Chapter 82: The Observations of the Northmen and Initial Thoughts on an Intelligence System

In Wilderness Town, there is a place respected by almost everyone; this respect is different from the awe and love subjects feel for their lord, but rather a gratitude that wells up from the heart.

This place is the hospital managed by James; a man deeply loved by the townspeople managing a place that is respected is simply a matter of course.

Of course, Allen certainly deserves some of the credit for this; the hospital is an institution directly under the Kingdom Cabinet, and Allen previously poured a massive amount of resources into it and gave James almost full authority. The current recognition from the townspeople is inseparable from this favoritism shown by Allen.

At this moment, in a certain ward of the hospital, two injured Northern Men are sitting on the bed, leaning against the brick wall, eating their lunch.

It is a patient meal, generally provided to patients who have just recovered from serious injuries.

A large piece of Honey Cake can keep a patient in a good mood, a bowl of broth can give the wounded enough energy to recover from their injuries, and there is an extra large piece of grilled fish to supplement sufficient protein.

It is winter now, and Allen does not yet have enough energy and time to mess around with greenhouses, so there are no green vegetables at the moment.

If it were a warm season, some vegetables would be provided to add some dietary fiber.

That's right, such a meticulous menu was, of course, set by Allen.

Alikesi, whose left thigh had a large chunk of muscle torn off by a Warg, swallowed the food in his mouth whole and mumbled to his older brother: "Brother, do you think the people here eat this well every day? Look at Pete who takes care of us; he also has three meals a day. Although there is no meat, it's enough to fill us up, much better than where we came from."

As he spoke, Alikesi picked up the broth in front of him, slurped it twice, and then lowered his voice to say quietly: "Brother, do you think Leader Gale will take us and stay to serve the King here?"

The other person is Aolai, whose left forearm was bitten off entirely by a Warg; he is Alikesi's own older brother.

At this moment, he is using his intact right hand to carefully pinch the spoon, bringing the broth in the bowl to his mouth; the depression on his face cannot be saved even by the Honey Cake.

Ever since losing his left arm, Aolai has felt that everything is inconvenient, spilling his soup several times; this once-outstanding hunter is filled with dejection in his heart, feeling that he might as well have died, as it would have been more merciful.

He said in a low voice to his younger brother: "Alikesi, stop thinking so much. Haven't you seen how many people are in this place? Didn't you see how prosperous it was when you arrived? Why would King Allen keep us? Not to mention that I am now a cripple; what else can I do? Perhaps you might have a chance? I don't know!"

Aolai became a bit agitated as he finished speaking; as the older brother, he thinks of far more than this. He does not know what kind of price that fellow Gale paid to allow them, these wounded, to receive such preferential treatment here.

One must know that there were nearly fifty wounded men brought back by Allen initially; at this time, forty-two have survived. The seven who died had suffered severe internal organ damage and were already at death's door when they arrived; for such wounded, even James was powerless.

The elder Aolai is not participating in this kind of hunt for the first time; the Wargs in the forest and the Humans living in the same region are natural enemies—either you kill me, or I kill you. Sometimes, they even have to face joint attacks from Wargs and Orcish.

Many injured people did not die in the struggle with the enemy, but died from inflamed, festering wounds; those who survived were likely less than one-third.

Even earlier, some companions whose injuries had healed would develop fevers and weakness, experience inexplicable panic, and finally die suddenly while convulsing in a coma; at the time, no one knew why.

It was not until a disheveled man who called himself a Brown Wizard taught them a method for preparing a potion that this situation finally disappeared.

After arriving at the Wilderness Town hospital, Aolai had his eyes opened; those fellows who called themselves doctors, after arranging everything, tied him up directly, and tied him especially tight.

Then, before Aolai had figured out the situation, they handed a cup of liquid that smelled extremely pungent to his mouth, signaling for Aolai to drink it.

After drinking it, Aolai instantly felt as if his chest had been scorched by fire, and immediately after, he fell into a world of spinning.

In his hazy vision, Aolai saw those doctors wearing linen shirts actually using a small knife to cut the flesh off his left arm bit by bit; strangely, the pain coming from the wound became lower and lower. Finally, with his brain feeling like paste, Aolai fell asleep in a daze.

By the time Aolai was woken up by the pain in his arm again, it was in this current state.

It is not just the pair of brothers Alikesi and Aolai; all the Northmen who stayed behind were surprised by the life of the Wilderness Town residents. It was different from the shock and envy they felt when seeing that city wall, but rather a lack of understanding of the lifestyle of the residents here.

In the few days they have lived here, they discovered many places that are quite different from them.

For example, the clothes worn by the people here are not necessarily very good or very gorgeous, but they are not tattered and are kept somewhat clean, especially now, in winter, when there is no need to work in the fields.

Moreover, most of them seem to love cleanliness; washing hands and feet after work is very common, and there are special places throughout the town for people to dump dirty water, while the clean water they use can be obtained from water cellars all over the city.

After dark, these people do not immediately go back to their rooms to sleep; some of the women, either in groups or with their children, stroll along a street specifically for selling various items, and occasionally a mother will grit her teeth and buy a piece of candy or something for her pestering child.

Most of the men, meanwhile, gather in the taverns in the city, holding a glass of beer or Honey Mead, loudly discussing the day's work, the previous war, and gossip about the lord and the Town Mayor.

Of course, it is not all men here; several young Northern men ran into the familiar Desaiwei, and at Desaiwei's invitation, each drank a glass of Honey Mead.

Soon, there were a few more regulars in the tavern, but most of the time, the few of them would share a glass of wine, and no one mocked them; most of the people here, two or three years ago, were not much better off than these young Northmen.

Of course, the observations of these young people would not be interrupted by drinking.

In their observations, they further discovered that most of the children living in the town do not need to help the adults at home, but instead run to a place called a school to study.

A few of them, out of curiosity, also ran over to see what they were actually doing, but after returning, they all said they couldn't really understand it.

And the thing that shocked them the most happened on their third day here.

That day was exceptionally cold, and in order to get a little wine money, under the guidance of the tavern owner, they prepared to go to the Anduin River to catch a couple of fish.

After all, the tavern is also an official institution, and there is a certain amount of acquisition every day, but indiscriminate hunting and killing are strictly forbidden.

Of course, this does not include those fishermen who have opened ponds by the river and have already started aiming for aquaculture; they are the main force providing large quantities of fish.

When they walked to the gate of Wilderness Town, they happened to see thousands of soldiers, led by a Crown Three-Star Flag, running south along the road; looking at the direction, it should be that very ancient road.

The hundreds of cavalry galloping in the ranks, and the nearly thousand infantry in full armor, brought great shock to the few young Northmen preparing to go fishing.

Of course, this matter was definitely arranged by Allen; he was not doing it to show off his strength to these Northmen, there was no need for that.

On the morning of the second day after he returned, he summoned Fatis and had his Military Minister take most of the soldiers to head to the Mirkwood in the south to search carefully and see if there were any traces of large groups of Wargs left.

Even if they couldn't find large numbers of enemies, they had to bring a certain amount of deterrence to those scattered dregs.

This was not just for Tier and the others who were still surveying the Old Forest Road, but also for the safety of the project's implementation in the future.

Allen did not want blind Wargs harassing the Northmen working there every day.

For this matter, Allen also asked Beorn, who had come to discuss business matters, to arrange for one or two of his clansmen to go with the troops to clean up those potential stragglers.

Allen's friend, the Skin-changer Beorn, has been riding high recently; on Ravenhill at the Lonely Mountain, he personally avenged his kin. After returning from the battlefield, his wife gave birth to a big, chubby daughter, which can be said to be having both a son and a daughter, a winner in life.

When he learned of Allen's request, he readily agreed; he arranged for the new Skin-changer Ogris to cooperate with Fatis to complete this task.

As it turned out, because the Orcish army was soundly defeated at the Lonely Mountain this time, their numbers were killed by the allied forces until less than one-fifth remained.

Having lost their power and their leaders, they had no choice but to retreat completely into the tunnels deep in the Misty Mountains, never daring to harass other races living in various parts of the Misty Mountains as frequently as before.

And just at this time, two hidden Skin-changer families heard about the situation of the Battle of the Lonely Mountain from the birds, and subsequently walked down from the Misty Mountains to come and join Allen.

Afterward, Allen introduced the two families to Beorn; as fellow Skin-changers, they should have more common language.

Now, in the Oak Forest west of Wilderness Town, four families and thirteen Skin-changers are already living there; unknowingly, Beorn's clansmen have also grown quite a bit.

And when Beorn came this time, he brought a gift for Allen; it was a hunting dog that had just reached adulthood.

Even Allen, who hadn't raised many dogs in his previous life, recognized the breed of the dog in front of him at a glance; isn't this a Golden Retriever? But why is it so big?

The shoulder height must be nearly a meter, right? The body length must definitely exceed a meter.

And those strong muscles, light yellow fur, honest face, intelligent eyes, and the talent to understand human speech made it very pleasing to Allen.

Overjoyed, he named his beloved dog after the legendary hound of the ancient era, Juan, hoping it would be just as loyal in protecting its master.

Having already learned of its fate, Juan, without any instruction, extended its pink tongue to lick the palm Allen held out, then sat down at Allen's feet, like a loyal and devoted guard.

Allen was very satisfied with Juan and deeply grateful to Beorn, but Beorn told Allen not to mind it, as it was merely a small return for their friendship.

Without Allen, there would be no life for him now, let alone something as extremely difficult as taking revenge with his own hands.

Beorn had come this time mainly to discuss large-scale honey production and cattle farming, and Cress had done a good job of conveying Allen's information to them.

This matter was not difficult for the Skin-changers; Beorn possessed extremely rich knowledge in farming, but they currently lacked the necessary manpower.

Beorn hoped that Allen could arrange for some residents who were kind to animals to help complete this work before next spring.

Over at the Oak Forest, Beorn had already cleared a large garden, and if all went well, there would be a certain yield of honey by next autumn.

However, the cycle for the cattle might be longer, as the number Beorn had domesticated was not large, and breeding would take some time.

These requests were nothing at all to Allen; Yamila, sitting to the side, had already recorded the matters, and he believed she would soon select suitable personnel to go and assist the Skin-changers in completing this work.

After discussing these simple matters, Allen and Beorn began chatting about another topic.

That was the ability to communicate with animals; Allen wanted to utilize the unique and covert nature of animals to initially build his own intelligence system.

Originally, Allen had planned to visit the Brown Wizard Radagast to see if he could pass on this ability.

It was only until he saw Beorn today that he remembered Beorn possessed this ability as well.

Wasn't this like looking for something right under one's nose? Allen's relationship with Radagast could not be considered particularly good, at most it was mutual recognition.

Whether the other party would teach it, or could teach it, Allen had no certainty in his heart at all.

But Beorn was different; even if this ability could not be taught, Beorn's son, Grim, had expressed his willingness to serve Allen many times.

It was just that Allen considered that the two families lived so close to each other, Grim's age had just reached fifteen, and Marian was still pregnant, so accepting his allegiance rashly was not quite appropriate.

But the situation had changed somewhat now; if Beorn agreed, Allen was prepared to accept Grim and make this Skin-changer his Information Supervisor.

After being plotted against by Wargs on the Old Forest Road this time, Allen felt that he had a major deficiency in intelligence.

As for the trajectory of history and the general trend, Allen could still rely on his understanding of Middle-earth to speculate and ponder.

But for small-scale, short-term intelligence, he was effectively blind; it was no longer the time for a posture of total defense, and if he wanted to develop, he had to have a certain understanding of the surrounding situation.

Just like a few days ago, there was a pack of bloodthirsty wolves not far from his territory, yet he was completely unaware.

With such intelligence capabilities, how could he feel at ease letting the townspeople go out to open up more villages? To let them go to their deaths?

Therefore, while pondering, Allen greatly envied the Raven companions of the Dwarves of Erebor; those birds could not only provide intelligence but also deliver letters, making them practically the information couriers of Middle-earth.

To build an intelligence system of his own, relying entirely on Humans in the current environment of Middle-earth would not work, as the efficiency was too low, but he could rely on animals, especially birds.

They flew very fast and were not easily noticed by enemies, making them very suitable intelligence agents.

However, there were also problems: one was whether the intelligence of the animals could complete this work, and the other was how to communicate with these animals.

These problems could all be solved here with Beorn; he could train animals to become extremely intelligent, and he could also understand animal speech, even making animals understand human speech.

Of course, besides Beorn, Allen had other choices, as this was, after all, a magical world.

For example, the Dwarves of Erebor had a language that could communicate with Ravens, while Bard, the Lord of Lake-town, also had the ability to understand the speech of thrushes, and the even more powerful King Thranduil could, according to records, understand the languages of most birds.

But the Dwarves regarded this aspect very highly, as it was equivalent to a racial secret; Bard was already the Lord of Lake-town, and King Thranduil went without saying.

Abilities like this were generally equivalent to racial secrets and would absolutely not be easily passed on to outsiders, especially by the Dwarves.

Allen had always been very cautious regarding these knowledge-related issues and had never asked his allies to share them; he felt that exchange was better.

Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, Allen brought this matter up to Beorn.

The relationship between the Skin-changer race and Wilderness Town was very complex; it was both like an alliance and similar to that of a guest minister, and compared to the Dwarves and the Elves, the relationship between the two sides was much closer.

And the leader of the Skin-changers, Beorn, was also a friend extremely close to Allen; according to their friendship, Allen felt that bringing up this matter should not be considered overly abrupt.

But Beorn's reaction was strange; he told Allen with a look of surprise that Cress, who often visited the Oak Forest, had almost learned this ability and was fully capable of handling this part of the work.

Upon learning this news, Allen was even more surprised than Beorn, but he did not show it too much; instead, he asked Beorn if this skill could be taught to more people.

Beorn scratched his head and said that it required selection, and only Humans who had gained the recognition of the Skin-changers could learn this skill.

That Beorn could make such a promise had already far exceeded Allen's expectations.

Afterwards, the two friends drank heartily in the banquet hall, and in the afternoon, Beorn bid farewell to Ailong and returned to his garden.

Allen did not immediately summon Cress because of Beorn's words; things had progressed too smoothly, far exceeding Allen's expectations.

He had not yet thought through the specific operational methods: how many animals should be released toward the Misty Mountains, and how many strongholds should be built? How should Dol Guldur be monitored? Should reconnaissance squads be sent toward Mordor to investigate Sauron's movements?

Allen needed some time to sort out his thoughts and then discuss with Cress how to establish this intelligence agency.