Chapter 33
Sid entered the former slaver headquarters surprised at the activity that surrounded the place. Rather than tearing it down because it was a symbol of oppression, it had been converted into the town council building. The sign over the entrance proclaimed both roles by displaying a Crown positioned over a Citadel. The upper floor from which the slaver general had watched Sid's forces defeat the slaver army had been converted to a royal office. The remaining floors were dedicated to managing the citadel.
Following behind Albert, Sid and Fred were led to a large office where other key leaders of his army were waiting for him. Entering the room, Sid smiled at the sight of Olaf and Barson seated at the conference table. Shaking hands with the men, he said, "It does my heart good to see you again."
"We came as soon as we heard that you were coming here," Barson said. The clothes he wore were of much better quality than he had worn in the past. He had started another cloth manufacturing company and was advertising the result by wearing clothes made from it.
"Connor is on his way here. Sebeson will be joining us in an hour," Sid said.
"Sebeson? Isn't that Masterson's cousin?" Barson asked.
"He's Masterson's older brother," Sid answered with a grin. The younger men reacted as expected by nudging each other with their elbows. Sid was sure that Masterson was going to have some pointed barbs thrown his way in the near future.
"Speaking of Masterson, he's on his way to the citadel north of us," Barson said.
"What? Did Colonel Lee win already?" Sid asked.
Connor walked into the room at that moment and said, "Colonel Lee never required our help. Everything we heard about his campaign was a lie. Masterson sent me a message that before he arrived at Colonel Lee's camp that he was expecting to find a hundred starving men. Instead he found ten thousand men in a well disciplined and well supplied camp."
Nodding his head, Sid said, "He was using disinformation to lure the enemy into battles they could not win. I should have known that. I was impressed by him when we met at the Jones Citadel."
"Two weeks ago he brought thirty thousand men to face ten thousand of the slaver army. They destroyed the slavers and are now in control of the whole area," Connor said.
"So the war is over," Sid said.
"Yes, the war is over. There are three new kings in Chaos: King Sid, King Lee, and King Chambers. I hope the three of you get along well because I'd hate to see what would happen if you ever went to war with each other," Connor said shaking his head. All three of the men had started with almost nothing and built armies that destroyed the most powerful military force ever assembled on Chaos.
"Masterson would love it," Barson said.
The men took seats around the table with Sid seated at the head of the table. Looking over at Albert, Sid asked, "Who else are we expecting?"
"Gregor agreed to come. Michelson and Jackson are coming once they are finished with the weekly council meeting. They considered postponing it until after meeting with you, but there was a murder a couple of weeks ago. The man responsible was caught yesterday and, by custom, the council had to meet to schedule the trial," Albert answered.
"I understand. When will the trial be scheduled?"
"Michelson wanted to schedule it for tomorrow so that you could sit in judgment," Albert answered.
Shaking his head, Sid said, "Michelson will serve as judge."
"You are the owner of the citadel, it is your job," Barson said looking at Sid.
"I'm appointing Michelson as Lord of the citadel. It becomes his responsibility to serve as judge for crimes within his holding. My job is to hear the appeal if there is one," Sid said.
"Michelson will happy to hear that his appointment is permanent," Connor said nodding his head. Glancing over at Olaf, Albert, and Barson, he noticed the young men didn't look overjoyed to hear the Michelson was becoming a Lord.
"Don't worry. He's not going to be all that happy," Sid said while winking at the young men. He had noticed that they were feeling a little jealous and had a plan for dealing with that jealousy before it became a problem.
"Why not?"
"I'm giving Jackson his own city. He'll be a Lord as well. That means that Michelson is losing his right hand man," Sid answered. He looked at the three young men and added, "Counting citadels, cities, and major towns, I have more than sixty Lordships to hand out."
There were sixty Lordships available and approximately eighty two of the original people who left the Jones Citadel were still alive. Barson sat back in his chair doing the math. It sounded to him like Sid was about to give him a Lordship. Smiling at his friend, he asked, "Olaf, do you feel a slightly twisted idea coming to you?"
The big man nodded his head coming to the same conclusion. The best holding to have was a citadel, but that was primarily a military holding. The value of a municipal holding was closely associated with the population of the municipality, cities were better than towns. Holdings encompassing villages, usually more than one village, were considered rural holdings. Rural holdings comprised more area and fewer people than a municipal holding, but were more difficult to manage due to geography. Considering how much the trio of young men had contributed to the war effort, he was pretty sure that he'd receive a city holding. He said, "You know, I think there is one just itching to get out. There's some idea about becoming a Lord that is rattling around in my head, just trying to get out. With my thick head, though, it is going to take a while it to get through."
Albert looked at his two friends and then said, "I don't know what kind of idea Olaf has percolating in his mind, but I have one or two. I can see myself sitting around my manor drinking watered wine and watching wenches."
Sid laughed and said, "I think you young men are getting ahead of yourselves."
Barson looked at Sid in shock. He asked, "What do you mean?"
"I have bigger plans for you three," Sid answered watching their eyes get wider while wondering what Sid was suggesting.
"What kind of plans?" Albert asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. He was rather enthralled with the idea of being a Lord.
"As Fred keeps reminding me, I'm a King now," Sid answered looking from one young man to the other. He had their full attention. He said, "I've got to establish a kingdom. That means I need to have a capital city, maintain an army, and rule over more than sixty holdings. That's a lot of work."
"That is a lot of work," Connor said nodding his head. It was work for younger men than him. He was feeling his age and wanted to retire.
"Part of what I need to do is put men that I can trust in positions of power. The young men and women who left with me from the original Jones citadel are loyal and trustworthy. A few of them told me that they planned to return home and settle down at the end of this campaign. Some of the women have married and left to start lives of their own. I have plenty of Holdings to give to those men and women who want them," Sid said.
Albert listened to what Sid was saying with an impatient ear. He wanted Sid to get to the point and let him know where his holding was going to be located. He fidgeted in his seat. Connor leaned over and whispered, "I'm sure he'll get to the point sometime."
"I wish he'd get to the point soon," Albert replied in a voice that was a little louder than a whisper. With the end of the war, he was not as busy as he preferred. All that he had ahead of him was to shift production from wartime goods to peacetime goods. That wasn't much of a challenge.
"The problem is that holdings are a local presence of power. I need men and women to serve the kingdom as a whole," Sid said ignoring the interruption. He knew that of the three, Albert was the most driven to work. He didn't like sitting around doing nothing, despite his previous suggestion to the contrary.
Olaf raised an eyebrow while stroking his chin. He started to see where Sid was headed. Despite his big dumb appearance and his act about how clueless he was, Olaf was actually the brightest of the three. Barson was the most social of them and Albert was the hardest working. Leaning forward in his chair, he said, "You need ministers."
"That's right," Sid said. "Specifically, I need a Minister of the Treasury, a Minister of Agriculture, and a Minister of the Interior. Each of those will come with a small, but profitable, holding."
Olaf and Barson looked at each other. Unsure if he liked the idea of being a civil servant, Barson said, "That is a little different than what I was expecting."
Albert was overjoyed at the prospect of the work involved. Without even thinking through what Sid had said, he asked, "Which Ministries are you giving us?"
Olaf answered, "I'm sure that King Sid wants you to be the Minister of Agriculture."
Everyone around the table laughed. Sid said, "Barson has a real talent for trade, so I thought that I would have him as Minister of the Treasury. His responsibilities would include establishing trade policies, collecting taxes, and establishing budgets."
"I would like that," Barson said. He broke out in a smile when he thought about how his father would react to the news.
"Your holding will be Weavertown," Sid said. It was the logical place since Barson had basically run most of his operation out of that town throughout the war.
"Nice," Barson said. He had thought long and hard about setting up a house in that area. He'd even picked out the land on which he wanted to build it.
"I figured that Olaf would be the Minister of Agriculture. Anyone who can find so many overly productive chickens like Olaf managed is best suited for the job," Sid said provoking a laugh while Olaf shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands in the air with a sheepish look on his face. In a more serious voice, Sid said, "In a way, I think that is going to be the hardest job of them all. Most of our agriculture is just enough to feed everyone. I want us to be an exporter of food to the rest of Chaos. That means developing an infrastructure that promotes higher yields, better land management, and storage."
"Yes, I can see that," Olaf said nodding his head. His mind was overflowing with directions to explore.
"I figure that you'd like the Appleton as your holding," Sid said looking over at Olaf to see his reaction.
"Appleton? All they do there is grow apples," Olaf said voicing his initial reaction to the holding. It was probably the most boring town in all of Chaos. All they did there was raise apples and make Applejack. That was a pretty profitable activity. Thinking about it for a second, he said, "I see your point. Appleton exports almost all of its apples in one form or another. It is also a pretty low maintenance holding."
"Exactly," Sid said. Turning to Albert, he said, "Ministry of the Interior is going to be a critical position. We need an infrastructure of good roads that will allow trade year round, dams to control water so that Olaf can improve productivity of our farms, and forts that allow us to protect our borders. I also want to set aside land to remain undeveloped. While it isn't all that important now, it will be important in the future to have vast areas of undeveloped land."
"That's a rather significant challenge," Albert said thinking about the amount of work that would entail. A good percentage of the effort would require engineering expertise.
"One of the first things would be to build my castle," Sid said offering Albert the one thing that was sure to excite the young man.
"A castle?" Albert echoed sitting up straight. That sounded exactly like the kind of engineering challenge he had always wanted. He had studied forts and citadels in terms of undermining defenses. Planning a castle that could withstand a significant siege would be a challenge.
"Yes, a castle. It will have to be large enough to hold all of the functions of government, a moderate military, and the influx of visitors that a seat of power attracts," Sid said.
"Where is this castle to be located?" Albert asked.
"Good question and one you'll have to answer. I want it close to the center of the kingdom," Sid answered with a smile.
"That's going to be a lot of work," Albert said, his mind already addressing the problem.
Sid watched Albert for a minute and then asked, "Aren't you curious about your holding?"
Surprised, Albert answered, "Oh. I forgot about that."
"Smithville," Sid said.
"That's great," Albert said genuinely pleased. That was the town that he basically grew from nothing while putting together the factories to produce the siege engines for Sid's army. It had a variety of manufacturing businesses.
Nodding his head, Sid said, "I figure the three of you will have to work together for many years to come. I expect to hear you tell me about all of these slightly twisted ideas you manage to have."
"Excellent," Olaf said.
"There are some questions that I need answered from new Minister of the Treasury," Sid said.
"What?" Barson asked.
"How much money do we have?"
"We have almost three hundred thousand Conches," Barson answered with a grin. He'd been very effective in getting value for Sid's money.
Nodding his head, the figure was about what Sid had expected. He said, "That's about what I've figured. I've been giving every man a Conch as separation pay."
"A Conch?" Barson asked incredulously. He had wondered why Sid had been requesting so much money from him. It was hard to believe that he was giving the men that much money. That was a year's pay for most men.
Sid looked over at Barson and said, "Yes. I've been giving the men a Conch. You've got to understand what they gave up by joining with us. When we liberated them, they had the choice of cutting out a homestead from the farm on which they had been held as slaves or joining my army. They lost a lot of time and money fighting for us. A conch puts them on an even footing with those who stayed behind."
Barson hadn't thought about the personal price that some of the freed slaves had to pay for joining up with Sid. The men and women who had joined them weren't mercenaries or adventurers. They had been normal people whose lives had been turned upside down as a result of slavery. He said, "You're right."
"We have about twenty thousand more men who will be leaving our service. Can you work out how much money it will cost to build a castle, several fortifications along the border, and convert some of our temporary forts into something a little more permanent?"
"It will take some time," Barson said. He looked over at Albert and said, "I'll need some figures from you on construction costs."
"Okay," Albert answered. He pulled a small sheet of paper from a pocket and a crude pencil. He wrote down a note to himself and then looked up to find that Sid was watching him. Shrugging his shoulders, he said, "I know paper is very expensive, but it is cheaper than forgetting something important."
"You'll never hear me complain about that. In fact, I was wondering if we were in a position to manufacture larger quantities of paper," Sid said.
"Paper will always be expensive, but we can make more than we do now," Albert said.
"I want my Kingdom to run on paper," Sid said.
"What does that mean?" Olaf asked looking puzzled at Sid.
"I want official communications to be done on paper so that a record can be kept of who said what and when. I want accounts kept on paper so that we can see where our money is coming from and how it is getting spent," Sid answered. Most Lords trusted their memories rather than paper. For a Lord to have to answer to a King was rare; the King should be able to demand a true accounting and memories were easy to change or fabricate. Paper records were an absolute necessity.
Barson nodded his head whiling thinking about it. He said, "Not very many people know how to read and write. We'll have to hire scribes for that purpose."
"Not only will we have to hire them, we'll have to train people to be scribes," Sid said. He shook his head thinking of opportunities lost. He said, "It is a shame that I hadn't thought about it earlier. We had thousands of men sitting around in camps at night who could have spent a little time learning to read and write."
Nodding his head, Connor said, "Gerald taught me to read and write."
Sid nodded his head and said, "My uncle was good about helping others better themselves. All they had to do was show him that they were willing to work and he would help."
"Yes, your uncle was a good man," Connor said with a nod of his head. It was a sad reminder of what Chaos had lost with the death of Gerald Jones.
Michelson and Jackson entered the room talking with each other. Michelson didn't look very happy about what they were discussing. With a curt shake of his head, he told Jackson, "We'll just have to take that up with Sid."
"What will you have to take up with me?"
Michelson took a seat at the table while answering, "We had a rather gruesome murder here a couple of weeks back. A woman's body was found in one of the parks. There were hundreds of cuts over her entire body. She bled to death, but not before suffering for a long time. Someone had tortured her to death."
"Ugly," Sid said with a growl. He watched Jackson sit down to the right of Michelson in an obvious show that he was Michelson's right-hand man.
"Yes. One of the city guards found out who did it and we arrested the man yesterday. Everyone is clamoring for a very public trial since the woman was a very well known figure here. I wanted to schedule the trial for tomorrow so that you wouldn't be delayed, but the council rejected that plan. They want it in three days so that more people can attend," Michelson said.
Shrugging his shoulders, Sid said, "I don't see that as a problem."
"You'll have to stay here longer than you had planned," Michelson said. It dawned on him that Sid was planning on staying in the citadel for good. He smiled and said, "You're going to make this citadel the site of your royal court!"
"No," Sid replied shaking his head. His eyes twinkled as he looked over at Michelson and said, "I'm going to appoint you as Lord of this citadel."
"Don't tell me that," Michelson said with a groan. He had never thought that he would hate being a Lord, but running that citadel was a constant headache. The city council argued about every little detail.
"It won't be that bad. Once you become permanent Lord of the citadel, your authority becomes much greater than it is now," Sid said.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that as Lord you get to set the rules for the governing of the citadel. If you desire to keep the city council, they will answer to you rather than the other way around. They'll have to come to you with proposals and you'll have to decide which ones you'll accept or reject. You won't have to be involved in generating the proposals," Sid answered.
"You mean that I won't be stuck in that stuffy council room four days a week arguing about whether the paving stones should be placed length wise or width wise down the street?"
"That's right. You could even delegate that role to a trusted advisor," Sid answered with a smile. He knew that as soon as a committee was formed every dog had to spend enough time growling to assure an honored position within the pack. For a man of action, all that time spent posturing would be torture.
Michelson grinned at Jackson. Jackson groaned and said, "Just what I need."
"Sorry, you won't be available for that," Sid said.
"Why not?" Jackson asked with a worried expression.
"There's a city that stands one week's march to the west that needs a Lord. I want you to be that Lord. You'll control all of the territory that is within three day's walk from the center of town," Sid said.
"That's huge," Jackson said.