Chapter 218: Long Lake Town and Dwarf Companions

After some personal experience and Yintalier's introduction, Allen finally had a clear idea of the warships needed to build a naval force, believing that the performance of these ships in all aspects would be sufficient to complete the defense blueprint he had drawn for Fatis.

This could also be considered the completion of his main purpose for coming to Long Lake Town this time: to arrange a new job for Fatis.

However, having accomplished all this, Allen was in no hurry to leave, for Long Lake Town, which had become a major trade hub, was also his direct fief; yet Allen, who had been busy with war, had not stayed here for even a single day.

So, taking this opportunity, Allen planned to live in the palace in Long Lake Town with Yamila for a period of time to experience the local customs and culture.

Although it was close to the New Year, Allen and Yamila had arranged a vacation for themselves to relieve the increasingly heavy pressure of recent years.

As a king who was extremely responsible for the power in his hands, the burden on Allen's shoulders had never been light.

However, there was no major problem with the two of them leaving the castle for a short time at this moment.

Especially with the development of commerce, agriculture, and animal husbandry, Karl, Manid, and Tuoju had all clearly defined their respective duties.

Although Allen had not yet given them the status of ministers, he had assigned many young officials to the three of them; they could handle most of the complicated affairs themselves, especially since it was the end of the year and there was not much left to deal with, or rather, it had already been mostly processed.

And the banquet held every New Year in Fislate had long since ceased to require the planning and supervision of the King and the Prime Minister two years ago.

The Cabinet officials responsible for this matter would distribute the funds allocated by Allen according to the number of households in each community in the city, and then, after discussion by the community committees, it would be held according to the residents' preferences.

Residents who liked good food and wine would spend most of the money on dining, satisfying their appetites amidst laughter and joy.

Those who liked singing and dancing would spend money on building stages and purchasing gorgeous clothes for performances, gradually enriching the community's inventory so that they would have more choices when performing.

At the beginning, Allen held this banquet to celebrate everyone's harvest over the past year, and the main purpose was to make the residents happy and increase their sense of identification with the King.

And according to Allen's experience from his past life, if people could make their own decisions with money, they should be happier than attending a fixed banquet; at least that was what Allen, who attended the annual year-end dinner, thought.

Moreover, this year-end banquet could greatly stimulate the commercial prosperity of the River Valley; merchants from all over, plus the local residents of Rhovanion, would always bring the goods they considered popular to sell in Fislate.

There were even many troupes proficient in performance who traveled from all parts of Middle-earth just to put on a show for the residents here on this celebratory day.

Of course, they would also receive generous rewards after the performance.

And on this festive day, some bards would also come here by reputation, compiling the prosperity and richness of this place into catchy songs to spread across Middle-earth.

In the past, because there was too much evil lurking in the Wilderness and the journey was very difficult and dangerous, no one was willing to cross the Misty Mountains to come to Rhovanion.

However, as the dark forces in the North suffered a major blow, the Orcish and Wargs who had luckily escaped with their lives began to hide in dark tunnels to lick their wounds, and Allen had also arranged for a large number of troops to conduct patrols along the road.

Consequently, travelers on the road gradually increased, which was a good thing for the whole of Middle-earth.

As for the farmers who responded to the Cabinet's call and did not live in the city because they were reclaiming farmland outside, Allen's approach was very simple: to use the money to purchase some New Year goods that were easy to store.

Such as sausages, cured ham, honey, various candies, and fruit wine, and then arrange for his subordinates to distribute them.

Allen, who guarded large herds of horses, never lacked transport capacity; spending some effort and money was trivial to him now. The most important thing was to let everyone feel the King's generosity and kindness, and let them know that on this day every year, the King was enjoying the festivities with them.

As for the various arrangements above, Yamila would send Cabinet officials to supervise and handle them, while Allen would send his "Animal Friend" to conduct further secret observations.

Although the folk customs of Rhovanion were still quite simple, power and wealth would eventually corrode people's hearts; more supervision was always good, allowing Allen to strike with thunderous force as soon as bad signs appeared.

As for Allen and Yamila, they planned to spend this New Year in Long Lake Town.

The now-rebuilt Long Lake Town was vastly different from the past; the old town area that had been burned to the ground by Smaug had been completely abandoned, especially since that cruel and evil fire dragon had fallen right in the center of the town before it died, making people afraid to approach that place.

And for the sake of the gold and treasures that fell from Smaug, there were indeed "Warrior" types who dared to venture to the town center, but when they approached the remains of the dead fire dragon, they were directly seized by the fear surging in their hearts, and they jumped into the lake while screaming crazily, quickly swimming back to the shore.

Furthermore, after returning home, they fell into a serious illness and spent several months recuperating before they could barely shake off the influence of the dark power.

Smaug itself was a war machine created by Morgoth to fight the Valar; even in a dead state, the fear and evil emanating from its body were enough to scare away ordinary Humans, and there were no materials worth using on its entire body, including those hard bones and teeth.

Because their hardness was entirely supported by dark power, and as the power dissipated, these bones would soon be weaker than steel.

And what the "Warrior" types experienced made everyone afraid to approach that place again, even though people could vaguely see some shining gold and treasures from the shore.

And the current Long Lake Town was mostly the same as Allen's original vision; the urban area was mainly built at the southern corner of the Mirkwood River and Long Lake, protected by a six-meter-high brick and stone wall, and most of the buildings inside were also of brick and stone structure.

When Allen was thinking about these things, he also considered that residents living on the water all year round were actually very harmful to their health, which was why he placed the main urban area on the shore.

But there were always some people who believed in tradition and liked their old way of life, willing to live on the water; so after the main urban area was completed, they built a water town smaller than the previous scale at the northernmost point protected by the city wall, serving as a sub-district of Long Lake Town.

Most of those living on it were old residents who liked to make a living by fishing, and occasionally used their old skills to make small items for sale.

And most of the Northern Men that Allen had moved over the years lived in the newly built urban area; besides reclaiming some farmland outside the city, some older and wise people also started doing business.

The main reason was that the market of Long Lake Town was built on the shore of the new urban area; in addition to the market for trade and shops selling various supplies, taverns where people could drink wine and inns for people to stay were also mostly built in this area.

Therefore, this area on the shore was generally called the Land of Gold by outsiders who came here to do business, as if all the gold flowing in the river had gathered in this area.

And the locals of Long Lake Town called this place the Commercial District; there was no help for it, most of the names Allen chose were so plain and unadorned.

As the saying goes, those near the water get the moon first; with many conditions in place, those Northern Men with business experience naturally became the first batch of people to get rich in such an environment.

Of course, they also paid the most taxes.

Although Long Lake Town had begun to bring a lot of wealth to the Kingdom of Rhovanion, in Allen's view, this place actually had one biggest drawback, which was that merchant ships coming from the south could not dock directly at Long Lake Town.

Instead, they had to unload the goods under the waterfall at the southern end of Long Lake, then pull the goods to the Commercial District of Long Lake Town with large carts, and then reload them onto ships to be transported to the Lonely Mountain further away.

And the goods coming down from the Lonely Mountain were the same; in Allen's view, this was really too troublesome. If the merchant caravans of the Kingdom of Gondor and the Kingdom of Rohan also came here to trade later, wouldn't they have to queue to transport goods?

So after wandering around the vicinity with Yamila for two days, Allen decided to ask the Dwarf to help him complete a project that was not particularly complicated.

That was to open two waterways for transportation along the road south of Long Lake, connecting to the Running River flowing south; they did not need to be particularly wide, just enough for the transport ships designed by Yintalier to pass through.

The waterway near the west mainly served ships from north to south, that is, allowing merchant ships coming down from the Lonely Mountain to enter the Running River directly, saving the trouble of loading and unloading goods.

And for the waterway near the east, Allen planned to use the power of the waterfall to convert it into the power to pull ships onto Long Lake, but this point might be difficult to achieve by human means and would require the help of the Dwarf.

Allen, who had always been decisive in doing things, after carefully considering the feasibility of the plan, prepared to take Yamila and their personal guards to the Lonely Mountain to see his good friends, and by the way, entrust this matter to Thorin to see if the Dwarf could complete the vision in his heart.

It was just that on the road to the Lonely Mountain, Allen was not alone; a Blacklocks Dwarf from the Far East became his companion on the journey.

Ever since Durin's Folk returned to the Lonely Mountain and made it prosperous again, there would be Dwarf from other clans coming here to communicate and learn, or to complete some transactions.

After all, the Durin's Folk Dwarf, who had once accepted the Firebeards and Broadbeams clans, could be said to possess the most high-end iron forging and construction technology in Middle-earth.

Because the Dwarf of the Firebeards and Broadbeams clans had learned the secrets of craftsmanship from Valinor from the Noldor and Sindar Elf in the distant First Age, and the Noldor clan learned from Aule, while the skills of the Sindar clan were learned from the Maia Melian.

And with the end of the War of Wrath, the once glorious cities of the Firebeards and Broadbeams clans became ruins with the sinking of Beleriand. At that time, most of the Dwarf of the two clans also entered Khazad-dum, which was Moria at this time, and merged into Durin's Folk; of course, they also brought the exquisite craftsmanship learned from the Eldar.

And the Blacklocks, Ironfists, Stiffbeards, and Stonefoots, these Dwarf who awakened in the East, were naturally inferior to the Durin's Folk Dwarf in all aspects; after all, Sauron, who occupied that place, would not kindly teach others knowledge.

Any race that had received the favor of the Dark Lord would inevitably pay a price of eternal damnation; anyone who did not believe this could look up the endings of Tar-Palantir and Celebrimbor in ancient books.

In short, in these years when Durin returned to the Lonely Mountain and Sauron lay dormant, the Dwarf of the Far East began to deepen their exchanges with Durin's Folk, and both sides benefited greatly from it.

The Dwarves of the Far East could bring more knowledge back to their homeland, and Durin could also gain more population; there were always Dwarves who longed for the Lonely Mountain and chose to pledge loyalty to Thorin, and they often joined as an entire small tribe, with very few individual Dwarves abandoning the leader they served, which goes to show the loyalty of the Dwarves.

As for the Blacklocks, Allen had always held them in high regard, simply because he had once obtained news of Ashur from a Blacklock Dwarf; in his view, these were all forces that could be united to resist Sauron, and every one he could befriend counted.

After being ambushed by the Dwarves on the Running River, Allen had also been very conflicted; during the few nights he rested in Long Lake Town, he often held Yamila and could not sleep, thinking about how to resolve this hidden danger of the Dwarves, but after much thought, he still had no particularly good method.

Should he forbid the Far Eastern Dwarves from entering his country? But many Dwarves had spent a huge price to set up shops in Long Lake Town and Fislate, and through several years of operation, they had achieved a good reputation locally.

Should he expel them all on "trumped-up" charges?

If this kind of matter is not handled well, it is not just an economic dispute, but a diplomatic issue, which could very likely affect the friendship between Humans and Dwarves, a point that Allen did not want to destroy under any circumstances.

Therefore, matters concerning the Dwarves were temporarily shelved for him; it would be just right to discuss it with Thorin to see if he had any ideas, as after all, Dwarves are more familiar with Dwarves.

If it really did not work, Allen remembered that there was a gemstone in the Magic Continent that could help its owner identify the location of enemies, and in the absence of other methods, he could only try his luck in the Simulator.

The Dwarf leader traveling with Allen was a sturdy Dwarf named Tiehaer, who wore a suit of pitch-black Leather Armor, his messy black hair paired with a copper ring inlaid with a black gemstone, while his long beard was tightly bound into three strands by rings made of gold.

His subordinates were mostly dressed in the same way, except they lacked the copper ring on their heads, and the metal rings binding their beards were made of silver.

Relying on walking to advance, they were exceptionally silent, forming a sharp contrast with their leader, Tiehaer.

During casual conversation with Tiehaer, Allen learned that he was leading over a hundred clansmen this time, intending to defect to Thorin II, but while passing through the Rhun region, they were attacked by an Easterling tribe, and in the end, only the dozen or so people beside him remained, having experienced quite a lot of hardships along the way.

Allen naturally felt the same way about this, because he himself could be considered a victim of the Easterlings; the Northern Men, whom he had originally planned to take slowly, had lost more than half their population under the invasion of Ashur, which was a heavy loss by any measure.

Therefore, the two of them, having had similar experiences, soon began to chat and traveled together toward the Lonely Mountain.