Herald of Steel

Lady Parthia was quite pleased by how Alexander handled the matter of rising crime.

When Menicus made that comment, she had been worried about how her people would be unjustly targeted or even classified as second class citizens.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

So as the talks were adjourned for the day, she left her first council meeting with a pleased smile.

…..

Alexander would later raise the same issues he raised at the council with his parliament in the senate a few days later.

And the gathered lords would green light most of them without much hassle, largely because none of the issues really affected their bottom line such as the agriculture policy, or greatly affected them such as overcrowding.

So at Alexander's intention to address them, they quickly expressed their support, saying,

"Indeed, such overcrowding is causing a lot of chaos. It even increases the risk of plague, just as you once said, Lord Alexander. So until the aqueducts and the sewage works are fully operational, we should try and limit the population."

As for Alexander's plans to solve it, well the idea of moving the military garrison in the eastern district to a 'to be constructed' new barrack outside the city was met with relative enthusiasm, with only a few raising issues.

Some of those points were actually sound.

Such as one relatively experienced talukder (viscount) named Kyruss pointing out,

"My lord, rather than throwing people out, I think we should try to expand the walls. The population of the city will only continue to increase. We cannot expect to throw more and more out every time we go over 100,000 people, right?"

This reasonable argument naturally garnered some interest, with the other lords making ideas such as breaking down certain parts of the walls or even building an entirely new second one.

"The more people we have, the more trade and taxes we can get. We also do not think moving the army will make any differnce. How large is the eastern district garrison anyway- 10,000 men? 15,000? This is hardly a massive number when we are already close to 200,000."

They claimed, even making targeted comments about trade because they knew Alexander was most 'pro money'.

And after listening to them, Alexander addressed these concerns in a calm, professional tone,

"My lords have all made sound arguments. And I will indeed expand the walls or in general the city…. in time, just not right now. We do not have the labor or the materials. Cement as you know is a critically short resource."

"As for the effects of removing the garrison, I believe all of you are failing to take note of something…. that soldiers do not produce anything during peace times."

"We are all very reassured by the presence of the garrison and the security that they provide us, but at the end of the day, the soldiers in the tent are net eaters- they eat the people's food and they eat the people's taxes. So replacing them with a working population will only boost taxes and trade."

Alexander's statement left this reasonable faction with little capital to move forward.

As for another, much smaller faction, well they mainly complained about the potential of the men and their families being discontent at being split up.

However such voices held little strength as Menes shut them with a loud snort,

"The duty of a soldier is to fight, not stay home and babysit. There is no other city in the world where soldiers simply return home when the sun sets. Such a lax attitude is already affecting morale. I fully support this change."

And with the highest general expressing his stanch, many of the other lords from the pro military faction also quickly weighed in,

"Yes, I too believe this will improve discipline. Just in the last week, we had thirteen whippings for men sneaking off to brothels. There were also twenty four cases of dice games and seven counts of drinking. Discipline is getting harder and harder to keep." Meniucs sighed.

Even the party loving Remus, who was attending his very first parliament meeting after being made a hereditary lord, could not help but condemn many of the garrisoned men's acts,

"Mmm…. in a city with so many distractions, the men really have a hard time staying in their tents and doing nothing. We need to find a way to remove all these things. We need to find a way to keep them busy."

All these statements got quite a few enthusiastic nods, to the point even surprising Alexander.

He found it hard to believe how eager everyone was to get the army out of the city especially as many of the lords and nobles' sons and relatives served in the army, both as officers and ordinary soldiers.

So surely they would not want to be separated, right?

But in the eyes of the lords, getting the army out of the city was seen as not just a political win, but an utter triumph.

All of them rejoiced at the fact that they could sleep a lot better at night knowing such a huge group of armed men under the direct command of the Pasha was outside the city, outside the walls, outside their reach.

If they could truly get this done, the army would no longer be able to threaten to slit their throats at the drop of a hat from the Pasha.

As a matter of fact, the nobles had always wanted to bring this topic up, such as by pointing out how the Adhan the capital forbade any army from entering its gate and wanting Alexander to remulate it.

But none of them dared to ask this given Alexander's power and his self interest.

To ask a man to voluntarily give up his muscle and the power to rule over the city as he pleased… it was such a stupid move that they feared even bringing it up in casual conversations would make them a massive target.

So now that Alexander had brought up the issue by himself and was even willing to voluntarily neuter himself…., how could the nobles let this pie go?

'Sacrificing' their sons for a huge win was chump change in their eyes.

Many of them even wished they could personally join in constructing the new barracks to get the army out as soon as possible.

As for Alexander, the matter of security did not enter his mind because he already had a 5,000 mercenary force hidden inside his own estate.

This was more than enough to hold the line against any insurrection until the army was alerted and entered the city to quash them.

Thus given the lords' large support, Alexander announced,

"Good! Then we will have the army move out once their new lodgings are built. As for any dissenting soldiers.... just tell them we will also arrange for a type of rotation system, meaning certain battalions will be given certain days of the month off to go visit their family."

The lords were glad to hear Alexander was not simply asking them to punish any soldiers for raising legitimate concerns and made them a proper alternative.

And pointing it out, each worked hard to oil their boss by saying how great his insight and magnanimity were.

Alexander honestly put such cries through one ear and out the other.

Sure this kind of flattery had pleased him for the first few months, but after the novelty wore off, it became little more than a waste of time.

So instead he began to think more about the problems reported in the army and trying to think of ways to solve them.

'Hmmm, I should have the army move between various cities to cities camp along the whole fief. This should keep the men busy. I should also organize games and….'

There were lots of ideas floating inside Alexander, which he planned to introduce slowly over the following years.

…..

With these meetings done, the huge backlog of work that Alexander had piled up while away in campaign finally diminished.

So with little to do, one day he decided to take a tour of the city and his workshop, determined to see the state of things for himself.

The workshops were mostly running as usual.

Azijak was in charge of paper manufacturing, and to keep up with Alexander's increased bureaucracy and the subsequent demand for large amounts of recording keeping had expanded production by employing many of the wives of the men working in other workshops and even some orphan children whose parents were killed in Perseus's attack.

Soap and glass production due to being luxury materials had remained relatively constant, with the former even taking a bit of a hit due to supply issues. Apparently there was a fall in olive production due to harsh weather and this oil was one of the main soap ingredients- the fat.

As for the crossbow and other weapons production, given Alexander had built up a good stockpile of the stuff, a large part was switched towards the civilian market.

Thus the only real change there was that a large part of the nearby woods were being cleared to make houses for all the new blacksmiths and their soon to be coming families, as well as the enslaved prisoners of war that Alexander had taken from Lord Kite.

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