eastern european eagle

Chapter 540

As the capital of Romania, Constantinople is naturally lively. The crowds of people coming and going have various purposes, but quite a few are preparing to do something bigger - building the Cathedral of St. Andrew.

The craftsmen responsible for building the church have begun to enter the construction site one after another. They are all the most skilled craftsmen recruited from the empire. There are thousands of them, and most of them are arranged in Galata. In addition, the empire also recruited more than 3000 laborers, so there were long queues outside the city gates early in the morning.

Nearly 5000 people are building churches at the same time, which is a big test for the organization and management of the entire construction site and the safety and security of the entire city.

After the craftsmen have basically arrived, the general foreman of the craftsmen will gather together the various foremans and assign them the work of the day. These foremen will summon their craftsmen and laborers to convey the tasks and guide them on how to better complete the tasks.

After the meeting, thousands of workers dispersed and the day's construction work began.

Building a church is mainly divided into four parts: fine processing of stones, painting, building scaffolding and building walls.

There are two types of stone processing: one is to process the stone more precisely after shaping. It is not only necessary to remove impurities from the ashlar stone and make it more square, but also to ensure that its size is correct, so that it can This ensures that there will be no errors when stacked as wall tiles. The processing of round stones is even more stringent, because it is used as the pillar material to support the main body of the church. The circular area of ​​each pillar is constantly shrinking from bottom to top, so the size requirements for round stones are It is more strict, and decorative lines must be carved on the stone appearance.

The second is to process the plates on the top of the church. This is not ordinary processing, but to carve out a relief pattern that fits the theme according to the designer's requirements. This puts higher demands on the craftsmen's carving skills, which are often done by Well-known masons with high artistic standards are in charge.

These thousands of craftsmen and laborers are not only highly skilled, but also have participated in the construction of churches in other places many times. They are very experienced and cooperate well. Therefore, although there are many people on the construction site, the division of labor is very clear and the whole scene appears orderly. , not messy at all.

Even though they have been working here for several months, everyone is still very dedicated and full of passion for work. This is not only a gift from the Bartland family to the empire, but also a great opportunity for the empire to show its culture and strength to other countries and forces. Therefore, it is a great honor for the craftsmen to be able to participate in this great project.

According to the above requirements, this church will be as magnificent as Hagia Sophia. The construction work is of course very huge, and the amount of stone used is naturally very large. Tens of thousands of slaves and laborers will mine the top quality stone from stone mines all over the country. The expenditure of the entire project is naturally a huge number, but the empire's finances only allocated a small part of the funds. Most of the money comes from the fundraising of believers and the donations of the Bartlan family, which has already met the needs.

Meanwhile in Jerusalem, sculptors decided to carve a statue of Peter on horseback to place in the middle of the city. Choose the best marble and polish it carefully. And the statue must be covered with skin. Because of its whiteness and rarity, ivory has become the first choice for the skin of the statue. The sculptors tear the complete ivory into thin slices, and then stick them on the surface of the statue little by little. To be absolutely perfect, this is a job that requires a lot of patience.

While attaching the skin to the statue, the carvers and craftsmen were also performing another task: making gold foil. The goldsmiths forged the gold into thin sheets and then attached it to the ivory skin of the statue to serve as the clothing for the statue. The gold clothes and crown he wore added to the emperor's grace and splendor.

In addition, they also have to make gold and silver seats for the statues. Although not all are made of gold and silver, and the core inside is bronze, the gold and silver consumed after the statue is completed is by no means a small amount. . Only the Roman Empire had the strength to use it.

——————————A breeze blew from the seaside of Ceylon, making Zheng He and Chen Cheng feel relaxed after arriving here for a month.

Following Zhu Di's order, they took 28500 people and hundreds of ships to Constantinople. But when he arrived in Ceylon, he said that there was a war in Rome, so he went to the Persian Gulf first and reached Khrumos and Basra.

Zheng He also took the fleet to Aden, Andronikos, Sofia and other places, which enriched their horizons.

Having recently learned that the war in Rome was over, they hurriedly prepared to head to Constantinople.

"It's comparable to Hangzhou. No wonder the emperor sent me to Fulin."

Chen Cheng had served as an envoy to Annan and the Western Regions and had rich diplomatic experience, so Zhu Di asked him to serve as a special envoy to Rome. It is hoped that the two countries can increase exchanges and conduct friendly trade.

Now Zhu Di is inseparable from the income from foreign trade. From the 35th year of Hongwu to the present, famines and droughts have followed one after another. Zhu Di has repeatedly ordered money and grain reductions, but the funds needed for large projects will not disappear. Therefore, the Municipal Shipping Department The income became his main dependence.

Of course, even after the maritime ban was lifted, the Ming Dynasty still focused on tribute trade. Therefore, there is a saying that "the thicker comes and the thinner comes" when sailing to the West.
At the same time, the voyages to the West and Zhu Di's large rewards to these foreign tributes gradually caused panic in the empire. In terms of silver alone, 600 million taels were spent every year, not including the rewards for more than visiting officers and soldiers. Because the fleets carried copper coins abroad for purchase, a large number of copper coins were outflowed, causing a domestic "money shortage", which seriously consumed the national treasury reserves and caused a large-scale devaluation of coins.

For this reason, the imperial court officials repeatedly made remonstrances, demanding that the maritime ban policy be re-established, because they were horrified to find that missionaries from outside were shaking their dominance.

A large group of officials knelt at the entrance of the palace day and night, kneeling during the day and at night. They were still crying, which made Zhu Di upset, but they couldn't kill him yet, so he had to let them go.

But the missionaries were indeed his concern, so in the ninth year of Yongle, he issued an order prohibiting them from going deep into the interior, and only allowed them to operate in Guangdong, Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang. You cannot enter the interior without permission.

Even so, the Romans could accept it, and they could officially do business with the Ming Dynasty. But regarding the other party's measures to restart the maritime ban, they started to come up with their own ideas and train a group of thugs to take charge of the work. This needed to be done as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)