Herald of Steel

Alexander very well knew the design for his roads was a bit of an overkill.

He could easily get away with decreasing by at least a third if not half.

But since he was building the damn thing, he thought he might as well finish in one go.

He knew very well just how hard it was to restart such a huge project once it was done.

Any further modification, even an inch of width increase would require hiring almost nearly the same amount of people and more than that, produce all sorts of discontent among the lords about them losing their land.

Because Alexander was not paying to 'use' their land.

So since his treasury was now full and he had the political capital to force the nobles to let him build roads through their territory without compensation, he was determined to see it through.

Thus he brushed off Uzak's idea of doing it half now and leaving the rest for later.

"We have already decreased the width from 8 meters to 6 meters previously. So to decrease it again…" He heavily shook his head, "We need at least 6 meters. With Zanzan opening up to the world, these roads will be filled with carts and wagons. Then if we were to march an army through, it would greatly disrupt trade."

"Roads have been built before cement. Construct them the same way." Alexander instructed.

"But…"

"If you cannot do it, then perhaps you can hand it over to me." Uzak was just about to make his own counterpoints when he was suddenly interjected by this sneering tone- and it was from Jazum.

Originally this man was the one in charge of building the cement kilns.

However many of his later actions, including trying to put his incompetent son in charge of the brick kilns and making a mess of it had made him lose favor with Alexander.

There were even reports of various corruption charges about him from Camius, such as some of the city's gangs answering to him.

Alexander did not yet outright punish him yet because one- he had no solid evidence and two- he thought it was too early to kick someone out of the council- he had only set it up five years ago and feared others would be spooked by this sudden dismissal.

So instead he simply marginalized him in favor of Krishok, letting the former be only in charge of a football stadium he had commissioned in the middle of the city.

Now, this was no small task, but when compared to essential infrastructure like aqueducts, sewage systems, and roads, the prestige was certainly lacking.

Whenever his colleagues would gather and talk about how their projects were going and how finishing them would change Zanzan, he always felt inferior.

Thus he was perhaps the most eager to kick Uzak down.

"I think you should stick your own things, Lord Jazum."

It was too bad the rest of the council did not share his thoughts, as snorted out by none other than Diaogosis.

Then leaving the man frozen with that rictus grin, turned to first address Alexander,

"My lord, I believe what Brother Uzak was trying to say before was interrupted is that building the roads old way will take a long time, and cost much more."

Then without giving Alexander to respond, quickly turned to meet Uzak,

"So why not do this brother? Make the base of the road much deeper. That will make it harder for the stones to slip off. Then dig small channels around the side to let the rainwater seep out. And if even that is not enough, you can even drive wooden posts around the edges to keep the road in."

"This…." Hearing the idea, Uzak instinctively wanted to refute it.

But when he thought about it a bit longer… he suddenly found it to be feasible.

So finally after a while, with a difficult nod, he clenched out,

"We can indeed do this. That 6 meter or 4 meter width won't likely change anything. But if we dig deep enough… and then reinforce the sides with some kind of fence… we can build roads over most flat lands that will last. As for the wetlands and the hills…. we will just have to regularly repair them."

Each of these words was said quite slowly, through many deliberate pauses, as if the man was weighing the value of each of them like gold.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Uzak did this because he wanted to neither overpromise and under deliver or outright reject Alexander.

The pasha was too set on getting this done to take no for an answer.

"Hmmm, Diaogosis has made a great recommendation." Alexander hummed in pleasure at the proposed solution, but then also added his own twist,

"Okay, then we will do it like this. The flat roads will be constructed using his method. And the hills and the wetlands like the swamps can use the usual cement. This will solve both our problems."

"As for the perimeter fences… plant trees instead. They will be far more useful both for the road and the travelers."

The idea of planting trees by the roads came to Alexander from the Mongols doing it along the Silk Road and even before that Asoka, an ancient Indian king.

"Hahaha, the Pasha is truly wise."

And that idea was enough for this genuine shout of praise from Diaogosis who was truly impressed that Alexander could come up with something better than his own in such a short time while sitting inside his room.

There had never been a question of Alexander's genius among the men, and this small demonstration worked to show why.

Many of the council members also quickly joined in the flattery following this including the slightly glum Jazum.

And it was only after the excitement died down a bit that Uzak boldly took the step to once again ask Alexander with clenched fists and a slightly reddened eye,

"Forgive me my lord…but. if we are to finish the roads on time this way… I will need more men because it will be a lot more work."

The man seemed really embarrassed to beg for more when he was already given so much concession. But given all the extra digging Alexander's new method would require, he could only bite his tongue and turn shameless.

The far worse would be for him to make promises and then fail.

Alexander at first responded neither yes nor no to the claim.

Instead, gently waving his palms, he simply asked,

"Wait for the new iron shovels, they will make digging a lot faster. Also, you can transfer many of the men used in supplying cement to regular workers. They won't be needed there."

And this was immediately followed by a comment from Cambyses,

"And if my lord still has shortages, have the surrounding villages help out. The roads are also theirs, it benefits them the most. It is only fitting they should contribute."

Among all the council members, it was perhaps only the main wife who had the power to unilaterally grant such privileges without going through Alexander first.

So it could be seen how some of the lords indeed had a good cause for fearing her on the table.

Alexander made an agreeing nod to Cambyses's idea while thinking to himself, 'Looks like I will be able to leave some of the tasks to Cam in the future. This is good,' and then lamenting,

'But who would have thought building roads were so troublesome? It's no wonder it took the Romans thousands of years to build up the whole network."

….

With the road issue finally coming to an end, Alexander turned to the last man in charge of one of the infrastructures- Jazum and his football stadium.

And here the man also raised the same concerns- a lack of cement had delayed construction.

This gave the sharp tongued Cambyses a perfect opportunity to scoff, "If you can't even complete your task why are you going after others?"

To which Alexander produced a slight smirk at the lashing.

Then with his wife having done the job for him, simply asked the man to make do as best as he could with what he had while promising to get him some additional cement.

Alexander afterward moved onto agriculture, where the elder man- Menicus was in charge.

According to him, there were no major issues, the various fields were on track to produce their expected harvests, there were no signs of blights or diseases and the issue of introducing new technologies like the heavy plow and the three crop system throughout the land was well underway.

The wizened man with still shining eyes thus reported with a gruff, rough voice,

"My lord just as said, many of the farmers are indeed reluctant to follow your ways. They simply do not trust anything they don't know. So we are doing as you said. In each of the villages, we are paying one or two farmers to try our method with the promise that anything above a certain harvest will be theirs."

"We have just started and it will take such a few years to fully show the results… but the signs are already promising. Zanzan can expect to feed all its people soon. All praise to you."

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