Chapter 365: Treaty Et Dominus

Within a time less than half an hour, Antonius already got enough funding and land from these filthy rich people, that chubby merchant who gave Antonius a toast just now slammed himself on the chest, and promised that he shall be donating twenty percent of his total wealth, which is worth around five thousand Golden ducats which made Antonius took a deep breathe of cold air, not expecting this man to hold so much wealth, and so he too promised in exchange that he shall be more keen in trying to provide their new generation of kids with a better background and future.

In the end Antonius decided to form up a guard unite consisting of only the wealthy children that came from Drama, who shall be trained like cavalries that is able to follow closely around the Caesar in times of war, and also help the admiral deal with some paper works like hand copying of government papers, directive orders and reports, with Borislav's grand son as the commander of this unit. These land lords and merchants knows that having their children being close to the Caesar is an immeasurable amount of wealth, making some even weep in happiness from Antonius' promise. 

With the atmosphere of the discussion entering a new height these people actually made quite a number of feasible plans on the new phase of development with their own familiarity in the geography of this region and their understanding of the human heart. One suggested that the government should organise several teams going around the places where the bandits roam and set up ration stations to lure the starving bandits down from their hidings, and take the chance to advertise the new government policies making them come back, he can almost be certain that these bandits are starving hard too due to the insufficient food supply in the winter, while for those stubborn ones there is no other choice but to remove them by force. 

For the school, Borislav took the chance to offer his estate in Drama to be the new campus for the going to be established academy of Drama, bragging to the others saying that his entire family is going to move to Thessaloniki soon, so there is no need to continue keeping it here when there is none of his family members still residing there. These comments of course attracted another round of hate and stares, but Borislav could not care more or less about his former comrades who was still together with him a few hours ago. 

A while later that teenager Mikhail too could no longer resist his temptations and joined in the discussion, with the other people continuing to give him their respect still thinking that he might be some junior secretary of the Caesar. "Lords, I guess that we would have no issue in agreeing that the renovation of irrigation system, wells, water canals and other hydraulic structures can only after we acquire the population census and get a better understanding on which part of the region requires the irrigation the most, what are the regions that may require renovations in the future but not on high priority, and which are the places that are arable but are still short of population…" 

The people beneath nodded in agreement, listening attentively as these words might reach a powerful impact on the future decision making of the Caesar's government towards this region where they live in, after thriving in the world of trade for such a long time, their brain has already been engraved with the common standing that information, especially the first hand information, is more valuable than any thing. 

"We could start a new drafting system instead of using the old methods which causes great displease among the people, and at the same time creating many wasted projects which we know shall not be placed in to proper usage and left wasted in the wild." Mikhail looked at Antonius with a cheerful glee that can only be seen from the face of a person of his age and passed Antonius the draft he has just written. "We could investigate on which place shall benefit the most from the projects, and make the people over there take up a bigger share of the work, contribute more basically. While if the regions with lesser population also want their irrigation projects to be helped with by the others, they got to pay, either in the way of financial or grains." 

The merchants and land lords nodded their heads in agreement showing no objections to these statements stated, and then waited for the Caesar's response. But not long later they began another round of argument following the question on which part of Drama needs assistance as soon as possible, and which parts needs relatively more irrigation projects. Every one is trying to snatch more benefits for their home towns, and no one is willing to back down before the face of the superior leader, knowing that if they back off for one time they shall not get another chance to fight or it again. 

But it seems like Borislav changed his personality entirely unlike last time when he would usually pretend that he is splitting the share of interest equally among every one, but actually leaving the most beneficial part for himself, or his benefactor. This time however he remained quiet, until the fuss reached a boiling point, and he could retain it no more letting his shout out of his lungs. "Enough! You people! Keep quiet and shut the hell up!" 

The others startled and turned around having their attention on the old man with a white split goat beard. The later panted for a bit, then went on persuading his counterparts in a relatively lower hoarse voice. "Gentlemen… we have to realise one thing, that is the four things listed here requires the entire Drama…. No, the entire state to work together as one, and we got to overcome difficulties ahead of us, countless of them like the lack of man power for the sowing season this upcoming year, the lack of food supplies, the collapsed economies, the hoarding bandits around the mountains, the imminent Ottoman threat, and maybe those Albanian raids which visit our borders once per year…"

"In other words! We must unite together as one behind the leadership of our lord, the Caesar of Imperium Romanum! Only under his guidance and leadership, that we people of Drama can work together to achieve a better tomorrow! Not like you guys who are selfish enough to only care about your own benefits failing to realise the fact that only if the entire Drama, the entire state turns better through collective effort, then our personnel wealth and benefits will increase too! Have you not realised how much strength and effort did our lord here put in thinking for you people? Our lord here did all these things not for his own fame or luxury, but for every one of us here! Come on! Even I, a man who is within years to be called back by Christ cannot stand these awful behaviors you have over here quarreling with one another!" 

Every person here remained silent looking at their chair man who was standing on their side just a few hours ago, and now completely changing in to an unfamiliar person here trying to appease the Caesar through his art of words acting like an activist in favor of the government, forgetting the fact that the government just ripped him off of large amount of land and wealth, just because the Caesar promised him a chance to enter the government system. 

Antonius laughed leaning back with his eyes curved in to an arch, he gave the old chair man Borislav a pat on the back of encouragement, and then took out another stack of paper out of no where, obviously being prepared before this entire event. "A decent speech by our chair man here, guys lets have a round of toast for the man who speaks out! And then, please, do print your hand palm with signatures on each and respective documents that I shall distribute to you later, after all of these we shall enjoy the night together!" 

The merchants and land lords hesitantly took these stacks of paper from their Caesar's guards, finding out that it is a treaty stating all the things they need to abide by, what kind of things they are allowed to do and what kind of activities that can only be done with certain regulations and clearance from the future local government. Most importantly, it also states the punishments they can get and the laws they can intrude if certain criteria are not followed. On the final page is a paragraph of words that indicates the person of the signature shall make a vow to the Caesar, their people, all Romans, and what ever God they believe in, to abide by these things stated on the treaty at all times.