Chapter 17: Building support
1 March 1258
1 March 1258
Dear Diary,
The past month I've fought a lot. The beginning of my own Margraviate is signed with blood, and strangely enough, people are liking me even more for it. Maybe they realise that a border count, who has been elevated into magravate and controls a really large country, is bound to be plunged into war. Back home magraviates had endless possibilities to expand, and so have I. But this month my gains were in the goodwill and friendship of people and nobility.
After a large feast held in honour of my newly appointed title, I still had quite some wine left. While I rode back to my domain, I met count Montewar in the tavern of Uxkhal. I was resupplying their stock, when he called me to a quiet corner. The war with Rhodoks had been going on for a while, and he had some money problems. While my star and purse were rising above anything and anyone else, he was slowly crawling forward. To make a little contribution to the war effort, he asked me to capture a Rhodoks noble. Any noble would be sufficient, as long as he could ransom him. Trying to get him on my side, I agreed to do it for him. No wonder I heeded the call of count Klargus when he called for me again, even while his betrayal was still fresh in my memory.
The only way our marshall, count Klargus, could hold his army together, is by plundering innocent villages.
After I collected quite a few able men in Uhhun castle, I rode straight to Rhodoks territories, where I found the count while he raided another village. After he finished his looting, I followed him into battle: they encountered count Falsevor, whom I helped to defeat. Unfortunately he escaped, although I would encounter him with a much smaller army later last month. After our victory the entire army split up: the marshall wasn't able to hold everyone together, to form one coherent striking force against the Rhodoks. I also rode into a general direction, until I ran into count Laruqen: I fought this Rhodoks count and after his defeat, I managed to capture him and drag him to Montewar. The moment I beaten him, I freed the Sarranid emir Ghanawa from his grasp. He wouldn't forget this rescue: this might come in handy later on. To celebrate this victory, we both took the last of my wine.
The next morning I was woken up by Artimenner. We had to hurry back to my margraviate, to start constructing a lot of new buildings. At first I though him nuts, but he managed to convince me: in every town I should start building a new school, where the farmers are taught to love me: also we needed a large mill industry, to boost productivity and thus taxes. That sounded good, so I agreed to ride along all villages, and start constructions everywhere. Even at this moment you can hear the sawing and hammering all across the east.
The villages in my margraviate are all really different: some are on the steppe, others in the forest and some even in the snowy cold fields. But at night they all turn dark.
Building my margraviate up to the most industrious part of the empire, would take time, and especially money. The initial constructions costed me quite a lot, and I needed to replenish my treasury. The most effective trade route I knew, was between Tulga and Ahmerrad. But it would be even more effective if the people in these cities would like me. So I decided to talk with the guild masters in each one of them, and ask if I could do something for them. And indeed, they could use my help, since their lords were too busy waging war or doing business elsewhere.
While I rode hence and forth between the two cities, buying spice and salt in Tulga and buying iron on Ahmerrad and selling both in the other one, I killed many desert bandits for the poor merchants in Ahmerrad. Those bandits just kept on coming back. Now that I was armed with many fine Swadian knights, they didn't dared to attack me, and many fled before me. Some I even had to track down all the way across the country of Sarranid, but I managed to find them every time. In Tulga the requests were a little more complicated. Of course there were sometimes bandits to be taken care off, or a caravan to be guarded, but the most important job I got there, was to ensure there would be peace between the Vaegir and the Khergit. I had learned from my experience with the peace between Swadia and Rhodoks half a year ago, so I first rode to the far off Nords and bought peace with them, before I rode to the much closer Khergit lord, who could be persuaded with much less denars. The reward from the guild master of Tulga compensated me royally.
I spoke with the guild master of Tulga, and arranged a peace between the Vaegir and Khergit for him.
Now I'm back in Tulga, with once again a fat purse. The big difference is that my country is now in the progress of being build up, while the people along the best trade route are starting to like me very well. Maybe it's time to bring my focus back to my own country, and start to please the people of my own villages along with the guilds of my cities. They are, after all, the ones who'll have to pay my taxes. And I also need to secure the trade routes that lead to both Khudan and Halmar: if those are safe, the tariffs will be flooding my treasury. This will be a nice opportunity to train more men.
*****
Gameplay notes
Here is a picture of Floris' current stats:
As you can see on the current map, the Sarranids managed to drive the Rhodoks back from their desert. At the moment they are at peace. In the north the Khergit were defeating the Vaegir when I intervened and arranged a peace settlement: they effectively sliced the Vaegir in two with their new colony.
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