ALL NOVEL
Chapter 44: A Benevolent Governor for a New Dynasty
A light fragrance wafted in a golden field.
Diligent farmers tended to their crops, while tanned fishermen caught fishes. It was a bustle. The lush countryside greenery showed that this was a year of good harvest.
“Up!”
A flag was waved, and a bunch of well-built young lads began practicing their drills under their instructor’s command.
Even though Shu Yichao had pivoted toward governance, he was still reluctant to become a teacher or instructor. Thus, he focused his effort on developing a system of militia farmers, the subject that he was theoretically most familiar with…
…though, most of the time, it was his Elite Horse Archers doing the work, and he was only responsible for fastforwarding.
Shu Yichao had thought that his troops were dumbasses who were only good for murder and plundering, but they turned out to be smarter than he had thought. Be it paperwork, weaponry inspection, army training, education, or accounting, those were all within their means.
With weapons they were warriors. With brushes they were scholars.
As expected of Beacons of the Otherworld’s troops. All their talents and stats were randomly generated, except for their names and fighting-related details.
“Provinces, state capitals, agricultural fields, centurions, and chiliarchs…” Shu Yichao nodded as he looked at the new administrative and military units adopted by Constantin XI. “It’s starting to sound more and more like the Central Plains.”
But that was not all.
Shu Yichao conversed in Mandarin, so his Elite Horse Archers also conversed in Mandarin too. Naturally, they also taught using Mandarin. Thus came the bizarre sight of the Romains shouting ‘Wan, Too, Tree’ while performing military drills.
It also helped that written Mandarin had a wider base of characters, whereas simple and concise characters aided military communication. So, they adopted written Mandarin for flag signals, documents, and all kinds of communication needs.
This resulted in those living in the militia farms being more well-versed in Mandarin than Latin.
This surprisingly worked out well.
The Balkans was a diverse region with all sorts of people from different occupations and religions. Naturally, there were many different tongues too. Latin was the most complete language system in the region, with the other tongues still lacking.
Yet, no one was willing to learn Latin due to the decline of the Eastern Romain Empire.
But now, with the menacing Khitans towering over them, most people expressed that they were more than happy to learn Mandarin. So, the Romains began donning crimson military robes with bamboo hats while waving a huge flag bearing the word ‘Qin’.
Of course, Shu Yichao knew that the stick and the carrot had to go hand in hand.
After a grueling examination, a youth finally put down his brush, turned to a nearby Elite Horse Archer, and asked in disfluent Mandarin, “Instructor, I have finished the questions.”
The youth stared at the Elite Horse Archer with fervent eyes.
The latter checked the paper and confirmed that the youth had finished all questions before finally nodding. “Mm.”
“Oyay!” the youth cheered.
He rushed toward the plate that was placed by the side. Amidst the laughter of those who had completed the paper earlier, he grabbed a white, fluffy bun sprinkled with white sugar and honey and took a huge bite off it.
His face lit up in bliss.
Rye bread mixed with wooden shaving and stone bits was already a delicacy to those living in this era. Often, they could only eat a concoction cooked out of beans and wheat powder, which Shu Yichao dubbed gruel for pigs.
But here, as long as they completed their assignments on time, they could eat ‘white bread’ baked out of superior wheat mixed with egg, milk, honey, and herbs.
Even the emperor wouldn’t have been able to eat such bread for every meal, but the Khitan Caesar actually gave it to them…
It’s just a bit of training and studying. Come at me! I can take it!
As for where Shu Yichao got the materials from…
【My host, why does your health keep dropping, albeit just by a little?】
【I’ll send you some medicine and good food. You must take care of yourself! 】
【Eek, I added extra zeros! That’s far too many supplies…】
【My host, why don’t you hold a banquet? Banquets are how nobles socialize and forge ties in this era. The more expensive the food you serve, the more respected they will feel.】
【Sounds like a good idea, isn’t it? Turning a mistake into an opportunity—I’m not that dumb, after all!】
The Romains watched in shock as a Khitan ship filled with ‘treasures’ arrived at the shore.
What Shu Yichao did inevitably incurred the displeasure of many. Many old nobles were enraged to see what Romie had become, so much so that they marched to the palace to lodge a complaint to Constantin XI.
Why does Constantin XI allow the Caesar to mess around? Look at what our people have turned into! Is this still Romie?
They were all rebuffed by Constantin XI.
“Opulence is the symptom of a dying nation’s failure. Our empire is in crisis. These are necessary changes to breathe fresh life into it.”
Some complained upfront, but there were also some who opted to sabotage from the shadows.
“Another new incident?”
Shu Yichao spotted a bunch of red dots appearing on the minimap.
“Those thugs again!” Shu Yichao stopped the fastforward mode and leaped to his feet. He turned to the Elite Horse Archers and shouted, “Brothers, time to whack the moles!”
Bandits had been popping up nowadays to ruin the fields and kidnap the farmers.
Son of a bitch. I’m counting on this to unlock my Metal Fortress. How dare you mess with me? I’ll beat you to the afterlife!
The bandits hired to ruin the fields turned pale in fright when they saw a platoon of Khitan cavalrymen charging in their direction.
Those darned nobles gave us fake news! They said that the Khitan Caesar isn’t here, but what’s with these cavalrymen then?!
The hundred bandits crumbled in a single charge, and the Elite Horse Archers happily took the survivors as hostages. Practical battle is the best form of training. Let’s capture as many of them back as possible so that our recruits can see some blood…
These bandits weren’t the only troublemakers around. In fact, there had been many incidents during this period of time.
Nearby thugs had tried to stir trouble while officials were distributing the fields.
Mercenaries tried to pick a fight while workers were fixing the route.
Academics tried to stoke the farmers into rioting while they were building a water canal.
Nobles tried to get their servants to cause a fuss while they were building a school.
However, Shu Yichao and his men dealt with them promptly. He calmly defused the situation and escorted the troublemakers off. He was hyped about his 140 armor Metal Fortress, and he wouldn’t let anyone hinder his progress.
“Anyone who dares get in the way between me and my Metal Fortress can go to hell!”
Evidence? What evidence was needed?
He just needed to kill those with red names.
Other than deaths happening every other day, Constantin XI’s revolution proceeded smoothly. For some reason, the Romains were eerily fast in picking up Mandarin and learning the Khitans’ systems.
However, Constantin XI didn’t think much into it. He attributed it to the Khitans’ superior means.
While Constantin XI was looking forward to the imminent resurgence of the Eastern Romain Empire, the nobles were on the verge of popping a vein.
They weren’t fools.
If redistributing the farmlands was severing the nobles’ roots, propagating education to the masses was as good as nailing their coffins!
“My Lord, Constantin XI must be a demon cloaked in human skin!”
“That Caesar too! That vile barbarian! How can he kill our people when he has no evidence?”
“How can they treat us, nobles, like that?”
“Constantin XI just feigns ignorance each time we confront him over the Caesar’s actions. Those two are obviously in cahoots!”
They couldn’t tolerate it anymore. At this rate, there would be no going back to the good old days.
We have to make them scram right away! We must stage an uprising and return everything back to its rightful place, so that peace can finally return to the Eastern Romain Empire!
“Contact the Venetians! We can’t wait anymore!”