Piruz woke up early in the morning, intending to get his work over as quickly as possible. He headed for the local barracks, hoping he would uncover something useful there. He still didn't believe Javid and his talks of perfectly managed garrison. It was simply incomprehensible for him. But perhaps he simply didn't want to admit Javid was far superior than him. Be it how it may, Piruz wanted to confirm the situation for himself, even if it will cost his pride and dignity.
He arrived into the barracks to find it teeming with soldiers performing plethora of duties. Some were moving boxes to carriages outside of the barracks, presumably rations and supplies headed to the frontier forts and outposts. Some were in the middle of training while some simply sat around and chatted. Piruz needed to find the man in charge of these barracks, who could lead him around and assist him in his controls. He asked some of the soldiers, few of them froze when hearing the word Shahanshah pop up, but they pointed him to a direction of the commander's office.
It was a simple wooden door, nothing fancy. Piruz knocked three times, before announcing himself and entering.
"My name is Piruz Khosrow, a general of the Persian army in the service of our Shahanshah, may he be immortal."
Behind the doors sat a large man with stern expression. He was around 40 years old, meaning around Piruz' age. He had short dark hair and wore a lamellar armour, even indoors in relative safety.
"I welcome you in my humble office, general Piruz. My name is Ardeshir and I am the commander of the local garrison here in Zarang. What brings you here?"
"I have come to conduct a control of the state of the garrison. Due to the recent border skirmishes and the possibility of an escalating conflict, our Shahanshah wants to make sure the cities and villages here can properly defend themselves before we are able to raise an army."
"How noble," smiled Ardeshir, "to think that our Shahanshah, may he be immortal, thinks even about the far eastern satrapies such as ours. Very well then. We can begin."
Piruz kept his stern expression, as if battling with Ardeshir's. "Of course. Our Shahanshah thinks about every one of his subjects. But I have to ask, why do you wear an armour such as lamellar even here, in the safety of the city walls?" It was a genuine question, for Piruz was curious.
"For the last few weeks, I have been out at the borders battling Indians far too many times. I just wear it in case I will need to ride out again."
A practical reason, thought Piruz.
--
Ardeshir led Piruz to the armoury, passing many soldiers and guards going about with their daily duties.
"What do you think about your marzban, Ardeshir?"
It looked like Ardeshir stopped for just a moment. Piruz wasn't sure whether he just imagined that or not.
"Reasonable man. He has his own issues, but overall decent and competent man. Has a knack for bureaucracy," said Ardeshir, calmly.
"Does he now?"
"I would say so. Especially now, that we are on a brink of conflict, he allocated more budget into garrison and defences. I think that is a wise choice."
"I do have to agree with that," said Piruz truthfully.
"Well, here is our armoury, general," said Ardeshir, opening a door that led into a cellar. "Several hundred spears, swords, bows, thousands of arrows, some spare armour and shields."
Piruz looked around, a bit surprised.
"That's it?" he asked with a disappointed tone.
"Well, that's it for our local armoury. Every soldier has his weapon and armour with him when on duty. Most of these are spare ones. If you'd like, general, there is also a larger armoury in the city, where we store the majority of our weaponry. Thousands of spears and bows," said Ardeshir.
Piruz was taken aback. Thousands?
"I will go there later. I would like to talk with you more, if you don't mind," said Piruz, still looking around the armoury.
"Of course I don't mind, general. It is for our Shahanshah, may he be immortal. But maybe we can go back to my office. Drink some wine. What do you say?"
Piruz smiled.
"I very much like that idea."
--
They sat in the office, which wasn't decorated much. Just a simple wooden desk and a few chairs. It was clear that if Ardeshir had any wealth, he didn't want to show it off. Jug of wine sat on the table with two cups, both full.
"How many soldiers do you have here, in the barracks? The building itself is quite large. I am sure it can fit a lot of soldiers," asked Piruz, taking a sip of wine.
"That is true. These barracks host over one thousand soldiers, but we can mobilize tens of thousands from the city and surrounding villages. Although most of them are just militiamen. All in all, around 7000 properly trained soldiers and around 15 000 militias. If we mobilized every fighting age man, we would have around 30 000 soldiers. But I wouldn't recommend that. Someone needs to stay and tend to the fields."
Piruz was shocked. Perhaps he thought way too much of Javid. In his head, he already though about who Javid really was and what was he planning. He thought of conspiracies, betrayal, schemes. But now, he realized Javid wasn't really lying. He was just pushing the boundaries. Of course, if they took every single man from the streets, gave him leather tunic, helmet and a spear, of course they would have 30 000 men. But that would be a complete catastrophe for the region. Javid wasn't a traitor or a mastermind behind some conspiracy. He was just a fool. And Piruz wasn't sure if it wasn't better for him to be a mastermind.
"I've also heard you are conducting controls at the city gates. Is that true?"
Ardeshir scratched his beard.
"Yes, it is, but they are very much random. You've seen the amount of traders we receive daily. It is simply impossible to check them all."
Piruz saw it clearly. Javid wasn't a dangerous man, but it was clear the people in the city trusted him. And it would be beneficial to work with such a man.