Infinity: Our Zhongzhou team is really amazing!

Chapter 158: Can the dark forces unite? (12)

The first dim rays of morning light shone through the Shadow Mountains, and the tops of the mountains were faintly revealed, looking somewhat gloomy and eerie.

Stretching westwards to the west of Mordor is the Eifelduath, or Mountains of Shadow, which are indeed gloomy to look at.

To the north lay the shattered summits and bare ridges of Eredri Suil, dark as ash.

The mountains are continuous, but they are only part of the high wall that surrounds the gloomy plains of Lisrad and Gorgoroth, and the bitter-water inland of Heinurn.

The two mountain ranges stretched towards each other, embracing a deep valley, which was the "Devil's Pass" Sirius Gorgon. Beyond the pass was Sauron's territory.

There are high cliffs on both sides of the deep valley, which lower down at the valley mouth to become two steep hills. Their surfaces are black and bare, without any signs of life, and they protrude towards the exit.

There is a tower on each mountain top, which is impregnable and is the "Teeth of Mordor".

Long ago, when the human power of Gondor was at its peak, they overthrew Sauron's rule and drove him out of there to prevent him from returning to his lair and making a comeback.

Later, Gondor's power gradually weakened, and humans fell into a deep sleep. The two towers were empty for many years. Seeing an opportunity, Sauron came back to kill them.

At that time, the tower was in ruins, so Sauron ordered people to repair it, hid a large number of weapons in it, and arranged for troops to guard it day and night.

The tower was built of huge stones, with black hole-like windows on the east, west and north sides. Behind each window there were eyes staring day and night.

There was a faint smoke rising above the top of the tower, as if there was some faint fire burning in the hills below.

Day had dawned, and the pale brown light shone faintly over the lifeless Eredri Sue Mountains.

Suddenly, a shrill trumpet sounded from the watchtower, and then the various strongholds and outposts hidden deep in the hills also responded with loud trumpets.

In the distance, a distant, deep, and terrifying noise came rumbling.

The drums of Barad-dur began to beat, and the trumpets began to blow.

The slaves of Mordor are about to begin another day of hard work in fear.

When those on night duty heard the order, they all returned to the caves and deep halls.

Those on the day shift, all with fierce eyes and gloomy faces, marched in a long line towards the sentry post.

The various weapons on the battlements gleamed coldly in the dim sunlight.

But unlike what many people think, Mordor is not a demon cave with no grass and ghosts everywhere.

There are actually quite a few humans living on this land, in addition to many slaves captured from Gondor, Rohan and other places.

There were also the Haradrim from the south, the Corsairs of Umbar from the southern corsair cities, and mostly barbarian tribes of humans who had fallen into darkness from the east.

The Eastern Barbarians are the descendants of humans who refused to come into contact with the elves during the large-scale westward migration of humans in the Second Age.

They continued to remain in the east and successfully established a tribal alliance.

They are a proud people with a strict hierarchical and hereditary class system.

They were warriors, marching and fighting with incredible efficiency, with stronger tribes conquering weaker ones, often taking both men and women as slaves.

They built many magnificent and majestic temples and cities in the territory of Rune, all of which were built to worship Morgoth.

Their appearance is similar to humans, except that their skin is yellower.

The Eastern Men were Sauron's cruel but loyal servants, and they benefited greatly from their alliance with Mordor. They paid tribute to the Lord of Darkness and joined his army in exchange for Sauron's support for their expansionist policies.

In the now revived Mordor, there is stationed a Balchos cavalry of no less than 3,000 eastern barbarians.

Of course, when Tolkien designed these fallen humans from the East, he certainly used the Mongols and the Huns as his models.

They have yellow skin, black hair, small eyes, are nomadic, plundering people, live in tribal groups, and are brutal by nature. You can almost just point at their names and describe them.

Thanks to Master Tolkien's stereotype, Zhuang Boshi and Chu Xuan didn't even need to put on makeup. They just changed their clothes and blended into this nomadic cavalry team so openly.

When daybreak came, the wind started blowing from the north, bringing with it the stench of the Death Swamp in the north.

But Mordor was not much better. Near the Black Gate, the excrement and vomit of the beasts of Mordor were everywhere, as well as food scraps of unknown origin.

In the gray and cold morning light, the city wall of Sirius Gorgon was very majestic. In the middle was the Black Gate, and on each side of the Black Gate was a sharp-toothed tower, tall and gloomy.

The two iron doors on the Black Gate were slightly opened, leaving only enough space for three or four people to pass through abreast, and nothing could be seen on the battlements.

But Zhuang Boshi could clearly feel that countless pairs of malicious eyes were staring at them.

The Black Gate is a typical terrain that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Not to mention the towering towers and thick walls that are impossible to break through without large siege equipment, the hills and high rocks near the Black Gate are also full of orcs.

In the cliffs on both sides of the dark and narrow road in the distance, there were secret passages dug by a group of evil creatures, and in the sky, there were groups of Nazgul and Lenglong watching closely.

This kind of three-dimensional defense and dangerous terrain is called a desperate situation in military strategy. It is impossible to take it down without years of siege.

However, Mordor has its own granaries and manpower, and even cannot be cut off from food and water, so the Middle-earth coalition forces in the original book had such a hard time fighting.

If the Dark Lords had not come out to fight, and if Frodo had not destroyed the Ring in time, Aragorn would have been unable to conquer the Black Gate for a year. So if the commander of the Black Gate at that time was Azog, the foremost military strategist in Middle-earth, who had stayed inside and attacked from the rear, the fate of the coalition forces would be unimaginable.

However, many great fortresses in history were often conquered from within.

It is said that the forces of light in Middle-earth are plagued by internal strife, mutual distrust, and slow response, but the forces of darkness are obviously not much better.

In the original Lord of the Rings novel, Sauron mobilized the dark forces of the entire continent in the War of the Ring decades later.

The pirates, orcs, Uruk-hai, eastern barbarian tribes, Haradrim and other dark forces, big and small, seemed to be powerful, but in fact none of them had won a victory, and even small victories were rare.

From the Lonely Mountain to the Dark Forest, from Rohan to Gondor, from the north to the south, it seems that everywhere the dark forces take the lead, the dark forces have the upper hand, the dark forces are about to win, and the dark forces are directly defeated.

Although the coalition forces of humans, elves and dwarves have discords, conflicts and ulterior motives, can the forces of darkness be united and share weal and woe?
It is obvious that their conflicts and internal strife will only get worse.

Orcs and humans are sworn enemies, and the pirates and Haradrim also have a long-standing feud.

Even the Eastern barbarian tribes and orcs were killing each other, but they had to become colleagues and barely suppressed their conflicts because they all served the Dark Lord Sauron.

However, although the general direction was consistent, there were many minor contradictions, especially in the distribution of slaves and looting proceeds.

Often the white knife goes in and the red knife comes out.

Just now, the Balchoth cavalry squad that had just escorted the slaves into Mordor was surrounded by a group of noisy orcs.

The orc in the lead was short and wore tattered and ill-fitting plate armor.

I don't know which dead person it was taken from, but it was mumbling in ugly orc language, demanding that humans give him all the slaves.

Fortunately, thanks to the Lord God’s omnipotent translation, the two were still able to understand what the orc said, as if he was missing half of his tongue.

Of course the Balchos people were unwilling to give the slaves they had captured with great effort to the orcs for free. Even though they were guest troops, we were all just workers. Why should you be able to command us at a level half a level higher than us?

Just as both sides drew their knives and were about to clash, Chu Xuan rode forward, drew his scimitar, and placed it on the neck of one of the slaves. He then shouted to the Orcs, "Go back! Even if we kill all of these Bo'ole, we won't leave you a single one, you ugly devils!"

The centurion of Balchos glanced at the boy who didn't look familiar, said nothing, and immediately drew his knife and pointed it at the orc.

When there is a conflict of interest between the forces of light, they still consider feelings, origins, morality and friendship. But for the forces of darkness, it is much simpler. They just need to compare whose knife is sharper and whose spear is longer.

The half-orc opposite named Orc didn't know where the Balchos human in front of him learned such standard Orcish (Orcish) language.

But they claim to be the most loyal lackeys of the Demon Lord, and have always been arrogant and looked down on other races. They obviously do not want to give up such a large group of fat sheep.

The slaves captured by the orcs must be presented to Lord Sauron to show their loyalty to darkness.

The orc kept talking trash and responded sharply, drawing his sword and taking a step forward, staring at Chu Xuan with his fangs bared.

That fierce look was like a knife, as if it wanted to poke several holes in his body.

The fifty orcs behind him also drew their weapons and aimed at the Balchos.

Of course, the Balchos were unwilling to give in. They flexibly controlled their horses and ran away. Despite being outnumbered, they surrounded the orcs.

Each warrior demonstrated the skill of combining man and horse, pulled the bowstring on horseback, and aimed at the orcs in the encirclement.

Roar!
The orcs had murderous glares in their eyes and drew their swords. They couldn't defeat the elves and the well-equipped Gondorian cavalry, so how could they defeat you barbarian humans?
Just when the two sides were on the verge of a fight, another group of people came up, looking very ferocious.

They had black eyes, long black hair, and gold rings in their ears. Some had red smears on their faces, wore red cloaks, and their flags were red. The tips of their spears were also red, and they held round shields with yellow and black patches and large nails.

Apparently, they are the Haradrim from southern Middle-earth who participated in the Battle of the White City in The Lord of the Rings.

In the final battle of Gondor, they manipulated the Olympus to cause great trouble to the coalition forces. If Aragorn had not brought in the army of the undead, the White City might have been breached.

The leader walked between the two groups, exchanged glances with the leader of the Balcos cavalry, and then snatched the slave from Chu Xuan's hand.

He whipped the slaves hard and laughed heartily. He divided the remaining slaves and said to the centurion, "Saihan, these guys are ours. The same price!"

The cavalry centurion named Saihan also smiled and nodded at the captain.

The Harad looked at the Orcs provocatively, whispered a joke to the people behind him, and then left with the slave group.

The orcs bared their teeth, raging, and muttered a few harsh words, but they didn't attack directly, clearly fearing the Haradrim.

Saihan said to Chu Xuan, "Let's go. Don't waste time here with these brainless people."

"We will capture more Bo'ole for the Demon Lord. Once we conquer the lands in the west, we will naturally give you more women and cattle!"

Chu Xuan did not answer, but watched the slave team go away indifferently, with a slight smile on his lips.

Things went more smoothly than expected.

Moreover, the rifts between the various races of the dark forces are larger than imagined.

This is a good thing.

(End of this chapter)