TNL 28 – The First Command Part Four

Outside the village, Raidon gathers the others, but it turns out that John is missing.

"Where did John go?" Raidon asks the other soldiers who have been looking around.

"He went a long way outside the village. As soon as you were gone, he left to investigate the area."

"It's always something with that guy, sergeant," Gareth grumbles.

A little later, John reappears. Just before Raidon gives the order to go looking, he appears a long way away between a group of trees. At ease he walks to the others.

"Soldier John reporting, Sergeant!" shouts John quite loudly as he gives an exaggerated salute.

"Yes, yes, yes, we've seen you, John," Raidon replies. "But where were you? You had to explore the village, not play the tourist and enjoy the view."

"I thought: Let's see what kind of tracks I can find. Morris taught me a thing or two about tracking. I discovered that a group on horseback came from the north, and later left with a wagon in a southerly direction."

"And for that you had to sit in the bushes? Or were you doing something else there?"

"Well, it's like that sergeant, sometimes a man has to..." John can't resist teasing Raidon a bit. The young sergeant always starts to blush when John makes these kinds of statements.

"You know what I mean, John."

"I looked to see if there were any other details," John replies, shrugging his shoulders. "I have found out that sometimes people keep an eye on the village, from the forest over there."

"They probably won't be tax collectors. Maybe one of those bandits we hear about so often? We'll find out later, let's go back to Aran first to see if there's more news about the tax collectors."

Once back in the city, the tax collectors appear to have arrived. Two men have entered the staff building and intimidated the soldier on duty so much that they managed to take over Raidon's office. A whole bunch of other tax collectors are already busy making chaos in the city and the surroundings. Finally, they have also taken over a large part of the barracks for their guards.

When Raidon arrives with his soldiers, he is immediately notified at the gate. He rushes to the garrison. There he immediately goes to his office to see what exactly is going on. When he enters his office, someone is sitting at his desk.

"I didn't ask you to come in, soldier," the tax collector says without looking up.

Raidon answers slowly.

"I am Raidon, sergeant and commander of the garrison. You are in my office."

"Ahh, the commander," says the tax collector. "I need your office and sleeping places for about two hundred and twenty men. Including two hundred guards. Since I have the most people here, I will also temporarily take command of this garrison. You can now leave to arrange this."

"That's not going to happen. I am the commander here, appointed by the Empress herself. With all due respect, sir, this garrison is under my command and will remain so," Raidon said. Then he continues:

"You and your men may use the facilities of the garrison, but that is all. I will have one of the barracks prepared for your guards and another for you and your men. Further on is another room with a desk, which you can use as an office. But that's where it ends. I expect you to be gone from my office in a moment." Raidon begins to get more and more worked up about the attitude of the tax collector.

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That said, Raidon leaves the room. The tax collector sits red with anger behind the desk, but can't say much before the door behind Raidon closes.

The next day, the tax collectors and their guards leave early to collect taxes. Only the commander and a group of ten men remain at the garrison.

"They are the ones who keep track of and monitor the taxes collected," reports one of the soldiers.

In the days that follow, complaints continue to come in to Raidon every day about the tax collectors. His soldiers have also noticed, during their patrols, that the tax collectors are very heavy-handed.

"They just put those people on the street and destroy the whole house," one of the soldiers remarks.

Even in the garrison it is not calm with the tax collectors and their guards. There is a lot of noise and the guards make a mess of the rooms. They eat and drink themselves through the supplies and not a day goes by without a lot of guards singing drunken songs.

Then two soldiers come to Raidon to tell them that items have been stolen from the legion's barracks.

"It is clear that the guards did this," says one of the soldiers. "Those pigs were reading from a textbook, after which they tore up the book."

"This is going too far!" Raidon agrees. Therefore, during the morning meeting the next day, he orders that the men of the legion gather at noon.

"Make sure to gather in small groups. Then we all gather here in the courtyard during the midday bells," he tells his men. "For now, you know your positions. Dismissed!"

When the noon bell tolls, all sixty soldiers of the first platoon gather in the courtyard. Even before the last bell rings, everyone is ready and in formation. Raidon addresses his soldiers.

"Soldiers of the New Legion. The city and province entrusted to us are afflicted by a plague. Not the expected plague of robberies, accidents and stupid bad luck. But a plague of overenthusiastic tax collectors."

He falls silent for a moment so that this information can be absorbed by the soldiers. Then he continues:

"These tax collectors are undoing all the work that we have come here to do, before we can even start. Everyone knows that taxes are necessary. What is not necessary is to expect such high taxes that they take away everything these people have. What is not necessary is to burn down the houses if people can't cough up what they don't have."

He looks at the soldiers in front of him.

"What we are going to do here now goes against what is expected from us. Normally, we should ensure that people comply with these obligations. But not today! Today we are tackling these bandits who dare to call themselves tax collectors!"

The soldiers cheer and Raidon has to wait for the cheers to subside.

"We will protect our people and where possible we will return their belongings. The Empress will decide whether we are right about this, but for now this is our job. For Mithras and the Empress!"

After this speech, the soldiers get to work. Four squads go to the guards to disarm them. Another squad stays in the courtyard just in case. The last squad goes with Raidon and Morris to take the leader of the tax collectors into custody.

At the administration building, Raidon sends four soldiers to guard the exterior:

"Make sure no one escapes."

Then he goes inside with the other soldiers. There are two guards at the door of the leader’s office. They reach for their weapons, but even before they are able to draw them, they are both held by two soldiers in their heavy armor. Raidon enters the office. The leader has stood up as soon as he heard the noise outside the office.

"What is this supposed to mean!", he shouts.

"It's simple," Raidon replies. "I'm tired of the chaos you and your men are causing. You are doing as much damage to this land as the armies of Chakra and it is enough."

He then has the leader taken away by two men, while goes and see what the man was doing before they barged in.

"It looks like this is the list of taxes for today," Raidon says to no one in particular.

"That could come in handy," Morris agrees, after which he studies the list. "It seems like the majority of the tax collectors are outside the city today."

"That's a good thing. Then we can quickly sweep the city clean."

The prisoners are gathered in the square. Raidon leaves one squad behind to guard them. He takes the other five squads into the city to take the other tax collectors into custody. This happens quickly thanks to the schedule left by their leader. Within the hour, Raidon and his soldiers have assembled the other twenty tax collectors gathered in the city.

Once they have captured everyone, they take them to the courtyard, where Raidon addresses the prisoners:

"This area has suffered greatly from the many raids and other things that the inhabitants could not do anything about. That you then come to take away the little that the people still have, goes too far. As commander of the garrison, I inform you that this year's taxes have been suspended. I will personally contact the Empress to confirm this. For now, this means for you that you will leave this province. No more taxes will be collected. Should you do so, or be found in this province within five days, you will be considered common robbers and bandits. My men will accompany you to the gates. You can protest to the Empress."

Raidon then turns around and enters the staff building.