Herald of Steel



With that discussion done, Alexander finally felt the long meeting due to conclude.

And so he moved on to the last-minute pleasantries.

"So how has your fiefdoms been doing?" Alexander casually asked about the council member's own lands, and they all replied in the same vein.

Good, but it could be better.

"My lord, much of my fields are empty because I do not have enough men to work them. Everyone wants to move here because the pay is good and it is the city,"

This was all their biggest complaint.

To which Alexander only chuckled and said, "Yes, well, you know the situation about the city yourself. We need more men everywhere."

"That's why I said…find more men."

And this got a silent rueful sigh from the men.

If it was only so easy.

All nobles were generally protective of this money-producing resource and made immigration as hard as possible for them, from binding them with contracts to closing borders to even employing guards to hunt any potential escapee down.

So the only real way to get mass immigrants was through wars and capturing new lands.

"My lord, should we then attack Tibias? Or perhaps the hostile nobles? The states across the sea may be!"

And it was because of this one crazy bastard named Grahtos started throwing such ideas.

Ideas which at first sounded reasonable, but by the end of which made Alexander almost choke on his own spittle.

'Attack across the sea! Man this guy has balls!' Alexander could not decide whether to scold him or praise his courage.

It had to be remembered that the Zanzan army had trouble supplying itself just 90 km from its home over land.

So to suggest supplying them hundreds of kilometers across the Mad Sea was beyond ridiculous.

Never mind what would happen if the campaign lasted till winter and the water turned dangerous.

If that were to occur, there was a very real possibility of the entire army starving to death.

So for Grahtos to suggest it, Alexander had trouble deciding whether to slap his head for his idiocy or to praise his unbridled optimism.

And it was not only Alexander who had this feeling of incredulity, the other council members too shared his feeling, and looked at Grahtos like he was half mad.

"We have just signed a treaty with a Tibias. So breaking it is out of the question. Don't even think about it,"

At last, Alexander broke out of his shocked stupor and sternly reminded this to everyone, extinguishing any rogue thoughts someone might have about wanting to pick a fight with that country without his permission.

And as Alexander said, the usually taciturn Menes quickly interjected to support him with his report.

"Yes, that's right. Our soldiers are already very exhausted."

"We have had five small and large scale battles within the last two years. And many of them now want nothing more than to rest."

"Some of the officers even came to me to complain, saying that when they came to Zanzan, they thought they would have some peace."

"But it's been nothing but war every few months."

"Many are still mourning at how they lost so many of their brothers."

"And this sentiment has even spread of the former mercenaries., who thought they would get a better life if they came to Zanzan."

"And now about 1,500 of the original 5,000 are dead."

"I counted that myself. That's about a third." Menes here paused to let the number sink in, and this reminder made many of the council saddened as included in that long list of mortuaries, were the names of many of their acquaintance and friends.

The losses they had suffered in just two years were truly horrific, with the three great ones being when the mercenaries acted as the 2nd legion to hold against Faruq in the center, where they lost more than one hundred men while in formation, the deaths they suffered under Perceus which amount to a nearly catastrophic thousand (1,000) and lastly the casualties they took when Perseus captured the manor, slaughtering many of the defenders who were the personal bodyguards of many of the council members, who were also once part of their mercenary groups.

So it was understandable these experienced men after having come so far and survived for so long were not eager to put themselves again in danger.

And it was because of this that after the poignant silence finally passed, Menes at last proposed, "So I believe it will be better for us to skip any campaigns for this year."

"Or the army might…."

He then trailed off, not wanting to say the word 'rebel' out loud.

But everyone was intelligent enough to fill in that blank.

"Menes is right. There will be no war this year. Neither will the next year. Any plans for the attack will be after that" And as Menes laid out his reasons, Alexander was quick to add another year, which surprised the council members a bit.

So he explained,

"We are in no shape to fight any campaigns. The people have been through hell, through droughts, wars, and plague. They need rest."

"Or we are gonna have a rebellion at our hands."

"Also the economy needs time to grow."

Alexander then turned to look at the council members and reminded them,

"We had only a few months of siege just now and that was enough to delay all our projects for so long."

"So imagine what would happen if we were to start another long campaign, It will delay us even more!"

"We cannot afford that." Alexander firmly declared.

And this made many of the civilian council members nod enthusiastically as they did not want to have to keep giving Alexander more excuses.

And lastly, Alexander finished by saying,

"And lastly we need to expand our diplomatic reaches. Zanzna cannot survive being surrounded by enemies, so we should try to make deals with our neighbors and not wars."

"And we are not gonna do that by breaking agreements. The treaty with the Tibias will be respected, as will the treaty with the Zanzan nobles." Alexander again repeated to emphasize his point.

As Alexander laid out his future plans, the other council members went silent for a while as they tried to digest what he said, and after a while, they agreed, with Menicus as the representative of the council members expressing,

"Okay, my lrod we understatn. We are indeed now quite weak. Especially from our loss with Tibias."

"We could use the two years."

"The people and economy can recover and the army can train our forces. We will even have the time to build those new siege equipment Tibias used."

Yes, seeing, or upon hearing about the torsion catapults in action, Alexander had ordered his military engineers to try and make them.

It would have been best if he could have gotten a sample from Tibias, and he had even offered Mithriditus a hundred prisoners for one intact piece, but the old man seemed adamant in his refusal.

"Haha, I'm afraid if we give that to you, we will lose much more than 100 hundred in the future," And the old man was not really shy as to the reason why.

And he was right in that as Alexander very much planned to use them to smash the walls of Tibias using them.

But given Alexander was unable to get an actual piece, he could only ask the engineers to try and remember how the Tibias used those weapons, how the men operated them, and reverse engineer the product from that.

Of course, Alexander had also given them some of his own insight, such as a few drawings of catapults and even the Roman scorpion, which threw giant darts at the enemy, all of which he saw in movies or read in articles.

And with the drawing and the practical demonstration combined, Alexander's men were confident in being able to come up with something decent within a year or two.

"Mmmm, that's right. Menicus makes a good point." With the old man's reminders, Alexander also remembered that designing and building all those new weapons would also need some time, so the time would really be well spent.

And because of Menes's report, he also thought of some reforms on the spot.

So he further added,

"The two years will also help us further train new troops. Replenish the men we lost in the prior battle,"

"As well as practice the legionary tactics. It's not so easy to muster."

All these future plans made the military members calm down, who previously wanted to go on campaigns to earn glory and booty but now understood their forces had many holes that needed to be fixed.

And so they silently nodded in agreement.

While Alexander, having said this, decided to propose something radical after hearing Menes's report.

So he began in a melancholic tone,

"Also, about the veteran mercenaries."

"I'm ashamed to admit this, but if Menes had not told me, the number of casualties they had suffered might have still alluded me! That would have been a true oversight!"

"And these losses are truly a tragedy, especially given I had promised all of them peace and prosperity,"

"It wounds my heart!"

Alexander here regretfully shook his head, and then steeling his voice to a hard, determined declaration, said,

"So I have decided to move all veterans from frontline duty! Only the officers, starting from the sergeants (in charge of 100 men) will remain in the army and…."

Alexander was suddenly cut off at that point.