Hearing that this might be some kind of heresy, Theodora nodded.
Although it sounds like a serious accusation and belongs to a mortal enemy of religion, in the current Rome, this is actually nothing.
The Borgenus dynasty has been trying to regain the Roman homeland in southern Asia Minor and Syria, and the most powerful local supporters are these heretical sects, large and small-including the God-worshipping sect and the Tianfang sect.
Due to complex historical reasons, this place close to the common holy land of monotheistic religions has produced numerous religious trends over a long period of time. From Indian theology in the east to Platonism in the west, they all blend and collide here.
For the church, if you put it in a nice way, this is called a gathering of ideas; if you put it in a bad way, it will lead to all kinds of heresy.
The long-term melee situation and the complex geographical environment have allowed many small sects to find opportunities to hide in corners and survive. To this day, many such sects still exist in the mountains, oases and unknown towns there.
The religious environment there is not like that in the hinterland of Europe, where people are still in a mood to assess each other's purity and distinguish heretics. In order to survive, these small sects often choose to form groups and cooperate—including forming groups with small pagan sects. Only in this way can we increase the probability of survival in the face of attacks from mainstream sects.
In fact, even the most fanatical Crusaders from Europe adapted to the rules here after two generations. Crusader countries and local Arab emirs have worked together more than once to deal with the more powerful Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties and prevent themselves from being annexed.
Whether it is the Turkic horsemen and Arab infantry in the Crusaders or the Frank knights in the Holy War army, they are all commonplace scenes. In the late Fatimid Dynasty, faced with the threat of being annexed by the Zanghi Dynasty, they even paid annual coins to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and hired crusaders to serve as "Mamluks" to deal with those difficult enemies.
In this environment, the Purple Horde Khanate was quite popular with these small sects because of its rather flexible religious policies. These people can be said to be the Khan's most powerful and loyal local supporters.
After the death of Emperor Timur's uncle, Roman power withdrew from western Persia, so the Black Sheep Dynasty, which was entrenched in the Caucasus, won over some Turkmen tribes in eastern Asia Minor, and under the banner of opposing Timur, tried to control the Purple Horde Khanate in The territories along the Mediterranean coast were taken over and the power was extended to the seaside.
Hearing that the Turkmens were coming again, local small sects poured out of the mountains to defend the Khanate with arms, which suddenly enriched the defensive power. The Black Sheep Dynasty attacked several times, but found that they could not gain any advantage, so they turned south and attacked the Zhali Yi'er Dynasty in the Mesopotamia. After that, the northern border was temporarily stabilized.
There are rumors that with the death of Basil III, the Purple Horde, like Timur's forces, will shrink its defense lines and withdraw its troops stationed in Syria. Therefore, they also sent a huge mission, consisting of dozens of priests, sheikhs and imams, to Dadu by boat, spreading propaganda everywhere, and even ran to the gate of the palace, where they cried loudly every day. Later, the Patriarch, the Great Lama, came out to receive them in person. After persuading them for a long time, he assured them that there was no plan to withdraw their troops, and then everyone left with satisfaction.
Under these circumstances, the Purple Horde Khanate regarded all kinds of heresies with an attitude of not being surprised. And not only the "Romanians" in the upper echelons of the Khan's court, but also the Greeks in the capital, are now used to it.
In the early years, these Greeks were very concerned about religious issues. When the emperors wanted to make peace with the Catholic Church or even promote the merger of churches, they encountered strong opposition from the people and failed every time.
However, since the Purple Horde came here, the attitude of the Greeks towards Catholicism has softened a lot.
The ancestors, Boyan Timur, Guo Gai and others, followed Yue Jibie Khan and followed him to believe in the Tianfang religion. The first Patriarch Zhang of the Khanate was also called Imam Zhang at that time. Later, after they established their independent country, in order to gain the support of the Greeks and Bulgarians, they also believed in God worship.
However, there was a difference between their thinking and the Greek understanding.
The Greeks understood that if they joined the God-worshipping Orthodox Church, they would tacitly withdraw from the various previous sects. However, the understanding of Guo Gai and others is that the newly added God Worshiping Sect does not mean that the previously added Tianfang Sect, Buddhism, Nestorianism, and Taoism will not count.
Therefore, in order to express their piety, Boyan Timur, Guo Gai and others began to persistently add other religious elements. Works of the style now seen in the Empress Temple had already begun to appear at that time.
The Greeks resisted fiercely at first, but over time, they basically became numb.
After all, the Greek character always likes to reconcile and compromise. For example, if you say that the scope of management of this church is too narrow and that it needs to be merged with Catholicism and Nestorianism, everyone will definitely not allow it. But if you advocate merging with Tianfang Sect, they will come to reconcile and be willing to merge with Catholicism and Nestorianism.
Now, including the queen and others, the Greeks are relatively tolerant of religious issues. This is probably the result of the long-term education of the Purple Horde Khan.
Therefore, no one paid much attention to Jeanne's strange thoughts. At worst, she will open a "Steam Brother Sect of God Worshiping Cult" in the future. If she can attract believers, it will count as her own ability. Anyway, with the Great Lama Wang and others here, the most outrageous sect probably won’t be able to get her turn.
Soon, everyone recovered.
"Although your plan sounds feasible, it is indeed too far-fetched." Zhu Wenkui ignored his sister who was eager to show off and pointed out: "Can we carry it out in stages and produce a preliminary product first?"
"I mainly hope that everyone will pay attention to it, so I specifically mentioned it." Guo Kang admitted: "But the preliminary product... I don't know if it can be used."
"I think it can help." Zhu Wenkui said, "I know a little bit about this."
"Our idea of controlling the grassland is actually similar to what you said. Because the main focus of competition on the grassland is the grasslands, and this is also the foundation for nomads to increase their strength and establish organizations."
"We can't deeply control the entire grassland, but it doesn't mean that we can't control part of it." He also came to the map and pointed to the edge of the grassland: "If we control these rich grasslands at this junction, through the Central Plains style The organization, maintained with external input, can compress the living space of hostile nomadic forces, limit their power, and reduce damage."
"This idea is actually quite old, and everyone wants to use it whenever they get the chance. But the main problem is how much material is input and how much power can be maintained." He thought for a while and said.
"The more supplies, the more stable this place will be like the Han Dynasty; the stronger the power, the more effectively we can prevent other remaining nomadic areas from interfering with these forward bases. If you look at it this way, in the past dynasties, we have adopted various methods The organization method and the various new technologies used are actually to use materials more efficiently and generate stronger power."
"What if we invest in steam? Brother Tian?" He imagined: "You told me last time that this kind of thing is made of iron and copper and requires a lot of fuel and professional technicians. These are the barren areas of Mobei. The ground cannot produce it in large quantities, which means that the enemy will definitely not be able to gain an advantage in this regard."
"On the other hand, Brother Steam Sky's power is very huge. We can completely use it as a weapon. It doesn't need to be as sophisticated as farming, as long as it can hit people. You see, this should be lower requirements, right?"
"Before, you told me that you don't need any skills, just think about whether you can farm. Now I think it makes sense." He praised: "In this way, my thinking has really opened up."
"That's right." Tuo Huan also nodded repeatedly and suggested to Guo Kang: "Brother Tian, there is no need to have so many mechanisms like your shrine to operate automatically. It doesn't need to be so complicated on the battlefield. It can be completely omitted. Remove these functions and let the soldiers directly control them manually. It is enough to be able to contribute. In this way, wouldn't it save some requirements?"
"Yes." Zhu Wenkui agreed: "We can completely let the frontline soldiers drive the steam to beat the Mongols. In this way, we can use fewer soldiers to maintain a stronger force deterrence. This can actually reduce the import of materials. Dependence is a matter of killing two birds with one stone."
"Also, since Brother Tian can pull plows, why can't he pull carts?" He pointed out: "We can definitely use Brother Tian to pull baggage and transport soldiers instead of using livestock."
"I heard that in the past expeditions to Mobei, the main consumption was eaten by these livestock and logistics personnel on the road. Brother Steam Heaven doesn't eat food. We just need to make sure that the amount of fuel it consumes is greater than that consumed by livestock. If the grain is low, it will be practical enough.”
"Master Guo does have a vision. We have not seen such a big effect in the past." He said to Guo Kang: "What do you think of this simplified plan? Is it feasible?"
