Chapter 108: Autocratic Fate Part 2
Just because some of his public statements and opinion had angered some people. At that time in college, Carveslyver was quite well-known and repeatedly expressed publicly his political views. The Tekma military system which had been maintained for a hundred years in the Byzantine Empire was the root and weakness for causing the diminution!
Byzantine Empire population was ten times that of the Odin and the land was three times greater than that of the Odin. But in centuries the contest with Odin was in disadvantage, the greatest root cause would be the Tekma military system! The corrupted military system would split the empire into numerous individuals. The empire would have difficulties to concentrate all of the military force resulting they would be unable to compete with all the strength of the enemies.In the meanwhile, the military division led to a repetitively consumption waste to the enormous strength of the empire.
Such a proposition did irate the strong forces of the military when it was suggested. Tekma military system was a special military administrative system of the Byzantine Empire a hundred years ago. Empire was unfortunately caught in the midst of an internal rebellion civil war, while taking the advantage of the weakness of the Byzantine Empire, the surrounding enemies Odin and Oriental nomads took the opportunity to invade the empire. The empire was faced with the disintegration of the impasse.
The emperor at the time, in response to this crisis set up a new set of quasi-military administrative system. In this system, the Byzantine Empire territory, except for the part of the central empire, Osgiliath continued to be emperor territory. The other areas were set up to be dozens of military administrative system.Tekma had the meaning of the word of the establishment of the highest administrative official of a military governor in each of the section and the highest official was appointed by the military governor.
In principle, every military system carried amilitia system, which was part of the government policy to provide land for the crops cultivation and the recruitment of some farmers.The farmers could use the part of the land for harvesting, but also needed to join into the line of military service once faced with war enlistment.
The prevailing view was that as long as the lives of the militia be safeguarded, the mobilization of the army would be very easy during the wartime. The morale of the common solders to defend the homeland against foreign invaders would be high and the burden of the wage of the country could be reduced to a minimum. The Facts had proved that the idea itself was not wrong. However, there were also inevitably a lot of critical defects!
Such farming military system destined only for temporary use in times of crisis, but could be maintained as a long-term national statehood policy. Carvesylver had once expressedhis views when he was young that the system would play down mercilessly. The wise man of the empire believed, first of all, such a system could be used as an excellent contingency strategy in the face of the crisis.
Although the morale would be raised to protect their homes in the face of foreign invaders, but the nature of militia could not be diminished with the essential characteristics of farmers, love toward the homeland! They could not leave the home to carry out the local operations! Although at the time they were motivated when their homes were surrounded by enemies, once the need for such troops to set off, then, they often demoralized. In a nutshell, this agricultural soldiers simply could not bear the responsibility as a National Defense Force!
The second weakness was a waste! Such farming military system could only play a role in resistance to foreign invasion.When the enemy attacked to the house, then only the troops would have a high combat power. However,war may be impossible with only defensive warfare! Because of this, the empire must also establish a truly professional army as a combat maneuver for the empire standing. And a lot of resources such as military construction had repeatedly caused a wastage!
The third contradiction was the irreconcilable land! The Byzantine Empire was a feudal constitution.In essence, it was the largest royal nobility, and the following have a royal family as the center of aristocracy. Each new generation of the aristocrat would need a new land. Only when after a family tree was completely cut off, the Empire would have the right to nationalize their land...
The speed to produce new aristocracy was much faster than the extinction of the old aristocracy! Although the land of the empire was vast, after all, the total amount of land was still limited. A total of limited land needed to be distributed to keep the nascent aristocracy, as well as a large number of army divisions for the arable farmland. The increasing demand for land had formed an irreconcilable contradiction.
The fourth conflict was... the power!
The introduction of the Tekma system was the direct result of the unprecedented power in the military forces.By the standard of a national constitution, such a powerful force was a freak.
The highest administrative position, the Military Governor was a paramilitary official. The Governor was traditionally held by the army generals, responsible to lead the militias and regarded as quasi-military leader. The central government was disturbed that the empire were fragmented into dozens of small military groups, hardly to receive the central jurisdiction! Because there was an independent arable agricultural soldiers, these small paramilitary groups were almost entirely self-sufficient!
In the revenue and expenditure, they could be independent! This was a direct result of the military generals to be aristocratic! Imagined that every military governor had a free jurisdiction, a free and independent control of revenue and expenditure, land, horses anddid not need to get supply from the central to be completely self-sufficient. And even some particularly powerful military, the Governor could operate entirely within its own territory and formed the elite army troop! After a long time, they could even build up a separate military clique! These military cliques could be cancerous to the large body of the growing empire!
The aristocratic military generals and warlords had become the main reason of the Byzantine Empire, for being big but not strong. In one hundred years, there were dozens of rebellions throughout the region around the Imperial Government, of which there were six, occurred in nearly three decades!
The military had become the most direct beneficiary of this regime and therefore extremely supported on the mechanism. The emperors were aware of the situation and tried to cancel such a system. But the military after a hundred years of nourishment, had become a huge monster and even the imperial emperor could not completely neutralize the monster.
The military would make any attempt to protect their own vested interests and to remove any threat to the Tekma system. A Decades ago, the emperor tried to change the term of this situation and then the prime minister issued a text for restricting the Tekma system.In order to safeguard their own interests, the military had launched a small-scale coup that the prime minister was killed by the “rebellion” who broke into his home.And afterwards, under the military pressure, the emperor had to withdraw his command.
The compromise of the former emperors had resulting in a deep-rooted Tekmasystem, and the military strength had greatly expanded in one hundred years. When the Tekma system had been just established, there were just a total of thirty Tekma military. While in the domination of the Kontos, the emperor of lance, the Tekma military had reached forty-six in the entire Byzantine Empire! Forty-six Tekma military had comprising nearly half the empire’s land!
The rest of the lands were a considerable part of the territory belonging to the aristocracy. The actual land which fell under the central administrative jurisdiction of the Empire had been less than a fifth of the total area! The emergence of a new military dignitaries had often become a lifelong job.Once they had become a military governor in Tekma, they could be appointed at the position until death.Even for some of the forces which were exceptionally strong, the position would be inherited to the family as hereditary system.
The Tekma system was like a monster. The military had firmly united for the great benefits. They were originally become a national barrier, butthey had become the burden that leaked the imperial resources. The military empire, almost became another core central independent of the royal family. The forty-six national Military Tekma were directly deployed by the central military of the empire. The royal family could only seize the support from the ordinary empire army as much as possible in order to counter the increasingly large Tekma system.Only these people were the true soldiers, rather than the aristocratic warlord!
And the military was also divided into two different factions, with one of those was led by the military faction occupied by the majority which had been transformed from a real soldier into the warlord that only safeguarded their own interests. Unfortunately, the power of the warlord’s factions was much more powerful.The governor from the forty-six TekmaMilitary Region of the country were mostly included in this faction. The real military factions was only made up by a dozen of them while Adelaide was no doubt one of them forming the backbone of the thirteen Corps.
Carveslyver was once brought great ideas to the young Emperor of Lance and expressed his political stance.But his hostility toward theTekma system was disturbing the military. If others were holding such hostile political view, these leaders and chiefs from the military would scoff at most and even smiled in disdain. But Carveslyver was so famous even he was young as a rare genius from the imperial institution with a high reputation and the young emperor had anopened admirationtoward him.Someone who had such a close distance and relationship withthe emperorhad so much hostility toward the Tekma.So how could the people from the military felt at ease?
And the young Emperor of Lanceneeded the support from the militaryto seize power.He had to make a certain degree of compromise, which was a compromise of never appointed Carveslyver as a formal officer! And Carveslyver’stragedy was not only brought by the military for his hostility, even the other Empire veterans were expressed dissatisfaction toward his political views.
The Senate was the oldest system of government of the Byzantine Empire. A thousand years ago, during the establishment of the Byzantine Empire, the political ideas were encouraged on the consensus of the ruler and the people. It could be a form of democracy in the foundation of the Senate. In general, the Senate was formed from the elite representatives of the aristocracy, a number of outstanding generals of the army and some ordinary people from the industries or some people with a high fame such as some scholars, respected artists and other.