The main hall of the imperial palace, the officials packed the main hall, and Emperor Marcian was late.

Today is Leo, the governor of the province of Thrace, and Flavi, the governor of Isuria (the province of southern Asia Minor)? Zeno returned to Constantinople to report on the day, during this period there were two Leo who were famous, one of Leo was the governor of the Thracian province of the Byzantine Empire (the eastern Balkan province), and later succeeded Marcian as the Byzantine emperor, and the other Leo was more famous than Leo, the governor of the Thracian province of the Byzantine Empire, during this period, that is, Pope Leo I, who persuaded Attila's army to retreat, otherwise the city of Rome might be razed to the ground by Attila's army.

Thrace is a very large place in the broadest sense, located south of the Balkan Mountains, north of the Aegean Sea, west of Macedonia, east of the Black Sea, and southeast of the Turkish Strait. Located in the northeast of Greece, it is the bridgehead of Greece on the border with Turkey and the countries of the Balkans, as well as the connecting point between Eurasia and Europe.

The Thracian province of the Byzantine Empire is now west of the Turkish Strait, and the European part of the Byzantine Empire belongs to the Thracian province, which is not a small territory.

There were quite a few officials present today, and the elders of the Senate, who usually do not come, basically all came today, and the atmosphere was a little strange before the debriefing meeting began.

After Emperor Marcian and Empress Pulkaria each sat on their thrones, the hall fell silent, the ministers stood on either side of the hall, and a passage was vacated in the middle, and the senators stood closest to the emperor's throne, and every few meters under the walls of the hall stood an elite armorer with a spear in hand. The high dome of the main hall makes the place look very empty, and the walls and stone pillars are intricately carved to make the place look solemn.

When the hall was quiet, Emperor Marcian asked, "Are Leo and Zeno here?" ”

The chief eunuch (don't think that only ancient China had eunuchs) respectfully replied, "Yes." His Majesty, Leo and Zeno were already waiting outside the main hall, and I wonder if they were announced to enter the hall? ”

Marcian waved his hand: "Declare it!" ”

The chief eunuch stood up and faced out of the main hall, shouting in his duck-like voice: "Your Majesty the Emperor has an order: Leo, the governor of the province of Xuanthrace, and Zeno, the governor of Isuria, enter the palace."

After a long voice fell, after a while, I saw two people enter the main hall from the outside, and on the left was an old man in his fifties, who was wearing a long satin robe. The figure is a little bloated, and his long hair is tied into a braid and wrapped around his forehead, although he is not young. But he was still in good health and full of energy, and he was Leo, the governor of Thrace.

On the right is a young man of twenty-seven or eighteen, dressed in fine armor. He wears a bronze helmet with a cockscomb head. With combat boots on his feet and a giant sword at his waist, he walked in a hurry, and this man was Zeno, the governor of Isuria.

Leo and Zeno are still only governors of the province, these two men are not simple goods, according to the normal development of history, Marcian will die in four years, because Marcian has no successor. The Senate of the Byzantine Empire had to appoint another emperor, and at that time Leo and Zeno united. The two of them were the most powerful governors of the province in the Byzantine Empire, and after the two of them joined forces, no one else was eligible to compete with them, and finally Leo and Zeno reached an agreement that Zeno would support Leo's coronation as emperor in exchange for Zeno marrying Leo's daughter, which meant that Zeno was eligible to inherit the throne of Leo who had no heirs.

In this way, Leo succeeded Marcian as the emperor of the Byzantine Empire with the support of Zeno, for Leo I, Leo I was emperor for seventeen years, after his death, because he had no heirs, Zeno was eligible to inherit the throne, but Zeno was strongly opposed by the senators led by Leo I's wife and brother-in-law, Zeno had to make his son born to Leo I's daughter Ariadna emperor, for Leo II, and the senators had nothing to say.

What is suspicious is that at the end of the same year, Leo II, who had been on the throne for less than a year, died, and Zeno immediately became emperor, and it was rumored that Zeno killed his own son Leo II in order to ascend the throne as emperor.

"Leo, Governor of Thrace", "Zeno, Governor of Isuria"

"Meet Your Majesty the Emperor!" The two walked unhurriedly through the middle passage left by the ministers in the main hall, and stood not far from the emperor's throne, bowing and touching their chests at the same time.

"Excuse me!" Marcian waved his hand.

The two of them at the same time: "Xie Majesty!" With that, they got up and parted, and each stood on one side of the passage.

Marcian looked at His Majesty and said, "Today is mainly the two governors who have come back to report on their work, so let's do this first, Zeno, you first explain to me and the senators what you have done in Isuria in the past few years, what achievements and mistakes have you made?" What are your thoughts on the future of the government! ”

Zeno has Isurian blood, and in the eyes of these officials and senators in Constantinople, he still has "foreign blood", and he is very unpopular with him, if it were not for his brave battles and countless meritorious achievements, it would be impossible for him to become the governor of Isoria with his bloodline and current age.

The province of Isoria was large during this period, and the southern province of Isoria was located in the southern part of present-day Turkey near the Mediterranean, which was the gateway to Cyprus, Syria and Jerusalem, and was also a relatively populous and economically developed province during this period.

Zeno was promoted by Marcian, otherwise how could Zeno, a general of a minority with foreign blood and no backing, become the governor of the province of Isoria?

After Marcian asked him to give a debriefing, he immediately saluted Marcian, Empress Pulkaria, and many of the senators, and then began to explain the administrative measures he had taken in the years since his ascension to governor of Isoria.

Zeno spoke slowly and succinctly, and despite his foreign ancestry, he spoke Latin very fluently and articulately, without making the officials and senators in the hall sound difficult in the slightest.

Zeno spent five or six minutes briefly speaking, and then he was done. Marcian nodded, "Okay, I'll not comment for now. When Governor Leo is done, let's judge their merits and faults, Leo, now! ”

"Yes, my majesty!" Leo bowed, he was an old oilman in officialdom, and it was not the first time that he had done such a thing. At the moment, he said everything that should be said, and he didn't mention a word that shouldn't be said, and he talked about his political achievements. Pick a few painless bites of his mistakes, and finally when talking about his future plans, he even boasted about how to make Thrace prosperous and powerful. But there is not a single bit of a concrete administrative strategy. In short, there are a lot of empty words and vernacular, full of official articles.

Marcian was disgusted when he heard it, he had seen this kind of routine a lot, he was a soldier, and he was very disgusted with the official oil, but he still couldn't help but not have a seizure, and let Leo finish speaking.

After Leo finished speaking, he stepped aside and stood with the Prime Minister Alpas and the others, and Marcian said, "All right. Both governors have given their debriefings, and do the ministers and senators have anything to ask of them? ”

Then it was lively. It is the time to pursue responsibility and reward political achievements, this time is the most dangerous, even if you have political achievements, a bad one will be beaten into the eighteenth layer of hell in the next political process.

As soon as Emperor Marcian's words fell, under the secret signal of His Majesty Empress Pulkaria, an official stood up and saluted the emperor, empress, senators and officials and asked Zeno: "Governor Zeno, your achievements in the past few years in Isoria are still good, I think all the senators and colleagues present agree with this, but as far as I know, in the past few years, you have secretly deducted a lot of taxes that should be paid, and instead of using these taxes for pleasure, you have built warships in Antalya, The army outside the establishment is called your guard or security force, and all the financial expenses are paid by you personally, I want to ask, what do you want to do? You raise troops and build a large fleet privately, what do you want to do? Is Isoria that messy? Do you need so many troops? The eastern and southern coasts of the Mediterranean Sea are the territory of my Byzantine Empire, what do you want to do with so many fleets? Do you want to rebel? ”

As this official's questioning voice became higher and higher, and his tone became more and more severe, some centrist officials felt that today's palace meeting was only afraid that something big would happen, and this guy was in a posture of putting people to death at the beginning, which was completely because he didn't want Zeno to live.

The hall was suddenly silent, Empress Pulkaria and the officials of her faction looked at Zeno with a proud look, and glanced at the emperor Marcian of His Majesty Dan from time to time, but Prime Minister Alpas and the officials of his faction did not expect the queen to be so ruthless as soon as she made a move, this is directly to stage a posture of full martial arts with the emperor.

Emperor Marcian's face was very bad, very bad, and he knew whether it was because Empress Pulkaria was at war with him now, or because Zeno was angry with him behind his back to build warships and raise soldiers privately, in short, his face was extremely ugly, and he looked at Zeno even with iron.

Zeno was already sweating profusely in his vest, and he couldn't think of what he had done very secretly, how could it be known? This matter is a big deal, if you don't give a satisfactory explanation, if you can't let the emperor clear his doubts, not only the queen's faction wants to kill him, but even the emperor will not let him go, because this is simply a taboo for the emperor.

Zeno's mind was spinning at high speed, he thought that he could only gamble now, he was confident that the things he did were very secretive, even if others knew, they should only know a little bit, and they wouldn't know in detail, he stood up and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the minister is wronged, the minister didn't raise the army privately, I'm afraid the army that this adult is talking about refers to those security teams, right?" Your Majesty, those security corps are not armies, they are just villagers who maintain villages and towns, they are composed of old and weak villagers, their weapons are some farm tools, and they have no salary, in order to increase their enthusiasm, the ministers promise to exempt them from a part of the tax, and they only use their leisure time to do voluntary patrols to prevent thieves, bandits, and robbers from stealing and robbing.

In addition, the lord said that it was a defamatory act for the minister to build a large fleet without permission, and the minister admitted that a large number of ships had been built in Antalya, but not all of the ships under construction were ships, most of them were intended to be used as merchant ships, and only a small part was intended to be used as a coastal patrol fleet, and the reason for this is because in the last two years, pirates disguised as Vandals have often come to raid by boat, causing great damage to the coast of the southern province of Isoria, many seaside villages have been destroyed, and villagers have been killed. The minister mentioned it in the letter to His Majesty, and please ask His Majesty to be clear! ”

The ancient West did not have the ancient Chinese court system, most of the time, the emperor's rights were quite restricted, even if it developed to the later period of absolute monarchy, the emperor's rights were not unlimited, the right to appoint and dismiss personnel was not decided by the emperor alone, and the national policy was not decided by the emperor alone, and the capable emperor would persuade or use other means to make the senate and ministers agree to their decisions, rather than arguing with the ministers and elders in the court. For those related to political affairs, military personnel are rarely allowed to participate, and those related to the military are rarely allowed to participate in civilian officials, after all, there is a specialization in the art industry, and it is not nonsense to let civilian officials participate in military meetings? There is only a situation in which the court discussion under the ancient Chinese court discussion system exists in the case of laymen pointing fingers at insiders.

Marcian's face was a little better after Zeno finished speaking, he looked at the ministers and elders below, and his mind was calculating, he didn't believe what Zeno said, many things were not groundless, and this matter had to be investigated, whether it was true or false would be known, but Zeno was a young general he promoted, and now it was really not suitable to make the people of his faction ugly in front of the queen and the prime minister, so he thought about it and decided to talk about it later, and then talk about it when the queen and the prime minister were defeated. Now is not the time to dig a corner, he nodded and said: "Yes, Zeno mentioned this matter in the previous book, I will send someone to investigate, after checking, it will be clear, if he really has the intention and suspicion of rebellion, and the evidence is conclusive, it will not be too late to investigate it then, if not, isn't it to wronged a minister to pursue his problem now?" Well, there's no need to talk about it! Anyone else has anything to ask? ”

This last sentence is an obvious signal, there are officials from the emperor's faction who are ready to stand up immediately and fight back, but someone has spoken out before them, and they have been stopped from counterattacking. (To be continued......)