Chapter 17 Mercenaries and Salary
The ministers were also moved by Hermon's righteous and stern words. Even Davos was a little stunned. He couldn't help but said, "We did ignore the issue of adult citizens in the past. Fortunately, you have Hermon to remind you in time. We need to pay attention, and of course we should cherish these young people, because they are the future of the kingdom! So after the meeting, the three of you, Hermon, Raphias, and Burkes, made a decision on whether or not to grant land to adult citizens, and how "How to allocate land" together, come up with a draft plan, discuss it at the next executive meeting, and then submit it to the Senate for approval."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The three responded in unison.
"Well, now let's go back to the topic of 'how to reinforce the Etruscan alliance', Heraclid's proposal to 'build a military fortress on the land given by the Etruscan alliance', I think not bad.
I think Cypro's suggestion of 'recruiting freemen and forming a border army' is also very good.
The issues mentioned by Burkes should indeed cause us to think deeply. The reason why Dionysus can grow up quickly is that we have long-term and firm implementation of the decree of 'accepting immigrants', so that we can get the support and help of the vast number of free people. There has been no disadvantage in every war. Today, even as the kingdom grows stronger, we still have many enemies, and we will encounter even stronger enemies in the future.
And . . . a pool is prone to rot if it is not infused with living water; a country is too closed without fresh blood and it loses its vitality. So I don't think it's necessary to completely stop the previous immigration laws, but how can we solve the border defense problem of the kingdom and allies, and at the same time allow other freedmen to have the opportunity to become citizens of the kingdom, and not let our adulthood Citizens feel unfair, which requires us to think carefully and come up with a practical and good solution! "
Davos used a slow speech rate to summarize and evaluate the discussions of the previous ministers, and at the same time used a firm tone to draw a general framework for the ministers, so as to prevent them from deviating from the direction in the discussion and not getting him. desired result.
The words of King Davos caused the ministers to think deeply.
It didn't take long for Cypros, who had been thinking about it, to say, "Your Majesty, I think it will be easier to solve this problem by setting different deadlines for foreign freemen to become citizens of the kingdom.
Freemen who joined the army and guarded the border only needed to serve five years before becoming full citizens of Dionia. Other free people had to work in the kingdom for more than ten years before they could become full citizens.
In this way, freedmen who want to become citizens of the kingdom as soon as possible are willing to take risks and join the frontier army, while freedmen who are unwilling to take risks or cannot take risks at all still have the opportunity to become citizens, as long as they are willing to slowly endure in the kingdom time. "
Davos stroked his chin with his hand, thought for a while, then nodded and said, "This method is good, what's your opinion?"
Seeing that Davos all expressed their approval, and other ministers did not have much objections, they discussed the details, and finally perfected this new bill: those who are recruited by Dionia and join Dionia Gentile freemen in the military can become full citizens of Dionia after serving 5 years; other Gentile freemen need to live in Dionia for ten years, pay taxes on time, and abide by the law before they can become Dionysians. A full-fledged citizen of Nigeria, if he dies during this period, his family can renew this period and can also obtain citizenship...
After discussing for a long time, we finally came to a conclusion. As soon as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, they listened to the rotating chairman, Lucias (due to the death of Cornerus and the retreat of Vespa, the 65-year-old Lucias a year ago On the grounds that he was not in good health and was not able to cope with complicated government affairs,
I want to resign from all positions. What he said is indeed true. After the Western Mediterranean War, the territory of the Kingdom of Dionia expanded greatly, the population increased sharply, and the resources were more abundant. Therefore, a large number of merchants, free people, and envoys of some city-states and forces poured into the central city. Turii, which has led to a huge increase in government affairs in the Turii region, has almost doubled the number of officials, and still feels that there are not enough manpower. But Davos kept him again and again, and in the end he just let him resign as the chief executive of the Turii region and still serve as the rotating chairman. In fact, many elders regard him as the first of the five rotating chairman) said: " Your Majesty, now that we have established a new immigration law and decided to recruit freemen to defend the Etruscan border and the border of our Iberian territories, how many people will we need to recruit?"
Davos looked at Alexis.
Alexis has considered this, and he said without hesitation: "I have said before that the northern border of Etruria needs about three to five thousand people, considering that there will be casualties in the process. , it also needs to be replenished continuously. Temporary recruitment will take time to train. It is better to recruit the number of a legion at one time, so that we can better train them with legion tactics. When fighting with the regular legion of the kingdom in the future, Command is more convenient.
The Iberian territory also needs the number of a legion to better protect the safety of the people in the territory. If they helped the allies to reinforce a legion and defend the kingdom's territory, but the number of soldiers is still small, I am afraid the people will be dissatisfied with this.
It is best that we have to recruit another legion to prevent the sudden invasion of large groups of enemies. It is too late for the kingdom to conduct military mobilization, so we can top this recruited legion first to buy us some time..."
When Lysias heard this, his face became a little unsightly: "Three legions, more than 24,000 people, this is a huge number, Sir Alexis has ever thought about how much the kingdom will pay for this. Salary?!"
Alexis was a little puzzled: "Salary? You don't need any salary. After these free people become soldiers, they eat and live in military camps. After completing their service, they can get rewards from the kingdom, become full citizens, get land, and pay Do you need to give them extra money?"
Lycias, who had served as the chief executive of Turii for many years, explained calmly: "A foreign freeman living in the kingdom, as long as he is diligent enough, can earn at least 15 drachmas a month. When he became a full citizen of Dionia and got his land in a few years, he had saved a lot of money, and he didn't need to take a loan from Cristoia Bank, he could have money to build a house and buy wheat seeds. , buy livestock, and maybe even buy another slave, and life will soon stabilize. Not to mention these free people, even if they are the public servants of the kingdom, Lord Raphias, will your slave camps be issued to you? Some pay for them?"
"Yes, but very little," Raphias replied.
"But at least there is." Lycias said slowly: "I heard that there was a very strong young slave in the slave camp in Turii, and every time he did more work than other slaves, he won a lot of As an extra reward, he saved all this money, and when he was free, he went to the slave market to buy a slave girl and made himself a wife..."
"This is the real story. This slave's name is Wayne Ram. He works very hard and is always rewarded. Therefore, he only stayed in the Turii slave camp for three years. Last year, the slave management office gave him his freedom." Raphael Yas said with a smile: "Because he has been a slave since he was a child, it is said that he has never gotten along with women. He always listened to other slaves talking about it in the slave camp, and was very curious, so he made this impulse. thing."
After he finished speaking, many ministers smiled.
"Lord Alexis, you see, even slaves are paid, not to mention these foreign freemen who will become the soldiers of the kingdom and guard the border for us, are they not treated as well as slaves? If so , it seems that we are too harsh, and it will also make them dissatisfied, affecting their enthusiasm for recruiting and future battles, are you right, Sir Alexis?"
Alexis has always been engaged in military affairs and does not know much about the social life of the kingdom. Hearing this, he couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed, so he could only say frankly: "Thank you Lord Lysias for the reminder, I really ignored this aspect. After I go back to the Ministry of Military Affairs and discuss with my colleagues, I will decide how much I need to pay these freemen soldiers.”
"It's not just a question of salary." Another rotating chairman, Sedorum, interjected: "Their rations, their weapons, their material consumption... I'm afraid they all need the kingdom to provide. Tens of thousands of people. Ah! What they have consumed is not a small amount, and His Majesty just said that this is not a temporary arrangement, this is a long-term decree, and a new important decision of the kingdom! This means that Etru The strong support of the Ria Alliance is only temporary, and it will definitely cost a lot of money for our kingdom in the long run, but where will this large cost come from?"
After Sedorum finished speaking, several senior ministers and the rotating chairman looked at each other and understood in their hearts that this was the difficulty in implementing this new resolution.
Alexis was stunned for a moment, and then replied: "Of course this is from the treasury."
As soon as he finished speaking, Archibides, the financial officer who had been impatient for a long time, immediately shouted: "No! This is no good! I have just said that the national treasury is tight, and there is no extra money to support such a long-term employment. army!"
Alexis, a high-ranking official of the kingdom, was confronted by Archibides, who was only a mid-level official. Even if he was more disciplined, his face could not be hung up at the moment. The kingdom has won so many gold and silver mines, acquired so many good lands, and added so much wealth to the kingdom, and now it needs the treasury to provide some help for the army, is this how your finance department treats the military affairs department?"
Archibides was stared at by Alexis, and he felt a little guilty, but he kept in mind the words of Mersis: "We guard the treasury for the kingdom, just like a mother defending her children, never It is easy to make concessions, even if you spend an extra Opol, you have to worry about it for a long time, this is a qualified Minister of Finance, and you will get the respect of His Majesty the King!"