21. Jostling


    Ahmed had hired his marshal Isa to command troops to take back Gharb, battling over small settlements in the environs. Hamlets, villages and towns were fought over in a tug of war. Isa had 10,000 cavalry, and he rode through town to town attempting to shore up support, meanwhile Salutius was already sowing dissent in Poltu. Mercurius was buying the support of peasants.


    “We can give you tonnes of food,” Mercurius said.


    “Ah but then, what is the point of working the land,” a man said, “I’ve heard about the economy of Yerek. If 6 people can grow all the food you need, what do the peasants do huh?”


    Mercurius looked at the smart fellow with a bit of fear, for he was a better rhetorician than he was.


    “Rest, do something else with their time. Nothing is dumber than useless work,” Mercurius said, wincing as he said it, for he may have made ten enemies.


    “I accept your answer,” the peasant said, “I hear you solved the problem by building temples, what about afterwards?”


    “Science,” Mercurius postulated.


    “Science?” The peasant said, “you want me to make inventions?”


    “Is that a bad thing?” Mercurius said.


    He came back with free flour, corn and bucket loads of water. An evangel of water filled the wells.


    “Production and processing is still necessary I suppose,” the peasant thought aloud.


    Mercurius visited Balna, going to the mountains where he followed a playbook similar to the one he had perfected on Moru. Buying support of the rural peasantry, providing food and water, and limited coin before delivering some marble.


    “The God of Trade is wise and generous,” Mercurius said.


    “I’m sure he is,” a mountain peasant of Balna said, “but why are you here?”


    “To spread our religion,” Mercurius said, and to get revenge.


    He did what he was supposed to and helped the environs of Gharb, but he also visited Balna, and went to Zhong collecting their coin so that he could build a series of temples. In the hills of Balna, tribes were being mobilised. On the Uruq side of the mountainous border remote villages were visited and given statues to the God of Trade and then heavily bribed. This little pet mission allowed Isa to seize village after village before arriving near Gharb. The land was lush around Gharb, oases and irrigation created fertile valleys, it didn''t extend too far beyond for there was sand like everywhere else, but there were aquifers and underground rivers that could be used for farming. Isa fed his horses and camels fodder before sending a messenger away.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.“I need information on whether it’s ok to attack Gharb yet,” Isa said.


    A regal figure, a mere marshal of a king he was something akin to a steward, his only real power was what the king vested in him; he had blue eyes and dark hair, and had a lean figure, not too tall but not short either. He had a quick team for taking small villages but was soon met with a proper obstacle. A former military outpost was now manned by newly recruited Yerek crossbowmen. A stone watch tower and small skirting walls, it had a maximum of 400 men. Local villagers staffed it and it would be a pain in Isa’s plans if it were kept.


    “We can’t begin sieging anything with that watch tower, look how they flaunt us with that idolatrous flags,” a soldier grumbled to Isa.


    He looked at the tricolour and then looked at the local peasants.


    “These ones are much more hostile to us then the other ones,” Isa noted, “prepare to crush some polytheist scum.”


    Meanwhile Mercurius rejoined his efforts back on the eastern border. Bribing people who had just been visited by Isa’s men.


    “We just had an army of the faithful march through here!” An old crone said, “it really is incumbent on you to protect us from them if you wish us to take you seriously.”


    “We will bring crossbows and build fortifications, plus all the bribes that we are famous for,” Mercurius explained.


    “Well…” the old crone said.


    She looked at her local peasant neighbours and sighed.


    While Mercurius was putting himself on too many fronts, Nichomachus hired more and more tribes. The promise of food and water for many of these people, immediately gathered thousands of loyal warriors. Nichomachus made two large camps, foundations for new cities, Kostor near the Poltu border, and Tolra much further to the west. The two camps were supplied with food and water and became foundations for cities. Camels, sheep, horses glugged water hungrily. There were ten evangels to the God of Water and Farming, one each was stationed in each of these new cities, Nichomacus making a staunch argument in favour of it.


    “These will be permanent bases recruiting the tribes from the south, their cavalry will be indefensible for the Republic, for Yerek, for the God of Trade, Water and Farming.”


    “Can we spare the resources?” Zelra asked cautiously.


    You have 10 in Hiru, what is this woman prattling about.


    “Of course we can, they will make many followers, and expand our influence southwards, I hear there is a nation called Kanem to the south, far to the south, beyond the sand, and the tribes,” Nichomachus explained, “we need two cities, they will help in our war, I know they will.”


    “Will it house their pastoralist flocks?” Mardonius wandered aloud.


    “It will, these people make their living off of their herds, besides it is their skill with camels and horses that we want,” Nichomachus said, “they are a treasure, and we should cultivate them.”


    And he did as much. Nichomachus the evangels’ of God of Water and Farming, one of each irrigated and created fodder for the large fleeing refugees. Rather than turning them into enemies, their generosity so overwhelming that they could be used for the stated goals of the Republic.


    “You have enemies, your enemies are our enemies, for Yerek, the Republic and for the three,” a gruff tribesman said resolutely.


    4000 more cavalry were recruited and sent eastwards to take the southern porous borders of Poltu. Nichomachus then went to the southern tribes beyond the borders. There he found tribes without food, but an unresponsive unhelpful Poltu. He bribed them as well, realising he no longer had to focus on the tribes in Kostor or Tolra who were now self sufficient. These nomadic communities accepted free water and food with great enthusiasm taking up the banner of Yerek provided they were enumerated sufficiently. Far beyond the border with Poltu villages fell, and the southern porous borders were being taken. Mercurius’s inactivity was now balanced by Nichomacus’s, who had successfully converted huge portions of hungry tribes to the cause and preyed on the southern regions of Poltu. The war however was about to get much worse.