Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 635: Grandpa Taizu Uses Han Army to Defeat the Mongol Capital

However, with the order issued, Guo Kang's investigation plan had to come to a temporary halt.

Before leaving, he gave a report to Tuohuan and others, explaining the results of his investigation.

"We are here and can start taking action now." He immediately stated his point: "The harsh rule suffered by the people here is even worse than that suffered by the barbarians in Europe. Our experience in Europe can be used here."

“It takes a lot of skill to be more serious than Europe…” Lu Decai, provincial governor and former vice minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, sighed in a low voice.

"Although the barbarian chiefs are generally brutal, their management ability is also very poor. They often want to do bad things but don't have the ability to do so." Guo Kang said: "I asked Captain Lucas in my brigade. He said that in his hometown, especially near the Black Forest, the people are very fierce. Villagers and townspeople often fight with the lord's tax collection team. Although many people are beaten or even killed every year, there are always people who resist successfully and force the lord to give in."

"In addition, due to weak administrative capacity and the fragmentation of the country, the barbarian kingdoms often cannot achieve the same degree of oppression. The pressure faced by the grassroots people varies from person to person in different territories. In some places, the lords are relatively weak, or face powerful competitors and can only make concessions to the common people; occasionally there are more benevolent and sober nobles, or grassroots knights and priests who get along well with the people. If you are lucky, it can be relatively easy."

"My father also told me before that in different places, the attitudes of the people towards the lords are very different. In fact, in some places that have been in confrontation with Rome for a long time, some lords who are quick to react have learned the word "benevolent government" and started to implement benevolent policies according to their own ideas in order to reduce the dissatisfaction of the people and make them support them in defending the territory to prevent everyone from coming to us."

"But in Egypt, the situation is even more serious because there is an administrative system here that is far more complete than in Europe."

"Similar to most Islamic regimes, the administrative body of the Mamluk regime is called 'Diwan'. This word is quite old and can be traced back to the lost Sumerian language, which means clay tablets with inscriptions. Later, Persian and Armenian were introduced to represent various statistical books for administrative management. This custom has been around for a very long time."

"When the Arabs first emerged, they were already greatly influenced by Persian culture. However, at that time, the Arab administrative system was almost non-existent. The earliest diwan was literally a book used to register the names of warriors and distribute salaries based on them - because at this time their troops were rapidly expanding and had exceeded the size of the tribe, so they had to register."

"Later, after the Umayyad family took control of Syria, they directly copied the Romans' local administrative institutions and established several major administrative departments: Diwan-Halaji, which was in charge of land taxation; Diwan-Rashir, which was in charge of postal services; Diwan-Jonde, which was in charge of soldiers; Diwan-Tiraz, which was in charge of official workshops, and so on. The Diwan system was quickly improved and has been used to this day. The Mamluk administrative system was also built on this basis and was managed by local civil servants."

"It is indeed similar to ours. But how do they maintain this system?" Tuo Huan asked curiously, "I think it is surprising that they are like this, and there are civil servants as well."

"It's similar to the situation in Persia," Guo Kang told him. "The locals rely on religious schools and family inheritance to train civil servants. These civil servants have their own groups and will cooperate with anyone who leads troops to rule here. The combination of warlords and civil servant groups forms a country. This is also a common situation in various places."

"No wonder. It's also expected that they would open the city and wait for us to take over." Tuohuan pondered.

"Yes, but I don't recommend cooperating with them." Guo Kang said, "These people are unreliable and are used to plundering wealth and enriching themselves. The output of the land, once it passes through their side, there is not much left in our hands; and we have to bear the consequences of excessive plunder. With these people around, this piece of land is useless. We still have to establish management from scratch to effectively use manpower and material resources."

"This work cannot be completed in a day or two." Tuo Huan warned: "We don't have much time, but we can't rush to do so many things."

"Although the barbarians are savage and difficult to tame, their lack of culture is sometimes a good thing. Because they have no culture, they are easier to educate. This place has a long history and a deep accumulation of various things. In ancient times, Rome has always had difficulty assimilating this place, and it is estimated that it will not be easy now. We should first think about restoring order and conduct pilot projects in one or two places at most. There is no need to offend them to avoid unnecessary trouble."

"That may not be the case." Guo Kang thought about it and shook his head.

"In the past two days, I went to several villages to communicate with them. The taxes here are particularly heavy. If we reduce them a little, the natives will be very grateful and will not resist us anymore," he told everyone.

"Religious people need to be tougher. I released several priests who were arrested for resisting taxes and told them that from now on, this place will be under the jurisdiction of Rome. No matter what religion they are, they will be managed by the Ministry of Rites. As long as they accept that Rome is the only legitimate government that governs the people in accordance with heaven, we can allow them to carry out various religious activities."

"Those priests were very suspicious at first, suspecting that we were just pagans who were trying to fool them with a different story. But I told them that there was no rush, because our Patriarch was also here and was going to meet with the Caliph to discuss these matters. After they have reached an agreement, they will officially announce the conditions and requirements."

"Before that, according to our custom, after the army passes through, taxes can be exempted for one year. For those places that accept Roman administration, the tax rate will also follow the Roman rules instead of the previous Mamluk rules. They can choose for themselves, and we will not force them."

"As a result, this time, the priests did not even think about it, and they all said that they had long admired the Qin Dynasty and were firm Roman Catholics in their hearts."

"Only the old qadi who taught in their town felt a little guilty. He said that he had been studying kowtow all his life and had been serving the Mamluks. He couldn't accept working for pagans all of a sudden. But others, including his apprentice, advised him that it would not be too late to discuss religious matters after the Caliph announced the news; he should just agree to these arrangements for secular rule. Besides, the Mamluks have always been harsh and cruel. If you treat them so well, will they treat you well too? The old qadi was persuaded and accepted it."

"How did they change so quickly?" Tuo Huan asked curiously, "What is the tax situation here?"

"There are too many types of taxes here, and many of them are added by the local rulers themselves. There is no detailed statistics yet, but the investigation in the past two days found that the regular taxes alone are already very heavy." Guo Kang replied: "They have directly received half of the Haraj tax here..." "Isn't that tax collected from pagans?" Tuohuan asked: "Aren't they all Muslims in their village?"

"That's just a theoretical statement." Guo Kang said: "The Haraj tax here is equivalent to the Jizya tax in Persia. At the beginning, it was indeed only collected from pagans. However, in the late Umayyad Dynasty, the court was short of money. Seeing that so many believers, especially Arabs, did not pay taxes, and others chose to convert to Islam in order to avoid taxes, they felt it was a pity. So they extended the tax to everyone, and it has continued since then and has become a regular tax."

"What's the idea behind this..." Zhu Wenkui muttered, "Isn't this offending his real supporters?"

"It's not surprising, actually. The Caliph thinks that the Arabs, as the real masters of the country, can't even bear to pay a little more money, and really don't understand the court's difficulties." Guo Kang shrugged: "Of course, the Arabs are not actually their base..."

"Then who is it?" Zhu Wenkui asked curiously.

"To be precise, they are Syrian peasant soldiers," Guo Kang replied.

"The peasant-soldiers system was a Roman system back then, right?" Tuohuan also interjected.

"Yes, I guess it was copied directly." Guo Kang nodded: "After the Umayyad family took control of Syria, they established four 'Ajinads': Homs, Damascus, Jordan and Palestine. These 'Ajinads' almost directly adopted the administrative divisions of Rome. Here, the Umayyad family registered soldiers, distributed land, and gave them a fixed salary in exchange for their joining the army. It is indeed a similar concept to the Roman military districts."

"Later, the Qinnasrin Military District was added in the north, and the Fustat Military District was added in the south. This system is basically unique to the Syrian region and is not set up in other places. Therefore, people from other places often directly manage the troops of these military districts and call them 'Syrians'."

"The Syrian Legion, organized in the form of military districts, has always been the main force of the Umayyad family. With the support of the Syrian army, the Umayyad family successfully crushed the Arab resistance, and finally attacked the nests of these tribes in the Arabian Peninsula and suppressed the rebellion in Mecca. Therefore, if we really want to say that the pillars of their dynasty are definitely the Syrians."

"I understand now." Tuo Huan nodded: "But this story sounds so familiar..."

"Oh, there are many such things." Guo Kang was not surprised: "You can ask Sun Shiwan later, he knows more."

“Okay…” Tuohuan had no choice but to say, “Then let’s not go too far. I just find it strange. In this case, people have to pay religious taxes if they don’t convert, and they still have to pay religious taxes if they convert. Then wouldn’t it be a waste of conversion…”

"The sultans didn't take this too seriously," Guo Kang said. "And after conversion, there are still taxes. For example, the Zakat tax is one-fortieth of the total property, and the Ushul tax is one-tenth of the crops. These are all religious taxes, which are relatively common taxes. From the Sultanate in Asia Minor to the Khanate in Transoxiana, they all have to pay them."

"They also have some local taxes. For example, the poll tax is levied at different levels in different places, and it is impossible to estimate it at present. The business tax is also very heavy and confusing. Those people complained about it in Gaza at that time. If the villagers release a few sheep or go fishing in the river, there will be corresponding taxes. And because it is difficult to count, the tax collectors will directly come up with the maximum value and force the villagers to pay it. I think these tax calculations have lost their meaning."

"And these are just taxes from the government. Local lords will usually add another layer. If they can't collect it themselves, they will contract it out to tax farmers. As for the rent from the landlords, that is not considered tax and is not calculated."

"How did the Egyptians survive?" Everyone has begun to think about this question.

"I don't know either." Guo Kang shook his head: "But I think that this place can be used as a grain export area, probably not just because of the high yield. They have a large population here, and the water conservancy facilities are very backward, and the grain output is generally just a little surplus. Being able to export grain on a large scale, I think it's no longer an agricultural problem..."

"So, if we make some small changes, the locals will definitely welcome them. It's not surprising that these people suddenly changed their attitudes." He concluded: "Why don't we start implementing it now and build up our prestige little by little. As long as we keep doing this, I guarantee that the people will be able to support us."

"There's no rush now." Tuo Huan shook his head, thought for a moment, and said, "No matter what we do now, the effect may not be very good. Let's first ask the guides and the scholars who cooperate with us to ask them to promote it a little bit. As for the actual work, we'll talk about it later."

"Ah? Shouldn't we lay a solid foundation first?" Guo Kang asked curiously.

"How can we lay a solid foundation if we haven't won yet?" Tuo Huan said with a smile, "Let's talk about it after the fight!"

Guo Kang was speechless for a moment. After a moment's pause, he nodded and said that he would inform Old Sea Urchin and other elders later. Then, everyone started discussing other topics.

(End of this chapter)