Herald of Steel

The way Alexander said the two words, 'Your Majesty.' conveyed not a shred of respect but only anger and contempt that was clear to everyone in the room.

Alexander hated being interrupted and the idiot jumping up to obstruct something he had no idea of, made Alexander ticked off.

So when Alexander calmly, with ice in his eyes said those words to Ptolomy, the latter shrunk in fear.

"As I was saying," Alexander started again, repeating, "Everyone who comes to see the two kings, the dead one and His Majesty, will get a bowl of porridge."

He then asked Grahtos, "Now captain, since time is short and you have the whole city to cover, you are excused from this meeting. So please take your men and spread the word. The defense of the city depends on you."

"Yes, commander." Grahtos promptly got up hearing this command and after performing a military salute, turned and left with hurried purposeful steps.

This action prompted Ptomoly to subconsciously frown a bit as the captain paid no attention to him, but for now, he kept it to himself.

Alexander afterward turned his head to another man, "Heliptos, the servants will need large earthen pots to cook and store all the porridge. You are to take whatever men you can find and raid the noble houses to get as many huge pots as you can get. Send them all to the palace- the servants will cook here. Now go." Alexander then excused Heliptos the same way he did Grahtos.

With another gone, Alexander turned to Menes, "Menes, you will be responsible for arranging the security around the temple."

He here gave him a detailed plan of the route people will use, "The people will enter the temple through the inner gates and make their way towards the temple's outer courtyard. Here they will get their porridge. Then they are to go through the back of the temple towards the beaches and then turn left to make their way out of the inner city."

"You are to make sure this path is followed and the people don't wander about or break the queue. Also, make sure the soldiers in the inner city don't attack the people."

"Yes, commander," Menes saluted as he stood up, knowing his time in the meeting was over.

Alexander here gave additional instructions, "Take the eight hundred men from our group as your security force. And remember to survey the route I planned out to look for obvious weak spots."

"I'm going to do it right now," Menes reassured and hastily exited.

With the room drastically thinned out, Alexander turned to Melodias and said, "Leader Melodias, I plan to make fifty queues to feed four hundred thousand people in twelve hours. I will need your men to be in charge of serving the food. This will include not only pouring the porridge but also making sure the pots containing the porridge are always there so the line keeps moving."

The huge numbers uttered by Alexander took everyone a bit back, but Melodias quickly replaced it with a smile and accepted the order graciously.

After which he left in haste to gather his men.

And although feeding four hundred thousand people and fifty queues might sound like a lot, one had to take into account that the temple of Ramuh was a huge structure designed exclusively to entertain Adhania's elites. The temple alone was about the size of a football pitch - 100 meters long and about 40 meters wide.

And the outer courtyard was even bigger and wider, around a few hundred meters long and 100 meters wide.

Alexander planned to place fifty feeding stations in the outer courtyard, each two meters apart from the other, and estimating that it took five seconds to dump the porridge into the bowl, he calculated he would be able to feed thirty-six thousand people in an hour or if it lasts from dawn to dusk, about four hundred thousand in around eleven to twelve hours.

This was half the total population of the city pre-war.

Alexander then at last turned to Menicus and apologetically said, "Leader Menicus, I know I asked you to take inventory of the food. But, I am afraid I'm gonna have to task you with another task."

"Please, commander, anything! I can handle two jobs, no problem," Menicus waved his still-strong hands to reassure Alexander.

So Alexander instructed, "Amenheraft's army will be soon here and we need to start preparing. We already have ten thousand. I plan to recruit roughly another fifty thousand."

"How does the commander intend to do it?" Menicus had an inkling it would have something to do with the event tomorrow.

Alexander explained the procedure, "Tomorrow, I want your men to say to the men coming to the temple that all artisans will be given two meals a day for them and their families if they report to the palace the day after tomorrow. And any man willing to fight will be given three meals a day for them and two meals for their meal if they decide to join the army. The recruiting will occur at the barracks."

Menicus perfectly understood the need to recruit artisans as they would be vital to making, maintaining, and repairing all war materials such as weapons, shields, shoes, armor, arrows, etc.

Even potters and bakers would be needed for logistics.

But to give so much food to the soldiers hurt his heart and so decided to object to Alexander, although in a polite way.

"Hmmm, that is a good way to recruit soldiers." He first praised.

He then bought out his complaint with a worried frown, "But that's a lot of food, commander. Can we afford it?"

Alexander released a long sigh at Menicus's concern which he too shared.

But he reasoned, "I know that. But the original plan to defend the city using the walls to outlast Amenheraft is no longer viable because much of the stored food got burnt."

Here Alexander paused to shoot a glance at Ptolomy who could only turn his head and treat as if he did not see Alexander.

Alexander then turned his head back and continued, "We cannot last in a siege against Amenheraft and he knows it. So we will have to defeat him in a pitched battle. And to win against his battle-hardened troops, we will need better than thin, malnourished, starving peasants. We have three weeks and hopefully, it will be enough time to grow some meat, if not muscles on those skinny cadavers."

Alexander thus managed to convince Menicus why the soldiers needed the food but the veteran old man asked, "But why are well also giving two pots to their family?"

And he was right to ask this as there was no military reason to give it.

This was only proposed out of Alexander's own selfish desire to win the soldiers' hearts and have them join him instead of Ptolomy.

But he hid these and gave Menicus the excuse, "These men cannot hope to match Amenheraft's men in terms of skill and ability. And for that, they will need to make up for these deficiencies with courage and sheer will. And where will they get their courage from?"

Alexander paused to look at Ptolomy and wryly smiled, "I'm afraid the common peasant does little care about who sits on the divine throne."

He then shook his head and raised his clenched fists, "No, they care much more about their family. And when they learn that if they lose, not only will they die, their families will also starve, they will fight harder."

"*Sigh*, it feels like I'm the eighteen-year-old and the commander is the one who is fifty," Menicus ruefully smiled at Alexander's methodicalness.

And then cheerfully saying," It seems the commander has truly thought of everything."

He then without requiring any other prompt, got up saying, "So, please excuse me as I start inventorying and sending the food to the servants to start cooking, Then I will arrange for my men to get the barracks ready to accept the influx of recruits the day after tomorrow."

Finishing this Menicus bowed and left, leaving Alexnader thinking, 'It sure is nice to have an experienced military commander.'

Alexander said this because Menicus, over his long mercenaries career, Menicus had to do the jobs Alexander assigned hundreds of times and knew very well the ins and outs of the procedure and its hidden challenges.

With Menicus gone, this left only three people and Alexander addressed Petricuno, "Leader Petricuno, tomorrow, the soldiers in the prison cells will be executed for harming the nobles. I will have to rely on you to get them to the temple safely and execute them."

"As you command, commander," Petricuno said, and then understanding he was no longer needed made himself scarce.

This only left the two men alone in the huge dining room and Ptolomy looked at Alexander with sparkles in his eyes, beyond impressed by the competency he showcased right now.

"Alexander, I want you to be my prime minister." Ptolomy made an offer he didn't think any sane man would refuse.

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