Hild caught a glimpse of Alcibiades.
It's really unusual.
Hilde couldn't help laughing, and then said to Sophia beside her: "Look, Alcibiades followed us so far, to the Byzantine Kingdom, so I want to test him in all aspects to see if he can take on the important task."
"Sissi, what are your plans?"
Sophia also tilted her head curiously.
"Of course...torture him."
When God wants to give a man a great responsibility, he must first make his mind suffer, his muscles and bones work hard, and his body hungry. Hilde memorized this sentence when she was in school, and she still remembers it deeply. Regardless of whether Alcibiades is talented or not, he is also a child born in a wealthy family. He has never suffered much since he was a child, and he has been smooth sailing all the way. Such people often cannot stand the test.
Therefore, if you want to take on important tasks, you must first endure hardships. Only after suffering and training can you create achievements that others cannot create. Otherwise, if you give him some important things, once he encounters any setbacks, if this person's ability to withstand blows is poor, it is easy to cause a big accident. So Hilde had already thought about how to torture this guy in the future.
Now he doesn't know that danger is coming.
He thought that after arriving in the Byzantine Empire, he would be greeted by a glorious journey.
Hilde's troops soon arrived near the palace.
Originally, Alcibiades thought that since Byzantium was so magnificent, Hilde's palace must be very beautiful and magnificent. But when he arrived at the gate of the palace, he found that it was just an ordinary small villa, and in terms of scale, it was not even half the size of Alcibiades's house... Just when he was a little confused, Hilde rolled off the horse and said to Alcibiades: "This is my temporary palace. It is a little small, but I have lived here for the past two or three years. The new palace will take at least some time to be completed."
"Your Majesty, you are so frugal..."
Alcibiades didn't know what to say.
In his opinion, letting Hilde live in such an ordinary house was simply a waste of Hilde's status.
Hilde took Sophia, Dione and Aspasia directly into the palace. Alcibiades was stunned for a moment outside, and then he quickly went in. After entering, the decoration inside did not surprise Alcibiades. It was just ordinary, nothing worth mentioning. But what made Alcibiades curious was that the courtyard inside the house was very colorful, with all kinds of beautiful plants.
"You like flowers and plants?"
Hildre noticed Alcibiades' gaze.
"Yes, I like all beautiful things."
"Including women?"
"Of course!"
As he said this, Alcibiades' eyes were full of light.
He can be so lustful that he seems so righteous about it.
It is also rare.
Hild had previously specifically asked others about their opinions and insights on Alcibiades. After all, in history, Alcibiades was a famous playboy, and his favorite place to go was the brothel and other women's beds. However, according to legend, the reason why Alcibiades liked physical pleasure so much was just a simple hobby, not a real lustful thing. He would not let this thing affect his judgment. In other words, he would not be tempted by beauty, but he liked beauty.
So that's interesting.
"My mother took care of these flowers and plants. She has been gone for two or three months. I didn't expect that they are still alive and well. It seems that the gardeners at home did a good job when we were away." Hilde looked at the garden, then turned to Alcibiades and said, "That's great. I will arrange your work for you here."
"Your Majesty, please speak!"
Alcibiades perked up at once.
He didn't expect that Hilde would give him instructions on his work so soon.
Hilde smiled and said, "From today on, you will be responsible for cleaning the palace."
"...Ah? Cleaning?"
"Yes, you don't need to help us clean the bedroom or anything like that. You just need to clean the living room, corridor, outside the house, and the door every day. If you are not very good at cleaning, the servants in the house can teach you, but I will only give you five days to learn how to clean the room. After five days, you will be responsible for all the sanitation work in the entire palace. Do you hear me?"
"Understood……"
Alcibiades didn't know why he should be the one to clean up.
But Hield clearly wasn't joking.
She was very serious when she said this.
Now Alcibiades was completely confused and his mind was in a mess. Hilde's behavior was indeed beyond his imagination.
And Hilde looked at Alcibiades's helpless look and couldn't help but smile, then turned and walked towards her room, leaving Alcibiades there.
"Cleaning...sanitation?"
Now, he hasn't turned the corner yet.
The next few days.
Alcibiades finally understood what his job was.
Hilde actually found a slave and taught him how to clean. Every morning, he had to get up before dawn, fetch water from the well, and mop the floor of the entire palace. In this way, when Hilde got up in the morning, there would be no dust or anything like that on the floor. After mopping the floor, he had to go to the entrance of the palace to clean the ground. Because it was autumn, there would occasionally be fallen leaves at the entrance of the palace, so Alcibiades had to clean these things up.
When these tasks were completed, Alcibiades could take a short break and have breakfast. After breakfast, he could not sit idle. He had to use linen and clean water to carefully wipe all the decorations in the palace, such as pottery jars, vases, or some decorative weapons and equipment.
The first tune, the seventh section, it's no use feeling sorry for it
Occasionally, it is necessary to use scissors to trim the flowers and plants in the garden. Of course, this work is usually done by Aspasia herself.
This isn't really a hard job...
The most uncomfortable thing is after lunch.
Clean the toilet.
Alcibiades had to clean the pits in the palace. The pits were specially designed, so there was no need to take out the feces from the pits, but the feces in the pits still needed to be taken out with buckets and sent to the small door behind the palace, where a carriage would take the excrement away. These pits were specially used by the guards and servants living in the palace. At the same time, Alcibiades also had to deal with the toilets of Hildesophia and others. He had to go to these rooms in person and take out the toilets they used.
After cleaning the toilet, it must be rinsed with water and then delivered to each room. The speed must be fast, and they must not be unable to go to the toilet when they want to.
Just cleaning the toilet would take until dinner time.
You can relax a little more at night.
But by that time, people are almost exhausted and can just fall asleep on the bed.
Alcibiades almost collapsed after the first day of doing this. When he was in Athens, he was the son of a well-known wealthy businessman and a descendant of the nobility. Things like cleaning the toilet were done by the servants at home. How could it be Alcibiades' turn to do it himself? What's more, handling this work in the palace is not just dealing with the toilet of one person. There are more than 30 people living in the entire palace, and he is responsible for all of them.
The key is that Hilde did not forget to give him a title.
It's called the Internal Affairs Officer.
Specially responsible for the palace's internal affairs.
This was very frustrating. He was doing a job that only servants would do, but he was given an official position. Alcibiades had no place to complain to others. Did Hilde not give him an official position? That was impossible. Wasn't the housekeeper an official? Although he was responsible for cleaning the toilet, he was indeed an official. Moreover, in the bureaucratic system of the Byzantine Empire, the rank of the housekeeper created by Hilde was the same as that of the municipal official.
In other words.
When Alcibiades went out.
Regardless of his treatment or status.
They are all at the same level as the aldermen of Byzantium.
This position really gave Alcibiades enough face. After all, many officials were of lower rank than Alcibiades. When they saw Alcibiades, they had to take the initiative to salute. And the most important thing was that these people didn't know what Alcibiades did. They only knew that Alcibiades worked in the palace. They thought that Alcibiades was so close to Hilde, so this person must be very valued, so he became the internal affairs officer. Being close to Hilde meant that he would be very successful in the future, and many people envied him for this.
Alcibiades was in tears.
Hilde's arrangement was indeed too cruel.
Since Alcibiades came to the Byzantine Empire, this fair-skinned young man has been cleaning the palace every day. In the afternoon, he can be seen walking around the palace with a toilet in his hand, frowning. Sometimes he can't stand it anymore and vomits in the garden. Just seeing this scene, Aspasia felt a little distressed. Even if Hilde wanted to train him, she shouldn't do it like this.
"Sissi, is this really okay?"
Aspasia couldn't help but ask.
Hilde was reading the documents sent from the north. When she heard Aspasia's question, she put down the documents in her hand, raised her head and asked, "What is good or not?"
"It's Alcibiades. He came all the way from Athens with you to this place. It can be said that he worked hard. Even if you didn't intend to let him participate in the affairs of the kingdom from the beginning, you can't let him be a coolie like this." Aspasia shook her head helplessly. It can be seen that she still felt sorry for Alcibiades. "If Socrates knew that the apprentice he recommended was doing a job here that only hard work can do, he would definitely be angry."
"What does it have to do with me whether he's angry or not?"
Hilde retorted bluntly.
"I asked Alcibiades to do this, of course I have my own ideas and considerations."
"but……"
"Mother, you have to know that if Alcibiades really couldn't accept doing this, he wouldn't have stayed here for a few days. He would definitely come to me and say that he couldn't stand it. The fact that he can continue to do it means that he can still accept it. The most critical problem is... If he can't handle this kind of work well, it means that he doesn't have enough patience. It's very likely that he came to the Byzantine Kingdom just on impulse. I'm going to pour a bucket of cold water on him now and let him know that he is not that important."
"Sissi, how long do you plan to let him do this?"
"It depends on how I feel. I think he's doing a good job now. If he does a good job, let him continue to be the internal affairs officer. Anyway, although the Byzantine Kingdom is short of talent now, it's not that short. If we rashly promote someone who just came back from Athens and is unknown to everyone to a high position, everyone will definitely think it's inappropriate."
"All right……"
Aspasia didn't know what to say.
Since this is Hilde's decision and it is his consideration.
Then all he could do was watch Alcibiades being tortured like this.
The painful days will continue.
But in fact, although Alcibiades was doing these jobs that he had never done before and these jobs were quite a psychological blow to him, Alcibiades did not complain too much. In his opinion, Hilde's decision was understandable. He realized that Hilde might have given him such a heavy and terrible job to see his performance and give him a test opportunity to see if he could calm down in such tedious work.
You are truly worthy of being His Majesty Hilde!
It turns out that this is thoughtful consideration!
Alcibiades thought of this.
I feel more energetic when I clean the toilet!!!
Chapter 8: The New Byzantine Army
(Everyone should have noticed the liver emperor competition recently... Actually, I didn't plan to participate in it at first, but in the end I found out that the first in the winner group can get a weather vane + recommended position with content. Everyone knows that Goddess's book hasn't had too many recommended positions, and the subscription is low, so the editor generally won't arrange it. So, I plan to take advantage of the completion of my old book to see if I can compete for the first place. From this month to the end of the month, I will maintain seven to eight updates a day, and by next month, I will increase to ten to fifteen updates a day depending on the situation, until the end of the competition. So, I hope everyone can give some support, next month's monthly ticket, or some miscellaneous rewards, if you are able to. Of course, the most important thing is that everyone can enjoy reading. The update volume is large, but the quality is guaranteed. There may be some typos or things that were not noticed when revising the text. I hope you can forgive me then)
Hild now has to deal with some issues in the north. The development plan for Upper Thrace is progressing very well, and the most important thing is that the roads in Upper Thrace are gradually spreading and extending towards the current location of the Scythians and the Getes, which means that the road will soon be connected to the Scythians. This is also the most important part of Hild's policy towards the Scythians during the window period of conquering Ionia.
The Scythians were a typical nomadic people.
This means that the Scythians need to be treated with a typical nomadic attitude.
The characteristic of nomadic people is that they have no fixed residence or fixed industry, and all their economy is carried out in a mobile and self-sufficient way. This means that once the economy of nomadic people is tied to fixed industries, they will lose their nomadic attributes to a certain extent. By establishing border trade stations and trading with the Scythians, they can exchange their favorite goods for their things, such as food and fine wine, and thus reduce the nomadic nature of the Scythians.
Once the dependence on agricultural civilization increases.
Nomadic peoples are bound to go to two extremes.
One is to be assimilated, and the other is to plunder the farming peoples if they are not satisfied.
However, the Scythians could not defeat the Byzantines.
There is no doubt about this.
Therefore, Hilde still attached great importance to the border trade station. As for who will manage the border trade station, Hilde actually has a candidate in mind, but this person is still happily cleaning the toilet every day, so for the time being, it is better not to disturb this young man's enthusiasm for cleaning the toilet. After the fourth and fifth legions are formed, we will consider this situation.
In order to cope with the situation that the Byzantine Empire would be left unguarded during the subsequent attack on Ionia.
Hilde had previously given orders to train two legions in Thrace.
The brave and warlike Thracians, coupled with the reality of liberation and very favorable conditions for joining the army, made many Thracians sign up for the army forever. There were more than 300,000 people in Thrace, so it was not a problem to select more than 20,000 soldiers. After the selection, the two legions, which were mainly composed of young soldiers, had already taken shape. Hilde had prepared for the rainy day and stockpiled a large amount of weapons and equipment in the city of Byzantium. When the new legion was established, the weapons and equipment were immediately arranged.
And now, both forces have been formed.
The first one is the Fourth Legion, the "Thresnian" Legion.
The second one is the Fifth Legion, the "Hebros" Legion.
Both legions were reorganized and built strictly in accordance with the Byzantine Kingdom's legion system. Each legion had about 11,000 people. However, the nature of these two legions was different from the previous three legions. For example, the "Apollonia" Legion and the "Great Byzantine" Legion were field legions. Their mission was to fight. When they were not fighting, they were also training madly. But the newly established "Thresnia" and "Hebros" Legions were typical border guarding legions.
If they don't fight.
After training, the next step is reclamation.
These young and middle-aged people will be led by military officers to develop the northern plains and implement a policy of military reclamation.
With more than 20,000 laborers and military discipline, the land was reclaimed very quickly. It was already autumn, just in time for wheat planting. By the time the next spring and summer came together, the wheat fields reclaimed by these 20,000 people would provide a large amount of food for the border areas, and the wheat would become the most important commodity for trade with the Scythians... Of course, that was all for later.
And after returning to Byzantium.
Hilde has been busy working on something.
So much so that other people don’t really understand.
Hilde locked himself in a workshop where he had no idea what was being produced, and stayed there for a whole day.
"What does your majesty do every day?"
"I do not know……"
