Eagle Flag of Epirus

"Is the situation still optimistic?"

"That depends on how big your heart is. At least from my personal point of view, Thessaloniki is pretty bad." Juan Baptiste, standing in front of Justinian, said, and at the moment he is talking to Justinian looked through the dusty old files in the city hall together. The piles of old paper still preserved the conditions of the city when the imperial administration system was not completely paralyzed a few years ago. After comparing the situation after sending someone to investigate before, the two are contrasted. In fact, there is no need for Baptiste to answer. Justinian also has a basic understanding of the whole city.

"Oh, as expected, you think so too. This is really a headache!" Looking at Baptiste, who had just arrived by sea last night, Justinian shrugged helplessly, "No way, The prosperous place that was once second only to Constantinople in the empire has now become like this. Even though I had prepared myself before, I really didn't expect to be here."

"The population has been reduced by one-third, and municipal income has naturally shrunk significantly. In this case, any city will inevitably decline." Baptiste replied, spreading his hands, according to his optimistic estimate. Even if the entire city really no longer experiences the devastation of war, it may only recover half of the time it was before the war in a short period of time.

After all, it has experienced the destruction caused by the crusades and the loss of many people, and the sea trade route has been cut off by the Venetians. Although only less than two years have passed, the blow to Thessaloniki is fatal. Sexual. The destruction of the economy by war is terrifying, just like a plague to people. At the beginning, the Moria area was once an important silk production area in the empire, but it was burned by the Normans and turned into a desolate ruin and forgotten.

Justinian knew this more clearly, so he transferred Baptiste over, even though this was actually opposed by many people.

The reason is simple. This man named Baptiste was originally a Latino who had just been loyal to Justinian, so many people could not rest assured of him. Now Justinian asked him to rush to Macedonia. The purpose of the government is actually to manage the city. When they first heard the news, many people thought that their governor-sama was crazy.

However, in the end Justinian finally persuaded most of the people to put a heavy responsibility on the Latin man before him. After all, Baptiste can be regarded as one of the few Latins who are good at clerical work, and Chas What Tenny has always lacked is such assistance. In just a few days, Juan Baptiste, who was in charge of the recovery of Thessaloniki after the war, did not disappoint Justinian. He quickly worked out the root knot in Thessaloniki. A set of proven plans gradually restored order to the city that was recovered.

"Although order is restored, you should have offended people during this period of time!" Justinian asked.

"This is natural. After all, being a Latin is the original sin. If it were not for your support from Lord Justinian, I would never have been involved in this kind of hot work. But is it really good? I'm afraid. This is not conducive to your reputation among the nobles." Baptiste shrugged and smiled bitterly. In fact, he was a little puzzled about Justinian's reason for doing this. Even if he doesn't deal with the nobles, he still has to consider the political influence of those people. To be fair, in Baptiste's opinion, this is really not a wise decision.

But Justinian smiled with a hint of joking, "Wind comment? Do you think I care about that kind of useless fame? Even if I offend the entire Macedonian nobles, I won't have any hesitation. Yes, and unless those people want to repeat the mistakes of Moriah’s group, their so-called dissatisfaction can only be useless grievances." It seems that it has always been a demonstration, but also a kind of demonstration. This kind of self-confidence, Justinian did not seem to pay attention to the nobles of Macedonia at all, but was stationed in Thessaloniki for a week. Under Justinian’s instruction, Baptiste The private property of many nobles has been confiscated, and the reason is very simple, that is, when the Latins invaded, many Roman nobles cooperated and surrendered to Boniface. Such a legitimate reason made the nobles dared to be angry but did not dare to speak. In Justinian's hands.

"Then I will leave everything here to you for the time being." Handing over all the government affairs to Baptiste, Justinian stood up from his seat and stretched out to relax his muscles and bones. Set off to prepare to leave first.

"Don't worry, Lord Justinian, I will do my best on this matter." And Baptiste respectfully sent Justinian to the exit until Justinian's back completely disappeared. After his sight, the expression on the Italian man's face gradually changed slightly.

I saw Baptiste coldly saying to the bookshelves lined with things behind him: "Justinian has gone far, when are you going to continue hiding here?"

And at this moment ~www.readwn.com~ I saw a man slowly walked out. It turned out that he had been hiding behind, eavesdropping on the conversation between Justinian and Baptiste. And this person is not someone else, it is Prince Theodor Dukas himself. He should have come here in his capacity and should not hide here secretly. If Justinian saw it, he would have noticed it. The tricky.

"Oh, it's so dangerous, haha, I was almost smashed." Prince Theodore, who watched Justinian's departure, said with profound emotion.

The calm Baptiste didn't take it seriously, and said flatly: "Even if you break it, there is nothing. I just cooperate with you, Prince. Even if Justinian sees it, he will believe my explanation. ."

"You are quite calm, but if Justinian knew that you had gotten my promise and then made up his mind to persuade Achaia to send troops to Tripolis, would he still trust you as always?" Prince Theodore sneered.

And this sentence fell into Baptiste's ears, making the Italian man who was dealing with the matter at hand suddenly froze. Although he immediately restored to his original state, he was no longer calm and calm.

Upon seeing this, Prince Theodor no longer circumscribed, but said slowly: "I didn't want to use this time to threaten you, but you still owed me a favor at the beginning, and I think it is you now. It's time." The man in front of him looked sharply at Baptiste himself, and at this moment, the invisible pressure seemed to be pressing on him. Sure enough, he had already guessed that the other party must have come here this time.