In early December, Stephen Synolian died of illness.
As his predecessor Finance Minister, his funeral was of high standard, and the palace also sent Eunuch to express condolences.
The funeral was held at Chora Monastery. Plethon was a good friend of his predecessor Finance Minister. He was invited by his family to deliver a funeral speech and highly praised his friend's erudition and contribution.
Most of the guests attending the funeral were civil servants. They sat on the bench and whispered. The focus of the conversation was Cabinet, which was founded recently.
Recently, more and more civil servants have discovered that the emperor relied on Cabinet. Looking back on the past, civil servants have an indescribable sense of crisis in their hearts.
Eastern Roman Empire is a Administrative System country with a long history, and there are too many precedents for reference. This is clearly to hand over the power of discussion and decision-making to Cabinet, allowing it to replace the former Imperial Council.
After the funeral, everyone walked out of the church one after another. The sky was gloomy and there were rustling snowflakes in the sky.
At this time, the topic among the civil servants was still Cabinet. It seemed that they were not attending the funeral of their predecessor Finance Minister, but an administrative meeting.
"I heard that the emperor was out of office for several days and asked Cabinet to handle the memorial. Eunuch of Inner Palace Directorate was responsible for reviewing the memorial, sealing it, and finally issuing it to us for execution. This is against the rules."
"Carlo Santis initially served as a low-level civil servant in the City Hall, and later became the emperor's attendant by chance. Over the years, Santis has served as the emperor's Attendant Officer for a long time and has never been exposed to government affairs. Now letting Santis handle the memorials instead is equivalent to promoting him to a de facto Administrative Minister, and the entire promotion system has been destroyed."
As a civilian leader, Chrysaphi Noratas did not participate in the conversation and walked straight to the carriage on the edge of the square. With the coachman's shouts, the carriage quickly disappeared from everyone's sight.
Not long after, Eunuch, who attended the funeral on behalf of the royal family, walked out of the church. He looked arrogant, held his head high, and glanced at the crowd. In an instant, the chatter outside the door subsided, and the crowd dispersed like frightened birds. Some people left in carriages, but a few people could not afford the expense and walked away with their heads lowered.
December 5th, nine o'clock in the morning.
Carlo carried a document bag and left the courtyard where Cabinet was located, walking along the corridor towards South Gate.
Fine snowflakes drifted down from the leaden sky, covering the entire roof of the Blachernae Palace with a layer of soft pure white. The cold wind carried the snowflakes and whizzed through the corridor.
He shivered, his dark gray woolen cloak wrapped tightly around him, and his fingers curled up stiffly under his sleeves.
"It's been snowing for three days in a row. The temperature is extremely low this year. When will it be sunny?"
Carlo complained and walked to the palace South Gate. The guard who was on duty in the corridor recognized this familiar face and asked briefly. The white mist he exhaled dispersed in the air and was blown away by the cold wind.
Soon, the guard opened a side door. The moment he left the palace, the wind became stronger and the snowflakes almost hit his face, causing Carlo to squint his eyes.
"This woolen cloak is a bit old. I should change it to a thicker cloak tomorrow." Carlo brushed the snowflakes from his hair and went to the Finance Department with the document in hand.
After Michael VIII·Palaiologos regained the city, Great Palace of Constantinople (Great Palace) in the east of the city lost its maintenance value, so he moved Court to the Blachernae Palace in the northwest, which also became the office space of civil servants.
As the empire's territory continued to be recovered, the scale of Central Administration expanded accordingly. Blachernae Palace's limited area could not accommodate the increasing number of office workers. Therefore, John VIII successively built mansions on both sides of the main road outside the palace as new office spaces.
The offices closest to the palace are Administrative Department Gate and Finance Department. They are located on the west and east sides of the main road respectively. They have a unified architectural style and do not have too many decorations.
The rest of the office space extends along the main road. A few hundred steps away is a newly built stone wall, which separates the administrative center from the city and prevents outside interference from the office.
Carlo Walk into the courtyard on the right side of the main road. In front is a spacious courtyard, and on the left is a row of two-story stone buildings used as a paperwork area.
Through the windows on the first floor, Carlo could see numerous long tables in the hall, where low-level clerks in gray uniforms were processing tax, land and expense reports.
Occasionally, a clerk walks out of the paperwork area and carries documents to the right side of the courtyard. On the right side is also a row of two-story buildings, used as accounting rooms and calculation areas, filled with the noisy sound of abacus ticking.
After observing for a moment, Carlo walked through the courtyard in the thin snow and walked towards the office building directly opposite. This is the office area for Finance Minister and middle- and high-level officials.
In fact, this entire area is just the front yard, separated from the backyard by a wall. The backyard is a place for counting and storing gold and silver, and also stores a large number of old accounts. Carlo has never been to the backyard so far, and is quite curious about it.
When entering the hall, he patted the snowflakes on his shoulders, then walked straight to the counter on the left and asked a middle-aged scribe, "I have something to ask Finance Minister."
"I'll go over and report it right away, please wait patiently."
Normally, Carlo could go directly to the office on the second floor and rarely wait in the reception room. This time, he stayed for a full twenty minutes and finally realized that something was wrong.
"What is this? No matter how busy Ektor is, he should send someone to say hello instead of letting me sit here." Carlo recalled his early career as a scribe at the City Hall and guessed what the other party was thinking. He suppressed his anger and took a nap against the wall.
Cabinet is busy with work, so he just takes this opportunity to get some sleep.
After a long time, Carlo was awakened by the sound of noisy footsteps. He walked out of the reception room and found the civil servants walking out of the hall one after another, discussing what to eat for lunch today.
"Have I slept for so long?"
Carlo stretched and followed the civil servants to the main road outside the courtyard.
At this moment, the snowfall that lasted for many days finally ended, and the warm winter day spread warmth. A large number of civil servants filed out of the courtyards on both sides of the road and headed towards the canteen area one after another.
An Cabinet clerk came to Carlo and said, "Sir, you have not been at Cabinet all morning. Many files are in a backlog. Inner Palace Directorate's Eunuch has been urging us to make progress."
Carlo raised his head and calmly looked at this young Circassia who was under twenty years old. "Thank you for the reminder, Edric. I have been staying in Finance Minister's reception room all morning, waiting for him to summon me when he is free."
Finance Minister holds great power, and the finances and taxes of the capital and the twenty-five Province/Borderland Region are all shouldered by him alone. It's really hard work, so it's okay for me to wait a little longer.
Yesterday, I processed the files of four Province in the interior. The relevant briefings and documents were placed on the second floor of the wooden rack on the right side of the office entrance. In the afternoon, if Inner Palace Directorate is still urging you, please send those files over for delivery."