Chapter 403: All Praise Antonius!

When the refugees are being allocated in to their designated farming steads, the balance for local distribution of strategic resources like metal, grains, salts and oil are being shifted towards them as well. This created quite a few problems in the process due to the logistics system designed by Antonius himself being completely inefficient in coping with the sudden stress laid on to it with the surge of the population. And initially when the problem is being reported, Antonius is still pretty complacent about his design of the system and refused to make any changes, thus the scribes and secretaries made a joke describing the current situation.

One day, a farmer in the name of Constantinos caught a rabbit while working in the fields, he brought the rabbit home and handed it over to his wife exclaiming in joy. "Look at what I got over here! We can have roasted meat for dinner today!"

The wife answered. "But our pot has been borrowed away by the agriculture logistics committee since last week and they do not have a specific date on when they shall return it to us."

"Fine! Then let's salt the meat of this rabbit and keep it preserved."

"We are out of salt! The village scribe came the other day round saying that all salts must be kept together in the village warehouse so that they can make sure every one has enough salt."

"Then bake it! At least we still got a stove in our house."

"We got no more woods to burn! The central committee said last month that all cutting of woods and burning of fuels are to be strictly regulated by them in order to make sure that every house hold have enough wood to burn, but it has been three days and we still have not seen our portion!"

The farmer Constantinos almost has his head blown out from anger and frustration, he looked at the rabbit tied in ropes and the rabbit looked back at him. Then he grabbed the rabbit and released it back in to the woods. The rabbit, when released free, stood up and shouted out in rabbit's language. "Santa Maria! May God Bless You Lord Antonius!"

The jokes are only spread to the ears of Antonius after almost every one else has heard about it. Antonius knows that who these jokes are penalising but still, he managed to have a good laugh out of it, and after a few days he held a conference returning the power and authority back to the new regional government led by Alexios. Then he embarked on a journey travelling throughout the province to inspect on his work, and see if he can take down several more scoundrels, land lords and corrupt village chief in the process. He brought Yuri with him serving as body guard, leading several other Varangians, and also the two youngsters named Mikhail and Nikola acting as local guides.

The time has ticked in to March of the year 1461, the rare snow that happened in January is already an event in the past remembered by no one else except for the historians, and also the old man Anjelo who is currently resting at home, groaning that the weather has been colder and colder each year which is a torture to his knee cap.

This year's spring, however, is like a blessing gifted by mother nature to her people. In the start of March, the mother nature has already sent her gentle rains and warm seasonal winds kissing the dried lands, weakening the Earth with a sea of sprouting greeneries. From the warmed lands came the long missed sceneries of Hyacinth and Daffodils, sparkled along the plantations growing merrily under the vibrant sunshine. They first came out of the dirt and rocks in the numbers of one and two acting as pioneers making sure that the climate is safe, then there came the group greeting the butterfly's wings, lifted by the soft wind, soothing the heart and mind of all creatures living together.

Clip clops, clip clops, a series of hooves knocking against the country road can be heard on the plains between Stavros and Milopotamos, accompanied by occasional chit chatters and laughter. These people are none other than the inspection group led by our brilliant policy maker Antonius. He has been in a good mood ever since he threw all the burdens laid on to him dealing with piles after piles of paper works in a humid room, which he feels he is 'already decomposing in the age of thirties' in his own words.

Indeed, it is a human nature to gallop freely against the gentle soothing wind on plains filled with greeneries, Antonius does not know why but he certainly likes it. Perhaps it is a kind of affection passed to him by the ancestors tens of thousands years ago? He never knows.

Feeling delighted, Antonius hurried his horse and approached Yuri at the front to start a conversation. "Embrace the view and sceneries here around the Mediterranean! Look at these cheering flowers, sparking water bodies lively creatures roaming around under the warm sun shine… You cannot really see a scenery like this back in your home town in Moskva, am I right?"

Apparently it has not been the first time that Yuri has faced this question as he tried to correct Antonius again. "Admiral, I am not from Moskva… I came from Ruthenia, living beside the Don river in a Slavic settlement named Liskinsky. A decent place that I have missed for years. I have no idea why almost every one, including you admiral has the impression that the land of Rus is covered in a blizzard for the entire year, with completely no sun light which is completely a misunderstanding…"

Yuri paused for a moment looking up in the direction of the Black Sea, recalling the memories and sceneries he had in his youth years back in his home town. "True, my home town does have blizzards bringing in arrays of frozen winds biting through our skins, nose and mouth giving us a test on human spirit and defiance. But that is only for the few winter months. For the rest of the time the sceneries over there are just like what we see here in Romania, actually it might be even better! I can seat there and watch my mother river, the Don, flow past my feet every single morning being the sanctuary to my souls, quenching my thirst and hunger. I can run around in the shallow pine jungles chasing down boars with my dogs. Thanks to the warm sun light and abundant rivers my place is filled with crop lands and greeneries as well, and a different greenery… I bet that you will enjoy the view over there more than here, admiral."

Antonius touched his nose and giggled in embarrassment. He figured it out that this Varangian man has been taunted with too many questions and ideas like this to a point that he is filled with frustration. "I understand you, when I told people that I originated from the state of Genoa, they would always thought me as a son from a well off Genoese family. But in fact when I once young, my family was extremely poor and we could only live in construction sites… Hahahaha…"

"Well, if we did not come from a poor background, we would not have became pirates in the first place living a life battling the waves of Mediterranean and the blades of infidels." Yuri made a laugh too, laughing at the past thirty plus years he has lived.

Suddenly, the teenage boy Nikolas behind Yuri exclaimed. "Look! My lord! There is a deer! A deer!"

Antonius and Yuri looked at the direction where the young boy is pointing towards, and indeed there is a small herd of deer over there grazing on the newly grown grass land forming a circle. In the middle of the circle there are a few younger ones who are yet to grow their horns. The deer, being a type of extraordinarily cautious creature to any predators lurking in the surroundings, are already staying alert especially. The biggest deer of the herd, most likely the alpha male, has already raised his head to look at the approaching herd of enormous creatures which seem to have two heads and six legs with two dangling by the sides, ready to make a run before danger comes.

Antonius knows why Nikolas is so excited, most nobles in this age have a liking towards hunting in the wild and some particular kings in the west whose name shall not be mentioned, are a bunch of total hunting loving manic who would never give up a chance to ride in to the wild lands and hunt, often hunting continuously for weeks without returning. In those states they refer hunting as a noble sport, and most probably this youngster called Nikolas acquired the influence from there too.