1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 328 Timgad
The early spring of 1473 was spent in a busy atmosphere. The Eastern Roman Empire ended the war, the soldiers returned to their hometowns, and the horses were put to rest in the mountains. The Empire began to enter an important stage of peaceful development and recuperation.

Just recently, the Eastern Roman Empire launched a major reform under the auspices of the emperor. The reform was divided into three aspects: political system, education system and social production.

In terms of political system, in order to better control the increasingly larger territory, the Eastern Roman Empire re-implemented the provincial system and began to expand the recruitment of administrative personnel on a large scale. For the first time, it adopted the examination system to select officials, with "integrity" and "efficiency" as the two major principles, intending to establish a complete and efficient civil service system and a "never-changing behind-the-scenes government."

In terms of the education system, the well-funded imperial government began to vigorously promote cultural education and invested heavily in education in major cities, with Sunday school, full-time high school and higher education institutions as the main framework. The same examination system was used for promotion, and students were admitted based on merit. Education funds mainly came from royal support. As long as they were good enough, students from poor families could also enjoy higher education, and the emperor would bear all the expenses from full-time schools to higher universities.

In order to further stimulate the people's enthusiasm for the civil service examination, the emperor set up pick-up points in major cities, using royal carriages and royal cruise ships to take students to the examination sites. After the examination, students who obtained official positions would also be invited by the royal family to enter the palace in the city where the examination site was located to attend banquets and have dinner with royal members.

After passing the local preliminary examination and obtaining the qualification to take the subsequent examination, every student is eligible to enjoy this privilege. Even if you are on the island of Cuba, the emperor's ship will cross the ocean to pick you up.

In addition, the most important thing is the opening of a large number of professional and technical colleges, which are mainly responsible for the training of high-level craftsmen, ranging from watchmaking to gem carving, from furniture design to carpet weaving.

The lives of the Romans were precious and could not be wasted on industries that consumed human lives. Mining would kill people and dyes would damage the body, so other people would have to suffer.

The changes in social production are closely related to everyone. The emperor spent a lot of money to redeem the means of production from the landless peasants. He then concentrated these means of production and rented or sold them to the peasants who already had a certain amount of land, so that they had more means of production. A large number of laborers were liberated from the countryside. They either participated in short-term training in technical colleges to become craftsmen, or crossed the strait to occupy large farms and ranches in Anatolia.

The Angora sheep in Anatolia and the Merino sheep in Africa are both very good wool sheep. These pastures will provide a large amount of raw materials for the textile workshops in big cities, promoting the prosperity of the textile industry.

Simply put, the series of reforms carried out by the Eastern Roman Empire were clearly purposeful. Their main goal was to develop capitalism, provide policy guarantees, technical support, labor and raw materials for capitalism, and promote the long-term prosperity of major Aegean cities.

At the same time, the Eastern Roman Empire also used its rapidly expanding civil service system to conduct a survey of agricultural land in the core areas, issued land deeds to rich farmers and landlords who owned large amounts of land, signed contracts, divided responsibilities, clarified property rights, and privatized them.

This deed only includes the land and is only dependent on the land. It will not be transferred with the change of owner. After paying the tax, the new landowner must also abide by the contract.

As long as you are willing to swear allegiance to the emperor, abide by imperial laws, and obey wartime arrangements, the emperor will protect your private property. In peacetime, you are the undisputed owner of this land. If anyone illegally enters your land without an invitation or government approval, you can take all measures to defend your property.

Of course, in times of emergency, all actions must be under command and all resources must be at the disposal of the state. The emperor has absolute power to temporarily mobilize resources, and if property losses are caused, certain compensation will be given afterwards.

Times have changed. Under the tide of capitalism, the voice of pure landowners in a country will become increasingly lower. Without the production capacity of advanced weapons and a large population dependent on the land, it will become increasingly impossible to try to control national affairs by relying on land as in previous centuries.

Of course, these reforms were limited to the core areas on both sides of the Aegean Sea. Their intention was to free these lands from primitive small-scale peasant production and gradually transform them into commercial agriculture. The major military regions and border areas were unable to concentrate on economic development and had to adopt the traditional model.

At the same time, the Eastern Roman Empire also followed the example of the Republic of Venice, promulgated the first "Patent Law", and established the Imperial Patent Registration Office, stipulating that any inventor can enjoy lifelong ownership of his or her invention, which can be retained, traded, and used as a shareholder in a company through patents. It used the most violent state machinery to protect intellectual property rights, strengthen the capital attributes of advanced knowledge, elevate the status of intellectuals, and encourage invention and creation.

The wealth from the New World and East India arrived in shiploads, and the Eastern Roman Empire had to find ways to digest it quickly, converting gold and silver into national strength and converting wealth into fuel for Eastern Roman chariots by developing a capitalist commodity economy.

Since most of the overseas wealth was private property of the royal family, the one who benefited the most from this change was undoubtedly the emperor himself. He not only became the largest landlord and the largest capitalist in the country, but also registered the most invention patents.

Now, the economic model of the Eastern Roman Empire was very peculiar. The nobles and wealthy businessmen always paid attention to every move of the royal family. When the emperor leased properties to farmers, they learned to do the same. When the emperor acquired shares of a company, they also followed suit. When the emperor opened a large number of textile workshops, they did the same.

Capitalism in the Eastern Roman Empire had just started, and blind following in the early stages was inevitable. After a few decades, the emerging capital groups would grow rapidly, and the free market would exert an increasingly powerful regulatory force, without the need for excessive interference from the emperor and the government.

As for the economic crisis that will inevitably occur when capitalism develops to a certain extent, it is still far away from now. Even if it occurs in the future, the Eastern Roman Empire, which has vast colonies, has countless ways to transfer contradictions. Even if the colonies are lost in the future, it can still reap the wealth of the former colonies through financial hegemony and monetary hegemony.

In order to promote the prosperity of the commodity economy, agricultural development is crucial. More advanced technology can help reduce the dependence of each unit of land on labor and allow more spare labor to engage in handicrafts and commerce.

In recent months, under the guidance of the emperor, the Imperial Agricultural Research Institute has successfully used blue vitriol crystals, quicklime and distilled water to prepare a sky blue colloidal suspension, which has been successfully tested and can be sprayed on crops to kill bacteria and insects. Since the experimental field is located in Adrianople, this blue pesticide is also named Adrian liquid.

Blue vitriol crystals are a very common mineral that is found in copper mines in the Balkan Mountains. Adrian fluid was quickly produced in large quantities and put into agricultural planting, which can greatly reduce the probability of crop disease and free up the labor force originally engaged in pest control and seedling protection to enter the city.

The small peasant economy is extremely harmful. If we want to accelerate the development of capitalism without harming the rural people, we must reduce the scissors gap effect as much as possible. External plunder and technological development are both indispensable.

Against the backdrop of a prosperous domestic economy, the Eastern Roman Empire also made progress in diplomacy, concluding a five-year armistice agreement with the Aq Qoyunlu, the Ottoman Sultanate and the Karaman Sultanate. The Eastern Roman Empire needed time to complete the integration and assimilation of western Anatolia, and the Muslim regimes were also suffering from the long war.

The civil war of the Aq Qoyunlu Dynasty was basically over. As expected, the eldest prince Ugulu was defeated. He had made considerable breakthroughs in the early stages and was only a short distance away from Tabriz.

However, Ugulu's military talent was still far inferior to that of Uzung Hassan, and he was not willing to follow the tactical guidance of the Eastern Roman instructors. He was directly defeated by his father on the front battlefield. The Mushasha Order, which was already suspicious, immediately turned against him. Ugulu was defeated again and again, and led the remnants to retreat to Damascus to seek refuge.

Uzung Hassan did quell the civil strife, but the White Sheep Dynasty also lost a lot of national strength as a result. The central government's control over the local areas was much weaker than before, and domestic interest factions were ready to move, just waiting for the death of the old leader.

After returning to Tabriz, Uzun Hassan no longer had the ambition he had in the past. Old age and illness took over. Not only did he acquiesce in the East India Company's occupation of the northern bank of Hormuz, he also gave up his plan to personally lead an expedition to the northern frontier. He handed over the increasingly powerful Knights of St. Andrew and the "remnant of the black sheep" Arslan to the Safavid Order for suppression.

Militarily, although the Eastern Roman Empire did not launch a large-scale war, small-scale battles did not stop. On the northern shore of the Black Sea, co-emperor Justinian led the Cossack and Circassian army from Constantine on the Don River and swept westward. With absolute naval advantage, they constantly harassed the few remaining stable territories of the Crimean Tatars, and attacked the old, weak and sick with absolute numerical advantage and mobility. They would never engage in head-on combat unless it was absolutely necessary, and would never risk their lives and prestige.

The Crimean Tatars were caught in a dilemma and at a loss what to do under this rogue style of warfare. They had considered turning to attack the Cossack territory, but the wide Don River and the warships on it deterred them.

This is the advantage of the navy, this is the advantage of the fleet, it can turn other people's natural barriers into its own thoroughfare.

Without Ottoman support, the Crimean Khanate completely became a Muslim orphan in the southern Russian steppes. Years of civil war had exhausted them, their economy had collapsed, they were short of food and clothing, their business had stagnated, and their demise was only a matter of time.

On the southern coast of the Mediterranean, after several years, the emperor once again set foot on the land of Africa, led the construction of the House of Mercenaries in Carthage, and inspected coastal towns and vast rural areas, met with gentry, stabilized internal affairs, promoted education, and examined officials.

Before the Iberian storm completely blows up, Isaac must stabilize the North African forward base as much as possible. This is not only a bridgehead for interfering in Western Europe and Southern Europe, but also the only hub connecting Constantinople to the Atlantic Ocean. It must not be lost.

On the dim land, an army was marching, with military flags fluttering in the sky. The flags were very diverse, including the double-headed eagle flag of the Eastern Roman Empire, the bloody eagle flag of the Slavic Legion, the flag of the Carthaginian Archers, and the roaring boar flag of the Western Frontier.

In the army, Isaac rode on his horse, thinking about his own thoughts.

The results of the inspection were quite satisfactory. The great cause was just beginning, the country was strong, everything was still thriving, internal conflicts had not yet intensified, and corruption was not prominent. The manor owners and Orthodox tribes in North Africa were all old subordinates who had followed Isaac for nearly 30 years. They were very happy about his arrival and took him to their manors or tents as a guest. They introduced their children to him, either wanting to find a position for them in the Royal Guards or hoping to send them to Constantinople to attend classes with the Crown Prince. Naturally, Isaac accepted all who came.

Of course, there are some areas of dissatisfaction, that is, they are too stable. Whether they are retired veterans who have obtained manors for their merits or Berber tribes who have converted to Orthodoxy, they are all connected by the road system built by Isaac at great expense. They can enjoy the good life brought by the commodity economy and have not encountered war for a long time. After seeing the huge profits brought by Boer goats and Merino sheep, some tribes even stopped raising camels and horses and focused on making money.

In a sense, this is what Isaac wanted to achieve. Using business to control the grassland is a good way. When the risk of looting is too great and the commercial benefits are high enough, no one is really willing to fight you to the death based on the ancestral laws.

Now, with the temperature dropping and rainfall increasing, many Orthodox Berber tribes have stopped their nomadic lifestyle and settled down to graze cattle and sheep around a water source. Some nobles even don't want to take care of the pastures and leave them to their subordinates while they go to Carthage to enjoy life.

However, this also brought some problems. The nomadic Berbers in the Atlas Mountains treated them as fat sheep to be slaughtered. During the Great Turkish War, some Berber Muslims rushed down the mountains, plundering and trying to liberate their holy city of Kairouan.

Some Berber tribes at the foot of the mountain were unable to put up any effective resistance, and they went crying to Prince Basil of Carthage, hoping that the emperor would help them get justice.

At that time, most of the fighting power had been absorbed by the Great Turkish War, and Prince Basil had no choice but to gather the remaining forces, drive the Muslims who had fled down the mountain back into the mountains, and wait for the end of the war.

A long time ago, Isaac had enthroned several Berber sultans who were willing to submit to the Eastern Roman Empire. However, as the Eastern Roman Empire had been driving Muslims who refused to convert into the mountains, there were frequent unrest here and the people were living in poverty. A village could change three owners within a month. The original "old acquaintances" had long since died and their countries were destroyed, and no one knew where they were.

Now, Isaac withdrew his hand and patiently listened to the opinions of the naturalized Berber leader. He decided to take advantage of this opportunity to conduct a sweep of the mountains southwest of Carthage. He assembled a ragtag army of more than 20,000 people to eliminate the worries of these obedient people.

Isaac was quite satisfied with their current situation and was not prepared to let them return to poverty and barbarism. He said, "Just focus on making money and leave the fighting to the emperor."

This was a boring war. Perhaps it was because of their notoriety or because their army was too strong. When Isaac led his army up the Tebessa Mountains, he did not encounter any decent resistance at all. The large tribes here had heard the news long ago and fled westward with the treasures they had recently looted from the mountain, fleeing to deeper into the Atlas Mountains.

Some small tribes would hide or escape if they could, and would only fight when they really couldn't escape. Of course, the end result was being completely crushed.

The Tebessa Mountains are merely the easternmost remnant of the Atlas Mountains, very close to the city of Carthage. The altitude is not very high, the area is not very large, and the mountains are not very steep. They cannot engage in guerrilla warfare like their cousins ​​in the west. When they encounter a large army sweep, they have no other choice but to escape.

"Your Majesty, except for some settled villages and towns, there are basically no people."

Abel, the resident minister of the Western Border Region who came to Isaac's assistance, said with some annoyance.

"It's just like what happened to me in the west. They didn't dare to fight us head-on. When we came, they immediately ran away. When we left, they ran back happily."

"Your place is relatively good, there are not too many high mountains. The mountains in the western border area are more numerous and more chaotic. Once we enter the mountains, we will be harassed and raided all the time."

Abel snorted.

"The point is, I can't do anything about them."

"Well, I understand. I haven't been to Africa for a long time. It's not easy for you to maintain this state."

Isaac came back to his senses and nodded.

"Our commercial transportation west of Carthage is mainly by sea, and we have indeed neglected matters on land. I will come up with some solutions."

"The Aztecs are finished. A new batch of treasure ships has arrived in Carthage. I will oversee the construction of a series of mountain fortresses before the Iberian War to minimize the impact of looting."

"That's good, Your Majesty. You must never listen to the opinions of those civil servants who think that Africa is not important now that Anatolia has been recovered." Abel laughed.

"If we can blockade the Saracens in the mountains, Oran and Tlemcen won't be able to hold out for long. Tlemcen is less than three days away from the British Fortress. Your ocean trade routes will be greatly shortened and much safer than they are now."

"If the French and Aragonese are greedy for money, it will not be so easy for them to rob us."

"Of course I know this. This is roughly the layout of the Western Mediterranean."

Isaac smiled.

"My fortress plan will start from the Taibessa Mountains. The climate here is good and there are several year-round rivers. We can occupy it directly."

"This place is still too close to Carthage. We can't leave it to the Saracen nomadic tribes."

Isaac looked into the distance and saw a hint of green on the gentle hillside. A river flowed from the mountains to the southwest and then inland.

On the distant hillside, a flag of the Palaiologos family was fluttering.

"It's Grand Duchess Constantina. They've arrived."

Abel raised the telescope and muttered.

"In addition to some soldiers, there seem to be some refugees."

"Yes, Constantina is very close to here. I asked Andreas to come here. It seems that they have found it."

Isaac took the telescope and looked through it.

"Speed ​​up, I'll show you the wisdom of the ancients."

Isaac smiled slightly, lightly squeezed his horse's belly, and the accompanying soldiers also trotted away.

After going around a ridge, the scenery below can be seen at a glance. Among the sparse trees, the ruins of an ancient city come into view. It is extremely large and magnificent, presenting a perfect square. The streets and houses are half buried under the sand, but they are all well preserved. The City Hall, Arc de Triomphe and Grand Theater are also the same as before, as if waiting to be discovered by future generations.

The ruins of this ancient city have distinct ancient Roman characteristics and are obviously a cultural treasure of our ancestors.

This is the ancient city of Timgad, located at the northern foot of the Aures Mountains. It is the best-preserved ancient Roman ruins in all of North Africa. It was built by Emperor Trajan to demonstrate military power and intimidate the surrounding Berber tribes. After the city was completed, it quickly became a well-known commercial center with tens of thousands of residents in its heyday.

The arrival of Muslims brought disaster to the city of Timgad, and it was abandoned hundreds of years ago, but the main part of the city still exists, the infrastructure is relatively complete, and there are still some Berbers living here.

Isaac and the army slowly descended the mountain, where Andreas, the Grand Duke of Constantina, was waiting.

Seeing Isaac approaching, Andreas quickly dismounted and bowed to Isaac.

"Long time no see, Andreas."

Isaac looked at his cousins.

"How are you doing in Constantina?"

"Your Majesty, everything is fine. The palace of Constantine the Great is certainly not bad, but those Saracens just don't know how to run it."

Andreas replied somewhat reservedly.

"I followed your instructions and led my army south. I came here, found this ruin, drove away the Berbers living here, and occupied it."

Speaking of this, Andreas was somewhat happy.

“We did some excavations and found out that this is the ancient city of Timgad, the city of Emperor Trajan the Great, and it’s very well preserved!”

"Part of the city is covered by sand and soil. We are still excavating. If we dig it all out, the scale will be much larger than what you see now!"

"In addition to the Pantheon, we also found a church here, which shows that the teachings of Jesus Christ had already spread here during the time of Emperor Trajan!"

"Not necessarily. Maybe it was built later. This city has a history of more than a thousand years. We also found an abandoned castle in the southeast of Timgad. It is also a Roman relic, but it is much more recent. It is likely left over from the time of Belisarius."

Isaac shook his head and looked around.

Springs in the mountains gurgled, and green meadows and sparse woods appeared along the rivers.

"I plan to reopen Timgad City, renovate it, and bring in refugees. What do you think?"

"should be no problem."

Andreas thought about it.

"In recent years, for some reason, the weather has become much colder than before, Africa is not as hot as before, the springs in the mountains are accumulating more and more, flowing into the rivers, and they do not dry up in summer. There are more grasslands and woodlands around Timgad."

"I asked the Saracens who live nearby, and they said that the ancient city was abandoned because of the environment. Now that the environment is a little better, they moved in, but they didn't open up farmland, they just used it as a shelter."

Isaac smiled and praised Andreas's attentiveness.

In fact, the entire North Africa could be called the granary of the empire in ancient Rome. A considerable portion of the grain in Rome came from the coast of North Africa. Roman immigrants established settlements here, opened up farmland and orchards, and developed dryland agriculture. Due to the high intensity of light, the harvest was much better than in some northern provinces.

The North African Muslims were far inferior to the Romans in terms of civilization, and could not even compare with the Iberian Muslims. Many ancient Roman infrastructures were destroyed by them, farmlands were abandoned, forests were cut down, sandstorms blew further and further north, and green areas shrank from the southern foothills of the Atlas to the northern foothills of the Atlas.

Of course, climate change cannot be underestimated. The expansion of the Sahara Desert is a long-term geographical process, and the warm Middle Ages undoubtedly exacerbated this phenomenon.

However, North Africa in the 15th century was not as hopeless as it is in the 21st century. The large-scale expansion of the Sahara Desert occurred in the 20th century, and the degree of expansion in just fifty years exceeded the total of five hundred years.

Now, the Earth is in the Little Ice Age, the temperature in North Africa is not as hot as it was in the Middle Ages, the ecological environment in some areas has begun to recover, and the ancient city of Timgad has the opportunity to restore its former glory.

"How many refugees are you bringing with you? Where are they from?"

Isaac pointed to the refugee camp not far away.

"More than 500 people, all Italians."

Andreas said.

"As you said, I brought them here from the port of Annaba."

"From Milan?"

Isaac looked at their tattered clothes and their bitter faces.

"No, most of them are Genoese. Milan and France exchanged interests. Galeazzo invaded Genoa. They are refugees."

Andreas said.

"Genoese... well, from now on they will be Latin Romans and will become the first citizens of Timgad."

Isaac nodded.

"I will build a series of castles on the northern foothills of the mountains to strengthen control. Timgard will be one of them."

"It's hard to tell the difference between Greek and Roman. Italy is going to be in chaos. I will ask the Free City of La Spezia to increase the number of people who will be brought in. We will only recruit illiterate peasants, not educated citizens, and try to stabilize this place as soon as possible."

"Your territory is very close and needs supplies."

In the early summer of 1473, soldiers of the Eastern Roman Empire arrived at the ruins of the ancient city of Timgad and began to renovate the city and settle immigrants to reclaim wasteland.

(End of this chapter)