Chapter 108 [Diligence of Destiny]

When the huge and thick palace gate closed, it seemed as if it had blocked all the anger from the outside world.

The ceiling is six meters high, and the round arched ceiling is inlaid with various uneven patterns, which is simple and full of solemnity. The murals and reliefs left by the most famous artists of various eras on the walls are integrated with the round arched ceiling, which is the same color.

Black curtains fluttered around, and were inseparable from the black marble originally inlaid on the wall. To the solemnity of the palace, a bit of black mystery was added.

The twenty huge lamp holders, all of which are made of red gold, and each red candle on it is as thick as a child's arm. It seems that in the solemn atmosphere, the flames of the candle have frozen, occasionally jumping slightly, and then frozen. Only the huge candle tears flow slowly down, condensed into bright scarlet colors.

The waiters were wearing grey linen robes unique to the palace, standing carefully in the corner, hiding their faces in the darkness, like ghosts - unless the Supreme calls, they will not allow any movement.

The most eye-catching position in the palace was a round seat. The surrounding tall white jade pillars were set against the backdrop of the golden corners, and the layers of gemstone cat-eye agate wrapped, which was as gorgeous as the gods' platform... In fact, the eyes of others looking at this seat at this moment seemed to be facing a shrine.

It is just because the supreme who is sitting in this position now has no difference between his dignity, at least in this world.

Next to the divine platform, two golden candles had burned more than half, and the soft candlelight fell on the face of the man on the divine platform, making the man's face look like gold paper.

The robe woven from pure gold thread and light green silk is soft and luxurious, with blooming iris embroidered on it. Each petal is exquisite and delicate, as exquisite as a work of art. But under such a beautiful robe, the owner covering it looks so...

So...

lifeless!!

Her already gray face turned into a weird golden color under the candlelight. Her high cheekbones and deep concave cheeks looked particularly thin. Her cheeks were stained with a sickly blush and her lips were as dry as if they had never been moistened by rain all year round.

The withered and curly hair seemed to have no energy left, and the crown worn on the head, even though it was pure gold, was inlaid with red, blue, green gemstones, shining brightly under the candlelight.

But this is so brilliant that it makes the owner even more tired and weak.

If you look at it suddenly, you may even think that the one wrapped in this gorgeous suit is simply a corpse!

Except...the light occasionally flashed in the slightly closed eyes! It was as sharp as lightning flashes through the dark night!

His Majesty the current Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, possesses two-thirds of the territory of this continent, possesses the supreme of millions of subjects, the highest noble and sacred existence of the empire, and the supreme ruler of this country - Contos Dorengaros Diavera Kronma - a hero who has ruled the great empire of Byzantium for forty-six years and is even considered to be a hero who ranks among the top three among all emperors in the history of the entire Kronma family.

It can be said that this emperor can withstand such a reputation.

His name is Contos. The word "Contos" means "the spear of a knight" in ancient Byzantine words. At the same time, the emperor also has a loud title: the Great Emperor of the Knight. His courage, his strength, and his tenacity are as sharp as the spear in the hand of a knight, and they cannot be regarded as sharp.

At least, twenty years ago, he did.

The emperor was only nine years old when he inherited the throne, and the main power of the empire was in the hands of his mother. He was very lucky because he inherited a huge empire. He was also unfortunate because his mother had several greedy brothers. At least before Contos could become an adult, the power of the empire was controlled by his mother's greedy brothers, which made the imperial government affairs mess up, and even his cousins ​​coveted the throne.

He had experienced six assassinations before he became a minor. The most dangerous time was that someone bribed his servant. He cut his saddle halfway while riding a horse and was almost trampled to death by the horse's hooves. What made him most sad was that when he was fourteen years old, a court official who had loved and favored for half a year. After a happy reunion, he personally brought him a glass of poisonous wine.

And Contos, he survived tenaciously and lived to the day of the coming-of-age ceremony!

In the more than a year afterwards, he conquered the Senate, known as the orthodox heir of the royal family, and secretly won the support of the army on the condition of promising to improve the military status. Then, at a court banquet, he pretended to be a conflict after drinking and stabbed a cousin with the greatest ambition to the throne to death with a sword in public. The next day, he mobilized the army into the imperial capital and began a large-scale purge.

His mother's three brothers were uprooted and all direct members were executed. Within three days, the imperial capital Osgilia was killed and blood flowed into a river, leaving thousands of people empty.

And just after his mother knelt down and begged him to leave his youngest younger brother, Contos finally agreed after thinking about it for a night. The youngest uncle was exiled to the far east by him, but on the way to exile, he was robbed and killed by a thief group - no one would believe that that matter had nothing to do with Contos.

For this reason, his mother lived in the deep palace from then on. She did not walk out of the palace gate for five years, nor did she see her son again until the day she died!

Contos has always been known for his qualities such as tenacity, courage, perseverance, and cruelty. After he took over the power of the empire, he personally led the central central troops to fight with the Odin people for no less than twenty times. As the supreme emperor of the empire, this majesty was wearing a strong and held his sharp edge, and fought with the cavalry, fighting with the north of Odin, and experiencing the wind and snow of the north of the north together. The little finger missing from his left foot was because of his last expedition to Odin with his army, and his frostbite was forced to be cut off in the severe cold of the north!

He is really like a spear, the spear in the hands of a knight, invincible, tenacious, courageous, and - iron-blooded and cruel!

However, he was old after all. Just like all the powerful beings in this world, they were gradually destroyed by time, smoothed their edges and pulled their energy. The originally tall body, which had been tortured by the disease in the past two years, has only been a wide skeleton.

At this moment, the supreme supreme master was sitting in a weak position on the seat like a divine platform, lowering his head to meditate, his eyebrows were twisted together in pain, and the wrinkles between his forehead were so clear and profound, like a knife and axe.

Finally, a thick and distant sigh cut through the silence.

"The wise Kavishil, the wise Kavishil, the wise Kavishil, I need your wise and objective advice now." The elderly emperor sighed, his hoarse voice seemed to be mixed with anger and anxiety.

At this moment, in this huge palace, there was only one person sitting in front of the elderly emperor.

This is also an old man, his skin has already shown aging waxy yellow color, but his forehead and cheeks are still full and shiny, his nose is straight, and the lines of his lips are soft. It can be seen that he must have been a handsome man when he was young. Even though he was already old at this moment, his eyes were still filled with the calm and peaceful wisdom light left after the years were settled.

Kavihill, the most trusted partner of the Emperor of the Gun, was called "the shield of the Gun" by the empire's power circle. The Gun Emperor of the Gun Contos' attitude towards this companion was an almost unreserved trust. As an emperor known for his cruelty and suspicion and even cruelty, such emotions are difficult to understand.

But it was Kavishil who won the only trust of the Emperor of the Armor, and this trust has lasted for decades, but it has a tendency to become more and more intense. In the entire palace, he can enter and exit the Emperor's study and palace at any time without notice. Cantos would agree to any of Kavishil's requests - although Kavishil is very smart and has never abused these privileges over the years.

And every suggestion of Kavishil, no matter how ridiculous it is, Emperor Contos will seriously consider the possibility.

But it is hard to believe that such a person who is deeply trusted by the emperor is not even a single official title on his head! His only title is just an informal "royal consultant".

However, any of his words had a far greater impact on the Emperor Kailan than the previous prime ministers of the empire!

Kavishil, 56 years old, is one year older than the Emperor of the Armour. When he was young, he was once hailed as the most outstanding genius in the Imperial Academy. Almost all the mentors and scholars in the Imperial Academy, whether they like him or not, have to admit that his analysis of affairs has rare insight and wisdom.

He has profound attainments in many fields such as government affairs, history, art, religion, etc.

His prediction of every national policy of the empire finally became a reality, and every suggestion he made to His Majesty achieve the expected results.

But such a person cannot obtain any official position!

It is not because of the humble origin of Kavishil. He was born in a middle-class noble family. Although he was far from the level of a wealthy family, he was far from being blocked by the officialdom.

Even his good personal friendship with the emperor has a history of nearly thirty years. It is said that when the Emperor Kailan was young, he often wore makeup and wore a small dress to sneak into the Imperial Academy to attend classes. At that time, he strengthened Kavishil, the most talented star in the Imperial Academy, and was also conquered by Kavishil's outstanding wisdom and wisdom views.

At one point, the excited Emperor Kailan once said privately to his friends: Kavishil is the best candidate for my future prime minister of the empire!

But unfortunately, this genius who could have been the most powerful minister in the empire had no choice but to say goodbye to his career completely.

Just because some of his public remarks and opinions angered some people.

When he was in the academy, Kavishil, who was already well-known, publicly expressed his political propositions many times: The Byzantine Empire had maintained the "Tema" military system for a hundred years, which was the biggest source of the empire's weak national strength and its gradual decline!!

The Byzantine Empire's population is ten times that of Odin and its land is three times that of Odin, but it is at a disadvantage in the competition with the Odin people for a hundred years. The Tema military region system is the biggest root! It is this backward and corrupt military region system that divides the complete empire into countless individuals, making it impossible for the empire to concentrate all its national strength to compete with foreign enemies every time they encounter difficulties. At the same time, the huge waste of national strength caused by the divided military region...

Such a proposition angered the powerful military back then.

The Tema military system was a special military administrative system formed by the Byzantine Empire a hundred years ago. At that time, the empire was unfortunately caught in an internal rebellion and civil war. Taking advantage of the weakness of the Byzantine Empire, the powerful enemy Odin, who was eyeing him around, and the nomadic people from the east took the opportunity to invade, and the empire was once facing a desperate situation of falling apart.

In order to cope with this crisis, the imperial emperors at that time set up a new semi-militarized administrative system. Under this system, the land of the Byzantine Empire, except for part of the land centered in the imperial capital Osgilia, continued to be directly under the emperor's jurisdiction, dozens of "military regions" were established in other regions. The original meaning of the word "Tema" was "the place of the army". The highest administrative position was set up in each military region as the governor, and the governor was held by military generals. In principle, each military region implemented a peasant soldier system, that is, the government provided part of the land to recruit some farmers for farming, and these recruited farmers could get a part of the land harvest. At the same time, they also needed to perform military service, farming in daily life, and conduct some militarized training in their spare time, and should be called to the army once they faced war.

The view at that time believed that as long as the lives of peasants and soldiers were guaranteed, it would be easy to mobilize and command during wartime; and, soldiers fighting to defend their homes and resist foreign invaders were generally highly morale, and the burden on their salary could be reduced to a minimum.

As it turns out, this view itself is correct.

But the problem is that such a system also has many unavoidable innate defects! The destined system of peasant soldiers can only be used temporarily in times of crisis and cannot be used as a long-term strategy for establishing a country.

When Kavishill was young, he once expressed his opinion that he belittled this system.

The wise man of the empire believed that, first of all, such a system can only become an excellent emergency strategy in the face of crisis. Although the peasant soldiers who own land will be highly morale when facing foreign invaders and protecting their homes, the essence of half-peasant and half-peasant makes these peasant soldiers unable to escape the essential characteristics of peasants: love for the land!

They cannot leave their homeland to fight! Although they are full of motivation when defending their homes, they often feel low morale once they need such an army to go on a war. In a word, such peasant soldiers cannot assume the responsibilities of a national defense force at all!

The second weakness is waste! Such a peasant army system can only play a role in resisting foreign invasions. That is to say, when the enemy comes to the door and defends the defense, it will exert the maximum combat effectiveness of the peasant army. However, war cannot be just defense war! Because of this, the empire must also establish a real professional army as the empire's permanent mobile combat effectiveness. A large amount of resources caused by such military construction are wasted repeatedly.

The third irreconcilable contradiction is land! The Byzantine Empire carried out feudal constitution of feudalism. In essence, the royal family was the largest aristocrat, and there was a noble class centered on the royal family. The emergence of each new aristocrat needs to be enfeoffed new land. Only when a family genealogy was completely cut off will the empire have the power to nationalize its land... But the new aristocrats will always be much faster and much more than the old aristocrats! Although the empire has vast land, the total amount of land is still limited. There is only so much land in total, which must be distributed to the new aristocrats. At the same time, a large number of land has been classified as special arable land for peasants and soldiers in the military region. More and more land needs have been formed, which has formed an irreconcilable contradiction.

The fourth irreconcilable contradiction is...power!

After the birth of Temaichi, the direct consequence was that the military's power was unprecedentedly powerful, but for the sound standards of a country's system, such "power" is abnormal.

The highest administrative position in the military region is the Governor, which is a semi-militarized official position. The Governor has always been a general of the army - because he needs to be responsible for leading the peasant soldiers, he is considered a semi-militarized leader. At the same time, what makes the central government uneasy is that these small military groups that split the empire into dozens of times are almost difficult to be under the jurisdiction of the central government!

Because there are free peasant soldiers who specialize in arable land, these small semi-militarized groups can almost be fully self-sufficient! They have achieved the highest fiscal revenue and expenditure! This directly leads to the aristocraticization of military generals!

Just imagine, every governor controls the free and stable financial income and expenditure within the military region under his jurisdiction. He has land and troops. He can be self-sufficient without the supply of military pay provided by the central government. There are even some particularly powerful military regions. The governor can completely distinguish peasants and soldiers within his jurisdiction through management, and select the elite part of them to form a standing army!

Over time, almost all military groups have formed one by one! And these military groups have become one after another small cancer after another growing on the empire’s huge body!

The aristocratic and warlordization of the military generals became the main reason why the Byzantine Empire was not strong even though it was large.

In a hundred years, the military governor of the imperial territory had rebelled more than ten times, six of which occurred within the past thirty years!

But it was just like this political system, and the military became the most direct beneficiary, and naturally supported this system very much. The emperors of all generations were not without clear minds and tried to abolish such a system. However, after a hundred years of nourishment, the military has become a huge monster. Even the emperor of the empire could not completely suppress this monster. In order to safeguard its vested interests, the military naturally fought hard against any move that tried to endanger this Tema system.

Decades ago, the previous emperor tried to change this situation. The imperial prime minister at that time issued a document to amend the Tema system. As a result, in order to safeguard his own interests, the military launched a small-scale coup. The prime minister was killed by the "chaotic army" who broke into his home. Afterwards, under the pressure of the military, the emperor had to take back his orders.

The compromises of the previous emperors have caused the deep roots of the Tema system, and the strength of the military has greatly expanded within a hundred years. When the Tema system was just established, there were thirty Tema military regions in the country. By the time the Emperor of Kantos was crowned, the entire Tema military region of the Byzantine Empire had reached forty-six!!

The forty-six Tema Military Regions occupy almost half of the empire's territory! And the remaining half is also a considerable part of the territory belonging to the aristocratic class. It is truly a territory under the administrative jurisdiction of the central government of the empire, and it is less than one-fifth of the country's area!!

Once the new powerful people emerged in the army became the governor of the Tema Military Region, they often became lifelong positions and could work until death. Some of them were particularly powerful and could even be hereditary like their sons inherited their father's business.

The Tema system is like a monster, firmly uniting the empire's military around huge interests. The army that should have become a national barrier has become a burden to absorb the blood of the empire. The imperial military headquarters has almost become another core center outside the royal family. In the forty-six Tema military regions across the country, all the government orders, military orders, and even fiscal revenue and expenditure are directly allocated by the central military headquarters of the empire.

In order to compete with the increasingly large and louder military, the royal family could only firmly grasp the power of loyalty to the royal family as much as possible in the standing troops of the empire. Only these people were considered real soldiers, not those noble warlords!!

The military is also divided into two different factions, one is led by those warlord groups. This faction occupies the vast majority of the military and has transformed from a real soldier to a borer warlord group that ignores national interests in order to safeguard its own interests. The other faction is a small number of real soldiers who still maintain national beliefs.

Unfortunately, the power of the warlord faction is far stronger. Almost ten of the governors of the forty-six Tema Military Regions in the country are members of this faction.

Most of the real military factions are the backbone of more than a dozen central standing corpses of the empire (Adric of the Thirteenth Corps is undoubtedly one of them.)

Kavihill once offered advice to the young Emperor of the Arsenal and expressed his political stance, but his hostility towards the system of the Tema Military Region made the military very uneasy. If others were to hold such hostile political views, perhaps a scholar in the Imperial Academy, then these military bosses could only sneer at most and smiled disdainfully.

But this Kavishil was famous when he was young, with a rare genius reputation in the Imperial Academy for decades, and the young emperor's undisguised appreciation for him... How can such a guy who can influence His Majesty the Emperor himself at close range have such great hostility towards the Tema Military Region system?

It just so happened that the young Emperor Kailan needed the support of the military in order to seize power, so he had to make a certain degree of compromise. One of the compromises was that he promised that Kavishill would never be allowed to hold a formal official position!

Kavishil's tragedy was not only the military's hostility towards him, but also the Senate, another major political group in the empire, expressed dissatisfaction with many of Kavishil's views.

The Senate was the oldest political system of the Byzantine Empire. A thousand years ago, the political proposition during the founding period of the Byzantine Empire was "to take power from the people", which may be considered a certain degree of democracy. The members of the Senate were generally composed of outstanding generals from the army, elite representatives of the aristocratic class, and some ordinary people who have high reputation or status in certain industries or fields (as good as wealthy or some respected scholars and artists, etc.).

In the establishment of the country, the Senate still had quite power. Even in the early days of the founding of the Byzantine Empire, the Senate even had the power to elect and remove the emperor. However, as the imperial power gradually became stronger, this system of senators discussing state affairs gradually declined. Later, with the establishment of the Tema military system, the voice of the army gradually became louder, and even overshadowed the already declining Senate. This made the Senate, which had originally embodied the spirit of the Byzantine Empire, a vacant and embarrassing existence. The important national policy did not have the share of the Senate, and they were disdainful to manage some trivial matters.

Now, the existence of the Senate has added more titles and halos to some powerful figures.
To be continued...