Chapter 47: Wood City

Wood City

That was my first impression when I saw the famous city of Vecchia, and its name was Ivangelrod

The city was first a commercial colony of the Chanda people, and the ancient Chanda people stopped here, they set up towns here and reclaimed the surrounding farmland, of course, this is not for further raiding the entire Eastern world, but to reduce the pressure on the local supply here From that time, the ancestors of the Oriental people transported furs, ores and golden sands from the forest to exchange the items they needed with the Chanda people, with the decline of the Chanda people and the gradual rise of the Vikyans, The vernacular color of the place is getting stronger and stronger

Hundreds of years ago, there were even Vicchians who crossed the mountain pass to attack the Chanda people on the other side of the mountain, and the angry Chanda Emperor once proposed an expedition plan, but as mentioned earlier, his courtiers brought back negative news, and the Senate thought that the attack on the eastern world was a huge investment, and the harvest was far away, so it ruthlessly dismissed the emperor's order So far, the Chanda people no longer directly bsp the eastern world; As the Chanda Empire continued to decline, immigrants began to flow in the opposite direction

Countless ancestors of the Vedians and Berks began to run through the snow-capped mountains to the territory of the Zenda: it was rich and stable, not as wild and poor as the east, and this migration process still existed in the early days of the Swadian Empire, at that time, the war-like Swadian Empire urgently needed a large number of people to fill its empty countryside, but by that time the Vycians had formed their own culture and a high degree of unity, which caused the concern of the Swadia Emperor, and soon after, The Vicians were no longer allowed to enter the territory of the Empire, and the Emperor of Svadia built a solid snow-capped fortress for several generations, keeping the Vicians firmly out of the mountain pass

That pass is a complete defense system, where the old world ends, and where the world begins

When I looked back at the misty mountains on the east side of the snowy mountain, some ancient fortresses loomed in the clouds, the ancient emperors had long since died, but the monuments they left behind still existed, these ancient buildings stood in the snow-capped mountains all year round, faithfully guarding the frontier for the empire It is said that in Rhodok, there are also a lot of such stone forts, but in the era of great construction that began more than ten years ago, the Rhodok people did not hesitate to demolish a large number of stone forts, and now these things can no longer be seen there

This may be a sign that the old times will slowly pass, and the time is coming

But for me, the times did not seem beautiful and chic, especially when I saw the town of Ivangelodes

Even Kudan, which I consider to be a large vegetable market, is a beautiful city compared to Ivangorod, with at least stone buildings, well-lined arched bridges, and wide pavements paved with stone slabs, but Ivangorod looks like a tribe

Ivangelod built on the edge of a lake, at the end of the lake is a continuous forest, the people of Ivangelrod there are dozens of logging sites, every year thousands of logs are transported from the lake to the city, but after entering the city, the wood will be distributed, if you see Ivangelod with your own eyes, you will know that this is not a lie, the whole city is a wooden city, it devours endless timber every day, and the buildings here are generally not high, But the tallest buildings I've seen are five stories high, but the bottom two floors of these buildings are made of stone

The Zen people built a tall canal to transport the water from the river upstream of the lake to the city, this stone canal may be the tallest and most beautiful stone building in the city, the stone canal is like a wall full of windows, crossing through the middle of the city, and at intervals there will be some pipes stretching out to inject water into the water storage pits, the canal officials are the most important municipal officials in the city, and they are usually held by citizens, because the Vicchians here are worried that the boyars, that is, the great nobles, once they have control of the canals, will intensify the oppression of the citizens

Although the Zen people have been evacuated for a long time, the powerful citizens they have left behind have not given up their rights for hundreds of years

The inhabitants of the commercial city with a strong sense of vanity always liked to build their houses exaggerated in other places, and the upper floors of the buildings tended to shrink, but in Ivangelode, they liked to make the upper floors wider, like a brimmed hat, and each time the floor was raised, it would protrude two or three feet more than the ground floor, and then strengthen it with pillars against the ground, which made the streets of Ivangelrod like tunnels, and the sky became a narrow strip

As we passed, the people on the side of the road looked at us with a nonchalant attitude, only they complained a little as our cattle passed by, it seemed that they had become accustomed to the crowds and tribes coming and going, and some housewives poured garbage and dirty water over our heads, and since their floors stretched almost to the center of the street, what they spilled caused us a huge obstacle, and some of the people in the convoy quarreled with the women of Ivangelod, But the people on both sides of the street remained unmoved, and it seemed that they were used to such quarrels

The White Dove Exchange had a branch in Ivangorod, and at the edge of the lake they had left a place waiting for us, and as we were in the city, we passed by the Bell Square, the pride of the Ivangorodians

Although it is called the square, it is a pitiful place, on the left side of the square is their council, and on the right is a church of the Eastern Church

The Vickyan Council has been abolished in the western part of the Snow Mountain, and the military-born Vekia King hates these things, although the Legion can restrict the disobedient lords under the Vekia King, but it can also give the citizens huge rights, which is intolerable for the Vekia King, and this is the main reason why the Vecchians in the east are reluctant to fully submit to the Western King: the Vecchians who submit to the West can certainly get a safe life, but at the same time, it also means that a lot of freedom is taken away

Ivangorod's parliament consisted of boyars and citizen representatives, and the rights of the members were basically the same, and as long as three or more members felt the need to convene a convention, they could go to the square and ring the assembly bell and let the citizens come to the meeting, which was unthinkable for the countries west of the snowy mountains, and even the parliament of Rhodok could not match the general parliament here, and the Vycians in the east of the snow mountain regarded what they had learned from the Zenda people as their own glorious tradition, of course, This right cannot be exercised at will, and once three representatives of the citizens rang the assembly bell, but they did so only so that people could gather to celebrate the wedding of one of them, and the angry people immediately called an expulsion meeting, expelled the three men, and two years later, the three were called back to the city to serve

In addition, the Ivangorodians' respect for human life was staggering for the people of their time: it retained the mellow atmosphere of the commercial city of ancient times, and its laws used the word 'massacre' whenever the execution of criminals with more than four people was discussed

All of this is out of step with the current world environment, and the kings of the West insist that this laissez-faire approach to power is the reason why the East is in a state of slump, but the Parliament of the Vikians has done a better job of limiting the power of its members, and the Assembly of the Nobles of the Berks is a disaster, especially the infamous veto

The Burke nobility could veto proposals at the General Assembly, and if someone voted against it, all previous proposals would be nullified, and the system was designed to allow the members of the nobility to take their opinions seriously, but now it has lost its original meaning, and in the last fifty-eight Berke nobility councils, thirty times were stopped by a veto, and none of these thirty votes came from the Pilsudskis

The Pilsudski family is a victim of this system, and their excellent generals and civil servants are always quick to make decisions, but the approval of these policies requires the consent of the parliament, and once the parliament is convened, everything will be mired in lengthy discussions, and the best policies are often passed when they lose the meaning of implementation, and the permission decree is finally passed, such as the nobleman who rejected the proposal to build a castle many years ago. He used a veto to terminate the Pilsudskis' proposal to build fortifications several times in a row, until his territory was conquered by the Wikibians, and the reason for this was that he was captured and could not go back to vote against it

It is said that the reason why Yusuf Pilsudski recently led the family to refuse to carry out state affairs and brought the Berke kingdom to a near standstill was to force the parliament to abandon the one-vote veto system Indeed, most of the success of the Berks in recent years has been due to the efforts of the Pilsudski family, and they have often coordinated the interests of the families before the proposal by contacting the various Burke families, which allows the noble assembly to pass the proposal quickly, but this makes the meaning of the noble assembly lost, The Pilsudskis, in particular, considered the veto power of the noble parliament to be meaningless anymore

Pilsudski's opponents pointed out that once the nobility's veto was abolished, Burke's parliament would one day become the Pilsudski's intra-clan salon

The noble council of Berke is about to face a great challenge, and this challenge comes from the best families it has bred itself

At the same time, the Vychian parliament, or Duma, was a calm Dovidian who inherited the spirit of the Zenda, but never allowed too much power, whether it was the peasant deputies or the Grand Boyars, to exercise their power only to a limited extent

On the opposite side of the council is a church of the Eastern Church

At last I was struck by the fact that the church was made of stone, and its towering, white stone perimeter rose in distinct lines like ice cubes stacked on top of each other, and of course, the main attraction was its dome, thirteen oval domes painted with gold and shining under the blue sky

A clergyman from the Eastern Church and a man who looked like a town magistrate stood aside with dozens of retinues

The count walked up and talked to them, and Vladimir, Alexei, and Yuri were all by his side, and today a Duma council will be convened specifically for the Romanovs to decide on the status of the family and the distribution of land

While I was still looking at the dreamy dome of the church, the bell rang