New Managment

As we went down on the main road of Ironshore we saw that the street vendors sold a huge variety of food, just as expected of a port town, in the shops they sold lot's of armor and weapons, there were all kinds of them, like Alfraxian knight armors to Mirrimian battle hammer's. I also saw some mage equipment which caught my eyes, so went to the shop. As I stepped inside there were some of my soldiers, it didn't surprised me because every time when we went to town they all disbanded to get better equipment, for the first few times I had to order them to go out by them self, but they got used to it. What surprised me was the stuff they sold, it was the Demon army's weapons and armor, it's good quality but they should be the loot after the victory, it's better than a normal foot soldiers leather armor. Well whatever, I thought as I went up to the counter.

"Good Afternoon, can I have a question?" I asked to obliviously under aged counter girl.

"Uhhh, of course Sir! Ask away." "Where do you obtain the weapons from?" "Ohhh, you're looking for Ol' MacMillan, he's the best in town, he owns the Iron Tree blacksmith shop."

"Thanks kid!" I said the shop while throwing her a golden coin. "Looks like I have a new guy to employ, let's look forward to it."

After some sight seeing I ended up at the Harbor, it was larger then I expected, there was a big traffic in there, if I have to compare it to something, I'd say a mix of Dubrovnik and Trieste. Right now a docking a Kogge, a merchant variant of that.

As I was standing there a familiar face came from behind.

"Sir Matthew, finally we found you, these gentlemen are the Lords of the town. He's Duke..." Dan greeted me, and started to introduce them before I cut him short.

"No need for introductions, have you read the letter?"

"Yes we had Lord Matthew, I look forward to work with you." One of the older ones said.

"Good, then I thank you for your service, I asked some of my men to collect your belongings from the offices, is that alright isn't it." I told them as I turned my back towards them to look at the ship traffic.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Another asked in merchant clothes.

"I don't need your services, I came to the conclusion that the town will do better without your management, but if you want to resist , you can clearly do so, but I don't think that it's a good idea as you didn't sent even one one person to the alliance, thus violating the orders of the free trading Alliance, or am I wrong?" I turned back to as I finished and you could here troops coming into the harbor, they were my infantry men, sword already drawn.

As they looked around they started to panic, and almost all of them bowed to me, except one young one. "What, you have a problem?" I asked curiously. "Yes, as the Leader of the Town Watch, I can't let you threaten any of the residence of the town, be it noble or peasant." He told me, as he was drawning out his sword. "Alright, you can keep your post, all of the others are banished, and as I can't let a rebellion brake out the instant the war ended, take away all of their assets, they can keep one servant each, give them 10 gold, and a horse. Then you have to leave this land. Bye"

Everybody was looking at me as a mad men, but my troops work fast and they were taken away. "Follow them for one day, then report on which direction they left to." I told Amauri as he just arrived with Gawain and Franco.

"On it Sir!" He told me while already taking some men with himself.

"Gawain, find me a blacksmith named MacMillan, he's the owner of the Iron Tree, bring him to the Town hall."

"Yes Sir!" Just like Amauri he left in seconds while looking at the Young guard who was pointing his sword at me.

"Franco, let's go to the Town hall, I have some things to settle." I said it to him as I started walking. "You, come with us, and tell me have many guards does the town has, and where. And for the love of God, put that sword away, or you'll hurt yourself." I said to the Young guard.

"Alright then, my name is Wolfram Hans." He said his name while sheeting his sword. "The Town Watch consist of 35 men, 20 patrol men, they patrol in teams of 5, they switch in every 8 hours, so one team can get a full day rest. For the Main gate we have 4 men, they work in pairs, and they switch every other day. Then there is the Harbor guards, they have 6 men, they don't have a specific order, but usually all of them are in the Harbor, as they live there. Lastly there are 5 guards for the Town hall and the Dungeon." He said without stopping even for a sec.

"Wow, good management, did you set it up?" I asked, while being impressed for the smart logic in the switches, the Patrol team is just big enough to stop fights on the street, and have enough free time to be with their family, the main gate is a easy task, because the escort teams for caravans are always waiting there for jobs, so the guards just need to collect the Toll, and they work a full day, because they have their tollbooth. The Harbor might need a bit of organizing, but I saw the logic. The Town hall doesn't need Town Guards, because the Lords had their own bodyguards, my only worry is the dungeon. "No, Lord Matthew, it was my predecessor, my Father." He answered swiftly, recognizing the swift in power, as I dictated the conversation.

"I'm sorry for your loss, he probably was a good men." I said, as I don't want to be an asshole.

"Lord Matthew, he's still alive, just retired, he has a small farm in the Barbaric Pastures, well, he's kinda retired, but he control's that region, as he's the one who defends the Pastures."

"Isn't the Barbaric pastures is a free, uncontrolled Pasture?" I asked confused, because it's the biggest Pasture zone in the Ironshore territory.

"It is, that's why it's dangerous, no one controls it, so lots of bandits pay a visit to it, thus the name. My father retired to that Pasture with 20 Town Watch men, to keep them in check." He answered.

"Right... We should invite him, to organize a Party to hunt down those Bandits." I told Franco. "Yes, I agree with you, but first we should get to the Town hall, and organize everything." He answered as usually, always keeping his mind on the current task.

"Yes, you're right." I told him as we went on our way, while talking about the shops and their merchandise.

The Town hall wasn't that good looking, just an old Merchant headquarters which was bought up by the town Lords, to serve as an administrative building for them. Inside my troops were still working on clearing out the former Lords belongings, after some small talk with them I went to the meeting room, where I started to write some important documents, such as the banishment Letter's, the declaration of the new City management, some invitations letter's for low ranking official worker friends of mine, promising them some titles. As I was doing that, two Huge man stepped in the door in Aprons and Gawain behind them. "Lord Matthew, as you asked I invited the Blacksmith MacMillan." Gawain explained it fast. "Ahhh, Good evening, I'd offer some drink's but I don't know where they're yet, please sit down." I asked the two Blacksmith, whom sat down without a problem.

"Good evening to you as well, I'm MacMillan, and he is my assistant in the forge, Richard." The Old one stated, as the young got up, and bowed in front of me. "It's an honor to meet you Lord Matthew, how can we, lowly servants of you help you?" The young one, Richard started to obey me, without knowing everything. "Get up, before you make a bigger fool out of yourself, I already told you, not to bow in front someone you don't even know." MacMillan started to scold him in an instant. "Get up, your master is right, you don't even know why I called you here, what if I want to take your head?" I told him, which startled him. "Keep calm, I won't kill you, I just have some questions." I calmed him. "Go ahead." The Old blacksmith asked a bit annoyed after I scared his apprentice. "I heard that you are the best blacksmith in town, is that right?" "Some say yes, some say no, I know only one thing, I have the biggest forge, the most apprentices and the most buyers." "Then I have one question, do you know how to forge short swords, spears, and armor?" "Obviously" "Then I have an order, 3.000 Spatha swords , 1.000 spears, 3.000 Segmentata armor, 3.000 Gallic helmets, 3.000 Pilums and lastly 2.500 Scutum shields. The blueprints are over there, if you need then make contacts with other Forge's, and after that, be ready for additional orders, I'll also need 500 short bow, is everything clear." I told him my order, and to no surprise I got my awaited answer. "The payment?" The old man asked, with a huge grin, as he saw a huge challenge in front of him. "1 gold per set, one set consist of one sword and armor set, then 5 silver per spear. I pay 10 silver for a shield. Also 3 silver per pilum, for the bows I'll pay 3 silver and extra 5 silver for quiver's with 30 arrows. Also you'll be my main supplier of arms and armors, objection?" "A bit more would be nice, but it's a yes for me, any deadline?" "Not right now, I didn't had time to think about it yet." "Than good bye, I'll bring some finished sample's here, if you like it, than you can pay the advance." He said while he left. I'm really interested in the Products, it's not every day that you can organize your own Roman legion.

"Now than, let's get to work on some reforms..."