"Where is the treaty, show me it!" Irina succeeded in diverting Leo IV's attention.

Irina clapped her hands randomly, and the Minister of Commerce and Trade walked in with the wooden box containing the agreement, put it on the small table next to it and stepped out.

Irina opened the wooden box and took out the text of the treaty, opened it and handed it to Leo IV, Leo IV's face became much better and his spirit was much more uplifted after reading it carefully, but he still said: "The annual import volume of 30 million gold dollars, the ten-year period, although we are not allowed to pay tribute, but this amount seems to be too large, which will occupy a lot of our tax funds!" ”

Irina said: "There is no way to do this, we can't help but give some sweetness to the Western Qin Kingdom, but we are not at a loss, these goods are imported, if we can't use them ourselves, we can also resell them to the northern barbarians, the Arabs on the other side of the Mediterranean, and the Franks, Papal States and other principalities in the west, and if the situation is good, we can also make a fortune from it!" ”

Leo IV's eyes lit up when he heard this: "This is a good way to pass on our losses to the surrounding countries!" ”

Speaking of this, Leo IV's face changed again, and he looked at Elena with sharp eyes: "What means did you use to persuade the King of Western Qin?" ”

Irina was stunned for a moment, but immediately covered her mouth and laughed, only to laugh until Leo IV became angry.

"Alright, alright, I won't laugh anymore!" Irina stopped, and Masase said to Leo IV: "I know what you want to say! You don't want to think about it, the King of Western Qin is already an old man in his sixties, what else can he do? Even if he has the heart, he is powerless! You, I really like to be jealous, but seeing you so jealous shows that you still care about me in your heart, I'm very happy, even if I suffer from some bumps in this trip, I think it's worth it! ”

"After I got there, the king of Western Qin showed the demeanor of a king, and he sent someone to hold a grand welcome ceremony to receive me, and the specifications were very high, to welcome the queen of a country! The King of Western Qin was not a brutal man, he was a wise man, otherwise he would not have been able to rule tens of thousands of miles of territory by force! But because of this, he is our great enemy. Although he behaved very generously and decently in the process of reception, and the treatment he deserved was not ambiguous at all, but his shrewdness and wisdom made me shudder, our Eastern Roman Empire and the King of Western Qin were natural enemies, and the obstacles to Western Qin's continued westward expansion had all been clear to him, and we became one of his targets, this is a person with a strong will to dominate the world, but at this stage he does not have this strength, I just made an analysis with him based on the current situation of both sides, before solving the big food country in North Africa, It is impossible for him to risk a war on two fronts to fight with us! ”

"Our Eastern Roman Empire is different from the Great Food Country, our Eastern Roman Empire has built a large number of castles and fortresses in the Anatonian region, and the city wall defense is also relatively strong, the Western Qin army can drive straight into the territory of the Great Food Country and use local resources to obtain supplies, but not in our Eastern Roman Empire, we can implement the method of clearing the wilderness, so that they cannot get food supplies, and even poison them in areas where water is scarce, so that they cannot obtain food and water sources, and their logistics line is too long, Even if the logistics supply is strong, it will not be able to bear the supply of such a long supply line, and without food, their army will have no combat effectiveness! The king of Western Qin knew this very well, so he did not dare to go to war with us easily, he was a wise old man, he originally planned to make our Eastern Roman Empire a vassal, and pay a tribute of two thousand pounds of gold every year, I categorically vetoed it, the main content of these agreements on the terms was put forward by me, not only to give him a step down, but also to take care of the face of our Eastern Roman Empire! Considering the actual situation now, he agreed to my proposal, but we must strictly follow the terms of peace, so that the Western Qin has no excuse to make trouble, but this does not prevent us from helping the Mahdi in North Africa to fight against the Western Qin, we can send troops to participate in the battle against the Western Qin offensive as mercenaries recruited by the Mahdi, so that we can help the Arabs, but also have no handle for the Western Qin to seize, we can use this to extend the term of the treaty, and buy enough time for the revival of our Eastern Roman Empire! ”

Leo IV nodded: "Yes, your idea is very thoughtful, the people we sent to North Africa have returned, and Mahdi has decided to abandon all previous grievances between our two countries at this critical period, temporarily reconcile with us, and unanimously fight against Western Qin." However, we have now signed a peace treaty with Western Qin, and if this matter reaches the ears of Mahdi, I am afraid that the matter of union will change again! ”

Irina raised her eyebrows: "Then send someone to explain the situation secretly to Mahdi, and our two families have reached an alliance in secret!" How is the relationship between the Holy See and the Frankish Kingdom? ”

Leo IV said: "Pope Adrian I is very much in favor of the countries uniting against the Western Qin, but the King Charman of the Frankish Kingdom is not very interested, the Frankish forces have no border with us, the Western Qin army will fight them There is still no known year and month, and if he sends troops over, he can only go through Italy, the road is too far, he still has the threat of the Avars in the west, a large number of barbarian Saxons in the north, and the threat of the Caliphate of Kovaldo in the south, He has no extra energy to take care of the affairs of the East, and according to the return of the men we have sent, Charman seems to be very jealous of the East, and is not willing to wade into the troubled waters! ”

Elena frowned and said: "Since the Frankish kingdom does not have this idea and meaning, then the Pope can only come forward and call on the slave owners, feudal landowners, and monks of the monasteries in Christendom to send warriors and knights to help in the war, in the name of defending Christendom, I think there should be people who respond to the call, those people are eager to obtain land and wealth beyond our imagination, as long as there is etiquette, they even dare to point the butcher's knife at God, do you believe it?" ”

Leo IV snorted coldly: "Of course I believe, otherwise how could my grandfather, father, and I have ordered three successive generations to prohibit idolatrous activities, weaken their cities, prevent them from acquiring land and wealth, and occupy a large amount of the resources of the empire?" Your method is good, but it is easy to form a tail that cannot be defeated, once their power is large to a certain extent, Constantinople may not be able to control it, because they will not lose to the control of the empire, and will only obey the head of the church or the various forces! I need to think about this matter, I don't want our empire to be destroyed not by the Western Qin people, but internally, there is actually no difference between the two! Now we have three main tasks: first, to reach an alliance with the Mahdi in North Africa to fight together against Western Qin; Second, it is necessary to rectify the internal governance, develop the economy, encourage farming, enhance national strength, and develop armaments! Third, eliminate the raids and troop of the northern Bolgar and other barbarians against us! We've done well over the years, but it was my defeat in Thrace last year that left us devastated, but the forces we had arranged among the Bulgars were not fully discovered by them, and we had a chance to let them kill each other! ”

After that, Leo IV gave full play to the role of the Eastern Roman Empire's spy within the Bolgars, who disturbed the power structure within the Bolgar Khanate, and successfully provoked the opposition of various tribes within the Bolgars against the Khan King Greit, which caused the Bolgars to fall into a long-term internal strife for decades.

At the same time, Leo IV and Irina once again sent people to Egypt to negotiate with Mahdi and complete the secret alliance, promising that in the event of an attack by the Western Qin forces, at any time, no matter which side of the alliance was attacked, the other side would send troops to assist, or send troops to contain it, or directly send troops to attack the Western Qin.

In the following three years, the Eastern Roman Empire, with the joint efforts of Leo IV and Irina, carried out a complete reform of the military system, eliminating the disadvantages of the viceroy overseeing the military and political power in various places, and implementing the military in many regions only by the military governor, the military governor could not be responsible for civil politics, and the logistics and military expenditure of the army were all controlled by Constantinople.

In terms of internal affairs, the two carried out a series of reforms, laying a solid foundation for the economic development of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Eastern Roman Empire also used the treaty provisions that cost 30 million gold yuan a year to import various goods from Western Qin, and resold a considerable part of them to Arabs and surrounding countries, not only did not lose money, but made a lot of money, even Zhao Ziliang knew this matter and admired Irina's cleverness in his heart.

Beginning in the spring of 780 AD, Leo began to increase the pre-war preparations for the attack on the Bolgar Khanate, he began to hoard a large number of military supplies and food, and after these three years of military reform, the Eastern Roman Empire once again had more than 200,000 standing troops.

But just as Leo IV was preparing to lead his army on the march, he fell ill again, this time very sick, and in less than a month, his body could not hold on, and before his death, he issued the emperor's decree that his only son Constantine VI would succeed the emperor, and since Constantine VI was only ten years old, he appointed Irina as the sole guardian of Constantine VI, and before Constantine VI came of age, Irina had full authority to handle state affairs.

Leo IV was a very talented and visionary emperor, but when he took over the throne, the Eastern Roman Empire was already rotten internally, he reigned for five years, and after some hard work, he still made some achievements, at least reversing the decline of the empire, he had faults, but also merits, and he died at the age of thirty, and he was only five years in the emperor's position.

The news soon spread from Constantinople to Xinjing, and Zhao Ziliang sighed after learning about it: "The Eastern Roman Empire will only be Irina's world for a long time from now on, and the era of the first empress in Western history is coming!" ”