Age of Adventure - Chapter 384 The Warlord in the South l

He is one of the general of the southern borders as such he had the advantage since he was already on the south when it all goes down

He also knows how to best use the opportunity that he had

When he receives the news of the fall of the Capital, with his connection he had gathered the generals of the south in a meeting on top of a small mountain called Erciyes mountain.

He gathered them and told his plan to take back the southern region from Greater Veranis and reestablish back their kingdom

There were some generals that did not want to join in and they were all killed by Zarakh. The other then obey him and he created the Erciyes army

The Erciyes name was taken from the name of the mountain.

with his great personal charm Zarakh become their leader, leading all of these warlords who have five thousand to seven thousand men.

They decided to secede from the Greater Veranis and reestablish the Gerad Stratocracy and is taking over the southern region

With that they fought against the other generals in the south that is still loyal to the Greater Veranis and they won every battle as more and more generals who have background related to the Gerad Stratocracy piling in.

But unlike Muyan in the northern region, there is a problem in the Erciyes army.

Gerad Stratocracy is a system of government headed by military chiefs.

Citizens with mandatory or voluntary military service or veterans who have been honorably discharged have the right to elect or govern

And this is the way of Gerad and how they manage to survive against Niovar for a long time, establish a kingdom, resisting the Veranis Old Dream of reuniting for decades.

But there is talk that Zarakh may wanted to follow the governance of the Empire, with him as the Emperor and the other generals as the ministers.

He wanted to change how Gerad would be governed in the future, to alienate his base supporters of whom consisted of people who were in favor of the old system

He wanted to give more power to merchants, to scholars who during the time of Gerad heyday were treated as nothing more as retards that slow down war efforts.

He wanted to promote education, encourage innovation and revive trade. In other words, he wanted to copy the way of the Chancellor

Aero had laughed when he read the report.

Zarakh wanted to copy his method.

In other words, Zarakh wanted to copy the five policy that Aero had suggested to King George in the first year back from his exile

At that time Aero line out five policy

One, the kingdom must revive farming to provide for the people and prepare for disaster. In this one could be benevolent when other people could not.

The royal family must be close to the people for the roots of a kingdom is the people. The second policy is to distinguish what is right from wrong to establish good social custom and this laws must be strictly adhered to

But at times, it must be flexible when times are hard. When times are good, and prosperity is abound, this law must be enforced strictly.

The third policy is to encourage cultural and educational policies to strengthen unity with the many people that live in the domain controlled by the kingdom.

Culture must be exported to the neighboring kingdoms so that even though the kingdom did not conquer these people, they would follow the way of Vanheim kingdom and made them think of Vanheim as people that are close to them

education must be prioritized so that the people would benefit and could drive innovation in the kingdom

the fourth policy is to establish military facilities to uphold the dignity of the kingdom, protect it from external enemies and serve as a deterrent to those who set their covetous gaze toward the kingdom

The fifth policy is to unify the kingdom legal system, codified it into one single Law system. No longer should the nobles in their lands could change the law according to which of the lands the criminal commit its crime

At that time, there was disparity and differences of punishment that is dole out according to where the crime is committed and where they were captured

As such, it created a mess in the legal system of the kingdom.

A noble had once killed a peasant in a drunken brawl. In that particular barony, his crime would be punished by him getting demoted

But instead of taking that punishment, this noble ran away to his relative barony and instead of getting demoted, the baron of that particular barony pardon him of the crime of killing.

As such, it become a contests of strength and influence between the two barony instead of the matter of right and wrong

This is but one case of many where some people were punished less or in some case punished more according to the wacky legal system

When the nobles do it, it is a mistake. When the peasant does it, it is a crime

There was this massive inequality in almost everything. From the political realms, economic realm and the legal realm.

The short side of the stick is reserved for the peasant. The peasant were weak and weak people do not create strong nation.

Aero and King George sought to change it. Only when the people are strong, the kingdom is strong

With the centralization of power under king George at that time, Aero suggested to unify the kingdom legal system, forcing the entire kingdom to only judge a crime based on one set of uniform rules and legislation covering the whole kingdom and effective everywhere.

So any enforcer of the kingdom = could caught someone that is doing a crime at some barony and even when they ran to another barony, the laws would still be the same.

There was a lot of pushback from the nobles but at that time king George hold the ultimate power after the exile and so the reform was successfully put in place and implement

And there is no longer any loopholes that people of power could use to weasel their way out of punishment.

Aero even suggested to not forget about the judge which stems from an earlier conversation with King George about appointing officials to govern the kingdom

The judge that was appointed must be strict and impartial and their power is protected by the Six Council and they could not be fired by the local nobles and any attempt on their life by some faction or nobles’ private army would be then construed as an attack toward the Kingdom and constitutes as treason and insurrection against the kingdom

It is using these five policies that Vanheim had managed to centralize the kingdom, unify the people and created large armies that could conquer all the eastern kingdom and had strengthened the foundation of which Aero and George would begin their westward expansion

Most of these policies is taken from the conversation between him and the past King. He once talks about this in the court with King George.

At that time, the King asked him

“What should be done so that people will obey my orders? What could be done so that the peasant could trust the judgment of my ruling? How would they render their trust to me? I do not wish them harm. But We acknowledge that not all people believed in the government? What should be done?”

Aero then said simply

‘Promote righteous man and set them above those who are not. This way the people will submit. If Your Majesty promote wicked men and set them above the official that is righteous, the people will not submit and instead would foster distrust between the royal family and the people.’

This is the words that he said and become the basis of promotion for the officials on the far reaches of the capital

Then Aero spoke about the five policy but the beginning was the appointment of officials.