Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 528 The Umayyad family returns home in glory

After talking for a while, Guo Kang was forced to give up.

It seemed that everyone was so impressed by the Egyptians that people like the Great Lama Wang, who had always trusted him, felt that this idea was too outrageous.

However, Egypt is indeed very attractive, and it’s not that we don’t want to operate there. We just need to explore whether these methods are efficient enough. After all, there have always been many enemies around the Purple Horde Khanate, and I am afraid that they cannot maintain a large military presence there for a long time.

"We have always maintained good relations with various churches in other places." Lama Wang said: "There are local churches in Egypt and further south. We have had many contacts with them before. .With this relationship, everyone can at least find someone to help."

"I always feel that the Orthodox Church in Egypt is not very reliable." Cao Jian said: "When the Saracens invaded Egypt, the local church actually sided with the invasion because of conflicts in doctrinal understanding with Constantinople. The Saracens were able to fight so smoothly without their support. They were later oppressed by the Tianfang Sect, and it was their own fault. To be honest, I don’t think these people are worthy of trust."

"We can get close to them, but if we really want to run the territory there, we still have to follow our own rules." He suggested.

"That was hundreds of years ago. I think they have suffered so much. They should have a longer memory." Wang Dalai hesitated and explained: "Besides, when we contacted them before, I heard that they They complained that they were often oppressed by the government with excuses, and their lives were very difficult. According to our various understandings, what they said was indeed not a lie."

"According to them, there are less than half of the God-worshiping believers in Egypt now. If this continues, the church itself will probably perish one day. This kind of thing that is related to survival should not be fake."

"What? There are actually so many?" Guo Kang was a little surprised.

"When the Tianfang Sect began to fight among themselves, the Umayyad family obtained the position of governor of Syria and ran their own base there. Syria was much richer than the Arab region. With the support of the Syrians, the Umayyad family relied on The stronger military strength defeated other forces in a series of wars. At this time, the core of the so-called Arab Empire was already in Damascus."

"So we have to say whether they are Arabs... uh..." Wang Da Lama was also a little confused: "Anyway, the Arabs couldn't defeat them. Later, the Umayyad dynasty's troops all fought back to the Holy Land and destroyed the Arabs. All the old houses have been confiscated, and all the black stones have been smashed. At this time...then if he says that he is an Arab and a true believer, the original Arab can't object."

"The definition of Arabs is very confusing." Wang Dalai Lama explained: "According to the original definition, only those residents on the Arabian Peninsula are Arabs. In fact, only they are considered "true believers." As for Arabia Congregants other than human beings are called 'liberated slaves' and are called Mawari. Syrians and Persians are both in this category and should theoretically be at a lower level."

"However, when the Tianfang Religion established its empire, the internal conflicts were too intense. The Umayyad family was the biggest local gangster in Mecca at the beginning. They persecuted the earliest Tianfang believers and drove away their prophets. Later, they saw a war However, they turned around and decided to join the other party. In order to develop, the cult must also accept them in order to reduce the difficulty of expansion. As a result, many such old nobles have also entered the upper echelons of the cult."

"Yes." Wang Da Lama nodded: "The result is that Syrians are very motivated to convert in the Umayyad Dynasty. After all, as long as they join their regime, they really have a chance to be reused."

"There aren't many people in Xiaoya, so the change must be fast. And I've talked to some clergy of the Tianfang Sect. Most of them don't think the believers in Xiaoya are so strict about their beliefs - look at it. You just know how many grape drinks they import from us every year." Lama Wang said: "I feel that these people may not care much about this, so they change faster."

"That's understandable. Aren't these the 'Han people' of the Umayyad Dynasty?" Cao Jian commented: "No wonder I always feel that this is a bit familiar. I guess there were a lot of people doing this kind of thing before Emperor Shizu of the Yuan Dynasty. "

"Yes, I see that in other places, such as Syria, there are obviously not that many local God-worshiping believers, and many of the sects only emerged after the Crusaders." Cao Jian also said curiously: "As for Over in Asia Minor, things are changing even faster, and there are probably no God-worshiping believers now, right? How did the Egyptians persist?"

"You see, in this case, the Syrians would be happy to follow them."

"There are many commercial cities in Syria, and the economy has been relatively prosperous for a long time. The locals are good at business and are used to doing business everywhere. These slippery people will definitely change their beliefs quickly." He commented:
"Of course, there are historical reasons for this: Syria is the base of the Umayyad dynasty, and it is an area that is given preferential treatment. If the local people convert, they can get a lot of room for improvement. I guess this is also a reason."

"The same is true in the west. After the Persians overthrew the Umayyad dynasty, the Syrian troops sent to Spain remained loyal to the Umayyad family. The local post-Umayyad dynasty was founded by Syrian soldiers there who supported the fleeing family members. of."

"I always thought that Syrians were Arabs." Pronsky said curiously: "It turns out that they are actually converted indigenous people."

"Now even the Turks say they are 'true believers'." Cao Jian complained: "I don't think the Arabs can do anything. After all, those Turkic warlords don't have a very good temper, and even the jurists can't defeat them... …”

"The entire Umayyad dynasty, from Samarkand in the east to Iberia in the west, was full of Syrian troops fighting for the empire. On the other side of the river, they were fighting against the Tang Dynasty's tributaries on the Samarkand line. The backbone of the force was mainly the Umayyad Syrian army. The Arab tribes who migrated to the local area often resisted the rule of the Umayyad dynasty, and even joined forces with the Tang Dynasty and the local Persians to rebel against the Caliphate."

"That's true." Guo Kang also said: "In addition to the return of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty and the return of the ancestors of the Yuan Dynasty, the Umayyad family also returned to their hometown in glory and returned to Mecca..."

"It's still not the same." Wang Da Lama differentiated: "According to the documents I read, the combat enthusiasm of the Han army in the Yuan Dynasty can only be regarded as average in the world. They are not willing to go to places that are slightly far away. You have to bargain even if you go there. Although the Han army is often used as the main force when conquering the Mongolian rebels, it is difficult for these armies to maintain long-term in the grassland."

"During the entire Yuan Dynasty, the Han army marched from Dadu in the north to the line of Yanran Mountain; in the east it also set out from Dadu to conquer Liaodong; and in the west it set out from Guanzhong and garrisoned at Bielsbali, which was Tingzhou in the Tang Dynasty. "Probably just a little farther south, they have been to Java, but they didn't stay there." "The marching route and combat range they can accept are not much larger than those of the previous dynasties. Beyond the range, they start Not happy. Compared with the Syrians fighting all over the world, mobilization is obviously much more troublesome. Rather, if the Han people in the Yuan Dynasty could work hard to take over the role of the Syrians, the Yuan Dynasty would have to be much bigger."

"So that's it. It's understandable that the Syrians are favored." Pronsky nodded: "What about the Egyptians? Don't they have anyone to hire?"

"Well, it's much worse over there." Lama Wang said: "I heard that the Egyptians were not active in converting, perhaps because of their treatment. The rulers of the various dynasties of the Tianfang Sect did not pay attention to missionary activities, but instead restricted them. People convert just to have a reason to squeeze out more religious taxes. Under such circumstances, conversion will naturally be very slow."

"There is a difference. This tax gap is already a world of difference for the real bottom class." Cao Jian said: "I also went to the slums to find helpers. The people there, He often cares about things to an incredible degree. It’s not because he is naturally stingy, but because he really doesn’t have much margin, so he can only try to save any expenditure. If this is true, then he shouldn’t be so slow to convert.”

"That's not true." Pronsky shook his head: "You were in this city. Here, although the people at the bottom have a hard time, the overall environment is relatively orderly. There is a slight difference in policy. , it will indeed have an impact on ordinary people. But in most places, this should not be the case."

"Although I don't know much about the situation in Egypt, I grew up in the Rus area and have seen the real situation there. By analogy, I can probably understand the situation of the Egyptians."

"What's going on over there?" Cao Jian was a little curious.

"To put it simply, the tax system, policies, etc. are meaningless to civilians." Pronsky told him: "In the land of Russia, many times, the task of tax collectors is not to settle accounts and measure fields, but to Find a hole in the ground.”

"Why are you looking for this thing?" Lama Wang didn't know very well either.

"Because farmers always hide their harvests, like hamsters." Pronsky said metaphorically: "When taxing, the sum of various items must have exceeded the limit that farmers can afford, and they must not be able to pay. So when we actually collect taxes, it depends on whether he hides the food well or whether the tax collector is better at finding things."

"Even torture and interrogation sometimes have no effect - anyway, as long as the stored grain and reserved seeds are found, the whole family of the farmer will definitely die, so even the effect of torture is limited. In this case, the proportion required by the tax system is also It just doesn’t make sense.”

"Some village societies violently resist taxation, and the rulers will recruit people from the city to form armed tax collection teams to fight with them. More often than not, relatively weak village societies choose various soft methods of resistance. This kind of In this case, it’s often the game of finding something just mentioned.”

"Later I even thought, is it like this all over the world?" He shook his head and said: "When I came to Dadu to pay tribute, I took this opportunity to borrow a lot of books from the church. It seems that everyone's situation regarding the tax system It’s probably pretty much the same.”

"This thing is not so much a figure carefully calculated by the court based on the economic situation, or a well-thought-out national policy, as it is a result. People who manage the country always hope to collect as much as they can; and those who are managed People, of course, hope to pay as little as possible. Since ancient times, I am afraid there have been no exceptions."

"So the result is that the more the upper class can fight, the higher the farmer's actual tax rate; the more the lower class can fight, the lower the farmer's actual tax rate is. The so-called tax rate is probably such a simple result."

"The combat effectiveness of the Egyptians and our Slavs is on the same level - if they are not worse." Pronsky spread his hands: "Then their rulers have the opportunity to charge more. Naturally, I won’t let it go.”

"That makes sense." Lama Wang nodded: "The Egyptians' fighting power is too low, so regardless of whether they have converted or not, the local rulers will still try to plunder as much as possible. In this case, for each religion, naturally, Comparison... treat everyone equally. When everyone is stretched to the limit, there really is no difference..."

"Oh my god..." Even Guo Kang couldn't help but sigh.

"As far as I know, the tax burden on God-worshiping farmers in Egypt can reach 60% to 90% just on paper. The actual tax burden must have exceeded the limit, making the tax rate meaningless." Wang The big lama introduced: "Although the local farmers of the Tianfang Sect nominally bear one less religious tax, there are still too many other exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and the burden will still exceed the limit."

"That is indeed more ruthless than us." Pronsky admitted: "On our side, the princes only take half of the national territory in their hands. The nobles themselves have more, maybe 70%. Some church territories even only collect a quarter, so that some priests really believe in this rule and can recruit a farm out of thin air when they collect according to this number."

"Look, even if it's all about looting, it still sounds better than them. These people really have no face..."

"Uh..." Guo Kang didn't know how to answer for a moment.

"And I feel that Egyptians are indeed honest but stubborn, and their character is quite different from that of Syrians. To be honest, I feel a bit like Zheng Zhaosong, and I don't know if there are any similarities." Lama Wang shook his head and said: " I feel that their words are generally credible."

"Okay." Guo Kang finally chose to give up directly: "Then let's go with the results of your investigation."

(End of this chapter)