In the past one and a half month after winning the battle, Alexander was starting to go through some pretty tough times.
Sure he had won a great victory and secured his borders as well as gaining four new followers, who as a side note had left after only three days after swearing their fealty in an informal setting due to time constraints, promising to come back in May when all the nobles were asked to answer Alexander's call for a more formal swearing.
But after the initial success of the great win, Alexander was made to face some serious challenges.
And that was not only with money but actually the food.
In fact, that was the much bigger problem as there was Alexander began to genuinely concern himself that Zanzan might soon start to starve.
For the 20,000 tons of grains he had bought with him from Adhan was starting to graze the bottom of the barrel.
Eating 20,000 tons of grain in less than 6 months might sound like a lot, but once you did the math, you would find it really not that much.
For instance, the average person consumed around 500 grams of floor each day, with another 500g to 700g consisting of vegetables and fruits.
Alexander would not usually provide the latter, instead letting the people have their pick of the side, which in this drought-ridden pit hole consisted of mainly wild berries, mushrooms, and if they were lucky garden vegetables such as peas and beans that the people would have managed to grow in their backyards.
Alexander would sometimes give smoked meat and fish, usually about twice weekly, while the rest of the days the people would need to depend on the fishmonger for some protein, as meat was really non-existence due to scarcity of suitable domestic animals.
Whatever cow, horse and ox the people had had long been cooked, digested, and ejected, while anyone still possessing one would rather use it to plow the fields.
And as for birds like chickens, ducks and fowl, they were similarly a rare breed, with meat almost as expensive as gold, and just one egg costing 2 ropals.
Hence, as Alexander only handed out grain to the 150,000 population, his stockpiles were enough to last a bit less than 9 months, 6 of which he had unfortunately already spent.
And this was not to mention the grains he had used to plant the crops, which required around 150 kg of seed per hectare.
This meant that with 27,000 hectares of grain planted, Alexander in total had already used up about 16,000 tons of grains.
And now with the addition of around 20,000 to 25,000 new mouths of feed, it meant that Alexander had only about a month and a half left till the stocks were completely empty, i.e.- until the end of May.
This was also why Alexander was so vehemently opposed to fighting a siege, and pushed for an open battle.
Now, this food situation was not a surprise to Alexander.
He had done the math even prior to coming to Zanzan, and knew his limits very well.
This was precisely why he had asked Pasha Farzah for an additional 30,000 tons of food.
A shipment that had been promised to him within 4 months and that should have been here months ago.
Alexander had been even prudent enough to compensate that Pasha Farzah might be delayed or face other problems by stocking up on three times the grain amount, enabling him to theoretically reach 13 months, though that was based on assuming the population would be a maximum of 100,000, not touch 200,000.
But Alexander had only allowed the numbers to rise that high because Pasha Farzah constantly reassured him that there would be no delays with the shipment, which was also why Alexander had relaxed the rationing and sponsored generous food programs.
Even his wedding was conducted based on that promise.
A promise that lasted until the war broke.
After which Pasha Farzah began to suddenly have a million other problems.
Thus Alexander was now left with mostly praying that Pasha Farzah came to Zanzan by May and had the necessary grain with him.
And this situation had even made Alexander a bit reproach himself for acting like the tough guy and not maintaining cordial relations with such a critical ally.
'They are bigger, stronger, and better than you. For now remember that,' Alexander told to himself, taking note to keep warm relations with others even if they don't always reciprocate back equally.
At least for now, where he needed them much more than they needed him.
Now it had to be said that it was not like Alexander was without options when it really came down to it.
This was also why he had not throttled the food supply yet, even when Menicus was ringing alarm bells.
Because Alexander would do any of the following things.
He could simply re-introduce the rationing, and decrease the per-head consumption by 20%, giving out 400g of floor rather than the usual 500g per capita.
This might be unpopular, but the people would likely suck it up as Alexander would still be giving out food.
Plus, Alexander would not even need to publicly admit it as the rationing that he had initiated when the city had gone to war production mode was still in place.
So he could just make the portion smaller.
And even if the people noticed, Alexander could simply say this was the new portion, take it or leave it.
Then there was the second option-food reallocation.
Alexander had noticed that the Thesians had bought quite a kind of good with them, about 50 to 80 kg of floor her family and he contemplated buying that food for gold, though the sale might not be voluntary.
Sure the total food would not be large, maybe roundabout 500 tons at best, but in a starving situation, every morsel mattered.
But though Alexander had contemplated it, he was very very unlikely to implant this even in the direst situation because then what he would be doing was taking sustenance from the families of his soldiers.
The very men that fought, died, and protected him.
If Alexander really did that then he would not be able to do a more stupid thing even if he tried.
So, Alexander was in fact of the mind that if push really came to shove he might even do the opposite and keep his army well-fed and happy.
So this meant Alexander would have to move to his next consideration.
Which proposed doing a similar thing Amenheraft had done when Adhania started experiencing drought.
And that was attacking your neighbor for food.
For Amenheraft that was Tibias, and for Alexander that would be the surrounding nobles.
And Alexander was pretty sure he would be able to squeeze out quite a bit of fat from these currently defenseless sheep.
Though the risk associated with that and the chance of the situation quickly escalating to unimaginable heights was all too real.
And still, it was this and the first option was the combination that Alexander was most leaning towards, though he was of the mind to wait till the last possible minute and really hope that Pasha Farzah arrived on time.
Alexander really did not risk starting another war.
And then lastly there was the worst-case scenario where everything had failed.
Meaning no food left, and no hope of getting more anytime soon.
And though this might sound apocalyptic, even then everything would most likely not come crashing down.
This was because the people had had their spring harvest, where they collected around 12,000 hectares of vegetables amounting to about 10,000 tons of various produce which they could subsist on until August to September when the wheat be ready to harvest.
Alexander additionally also had close to 15,000 draft animals he could slaughter in a do-or-die case.
And lastly, he could simply buy more food from others in the open market.
Now this last option had not been on the cards until Mithras and Lord Karvish arrived, because Alexander had burnt all his sea-worthy ships, and was not left with anything bigger than a fishing vessel.
And since Tibias would not trade with him due to the recent wars, that only left him with Sybarsis.
And luckily for Alexander, that was quite feasible, for though mainland Sybarsis was quite far away, they also controlled the island of Galosos which was just 1600 km southwest of Zanzan.
It would take about 14 days to reach them by ship.
Now originally due to bad blood, trade between Adhania and Sybarsis was banned.
Or else Adhania could have rode the drought and barely anyone would have noticed.
But since Ptolomy took office, though the decree had not been repelled, it was tacitly agreed to turn a blind eye to anyone dealing with them, especially someone like Alexander who had special privileges.
Thus Alexander was currently of the mind to convince Lord Karvish to make the trip.
And since just the travel time of a round trip would take about a month, never mind actually buying and loading the stuff into the ships, Alexander wanted to start the talks right away, even though he knew the shorder would ask for a premium.
But fortunately for him, Alexander was spared that, for the stout merchant Harold announced himself two days after the Thesians had landed.
And he had bought with him 20 ships, filled to the brim with food, slaves, and animals.
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