Moscow, Rostislav Palace.
Over the years, Rostislav Palace has undergone significant changes, with the Moscow Prince completely reshaping the entire palace over the past three years.
Of course, the existing structures had to be utilized to the greatest extent possible; completely demolishing them would have required an immense amount of labor, and many buildings were already newly constructed, making their demolition a net loss.
Although the money spent on this was immeasurable, the Moscow Prince still felt it was worthwhile after seeing the results, believing the money was well spent.
The current Rostislav Palace is a typical Rus' fortress-style palace, with thick brick walls creating a small inner city within the main city, so that even if Red City were captured, the Prince's army could still hold out.
Don't be fooled by the elaborate decorations on those walls; beneath them are brick walls as thick as city walls.
And within this inner city is the Moscow Prince's palace, the political center of Northeast Rus, where every piece of information conveyed exerts a powerful influence over All Rus.
Rostislav Palace has a main hall for banquets and audiences, luxurious living quarters for the Prince's family, spacious rooms for guests, and a private chapel for the Prince's family; everything that should be there is, making it a presence no less significant than Vladimir Palace in Kiev.
From every perspective, this is an excellent palace, sufficient to showcase the Moscow Prince's powerful prestige.
There is always abundant food here, and exotic delicacies occasionally appear at banquets; servants are numerous and proud of their specialized skills, and the Moscow Court has become the most famous court in the entire North, attracting warriors from all directions.
Among them are also many freeloaders who come to the Prince's court to eat and drink without providing any benefit to the Prince's government.
Rostislav expels these individuals after half a year of sheltering them, which is already a very generous act, so Rostislav has not been affected by these actions.
As for the entire inner city, there are now more buildings, as the Moscow Prince's nearly two thousand full-time and semi-full-time personnel and their families all reside here.
Here are clusters of brick houses, with few wooden houses from the outer city visible; Moscow's inner city enjoys preferential prices on bricks and tiles, so everyone chooses to build more sturdy brick and tile houses.
This is due to Rostislav's personal desire; he hopes to first establish a prevalence of brick houses around him, making him feel that he is in a civilization rather than a barbaric Rus'.
The outer city already has many brick houses, with government buildings, mills, and workshops basically bricked, but unfortunately, wooden houses are still the main type, and Rostislav inwardly finds wooden houses unappealing no matter how he looks at them.
The expansion of the inner city is due to the expansion of the Moscow Prince's Druzhina, which has now grown to eight hundred men.
The concentration of Moscow's population and the rise of the Prince's authority have led to more and more people willing to serve under the Prince.
And the Prince's purse is sufficient to support the expanded force, and most importantly, he intends to do so.
However, the standing army has not expanded accordingly; Rostislav only maintains the Moscow Camp and Rostov Camp; after the chaos of 1063, the Moscow Prince became very wary of recruiting soldiers from among the common people, so he halted his original expansion plans, having initially intended to maintain four to five infantry camps.
As compensation, however, Rostislav expanded each standing army camp by one hundred-man unit, appeasing the resulting unrest within the standing army.
The rebellion led Rostislav to believe that focusing on strengthening his Druzhina and personal retainers was the correct path, because these individuals all came from privileged classes, and it is difficult for people of the same class to betray their own class; ultimately, these are the people he can trust.
The importance of the Moscow Camp and Rostov Camp subsequently decreased, and the Moscow Prince also believed that the standing army did not need to remain full-time; the Prince granted them land or property, putting them in a semi-full-time state.
At the same time, these soldiers and their families were also relocated to live in Moscow's inner city, and similarly, these individuals were also granted property.
Since they all stay within the inner city, can't they be assembled at any time? The management of the troops under the Prince's nose is quite strict; personnel movement within the inner city has always been tightly controlled, so there can be no shortages.
The root of Rostislav's actions is to separate the standing army from the populace and establish a hereditary soldier class.
After all, he cannot disband these two camps; making so many people with military skills unemployed would be courting death; these individuals, who have gained experience and enjoyed privileges, certainly will not be content to return home to farm; they will definitely join the ranks of the rebels.
Rostislav has already deeply experienced the trouble caused by soldiers with military skills joining rebellions; over the past three years, the Rostov Camp rebels who joined bandit gangs have elevated the organization and combat effectiveness of those gangs to a new level, and Rostislav will certainly not send more people over there.
Additionally, another group also enjoyed similar treatment to the standing army: Moscow's crossbowmen, who also transitioned from full-time to semi-full-time, were granted land by the Moscow Prince, and then concentrated their residence in the inner city.
The crossbowmen, to be honest, do not require much training; a farmer can become qualified after a month or even half a month of practice, which is especially evident now that the output of the Crossbow Guild has increased.
Some citizens are now purchasing crossbows to arm themselves, and even a few bandits carrying crossbows have appeared among the bandit gangs, and it is because of the appearance of these crossbow-wielding bandits that the cost for foreign merchants to do business in Moscow has also increased somewhat.
After all, previously, an armored warrior could slaughter cloth-clad bandits, but now, if a crossbow bolt comes, that warrior is also gone.
Although instances of crossbows appearing are rare, even one is enough to create panic among these merchants, and the direct result of this panic is that Moscow's commercial inflow and outflow have been affected, with many merchants choosing to travel together in groups.
Although the impact is not great, it is worth serious attention; if this continues, the situation will become uncontrollable.
Rostislav has repeatedly prohibited the external sale of crossbows and has personally funded the purchase of more than half of the Crossbow Guild's monthly output.
However, leakage is still unavoidable; there are always merchants selling crossbows to bandit gangs, as the profits are too considerable, and those bandit gangs, realizing the advantage crossbows can give them, are very willing to spend money to buy this good thing.
Finally, Rostislav could only strengthen the patrol force and increase patrol frequency, which was the only way, and it was indeed effective; with strengthened patrols, the bandit gangs also quieted down somewhat.
Due to the gradual increase of crossbows among the populace, the Moscow Prince once considered disbanding the Moscow crossbowmen, but out of concern that unemployed crossbowmen would flow into the populace, he ultimately kept these individuals, and in any case, having a readily mobilizable force of crossbowmen is ultimately convenient.
The expansion of the Druzhina is a good thing, but with the expansion of the Druzhina, problems began to emerge within the Moscow regime, such as disputes between the Druzhina and retainers regarding family division, which cast a shadow over Moscow, but it was only a shadow.
Yes, just a shadow; for such matters, the Moscow Prince's attitude is very simple: whether families divide or not has never been important. In contrast, he wanted to use this matter to make these two groups work harder; the victor would receive the Prince's support, and his conditions would be met.
So Gvaran's assessment of this was spot on: everything depends on the Prince's attitude, and the Prince's attitude is determined by the services they provide.
As Moscow's 'autocratic monarch,' Rostislav is well aware of his position; these two fellows can only compete in secret, and they dare not cause any major trouble, so Rostislav did not take their activities to heart.
Moreover, it's good to give those below something to do; now that the Moscow Court is growing larger and larger, if there were no internal struggles, he would actually have to worry.
So, rather than bothering with these trivial matters, it's better to check the account books; that's the real business.
Although Rostislav had a team of professional Greek bureaucrats responsible for these matters, he would always double-check and calculate everything, and he also had a team of calculators chosen from young people of the privileged class by his side.
Rostislav had always been strict in this matter, because only by maintaining stable financial power could the Prince's authority remain unshaken. Previously, the Prince and his wife calculated together; now, the Prince organized a team to calculate.
As for why this situation occurred, it was because Moscow's commercial income had greatly increased, and an increase in numbers naturally meant an increase in complexity.
As for administrative matters, those things inherently required him to look at them daily, so it was naturally impossible for anyone to play tricks. Furthermore, he had discovered and warned the bureaucrats below him several times when they tried small tricks, so these guys had settled down.
The Moscow Prince was able to support so many troops primarily due to these account books, which recorded all of the Prince's sources of wealth.
Among the most important, the Guild District had now become the most crucial. The prosperity of the Guild District brought the Moscow Prince countless income every day, and it also made the Prince's army stronger, making it the Prince's greatest cash cow.
Therefore, the city's commerce also became increasingly prosperous and grew stronger. The entire city developed and expanded with the growth of the guilds. Moscow also became a famous city in Rus' because of this, and its reputation even spread to foreign countries.
Rostislav was very proud of this, as it was his work, his idea, and the result of his governance.
Secondly, there was Moscow's traditional commercial income. The constantly expanding princely power meant that the Moscow Prince's tax revenue increased every year. These goods were packed into special bags and then stamped with a seal representing Moscow's authority.
Apart from grain, other goods were customarily gathered in the Imperial Capital and then sent there for sale to earn gold and silver.
This was Moscow's traditional source of wealth. In the early days, Rostislav relied on savings and this income to stabilize the situation, and there was also something new in this traditional trade.
The fleet not only brought specialties from North Rus' but also products from Rostislav's territory: the Christian classic, the Bible.
Initially, the Moscow Prince's Bible business was not smooth. People in the Imperial Capital did not quite believe that the Rus' people could bring so many Bibles. How could these northern barbarians have so many Scribes?
But when the arrogant Greeks discovered that these Bibles were indeed reliable, sales quickly opened up. People came to buy Bibles one after another, but the purchasing frenzy the Prince imagined did not appear. After all, selling religious classics required the approval of the highest religious authority, the Orthodox Church.
And the Church arrived very quickly. Upon receiving these Bibles, the Orthodox Church almost immediately realized their value. Soon, the Orthodox Church sought out the Rus' people.
Initially, they wanted to obtain printing technology from the Rus' people, but how could those mere merchants selling goods know what the technology was like? Faced with these questions, they naturally knew nothing.
Moreover, the Church could not do anything to the Rus' people. Arbitrarily arresting people was absolutely out of the question. Behind them was the authority of Kiev, and the Imperial Capital was well aware that if Rus' interpreted it as an infringement on trade rights, it could very likely lead to an army of barbarians.
Although the Imperial Capital had never feared barbarians, and the Rus' people had repeatedly suffered setbacks before Constantinople, no one wanted war. Destroying a peaceful environment for something that was merely icing on the cake was not worth it.
After all, the pressure from the East was growing, and the Empire did not want another enemy, so it was better to maintain friendly relations with the Rus' people.
And the Orthodox Church was ultimately the bride of the secular government. When the Imperial Government told them not to cause trouble for the Rus' people, they changed their approach and instead ordered Bibles from the Rus' people.
Rather than letting the Rus' people sell everywhere, it was better for them to purchase and sell them uniformly. The wealthy Orthodox Church directly stated that they would buy as many as the Rus' people had. Circulation had to be controlled to maintain the Church's authority, and this way they could also make another profit.
At the same time, the Church gave the Rus' merchants a direct green light regarding their request to buy paper. Although they guessed from this that the North Rus' people lacked paper, they did not make things difficult because of it, as the technology belonged to the Rus' people, not them.
Therefore, Rostislav's merchants were able to purchase a large amount of paper at a relatively favorable price and then embarked on their return journey.
The gold-mining activities of Rostislav's merchants were naturally noticed by other merchants on the same route. They were naturally curious how the people of Northeast Rus managed it. Many were also surprised that Northeast Rus could produce such cultured things.
And these attempts to inquire were blocked, because the people Rostislav sent to the south genuinely knew nothing. They were only responsible for transporting and buying goods, not even knowing that these items came from within Moscow's inner city. They only discovered they were books after opening the covers upon reaching Kiev, as per their orders.
Upon returning to Rus', the merchants brought Rostislav the large quantity of paper he wanted, and they also brought a pleasant surprise. In addition to news of large orders, the merchants also told Rostislav that the Orthodox Church did not restrict the circulation of any books other than religious texts.
Of course, they could not be banned books or heretical doctrines.
Upon receiving this news, he immediately used the large quantity of paper purchased from the Imperial Capital to print a batch of classic works such as the 'Iliad'. Constantinople had the largest civilian population in the Christian world, and the demand for books was very strong.
Moreover, they also had the money to buy them. After deducting the copying cost, the main cost of these books was paper. For the middle-class families in Constantinople, paper was only slightly expensive. For those in higher strata, money was not an issue at all.
The printing of Bibles had to be accelerated even more. To increase speed, Rostislav used block printing, which was more convenient than movable type for efficiency.
It was a pity, however, that after the Moscow Prince increased efficiency, he found that too much efficiency was also not good. Often, the paper would be used up, and there would still be plenty of time left.
The solution was still to start their own paper production. However, the Moscow Prince now had money and could let them try to make it. After all, if one was willing to inquire in the Imperial Capital, papermaking was no secret, and many details could be discovered.
The production of parchment could not be abandoned either, as parchment was the reliable paper of this era, and many people truly only recognized this material.
Of course, Rostislav did not blindly send only Greek books to the Imperial Capital. He also printed many Slavic-language books for circulation in Rus'. The Bible naturally sold the best among them, but other books also began to circulate.
Over these three years, under Rostislav's leadership, he oversaw the translation of many Greek books, such as 'Elements of Geometry' and 'Hippocratic Corpus'. With the cooperation of relevant individuals, books like 'Rus' Herbology' and 'Rus' Agriculture' were compiled, and large quantities of these were also printed in Slavic.
It was a pity, however, that these still circulated within a very small circle, which Rostislav greatly regretted.
The cultural group in Rus' was limited after all. Achieving this level was already the limit. Perhaps only after another generation grows up in twenty years will he see some results.
Through this industry, the Moscow Prince amassed vast amounts of gold and silver, which brought him immense wealth. At the same time, he was able to establish the largest library in All Rus, surpassing even his grandfather's library.
Furthermore, this library contained many books that only circulated within a small circle, undoubtedly increasing its value. The Moscow Prince then announced that this grand library would be open to the public.
And this declaration caused cultural figures from All Rus to flock there, as well as many who intended to study. The Prince's library was the best learning opportunity for them.
This was precisely the effect Rostislav desired; if this continued, Moscow would eventually become the cultural center of Rus'.
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