Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 795 Miracles are the Church's Performance; Miracles are Greater Than Scripture

After recounting these events, Guo Kang specifically reminded her that these examples were only for her reference. In his view, the greatest purpose of Queen Helena's strategies was to tell everyone to observe the various forces that might be involved in the war, and then peel back the layers to find their core interests. This would make it easier to mobilize all parties and try to get everyone to act in a way that was most beneficial to their side.

As for the specific operational methods, he didn't recommend that anyone learn them. Because in Guo Kang's view, Empress Dowager Helena was too fond of taking risky moves—in any case, he himself certainly wouldn't dare to use them.

And he didn't even know how to tell other people about this...

In Guo Kang's account, Empress Dowager Helena was someone who greatly enjoyed and excelled at "pretending." He told Zhu Wenkui and Tang Sai'er that such a person would meticulously plan all her outward appearances. Attending a party was almost like Guo Kang and his group planning a war. Therefore, what she presented to outsiders was, most of the time, completely different from her actual thoughts.

He told Zhu Wenkui and the others that if they didn't believe him, they could ask any senior member of parliament from an Italian city-state, or a court diplomat from the Holy Roman Empire or France, what their impression of Queen Helena was. Their answers would likely surprise them greatly, completely different from what Guo Kang had told them privately.

During her reign, Empress Dowager Helena consistently cultivated a gentle and friendly image, both domestically and internationally. Domestically, she was the first Khanate noblewoman to systematically and extensively participate in charitable activities. In addition to the court-issued pensions, she used her own money to provide various subsidies, a practice that continues to this day.

In reality, the amount of money involved was far less than the Ministry of War's fixed expenses. However, the Empress Dowager was very good at putting on a show, so she knew how to focus on the key points.

She would specifically seek out people in difficult circumstances, and then have a trusted confidant investigate why the veteran was in trouble. If it was due to their own bad habits, she would skip them; if it was truly an accident, she would select the most tragic cases and record them.

Afterward, she would make special arrangements, even traveling from Dadu to the border, just to "bump into" her target. Then, she would pray with him, expressing her sadness for his situation and offering any help she could.

Guo Kang's grandfather, Guo Shuai, once said that one of Empress Dowager Helena's talents was probably her refined artistic taste. She had excellent taste in clothing, was particularly adept at dressing, and was also a skilled performer. The nobles, in fact, somewhat disliked this type of person, finding her frivolous and more like an actress than an empress dowager. However, her attire wasn't the kind that involved heavy makeup; rather, it was carefully chosen to make her appear elegant without being overly extravagant, emphasizing maternal instincts and piety. Those clothes could easily be worn directly on a statue of the Virgin Mary in a church.

Moreover, in these matters, the Empress Dowager did indeed try to play the role of a "saintly mother," and often took matters into her own hands: in some cases, when soldiers went bankrupt due to accidents, the Empress Dowager would directly help them pay off their debts; in others, when soldiers were injured and the Ministry of War's subsidies were very meager and insufficient to support themselves, the Empress Dowager would summon local officials, demand that they make corrections, and then have them receive training in government offices and churches, and then arrange some clerical work for them.
She even intervened in trivial family matters. When soldiers retired and their families experienced various chaotic situations—such as wives running off with other men or arranged marriages being broken off—the Empress Dowager would intervene. Officials advised against it, saying that the Seres believed "even an upright official finds it difficult to settle family disputes," and that the court had little say in such trivial matters. Furthermore, Roman law had many intractable problems, and the Senate could not arbitrarily amend the law to intervene.

But the Queen Mother declared that the Khanate and the Senate were the father of the nation, and she was the mother. The father must wield force and uphold the law; the mother must provide love and care and uphold reason and morality. Only a child whose mother is incompetent will be persecuted by these wicked and wicked people. Therefore, these matters should be her responsibility.

With her intervention, these problems could certainly be resolved. Therefore, she gained considerable popularity by "playing the saint."

The situation was similar with foreign countries. Queen Mother Helena particularly liked to feign weakness when speaking to envoys, often saying that she was just a poor woman who had lost her husband and was forced to sit in this dangerous position with trepidation, doing her best every day to restrain the raging legions, while praying to the Father and the Virgin Mary not to let the family be torn apart by war.

As a result, many European nobles at the time genuinely believed that because she was a woman, she was more gentle and more peace-loving, and therefore willing to engage in diplomatic negotiations with everyone, prioritizing peace.

In reality, during Queen Helena's reign, the frequency of wars was higher than that of her husband's reign, and even comparable to that of her son Basil III's era.

Under her rule, the Purple Horde, which had been quietly engaged in what literally meant "farming," decisively defeated Poland to the north, seizing Lviv, a key city that was one of Poland's founding cities; to the east, it cunningly annexed its own ancestral homeland, Trabzon, extending its influence into Georgia; to the west, it twice sent troops across the Carpathian Mountains to attack the heart of Hungary; and to the south, it completely controlled the Greek region and even seized Crete. The Purple Horde's territory nearly doubled, officially becoming the dominant power in the Mediterranean world at this time.

Guo Kang couldn't explain why Europeans were so easily swayed by this. But back then, the Empress Dowager had indeed successfully persuaded many countries, convincing nobles—who might have reacted immediately to the mere mention of the "Roman legions"—that she wanted to limit war and was keen on negotiation. Even now, when he peruses the Italian books Joanna had obtained for him, he often sees people discussing how it would have been better if the Purple Horde had another Empress Dowager like Helena, as the pressure on everyone wouldn't have been so great—he wondered what these people were thinking.

And until the very end, the Empress Dowager's acting remained flawless. Guo Shuai's notes state that when they launched the coup, some foreigners even voiced their grievances on the Empress Dowager's behalf, feeling that these warmongering warlords were bullying people again. But in reality, it was because the "warlords" no longer wanted to cooperate with the Empress Dowager in launching wars.

The new system introduced by the Purple Horde changed the Eastern Roman Empire's notoriously chaotic succession laws. These rules made the country more stable, but also prevented ambitious noblewomen like Empress Helena from directly seizing supreme power through succession.

The Empress Dowager herself certainly knew that she had to uphold this system, otherwise the country would be in turmoil, and her own position would certainly be unstable. But she was too ambitious and could not be satisfied with merely being a nominal co-ruler.

Unlike male monarchs, the Empress Dowager's power was ultimately "indirect." Therefore, to solidify her power, she needed to wage more wars. On one hand, in wartime, her autocratic power as the "temporary chief steward" would increase; on the other hand, the largest power in the country—the legions—was also happy to see war. Thus, she was actually more enthusiastic about war than male monarchs. Ultimately, however, the benefits of further expansion diminished. Due to the rapid pace of the wars, the Purple Horde's control over new territories was far less stringent than its control over its previous homelands. Moreover, more numerous and powerful enemies focused their attention on her, putting even greater pressure on the increasingly exhausted legions.

Under these circumstances, the Empress Dowager was still trying to gain greater influence and intervene in the army's actions. Meanwhile, her efforts to maintain order gradually fell into disuse. Ultimately, a serious conflict arose between her and the army over the issue of succession. At this point, her weakness—having only remotely controlled the army without personal involvement—was fully exposed.

Ultimately, a new generation of military officers from powerful clans such as the Guo and Li families began to contact each other, forming a secret organization against the Empress Dowager. Because a large number of new recruits had been serving in recent years and were generally dissatisfied with the Empress Dowager, they seized this opportunity during the rotation period to take control of Dadu (Beijing) and complete the coup in one fell swoop.

Of course, Europeans probably understood this even less. After all, the idea that young officers didn't want to fight was probably beyond their comprehension...

However, even at the very end, the Empress Dowager was trying to protect herself through cunning. Guo Shuai's notes say that not long after they arrested the Empress Dowager, rumors suddenly spread in Dadu that they had sent troops to surround the monastery where she was being held, ready to enter and kill her at any time.

At that time, Dadu had only recently recovered its prosperity, and many of the people in the city were disabled veterans who had been relocated there years ago when the Empress Dowager was still doing her best to show kindness. Many people went to inquire about what had happened, saying that it was only right for Baisa Khan to regain power, but to kill the Empress Dowager was morally wrong and went too far.

Guo Shuai recorded that he hadn't thought that much about it at the time, because he had no prior experience with this kind of situation and didn't even know how to handle things properly. Faced with the discussions among the crowd, he didn't know what the appropriate course of action would be. Finally, it was Basil who stepped forward and urged everyone to act quickly and send the Empress Dowager to Crimea to isolate her from her potential supporters there. However, her safety also had to be protected; she couldn't be allowed to die and leave behind any evidence against her.

As for the rumors circulating in the market, no one knew what to do. Finally, Guo Shuai simply stepped forward and declared that this was what he wanted to do, but before he could implement it, he was stopped by the Khan. However, in letters to his family and in his own notes, he complained about this matter more than once, saying that it must have been the Empress Dowager herself who arranged for her confidants to come up with this despicable idea, forcing him to quickly take the blame for everyone to prevent everyone from being implicated.

Guo Kang himself tended to agree with his grandfather's account and even wrote several articles on it for internal staff to refer to. However, Empress Dowager Helena made no mention of these things in her memoirs. It's unclear whether Guo Kang was overthinking it and it was merely a coincidence; or whether the Empress Dowager, upon arriving in Crimea, simply picked up her self-presentation skills again and began "performing" for readers and posterity—after all, according to Guo Kang's conclusion, the memoirs written by women of the Komnen family should likely be viewed with "selective" judgment…

In the early days of Basil's rule, the major powers launched a fierce offensive against the Purple Horde, creating immense military pressure. Guo Shuai himself was killed in battle against the Crusaders shortly afterward. Only after the person responsible for scapegoating also died for his country did these rumors finally subside.

Therefore, Guo Kang always believed that this kind of thinking was probably impossible to learn. Because the more sophisticated the scheme, the lower the margin for error. Someone like the Empress Dowager requires too much skill and operates at the absolute limit; a slight misstep could lead to disaster—for example, when Guo Kang faced pressure and lost his temper, to prevent things from escalating and leaving future problems, he actually took action, and she would be finished. Only someone with a deep understanding of other people and forces, and exceptional confidence in their own judgment, could possibly use these strategies.

He even drew an analogy, saying that to understand how this person behaved, one only needed to look at Theodora. Guo Kang, reading his ancestors' notes and various palace archives, often felt that this person was like a complete Theodora. It seemed that her talent in this area had indeed been inherited.

As for Zhu Wenkui and Tang Sai'er... although they are also good at organizing people and rallying them to help them, Guo Kang felt that they probably couldn't learn those skills. It was better to just focus on gathering strength and carrying out the mission.

His arguments had a great influence on Zhu Wenkui. Moreover, perhaps because both of them frequently used religious rituals for propaganda, Tang Sai'er also agreed with Guo Kang's ideas.

After arriving in Bohemia, she actually raised the banner of "Restoring the Rebellion in Accordance with Heaven" and began preparing for this "alliance".

Guo Kang advised them to prioritize sincerity and not to try to fool others—because even without exaggeration, the difference in actual performance between the Wu Prince's Mansion and other European lords would be enough to convince everyone.

Guo Kang habitually used religion for propaganda because he believed it to be an effective means of propaganda and mobilization. But it was precisely because of his long-term contact with religion that he was particularly clear about its intricacies.

Most believers value tangible demonstrations more. Even for the most devout, the direct impact of a "miracle" is far greater than the recitation of scriptures themselves. This is why the church needs to constantly find saints to prove miracles.

Conversely, if one can produce evidence that is almost a miracle, then any scripture will instantly become weak and powerless; even the most stubborn believer cannot resist the meaning expressed by the miracle itself—unless he is not a believer.

And Tang Sai'er's progress is indeed much better than everyone expected.

(End of this chapter)