Chapter 470: Chapter 338: The Return of the Segestica Prisoners
The process of road construction was tedious and complex, with high demands, making the captives feel very frustrated. However, when the road appeared before them in a relatively complete form, they were stunned. When had they ever seen such a flat, wide, straight, solid, and majestic road on the Great River Plain surrounded by mountains!
For a moment, they were deeply moved: Is this really just a road for mortals and carriages?! Perhaps it is for the Divine and fairies to tread upon!
They felt proud to have personally built such a road, while their emotions were also complex, for it was the Nix Tribe who had constructed this road. They had also built real wooden bridges and huge water wheels... Things that all Pannonian Tribes simply could not achieve, yet such a tribe was the enemy of the Pannonians.
On the construction site, besides these Pannonian prisoners who were enveloped in pride, shock, and fear, there were others with similarly complex feelings. They were also Pannonian prisoners, captured in last year’s several wars, all from Segestica. Later, they were sent to the Alde Tribe, where most were escorted into the mountains to mine iron.
Not until the Nix people annexed the core territory of Segestica did they, at the request of many Segestica prisoners’ families who had already sought refuge with the tribe, compile dozens of pages of lists. Pigeris took these to the Alde Tribe and, with the consent of Alistacas and Karsipengpas, exchanged new captives for old ones, bringing back these more than 3,000 Segestica prisoners who had stayed with the Alde Tribe for over a year.
However, these prisoners had been abused and tormented by the Aldeans, leaving their physical condition poor. If they were allowed to directly return home and reunite with their families, it would not only fail to earn the gratitude of the Segestica citizens but might lead them to hold a grudge against the tribe. Moreover, if their families did not take good care, it could likely result in the prisoners’ deaths, further inciting their anger.
In line with the principle of seeing a good deed through to the end, the tribe first kept these captives in several towns along the Kupa River, where they recuperated and familiarized themselves with life in the Nix Tribe.
Under the meticulous care of medical staff, the physical condition of many captives greatly improved after more than a month. Just at this time, some captives responsible for road construction were pulled away to help with sowing, affecting the progress of the road work. Thus, at a Political Affairs Hall meeting, Capito proposed a suggestion: temporarily delay these captives’ return home, keeping them in the Kupa River area to help with road construction.
After some discussion, the proposal was approved.
Thus, these thousands of captives, who should have been going home, had to temporarily join the road construction team, starting with the simplest, least labor-intensive tasks of fetching water and mud, moving onto the most laborious task of digging sand and crushing stones, and finally to the most difficult tasks of rolling logs and piecing together stones... they were involved in all aspects of road construction, helping to complete the task for the labor-lacking road construction team.
Having experienced a shared struggle and completed this project, they too felt very excited, but compared to the original labor of the road construction team, their mood was somewhat different.
They felt a little apprehensive, unsure if the Nix people would keep their promise and allow them to return home after completing this stretch of road.
Yet none dared to proactively question the foreman. Their year-plus as slaves in the Alde Tribe had worn away their courage, making them cautious and careful.
In the next two days, the other laborers of this construction team were transferred to other unfinished road sections to work, leaving them in the collective dormitory of Snowdonia with nothing to do (this collective dormitory was originally a place for Reserve Tribe Members when the Nix Tribe was established). During this time, their food was better than before, and the town’s medical staff specially gave them a detailed check-up again.
All signs indicated that their days of returning home were not far away, and the hope in everyone’s heart became increasingly strong. In fact, quite a few could not sleep well for two consecutive nights due to this.
Sure enough, on the third day, they were all summoned to the town square not far from the collective dormitory, with all eyes focused on the two people at the front of the queue.
One of them was the head of the Foreign Auxiliary Civilian Management Bureau of Snowdonia, holding a roster and loudly calling names, with each call eliciting a response from someone in the queue.
After staying here for more than three months, these Segestica people, with the "help" of the management staff, gradually learned to follow commands and prohibitions. Throughout the roll call, no one made noise, let alone caused trouble.
"The 217 original Segestica prisoners from the Alde Tribe in the fourth road-building team are all here. In the past two days, we specially had the hospital perform a physical examination on them. There are basically no major illnesses; they can all walk back to Ophelia." Although the person in charge had two small round iron badges pinned to the chest of his linen shirt and the person next to him had only one, the person in charge spoke quite politely.
At the beginning of this year, Maximus, through the Political Affairs Hall, implemented some new initiatives to make the entire tribe’s bureaucratic class more formal to ensure its more effective and stable operation, maintaining its authority and order in the tribe.
Defining officials’ ranks and establishing salary levels was an important task among them, as well as using attire to display the difference in status, hence facilitating management.
But since the Nix Tribe had only been established for two years, there was no financial means to provide officials with specific garments, so temporarily, the need was met by pinning iron badges to their chests.
Wearing only one iron badge was the most ordinary clerk, responsible for running errands; wearing two iron badges indicated a minor official, responsible for certain affairs and managing a group of people.
Although the two had rank differences, the person in charge’s attitude was amiable because the person next to him was from the Foreign Auxiliary Management Bureau of the Nix Tribe Agricultural Department, and although they were in the same department, the person was from the headquarters.
After the person in charge made a gesture of invitation, this envoy raised a sheet of paper in hand and, in the most fluent Segestica language, solemnly and loudly declared: "This is an order personally signed by Leader Maximus of the Nix Tribe. In view of your successful completion of the road construction task, you are allowed to go home—"
Before he could finish, the crowd burst into cheers.
The envoy was not annoyed but empathetic, watching the enormously excited people, and only when the square finally quieted down did he loudly continue: "Simultaneously, the period for you to become official tribe members of the Nix will be shortened by three months. Of course, you must first fulfill your promise and, after returning home, actively apply to become Reserve Tribe Members to the tribe, and swear loyalty to the Danu Goddess at the temple—not betraying the Nix Tribe, in order to continue living freely in your homeland. Otherwise, you will be forcibly sent back to the Alde Tribe and revert to a hellish life!"
These words plunged the square into a deathly silence, with some even showing painful expressions on their faces.
The envoy shouted: "Would you be so foolish?!"
"No!!" Everyone vehemently shook their heads.
"Next, I will take you back to the Sava River—your home!" The envoy continued to remind: "Throughout the journey, if you do not heed my orders, run off recklessly, or commit acts against the Nix Tribe Decree, not only will you suffer punitive actions from the tribe, but you may also be sent back to the Alde Tribe! Over these two years, you’ve suffered so much, and now finally see hope; would you be so foolish as to destroy it?!"
"No!!!"
"Good, I hope you can achieve this!" Said the envoy, handing the directive in his hand to the person in charge.
Once the envoy arrived, the directive was shown to the person in charge, but he still earnestly verified it, particularly the seal of the Political Affairs Hall and the prominent chief’s seal at the end.
Official documents and commands of the Nix Tribe had to be stamped, which was another important move by Maximus to promote the bureaucratic reform of the Nix Tribe.
He personally carved more than a hundred hardwood seals, using simplified Chinese characters for the inscriptions, distributed them to heads of various departments, and specially had the Political Affairs Hall pass a decree—severe punishment for private engraving of seals.
Since officials could not read the words within the seals, they privately speculated, "It must be some divine text engraved by Leader Maximus under the enlightenment of the Danu Goddess," thus treasuring the seals.
Upon completing the directive verification, the person in charge accepted it, turning to hand over a pre-written document, stamped with the Snowdonia Foreign Auxiliary Civilian Management Bureau seal, to the other party, which allowed "217 prisoners to depart from the management bureau and return to their Sava River home."
This was a necessary transition procedure, and with this proof document, the envoy could smoothly lead these prisoners through the checkpoints within the Nix Tribe territory.
Starting this year, the Nix Tribe began to gradually strengthen the management of its territories. Individual tribesmen were unimpeded in moving between towns, but groups moving through the territory would be questioned by patrols and checkpoints in various towns, and for an envoy to lead such a large group, without the department-issued proof document, it was very likely they would be detained by checkpoint guards as enemies... This was also a measure in Maximus’s push for formalizing tribal management.
Before joining the Nix Tribe, the envoy was illiterate. It was only after becoming a subordinate at the Foreign Auxiliary Civilian Management Bureau that he began attending a newly established school in Ophelia to study, but because the time was short, he hadn’t learned much. He did not pretend to understand but first had his writings officer read the document aloud, then personally checked the document, picked out the words he understood, felt the general meaning was correct, meticulously checked the authenticity of the seal patterns, and only then folded the document carefully, placing it in the cloth bag he carried.
"Sir, may I take these people away?" The envoy asked the person in charge respectfully. Lower-ranked officials had to use honorifics towards higher-ranking officials, a requirement Maximus proposed this year, consequently making the term "sir" popular in the Nix Tribe’s officialdom.