"Where is the treaty?
Show it to me."
Irina successfully diverted Leo IV's attention.
Irina clapped her hands randomly, and the Minister of Commerce Liqi walked in holding the wooden box containing the agreement, placed it on the small table next to it, and stepped out.
Irina opened the wooden box and took out the text of the treaty, opened it and handed it to Leo IV.
After reading it carefully, Leo IV's face became much better and his spirit became much better, but he still said: "Three days a year Although the import volume of tens of millions of gold yuan and the ten-year period do not require us to pay tribute, this amount seems to be too large, which will take up a lot of our tax funds."
Irina said: "There is no way around this.
We have to give some benefits to the Western Qin Kingdom, but we are not at a loss.
These goods are imported.
If we can't use them ourselves, we can also resell them to the northern barbarians and people on the other side of the Mediterranean.
The Arabs and the Franks, Papal States and other principalities in the West can still make a fortune from it if the situation is good."
Leo IV's eyes lit up when he heard this: "This is a good way to pass on our losses to other surrounding countries."
Having said this, Leo IV's expression changed again, and he looked at Elena with sharp eyes: "What method did you use to convince the King of Western Qin?"
Irina was stunned for a moment, but immediately covered her mouth and started laughing, which only made Leo IV furious.
"Okay, okay, I won't laugh anymore."
Irina stopped and said seriously to Leo IV: "I know what you want to say and you don't want to think about it.
The King of Western Qin is already an old man in his sixties.
What else can he do even if he has the will?
You, you really like to be jealous, but seeing you so jealous shows that you still care about me in your heart.
I am very happy.
Even if I suffered some bumps on this trip, I I think it’s worth it too” "After I arrived there, the King of Western Qin showed the demeanor of a king.
He sent people to hold a grand welcome ceremony to receive me.
The standards were very high.
It was the standard for welcoming a queen of a country.
The King of Western Qin was not a cruel person.
He is a wise man, otherwise he would not be able to rule tens of thousands of miles of territory by force.
But because of this, he is our enemy, although he behaved very generously and decently during the reception, and he deserved the treatment he deserved.
Not vague at all, but His shrewdness and wisdom make me shudder.
Our Eastern Roman Empire and the King of Western Qin are natural enemies.
He has clearly understood all the obstacles to Western Qin's continued westward advance.
We have become one of his targets.
This is a country with unification He is a person with strong willpower in the world, but at this stage he does not have this strength.
I just made an analysis with him based on the current situation of both parties.
Before solving the big food country in North Africa, he cannot risk a war on two fronts.
Risk is at war with us” "Our Eastern Roman Empire is different from the Great Food Kingdom.
Our Eastern Roman Empire has built a large number of castles and fortresses in the Anatolia region, and the city walls are relatively strong.
The Western Qin Army can march straight into the Great Food Country and use the local resources to obtain supplies, but this is not possible in our Eastern Roman Empire.
We can implement the method of fortifying the walls and clearing the country to prevent them from getting food.
Food supplies, and even poisoning areas with relatively water shortages, so that they cannot obtain food and water sources.
Their logistics lines are too long.
Even if the logistics supplies are strong, they cannot bear the supply of such a long supply line.
Without food, their army will The King of Western Qin, who has no fighting power, knows this very well, so he does not dare to fight with us easily.
He is a wise old man, and he originally fought against us.
Even if our Eastern Roman Empire becomes a vassal and pays an annual tribute of two thousand pounds of gold, I categorically vetoed it.
The main content of these agreements in terms of terms was proposed by me, which not only gave him a step down, but also took care of our Eastern Roman Empire.
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For the sake of the empire, he considered the actual situation and agreed to my proposal.
However, we must strictly implement the peace terms and let Western Qin There is no excuse to make trouble, but this does not prevent us from helping the Mahdi in North Africa fight against the Western Qin.
We can send troops to participate in the battle against the Western Qin attack as mercenaries recruited by the Mahdi.
This not only helps the Arabs, but also There is nothing for Western Qin to seize.
We can use this to extend the term of the treaty and buy enough time for the revival of our Eastern Roman Empire."
Leo IV nodded: "Yes, your idea is very thoughtful.
The people we sent to North Africa have returned.
At this critical period, the Mahdi decided to abandon all the previous grievances between our two countries, temporarily reach a reconciliation with us, and unanimously fight against the Western Qin .
But we have now signed a peace treaty with Western Qin.
If this matter reaches the ears of Mahdi, I am afraid that something will happen to the alliance again."
Irina raised an eyebrow: "Then send someone to secretly explain the situation to the Mahdi.
How are our two families secretly reaching a joint Holy See and contacting the Frankish Kingdom?"
Leo IV said: "Pope Adrian I is very much in favor of all countries uniting to fight against the Western Qin, but King Charman of the Frankish Kingdom is not very interested.
The Frankish power has no border with us, and the Western Qin army wants to fight.
He didn't know what year or month he would be when he got there, and if he sent troops over, he could only go through Italy.
The journey is too far.
He is still threatened by the Avars to the west, a large number of barbaric Saxons to the north, and the Caliphate of Corvaldo to the south.
He has no extra energy to take care of things in the east, and according to what we sent People who came back said that Charlemagne seemed to be very wary of the East and was unwilling to wade into this muddy water."
Elena frowned and said: "Since the Frankish Kingdom does not have this idea or intention, the only way is for the Pope to come forward and call on the slave owners, feudal landowners, and monks of the monastery in Christendom to send warriors and knights to help in the battle.
In the name of safeguarding Christendom, I think there will be people who respond to the call.
Those people’s desire to obtain land and wealth is beyond our imagination.
As long as they have etiquette, they even dare to point the butcher knife at God.
Do you believe it?”
Leo IV snorted coldly: "Of course I believe that.
Otherwise, how could my grandfather, father and I have ordered for three consecutive generations to ban the activities of idolatry, weaken their cities, prevent them from acquiring land and wealth, and occupy a large amount of the empire?"
What about the resources?
Your method is good, but it is easy to Once their power reaches a certain level, Constantinople may not be able to control it, because they are not inferior to imperial control and will only obey the church or the leaders of various forces.
I need to think carefully about this. , I don’t want our empire to be destroyed by the Western Qin people, but Being destroyed internally, there is actually no difference between the two.
Now we have three main tasks: first, to form an alliance with the Mahdi in North Africa to fight against the Western Qin; second, to rectify the internal governance, develop the economy, encourage farming, and enhance national strength. , develop armaments, and thirdly, eliminate the Bulgar and other barbarians in the north In fact, we have done a good job in harassing us and restraining our troops in recent years.
However, my disastrous defeat in Thrace last year severely damaged our vitality.
However, the power we arranged among the Bulgars was not complete.
If they find out clearly, we still have a chance to make them kill each other."
After that, Leo IV gave full play to the role of the spies placed by the Eastern Roman Empire among the Bulgars.
They disrupted the power structure within the Bulgar Khanate and successfully provoked various ministries within the Bulgars to oppose Khan King Greli.
Special opposition caused the Bulgars to fall into long-term internal disputes that lasted for decades.
At the same time, Leo IV and Irina once again sent people to Egypt to have secret talks with the Mahdi to complete a secret alliance.
Both parties promised that when attacked by the Western Qin forces, at any time, no matter which side of the alliance was attacked, the other party would Both sides must send troops to assist, contain, or directly attack Western Qin.
In the next three years, with the joint efforts of Leo IV and Irina, the Eastern Roman Empire carried out a thorough reform of the military system, eliminating the shortcomings of the governor overseeing military and political power in various regions.
It was implemented that the military was only responsible for the military governor, and the military governor could not be responsible for civil politics.
All logistics supplies and military expenditures of the army were controlled by Constantinople.
In terms of domestic affairs, the two carried out a series of reforms, laying a solid foundation for the economic development of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Eastern Roman Empire also used the treaty provisions of spending 30 million gold yuan each year to import various goods from the Western Qin, and A considerable part of it was resold to Arabs and other surrounding countries.
Instead of losing money, they made a huge profit.
Even Zhao Ziliang knew about this and praised Irina's cleverness in his heart.
Beginning in the spring of 780 AD, Leo began to increase pre-war preparations for attacking the Bulgar Khanate.
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He began to hoard a large amount of military supplies and food.
After three years of military reforms, the Eastern Roman Empire once again had more than 20 troops.
Standing army strength.
But just as Leo IV was preparing to lead his army on an expedition, he fell ill again.
This time he was very seriously ill.
In less than a month, his body could no longer hold on.
Before his death, he issued the emperor's decree.
His only son Constantine VI succeeded the emperor.
Since Constantine VI was only ten years old, he appointed Irina as Constantine VI's sole guardian.
When Constantine VI came of age Previously, Irina had full authority to handle state affairs.
Leo IV was a very talented and far-sighted emperor, but when he took over the throne, the Eastern Roman Empire was already in dire straits.
During his five years in office, he still made some achievements after a lot of hard work, at least.
He reversed the decline of the empire.
He made mistakes, but he also had merits.
He was only thirty years old when he died, and he only served as emperor for five years.
The news quickly spread from Constantinople to Xinjing.
After learning about it, Zhao Ziliang sighed: "I am afraid that the Eastern Roman Empire will be ruled by Irina for a long time from now on, the first in Western history.
The era of a female emperor has come":