Theodora was somewhat concerned about Guo Kang's mysterious sponsor.
However, according to Tuo Huan, there were many people investing in the monastery at that time, and a large group of Greek and Italian businessmen were involved. If you have to say which one is the most special, you can't find it. Theodora did not participate in that incident, so she never paid attention to the specific situation.
Guo Kang was busy all day long, and there were many forces dealing with him. In the past, she didn't pay too much attention. But today she didn't know why, but she felt something was not right no matter how she thought about it, so she secretly decided to investigate carefully and see what kind of power was behind this mysterious businessman.
Guo Kang was still unaware of this and was still promoting his long-term plan to everyone in the Cao family. Judging from the current situation, all three generations of the Cao family, except Cao Jian, who said nothing, are very interested in the plan.
And Guo Kang is continuing to work hard to introduce his long-term plan to them.
"Our actions will be a long-term work." He told everyone: "Since the project is going to last for such a long time, of course we have to make long-term plans."
"The total daily consumption on the construction site is huge. We can't rely entirely on transportation, right? Therefore, we also have to build roads, run farms, and house craftsmen. We rely on these new settlements to support the manpower of the project."
"Through these methods, we can better save costs. Otherwise, no matter how much investment and cheap labor, it will not be enough to last for so many years."
"In short, this kind of project with a huge amount of work and a long time also requires a corresponding huge organization to carry out it. It is no exaggeration to say that in terms of organizing manpower to build water conservancy projects, we have the richest experience in the entire Mediterranean world, and the highest The level of technology. I believe we can convince investors without much effort.”
"Then we can talk to the boy from the Li family later." Cao Xun looked at the Queen Mother: "In his early years, his family was engaged in water conservancy. I remember Borjan, the minister of the Ministry of Water, was also his father's subordinate back then."
The Queen Mother nodded.
Guo Kang probably understood that the "boy of the Li family" he was talking about was Li Huawen, the current person in charge of the Li family.
Li Huawen's father, Li Yinglin, was expelled by the Queen Mother of Greece together with Cao Xun, so the two families have always had a "friends in difficulty" relationship. In today's various aristocratic families, the contacts between them are still relatively close.
As for the work of the ancestors of the Li family back then, everyone in the Purple Horde Khanate knew about it. His family does not feel this is embarrassing, but often publicizes it to draw distance from the legionnaires and enhance everyone's sense of closeness to them.
Now, his family does not continue to do this kind of work. However, Borjan, who served as Minister of Water, was indeed promoted by the Li family.
When Basil reorganized the Council of Thirteen, the bureaucracy of the Purple Horde Khanate had become increasingly complete. However, due to the numerous wars, traditional military families still held an important position and continued to provide Rome with new officers for use on various fronts. superior.
In order to solve this problem, Basil made a series of efforts.
For example, he has been encouraging large and small families to revive Roman traditions, adopt adopted sons, and let the most talented heirs manage the family business. Religious and traditional reasons were also used to further restrict the inheritance rights of concubines.
At that time, the Purple Horde Khanate had nominally embraced the religion of worshiping God. The concubines of upper-class nobles are the gray part of the family. Moreover, Basil not only came forward himself, but also found Guo Di to cooperate, repeatedly stating that "it is forbidden to use concubines as wives" and that concubines and concubines were not allowed to have children with the same inheritance qualifications as legitimate children.
He also passed laws that stipulated in detail the rights and responsibilities of adopted children and biological children, so that they could achieve a win-win situation and live in harmony. In this environment, it is no longer better to adopt a concubine than to adopt one directly.
In addition, perhaps due to the dual influence of the late Tang Dynasty and Rome, the Purple Horde Khanate had the custom of adopting adopted sons, so many people could accept it. Guo Kang himself is one of the beneficiaries.
In addition to family issues, Basil also made adjustments to his public duties. When changing the hereditary seats of each family into official seats, he specially held an oath of alliance with the Zhuguo in the Empress Temple. In front of the Divine Ancestor, Heavenly Father, and Heavenly Brother, everyone agreed that no one without military merit would be able to become a senator in the future.
In other words, it is basically impossible for these people to hold senior official positions in various ministries, nor to enter Rome's highest decision-making body.
This decision satisfied the legion and the clans, and was considered a concession to the previous reorganization. In this order, it is equivalent to tacitly allowing each family to give more opportunities to their children and old tribes. Compared with direct hereditary and appointment, there is another threshold.
But having said that, this most basic requirement of "being able to win" is actually not low. The enemies around the Purple Horde Khanate are each more ferocious than the last, and it is difficult to find a place where one can enjoy military exploits with peace of mind. The screening process is also much more rigorous than the exam at King's Castle University - if you fail the "test", it is very likely that the body will not be recovered.
In fact, even in the Basil era, when the Purple Horde Khanate truly became a first-class power in Europe, the descendants of princes were still in a very high-risk position. Guo Kang's uncles, including biological children and adopted sons, total nearly twenty people, but now his adopted father is only in his early forties, and there are only seven brothers left.
Guo Kang still remembers that not long after his uncle Guo Xian's youngest son took office and joined the army, he was attacked by the Poles. The adoptive father and others found an Italian businessman they knew well and wanted to try to redeem him.
Half a year later, the businessman brought back a simple coffin. Guo Kang's last impression of this cheerful uncle who had given him snacks was a leg preserved with coarse salt in the coffin and half of an arm still bearing the teeth marks of a wolf dog.
Later he learned that after gunpowder became popular, officers on the northern front often liked to hang an iron-shelled thunderbolt. They nicknamed this thing "Poland ball", which means that if you are about to be caught by the Poles, it is better to just click it.
He didn't understand at first why some princes would rather let their adopted sons inherit the family business, but instead let their biological children regard them as the head of the family. Are we all so selfless and don't care about blood relations at all?
After seeing this kind of thing too often, he realized that if his own son was incompetent, it would be better to keep him away from military responsibilities and power.
At least, the laws and customs are relatively complete in this regard. Including Guo Kang himself, he has been taught by people around him since childhood that he must take care of his sister in the future.
In this case, instead of holding on and dying in vain, it is really better to be a rich man under the protection of others.
Up to now, this system has been generally accepted by everyone and has become a conventional rule.
For example, Borjan mentioned by Cao Xun, although he looks like an ordinary old scholar, he participated in several wars under Li Yinglin when he was young.
When he participated in the attack on Hungary as an engineer, he made a great contribution by cleverly taking advantage of the seasonal swell of the river to divert the river water and wash away the enemy's entrenched camp. Li Yinglin thought he was talented and recommended him to the newly formed engineering brigade.
During the several years he worked there, Borzhan spent most of his time away from the front lines and was stationed in a new military compound west of Kiev.
There was originally a village there, but it was plundered many times during the previous tug-of-war with Poland and Lithuania and then abandoned. The legion clerk did not go to the site to investigate carefully. He only read the official documents and casually counted it as "ripened land" that had been cultivated.
Most of the officials only read the paper report, thought about it, and felt that it was much easier to deal with the land that had been reclaimed, so they decided with a stroke of a pen to make this the center of the new military mansion.
When the resettled soldiers and their families arrived here, they discovered that although the local Slavs had been farming for generations, according to the standards of the Purple Horde Khanate, the condition of this "field" was not much better than that of the wilderness.
The place has been abandoned for longer than expected, and the fields have been deserted for at least several years. Next to a small river with "stable and abundant water" in the document, it is not fertile land that can be directly cultivated. There is only a large pool of swamp-like muddy land.
The so-called "cooked land" is now full of vitality, and it cannot be used unless it is cleaned up from scratch - because the previous residents did not seem to have the concept of water conservancy, and this small river can even flood at any time.
The migrating veterans were strongly dissatisfied with this and even threatened to go to Galicia to speak to provincial officials in person. The province issued an urgent document, gave them more money, and transferred Borjan's brigade over, asking them to solve the infrastructure problems of the entire military government as soon as possible.
Borjan and others spent several years planning water conservancy projects for the entire region from scratch to solve the problems of flood control, drainage, and irrigation.
The work was too complex for the local Slavic villagers to do. Everyone was afraid that they would collapse the dam, and the engineering brigade and garrison had to do it themselves. After a lot of hard work, the preliminary construction was completed. As for the facilities of the entire military government stipulated by the province, just take your time and deal with your superiors at the same time.
However, everyone has also seen his contribution.
Due to his quick response and proper handling of the incident, whether it was his professional skills in water conservancy or his ability to deal with the regiment's thorns, he showed reliable abilities. The provincial military region recognized his outstanding merits and recommended him for promotion to a higher official position. He first returned to Li's shogunate and served as a corps staff, and then transferred to a civilian position and took up a post in the provincial department of Serbia.
During this period, princes often also held the status of civil officials. However, the Roman education system has been improved, and the bureaucracy has gradually matured. The quality of hereditary officials is increasingly inferior to the talents selected from the grassroots, and it is difficult to take care of both jobs at the same time. They hold the title of civil officials, but they are often unable to work, so that the ministers of various ministries have become empty positions.
After Li Yinglin's death, the title of "Minister of the Ministry of Water" that had been held by him became vacant. Li Huawen believed that since he did not have the prestige of his father, it was better to concentrate on military work and give up his position, which was equivalent to that of the Minister of Industry, to someone who was good at it.
Initially, Guo Ru, Guo Di's eldest son, took over. However, Guo Ru was not worthy of his name and was very troubled by administrative work. He was unwilling to stay in his post after one year, so the position was completely opened to ordinary officials.
Because of his close relationship with Li, Borjan was regarded as an important official during the transition period. He entered the central organization of the Ministry of Water and became the top official of this department ten years later.
It can be said that the Li family and the department responsible for water conservancy are still inextricably linked.
Cao Xun already understood that Guo Kang said he wanted to dig a canal, but he was actually planning to use this plan to run a new military palace in Egypt. Because building water conservancy, organizing manpower, developing farms... this process is very familiar to the Purple Horde Khanate. From the beginning, you already know what he wants to do.
To implement this plan, we really need the support of the Ministry of Water Resources and the help of the army. The Li family happens to have influence in both areas. If the plan is implemented, they can also take the lead in reaching Egypt. It can be said that Li is also a potential ally of Guo Kang in this matter.
As for the Cao family, although they are far away, Cao Xun can still help with his reputation. Guo Kang had a good relationship with the Li family. In such a major matter, with the Queen Mother and Old General Cao supporting him, it was not difficult to gain the support of the Li family and the Ministry of Water.
After thinking about this, Guo Kang expressed his gratitude to Cao Xun.
"I think our first task is to operate slowly and strive to lay a solid foundation." He said: "In this process, we will definitely have to deal with various forces. Not only the local Egyptians, but also European and other Tianfang sects world."
"This time, our biggest advantage over the Mamluks actually comes from 'knowing the enemy'. And for a long time to come, in order to enable our experimental zone in Egypt to develop stably, we need to understand possible enemies and their Trends are also very necessary." Guo Kang said: "I don't have much diplomatic experience. Now, many of these situations are still understood through them. In the future, if I want to obtain information in a timely manner, I still need your help."
"We will try our best to help." Cao Xun also said directly: "However, I am actually also curious, why is Mr. Guo obsessed with this matter? If you want to intervene in the world of Tianfang Sect, then negotiate with the Caliphate and control the situation in Egypt , that’s enough, there’s no need to put in so much effort.”
"The natives of Egypt have not been treated as compatriots for more than two thousand years. Persians, Macedonians, Greeks, ancient Romans, Arabs, Turks... everyone comes and goes, but they all have a common understanding. , that is, the Egyptians can only engage in low-level labor and are not of great use. Organizing them into a military government is probably a very... novel idea." He said euphemistically.
"I hear what you mean. These new military mansions are valuable in terms of military matters and the religious issues you mentioned." He accurately judged Guo Kang's meaning and asked: "Military matters I can understand, religiously, do you think this has important significance?"
"Of course." Guo Kang said with a smile: "No matter what aspect, this means a lot.
(End of chapter)
