There were a total of five armies that escaped from the battle, and their backgrounds were all family-inherited cities, that is, cities where the city lord was in charge of power and the royal court could only collect taxes but not have the right to manage it.
After Garland had announced to the world that the five city lords were all traitors, these city lords wanted to hold on to the city and could not defend it, but even the people in their city were unwilling to support their city lords.
The Aaron Landis are not cowardly. 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 changed to the army sent by the king to conquer them...
The people in the city were terrified.
The king of Aaron Landis, that is the existence of the blood of the gods.
It was the son of the gods, blessed by the gods from birth to death.
If he were hostile to the king who was the son of the gods, he would definitely be rejected by the gods. After death, the soul will be cast into hell and suffer the pain of being burned by fire all day long, and will never be reborn.
Especially in the world rumors, the current young king has been greatly favored by the sun god Shamash since he was a child, and even sent his mount, the lion, to the world to protect him.
Wherever the young king went, the brilliance of Shamash followed.
With such a disintegration of people's hearts and backsliding, even if it wasn't for Heimos, these rebels who wanted to defend the city and resisted would not be able to bear it for long.
Now, as soon as Heimos set out on the expedition, he was naturally captured one by one and escorted to the royal city, and their city was naturally brought under the direct jurisdiction of the royal court.
Garlan's actions shocked many people at once.
When the new king ascends the throne, there will always be people who will try to test the new king's temperament.
If the king is weaker, they will increase their temptation little by little to overwhelm the other.
If the king is tough enough, they will be much more honest.
As for the young king who was praised as a gentleman and benevolent when he was a prince, many people thought that he had a good temperament, so they tentatively stretched out their claws and wanted to secretly do something for themselves. Take advantage.
The reason why those few city lords refused to accept Wang Ling's visit to Wang City was because of the luck of being able to hold a group and let Garlan take a step back, ignoring their behavior of escaping.
Even some high-ranking ministers in the royal city either accepted their benefits, or from the consideration of maintaining the stability of the country, they persuaded Garlan that they should appease them and forgive their guilt generously.
However, the young king proclaimed his majesty to the world with his own actions.
The army marched out boldly.
King Garlan directly used the means of thunder to mercilessly knocked down the city lords who were once high above the ground, and became prisoners, causing their family to collapse and never turn over again.
This is what happens to the rebels.
This is the fate of violating Wang Ling.
The young king declared this to everyone with his actual actions.
This young king with a beautiful appearance that the goddess Avtomir would fall for is not easy to mess with, and his tough stance is no less than that of the Lion King.
Everyone immediately realized this.
Those who poked and stretched out their claws were so frightened that they hurriedly shrank their hands, and shrank back honestly.
…
"You hit three, Cayhors hit one, and there's one left."
Sitting cross-legged on the stone platform, Garlan thought for a while,
"The rest is left to you."
"it is good."
Heimos agreed casually while continuing to eat.
With that understatement, it's no different to follow his mouth and promise to help others a little favor.
And the fact is also true, those few waste city lords who are greedy for life and fear of death are not comparable to the Gasdads, even the Geshus. For him, it is very easy to solve the battle of those guys.
Especially after using Garlan's method, it was easier to break the city.
He swallowed a mouthful of milk and said, "The slaves brought back this time are about 20,000."
When he went to expedition, Garland told him directly, saying that he wanted to minimize the casualties of the people, and at the same time 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 forgiven their slave status according to the examples of many cities such as Tozes and Judas.
This is also one of the reasons why Heimos can easily capture the city in a few days each time, but the consequence of this is that every time he returns from the expedition, he will bring tens of thousands of freed slaves with him.
Although some dignitaries have little words for this will of the young king, according to the law, all the property of the rebels will be confiscated by the king, and the slaves are naturally included. His own interests are beyond the control of others.
If Garlan was still a prince, these dissatisfied people would probably go and complain to the king. But now that Gallan is the king, they can't sue the king, they can only acquiesce.
Heimos continued: "Including the one that Cayhoes brought back last time, there are about fifty or sixty thousand slaves who have been forgiven by you."
After swallowing the last bite of bread, he stopped eating and looked up at Garlan.
He asked, "What are you going to do?"
50,000 or 60,000 slaves... No, they should be civilians now.
This number is not small.
Although some of these people joined the army, they were a very small number of physically fit men, and there were only a few thousand in total.
The vast majority of the remaining people, because they have been slaves since childhood, are accustomed to a life where they only need to obey the orders of their masters, and have almost no ability to think for themselves.
Their identities have become civilians, but their minds as slaves still stubbornly occupy their brains, so that they only know how to live by depending on others.
Such people are completely incapable of making a living on their own.
Now, these people are barely surviving on the little wealth that Gallan gave when they were forgiven. But Heimos knew in his heart that they couldn't just sit and eat like this.
These people have no way to support themselves and their families at all. When the meager reward is exhausted, in order to prevent themselves from starving to death, under the instigation or persecution of caring people, they are likely to find a master to sell themselves in desperation, and then again become slaves.
In that situation, what Garlan did to free the slaves would be the laughing stock of everyone.
Garland hummed.
"Don't worry," he said. "I've thought about it."
It was almost time to start implementing his plan, he thought.
"This meal is a reward."
Sitting cross-legged, Garlan rested his chin in one hand and glanced sideways at Heimos.
"Tomorrow in the court, look fiercer, help me intimidate those who oppose it."
The black knight with a short mouth naturally had no objection and nodded obediently.
…
…
In the morning, the bright sun shines on the earth as always.
Aaron Landis has very few rainy days entering summer, and most days are sunny.
In the half-opened small court, at this moment, the people who are in it are the most important figures in Aaron Landis.
On the high platform, the throne carved by emerald green malachite reflects the sunlight, and it is green.
The blond young king sat on the throne, and the sky blue cloak was spread out on the emerald throne.
After the high-ranking ministers who participated in this discussion bowed and saluted Garlan above, they all sat on the seats made of white jade on both sides of the court.
High Priest Shemuel is standing on the left under the throne.
Heimos and Kaihos stood in order on the right under the throne.
Sitting on the right side of the white stone chair, the elderly Sixiang of the Right still looked like a decrepit old man, with his eyes down, as if he was not interested in anything.
Nothing comes forward, this is the life principle of the Minister of the Right.
Seeing him like this, Zuo Sixiang, who was sitting opposite him, stood up.
The original Zuo Sixiang had passed away, and the newly appointed Zuo Sixiang by Garlan was in his prime, with strong physique, clear eyes, and an upright person.
The reason why he was appointed as the head of the civil service by Garlan was because he had performed extremely well in the battle of defending the royal city. During the period of defending the city, he not only was not afraid of danger, but also handled all the things that were handed over to him in an orderly manner, which attracted the attention of Shemuer and Heimos, who entrusted him with important tasks.
And he did not live up to the great trust placed on him, so he was rewarded and appointed as the chief director after the war.
A few months ago, he took over as Zuo Sixiang after he died of illness.
"Your Majesty, is there anything important to call me together?"
As the head of the civil service, Minister Zuo naturally wanted to stand up and ask on behalf of everyone.
Garlan nodded, then turned to look at Tar, who was standing below.
Tarr understood, and with a swish, unfolded a large map.
Everyone looked closely and saw that it was a map of Aaron Landis.
But unlike ordinary maps, on this map, the lines representing the roads are painted in different colors.
Each line is made up of several lines of different colors.
Just when everyone looked at the colorful map route in confusion, not knowing what Gallan meant by letting them see this map, Gallan spoke up.
"The main roads in Aaron Landis are drawn on the map, and the different colors represent the damage to these roads."
He said, "Red is the most serious, almost completely destroyed, followed by orange, which is still usable but in a worrying condition, and so on."
It can be seen from the map that the road conditions in Aaron Landis are not good. There is a large area of orange and a lot of red areas. Although there are black lines that symbolize good maintenance, they are rare in a colorful area. Pitiful.
This was a task that Garlan had assigned to the bard Shulos a year ago.
Those bards are also part-time rangers. They travel all the year round, and they are most familiar with the road conditions.
Garlan asked Shulos to entrust the group of rangers to go around the country, check the local road conditions, and then summarize the situation. It took a whole year to make this map.
There are three ways of Aaron Landis.
Dirt roads, gravel roads, and then standard flagstone roads.
Gravel paved with gravel and gravel is not bad.
And most of the roads in Aaron Landis are surface dirt roads, that is, the soil is compacted and used as roads. Over the years, this kind of road is naturally bumpy and difficult to walk.
The standard stone road is a spacious road built in strict accordance with road standards and paved with rectangular stones. It only exists around the king city and around some extremely wealthy large cities.
The ownership of the roads in Aaron Landis now belongs to the city under its jurisdiction, and the construction and maintenance of the road are the responsibility of the city.
However, maintaining the road costs a small fortune.
The city under the direct jurisdiction of the royal court is not bad. The consul of the city will take a sum of money from the tax to maintain the road in accordance with the order of the royal court, so the roads around these cities are all passable - just barely maintained.
And the roads in the areas under the jurisdiction of the city lord are not very good. After all, if it wasn't for the law that each city must maintain the main traffic lanes within its jurisdiction, the city lords who thought that the roads outside the city had nothing to do with them would not be willing to pay the money. Even if it has to be maintained according to the law, it is only a matter of coping.
After listening to Garlan's words, everyone looked at each other and vaguely guessed something in their hearts.
Someone asked tentatively.
"Your Majesty, what do you mean..."
"I want to repair the road."
Garlan answered decisively.
He stood up from the malachite throne, walked down the steps, and pointed at the map with one hand.
"With the royal city as the center and the old roads as the foundation, I plan to build a road connecting the major cities. Based on the road outside the royal city, I will spread the road to the whole country."
He said, "All roads that have been built will be used and maintained by the royal court in the future, and will no longer be under the jurisdiction of individual cities."
Everyone was stunned.
Historically, new kings who have just ascended the throne have tried their best to strengthen their military and political influence, and they thought the same would be true of Gallan.
But they never thought that the first decree proposed by Garland was actually to build a road.
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, you can know that the young king had planned this matter before he proposed it. for a long time.
Everyone looked at each other, and someone immediately objected.
"Your Majesty, you may not know it yet. Not to mention road construction, the maintenance cost of roads across the country is a huge amount, and it is difficult for the royal court to bear this cost."
Maintaining roads is inherently expensive and thankless. If cities know about this, they will be very happy to get rid of the burden, but they are not willing to take this hot taro back.
"Yeah, our manpower is simply not enough to maintain such a large road."
"Your Majesty, you'd better think carefully before deciding."
The crowd objected one by one.
"It's better to keep cities responsible for their roads, and if you're concerned about road damage, you can simply order them to do more maintenance on them."
Even the Zuo Sixiang, who was single-handedly drawn by Garlan, frowned and objected.
"Your Majesty, building a national standard slate road is an extremely huge project. It will cost a lot of money and manpower. We have just ended the war, and many places are still being rebuilt, whether it is financial or manpower. support this project."
It's not that Zuo Sixiang didn't know the benefits of building roads, but in his opinion, the young Wang's approach was too taken for granted, too ambitious, and did not consider the actual situation at all.
Even if it annoys King Garlan, he has a responsibility to oppose this impossible project.
"This is not something that can be done overnight. It takes a long time to recruit a lot of labor to do it. Not to mention that it is not long after the end of the war, when there is a shortage of labor, such a long-term labor force may cause dissatisfaction among the people..."
"Who said I'm going to call for labor to build roads?"
Garland cut him off abruptly.
Zuo Sixiang was startled.
Over the past dynasties, the construction of roads has been directly forcibly recruited from the local labor force, otherwise, who would voluntarily build roads
"You're right. Building a road is a long-term project that takes a long time. Therefore, I plan to hire people to build the road."
"Hire?"
"Yes, and there is no need for the royal court to bear the burden of property, 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 way, the ownership of the roads I built with my money belongs to the royal family."
He continued.
"As for labor, you don't need to worry, I have already arranged for Huymos and Kaijos."
In the early days of road construction, the fifty or sixty thousand people who had just been pardoned from slavery and had no idea how to make a living were enough.
He hired them to build roads and gave them the opportunity to work. Although it would be a little more difficult, they would have enough time to adapt to the status of civilians and live a good life.
Looking at the crowd, he asked, "Okay, what questions do you have?"
When Garlan said this, the people whose opposing opinions were sent back one by one immediately looked at each other and remained silent.
However, even so, some people still think that the grand plan is a fantasy, impossible to succeed, and most likely it is just a waste of human and material resources in the end.
Therefore, there are still people who continue to persuade Garlan to give up this plan.
"King Garland, I think this project is still too risky. Would you seriously consider..."
"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 the crowd, his golden eyes swept across the crowd.
At that sight, everyone shut their mouths.
"It's my decision."
Garland said.
He spoke in a calm tone and looked very indifferent.
But when the young king's eyes slowly swept past his courtiers, there was an invisible sense of oppression that made everyone's hearts shudder.
He was the king of Aaron Landis.
The king of Aaron Landis has made a decision.
At this moment, the entire court was silent.
After a moment of silence, everyone bowed and bowed their heads to the young king in front.
"Follow your will."
they said respectfully.
The first decree of King Garland was decided on this.
At this moment, the people in the court still don't know how much the things they are discussing today will leave a strong legacy in the future history.
…
Aaron Landis Blvd.
This is the general term for all the roads of that ancient age that were densely distributed throughout the continent of Aaron Landis.
With the King City of Aaron Landis as the center, it expands radially outward, connecting all the cities of Aaron Landis.
The existence of these roads allowed Aaron Landis to travel in all directions, and for more than a thousand years, Aaron Landis benefited greatly.
It has played an extremely important role in many matters such as military affairs, commercial transactions, promotion of population circulation, and strengthening of the central government's rule over the localities.
The construction of the road started from the reign of King Xianming, and was advocated by King Garland.
The project was originally planned to be completed within 50 years, and during this period it continued to extend outwards as the territory of Aaron Landis expanded. It took more than 100 years to complete the construction.
After its completion, the total length of roads exceeded 300,000 kilometers, covering the entire continent and connecting all cities.
This vast road project has amazed future generations.
It became one of the symbols of the Aaron Landis Empire at its height and glory.
It is also one of the greatest feats of the wise king, Garland.