Chapter 540

As the capital of Romania, Constantinople is naturally bustling. People come and go for various purposes, but a considerable number of them are preparing to do something bigger - building the Cathedral of St. Andrew.

The craftsmen responsible for building the church have begun to enter the construction site one after another. They are all the most skilled craftsmen recruited from the empire, with a total of thousands of people, most of whom are arranged in Galata. In addition, the empire has also summoned more than 3,000 laborers, so long queues formed outside the city gates early in the morning.

Nearly 5,000 people are building the church at the same time, which is a great test for the organization and management of the entire construction site and the safety of the entire city.

After the craftsmen are basically all here, the chief foreman of the craftsmen will call the foremen together and assign them the work of the day. And these foremen will call their craftsmen and laborers, convey the tasks, and guide them on how to better complete the tasks.

After the meeting, thousands of workers dispersed, and the day's construction work began.

The construction of the church is mainly divided into four parts: fine processing of stones, painting, building scaffolding and building walls.

There are two types of stone processing: one is to process the stones more finely after shaping. Not only should the square stones be removed of debris and carved more square, but also their size should be accurate to ensure that there will be no mistakes when they are stacked as wall bricks. The processing of round stones is more stringent, because they are used as the column material to support the main body of the church. The circular area of ​​each column is constantly shrinking from bottom to top, so the size requirements of round stones are more stringent, and decorative lines must be carved on the appearance of the stone.

The second is to process the panels on the top of the church. This is not an ordinary processing, but to carve relief patterns that match the theme according to the designer's requirements. This puts higher requirements on the craftsman's carving skills, and is often done by well-known stonemasons with high artistic levels.

These thousands of craftsmen and laborers are not only skilled, but also have participated in the construction of churches in other places many times. They are very experienced and have a good cooperation. Therefore, although there are many people on the construction site, the division of labor is very clear, and the whole scene seems orderly and not messy at all.

Even though they have been working here for several months, everyone is still very dedicated and full of work passion. This is not only a gift from the Bartland family to the empire, but also a great opportunity for the empire to show its culture and strength to other countries and forces. Therefore, it is a great honor for the craftsmen to participate in this great project.

According to the above requirements, this church will be as magnificent as Hagia Sophia. The amount of work is naturally very huge, and the amount of stone used is naturally very large. Tens of thousands of slaves and laborers mined the top quality stone from stone mines all over the country. The expenditure of the entire project is naturally a huge number, but the empire's finances only allocated a small part of the funds. Most of the money came from the fundraising of believers and donations from the Bartland family, which has met the needs.

At the same time in Jerusalem, the sculptor decided to carve a statue of Peter riding a horse and place it in the center of the city. Select the best marble and polish it carefully. And also paste the skin on the statue. Because ivory is white and rare, it becomes the first choice for the skin of the statue. The sculptors tear the complete ivory into thin slices, and then stick them on the surface of the statue little by little. It must be absolutely tight. This is a very patient job.

While sticking the skin on the statue, the sculptors and craftsmen are also doing another job: making gold foil. The goldsmiths forge the gold into thin slices and then stick them on the ivory skin of the statue. As the golden clothes and crowns worn by the statue, they increase the emperor's elegance.

In addition, they also have to make gold and silver seats for the statue. Although not all of them are made of gold and silver, the core inside is bronze, but the gold and silver consumed after the statue is completed is by no means a small amount. Only the Roman Empire has the strength to use it.

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A breeze blew from the seashore of Ceylon, making Zheng He and Chen Cheng, who had arrived here for a month, feel relaxed.

At Zhu Di's order, they took 28,500 people and hundreds of ships to Constantinople. But when they arrived in Ceylon, they heard that Rome was at war, so they went to the Persian Gulf first and arrived at Hormos and Basra.

Zheng He also brought his fleet to Aden, Andronikos, Sofia and other places, enriching their horizons.

Recently, they finally learned that the war in Rome was over, so they hurriedly prepared to go to Constantinople.

"It's comparable to Hangzhou here, no wonder the emperor sent me to Fulin."

Chen Cheng had been an envoy to Annan and the Western Regions and had rich diplomatic experience, so Zhu Di asked him to be a special envoy to Rome. He hoped that the two countries could increase exchanges and trade in a friendly manner.

Now Zhu Di can no longer do without the income from foreign trade. From the 35th year of Hongwu to the present, famine and drought have followed one after another. Zhu Di has repeatedly ordered the reduction of money and grain, but the funds needed for large-scale projects will not disappear, so the income from the Shibosi has become his main reliance.

Of course, even if the sea ban is opened, the Ming Dynasty still relies mainly on tribute trade. Therefore, there is a saying that "more is given, less is received" when sailing to the West.

At the same time, the voyages to the West and Zhu Di's large rewards to these foreign tributes gradually caused panic in the empire. Only silver alone cost 6 million taels a year, not including the rewards for more than 20,000 visiting officers and soldiers. Because the fleet carried copper coins to purchase abroad, a large amount of copper coins flowed out, causing a "money shortage" in the country, which seriously consumed the treasury reserves and caused a large-scale depreciation of the currency.

For this reason, the court officials repeatedly made remonstrations and demanded the re-establishment of the sea ban policy, because they were horrified to find that the missionaries from outside were shaking their ruling position.

A large group of officials knelt at the gate of the palace day and night, kneeling during the day and at night. They also cried, which made Zhu Di upset, but he couldn't kill them yet, so he could only let them go.

But the missionaries were indeed his concern, so in the ninth year of Yongle, he ordered that they were prohibited from going deep into the inland, and only allowed activities in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang. Without permission, they could not go inland.

Even so, the Romans could accept it, and they could still officially do business with the Ming Dynasty. However, in response to the other party's measures to restart the maritime ban, they began to come up with their own ideas and train a group of thugs to take charge of the work, which needed to be done as soon as possible.