Alexander was not too against delaying building his walls if it ant allocating more resources to more important projects
But though Alexander was not of the mind to expose Uzak, his colleagues seed to be of a different mind.
"Heh! Who are you kidding Uzak? Shortage of n?"
"Bah! We all have a shortage of n!" Diaogosis shouted while Jazum chid,
"That's right! And don't slander ! The cent plants have been working to the best of their abilities even through all the difficulties! You get more cent than you deserve."
It seed there was so kind of internal rivalry between the various council mbers over the limited resources.
Because they believed the faster they could complete theirs, the more recognition they could get from Alexander.
And with Jazum opening the door of accusation, the others quickly joined in, all complaining how the others were hoarding resources, until Diaogosis cleverly added this,
"Bah!! If I had more n, I would have also finished building the port on ti! But now! I will need one more year!"
"But do you hear complaining?"
"....." Hearing which Alexander was speechless.
He originally thought that Diaogosis was taking his side to scold Uzak on his behalf, where in reality, the shrewd stonemason was using the latter's excuse to justify his own delays, while at the sa ti making him appear diligent.
'Nice!' Alexander could not help but begrudgingly admire.
And with Diaogosis's little trick revealed to the rest of the council mbers, they too used it to justify their own deals, using the sa three reasons.
The aqueducts, apartnt buildings, and sewage all seed to have been delayed, with even Diaogosis's assistant, who was put in charge of building the roads across the province, connecting Alexander's fief to the other nobles reporting delays in the estimated ti of conclusion.
And hearing all his chatter about the sa thing, Alexander finally got a bit irritated and lightly snapped,
"Okay, okay, I get it. The war has disrupted your schedule. And you want more ti."
"Fine! You will get it." He very casually declared with a wave of his hands.
He did not feel like haggling with them over this, especially when what they were saying was true.
The war had conscripted a lot of the workers, a lot of the workers had died, and lastly, during the siege, much of the construction was halted, both to husband resources and because many workers were put in the garrisons.
While the brick kilns were destroyed and the cent plant kept only nominally operational.
Due to all this, Alexander decided to give this concession, to which all the council mbers cheered with all kinds of praises describing his magnanimity.
While Alexander responded by comnting,
"In the coming years, we will need to handle bigger and bigger projects. Which will need more resources."
"So I want all council mbers to think of ways to increase production."
"More brick-making kilns need to be built."
"More hills suitable for establishing cent crushing plants should be discovered."
"And more people from outside should be made to immigrate to Zanzan to alleviate the worker shortages."
"Yes my lord," The council mbers gave a short reply.
And finishing this, Heliptos quickly jumped up to offer his suggestion,
"My lord, perhaps the other nobles could also be made to build the brick kilns. We will be building all those roads for them after all. It's only natural they should contribute."
HH was of the mind to make the nobles bear so of the labor-intensive brick-making process.
"Hmmm," And hearing so Alexander traced his chin at the feasibility, finding the idea quite attractive at first glance.
The roads did not specifically need bricks as they used stone and gravel as their base.
But bricks could easily be a substitute.
And it would help increase his production aiding in relieving the shortage.
But there were of of course problems with that as well.
First being that forcing his nobles to build the kilns, which many may not like, thinking Alexander was overstepping his boundaries.
It would also an going into the muddy waters of who was going to finance it as nobles were famously stingy and could say they did not have the funds to spare.
Then there would be the discussion of manpower as most people under a noble were already employed, the majority tending the fields while the others were needed in other vocations.
This was especially true for shordars (barons) and talukders (viscounts) who were quite small and would most likely be unable to sustain large-scale production of the kilns.
And lastly there was answering the question of whether Alexander would buy the bricks from them using money or it would be so kind of obligation from them for the wider infrastructure effort.
But just because there were hurdles did not an it could not be done.
Perhaps the nobles would need so greasing, but Alexander was confident in making them do it.
"That's a good idea. I will talk to them," So he promised.
And then the sa suggestion was made for the cent plant, but which Alexander categorically rejected siting the strategic importance of cent, though, at the back of his mind, he did think back on the idea he already had, to sell the clinkers mixed with gypsum to the nobles for them to grind at their own wind or watermills.
That could certainly be done, as increasing the number of cent kilns would be much easier than finding suitable places for building waterwheels.
But for the ti being, he lacked the manpower to even increase that.
So for the foreseeable future, it seed that cent production would continue to be his main bottleneck.
And as for increasing manpower, well, though it sounded relatively straightforward, just taking people from other places and dumping them here, well Cambyses had so less-than-savory news to share.
"Ummm….there might be a problem with getting more people. Especially if they are not from Adhania," she chid.
And as Alexander turned to face her with a raised eyebrow, she explained, "I know I should have reported it soon but I had not gotten the chance."
"Thing is both I and Batholow have for so ti been dealing with various small-scale disagreents between the native Adhanians and the Thesians."
"And Batholow says both the frequency and scale have gotten a lot worse after the siege ended."
"We need to do sothing."
"Disagreents?" Hearing this Alexander's interest was piqued.
People bumping shoulders with each other during the day, especially in this congested city was inevitable.
So he was not really surprised by there being disagreents.
Disagreents, disputes, and quarrels were all part and parcel of living in the city and even life.
And usually, they were encountered, dealt it, and then swiftly forgotten.
But Cambyses did not sound like she was talking about ordinary disagreents and innocent rows between simple passersby.
Given how she worded it, it seed much more systematic.
And as Alexander asked her to clarify, the girl nodded and said,
"Mmm, disagreents. Or discriminations I should say,"
"The examples are quite varied, but all of them can show the various discriminations many Thesians faced."
"For instance, so Adhanian shops seem to refuse to sell to Thesians. A few even famously have signs saying no Thesian is welco."
"So restaurants also refuse to let Thesians eat or force them to eat outside."
"While so shops sell everything at a markup when they see a Thesian purchasing it."
"And even the most tolerant shops seem to favor an Adhanian to a Thesian."
"For instance, there was one report from Bartholow saying that a Thesian had complained to a passing patrol that even though he was the first to choose a vase, just as he was about to buy it, another Adhnaina ca to buy it and the shopkeep sold it to him."
"There are many more such examples I could list, such as groups of Adhanian cornering lone Thesians in alleys and beating them up, throwing rubbish at them,…but you get the gist."
"There is a blatant bias, so might even say animosity between the two."
"And this type of thing had already caused quite a few brawls in the market, but fortunately the guards were there to snuff them before things could get out of control."
"But if it is not addressed soon, and if even more foreigners were to enter…." Cambyses produced an ominous outco.
And as Cambyses said this, several angry scowls soon were detected across the table, which was very natural given many of the council mbers, especially the military ones were all Thesian.
They could not believe their fellow people were being treated like that, right under their noses.
While Alexander hearing so did not imdiately react but began to think.
And once he had ruminated on it more soti, he addressed,
"The discrimination between the two ethnicities is not anything surprising. This is sothing we had already expected."
"Adhanians have always considered themselves to be better than Thesians…ahh not all of them" Alexander quickly added the second part looking at the Adhanian council mbers, who blushed a bit, feeling embarrassed by what people of their own ethnicity were doing, and so quickly said,
"No, no, my lord. We should punish these people severely! Thesians and Adhanians are brothers!"
"Mmm," Alexander was pleased to hear this, and after a nod continued,
"That is why I wish to find out why Adhanians are targeting the Thesians. How they are doing it? And how we can stop it."
" And after knowing this we can co up with laws that fight this!"
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