Eagle Byzantium

The guard sergeant leaned over and opened the gauze curtain in front of Anna's carriage. The princess in purple bowed her head and walked out. Then she stood on a high slope with lush flowers and plants in Cappadocia in summer, with the cool and comfortable wind blowing from her ears. Whistling past, in front of her eyes was an ocher-yellow towering The giant peak of Algaeus, with white snow on the top, complements the blue sky. "The white fire dances restlessly on the sapphire blue velvet bottom." A proud smile appeared on the corner of the princess's mouth. , couldn't help but chant this poem in ancient Latin.

Agnes next to her immediately turned to the princess and saluted, and covered Anna with her shawl with concern, fearing that she would catch a cold due to the wind on the plateau.

But Anna's interest was very high. She pointed to the city of Karon on the other side of the mountain and said to Agnes, "Look, the city of Karon happens to be the dividing point that separates the southern part of the Tema Military District in Cappadocia." The land is completely separated."

The little sunfish looked as the princess pointed, and what she said was absolutely correct: the area east of Caron City and the Algaeus Mountains, starting from the Great Salt Lake, is a vast expanse of salt grasslands and hills, covered with white flowers. , covered with reddish yellow that can only grow on this kind of soil Color fern grass, and then to the east of the mountain peak, there are rows of stone pillars, endless ravines, and the only source of fresh water: waterfalls, hanging on the cliffs, gushing down, colliding with the rocks, sending out The roaring sound continues day and night.

On the west side of Karon City, the land connected to Heraclea and Konya is densely covered with rivers, nourishing the fertile land, and then pouring into the huge salt lake from all directions, in spring and summer. Everywhere is endless green, making it the most ideal farming area.

The "Roman Avenue" (a paved road left over from ancient Rome) between the city of Caron in the center and Cilicia is just like an artificial dividing line, dividing the different geographical states of the east and west.

Seeing this scene, Anna clapped excitedly, "It's a pity, it's a pity, it's a pity that the barbarian is still going through hardships on the battlefield of Antioch, so he can't share the scenery in front of me with me."

"That is to say, we use Caron City as a base, let the armored cavalry who obtained the shade land be stationed there, and then the armed immigrants will cultivate fields along the fan-shaped territory on the west side to resist Konya and Da Nishmund, do you think this is a long-term solution?" Agnes asked, half-kneeling on the grass, holding the paper swinging in the wind, holding a reed pen.

"You're so unambitious Agnes! You only saw the food production areas to the west of Caron City, but you didn't see the real wealth here." After Anna finished speaking, she showed her white teeth and tapped them with her fingers, "Really white Wealth, yellow gold is not the only thing that is precious in this world. On the contrary, I think white is the real value, such as the white paper you are using to write on, and the one over there.”

Agnes was a little puzzled, and then she followed Anna's words and made some inferences and guesses about the vast land in front of her, and then stood up slowly, "Could it be that the white you are talking about is... ..”

"Yes, that's right, it's this beautiful Great Salt Lake." Anna excitedly pressed her hands on the shoulders of the little sunfish.

Then the princess turned around, put one hand behind her waist, and raised the other hand, "Gawain once invited me to eat the venison hunted from my father's garden. The meat we sprinkled on the meat was from Venice's sea salt, according to Gawain, represents the highest quality of this ocean and land. It is marketed in all regions and brings a pillar of income to this commercial city-state. But if this lake is used by me, Venice will be the best. Salt’s good days are over!”

"But Seleucia and Cilicia, where we are located, are also close to the sea, so they can be used to produce salt?"

"Idiot little sunfish." Anna's scolding was obviously not malicious, and she continued, "Not all places can be like Venice, with unique conditions for producing sea salt. For example, hot-cured duck, I think After passing the drawing, it is surrounded by rivers and mountains. It is impossible to produce fine salt. As for our territory, we can boil salt from the sea, but that requires a lot of investment and manpower, and the quality is not as high as the salt in this Cappadocia lake. According to the customs of the ancient times. According to records, there are three basic ways to obtain salt.”

"Yes, Your Highness, sea salt, well salt, and this lake salt."

"The first two require manpower and financial resources to obtain. This lake salt is simply a gift from the Lord. It requires no effort." Anna said, "As for the entire territory, people can do without gold, but who can lack it?" Salt? It's literally white gold. Previously, Seleucia's salt mainly came from sea salt and well salt from other areas of Anatolia, causing a large part of our income to be lost. Now, we finally obtained this huge white gold mine, no, gold. Of course we must make good use of the lake and the golden sea.”

"Your Highness, your words are too much, because there is no wealth in this world that can only be obtained without giving." Agnes caught the flaw in Anna's words and criticized mercilessly.

Anna was stunned for a while, and then laughed, "Yes, yes, it would be a bit arrogant to say such things in front of the Lord. What I just said is that it is 'effortless' to obtain lake salt." It's debatable, but my original intention is not Any change - that is, the Cappadocia Lake Salt, even if it requires a huge investment, but this deal will make a huge profit - Gawain and Anna will never allow the capital of any commercial city-state to interfere, lest they control us economic lifeline.”

This little girl learned some weird vocabulary from Gawain, such as "capital interference", "money invasion", "economic lifeline" and so on.

In short, Anna's expression became serious and she immediately asked her imperial ink officer to draft a document, "The main task of the entire military armed immigration group, as well as the armored cavalry and ginats stationed in the camp, is to first follow the route of Caron City. To the west, build camp barriers, open up land to harvest food, build pastures to raise war horses, and protect the salt lake. Patent. This is the biggest goal of my army; then, I will recruit 3,000 to 4,000 households from West Cilicia, whether natives or pilgrims, in the eastern part of Caron City and the Salt Lake In the grassland area in the middle, salt fields that can produce 'white gold' are cultivated, and special inspectors are dispatched from the Jince Brotherhood to rule them."

"This group of salt farm households are permanently exempted from any taxes and enjoy monthly subsidies of food and money from the military government. Their duty is to produce salt when the heat and wind come in summer, to produce more salt, and to produce more salt. More snow-white salt; then maintain the road here to Cilicia and transport all the salt Go out and hand over our exclusive salt for sale." Anna finally added the key sentence, "From now on, we are willing to share the benefits of this snow-white salt with all the people inside Seleucia, and outside. In the trade, Gawain’s legions and I have exclusive rights to all the benefits—in the name of the Virgin Mary.” (Unknown. To be continued ~^~)