The situation with Athos was very unpleasant. It was very desirable to arrange a slaughter there, but this meant breaking with the Orthodox church apparatus. Therefore, it was necessary that there was some adequate character, for example, the patriarch. Actually, it could easily be arranged by the forces of Theodore, John was thrown information that the Holy Mountain had attracted the wrath of the secular prince and was greatly at risk. Knowing Eric's peace-loving reputation for business in Edessa, the patriarch immediately left Adrianople to the Great Lavra in order to meet our hero and dissuade him from hasty decisions. Having received confirmation of the arrival of the desired character at the desired address, our hero slowly began to meet for a meeting. How long, shortly, but on the tenth June on the horizon appeared the shore of the holy peninsula, just the one from which no more than half an hour walk to the laurels. His ships waited - from a small rock, just leaving the sea, some figure jumped off briskly and ran towards the monastery. Everything turned out as it should have turned out. Landed with all his strength, he did not, he collected only officers from the first two mouths that were in new armor plates, and with them went ashore. There he was already waiting for a small delegation headed by John.
" Good day to you, good man. "I am glad that you immediately arrived in these lands for their salvation and admonishment. Judging by our correspondence, you are very wise and it will be pleasant to talk with you.
" And you have a good day, Prince Eric. "If you wanted to talk with me, why all these passions?
" I need Brother Meletius. "The community, most likely, will not give it up. I do not want to ruin the Holy Mountain, but I can not forgive him. This man hired agitators to spread rumors about me, as if I were making sacrifices to the ancient gods. And also another hula. Is this possible to forgive? The same exudation smells.
" Do not get excited, prince. How do you know that?
- I took several agitators, under torture they independently confessed that Melety sent them. Who sent my brother, I do not know.
Ok. What do you want to do with it?
" Interrogate and execute. "I want to know who my enemy is, who told him to spread blasphemy about me.
"What will you do if the brothers oppose your wish? "
" For me, their act will mean that they sold the soul to the devil and are overwhelmed by worldly passions, instead of doing spiritual things. "In other words, death is waiting for them all. I'm not going to run after them, but I'll find anyone I'll die.
- And me?
- No, you are here present as a respected person and an intermediary, and therefore can not be killed in any way.
" Do you only need Meletius's brother or something? "I feel you did not just come. Otherwise, he would have caught it quietly, no one would have known.
Right? In the Bosporus, I'm going to open a large library, and so I would like to receive from the monks a ransom of old books. It is desirable, of course, the work of the times of Aristotle, since theological works in me now in abundance.
- What could be more useful than a good book about God?
- A good book about the case.
- Dangerous words.
" No more dangerous than a sword. "Father, I hope for you and your wisdom, for it will be unpleasant for me to kill so many innocent people, all the more so busy with such an important matter as serving our Lord.
- I have to give up. I'll board the ship. I need room for maneuver in case you refuse. Till tomorrow. Good luck in your good work. And yet, you do not need to hide from people, they are hoping for you. Here and now, and not somewhere in a better world. Running and hiding in a corner is not an option. And there are defeats at all, and they need only be stubbornly accepted and held.
"You have not had them yet. "
- I'm special. - Eric turned and slowly went to the boats, which brought him with his entourage to shore. It was necessary to wait. He was completely confident in John, who will do everything right.
The rest of the day the prince spent in thought about how to develop him in the future the armament of his army. He was afraid of introducing firearms, because if it were to be introduced with a low technological level, it would not be able to outdo its new block crossbows, which is not only useless, it is also harmful, because the rest of European figures can copy the primitive guns. The result of the premature introduction of firearms is extremely pitiable - it is possible to give the enemy a good weapon, which, when used massively, will create a serious threat to his army. Therefore, it is necessary to improve and further crossbows. Of course, he does not have the ability to do this alone, on his knee, therefore - at the academic center it is necessary to create a research group. And it will need to be equipped not only with a room for exercises in writing and drafting, but also with an experimental production workshop. This creates new, very complex problems. First, you need to master the production of sheets of large paper for drawings. Secondly, it is necessary to introduce a single system of measurements in order to avoid confusion. Thirdly, it was necessary to establish the production of pencils with a slate bar, rulers, compasses, erasers and other things. Given that the rubber is still unavailable, then the erasers full ambush. Fourthly, it was necessary to put people in the digestible kind of work of Euclid, Archimedes and other basic things, making them available for operational practical application. That is, you need to create normal methodological aids, at least in geometry and mathematics, otherwise it will be of little use. As for physics, then, in fact, it does not exist at all and it will be necessary to create everything from scratch. Writing textbooks and manuals - it was the limit of his dreams, so rosy that from one thought Eric jerked as he was something extremely inedible. Fifthly, it is necessary to engage seriously in raising the technological level of production. In particular - we need new, high-quality machines, albeit almost gold at their price. Turning, drilling, pressing, rolling, drawing is only a small list of machines that need to be made. And not as he now has, but good, high quality, so that with their help it was possible to improve the quality of production and quietly seek to improve the standards of tolerances, as well as the speed, accuracy and complexity of processing the parts. Sixth, it was necessary to found the chemical industry, since now it is absent as a category, in principle. It is needed primarily to improve the quality of materials. For these purposes, you can assemble alchemists in Europe and Asia. The prince had knowledge in the field of chemistry very, very mediocre, and therefore he himself could not train and train people even at the level of good alchemists. Of course, he could ask them a vector of research, set up an experimental base and stop hopeless research, but no more. Seventh, it was necessary to do something with the population. The appearance of technological curiosities can have an unpredictable effect on the minds of medieval inhabitants. Consequently, he needed to create mass media for informing the people about what was happening in the state and creating public opinion. However, for this purpose it was simply necessary that the citizens of his country could read. In principle, this is solvable, but there is a big problem - an educated population is much more difficult to manage. That is, to control the population of religion and power is not enough, you need to create an ideology in the modern understanding of this word. This is necessary to keep the population at all levels of intellectual development within the framework of a certain common vector of development, which he himself sets. Or the one who will be after him. A dangerous, extremely dangerous toy, but if it is not done, we will eventually get mass riots led by "smart" citizens who have gone a little further than reading the syllables, and already want to remake the world in accordance with their idealistic beliefs. Here are just stupid things like "Freedom! Equality! Brotherhood! " he did not have enough here. You can not let the financial aristocracy come to power, otherwise we will get an accelerated version of the horror that was going on in the world of his past life. When the traders are in power, this is very bad, because much more important and global goals merge and are replaced by a mere uncontrollable desire for profit. They, alas, like ducks, who reached the grain - only eat and shit, no good. This is a very serious problem, since it will have to be solved not only within the framework of its now small piece of land, but with the right to build a large state with strong, centralized management. Eighth, it was necessary to begin the development of the fleet, as these terrible barrels with the sail, which make up the merchant fleet of his priestess, have absolutely poor speed and seaworthiness. It is necessary to develop three directions at once: a merchant ship, a warship, a raider. The first, of course, will carry out trade, transportation and amphibious operations. An extremely important task, since the state budget of the Bosporus and, hence, the possibility of financing research activities directly depends on trade. The latter are designed to destroy enemy fleets and siege operations, which is just as important as financial ones, because they often require power support. The latter are needed for patrol duty service on their communications and raider operations on enemy communications, whaling campaigns, messenger service, cartographic and research works and, finally, for establishing communication with the territory of America, since in ten to fifteen years they will become important to him rubber and potatoes. This is not counting silver mines and other delights. Too not an easy job. He missed technological vessels such as fishing or coastal, but he does not want to touch on this trifle - it is not necessary, since the available means make it possible to supply the population quite normally with seafood. Ninth, you need to decide something with the church, since the pope will not rest. Especially in the light of the rapid technological growth that the prince has outlined. Eric was absolutely sure that the provocation, which occurred because of Meletios, the work of the Pope, who wants to quarrel with the Orthodox clergy. Most likely, John was of the same opinion. There was no clarity on this issue at all, so it only remained to wait and balance between two dangerous predators. And finally, Demeter and her brothers. Further this could not continue, because they too obviously compromised it in the eyes of the population. But then the solution of the problem was obvious, simple and elegant - it was necessary to create a secret society of the elected, like Masons. To create a charter for them with a clear productive purpose, a distinctive sign, for example, a ring and accept all outstanding people of the state there, creating a sort of elite club. Actually, it will be a wonderful mechanism that can continue the vector of the state's development even after his death or temporary incapacity. In general, the further the case comes, the more problems there are. And the main problem is to rely on no one, as there are a lot of followers, but there are practically no like-minded people. Well, although Morrigan, having become involved in solving the problems of the Academic Center, stopped talking all sorts of nonsense, not typical for his level of intelligence and status. But even she is not like-minded. One, he is all alone, surrounded by a crowd of people who want something from him. Ooh, and with every step, with a new step, Monomakh's hat.