Then Bilbo heard footsteps.
Several servants of the king walked up from the bottom of the steps, talking to each other: "Walk faster, don't miss the king's banquet! I don't want to be scolded."
Someone said: "These dwarves are really good at drinking. They have almost drank up all the wine in the wine cellar in the past few days. However, it will take several days for the human supplies ship from Esgaros to arrive. This is too worrying." .”
"You should talk to the royal steward about this!" the third person said, his voice even gloating. They were joking with the second servant in front, saying that if he dared to report these trivial matters to the king, the Elf King would definitely have his head smashed. Cut it off and let him report to the palace of Mandos in advance.
"If it were His Highness Legolas, he would not do this." The second servant complained, and walked past the invisible hobbit with the first servant carrying a large barrel of wine.
"Your Highness has had a big quarrel with His Majesty recently. Maybe he will take it out on you first." The fourth servant said, holding a small bucket of brandy in his hand, which is a more fragrant and stronger wine than wine.
The Elf King likes to drink such fine wine.
Then the second servant's complaints came to an abrupt end.
They walked farther and farther, seemingly toward the King's Hall, and no one noticed the hobbit hiding in the corner.
"Ha! It turns out I'm not the only one who finds these dwarves annoying. Their manners at the table are really terrible!" Bilbo couldn't help but secretly curse while thinking about the message from the elf. A vague idea gradually became clear.
He followed the way these elves came and walked down the stone steps. No one could spot him until he came to a cellar where a large number of wine barrels were stored.
He avoided the guards' gaze and slipped past them.
One of the elves looked at the corner strangely, but found nothing. He shook his head in confusion.
Bilbo hid behind a large wine barrel and looked at the cellar for a long time. Through the conversation between the king's servants and the guards, he discovered a secret of the Elf King's palace - there was a river flowing under a huge wooden board in the cellar. After the winding river course, it joins the Jungle River in the east and flows into a lake called Esgaroth.
The king's wine and certain goods were traded from a human town on the lake.
Every month, or when these big wooden barrels are empty, the elves will open this large movable wooden board, push these wooden barrels to the river below, and let them flow along the river to the downstream junction. Humans take them back and fill them up again.
"Maybe Lord Turka has foreseen all this." After confirming all the elements, the idea in the Hobbit's heart became clearer. He calculated carefully, and he thought that the success rate of this plan was still very high. , and thought happily: "It's my turn to save these dwarves again. I will succeed this time!"
In fact, by the time he slipped back into the room prepared for him by the Elf King, something else made his plan easier to implement.
The reason is this:
Legolas has always been very dissatisfied with the Elf King's "imprisonment" of Thorin, thinking that this violated the trust and entrustment of the Silver King. Before leaving, Turka had hoped that the elves could provide assistance for the dwarf's adventure, but Thran Dill clearly had his plans.
He said to Thorin: "I know that you have found a way to enter the mountain. I will not spy on the dwarves' treasures, and I can also fund your reckless actions, but I only have a small condition: Thror has promised to help me Create a necklace that shines like starlight and resembles a lover’s gaze, made of pure white gemstones strung together, a supreme treasure! For me!”
Speaking of this necklace, the Elf King even showed a trace of nostalgia in his eyes, because it was originally made by him for his deceased wife, but after the necklace was completed, the dwarves kept the treasure that originally belonged to the elves.
This directly led to a sharp decline in the relationship between the two clans - or so the Elf King said.
So Thranduil proposed to Thorin that as long as the dwarves were willing to return the necklace, he could bless their actions.
But in the face of Thranduil's "cooperation conditions", the dwarf king, who was blinded by stubbornness and resentment, refused loudly and contemptuously. He said: All the treasures in the Lonely Mountain belong to the Turin royal family, and the Elf King's words are not enough. It was the conspiracy of another group of robbers to rob, and he would never allow even a single gold coin to fall into the hands of the Elf King.
He said: "Even if the world is destroyed, I will never believe any of Thranduil's promises again, because this arrogant Elf King is not trustworthy at all!"
One can imagine how angry the Elf King was when the dwarf king's extremely unwise accusations sounded in the king's hall. This anger even directly led Thranduil to make these stubborn and hateful dwarves suffer a little even if he disobeyed the Silver King's instructions.
"So."
The Elf King said with a livid face: "Just think about it in my palace. I hope you still have time to rush to Gushan."
We all know what happened next.
The stubborn dwarf king and his adventuring party were all placed under house arrest. Perhaps Thranduil will eventually let these dwarves go, but that will be a while later.
But Turka Aracano, who could save the conflict between the two sides, had already rushed back to Annuminas anxiously.
The news delivered by Brown-robed Radagast was so shocking that he had to rush back.
However, after the Elf Prince's persistent pleading and persuasion, the Elf King finally lifted Thorin's house arrest a few days later.
And this also adds a great success rate to Bilbo's escape plan.
But that was later. Now, let's cast our sights slightly north. Because what happens here is also very important.
On the night when Arazon was assassinated, Fenna and Galdo, who arrived a little late, could only retrieve the body of the Vice-Chancellor and fight off the group of orcs who had sneaked into the north at an unknown time.
and their chief. A tall human with black Númenórean blood. When these assassins saw that something was wrong, they immediately mounted on the wargs and fled far away.
Although the elf chased after him. But in the end, a small group of assassins escaped.
Looking at the mysterious man escaping into the darkness, Fenna's eyes revealed a hint of worry. She said, "Let them go. No need to chase. Let's go back!"
This order came very promptly.
Because not long after the elves and human rangers left the city, a group of thugs attacked the King's Tower.
Most of them appear to be slaves who were rescued many years ago, but in fact, these humans have been enslaved and tortured by the Dark Lord for many years, and their wills and souls have been corrupted and polluted. In the end, their bodies and minds fell into the evil will of Sauron. slave.
They work together with ordinary slaves, acting as Sauron's eyes and spies, monitoring and framing those free people who are unwilling to surrender to the Dark Lord. They are no different from ordinary humans in appearance, but their minds are twisted and they have no conscience. They only know how to fulfill Sauron's orders. He is one of the most despised of the Dark Lord's minions.
In the war many years ago, the Dark Lord was driven out of Middle-earth. These insidious guys lost their loyal master, but they lurked.
Under the instructions of the Dark Lord, some of these guys followed Ecthelion to the Holy White City of Minas Tirith, where they acted as spies for the Dark Lord, continuously passing information about the human world to the hidden people. Sauron in the Dark;
Some of them followed the Silver King back to the north and lurked until the Dark Lord's order came again.
They took advantage of their identities to trick Arathorn out of Annuminas and plotted to assassinate him!
When the female elf also led the remaining guards to rush out of the King's Tower and the city was empty, these latent spies immediately rioted.
They preached: "We are cursed! The Silver King saved our bodies, but our souls are still corrupted. The shadow of the Dark Lord shrouds the ancient northern city, vowing to punish the servants who betrayed him! This plague is a sign! "
At the same time, they took advantage of people's fear of the plague and wreaked havoc in the city——
"The elves just sat back and ignored this! They bewitched the Silver King and imprisoned him in the tower, not allowed to hear the sorrow of his subjects! This is betrayal, the Dúnedain and the elves planned all this, they thought To usurp the authority of the King of the North! Let us break that icy tower and rescue the supreme Turka Aracano, so that we can have hope of survival!"
At that time, although Turka left the Elessa gem to Fenna and asked Arasorn to try his best to save those poor people, many northern residents were still inexplicably witchcrafted and soon fell down and died.
So many residents were afraid. At that moment, their hearts recalled the dark years in Mordor, the terror of the Dark Lord, and were frightened by the torture and slavery. Fear and shadow returned to their hearts. heart.
In addition, many spies in the crowd are secretly beguiling and lobbying secretly: they are like poisonous snakes, hissing and spitting venom, poisoning people's hearts and minds;
Many hot-headed people were fooled, and fear made them lose their minds; their respect for the Silver King also made them unable to distinguish these false lies.
Eventually, the riots began.
They shouted slogans to rescue the Silver King and marched towards the highest level of the King's Ring.
Although some people tried hard to dissuade them, people did not listen. Many people even just heard that someone was gathering in the square and went out to watch out of curiosity, but they were all coerced in.
The thugs passed through the trading area on the first floor, entered the living area on the second floor, and rushed into the garden area on the third floor until they broke into the King's Circle.
Here, the Tower of Elendil (Chamber of Elendil, Tower of the King) stands tall and is heavily guarded.
Hal Barad, the guard of the royal city, even yelled at these thugs in front of the high steps: "Stop! This is the king's chamber! How dare you rush here!"
At that time, the remaining elves and Dúnedain already knew that a riot had occurred in the city, but the ignorant people, instigated by the mastermind behind the scenes, became passionate and bustling.
He only wants to 'save' the Silver King.
Halbarad and the others were unable to identify them one by one, and they did not dare to order the massacre.
Because a large part of them were unarmed, and many of them were even innocent. They did not want to attack the king's attendants and guards, but the chaotic crowd did not allow them to identify themselves.
As a result, the two sides started a confrontation in front of the King's Tower.
The guards, led by Hal Barad, formed a shield wall to separate the huge crowd from the King's Tower and did not allow them to break into this sacred tower.
And the crowd seemed to be slowly calming down.
After all, many people were just frightened by fear and had a hot head, and did not really want to conflict with the guards representing the king.
Until, an arrow in the darkness pierced the night sky, grazed Halbarad's cheek, and flew towards the shield wall guarding the royal city.
The expressions of both parties changed at the same time.
