Early May, Aegean Sea middle, Mykonos.
In the morning, a two-masted ship Galley sailed to the harbor on the west side of the island.
The bay is shaped like a semicircle, surrounded by low promontories on both sides. On the north promontory stands a stone fortress built by the Venice people. The city wall is thick and the square tower overlooks the entire port.
In the past two centuries or so, Venice has occupied most of the Aegean Sea islands and has taken direct rule over Crete, while some islands have taken indirect rule.
In 1207, Venice noble Marco Sanudo used his personal savings to recruit a group of mercenaries to conquer many islands and established Duchy of Naxos. The Duke surrendered to Republic of Venice, but enjoyed a high degree of autonomy.
The capital of Principality is Naxos, and most of the remaining islands are used as fiefs and rewarded to some Venice nobles to form a stable ruling group.
For a long time, Mykonos belonged to the Gizzi Family. Not long ago, the emperor sealed the island to the Fifth Legion's deputy general Renaf as a reward for his loyalty and military exploits.
With the rowing of the oars on both sides, the sailboat slowly approached the trestle, the crew threw out the cable, and the workers on the dock moved quickly and quickly tied the cable to the stone pillar.
A group of people walked off the pier, and the fifteen-year-old boy headed by them observed the port. The only goods here were salted fish, Barley and pickled olives. "It's such a desolate island. How much money can you make by fishing and farming?"
These remarks caused Renaf to scold him, "What are you talking about? I really feel that this place is not good. I will give up my inheritance rights and give up the title to your younger brother."
Renaf ordered his eldest son Simon to shut up, and then wandered alone in the port. This coastal town has only more than 200 houses. The walls are uniformly painted white and the roofs are covered with orange-red tiles.
A wooden wall was built on the edge of the town, and five windmills stood on the outskirts, creaking in the sea breeze, grinding grain shipped from all over the island.
On the beach further away is a fermentation tank for making fish sauce. Even hundreds of steps away, you can still smell a little bit of the unique fishy smell.
Not long after, Renaf met the chief executive and priest of the island.
Five days ago, the chief executive received an edict stating that all unowned land on the island was awarded to Renaf and his family, which can be passed down forever. Not only that, Renaf can also receive half of the island's tax.
However, there is no personal dependence between the residents of Mykonos and Renaf. They can sell the real estate they own or move to other places to make a living.
From now on, the chief executive will still be affiliated with the Naxos region, and the priest will be responsible to the superior bishop. Renaf has no right to interfere with the annual evaluation, personnel appointments and removals of the two.
After chatting for a moment, Renaf got to the point. "How many residents are there on the island?"
The chief executive replied, "Last year when we took over the island, some Venice people moved back to the mainland. Now, the island has a total of 3,200 people and 570 households, divided into five settlements."
He took out a map from the satchel he carried with him, which marked the island's settlements, churches and some important facilities.
The map also includes Rhenia and Delos on the west side. Rhenia is not suitable for farming and is home to thirty families of shepherds. They need to pay taxes to Mykonos.
Delos is in an abandoned state. It is said to be the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis, and later became the headquarters of Delian League. The island is dotted with a large number of temple ruins, so it is listed as a key historical protection zone and has nothing to do with Renaf.
(Note: Facing the invasion of the Persia empire, the Greece city-state formed Delian League. Later, Athens controlled the voice of this alliance and fought with the Peloponnese League led by Sparta, and Peloponnese War broke out.)
Six hundred households? How much money can we receive from this?
Renaf feels that the eldest son's complaint has some truth. The land area is too small and all the income combined is not as good as Crete's large Sugarcane Plantation.
"Well, I'm not short of money anyway. There are real estates everywhere in the country, so my children and grandchildren can do whatever they want."
Leaving the town East Gate, Renaf got on the horse and followed the country road deep into the interior.
The soil of Mykonos is poor and the climate is dry. There are scattered fields on both sides of the road, where Barley, grapes, olive trees and fig trees are planted.
Arriving at a village in the center of the island, it still had white walls and red tiles. A few old people were sitting in the shade at the entrance of the village chatting, watching the middle-aged man and the two guards behind him warily.
Mykonos has been harassed by pirates for a long time. Renaf visited various villages and found that the attitude of the villagers was generally indifferent.
At night, the family gathered for dinner at the mansion left by the Venice noble. Renaf felt that the former nobleman had really good taste. The overall layout, interior decoration, and flower gardens were all unique.
"When I retire in the future, this is a good place to retire."
In late May, Renaf returned to Constantinople to report on his duties. Later, he will lead Sakarya Legion to the southeastern border and switch defenses with the Attica Legion.
Garden and Vitus from the east of the Blachernae Palace summoned this old subordinate, and the two discussed the military affairs in the east in detail. After a long time, Vitus suddenly mentioned Mykonos.
"Does the place meet your expectations?"
Renaf: "I was born in an inland village in Cyprus. Mykonos reminds me of the scenery in my hometown. I like it very much.
When I was young, I had been learning blacksmithing from my father. Later, my brother inherited my father's country blacksmith shop, and I worked as a blacksmith at Pomos nearby.
To be honest, I seldom miss my life in Pomos. The Latin Baron is not good at managing towns, and the streets are dirty and messy. My wish at that time was to save money and open a blacksmith shop in the countryside.
When I retire, maybe I will reopen a blacksmith shop in Mykonos and fulfill my youthful wish."
The conversation lasted for two hours. After Renaf left, Vitus stayed behind and Garden took a walk, recalling the canonization of nobles some time ago.
After Battle of Sakarya, Vitus granted hereditary military positions to generals to reward their military exploits and loyalty.
However, as Eastern Roman Empire recovered Anatolia, the number of Garrison District increased to sixty-two, and the result was:
Border Defense General has a military position that is hereditary to thousands of households, and a deputy brigade commander also has a military position that is hereditary to thousands of households. It is difficult to distinguish between the treatment of high-level and middle-level people.
There is no other way, Vitus established an additional hereditary noble title, granted Marcus, Damien, Renaf, Krezer, Fabius's eldest son, Cohen and others as hereditary nobles, and gave them a small island as a fiefdom.
"At this moment, the Pronoia System degree that originated from Komnenos has been abolished, and the remaining Pronia nobles have been wiped out. There are only seven hereditary military nobles in the entire empire, and this line is large enough."
At least in Vitus's opinion, this treatment is worthy of their efforts.
In more than 20 years of fighting career, he has fought hard battles with his own life. There has never been a general like Agrippa, Belisarius, and Narses under his command.
"I personally wrote the teaching materials and set up Military Academy. I have done everything I need to do. Why can't I train a truly famous general? In a few years, I will have to attack White Sheep myself."
After complaining for a long time, Vitus continued to consider matters related to the knighthood.
He wanted to clearly stipulate in the code that "no knighthood will be granted unless one has great merit". The general standard is:
When a general fights against an enemy with first-class strength, he should win a decisive victory, such as Battle of Antikythera, or accumulate multiple military exploits, and he can also obtain a hereditary title.
If a general is fighting against a medium-sized enemy, he must severely damage or even completely annihilate the main force, and the cumulative number of kills or prisoners must exceed a certain number.
Vitus thought of two completely different noble systems, Western Europe and Ming Dynasty. His idea was to keep the title sufficiently scarce and not to grant it indiscriminately, but also not to be too harsh.
During the Zhengde period, Ming Dynasty saw the phenomenon of indiscriminate granting of nobility, and several favored ministers who followed the emperor on his southern tour were granted the title of earl.
From the Jiajing to the Tianqi years, the emperor's attitude towards knighthood suddenly changed. In his impression, in the past hundred years, only Wang Yangming (Uncle Xinjian) and Li Chengliang (Uncle Ningyuan) were awarded the title of Spygeon for their military merits.
"I feel that this standard is still somewhat inappropriate and needs to be discussed in detail with Cabinet."
Vitus yawned and returned to the study room, finding many documents piled up on the desktop.
The documents are placed in two piles, one part is non-priority, whether to review it depends on his mood. The other part is high priority, Cabinet can't make up his mind, and the decision can only be made by the emperor.
"A lot of Foreign Affairs paperwork."
The documents come from several towns on the east coast of Italy. They are affiliated with Holy See States and have a certain degree of autonomy. Venice has declined and Eastern Roman Empire has regained control of the sea. These towns are eager to know the attitude of the new overlord.
Among them, the largest town is Ancona.
After reading the letter from the Ancona Council, the quill pen in Vitus's right hand hung in the air and did not fall down for a long time. The ink from the pen tip dripped on the document, leaving a black ink stain.
For a long time, Holy See's local management efficiency has been very low, and many areas have adopted indirect rule.
The situation in these towns is very complicated. It is a three-party game between Holy See, local lords, and town councils. Assuming that Vitus's wording is inappropriate, this reply letter will most likely become the basis for someone to promote the threat of the Eastern Roman Empire.
"France controls Genoa and Naples. Holy Roman Empire is nominally the lord of Milan and other countries. Eastern Roman Empire did not intervene in the situation of Italy, but is the most feared party. This is really unfair."
More than ten minutes passed without him writing any reply, so he decided to let Minister Foreign Affairs write a few courtesy replies.
The last letter is from Naples, and the content involves the navy's anti-smuggling operations.
Regarding this topic, Vitus had full legitimacy and immediately wrote a stern reply, believing that the king was funding Mamluk and preventing Eastern Roman Empire from regaining Jerusalem.
Vitus thought to himself, "No matter how many merchant ships the navy sinks or captures, as long as Eastern Roman Empire Army does not occupy Naples, it will not trigger a siege net."
During the Classical Period, many Greek settlements were established in southern Italy, so it was called Magna Graecia. Later, when the Roman Republic unified Italy, Magna Graecia transformed into Latin culture.
In the eleventh century, the Norman nobles of France conquered Naples.
After a long period of rule, the local people were influenced by Norman culture, and the influence of Greece culture became weaker and weaker, making it difficult to recognize the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire again.
The current Naples language can also reflect the complex history of the local area. The basis of this language is Latin, influenced by Greek, and also mixed with some French vocabulary.
The dialect of Sicily Island is more complex. In addition to the above three languages, it is also influenced by Arabic and Catalan.
"Sicily and Naples belong to two forces. They check and balance each other and pose a limited threat to the Eastern Roman Empire. This situation is not bad."
After processing the high-priority files, Vitus pulled out a few of the low-priority files, briefly read them, and then left them alone to think about the next phase of the battle plan.
He plans to form new Light Cavalry Brigade and Dragon Cavalry Brigade.
The duration of this process is very long, recruiting personnel takes 2 to 3 months, followed by half a year of training.
After initially forming combat effectiveness, the two Cavalry Brigade went to the interior of Anatolia to suppress bandits and develop combat effectiveness.
After a year of training, they can engage in regular field operations. By this time, Central Administration will most likely have saved enough money to attack White Sheep Dynasty.
"Uzong Hassan now occupies the western part of Persia. It seems that I can't escape the fate of the ancient monarch. After all, I have to go to Persia for a tour."
The Persia area has always been the old enemy of Greece (Eastern Roman Empire). In the classical period, the two sides experienced the Greco-Persian War, the Alexander Eastern Expedition, and then the hundreds of years of tug-of-war between the Roman Empire and Sasanian Persia.
In my impression, after the 16th century, Ottoman repeated the experience of Rome, fighting and warring with the Persia area (Safavid Dynasty, Afsharid Dynasty), which lasted until the complete decline of Persia.
During this period, Ottoman had the upper hand because Finance was more generous and could be equipped with more muskets and artillery.
The emergence of firearms weakened the status of traditional cavalry. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Abbas I learned from the experience of previous monarchs, formed a firearms force New Army, and regained some lost territory.
However, the establishment and maintenance of Firearms Corps requires a large amount of funds, regular military training, and continuous wear and tear of equipment.
Persia Finance was lacking, and this kind of military innovation could only be intermittent. In 1639, after Persia and Ottoman signed the "Treaty of Zuhab", military construction stagnated.
Decades later, Nader Shah (1688~1747) rose up. Among the troops under his command, the number of traditional cavalry was still greater than that of Firearms Corps.
Among them, the most fatal flaw was the Artillery. At that time, the production technology of the Persia lagged behind the Europe. The artillery was mainly the light Camel Gun, lacking the large-caliber Field Gun and Siege Cannon, and it was blocked many times by the fortified city.
For example, Siege of Kandahar, the city's defense is not as good as Europe Trace Italienne. Even so, Nader Shah besieged it for a whole year, and finally sent soldiers to attack at night, resulting in heavy losses.
Thinking of this, Vitus made up his mind. "After defeating White Sheep this time, I must repair Trace Italienne more and form a line of defense at the border, no, two lines!"