After lunch, Carlo returned to the Finance Department's waiting room.
Perhaps because he ate too much mutton fried rice, he felt dizzy and continued to sleep leaning against the seat.
After a long time, Carlo was awakened by someone. He walked calmly to the second floor, the document bag he held in his right hand slapping his thigh rhythmically, and headed to the office at the end of the corridor.
The moment Carlo entered the office, some figures came out of the rooms on both sides of the corridor and stared curiously at the ajar door. Everyone waited for a long time and never heard the expected quarrel.
"What happened? I thought they were going to fight."
"No, I don't think there is any conflict between the two of them. You are just making random guesses."
At three o'clock in the afternoon, Carlo returned to Cabinet holding a box of reports.
He summoned everyone and ordered, "On the left are the reports of Peloponnese and Attica. There are errors and omissions in the documents on the right. It's all your fault for not being careful and letting others pick them out. Please get off work late these days and correct these errors and omissions as soon as possible."
Hearing this sentence, Cabinet was in an uproar. Carlo ignored everyone's complaints, called out the names of several people, and asked them to go to the record library to retrieve information.
Edric is the least qualified and has the best physical strength, so he got this job as expected.
Under the leadership of a young Eunuch, Edric and others came to Imperial Archives on the west side of the palace. The old Eunuch in charge of the gate checked the warrant brought by Edric, made a record in the register, then led them through two courtyard gates and pointed to a stone house on the right:
"The documents for the second half of the year are stored here. The light is a bit dim, so be careful not to fall."
After entering the door, Edric widened his eyes, trying to adapt to the sudden drop in light in the indoor environment.
The old man Eunuch was walking in front, and the sunlight poured into the room through the glass high up on the wall, projecting dim beams of light that stretched Eunuch's shadow very long.
Soon, Eunuch stopped in front of a Oak bookcase, "1444-8-αβ-17, yes, it's right here."
He signaled Edric to get the required books, and then went to the next area to retrieve more documents. After busy for more than half an hour, Edric and others returned to Cabinet with five boxes full of documents and began the tedious correction work.
In the following days, Cabinet received documents returned from other departments.
Seeing this, Inner Palace Directorate and Eunuch were so anxious that they cursed, but the process was like this. Carlo could only continue to ask people to correct errors and omissions, and the work efficiency dropped sharply.
Unconsciously, the atmosphere at Central Administration began to become solemn, but Vitus did not attend Imperial Council for more than ten days in a row and was busy preparing for Army School and Navy School.
Once upon a time, Vitus built a Junior Navigation School in Chersonesus of Northern Black Sea Coast to recruit young people.
Now that he has taken over the power of the Eastern Roman Empire, he can build a complete officer training system to adapt to the increasingly complex battlefield environment. His idea is that Army and the navy will build a junior school and a higher school respectively.
Junior schools recruit teenagers and active-duty non-commissioned officers. Senior schools recruit active-duty officers.
Considering that the bustling life in the urban area affects learning, the four schools are not located in Constantinople, but are all located in remote suburbs.
After writing the planning document, Vitus began to estimate construction costs and teaching costs.
"The Artillery series needs to be equipped with artillery, the cavalry series needs to be equipped with horses, and the navy needs to be equipped with training ships... This expense is indeed a bit high."
Now that Central Administration is in a state of chaos, Vitus is too lazy to come forward and let the people below him have enough noise. He decided to pay for the expenses himself and wait until the storm subsides before asking Finance for the fee.
At the beginning of this year, the workshop produced colorful Bone China. The new product sold well in the Eastern Europe area. Some porcelain was sold to the Baltic Sea in the north, becoming a luxury product sought after by Hanseatic merchants.
The second major income is Spinning Jenny's patent licensing fee. Chersonesus's textile industry is booming, occupying the main share of Eastern Europe Steppe and Rus's territory, and providing Vitus with a licensing fee of 40,000 Florin every year.
The third income is the royal real estate. After John VIII abdicated, the income from these real estates was controlled by Vitus. This part of the income is the largest, with an annual income of about 120,000 to 150,000 Florin.
This year, his personal income is expected to exceed 200,000 Florin, and he will need to bear Blachernae Palace's expenses and other expenses. He will be able to save some money, but not much.
During dinner, Vitus asked his wife, "How much money can you spare?" Agnes was in the dieting stage. There was a bowl of wheat porridge, a small plate of marinated olives and a glass of almond milk in front of her. She replied lazily:
"In recent years, there have been more and more textile practitioners, and profit margins have declined. However, if you scrape together money temporarily, you can still come up with hundreds of thousands in cash. Wait, what do you want to do?"
The previous laziness disappeared without a trace. Agnes grabbed her husband's sleeve and said, "I am preparing for a wedding. You can't expect to allocate funds from this aspect. If Romanus's wedding is not luxurious enough, you Palaiologos will lose face."
"It depends."
Vitus stopped talking and used a sieve to take out the mutton cooked in the copper pot and put it into a silver bowl filled with sesame sauce and coriander.
Then, he poured a plate of cut meat rolls into the copper pot. Feeling that the firepower was not enough, he ordered Eunuch to add some charcoal.
Leo is eleven years old this year, and his appetite has gradually increased. He clamored for another plate of mutton rolls and a plate of fish. Seeing him sweating profusely from eating, Agnes also gained an appetite and ate some tender and smooth seabass meat.
The next day, Vitus summoned Army and some officers of the Navy, pointing to several locations marked on the map, "You go over to conduct on-site surveys and select the appropriate Military Academy address. Construction will officially start next spring and enrollment will begin in the fall."
Vitus The envisioned site for Navy School is west of Ereğli, located in a natural bay one hundred kilometers west of Constantinople.
The sea conditions of Sea of Marmara are stable and it is the undisputed inland sea of the Eastern Roman Empire. It is the most suitable for naval cadets to train in this sea area.
Vitus plans to decommission two battleships, one Galley and one cruise gunboat, as training ships for naval cadets. Regarding the training model of naval officers, there were two systems for Western Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The first one is called Hayfork System.
Every year, the England Royal Navy recruits young cadets from noble and gentry families. These cadets are called "young gentlemen"
After successful registration, these trainees will be directly assigned to various warships without any shore-based learning process.
In the difficult and dangerous life on board the ship, the trainees learn navigation, command and other skills from the officers, and learn theoretical knowledge from the naval instructors on the warship.
After several years of training, the trainees become official second lieutenant candidates. They need to take the exam organized by Admiralty and then be promoted to naval lieutenants.
The second system includes shore-based teaching content.
After enrolling, students first learn theoretical knowledge in school, and then perform practical operations on the school's training ship. After passing the assessment, they are assigned to a warship for a period of internship and obtain a formal officer rank.
Vitus feels that the second teaching system is more suitable. The students are only twelve or thirteen years old at the beginning and are not suitable to be thrown into a warship with a harsh environment. Let them familiarize themselves with the environment at Junior Navigation School first, and then be thrown into a warship for internship.
He informed the officers of the news, "I have sent an official document to all units. If anyone is tired of fighting, he can transfer to the Military Academy to engage in teaching work. If you are interested, you can sign up. It is expected that there will be a cultural assessment next spring."