Chapter 43: Meetings and Banquets

Morning, Wilderness Town, the meeting room of the Lord's house.

At this moment, Allen was sitting in his seat, obediently listening to the reports from each person in charge.

He had been intercepted by his subordinates as soon as he walked out of the inn, and surrounded by them, he had arrived here.

On this journey, Allen had indeed been away for a long time, likely half a year, which was also the longest time Allen had been away since coming here.

In the past, when he went to the Iron Hills or the Woodland Realm to visit the kings there, it was at most two months.

During these six months, Wilderness Town had still made some progress; under the leadership of Yamila and her subordinates, the townspeople had cleared more farmland.

To this end, Horse Pasture Village contributed a large number of plow oxen and pack horses, which, after being tamed by Beorn, could already help the townspeople do a lot of work.

With more livestock to replace human labor, Yamila finally recruited enough students to open the town's first school, though there were very few teachers, only a handful, and they were learning the Common Tongue.

Likewise, James opened his own medical course at this school.

When speaking of this, Yamila suggested a decree to Allen.

As the income of the townspeople increased, residents had been renovating their houses into brick-and-wood structures one after another.

And some residents, due to the large number of people in their families, had applied to the Lord's house for large plots of land.

Therefore, Yamila proposed collecting a fee every year based on the size of each family's house to serve as the town's daily expenses.

In previous years, most of the houses in the town were wooden, the roads were dirt, and there was little need to clean up, let alone consider issues like sewage.

But now, especially in these past six months, a large number of townspeople had moved into the town, and as if competing with one another, houses were being built one after another.

Under Artimenner's planning, Wilderness Town would subsequently need to pave the main roads with bricks, arrange personnel for cleaning, recruit night watchmen, as well as management personnel for various areas, and now there were even public facilities like the school.

In other words, the management of the town would soon enter a formalized state in the coming years, and Yamila needed to recruit a large number of staff to perform the corresponding management work well.

This would plunge Allen's financial situation into a crisis, and furthermore, the number of regular troops Allen had on hand now far exceeded what it was when he left, which greatly accelerated his financial consumption.

It turned out that after Allen left, black Great Spiders began to appear frequently in the Mirkwood to the east of Wilderness Town, and they would even come out in broad daylight to attack the villagers who were logging.

To deal with these spiders, Fatis often had to gather archers and spearmen to enter the forest to clear them out; although it cost a lot of resources, the army had also accumulated a lot of combat experience.

As for Horse Pasture Village, Wargs and Wolf Riders from Gundabad often appeared, frequently taking advantage of the villagers' lack of preparation to steal horses and breaking out into small-scale battles with the herdsmen.

To cope with this situation, Fatis also arranged for Holimion to lead Allen's Twilight Knight Guard, coordinating with Desaiwei's reconnaissance troops to increase the patrol range to guard against sudden attacks by the Orcish.

As for the army's training, because Fatis had to be busy with the defense of various parts of Wilderness Town, this part of the work was handed over to Alayen.

It was still a weekly training; now Allen's Conscripts could form relatively good battle formations, and they had gained opportunities for real combat in battles against the Orcish and the black spiders.

And the trade with the Woodland Realm had not been interrupted during this period, because Horse Pasture Village had attracted a large amount of the Orcish's attention.

The caravan routes and roads had instead become very safe, and Artimenner had successfully completed the widening of all the roads.

After finishing, he also gathered the populace and used the wood from the previous construction of the city walls to build two barbicans around Wilderness Town.

Allen expressed his affirmation of Fatis's actions and also agreed to Yamila's suggestion to increase taxes.

Indeed, as his power grew larger and larger, it was clearly impossible to calculate taxes as simply as he had in the beginning.

Finally, Allen praised Artimenner's approach and also thanked everyone for their hard work during this period.

A short meeting was almost reaching noon, and by this time, Yamila's subordinates had already arranged the matters for the banquet.

Allen's subordinates did not have chefs as outstanding as the Hobbit, and the environment of Wilderness Town was not particularly good either.

Therefore, the food previously placed on the villagers' tables had never been particularly rich.

However, ever since the arrival of Beorn's family, this situation began to change.

Various pastries and dairy products became popular in Wilderness Town, which enriched the food on the townspeople's tables quite a bit.

Then there was the establishment of Horse Pasture Village, which directly made the livestock industry on Allen's side flourish, and meat no longer relied solely on fishing and hunting.

And the grassland people's way of processing meat was completely different from that of the farming and nomadic peoples.

This further enriched the diet of the people of Wilderness Town.

As for spices, wine, and various daily necessities, they were either purchased directly by Allen using the Simulator or provided by Fulei's blacksmith shop, and then sold to the townspeople in the sundry shops throughout the town.

Therefore, the banquet Allen hosted at noon was not shabby; on the contrary, it could be said to be very sumptuous.

Such hospitality showed Allen's respect for the Dwarf Prince Thorin Oakenshield, and also indicated the friendship between Allen and these Dwarfs.

These Dwarfs swept away the fatigue from their journey, eating and drinking to their heart's content at the banquet, and by the end, they even began to sing and dance in Allen's banquet hall, with even Bilbo Baggins participating.

Allen also invited Fulei, Tier, and the other Dwarfs from the Iron Hills to attend the banquet, giving them a chance to gather with their own kin.

Thorin Oakenshield clearly felt Allen's good intentions; he revealed a long-lost gentle expression at the banquet, drinking wine and chatting about daily life with Allen.

Seeing this scene, Gandalf felt a weight lifted from his heart, because from this point on, he would be leaving.

He needed to rush to Lothlorien to gather with the other members of the White Council and prepare to attack Dol Guldur.

Now that the friendship between Thorin Oakenshield and Allen had made significant progress, Allen would naturally help pave the way for Thorin, and the plan could proceed smoothly, allowing Gandalf to leave with peace of mind.

But Allen's heart was not much lighter, because he still had to pass the hurdle of Thranduil.

The promise Allen and Thorin Oakenshield had made a bet on was meant to be used in this place.

In fact, the danger to the members of the Expedition had not been lifted; Azog might be watching Allen's territory from the other side of the Anduin River.

Allen was certain that this clever fellow would not attack his town, and he would soon be summoned away by Sauron to prepare for a war against the Lonely Mountain.

But he would arrange for Bolg to pursue and kill Thorin Oakenshield.

A long time ago, Allen had speculated on Bolg's pursuit route; this fellow should gallop all the way from the vast plains east of Mirkwood to the Woodland Realm, and then wait there to find an opportunity to intercept and kill Thorin Oakenshield.

This was not much, because later Allen would arrange for the members of the Expedition to follow his own caravan to the Woodland Realm, which would at least save a lot of time, but the Dwarfs would also be directly exposed to Thranduil's gaze.

Allen hoped that Thorin would not have a direct conflict with Thranduil, so that he himself would not have to be in a difficult position maneuvering between the Elf and the Dwarfs.

If, during the negotiations, Thorin Oakenshield could agree to Thranduil's request and return the King of the Woodland Realm's Heirloom Gem.

Then many things could be avoided; Thorin would have more time to find the secret door to enter his homeland, and Allen would also have more time to prepare to deal with the dragon that would destroy Long Lake Town; this was killing many birds with one stone.

Although that would mean losing the combat power of thousands of Elves in the battle to defend the Lonely Mountain, the Dwarfs and Allen's army could be stationed inside the gates of the Kingdom of Erebor.

That place was easy to defend and hard to attack; even if Azog led tens of thousands of Orcish and dozens of Trolls, it would be impossible to break through the defense of the Humans and Dwarfs in a short time.

Allen also did not believe that Thranduil would watch the Orcish attack the Lonely Mountain; he was already facing threats from Gundabad, the Misty Mountains, and Dol Guldur, and if the Lonely Mountain were added, the Orcish would surround him; unless he was determined to migrate, he would definitely come to support.

Moreover, as long as they hold out for a period of time, Gandalf will also bring a large amount of reinforcements to the Lonely Mountain to lift the siege.

After all, that place is a very important strategic objective; if it were truly occupied by the Orcish, then the entire North and Eriador would never know peace in the days to come.

Even Allen would have to take his own subjects and flee toward Rohan.

The problem now is that even if Thorin Oakenshield's Dragon Sickness were not acting up at this moment, and even if Thorin Oakenshield had never worn Thror's Ring, the greed in his heart is far less than that of his father and grandfather.

Even so, Allen does not hold much hope for whether he can persuade Thorin.

Everything will have to wait until the banquet is over and Allen has spoken with Thorin to know the result.