Herald of Steel

That charismatic chief was able to long foresee the fickleness of the merchants, which was why he attempted to prohibit trade between the two parties.

He did not want these leeches as he put them to interfere in the greater goals of the people for meager short term profit.

The leader even feared this trade was only a covert way for the enemy to infiltrate their ranks and so wanted to stop his infection right at the roots.

However that was easier said than done.

Because remember, to equip and maintain his army, he needed these merchants. The island natives were still unable to make their own weapons given their centuries of self isolation.

In fact, they could barely maintain them, with even small chips and cracks proving an immense challenge for them, whereas in the broader world, this tiny repair would have been a piece of cake for even a blacksmith's apprentice

The natives would need at least a generation if not two to become proficient enough in weaponsmithing.

Thus in the meantime, the new chief could only try and regulate the market, hoping the strict measures he put in place would be enough to stymie the dangers.

But how could that be easy?

Regardless of the time period, merchants were all the same, greedy up to their feet and always looking for the slightest advantage.

And now with the Margraves fully supporting them, this once neglected group was able to quickly amass great amounts of power.

And as the winds turned in such a direction, the tribal leader had no option but to place his hope on the army, staking that they would be enough to help him ride out the waves.

This was one of the reasons why he retained a large, 'modern' army, as well as many others that really did not need to be said.

The three families were undoubtedly behemoths that could only be intimidated by the threat of immense loss of death and blood, none of the natives were in any doubt of that.

Most even did not believe for a second in whatever those black scrawling lines painted on scrolls of goat skin or papyrus read.

The Margraves had betrayed every form of trust in their earlier endeavor for them to ever trust whatever came out of their honeyed mouth.

Hence at first, they were not at all against the size of the army. It was only with the intervention of the Margraves and the relentless propaganda by the shamans that minds began to change.

But even then, if that was the only thing that the tribal leader had done, people would have been unlucky to turn against their man.

After all, he had done so much for them. Forget about being a mere hero, he was practically considered a god in human form.

But the one single thing that tipped people over the edge was the accusation regarding his ambition to unite the tribes.

This accusation was indeed true, and there were even many clear indications of him trying to do so.

Many types of old practices had been abolished by him, many important positions were filled by his men, and many lesser, weaker tribes were strong armed into renouncing their identity and joining his clan.

He even married many 'princesses' of other tribes, i.e.- daughters of the chieftains, in an attempt to make one giant clan.

Now, in the man's mind, this all made perfect sense.

He brightly recalled how fragmented they had been when the Margraves had first come and how that deadly weakness was used to set themselves against one another, almost pushing them to utter doom.

He thus wanted to form one single group of people to fight the invaders, believing such a centralized society would be much stronger.

Rather than fight the enemy with five fingers, they would fight as a fist!

It was a good idea, even altruistic even.

It was just that the man went about it in all the wrong way.

Instead of talking things over with the chieftains and convincing them to join him, the man began to use his army to twist the opposition's arm.

But this heavy handedness in his efforts made the people quickly come to resent him, and even those who first supported him, now began to alienate him, feeling the man was only going after power.

They had chosen to believe in him at first because they knew their leader would not have something similar before, such as when he had first started out. At that time, the man was widely known for his eloquence and ability to convince people.

But it seemed over the last two decades, somewhere along the way he had changed.

Now that he had a hammer, everything began to look him a nail, and the idea of the greater good of the tribes was suddenly lost.

Then with the help of the shamans and Margraves, the people began to see him as a tyrant.

Towards all this, the leader tried to counter all this using the only way he now knew how- by increasing the size of the army.

He hoped to use sheer muscle to silence the voices as well as fight the invaders.

However, his attempts to raise levies were quickly countered by a powerful group of traders who came to him complaining about the size of the already existing army.

They stated that maintaining a standing army numbering in the fifty to sixty thousand was too burdensome on the people and there was no way they could increase any more.

The traders shouted,

"The people's backs are already breaking under the burden of taxes! Any more and we will snap!"

It was quite funny how it was the merchants, who were always known for being greedy devils who sucked people dry, were now trying to prevent the chief from doing the same. Discover exclusive tales on m,v l'e-NovelFire

Their outburst most displeased the chief.

However, he also knew without the traders' compliance, he could not raise more men- they held the keys to their weapons and supplies.

And this realization for a moment made the man recall the 'good old' times.

He remembered that when the tribes had first formed their army to fight the Margraves, it was an all volunter force, with the people being simply expected to contribute.

This meant that not only were the soldiers not paid a single cent but rather, the men had to even gather their own food and equipment for the campaign out of their own pocket.

It was almost as if they were paying the military for letting them fight.

To many modern people this might seem too ridiculous to even contemplate, as nowadays, even when fighting a defensive war, soldiers expect to be paid.

But the islanders had no such luxury.

Facing extinction, every man fought not for coin, but for his land, his place of birth, and his home.

And why would anyone take money to defend one's own home? Thus the only thing that the military provided was the spear and shield. Everything else was up to oneself.

And that was how things stayed while they were winning. The loot gained from the conquest was enough to keep the men going.

But as it was known, eventually, their luck turned.

After the Margraves reached their very last few households, they were able to stop their collapse and soon counterattack, now forcing the natives now to be on the back foot.

And while they retreated, unfortunately, there was no loot for them. Rather they even began to lose their own hard earned supplies.

Faced with this new reality, the men thus started to ask for alternative forms of payment.

At first, it was only the income they would have earned if they had worked in the fields instead of the army.

And for the new chief, that was still manageable.

However, due to the evolving circumstances, these soldiers soon found themselves being entrusted with more and more duties- from just fighting and defending the border to enforcing the law and even acting as bodyguards for important people.

This meant the men soon had no time to tend to their fields. And at the same time, they also found their skills to be in short supply but in great demand.

Thus they did what any normal human being would do- charge more!

Not only that, these soldiers decided to charge an exorbitant more- thrice their current salary.

This sudden enormous increase instantly made the chief almost buckle. But given they were the ones keeping him in power, the man had little choice but to comply.

And thus like any good politician, he passed this pressure onto the people, the peasants and traders.

The next chain of reaction was easily predictable.

Angered by the tax hikes, the people began to get resentful, and when that was coupled with the chief's inability to produce results on the battlefield, that resentment soon transformed into wrath.

At last that reached a boiling point, and so one dark night, under blessing from their foreign overlords, a group of men struck, sneaking into the chief's home and assassinating him.

Thus came the end of the tale of the legendary figure.

And without him, the tribes soon fell into their usual squabbles, and then were predictably once again driven back.

Let us say no to piracy! Don't take part in a crime! Don't patronize thieves!

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