kingdom of nations

Chapter 243 The Simplest, the Most Difficult. (Part 1)
Dandolo found it hard to describe this new feeling. If he had to, it was like taking a nice, warm bath, but not an external one, but an internal one—he even felt a surge of appetite, though he suppressed it and continued drinking his tea.

Portia looked at her with envy. "You really can drink it like that." She had tried to imitate her husband, but she didn't have the patience of her grandfather. Tea without any additives was too bitter and astringent.

Meanwhile, Dandolo was pondering another question. He certainly knew about tea, and he knew that this precious dried leaf was quite popular among the Saracens. In Saracen temples, it was even sold as medicine, and it might indeed be a medicine. If he had eaten too much meat and sweets before, his stomach would feel heavy, his mind would be dull and sluggish, and a lingering, mixed feeling would fill his throat.

But after drinking the tea, this feeling strangely disappeared.

He looked at César, recalling that he also served tea to his knights—some accused him of being too extravagant, but few were willing to believe it.

In this age of material scarcity and lack of enjoyment, knights, as the most important and crucial violent machines under the lord's command, always received the best treatment. The wine they drank was always laced with honey, and the fish and meat they ate were always dyed a beautiful golden yellow with saffron—or at least with some ginger.

In this era, there was a dessert called King's Bread or Queen's Bread, which was a precious food made with milk, sugar, or honey, kneaded and baked with the finest flour. It was often used as a reward for knights.

During the period when knights served their lord, the lord was also responsible for all the knights' supplies, from the horses' fodder to the servants and knights' two or three meals a day.

If a lord is too stingy in this regard, it is no small matter—it will be seen as an insult and disrespect to the knight.

Some knights might even abandon their lords and join their enemies, and this would not be condemned, since it was the lord who had failed to keep his promise.

Therefore, when those people made accusations, they only criticized Cesar for being too extravagant, which could easily lead the young knights to pursue too much pleasure and quickly fall into depravity, but they did not think that it was a mistake for him to share these precious foods.

But it would be dangerous to call it a medicine—Cesar was not a priest and had no right to use herbs without permission; Dandolo had already categorized tea as a spice in his mind—it was indeed very fragrant.

"Do you already have these..." He raised his silver cup, "...the channels for acquiring spices?"

Yes, but not the kind Dandolo thought.

Cesar had been collecting various herbs, for Baldwin's sake and for his own. He had seen that even someone as noble as a crown prince or king would face a crisis in a world where the church was trying to monopolize all medical resources.

They either have to accept the church's blackmail or silently endure the pain and threat of death.

If that's the case, things might not be so bad. However, the church's closed-mindedness, narrow-mindedness, and extremism have prevented medicine from developing outside the church. Those who are truly capable but unwilling to follow the church are labeled as devil believers.

In other words, illnesses that could have been treated or even cured became truly incurable in the church!

What's most unacceptable is that the church will portray your misfortune as a grave sin, claiming that you have been punished by God.

They would say that God and the saints rejected you, decisively shifting all blame onto the patient. They remain God's agents on earth, living saints on the move, holy emperors and princes deserving of the patronage of all people…

Just like Manuel I, the former emperor of the Byzantine Empire, who fell into a swamp and went into shock due to drowning and panic, even with so many priests surrounding him, none of them could save him. All they could do in the end was to rub holy oil on him.

If it weren't for Cesar, this guy would have been dead long ago.

Thus, even without Baldwin, Cesar dared not entrust his health to the priest—despite his teacher's stern warnings, he never gave up his pursuit and research in medicine.

While he was at the Holy Cross Castle, he might have had to be more restrained, but when he was sent as an envoy to Apollo, the scope of his influence expanded considerably.

After all, those knights, though they loved to eat, didn't care what he read in the library or what he bought at the market. If he said it was spices, they only wanted to know if they would end up in the pot.

In the prosperous cities of Damascus and Apollo, Cesare did indeed collect quite a few things, such as tea. What few people know is that, in addition to tea, he also obtained a bag of tea seeds from the Turkic merchant.

What's truly astonishing is that while these people knew tea was a medicine and a spice, they were unaware that those round, black dried fruits could be used to grow tea trees. They said they were only prompted to try it out of curiosity after seeing some people chewing on the fruits.

It has a slightly oily taste and a pleasant aroma, but it can't compare to sesame seeds. So, after trying it out of curiosity for a few days, they put it away and put it aside.

César immediately recognized these as dried tea seeds. He wasn't sure if they could still sprout, but the two merchants, seeing his interest and having already bought all their stock, readily gave him the bag of tea seeds.

After César brought these tea seeds back to Castel Sainte-Croix, he never had the opportunity to cultivate them. He only tried to germinate some seeds in his room using a water-based method.

He took ten tea seeds that time, covering them with silk—he had almost no hope. But a few days later, when César lifted the silk, he saw a trembling, whitish sprout.

His delight goes without saying, but before he began cultivating it, he also needed to determine whether tea could meet people's preferences and needs—after all, there are forces in this world that science cannot explain.

He not only tried the tea himself, but also encouraged those around him, especially the knights who had been blessed by God, to try it, and he indeed received many positive feedback. Apart from the knights finding the drink somewhat bitter and thus needing to add more sugar, the tea did indeed have a better effect on them than some medicines.

They couldn't quite put their finger on it, but they could feel the changes in their bodies; however, they hadn't yet connected these symptoms to the tea they drank every day.

They considered it merely a fragrant beverage, as precious as saffron and beneficial to health, but the greatest change should be attributed to the St. Anne's Cathedral that was being built next to the Governor's Palace.

They believed that it was precisely because they were near this soon-to-be-completed holy site that they were able to be energetic and tireless.

Cesar could only nod in agreement, but he was certain that tea could indeed be promoted by him. Cyprus has hot and dry summers, warm and humid winters, and abundant rainfall.

This area is suitable for growing olives, grapes, and lemons. The acidic soil that lemons and grapes prefer is also the soil that tea trees like. He doesn't even need to consider improving the soil to grow tea on a large scale.

Even if tea seeds grow into harvestable tea trees, it takes at least three years. But time is like that; sometimes it moves very slowly, and sometimes it moves very quickly...

When Dandolo was almost back before Cesar, he was no longer thinking about the Isaacs—their fate had already been sealed anyway.

"How much money do you have left?" he asked bluntly.

Cesare's father, Joseph III, left him a fortune of nearly 200,000 gold coins.

Although Baldwin sent men to retrieve these jewels, coins, and utensils, he did not take a single coin from them, and he even paid the knight's reward on behalf of Cesar.

After Cesare returned to Arrasaro from his mission to Apollo, he immediately returned this enormous fortune to Cesare in its entirety.

After his marriage to Anna, the Byzantine princess, Cesare had several more opportunities to amass great wealth.

If he were willing to sell those ports and cities to the Knights Templar, he could immediately obtain a large sum of money.

If Frankfurt continues its tax-farming system, it will also reap considerable rewards.

If he were to further tighten the net while suppressing the rebellion—reducing the number of Cypriot families by a third—then the territories and wealth of those families, along with the people who depended upon them, would all fall into his hands.

But Cesar passed up all three opportunities. Besides the necessary military and defense expenditures in Cyprus, Cesar may have—no, perhaps already has—already spent a large sum of money…

Everyone knows that the most expensive thing in the world is probably war.

No matter how extravagant a king may be—purchasing jewels, customizing fine clothes, even keeping mistresses and building palaces—there are limits. Only war is a bottomless pit, devouring vast amounts of manpower, resources, and wealth every day like a doomsday monster.

Baldwin had no intention of touching Joseph II's estate, nor would he allow anyone else to touch the money. But everyone knew that Baldwin was preparing for his first expedition—not counting the one to rescue Manuel I—and César unhesitatingly offered half of his existing assets, which was 100,000 gold coins.

So when Dandolo asked him how many new coins he wanted to mint, he could only say to mint ten thousand, a rather meager number.

It's worth noting that the Venetians also undertook the task of minting coins for monarchs in other places.

If the other party were just a knight, 10,000 gold coins would be quite respectable, but he is now the lord of Cyprus, which is why Dandolo thought of using some of the gold to mint some gold coins for his granddaughter, the mistress of Cyprus.

Of course, there is also the simplest method, which is also the method most often used by lords at this time.

Increase taxes.

Even in the Frankish kingdoms or places where there had been no war for several years, it was not uncommon for lords or kings to demand higher taxes.

Cyprus—a place fraught with crisis and on the verge of collapse—if Cesar says that this tax is added for the sake of jihad, how many people can disagree?

From nobles to commoners, as long as they remained in Cyprus, they faced relentless harassment and raids from the Saracens—they had always longed for a strong ruler to rid them of the nightmare brought by the infidels, and now it was all about money…

But Cesar didn't seem to have such intentions. He established a new tax agency and hired new tax officials, but Cypriots ended up paying less tax than they had.

At first, Dandolo thought he wanted to profit from the rock candy, but Portia told him that the rock candy might become a reward for the knights—after all, Cesar didn't have a decade-long relationship with these knights. They came to him either because they admired Cesar's bravery, appreciated his character, or were simply fulfilling their oaths. They had sworn to Cesar's father and grandfather to be loyal to them and their heirs.

To Dandolo's surprise, after acquiring a hundred knights, the young man's first thought was not to plunder—which is the first choice for most knights—nor to intimidate and oppress, but to do business like a merchant.

No, his thinking was more like that of a lord obsessed with managing land.

Although nobles at this time considered it an honor to gain merit in war, there were also some who, like farmers, enjoyed indulging in farming and herding. They did exist, though they were not common.

However, most of them were mediocre and incompetent people, either not blessed, or blessed but not deeply, or suffering from diseases that even priests could not cure, and thus had to choose another way of life.

But Cesar was different. Everyone knew that he and Baldwin were the spear and shield of the Holy Land and the entire Crusade. He had fought in hundreds of battles, large and small. Although his achievements were not as illustrious and outstanding as Baldwin's, he was well-known among the knights.

It could even be said that when a bard plays his lyre and recites those long poems about the battles experienced by Baldwin and César, no matter how dangerous or terrible the situation, as long as he mentions César's name, the audience will chuckle, make the sign of the cross, and feel reassured.

He could easily get what he wanted with swords and knives.

“This is what I found out,” Dandolo said slowly, looking at Cesar.

Cesar picked up what Dandolo had given him and looked at it. Sure enough, just as they had expected, this matter was related to the Isaacs. In addition to sowing discord, creating divisions, obtaining the agency rights to the rock sugar, and even more privileges, they also intended to make their wives or sisters confidantes of Portia.

There were many such women in the palace. They might have originally been prostitutes, or they might have been "birds" or "cats" specially trained by their families. They might serve a man, but sometimes they could also have a formal identity and come to the side of noble ladies.

They are skilled at flattery and full of lies, easily gaining the trust of girls. They can even use sweet words, singing and dancing, or even a handsome young man to corrupt the souls of these good women, coercing or tempting them to stand with them, and then influencing their husbands through them.

Portia, who already had enough love and trust from her grandfather and Cesar, didn't hesitate to expose their schemes as soon as she discovered their plot, preventing them from succeeding as they had in the past.

“I have a suggestion for you: if you really want a stable Cyprus, then you should arrest all the Isaacs and execute them, or expel them, or both.”

"On charges of bribery?"

"Bribery? Are you kidding me? Did you agree to anything? You didn't agree to anything. Cyprus was originally yours, and you have the right to do whatever you want with them."

Cesar fell silent. Dandolo thought he had been moved by mercy again and was unwilling to treat the Isaacs so cruelly. "They deserved it, child. No one will blame you no matter how you deal with them."

"But they did not steal, rape, or kill."

Lego of Bethlehem was punished for lying and being suspected of impersonating a lord, a serious crime. In some places, such criminals would be executed, while others would be subjected to extreme punishments such as skinning or dismemberment. At the very least, they would be stripped of their hair, branded, or paraded in shackles.

Cesar's decision to only give them a few lashes and expel them could almost be considered excessively lenient.

The Isaacs of Cyprus did not commit crimes, or rather, their crimes were stopped in the first place.

"Are you worried that Isaacs will no longer come to Cyprus to do business? Don't worry, they'll go anywhere as long as there's profit to be made, including hell."

Cesar shook his head again. He knew, of course, that no one would mind if all the Isaacs were driven out.

"But this violates the laws I established."

“You are the master of the law. You made it, and of course you can change it or abolish it,” Dandolo said.

Then he saw César smiling at him and suddenly realized—the old man could hardly believe the truth he had guessed—how could this be?
"Are you saying that you want the laws you create to supersede yourself...?"

Dandolo always possessed a certain arrogance and unreasonableness typical of elders, yet César was the kind of person who was quite tolerant of the elderly and children. Their interactions were less like those of a merchant and a local lord and more like those of a true grandfather and grandson.

But at that moment, Dandolo couldn't help but lower his voice with immense awe.

The Republic of Venice—when the Venetian immigrants, struggling to survive in the water, established this country, why was it a republic instead of a duchy or a kingdom?

Because they yearned to recreate the glory of the ancient Roman Republic, they pursued freedom, justice, and integrity. For this reason, each Venetian domineering was subject to the greatest restrictions. They were watched by all Venetians, just as the generals and consuls of ancient Rome were subject to popular supervision.

But human greed is boundless. Even if it's not for his own benefit, but only for the morality and justice he believes in, an ambitious person will inevitably move in the direction of a dictator.

“What a noble ideal this is!” Dandolo murmured.

(End of this chapter)