Chapter 371: 366: I Know

The people spent one entire night in the terrace despite the coldness of the winter, this gathering is not only a party thrown by the Caesar to make a better connection of himself with these truly influential characters of Drama that he is incapable of removing now, but it seems also like a good place to make a deal; Well there is an old saying among the Saracens that roughly means if you cannot remove a fellow as your enemy, then you try to unite him under your banner as your friend, or at least try to make him neutral. Age old intellect from foreign lands can come in handy even thousands of years later on.

While for the merchants and land lords of Drama it meant another thing, they came in to this place expecting a full lashing out on to them by top of the authority, praying hard that they shall not be executed by the infuriated Caesar just like those little lambs with no power of resisting. But in contrast to their thoughts the Caesar did nothing to them expect giving them a pretty good scare resembling those kind of pranks they used to play on the younger ones last time, then letting them off just by confiscating all their illegal properties and adding a ton of regulations on to them modifying their behaviour, though that is still acceptable, at least with the guarantee of raising their family's social statues being introduced in to the scholars and the government, and most importantly their head is still on top of their neck.

Thus in the end they enjoyed the party of cooked mutton and sour wine pretty much, despite not having any of those lavish feasts they used to have last time, they do admit that they enjoyed this feast with the Caesar pretty much, with the taste of cooked lamb chook filling the air and the sweetness of the wine from Cyprus tumbling in to the darkness of the night through the spread of the wind, combined with the special delight of one escaping from danger brings an utmost comical amount of joy and entertainment to every one, allowing them to melt in to the party, melt in to the night drinking till they fell in to their entwined dreams, and have to be brought home by their servants or family members, with that signed treaty with them, of course.

Meanwhile surprisingly Antonius managed to be sober and retain his consciousness even after drinking roughly the same amount of wine like his guests, perhaps it is because of his years on the seas living with alcohol, or maybe he really does have some special talents like Yuri. He is brought back in to the city on a carriage pulled by an oxen borrowed from a nearby farm stead, still remembering his own law that one shall not ride after drinking alcohol.

That teenager called Mikhail, who was helping out with Antonius earlier on in the terrace, and Yuri is there with him on the carriage.

"If it was last time, when we are trapped in the islands of the Aegean, those people over there would have been either killed or ripped of their wealth." Yuri mentioned leaning against the carriage with his axe. "These people ought to feel gratitude for not being dragged out of that courtyard by my men and die like a dog."

"Times have changed, Master Yuri." Mikhail shrugged his shoulders. "Times have indeed changed."

Antonius made a tired smile, opened his eyes giving the gigantic man whose head is almost reaching the canvas a look and sighed. "Indeed, if it was me last time I would have definitely chose to execute these blood sucking piss pots and find a way to distribute their wealth equally. But you see Drama is a totally different place than the Marmara islands, the system we implemented over there cannot be implemented here… I hope that you can understand my difficulties Yuri."

Yuri shook his head and made an embarrassed laugh. "Why are you even apologising to me, admiral? Surely my axe have seen a lot of blood, but I am not that kind of maniac who kills for fun, and I am definitely not that kind of person who knows nothing except how to chop down people with my axe… It is just that when I was young back in the lands of Rus, I have seen too many cases where by the more powerful ones have little empathy and compassion towards things outside their families, and the poorer ones usually has nothing to depend on with no money, no land, and still a family to feed… I understand that you, admiral wants to change some thing for these poorer ones at least preventing them from being starved to death tor frozen to death in winter…"

"…I understand you, admiral, do not worry, this place is just like the lands of Rus, if the knyaz novgorodskii are to execute all those corrupt tysyatskys in his states, it would instantly spur trouble for him making the entire state vulnerable against the Duke of Muscovy. Thus even if we want to remove these people, we can only pick one or two and set them as an example to the others."

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Antonius closed his eyes again and nodded, with out replying any thing and the carriage plunged back in to a dead silence, with only the moo of the oxen and the wheels of the carriage can be heard in the night sky.

Mikhail waited till his younger brother fell asleep beside him, and after a while he made several peeks at Antonius filled with curiosity, which of course got spotted by the later as he had to open his eyes again and questioned in a lack of energy tone. "What do you want kid?"

"My lord, forgive my ignorance, but I still do not understand one thing."

Antonius figured out that he would not have the time to take a break on the carriage as he sat up right leaning against the wood and waved his hands, signalling the boy to carry on.

"I have heard from the other guys on your reactions when you just came to Drama." Mikhail enquired cautiously. "You went down in to the lands yourself, dug through the winter soil like those peasants, and got infuriated when you found out that the seeds of the crops are not being taken care of, your rage increased even further making you make such a great reaction when you found out further that the peasants have deserted their lands…"

Antonius looked outside in to the darkness, nothing can be seen in the fields except the eerie winter moon hanging high up in the starry sky, and a few light sources in a distance away, perhaps from the patrols of the near by garrisons.

"I know that many like you have similar doubts in your heads, you might not understand why I am furious now, the people in the future might not understand me too… But I know a very simple fact, that is grains grows from the land, and men needs grains to be made in to staple food to keep them alive. If the seeds are left rotten in the fields, it means that the farmer did not have a good harvest last season. However, this is still not the worst issue, as food can still be helped with by the local government releasing their storage of grains surplus from the last years to aid the population."

"But when it comes to people leaving the crops, it is a completely different thing." Antonius continued biting his teeth, as if he has remembered some thing. "The farmers are naturally bonded to their farm lands, refusing to leave their lands as long as they can still survive because they knows that the land is their only thing to depend on to survive. Thus, when the farmers have left the lands they used to sow on in large groups, in this case one after another villages, it means that the situation has already been screwed up beyond saving through normal means."

"My lord, so may I know with the current measures being placed on their heads, does that means that the region of Drama shall enjoy a relatively long period of peace and economical growth?" The teenager continued asking, with some eagerness and anticipation in his eyes, but what he did not realise is that this question again placed Antonius in to a difficult situation, as he do not know how to answer back the teenager.

"I really do not know, boy, I really do not know." Antonius sighed. "I could only do what is the best for this place, I cannot predict the future… But I just wish that in my life time I can find out a way, or a system that can curb the greed within these regional influential people… Or turn their greed in to the energy to push our state forward. Though I must say it is hard, as the current system has already worked for thousands of years…"

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