Herald of Steel

The morning council proceeded without a hitch... until Alexander raised one new issue.

"It's been two weeks since we started giving out free food. And the news of it has likely reached the surrounding areas. What should we do?"

People from surrounding villages were bound to soon know that the plague had been dealt with, and food, the greatest commodity for them now, was being handed out for free.

This act of generosity was bound to attract a huge crowd and so Alexander was basically asking his council on how to deal with this impending refugee crisis.

"We should close the city gates," Heliptos, true to his nature, was the first to suggest to greedily hoard the food.

"These people belong to forces hostile to us. As such feeding them seems counterproductive." Melodias also expressed explicit support for this plan.

"I agree. Giving them anything will only be strengthening the enemy," The military man Menes saw was already viewing these men as potential enemy conscripts.

As such, it could be seen that Alexander's military commanders were very much in favor of denying these starving masses even a morsel of food.

Alexander listened to these logical points attentively and then keenly noticed that Menicus and Cambyse, the two smartest people had yet to answer.

And so he sent a curious gaze at the newcomer Cambyses to hear her thoughts.

"Ahem," Cambyses cleared her throat and drew attention to herself, postulating, "As the rulers of Zanzan, I believe it will reflect poorly on the lord if he were to deny his starving subjects access to food."

"I too agree with Lady Cambyses. These are not other noble's people, but ours. They just don't know it." Menicus in his distinctive gruff voice opinioned as everyone agreed as they knew that Alexander was destined to throw these nobles off their land.

"Mmmm, good. That's my thoughts too," Alexander supported, reasoning, "If we shut the doors in front of these destitute peasant's faces, they will have no choice but to join the nobles' side for survival."

"So, some of yours's argument that we should not feed them because it will just strengthen the enemy is not only moot, in fact, it is completely antithetical to our cause."

Alexander's reference to 'some of you' was naturally directed to the three military leaders, who only gave a look of understanding accompanied by a wry smile.

"So, we should let them just eat our food and leave just like that?" This was Grahtos, who had a very bitter tone to his voice.

And this sentiment was shared by many in the council who felt that Alexander was advocating too much in favor of these outsider peasants.

These people might be potential subjects of Alexander, but currently, they were squarely in the adversaries' quadrant, ready to take up arms if their lords commanded them to.

"Of course not." Alexander shook his head at the question, and then instructed, "And that's what I wanted to ask you to solve."

"...." A calm, stifling silence wrapped the room as all his advisors went into Zen concentration mode.

'This is a test,' They all understood.

Alexander had frequently done this and up until now, it was Alexander all, them nil.

So naturally, these much older men were eager to prove their worth to their much younger boss.

The silence lasted for some time, and it was so quiet that Alexander was able to appreciate the various ambient noises present all around him, which till now were drowned out by all the clatter of clamor and din bursting against his ears all day long.

Alexander picked up the subtle sound of a human inhaling and exhaling, the clock-like *tap*, *tap* of Melodias's fingertips against the hardwood, someone's foot tapping against the wooden floor, the slight rustling of the clothes as some people moved to make themselves comfortable, the different melodious songs of a number of exotic birds right outside the meeting hall, the gentle susurration of leaves slowly falling and the inexplicable sound of metal gears whirling that Alexander imagined he was hearing from all the people who were thinking.

"Okay, time's up. We don't have all day," Alexander finally announced, when seeing no one was willing to speak first, breaking everyone out of their rumination.

"Menicus, what's your solution?" Alexander then formally called his chief advisor to present his solution.

"That….hmmm, these people might not want to stay in a plague city, even if there is food," Menicus answered with a bit of doubt in his voice.

"Mmmm, you maybe right." Alexander nodded and then proposed, "But we cannot give them food for free. So will make them work."

"Does anyone else have a proposal that he feels is better?" Alexander then looked around, but no one provided an alternative.

"Good," He then attempted to move along when Menes opened up,

"My lord, I propose that we pressure the leaders around these settlements to submit to you or be removed."

He reasoned, "Clearly they are unable to take care of their populace, so what right do they have to lord over them?"

"Oh? Haha, Lord Menes speaks well," Alexander lightly smiled in approval, understanding that this might be his way of wanting to gain credit.

Alexander then casually looked around the table, glancing at the various faces and these men had been with Alexander long enough to know that this look meant that.

He was silently asking them if they had any objections or suggestions and this time, it was Theocles, who spoke for the first time, "Lord Menes's plan is very sound, but do we know who rules these parts?"

He then expounded, "The plague has sent most of the nobles nearby to us to the various large cities of the province like: Bashana, Kquem, Harki, and Jabel."

"Jabel, which is only 30 km from us, had a pre-drought population of only ten thousand (10,000) and is so small that before was almost an auxiliary to Zanzan."

"And the east of the city was supposed to be directly under Pasha Muazz's control and with him ousted, we do not know who rules these parts."

"So, what I'm saying is that these people are ruling without any authority. And so…"

Alexander gave a slight smile to Theocles's proposal, really not expecting that his archpriests, a man who was supposed to promote peace and harmony would be so bellicose.

Theocles was proposing a much simpler course of action than Cambyses- to simply take over the lands of the to-be refugees as their actual owners were absent.

"My archpriest does speak a lot of sense, haha" Alexander liked the plan, drawing a humble nod from Theocles.

"So we send the military?" Menes had sparkles in his eyes, eager for a fight.

​ "Well I was thinking of arming these people and then inciting them for rebellion. What do you think?" Alexander proposed.

But this drew a very scary look from Menicus as he warned, " My lord, you must not! If these regular people get a taste for rebellion, they will not stop at one."

"I too agree, with lord Menicus. These people might not be reliable." Menes naturally preferred to use the soldiers under him.

"It will take too long to train these peasants. And so it's likely the plans will easily leak," Grahtos chimed in.

"There will also certainly be turncoats among those peasants," At last it was Cambyses's turn to express her opinion.

"But attacking them so blatantly...." Only the cautious Melodias hesitated.

Seeing his retainers were mostly in favor of armed intervention as opposed to a covert infiltration, Alexander frowned.

But then as he thought more of it, he began to see that an armed conflict might not be too bad, especially if it was near enough and could be done quickly enough.

But the key was near enough because the cover-up might not work otherwise.

"Okay, then. We will use the military to take over the various scattered hamlets, villages, and small towns east of us. They are likely at best ruled by a Talukder (Viscount) and one or two Shordars (Baron) and they will provide good practice for our legion." He ominously laid out the basic plan.

And then asked Menes, "How goes the legion training?"

"We are still setting up the primary tactics my lord." Menes quickly replied, and then promised, "I can assure you that the formation will be ready for a mock battle by New year."

"Mmmm, good." Alexander lightly nodded.

And thus the date for the legion's first test was set.

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