Chapter 73: The First Agenda Item of the Meeting: Encouraging Childbearing

The next morning, Allen climbed out of bed with a bit of a headache; he had a meeting to hold today.

And his personal maid, Alice, had already prepared everything and was waiting outside the door for Allen to wake up.

Dazed and groggy, Allen hurriedly washed his face in the thick steam and, under Alice's attendance, put on a set of thick, warm clothing.

Afterwards, he grabbed a piece of honey cake for breakfast, left the bedroom, and pushed open the doors to the meeting room.

It was already deep winter outside, and even with the charcoal fire lit, the temperature in the meeting room could not be considered very warm.

And the personnel who had received the meeting notice had been waiting in the meeting room long before Allen arrived.

After Allen walked into the meeting room, he scanned it roughly.

Hmm, everyone was present.

"Good morning, everyone."

Allen greeted them and sat in the main seat; although his head still ached a little, the relaxed Allen felt quite good looking at his spirited subordinates.

After all, this Battle of the Five Armies had always been on Allen's mind, and now that the crisis had passed, he had too many ideas he wanted to try.

Before this battle, the Orcish of the Misty Mountains and Sauron of Dol Guldur were like two great mountains standing in front of Allen and Wilderness Town.

In order to gain enough of an advantage during this great battle to realize the ideas in his heart, Allen had spared no effort in spending a vast amount of time on diplomatic relations.

Because in this battle, there were not many opportunities Allen could find, and most of his plans required friendly or even deeper friendships to be completed.

Unless Allen could bring an army of ten thousand Humans to support the Lonely Mountain, but it was a pity that Allen completely lacked that strength; he could only make more efforts in other aspects.

If Allen had not personally participated in this expedition, had not helped Thorin much along the way, and had not established a deep friendship with the Durin Dwarf,

then even in a clear-headed state, Thorin Oakenshield would not have believed Allen's words, nor would he have been able to produce the Contract and the Starlight Gem in such a short time.

If it weren't for the fact that Allen and Dain had a decent relationship, why would Dain Ironfoot, who extremely loathed the Woodland Elves, be persuaded by Allen in a few words to return to the Kingdom of Erebor and focus on preparing to fight the Orcish?

Could the words of a random stranger be more credible than those of one's own cousin?

If it weren't for the few words Allen said to Gandalf at the Gladden River, how could there have been the White Council's long-prepared attack on Dol Guldur?

Without this attack, there would not have been Lord Elrond's thousand-mile rescue of the Lonely Mountain, and even if this war had been won, there wouldn't have been many troops left among the Humans, Dwarf, and Elf.

Not to mention, Allen had also relied on his relationship with the Woodland Elves to provide how much convenience to Thorin Oakenshield during the expedition and how much time he had saved.

Looking back, through his own years of effort, Allen had changed far more than just a little bit regarding this famous battle.

He not only saved the lives of nearly a thousand residents of Long Lake Town but also prevented the battle between the Elf and the Dwarf, allowing them to be more composed when facing the subsequent attack by the Orcish.

He even personally led the Skin-changer to cooperate with Thorin in ambushing and killing Azog, preserving this branch of Durin's Line of Thror.

These were the fruits of Allen's efforts over these four or five years, and they were also the changes he had made to this world.

Now, having cast off heavy shackles, secured enough connections, and earned a vast amount of wealth, Allen was prepared to shift his focus to the development of his own power.

There were a great many things he wanted to do, but they needed to be done bit by bit.

First was the issue of population; without population, the army, the territory, and commerce were all just empty talk.

Previously, there had always been harassment from the Orcish of the Misty Mountains and Gundabad, coupled with the covetous eyes of Dol Guldur, so Allen had not been that keen on the population issue, instead holding a "let nature take its course" attitude.

Under the threat of dark forces, everyone was in danger; the more children there were, the greater the difficulty of protection would be.

At that time, the situation around Wilderness Town was extremely dire; besides the safety issue, there was also the food issue.

During the time Allen was most destitute, the food that Wilderness Town lacked was all purchased from the Woodland Realm.

Later on, with the gift from Lady Galadriel and the careful tending of the residents, the food production finally improved.

It was just that very soon, Wilderness Town had to prepare for matters related to the Battle of the Five Armies, and the consumption of supplies was also very serious.

Now the surrounding environment was much safer, and after military operations decreased, there would also be sufficient supplies.

Allen felt that Wilderness Town already had sufficient conditions to encourage the populace to reproduce, to let them branch out and cultivate more farmland in the Anduin Valley.

After an extremely brief opening statement, Allen issued the first order of today's meeting to Yamila.

"Yamila, I think it is time to carry out the work of encouraging the residents to reproduce. You should let go and do it boldly, go and promote it. For families that have many children, I will not only give them some material rewards, but after the number of children in some families exceeds a certain amount, I can even reduce a portion of their taxes, giving them more conditions and motivation to branch out and raise children. Not only that."

As he spoke, Allen picked up the water cup in front of him, took a big drink, and said again: "I have another idea. Doesn't Wilderness Town still have a piece of vacant land? Do not approve any more for residents who want to enter the town. I am prepared to build a school there. It must be large enough, preferably able to accommodate hundreds of people. For those families with too heavy a burden, as long as they agree, they can send their children between five and ten years old to the school. I will be responsible for their food and lodging, and at the same time, I can cultivate them, provide them with various kinds of education, and let them come into contact with knowledge related to combat and literacy earlier."

When Allen said this, Yamila stood up, picked up the kettle on the stove, and added some hot water to Allen's cup.

Afterwards, Yamila sat back in her seat and began to estimate in her heart how much time, how many supplies, and how much personnel it would take to complete these things.

Allen held the steaming water cup and coughed lightly to soothe his throat, which was a bit uncomfortable from talking too much.

"We now have outstanding warriors, scholars proficient in engineering, physicians with superb medical skills, and blacksmiths with excellent craftsmanship. You can completely select those among these children who have better talent to be your apprentices; in the days to come, it can also lighten your burden. As for those who do not study well, we also have a vast amount of land that needs people to cultivate; it will absolutely not cause a waste of personnel. Of course, I will not completely restrict the freedom of those children; every five days, they can go home and stay for two days."

After finishing this, Allen took another drink from his cup and signaled to Yamila that he was done, and if there were any problems that needed to be solved, she should feel free to speak.

Yamila pondered various related matters in her heart, and a moment later, her crisp voice rang out in the meeting room.

"Lord Allen, I have two problems here that need to be solved. The first is that piece of vacant land in the town. If we suddenly stop approving residents to move into the town, it might cause some unnecessary trouble. Do you think we could do it this way?"

Yamila paused here and reorganized her language.

"I think we can offer some rewards to encourage the residents in the town to go further away to cultivate farmland and establish farms, especially those families with large populations. Through my observation, they actually prefer to live together. So why can't we utilize this point? Now the war has ended, and the surroundings are far safer than before. After they achieve some results, I think we can provide them with draft cattle, build waterwheels and mills for free, and of course, convenient roads."

Having said this, Yamila looked at Allen, who was staring at her, shifted her gaze back, and continued.

"You see, with these conditions, the gathering points they establish will definitely be able to absorb more population. Then we can also devolve some power to those among them with the highest prestige, let them become managers, and then dispatch officials to cooperate with them in management. As long as we can ensure their safety, these gathering points will soon become new villages, and there should be no problem with them becoming prosperous. Do you think doing it this way is okay? Oh, right, this can also incidentally free up more space for those who want to enter the town to live."

(⊙? ⊙)

Allen looked at the young girl in front of him with some surprise; he hadn't expected that Yamila, who had been a Town Mayor for a few years, had actually grown to this extent. In fact, Allen had also considered dispersing the gathered residents again.

Previously, it was for safety, which was why everyone was gathered together, but in the current form of civilization, after dispersing, as long as the surrounding safety could be guaranteed, they would develop faster.

Having everyone gathered in Wilderness Town was indeed a waste of manpower.

Moreover, there was indeed not enough land around Wilderness Town for nearly ten thousand people to cultivate. Over these years, there had always been many construction projects supporting a portion of the residents who had not cultivated land.

Of course, Wilderness Town would still have more construction projects in the future, but Allen intended to spend money to hire people from other places to complete this part of the work.

For example, those Humans living on the plains east of Rhovanion; Allen could offer a price they could not refuse to attract them to come and work for him.

For another example, those Dwarves who suddenly returned to the Lonely Mountain from all over Middle-earth; although the Lonely Mountain was currently waiting to be rebuilt, it was not impossible that there would be Dwarves providing services for Allen.

And it was more cost-effective for his own residents to go and build more villages and cultivate more land.

Thinking of this, Allen nodded and agreed directly: "Yamila, your idea is very good, I agree. However, there are two points. First, we must still encourage those who go out to branch out and spread their leaves, but every pregnant woman must return to Wilderness Town one or two months before giving birth to await delivery. We can send carriages to pick them up, or if that is inconvenient, we can arrange for a Physician to go out; either is fine. The sanitary conditions and medical facilities outside are still too poor, so we must pay attention to the safety of the pregnant women. Second, take this matter slowly. We are encouraging, not forcing; do not let the residents feel that we are expelling them, understand?"

Seeing Yamila nod, Allen smiled with gratification and said with a beaming face: "Yamila, you have grown a lot over these years. I am very gratified, and I believe you can do better and better in this position. Keep it up. Now, what is the second question?"

Hearing Allen's praise, Yamila's face turned red, a rare occurrence for her, who had served as Town Mayor for so many years and possessed the authority to command nearly ten thousand people.

Frequently facing all kinds of problems and difficult people, she already possessed the temperament of a leader, and not showing joy or anger in her expression was merely the basics.

On the contrary, a certain lord who was about to become a king only made decisions and grasped the general direction of Wilderness Town's development on a daily basis, or else he would run to a neighbor's house to visit and build relationships, leaving for one or two months at a time, or otherwise, he would be leading troops to fight, fight, and fight.

Having almost never dealt with difficult miscellaneous affairs, his personality had not changed much.

However, Yamila was still very gratified; if possible, she hoped Allen could always maintain this personality.

Because there was a period of time when the pressure on Allen was too heavy; even without communication, Yamila could feel the heavy pressure on him and the intense unwillingness in his heart.

That kind of Allen was difficult for people to approach.