Herald of Steel



A few days later Alexander got letters via pigeon from both Ptolomy and Pasha Farzah, the first congratulating him on his success and the other additionally promising to come visit him by May.

Which was two months from now.

It seemed the old man needed some time to prepare all the gifts.

Or more specifically, he needed to re-order and re-purchase almost all of Alexander's inventory.

This was because he had sold most of those goods almost a month ago, and so having to reacquire them in the short time span, in the enormous volume needed, meant that he would have to pay a premium among premiums.

The pasha even risked losing money in the transaction, as opposed to the enormous potential profits it originally would have been.

But still, even knowing this, Pasha Farzah decided to acquire these items through any means necessary and simply chalked up the loss as compensation for his wrong judgment.

The veteran politician was not going to let such a, in his eyes, mundane thing bother him.

While Pasha Farzah endeavored to rectify his poor choice and urged his son to renegotiate deals with the guilds to rebuy the goods, Alexander on the other hand was busy celebrating by counting his spoils- which include prisoners and horses.

First came the prisoners, which, after the four nobles had their pick of their men, left him with around 9,000 slaves, all strong and strapping young men.

Alexander's eyes had glowed with glee when he saw these men, as they were just the kind of laborers he needed, fit, healthy, and able to be worked to the bones.

Hence he planned to put them mainly in the fields and mines- the places most in need of hard laborers.

Alexander very much appreciated this injection of work force into the economy, especially given that if he were to buy them on the market, they would have carried quite the price.

Normally a slave went for two thousand to four thousand ropals (2,000-4,000) depending on his or her physical characteristics.

But these prime specimens would have gone for at least 5,0000 ropals, possibly even reaching upward of 6,000 in some cases.

So, this meant that Alexander had gained around 45 to 54 million ropals just from this stash alone, which was very impressive just by itself.

And this did not even take into account the fact that among these 9,000, there were also 4,000 men who were even of relatively high descent.

These were of course all the charioteers, all of whom belonged to Jamider (Earl) Nibraz's house.

Their high status was a given as they were allowed to ride the prestigious chariots, meaning they were either of nobility, being related to the house in ways such as cousins, nephews, or even illegitimate sons.

Or they were close servants and loyal soldiers who served the house.

Which meant their prices would be much, much higher, even reaching as high as a hundred thousand ropal for some select ones.

And though Alexander had yet to receive any ransom offers, he was sure they would come, and one which he intended to refuse as he had done before unless they switched sides.

Hence, if Alexander truly had ransomed his prisoners, his gains would have easily eclipsed 60 million.

Then came the 5,000 horses, which Alexander actually valued even more than slaves.

For these were no regular draft horses but horses bred for war.

Even better they were bred by a famous family with a long history of raising such animals, meaning their breed and quality of training was unquestioned.

So Alexander estimated their cost to be around 10,000 ropals per animal, giving his loot a value of 50 million.

Now for context, a regular pack horse was close to a 1,000 ropals, while a good war horse needed 5,000 ropals.

And the very best of the best, like the one Alexander rode on cost 15,000 ropals.

Thus estimating a middle ground of 10,000 ropals for the well-drilled horses was reasonable.

Though it had to be said that these horses were not the beasts known as destriers that medieval knights rode on, terrorizing the battlefield, but much smaller breeds that were actually much closer to ponies.

But this was the norm of the times, as horse breeding had just started taking off, and it would take decades if not centuries to selectively breed those huge monsters of the battlefield.

Thus Alexander was still very happy, even ecstatic over his catch.

But then, once he thought about it for a while longer, somehow this boon had managed to become somewhat of a problem for him, as though he had a shortage of horses, using such fine specimens on manual labor seemed like such a waste.

This was akin to using a supercar to get the milk.

Perfectly viable, but the gas bill would likely be more than the milk.

Hence, after thinking about it for a while, and reflecting on the painful experience around the battlefield regarding his shortage of cavalry, and then remembering its efficacy even in small numbers, Alexander decided to expand his riders to 3,000 active members, making them as large as half a legionary, much to Grahtos's delight.

"Think of it as a present for a job well done, " Alexander had said to the over-the-moon general, who seemed ready to kiss Alexander's feet any moment now.

Though such a huge increase would likely eat through Alexander's broke pocket even faster.

But Alexander still chose to do so given the inevitable future battles he would face.

In fact, if he had deeper pockets, he would have converted all the horses into cavalry, forming a cavalry legion.

But alas, the estimated cost of maintaining such a force would have likely broke Alexander before the enemy could.

Hence for the rest of the 2000 horses, Alexander planned to breed a few of them, but mostly sell the rest for more usable draft animals.

This way he reckoned he would be able to get at least four, maybe even five pack horses for one equivalent war horse, which would certainly be a better allocation of his resources.

After all, no matter how good a war horse was, it could not do five horses' jobs.

In this way, combining the prisoners and horses, Alexander was calculated to have gained around 100 million ropals out of this war, one that had cost him around 50 million to engage in.

Which meant a 100% return on a two-month investment, or a 600% annual return.

Now compare that to the few percentage savings rates banks provide, the 17% the stock market gives.

Alexander finally had his answer to the question- 'War! What is it good for?'

And it was - 'Lots! It was good for lots if you could win.'

And this was not even the best part.

In fact the money might be the least important of his spoils.

For what truly mattered was how the magnificent victory had boosted his prestige, got him four initial vassals, and secured his city's perimeters.

No one would dare to slight him in the near term future, and Alexander was even confident about seizing much more area than he previously estimated, making him a true overlord of at least southern Zanzan.

And to that effect Alexander had sent messages to every noble household within a 90km radius, asking them to come to his city and meet with him by May.

'You are summoned to Zanzan by the order of its ruler, Pasha Alexander, to explain yourself regarding your involvement in the attack against Zanzan. Many of you were found guilty of participating in it.'

'Failure to do so within the allotted time will be seen as an act of war.'

Alexander had sent this message to about 7 shordars (barons), 3 talukders (viscounts), and 2 Jamiders (Earls), wanting to meet them at around the time Pasha Farzah would be in Zanzan.

Alexander had no fear of retaliation by Amenheraft as the man had already played his card.

So Alexander saw this as a prime opportunity to annex around 12,000 sq km of land, with him choosing the specific number of 90km radius because he figured his army could march that distance in about three days, which he felt was sufficiently quick enough to exert pressure on the nobles there.

And the time period of that annexation he gave himself was 2 months, which he had chosen specifically after much deliberation.

The time was not only out of the generous consideration of travel time for the nobles, or getting ready, but there was also the fact that the spring harvest was here and every noble needed every abled hand to help with the first harvest after the drought,

Even Alexander was extremely busy in this time period, as the peasants and many extra slaves were sent to the field to reap the crops, meaning he simply did not the men to attack these nobles even if he had wanted to.

Also, after the two months, not only Pasha Farzah, the prime minister would be there, but the time period was also long enough to give the nobles enough time to gather enough information regarding Alexander's success, but short enough that any nearby allies would not be able to effectively come to their rescue.

After all, most of Zanzan's anti-Ptolomy faction had just participated in the recent battle and were barely capable enough to defend themselves.

Where would they have the ability to aid others?

Thus in this way, the time span was meant to exert a kind of physiological pressure on the nobles.