Chapter 334

In response to the Mamluk threat, Peter accelerated military construction and troop deployment to Anatolia, and minimized Ottoman support. Assuming that the Ottomans and Mamluks formed an alliance, he would either find allies to fight in groups, or fight with one another. Two enemies.

After years of war, various military constructions have also been improved. The emergence of military ranks, like the examination system, made it possible for ordinary people to rise. Soldiers who re-emerged in order to reopen newly conquered lands and granted land increased their wealth. Soldiers are no longer a profession that people despise, and they can be a way to improve their own class. Since you can't take the exam, you can join the army.

The original spirit of dedication to Rome reappeared. Whether civilians or nobles, churches or merchants, they all gathered around the emperor, and soldiers were ready to fight for the empire.

Those nomads have also gained a certain status improvement. Their children can study in mission schools, and those who meet the conditions can take exams. These are things that other regimes cannot achieve.

The blood tax imposed on the infidels gained the greatest value on them, and the empire received from it a Turkic cavalry who knew their opponents well. They believed in the Orthodox Church, received higher education and treatment, and were unstoppable on the battlefield, and the tribal leaders would also side with Rome because of the rewards. Because of an accident, these things belonged to the Cossacks.

Among all the petitions Peter received, there was a proposal from the East India Company's board of directors, asking Peter to remove Mason, the Eastern Governor, on the grounds that he had misappropriated funds to be transferred by the company. Now that regular dividends could not be paid out, the shareholders were angry. .

For this document, Peter had two words: reject. If a shareholder gets angry, just sell your shares to him, otherwise just stay there.

"I don't know how he is doing."

Peter thought in his heart, and after comforting Alexander, he also began to care about the Mason family. When he heard that he was going to marry a famous local businessman in Thessaloniki, he sent someone a gift to express his feelings.

"Your Highness, the Duke of Orleans of France has sent a letter."

Peter opened it and looked at it. Inside were some greetings and matters concerning the alliance between the Orleanists and the Empire. It seems that they are determined to drag the empire into trouble in this civil war.

The struggle between the Duke of Orleans and the Duke of Burgundy has entered a fever pitch, and the two sides began to engage in small-scale battles. The Duke of Orleans was accused of seducing and raping Margaret of Bavaria, Duchess of Burgundy. He was also considered to be the queen's lover, and Louis' relationship with the queen was indeed very close. He also obtained many benefits from the King of France and received help from the king in times of crisis. Finally he succeeded in expelling the Burgundians from Parliament.

The new Duke of Burgundy, John, was deprived of power by Louis. He took advantage of taxpayers' dissatisfaction with the royal family's abuse of taxes and began to incite the masses. He thus won support from businessmen, universities and others.

And John was indeed a straight-tempered man. When he saw that the other party was hindering him, he immediately went to assassinate him. The Duke of Orleans' servants and guards were unable to protect him. Because John had the support of the citizens of Paris and the university, he could openly admit to his murders.

After Louis' death, his son Charles inherited the title and property of the Duke of Orleans. He wanted to avenge his father's death, and with the help of his father-in-law, Bernard VII, Count of Armagnac, he succeeded in convicting some of the nobles responsible for the murder. However, John was never punished.

This made him very angry. After much thought, he would be much better off if he could get support from foreign forces, so he went to Rome.

"He wants to find the empire to support him. Why?"

Charles stated in the letter that if he could be supported, Flanders controlled by Burgundy could be given to Rome.

"Do we have anyone in England?"

Peter asked Petkov, who answered immediately. "We have agents in Yorktown and London."

"Since there is going to be a fight within France, there must be a fight within England as well."

Although starting a civil war is quite powerful, it is still a bit out of reach based on the current strength of the intelligence network. If you want the Duke of York to rebel, you need the king's suspicious character.

In addition to the war against the Ottomans, the attack on the Mamluks must also be arranged as soon as possible, otherwise he would not be worried about occupying such a key position.

So in addition to mobilizing troops and supplies in Anatolia, Peter also ordered to mobilize excess food from the Balkans and Wallachia to Crete and Cyprus, using these two places as future supply positions. .

In response to Rome's battle in the Eastern Mediterranean, Peter named it the War of Eastern Roman Unification. This will be a long struggle, not only the expansion of territory, the submission of local people, the unification of culture, language, religion, etc. If possible, he would also like to unify the empire in five years like Emperor Aurelian, but at this time, it is no longer possible .

Rome has achieved good results in assimilation in recent years. Taking the Balkans as an example, although some people speak two or even three languages, the number of people who only speak Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, and Hungarian has been greatly reduced. The spread of Romanian was greatly accelerated, and people with different accents spoke the same language, indicating that the empire's assimilation policy was successful.

Except for some ethnic groups that are difficult to assimilate, other ethnic groups are more or less transforming into Romanians. Farmers and herdsmen support it because their lives are stable; merchants support it because they can go to more places to do business; citizens also support it because they can enter the bureaucracy and have more power.

But the nobles, especially the old nobles, are not satisfied. The enlightened nobles have invested in industry and commerce and shipping and moved to the city, while those nobles who are unwilling to change continue to stay in the manors in the countryside, relying on land output as their main income. In this country with a growing economy, their funds will gradually decrease and eventually become beggars.

Compared with being inferior to citizens in terms of economy, the reduction of political rights is more fatal. The emperor and Caesar said that this was to allow them to take care of their own manors and industries with peace of mind, but in fact it was to turn the empire into a completely centralized state. Moreover, unlike the previous Komnenos and Palaiologos dynasties, Bartlan did not compromise with the nobles. They wanted very much to eradicate the powerful local nobles, so they employed a large number of officials to rule the local areas, and there were also special agencies responsible for collecting taxes and the military, depriving the nobles of all their rights. This made those nobles very unhappy, but under the pressure of the emperor, they could only endure it.