Herald of Steel

How to handle the remaining Cantagenans was basically divided into two competing camps.

"The Cantagenans are wounded, weak, and lack discipline. I say we leave them. Let them fend for themselves," Petricuno strongly advocated just ditching them.

"We are already low on manpower, and you want to decrease our numbers even more?" Melodias objected, believing having more troops, regardless of their ability, was better than having fewer.

"These undisciplined peasants will only hold us back. You said it yourself, the path ahead will have tough battles. Can you expect these low-morale, leaderless troops to hold their ground when the going gets tough? What if they break formation and decide to run at the critical point? Do I need to remind you in the first battle if was them that broke ranks first?" Petricuno made some very fine points to strengthen his case.

Melodias did not expect such eloquence from the usually brash mercenary and even his smooth tongue found it hard to refute him.

Alexander too conceded that Petricuno made some very good points.

But his thoughts leaned more towards Melodias and was unwilling to just leave these men behind.

So tried to convince everyone in a roundabout way, "Leader Petricuno has made some very good points." Alexander seemed to agree.

Then he laid out his own views, "But I tend to share leader Melodias's view that leaving such good men is a waste. Even if they are unskilled and untrained as leader Petricuno claims they are, we can still use them as vanguards to absorb the first blow of the enemy, while we take all the glory later on. We can even use them as hard laborers and collies, have them carry our staff, cook, clean, and maintain the camp for us, and do other menial tasks. And if all that fails, let us sell all of them as slaves to suitable customers. If we just leave them here that's what they will become anyway, so why give them to Adhania for free?"

Alexander spoke the last two sentences with cold, detached emotions as if he wanted to only sell chicken or geese and not living human beings.

This nonchalant tone even surprised Alexander himself, who ruefully lamented how the harsh last ten years changed him.

He certainly was not so cold-blooded in his previous life.

But his inward lamentations were interrupted by a joyous cry of support, "Yes, I believe the commander is right." Heliptos loyally parroted.

The others also seem to like this compromise, including Petricuno.

Then Alexander decided on a long-term move, "Ahem, as leader Petricuno has pointed out, these Cantagenans are really low-quality troops. So, if you do not have any objections I would like to train them to make them at least somewhat useful.

Everyone was happy to dump the extra work on Alexander and thus it was decided that these leftover Cantagenans would go to Alexander.

And Alexander was happy to take this extra load because he thought the Cantagenans would be useful.

This is because although Alexander was chosen as the leader, the troops directly under him were pitifully low and he hoped to shore up some of the deficiencies by having the Cantagenans under his wings.

He also had the motive of convincing some of the young Cantagenans to formally join his mercenary group to bring his group back to its full strength.

Done with deciding the usefulness of the Cantagenans, now all the leaders decided to turn their attention to the meat of the issue.

The real reason they wanted to discuss Cantagena.

"So, how do we deal with the things in the Cantagenan camp?" Surprisingly it was Menicus who could not hold his patience.

The phrase 'way to deal with the things in the Cantagenan camp,' was everyone's euphemistic way of saying, 'how are we gonna divide the treasures in the Cantagenan camp?'.

After all, the was not only the gold and silver that Cantagena had bought with it for everyday expenses but also the treasures it took when they sacked Acme and all the personal possessions such as pots and pans, clothes, boots, bags, etc. of all the dead soldiers.

Alexander had roughly estimated there were less than a thousand of the original twenty-five thousand Cantagenans left and so, he was eager to take secure this defenseless booty quickly.

"Leader Menicus, I have never encountered a situation like this. As the eldest among us do you have any advice?" Alexander cleverly threw the pot to the eager Menicus, trying to use his seniority against him.

Alexander was curious to know how much the individual leaders wanted, whether they wanted an even split or a split based on the number of soldiers they each commanded, and he prudently decided to prod Menicus to feel the answer.

But the clever old man did not bite.

"I remember it was you saying to leave the problem about how to deal with the Cantagenans to the one selected commander. I believe that is now you." Menicus said with a sly smile.

'Darn old fart,' Alexander lightly cussed at the old man.

Then seeing no one else join in, not even the 'loyal' Heliptos, Alexnader could only propose his plan, "I believe the five of us here have sacrificed a lot and bear very heavy responsibilities. Such high-stress jobs should have adequate compensation to keep our spirits high. So, I propose dividing the loot evenly in five ways. What do you think?"

"Hmm, I have no problem. Is everyone else okay?" Melodias was the first to voice his consent.

"Yes. The Cantagenans are too few to protect this great treasure horde. It is our duty to guard it so Adhania can't take it." Menicus shamelessly justified the theft.

"As expected to the wise commander," Heliptoos did not forget to oil Alexander a bit.

"Sure, let's do it like that." Petricuno nodded.

The reason for such a quick, unanimous agreement was because usually commanders, as the highest ranking member, took twice what others took.

So, Alexander's offer was seen as very good by the others and even a bit generous.

It could even be argued that Alexander had suffered a little loss here, because he did not yet know many of the unwritten conventions of the mercenaries, such as how money was proportioned among various ranks.

The two new leaders of Alcmene and Regias mercenary groups unsurprisingly got nothing and though they were angry, they could only bear with it.

To attenuate this, Alexander decided to offer them a deal, "Brothers, both the Alcmene and Regias mercenaries have lost a lot of manpower and even their leaders in this war. A strong leader is needed to fill this position and we believe you two are the ones capable enough to do it. So, how much do you want it?"

What Alexander was offering was his support for the two's mercenary leader position in exchange for them formally foregoing their stake in the Cantagenan booty division.

This offer made one of them's eyes light up like a light bulb and he excitedly said, "I can use the funds left behind by Alcmene to secure my position if the other leaders help me."

This was him asking others to lay their hands off the things in his group, especially his former leader's stack.

"Haha, of course, of course. We would never think of putting our hands in another group's coffers." Alexander loudly assured.

Seeing himself as allyless and alone, the other mercenary leader also joined in for the promise that he could get to keep his group's treasures for himself.

"Then let us conclude today. I will send Theocles to help with the Cantagenans and best of luck in your day, gentlemen." Alexander then called for the meeting to end.

And thus the leaders after saying a few niceties left Alexander to himself.

And Alexander decided to call his captains to give them new instructions.

"Theocles, I want you to give me a full inventory of our supplies in writing by tonight. And more importantly, I want you to make sure we get our fair share from the Cantagenan loot," Alexander ordered.

"Yes, leader," Theocles promptly replied.

He was still a little peeved at not being able to accomplish his earlier task of putting a puppet as the Cantagenan leader and was eager to redeem himself.

"Menes and Pallidus, we have been tasked with training the remaining Cantagenans. Gather our troops and have them participate in drills with them. I want them to be useful in three days." Alexander laid out a deadline.

"I will try my best," Menes grimaced at the short time while Pallidus wordlessly nodded.

Three days were nothing when it came to training untrained peasants.

Here Alexander decided to cut them some slack and instructed, "There's no need to teach them anything overly complex. Just things like marching in formation, obeying orders quickly and properly, maintaining basic disciple, knowing one's left from right, things like that."

This bought a low sigh of relief to both the two men's faces as this was hard but at least doable within the time limit.

"Now, I have some things to say to Camius in private. Please excuse us." Alexander gestured towards the tent flaps.

And soon, the tent was emptied save for the two friends.