king of ros

Chapter 341
Moscow, Rostislav Palace.

Over the years, the Rostislav Palace has changed a lot. In the past three years, the princes of Moscow have remodeled the entire palace system.

Of course, the original buildings must be utilized to the greatest extent. If they are all demolished, the man-hours will be too huge, and many buildings belong to the ranks of new construction, so demolishing them is not worth the loss.

Although it is not known where the money was spent, the Prince of Moscow still felt it was worth it after seeing the results, and felt that the money was spent too well.

The current Rostislav Palace is a typical Ross fortress-style palace. The thick brick walls built a small inner city in the inner city, so that even if the Red City is captured, the princely army can still hold on.

Don't look at the many flashy decorations on those walls. Under these flashy decorations are brick walls as thick as city walls.

And in this inner city is the palace of the prince of Moscow, the political center of Northeast Ross, and every message conveyed here exerts a powerful influence on the entire Ross.

The Rostislav Palace has the main hall for banquets and audiences, the magnificent living room of the princely family, the large room for guests, and the private church of the princely family. It has everything that should be there. It can be said that this is no less than Kyiv. The presence of the Vladimir Palace.

In any respect, this is an excellent palace, which is enough to show the mighty prestige of the Moscow princes.

There is always plenty of food here, exotic delicacies appear at banquets from time to time, servants are thronged and proud of their professional skills, the court of the Muscovite princes has become the most famous court in the whole north, attracting warriors from all sides .

Among them, people from all walks of life who eat and drink are indispensable. They come to the prince's court to eat and drink, but they can't bring any benefit to the prince's government.

For these people, Rostislav drove them out after taking them in for half a year. This is 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, nearly two thousand full-time and half-time workers of the Prince of Moscow and their families live here.

There are patches of 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 stronger brick and tile houses.

This was out of Rostislav's selfishness. He hoped to build brick houses around him first, so that he could feel that he was in civilization, not the wild Ross.

In fact, there are already quite a few brick buildings in the outer city, such as the government, mills, and workshops. It’s a pity that the wooden buildings are still the main body, and Rostislav feels that the wooden buildings are not pleasing to the eye. .

The reason for the expansion of the inner city is the expansion of the personal army of the princes of Moscow, which has now expanded to 800 people.

The concentration of Moscow's population and the rise of the prince's authority have made more and more people willing to serve under the prince's command.

And the Maharaja's purse was more than enough to support the expanding army, and most importantly, he intended to do so.

But the standing army did not expand because of this. Rostislav only maintained the Moscow and Rostov camps. After experiencing the chaos in 1063, the prince of Moscow was very afraid of recruiting troops from civilians, so he suspended the original expansion. Maintain four to five infantry battalions.

However, as compensation, Rostislav added a centurion to each battalion of the standing army to appease the restlessness of the standing army.

The rebellion made Rostislav think that it is the right way to focus on strengthening his followers, because these people all come from the privileged class, and it is difficult for people of the same class to betray their own class. After all, these people need to rest assured.

The importance of the Moscow Battalion and the Rostov Battalion has subsequently declined, and the Prince of Moscow also believes that the standing army does not have to be kept out of production. The prince has given land or property to keep them in a state of half-time.

At the same time, these soldiers and their families were also relocated to live in the inner city of Moscow. Similarly, these people were also given industries.

Anyway, they all stay in the inner city. Isn't it possible to gather at any time?The army management under the prince's nose is quite strict. The flow of personnel in the inner city has been strictly controlled, and there is no possibility of any lack of personnel.

The root cause of Rostislav's doing this was to raise the standing army from the people and establish a class of soldiers.

After all, it is impossible for him to disband these two battalions. If so many people with military skills are unemployed, they are looking for death. Among the rebellious army.

And Rostislav has already experienced the troubles caused by soldiers with military skills joining the rebellion. Those Rostov battalion rebels who joined the gang in the past three years have made the organization and combat effectiveness of the gang a step up. Dislav wouldn't send someone over there again.

Another group also enjoyed treatment similar to that of the standing army, that is, the Moscow crossbowmen team. They also changed from full-time to half-time, and were given fields by the Moscow princes, and then lived in the inner city.

To be honest, the group of crossbowmen didn't need much training. It took a farmer to train for a month or even half a month to pass. This was especially obvious in the context of the increase in the production of crossbow making guilds.

Now some citizens have purchased crossbows to equip themselves, and there are even a few robbers holding crossbows among the bandits. It is also because of the appearance of these crossbow-holding robbers that the cost of doing business in Moscow has also increased for foreign businessmen.

After all, in the past, an armored samurai could kill random robbers in civilian clothes, but now if he used a crossbow, that samurai would be gone.

Although there are very few examples of crossbows, the appearance of one is enough to create panic among these merchants, and the direct result of the panic is that the inflow and outflow of Moscow's business has been affected, and many merchants choose to gather together and go on the road together.

Although the impact is not large, it is worth paying attention to. If things go on like this, the situation will get out of hand.

Rostislav made repeated orders to prohibit the sale of crossbows, and paid for more than half of the monthly output of the crossbow guild at his own expense.

But the outflow is still unavoidable. There are always merchants who sell crossbows to gangsters. After all, the profits are too considerable. Those gangsters realize the advantages that crossbows can bring them, so they are very willing to spend money to buy this good thing.

In the end, Rostislav could only strengthen the strength and patrol frequency of the patrol team. This was the only way, but it was indeed effective. With the strengthening of patrols, the gang became more peaceful.

Due to the increasing number of crossbowmen among the people, the prince of Moscow once thought about disbanding the Moscow crossbowmen, but it was also out of concern that the unemployed crossbowmen would flow into the people. In the end, he kept these people, and anyway, he had a can The crossbowmen who are mobilized immediately are handy after all.

The expansion of the personal army is a good thing, but with the expansion of the personal army, problems began to appear within the Moscow regime. For example, the disputes between the personal soldiers and the personal followers about the division of families have cast some haze on Moscow, but it is only a haze.

Yes, it's just a haze. The prince of Moscow's attitude towards such things is very simple. It never matters whether the family is separated or not.In contrast, he wants to make these two groups work harder through this matter. The winner will get the support of the prince, and his conditions are all agreed.

So Gevalan's evaluation of this is that the evaluation has reached the key point. Everything depends on the attitude of the princes, and the attitude of the princes is determined by the services they provide.

As the "dictator" of Moscow, Rostislav is well aware of his status, and these two guys can only compete secretly. They don't have the guts to do anything big, and Rostislav doesn't take their activities seriously. .

And it's good to do a little work for the subordinates. Now that the Moscow court is getting bigger and bigger, if the subordinates don't intrigue, he has to worry about it.

So instead of caring about these shitty things, it's better to do the math, that's the business.

Although Rostislav has a professional team of Greek bureaucrats responsible for these things, Rostislav will conduct repeated audits 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, the power of the prince will not be shaken. In the past, the prince and his wife counted together, but now the prince organizes a team to count.

As for why this happened, because Moscow's commercial income has increased greatly, and the increase in numbers naturally means that the numbers are complicated.

As for administrative matters, he needs to read those things every day, so it is impossible for someone to make small moves, and he has discovered and warned the bureaucrats below for several small moves, so these guys have settled down.

The key to the prince of Moscow being able to support so many troops lies in these ledgers, where the prince's various sources of income are recorded.

In terms of importance, the most important thing now has become the guild area. The prosperity of the guild area has enabled the prince of Moscow to receive countless incomes every day, and it has also made the prince's army stronger. It is the prince's biggest cash cow.

As a result, the city's commerce became more prosperous and stronger, and the entire city developed with the development of guilds. As a result, Moscow became a famous city in Russia, and its reputation even spread to foreign countries.

Rostislav is very proud of this, because this is his work, his idea, and the result of his governance.

The second is Moscow’s traditional commercial income. The ever-expanding power of the princes has increased the tax revenue of the Moscow princes every year. These objects are put into special bags, and then stamped with the seal representing Moscow’s authority.

Except for food, other things are gathered in the imperial capital according to the convention, and then sent to the imperial capital for sale to earn gold and silver.

This is Moscow’s traditional source of income. In the early days, Rostislav’s savings and this income withstood the situation, and there was something new in this traditional trade.

The fleet also brought the special product of Ross in the north, as well as the product of the Rostislav territory, the Christian classic "Bible".

At the beginning, the Bible business of the princes of Moscow was not going well. People in the imperial capital did not believe that the Rus could bring so many Bibles. How could these northern barbarians have so many scribes.

But beware of the arrogant Greeks who found that these bibles were indeed reliable, and the sales quickly opened up, and people came to buy bibles one after another, but the buying frenzy that the prince imagined did not appear. After all, selling religious classics requires the most The religious authority Orthodox Church nods.

And the church came very quickly. After getting the Bible, the Orthodox Church realized the value of it almost immediately. Soon, the Orthodox Church approached the Ross people.

At first they wanted to obtain printing technology from the Ross people, but how could those merchants who only sold them know what the technology was like? Naturally, they didn't know what to ask when faced with these questions.

Moreover, the church can't do anything to the Rus people, and arresting them rashly is absolutely forbidden. Behind them is the authority of Kyiv, and the emperor knows that if Rus understands that trade rights have been violated, it is likely to attract a barbarian army. army of people.

Although the imperial capital has never been afraid of barbarians, and the Russ have fallen in front of Constantinople many times, no one wants war, and it is not worth destroying a peaceful environment for a icing on the cake.

After all, the pressure from the east is increasing now, and the empire doesn't want one more enemy, so it's better to get along with the Ross people in a friendly way.

After all, the Orthodox Church is the bride of the secular government, but after the imperial government told them not to do anything to the Ross people, they changed their approach and ordered Bibles from the Ross people instead.

Rather than letting the Ross people sell it everywhere, it is better for them to buy and sell it in a unified manner. The rich and powerful Orthodox Church directly stated that they would eat as much as the Ross people had. The circulation must be controlled in their hands, so as to maintain the authority of the church and make money again. last sum.

At the same time, the church directly gave the green light to the request of Ross merchants to purchase paper. Although they guessed that the Northern Ross people lacked paper, they did not make things difficult for them. After all, it was the Ross people who had the technology, not them.

As a result, the Rostislav businessman was able to purchase a large amount of paper at a relatively favorable price, and then embarked on a journey home.

The gold making of the Rostislav merchants was naturally noticed by other businessmen on the same road. They were naturally curious about how the people in the Northeast Rus did it. Many people were surprised that the Northeast Rus produced such cultural things.

And these temptations were blocked. After all, the people Rostislav sent to the south really didn’t know anything. They were only responsible for shipping and buying goods. After arriving in Kyiv, I opened the cloth on it according to the order and realized that it was a book.

After returning to Rus, the merchants brought Rostislav the large amount of paper he wanted, and at the same time they brought a pleasant surprise. In addition to the news of the large order, the merchants also told the Rostislav Orthodox Church The circulation of all books other than religious literature is not restricted.

Of course, it cannot be a banned book, nor can it be some kind of heresy.

Immediately after getting the news, a batch of handed down classics such as "Homer's Epic" was printed using a large amount of paper purchased from the imperial capital. Constantinople has the largest population of citizens in the Christian world, and the demand for books is Very strong.

And they also have the money to buy them. After deducting the cost of copying, the cost of these books is mainly paper, and paper is only a little expensive for those middle-class families in Constantinople. 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 the prince of Moscow improved efficiency, he found that too high efficiency is not good. In many cases, the paper is printed, and there is still a lot of time.

The solution is to make paper by yourself, but now that the princes of Moscow have money, they can try to do it. After all, as long as you are willing to inquire about it in the imperial capital, papermaking is not a secret, and many details can be found out. .

The production of parchment paper cannot be stopped, after all, parchment paper is the reliable paper of this era, and many people really only recognize this thing.

Of course, Rostislav didn't send only Greek books to the imperial capital. He still printed many Slavic books and circulated them in Russia. The Bible was naturally the most popular among them, but other books also circulated.

In the past three years, under the leadership of Rostislav, he has supervised the translation of many Greek books, such as "The Elements of Geometry" and "Hippocratic Collected Works", and compiled with the cooperation of relevant people the "Ross Herbal Collection", "Ross Books such as "Agronomy", which were also printed in large numbers in Slavic languages.

It's just a pity that this is still circulating in a small circle, and Rostislav is very sorry about this.

After all, Ross’s cultural group is limited, and this level is already the limit. Maybe 20 years later, when another generation grows up, he can see some results.

Relying on this property, the prince of Moscow kept 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 all of Russia, even if his grandfather No other library can compare with this library.

And there are many books in this library that are only circulated in a small range, which undoubtedly increases the value here, and then the prince of Moscow announced that this large library is open to the public.

And this declaration made cultural people from all over Rus flock here, and there are many people who want to learn. The library of the prince is the best learning opportunity for them.

This is exactly the effect Rostislav wants, and sooner or later Moscow will become the cultural center of Ross.

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(End of this chapter)