The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 603: Build High Walls and Store Up Food

Richard patted his butt and left Rome with a large number of talents. He did not participate in the struggle between the Roman emperor and the Protector Aetius.

This time, the Huns invaded and stripped the Roman emperor of his underwear. If Richard had not escorted him back to Rome, I am afraid that the Roman nobles would have united to depose him.

And even the citizens of Rome didn't like him to continue to be emperor.

Ironically, besides Richard, the only person who supported him to continue to be emperor was Aetius.
It was not surprising that Aetius made this choice. After all, Aetius did not intend to be emperor. In his opinion, after this blow, Valentinian III would basically face the reality and be a mascot honestly, so that he could monopolize power.

But if we change another emperor, and he knows his place and stays contented and doesn't cause trouble, that would be fine. But if he keeps making trouble, it would be better to keep the current one.

At least now Valentinian III has lost all his prestige, and even the soldiers will not obey his orders.

After Aetius returned to Rome, he immediately took over a lot of power. As the most capable general in the empire, people trusted him much more than the emperor and nobles.

Under such circumstances, Aetius once again stepped onto the political stage, but after he came to power he discovered that the empire's finances were worse than he had imagined.

After paying tribute to Attila, the empire's finances collapsed. In this situation, even Aetius had no better solution.

In order to maintain the empire, Aetius began to reform the empire's finances, but Richard was not optimistic about his reforms.

In order to successfully carry out reforms in all dynasties, one must have absolute power and great prestige. Aetius is lacking in both of these aspects. If Aetius had been able to carry out reforms decisively right after the last Battle of Chalons, the success rate would have been very high.

At that time, he had a large army, and he had just defeated the Scourge of God, so his prestige was unmatched. But he did not do so, and now because of the Hun invasion, he did nothing, and many people were dissatisfied with him.

After Richard left, Valentinian III hid in the palace, living a life of drunkenness and no longer participating in politics. The Senate also suffered heavy losses due to the invasion of the Huns.

Under such circumstances, some of Aetius' policies could indeed be implemented, but the problem was that those aristocratic officials would not obediently follow his instructions.

Richard returned to his loyal Paris.

This long-distance training was very helpful for the army's training. At the same time, he also became familiar with the road to Rome, which was equivalent to paving the way for his next trip to Rome.

After returning to Paris, Richard began to place these talents brought back from Rome. The scholars were arranged in the academy, and the books brought by these scholars were also placed in the Paris Library.

These scholars brought thousands of parchments, which were basically all the collections of the former Roman Library. Because they were worried that they would be destroyed by monotheism, the librarian and the scholars cooperated with each other to secretly hide these books.

Now all these books belong to Richard.

The various craftsmen brought back were arranged in workshops in various places to continue to expand production.

Richard had just unified the province of Gaul less than half a year ago, and now was the time for him to accumulate strength.

After he distributed land equally, reformed taxes, and encouraged the development of agriculture and handicrafts, the province of Gaul began to recover. At the same time, because he set up a large number of beacon towers in the north, he was able to curb the invasion of the Germanic people.

Richard formed a cavalry team as a standing army. Every time he discovered an invasion by Germanic barbarians, he would light a beacon immediately. Then, through the transmission of the beacon, Paris would know about it in just half a day.

Then the cavalry would set out to attack those Germans who dared to go south to plunder. In this way, the Germanic small army's tactic of going south to plunder was directly abolished.

The cavalry's rapid mobility, coupled with extraordinary knights and better armor and weapons, made the Germans no match at all.

Every small invasion was easily eliminated by Richard's army.

As for the army's march southward, it also suffered heavy losses after several battles with the Gallic Legion.

The Germanic barbarians were now very powerless in their attacks on Gaul.

Of course, although Gaul blocked the invasion of the Germanic peoples, it was difficult to defend against the Anglo-Saxon pirates on the sea.

The province of Gaul did not have a navy, so it could only passively defend against pirates. Moreover, the pirates always attacked from the sea and were highly mobile. For the time being, Richard could only use beacons for early warning and withdraw the villages and towns along the coast.

The province of Gaul is now in a period of reconstruction, and all places are undergoing reconstruction. There are no resources to build a navy for the time being. We can only wait a few years until Gaul has a solid foundation before building a navy.

Of course, Richard would not let these pirates wreak havoc. He planned to give these pirates a few severe blows to scare them so that they would not dare to come ashore to rob again for the time being.

Although there were no ships, Richard's mental scan could directly find the pirates. He only needed to ambush at the landing site of the pirates, and then let the soldiers rush up to kill the pirates after they landed. With this almost prophetic ability, Richard's soldiers successfully blocked several pirate teams. Although these pirates were powerful and killed the British, they were no match for the soldiers of the Gaul province.

After suffering heavy losses in succession, these Anglo-Saxon pirates immediately changed direction and continued to attack Britain.

The British Isles are living in a miserable state now. When the Empire controlled the British provinces in the past, although it imposed heavy taxes, it at least maintained order and general peace here.

However, due to the resistance of the British people and the constant harassment from the Scots in the north, the empire found that the money needed to maintain the British province far exceeded the benefits they gained, so it was eventually abandoned by the Romans.

After abandoning Britain, the Celtic people in Britain established their own countries. However, before they could enjoy the joy for a few days, the Anglo-Saxon pirates arrived, and the Scots in the north also went south to plunder.

The lives of the British are now getting worse day by day. They can't stand it anymore. They remember the kindness of their Roman father, so they sent people to Rome for help several times.

Rome later sent troops to help the Britons several times, but after the war, it retreated because the empire's finances could not support the Roman legions' garrison.

Eventually, the Roman Empire completely abandoned Britain.

After this, Britain went from bad to worse, and the Anglo-Saxon pirates began to systematically massacre the Britons, rob young girls, and make them pregnant with their children in order to increase their population.

The Anglo-Saxons' method is still very reliable. If it continues to develop in this way, the British Isles will eventually be completely occupied by the Anglo-Saxons.

Later historical developments also confirmed this.

However, the Celts did resist. King Arthur was the Celts' resistance. It's a pity that King Arthur could not save Britain.

King Arthur was but a flash in the pan.

Richard has no plans to occupy Britain now. This place is surrounded by the sea and is almost defenseless against pirates. More importantly, Britain does not have a large population now. Years of war have reduced the population of the entire British Isles to less than one million.

To occupy Britain now is a net investment project. Richard will consider attacking Britain only after he reoccupies Rome.

In the following time, Richard began to promote the development of Gaul in Paris. For those tribes or nobles who wanted to fight, Richard directly struck hard.

He personally led the army to wipe them out. After these iron-blooded blows, the new policy began to be implemented throughout the province of Gaul.

time flies.

After Richard's forceful implementation of the new policy, a year passed quickly. During this year, the province of Gaul could be said to have undergone a great change.

By using the work-for-relief method, Richard successfully repaired the main roads in the Gaul province. These roads were originally Roman roads and were in good condition. They only needed to be repaired with gravel in the damaged areas.

At the same time, drainage canals were built on both sides of the Roman Road, which made transportation in Gaul much more convenient.

On the other hand, the province of Gaul had a bumper harvest of grain, especially in the Paris area, where the average yield was half that of other places.

Because of the Harvest Altar, the land in the Paris area is fertile, and with the help of druids, the grain yield is very high.

Although other places did not have the same effect as the Harvest Altar, under the guidance of a large number of druids, grain production increased by 20 to 30 percent compared to before.

It can be said that the grain output of the Gaul province this year has doubled compared to before. In the past, the output was insufficient due to the Germanic people's looting in the south and the lack of farming technology. Now, Gaul can not only be self-sufficient in food, but also have a year's worth of food in stock.

After seeing the bumper harvest, the shifting cropping system was abolished in most areas and no longer practiced. According to Richard's plan, the grain production in Gaul was expected to double again.

Once there is enough food, it will be time for him to send out his army to pacify the four directions.

During this year in the province of Gaul, the development of monotheism almost stagnated, while the belief in Druids flourished everywhere. Especially after seeing the bumper harvest of grain this year, the people who were originally skeptical developed great enthusiasm for Druids.

Many people began to actively believe in Druidism, and a large number of monotheistic believers began to convert. In many towns, the original monotheistic churches had been converted into Druid churches.

Even some priests of the original churches began to believe in druids directly. It can only be said that in the agricultural age, the belief in the God of Harvest was the strongest.

(End of this chapter)