Over the years, Rostislav Palace has changed a lot. In the past three years, the Prince of Moscow has restructured the entire palace.
Of course, the original buildings must be utilized to the greatest extent. If they are all demolished, the man-hours spent will be too huge. Moreover, many buildings are newly built, and demolishing them will not be worth the gain.
Although I don’t know how much money was spent, after seeing the results, the prince of Moscow still felt that it was worth it and that the money was well spent.
The current Rostislav Palace is a typical Russian fortress-style palace. The thick brick walls create a small inner city within the inner city, so that even if the Red City is captured, the prince's army can still hold on.
Don't look at the many flashy decorations on those walls. Underneath these flashy decorations are brick walls as thick as city walls.
And within this inner city is the palace of the Prince of Moscow, the political center of Northeastern Rus. Every piece of information conveyed here exerts a powerful influence on the entire Rus.
The Rostislav Palace has a main hall for banquets and meetings, a gorgeous room for the princely family, a large room for guests, and a private chapel for the princely family. It has everything that should be there. It can be said that this is no less than Kiev.
The existence of Vladimir Palace.
No matter from any aspect, this is an excellent palace, which is enough to demonstrate the strong prestige of the Moscow princes.
There is always rich food here, and exotic delicacies appear at banquets from time to time. There are many servants and they are proud of the professional skills they have mastered. The palace of the Moscow prince has become the most famous palace in the entire north, attracting warriors from all sides.
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Among them are also indispensable people who eat and drink from all walks of life. They come to the prince's court to eat and drink, but they will not bring any benefit to the prince's government.
For these people, Rostislav always kicked them out after taking them in for half a year. This was already a very generous act, so Rostislav was not affected by these actions.
As for the entire inner city, there are now more buildings. After all, the nearly two thousand full-time and semi-full-time people of the Moscow princes and their families live here.
There are all brick houses here, and there are not many wooden houses in the outer city. The inner city of Moscow has preferential prices for buying bricks and tiles, so everyone chooses to build sturdier brick houses.
This is out of Rostislav's selfishness. He hopes to build brick houses all around him first, so that he can feel that he is in a civilized place instead of a barbaric Rus.
In fact, there are already a lot of brick houses in the outer city, such as the government, mills and workshops. It is a pity that wooden houses are still the main body, and Rostislav feels that wooden houses are not pleasing to his heart.
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The reason for the expansion of the inner city was the expansion of the Muscovite prince's personal army, which has now expanded to 800 people.
The concentration of Moscow's population and the rise of the prince's authority resulted in more and more people willing to serve under the prince.
The prince's purse was enough to support the expansion of the army, and most importantly, he also intended to do so.
However, the standing army did not expand because of this. Rostislav only maintained the Moscow Battalion and the Rostov Battalion. After experiencing the chaos in 1063, the Moscow prince was very afraid of recruiting troops among the civilians, so he suspended the original expansion. He originally planned to
Maintain four to five infantry battalions.
However, as compensation, Rostislav added one centurion to each battalion of the standing army, which calmed the restlessness of the standing army.
The rebellion made Rostislav think that the right way to focus on strengthening the personal followers is because these people are from the privileged class, and it is difficult for people of the same class to betray their own class. After all, it is these people who can rest assured.
The importance of the Moscow Battalion and the Rostov Battalion subsequently declined, and the Prince of Moscow also believed that the standing army did not have to remain out of production. The prince gave them land or industry to keep them in a semi-out of production state.
At the same time, these soldiers and their families were also moved to live in the inner city of Moscow. Similarly, these people were also given industries.
Anyway, they are all staying in the inner city. Can't they assemble at any time? The management of the troops under the prince's nose is quite strict. The flow of personnel in the inner city has always been strictly controlled, and there can be no shortage of troops.
The root cause of Rostislav's actions was to lift the standing army out of the people and establish a military class.
After all, it is impossible for him to disband these two battalions. To make so many people with military skills unemployed is to seek death. These people who have gained experience and enjoyed privileges will definitely no longer be willing to go home and farm. They will definitely join
Among the rebellious army.
Rostislav is already deeply aware of the trouble caused by soldiers with military skills joining the rebellion. In the past three years, those rebels in the Rostov Camp who joined the gang have brought the gang's organization and combat effectiveness to a higher level. Rostislav
Tislav will not send people over there again.
There is another group that also enjoys treatment similar to that of a standing army, and that is the crossbowmen in Moscow. They have also changed from part-time to semi-part-time. They were given fields by the princes of Moscow, and then lived together in the inner city.
To be honest, the crossbowmen group does not require much training. You can recruit a farmer to train for a month or even half a month and you will be qualified. This is especially obvious under the background that the output of the crossbow-making guild has increased.
Now some citizens have purchased crossbows to equip themselves, and even a few crossbow-wielding robbers have appeared among gangs. It is also because of the appearance of these crossbow-wielding robbers that the cost of doing business in Moscow has increased for foreign merchants.
After all, in the past, an armored warrior could kill among the commoner bandits, but now if a crossbow was fired, the warrior would be gone.
Although there are very few examples of crossbows appearing, the appearance of one is enough to create panic among these businessmen. The direct result of the panic is that the inflow and outflow of business in Moscow is affected, and many businessmen choose to gather in groups and hit the road together.
Although the impact is not big, it is worthy of attention. If things go on like this, the situation will be uncontrollable.
Rostislav repeatedly banned the sale of crossbows to outsiders and used his own money to purchase more than half of the crossbow-making guild's monthly output.
However, leakage is still inevitable. There are always businessmen selling crossbows to gangs. After all, the profits are so considerable. Those gangs realize the advantages that crossbows can bring to them, so they are very willing to spend money to buy this good thing.
In the end, Rostislav had no choice but to strengthen the strength and frequency of patrols. This was the only way, but it was indeed effective. With the strengthening of patrols, the gangs became more peaceful.
As the number of crossbows among the people gradually increased, the prince of Moscow once thought about disbanding the Moscow crossbowmen, but he was also worried about the loss of unemployed crossbowmen to the people. In the end, he kept these people, and in any case, he had a weapon that could
It is convenient after all to mobilize crossbowmen immediately.
The expansion of the janissaries is a good thing, but with the expansion of the janissaries, problems began to arise within the Moscow regime. For example, the disputes between the janissaries and the janissaries over the separation of families caused Moscow to be infected with some haze, but it was just a haze.
Yes, it's just a haze. Regarding such things, the attitude of the Prince of Moscow is very simple. It has never been important whether or not to separate the families. In comparison, he wants to make these two groups more harmonious through this matter.
With hard work, the winner will gain the support of the prince and his conditions will be agreed to.
Therefore, Gevalan's evaluation of this is critical. Everything depends on the attitude of the princes, and the attitude of the princes is determined by the services they provide.
As the "absolute monarch" of Moscow, Rostislav was very aware of his status. The two guys could only compete secretly. They did not have the guts to do anything big, so Rostislav did not take their activities to heart.
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Moreover, it would be good to give the following some things to do. Now that the Moscow court is getting bigger and bigger, if there is no intrigue below, he would still have to worry.
So instead of worrying about these trivial matters, it is better to settle the accounts. This is the business.
Although Rostislav has a professional team of Greek bureaucrats responsible for these matters, Rostislav will conduct repeated reviews and calculations, and he also has a calculation team selected from young people from the privileged class.
Rostislav has always been strict in this matter, because only if the financial power is maintained and stable, the prince's power will not be shaken. In the past, the prince and his wife worked together, but now the prince organized a team to do the calculation.
As for why this is the case, it’s because Moscow’s commercial income has greatly increased, and the increase in numbers naturally means that the numbers are complicated.
As for administrative matters, those things need to be looked at by him every day. Naturally, it is impossible for anyone to make small moves. Moreover, he discovered and warned the bureaucrats below about their small moves, so these guys also settled down.
The key to the Moscow prince's ability to support so many troops lies in these account books, where the prince's various financial resources are recorded.
Among the levels of importance, the most important one now has become the guild area. The prosperity of the guild area has enabled the princes of Moscow to obtain countless incomes every day, and has also made the prince's army stronger. It is the prince's biggest cash cow.
As a result, the city's commerce has become more prosperous and stronger, and the entire city has developed with the development of the guilds. As a result, Moscow has become a famous city in Russia, and its reputation has even spread to foreign countries.
Rostislav was very proud of this, because it was his work, his idea, and the result of his governance.
Next is Moscow's traditional commercial income. The ever-expanding princely power has caused the tax revenue of the Moscow princes to increase every year. These physical objects are put into special bags and then stamped with a seal representing the authority of Moscow.
In addition to food, other things were gathered to the imperial capital as usual, and then sent to the imperial capital to be sold to earn gold and silver.
This is Moscow's traditional source of finance. In the early days, Rostislav's savings and this income were what helped him withstand the situation, and there was something new in this traditional trade.
The fleet also brought special products from the northern Rus', as well as products from the Rustislav territory, including the Christian classic "Bible".
At the beginning, the Bible business of the princes of Moscow did not go well. People in the imperial capital did not believe that the Russians could obtain so many Bibles. How could these northern barbarians have so many scribes?
But be careful, the arrogant Greeks discovered that these Bibles were indeed reliable, and the sales soon opened up. People came to buy Bibles one after another, but the buying frenzy that the prince imagined did not happen. After all, selling religious classics requires the greatest effort.
The religious authority, the Orthodox Church, nods.
The church came quickly. After getting the Bible, the Orthodox Church realized its value almost immediately. Soon, the Orthodox Church approached the Russians.
Initially, they wanted to obtain printing technology from the Russians, but how could those businessmen who were just selling know what the technology was like? Faced with these problems, they naturally had no idea.
Moreover, the church cannot do anything to the Russians, and it is absolutely forbidden to arrest them hastily. Behind them is the authority of Kiev. The emperor knows that if the Russians understand that their trade rights have been violated, it is likely to attract a barbarian army.
The army of people.
Although the imperial capital has never been afraid of barbarians, and the Russians have failed in front of Constantinople many times, no one wants war, and it is not worth destroying the peaceful environment for an icing on the cake.
After all, the pressure from the east is increasing, and the empire does not want another enemy, so it is better to get along well with the Russians.
After all, the Orthodox Church is the bride of the secular government, but after the imperial government told them that they could not do anything to the Russians, they changed their approach and instead ordered Bibles from the Russians.
Rather than letting the Russians sell it everywhere, it is better for them to purchase it and sell it in a unified way. The wealthy Orthodox Church directly stated that they can eat as much as the Russians have. The circulation must be controlled in their hands, so that the authority of the church can be maintained and they can make more money.
Previous transaction.
At the same time, the church directly gave the green light to the Russian merchants' request to buy paper. Although they guessed that the northern Russians were lacking paper, they did not have any problems because of it. After all, it was the Russians who had the technology, not them.
Therefore, the Rostislav businessman was able to purchase a large amount of paper at a relatively favorable price, and then embarked on his return journey.
The fortune-making of the Rostislav businessmen was naturally noticed by other businessmen on the same journey. They were naturally curious about how the people in Northeastern Rus' did it. Many people were surprised that Northeastern Rus' could produce such cultural things.
And these temptations were blocked. After all, the people sent by Rostislav to the south really didn’t know anything. They were only responsible for transporting and buying goods. They didn’t even know that these things came from the inner city of Moscow, and they even came from them.
After arriving in Kiev, I opened the cloth as ordered and realized it was a book.
After returning to Rus, the merchants brought Rostislav the large amount of paper he wanted, and they also brought an unexpected surprise. In addition to bringing news of the large order, the merchants also told Rostislav the Orthodox Church
There are no restrictions on the circulation of books other than religious literature.
Of course, it cannot be a banned book or some heresy.
After receiving the news, they immediately used a large amount of paper purchased from the imperial capital to print a batch of handed down classics such as "Homer's Epic". Constantinople has the largest citizen group in the Christian world, and the demand for books is
Very strong.
And they also have the money to buy them. After excluding the cost of copying, the cost of these books is mainly paper, and paper is only a little expensive for middle-class families in Constantinople, but for the upper class, it is not directly expensive.
Problem.
The printing of the Bible had to be accelerated. In order to increase the speed, Rostislav used block printing, which was more convenient than movable type in terms of efficiency.
It is a pity that after improving the efficiency, the Prince of Moscow found that too high efficiency was not good. Many times the paper was printed and there was still a lot of time.
The solution is still to make paper by yourself, but now that the princes of Moscow have money, they can try it. After all, as long as you are willing to ask around in the imperial capital, papermaking is not a secret, and many details can be found out.
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The production of parchment cannot be eliminated. After all, parchment is the most reliable paper in this era, and many people really only recognize this thing.
Of course, Rostislav did not exclusively deliver Greek books to the imperial capital. He also printed many Slavic books for circulation in Rus. The Bible was naturally the most popular among them, but other books also became popular.
In the past three years, under the leadership of Rostislav, he has supervised the translation of many Greek books, such as "Elements of Geometry" and "Collection of Hippocrates", and compiled the "Russian Herbal Collection" and "Russian Herbal Collection" with the cooperation of relevant people.
Books such as "Agriculture", they also had a large number of Slavic books printed.
It is a pity that this is still circulated in a very small circle, and Rostislav is very sorry for this.
After all, Ross's cultural group is limited, and reaching this level is already the limit. Maybe it will take twenty years for another generation to grow up before he can see some results.
Relying on this industry, the prince of Moscow held a lot of gold and silver in his arms, which made him a lot of money. At the same time, he was able to build the largest library in Russia. Even his grandfather
No other library can compare with this library.
Moreover, there are many books in this library that are only circulated in a small area, which undoubtedly increases the value of this place. Then the Prince of Moscow announced that this large library will be open to the outside world.
This declaration caused cultural people from all over Russia to flock here, as well as many people who wanted to learn. The prince's library was the best learning opportunity for them.
This is exactly what Rostislav wants. If this continues, Moscow will sooner or later become the cultural center of Russia.