Chapter 393 Internal and External Situation of the Empire

Mircea sat in the conference room, listening to the Grand Chancellor talking about Rome's diplomatic situation.

"Jobster agreed to convene a parliament to discuss the legitimacy of Brandenburg. There has been some unrest in Novgorod recently, and Naples and Hungary are also somewhat unstable. Some local nobles want to subvert the current order."

Listerlin read these things out in an aggravated tone, and Mircea felt that there was no big problem. It takes a lot of energy to force a king to step down, but he has not seen a strong pretender to the throne at present.

"Now they are all watching who will win the power of France. The East is so far away that it will not attract attention. And there has been no war recently."

Mircea thought optimistically that under his governance, Rome has a prosperous economy, a strong army, a wealthy people, and all nations come to pay tribute. The arrival of the envoys from the East is proof of the country's strength. If the enemy invades, it will be easily destroyed by the Roman army.

Mircea still remembers that he pointed to the map and told the ministers about the future direction of governance: improving transportation, increasing territory, prospering the economy, and feeding the people, which has now been basically achieved. And he also explored the East and continued to add land to the empire.

"Now they are all staring at the crown on the madman, and nothing else is as important as this."

"Your Majesty, there is one more thing. Recently, there have been some disturbances in Van, Aleppo and other places."

"What's going on?"

Mircea asked about this matter, fearing that it was not the pagans who were making trouble.

Things were just as he thought. These things were instigated by a religious organization called the Bytakshi Cult to protest against pagans. During the Roman recovery of Anatolia, this cult had been in a long-term confrontation with the imperial government, and with the recovery of large tracts of land, their scope of activities also expanded.

In the Van and Aleppo regions, their activities were most active, assassinating officials, disrupting people's lives, and some even smashed local chapels. This is no longer an ordinary group, and a heavy blow must be taken.

"These people must be caught, and a reward must be issued, so that the people must keep an eye on these people at all times."

Mircea wanted to set up a religious inquisition, but it was afraid that it would cause opposition from other believers and failed. This time, the riots of the Bytakshi Cult must be completely eliminated. It is better to suppress them with the army first, and then consult Peter.

"Be careful of these believers from the East. The Empire's years of war with them have proved their vitality and combat effectiveness. If we want to govern for a long time, then we must eliminate most of them."

Mircea said that in addition to physical elimination, there is also cultural elimination. Arabs have no other cultural achievements except for establishing religion and spreading numbers. The bureaucracy uses Persian. Most scholars are either Persians or other nationalities, and the proportion of Arabs is very small. Rome can influence them through cultural advantages and make them the pioneers of unifying West Asia.

He did so. After the war with the Ottomans, Mircea signed the "Constantinople Edict", stipulating that the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Druze and Alawites of the Crescent Church are tolerated religions, and the people who believe in them have a higher status than pagans but lower than the Orthodox Church. Their head tax was halved, and they could do business and farm normally, but they had to convert to Orthodoxy if they wanted to take the exam. This is the regulation.

In addition to converting, they had to learn Romanian if they wanted to take the exam. Originally, there could be Greek exams, but the policy has been gradually tightened in recent years, and Romanian has become the only language in remote areas. So there was a wave of learning Romanian in the newly recovered land. Even Greek was only spoken by people in Greece and Western Anatolia, and it became a regional language.

Such a policy was quite friendly to intellectuals, so they all flocked to cities such as Constantinople, intending to enter the bureaucracy with their talents. However, the empire had regulations for foreigners, who had to settle here for two years before they could join. They could also join the army, but their status was one rank lower than that of the local people.

This was also to protect the country's security. Who knows whether these foreigners will pass on information to their motherland after entering the bureaucracy? If the secret information is leaked at that time, it will be a great harm to the empire.

In the border areas, Rome always has one or two vassal states or friendly countries to protect the security of the border. In the west, there are Hungary, Romagna, and Naples, and in the east, there are Black Sheep, Georgia, and Zaragi. The six countries provided a buffer for Rome, which also provided time for the empire to respond.

The king of Georgia came to Constantinople to meet the Roman emperor in person and signed a contract. The Roman Empire would not pursue Georgia's guilt for supporting Alexios, but the other party had to pay one-tenth of the tax as tribute every year, and they had to be consistent on the front line. Allowing merchants in difficulty to enter Georgia to do business, tax reductions, and the appointment of positions such as the Archbishop of Tiberius needed to be approved by the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Such a treaty directly cut Georgia's independence by half, but Alexander still had to bear it. Otherwise, what if the other party came directly with a large army, or instigated the Circassians to harass. You must know that Georgia's national strength is no longer as good as before, and it must deal with other countries. But now it is impossible.

Compared with Georgia, Romagna lives very freely. Because the Duke clearly understands that he must rely on the Roman Empire to survive, he is consistent in diplomacy and religion, and nothing else will be said.

In order to promote a closer relationship between the two countries, the emperor decided to let the duke's son Julian be engaged to his youngest daughter. Elena also met him in person and found him handsome, so she agreed. After all, if she didn't get married, she would have to go to a monastery, and she didn't want to be an old maid.

All of a sudden, the relationship between Rome and Italy was tightly tied together. But he won't end up playing with the other party. The only thing to do next is to wait for the other party to die, and then eat up the family.

Romagna has moved its capital from Ancona to Bologna and invested heavily in the port of Pisa. Some Roman merchants from the Illyrian region also paid tolls to come to Pisa to do business with other countries. Francesco saw the potential and continued to maintain various local investments so that he could get more money.

Milan is still fighting internally, and Florence has not recovered from the loss. This is a godsend for Romagna. It is necessary to train the army quickly so that it can offer a good price to the Roman Empire in the future. I hope everything goes well.