Unknown Knight

Although the overall strength of the Sarand Emirate was greatly damaged in this war, the central government's control over the local area was greatly strengthened, and the strength centered on the Niza Sultan was also greatly enhanced.

This is mainly because the number of mayors of the three cities of Dukuba, Amrad and Barie, as well as the chiefs and nobles in the cities has sharply decreased.

These great chiefs have great power in the local area. Almost all rights, laws and economies are in their hands. They are basically small kings in the local area.

Now these great chiefs and nobles have either died in battle or fled with the two princes, and the few who are left have basically become prisoners.

Although Niza had previously promised not to pursue the nobles who followed the three princes, that was only aimed at the small and medium-sized chiefs and nobles who surrendered, and did not mean that the main culprits would not be held accountable.

After a professional interrogation, it was found that these captured chiefs had been committing evil in the local area for many years. Their crimes were so many and serious that there was no need to spend extra effort to fabricate charges. It could be said that each of them was extremely evil. Aix asked Niza to take the opportunity to eliminate them all.

So Niza announced to the whole country, exposing the crimes of these chiefs to the public. He also declared that these chiefs knew that their guilt was too great and they could not escape blame, so they committed suicide to apologize to the Sultan in exchange for the Sultan sparing the lives of their relatives and part of their property and territory.

Through these operations, the power of local chiefs was basically eliminated. Except for a part of the property and territory distributed to other members of these chiefs' families, most of it nominally belonged to the Niza Sultan.

This includes a large amount of gold, silver, treasures and real estate, such as 50,000 gold coins, more than 300,000 silver coins, countless copper coins, and so many precious gems that it is difficult to calculate their price.

The most valuable things are not these floating wealth, but real estate that can make money, such as the pottery workshop and dye workshop in Amrad, the rose salt mine and arena in Barriye, and the big inn and brothel in Dukuba, all of which are big businesses that make a fortune every day.

Now all of these nominally belong to Niza, which greatly increases its strength and gives it an overwhelming advantage over the local area.

Originally, according to Aix, he wanted to take this opportunity to carry out a reform in Sarande similar to that of Vigia, but after repeated consideration, he gave up this idea.

Firstly, although Niza was born a prince of Sarand, his mother was just a woman from the far east. The mother and son had no other relatives in Sarand, and it could be said that they had no roots at all.

After capturing the royal city of Shariz, Aix cleaned out the chiefs and nobles under his control, so there was a power vacuum under Niza's rule.

If Aix had not left most of the team he brought from Berbera to Niza, Niza alone would not have been able to maintain such a large territory.

Now with the help of Aix, Niza has basically unified the entire country of Sarand, but what follows is a greater power vacuum.

This vacuum cannot be filled in a short period of time with Aix's current strength, unless he moves the center of rule from Vigia to Sarande, but this is also impossible.

At present, the local area can only rely on the original ruling team. Since the top chiefs are gone, some of the local managers are selected from the local small and medium-sized nobles, and some are transferred from the royal city.

Although this situation will not produce gangs and forces that control local power in the short term, it can only barely maintain local rule.

In addition, this war has seriously damaged the national strength of Sarand. Now the entire Sarand can be said to be in a state of depression and decline in all industries internally, and there are powerful enemies coveting it externally. The old enemies, the Rhodok Kingdom, the Khergit Khanate, and the nearby Swadia Kingdom are all eyeing it covetously.

Especially in terms of food, the war consumed a large amount of food and affected farming time, resulting in famine in many places.

This puts the entire Sarand society on the brink of turmoil, and unexpected chaos may occur at any time.

If so-called reforms are carried out at this time, it will likely be like using a needle to prick a balloon, bringing even more devastating consequences.

After repeated discussions with Niza and others, everyone finally agreed that not only should Sarande not be reformed at the moment, but also that the local small and medium-sized nobles should be appeased as much as possible to maintain the stability of the entire Sarande.

At the same time, under the behind-the-scenes leadership of Aix, a series of policies to maintain stability began to be implemented.

The first issue that needs to be urgently addressed is the food problem. The Sarand Emirate is a desert country. The domestic agriculture is very fragile and the output is very limited. It needs to import a large amount of food from outside, and this situation is difficult to reverse in a short period of time.

Fortunately, the war has now ended, trade routes have gradually been restored, and grain from the Kingdom of Swadia and other places has begun to flow into the country in small quantities.

However, the food that flowed in from land was not only small in quantity, but also consumed a lot along the way. In addition, the surrounding countries deliberately restricted the flow of food into Sarande. The food that flowed in could not meet domestic demand at all, causing food prices to remain high. Most poor people could not afford to buy food at all.

Aix had no choice but to squeeze out some food from the limited military supply stockpile to open soup kitchens in various towns to feed the poor people and refugees, to meet their most basic survival needs, and to ensure that they would not cause trouble.

At the same time, work-for-relief was carried out, and these poor people were organized to repair damaged city walls and roads, and work in large mines and workshops such as salt mines, pottery workshops, and iron mines in exchange for wages to buy the daily necessities they urgently needed.

However, unexpectedly, the food problem was soon solved. As merchant ships from Berbera sailed into the port of Shariz and unloaded large amounts of food, the high food prices in various parts of Sarand fell.

It turned out that the two saints, Aisu and Ran Ying, who were stationed in Berbera, had been working hard to develop the territory according to the arrangements made by Aix before he left, and had achieved very good results.

In particular, a canal was dug from the Black Water River to the basin west of Berbera, forming a very large freshwater lake in the center of the basin.

Due to the solution of water resources, the sunshine is very sufficient. A large amount of arable land has been developed around the lake, and the crops grown there can be produced three times a year. In addition to being consumed by humans and livestock, a large amount of grain is also used to produce beer and for export.

Although the sea trade route between Shariz and Berbera is long and the profits are not very high, for the sake of their husbands, and with the support of the intermediate stronghold Modi, the two women have been working hard to maintain this trade route.

Their fleet usually transports spices, iron tools, nectar and other specialty goods to Shariz for sale, and then returns home after purchasing high-value goods such as linen, silk, velvet, and hardwood from the local area.

Not long ago, they heard from the returning fleet that a great war was going on here. Based on the intelligence they had, the two women judged that there must be a shortage of food here, so they decided to take the initiative to transport food here.

They replaced all the ballast stones on the bottom of the ship with food, and sent more than a dozen keks specifically to transport food, and only then did they help their husbands resolve the food crisis in Sarand.