Eagle Byzantium

Gawain personally presided over the plan.

Following his previous experience in Tarsus, he divided the country's roads into three levels (more unrealistic, after all, Gawain could not create a highway, which was really a shame for the time traveler), namely "King Road" (Greek for "wheel axle passing through"), "Post Road" (Greek for "wind and rain unimpeded") and "Country Road" (Greek for "connection"), to form a national road network to meet the needs of military marches and caravan trade.

The so-called King Road is of course the top priority, and the rest of the post roads and country roads are all radiated from it as the axis.

The old King Road was confirmed to be three, namely the most famous Egnandia Road connecting the empire to the Balkans, the "Tarsus Road" connecting to Antioch and the "Euxin Seaside Road" connecting to Trebzon. This is the most fundamental lifeline of the empire, and the core points of intersection are all in Constantinople. And they are all along the seaside, which can cooperate with the fleet to maneuver quickly. Now, in order to increase the control over Mosia in the north and Anatolia in the east, Gawain decided to build two new "king roads" in the next five years. Both of them start from the imperial capital. The first one is named "Donuvius Road", passing through Vize, Vyklon, Dertuvis, Trvono, Great Preslav (the capital of Simeon), Pliska (the old capital of ancient Bulgaria), and finally to Silistra on the south bank of the Danube (of course, this fortress has not been captured yet); and the second one is renovated and expanded on the basis of the former "Iconium Trade Road", crossing the Anatolian Plateau, starting from the city of Iconium, passing through Dorylaem, Prusa and Chalcidon, and connecting to the imperial capital by sea.

The construction of the five new and old roads in Beijing required a lot of manpower and money. For this reason, Gawain divided the entire fiscal revenue into ten parts and announced that "only one part would be used for the treasury", "four parts would be used for the army" (after all, the most fundamental source of legitimacy), "one part would be used for synagogues and Greek schools", "two parts would be used for official salaries", and "two parts would be used for roads, bridges and water conservancy construction". In case of major projects or wars, the government could issue national debt coins or temporarily levy special taxes to make up for the shortfall. His Majesty the Emperor believed that this was a more reasonable policy. In the previous Mediterranean world, the most reasonable and scientific fiscal audit was that of the Spanish Caliph Mansur of Cordoba. He divided the fiscal revenue into three parts, one for the army, one for engineering construction, and one for storage in the treasury. Now Gawain believed that his division had surpassed that of the Spanish Caliph.

After the prisoners of war, the garrison and the road to the capital were arranged, just as the emperor was preparing to march from Sardica, a tragic incident occurred:

The bloody heads of Constantine Bodin, who had long dominated the regions of Savoy, Zata and Dalmatia, and his son Lalic were cut off by Grand Duke Tapan of Nis, placed in a rough wooden tray and sent to the emperor of Sardica.

Looking at this "big earth king" who had been entangled with him for more than ten years and was defeated in two battles, Gawain felt an unusual feeling in his heart. He looked at the bloody head of Bodin, and in front of the generals and attendants, he slightly covered his face with his sleeves and turned his head to the place where the candlelight was dim beside the seat.

He couldn't help but sneer.

It turned out that he was just a hyena of the same level as Prince Reuben and David the Builder.

Compared with his opponents Emperor Alexius, Sultan Giliki and even Emir Merik, he was far inferior.

"Your head cannot bear the weight of the crown at all." The emperor finally made such a judgment on Berdin's head.

It turned out that when Berdin fled to Niš, a key transportation point in the north of Sardica, he was left with only a hundred cavalrymen. When he entered the Niš fortress, he asked to take a bath.

As for the Grand Duke of Niš, Tapan, he was defeated by Gawain during the first Christian crusade and fled the city (see the previous volume). So he tried to curry favor with Berdin while secretly observing and constantly sending people to keep in close contact with Emperor Gawain to prepare a retreat for himself.

Berdin's disastrous defeat in Leswono made Tapan's choice effortlessly.

Tapan gathered the elite soldiers of the entire tribe, took advantage of the fatigue and fear of Berdin and his son, rushed into the bathhouse, killed him and his followers, and cut off his head and sent it to Sardica.

"Let Tapan hand over the city of Niš again, and I will not treat him unfairly."

Three days later, when Bramson's detachment arrived at the city of Niš, Tapan surrendered the castle in fear and trepidation, and Bramson's confidential officer brought the emperor's edict, announcing that he would be awarded the first noble rank among the "outstanding ones", and all his descendants would be selected into the inner palace attendants, and he would live a life of luxury in the mansion of the Grand Palace for the rest of his life.

After obtaining the key to the city of Niš, Bramson's roundabout action on the north road was extremely smooth and rapid. He successively captured Las and other places, and soon approached Zata and Ragusa.

The emperor's corps in the middle passed through the city of Skopje, and the Akropolites corps on the south line turned back to encircle Grand Duke Vladimir's Magoron Castle.

The seven or eight thousand Serbian soldiers under Vladimir's command had clearly known that the end was coming. After there was no hope of breaking through, they could only surrender to the emperor.

Gawain ordered a team of servants without hesitation to kill Vladimir in the monastery in the city and bury his body in a well. Many Zupan nobles were also killed with him.

Burdine's wife Giaquinta, who also surrendered at the same time, was also branded by the emperor as a "Norman gangster, an enemy of the empire". She was pushed into the bath and drowned to death by the court ladies who rushed to Saldica. Din's "Royal Family of Dukeria" bloodline was all cut off. Forty years later, Francopoulos, the master of the "Crete School" of the New Roman Empire, created a shocking realist painting "The Tragedy of Dukelia". This is a triptych, depicting the father and son of Bourdin. , images of the murders of Gia Quinta and Vladimir.

In it, the Bourdines and his son were naked. After stepping into the big tub while maintaining their bathing posture, they were stabbed and killed with spears by traitors who broke into the gate, leaving them dripping with blood.

Giaquinta's face was blue and her hair was disheveled, and she collapsed on a seat, next to the bathtub and the palace maid. She had just been pushed into the water, suffocated and fainted, and was pulled out again, sitting on a chair and took her last breath. ;

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Vladimir bravely and the Pan ancestors knelt by the well, clasped their hands and begged the Lord for the trial of Hell and final repentance. Executioners holding swords stood beside them.

The triptych depicts the columns of the palace. The omnipotent emperor Stephen Gawain is sitting on a golden chair, holding a cross and a scepter in his hand. His sinister eyes seem to be overlooking the bottom, which shows that the annihilation of Du The actions of the Kriya royal family were directed by him.

Obviously, the small court of Crete, which was still divided overseas at that time, still criticized Gawain, who had been dead for many years.

After creating this painting, the outstanding realist painter was exiled by the third emperor of the Varyag dynasty who had just pacified Crete. However, the emperor did not embarrass him too much and summoned him to the imperial court a few years later. After serving, the empire's magnificent Renaissance wave continued to roll forward.