Financial depletion and lack of military resources had always been a problem that could not be ignored in the empire, and Heraclius I's introduction of the military district system was designed to counter the powerful external forces of the time, and this system did play a large role in his confrontation with Cousslao II.

With the gradual shrinking of the territory, the military district system has become outdated, and the hereditary and transferable characteristics of the military district system have made the military aristocracy more and more powerful, and the power of some families even exceeded the royal family for a time, providing innate conditions for civil war.

Can the military system of the time of Constantine the Great be emulated? Constantine thought about it and shook his head secretly,

During the time of Constantine the Great, the entire strategic thinking of the Roman Empire changed, and the imperial army was divided into field armies and border guards, which did play a great role in the process of fighting the Persians, but that required a great strategic depth, in short, it was to exchange land for time, and then concentrate forces for a decisive battle,

Such a strategy is not in line with reality now, after all, the current land area is much smaller than that of Constantine the Great.

From the time of Mikhail VIII of the Palaiologos dynasty, the military district system was on the verge of collapse and was replaced by the Pronian system, which was characterized by the granting of land to soldiers who had made meritorious contributions to the war, the land could not be hereditary and could not be resold, and the land was nationalized after the death of the soldiers, which maintained the stability of the empire for a certain period of time,

The disadvantages are also obvious, in the fiefdom, the lord's power is very large, and he can freely decide on taxes, and in a way, this group of people is just a lifelong nobleman without a name, and the fief is not crowned with the title of a noble domain.

However, there is no eternal system in the world, the Pronian system has deteriorated in the later period, and the objects of the entitlement are not limited to soldiers, nobles, priests, merchants, etc., all of which may be granted by the emperors of the past dynasties, and the land has also become hereditary land under the indulgence of the emperors of the past dynasties, and inadvertently, the Pronian system has also embarked on the old road of the military district system.

By now, the Pronian system has also collapsed, and the Ottoman Timar system borrowed to some extent from the Pronian system, and the Timar system was not abolished until the 19th century.

"An empire cannot do without an army, just as a courtyard cannot do without brick walls."

Constantine said in a deep voice, and the cabinet members nodded one after another,

"Pronya is no longer fully suitable for the development of the empire, we need to make a new change and then promote it within the empire."

"Cecipe, what do you think?"

Cecipe stood up,

"The traditional Pronian system gave the lord so much power that it often developed into a separatist power, and in this regard, the empire must establish a strict rule of law, supervised by local judges and chief judges, who report to the central government at all times,"

"Moreover, we should leave a part of the soldiers who have more access to land in the barracks, grant them the rank of officer, and receive military training."

You must know that the land that is distributed is not completely unowned, in fact, there are people who work on the land, and the output of their cultivation is owned by the lord, and this group of people is called subordinate farmers.

The free peasants were originally the main source of tax revenue for the empire, but in the previous weakening process, the free peasants had to rely on the larger military aristocracy and monasteries, and the number of free peasants had been greatly reduced, and most of them had become hired peasants.

"On the issue of the source of soldiers, we can allow the local lords to bring troops to join the army, and exchange the source of soldiers and food for the title, which can alleviate the shortage of some soldiers and military food, and how many soldiers the lords bring to join the army, we can give what title accordingly, for example, bring ten people to join the army, we will be knights, bring a hundred people, be a baron, a thousand be a viscount, five thousand people be a count, ten thousand be a marquis, and more than 20,000 people will be a duke, and the grain and gold and silver can be used as a benchmark to increase by analogy."

Cecipe also made a point of emphasizing that whoever brought the soldiers would be under his command, also to prevent the lords from thinking that they had been deceived.

In fact, this is equivalent to selling the knight, but the problem is not big, as long as everyone is a nobleman, then there is no high and low, why the emperor of the Han Dynasty in China likes to give the people knights so much, is to make the title worthless and reduce the privileged class in the country.

As Cesipe's thoughts came out one by one, the clerk in charge of recording the minutes of the meeting was about to shake off his pen, barely keeping up with Cesipe's speed.

"Then this part of the nobility can only be lifelong aristocrats."

Calvo interjected on the side, and Cecipe, who was interrupted, was not in the slightest displeasure,

"That's for sure, but if they make a contribution on the battlefield, we can allow them to become hereditary nobles, and it can be regarded as motivating them to fight."

After hearing Cecipe's thoughts, Chavez stood up and said to Constantine,

"Your Majesty, I implore you to think about it carefully, as soon as the order for the donation of troops is issued, the number of troops in the empire will definitely increase greatly, and the people of this group of soldiers will be responsible, or will they be responsible for themselves? If we were responsible, the finances of the empire would not last long, and if they were to be held responsible, wouldn't it be a repeat of the mistakes of Emperor Heraclius, and would it really be necessary for the empire to maintain so many standing armies? ”

Chávez's opinion was to focus on domestic economic development, reduce military spending, and actively cooperate with the Italians to resist the Ottomans, which was a normal idea in the previous empire, and it was done in the past.

Not only Chavez, Calvo also thinks so, domestic development is very important, and only Cesipe supports military development, and even the Minister of the Navy Hussepe is just looking at the lively state, anyway, it is impossible for the empire to devote too much energy to developing the navy now.

Cecipe was a little anxious, and pointed at Chavez,

"How can you do it if you don't pay attention to the army? How many years have the Ottomans been driven away? The military camp besieging the city was outside, looking at us every day, forgot? ”

"I didn't say that I didn't pay attention to the army, the army is very important, I know that,"

Chavez replied with a slight tilt, then looked at Constantine,

"But the country is in ruins, although the country is strong, if it is keen on war, it will also go astray, as strong as Emperor Trajan, there is no way to stop it, development is the last word."

"The Roman Empire was founded by force, and the previous emperors all took it as their duty to expand their territory, and now who else can threaten us except the Ottomans? As long as Mehmed II is defeated, the empire will return to the territory of the Heraclius era, how can it do without an army? ”

Seeing that Cecipe was talking endlessly, Chavez snorted coldly and stopped talking.

Cecipe's policies certainly had a positive effect on stimulating the people to join the army, but Chavez's concerns were justified, and it was a question of whether the empire would need to have so many troops now.

"It's better to just put the soldiers home, and then re-recruit them in wartime, anyway, Emperor Constantine did it at that time."

Calvo offers a compromise proposal.

"Don't set up a field army? And what about the border guards? Where are we still in danger, at the beginning of the war, people will not wait for you to gather your troops before going to war. ”

Cecipe immediately retorted.

There is no natural danger between the Balkans and Asia Minor, and the Sea of Marmara can only play a role in delaying, besides, the Ottoman navy is not a vegetarian, and the current navy has no technical obstacles.

During the Diocletian period, the army was divided into field armies and border guards, and adopted a blocking strategy, using the natural hazards on the border line to form a line to fix the border, but soon, it was discovered that the soldiers on the border could easily become a tool for generals to compete for the throne.

As a result, during the reign of Constantine the Great, the role of the border guards was greatly weakened, and the empire relied more on the central field army, and the role of the border guards was only to delay time.

But this is implemented with sufficient strategic depth, no one delays, your scattered army, it really doesn't play a big role, you haven't even reacted, the whole country has fallen, this is still a fart.

Observe all the countries in Europe, even if they are on the island like England, they have established a standing army to guard against the barbarians of the Scottish Highlands and Northern Europe, unless there is really no money in the HRE and there are people covering the country, then there may not be a standing army, because people don't need it at all, the war is the whole territory, the army is redundant, it is better to expect the HRE Emperor to intervene.

"Well, it is necessary to establish a standing army, and the field army must be maintained at a certain size to deal with unexpected situations."

Constantine put this debate to a conclusion,

"The policy of donating troops that Cesipe said is also very good and can be implemented, but to control the number of donations, leave this aspect to Cesipe, Chavez, the Ministry of Finance has a lot of people, and some people will be allocated to help."

Centralization of power is the trend of the times, Constantine will not let go of the local powerful forces, this is the blood lesson given by the two emperors of John and the two emperors of Manueel, and the history of that humiliation is no worse than the shame of Jingkang.

"In addition, I would like to emphasize that the local lords must adhere to the rule of law, act in accordance with the laws of the Empire, do not allow lynching, can only find a judge if something happens, and if the judge cannot decide, he will find the chief justice, step by step, everything related to the law, the edict issued by Constantinople is the mainstay, and local laws are not allowed, unless I allow it."

The local lords are very bold, and if they are not restrained, they may really do things that are contrary to the yang and the yin, and when the time comes, it will damage the interests of the country.