Chapter 12: First system city (Part 3)

After seeing these men wanted to give up the battle and had no will to continue, I offered "Captains, to show your willingness to surrender bring your men before me to bow their heads and drop their weapons."

The captain replied "My lord, we shall bend the knee to your will" he then continued to call the men from the castle bringing them to the clearing in front of the palace walls, they were all bent down on their knees head bowed, well the ones that came were not injured.

I then said to these men "All who have surrendered shall be treated fairly as you may have decided to raise your arms against me. But I will believe that was not your own will but your lieges, I say all men here who wish to join my ranks will be given full pardons and will receive the same pay as my men. This will include tax exemption, looting rights, and land grants for those who have proven themselves worthy of this reward. All those unwilling will serve as slaves for 5 years and will be promptly released when you have finished your punishment for raising a weapon against me."

After hearing this statement, you can see some of the men in the crowd look shocked, some even turned pale... But the majority looked satisfied, as they were barely being paid as of late, and the rights they were given as soldiers of the empire had become almost useless. I'd say about 300 or more men stood up moving forward whilst being watched closely by my guards.

They began to swear their loyalties under oath by their god whoever they may be, but the majority were Christian here some were surprisingly Islamic. Once this was finished the captains swore their loyalties and I promised to make them commanders of either the new units composed of their men or one of the many castles I have taken that do not have proper leadership.

After all this pomp was finished, I could finally reap the rewards I was so greedy for... This type of greed I can say I haven't felt this in my last life this burning desire to own something is a strange but fantastic feeling. Walking through the palace gates with my guards close by you could see the mayhem this black technology of mine has wrought on these men. nearly 200 men perished in those few minutes just from missile fire.

The beautiful stained-glass windows on the palace are completely ruined from the frontal view, entering the palace and ignoring the glass strewn about the palace is very wonderful it has an ancient but luxurious feel to it. When entering the palace there were ancient artifacts, Alexandrian-era weapons such as the Sarissa, there were ancient roman era weapons such as the Pilum, Pugio, and Gladius which surprised me but not as much as seeing this set of armor that in all honesty shouldn't be here! There was a full set of the famous lorica segmentata which should not be here, but I am extremely glad to now own such a historically famous armor set.

Moving forward there was an assortment of ancient-era armor and weapons and various artifacts that were deteriorating. Once I finally entered the throne room my surprise surpassed anything of that in the past as this hall was magnificent! There were many minarets and beautiful mosaics all over the ceiling and walls.

The most standout thing you notice as soon as you walk in is the gold gilding and gold highlighted walls, capitals, arches, and columns. The beautiful red, green, and Black columns holding the ceiling up are outstanding showing the wealth of this region as many know Thessaly has many mines and quarries. I truly love this palace I think it makes me want to bring my family here and make this my new capital as it is a very rich city that just needs a proper ruler who will resurrect its greatness.

After exploring the palace, I visited many landmarks around the city, one of my favorites being the famous arch this city houses making me want to have my own roman style triumph. I also visited the Hagia Sophia that is located here in Thessalonica, it was everything I wanted it to be very breathtaking. I will have all these huge churches and monuments restored to their former glory whilst also adding a few things to Islamify them and also add some Turkish flavor to the city.

The roads here are also in disrepair needing some TLC, to bring them up to standard, the walls have also fallen to a level that I would deem strategically unsafe leaving many weak points for the attackers to take advantage of! First, let us see what the system is offering before I give my commands out! I said, "system shows the notifications."

<Notice: you have made a great achievement as it is the first city recognized in the game to be conquered by the lord! This will be rewarded by the system! Calculating rewards....>

<Reward: unlock capital bonus applied to any system city deemed capital by the lord>

<Reward: Special mining building tree for the entire Thessaly region and special engineer instructor>

<Reward: 1x settlement upgrade>

<Reward: Blueprint for load-bearing ship>

Okay, this is good I get a great capital bonus I don't have to worry so much about public order... But I still need to do something to improve the city's opinion of me! Okay now, this special building this is great I was planning to spend a ton of time on the mines here in Thessaly as they will be a cornerstone of my empire in due time.

But one thing that worries me is that if I take another city my imperium will rise, meaning each turn which is now a week will change to 2 weeks meaning my system recruitment and the building will slow down. Also, I am not sure I will receive any more rewards until I take another huge city, basically until I take Constantinople and declare myself an emperor, I will have to work a little harder as the system will not be offering free rewards.

After this thought, I said to the system "use my free settlement upgrade here in Thessalonica."

*Swooshhh* As always there is a flash of light and then boom the city is different than before. This time the changes are about the same as in Abydos except there are some distinct differences such as the old hippodrome that is behind the palace, it has been restored from what I can see up here on the balcony of the palace many things have changed.

This upgrade kind of works mysteriously as it seems to not only build the system buildings and fix special buildings like the hippodrome or the palace complex but also make changes to these buildings and the city itself according to the plans in my head. For example, I was planning to change the large churches to mosques, but the system made that change for me, another change is the streets are restored looking pristine. Some of the roads nearest the palace are glistening as they seem to be topped by marble slabs.

There is also the outer city which was very sloppy as no rulers are truly able to restrict or plan the development of this part of the city. The outer city usually grows rather chaotically, making the outer parts of the city rather ragged and hard to look at compared to the rest of the city. But this was fixed as the system implemented the changes that would've set me back on tons of time and manpower.

That is organizing these massive apartment buildings and a random assortment of roads and alleyways, these old roman styles of apartments allow for a massive population to exist in the walls, but it restricts the lives of its inhabitants to these small hovel-style apartments. In my head, I designed apartments that a family could live in and still make it so that the buildings could still serve their original function which is to hold many inhabitants without taking up tons of space.

Another huge change is the way the Armor factory and the military production district look it does not look like the buildings in Abydos. After a trip over here to speak with the new system-summoned workers, I found out why the building is different... These buildings are still primarily used for armor and weapons but there is a new huge tower at the center of this military complex and it's this tower that interests me.

This tower is used to house a coin mint to create a monetary system for the populace to use, but not only that it is also home to many a blacksmith and engineer this tower is a headquarters to the new mining network. The mines and quarries in Thessaly have been in use for centuries but the problem is these mines have been barely touched since the 4th crusade and the fall of Constantinople, and the quarries have been out of use since the 6th or 7th century.

But with this new building as the base, I can rebuild the mining network of the eastern roman empire and begin to mine the vast number of ores found around this region. This tower allows for the creation and implementation of technology used to either push water in or pull water out of the mines allowing our miners to take ore from deeper shafts in the earth.

This vast mining network I am planning will be manned by the new system-trained engineers and special mining technicians, plus the slave manpower I managed to collect during my near-endless warring since I arrived in these lands.

I have collected nearly 4000 slaves from war and raids alone and another 2000 were purchased and traded for by my head merchant in Abydos. But I also must mention there are still 12 mining villages around these ancient mines, these men living here are professional and experienced as well and now they can be considered my subjects and therefore will also contribute as my workforce for these mines.

As planned, I will not make any war for six months at least but I still have yet to achieve a real peace treaty with the Romans on paper without that we can both attack each other at any time. But I find this simple as the civil war should be in full swing again, I doubt they will want to fight me, I just have to continue strengthening my army and my administration whilst waiting for my diplomat to bring back the treaty to me. To achieve my goals, I must have the proper staff as without proper administrators my lands will cease to see me as their overlord.

Law and order are the lord's primary tools for showing his citizens he is the ruler, and he is here to protect them that is why they will pay the taxes instead of using them to fund rebellions. I must have a functioning administration in Thessaly as soon as possible, luckily for me the school is about to ship out its first graduates soon. I will have these men serve as administrators in the castles and in Thessalonica itself. There will also be my council ruling over these new administrators, so they do not get too full of their newfound powers.

My spies, diplomats, merchants, priests, and assassins will be split between Thessalonica and Abydos, thus allowing me to have full control over both cities feeling as though I am in both cities at the same time. Also, the military commanders that just surrendered will be sent to Abydos to receive training in our laws and military regulation before being stationed anywhere, that said we will be receiving a batch of newly trained commanders from Abydos next week and they will be in control of the newly Conquest'd forts in Thrace.

My main focus for these next few months will be improving my already owned lands consolidating my rule here so I can continue to expand in the future without any worries of over-extending because right now I could be considered over-extending. Without the tribesmen I would be ruined I would have no men to spare after garrisoning the new forts and definitely would not have been able to take hold of Thessalonica.

So, with this goal in mind here is the overview of my plan for the next few months, I hope to expedite the training of my administrators and commanders in these six months, so I have a force ready to garrison and control all my conquered regions. This will be in combination with the arming and training of the garrison and new police forces that will be stationed in all regions within my territory.

I also plan to centralize the already existing guild structure, there are many guilds existing throughout the region I own but most of them do not communicate or work with one another I want all the guilds to fall under a government-run guild association to use this powerful clique of expert craftsmen and artists.

I want to organize seven guild departments that will have a headquarters in my capital which right now is Thessalonica but will probably change in the future, but they will have their headquarters in the capital and spread the guild to either existing guilds in my lands or building new ones in cities that need their guild to organize the craftsmen. These seven guilds will be the following:

1. Carver's guild- which will consist of craftsmen focused on carving tools or frames made from wood or bone, for richer clientele they can be decorative or fancy... These carvers are loved by the nobles as they can make fancy decorative family crest shields.

2. Carpenters guild- They will be a necessity as they will be producing the furniture for my citizens and nobles alike. They also will be working on anything that deals with wood that includes building and flooring.

3. Masons guild- These guild members will be sought after wherever they are as they are experts in construction and amazing sculptors. They will be the main men when dealing with stone material for anything really.

4. Glassworkers guild- This is a guild that will be harder to create as there are not many glassworkers, but I will have these men dragged into this guild so that everyone will know how to get a glassworker when needed. Also having this guild will allow for the training and expansion of glassworkers in my lands.

5. Artisans guild- This group of men and women creates fantastic works of art. The great thing about artisans is they not only create amazing art for society but they will sometimes create great innovations if given the right environment to create them. Every rich or Neveu riche man wants to commission a famous or renowned artist these days, but this guild will allow up-and-coming artists to have a name backing them leading to even more great works in the future.

6. Hunters guild- This guild will focus on hunters who allow the purchase of furs and game meat in cities, some furs can be rather rare and expensive. They also provide animal parts to doctors who make concoctions from various materials. This guild will also help provide materials for the tailor's guild to create even more spectacular clothing.

7. Tailors guild- The members of This guild will focus primarily on clothing for the noble and merchant classes as the profit is better. But the new and more unknown tailors in this guild will be making a name for themselves by selling their clothes to the commoner classes and normal citizens. Another job for these new tailors is tailoring for the military sector as the money will be consistent and no fame is needed just skill.

My hope is the guild system will help ease the burden on most regions for expert craftsmen. Usually, you must either have a craftsman shop in your city to contract one of these men or know someone who can contact them. But with this guild system, we can hopefully make it easier to request the assistance of one of these men, I also want this guild system to allow for people from any class except the slave class to train to become a specialized craftsmen further easing the burden for these craftsmen all over my lands.

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