15. Reconfiguration


    Such a bold coup, meant that an entire country had fallen to ‘the three,’ the entire civil service, the bureaucracy, the army, the administration had to be completely rethought. The God of Trade, Water and Farming were not fit for a country called ‘Moru,’ the country was renamed ‘Yerek,’ after a local word for three. A lot of soldiers surrendered to the new regime, and a lot of peasants would soon find themselves out of a job. Yerek abolished slavery, this time without compensation, slaves were given gold and food, although Mercurius realised too much gold would lead to inflation which would cause its own problems. The sheer scale of converts and worshippers of the God of Agriculture and Water led there to be 6 evangels of each. They could produce enormous quantities of food and water that could feed the entire country, this made the peasantry largely redundant, nonetheless someone needed to collect and distribute the food, but tilling the land was now a pointless activity. Gaia and Latha were known to Mercurius as priests to the God of Farming, they produced enormous amounts of food for Hiru, but there were now four other evangels who increased the food production, and four more evangels for the God of Water, they travelled in pairs, there was another evangel for the God of Trade, Mardonius’s girlfriend. Zelra was a sweet woman, she loved Mardonius dearly, why? No one really knew, but he was happy, and she was happy and that was all that mattered. She helped deliver the tonnes of food. Mercurius and Salutius thought of the temples that must be constructed.


    “We already have so many worshippers?” Salutius said, “you saying we need more God Power?”


    “For sure,” Mercurius said, “what is going to come is not going to be pretty Salutius, the entire Church of Light is absolutely fuming that one of their rulers had the rug pulled underneath him.”


    “So we need more,” Salutius said.


    “It will cement our economic situation,” Mercurius whispered.


    Capturing the royal treasury yielded some 40,000 Moru gold coins, these were spent on the procurement of marble. As it turned out, Moru had its own marble reserves in the deep deserts of the south, so the gold reserves weren’t entirely necessary. The south was a place Salutius and Mercurius had not bothered to placate, the people there were confused to hear of the toppling of Moru and the replacement by ‘Yerek.’ Food parcels, water, wine, the freeing of slaves was appreciated by some.


    “This is the town of Qar Sara, we produce marble, I hear you want it,” the overseer said.


    “We are to build temples to the Gods’ of Trade, Water and Farming,” Mercurius explained, “we know there has been shortages of food, so we shall deliver lots of it.”


    Food and water and wine flooded into the southern deserts. Local chieftains were not pleased with the abolishing of slavery and the new religion frankly annoyed them, but the bribes were welcomed.


    “Our administration will not demand taxes of anyone,” Mercurius said, “maybe dock fees, but we are more than capable of generating funds ourselves. The God of Trade is generous.”


    “The God of Trade…” one of the chiefs muttered angrily, they clearly did not believe in it, “fucking infidel scum…” they said underneath their breath.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Roughly 5% of the population were slavers or profited off of slavery, these elements were either seditious supporters of the new regime, or had fled to neighbouring Church of Light countries. The freed slaves were jubilant enthusiastic supporters of Yerek, the God Power acquired by ‘the three’ was beyond imagination. Without the need for secrecy the God Power increased, as thousands prayed to the new deities, Church of Light buildings were still operational and legal, but they were definitely not friendly to the new regime. The news of no taxes and free water and food spread slowly, but it increased the God Power some more. External trade was put on hold, as thousands of jobless labourers were put to the task of building temples. Food was distributed in large clusters with the help of Mardonius and Zelra in the major cities of Ethrib, Halab, Moru City, Fes and Mina; the smaller towns and villages were given subsidies of food and water, moving evangels around to help in the process. Slavers fled in ships, some aristocratic lords eyed the situation with unease. Yerek unlike Moru was more republican in nature, they had no king, no aristocracy. 2000 mercenaries were sent southwards and were to catch slavers and free the slaves. These actions, alongside the reputation of the regime had already scared most of those who profited off of slavery to run away. Mercurius visited Mina, and immediately began mustering defenders for what seemed like the inevitable.


    “We must fortify Mina, it is too close to Poltu,” Mercurius said, “a temple to the Gods should be built, but we must make sure the city is fortified to withstand a siege.”


    “What is the nearest Poltu city?” Salutius asked.


    “The city of Gharb, it has 80,000 people so is a sizeable settlement,” a guard explained.


    “We will need to undermine the loyalty of the settlement and seize it at some point,” Salutius said, “that will make their invasion of Yerek even harder.”


    “Good thinking,” Mercurius nodded, “they will have to first take back one of their own cities.”


    “The Church of Light is owed no cities, we will make sure they falter.”


    Internal administration was prioritised, lugging marble to construction sites, making sure food supplies were fully stocked. A spy came running to Mercurius and Salutius, having recognised their faces.


    “You should be wary of the southern tribes, reconstituting the army might be an idea,” the spy said.


    “Why is that?”


    “The southern tribes are Church of Light, many depend on slaving for their incomes.”


    Mercurius turned his head and broke into a smile.


    Crossbows.


    “I need to do some external trading,” Mercurius said, “tell Mardonius I have an idea for civil defence. One that doesn’t exclusively rely on peasant militias and mercenaries.”


    “What?” The spy asked, curious beyond anything.


    “Crossbows,” Mercurius said quietly and with great excitement.


    He sold wood to Balna, and bought their iron, a lot of it, depositing it in various cities. Salutius helped the fellow but soon returned to stocking marble to various temple construction sites. The arming of loyalists to Yerek was simple, but the evangels of the God of Trade began tasking blacksmiths with producing crossbows and bolts. Any one whose loyalty to Yerek seemed generally positive was given a crossbow and some bolts. The entire country was mobilised, local villages and hamlets and the big cities’ population were now being armed and armoured.


    I hope we are quick enough to deal with the inevitable backlash we have created.


    Mina was armed quickly, the blacksmiths producing weaponry for the locals to use. Crossbows and bolts, ex slaves and peasants queued to pick up their weapon.


    “Defend the Republic of Yerek! For the three!” A man said lifting his small crossbow up in the air. Mina’s periphery was also armed, Mercurius hopping from place to place to enhance the defence of the new state he had created. Local nobility would be pissed, slavers were pissed, the merchant classes were ambivalent; the merchants had less to sell, but were barely taxed. The low taxes and high welfare produced a population less willing to revolt, but there were obvious economic shocks from completely changing how the economy worked.


    We don’t have lightning or fire or earth mages. Salutius thought, but perhaps we have something far more fearsome.