Herald of Steel

Chapter 895

Alexander had made sure to very publicly reward Papando for his efforts, claiming he was a hero for bringing the war to a much faster conclusion than anyone could have hoped for and thus alleviating the pain of the common masses.

This worked as a great propaganda piece, as Alexander showed that he took good care of the people who defected to him, enticing others to follow suit.

Papando was the main event Alexander spent his time in Kalimat dealing with.

Following this came the processing of the prisoners of war.

This mainly included the identification of the various captured nobles, as well as the mercenary leaders, and deciding their fate, i.e.- ransom, enslavement, or death.

As for the fate of the regular grunts, i.e.- peasants forcibly drafted into Perseus's army, Alexander wanted to forcibly displace them to the lands around Zanzan, to populate the place that had been ravaged by war and drought.

And that was what they were currently discussing.

Although not right at this moment, as the fate of another faction was deemed far more important.

"I wish to enslave all the Kaiser family and remnants of the Petricuno mercenaries and turn them into hard manual laborers for life. What do you think my lords?" In the meeting discussion, Alexander first posed so to the surrounding nobles.

"But my lord, would it not be better to recruit them?" And one of the nobles instantly posed the obvious alternative,

On which he was immediately supported by another who added nodding in a clear voice,

"I too think it would be a great waste for these skilled men to be employed in such menial tasks. Anyone can till the land or dig rocks. But it takes decades to make a good warrior."

"Yes! And they are mercenaries. They will fight for whoever gives them coin. Lord Pasha should reconsider." Implored another one, his voice strong and urging.

"That's right. It's not like we are short on gold either. Even with just the booty we have collected in this campaign, we can afford to keep them for years if not decades." This one chimed eagerly, with a tinge of anticipation, as he felt the addition of these men would be a great boost to their army.

"Mmmm! And they are good men, Solid. I know. I have fought them." And lastly, this nobleman from back, who was usually very taciturn and spoke few words gave his own two cents.

And this last person's addition was quite important, as this succinct man spoke rarely, also meaning when he did, his words carried a lot of weight.

From all these replies it could be clearly seen that the entire room was against Alexander's proposal and wanted to add the men to their battle ranks.

"No!" But in one of the rare instances of Alexander going completely against the tide of popular opinion, he categorically and unequivocally rejected this, unilaterally saying, "Many of the men are too loyal to that family from Sybarsis. While the Petricuno mercenaries came here solely to destroy me. Because they were jealous of my accomplishments. I cannot trust them. And neither should you, my lords."

"They will work as slaves in my workshops, I have great need for them. That's it."

Alexander flung his arms dismissively as he said this, leaving no room for any debate on this.

And thus, given his strong insistence, all the nobles could do little more than nod and obey.

Their lord had spoken, so they could only be rueful in their hearts at the missed opportunity.

Now there was of course a reason behind Alexander's madness.

He was not actually going to enslave those men.

It was all a clever ruse.

In reality, Alexander wanted the roundabout 5,000 mercenaries, around a legion's worth, to secretly exist inside his capital city, disguising themselves as workers in the workshops.

Alexander's real intention was to keep them in the reserves as a kind of trump card in the defense of something completely unexpected- like a sneak attack on the city while he was away on another campaign.

Alexander had been thinking about setting up something like this for quite some time.

In fact, he had been thinking about it right after when Perseus had attacked Zanzan while he was away in Adhan.

That had been a true wake up call.

But it was only now he was given the opportunity to complete it.

And it could not have come at a better time, as Alexander was sure his unimaginable success at Tibias was sure to ruffle some feathers in Adhania, and he was simply not talking about his enemies.

Even many of his allies might grow weary of his unprecedented rapid rise.

So with such a hidden card on him, Alexander felt the number of moves he could make on the chessboard had opened up significantly, as various crafty thoughts began to swirl inside him.

Other than their most obvious use- i.e.- in the defense of the city in the event of an attack,

Alexander also found other uses.

For instance, he could pretend to leave Zanzan- his capital, his gem, the place where his family resided, his most precious part of his land apparently defenseless as he left to campaign somewhere else, thus leaving the bait out for various snakes and schemers to try and take advantage off.

Alexander hoped that perhaps sensing such an opportunity, those men with rebellious thoughts hidden deep within their hearts, who would not usually act out of fear of Alexander's retaliation, would be enticed to take advantage of Alexander's most vulnerable state and stab him in the back.

Alexander would love to see the faces of those men when they came face to face with 5,000 battle hardened men.

And although 5,000 men might not sound like a lot, the quality of these men was sure to make up for that.

And besides, the nubmer 5,000 only seemed small when compared to the huge large scale battles that Alexander had up until now fought against.

In absolute terms, a contingent of 5,000 men was truly huge.

To give some context of how powerful such a unit truly was, even the Roman Empire in its heyday posted only 1 legion to guard modern day Egypt, and that place was known as the breadbasket of the empire, feeding people all across the country.

So it could be seen even such a vital place only required 1 legion to quell any dissent.

And in a similar vein, another single legion was used to guard the lands making up the entirety of modern day Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and parts of Morroco.

Can you imagine only 10,000 soldiers defending a boundary of more than 3,500 km?

It would be unthinkable nowadays.

But it could be done back then.

And given that the legion would safeguard such a huge territory, the one leading it, its commander, well his influence and power could easily be imagined.

Such a leader would wield enormous respect throughout the empire, able to even directly converse with the emperor.

So 5,000 men were really a lot of men, a huge force, and most of the time, to quell rebellions, the Romans would send only chucks of it, such as 1,000 or 2,000 men.

Of course it had to be also remembered that these units would almost always be accompanied by auxiliaries, i.e.- allies and non Romans drafted from the surrounding lands.

And it was also remembering this that Alexander felt he could also use these men in other ways too.

Such as- he could make his enemies think that he had taken all this army elsewhere, leaving him with no further offensive potential, only to surprise them with a second army, sending the 5,000 men on a sneak flanking attack, like on the enemy's home city, his supply lines, or another ally he might be waiting to meet up with.

Alexander could even have these 5,000 mercenaries produce another whole army, by placing them as the core and then augmenting them with raised levies to make up the required numbers, letting the veterans act as officers and leaders.

That would indeed be a pretty effective army.

Thus, Alexander found that if he properly hid these men, he could use these men both in defense and offense.

The possibilities were truly endless.

And lastly, the reason for hiring these mercenaries for his personal use was due to the concern for his safety.

Employing foreign troops as bodyguards was a time tested tradition for kings and other high ranking nobles, with perhaps the most famous example being the Swiss guards.

This was done because if you are a king, and your troops are from your lands, well then they might want you to do something that's beneficial for them.

And conversely, they might not like something that adversely affects them.

Even if it benefits the country on the whole,

Thus, wary of this, many kings would wisely decide to employ foreign powers with no connection to the lands to protect them.

These men would serve a fixed term and be paid in gold, and in return be expected to shut up and do their job regardless of what the king did to his subjects.

It was an arrangement that worked very well for centuries.

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