Rome must fall.

Chapter 307 Service Act

"You are right." Maximus readily accepted it and quickly responded: "The third stockade on the Kupa River should be called Todelido."

Everyone looked at each other with a trace of helplessness on their faces. They had been here for more than a year and knew some Illyrian. They understood the meaning of the name Maximus had given them. "Todlido" came from Illyrian and meant "the third one".

Snowdia (first), Westney (second), Todlido (third), the names of the leaders are too simple! ... Everyone had similar feelings in their hearts.

"The fourth village on the Kupa River should be called Kupa Castle," Maximus continued.

Everyone blinked at each other again: It is indeed an extremely simple name.

"As for this kind of village--" Maximus stopped and thought carefully.

Everyone suddenly became nervous: This is the center of the tribe, so we have to give it a nice name!

Maximus saw what they were thinking, smiled and said, "We just came here last year. Snowtia, Westney, and Todlido represent the footprints of our settlement here. Whenever our people shout the names of these three towns, they will recall the difficulties when they first settled here. And this town——"

Maximus emphasized his tone and spoke word by word: "It should be called Aphidilla. Yes, it means 'starting point'. We settled down, we experienced wars, we gained a foothold here, and now we will use this as a starting point to dominate the entire Great River Plain!"

"Aphidilla, what a beautiful name!" Pigris and Cornelius shouted almost in unison.

The other people were also encouraged by Maximus' words, and their faces showed some excitement to varying degrees, but at the same time they also felt a little ashamed, thinking, "It turns out that I was too simple-minded. The name the leader gave to the town must have a deeper meaning."

Karina coughed lightly and said, "Chief, now that the names of these new towns of the tribe have been chosen, shouldn't we also determine the chief executives of these towns next?"

"Okay. When we discuss the candidates for village heads, we will also determine the chief executives of these towns, including Snowtia. I will no longer serve as the chief executive of Afidilia. There are too many people and things to do here, so we need someone special to manage it."

Maximus paused, tapped the back of his chair, looked around at everyone, and said slowly: "There is another problem that we need to discuss. Capito also mentioned this problem just now. That is, the tribe does not have enough capacity to manage and support a large number of foreign auxiliary people, but many of our large public projects, such as road construction and river embankment repair, require enough labor. So what should we do? ...

My idea is to make a new law that requires all tribesmen, except tribal officials and tribesmen with titles, to perform labor service once a year?"

"What is labor?" Everyone was confused by this new term.

Maximus explained: "That is to say, the tribe can recruit tribesmen according to this decree and ask them to build the public facilities of the tribe together. This kind of recruitment is mandatory. If the tribesmen refuse, it is a violation of the decree and they must accept punishment. In addition, the tribesmen who perform labor will not be paid, and they even need to provide their own food."

After Maximus finished speaking, everyone's expressions began to become serious.

Quintus, Sidonius, Horace and Capito from Rome, Volenus and Gaulnius from other towns in Italy, Kephisophon from the Greek city-state... They had never heard of the practice of "labor service" because most of the public facilities in the city-state were done by slaves or by the army.

Carina, who came from Gaul, had also never heard of the practice of "labor", because the Gallic tribes had no concept of building public facilities.

It was Karina who first raised an objection: "Chief, forcing the people to do this kind of labor is not good. It feels like we are just like those hateful Roman nobles, treating the people as slaves and forcing them to work."

"These are two completely different things." Maximus patiently explained: "We make our people do labor not for our own benefit, but for the entire tribe, for all the people!

Repairing roads is conducive to the tribesmen's travel and transportation of goods; repairing river embankments can protect the tribesmen's fields and prevent river flooding; repairing bridges allows the tribesmen to travel easily between the two banks...

Everyone knows the benefits of building public buildings, and some enthusiastic people will even take the initiative to participate. However, we can't always let kind people do the work while others just sit back and watch, and then enjoy the benefits in the end...

Therefore, we make labor service a law and make it the obligation of all tribesmen. Everyone should do their own work and enjoy the benefits after they have done it. This is fair, right? "

Karilana nodded involuntarily, but then she looked puzzled: "Chief, since you said this is a fair decree, but you just said that tribal officials and tribesmen with titles do not have to perform labor service... I can understand that officials do not perform labor service, because they need to work in their positions all the time, but why do tribesmen with titles not have to do it?" Maximus smiled: "This is because they have made enough contributions to the tribe, so they enjoy certain privileges. As I said before, tribesmen with titles who are not tribal officials can work with the village chief to resolve disputes in the village and supervise the village chief's work...

In fact, they are the nobles of the Nix tribe, not only because they have a little more money and food, but also because their status and position are different from those of ordinary people.

As the tribe becomes stronger and more populous, the tribal laws will continue to improve, giving more privileges to tribesmen above the rank of knight. This will also make the majority of ordinary tribesmen work harder to contribute to the tribe so that they can become a member of the nobility. This is the real charm of the twenty-title system!"

Everyone subconsciously looked at each other, and then looked away so as not to let the other person see the fire burning in their eyes.

After a short silence in the hall, Volenus asked with concern: "Chief, if the people are required to perform labor and build public facilities every year, will it affect their farming?"

"No, because farming and growing crops are the foundation of our tribe. We cannot disturb them during the busy farming season. We only recruit tribesmen to help with the work during the slack season."

Volenus was relieved.

Quintus then asked a question: "Chief, doesn't our tribe have a law that requires the tribe members to undergo military training during the slack season? Now we are conscripting the tribe members to perform labor service. Does that mean that the military training of the tribe will be abandoned in the future?"

"Of course not." Maximus continued to explain patiently: "The tribe's territory is now several times larger, and the population has increased several times. During the slack season, the Ministry of Works cannot recruit the entire tribe to build public facilities. At most, there are only two or three thousand people, the population of seven or eight villages. The rest of the tribe can continue military training.

And my suggestion is that the Ministry of Works should recruit tribesmen from villages and towns closest to the facilities to be built as much as possible, so that it is convenient for the tribesmen who are serving labor to work, rest, and cook, and the tribe can also save a lot of trouble. Of course, the Ministry of Works must make plans in advance and coordinate with the Ministry of War to avoid conflicts with military training. "

Capito nodded in understanding.

"Does anyone have any different opinions?" Maximus asked, his eyes falling on Karina.

"As long as we can ensure that the labor done by the tribesmen is contributing to the tribe's public facilities, I have no objection," said Karina.

"Of course, we can formulate more detailed restrictions when we discuss the details of this decree later. After the decree is formulated, all tribesmen must know that no department officials or town administrators are allowed to abuse this decree for personal gain, thereby damaging the tribesmen's trust in the tribe!" Maximus' tone became stern.

Karina nodded immediately: "I agree to make this decree."

"I agree." Capito had been longing for this.

Others also expressed their agreement. After all, this decree would not affect the work of their respective departments, but would be of great benefit to the tribe.

Just as everyone began to discuss the content of this decree further, the attendant came in quickly and whispered something to Maximus.

After hearing this, Maximus was overjoyed. He stood up suddenly and said loudly: "Everyone, I have good news for you! Phryslyusia is pregnant!"

Everyone present immediately smiled and said, "Congratulations, Chief! Congratulations, Chief! This is a great event for our tribe!"

This is of course a great joy! First of all, it proves that Maximus is healthy. Secondly, it greatly eliminates everyone's concerns about the successor to the tribal leader during this period. The future of the Knicks tribe has been continued, which makes people more excited!
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Early in the morning, after breakfast, Celisses came to the main house of the village.

"You came so early today, Celithis." Starks, who was still chewing bread in the house, greeted him vaguely.

"I got up early today and cooked early, so I came early." Celis answered seemingly casually, but in fact it was because he had been enduring for more than ten years and had been living a dull life. However, in the past two days after taking on the position of temporary steward, he had done a lot of things and felt particularly fulfilled, so he wanted to come and work whenever he had time.

(End of this chapter)