Rome must fall.

Chapter 350: The Return of the Segestica Prisoners
The process of road construction was tedious and complicated, with high requirements, which made the prisoners feel very bored. However, when the road appeared before them in a relatively complete form, they were shocked. They had never seen such a flat, wide, straight, solid and majestic road on this river plain surrounded by mountains!

For a moment, they were all deeply moved: Is this really a road for mortals and carriages?! Perhaps it is for gods and fairies to walk on!
They were proud that they could build such a road with their own hands, but at the same time they felt a little complicated, because it was the Nix tribe who built this road. They also built a real wooden bridge and a huge waterwheel... These were things that all Pannoni tribes could not do at all, but such a tribe was the enemy of Pannoni.

In addition to the Pannoni captives who were shrouded in pride, shock and fear, there were also some people with mixed feelings on the construction site. They were also Pannoni captives, but they were captured in several wars last year. They were all Segestica people. Later, they were sent to the Ardi tribe, and most of them were sent to the mountains to dig iron ore.

It was not until the Nixes annexed the core territory of Segestica that they made a list of dozens of pages in response to the requests of many Segestica captives and their families who had already defected to the tribe. They asked Pigris to take it to the Ardei tribe, obtain the consent of Aristakas and Chalsipompas, exchange the old captives with the new ones, and brought back more than 3,000 Segestica captives who had stayed in the Ardei tribe for more than a year.

However, these captives had been abused and tortured by the Ardi people and were in very poor physical condition. If they were allowed to return home directly to reunite with their families, not only would they not be appreciated by the people of Segestica, but they would become dissatisfied with the tribe. Moreover, if the captives' families did not take good care of them, they would most likely die, which would then further arouse their anger.

In line with the principle of doing good things to the end, the tribe first left these captives in several towns along the Kupa River. While they were recuperating, they also allowed them to get familiar with and adapt to life in the Nix tribe.

Under the meticulous care of the medical staff, the physical condition of many captives improved greatly after more than a month. However, some of the captives responsible for road construction were assigned to help the tribesmen sow seeds, which affected the progress of the road construction. So Capito proposed at the Council Hall meeting: temporarily postpone the return of these captives and let them stay in the Kupa River area to help build the road.

After some discussion, the proposal was passed.

As a result, these thousands of prisoners who were supposed to return home had to temporarily join the road construction team, starting from the simplest and most labor-saving task of carrying water and mud, to the most labor-intensive task of digging sand and gravel, and the most difficult task of rolling the road with wood and splicing stones... They participated in every step of the road construction process and helped the labor-scarce road construction team to complete the task.

After working together and completing the project, they were also very excited, but their mood was different from that of the original laborers in the road construction team.

They were a little nervous, wondering whether the Knicks would keep their promise and let them go home after they completed the construction of this section of the road.

But no one dared to ask the foreman. More than a year of slavery in the Aldei tribe had worn away their courage and made them cautious.

In the next two days, the other laborers of this construction team were transferred to other unfinished sections to work, and only they stayed in the collective dormitory of Snowtia with nothing to do (this collective dormitory was once the place where the Nix tribe prepared to live when it was established). During this period, their food was better than before, and the medical staff of the town also specially examined their health again.

There were signs that the day when they would return home was not far away, and everyone's anticipation grew stronger and stronger. Many people even did not sleep well for two consecutive nights.

Sure enough, on the third day, they were all called to the town square not far from the dormitory, and their eyes were focused on the two people at the front of the team.

One of them was the head of the Snowtia Foreign Auxiliary Citizens Management Office. He was holding a list and calling out names loudly. Every time he called out a name, someone in the team answered.

After staying here for more than three months, these Segestica people, with the "help" of the management staff, gradually learned to obey orders. During the entire roll call process, no one made a noise, let alone made trouble.

"All 217 former Segestica captives from the Ardei tribe in the Fourth Road Construction Team are here. We asked the hospital to give them a physical examination these two days. They basically don't have any major diseases, and they can all walk back to Ophidilla." Although the person in charge had two small round iron plates pinned on the chest of his linen shirt, while the man next to him only had one, the person in charge spoke politely.

Earlier this year, Maximus implemented some new measures through the Council of State to make the entire tribe's bureaucracy more formal, in order to ensure its more effective and stable operation and maintain its authority and order in the tribe.

Determining the rank of officials and establishing their salaries is an important task, and the difference in status must also be demonstrated through clothing to facilitate management.

However, since the Nix tribe had only been established for two years, it did not have the financial resources to purchase special clothing for its officials, so it temporarily met the need by pinning iron plates on their chests.

The one who only wears one iron plate is the most common clerk, responsible for running errands; the one who wears two iron plates is already a minor official, responsible for certain affairs and managing a group of people. The two people have different ranks, but the reason why the person in charge is so kind is because the person next to him is from the Foreign Auxiliary Management Department of the Nix Tribe's Agricultural Affairs Department. Although they are in the same department, he is from the headquarters.

After the person in charge made an invitation gesture, the messenger raised a piece of paper in his hand and said solemnly in the most fluent Segestica language: "This is an order signed by Maximus, the leader of the Nix tribe. In view of your successful completion of the road construction task, you are allowed to go home-"

Before he finished speaking, everyone burst into cheers.

The messenger was not annoyed. Instead, he looked at the excited people with empathy. When the square finally returned to silence, he said loudly: "At the same time, the period for you to become official members of the Nix tribe will be shortened by three months. Of course, you must first fulfill your promise. After returning home, you must take the initiative to apply to the tribe to become a reserve member, and go to the temple to swear to Goddess Danu that you will not betray the Nix tribe. Only then can you continue to live freely in your homeland. Otherwise, you will be forcibly sent back to the Aldei tribe and live a life like hell again!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the square fell into deathly silence, and some people even had looks of pain on their faces.

The messenger shouted loudly: "Are you so stupid?!"

"No!" Everyone shook their heads vigorously.

"Next, I will take you back to the Sava River - your home!" The messenger continued to remind: "During the entire journey, if you do not obey my orders, run around without permission, and do something that violates the laws of the Nix tribe, you will not only be punished by the tribe, but you may even be sent back to the Aldei tribe! You have suffered a lot in the past two years, and finally saw hope. Will you be so stupid as to destroy it?!"

"Won't!!!"

"Okay, I hope you can do it!" The messenger said, and handed the decree in his hand to the person in charge next to him.

When the envoy first arrived, he showed the decree to the person in charge once, but the person in charge still checked it carefully, especially the seal of the Political Affairs Hall and the eye-catching seal of the leader at the end.

All official documents and orders of the Nix Tribe must be stamped, which is another important measure taken by Maximus to promote the reform of the Nix Tribe's bureaucratic system.

To this end, he personally carved hundreds of hardwood seals, all of which used simplified Chinese characters. He distributed them to the heads of departments at all levels and also asked the Council of State to pass a law - anyone who privately carved a seal would be guilty of a serious crime.

Since the officials did not recognize the words on the seal, they privately speculated that "it must be the divine text engraved by Chief Maximus under the inspiration of the goddess Danu", so they cherished the seal extremely.

After checking the decree, the person in charge accepted it and handed the other party a document that had been written and stamped with the seal of the Snowtia Foreign Civilian Administration. This was a document allowing "217 prisoners to leave the administration and return to their homes on the Sava River."

This is a necessary handover procedure, and only with this certificate can the envoy lead the captives smoothly through the checkpoints within the territory of the Nix tribe.

Starting this year, the Nix tribe began to gradually strengthen the management of the territory. Individual tribesmen can travel between towns without hindrance, but groups of people moving within the territory will be checked by patrols and checkpoints in each town. And if an envoy leads such a large group without certification documents issued by the department, he will most likely be detained as an enemy by the guards at the checkpoint... This is also one of the measures to formalize tribal management promoted by Maximus.

The envoy was illiterate before joining the Nix tribe. It was only after he became a member of the Foreign Auxiliary Civilian Administration Office that he began to study in the newly established school in Ophidilla. However, as he had only been there for a short time, he did not know many words. He did not pretend to know the document, but first asked the scribe who followed the person in charge to read the document once. Then he checked the document himself to find the words he knew. He felt that the meaning was roughly correct, and then he carefully checked the authenticity of the seal pattern. Finally, he carefully folded the document and put it in the cloth bag he carried with him.

"Sir, can I take these people away?" the messenger asked respectfully to the person in charge. Officials of lower ranks should use honorific titles to address officials of higher ranks. This was also the requirement put forward by Maximus this year. Therefore, the word "Sir" began to become popular in the officialdom of the Nix tribe.

(End of this chapter)