Rome Must Perish

When he was in junior high school, the school organized a visit to the paper mill. Many of his classmates marveled at the sight of fresh, white paper being produced, but Maximus felt nothing but disgust. After he started working, as environmental awareness began to rise domestically, he started researching online, learning in detail about the paper-making process and its environmental hazards. He submitted articles to newspapers, while also exposing on the internet the long-term inaction of his hometown’s town government, which had contributed to the paper mill’s severe environmental damage...

Two years before his reincarnation, the paper mill in his hometown was shut down. However, he didn’t get the chance to return, so he didn’t know whether the water in that little river had cleared up...

At this moment, Maximus was still hesitating, not because he was worried about the environmental impact of paper production, but because he was grappling with whether or not to plagiarize one of his ancestors’ Four Great Inventions and bring it into this world. Ultimately, he came to terms with it: since he had already borrowed the Qin State’s Twenty Peerage System and the dragon emblem, adding paper-making was but one more. Perhaps this was just a parallel world, unrelated to the ancient world of his previous life.

Maximus recalled the paper-making process and materials he had seen in his previous life: old rags, tree bark, lime water, a pulping stump, silk screens, felt, sunlight... These materials were all easily available, and the process wasn’t complicated. With repeated experiments, he should be able to create useful paper...

Thinking of this, Maximus became energized: "Akegu, go get Capito for me immediately. Tell him I have something important to discuss with him!"

"..."

"Akegu, what are you daydreaming about?"

Casius nudged the distracted Akegu. Snapping out of his thoughts, Akegu faced Maximus’s questioning gaze and responded nervously, "L-leader, starting today, the Twenty Peerage System will officially come into effect. Everyone else will be ordinary tribe members and will be allotted fifty mu of land. But I... we... what about us?"

So that’s what he was worried about... Maximus glanced at the four young men in the military tent. They looked nervous yet full of anticipation as they stared at him. With a smile, he replied, "Fools, didn’t you understand the decree? It says that everyone who followed me in the campaigns in Italy and eventually came here is considered an ordinary tribesman, and that naturally includes you!"

"That’s great!" Akegu cheered and high-fived his companions.

Maximus added, "However, you’re still too young. Even if I give you land now, you wouldn’t be able to cultivate it properly or pay your taxes. In the end, you’d just be punished. So, you’ll only be considered ordinary tribesmen and receive your land once you’ve come of age. Understand?"

"Understood!" the four young men answered in unison.