Herald of Steel

The large, almost billboard sized paintings depicting Alexander's victories were undoubtedly a huge propaganda drive, done to show the man's prowess in battle and establish his authority as a conqueror among the hearts of the common people.

So in the retelling, he was depicted as being a perfect all rounder, as a genius tactician, a skillful general, and a brave warrior fighting right on the frontlines with the men themselves, all at the same time.

And the crowd loved this all competent look, cheering with such impassioned cries,

"Look! The lord is so brave! Fighting at the frontlines! Truly a dragon amongst men!"

"Hahaha, yes. Little wonder those Tibians failed. They never stood a chance in the first place!"

"Lord Pasha is invincible! Glory to him! Glory to his rule!"

None had ever seen such a way of storytelling.

And so they lapped it all up like hungry cats, not questioning even a single event, with many even inwardly thinking, 'Finally a lord who fights his battles for himself!'.

The crowd was so moved that although Camius had arranged for some paid performers, ones whose job would be to stir the crowd and make chants after them, most of these 'employees' found themselves to be without much work.

The regular people cheered by themselves.

And the same reaction was caused by the depictions of the army, where Alexander made each and every man look like heroes single handedly slaying dragons.

In fact, the menacing way Alexander drew the elephants perhaps appeared even fiercer than dragons to some, as these grey, clad in red and gold leather armor behemoths were drawn to be so huge and they seemed to even blot out the sky, the legionaries so tiny that they could barely reach the beast's knees.

It was an awe inspiring painting, especially considering the message it sent- that the legionaries were ultimately triumphant against such a fearsome animal.

And seeing, many hot blooded, gullible youths were quickly converted into their worshippers, idolizing them as heroes and swinging their clenched fists excitedly, shouting,

"I want to join the military too!"

"Yeah! They look so cool. Let's go sign up tomorrow!"

"One day, I too will vanish these evils and bring glory to the lord."

The smell of fame, glory, and adventure drew in so many of them that it ensured Alexander would not have a recruitment problem for the foreseeable years to come.

Following the paintings, came another group of carts, these carrying huge 3D cut offs and pictures of the specialities of Tibias.

This was done to show the regular Zanzanites what they were exactly celebrating since most of them were largely ignorant of the outside world.

Hence these carts worked to make them aware of all the new riches that were now added to their territory.

It started with the depiction of the lush fertile banks of the huge Diannu, shown from a top aerial view of a vast blue river, with its banks appearing endless, all filled with vast quantities of ripe golden wheat.

Then came a cart containing the very soil shown in the painting, the mound of earth taken from the most arable part of the plains to be shown off as an example.

And the soil was so good that even from a distance, the farmers in the crowd could detect its richness and were unable to stop themselves from praising it with sparkling eyes,

"That's such good soil! I cannot believe it."

"Mmmm… who would have thought the Tibians had such good farmland? I always thought it was all desert there!"

"Darm lucky bastards! *Tsk*!"

"Hahaha, no need to be jealous. It's all ours now! Good, good."

The next exhibition showed the Diannu being filled with numerous boats and small ships with colorful sails of red, blue, green, and yellow, while the nearby banks were occupied by bustling markets and ports, representing the trade and commerce conducted using this waterway.

Along with the paintings came large wooden models of various types of boats, all sporting decorative paper sails of various colors, and some even having men on them, acting as sailors and fishermen.

And speaking of fishermen, that was the next theme- pictures showing the abundance of fish in the river and the men catching them using various ways, nets, baits, and traps.

And along with that, the Zanzanites were shown large, colorful cut off of various fishes, made using paper atop a bamboo skeleton.

The schools of fish shown were a mix of real and fantastical ones, the grey, silvery, and black colors of regular species like salmon, trouts, eels, catfish, and various other types of carps contrasting deeply with the vibrant red, blue, and golden yellow of some of the more imaginative ones that Alexander had managed to make up, to play up the mysteriousness and thus the value of the Diannu.

After all, in reality, the Zanzan and Tibian fishermen both caught mostly the same types of fish.

However, that certainly would never be exciting enough.

Thus Alexander 'colored' the truth a bit, adding to the water many mythical fishes that supposedly existed nowhere else in the world, fishes that had some very creative features added to them by their 'creator'.

Features like huge bulbous heads, terrifying teeth, illusory tentacles, glowing lanterns, split tails, and eyes in various places, to name only a few.

"What are these? Such beasts exist!"

"By the gods! These are fantastic! I must try to catch one!"

"How do they taste? Are they edible?"

"Hmmm… They have to be poisonous! Or I would have seen the Tibians selling them."

Of course, even though most of the crowd was enamored by Alexander's depictions and took them as gospel, it was not like he was without his skeptics.

People who have been to Tibias as well as the few Tibians who were attending the parade all expressed some sort of disbelief and suspicion at these strange creatures whom they had never seen.

But such people were such a minority that they were ignored by the overwhelming masses.

Although Alexander did not help his case with his next showcase- which was the painting of a literal dragon.

Serpentine and colored in blue, it was shown to be traversing the water of the Diannu, its long, scaly body forming a sinusoidal wave in the waters- a classic portrait of a hidden monster.

And if that was not enough, he then showed himself fighting the mighty beast, the man on a small, rickety boat with his sword drawn out, while the serpent towered over him with its fangs widely shown out, seemingly ready to swallow the entire boat in one gulp.

Of course, the message of the painting was clear.

Alexander had single handedly slain a water dragon during his campaign against Tibias.

The balls on this guy.

'When did such a monster start living in the water!' And seeing this, the Tibians in the vicinity instantly thought so with incredulity, since they never knew any legends of such a monster residing in the waters.

But it did not matter what this small number of people thought.

Because the vast majority of people of Zanzan thought it was real.

And they loved it.

"Hero! The pasha is a great hero. No one else could have slain such a beast!"

"Yes! He truly is blessed by the gods! Look, there are even the parts of the beast's body! Magnificent!"

Indeed, there was a wooden 3D model of the dragon, blue and silver in color, following the painting, with pig and cow blood and flesh expertly plastered onto the sides, as trails of blood realistically dripped along its side, giving the illusion that the whole thing was real flesh and blood.

At least real enough if you really wanted to believe it was and looked at it from afar.

Now, why did Alexander decide to add a totally fabricated dragon to his story?

Well because adding a dragon was simply the norm, as it brought a touch of mythicalness to the campaign.

Which was a requirement for impressing the people of the time.

For them, fighting armies and destroying walls, and taking the stored riches were all good and well.

But nothing beat seeing the army fend off some great mythical beast.

Such stories really sold well.

And the cheers of awe, shock, and pride elicited when the crowd saw the dragon proved it without doubt.

The next few paintings after this however were much more mundane and produced far fewer joys.

They showed Tibias's local produce such as large cut outs of fruits like grapes, figs, papayas, and decadent vegetables of colorful and vibrant quality, all accompanied by carts full of the stuff.

There were even some carts carrying literally the fruit bearing plants, such the grape vines, and other small, hollowed out displays.

Then there were pictures of barrels of wine, Tibias's most well known specialty, and thick rolls of high quality fabric.

And lastly, there were pictures of huge, marshlands where grew boundless amounts of papyrus, with the green plants all being shown to the public, for many of whom, this was the first time seeing it.

With this part ending by showing a cart carrying a huge billboard made of papyrus, that showed pictures of how the skilled artisans turned this precious plant into scrolls and paper.

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