Chapter 238: Cavalry-Specific Armor

When Allen saw Thorin's reply, he understood the reason after a moment of thought; besides feeling a bit amused, he immediately made the corresponding arrangements.

He dispatched his attendant, Baron, who had followed him for many years, to lead two hundred infantry and two hundred archers north to Langwell to assist the Dwarves in rebuilding the castle.

Their primary task was to handle defense work, assisting the Dwarves in resisting any potential attacks launched by Orcish.

At the same time, they were responsible for transporting supplies along the road to the end of the Anduin River.

The land near Framburg had been desolate for a long time; ever since Eorl led his people away, it had once again become Orcish territory, with no Humans living there at all.

Therefore, all the supplies needed for building the castle had to be procured from the nearby Horse Pasture Village, over a hundred kilometers away.

However, Allen's territory did not lack transport capacity; he had a large reserve of pack horses, enough to barely cope with the current situation.

Moreover, in a while, he would be able to use ships to complete this work, and the situation would be much better then.

As for the construction of the castle itself, it was basically not up to Humans to intervene; the Dwarves were fully capable of handling it themselves, and even if Allen wanted to send people to help, it would likely only cause trouble.

The Dwarves had a very high talent for architecture; these short but extremely sturdy fellows could often figure out how to complete work related to stone after just a simple observation.

This was an ability engraved in the Dwarves' blood; they were naturally able to make rock full of charm after hammering it.

Unfortunately, Framburg was a fortress on a hillside, not a cave within a great mountain, which made the Dwarves' enthusiasm for the work slightly lower.

However, Allen had prepared a considerable amount of alcoholic beverages and many delicious foods for his allies, which should make up for this slight deficiency.

At the same time, in order to expand the castle's safety perimeter, Allen also arranged for Alice to take a team of Nvzhanqi north with Baron.

They numbered nearly a hundred, and under Holimion's instruction, they had completed training in marksmanship and horsemanship, equipped with Silver Leaf Armor and mounts with Elf Horse bloodlines.

In this current era, they were different from most women, possessing a temperament and resilience far exceeding ordinary people, which was why they were not eliminated by Holimion during the arduous training.

Allen believed they could do a good job with reconnaissance, buying enough reaction time for Dori, who was building the castle, and Baron, who was responsible for defense, before the Orcish attacked.

In fact, the armor Allen prepared for his Cavalry was not Silver Leaf Armor, because the leg protection of Silver Leaf Armor was just two pieces of enchanted leather, which was simply insufficient to protect Cavalry fighting on horseback.

Of course, the Nvzhanqi who received the Silver Leaf Armor were exceptionally delighted; even with defects in design, this type of armor was considered top-tier in Rhovanion, second only to the Ancient Rune Plate Armor worn by Allen and the Twilight Knight, and if one spoke only of upper-body defensive power, it could even rival the full-body Plate Armor worn by Knights.

One must know that those Plate Armor were crafted by the hands of Dwarves and were all top-tier armor forged with care.

And what Allen prepared for the Cavalry was the armor worn by the Noldor Elf Noble, which was the armor specifically designed for Cavalry.

Its inner armor was the same as the Silver Leaf Armor, both being Scale Armor composed of diamond-shaped plates, but unlike the Silver Leaf Armor, the outside of the Noble Armor was a layer of metal plates engraved with runes, and its defensive power far exceeded that of the Silver Leaf Armor.

And in order to effectively protect the Cavalry's legs, besides having two Scale Armor battle skirts, the Noble Armor also had a dozen or so rune metal plates fixed to the sides, front, and back of the skirts, which reduced weight while simultaneously increasing the protective power for the legs.

Moreover, the runes used on the Noble Armor were also different from those on the Silver Leaf Armor; while reducing weight and increasing defense, the runes engraved on the plates could also make the skirt armor tightly fit the legs, allowing the Cavalry wearing this armor to have the best combat state.

A slight flaw was that while the protective capability became stronger, the weight of this armor increased significantly, being more than half again as heavy as the Silver Leaf Armor, already equivalent to a Surcoat Chainmail forged by Humans.

Of course, this bit of weight meant nothing at all to the Cavalry; it could be said to be just right. Most of the heavy Cavalry of the Kingdom of Swadia were equipped with Surcoat Chainmail, and when Allen first came to Middle-earth, he also had such a piece of replacement armor, which was a Surcoat Chainmail, but it had long since been bestowed upon someone else.

Possessing a full set of Ancient Rune Plate Armor, he had long since had no use for that thing.

After returning from Moria, Allen had also spent a great deal of time and energy learning new runes in Pendor; under the painstaking instruction of the Noldor, he, already having some foundation, finally learned the corresponding knowledge after half a year and successfully replicated a qualified work in Elacrai.

However, the replication of the armor encountered problems in Middle-earth; almost all of the craftsmen under Allen were Humans rescued from Orc Town, and forging Scale Armor was their limit, while the more complex riveted Plate Armor was already beyond their capability, especially since Allen also needed to carve runes on it, which raised the requirements even higher.

Therefore, regarding Allen's requirements, they were also unable to help and could only continue to forge Scale Armor, enriching the quantity of Silver Leaf Armor.

In fact, even Allen's chief blacksmith, the Dwarf Fulei from the Iron Hills, needed to practice for a period of time before he could personally forge the metal armor plates Allen required, and the other four Dwarves were the same; it was only through the concerted efforts of the five Dwarves that Allen was able to successfully complete this Noldor Elf Noble Armor in a short time.

As someone terrible at naming things, Allen originally thought about giving this armor the name "Cavalry Armor" and calling it a day, but looking at this gray-green toned armor engraved with intricate patterns, he finally drew on the historical knowledge in his mind and gave it the name "Mountain Pattern Armor."

【The current app with the most complete and best-to-use audio-reading functions, integrating 4 major speech synthesis engines, over 100 timbres, and is also a source-changing artifact that supports offline reading, source-changing app】

Although it took nearly a year to successfully forge this piece of armor, such speed was truly too slow for Allen; his original plan was to forge five hundred sets of Mountain Pattern Armor within three to five years to equip the five hundred Khergit youths he sent to Langwell, so that these young people undergoing training would have the best protection to deal with the crises they might face.

It was just that according to the current situation, it was very likely impossible; let alone five hundred sets, if relying only on the Dwarves, even one hundred sets would be a stretch, and Dwarves were not like the Noldor who were happy to teach; they would not casually teach their technology for forging Plate Armor to Humans, as this was, after all, one of the skills their race relied on for survival.

Allen had tried this a long time ago, and after not receiving a clear reply, he knew the bottom line of the Dwarves; afterwards, he did not continue to force the Dwarves who worked for him, because this was likely the rule of their Durin's Folk, a skill not to be shown to outsiders, and being too insistent would only lead to bad results.

Therefore, Allen soon decided to lobby another group of his subordinates, the Mertheim Deathsworn, who also possessed superb Plate Armor skills.

After returning from Gondor, although these warriors, who were already of advanced age, were extremely unwilling to retire to the second line, they still took on the duties of instructors under Allen's firm orders and began to provide more professional training to the professional soldiers under Allen's command.

Because Allen told them that if they were unwilling to be instructors to train soldiers, they could actually go to Old Ferry to be blacksmiths; there were hundreds of students there waiting for them to teach, and in the end, they all chose to be instructors; not a single one was willing to be a blacksmith, even the three who were severely injured and had difficulty walking after the Battle of the Black Gate.

See, when two bad choices are presented, people will always choose the one that is more beneficial to them, or the one that is more in line with their own wishes; after all, as a worker, even a battlefield veteran who is experienced and indifferent to life and death will not choose to directly defy their lord's orders.

What's more, the retirement life of these Deathsworn was very comfortable; their own fame and strength made them respected by most people as they walked on the roads, and Allen also assigned them beautiful houses with complete facilities, as well as personal attendants to take care of the daily lives of these elderly people, and all their needs in life were treated with the best.

According to their abilities and the contributions they made on the battlefield, this was also the reward they deserved after retiring.

Under such living conditions, even the old warriors who felt they didn't have many years left to live no longer continued to emphasize that they wanted to pursue a glorious end on the battlefield; having struggled on the battlefield for a lifetime, having such a later life far exceeded their original expectations.

Because in the land of iron and blood that was Mertheim, the later lives of most retired old warriors were very miserable; those who were lucky could take on a few apprentices to barely get by, while those who were unlucky would likely die in poverty on the street outside some tavern.

Because they had lost their fighting ability, they lost their most basic value and would be disliked by most superiors, and the salary earned from taking on other jobs was very meager compared to their service period.

Because Mertheim really did not lack warriors and blacksmiths, many old warriors would not choose to retire, but rather die on the road of charging, which was more "decent"; some people, for the sake of livelihood, would also choose to find a job in Pendor.

These Deathsworn who still served Allen were now tasked with teaching those children how to wield a sword, which was not a difficult task for them.

And in most cases, they only needed to work one day a week, and they could distribute the remaining time freely, and they also received a quite considerable salary, which for a civilian warrior who had struggled for a lifetime, was far more decent than dying on the battlefield.

It was just that now, Allen had to make these ten people exert their other talents; he needed to obtain a batch of blacksmiths capable of forging Plate Armor in a short time to complete the five hundred sets of Mountain Pattern Armor for the Cavalry to wear.

As the King of Rhovanion and the ruler of Fislate, Allen's prestige in his territory at this time could be said to be at its zenith; if he were willing, he could completely send any attendant and summon the people he wanted to see to Wenterui Chengbao.

It was just that in order to forge the Mountain Pattern Armor, Allen had not inspected his towns for a long time, so this time he prepared to take a few people to walk around the city properly, and by the way, go see his old subordinates who had already started their retirement life to discuss the matter of teaching blacksmiths.

Hmm, Allen felt that this was more sincere, and perhaps it could save him some effort in talking.

At this time, Rhovanion was passing through the month of August in the year 2959 of the Third Age, which was the Heat Month.

When Allen walked out of the gate of Wenterui Chengbao, it was an evening that was not particularly hot, and the square outside the city gate had already gathered quite a few people.

In the summer, the surrounding residents liked to gather in this place very much; as long as the crowd did not approach the gate of the castle, the guards responsible for defense would not take action to stop them, and Allen had never issued such an order.

Around the square, patches upon patches of extremely brilliant flowers were in full bloom, and one after another, large yellow and black bees were not afraid of the crowd cooling off in the square, but were concentrating on completing their final work among the flowers.

Before sunset, they would finish gathering nectar and return to their nests.

Under the propaganda of the Cabinet, whether it was civilians or officials, whether they were locals or outsiders, it was strictly forbidden to harm these friendly creatures that created wealth for the kingdom; once discovered or complained about by the Animal Friend responsible for the corresponding matters, those with minor circumstances would be fined, while acts with malicious circumstances that threatened the lives of the bees would need to suffer whipping.

There was once an outsider merchant who, because he was curious about why the bees here were so huge, used some despicable means to capture one in a hidden place, preparing to conduct some inhumane research after leaving Rhovanion.

However, what he did not expect was that the bees nearby that were also working possessed the ability to complain to the Animal Friend, and every move of this merchant had already been monitored by other bees.

Subsequently, this audacious fellow was caught red-handed on the spot by the guards who had arrived upon hearing the news, becoming the first prisoner of this law to serve as a warning to others.

That day, the obese merchant who suffered the whipping let out an extremely shrill scream in the square, and from then on, everyone knew that the bees of Fislate were simply not to be trifled with by ordinary people, because these creatures were protected by the King.

When the figure of Allen appeared in the square, these little fellows who were working diligently, just like the people bowing and saluting, likewise expressed their respect to the ruler of this land.

It was just that their way of saluting was very special; amidst a "buzzing" sound, they actually formed a pair of hands pressed together, moving slightly back and forth to express their gratitude to Allen, and after receiving a response, they separated into two complete palms and scattered in a flurry, flying toward their home with the help of the already dim daylight.

Even those who had been fortunate enough to see this magical scene still let out sounds of admiration and astonishment, to say nothing of the outsiders who were experiencing this for the first time.

Most of them were merchants who had stayed in Rhovanion for a long time; in the past, it was Manid, who was in charge of commerce, who received these people, and this was the first time they had seen the King.

"Your Majesty, it is a great honor to see your figure on this beautiful evening."

Manid, who was chatting with the merchants, walked out from the crowd; in fact, he had some matters that needed to be reported to Allen, but he had not yet grasped enough information, which was why it had been delayed, and Allen walking out of the castle today was also an opportunity; perhaps they could discuss this matter in a relaxed atmosphere during the chat.

After all, this matter involved the Durin Dwarves of Lonely Mountain, and Manid did not want to speak ill of his lord's important allies in front of him.