At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Under such circumstances, Emperor Caracalla even had the idea of ​​giving the status of Roman citizenship to every free person in the Roman Empire, and he really planned to implement it.

Time passes.

In the past, Roman citizenship was a status symbol, a symbol of honor, and a first-class citizen of the Roman Empire, enjoying many rights that non-Roman citizens could not enjoy.

To be a Roman citizen was the common aspiration of all people who lived in this land.

However, in the case of the continuous decline of the empire, those foreigners who are not citizens of the Roman Empire and people in non-Italian regions can enjoy no worse than Roman citizens.

Emperor Caracalla has admitted that the rights and glory of Roman citizens have long been a thing of the past. The existing number of Roman citizens alone cannot collect enough taxes, and they are about to be plundered.

However, the rich and powerful of the empire embezzled most of the war dividends, acquired huge wealth, and managed a huge industry, making them richer than any country.

They are very rich.

Wealthy enough to buy luxury goods produced by the Wei Empire to show off their wealth.

And Emperor Caracalla not only has to bear the daily expenses of the empire, but also is ready to give a lot of [Emperor Bounty] to those guards who will never have enough appetite.

This made Emperor Caracalla feel inexplicably unhappy.

Chapter 1383 One thousand two hundred and ninety three His position is not stable

Before his death, the former Roman emperor told Caracalla that his seat as emperor would be secure only if the Praetorian guards were fed.

If the Janissaries were not fed enough, he would die.

Therefore, it is most important to feed the Imperial Guards. It is not a big problem for other people to eat or not, as long as they have enough to eat.

He did what his father told him to do, fed the Janissaries well, and won the full support of the Janissaries.

It is precisely because of this that he was able to kill his younger brother and become the only dictator.

Without the support of the Praetorian Guards, he could not take the initiative in Rome at all, nor could he talk about dictatorship.

That's why he was shocked. He was shocked that the emperor of the Wei Empire actually defeated the rentier class in the empire and enjoyed the tax revenue of the empire alone.

How terrifying would this country, this emperor, be if he could do that?

How did he do it?

For Emperor Caracalla's surprise, Wang Wei's emotions were complicated.

On the one hand, this is the pride of being a citizen of the Wei Empire.

On the other hand, the emperor's policy hit people with a lot of land indiscriminately, so he was also unfortunately hit.

Emotionally it's complicated.

The country is indeed strong and glorious, but its own interests have been damaged.

Wang Wei didn't know how to evaluate objectively.

But the answer is of course to uphold the first attitude.

"Yes, His Majesty the Emperor of our country is very brave. He led the army to establish this country. Therefore, when a large-scale rebellion occurs, His Majesty the Emperor is not worried. He defeated them forcefully and obtained all their land and wealth. Now all Wei Citizens of the country pay taxes, everyone."

The interpreter relayed Wang Wei's words again.

After hearing this, Emperor Caracalla looked thoughtfully at the manors spread all over the territory of the Roman Empire outside the car, those beautiful and rich lands that did not belong to him.

How to do all this and become like that emperor?

What the emperor can do, can I also do it?

Take everything in this country into my possession, let me control everything, all the wealth, all the power, all under my control.

If you can do this, you must be very happy and very happy.

He is the lord of a country, I am also the lord of a country, we are all lords of a country, why can't I do what he can do?But do I have to be restrained everywhere?

The father of Emperor Caracalla, Severus, was a powerful emperor, and he was also the head of the local army. He led his own army into the city of Rome and became emperor. He killed all the imperial guards left by the previous emperors and replaced them with his own people.

As a result, after he died, his own people learned from others and became the same traditional Janissaries. Only Severus had the prestige to control the Janissaries. It was Caracalla and his younger brother's turn. money.

If he wants to obtain all the land and taxes in the country, first of all, he must be able to absolutely control the elite of the Imperial Guard Army. This is an important reliance for him to become the emperor. If he can't even directly control the Imperial Guard Army, there is no need to talk about the following things up.

What kind of means should be used to better control the Guards?

Emperor Caracalla began to think.

Wang Wei didn't know what Emperor Caracalla was thinking.

Maybe his words gave Emperor Caracalla some inspiration.

But the difference between the Roman Empire and the Wei Empire is too great, and the same thing is destined to be difficult to happen to the overlords of these two worlds.

But the facts described by Wang Wei made Emperor Caracalla firm in his mind.

First of all, a decree must be promulgated to grant the status of Roman Empire citizenship to all free people in the country, and let tax-collecting officials scatter out, so as to force them to pay taxes to themselves, thereby expanding the financial resources of the central government.

If you have money, you can do more things.

What Wang Wei could do was limited. The Roman dignitaries also knew the identity of Wang Wei's advance envoy, but they knew better that this advance envoy would have a great influence on the subsequent official envoys.

In front of the official envoy with decision-making power, the words of the advance envoy must have great significance, and may even determine Wei's trade policy with the Roman Empire.

Therefore, they made no secret of their goals and worked very hard to win over Wang Wei, trying to let Wang Wei understand the power of them and the family power alliance behind them in the Roman Empire, so as to obtain special authorization from Wei Guo in commodity traders.

They each have their own traditional spheres of influence.

The land conquered by the Roman army was often subject to military control, rather than civil political control prevailing in the Wei Empire.

The system of prefectures and counties implemented by the Wei Empire effectively maintained the centralized rule and the power of the emperor, but this was not reflected in Rome.

The generals of the army, the power of local snakes, and the power of the emperor himself are often intertwined, and here, the power of the emperor himself is often the smallest.

The governors of the provinces hold great power, and there will often be complete governors who have obtained military, political and financial powers, so they are not the emperor in the center at all.

In addition, the emperor would always be killed by the imperial guards, and a new one would be replaced every now and then, which would not be able to establish a sense of deterrence and belonging to the local area. It is only natural for the local area to be more loyal to the governor.

The emperor obviously cannot be arbitrary.

Local forces and military generals also have a huge voice on issues related to major interests, and the emperor himself cannot restrict anything.

Especially when Caracalla has not gained military prestige.

The various forces also have their own spokespersons for their interests in Rome, so as to seize the opportunity in time for major interest events. They often have certain decision-making power, which will bring them great convenience.

So when Wang Wei heard that these people were introducing to him how powerful the power groups they belonged to were in various places, Wang Wei realized that these people were seeking benefits from him.

At the banquet, when these people were chatting with Wang Wei, Wang Wei noticed that Emperor Caracalla's complexion was not good.

His Majesty the Roman Emperor was obviously also aware that these local forces were trying to seek benefits for the power groups behind them.

Originally, these interests should belong to the emperor.

Now, due to various circumstances, Emperor Caracalla was unable to obtain these benefits, and instead wanted to share this attractive piece of fat with these local forces.

So in the following period of time, Emperor Caracalla often summoned Wang Wei to get along with him, and also intentionally or unintentionally revealed that the place where they landed-Egypt, was the private property of the Roman emperor and belonged entirely to the Roman emperor.

According to Emperor Caracalla’s own introduction, starting from the founder of the Roman Empire, a great emperor, he conquered Egypt and regarded Egypt as the emperor’s private property, and did not allow any powerful person to enter Egypt and touch his interests.

Afterwards, the emperors of all dynasties inherited this huge fertile soil as the foundation of the emperor. The Roman city and Egypt on the Apennine Peninsula became the basic base of the Roman emperor.

Wang Wei didn't know all of this. Only through the interpretation of the translator did he know that the place where they landed was the private territory of the Roman emperor and did not belong to any powerful faction.

If Wang Wei can start the goods distribution trade in Egypt, he will give the most favorable tax policy to the goods from the Wei Empire.

Wang Wei realized that Emperor Caracalla was trying to control all the goods of the Wei Empire in Egypt, making himself the only second-hand dealer, devouring this piece of fat, in order to obtain huge benefits.

And use this as political capital to blackmail and control local forces and strengthen their own power.

As long as he can grasp all these, he will definitely be able to gain an advantage and gain the initiative in trade. If local forces want to gain benefits, they must surrender some autonomy to the emperor.

Emperor Caracalla will get what he has always dreamed of.

Undoubtedly, without the experience and understanding these days, Wang Wei would have agreed to this request if he had been an official envoy.

Wei Guohui conducted the only trade with His Majesty the Emperor of Rome, making him the only second-hand businessman to obtain huge profits from the trade.

However, based on what Tian Wangwei had seen and heard in Rome, he had a preliminary understanding of the political situation in Rome. He felt that Emperor Caracalla should not be the only trading partner of the Wei Empire.

Local forces obviously realized what Emperor Caracalla would say to Wang Wei, so when they invited or visited Wang Wei in private, they would tell Wang Wei some black information about Emperor Caracalla.

For example, he killed his younger brother Geta, became the only emperor by despicable means, and brutally cleaned up his political opponents, and his status was not stable.

Especially the fact that this position is not stable, it is very terrible.

The Imperial Guard supported him, and they would definitely gain huge benefits. If they could not get huge benefits, the Imperial Guard might launch another coup and kill him.

It is not uncommon for the Roman emperor to be killed and then supported by the Praetorian Guards.

Inside and outside the words, these people are trying to make Wang Wei realize that Emperor Caracalla's position is not stable, and he is not the only powerful emperor with centralized power, and even his personal safety cannot be guaranteed.

Because of such news, Wang Wei questioned Emperor Caracalla's conditions.

Of course, he is not an official envoy, he does not have the final decision-making power, but has a huge influence on the final decision-making power.

In the fourth month after Wang Wei arrived in Rome, he was already acquainted with various upper-level forces in Rome, and had a considerable understanding of the political situation and past history of the Roman Empire.

During this period of time, Wang Wei heard and witnessed no less than ten confrontations between the emperor and local forces about commercial interests, whether in front of him or not.

It seems that the emperor and local forces still failed to reach a unified understanding on how to distribute these commercial interests.

The emperor wanted to monopolize it, but the local forces were unwilling, and desperately put pressure on the emperor to express their opposition.

The two sides have reached a stalemate, and no one is willing to take a step back and let the other party gain benefits for no reason.

At this time, news came again from Egypt that a larger fleet from Wei State had arrived in Egypt.

The people who came down from above were dressed in strict clothes. They claimed to be the official envoys of the Emperor Wei. One was called Zhang Liao and the other was called Xin Pi.

They were ordered by His Majesty the Emperor of Wei to discuss with His Majesty the Roman Emperor the trade treaty between the two countries.

When the news came, Emperor Caracalla was excited and immediately went to Wang Wei to ask him for confirmation. Wang Wei was surprised when he learned that it was Zhang Liao and Xin Pi who came.

It seems that Guo Peng attaches great importance to this exchange with the Roman Empire.

So he introduced the two emissaries to Emperor Caracalla.

Zhang Liao was a very famous general in Wei State. He made great contributions during the war time and once destroyed a country.

Simpi was Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Wei, that is, the highest official in charge of diplomatic work, and held a high position among the official ranks.

Caracalla was very excited when she heard about it, and immediately spread the news to let all Roman citizens know that a higher-level envoy from the State of Wei had arrived.

They are coming to formally discuss the details of the trade.

Local forces also learned the news one after another, and asked Wang Wei for confirmation, and Wang Wei agreed.

During this period, the spokespersons of local forces also communicated with the interest groups behind them.

Wang Wei is not clear about what agreement they have reached, but judging from the current situation, Emperor Caracalla has become unprecedentedly isolated because he insisted on taking advantage of Egypt's advantages.

Before Zhang Liao and Simpi arrived in Rome for specific exchanges, Wang Wei decided to tell them everything he knew so that they could make a judgment.

Chapter 1384 Return the initiative to them in one thousand two hundred and ninety four, and neither side will offend

The situation of the Roman Empire was different from that of the Wei Empire.

The conflict between the local government and the central government is very sharp. Who to unite with and who not to unite may have a decisive impact on the commercial interests of the Wei Empire in the future, so it has to be treated with caution.

After all, the Roman emperor was not Guo Peng, and he couldn't do everything.

Wang Wei has lived here for a while, and he seems to be the Wei native who has the most research and opinions on Roman issues.

More than ten days later, an official envoy of 500 people led by Zhang Liao and Simpi arrived in Rome. Emperor Caracalla received the official envoy of the Wei Empire with a higher standard than the previous one.

This time, the translation team led by Zhang Liao and Simpi is also more professional and efficient.

Almost all of the Department of Interpretation and Interpretation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was dispatched, so their communication with the Romans became much easier.

The Roman emperor easily knew their identities and intentions, and they also easily learned of the Roman emperor's goodwill and joy.

Wang Wei took the initiative to be a bridge between the two sides, and when Emperor Caracalla entertained Zhang Liao and Simpi, he helped them quickly get acquainted with everything and various etiquette here.