Chapter 418 Family Members Taking Action
The number of members of the Berlin League continued to increase, and many imperial cities joined because Vlad agreed to increase their rights. (っ◔◡◔)っThe Duke of Brunswick was also forced to join the alliance.
Vlad's proposal to increase the number of electors caused great controversy. The religious princes opposed it, but the secular princes showed great desire. They all wanted to compete for the upper reaches, but some people were worried that the value of the electorate would decrease.
The Palatinate Elector had always opposed the proposal to increase the number, so the Archbishop of Mainz asked him to lead the opposition to compete with Berlin.
The fighting within the Holy Roman Empire was no less than the Anglo-French War, and all kinds of conspiracies and battles would appear. And to gain the upper hand, it takes a little courage.
Jobst gained a lot of benefits for Vlad because he distributed the unowned land. Therefore, Brandenburg spent a lot of spices, tea and silk in exchange for the East Frisian region, and at the same time purchased the Mark State in the Westphalia region. This greatly increased his economic strength.
Since buying land is feasible, the first factor is to find ways to increase fiscal revenue. The swamps in Brandenburg hinder agricultural production, so it is necessary to encourage land reclamation.
There are too many large swamps near Berlin, and water and mosquitoes have become the natural enemies of farmers. In later generations, plains refer to places with fertile land, but in this era, they refer to swamps.
The lords in Italy and Germany did not catch up with the colonization of America, so they reclaimed the swamps at their doorsteps as their own America. King Frederick II of Prussia once said that I once conquered a kingdom without bloodshed, referring to the largest Oderbruch swamp.
Water conservancy facilities play a very important role in agriculture. Several kingdoms in Iberia have successively realized the need to build water conservancy facilities, so they began to build them on a large scale, but the specific efficiency is really low. It took more than 200 years to complete a canal. If it were an Eastern emperor, the nine clans would not be enough to eliminate the game.
But reclamation is a long-term plan. In addition to issuing a recruitment order with a tax exemption of up to 8 years, Vlad also gave some land to the Orthodox Church to let them share some pressure.
At present, the biggest headache for Vlad is finance. You have to know that these spices and luxury goods are all from Constantinople. His elder brother will not support them forever, and he does not want to be said by others that he is a child who only relies on Rome. If you want to persist, you have to rely on yourself.
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The Roman army began to enter the Illyrian region. It was originally peaceful. As a result, I don’t know if the Croatians had a brain twitch and had to provoke the army. The Duke was not polite. The rebels all fled here, and it was not impossible to destroy them by yourself.
So, before reaching the area controlled by Skro, a looting against the Croatians began. Because of their more or less resistance to the Roman government, the emperor lost his last bit of patience, and it became the purpose to rather kill by mistake than let go by mistake. This is also Rome’s cleansing of the Catholic sphere of influence, so that the empire can rule the region more firmly.
In the entire Illyrian region, various tragedies occur every day. You can’t expect how high the quality of the soldiers at this time is, even the regular army has no such expectation. And soldiers have to make some extra money, right?
With this set of "fortification and clearing the fields", the guerrillas lost their place to survive and were forced to retreat.
After the carnival, they were finally afraid. The people left Rome with their property, and the officials above kept writing letters to express their loyalty, hoping to be an internal response and cooperate with the outside. But the Duke sent these things to Constantinople without even looking at them. He didn't care about them. He was only responsible for suppressing the rebels.
Moreover, the rebellion in these places had other signs. The economic situation in Ljubljana began to deteriorate. The local nobles and landlords colluded to manipulate commodity prices. This made the citizens and the poor unbearable and united. They established their own government and parliament and issued a declaration, including equality for all, land reform, wage increases, and increased taxes on the wealthy class. This directly frightened the landlords, who either packed their bags and ran to Austria or secretly contacted Rome to put down the uprising together.
Seeing the opportunity to expand his power, Scro directly supported the uprising and personally led his troops to Ljubljana. The Poor Council also reciprocated and announced Scro as the leader of Ljubljana. This farce became more and more interesting.
Of course, this also intensified other people's hatred of Croatia, especially in the adjacent areas. The local trade was greatly affected, which made their lives much worse than before. Therefore, when they heard that the Roman army was coming, they welcomed the royal army and hoped that they could wipe out the rebels as soon as possible.
With the support of the masses, the Roman army was confident. Gion was ready to gradually erode the sphere of influence of the rebels and open up the land route with Trieste. Anyway, it was a big purge. Even if the local area was beaten to a dead end, the emperor would appreciate him.
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Stefan brought Michel to France for their honeymoon. In order to keep him, Secretary Salmon drafted an appointment edict while the king was unconscious, and then asked the confused king to sign it when he woke up.
The appointment above was: In order to expand France's strength and promote relations with Rome, Stefan will become the Duke of Normandy.
This appointment directly shocked the government and the public. Although the Duchy of Normandy had been incorporated into the French royal territory, the sudden appointment made other forces realize that Rome had intervened in the internal affairs of the most powerful country in Western Europe. The situation they least wanted to see still happened.
Such an appointment makes Stefan the fourth in rank after the king, the Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Orleans. However, at present, he only has a title, no fiefdom and no army. At best, he is a commander without troops. But for him, it is a thrilling adventure.
He had read many books about the East before, and many people started from scratch. For example, a village chief led dozens of people to become a monarch, and there was another person who was born even lower. He was said to be a slave and became a ruler who dominated one side, although his empire collapsed after his death.
These deeds inspired him. As long as he felt that he could do it, he would definitely do it. Moreover, he could turn defeat into victory without money and soldiers. Didn't the first emperor Augustus defeat Anthony and become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire in this way?
What's more, he also has a father-in-law, the King of France. Although this person's help does not seem good, it is better than nothing. Wait, he will achieve great success one day.