Chapter 75: 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 with Alice's assistance, put on a set of thick, warm clothing.

Afterward, 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.

The personnel who had received the meeting notice had already been waiting in the meeting room before Allen arrived.

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

Hmm, everyone was present.

"Good morning, everyone."

Allen greeted them and sat in the main seat; although his head still ached a little, Allen, now relaxed, 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 mind, Allen had spared no effort in spending a great deal 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 lead an army of ten thousand Humans to support the Lonely Mountain, but unfortunately, Allen did not have that strength at all; he could only make more efforts in other areas.

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 sober 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 the relationship between Allen and Dain was not bad, why would Dain Ironfoot, who extremely detested 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 have been no long-distance relief for the Lonely Mountain by Lord Elrond, and then 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 also relied on his relationship with the Woodland Elves to provide how much convenience to Thorin Oakenshield during the expedition and how much time was saved.

Looking back, through his own years of effort, how much more than just a little had Allen changed 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 line 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 shaken off heavy constraints, secured enough connections, and earned a large amount of wealth, Allen was prepared to shift his focus to the development of his own power.

There were 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, territory, and commerce were all just 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 was not that keen on the population issue, instead holding an attitude of letting things take their course.

Under the threat of dark forces, everyone was in danger, and 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 safety issues, there were also food issues.

During Allen's most desperate times, the food that Wilderness Town lacked was all purchased from the Woodland Realm.

Later on, with the gifts from Lady Galadriel and the careful care of the residents, food production finally increased.

It was just that soon Wilderness Town had to prepare for the 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 enough conditions to encourage the people to reproduce, let them branch out, and cultivate more farmland in the Anduin Valley.

After an extremely brief opening, 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, promote it. For families that have more children, I will not only give them some material rewards, but after the children in some families exceed a certain number, they can even have a portion of their taxes reduced, 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 open land? Do not approve it for residents who want to enter the town anymore. I am prepared to build a school there. It needs to be big 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 aged five to ten to the school. I will be responsible for their food and housing, and at the same time, I can cultivate them, provide them with various education, and let them come into contact with knowledge related to combat and writing earlier."

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

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

Allen held the water cup that was steaming again and coughed lightly, soothing 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 choose those with better talent from these children as your apprentices. In the days to come, it can also reduce your burden. As for those who do not study well, we also have a large 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 these words, Allen took another sip from his water cup and signaled to Yamila that he had finished and that 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 open land in the town. If we suddenly stop approving residents to move into the town, it might cause some unnecessary trouble. Do you think it could be like this?"

Yamila paused here and reorganized her language.

"I think we can offer some rewards to encourage the residents in the town to cultivate farmland further away and establish farms, especially those families with large populations. Through my observation, they actually prefer to live together. So why can't we make use of this point? Now the war has ended, and the surroundings are much 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 delegate some power to those among them with the highest prestige, let them become managers, and then send 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 this 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 did not expect that Yamila, who had been a Town Mayor for several 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 safety of the surroundings could be guaranteed, they would develop faster.

Gathering everyone 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 Dwarf who suddenly returned to the Lonely Mountain from all over Middle-earth; although the Lonely Mountain was now waiting to be rebuilt, it was not guaranteed that there wouldn't be Dwarf 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 spread their branches and 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 way is fine. The hygiene and medical conditions 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 relief and said with a beaming face: "Yamila, you have grown a lot over these years, and I am very gratified. I believe you can do better and better in this position, keep it up. So, 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.

Often facing various 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 on a daily basis, grasping the general direction of the development of Wilderness Town, or otherwise went to visit neighbors to build relationships, often leaving for one or two months at a time, or if that didn't work, he would lead troops to fight, fight, and fight.

Having hardly handled any difficult or trivial matters, 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.