"Celestius, come here."

Constantine beckoned behind him, and a man in a linen robe immediately rode closer, but did not overstep,

"Waiting for His Majesty's orders."

Celius, after orchestrating Adana's uprising, was soon recommended to Constantine by Giovanni, who, with his merits in the war, appointed him as a logistics officer of the army, serving by Constantine's side,

"You go to the village square and gather the peasants together, and I want to meet them."

"Follow your orders, Your Majesty."

Celius bowed his head in respect, and then stepped forward, and Constantine looked at Louis beside him,

"Have you come to the people? Louis? ”

Louis said, to be honest, in such a long career, he really did not go to the countryside to see the life of the peasants, until the age of thirteen, he spent in the castle, after marriage, he also often went in and out of the aristocratic places, as for the life in the countryside, as a noble lord, even if it is a local nobleman, the requirement for the peasant is only not to die, of course, this generally depends on the mood of the noble lord.

Seeing Louis's expression constantly changing, Constantine sighed lightly, the muddy land would stain the expensive leather boots of the nobles, so that the nobles would not go down to the ground, but would only sit in the high carriage and sigh pitifully at the dirt, but what they did not expect was that the soil would always be here, whether or not the leather boots passed.

"Louie, would you like to go into the village with me?"

At the entrance of the village, a simple wooden fence enclosed the village, the stone houses were covered with moss, and a tattered but already the best road led to the central square, where a crowd of people could already be seen in the distance, and Constantine turned over and dismounted, and said to Louis.

"Whew~"

Louis dismounted, speechless but showing his attitude: he was willing to follow Constantine.

Constantine dismounted, and naturally no one dared to sit on the horse anymore, and the knights behind him all dismounted.

One foot deep and one foot shallow, Louis was cautious to look at the slightly clean place on the ground, but when he looked up and saw Constantine calm, Louis no longer refused, stepped on the dirt like marble, and followed Constantine closely.

Soon the crowd came to the middle of the square, and the priest stood in front of them, smiling at Constantine,

"May God praise you, His Majesty Constantine, protector of Christianity and emperor of the Roman Empire."

As soon as he arrived, the priest sang the chant, and Constantine could only listen helplessly, in which no Orthodox Christians would remain indifferent.

"It seems that you are the man of the village, Father Priest."

It was not until the end of the psalm that Constantine asked.

This is a typical Greek village, and the Ottomans liked to use civilians to supplement their troops in this village, after all, pagans are outsiders.

"No, Your Majesty, I am only a messenger of the gospel for God and for you."

The priest is very humble, and few people can be indifferent in the face of power and wealth, and those who can do it are not ordinary people, and they are unlikely to meet in such a small village.

"So... Father, tell me about the village! ”

Constantine looked around and saw that most of the people had dishes on their faces, and the situation here was probably not going to be very good.

"The situation... It can only be said that it is average, after all, everyone's life is not good, and our village is okay,"

There was not much emotion in the priest's tone, such a situation was not in one place, but everywhere, in contrast, the village of San Simon, where he was located, was able to survive with his past business travels,

"The village of Saint-Simon was originally subordinate to Baron Angus, who was the local representative of the Ottomans, not only us, but also the village of St. John next door, and he knew that the Ottomans liked horses, so he forced the peasants in his territory to graze horses, and turned all the farmland into pasture, and treated the people harshly,

Due to the loss of food sources, the farmers can only rely on Angus to transport grain into the village from the outside world, and the monthly ration that Angus gives to the farmers can only ensure that the farmers do not starve to death.

Speaking of this, the priest's tone was full of emotion,

"But this guy Angus, in the past few months, began to slowly cut the ration of food, and transported all the horses, the farmers have no land to plant, and no food to eat, so they can only go up the mountain to pick some wild vegetables and wild fruits, if you are lucky, catch some fish or rabbits, our village can barely survive because of some business travelers passing by, and there are even several people in the village of St. John next door who fainted from hunger, and I don't know what is happening now."

For the local lords, the peasant is a string of numbers, even if they die, they are not afraid, and they can bring in another batch, especially in the era when slavery has not been eliminated, even if England enacted the abolition of slavery in 1102, but the slave trade and slave storage have always existed, which can not be done by a single decree.

Slavery was abolished very late in Europe, and the famous Civil War in the United States was ostensibly fought because of slavery, of course, there are many deep reasons, which I will not repeat here.

In ancient times, the productivity was low, and it was impossible to eat enough under that kind of production conditions, even in modern times, there were so many people who could not eat enough, and even starved to death, not to mention in ancient times, it can be said that the two villages did not starve to death Constantine came early, there is really no way, "great hunger, cannibalism" such a scene is not the patent of any country or region.

"And what about before Angus? Were the Ottomans taxed heavily? ”

Constantine asked with concern.

"If you really want to compare, it is higher than the taxes paid by the emperors of the Laskalis dynasty, compared to the time of Manuel II and other emperors... It's still lower. ”

The priest said bluntly that he did not worry about eating and drinking, and no matter what the place was, it was impossible for the clergy of the church to suffer, unless it was really a poor place that could not be poorer, but it was not very volatile now, and no one would want to go to such a poor place.

Constantine was in a complicated mood, turned the ring in his hand, and looked up at the sky, on the one hand, the hegemony of the empire required the peasants to pay, but on the other hand, in the process of rising, the citizens of the Roman Empire could not enjoy the benefits brought by the state for the time being, and only a strong state could benefit the citizens.

"Thank you, Your Excellency Father, that I will issue a law on agriculture, and it seems to me that the dissemination of the law is more important than the expansion of the territory of Rome."

Constantine's face was solemn, this was his promise to the priest, but also to himself.

"The future has not yet come, the past is gone, Your Excellency Father, let us now look at the people!"

Constantine waved his hand back, and Celius came over with several carriages, which were piled with black bread, which could be seen, and the eyes of the villagers lit up a lot.

"Distribute these breads to the people, they need this."

Renjun is always loved, no matter where he is, people who love the people are always more at ease than tyrants, and they don't have to worry about losing their heads if they are not careful.

"Louie, a strong country is not only reflected in his army, but also in his people, of course, the splendor belongs to Greece, the grandeur belongs to Rome, the stronger the country, the easier it is to do everything you want, but if you want to make the country strong and send troops for no reason, it will only make the vanquished fearful, you need an excuse."

Constantine almost made it clear, Louis fell into deep thought, he had no mercy for this village, as a man in his thirties, he would not change his opinion because of such a situation, after all, they were not born the same kind of people, it was impossible to empathize,

But through this experience, he can see the local economic situation, which is the foundation of the country's stability, and Constantine is not wrong when he says that what a strong country has shown in this era is big, big is good, big is beautiful, and big means everything.

In the midst of these thoughts, Constantine and Louis came to Bursa, where Constantine XI and Mehmed II, two famous monarchs in history, finally met again, and this meeting would determine the fate of both of them, and history would eventually assign the responsibility to one person, but Constantine believed that Rome would live forever.

Constantine's Luan drove to the front of the army, Laszlo, Skanderbe, and Pedro were all waiting, and the soldiers on both sides were dressed in strong and stubborn clothes, the most conspicuous of which was the musket team, which accounted for a large part, and the Roman soldiers were all covered with red clothes under the armor, and they looked red from a distance, and the reflection of the weapons in the sun was dazzling, which could give people huge psychological pressure.

Constantine rode his horse at the front, Louis and Cecipe were on either side, behind him were the high bishops sent by the Patriarch of Constantinople, flanked by elite soldiers in heavy armor, Constantine was dressed in a purple robe, wearing an armor and a purple cloak, and stretched out a hand to his soldiers, who responded to their emperor with cheers,

If the remnants of the Roman Empire were present, I am afraid that they would cry out directly with excitement, such a scale of militarization has not appeared for decades, which makes it easy to think that the revival of the Roman Empire is imminent.

"Rome! Rome! Rome! ”

Led by unknown men, the soldiers began to shout Rome so loudly that they could be heard from miles away, and it was obvious that it could also be heard in the city not far away.

Amid the shouts of the soldiers, Constantine almost patrolled the camp before finally coming to the Chinese army,

"My soldiers and subjects, here I am going to read an important thing, when history places the responsibility on the shoulders of a man, even if we are facing Satan, we must do our best to move forward, for Rome will always be invincible in the world!!"