Chapter 515: Antonius De’Ricci Told the Nation
The thin papers are set flying freely in the air, together with the heart of Apostolos as that script is written by him. He knows that judging by this action, the Caesar is most likely going to put up a performance by himself instead of reading from the script in a traditional way. But according to the experience of Apostolos, the daring ones who choose to try to demonstrate their free speech capabilities are usually screwed for the most of the times.
"I am not going to read from a script." Antonius showed a confident smile to everyone in the forum. "That would be entirely pointless for our dear Torhan here to hold a session like this gathering all of us over here, instead I shall adopt my own ways and communicate with all my people in a more free and open manner like this... It suites my style, and it is definitely more interesting than the traditional way of giving speeches."
Not a single sound except for the howling of near spring wind can be heard in the surrounding.
"I know that you are anticipating that I shall make multiple promise to you people, like granting you riches, reliving your taxes or giving you the statues of a free city, just like how the king of the Alermanians do it. But sadly speaking, I must be frank with you people that I cannot give you any of those above, there is still a war going on out there! With the remnants of the Ottoman warlords! With the bandits and crooks in the woods! With the Latins! And with the Venetians! This is not the time that we can call for peace, and so I hereby seek for your understanding and corporation towards the current situation, thank you, citizens of Kastoria."
Still, there is not a single sound produced from beneath the stage, as if everyone has already expected this kind of outcome.
"Still, I can promise you that everything shall be unnecessary waste of manpower like what the Ottomans used to do last time. There shall be no compulsory recruitment or drafting, I believe that these kinds of drafted soldiers are completely incompetent when it comes to real combat often ending up wasting themselves during retreats or under the blades of their Ottoman masters. No one shall touch you, and if you are in short of money, you can always come to work for me, whether be it as a combatant or as a logistics assistant, I promise you that you shall be paid for your contributions."
"I can promise you that from this day onwards, the city of Kastoria and her citizens shall be entirely safe and shall remain untouched by any outside threats as long as I am still here. I shall guarantee your safety, my fellow citizens, I shall repel any enemies outside of the gates, I shall always be on your side if you have been bullied or robbed by any outside powers. There is now no need to live in the fear you used to have, the age of stability and development has arrived! And the scars of wars and destructions shall soon fade away from the city walls of Kastoria!"
A few claps and whistles came from the crowd, mostly made by the elders and the ladies.
"I know that the citizens of Kastoria have a lot of questions to ask me." Antonius looked around and spotted Torhan standing at his right on top of a roof with a bunch of other fancily dressed men. "Mainly concerning on how the Ottomans shall, the Muslims, the riches, and the veterans who used to stand with the Sanjek going against me."
The crowd bursted into gossips and discussions.
"I must be honest with you people, again, that there is no possible way that I can leave this problem untouched, as my governors still have not fully compiled and went through the population census of the city, and so I still do not have a clear understanding on the number of these people standing with us here and whether they are still planning to cause any troubles. But! I can tell you that I shall give everyone standing here a year’s time to sheathe their blade, erase their negative thoughts and go back to their normal lives, if there is no major outbreaks, chaos, or riots occurring in the city, then I shall say that we can tear the calendar and go into a new page of history forgetting about all the displeases in the past, simple as that."
The discussions and gossips in the crowd slowly died down, followed by some claps and cheers from the blade bearers in the crowd.
"As for our honourable Islamic Mullahss the Mufti, the Ulamas, and the respectable Muslim brothers, I promise you that you people shall remain untouched, and I shall not seek to collect any form of special taxation from you people, whatever duties that the rest of my citizens need to fulfil, you people shall do the same, whatever benefits and perks the rest of my citizens can get, you people shall have it as well, because I see you, all of you as equal, a part of the community and the citizen of Kastoria. However! There are a few things that I need you people to agree on."
The religious personals standing on the balconies raised their awareness to the new sovereign’s words.
"I promise here, facing the sky and Mount Olympus that I would not lay a finger on you and your daily activities, especially in this period of time which I know that your Ramadan season has already started a couple of days ago meaning that you are probably fasting. But I need, and I want to make myself a few points clear, I can let you people free, but at the same time I must put a serious restriction on all forms of preaching and missionary activities; not only on you, but on the Christians as well."
"From today onwards, all preaching and missionary activities must seek approval from the regime first before commencing, and no one is supposed to by any means force another free man to follow or obey any of his belief’s rules or command. Both parties are supposed to leave the other party undisturbed and untouched, with mutual respect towards both sides. If you see someone drinking or eating something that is allowed by law but you do not like it, you simply walk away, but you are not supposed to go up to the person slap him in the face and tell him that it is disallowed in the laws of your belief, am I right, honourable Mufti?"
The Mufti, or the leader of all Muslims of Kastoria’s heart skipped a beat as he felt the Caesar looking straight at him, knowing that he has already left a pretty bad impression in the heart of the new sovereign, for a reason that he knows as well – he was the one who used to assemble religious police last time to go around the streets of Kastoria to catch and punish those non believers of the Great Prophet according to the Shariah law.
"I know that this is the times of chaos with the transition of geo political power is still going on, and everything, especially the judiciary system can get pretty messy. So, I, Antonius De’Ricci, only have five laws that I need to emphasise for the time being. Remember, my brothers and sisters:
Those who murder others shall be executed.
Those who steals shall be sent straight to detention
Those who robs or threatens shall be persecuted.
Those who deliberately disrupt the market price of essential goods and necessities shall be persecuted.
And those who does not pay for the goods or service they receive shall be made to do compulsory civil service."
"Do note that the last part is for the riches." Antonius shifted his sight and looked down at the bunch of handsomely dressed people clustered in a small corner of the forum in the shadows. "I know that many of you people have not been paying wages and salaries for the works being put in by your farmers or employed workers, saying that you did not make any profit because of the war and the bandits outside. I can assure you people now, that the war is going to be over soon for Epirus, and the problem of the bandits shall be gone soon too, so I would not want to hear any excuses of you not paying your workers. Do note, that I am one of them since last time when I am working in the dock of Genoa, I know what is the feeling like when I am not paid, and I freaking hate it. So, if I catch any one of you doing the same thing to my workers, I shall come for you, remember?"
The workers can labourers started clapping and cheering following Antonius’ words, but not a sound can be heard from the riches and merchants in the corner.
