Chapter 244 Centralization and Struggle

"Father, do you mean that His Highness went to the West to avoid His Majesty?"

"This is the only explanation. The struggles among the royal families are also very fierce."

Among the four sons of the emperor, the eldest son is the most qualified candidate to inherit the empire. He was also canonized as Caesar, but he seemed to be too outstanding, and some things even overshadowed the emperor. Such excellence is hard not to make the emperor psychologically unbalanced. If villains interfere, it will easily lead to the tragedy of father and son killing each other.

For the sake of the empire and even for himself, Peter took Sophia to travel in the West, and indulged in other affairs, trying not to conflict with the emperor. Even Angel had to admit that it was unjust for Peter not to inherit the throne.

In addition, in the conquest and expansion, the Angel family also contributed money and effort, and participated in the Battle of Sophia and the Battle of Adrian. In return, they had manors and vineyards on the newly conquered land, wool textile factories in Sophia and Thessaloniki, as well as noble titles and living in Constantinople and other honors. The eldest son Emilian works in the New Wallachia government, the second son enters the Naval Academy, and he is also the prime minister. No family has more power than theirs.

"By the way, has that person made any moves?"

"Listerlin seems to be watching his business in Adrian and Constantinople, nothing else."

"I hope so, their family is a tough nut to crack."

Who is this Listerlin, who makes Angel always ask about him. He was appointed as the Minister of the Interior by Mircea three years ago. Because of his outstanding performance, he is often discussed as the candidate for the next prime minister, but he often opposes Angel in the Senate, so he is also Angel's political enemy.

Unlike Angel, who was born in a noble family, Listerlin is just a small Moldovan nobleman. If he is a small nobleman, it is impossible to enter the Senate, but he has a good brother, Bogdan, the head of the Moldovan Iasi Parliament.

That's right, it's Bogdan who was appointed as the head of the Iasi Conference by Peter. He then served as governor for a time, and then became a senior official in Suceava. But his son died of illness less than a year later, and he himself was thrown to the ground by a horse during a hunt and never got up again. His title and property were inherited by his younger brother.

However, before Bogdan died, he warned Listrin to fully support the royal family, no matter what the circumstances. He has always adhered to his brother's teachings and stood firmly on Mircea's side.

After his brother's death, Listrin also became the director of the meeting in Iasi, during which time he sent a large amount of cash and soldiers to Mircea who was fighting. At the same time, he bribed Mircea's close ministers to achieve the purpose of promotion.

He first became a senior official in the province of Suceava, and then the chief executive of Bucuriesti. He led the way in the siege of Constantinople and won Mircea's favor and was qualified to enter the Senate.

Whether it was expanding the army or governing, Listrin stood on Mircea's side. This made Mircea pay more and more attention to him, and eventually became the Minister of the Interior of the Empire.

In addition to Mircea, Listerine also catered to Peter. He knew that Caesar was particularly fond of people with strong abilities, so he worked diligently in the position of Minister of the Interior. Not only did he handle a lot of things, but he also assisted Peter in the internal affairs of Anatolia. This made both rulers feel good about him, and he also obtained a lot of land and property.

Listerine's rapid rise caught Angel off guard. He had previously envisioned all the successors to the prime minister, but he didn't think of him. This made him feel that his power was challenged, so he had to keep an eye on him.

The struggle between Angel and Listerine was also a microcosm of Roman domestic politics, where the great nobles competed for political power with the newly emerging small and medium nobles and civilians. They used various means to compete for power, but the final arbitrator was the emperor, which meant that no matter what the final result was, the emperor would get the greatest benefit.

After the implementation of the official rank table, the situation of the great nobles controlling the government and the local areas changed greatly, and those merchants, small and medium nobles and landlords, and even civilians could participate in politics. The influence of these noble families has weakened. Some people want to resist, but they dare not think of what happened in Kemplong.

The big landowners seem to be entangled. They are collaborators in local governance and reserve groups of bureaucrats. The reform of official positions has damaged some interests, but this is not fatal. The most fatal thing is the protection measures for small farmers and the suppression of land annexation. This directly touched their big cake. The landlords want to fight against the imperial power, but those who benefit will stand up for the emperor to beat them first.

Citizens and wealthy merchants are a growing group that plays a political role. They rely on their own funds to obtain assets and policies that are beneficial to industry and commerce. At the same time, they have to open up markets and trade routes to provide funds for the expansion of the empire. Those nobles who are too proud will also mortgage their manors to get money, and even marry their daughters to merchants to solve urgent problems, and merchants also enter the upper class through marriage with nobles.

Merchants are the most dynamic group in the empire and supporters of imperial power and expansion. Their colonization and exploration teams were no worse than the official ones. The route from Moscow to Constantinople was explored by the Ross Company and some merchants. Romanian merchants controlled most of the Black Sea trade, and they were present on major rivers in Eastern Europe, such as the Dnieper River, the Don River, and the Vistula River.

Cities are where industrialists and businessmen gather. Industrialists and businessmen, big or small, fear social unrest, chaos, disorder and war the most. If the situation of the feudal lords fighting for territory and even road robbery is allowed to continue, the losses suffered by the city will be much greater than the losses suffered after the unification of imperial power. Even if a centralized system is established under imperial power, it is better than the disorder of feudal separatism. Moreover, big businessmen in cities hope for strong imperial power and support for business more than small businessmen. In addition to their large business scale and greater losses due to social disorder, new capital continues to enter the business field because of the profitability of business. Some small businessmen who have just entered this field do not have capital, but rely on borrowing money to do business. The entry of small businessmen has disrupted the original order of business, and the traditional status of big businessmen has also been challenged, so they hope that there will be authoritative authorities to manage the business order.

It can be seen that cities, especially the upper class in cities, have great hopes for the future actions of imperial power. They believed that the imperial power would not forget the price they paid and the contributions they made in supporting the imperial power, and that the imperial power would certainly repay them with policies and measures that were conducive to the development of industry and commerce. They believed that if cities could gain economic benefits from the unification of the domestic market and the development of foreign markets in the future, then even if the cities lost their independent status due to the establishment of a centralized system, it would be worth it.