Chapter 163: The Reason

Long before half a year ago, when Gandalf was a guest at Allen's place, he had said that he intended to head to Rivendell to invite the Lord of the Golden Flower, Glorfindel, to assist in helping Gondor withstand the offensive of the Dark Lord Sauron.

However, it is a pity that ever since the battle of Dol Guldur ended, the Lord of the Golden Flower had left Rivendell and entered the Wilderness, his whereabouts unknown; even Elrond did not have specific information on Glorfindel.

Gandalf had traveled such a long way, so naturally, he was unwilling to return empty-handed, but Elrond refused to send troops to the south on the grounds that Gondor already had the support of Rohan and the Wizards.

In Elrond's view, although Gondor's national strength was no longer what it once was, with the help of the brave and battle-hardened Rohirrim, it was already enough to defend against the invasion of Mordor; furthermore, at this time, the White Wizard had already appeared on the front lines of the war, which was sufficient to hold off those Nazgul who were well-versed in Dark Magic. This battle itself was not overly perilous, and Gondor could completely endure it on its own.

Thus, the Elves of Imladris naturally had no need to make the long journey to the south to participate in a war whose outcome was already destined.

Moreover, if Gondor truly needed aid, then at the very least, Gandalf should have been carrying a letter at this time—a plea for help written by the hand of the Steward of Gondor, Turgon.

A plea for help, Gandalf certainly did not have. In the heart of this Grey Wizard, whether it be the Humans of the side of order or the Elves, it would be best if they could all develop to be extremely powerful, and then, like Gil-galad and Elendil, form an alliance and cooperate sincerely to destroy Sauron's lair in one fell swoop, so that he could complete his mission early and return to Valinor.

However, the world changes and time passes; at this time, many Elves were no longer willing to interfere in the affairs of Middle-earth, and the royal bloodline of Gondor had already been severed. For the Elves and Humans to form an alliance again to resist Sauron, it would require more time and opportunities.

Helplessly returning empty-handed, Gandalf naturally left Rivendell with a look of displeasure, muttering to himself things like, "Only this old man of mine has to worry and toil," and "This Middle-earth is doomed."

Even though he complained, Gandalf still plunged into the Wilderness, tracking the trail of the Lord of the Golden Flower, Glorfindel. He did not wish for Gondor and Rohan to suffer too great a loss in this war, and he also had a very bad premonition.

Yet, an accident occurred just a few days after Gandalf had left Rivendell.

Elrond was indeed one of the wisest Elves of this age; the direction of the upcoming war between Gondor and Mordor was exactly as he had guessed.

With the help of the Rohirrim cavalry, and the support of various lords from across Gondor who had also arrived at Minas Tirith, they quickly stabilized the defensive line of Anorien. With the help of Saruman, they spent only a very short amount of time driving the Orcish that had crossed the Anduin River back to the other side.

Especially Saruman, the master of Orthanc; he might have wanted to display his powerful strength before his allies, or perhaps he wanted his reputation to overshadow Gandalf, who had come to help Gondor earlier. Of course, the most likely reason was the personal grudge between him and Sauron within the Palantir.

In short, this seemingly elderly White Wizard, leading the Dunlendings he had gathered, fought bravely on the fierce battlefield. He even tangled alone with several Nazgul entrenched at Cair Andros for a long time, finally driving them out and helping Gondor recapture this island of great strategic importance.

All of a sudden, the wise White Wizard gained the reverence of the entire Gondorian army and was called by everyone a benevolent ally of Gondor. Meanwhile, the Orcish, having lost their method of crossing the Anduin River, entered a stalemate with the Human coalition on the other side of the river.

In Elrond's conjecture, the war should have been about over at this stage; Gondor and Rohan simply did not have the spare strength to counterattack Mordor, and the situation in Mordor should not have been much better.

After all, those Orcish armies that had entered Anorien were fighting within the territory of Gondor, and in the joint effort of the Rohirrim cavalry and the Gondorian elite, large numbers of Orcish would certainly have died in that place, Anorien.

As for Sauron, his own power should still have been in a weakened state after the battle of Dol Guldur, and those evil Nazgul, without Sauron's help, were not the match of Saruman themselves; they would certainly have consumed too much power in the battle and returned to their master's side to recover.

At this time, the most correct move for both sides should have been to stop their steps and lick the wounds brought by the war, and continue the next round of fighting after recovering their strength.

But things did not develop as Elrond had thought, because Sauron did not stop his steps. Perhaps it was because none of his plans over these few years had succeeded, causing Sauron to fall into an unbearable rage.

It could also be because the one who thwarted him was that White Wizard who had luckily escaped the trap, which made Sauron extremely annoyed.

It is even more likely that Sauron had already learned of Gondor's true strength in this war and was preparing to launch an all-out attack to directly finish off the most annoying and hateful enemy before him.

Therefore, upon learning that his army had suffered a setback, the few Nazgul who were guarding Sauron and were uninjured rode Fell Beasts and flew toward all directions of Mordor, while his own Orcish armies gathered in North Ithilien, confronting the Humans.

And the coalition of Gondor and Rohan, seeing that the Orcish of Mordor had ceased their movements, finally breathed a sigh of relief; this war, which had lasted for several years, finally came to an end.

However, this sigh of relief had lasted less than three months when the Gondorian residents living in Lebennin reported to their lord that they had faintly seen the ships of the Umbar Pirates on the sea. Although the number was small and the distance was extremely far, those residents insisted that they had not seen wrong.

And the soldiers patrolling and standing guard at Pelargir reported that they had discovered a small number of Haradrim on the other side of the river; that strange attire was hard to mistake.

The garrison that had recaptured Cair Andros delivered an urgent intelligence report to the Steward Turgon, which stated that there were suspected Khandish or Easterling tribes stationed on the other side of the river, and they would very likely launch an attack on Cair Andros. They hoped that Turgon could send reinforcements to increase the defensive capability of Cair Andros, and it would be best if they could invite the help of the Wizard.

And Ecthelion, who was personally leading troops to guard the western part of Osgiliath, frequently mentioned the unusual gathering of Orcish in his recent reports to his father, and at the same time, that terrifying screeching sound appeared once again in the distant sky.

When all the information converged before the ninety-plus-year-old Turgon, this Steward of Gondor suffered from insomnia that night and coughed up blood. The next morning, he summoned the members of the Council of Gondor once again, hoping to obtain some advice on how to deal with the crisis. Turgon knew that the moment deciding the life and death of Gondor had arrived.

Fortunately, because the Orcish army had been eyeing them covetously from the other side of the river, the Gondorian army gathered at Minas Tirith had not completely dispersed, but had retained the majority to guard against the Orcish forcing a crossing of the Anduin River.

These troops had indeed consumed a lot of food from the White City over these three months, but looking at the current situation, this consumption of food was extremely valuable, because the enemy's more violent offensive was about to arrive.

The powerful lords leading their respective armies soon arrived at the Gondor Royal City. During the course of the meeting, in addition to the old suggestions such as requesting help from Rohan and preparing for war with all their might relying on the river, a wise man with white hair and beard brought out a thick historical tome and presented a suggestion to Turgon: to send a messenger to Eriador to request the help of the Elves.

This wise man proposed that he had discovered in the records that the friendship between the Numenoreans and the Lindon Elf could be traced back thousands of years. Although some misunderstandings had occurred in between, the High King of Gondor and the High King of the Elves of the past had an ancient covenant and had fought together in the past against the great enemy entrenched in Mordor.

And when the royal bloodline of Gondor had not yet been severed, Gondor and the Elves had cooperated in Eriador to defeat the Witch-realm of Angmar that had destroyed the Kingdom of Arthedain; the friendship between the two sides had still been preserved.

Finally, this wise man said some words that stirred up the Human lords present and also moved Turgon, who was coughing incessantly in his seat.

"The short lives of Humans make us particularly prone to forgetting, and many important things are recorded in those dust-covered books, but no one goes to flip through them, and those things of the past cease to exist. But the Elves are not like this; their lives are long, and they view friendship very deeply. If you, Steward, can personally write a plea for help and have a messenger deliver it to Lord Cirdan, who governs Lindon, then even for the sake of the past sentiment of mutual aid between the two countries, there is a great possibility that the Elves will extend a helping hand to us."

And so it was that shortly after Gandalf left Rivendell, Cirdan arrived here with the Lindon Elf cavalry to discuss with Elrond the matter of aiding Gondor.

At this time, the strength of Lindon was already far inferior to what it was thousands of years ago; a large number of Elves had gone to Valinor during this period. Even by exhausting all his strength, Cirdan had only barely managed to scrape together a thousand or so cavalry. He felt that this amount of strength was insufficient to deal with this crisis, so naturally, he approached Elrond, who had greater strength.

Looking at the letter with spots of blood, Elrond did not refuse Cirdan's proposal as he had refused Gandalf. If possible, he certainly did not wish for the Elves of Rivendell to join in a war of little significance, but if Gondor were on the verge of collapse, he would naturally extend a helping hand.

If Gondor perished under the offensive of Mordor, then who would be next? Lothlorien or Rivendell? Or perhaps Mithlond, which could assist the Elves in going to Valinor? By that time, even if the Elves wanted to leave, they would have no chance.

However, Eriador at this time was no longer as peaceful as it had been a few months ago. The remnants of the Orcish that were originally hidden deep in the mountains had been dug out by the Nazgul dispatched here by Sauron, and then, under coercion, they had appeared extremely unwillingly on the plains of Eriador and committed several horrific atrocities.

Therefore, in order to ensure the stability of Eriador, Elrond could not send all his strength to the south, and he himself had to stay behind to deal with the powerful enemies that might exist.

In the end, Elrond decided to let his deputy, Lindir, serve as the Commander, leading nearly two thousand cavalry to advance toward the south. At the same time, he also asked Lady Gilraen whether the Dunedain had any intention to support the endangered Gondor, as this might play a crucial role in the reconstruction of the Kingdom of Arnor.

However, most of the Dunedain Ranger were no longer in Eriador at this time, but had gone to Rhovanion to serve under Allen. At the same time, Gilraen told Elrond that the war between Allen and the Easterling had very likely already begun.

At this point, Cirdan and Elrond also recalled their previous conversation with Allen. After a brief consultation, the two decided to let Lindir take the majority of the Elf cavalry to first help Allen eliminate the Easterling entrenched in Rhovanion.

Because they considered that if Allen were to fail in this war, then the Easterling would very likely, under Sauron's orders, advance south to plunder the defenseless Rohan. By then, the Rohirrim cavalry would certainly leave the front lines for the sake of their homes, and then Gondor would be even more in jeopardy, and the pressure faced by the Elves would also be even greater.

Based on Elrond's understanding of Sauron, this Dark Lord had a very high possibility of carrying out such an operation.

And Cirdan would, after crossing the Misty Mountains, lead a small portion of cavalry to Lothlorien to talk with Lady Galadriel and see if the Galadhrim were willing to give a hand to Gondor, which was facing numerous powerful enemies, at this critical moment.

And that Lindir could accurately find Allen at this time was not a coincidence, but because Lindir himself was also proficient in the technique of communicating with birds, so with the help of the birds, he successfully met with Allen at this time.

At this moment, Allen also took the plea for help with spots of blood from Lindir's hand. He guessed that this Steward of Gondor would very likely not live long, because in Allen's memory, Turgon's lifespan had only eight years left, and his bloodline was thin, his physical quality far inferior to the Dunedain around him.

Now that Gondor was facing such a serious crisis, this respectable old man was likely just holding his breath and toughing it out.

Looking at the numerous Elf cavalry before him, he knew that the war between himself and Ashur had already had a satisfactory result. Then, should he also respond to Sengel's request and lead troops south?

And just as Allen was struggling with the decision, "caw," "caw" sounds came from the sky. Before long, a unit of Dwarf elite in bright armor appeared in the north of Allen, and leading them was none other than Thorin II, who was leading the Goat Cavalry.

So, all of Allen's reinforcements finally gathered together at this moment, while Ashur, who was chasing behind Allen, looked at one destroyed camp after another and fell into an extreme rage.

His years of effort had been destroyed in less than two months.