For Guo Kang's mysterious sponsor, Theodora is somewhat concerned.

However, according to Tuhuan, there were many people who invested in the monastery at that time, and a large group of Greek and Italian merchants were involved, and it was impossible to find out which one was the most special. Theodora was not involved in the event, so he did not pay attention to the specific situation.

Guo Kang is busy all day long, and there are many forces that deal with him. In the past, she didn't care too much. But today I don't know why, no matter how I think about it, I don't think it's right, so she also secretly decided to investigate it carefully and see what forces are behind this mysterious businessman.

And Guo Kang was still unaware of this, and was still selling his long-term plan to the Cao family. Judging from the current situation, the three generations of the Cao family, except for Cao Jian, who did not say a word, everyone else was very interested in the plan.

And Guo Kang is continuing to work hard to introduce them to his long-term plans.

"Our actions will be a long-term work." He told the crowd: "Since the project is going to last so long, of course we have to plan for the long term. ”

"The daily consumption on the construction site is very large, and it can't all rely on transportation, right? So, we had to build roads, run farms, house artisans, and rely on these new settlements to support the work. ”

"In these ways, we can save costs better. Otherwise, no amount of investment or cheap labor will be enough to spend so much over the years. ”

"In short, this kind of project with a huge amount of work and a long time period also requires a corresponding huge organization to carry out. It is no exaggeration to say that we have the most experience and the highest level of technology in the entire Mediterranean world in organizing the construction of water conservancy. I believe that we can convince investors without much effort. ”

"Then we can talk to the Li family kid when we go back." Cao Xun looked at the Queen Mother: "In the early years of his family, he was still doing water conservancy." I remember that Boljan, the secretary of the Ministry of Water, was also his father's subordinate back then. ”

The Queen Mother nodded.

Guo Kang probably understands that the "Li family boy" he is talking about is Li Huawen, the current principal of the Li family.

Li Huawen's father, Li Yinglin, was expelled by the Greek Empress Dowager together with Cao Xun, so the two families have always had a "difficult friend" relationship. In today's various families, the contacts between them are still relatively close.

As for the work of the ancestors of the Li family back then, in the Purple Horde, it was something that everyone knew. His family did not feel ashamed of this, but often publicized it, so as to narrow the distance between them and the legionnaires, and enhance everyone's sense of closeness to them.

Now, his family doesn't continue to do this work. However, Borjan, who served as the secretary of the Ministry of Water, was indeed promoted by the Li family.

At the time of Basil's reorganization of the Council of Thirteen, the bureaucratic system of the Purple Horde had been perfected, but because of the many wars, the traditional military families still had an important position, constantly providing Rome with new officers to use on various fronts.

In order to solve this problem, Basil has made a series of efforts.

For example, he has been encouraging families, large and small, reviving Roman traditions, adopting adopted sons, and leaving the most talented heirs to manage the family business. Religious and traditional grounds were also used as grounds to further restrict the inheritance rights of concubines.

At that time, the Purple Horde had nominally believed in the worship of God. The concubines of the upper nobles belong to the gray part of the family. Moreover, Basil not only came forward himself, but also found Guo Li to cooperate, repeatedly stating that "it is forbidden to take concubines as wives", and concubines and concubines are not allowed to obtain the same inheritance qualifications as concubines.

He also passed laws to set out detailed rules on the rights and responsibilities of adopted and biological children, so that they can achieve a win-win situation and live in harmony. In this environment, it is no better to inherit by taking concubines and raising concubines to have children, it is no better to adopt them directly.

In addition, it may be due to the dual influence of the late Tang Dynasty and Rome, the Purple Horde originally had the custom of adopting a righteous son, so many people can accept it. Like Guo Kang himself, even if he is one of the beneficiaries.

In addition to family issues, Basil also made adjustments to his public office. When changing the hereditary seats of each family to the seat of office, he specially held an oath with the Zhuguo in the Niangniang Temple. In front of the Divine Ancestor, Heavenly Father, and Heavenly Brother, everyone agreed that those who did not have military merits in the future could not become patriarchs.

In other words, it was basically impossible for these people to hold high official positions in the ministries, and they could not enter the highest decision-making bodies in Rome.

This decision, to the satisfaction of the legion and the clan, can be regarded as a concession to the previous reorganization. In this order, it is tantamount to acquiescing to each family to give more opportunities to their children and old departments. Compared with direct hereditary succession and appointment, there is another threshold.

But then again, this most basic requirement of "being able to win" is actually not low. The enemies around the Purple Horde are more ferocious than the other, and it is difficult to find a place where people can mix military exploits with peace of mind. The screening process is also much harsher than the examination at Junbord University - if you fail the "test", it is likely that the body will not be recovered.

In fact, even in the Basil era, when the Purple Horde had truly become a first-class power in Europe, the sons of the princes were still a very high-risk status. Guo Kang's uncles, including parents and sons, have a total of nearly twenty people, and now the father-in-law is only in his early forties, and there are only seven brothers left.

Guo Kang still remembers that the youngest son of his uncle Guo Xian, not long after he joined the army, was attacked by the Poles. The father-in-law and others found an Italian merchant they knew and wanted to try to redeem the person.

Half a year later, the merchant brought back a rudimentary coffin. Guo Kang's last impression of this cheerful uncle who had also brought him snacks was a leg preserved with coarse salt in the coffin, and half an arm with wolf dog tooth marks.

Later, he learned that after the popularization of gunpowder, officers on the northern front often liked to hang an iron-clad thunderbolt. They jokingly called it the "Polish Ball", which meant that if the Poles were about to get caught, it would be better to just click on it.

At first, he didn't understand why some princes preferred to let their sons inherit the family business, but let their own children worship them as the head of the family. Is everyone so selfless and doesn't care about blood relations at all?

When he saw more of this kind of thing, he realized that if his own son was incapable, it was really better to keep him away from military duty and power.

At the very least, the laws and customs are relatively well established in this regard. Including Guo Kang himself, he has also been educated by the people around him since he was a child, and he will take care of his sister in the future.

In this case, instead of dying in vain, it is really better to be a rich man under the protection of others.

Today, this system has been widely accepted by everyone and has become a conventional rule.

For example, Boljan mentioned by Cao Xun, although he seems to be an ordinary old pedant, when he was young, he participated in several wars under Li Yinglin.

When he participated in the invasion of Hungary as an engineer, he took advantage of the seasonal rise of the river to divert the water from the river to overwhelm the enemy's entrenched camps. Li Yinglin thought he was talented, so he recommended him to join the newly formed engineering brigade.

During the years he spent there, Borjan spent most of his time not going to the front, but was stationed in a new military administration west of Kiev.

There was originally a village there, but it was plundered many times in the previous tug-of-war with Poland and Lithuania, and then abandoned. The legion clerk did not go to the scene to seriously investigate, but only read the official document, and casually counted it as a "familiar land" that had been reclaimed.

The officials of the capital only read the paper report, thought about it, and felt that the land that had been reclaimed was much easier to deal with, so they decided to make this the center of the new military government with a stroke of a large pen.

When the resettled soldiers and their families arrived, they found that the local Slavs, who had been cultivating for generations, were not much better off than the wilderness by the standards of the Purple Horde.

It has been abandoned for longer than expected, and the fields have been deserted for at least several years. Next to the small river, which is "stable and abundant" in the document, it is not fertile land that can be cultivated directly, only a large pool of swamp-like mud.

The so-called "cooked land" is now full of life, and it is impossible to use it without cleaning it up from scratch - because the previous inhabitants did not seem to have the concept of water conservancy, and this small river can even be flooded at any time.

The veterans who had migrated were strongly dissatisfied with this, and threatened to go to Galich to find a provincial official to tell him about the stakes in person. The province urgently issued a letter to increase their money, and transferred Borjan's brigade to the city, asking them to solve the infrastructure problem of the entire military government as soon as possible.

It took Borjan and others several years to plan water conservancy projects for the entire region from scratch to solve the problems of flood control, drainage and irrigation.

The work was complicated, and the local Slavic villagers simply couldn't do it. Everyone was afraid that they would collapse the dam, and that the engineering brigade and the garrison would have to do it themselves. After a lot of hard work, the initial construction was completed. As for the facilities stipulated by the province and the entire military government, then we can take our time and deal with the boss at the same time.

However, everyone also saw his credit.

Because of his quick response and proper handling of the incident, whether it was his professional skills in water conservancy or dealing with the thorns of the regiment, he showed reliable ability, and the provincial military district recognized him for outstanding merit and recommended him to be promoted to a higher official position. He first returned to the Lee's shogunate and served as a member of the corps staff, and then moved to a civilian position, taking up a position in the provincial department of Serbia.

During this period, the princes often also held the status of civil officials. However, Rome's education system has been perfected, the bureaucratic system has gradually matured, and the quality of hereditary officials is increasingly inferior to that of the talents selected from the grassroots level, and it is difficult to take care of both sides of the work at the same time. They occupy the title of civil governor, but they are often unable to work, so that the ministries have become vain.

After Li Yinglin's death, the title of "Shuibu Shangshu", which had been hung by him himself, became vacant. Li Huawen believes that he does not have the prestige of his father, so it is better to concentrate on the work of the army, and give this identity equivalent to the minister of industry to someone who is good at it.

At the beginning, it was Guo Ru, the eldest son of Guo Di, who took over. However, Guo Ru was not worthy of his name, and he was also very big about administrative work, and he was unwilling to continue to stay in office after a year, so this position was completely opened to ordinary officials.

Borjan, because of his close relationship with the Lee family, was seen as an important official during the transitional period, and entered the central body of the Ministry of Water, and ten years later, became the top official of the department.

It can be said that the Li family and the department in charge of water conservancy are still inextricably linked.

Cao Xun has already understood that Guo Kang said that he was going to dig a canal, but he was actually preparing to use this plan to run a new military government in Egypt. Because of the construction of water conservancy, the organization of manpower, and the development of farms...... This process is all too familiar to the Purple Horde. Looking at the beginning, you know what he wants to do.

And if this plan is to be implemented, it really needs the support of the Ministry of Water and the help of the army. Lee happened to have influence on both fronts, and if the plan was carried out, they could also be the first to reach out to Egypt. It can be said that in this matter, the Li family is also a potential ally of Guo Kang.

And the Cao family, although it is far away, Cao Xun can still help with the help of his prestige. Guo Kang had a good relationship with the Li family, and in this kind of major event, it was not difficult to have the Queen Mother and General Cao Lao to help him support him, and to get the support of the Li family and the Ministry of Water.

After thinking about this, Guo Kang expressed his gratitude to Cao Xun.

"I think our first priority is to operate slowly and try to lay a solid foundation." "In this process, we will definitely have to deal with various forces," he said. Not only in Egypt, but also in Europe and other Celestial worlds. ”

"This time, our biggest advantage over the Mamluks actually comes from 'knowing the other'. And for a long time afterward, in order for our experimental zone in Egypt to develop steadily, it was also very necessary to understand the possible enemies and their movements. Guo Kang said: "I don't have much diplomatic experience, and now I still know a lot about these situations through Dehuan." If you want to get information in a timely manner, you will need your help. ”

"We'll do our best to help." Cao Xun also said directly: "However, I'm actually very curious, why is Guo Gongzi obsessed with this matter?" If you want to intervene in the Celestial Sect world, then it is enough to negotiate with the caliph and control the situation in Egypt, and you don't need to put so much effort into it. ”

"The natives of Egypt have not been treated as nationals for more than 2,000 years. Persians, Macedonians, Greeks, Ancient Romans, Arabs, Turks...... Everyone comes and goes, but they all have a common understanding, that is, the Egyptians can only do some low-level labor, which is not of great use. Organizing them into a military government is probably a very ...... Fresh ideas. He said euphemistically.

"I listen to you, these new military governments are valuable in military affairs and in religious matters with you." He accurately judged what Guo Kang meant, and asked: "I can understand military matters, religiously, do you think this is of great significance?" ”

"Of course." Guo Kang said with a smile: "No matter what aspect, this is of great significance."

(End of chapter)