Chapter 85 High Walls
"What's wrong? What happened?"
After waking up from a nap, the mayor of Changhu Town felt as if the sky had fallen. Why were the townspeople packing up? Not going to celebrate? He took a bite of the leftover baked goat's egg with mushrooms and butter on the table, drank a whole glass of strong liquor in one breath, wiped his hands on his clothes, and shouted:
"Alfred!"
"Where are the people?"
"Can anyone tell me what happened?"
He hurried out of the house, grabbed a town resident and asked, "What are you going to do?"
"The Orc army is coming soon. We need to seek refuge in the Lonely Mountain."
After the townspeople said this, they immediately slapped the mayor's greasy hand away in disgust and walked away in a detour.
"What army? What lonely mountain? What are you doing?"
The mayor shouted angrily: "Why didn't anyone tell me such an important thing!!"
"If you still have some sense, pack up and leave."
Just as the mayor was in a state of impotent rage, a familiar voice came from the side.
"Bud."
"Aren't you locked up? Well, you dare to escape from prison."
"Guards, where are the guards? Catch him!"
The mayor shouted at the top of his lungs, attracting the attention of the people around him. Soon, several guards came over and whispered something in his ear, briefly explaining the current situation.
The mayor calmed down now, and he squinted at Bud for a long time.
Be it a giant dragon or the people of Changhu Town, it doesn’t matter to him. What matters is whether he can live a better life in the future.
A dragon-slaying hero, this is a good gimmick and will be very helpful to the business development of Changhu Town.
"Mr. Mayor, I suggest you organize the guards as soon as possible to protect the townspeople and evacuate safely."
A warm voice came from behind him. The mayor turned around and saw an old man in a gray robe talking to him.
An expression of disgust immediately appeared on his face, and he quickly took out a handkerchief to cover his nose.
"Where did this stinky beggar come from?"
Gandalf took a deep breath and endured it:
"Mr. Mayor, I am not a beggar, I am a wizard, the Grey Wizard Gandalf. The so-called wizard means that they will bring the latest news and suggestions. Please..."
"I don't care if you are a beggar or a wizard, go away. I have no obligation to listen to you."
With a snap, the mayor pushed Gandalf who was blocking his way away and walked towards his home. As he walked, he called out to the guards: "What are you still looking at? Ignore those people and help me move my things!"
The guards looked at Bud, then at the mayor, and for a moment they didn't know which way to go.
Gandalf gripped his staff.
Bard looked at Gandalf and nodded.
Boom! A blow with much greater force than before hit the mayor's head, causing this fellow, who was no thinner than Bombur, to fall straight down, crushing a pile of debris.
"To help the townspeople."
Gandalf said this to the guards in a calm tone, and the guards did not dare to waste a second and hurriedly left the place.
There was sparse applause from all around.
Following the call of the dragon-slaying hero and the wizard, people quickly organized themselves and migrated toward Lonely Mountain, carrying their belongings and enough food to last for a while.
On the way, Bud was sweating profusely as he arranged various matters.
For some reason, the mayor and his deputy fainted one after another and were unable to catch up with the team's departure. At this moment, he became the actual person in charge here.
But before this, Bard had never had the experience of handling the affairs of the entire town. It was with Gandalf's assistance that he could ensure the smooth progress of the team without any mistakes.
People walked and moved forward silently. Most of the time, they only had some dry food to eat, and there was no hot food to eat all day.
"What is that?"
As they approached Erebor, someone turned his head, pointed in another direction and suddenly shouted.
This sound immediately attracted the attention of a large number of people.
"Is that the city wall? It's so high!"
A group of people exclaimed.
Gandalf also narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance.
"If I remember correctly, that direction is River Valley City?"
"It is indeed Riverdale."
Bud said with certainty: "I am familiar with that place."
"That city has been destroyed..."
Whoosh——
As he was speaking, suddenly the sound of fireworks was heard over River Valley City.
Gandalf was relieved at once.
"Oh, that's true. I think we don't need to go to Erebor, let's go directly to the ruins of Dale."
"That doesn't look like a ruin."
Bud said in amazement: "There was nothing here two days ago. I don't think my memory is wrong."
"Maybe that's the case. Why don't we go over and take a look?"
Bud nodded, choosing to believe the wise old man.
In fact, he didn't know what a wizard was exactly. After all, he had never sat in the position of a ruler.
But he knew one thing, that is, this wizard and Levi were in cahoots. The two of them appeared together in rumors passed down by word of mouth among the refugees, so they must not be bad people.
"Is anyone there?"
In front of the towering city gate, Gandalf raised his head and shouted.
Crunch.
As the sound of a mechanism being triggered was heard, three heavy iron doors rose one after another, and the city gate opened.
"Gandalf."
Levi greeted from the top of the city wall.
"I knew you were here, Levi."
Gandalf knocked on the wall and estimated that it was about six meters thick, solid, and nearly thirty meters high.
However, although this wall is thick and high, there is nothing on it. It is bare, as if it is made up of a pile of stone pillars and has not been repaired yet.
But as a temporary defensive measure, it is sufficient.
and…
Gandalf looked down and felt that the city gate was a little hot, and there seemed to be something underneath.
"Don't just stand there, come in!"
Levi shouted from above.
Bard glanced at Gandalf, and only after Gandalf nodded did he feel at ease and arranged for the townspeople to move forward.
The townspeople looked at the reassuring wall with wide eyes, marveling at it, and went into the city one after another to rest in the open spaces.
"Make a fire and cook. We'll rest here for a while."
After giving orders and arranging the family, Bard and Gandalf walked over together to greet Levi who had jumped off the wall.
"Is this what you call building a wall? I thought you just wanted to strengthen Erebor's defenses. This is really unexpected."
"There is no need to repair the wall of Erebor. It is not broken."
Shrugging, Levi built a staircase on the spot and invited Gandalf and Bard to climb up the wall together and overlook the valley.
River Valley City is located in the valley between the southwest ridge and the southeast ridge of Lonely Mountain, with only one side leading to the city.
In other words, to properly defend the city, one only needed to build one wall, which saved Levi a lot of effort.
Before the residents evacuated here, he had already built the prototype of the wall, and also arranged a number of lava traps and deep pits. With a simple pull of the mechanism, the enemies above could fall down.
Looking at this solid high wall, Gandalf couldn't help lighting his pipe and was overjoyed.
"This is much stronger than ordinary city walls. They build walls piece by piece, but the wall you built looks like a large rock dug directly from the ground. It is naturally one piece without any gaps."
"What are you talking about? What do you mean by building a wall? Is this wall just built?"
Bud couldn't hold it in any longer:
"I can't imagine it. Even if we mobilize all the people in Changhu Town to build it together, and there is no shortage of materials or supplies, it will take years to build a wall this high."
"There are so many things you can't imagine."
Gandalf blew out a smoke ring, looking as if he was surprised by this, which made Bard open and close his mouth, as if he was about to say something.
The old man continued: "But speaking of it, since you can build a wall, can your puppet also..."
"Well, not now."
"What's that pumpkin patch over there for?" Gandalf pointed to a field of cultivated land under the wall.
"I remember you said that you need a pumpkin to create that kind of puppet, right?"
"That's why I said it's not possible now, but I didn't say it's not possible in the future."
"What's the meaning?"
"This matter mainly depends on the descendants of our River Valley City Lord."
Levi walked up to Bud, who was still scratching his head, and said sinisterly, "Master Bud, you don't want to see the residents of Changhu Town suffer, do you?"
(End of this chapter)
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