Rome Must Fall

The process of road construction was tedious and complicated, and the requirements were very high, which made the captives feel very bored. However, when the road was presented in a relatively complete form before them, they were shocked. They had never seen such a flat, wide, straight, solid and majestic road on this river plain surrounded by mountains!

For a moment, they were deeply moved: Is this really just a road for mortals and carriages to walk on? ! I'm afraid it's for gods and fairies to step on!

They were proud that they could build such a road with their own hands, and at the same time, they were a little complicated, because it was the Nix tribe that built this road. They also built a real wooden bridge and a huge waterwheel... These are all things that all Pannoni tribes can't do, but such a tribe is the enemy of Pannoni.

In addition to these Pannoni captives who were shrouded in pride, shock and fear on the construction site, there were some people with equally complicated feelings. They were also Pannoni captives, but they were captured in several wars last year. They were all Segestica people. Later, they were sent to the Ardi tribe, and most of them were escorted to the mountains to dig iron ore.

Until the Nixes annexed the core territory of Segestica, at the request of many families of Segestica captives who had surrendered to the tribe, they listed dozens of pages of lists and asked Pigris to take it to the Ardi tribe, obtain the consent of Alistarcus and Chalsipompus, and replace the old captives with new captives, bringing back more than 3,000 Segestica captives who had stayed in the Ardi tribe for more than a year.

However, these captives were abused and tortured by the Ardi people, and their physical condition was very poor. If they were allowed to go home directly to reunite with their relatives, not only would they not be grateful to the people of Segestica, but they would be dissatisfied with the tribe. Moreover, if the families of the captives did not take good care of them, they would most likely let these captives die, which would arouse their anger.

Based on the principle of doing good things to the end, the tribe first left these captives in these towns along the Kupa River, and let them get familiar with and adapt to life in the Nixes tribe while recuperating.

Under the careful care of medical staff, the physical condition of many captives improved greatly after more than a month. However, some captives responsible for road construction were transferred to help the tribesmen sow seeds at this time, which affected the progress of road construction. So Capito proposed in the meeting of the Political Affairs Hall: temporarily postpone the return of these captives and stay in the Kupa River area to help build the road.

After some discussion, the proposal was passed.

So, these thousands of captives who were supposed to return home had to temporarily join the road construction team, starting from the simplest and labor-saving water and mud carrying, to the most labor-intensive sand and gravel digging, and the most difficult wood rolling road, stone splicing... They participated in various processes of road construction and helped the road construction team that lacked labor to complete the task.

After a common struggle, they were also very excited to complete this project, but compared with the original labor of the road construction team, their mood was different.

They were a little nervous, wondering whether the Nix people would keep their promise and let them go home after they completed the construction of this section of the road.

But no one dared to ask the foreman. More than a year of slavery in the Aldi tribe had worn away their courage and made them cautious.

In the next two days, the other laborers of this construction team were transferred to other unfinished sections to work, and only they stayed in the collective dormitory of Snowtia with nothing to do (this collective dormitory was once the place where the tribesmen were prepared to live when the Nix tribe was established). During this period, their food was better than before, and the medical staff of the town also specially examined their bodies in detail again.

All signs showed that the day of their return home was not far away, and everyone's expectations became stronger and stronger. Many people even did not sleep well for two consecutive nights.

Sure enough, on the third day, they were all called to the town square not far from the collective dormitory, and their eyes were focused on the two people at the front of the team.

One of them was the head of the Foreign Auxiliary Civilian Management Office of Snowtia. He was holding a list and calling out names loudly. Every time he called one, one person in the team answered.

After staying here for more than three months, these Segestica people gradually learned to follow orders with the "help" of the management staff. No one made a noise or made trouble during the roll call.

"All 217 former Segestica captives from the Ardi tribe in the fourth road construction team are here. We specially asked the hospital to give them a physical examination these two days. Basically, there are no major diseases and they can all walk back to Ophidilla." Although the person in charge had two small round iron plates on the chest of his linen shirt, and the person next to him only had one, the person in charge spoke politely.

At the beginning of this year, Maximus implemented some new measures through the Political Hall to make the bureaucracy of the entire tribe more formal, to ensure its more effective and stable operation, and to maintain its authority and order in the tribe.

Determining the rank of officials and establishing the level of salary is an important one, and the difference in status must be shown through clothing, so that it can be managed easily.

However, since the Nix tribe has only been established for two years, there is no financial resource to buy special clothing for officials, so the demand is temporarily met by pinning iron plates on the chest.

Wearing only one iron plate means he is the most common clerk, responsible for running errands; wearing two iron plates means he is a minor official, responsible for certain affairs and managing a group of people.

The rank of the two people is different, but the reason why the person in charge is kind is because the person next to him is from the Foreign Auxiliary Management Department of the Agriculture Department of the Knicks Tribe. Although they are both in the same department, he is from the headquarters.

After the person in charge made the invitation gesture, the envoy raised a piece of paper in his hand and solemnly said loudly in the most fluent Segestika: "This is signed by Maximus, the leader of the Nyx tribe. The order, in view of your successful completion of the road construction task, allows you to go home——"

Before he finished speaking, everyone burst into cheers.

Not only was the messenger not annoyed, but he looked at the excited people with empathy. When the square finally returned to silence, he loudly said: "At the same time, the period for you to become an official Knicks citizen will be shortened by three months. Of course, first of all You are required to fulfill your promise, take the initiative to apply to the tribe to become a reserve citizen after returning home, and go to the temple to swear an oath to the goddess Danu - not to betray the Nyx tribe, so that you can continue to live freely in your homeland, otherwise you He will also be forcibly sent back to the Ardei tribe to live a life like hell again!”

As soon as these words came out, there was a deathly silence in the square, and some people even had painful looks on their faces.

The messenger shouted loudly: "Are you so stupid?!"

"No!!" Everyone shook their heads vigorously.

"Next, I will take you back to the Sava River - your home!" the messenger continued to remind: "During the entire journey, if you disobey my orders, run around without permission, and do something that violates the laws of the Nix tribe, Not only will you be punished by the tribe, you may even be sent back to the Aldiyi tribe! You have suffered a lot in the past two years, and you have finally seen hope. Are you so stupid as to destroy it? "

"Won't!!!"

"Okay, I hope you can do it!" After the messenger finished speaking, he handed the decree in his hand to the person in charge next to him.

When the envoy first arrived, he showed the decree to the person in charge, but the person in charge still checked it carefully, especially the seal of the political hall and the eye-catching leader's seal stamped on the decree.

The official documents and orders of the Nix tribe must be stamped, which is another important measure taken by Maximus to promote the reform of the Nix tribe's bureaucracy.

To this end, he personally carved hundreds of hardwood seals. The seals were all written in simplified Chinese characters and distributed them to heads of departments at all levels. He also specifically asked the Political Affairs Hall to pass a law - it is a serious crime for those who engrave seals privately.

Since the officials did not recognize the words in the seal, they all privately speculated that "it must be the divine inscriptions carved by Chief Maximus who was inspired by the goddess Danu." Therefore, they cherished the seal extremely.

After reviewing the decree, the person in charge accepted it and handed the other party a document that had been written and stamped with the seal of the Snodia Foreign Auxiliary Management Office. This was a document that allowed "two hundred and ten Document of the departure of seven prisoners from the administration and their return to their homes on the Sava River.

This is a necessary handover procedure, and with this certification document, the envoy can lead these prisoners to pass smoothly through the checkpoints in the territory of the Nix tribe.

Starting from this year, the Knicks tribe began to gradually strengthen the management of the territory. Individual tribesmen can travel between towns without hindrance, but teams of multiple people walking within the territory will be inspected by patrols and checkpoints in various towns. If an envoy leads such a large team without a certificate issued by the department, he is likely to be detained as an enemy by the guards at the checkpoint... This is also one of the measures to formalize tribal management promoted by Maximus.

The envoy was illiterate before joining the Nyx tribe. After becoming a member of the Foreign Auxiliary Management Department, he began to study at the newly established school in Ofidilia. However, because he was still young and did not know much writing, he did not I don’t know how to pretend to understand, but I first asked the clerk who was following the person in charge to read the document, and then I checked the document myself to find the words I recognized. I felt that the meaning was roughly correct, and I carefully checked the seal pattern. Whether it was true or false, he folded the documents carefully and put them into the cloth bag he carried with him.

"Sir, can I take this group of people away?" the messenger asked respectfully to the person in charge. Officials with lower grades should use honorific titles for officials with higher grades. This is also Maximus' request this year, and also So the word "lord" became popular in Knicks tribal officialdom.