Herald of Steel

Many of the nobles had much to say about Alexander's speech.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

On the matter of labor, well the shortage was really only local, restricted to Zanzan city and its vicinity.

The nobles had plenty of free hands in their own fiefs and should they wish, they could easily encourage some of the farmers to move to Zanzan, thus relieving the pressures.

As for the problem of increased wages and rising cost of living, well that was easy- just fix them!

In fact, this was their preferred of doing everything!

If food or groceries reached untenable heights, they would simply force suppliers to sell at a pre determined price.

And if anyone dared to challenge it, well they would get their heads bashed open with a large stick.

Easy, simple, but certainly not that effective.

The nobles thought about it like this because they did not fully understand how pricing worked.

A general lack of knowledge about the economy led them to believe that prices rose simply because businesses greedily increased them in search of profit.

A large part of them even believed the root of many troubles was merchants simply hoarding things.

Hence many of them treated peddlers, traders, and tradesmen with hostility, imposing severe taxes and greatly restricting what they could or could not buy and at what amount.

However despite all their personal dislikes and whatever they did in their fiefs, even the most hawkish of the nobles did not speak up against Alexander.

They knew just how against he was against this type of control.

The pasha had already displayed his reluctance multiple times in prior instances, insisting prices should be controlled by the natural forces of demand and supply, not artificial, forced intervention.

Furthermore, there were a few nobles also some sympathetic to the Tibian cause.

They were mostly those who came from Thesos and unlike the Adhanian roots lords, supported that Tibians should also have a piece of the economic pie.

This gave the young prince Pericles the opportunity to hence argue,

"My lord, many regions of Tibias are still war torn, with widespread poverty and unemployment. The farmers still have some farms to work in so they are not starving but those in the cities… I hear many of them can only afford to eat every two or three days."

"Many of the workshops have closed down as the artisans fled or were killed. And many more have been driven out of the markets by cheap counterparts from Zanzan."

"Potters, smiths, and carpenters have the ones most hard hit! But weavers, tailors, innkeepers, and dock workers have also lost a significant amount of their work. Many businesses have moved to Zanzan in light of their defeat!"

"This has given rise to many disillusioned men. If we do not start quickly redeeming this, I fear they will start to resort to robbery and bandits on an unprecedented scale. Or worse, they might be roped into a deadly rebellion by savory actors!"

"I implore all the lords to intervene in this quickly. These cement kilns might not solve the whole problem but it should provide some relief."

One had to give it to the young prince.

His smart and conscious speech easily displayed the caliber of education he received from childhood.

Thus, although many of the things were assumed to be exaggerations by the lords, they agreed in general to the gist of it.

And at the end of the day, these kilns were ultimately Alexander's personal rights.

So when Alexander stood up with a heavy nod, and pushed for the project with all this might, stating,

"Prince Pericles has spoken my mind! The people, more importantly the Tibian cities need our help much more than the Zanzan's. At least the people here have many more industries to work in," the lords, even if somewhat dissatisfied found it futile to argue and unanimously raised their hands to vote in favor of the kilns being built in the three cities of Thesalie, the Tibian capital, and Lilybee.

These three were the biggest cities of the northern, central, and southern parts of the country respectively, and all conveniently connected by the River Diannu.

In fact, that was how these places were able to grow to such sizes.

So the plan was to use this waterway to transport the crushed cement and other raw materials to and fro Zanzan.

Boats would travel down the long several hundred kilometers route to reach the port at Lilybee, where the materials would be loaded onto huge cargo ships and shipped to Zanzan.

Then once the powder was properly processed, the whole thing could happen in reverse, delivering the powder for much needed construction in the war torn areas.

Yes, it was quite a labor and time intensive process, raising both costs and administrative hassle, but this was a political move instead of an economic one, taken in order to please Alexander's security concerns as well as create more jobs.

Fortunately, the prices would likely be still within reasonable limits. After all, labor was very cheap in this time period and Alexander already had some ideas of how to increase efficiency.

Designing new specialized boats and ships just to carry these products, installing larger, better cranes in the ports, and standardizing cargo containers to make unloading and unloading faster and easier were all on the cards.

The only problem was all these new infrastructure was destined to take quite a bit of time, a few years at the very least.

That was also why Alexander was eager to start right now.

With the decision about the new plants made, he thus ordered the young prince Pericles to draw up a budget within the week, finalize the exact place the kilns were to be built within the month and recruit the necessary workers and materials to begin construction within three.

It was a monumental ask that left the young man both flattered and overwhelmed.

As a defeated prince, he did not think he would ever be given such an important post, and certainly not so quickly.

But Alexander made the decision due to a variety of factors.

For one, he wanted to show the Tibians that despite what some of his retainers might say, he saw them as equals, trusting them with some of the important projects.

Secondly, by giving the prince some authority, he intended to show that the royal family was not entirely his puppet. They still had some autonomy.

And thirdly, this was in a sort of roundabout way for Lady Parthia to prove herself.

Needless to say, the son would take his 'homework' to his mother, asking for help.

His inexperience, the mammothness of the task, and the short time frame Alexander intentionally laid out for him basically forced Perikles to seek aid from his family.

All this would give Alexander the chance to see if the lady could walk the walk, or if she was just all talk.

And Alexander would frankly reveal this to the mature lady the next time they met, succinctly saying,

"My lady, everyone in my small council has demonstrated their capability to get things done at some point. That was how they got the seat."

"Now, I am also very aware of your own capabilities. I have seen it first hand in Caira. It is just that many of the others remain skeptical, believing you to be simply a stand in for the conquered nobles. I am sure you have noticed it too."

"So I am giving your family this project to shut all the dissenting voices once and for all. May the gods be with you!"

Thus in the following months, the young prince would be found constantly running between Zanzan and Tibias, desperately trying to get everything in order.

And it would only be while preparing all these things that he would learn just how many things needed to go right to get such a plant up and running.

Recruiting workers and supervisors, employing engineers and architects, arranging food and lodging for many of these workers, working out their wages, finding an efficient way to distribute these wages quickly to all the thousands of workers spread over three cities, calculating and gathering all the construction supplies, ensuring a smooth supply of raw materials to start production, fixing an army of carts, animals, and boats to be used in transports, and most challenging of all, keeping proper, accurate record of it all!

For Pericles, sometimes the workload was so much that he wanted to simply curl up and start crying.

In fact, the poor man might have truly broken down if not for help from his mother and elder brother.

…

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However, all these had little to do with Alexander.

Leaving most of the responsibilities to the young prince, he ended the senate meeting for the day and returned home for lunch, stuffing his bread with a healthy portion of shredded pork, spiced venison with leeks and onions, salted and basted in butter vegetables, deep fried small cuts of fish and a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables like grape, apricots, lettuce, cucumbers, and lemons.

Washing it all done with diluted honey wine, Alexander then remembered he had yet to see the eastern part of the city, and so with the afternoon sun turning a bit milder, he gathered his men, changed into regular civilian clothes over his armor, and set off.

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