Herald of Steel

The security concerns Seelima had for Matrak were indeed legitimate. The province was the largest of its brethren yet wielded one of the smaller populations, numbering only 4 to 5 million due to the cold, northern climate and harsh geography.

For context, Adhan, the capital of the country had a population reaching close to 10 million prior to the deadly drought despite possessing half the land, and even the originally poorest Zanzan province with rocky, heavy soil had roughly the same population.

And even that was beginning to improve with Alexander’s agricultural and economic reforms. People from Adhan, Kuleef, and Ankoot were slowly starting towards this land looking for more opportunities.

It would still take quite a while for this change to become visible, but in the future, Zanzan looked to be on track to far outgrow Matrak.

While Pasha Farzah’s family would have to continue feeding their people with whatever their field had left after dealing with various cold storms and other unpredictable weather patterns that hit them many times a year, causing large amounts of harvests to fail.

Some of the soil in the more remote areas would even freeze over at night, which the farmers then had to use pickaxes to break in the morning in order to let the roots breathe. Similarly, they had to keep livestock stored in secure sheds and stables at night, sometimes even with live fires throughout the whole night because it would get so cold.

And all this was nothing to say their constant battle with various cold related diseases and illnesses that were all too easy to contract given their frequent interaction with freezing, cold water, reaping even more lives.

Living… or more like surviving in such harsh weather was certainly very hard.

It was in the midst of eking out such a difficult living that the people of the province were additionally tasked with staving off attacks from the west by the numerous free city states and from the north by the frequent barbarian raiders.

Needless to say, this was not an easy task.

So the fact that Pasha Farzah’s family had been able to successfully accomplish this for generations, holding the border just as instructed, made the feat all the more impressive.

The position they held and the respect they commanded today was well deserved.

Now, one may ask, how Matrak was able to not only survive but thrive in the middle of such adversity? Not only was the province weak, but it was claimed to be the richest and most powerful of the provinces, its army renowned for its great prowess.

The answer to this… the most important factor behind it all… was Pasha Farzah’s family leadership.

Like them or hate them, this old man’s family was quite competent at their job… they have been at it for generations, producing enviable offspring one after the other for a very long time time.

Son after son was able to carry his father’s torch, following the same values and thus keeping a tight grip on their retainers.

In this endeavor, they were also helped in this by the harsh weather of the place. Because living was difficult. Everyone had to band together just to survive thus there was less treachery and in-fighting.

Or in simpler terms, the nobles were far more straightforward in their actions than their southern counterparts and thus easier to deal with.

Additionally, Pasha Farzah had a very good grip on the food supply of the province due to the extremely unique way Matrak produced its crop.

Instead of producing them all throughout their province like every other territory, Pasha Farzah’s retainers focused the bulk of their attention on a few, very specific cities as they contained pockets of extremely fertile land.

These patches contained black soil composed of organic matter and ash that was formed via volcanic eruptions long, long ago, and thus let them produce yields that sometimes rivaled even our modern day yields, the ones that were obtained through copious amounts of fertilizers and all kinds of chemical pesticides.

Hence even if some natural calamities hit Matrak, and a few of the produce was lost, the farmers could still have enough to see them and the rest of the populace through.

And they could continue to do so repeatedly, as miraculously, these lands did not lose their fertility like other volcano clad lands after just a few harvests.

Rather they kept on giving and giving as they were being constantly fertilized through the flow of underground water which contained various beneficial minerals for the soil.

These river and wells flowed over many dormant and semi dormant lava veins scattered throughout the land beneath, carrying minerals and heat to keep the soil soft, moist, and fecund.

The same water also provided various benefits to all the people and animals who drank it, which was actually one of the reasons people from Matrak were considered so beautiful, their skins had this attractive luster from these salts.

This concentration of good quality land also made it easier for Pasha Farzah to grow food, as he could take advantage of economies of scale by employing a lot of workers in a small amount of area and centralizing the whole thing to produce huge yields.

In the same way, the limited number of fields meant he could administer his land by just keeping these chokepoints in check.

Most of the people of the time were peasants and these peasants lived around those selected cities, working the fields to feed their family and pay taxes.

So Pasha Farzah did not need to spread out his forces to keep hold of every town, village and hamlet in the entire province like most other pashas. He just needed to keep a hold on those few cities, and he would virtually control the entire territory’s men and food supply.

This helped both keep the cost and difficulty down while also mitigating the chances of a rebellion- faced with such armed restrictions, the people had little choice but to bow down.

The same circumstances also made attacking Matrak quite the hurdle.

Any attacking force had little opportunity to forage as there were only a few scant, independent homesteads throughout the territory, scattered all around the wilderness like elusive golden heers.

And without fertile land and the constant harsh weather, to call the people living there poor would be embellishing their circumstances.

They could barely feed their family of five to ten, where were they going to the ability to feed an attacking army?

Hence any attacker worth even a pinch of salt knew, living off this virtually barren wasteland was impossible. They would be required to carry all the necessary food for the whole campaign from the very beginning.

Needless to say, this was a monumental task.

How many tens of thousands of men were in an army?

And how many tens of thousands of carts would be needed to carry all their food for at least the few months of campaign that such an endeavor would require, if not likely even much more?

Certainly, too many to make such an endeavor feasible.

Even just maintaining the supply lines, such as the city states of Thesos that bordered Matrak tried to do, using their cities as their supply depots found it really hard to maintain as Matrak was famous for its horse riders, thus making the entire logistics line susceptible to hit and run tactics.

The Matrakians were in fact one of the first powers to ditch the traditional bulky chariots in favor of pure horseback riding, as they found the wheels of their chariots regularly snapping and breaking when traversing against the hard, rocky ground.

Even death from such accidents was not that uncommon, and it was said that one of Pasha Farzah’s ancestors too died after succumbing to injuries from one of these accidents. He was flung off when a wheel hit a particularly large rock and then trampled by an adjacent chariot just behind him, which was being driven by his brother nonetheless.

That was the main catalyst that made Matrak make this military change, leading them to become one of the greatest menaces on the battlefield.

Against them, it was really difficult for any moving army to even just protect their baggage train as the kilometers long carriageway would be susceptible to frequent raids and sabotages, throughout the day or night, driving even the best of commanders insane.

As for the attacking powers to try and seize food through the capture of one of those fertile cities, well obviously the places were very well guarded and stocked with food, with sturdy shelters that provided ample protection from the cold.

Sieging any one of them would take time, giving all the surrounding cities time to come to their rescue.

Then the attackers would find themselves stranded in an open, freezing field, getting harassed and attacked from all sides, losing their food supplies while also having to battle the bitter cold, and the freezing winds using only their thin, leather tents.

Sometimes, if the attackers were not used to the cold, they would even find drinking the underground water too cold, their throats feeling like they were getting pricked with needles, leading to various illnesses and diseases.

Thus there was even a famous saying claiming ‘general’ cold and diseases were Matrak’s true hero, responsible for killing more than three quarters of all Matrak attackers.

It was using this mixture of geography, and unique denial of food that Matrak was able to fend off the western Thesos states.

The northern barbarians however were a different story. In fact, they were the true menace.

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