather strength to resist threats brought by Orcs or other things.

In terms of daily management, under the current circumstances, Allen would not interfere with their own management; for example, if fights or petty thefts occurred, they naturally had a set of handed-down rules to carry out punishments they themselves recognized. However, as the village developed, corresponding laws would appear later, though there would not be any in the short term.

In terms of obligations, they needed to give one-quarter of all their income to Allen and respond to Allen's summons when needed to deal with safety issues or construction issues. Allen needed to ensure their basic material needs for survival when encountering natural or man-made disasters, which meant they could not starve to death.

Of course, there were many details, such as the fact that although Allen would not pay wages when summoning them, he would provide meals; and for another example, Allen would provide them with a large number of farm tools for free for them to reclaim land, but if they broke, they would need to compensate him, and so on.

In short, Allen did not grasp all the power in his own hands at the beginning, nor did he want to do so. Allen believed that if he did well enough, the villagers would naturally follow his orders; conversely, what was wrong with them seeking a better living environment?

Moreover, there were not many people for him to manage; the current situation could only be farming and hunting, and even commercial activities were lacking. Was it really necessary to formulate such explicit laws and clauses?

If a town were established in the future, corresponding laws would naturally be enacted for management; for now, Allen felt it was better to forget it.

Just like that, the population under Allen's jurisdiction had reached over a thousand. When needed, Allen could recruit a little over a hundred warriors on the existing basis. Although they were equipped with armor with a history of over a hundred years and used crude weapons, they were skilled in using great axes and bows and were all excellent hunters, so their combat effectiveness was not too low. Of course, most of the time, they spent their days hunting and in the fields.

Allen's daily routine now was to exercise and chat with the Nuo Huang, go out on patrols with the Si Qi, work in the fields with the villagers, keep track of everyone's current living needs at all times, or climb the Carrock to look at the surrounding scenery—and it must be mentioned that one truly could not see the Lonely Mountain.

Recently, Allen learned in the process of chatting with soldiers that many soldiers hoped to have a place to drink and chat. The wages they were paid now had nowhere to be spent, and they hoped Allen could open a place like a tavern, allowing them to find a place to chat happily and relieve their moods after standing guard.

Allen thought about it and also felt it was time to get some commercial buildings to recycle the Dinar he had paid out.

For this matter, Allen found Artimenner, preparing to discuss the location of the tavern with him. Artimenner smiled reservedly and led Allen directly to the edge of a large open space, telling Allen that this entire area was reserved for commercial buildings; whether it was a grocery store, tavern, clothing store, or inn, they could all be built here. The blacksmith shop was arranged elsewhere because of its special nature.

Allen praised Artimenner heavily for this, stating that his salary for this week would be doubled, and requested that Artimenner organize personnel as soon as possible to build the tavern, clothing store, and inn. Subsequently, Allen found Duosili, hoping that Duosili could find some honest and reliable villagers to hand over to Yamila for preliminary training, so that they could manage these shops in the future.

Whether it was Allen's illusion or it was just the case, the labor enthusiasm of many soldiers was exceptionally high when building these shops this time; many people worked overtime to help with the construction. Allen did not understand what had happened, but soon the three shops were completed.

Allen purchased a large amount of goods from the Simulator and put them into the shops, selling them to the villagers of Wilderness Village at a price one-quarter higher than the original. For villagers without Dinar, Allen discussed it with Yamila, letting Yamila use her commercial knowledge to establish an acquisition station to provide an appraisal for the goods the villagers brought out, facilitating the villagers' purchase of items.

This matter could only be discussed with Yamila. Since the establishment of the village, Yamila's status had transitioned directly from Allen's personal maid to the Logistics General Manager, and at this time, she had already begun to evolve toward the status of a Village Chief. The matters of eating, drinking, and excreting for over a thousand villagers were basically all handled by Yamila.

Yamila did not complain to Allen because she did not want Allen to think she was someone who would shrink back when encountering a little hardship, but when she reported the recent work situation to Allen, the look in her eyes toward him was very aggrieved, her eyes were full of bloodshot veins, and the dark circles under her eyes had not faded for a long time.

Seeing Yamila so haggard, Allen felt some regret. After the battle ended, he only cared about checking the village's construction situation everywhere and understanding the living conditions of the villagers and soldiers, but he had not considered how busy the people around him were; this was truly inexcusable.

To solve Yamila's dark circle problem, Allen called over Aota, Karl, and Duosili, and formally made a plan for the power structure regarding civil administration. The Village Chief of Wilderness Village would nominally be held by Allen himself, and the daily management was confirmed to be Yamila's responsibility. Allen did not want Yamila to serve him every day; this was truly a waste of Yamila's talent and ability.

And Karl, Duosili, and Aota would help Yamila share a portion of the responsibilities and power according to their respective identities, lightening Yamila's workload.

Upon receiving this result, Yamila was not particularly happy, but she did not disobey Allen's order.

As for the military, Allen did not make any major changes; he was still the actual holder of the highest power, possessing the right to command all soldiers in the village. Fatis, Bandak, and Alayen still managed their own teams, except that Gangding now had the status of a Nord Royal Guard squad leader.

After another period of time, Allen discovered that many single Rhodok soldiers had started taking single women in the village to buy some pretty clothes; some would buy daily necessities at the grocery store, and others would drink and eat in the tavern. Sometimes when they were bumped into by Allen head-on, they would even be shy and not dare to greet Allen. Allen understood a little why these soldiers were so active when building the shops initially. Allen was a bit surprised; this had only been less than a month.

Some even went directly to find Allen, hoping that they could also open up their own fields around the village, because they were preparing to start their own families and hoped to live a life with a wife and children. For Allen, this was not a bad thing.

Allen did not know if all the soldiers had this idea, so he started chatting with the soldiers in private, hoping to understand their next thoughts.

After learning about it, almost all the soldiers of the Rhodok tribe hoped to obtain their own land. They could give up their weekly wages, because their weekly wages were mostly the weekly wages of Rhodok Crossbowmen and Rhodok Spearmen, and this bit of money could not bring a prosperous life to them and their families. But now, farming could, because the policy Allen gave was that whoever reclaimed it, it was theirs; after it was reclaimed, it would be registered with Yamila. After having their own land, how much they produced would depend on their own hands to obtain.

As for the Swadian Knights who followed Allen from the beginning, the Rhodok Sharpshooters, and the subsequently recruited Nord Royal Guards, they did not have this idea. They felt that farming was too boring, and their salaries were high; relying on their salaries alone, they could also obtain a very good life, and even supporting a family was enough.

Subsequently, Allen gathered all the soldiers who were willing to give up their weekly wages to the square in front of the Lord's Longhouse and agreed to their request. His original words were: "I will never stop those who follow me from obtaining a better life. Since you have better ideas, why would I not agree?"

However, immediately after, Allen stated his requirements: like the Woodland Residents, they also had to hand over one-quarter of all their income, respond to Allen's summons when Allen needed them, and undergo training once every half month. Their weapons and equipment also needed to be returned to Allen for unified storage, though they could keep their melee weapons to protect themselves and their families in daily life.

Allen promised that before they obtained a harvest, Allen would still be responsible for their food and clothing, and furthermore, Allen told them that before their lives ended, he would continue to pay them their previous salaries as a reward for their heroic fighting in the last battle.

The matter came to an end amidst cheers, and Allen also truly felt that these soldiers were not like those in a game who could ignore everything else as long as they had food, drink, and money; they were flesh and blood, had their own needs, and were living people.

With these soldiers retiring to the fields, the development speed of Allen's village became even faster, and there were figures reclaiming farmland everywhere.

Days passed peacefully in this stable and busy life, until one morning, a person drifted over from the surface of the Anduin River.