Chapter 237: The Never-Ending Expansion

No matter how many Orcish Allen had once wiped out, or how many victories he had achieved alongside his allies in the confrontation with Sauron, as long as the Dark Lord had not perished, Arda could never be called safe; there was only a fleeting peace, which was the main melody of the third theme of the Great Music of Creation.

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The hollow, clamorous, and endless chorus and the deep, broad, and beautifully sorrowful concerto sounded at the same time, rising and falling; one side always wanted to overwhelm the other, and everything Allen had experienced was merely the reverberations of this melody, yet even so, the confrontation between the two sides could be called intense.

In just over a dozen years, Allen had experienced no fewer than three large-scale wars, not to mention small-scale skirmishes; the number of battles he had participated in, or that his subordinates had participated in, was very close to a hundred, if not already there, for this land was, after all, a place riddled with danger.

Some wise men with foresight chose to avoid the world in the face of such danger; due to their own unique nature, they had seen through the laws of this world long ago and knew that they were no longer the protagonists of the era, so they adopted a relatively passive way to deal with the current darkness.

Moreover, they had their own retreat and did not necessarily have to compete with evil in Middle-earth; the hatred between them had actually been largely resolved, and they remained only because they were attached to this beautiful land.

Some wise men had grand ambitions to rule a territory; she led her people to accumulate strength in the forest, always prepared to strike back at the enemy, but before that, they remained extremely well-hidden, and most Humans held misunderstandings about them.

Others chose to just muddle along, shrinking their territories and leading their people to resist the enemy's attacks, but if one expected them to step out of their homes to confront the darkness again, that was likely impossible, because the sorrow they had experienced was simply too heavy—too heavy for anyone to wish to experience a second time.

As for Allen, who had a certain understanding of all this, he had his own ideas; in the face of darkness, consistently strengthening oneself could never be wrong.

He did not know if this world would still follow the predetermined trajectory and see a turning point that would temporarily end everything in a few decades; after all, his own small butterfly effect had truly changed too many things.

And that Hobbit who would influence Sauron's actions did not know where he was wandering now, but what was certain was that he was already in Mordor, waiting to be discovered by the Great Eye of Sauron at Barad-dur.

In fact, when at the Black Gate, Allen had used his own abilities to search for Gollum; if he had been in the Dead Marshes or the Emyn Muil, Allen would have taken him away no matter what, and he had even considered it when he was on the outskirts of Mordor.

But the result was not so, and the darkness shrouding Mordor affected his vision; no matter how many Dinar he spent, he could only barely make out that small, evil-corrupted figure jumping and climbing among the desolate, pitch-black hills, the expression on his gaunt face so blurred that Allen could not determine his location, nor what Gollum was thinking at this very moment.

Without needing to think deeply, Allen knew that besides anger and despair, confusion and fear likely occupied a considerable part of Gollum's heart at this time.

It was just that Allen could not determine which corner of the Ash Mountains this Hobbit was in; what he did know was that the Tower of Barad-dur in the southeast was so close to that small figure, so close that Allen's mood grew heavier with each passing day.

At this moment, he felt that perhaps during the expedition, he should have taken that poor fellow back to Rhovanion; that way, he could have prevented Sauron from learning the news of the Ring from Gollum's mouth.

It was just that although Allen knew what he could do in Middle-earth at the time and could try to change the fate of certain people, he did not know what height he could reach, or whether he could possess the power to confront Sauron head-on.

And before everything in the future was certain, Allen did not rashly change Gollum's fate, because he did not know whether the consequences of doing so would be good or bad.

But as time passed, Allen also carved out a great reputation in Middle-earth, which simultaneously caught Sauron's attention, causing the Dark Lord's gaze to temporarily leave Gondor and turn instead toward the previously unremarkable Rhovanion.

The ambush at the Running River was, in Allen's opinion, absolutely a scheme of Sauron's; he, like his master, liked to use underhanded means in the shadows.

And such a gaze was by no means a good thing; Allen was now very worried that Gollum, wandering in the Ash Mountains, would be swept by Sauron's peripheral vision; after all, this Hobbit had worn the Ruling Ring for so long that the aura on his body would definitely arouse Sauron's curiosity.

And the probability of such a thing happening might increase rapidly as Allen's reputation grew; this was not a good thing.

At certain moments, Allen had even thought about taking a small squad deep into Mordor to bring back the unstable factor that was Gollum to Rhovanion for strict supervision, correcting the mistake he had once made.

But soon Allen abandoned this thought, because the evil entrenched in Mordor was constantly staring at his own kingdom, and his actions would very likely bring different thoughts to Sauron; that was a treacherous and cunning Dark Lord, after all, and one could never be too careful.

Therefore, Allen could only try every possible way to enhance his own strength while helping his allies become as strong as possible; for instance, his urging Aragorn to seize the time and build a nation in the north while Mordor was recovering its strength was for this very reason, because it was more reasonable and discreet for Aragorn to do this.

Only by concentrating the power of the Humans of Eriador could the safety of the Shire be protected as much as possible; if one relied solely on the power of those few hundred Northern Rangers,

it would be impossible to resist a sudden attack by the Nazgul, and Allen and those who could fight the Nazgul could not guard Bilbo's side every day; after all, one could probably not find a more suitable Ring-bearer in all of Middle-earth than the master of Bag End.

At least, Allen did not think he had the qualification; he might manage it with short-term contact, but to hold that Ring for decades as if it were a single day, Allen could not guarantee he would not be affected; his power now was quite strong, and although it certainly could not compare to a genuine Maia, it was already stronger than a Wizard who had lost most of his power.

The influence of that Ring on him was likely no longer as faint as it had been when they first met.

And he himself could not send troops to protect the Shire with great fanfare, as that would inevitably attract unnecessary attention from the enemy; at present, the Shire had enough protection from the Rangers.

At the same time, Allen had not thought about revealing the news of the Ring, because he felt that with the current strength of himself and his allies, they probably could not break through the Black Gate and enter Mordor head-on; that would be a suicidal act of no return.

So what he could do at the moment was only to increase his own strength as much as possible, while uniting with his Dwarf allies to sweep the Orcish out of the north, and simultaneously hold the various passes to protect the safety of Eriador as much as possible.

Through Allen's efforts over more than a decade, the population scattered across various parts of Rhovanion gradually gathered together, and the population had reached nearly fifty thousand by now; this included the reproduction over these years, as well as prisoners of war from the Rhun region and Northern Men recruited into the territory by Fatis.

And the population of Horse Pasture Village had been growing rapidly over these years, without any need for Allen's urging, because in the basic traditional concepts of grassland peoples, more people meant strength, which allowed one to have a say in the law-of-the-jungle environment of the grasslands; basically all tribes were like this.

Moreover, the living environment of herdsmen was harsher compared to agricultural peoples, and the survival rate of newborns was far lower than that of settled farmers, so in order to multiply, the desire for childbirth among herdsmen was generally higher than that of farmers.

When Allen brought the entire village over from Calradia, there were over four hundred Cavalry, nine hundred villagers, and nearly a thousand captives, totaling over two thousand people; after nearly ten years of reproduction, the children of the past had grown into adults, established their own families, and had become parents themselves, with their own children.

Over these years, Allen had also intermittently distributed captives he had saved from the enemy, as well as some prisoners of war, to Horse Pasture Village, causing the village's population to swell to six or seven thousand at one point, though when Fatis was enfeoffed with his territory, the three hundred or so Knights who followed him took away nearly a thousand people—they were all Knight apprentices who had completed their assessments, as well as the families of the Knights and prisoners of war.

Since then, the population of Horse Pasture Village had remained at over five thousand, and most were either newborns just brought into the world or elderly people unable to ride and fight; of course, there was also a portion of teenagers who had just grown up and young people who had recently started families, numbering about five hundred.

And now, Allen needed these young men to work for him.

Not long ago, he and Thorin had discussed the recapture of the Grey Mountains in the Lonely Mountain; at that time, Allen promised to arrange for a portion of the herdsmen to settle near the Grey Mountains, that is, the land where the Rohirrim had once lived, in the area of Langwell and the Greyflood.

The land there was fertile, with lush water and grass, and guarding the two rivers flowing down from the Grey Mountains, it could be said to be a piece of land extremely suitable for grazing; moreover, the former Rohirrim had built a castle there, which was the now-abandoned Framburg.

The Rohirrim were now settled in Calenardhon, also known as Rohan, and the former castle was likely of no use, so Allen prepared to make use of the waste; he would have Thorin provide men to properly renovate the castle, and then he would arrange for some herdsmen to settle there, keeping watch and helping the Dwarves who were preparing to recapture the Grey Mountains.

Regarding this matter, when Dain left Fislate, Allen had already written his requirements into a Letter and had him take it to Thorin; in the letter, Allen stated that once the castle renovation was complete, he would arrange for the herdsmen to move in at the first opportunity, and as for the cost of building the castle, he would send someone to the Lonely Mountain once the construction was finished.

Although part of the reason for arranging for the herdsmen to settle there was to help the Dwarves recapture the Grey Mountains, one thing was one thing; the completed castle would, after all, belong to Allen, and with the establishment of the castle, that piece of land would officially fall under the rule of Rhovanion, so the money certainly still had to be paid; after all, Thorin had not charged a fee when he helped Allen attack Ashur.

And to renovate that castle, Allen conservatively estimated it would take at least three to five years; the once-abandoned Dale had taken two years to be rebuilt with the help of the Dwarves, so Framburg, which was very far from the Lonely Mountain, should take even longer to build.

And during this period, Allen prepared to do something for his five hundred young men, because they would have to face danger alone for a long time in the future, as the Orcish of the Grey Mountains and Gundabad, even in fear, would certainly not sit idly by and watch a human tribe settle right next to them.

Allen estimated there would not be large-scale battles, but small-scale conflicts would likely be endless.

Compared to when Thorin and his companions went on the expedition to the Lonely Mountain, Rhovanion had developed over ten years, and if nothing else, the transportation had become far, far more convenient.

Dain and his party took the Old Forest Road and then traveled by boat up the Running River; even with cargo, it took them less than half a month to return to the Lonely Mountain.

And when Thorin opened Allen's letter, his expression turned ugly; building a castle was nothing to the Dwarves, but the name of that castle made Thorin feel extreme disgust.

Fram, the fifth leader of the Eothiod, had once performed the astonishing feat of killing the dragon Scatha, and just like Allen, he also held the reputation of a Dragon Slayer and had seized the dragon's treasure.

It was just that the treasure of the dragon Scatha could be said to have come entirely from the Dwarves; Durin's Folk had once demanded that Fram return the treasure, but they were insulted, and the result was that Fram died, and the Dwarves and the Eothiod became enemies from then on, a state that had not eased for nearly a thousand years.

A thousand years was very long for Humans; the Rohirrim of today might have already forgotten this matter or regarded it as a legend, but for the Dwarves, it was not so; this was only a matter of four or five generations.

In Thorin's view, Fram had made an insulting gesture toward the Dwarves when faced with their legitimate demands; the words "Such jewels are hard to come by, and there is nothing in your treasury that can compare to them" had been remembered by Durin's Line to this day, so Thorin, as the King of Durin's Folk, was not very willing to rebuild this castle.

The stubbornness of Dwarves was sometimes just like this; they could fly into a rage over certain things, especially when it involved treasure, and they would hold a grudge for a long time; Thorin was no exception.

But faced with Allen's request and his explanation in the letter of how important this castle was to the migrating herdsmen, Thorin finally arranged for his distant relative, Dori, to lead a group of Dwarves to Langwell, and he also dispatched Kili to send a letter of his own to Fislate.

Rebuilding the castle naturally could not rely entirely on the Dwarves; it also required some help from Humans, and most importantly, Thorin felt that the name of that castle must be changed.