A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

There were a total of five armies that fled at the beginning, and their backgrounds were all cities inherited by families, that is, cities where the city lord was in charge and the royal court could only collect taxes but had no management rights.

After Garlan announced to the world that these five city lords were rebels, these city lords originally wanted to hold on to the city and resist, but even the people in their city were unwilling to support their city lords.

The Aaron Landis are not cowards. If they are allowed to fight the invaders, they will definitely fight to the death with their city lord. However, if the target of the battle is the army sent by the king to conquer them...

The people in the city were terrified.

The king of Aaron Landis is a being with the blood of the gods.

He was the son of the gods, and he was protected by the gods from birth to death.

If you are hostile to the king who is the son of the gods, you will definitely be rejected by the gods. After death, the soul will fall into hell and endure the pain of being burned by fire all day long, and will never be reincarnated.

In particular, there are rumors that the current Young King has been extremely favored by the Sun God Shamash since he was a child, and even sent his lion mount to the human world to protect him.

Wherever the Young King goes, the brilliance of Shamash follows him.

With the people so distracted and their hearts turning against them, even if Heimos hadn't taken action, these rebels who wanted to defend the city wouldn't have been able to hold on for long.

Now, as soon as Heimos went on an expedition, they were naturally taken down one by one and escorted to the royal city, and their city was naturally put under the direct jurisdiction of the royal court.

Garlan's behavior shocked many people at once.

When a new king takes the throne, there will always be people who will test the new king's temperament overtly or covertly.

If the king is weaker, they will gradually increase the intensity of the temptation to overwhelm the opponent.

If the king is tough enough, they will be much more honest.

For this young king who was praised for his gentle temperament and kindness when he was a prince, many people thought that he had a good temperament, so they tentatively stretched out their claws to do something secretly for themselves. Get some benefits.

The reason why those city lords refused to accept the king's order and went to the royal city for an audience was because they were lucky enough to be able to unite and make Garlan take a step back, regardless of their behavior of escaping from the battle.

There were even some powerful ministers in the royal city who either accepted their benefits or, out of consideration for maintaining the stability of the country, persuaded Garlan to appease them and generously pardon their crimes.

However, the Young King declared his majesty to the world with extremely strong practical actions.

The army went out boldly.

King Garlan directly used thunderous means to mercilessly knock down the once-high-ranking city lords to the ground, making them prisoners, leaving their families ruined and unable to stand up again.

This is what happens to rebels.

This is the consequences of disobeying the king's order.

The Young King declared this to everyone with practical actions.

This young king with a beautiful appearance that even the goddess Avdormir would fall for was very difficult to mess with, and his tough attitude was no less than that of the Lion King.

Everyone immediately realized this deeply.

Those who secretly poked and stretched out their claws were also frightened and quickly retracted their hands. They shrank honestly.

…………

"You got three, Cayjos got one, and there's one left."

Garlan, who was sitting cross-legged on the stone platform, thought about it.

"I'll leave the rest to you."

"good."

Heimos agreed casually while continuing to eat.

That nonchalant demeanor is no different from a verbal promise to do someone a small favor.

And the fact is also true. Those useless city lords who are greedy for life and fear of death can't even compare with the Geshurs, not to mention the Gastad people. For him, it is easy to solve the battles of those guys.

Especially after using Garlan's method, it became easier to break the city.

He swallowed a mouthful of milk and said, "The number of slaves brought back this time is probably close to 20,000."

When he went to conquer, Garlan told him directly that he wanted to reduce the casualties of the people as much as possible, and also gave him a decree.

The decree declared that as long as the slaves in the city assisted the royal army in breaking the city, they would be pardoned as slaves, following the examples of Tozes, Rudas and other cities.

This is one of the reasons why Heimos can easily capture the city within a few days every time. However, the consequence of this is that every time he returns from a battle, he will bring tens of thousands of freed slaves with him.

Although some dignitaries are quite vocal about the Young King's will, according to the law, all the property of the rebels will be confiscated by the king, and slaves are naturally included among them - Garlan releases the slaves who belong to his own property, and the lost It's his own interests and no one else's business.

If Garlan were still a prince, these dissatisfied people would probably complain to the king. But now that Garlan is the king, they cannot complain to the king and can only acquiesce.

Heimos continued: "Including those brought back by Kayhos last time, the number of slaves you pardoned is almost 50,000 to 60,000."

After swallowing the last bite of bread, he stopped eating and looked up at Garlan.

He asked, "What are you going to do?"

Fifty to sixty thousand slaves... no, they should be civilians now.

This amount is not small.

Although some of these people joined the army, they were very few strong men, only a few thousand in total.

The vast majority of the remaining people have been slaves since childhood, and are accustomed to a life of only obeying the orders of their masters, and have almost no ability to think for themselves.

Their identities have become civilians, but their thoughts as slaves still stubbornly occupy their brains, making them only know how to live dependent on others.

Such people have absolutely no ability to earn a living on their own.

Now, these people are living on the little property that Garlan rewarded when they were pardoned. But Heimos knew in his heart that they couldn't just sit back and settle for nothing.

These people have no way to support themselves and their families. When the meager rewards are used up, in order to prevent themselves from starving to death, they are likely to find a master to sell themselves out of desperation and sell themselves to another Become a slave.

If that happens, Garlan's act of freeing the slaves will become everyone's laughing stock.

Garlan hummed.

"Don't worry," he said, "I've already thought about it."

It was almost time, he thought, to put his plan into action.

"This meal is payment."

Sitting cross-legged, Garlan held his chin in one hand and glanced sideways at Heimos.

"Tomorrow in the court, look fiercer and help me intimidate those who oppose me."

The short-tongued black knight naturally had no objections and nodded obediently.

…………

……………………

In the morning, the bright sunshine shines on the earth as always.

Rainy days are extremely rare in Aaron Landis during the summer, and most days are sunny.

In the half-open small court, at this moment, the people inside were all important figures among Aaron Landis.

On the high platform, the throne carved from green malachite reflects the sun and looks emerald green.

The blond young king sat on the throne, his azure cloak spread out on the emerald throne.

After bowing to Garlan above, the powerful ministers who participated in the discussion took their seats on the seats carved from white jade on both sides of the chamber.

High Priest Shemuel stands on the left side below the throne.

Heimos and Kehos stood in turn on the right side of the throne.

The old Right Secretary sat on the right side of the white stone chair, still looking like he was old and decrepit, with his eyes lowered, as if he was not interested in anything.

Don't do anything in vain, this is the life principle of Mr. Right.

Seeing him like this, Zuo Sixiang, who was sitting opposite him, stood up.

The original Zuo Sixiang has died of illness. The newly appointed Zuo Sixiang by Garlan is in the prime of life. He is strong and has clear vision. He is an upright man.

The reason why he was appointed as the head of the civil service by Garlan was because he performed extremely well in the battle to defend the royal city. During the time when he was guarding the city, he was not only fearless in the face of danger, but also handled all the matters entrusted to him in an orderly manner. This attracted the attention of Shermer and Heimos, who entrusted him with important tasks.

And he lived up to the great trust placed in him, so he was awarded a commendation after the war and was appointed chief director.

He succeeded Zuo Sixiang after his predecessor Zuo Sixiang died of illness a few months ago.

"Your Majesty, is there any important matter for calling us together?"

As the head of the civil service, Secretary Zuo naturally had to stand up and ask questions on behalf of everyone.

Garlan nodded, then turned to look at Tal standing below.

Tar understood it and unfolded a large map with a snap.

Everyone took a closer look and saw that it was a map of Aaron Landis.

But unlike ordinary maps, on this map, the lines representing roads are painted in different colors.

Each line is made up of several lines of different colors.

Just when everyone was looking at the colorful map route in confusion, wondering what Garlan meant when he asked them to see this map, Garlan spoke.

"The main roads in Aaron Landis are shown on the map, and the different colors represent the damage to those roads."

He said, "Red is the most serious, almost completely destroyed, followed by orange, which is still usable but in worrying condition, and so on."

It can be seen from the map that the road conditions in Aaron Landis are not good. There are a lot of orange areas and a lot of red areas. Although there are black lines that symbolize good maintenance, they are rare among the colorful. Pitiful.

This is a task that Garlan assigned to the bard Shulos a year ago.

Those bards also work part-time as rangers. They travel all year round and are most familiar with the road conditions.

Garlan asked Shulos to entrust this group of rangers to go to various parts of the country to check the local road conditions, and then summarize the situation. It took a full year to produce this map.

Aaron Landis has three paths.

Dirt road, gravel road, and then standard stone road.

The gravel road paved with gravel and gravel is pretty good.

Most of the roads in Aaron Landis are surface dirt roads, which are compacted soil used as roads. Over time, this kind of road naturally becomes full of potholes, making walking difficult.

The stone standard road is a spacious road paved with rectangular stones built strictly in accordance with road standards. It only exists around the royal city and around some extremely wealthy large cities.

The ownership of roads in Aaron Landis now belongs to the city in which it belongs, and the construction and maintenance of the roads are the responsibility of the city.

However, maintaining the roads costs a small fortune.

The cities under the direct jurisdiction of the Royal Court were okay. The governor of the city would follow the Royal Court's orders and use a sum of money from taxes to maintain the roads, so the roads near these cities were passable - just barely maintained.

But the roads in the areas under the jurisdiction of the city lords are not so good. After all, if it were not forcibly stipulated in the law that each city must maintain the traffic arteries within its own jurisdiction, those city owners who think that the roads outside the city have nothing to do with them would not be willing to pay this money. Even if we have to defend it according to the law, it is just a matter of coping.

After listening to Garlan's words, everyone looked at each other and vaguely guessed something.

Someone asked tentatively.

"Your Majesty, what do you mean..."

"I want to build roads."

Garlan answered decisively.

He stood up from the malachite throne, walked down the steps, and pointed at the map.

"With the Imperial City as the center and the old roads as the basis, I plan to build roads connecting major cities. Using the roads outside the Imperial City as the benchmark, we will spread the roads throughout the country."

He said, "All roads that are built will have the right to use and maintain them in the future and will be owned by the royal court and will no longer be under the jurisdiction of individual cities."

Everyone was stunned.

Historically, new kings who have just ascended the throne have always tried their best to strengthen their military and political influence. They thought that Garlan would do the same.

But they never expected that the first decree proposed by Garlan was to build roads.

And everyone can see that this is not a decree proposed by King Garlan on a whim - just take a look at the map made up of colorful lines, and you can know that the Young King had already done this before he proposed this matter. It’s been planned for a long time.

Everyone looked at each other, and someone immediately objected.

"Your Majesty, you may not know that, not to mention road construction, the cost of maintaining roads across the country alone is a huge amount, and it is difficult for the royal court to bear this cost."

Maintaining roads is inherently a costly and thankless task. If cities knew about this, they would be happy to get rid of the burden, but they would not be willing to take back this hot potato.

"Yes, we simply don't have enough manpower to maintain such a large area of ​​road."

"Your Majesty, you'd better think carefully before making a decision."

Everyone objected one after another.

"It's better to continue to let the city be responsible for the roads in its jurisdiction, and if you are concerned about road damage, you can directly order them to increase the maintenance of the road."

Even Zuo Sixiang, who was promoted by Garlan, frowned and objected.

"Your Majesty, building a national standard stone road is an extremely huge project. It requires a lot of financial and manpower. We have just ended the war and many places are still being rebuilt. It is difficult to achieve both financial and manpower. Support this project.”

Zuo Sixiang was not ignorant of the benefits of building roads, but in his opinion, the young Wang's approach was too taken for granted, he was too ambitious and did not consider the actual situation at all.

Even if it offends King Garlan, he still has the responsibility to oppose this impossible project.

"This is not something that can be accomplished overnight. It requires a large amount of labor to be requisitioned for a long time. Not to mention that soon after the war ended, there was a labor shortage. Such a long-term requisition of labor may cause dissatisfaction among the people..."

“Who said I have to conscript labor to build roads?”

Garlan interrupted him simply.

Zuo Sixiang was startled.

Throughout the ages, road construction has required labor directly from the local area. Otherwise, who would volunteer to build roads?

"You are right. Road construction is a long-term project and it will take a long time. Therefore, I plan to hire people to build the roads."

"Hire?"

"Yes, and there is no need for the royal court to bear the financial burden, I will bear it."

The huge wealth accumulated by the royal family from generation to generation was used by Garlan like a prodigal.

"However, in this case, the ownership of the road I spent money to build will all belong to the royal family."

he continued.

"As for the labor, you don't need to worry. I have already arranged it for Heimos and Caijos."

In the early stages of road construction, the 50,000 to 60,000 people who had just been pardoned as slaves and did not know how to make a living were enough.

He hired them to build roads and gave them the opportunity to work. Although it would be harder, it would give them enough time to adapt to their status as civilians and live a good life.

Looking at everyone, he asked: "Okay, do you have any questions?"

When Garlan said this, everyone who had their objections answered one by one immediately looked at each other and fell silent.

However, even so, some people still think that the grand plan is a fantasy, impossible to succeed, and in the end it is likely to be just a waste of manpower and material resources.

Therefore, some people still continued to persuade Garlan to give up this plan.

"King Garlan, I think this project is still too risky. Would you like to seriously consider it again..."

"This project is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and I'm afraid it will bring an extremely heavy burden to you and Aaron Landis..."

"You still..."

Garlan stood in front of everyone, his golden eyes sweeping over everyone.

That glance made everyone shut their mouths.

"It's my decision."

Garlan said.

He spoke in a calm tone and looked very indifferent.

But when the Young King's eyes slowly swept across his courtiers, there was an invisible sense of oppression that made everyone's hearts suddenly tremble.

He is the king of Aaron Landis.

Aaron Landis' King has made his decision.

At this moment, the entire chamber was silent.

After a moment of silence, everyone bowed their heads to the young king in front of them.

"Do your will."

they said respectfully.

King Garlan's first decree was decided on this.

At this moment, the people in the court still don’t know how important the things they discussed today will leave in future history.

………………

Aaron Landis Blvd.

This is the general name for all the roads that were densely spread throughout the entire Aaronlandis continent in that ancient era.

With the royal city of Aaron Landis as the center, it expanded outward in a radial manner, connecting all the cities in Aaron Landis.

The existence of these roads allowed Aaron Landis to reach all directions, and it benefited Aaron Landis greatly for more than a thousand years.

It has played an extremely important role in many matters such as military affairs, commercial transactions, promoting population circulation, and strengthening the central government's rule over local areas.

The road construction project was implemented from the reign of King Xianmyeong, and it was King Garlan who advocated the construction.

The project was originally planned to be completed within fifty years. During this period, it continued to extend outwards as Aaron Landis's territory expanded. It took a total of more than a hundred years to complete.

After its completion, the total length of roads exceeded 300,000 kilometers, covering the entire continent and connecting all cities.

This huge road project has amazed future generations.

It became one of the symbols of Aaron Landis's empire at its most prosperous and glorious period.

It is also one of the greatest achievements of the wise king Garlan.

The author has something to say: hhhh all guessed wrong.

Later generations called him King Garlan, the infrastructure madman.