Chapter 161: Reaction and Retreat

The vast terrain of Rhovanion has several rivers famous in Middle-earth, such as the Anduin River, which has witnessed countless historical events over the long years, or the Magic River in Mirkwood that possesses the ability to make people fall into a deep sleep, or the Running River that traverses the eastern part of the Wilderland.

The Running River is nearly a thousand kilometers long, starting from the Lonely Mountain, flowing through gathering points of multiple factions such as Dale, Long Lake Town, and the Woodland Realm, and finally merging into the Sea of Rhun in Dorwinion; it is the most important trade route in Rhovanion.

However, this trade route is now severed; it has been occupied by the plunder-loving Easterlings at a crucial section. These barbaric fellows do not even understand the principle of long-term sustainability; any caravan passing through their controlled area, regardless of which faction in the south it comes from, cannot escape the fate of having its goods seized and being reduced to slavery.

Of course, the shrewd and cunning Ashur did not occupy this place merely for plunder. He built an extremely large permanent camp on this stretch of the Running River between Heidelberg and Red River Town. Nearly twenty thousand people live in this camp; just building the wooden fence surrounding the entire camp cleared out all the nearby trees.

Surrounding the camp are a great number of farms, which occupy the fertile land and convenient water resources nearby. A large number of slaves work and farm here, harvesting a large amount of melons, fruits, and vegetables every year. The only problem is that these harvests do not belong to the people who actually labor; as slaves, they can only obtain enough food to barely survive after bitter pleading.

Several wine estates occupy the hillsides with the longest sunshine hours nearby. The produced Wine not only satisfies the wild drinking of the Easterlings but also has plenty of surplus to help Ashur win over small tribes living in hardship.

Ashur's residence, which can barely be called a palace, is also built on this hillside. After all, this place has his most precious resources, and his most loyal subordinates with the highest combat power have also built countless houses around Ashur's palace, presenting a scene of settling down here.

After the Easterlings entrenched themselves here for several years, buildings such as blacksmith shops and workshops appeared in the camp. One can even see the figures of a few Dwarves here; some are Dwarf merchants who were plundered, and others are residents of the Iron Hills who accidentally fell into the hands of the Easterlings, now forced to provide reluctant service to their enemies.

Ashur, who already possesses a large territory and abundant resources, actually looks down a bit on the wealth gained through plunder. Most of the time, his soldiers are whipping slaves to restore the productivity of this land as quickly as possible. After all, caravans are plundered less and less, but the output from the land has been increasing in recent years.

As a commander controlling a region, Ashur has also been very busy these years. On one hand, he must constantly urge his subordinates not to kill the slaves in their hands unless necessary; he still needs these people to reclaim more land and build more houses. Moreover, all aspects of the camp require the service of these slaves; if they are killed, they are gone. It takes more than ten years for a slave to grow up to handle all the work, which is simply too slow for Ashur, who is in urgent need of labor.

On the other hand, Ashur set his sights on the southern region of the Running River a long time ago. The climate there is warmer, and the land is equally fertile. Although the Kingdom of Rhovanion, once established by Northern Men, has collapsed, they left behind a vast legacy on that land. As long as there is sufficient labor, he can completely re-establish a kingdom where Easterlings are supreme on this land. This would not only greatly increase his power but also better fulfill the orders of the Dark Lord.

For this reason, Ashur made preparations very early on, not only building several bridges easy to traverse over the Running River but also dispatching two Warlords under his command to take root in the southern region of the Running River. These two subordinates did not waste his painstaking efforts and brought very good news in recent times.

That is, in this seemingly uninhabited plain, there are actually human gathering points. Although they are not as numerous or concentrated as the gathering points in the eastern part of Rhovanion, if things go smoothly, getting a few thousand slaves is more than enough.

This news is very tempting to Ashur, because the human kingdoms across Mirkwood have always been strictly guarding against him, and they have powerful allies like Elves and Dwarves, giving him no chance to strike at all. He has not obtained a large number of slaves for a long time; in recent years, he has only "traded" a few Dwarf craftsmen from his subordinates.

Ashur, who is in urgent need of labor, has already started letting his own tribesmen make war preparations during this period. Soon he will be able to gather an army of nearly eight thousand people to go to the southern region of the Running River to plunder after the spring begins, and the two Warlords have also prepared armies of a thousand people each, ready to eat the scraps behind their commander.

It was just that looking at his subordinates who were excitedly making war preparations, Ashur always had a feeling of unease. Being too busy, he couldn't remember where this unease came from for a moment, but soon, the sentries around the camp brought him some strange things that night, solving Ashur's doubts.

Those were some broken corpses frozen into ice blocks. Even after being placed in a warm room for half an hour, there were no signs of melting. However, although this eerie thing was extremely difficult to melt, it was not hard; a light kick could break a leg into two pieces.

Ashur, who had just finished this action, gradually became serious. Frequently coming into contact with things like the Nazgul, he naturally knew that there were some powerful forces in this world. Clearly, what was presented before him at this moment was one of them. But what made Ashur nervous was not just these cold fragments; the attire of the corpse on the ground was clearly that of an Easterling, and it must belong to those small tribes that had recently defected.

Only those people would wear such shabby clothes in the middle of winter, while the group that initially followed Ashur to Rhovanion had long ago obtained warm winter clothes in the process of plundering.

At this time, Ashur, who had just woken up, showed no signs of sleepiness on his face. He frowned and looked at the sentry who woke him up in the early morning, asking in a cold tone: "Was this found outside the camp?"

If the situation were not extremely urgent, no one would be willing to wake up the temperamental and life-disregarding Ashur at this moment. This sentry responsible for the second half of the night's guard duty did indeed obtain some information that might be very important, but given his status, he could only see Ashur from afar on weekdays. Moreover, the terrifying legends circulating in the camp made him tremble in front of his serious-looking leader.

"Gr-Great Lord, I... I am the sentry responsible for the... the northwest direction. While... while patrolling, I..."

Hearing this, Ashur gritted his teeth impatiently, waved his hand to make the sentry who was making a fool of himself in front of him shut his mouth, and casually drew a cup of beer full of foam from the barrel nearby, handed it to the subordinate in front of him, and signaled him to drink it.

"Drink it, and speak properly."

The flattered sentry took the beer handed over by his leader with both hands, gulped it down in one breath, then wiped his mouth, clutched the silver cup inlaid with gems in his hand tightly, and continued to speak.

Perhaps it was because the attitude Ashur showed greatly eased his emotions, or perhaps it was the silky and mellow beer that calmed his brain, but the following words were spoken by the sentry with extreme fluency.

"It's like this, Boss. When Uri and I were patrolling outside the wall, we heard cries for help from the northwest, but it's too dark now, so we couldn't see anything clearly, so we rode our horses over there. Then we found these fragments on the ground. Besides this, there were two Riders, they should be enemies. One of them seemed to be wearing silver-bright armor, and the other was half-black and half-white, I didn't see it clearly. But the enemy wearing silver armor, the bow in his hand seemed to be able to emit blue light, I saw this clearly."

Ashur, who had sat back down, listened quietly to his subordinate's report. Only after it ended did he lift his eyelids to look at the cup and ask with a calm expression: "And then? Didn't you chase after them?"

The sentry's emotions had completely stabilized at this time. With the change in Ashur's expression, his mindset also relaxed, and he even secretly complained in his heart, "Who said Lord Ashur is temperamental and kills people as he pleases? Isn't he very easy to talk to?"

But he quickly replied with a nod and a bow: "Uri and I chased after them immediately, but the horses of those two Riders were really too fast, and they disappeared in the blink of an eye. We saw we couldn't catch up, so we came back." In fact, these two sentries looked at the weapons and equipment of the opposite side, then looked at the strange corpse fragments on the ground, and had no courage to chase after them at all. Instead, they scared the two people away by shouting and yelling. If they hadn't been quick to react, they would likely have died there too.

However, this sentry was not wrong; the Elf Horses of the Twilight Knights were extremely fast, and even if they had caught up, they could not have had any effect.

After listening, Ashur smiled on his scarred face, but this expression was even more terrifying than when he wasn't smiling.

"The cup is rewarded to you."

The sentry was overjoyed when he heard this. He didn't let go of the cup because he had this intention. He felt that no matter what, he had brought back some news this time, and getting a reward was deserved. Moreover, through a glass of wine, he also felt that the Commander was still very easy to talk to.

"But you lied to me, Tade. Take him out and give him thirty lashes."

A burly young man beside Ashur responded, then took two people and dragged the sentry, who was holding the silver cup in a daze, out. The whole process did not cause much of a stir.

Ashur didn't care about such small matters at all. He was thinking about the things represented behind this information. A moment later, the screams outside the house stopped, and Ashur said to the Captain of the Personal Guard beside him: "Made, how many Riders do I have on hand currently?"

Made, who had been by Ashur's side for nearly ten years, immediately said respectfully: "My Lord, you also know that our Cavalry troops were severely damaged a few years ago, leaving less than two hundred. In these years, those tribes have paid some tribute, and I have also, er, also exchanged some with them, so now there are five hundred and sixteen."

Ashur nodded after hearing this. He also knew that although Made said it was an exchange, it was highly likely that he gave some symbolic wealth and then forcibly snatched some. He didn't care about this; since those Warlords didn't come to make trouble here, it meant Made knew how to handle things and it wasn't too ugly. Moreover, he did need to replenish some Cavalry. In his heart, he still admired Made's actions.

Because at this moment, Ashur had already guessed who was hunting down his tribesmen. That silver-bright Plate Armor and the fast horses left too deep an impression on him.

There was simply no other possibility; it must be the human kingdom across Mirkwood.

And Ashur also realized in this instant where his unease during this period came from. It was that those two guys, Rabat and Bamonde, hadn't reported to him for a long time. The last time was more than a month ago. This was too long; the distance between the two sides was less than two hundred kilometers. A well-trained Rider, equipped with relay horses, would have enough time to make a round trip in a few days.

Ashur, who had been very busy recently, had indeed neglected this information, but the situation now was very clear. He knew that his two subordinates, who were considered loyal, had likely finished. Of course, this was not the worst news.

The ruling style of the Easterlings was very loose, and considering the land needed for each tribe's survival, Ashur had settled the Warlords who defected to him in various parts of this land to prevent these people from fighting each other for pastures and farmland first.

But this decision made Ashur feel a little uneasy at this moment. The enemy's Horse Archers had already hunted down to the outside of his base camp, so how many of his subordinates, whom he had spent so much effort, energy, and money to recruit from Rhun over the years, were left?

Thinking of this, Ashur gritted his teeth and turned to his Captain of the Personal Guard: "Immediately dispatch Cavalry to check the situation at other tribes. Be fast, send more people."

Made looked at his Commander's expression and knew that the situation was very serious. Having served Ashur for so many years, he knew that he couldn't ask anything at this time, so he immediately responded and went out to make arrangements. At this time, Tade walked in with a blood-stained silver cup.

Looking at the silver cup placed on the table, Ashur was clearly stunned for a moment, then asked helplessly: "Dead?"

Tade replied dully: "Yes, lying in front of you, how could he continue to live?"

After hearing this, Ashur waved his hand indifferently, stood up, took a glass of Wine, took a sip, and continued: "Dead is dead. If he has family, arrange it well. I mean find someone decent to inherit his property and take care of his family, understand? If you kill them all, who are you going to command?"

Ashur scolded his son in front of him with a look of "iron not becoming steel," then shook his head and continued: "How are the boys preparing?"

Tade blinked, seemingly wondering why his father would suddenly ask about this, but he still replied straightforwardly: "They have been ready for a long time, it's just that you said we could only act after the spring, so everyone is waiting."

"No need to wait until it gets warm next year. Notify the captains, big and small, and let them get ready. After lunch, we are going to make a trip to the north. Tell them to dress warmly; it's going to snow, and they know what that means."

Although he didn't understand why his father suddenly changed his order, Tade knew that the war he liked was coming soon. A cruel smile appeared on his simple face, and he replied: "I know. Whoever isn't ready before lunch, I will definitely break his leg."

Looking at his son who only knew violence, Ashur wanted to say something else, but finally waved his hand helplessly and sent him away. He picked up the silver cup on the table and drank wine. At this moment, he really couldn't understand why the guy who claimed to be a king on the other side dared to strike at him at this time. Could it be that his analysis all along was wrong? Impossible!! Or did that old bastard wearing a gaudy robe lie to him?

In any case, Ashur knew that his losses at this time must be extremely heavy. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he threw the silver cup in his hand fiercely. With a "Bang," the crimson Wine spilled all over the floor, and a few scattered gems rolled into the corner of the room, emitting little rays of light under the illumination of the lamp.

And tens of kilometers away, Allen, who had been sleepless all night due to hunting down the enemy troops, was currently observing the Easterling camp in the distance with binoculars. This was his last target. This time, Allen didn't intend to clear any scouts or block any news at all. As long as he took out this stronghold in front of him, his plan would be eighty percent complete. Afterward, he would immediately rendezvous with Thorin's Dwarf army and retreat together.

It was also at this moment that a bird flew down and chatted with Cress. Soon, Cress said with some displeasure: "Boss, that stuck-up Elf said the mission failed. Although he took out the enemy's last Rider, he also alerted the other Easterlings, and he is rushing back now."

Hearing this, Allen frowned. He knew that since Holimion's mission had failed, it must have alerted his biggest opponent, the Easterling commander Ashur entrenched here, who was a guy who acted decisively and was extremely shrewd.

At this moment, there were actually only two choices in front of Allen: one was to risk attacking this Easterling camp tonight, complete the plan, and then head north to rendezvous with Thorin's Dwarf troops; the other was to abandon the plan immediately, then retreat, and wait for an opportunity to compete with Ashur again in the future.

For Allen, this was not a difficult choice at all; after hesitating for less than a minute, Allen said to Cress: "Notify everyone to assemble at Bamonde's camp, and while you're at it, have your Raven partner take a message to Thorin, saying that my plan has failed and the predetermined objective was not achieved; the Easterling army is very likely already heading toward my position, and now, I need his help and hope he will rendezvous with me as soon as possible."

"Understood, boss."