Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 687: Overseas Ming royal family members: All responsibility lies with Yuan Fang

On Sunday morning, Tuohuan, Zhu Wenkui and others attended the groundbreaking ceremony of the temple in a new urban area in the suburbs.

This was the first religious building completed in the new city plan. Therefore, the government attached great importance to it and held a large-scale event. Everyone gathered in the square, and it was quite lively for a while.

This new temple is a building that can be used by various denominations at the same time and integrates multiple functions. For this reason, its design mainly emphasizes Roman characteristics rather than the characteristics of a specific denomination.

Of course, this has also caused dissatisfaction among some conservative religious people.

For example, according to the design drawings, it will have a round high roof, which is a landmark of Rome, instead of a flat roof like the traditional Muslim temple. This has aroused opposition from many old scholars in Cairo.

There are precedents in the Levant where several religions and sects are squeezed together, so compromise is acceptable. But changing the shape of the temples into a mess is too contrary to tradition and is really too much.

Therefore, religious scholars wrote to criticize the reform, pointing out that the renovation was not a random construction. The caliph had already demonstrated what the Muslim mosque should look like, and they could just copy the model of the Umayyad Mosque. They were all devout and orthodox Muslims, so how could they accept such an abrupt and forced addition? They had to quickly remove this onion head that was a sign of the collapse of rituals and music.

However, these protests were only verbal and not very strong. Because recently, the city has inexplicably started to stir up trouble with the Shia sect, and all kinds of rumors have emerged one after another, becoming more and more outrageous. The jurists are suspicious all day long, focusing their main energy on searching for heresy and not paying attention to this side.

The people who relocated here had no objection to this.

The people living in this area are all the craftsmen, laborers and their families who will participate in the construction of the canal. The government has built a batch of simple houses. Although the facilities are very simple due to the short construction time, they can only be called sheds for the time being, but at least the environment is clean, the planning is neat, and there are clean water sources and roads. It is much better than the slums.

The only problem is that there are no clergy here, and no one organizes various prayer activities. However, the government also promised that this is just a temporary difficulty caused by the urgent project and incomplete conditions. The public services provided by the temple and priests will gradually resume.

At present, as long as people in the residential area participate in work, they will be given big bread. After the two canals were dug in the early stage, the water supply has also returned to normal. These food and water are free, just like the charity activities sometimes held in the Tianfang Temple in the neighborhood. Moreover, after serving for two years according to regulations, even the house is given for free, which is much more generous than the temple.

In addition, the government also sent people to open schools, and asked families with children to send their children there. The schools taught arithmetic and Chinese characters, and said that if they learned well, they could become officials.

Parents of schoolchildren generally do not believe this propaganda, thinking that they are exaggerating. But if they learn arithmetic and Chinese characters, they can go to trade with the Seris people. Even if they are a little bit proficient, they can go to a big business and become an apprentice. The richest Karimi merchants in the city made their fortunes by this industry, and everyone knows it. Therefore, they are not opposed to their children going to school, thinking that at least this will make them more successful than their parents.

As for religious activities, there is only a fixed rest time for everyone to pray. Due to limited conditions, there is no one to lead. However, the lower class people are forced to make a living and often do not strictly abide by the various rules, so after getting used to it, they soon don't care.

At the beginning, everyone supervised each other and prayed at regular times, especially when the Roman leader was present, they worked even harder than usual. After a few days of hard work, they became familiar with the Roman engineers and soon became lazy. Many people began to slack off and even slept during the prayers.

The second group of immigrants were some Copts. The first group of Sunni immigrants were nervous for a while at first, but then they quickly gathered to pray. Later, they found that the Copts were also craftsmen drawn from different districts, and there were no priests with them, so they soon relaxed again. So far, no more problems have arisen.

The residents did not care much about this incident, but were very happy because according to Roman custom, citizens would receive benefits on such special days.

Although the household registration system here was not yet complete, the Cairo government still hired a group of artists to perform in the square. Residents of the new city were also given extra bread. This "circus and bread" effect was quite good, especially for the immigrants in the new city who were used to a hard life.

Tuo Huan went on stage and gave a short speech, and then, without interrupting their interest, he let everyone have fun. The band started playing, and the locals simply sang and danced, making the place very lively.

Tuohuan walked down from the podium, but looked a little dissatisfied.

"It's a pity that Guo Kang'anda is not here. I think he can speak better than me in this kind of place." He said to Zhu Wenkui: "I spent so much money to organize the event, but only conveyed such little information to everyone. I feel that I can only speak the truth and can't say anything nice..."

"You speak too nicely, but these people won't understand." Zhu Wenkui didn't think there was anything wrong with it. "Besides, for this kind of ceremony, you just need to show up and express your respect, that's all."

"During this period, the resistance of the city residents towards us has decreased a lot. This shows that the previous measures are still very effective. We just need to do our work steadily and not worry too much."

"I think there is still a little difference." Tuohuan was not so sure: "It's okay over there, but not necessarily here. Before, we tried to persuade them in every way, even paid to hire them, but no one was willing to come. Later, we directly captured the laborers and forced them to migrate here. You see, they didn't object, and they looked quite happy..." "I really can't understand these people. Now that I reflect on it, I begin to doubt whether the biggest detour we made in the beginning was that we were too indecisive and didn't bring people to beat them up right away. If we had realized this problem at the time, we might have saved some time."

"Sometimes it is true." Zhu Wenkui thought for a moment and said, "However, this is not a question of whether one is doing things in a down-to-earth manner, but a question of governing style."

"I discussed with Miss Tang the success and failure of past dynasties and the people's support, and I thought of an example." He told Tuohuan: "The Zuo Zhuan records that when Zichan, the ruler of Zheng, was seriously ill, he said to another minister, Zi Taishu: 'After I die, you will definitely be the ruling minister. Only people with perfect virtues can use lenient policies to make the people obey. The inferior ones are not as powerful as the rulers. Just like fire is fierce, people are afraid of it, so few people are burned to death by fire; water is cowardly, people despise and play with it, so many people are drowned. Therefore, it is more difficult to implement a lenient policy.'"

"A few months later, Zichan died of illness and Zi Taishu took over. He could not bear to implement a tough policy and was very lenient. As a result, many thieves appeared in Zheng State. They gathered in the large marsh where reeds grew and even openly robbed people. Zi Taishu regretted this and said, 'If I had listened to the Master earlier, it would not have come to this.' So he mobilized his soldiers to eliminate the thieves in the marsh and killed them all. In this way, the thieves in Zheng State were slightly restrained."

"Later, Confucius commented that governing should be done with both firmness and flexibility like Zichan, and only then can it be called 'harmony'. Zi Taishu was too cowardly and did not use severe measures in time. As a result, when the number of thieves increased, more people died."

"I think that's probably what we're facing. The Chinese are a group that is quite sensitive to politics. If this kind of thing can happen among the people, how much more so in the Western Yi land? Therefore, we really need to adjust our strategy in a timely manner according to the local situation."

"You have a point. I was not thoughtful enough." Tuo Huan nodded, then complained, "Hey, at that time, Guo Kang Anda kept telling me not to use violence if I could avoid it, and not to kill people if I could avoid it. Now I feel like I was too merciful."

"I think he's afraid that we'll kill too many people." Zhu Wenkui thought for a moment and commented, "His way of thinking is different from ours. I don't know why, but it seems that in theory, he particularly avoids the option of 'killing' as a solution to the problem - and that's only in theory beforehand."

"Yes, when he really goes on stage and faces the actual situation, he tends to get carried away." Tuohuan also complained: "Last time in Dadu, it was obviously him who lost control and insisted on killing the tyrants. The number of people who died that time was more than the combined number of major cases after my father Khan ascended the throne..."

"I told him about it, and he said that we should either wipe it out completely or not kill people, so as not to cause more problems and leave troubles behind," Zhu Wenkui said. "He felt that the forces on this side of the Mediterranean simply did not have the ability to clean up a culture or an ethnic group."

"I remember he also cited a strange example, saying that there was an Alemanni king who unified his various princes and wanted to unify the whole of Europe. At that time, his country had nearly 48 square kilometers of land and about million Germanic people."

"But at that time, the total population of Europe was also very large. So in the end, although he seemed fierce and powerful, he could not defeat the Slavs externally and could not eliminate the Jews internally. He also offended many forces, and in the end he wasted national strength but gained nothing. Therefore, we should be more sober and not act blindly when there are other options."

"I've heard him say that, but I think he's a weakling - at least not in the same league as our Roman ancestors." Tuo Huan also remembered and commented, "The unit of kilometer is mentioned in our measuring instrument booklet. 48 square kilometers may seem large, but in fact it doesn't even cover the current Alemannic League. The same goes for population. Under that worldview setting, it's simply not enough."

"A capable king should at least expand his power first, right? In order to fight back against the State of Wu, Gou Jian, the King of Yue, endured hardships and accumulated enough strength for ten years, and finally succeeded in one fell swoop. Can't the Alemanni Kingdom even squeeze out a 20-year truce?"

"I remember that in the setting of this fable, the barbarian warriors of the Alemanni were quite capable of fighting. They could command tigers, leopards, elephants and other ferocious beasts to fight, just like Yanhuang and Chiyou in ancient legends. Imagine if his strength doubled, with 96 square kilometers of territory and million Germanic citizens, who knows who would win, but at least he would be able to deal with the Jews. If he couldn't even achieve this, I think it's a problem with the ability of the rulers."

"Yes, it's still a question of strength after all." Zhu Wenkui agreed: "If we exaggerate a little bit, add a zero, and assume there are 960 million square kilometers of territory and billion Germans, can't we just wipe out anyone we want? Why should we be so shy about it? Would others have any objections? Obviously, it's still a question of strength after all. But for some reason, he just didn't want to consider this theoretical possibility."

"I guess the barbarians don't have enough ability to organize such a large country." Tuo Huan said: "When I was chatting with Guo Kang Anda, I always felt that the land and population of a country should have different upper limits depending on the culture. After exceeding the upper limit, even if you own it on paper, you can't actually manage it. The upper limit of the barbarian country is definitely not that high."

"If it were our case, there would be no problem. Look at how the Yuan Dynasty conquered the Western Xia Dynasty and how the Ming Dynasty conquered the Dali Dynasty. They both did a great job." He gave an example: "With this kind of experience and organizational ability, it can actually be achieved."

"That's not the case." Zhu Wenkui quickly defended himself, "It was the Yuan Dynasty that cut off Dali culture. Duke Ying said in his report that according to on-site verification, these documents and books have been lost and dispersed in the long-term war disasters since Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty entered Dali. It was not intentional by the Ming army. Like Western Xia, they were actually destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty. These documents are recorded in my great-grandfather's records, and my family still has a set."

"Ah? Can you blame the Yuan Dynasty for this?" Tuo Huan said in surprise: "No, this is not the Ming Dynasty, you don't have to be so active..."

"Then Emperor Shizu of Yuan Dynasty didn't object either." Zhu Wenkui defended himself.

"Uh……"

(End of this chapter)