Chapter 203: The Black Gate

From Cair Andros, it is roughly over a hundred kilometers to the Black Gate.

The road is not too long, but the situation the entire army is about to face will no longer be as relaxed as before.

I do not know when it started, but the figures of the Nazgul have been constantly streaking across the sky above the army.

Perhaps it is because they fear the sharp eyes of the Elves, and the Magic in the hands of the Wizard that is sufficient to restrain them.

Those Nazgul fly very high and dare not swoop down; to the eyes of Humans, the figures of these monsters cannot be seen clearly at all.

But the Elves, who look up at the sky from time to time, are reminding everyone on the scene that enemies have already begun to appear in the sky.

Feelings of unease and depression also began to sprout in the hearts of the soldiers with the arrival of the Nazgul; even if they did not know where this emotion came from, the unease still spread rapidly throughout the entire army.

The self-confidence built up by successive victories before is also being rapidly worn away.

Only Allen's subordinates, the Elves from Eriador, and a small portion of the elite are still able to maintain a good state of mind.

This is also a very normal thing; those Rohirrim who are loyal to Sengel are mostly young people from various places in the Westfold, and they lack the experience of war and a resilient heart tempered by the years.

Fear is a matter of course; only when looking at that Flag representing the King of Rohan can they find a glimmer of belief from the bottom of their hearts to continue moving forward.

As for the soldiers belonging to Gondor, before they picked up their weapons, most of them were farmers facing the yellow earth and backing the sky, joining the ranks of the crusade against Mordor by virtue of their loyalty to the King and a heart full of hot blood.

Their fear is understandable; the darkness of Mordor has threatened Gondor for a thousand years, and the closer they get to that land of death, the stronger the unease in the soldiers' hearts becomes.

However, Gondor has a complete military structure, and most of the officers possess the bloodline of the Numenoreans; their willpower far exceeds that of ordinary Humans.

Under the encouragement of the officers, the soldiers of Gondor can quickly regain their confidence and continue to move forward, tightly surrounding the Flags of their respective lords.

As the army continues to march, the forests around the road seem even gloomier, and the distant mountain ranges also begin to drift with unsettling black fog.

At this time, they have already reached the edge of the green world; as long as they advance eastward along the road of the Shadow Mountains, what the entire army will face immediately is the extremely terrifying Dead Marshes and the incomparably desolate Dagolad Plain.

These two desolate places have buried no one knows how many lives of Humans and Elves.

Even though it was still early, under the suggestion of Gandalf, the entire great army began to camp and rest here.

This is already the fifth day since they left the Crossroads.

If no accidents occurred in between, then tomorrow afternoon, this coalition army going to crusade against the Black Gate will arrive at Cirith Gorgor.

That place is already at the doorstep of the Great Enemy.

The night of this day can be said to be the most difficult night for the entire army since setting out from the Morgul Vale.

The bright moon in the sky still shines upon them, but through that ominous mist, the once clear moonlight appears pale.

Wolf howls ring out from time to time in the northeast direction of the camp, which disturbs many soldiers from sleeping and keeps the sentries on duty in a state of tension.

And between the cliffs and mountain hollows of the Shadow Mountains, it seems as if countless hazy figures are constantly wandering, and the tense atmosphere spreads to all the camps.

This night, Allen, Ecthelion, Gandalf, and Sengel did not rest at all; they kept shuttling between the camps, and their loud and firm voices constantly echoed over the camps.

Under these voices, those originally uneasy soldiers were finally able to relax their minds and rest for a while before dawn.

Gandalf is able to do this because of the help of Narya, plus the legendary reputation he has gained over long years.

Allen relies on the huge prestige he has gained in the recent period to soothe the uneasy hearts of the soldiers.

And Ecthelion is already the Steward of Gondor; the House of Hurin has governed Gondor for nearly a thousand years, and the power brought by his reputation is naturally not to be underestimated.

As for Sengel, the descendant of Eorl has an irreplaceable position in the hearts of the Rohirrim.

Originally, Gandalf also went to invite Saruman; the voice of the White Wizard has Magic, and as long as he wants, he can naturally play a role in stabilizing the morale of the army.

But the key to the problem is that the arrogant Saruman is unwilling to do such a thing, and mocked Gandalf, calling him a "self-important busybody."

Gandalf, having asked for a snub, naturally returned in low spirits.

After this busy night, the sun soon rose from the east; although her figure was covered by the Shadow Mountains, the light spreading across the sky was telling everyone that the morning had arrived.

The hazy figures that had been wandering around the camp had quietly dissipated at this moment, and the tense atmosphere seemed to have been relieved.

After a breakfast that was considered quite hearty, the army set off along the road again and soon arrived at the north side of the Shadow Mountains.

In this season approaching the Sun Month, this desolate land before them had not the slightest warmth.

The Dead Marshes on the north side of the road rose with mist after mist, dissipating into the air under the blowing of the breeze, and along with the mist, it seemed that tall figures were also dissipating one by one.

Looking closely, they seemed to have beautiful faces and ears shaped like leaves, but they also seemed to be nothing at all, just a mass of smoke.

And the breeze that moved the mist actually made the temperature here turn cold; the army, having walked for most of the day, did not feel any heat, only the cold wind felt on their backs.

This place seems closer to the season of late autumn.

And that Morannon guarding Mordor was already getting closer and closer to the reinforcements of Humans and Elves.

That is a huge defensive wall standing at Cirith Gorgor, and in the middle of this high wall is the Black Gate; a large number of Orcish stand on the city wall, looking at the enemies coming from afar with irritable expressions, their eyes full of malice.

Even if the dark clouds of Mordor covered the sun here, the Snaga still did not like to fight during the day; perhaps only those few Uruk could ignore the environment at this time.

On both sides of this gate stood a tall and evil black tower; their names were Carchost and Narchost, and together they were the Teeth of Mordor.

The towers stored a large number of arrows and were garrisoned by Uruk archers holding huge black bows; anyone who wanted to pass through here, if they did not know the password of Mordor, and also did not have the permission of Sauron, would inevitably suffer the gnawing of the Teeth of Mordor.

The Nazgul, who had been flying high in the sky, no longer hid their figures, but circled at the tops of the two black towers, and from time to time a shrill howl would ring out.

It was as if they were telling their master that those overconfident fellows had arrived.

And on both sides of the high wall were the mountain ridges of Cirith Gorgor, on which hundreds of caves of various sizes had been opened; in the dark places of the caves, a large number of filthy Orcish were also lurking.

As soon as Sauron gave the order, they would swarm out and attack any creature that dared to provoke their master.

And the Tower of Barad-dur, which was far higher than the Black Gate, had an evil Eye of Sauron at its top watching this place, or more precisely, watching Allen, Ecthelion, Gandalf, Sengel, and others standing together.

Facing the malicious gaze of Sauron, Allen's expression was extremely calm, and he even looked at Sauron, revealing a mocking expression as if to provoke him.

Using his ability, Allen only saw short-statured Snaga on that high wall; as for the tall Uruk, there were very few.

This matches the conjecture in Allen's heart; relying solely on the cultivation of the Nazgul, how many more powerful Orcish could Mordor accumulate?

Sauron had not been back to his old home for long.

And he had impatiently launched a war against Gondor.

The old capital accumulated in the previous period should have been used up in these few years; as for the Easterling army hidden behind the towers, it had long been seen by Allen.

These barbarian tribes summoned by Sauron did not have particularly strong power here; after a little calculation, it should be roughly several thousand.

It was clear that Allen's strike against Ashur in Rhovanion had also severed a considerable amount of Sauron's power, and the Easterlings further away had either not yet fully submitted to Sauron.

Or, delayed by some circumstances, they had not yet managed to respond to Mordor's summons.

The only troublesome part was that this Easterling army was surprisingly wealthy and consisted almost entirely of Cavalry; it made sense, for if they were not Cavalry, how could they have arrived at Mordor in such a short time to support the deity they worshipped?

Allen communicated the information he had observed to all the generals on the scene and told them bluntly that this was an ability passed down through his family and did not belong to the power of the Palantir stones.

In Middle-earth, a place where deities existed, items containing Magic were not rare, and the many generals did not have much suspicion.

Instead, facing the current forces of Mordor, the group, after a brief consultation, dispatched a large number of Messengers.

And the army of over twenty thousand men, under orders, began to set up several huge phalanxes on the desolate Dagorlad.

The Infantry of Gondor used the mud swamps and foul ponds on the wasteland as their defensive ditches, setting up thick formations behind them.

Those fully armed elites, holding various weapons, stood at the very front of the ranks, while the militia without armor stood behind the elites to assist.

And troop after troop of archers stood at the very front of the Infantry; they were the wave of force that would deal the fastest blow to the enemy.

Commanding this main force was Ecthelion, who had just become Steward, while Saruman guarded his side to prevent the Nazgul from carrying out decapitation tactics against the Steward, who was merely a Human.

This was a tactic the Ringwraiths were actually quite adept at using.

The Cavalry force, numbering nearly ten thousand, was divided into three parts; one part was the reinforcements Allen and Lindir had brought from the north, and they guarded the right flank of the entire phalanx.

The Rohirrim led by Sengel guarded the left flank of the phalanx, and Gandalf remained by Sengel's side; no matter how heroic and courageous they were, the Rohirrim were only ordinary Humans.

At critical moments, they needed the help of a Wizard.

The remaining two thousand Gondor Cavalry were led by Adrahil as a reserve force, guarding Ecthelion's side, ready to appear anywhere on the battlefield as an emergency Cavalry unit in any potential combat.

Of course, it must also be mentioned that the Durin Dwarves were building large Catapults, but building such siege engines took quite a long time.

Even if they worked together to build them, with sufficient materials and tools, it would take at least ten days or so to complete two Catapults.

Allen felt this time frame was acceptable, because the supplies brought by the army could only last for about a month at most; if it took any longer, the army would have to head home.

Transporting supplies for over twenty thousand people from hundreds of kilometers away in Gondor was truly too difficult for this country of several hundred thousand people; the logistics officials in the White City had been able to maintain such a massive army until now.

It was also thanks to Gondor's well-stocked granaries and the strong support of the local gentry; otherwise, the Steward's family would have gone bankrupt long ago.

As for buying from the Simulator, Allen had never considered this approach, not to mention how to explain the food appearing out of thin air.

Stationed here was an army of over twenty thousand; the few Dinar in his small treasury would not have lasted long at all.

Besides, Allen did not intend to besiege Mordor for too long; he had come here only to test Sauron's reaction.

And incidentally, to let the Dark Lord witness the strength of his side, telling him that Middle-earth was not a place where he could do whatever he pleased.

Even if Sauron could still possess great power and march an incredibly large Orcish army out of the Black Gate.

Allen had sufficient confidence to lead all the soldiers who had come here to leave and return to the Anduin River to continue defending against Mordor's offensive.

Moreover, under Allen's observation, Sauron had not yet brought out any overly powerful force.

The tens of thousands of Orcish gathered in the Wudun valley did not have much of an advantage compared to his own forces, because those fellows were all small and wretched Snaga.

As for the hundreds of Trolls hidden behind the gate, as long as they had enough Noldor arrows, the Rangers under Allen's command would be enough to deal with these thick-skinned but clumsy fellows.

As for the Ringwraiths circling in the sky, with the assistance of Gandalf and Saruman, Allen was not worried that these evil servants would cause him much trouble.

On the contrary, Allen felt that his side, which possessed more Cavalry, had a higher probability of winning this battle, because most of the Warg units under Sauron's command had died in the Brown Lands, and the few remaining were not to be feared at all.

If no battle occurred, then the result of Allen's discussion with the others was to besiege the Black Gate for half a month, using the built Catapults to bombard the direction of the Black Gate for several days.

If, under such provocation, Sauron could still hole up in his home without making any response.

Then everyone present would see the Dark Lord's outward strength and inward weakness, and Sauron's reputation would inevitably be ruined over these decades.

This would help boost the confidence of the Free Peoples in resisting the darkness and would also increase the cohesion among the various races, allowing them to better unite in the days to come to deal with potential crises.

And now, it was up to Sauron to choose.