Chapter 202: A Rather Smooth Beginning

"Grandson of Hurin, son of Turgon, young Steward Ecthelion, if you wish to end this war as quickly as possible while also gauging the true strength of the enemy, this should be a very good suggestion."

A bright and highly persuasive voice rang out at this moment; the person who had arrived was none other than the white-bearded Gandalf.

Several days ago, the ailing Turgon, exhausted in body and spirit, had fallen into a coma.

A kingdom cannot go a day without a ruler, and the White City cannot be without a governing Steward.

Therefore, in this critical moment, Ecthelion had temporarily taken over the position of Steward of Gondor from his father's hands.

Of course, this could only be considered a temporary substitution; a formal ceremony would be held after the war ended.

However, Ecthelion had not mentioned this matter to Allen.

Because this was not something worth boasting about; succession meant the passing of his own father.

Regardless of what things were like elsewhere, the familial bonds of the House of Hurin were maintained quite well.

At this time, the Grey Wizard, who had slowly emerged from the darkness and arrived beside the campfire, casually handed the reins in his hand to Aragorn, who was standing to the side.

After pulling out his tobacco pouch, he sat down right beside Allen.

He blew a smoke ring, turned his head, and said with a smile: "Allen, I am very happy to see you in this place."

This was, of course, a matter worth rejoicing over; that the three of them could meet in this place meant that the majority of the beautiful Emyn Arnen had returned to the embrace of the Kingdom of Gondor.

And the malice of the enemy had also been severed.

The reason Gandalf was able to arrive at the Crossroads at this moment was entirely because the Orcish army entrenched to the east of Cair Andros had abandoned the besieged Variags.

This enemy force, which had been entangled with the Rohirrim, suddenly fled toward the Black Gate like a stray dog.

This order naturally came from Sauron.

This was a chain reaction caused by the failure of the Witch-king of Angmar at Osgiliath.

The only way out for this Orcish army was to flee; surely they wouldn't stay in place waiting to be surrounded by Allen and Gandalf?

Seeing the enemy's behavior was so strange, Gandalf hurriedly stopped Sengel, who was preparing to pursue.

The Wizard was naturally worried that the great enemy would set an ambush along the way.

But as time passed, and coupled with the fact that Minas Morgul had shown no intention of aiding the enemy for such a long time,

the wise Gandalf naturally guessed that the war situation had changed, and that the enemy must be at a disadvantage; otherwise, why would the Orcish, who had been fighting him all along, run away?

Thinking of this, the Grey Wizard temporarily handed the command of the army to the lord of Anorien.

And he himself drove two fast horses, quickly arriving near the Crossroads along the Harad Road.

Gandalf needed to understand the first-hand information of the battlefield and then make different moves, and his strength allowed him to do so.

The Gondor soldiers guarding the perimeter naturally recognized the renowned Mithrandir, so they let him come to the side of the campfire.

And at the same time as he arrived here, the sharp-eared Gandalf heard the suggestion Allen had put forward.

From his heart, he supported this idea of Allen's.

Gandalf also knew that if one chose passive defense every time they faced an enemy's provocation, it would only embolden the enemy's arrogance.

Even if one took the initiative to make a little resistance, even if it were just baring one's fangs and swinging a fist heavily once,

it would make the enemy harbor certain doubts before launching an attack on you next time, and when these doubts accumulated to a certain degree, they would damage the enemy's confidence.

For over two thousand years, Gandalf had always shouldered the responsibility of guiding and assisting Humans and Elves, letting them recognize the true enemy so as to oppose them.

Over these years, Gandalf believed he had done his utmost, but the path to defeating Sauron remained nowhere in sight.

In most cases, it was the Free Peoples barely preserving themselves under the active offensives of evil forces.

In such a passive situation, the weary Gandalf felt that he might never be able to find a way to defeat the enemy.

Perhaps, at this time when they had gained the advantage in the war, launching an offensive against the enemy could help him better find the opportunity to achieve victory.

Therefore, Gandalf naturally hoped that the young Steward would give it a try, even if it were just to strengthen the confidence to defeat Sauron.

After hearing Gandalf's words, Ecthelion used a branch in his hand to stir the campfire before him.

As sparks rose, his gaze gradually became firm.

"Then let us execute it as such. Since the decline of the kingdom, no army of ours has appeared before the enemy's gates. Perhaps letting the enemy witness our courage and conviction before the Black Gate can make the enemy's actions become cautious, and we may also gain a long-lasting peace."

In the end, Ecthelion agreed to this idea of Allen's, and Lindir, who had returned from scouting, did not oppose this idea either.

Elves are a race that loves life, but in the face of a crisis, they also possess a kind of equanimity that views death as a return home.

Besides, it was not the first time that Elf Warriors from Eriador had appeared before the Black Gate.

Soon, the few of them gathered together and settled on a detailed plan.

In order to avoid the Haradrim stationed in the Morgul Vale launching a sneak attack from their rear,

and also to guard against the enemy mobilizing more forces from the Harad region in the south,

in the end, Ecthelion dispatched an armored elite force to be stationed at the Crossroads; their number was approximately three thousand.

To cooperate with the Gondor soldiers, in addition to a few Dwarves proficient in siege equipment, Allen left Fili and Legolas's troops here to increase their side's strength.

After all, there were many Haradrim in the valley, and it was very possible that an enemy reinforcement could appear at the Morgul Pass at any time.

Although both heirs to the throne had some complaints about not being able to reach the Black Gate, for the sake of the Honor of Durin's Folk and the people of the Great Forest, they faithfully followed Allen's orders.

Moreover, guarding the Morgul Vale was also a great achievement for this campaign, which would surely be sung of in poetry.

Allen was indeed not very daring to let these two heirs to the throne participate in the final decisive battle that might occur.

Always considering himself an elder, he still felt he had to leave some peace of mind for Thorin and Thranduil; if there were any slip-up, the alliance of the three northern races might shatter in an instant.

With such a tragic loss, Allen and those two kings would likely not even be able to remain friends.

At the same time, Allen also hoped that Aragorn could stay behind, but this young Dúnedain chieftain refused without hesitation.

The reason this young man gave was also extremely sufficient, leaving Allen not knowing how to persuade him otherwise.

"My lord, do you remember when we were in Minas Tirith, you asked me to learn more about how this country operates and to pay attention to the thoughts of the commoners and the nobles? This is a very good opportunity; only in a crisis can one see some essence more clearly. If I stayed here, what would I be able to observe? I could only face that pitch-black city, worrying about the situation of this battle; this would be of no benefit to me at all."

Allen, who had originally wanted to say something, fell silent after hearing such words.

In the end, he agreed to Aragorn's request to head to the Black Gate.

However, Allen still specifically instructed this student of his that if a battle truly occurred, he must stay at the very rear of the army and not participate in the brutal battlefield out of a moment of impulse.

The era that truly belonged to this young man had not yet arrived by a long shot.

After Allen gave his consent, Aragorn, while overjoyed, nodded repeatedly to indicate that he would do as requested.

Watching the vigorous young man who feared neither hardship nor danger, Allen shook his head and went to find a place to rest beside the campfire.

He had used a great deal of power in the day's fighting and needed to recover.

Moreover, he still needed to make some preparations for the journey ahead.

Time soon reached the next morning; from some unknown moment, the dark clouds that had gathered in the sky had dissipated, and the sun's bright rays once again shone upon the long and narrow Ithilien.

Under the heart-warming sunlight, the entire army began to move; Legolas and Fili led their people toward the bridge before the Morgul Vale.

The Dwarves, who were proficient in construction, prepared to build a simple defensive fortification there to guard against any potential attacks the enemy might launch.

One could not assume they were safe and sound just because the bridge had been destroyed.

Things like arrow towers for surveillance, walls for protection, and traps for ambushing the enemy always needed to be built.

The "Generous" Drake, a Gondorian nobleman, would lead a portion of the soldiers to assist Fili in completing this task.

And the "Fearless" Antonius would also arrive here in a day or two, traveling on the large ships of the Gondorian fleet; he and the army under his command would also become a force for defending this place.

As for Legolas, he took his people to begin familiarizing themselves with the surrounding environment.

Which forests were easy to hide people in, and which mountain passes were likely to see small-scale enemy soldiers—these were the terrains the Elf Prince needed to become familiar with.

Ecthelion also left behind several members of the Ithilien Rangers to assist Legolas in completing the reconnaissance.

Thus, the army heading to the Black Gate was composed mainly of three forces.

Allen's personal guards, five hundred Dúnedain, and over three hundred Heavy Cavalry.

Under Lindir's command were over two thousand Elf Cavalry.

Ecthelion, as the Steward of Gondor, had gathered nearly seven thousand Gondorian soldiers.

This included the garrison that had previously defended Osgiliath, as well as Gondorian soldiers who had come to support from Pelargir.

As the dew began to evaporate, the fully prepared army marched northward along the Crossroads.

They had to first reach the eastern part of Cair Andros, where they would rendezvous with Sengel's army and the Gondorian soldiers led by Alger.

They would take the fortress in the center of the ship-island first.

The hundred or so kilometers north of the Crossroads were still relatively easy to traverse, because before this war, this land still belonged to the territory of the Kingdom of Gondor.

Furthermore, in the early stages of the war, members of the Ithilien Rangers had used the outposts here as a base of operations to pit their wits against the Uruks that ravaged the area.

And this place had a name better known to the people of Gondor, which was the Sun Window.

This army of over ten thousand people camped and rested for a night near the Sun Window, and this location was already very close to Cair Andros.

Standing on a higher hillside, one could even see clearly the Rohirrim galloping on the distant land.

They were keeping watch in the direction of the Black Gate.

Perhaps because powerful allies were nearby, most of the warriors, except for the soldiers on sentry duty, rested very peacefully that night.

Even though a dark and dense forest lay nearby to their east, and the Shadow Mountains with their desolate mists lay further away, it did not affect the soldiers' conviction to advance.

And in the days that followed, even better news spread throughout the entire army.

It was that the garrison originally holding Cair Andros had surrendered; those Variags, seeing the mighty military force coming along the Harad Road, had raised the white flag without hesitation.

The leader of the Variags did not want to face a siege of twenty thousand men, and they had also held out for a long time under the encirclement of an enemy several times their number.

Most crucially, they had become an isolated force; rather than dying miserably in a situation where they were out of ammunition and food, why not save their own lives?

They had only come here to plunder anyway.

These Gondorian soldiers, who no longer needed to besiege Cair Andros, also merged into this army marching to the Black Gate under the leadership of Alger.

And the weapons and armor of the Variags also increased the combat effectiveness of this force.

Their numbers were approximately eight thousand or more, which included soldiers from Anorien and reinforcements from the western regions of Gondor.

And when Sengel learned of Allen's thoughts, he chose to support his good friend without hesitation, leading the four thousand elite cavalry under his command to join the ranks as well.

After Allen left, some other lords of Rohan led their people to Sengel's side.

The descendants of Eorl were courageous and heroic, and also possessed great foresight; the territory they inhabited was so close to Mordor.

Most of the Rohirrim were proactive about striking the enemy.

By this point, the number of this army preparing to head to the Black Gate had swelled to over twenty-five thousand.

And another piece of fairly good news was that Saruman, who had been "recuperating" in Minas Tirith, had for some reason also arrived at the army.

Although the White Wizard's gaze toward Allen and Gandalf was still full of disgust, the sight of this disciplined army with high morale still caused a trace of wavering in the White Wizard's heart.

He had originally thought that in this era, it should be impossible for any army to dare to challenge the majesty of Sauron.

But today, the coalition army gathered by Allen and Ecthelion had caused Saruman to overturn his previous thoughts.

It was precisely because of this matter that Saruman had gone to the extent of using Magic to travel here from the White City; that was over a hundred kilometers in between.

Soon, the entire army once again set foot on the road to the Black Gate.