Herald of Steel

Chapter 920 The Army’s Hidden Danger

?Regarding these nobles who had decided to abandon Alexander in the middle of the fight and cost him that battle, Alexander naturally wanted to make them grievously pay.

But when his preferred kind of punishment proved too unpopular, Alexander at first decided to make them give up some land and come with him to Zanzan as hostages.

But after thinking for a bit, thought better of it.

Rather than punishing them with a token gesture, Alexander thought he would get back on them after things had cooled down.

After all, revenge was a dish best served cold.

Towards Alexander’s decision to wait for a more opportune moment to strike at the nobles, Gelene and Ophenia made no comment, but only lightly nodded, letting their master do what he thought best, as the trio drifted off to slumber.

The coming morning Alexander would be greeted not with a dull, overcast sky, forecasting the arrival of another bout of torrential rain, but a bright, sunny dawn- devoid of a single cloud in sight, thus promising the start of a glorious day.

And then to make things even better, he would be informed later in that day the last batch of nobles scheduled to arrive had been at last spotted, and was expected to reach the place within a day to two.

This set the servants in the palace into a frenzy, as Alexander quickly ordered the preparation for the swearing ceremony, and they had all hands on deck getting ready to host the mighty banquet.

While simultaneously, Alexander’s army, which had been camping outside the capital’s walls for the last nearly three months, also started to mobilize, as they were ordered to start to prepare to move out and return home.

And this order was actually received with great enthusiasm among some of the men, with the most common response that was recited among them being,

“Finally! I can return home to tend to my fields. By now it has most probably turned into a weed filled jungle! *Sigh*, hopefully, I will be able to get it ready for the spring harvest.”

Contrary to what one might expect, the announcement actually brought more of a relief than actual delight one would think the men would have at returning home victorious with such abundant booty.

But the reason for this much more muted response was because most of Alexander’s men, as much as 30,000, were newly raised peasant levies, whose primary profession was farming. 𝘪𝑎.𝒸𝘰

And given that they had started their march in April of last year, and it was now approaching October of the next year, it meant their fields had been left unattended for one and a half to even two years for some if one also took into account the time Alexander used to actually gather them in the first place.

And two years with no oversight or care would turn any farmland into literally a grassy field, no different from the undergrowth of a jungle, with some variety of weeds and shrubs even growing bigger than an adult man by this point.

One had to see it to believe just how quickly good land could be overrun by these invasive species.

And it was this grave worry about the current state of their farmland that overshadowed even their joy of the ‘harvest’ of abundant booty.

After all, although the spoils of the battle had been good, as a matter of fact very good, enough to last each man and his family more than a year comfortably, but that was still nowhere enough to quit everything and retire.

So they could not just give up farming. .

This ‘going to war for loot’ was only a temporary thing, a side hustle for these men, while tending to the lands was their primary profession.

Furthermore, there were even men who loved to farm and thus were starting to feel the ever increasing alluring call of mother nature.

Thus- eager to return, relieved, and worried a lot about their field and all the work that will take to get them going again.

This was the reaction produced by Alexander’s order by the largest group in the army.

While a secondary group was much more optimistic, cheering as such,

“Hurrah! With all this loot those debtors will no longer hound father!”

“Fuck yeah! Home at last! Haha, I wonder what all those troublesome brats have been up to.”

“Ahhh! I miss my wife and child so much! It’s been almost two years. I wonder how big that little brat has become, ”

“Praise the Pasha. With all the spoils, I will finally be able to marry Diaanu.”

“When I return I will buy a house! Hehe! And fix that leaking roof. That way, my old man can move into that one. At last, I can properly take care of him”

The men expressing these kinds of sentiments were usually married and had families or held strong familial ties, who too were tired of Alexander’s nearly two year long campaign, and thus cheered jubilantly at the thought of being able to enjoy their hard fought rewards with friends and family.

And although Alexander did not pay much attention to these groups, their reactions should have been very concerning to him.

Because it clearly revealed a deep flaw in the levy system.

Which was that it was a fine system for defensive purposes, to push an invading army back.

But if such a force, created using forced conscription was to be used in an offensive way to go out and conquer new land, they could not exist for long and tended to flutter out just after a month or two.

This was because the men really could not leave their farms for long since that would mean starvation for their families.

Such would not be too big a problem during an enemy invasion as the opponent would burn villages and ruin farmlands anyway, driving refugees from the countryside towards city centers, thus producing the perfect fodder for an army.

But if Alexander wanted to go conquer other lands, he would need a professional army.

Tibias was an exception because it was relatively close to his core territory, and even then he had had to make special arrangements for the men to have their loot sent via special couriers to their villages, thus reassuring them that their family would not starve.

It would be impossible for Alexander to do this every time even if he wanted to.

Nor can be promise there will be so much abundant loot in every campaign.

This was the exact challenges faced by the early Roman Republic and the reason it changed from a conscription based army, where the men were only paid for the time they served in the army,to a fully professional, all year around one.

And then further decreed no soldier could marry until retirement- to prevent exactly the type of cheers coming from the second group.

They had learned well from the dilemma Alexander the Great had faced after his conquest of modern day Afghanistan, where his 15:12

soldiers, tired and longing for home, threatened to mutiny if they were Directly support the authors on AllNovelFull!

not allowed to return to their families.

And Alexander needed to solve these problems too.

faced after his conquest of modern day Afghanistan, where his soldiers, tired and longing for home, threatened to mutiny if they were But at least there was a silver lining to his concern, as shown by the last group, one that seemed to work to balance the other two.

This group, was the smallest of the bunch and composed of mainly bachelors and hot blooded youths, actually pouted and groaned a bit at this news from the top,

“Ah man! I was starting to enjoy myself here.”

‘Yeah. No work but two free meals a day! Who would not like that?”

“Right! And even better you can sleep with all whores you can get! Ahhh! Yelana, sweetie. Your golden locks, your cute breasts, your smooth oiled pussy, I will miss all of it.”

“Nice song *tsk*! You talking about that blonde from the east side of the city? I heard she’s good. I could not get across the line. What a pity!”

“Then you should try the red haired twins from this brothel I went to. Let’s go tonight… before we have to leave!”

“Or maybe you can come with me with this gambling den. You can bet as much as you want there! Who knows, if you win, maybe you will actually be able to take something back to your home, hehe!”

“Bah! What use is taking my money going to be? The moment I place my foot in the door, my old man is only going to beat all of it out of me and spend it on booze right away! If I’m going to lose it anyway, let me lose it for myself.”

“Haha, nice.”

“Can’t believe those fools on that side are cheering to go back. They really do not know what’s good for them. Idiots!”

“Here! Here! Said well, brother! Who would want to work on the farm all day long? Tolling away in like some mule come sun, come rain… arghhh! I much prefer to kill and take that money, hehehe!” The laugh was menacing and bloodthirsty, as it seemed the taste of blood and guts had awakened something in this one.

It was such types of words and sentiments that permeated this particular group, clearly showing why they were reluctant to leave.

To them, this is what paradise looked like! Paradise on earth!”

They had no work.

And only drinking, gambling, and whoring to one’s heart’s content.

All paid for by the blood and spoils of the conquered people.

It was magnificent!

Who would want to leave?

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