The second topic is Fleet Planning.
After the war ended, the original decisive battle fleets were disbanded, and Vitus planned to divide them into three main fleets:
Aegean Fleet, Ionian Sea fleet, Black Sea Fleet.
Aegean Fleet's jurisdiction includes most of Eastern Mediterranean. Fabius's former deputy, Marco Caboto, serves as admiral.
The Ionia fleet is responsible for the sea area west of Greece, including Ionian Sea, Adriatic Sea, Western Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean.
In the future, they will need to deal with various Western forces, and the risk of a naval war is the highest. Cohen will serve as Fleet Admiral.
Black Sea Fleet has the lightest task.
Except for the Eastern Roman Empire, the neighboring countries of the Black Sea do not have a decent navy. Admiral Black Sea is purely a pension position, and the level and salary are one level lower than that of the Ionia fleet.
The list of personnel has been determined, Vitus added:
"When Mamluk invaded the eastern border, we must respond. Let Aegean Fleet attack their coast. After Finance is free, I will personally lead troops to deal with them."
Immediately afterwards, Vitus once again came up with an idea: to cut off Mamluk's channels for purchasing firearms.
"Drafting an edict that the fleet has the right to intercept suspected merchant ships during Eastern Mediterranean patrols. As long as a merchant ship is found to be carrying guns and artillery, the navy can seize or sink the ship."
For more than ten years, Vitus has hated these weapons transport ships and has been tolerating them until now.
After Ottoman lost the territory of Balkans, it was able to quickly form a large-scale Firearms Corps. The main reason was Western aid. In the end, Ottoman's equipment level caught up with the Eastern Roman Empire.
During the period of Battle of Sakarya, Vitus did not enjoy the bonus of weapon generation difference. He relied entirely on his own command ability to defeat Murad II's army of more than 100,000 people.
It stands to reason that Ottoman's strength was greatly damaged and it was difficult to mount an effective resistance. As a result, Venice assisted them with a large number of weapons, causing Ottoman to regroup and gather its forces to participate in Battle of Konya's attack.
Now Vitus controls the sea power of Eastern Mediterranean and has the ability to intercept this Trade. No matter what flag the smuggling ship flies, he doesn't care.
Moreover, Eastern Roman Empire and Trade of Egypt have long been disconnected.
Eastern Roman Empire relies on the northern route to obtain Asian goods, which can meet part of the domestic demand. Alexandria's import and export Trade is damaged, which will not harm the interests of the Eastern Roman Empire.
"Compared to Mamluk, I am more worried about the White Sheep Dynasty. Assuming that White Sheep Dynasty obtains the gun through Mamluk's channel, the threat level will rise sharply."
Uzon Hassan has excellent command capabilities, surpassing any Ottoman commander in Vitus's impression.
In a few years, Vitus plans to regain Armenian Highlands. He does not want to encounter an army of White Sheep equipped with firearms.
After the Cabinet meeting, Vitus received two reports from Admiralty:
The remaining cultural relics of the fleet have been unloaded and are being transported to the Blachernae Palace.
Twenty families of glass craftsmen were imprisoned in the naval barracks, awaiting disposal.
"Got it."
Vitus remembers that many cultural relics come from the coffins of successive emperors, and has no interest in possessing these funerary objects.
His initial idea was to put these funerary objects back into the coffins of the emperors and return them to their original owners. However, after the fourth Crusaders looted Church of the Holy Apostles and other churches, many coffins and remains were lost.
Today, Church of the Holy Apostles there are only six surviving emperor sarcophagi, and the clergy are not sure whether the remains of the emperor himself are inside the coffins.
After struggling for a while, Vitus decided to display the funerary objects in Church of the Holy Apostles.
In addition to the funerary objects, the remaining items are jewelry and valuable ancient books, and some are additional trophies looted by the navy from noble mansions.
Overall, the number of items retrieved from Venice is huge and valuable, but they cannot be cashed in and require money to be repaired and properly preserved.
"The navy brought back twenty-eight large merchant ships, and it is estimated that one hundred thousand Florin will be sold, and that's it."
This part of the funds, plus Venice's first batch of compensation, totaled 250,000, and the remaining compensation of more than one million yuan needed to be paid in installments. He felt that the situation in Italy was turbulent, and Venice might not be able to persist in paying off the debt.
"In the long run, the real value is the glass craftsmen."
Glass Industry is very profitable and needs to be kept strictly confidential. Vitus places the craftsmen in Anatolia and builds a glass workshop in a remote valley. The operation model refers to Bone China Workshop.
September 28, Hippodrome's bronze horses were installed, and Vitus decided to go and watch them in person.
On the way, when the carriage passed Church of the Holy Apostles, he patted the carriage and signaled the coachman to stop the carriage on the side of the road.
The building's plane is cross-shaped, with five domes covering the top. When it was first built, the domes were laid with a layer of polished copper plates, but in Vitus's impression, these copper plates had always been in a state of rust, showing a dilapidated dark green color.
Squeak~
The guard opened the door, and the view inside was bright. Sunlight poured into the room from the ring windows at the bottom of the five domes. The marble slabs on the ground were broken in many places, and several black-robed monks were pulling out weeds from the cracks in the stones.
"Where is the display room for those funerary objects?"
Realizing that the emperor was coming, the leading monk put down his work and led a group of people to the right side corridor.
Most of the sarcophagi displayed here were destroyed, and the atmosphere was gloomy and dilapidated.
Vitus remembers that when he was a child, Demetrius brought Thomas over to play. Demetrius deliberately took his brother to the lower tomb, scaring him into nightmares for several days.
Gu Gu.
A wild pigeon flew in from outside the house and landed on the green marble coffin lid of Constantine the Great. It tilted its head and glanced at Vitus, then flapped its wings and flew away. A piece of gray feathers slowly fell from the air.
Arriving at the end of the side corridor, the monk opened a small door with a key and led everyone into this spacious room.
The high windows of the room are inlaid with stained glass. Six Reliquary are placed in the niches on the walls on both sides. A row of locked copper boxes is placed in the corner. Crowns and other funerary objects are stored inside these copper boxes.
"If the workshop produces large pieces of transparent glass, a glass display cabinet can be made to store these treasures."
Vitus said to himself as he walked out of Church of the Holy Apostles and took a bus to Hippodrome in the southeastern city.
After the carriage entered the central city, he found that there were more pedestrians on the roadside.
After inquiries by the guards, some pedestrians were residents of Eastern Thrace and Nicomedia, making pilgrimages to Hagia Sophia and other churches in order to seek the blessings of holy objects.
As October approaches, some people come to take the civil service examination, which further drives the consumption of Constantinople.
A guard complained, "Prices have increased a lot recently. The prices of ordinary snacks such as Chestnut and grilled fish have increased by one copper coin."
Arriving at the northern end of Hippodrome, four bronze horses stand above the arch. There is no competition now, and a small number of residents stay around the arch, looking up at these sculptures that have been lost for two hundred years.
Not far away, a scholar called for the reconstruction of Hippodrome, which aroused the opposition of a clergyman, and the two sides quarreled.
Hippodrome is too closely related to racing sports. What the church hates most is this kind of bloody sport, which is not only racing, but also Western Roman Empire's gladiatorial competitions and early knight tournaments.
Vitus also doesn't want to rebuild the arena.
If you are facing a large-scale event, you can build some temporary wooden stands.
The wooden stands have three or four rows of seats and are built in a circle around the arena. It is expected to accommodate more than 10,000 spectators and is more cost-effective than the expensive Marble Grandstand.
"The cost of building Hippodrome is more than one hundred thousand Florin. In the early and mid-term period of Portugal's exploration of the Africa route, the cost is expected to be only this amount. The church's boycott of racing is equivalent to helping me save money. Leave them alone and go back to the Blachernae Palace!"
Upon receiving his order, the coachman gave a gentle shout, and the two docile and strong Harness Horse horses took steps and dragged the unmarked carriage away from Hippodrome.
October early, Black Sea south.
The sky was gloomy, the north wind was strong, and a Three-Masted Heavy Cargo Ship was rising and falling on the dark blue sea.
The hull has a deep draft and carries twenty glassmakers and their families, a total of one hundred and five people, as well as many tools and raw materials for making glass.
During the voyage, the air in the cabin was turbid and stuffy, and the ship's hull bumped from side to side from time to time. The wooden boxes and clay pots fixed to the bulkheads made dull collisions. The passengers held on to the nearby ropes and prayed for a safe journey.
On the sixth day of the Black Sea, in the afternoon, the swaying amplitude of the ship gradually became smaller, and the rapid footsteps of sailors were heard above the deck.
"Arrived."
Someone whispered something.
The passengers in the bottom cabin cheered up and began to fumble around to collect the scattered items. A middle-aged man cautiously stepped onto the open deck, and was scolded by the sailors as expected.
Before being driven back to the cabin, the middle-aged man took the opportunity to observe the scenery in the distance and saw a large coastline in front of him, and the ship was sailing towards a small harbor.
Half an hour later, the three-masted sailboat docked at a trestle. The captain urged the passengers to go ashore to assemble, and then directed the crew to unload the cargo.
At this point, the navy's escort mission ended. The accompanying civilian officials took the edict to the town mansion and temporarily mobilized eighty Militia and thirty heavy-duty carriages.
Leaving the town, there are large flat rice fields outside. The harvest season has passed, and some withered yellow rice stubble remains in the fields.
Several piles of straw can be seen on the field ridge not far away. A farmer wearing a coarse woolen cloak is driving a Water Buffalo along the field ridge towards the village.
Sensing the surprise of these craftsmen, the civil servant began to explain:
"This is the Rice field. Agricultural Minister Ilya sent a group of prisoners of war to work and drain part of the River Mouth depression. Then, he moved a group of rice farmers from Levant and asked the rice farmers to teach the locals about rice cultivation..."
This time, Ilya's work has been quite effective. The coastal River Mouth delta is suitable for Rice to grow. It can be sown in spring and harvested in autumn. The yield per mu is more than 50% higher than that of wheat.
(Note: In the 15th and 16th centuries, the rice yield per mu in coastal Anatolia was about 60 to 80 kilograms. In the Ming Dynasty, the rice yield in the Jiangnan region was 200 kilograms per mu.)
The second advantage of Rice is the harvest ratio. In Bafra Plain, one bag of grain is sown in spring and ten bags of rice can be harvested in autumn. The situation of wheat is poor, with a harvest ratio of only 1:5.
The last advantage is price.
The upper class of the Eastern Roman Empire have no worries about food and clothing, and are keen to try new things, which in turn pushes up the price of Rice. The income from growing rice is much higher than that from growing wheat.
The civil servant said that his mouth was dry and he suddenly realized, "Why am I telling you all this? You should just concentrate on making glass. The higher the output, the higher your salary will be. Rice, wheat, beef, mutton, and fish, you can eat whatever you want."
As the convoy continued to move forward, the rice fields on both sides disappeared and were replaced by wheat fields or olive groves.
Further south, the group passed through the Pontic Mountains along the ancient mountain road.
There is more precipitation on the north side, and the woods are damp and dark, with intertwined branches and leaves. On the south side of the mountains, the trees here become sparse, and the slopes are covered with large areas of withered yellow shrubs and weeds.
Seeing this desolate and silent world, some people realized that they could never go back, and the crowd let out faint sobs.
The leading craftsman Ruggiero walked to the grass on the side of the road and picked up two rusty arrowheads and a broken blade, his voice trembling:
"Sir, during our stay in Constantinople, we heard that banditry was serious in the eastern interior. Is this true?"
The civilian officer chatted a few words with Captain Militia, and then translated the conversation into Italy: "Paphlagonia Province's situation is not bad. There have been no large-scale horse bandit attacks in the past two months.
However, your resettlement place is located in the northeast of Galatia, adjacent to Cappadocia Province, where banditry is most rampant. Things are a bit troublesome, so remember not to run around in the future, the bandits will kill you regardless of whether you are Venice or Greece."
October 12, the convoy deviated from the main road and walked twenty miles on rural dirt roads before arriving at a wide, desolate valley.
There is only one outlet on the west side of the valley, and there is a small river flowing from east to west in the valley. Twenty farmhouses are scattered on the riverside highlands, all of which are in an abandoned state. Sparse pine forests and olive trees grow on the surrounding hillsides.
At this moment, the nearby Garrison District received the news and sent one Deputy Battalion Commander and two hundred Militia to greet the team from Constantinople.
The civil servant read the edict to Deputy Battalion Commander, and then asked, "How many people are you going to send to garrison the workshop?"
Deputy Battalion Commander looked at this valley that had been abandoned for many years, "There are seventy people in total. A wall is built at the west entrance and forty people are stationed. The slope of the north hillside is gentler, and a ten-person outpost is placed. The remaining twenty people are stationed inside the workshop. If the workshop needs to purchase supplies or transport products to the north, I will allocate some additional soldiers to escort the convoy."
Sensing the concerns of the civilian officials, Deputy Battalion Commander continued to explain:
"The banditry in the interior is not as terrifying as described in the newspapers. The horse bandits are a group of chaotic herdsmen who are good at bullying lone business travelers and have very low frontal combat capabilities.
Garrison District owns armor, muskets, and Three-Pounder. We have always been chasing the horse bandits to attack. As long as these Italy craftsmen stay in the valley, the horse bandits will never threaten them."