Chapter 367: Busy Day

Mikhail wanted to ask Antonius some thing further, but Yuri seating gave the teenager a look with his arms folded, then slightly shook his head in disapproval. Mikhail of course noticed this sign within this confined space and kept his mouth shut, leaving some time for the admiral himself to tidy up that mess in his head. The carriage slowly rode in to the darkness guided by only one horse lamp, just like the entire government of Drama being directed in to a path of the unknown, of the uncertainty, the path covered in darkness and haze.

It took them quite a while to get back in to the city, with the guards going around catching a few pricks peeking around thinking that they have been well hidden among the tall grasses, but their hiding are pretty clumsy in the eyes of these battle hardened guards. They caught these buggers, searched through their bodies and are not surprised to find cleavers and knives. These bandits are shown them to the admiral, who is not really interested by these men but became worried on another issue; The light from the city gates of Drama is already barely visible in a distance, and these bandits are already in such proximity to the city bringing his worries on the security and stability of Drama to another level.

They arrived back in to the city of Drama unharmed, of course under the escort of fifty guards cavalries, and quickly scrambled to sleep in the government house. They still got a lot of work to be done when the sun arises.

A few days later Alexios arrived from Thessaloniki with a bunch of helpers, officials, scholars and trainees under the order of Antonius to start constructing a new base of governance for Drama, and together with those land lords and merchants under Borislav they formed a unique government structure never seen in any other parts of Antonius' state. There shall be three head officials instead of one for Drama, one is the official governor who is in charge of economics, trade activities, tax collection. One is in charge of military matters, social stability, law and order. While the last is mainly responsible for politics matters and the connection between the regional government and the central government.

Under these three men there are six departments, each in charge of one area of speciality, with the agriculture department as the most important one, followed by human resource, trade and market regulation enforcers, internal security, national post mail system and lastly education. Alexios quickly placed his men in to action setting up the frame work for the new government of Drama, while Yuri started taking over the local garrisons and began a series of patrols around the province.

It started with a great difficulty of course, initially the new government orders could not even make it outside of the major towns and cities because of the worsening internal security issues, but under the relentless patrols led by Yuri coming out of those gates to wipe out these grouped bandits things did get slightly better, especially when Yuri learnt from a fellow red head English Varangian of his and erected multiple poles outside the city along the main roads, spreading evenly along the way with the heads and torsos of those bandits who committed crimes that cannot be forgiven.

Though Alexios' newly formed government did not simply just comply to a martial solution to the problem, they adapted to Brosilav's suggestion too distributing winter clothing, food and fresh waters that are safe to drink for those who have laid their arms down to return to normal life in the fields. The martial laws and conciliation efforts worked in a parallel way, some times the officers enforcing these two different systems do find disputes here and there, such as the men under Yuri chopped down the head of some one who has just received the conciliation goods and promised to drop their arms, or the welfare officers finding themselves imprisoned by some of those notorious bandits who only wants to be the lord of his cave, ending up requiring Yuri to bring his army and search for him, making another few poles along the road hanging those bandits.

However, on an overall scale, things are indeed turning better for the people of Drama, within a few weeks after Antonius has forcefully inserted his dominance in to Drama. At least the main public roads connecting hot spots and towns are safe for commuters to travel on, only during the days, of course. The night is still casted in a sphere of terror and mysteriousness with still hundreds of armed bandits lurking around, according to Yuri's report some even have acquired illegal arms like cross bows, falchion made with hard steel, and even some chain mails.

Normally people would have certainly no absolute way of gaining these things, so there can only be two sources where did these things came from and leaked in to the hands of these bandits; It is either the previous corrupted local garrisons traded with these bandits, offering them some weapons and armours then reporting to their superiors saying that these weapons have 'spoilt' or have been 'lost'. Or these things could have came from the foreigners who smuggled them here either for gold or to disrupt the internal unity of Antonius' realm… Could it be the Ottomans? The Albanons? The Serbians? Or can it be the emperor of Constantinople Constantine himself? Well Antonius would never know.

Inside an estate's courtyard in the eastern corner of the city Drama, the Bulgarian merchant Borislav is seating down there feeding a peck of pigeons with some bread, when suddenly the door to the courtyard opened with one middle aged man and one teenager entering. 

"Every thing is set and ready, just as what you have wished father." The middle aged man broke the silence and bowed down before Borislav, together with the youngster beside him. 

"Good." Borislav replied and continued feeding the bread scraps to the pigeons. 

After a while it seems like the youngster could no longer resist the impulsive thoughts of a teenager, making him step one foot forward and called out. "Grand father! I… I…"

"Why?" Borislav continued feeding his pigeons. "Feeling exasperated about your part of the wealth being taken away by the government forcibly?"

"Yes Grand father." The youngster answered. "That Caesar, who is not even a Roman like us, came here to rip not only just mine, but also every one off a large portion of their wealth and land which we spent such a great amount of effort and time to take them from those peasants, and those peasants are supposed to serve under us… Those lands are supposed to be ours in the first place! And also because of him, you, Grand father, is forced to lose a part of your own fame and trust towards our allies in Drama. I cannot stand what this Caesar is doing to us."

"Maybe, maybe not, but remember my boy, there is no correct option to this, only the option to keep the family carry on existing. I know that none of us is feeling pleasant to the deeds the Caesar did to us, but you got to have two basic ideas in your head and hide those rebellious thoughts within you not only for your own good, but also to prevent causing any further trouble to the entire family. I do not want to receive news of you getting charged after you have gone to Thessaloniki."

The youngers bowed slightly down with the corner of his mouth twitching, forced a smile on his face and asked. "Please, do enlighten me Grand father."

"First thing first, you got to realise what is the fundamental thing that keeps a state running in this age, that is to rule through a set of rules and regulations through violence." Borislav stood up chasing the pigeons away and sounded off in a deep voice. "Have you seen that cutlass hanging by the side of the Caesar? Do note in mind that he does not just have that one blade, he has tens of thousands of blades equipped by his faithful followers… You got to respect, even afraid the authority sometimes because if the Caesar ever pulls his blade out of his scabbard for us, we will see our own heads rolling in no time. And do you really think that those other land lords, merchants or what is able to resist the Caesar's martial capabilities? Even with the support of the Albanons and Ottomans? I don't think they are. Tell me, my grand son Tsvetan, do you really think that those bronze pots the Caesar set up a few weeks ago in that terrace, is only for cooking lambs?"

The spoilt and rebellious youngster bite his teeth refusing himself to submit to this surge of powerlessness rising up from within him, despite having practised the craft of swords since a young age and riding skills as a part of their ancestor's traditions he refuses to have anyone being on top of him, even if it is the dominion of the region.