"Caesar, this is our country's revenue and expenditure report for the Tauris region since April." In early May, Finance Minister Isaac Arno presented the previous month's revenue and expenditure report for the Tauris region to his respected Caesar. As for the revenue and expenditure report for the Pontus region, the Caesar himself, with the help of the secretariat, personally compiled it, which was a tiring task for him at the beginning of the month.
He needed to find a way to promote a capable official to assist him in managing the Pontus finances. There were still many places to visit, and if the position of Pontus Finance Minister remained vacant, major problems would arise sooner or later. With this in mind, Manuel began carefully selecting from the financial bureaucrats and officials in the Pontus region, preparing to choose a capable minister for the position.
While selecting suitable candidates, Caesar also issued military orders, officially determining the garrisons for each legion. Although this was merely formalizing the existing customary arrangements through military regulations and discipline, and tidying them up.
According to Manuel's final decision, each legion would have a fixed Station: for example, the Tauris First Legion and Second Legion were stationed in the cities of South Tauris and on both sides of the Panticapaeum Strait, respectively, while the Tatar Legion was usually stationed in the Tatar Isthmus and the major towns of the governorate; as for the Pontus First Legion, it was stationed in the important border towns of the Pontus region, the Second Legion was stationed in West Armenia, a dependency of Bosporus, the Third Legion was stationed in the eastern regions and even the important towns of Georgia, and the Circassian Legion was stationed in Adyghe and Abkhazia.
These are the specific garrisons for each legion. His design, in fact, somewhat hinted at the division of military districts. It was only limited by the current scale of directly administered land that Bosporus had not formally established them.
Of course, the above are just general garrison locations; in reality, every city in the Autocratic State with a population of several thousand or more would have a Grand Company and other units stationed there. For example, his most trusted Filaka Legion was stationed in the two capitals of Bangkok Pu and Trabzon, guarding these two jewel-like port cities.
Additionally, it should be noted that the garrison regulations determined this time did not actually affect his previous order to move large troops to Tauris under the guise of military exercises. In other words, this part of the military order is expected to be implemented after Bosporus's operations in the Sea of Azov coastal region are completed.
Besides these matters, he also focused on issues concerning military expenditure and finance and their allocation. For example, what alerted him was that, in order to strengthen the army, Bosporus basically poured all its monthly trade income into military expenses. This was still during peacetime; it would probably be even higher during wartime. Fortunately, the Autocratic State still had tax revenues and various private incomes from the royal family, so there was no problem covering administrative costs and other matters. The only pity was the royal family's dignity; to save money, he had to drastically cut down on palace maintenance, repairs, and food and clothing expenses, allowing the royal family to live as frugally as possible while maintaining its due face.
"Fortunately, I almost emptied the treasury of the Kingdom of Georgia last time; otherwise, I would really have a hard time explaining it to my loyal soldiers." Thinking back to the "good deed" he did in the last Georgian war, Manuel chuckled to himself, as if relieved.
In this way, Bosporus's operations around the Black Sea continued in an orderly fashion, and the army's structure became more rigorous and disciplined.
Before the scheduled military exercises and the official large-scale engagement with Golden Horde Kazan, Manuel, driven by curiosity, put on civilian clothes and took his family to the family estate in New Caesarea to admire the chicken farm that his subordinates had mentioned and which he had named "Kaslan."
After a visit, he was satisfied to see that the name he had given was already framed at the front of the estate.
Upon Caesar's arrival, the farmer in charge of the estate and its chicken farm hastily invited him in. After briefly explaining the current development and praising Caesar for his commendation and improvement of the estate, the farmer respectfully presented several deliciously roasted poultry, requesting his monarch to dine there.
Manuel gladly accepted, and after his children had eaten, he slowly enjoyed the meal.
"Ah, the taste is good," the young Caesar took a big bite of the deliciously roasted poultry in front of him, "truly one of the best roasted chickens."
"But Caesar," the farmer standing beside him said with a flattering and fearful smile, "this is actually roasted duck."
"Is that so," Caesar laughed reassuringly, "that's fine too, it's very tasty, isn't that good too."
However, after a moment of thought, he deliberately shook his head and said sternly, "Don't tell me you only have roasted duck here."
"Of course not, Caesar," the farmer explained frantically, looking as if he was about to cry, "if Caesar likes roasted chicken, then…"
"Alright, alright," Barbara, who was smiling at the scene, gently nudged her husband, "Manuel, don't tease him anymore."
"Alright, alright…"
After inspecting the estate, Manuel also toured the entire West Pontus, including New Caesarea, spending three days carefully checking the local defenses and the actual attitude of the Ottoman.
After confirming that everything was stable in Asia Minor and there were no worries, Caesar made general arrangements for Pontus affairs and then traveled by ship within a day to Mangup City on the Tauris Peninsula, publicly stating that he would conduct military exercises on the Taman Peninsula, where Phanagoria is located, and indeed did so.
As the yellow flag with the black double-headed eagle, symbolizing the Gavras Family and the Bosphorus Despotate, was raised, the military exercise officially began. The Caesar, dressed in military attire, rode a warhorse, letting the sea breeze ruffle his purple cloak, and surveyed the two thousand soldiers under his command for this occasion.
Also observing with him were several foreign guests. For example, an envoy secretly sent by the Golden Horde was enthusiastically discussing with a Venetian in the city of Phanagoria.
Soon, their brief conversation concluded. Watching the Tatars leave with light steps, the young Venetian envoy smiled slightly, "Well, it seems things are getting lively around the Sea of Azov."
Before he could say anything more, a messenger sent by the Bosphorus Caesar approached him, "Lord Gracio, Caesar requests a word with you."
"Alright." Gracio, a Venetian new noble who had long dealt with Bosporus, readily agreed. As he looked up ahead, he suddenly noticed Bosporus's pure black double-headed eagle flag fluttering in the city, which reminded the Venetian of a Saracen legend,
"A black phoenix? Will it also be reborn from the ashes like other phoenixes?"