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The people of Zulfi Village had no choice but to take out all the money and grain in their homes in panic and fear and return them to the tax farmers. They watched the wealth and money they had worked so hard to obtain disappear once again. After collecting 60% in taxes this year, although they appeared panicked on the surface, anger, resentment, and humiliation had already begun to accumulate deep in their hearts.

The Dark Angel nodded in satisfaction. In their opinion, they had already intimidated the villagers with fear and could leave now. However, there was one subtle thing. The locals said that the rebels were Roman war marshals and that his men looked exactly like the Dark Angels. How was this possible?

"My Lord, you are leaving now. Can't you stay for a few days? I will treat you to good food and wine?"

When Skeen saw that these people had completed their mission and were about to leave, his arrogant face suddenly fell.

Oh, that's not right. It seems that I have offended everyone in the village by doing this. What should I do if Aenarion comes again?

"What strategic value does your small village have? Let the Janissaries station there?! Didn't I give you some Ottoman muskets? You also have this stone-walled manor and a dozen servants. How can you not defeat the bandits with your skills?"

A dark angel glared at the tax collector and said unhappily.

"How about this, I will teach your people how to reinforce the walls and build defenses, then I will gather some people from the village to train more militia, and then I will build you a bonfire stand, so that you can light a fire when something happens, and then I will seize your stone house, and we will send people over."

Another dark angel tried to smooth things over; he had just skinned a man and was in a good mood.

"No, no, no! Don't teach the villagers martial arts! Everything else is easy!"

Sken gritted his teeth and agreed.

The Janissaries of this team stayed here for another day, taught him how to build defenses, and then returned to the monastery.

There was no way out. Sken went home trembling with fear. Looking at the warehouse full of money and grain, he could no longer sleep peacefully. Every night, he dreamed that Aenarion came back to distribute money and grain again, and scalped himself off completely, just like the man who was scalped by the Dark Angel today.

On the seventh day, his nightmare came true. During this time, Aenarion had gained widespread support in the countryside, and he knew how weak the local people were, so he dared to divide his 300-man army into 30 teams and fight separately. Aenarion personally brought the little Gorgon, two leopards, and a fallen angel, and sneaked back quietly.

After learning that the local situation was no different from what he expected, Aenarion waved his hand, removed the sex bells from the nipples of the two leopards, Mariana and Leopard Woman, and asked them to sneak in and take action - although in the previous "training", the two of them were even able to sneak around with the bells.

The three-meter-high stone wall was not even a small slope in the eyes of the leopard. Under the cover of darkness, the two women climbed up the wall silently. Their strong muscles covered with golden hair outlined perfect and elegant arcs in the darkness and shadows.

Mariana hid in the shadows and slowly moved to the two lackeys who were guarding the gate. When she got closer, she suddenly attacked and hurt them!

The whole leopard was like a golden lightning, biting the first man's neck. Its four extremely long and sharp canine teeth, like four sharp daggers, pierced into his slender neck at the same time, severing his trachea and blood vessels with a devastating force, and making him lose his ability to fight in one bite.

At the same time, the leopard claw, which was as big as an adult man's face, used the thief's kidney strike and the monk's training shock punch at the same time, and kicked the second man's lower back hard! The sharp leopard claw pierced deeply into his clothes and skin, piercing into the kidney. At the same time, the huge impact force shattered the organ that had been scratched by the sharp weapon!

Mariana killed the two people instantly. Nidalee, who also learned the skills of a monk and a thief, was not much behind. The spear in her hand pierced through the sky like a meteor and accurately killed a sentry standing on a high place.

Then, she instantly changed back into a leopard form, and rushed out of the bushes like Mariana, pinning a passing servant under her and biting off his neck. Scarlet blood kept dripping from her sharp fangs and soft black lips.

The two assassin-like leopards killed everyone in the room silently in just a few minutes. Aenarion strode into the mansion holding the sleeping little Gorgon and kicked Sken and the man lying on the bed.

The naked Meiji kicked it off.

"Who! Who is so bold as to dare...ah? Ah! I, I respectfully welcome the war commander of the Eastern Roman Empire!"

Sken stood up from the floor angrily, wanting to see who dared to disturb his sleep. Then, he saw Aenarion's golden mask. The courage in his heart disappeared instantly like a deflated balloon. He fell directly to his knees, kowtowed uncontrollably, and even his forehead was bleeding.

However, he said this very loudly in order to attract the guards' attention.

Aenarion sneered, and Mariana immediately threw out a string of heads - all his guards were assassinated silently by the two leopards, and then beheaded. The skin on these heads was all peeled off, and the skinless faces were still frozen in fear and astonishment, and the pink muscles and broken necks were even dripping with scarlet blood. He was so scared that he sat down on the ground, his pants were soaked - these scalps were peeled cleanly, better than those of the Janissaries!

Behind Aenarion, the two Slaanesh leopards looked very happy and satisfied after completing the skinning.

"Do you remember what I said when you left last time?"

Aenarion's calm words aroused the greatest fear in the other party's heart. Mariana and Nidalee were eager to try, waving their skinning knives, which frightened him so much that he banged his head even harder.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I've been bewildered! I'm going to give away all the money and food right now! I won't take a single cent! Forgive me! Please give me another chance!"

Chapter 206: Currency War

The next morning, when everyone got up and went out to farm, they discovered a strange sight: Skene was kneeling at the entrance of the village, begging all the farmers to go to his house and take away all the money and food - the skin on his hands from the elbows down had been peeled off, and even though he was wrapped in bandages, blood continued to seep out.

However, the peasants had just been suppressed by the Janissaries, eight or nine of them had died, many had been injured, and the strongest had even been skinned alive. Everyone was frightened by the Janissaries, and no one dared to go.

Seeing that the farmers didn't dare to take it, Siken became even more frightened. His arms became more and more painful. He directly called the remaining servants in the house, kept enough food and money for himself, and stuffed the rest into the hands of the farmers one by one.

At this moment, Aenarion also came out at the right time and threw the string of skinned and beheaded heads in front of everyone, telling them not to be afraid. If Skeng dared to counterattack again, then, even if he abandoned the fields and manors passed down by his ancestors and ran away, he could still capture his entire family and skin and behead them!

After hearing the assurance from the Eastern Roman war marshal, people felt somewhat relieved and happily divided the money again. The weapons that the Janissaries used to support the tax farmers were all distributed by Aenarion to the local villagers.

After Aenarion left this time, Sken never dared to report to the authorities again. Unless he could pray for a small team of Janissaries to protect him for the rest of his life, it would be useless. The Janissaries could only come to help you suppress the rebellion and provide you with equipment.

Moreover, even if that small group of Janissaries was willing to protect him for life, what would happen? Aenarion had one-third of the Fallen Legion in his hands! Could he really let one-third of the Dark Angels protect a small tax farmer like him for life? ? ?

Under the coercion of the war general of the Eastern Roman Empire, Skene obediently accepted the status quo and never dared to counterattack again. Forget it, even if I don't exploit these farmers, even if I distribute the surplus land, I still have 600 acres of fertile land, and I can live a more comfortable life. What's the point of saving so much money and grain? I didn't use it at all, and in the end it was still robbed.

And it wasn't just him. Exactly the same thing was happening in countless villages and towns in Pharsalus. Some tax farmers didn't dare to report to the authorities even once, while others reported it three times in a row - anyway, the fallen angels would give them less debris every time they went back. After many intimidations and massacres, except for the city of Pharsalus, all the villages received the favor of Aenarion, and they longed for the return of the royal army of the Eastern Roman Empire even more.

After Aenarion's 300 men, together with Aris Anar's 300 rangers, subdued all the tax farmers in Pharsalus, Aenarion dispatched a group of officials to teach in various villages occasionally, teaching them Roman history, knowledge, and culture, to enhance their sense of identity with the Roman Empire and the high elves. He selected the most capable and loyal among them as village chiefs, secretly managing the entire village and integrating it into the empire's ruling system. Those tax farmers who were beaten to a pulp were still managers on the surface.

At the same time, Aenarion used his own dinar silver coins and as copper coins to exchange for the Ottoman akçe silver coins and mangor copper coins in their hands, and replaced all the currency here with his own money.

Although all of this happened under the noses of the Dark Angels, the Ottoman Empire's basically zero control over the grassroots made the Dark Angels and the ogres who ruled here think that this was a rebellion caused by the legion commander's large amount of grain collection in Pharsalus.

So, they just responded efficiently to all the reports from the tax farmers, efficiently suppressed all the farmers, and then left. They saw that the number of reports from the tax farmers was decreasing, and they felt that their suppression results during this period were quite effective. You see, the rebellion in the Pharsalus area has been basically settled.

Aenarion was amazed at how easy this task was. After dealing with Pharsalus, the six hundred men began to gradually spread out to the

The villages under the jurisdiction of Larissa, the capital of Thessaly province, were quietly causing greater chaos. In the past few months, the soldiers' salaries were all paid by the tax collectors, and they earned even more than in the army, causing the Athenian soldiers to be eager to try. Everyone wanted to come and do this kind of job that could make money and help the elves of the same race.

When June came this year and the people began to harvest wheat, hundreds of tax farmers in Larissa and Pharsalus collected only 30% of the grain in an orderly manner. They did not dare to collect more than 10%. Then they went to the city and gave it to the tax officials. The Ottoman tax officials sat in the safe and prosperous city. After collecting the grain, they felt that the villages under their rule were truly peaceful.

Then, a terrible thing happened - part of the grain tax was used to supply the army and officials, and part was used to stockpile grain, not to feed the entire city.

These people in the city are engaged in various industries such as pottery, textiles, ironware, etc. They do not grow crops, and they can only buy food from merchants.

Those merchants did not grow crops either. During this period, they went to the countryside, bought crops at low prices, and then sold them in the city at high prices.

This time, they couldn't buy food. The farmers in both regions all stood on Aenarion's side. You can buy food with silver dinars and copper ass coins! We only accept the money minted by the Eastern Roman Empire, not the Ottoman money!

The merchants found it very strange. At first, they ignored these serfs and went to negotiate with the tax farmers. It was impossible that the Ottoman tax farmers would also ask for Eastern Roman currency! Eastern Roman currency was minted for less than a year. How could we have Eastern Roman money?

Then they were surprised to find that these tax farmers really asked them to use Eastern Roman currency to buy food! Some mysterious people appeared in the village, providing exchange services for Ottoman coins and Eastern Roman coins. It was not expensive. An Ottoman Akce silver coin was 2.2 grams, a Venetian Grosso silver coin was 2.1 grams, and a Roman dinar silver coin was now 4 grams. The purity of good silver coins in this era was about 0.97.

You have to exchange two Ottoman Akçe silver coins for one of my dinar silver coins. The extra 2 grams of silver will be used as a handling fee. Is that not too much?

The merchants left cursing, not knowing what was wrong with these people. They went to the next village, and then found the same thing in the next village, the third, the fourth, and the fifth village! It seemed that overnight, the farmers of Pharsalus and Larissa became Romans.

They had no choice but to accept it. After all, even if they exchanged it for money to buy food, they would still make money. But if they didn't exchange it, they wouldn't make a penny from this year's food business! There were more than one merchant engaged in food trade. If they didn't buy it themselves, what if someone else did? And then they would monopolize it?

There was no other way, they had to exchange Ottoman money for Eastern Roman money, and then buy food. The wholesale price of wheat in the countryside was relatively cheap, not as expensive as in the city. One ton of wheat was only 10 to 15 dinar silver coins, and a village could at least sell dozens of tons of surplus food in exchange for silver coins, and then go to the city or town to buy what they wanted.

Every time these merchants spent a dinar silver coin, Aenarion earned 0.2 grams of silver. With his own hands, he did nothing in a small village of more than people and earned hundreds of grams of silver! The agricultural population of Pharsalus and Larissa was about . He made a net profit of more than dinar silver coins.

He took some of the Ottoman currency back to melt and mint his own dinars, and kept some for future use.

Making money is secondary. What is even more terrifying is that the farmers of the Ottoman Empire have begun to no longer recognize the Ottoman currency. Merchants have also been affected and have begun to think about hoarding some Eastern Roman Empire currency to make money, because if they want to buy vital food, they have to use the enemy's dinar silver coins to buy it. Once this situation continues or even spreads, Thessaly will sooner or later completely get out of control and collapse.

Chapter 207: Every Expedition is a Victory

Such a huge change occurred in the two territories of Thessaly. The Ottoman warlord. The Lord of the First Legion can't be said to be completely unaware. The civil and military systems of the Ottoman Empire are separate. As the Lord of the First Legion, she, the Imperial Warlord, is only responsible for garrisoning and maintaining stability in Thessaly, as well as leading troops to fight. The person in charge of this area is the Governor of Thessaly, an old ogre general who has followed the sultans in battle for many years and retired when he was old.

However, after receiving a large number of complaints and grumblings from merchants about the countryside, this man expressed that he was in a stable mood - isn't it just that they can only use the money of the Eastern Roman Empire to purchase grain from the countryside? It doesn't matter, the Venetians do the same. Some of their goods, such as the most advanced muskets and plate armor in Western Europe, are only allowed to be purchased by the Ottomans with Grosso silver coins.

Besides, the losses were all from the merchants, not the treasury. The grain supply was stable, the tax farmers paid their taxes on time, and everything was normal. So why should I care about this? Am I so bored? I might as well play with more elves. Even male elves are more exciting than female ogres.

Moreover, he also vaguely sensed that something was wrong. If such a change happened in one village, he could just use a heavy punch and send troops to wipe it out. But if all the villages were like this... could you still wipe out all the villages? Something big must have happened in his territory. Maybe...

I will also be dismissed and investigated, but never mind, everything is normal now, so I might as well hide it if I can.

For the sake of his own rights, the Governor of Thessaly chose to remain silent about the drastic changes below, and Ryan, after obtaining enough food from the harvest, planned the next stage of the attack.

He had been in the position of war commander for less than a year, during which a sultan was replaced, so the position was not stable. The other 17 legion lords were all eyeing the position, and to make matters worse, after taking over as war commander, the first battle he fought was the Battle of Athens. Not only did he return empty-handed, but one-third of the dark angels also rebelled!

If this news got out, not to mention the position of War Marshal, she would probably lose her position as the Lord of the First Legion. So, she could only frantically suppress the news of the Fallen Angels and package and describe this failed expedition as a great victory.

But this was not enough. Even though they won, they did not actually gain any land for the Ottoman Empire, and even lost Thermopylae.

One must consolidate one's rights with a resounding victory, preferably by seizing several pieces of land or even destroying a country.

Ryan stared at the map, his cold and handsome face full of solemnity. There are not many surviving countries on the Greek peninsula. Aenarion's Athenian Despotism can be abandoned. The natural barrier of the Pindus Mountains, plus those bastions and one-third of the fallen angels, it is too difficult to fight. If you call on other Janissary Legions to come for reinforcement - do you want them to see the fallen angels?

Skanderbeg's Albania is also a tough nut to crack. The mountain of Athens is a remnant of the Pindus Mountains, and Albania is located on the main peak of the Pindus Mountains! It can be called a place of destiny, plus a bunch of dwarves half-underground, a fortress halfway up the mountain, and Skanderbeg, a great traitor at the level of a legion commander, who has trained a golden dwarf army using the Janissary military law for more than a decade. The difficulty of attacking is even higher than Athens.

What's more, these golden dwarves have a very good relationship with Aenarion. They have recently been adding a multi-pointed star structure to the outermost layer of their semi-underground castle, making the difficulty of attack soaring again.

So, besides these two troublemakers, are there any other cuties to fight?

Of course, it is the Despotate of Epirus, which is sandwiched between Albania and Athens and is ruled by the remnants of the Komnenos family.

This place is similar to Athens before, poor, remote, weak, and without any strategic value. The gains from conquering it might not be as high as the cost of stationing troops to maintain stability, so the Ottomans have always ignored this guy. After forcing Empress Komnenos to submit to the emperor, they no longer cared about Epirus.

But now it’s different. Ryan urgently needs a glorious victory to consolidate his position, so he brazenly declares war on Epirus!

After the Governor of Thessaly and his newly appointed Chief of the Regiments provided enough food and fodder, Ryan left only a thousand Dark Angels stationed in the base camp. The remaining five thousand Janissaries, with fifty thousand auxiliary soldiers and civilians, rushed to Epirus in a mighty force, wanting to use the blood of the high elves and Italians there to consolidate their power.

Aenarion remained calm on this matter and continued to instigate the High Elves in the rural areas of Thessaly, leaving only castles and cities under the actual control of the Ottomans.

Almost all the nearby countries had signed an alliance treaty with him to fight against the Ottomans together. When Ryan really came, they all sent reinforcements. However, Epirus refused to join. Now that he was beaten, he had no obligation and no ability to launch a costly expedition to help him.

Besides, even if she wants to help, the Queen should at least come and beg me, and give me some benefits, and then I can gather a group of Christian allies and think about how to help.

Aenarion threw the information aside and ordered the kingdom's army to assemble and prepare for the expedition to Epirus. After using modern knowledge to win over the peasants in the two territories of Pharsalus and Larissa, he began to experiment with the next plan - developing the grassroots.

Now that the harvest season was over, the farmers were free. First, he brought some officials and scholars from Athens and began to give classes to these farmers, teaching them the most basic knowledge, the most important of which was patriotism. Then he selected the smartest and most studious among them to be future village heads and grassroots cadres for training.

At the same time, he began to transport a large number of the cheapest and easiest to train spears and javelins from the Principality of Athens into the countryside, gradually arming these unarmed peasants and allowing them to be armed and trained during the slack season.

He now has limited manpower, and the limit is to incite the villagers in the two territories of Larissa and Pharsalus to rebel and maintain stability. If he wants to expand the scale, he must either transfer more soldiers to Thrace, or, like now, let the local farmers join him, and then let them spread the influence spontaneously and maintain stability. Then his own troops can act as the spearhead force to eradicate the tax farmers. This way, the efficiency will be faster and the influence will be spread more widely.

After a period of time, the Ottoman tax farmers also accepted their fate under Aenarion's attack, and some even defected. Some tax farmers opened their warehouses and distributed grain before the arrival of the Eastern Roman army. Most of them were local landlords and gentry, who were originally high elves and Roman subjects. The Ottomans did not have so many officials going down to the villages, so they turned them into tax farmers.

Helping the Ottomans was profitable before, but if I continue to help the Ottomans now, I will be punished by Aenarion.

Beat them to death! As long as they obeyed, Aenarion would not take away their land and mansions, but would only take away some of their extra money and food, and would not let them collect taxes in the future. Their quality of life did not decline.

These tax farmers who turned to the Ottomans because of tax benefits quickly turned back into the most loyal citizens of the Roman Empire after their lives were in danger. Based on his knowledge from his previous life and the experience he had gained in the past few months, Aenarion wrote several books, including "Analysis of Various Social Classes in the Ottoman Empire", "Investigation Report on the Peasant Movement in Pharsalus", and "A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire", which were used as teaching materials for people to learn. He also cultivated more and more company commanders and team leaders who could use this system and put it into practice, and who would penetrate into the weakest grassroots of the Ottoman Empire with him.

Chapter 208: The Ultimate Insult

Aenarion was doing well, and the Ottomans were not idle either. Lion suffered a lot from the bastions in the war with Athens, so she began to gather people. While fighting Epirus, she expanded two bastions to the north of the Pindus Pass, blocking the Romans' way to the north and making the soldiers who came to scout somewhat desperate.

We relied on our bastions to defend against attacks from an enemy that was ten times our size. But now, the Ottomans, who are ten times our size, also have bastions. Will we be unable to defeat them for the rest of our lives?

As fear and anxiety spread among the army, Aenarion returned to Athens, first to plan how to help Epirus, and second to come back to stabilize the army: The Ottomans built the bastion because they were afraid! They were afraid that we would attack them, and this was a sign of weakness on Lion's part!

As for not being able to get out? What a joke! We have the control of the sea, so why not just go around by boat? No one would march along the mountain road. These two bastions are no different from decorations.

At this time, Ryan divided his troops into two groups. One group went south across the mountains to Lepanto, and the other group went north across the mountains to Dyrrachium and arrived at Epirus. One of the two pass checkpoints had been taken down by the Ottomans, and the other was ceded when Epirus paid tribute. Epirus had no defenses. The two armies attacked from the north and south and rushed directly to Arta, the capital of Epirus. They ignored all the cities and castles along the way, and rushed to Arta so fast that no one could react! The next day, they rushed to the city of Arta!

On the third day of Ryan's arrival in Epirus, she captured the city! The entire section of the city wall was blown to pieces by the cannons of Fire Wing.

And Ryan, the first to rush into the city of Arta, the first to rush into the palace, and the queen of the descendants of Komnenos, captured her alive, finally raised his head and felt proud. At this moment, not to mention the Christian forces such as Aenarion far away, even the locals of Epirus were stunned! The first fortress they fell was actually in the capital protected by many fortresses and cities?

Afterwards, she swept across Epirus with her army and the captured queen. The remaining Epirus people were leaderless and could only be trapped in divided and surrounded castles, and had no choice but to surrender.

She assigned a thousand Dark Angels and transferred a thousand Sultan's Fists from Albania to Epirus to temporarily suppress the rebellion. The entire Kingdom of Epirus, except for the isolated islands of Kephallonia and Corfu, fell.

Afterwards, she took the captured descendants of the Komnenos family and captured 50,000 serfs, citizens, and soldiers from Epirus as slaves. She also collected a wave of blood tax and captured many healthy and strong children to make up for the losses of the Dark Angels. Under the stunned gaze of the surrounding Christian forces, she moved all these people back to the Thessaly Basin.

Ryan returned to Larissa in triumph, preparing to hold a small triumphal ceremony in the capital of Thessaly, imitating the Roman story, to show the power of the Dark Angels and the Ottoman Empire to the people and people from other countries, while also enhancing his own influence and exaggerating this victory.

The news of Epirus' destruction was like a dark cloud, covering the hearts of all Christian countries, eliminating their joy for their previous victory. The Dark Angels marched too fast. The Christian forces received the intelligence of Epirus' invasion on the first day, and were still thinking about how to help. On the fourth day, the entire capital of Epirus was gone! Queen Komnenos was also captured.

Before they could figure out what the Queen of Epirus was fighting for and how it was gone in just three days, only two islands in the whole of Epirus had not surrendered, leaving the Pope speechless.

He began to wonder, was the Ottoman Empire not so weak? Was it simply because the Christian coalition created by Skanderbeg and Aenarion was too strong that it stopped the First Legion? How come the entire Epirus collapsed at the first blow?

And Aenarion had no choice but to give up reinforcing Epirus, and took a group of people to Larissa secretly to participate in the triumph of Warmaster Llane.

On that day, the streets of Larissa were filled with cheering people, including the returning 4,000 Dark Janissaries and a large number of captives. After the triumphal ceremony began, the Dark Angels were divided into six-winged units and slowly entered the city to the sound of passionate music. The sounds of countless suonas, war drums, and horns were woven into a magnificent war song.

Ancestor, grandfather, lineage, father.

Ancestor, grandfather, lineage, father.

Always brave, Turkic people.

Your army is famous all over the world in any era.

Your army is famous all over the world in any era.

Turkic people, Turkic people.

Turkic people, Turkic people.

I

Love your motherland with deep affection.

Destroy your enemies and give them the humiliation they deserve!

Destroy your enemies and give them the humiliation they deserve!

Amid the sound of war songs full of martial virtue, a large number of dark angels began to enter the city. Their military robes were shiny as new, and their armor and weapons were polished to be as bright and shining as mirrors. The black robes and silver steel armor complemented each other. The six-winged army of angels were arranged in neat rows, crisscrossing each other. All of them showed their pace and tight formation. Thousands of people raised their feet at the same moment, and fell to the ground at the same moment. The sound of thousands of leather boots hitting the ground at the same time turned into the sound of thunder that shook the earth!