The Mad Tycoon of Rome

< 256. The Crack in the Heavenly Order 2>

The fact that Rome no longer needed silk was a huge shock.

Rome had been the biggest market for Han’s silk for the past few years.

The amount they paid for tea and silk was like a goose that laid golden eggs.

It was already hard enough to manage the finances, but if Rome cut off the import of silk, it could cause a serious crisis.

And that was not the only problem.

The report came up so hastily that it was not properly delivered, but Rome did not stop at silk.

They also reduced the import of tea by more than half.

Liu Shi, who was already troubled by the budget, turned his eyes to Dai Nong, who was in charge of taxes and grains.

His face, which corresponded to the modern finance minister, was already pale and dead.

“How much damage will it do to the royal treasury if those Romans reduce their imports?”

“···Your Majesty, that is······.”

“It’s okay, just tell me the truth.”

The other officials also waited anxiously for Dai Nong’s mouth to open.

Soon he finished roughly calculating in his head and bit his lips several times before barely spitting out his words.

“Very···bad. Since the time of Emperor Xiaoxuan, Rome has been giving us a lot of gold and silver in exchange for silk and tea. Sometimes they also gave us sugar equivalent to that. Naturally, as our income increased, our spending also increased steadily over the years. If they cut this off now······.”

He did not need to finish his sentence. Everyone could guess what he meant.

Naturally, Liu Shi’s sharp gaze shot at Eunuchs, who led the officials.

“What have you been doing until Rome showed such a movement?”

There was nothing they could say to defend themselves against this accusation. 

Hong Gong and Shi Xian almost simultaneously knelt on the floor.

“We apologize for not paying enough attention to what we should have while we were focused on the outcome of the war!”

“We will send an envoy immediately to find out the truth!”

They were not the only ones who shrank their bodies.

The military leaders who had predicted the outcome of the war completely wrong also trembled in case they would be blamed.

Liu Shi looked around his subordinates and frowned.

What he wanted was not to punish his subordinates for trivial matters.

If it had not been a serious matter, he might have taken it as an opportunity to do so.

But the unexpected end of the war and Rome’s subsequent actions were not something that Liu Shi could easily overlook.

“Instead of thinking about how to avoid responsibility, tell me how we can overcome this situation. I told you I won’t hold you accountable for what has happened so far. But if you just try to save yourselves and don’t come up with a proper solution, you will have to pay for the loss.”

As Liu Shi’s roar fell, Dai Nong was the first to propose an opinion.

“First of all, we need to figure out Rome’s intention. There are two possible scenarios. Whether the import suspension is temporary or permanent.”

“Is there any reason why they would temporarily stop importing?”

“Silk and tea are clearly luxury goods. Rome is in a post-war period right now, so they might want to reduce their consumption of luxury goods and focus on reconstruction. It seems a bit unrealistic that they succeeded in producing and mass-producing both silk and tea.”

“I see. That could be the case.”

Communication between Han and Rome was not smooth because they were so far apart.

If this import suspension was just a temporary measure, it would be a big blow but not something to worry about too much.

“Of course, we should also consider the possibility that they succeeded in developing and mass-producing them. Then it means that this situation will continue from now on, so we need to revert our budget back to its previous state.”

“What if we cut off our imports as well if they cut off theirs? The Roman merchants must be making a lot of money from our side too?”

One of the officials cautiously raised his head.

“Your Majesty, I’m sorry to say this but that is not an easy thing to do.”

“Why not?”

“The sugar we import from Rome is given as a tribute gift. We already have some places like Buyeo asking us to increase the amount of sugar because they pay more tribute goods.”

“I see······.”

“That’s not the only problem, Your Majesty.”

Hong Gong, who had been quietly lowering his head until now, intervened.

Liu Shi turned his head with a fearful look on his face.

“What else is there?”

“If Rome really succeeded in making silk, it means that our technology has been leaked. You said you won’t hold anyone accountable for what has happened so far, but silk is a different story. We need to find out where and how it was leaked and punish the leaker with a crime equivalent to treason. And we need to review the overall management level once again.”

The other officials also agreed with Hong Gong’s words.

Liu Shi also felt some emphasis for that.

The method of making silk was a secret of secrets that was carefully guarded from being leaked to other countries.

On the other hand, he could not understand how Rome managed to steal this secret.

“As Hong Gong said, this is not a problem that only concerns Rome. We have to check the possibility that silk has been leaked to other barbarians as well.”

He felt a headache as he had too many things to consider.

He thought he could do everything when he ascended to the throne, but he realized every year that reality was not so easy.

He suddenly wondered what the two emperors who were leading Rome were doing.

Were they also suffering from the problems that erupted every day, or were they living without any worries in peace?

‘They must have some troubles. Even I, the emperor of Middle Empire, have so many things to worry about.’

Rome was already at war with the Huns, so the situation must be serious inside and outside the country.

That’s why they lost the luxury of consuming silk or tea.

That must be the reason.

It had to be.

‘The choice to take advantage of the fight between the two barbarians was not wrong. They must be worse off than us after experiencing a large-scale war. If we approach from that perspective, we might find a breakthrough in an unexpected direction.’

It was Liu Shi’s wish mixed with too much hope, but he didn’t even realize it.

Sometimes, not knowing the truth can be a blessing.

That was the case for Liu Shi and the court of Han Dynasty.

※※※

Han sent an envoy as quickly as possible to gauge Rome’s intentions.

The leader of the envoy was Shi Xian, one of the eunuchs who dominated the royal family.

Liu Shi and even the eunuchs took this matter very seriously.

The distance from Han Dynasty to Rome was unimaginably far.

Even if they didn’t go directly to Rome, it was not a journey to be ignored.

Fortunately, the envoys were able to unload their luggage in Ctesiphon, which was the capital of Parthia, not Antioch.

It was thanks to Publius, who was in charge of the eastern provinces instead of Marcus, who had set up a base in Ctesiphon for building a new city.

Marcus knew that Antioch would decline after a major earthquake, so he had no intention of concentrating his facilities there anymore.

So he distributed Antioch’s influence to several nearby cities and tried to achieve balanced development of land by building new cities in good locations.

Among them, Baghdad was his main focus.

Baghdad was a city that enjoyed prosperity comparable to Chang’an of Tang Dynasty and Constantinople of Eastern Rome as the capital of Abbasid Dynasty in original history.

The central city of Mesopotamia was Ctesiphon at the moment, but Marcus wanted to revive Baghdad and naturally counter it.

Also, this place was superior to any other city in the Middle East in terms of location.

First of all, the Tigris River ran through the city and it was close to the Euphrates River, so it was possible to reach Tang directly through canals.

Geographically, it was located in the center of the eastern provinces and had a good representation.

There weren’t many places better than this as a successor to Antioch’s role.

Publius decided to call this city Marco Polis for now.

The envoys from Han Dynasty arrived when the construction of the new city was in full swing.

He treated them kindly at least on the surface.

“You must have had a hard time coming here. I’m sorry that I couldn’t take care of you properly because there is a large-scale construction going on and I’m not receiving guests from the capital.”

“Not at all. We are just glad that we didn’t have to cross the desert.”

Shi Xian had investigated beforehand that Publius had visited Han Dynasty as an envoy before.

No matter how he thought about it, considering the time it took to develop and produce silk, if it was leaked, it could only have been when Publius visited.

Of course, he didn’t do anything stupid like mentioning his inference out loud.

It would only make him look bad and politically disadvantageous if he accused him without evidence.

“I heard you came here for something related to trade, but I also have something to tell you from this side. You saved me some trouble by coming here.”

“Do you mean you are resuming silk imports?”

“Ah, no, I’m sorry but that’s not it. Rather, I think we will reduce the amount of imports gradually. We also found silkworms suitable for making silk by chance a few years ago. Now we have secured enough quality to be self-sufficient.”

He mentioned silkworms openly to show that silk was no longer a secret.

Shi Xian’s eyes twitched.

“You found silkworms? That’s quite…an amazing coincidence.”

“Yes. They were living in southern Africa. You may not know much about southern Africa, but it’s roughly here.”

Publius brought a map and pointed vaguely to the savanna area of South Africa.

It was a surprisingly detailed world map made under Marcus’s guidance.

Shi Xian’s eyes widened as he saw the elaborate world map for the first time.

He thought it was exaggerated at first, but he noticed that even the countries corresponding to the east and north of Han Dynasty were marked on it.

“This map is…”

“Ah, you may not have seen it before. This is a world map that Romans commonly see.”

With a good-natured lie, Shi Xian’s head was filled with confusion.

Usually, a detailed map would be a military secret and never shown to another country.

But Publius casually let Shi Xian see the map too naturally.

He felt a pang of anxiety that Rome and Han Dynasty’s technology might be on different levels.

Maybe silk was not leaked, but they really found silkworms by chance and made it.

If Rome’s technology was much more advanced than Han’s, it might be possible.

Even the countless papers on the table were enough to catch Shi Xian’s attention.

Middle Empire still didn’t have paper, so they wrote on bamboo or silk when they recorded characters.

Even if he tried not to be conscious of it, he naturally noticed the gap between the two countries everywhere.

It was a hard humiliation to accept for Shi Xian, who was full of pride in Han Dynasty.

His ears were pierced by Publius’s apologetic voice as he tried to find something better about them.

“I have some bad news to tell you, who came all this way.”

“Yes? What is…”

“It’s about the contract that Rome supplies sugar exclusively to Han. It will end soon, right? The Senate decided not to extend it after careful discussion.”

Shi Xian opened his mouth wide, forgetting why he came here for a moment.

He swallowed his dry saliva and barely asked with his voice.

“Do you mean you will cut off the supply of sugar?”

“Of course not. There are so many eastern countries that ask us to supply sugar directly these days. We decided to give them a chance too. Of course, we will still sell sugar to you as before, so there will be no shortage.”

It was like he came to get rid of one boil and got another one.

Shi Xian shouted without controlling his emotions.

“That’s ridiculous! I can’t accept this!”

Publius tilted his head with an expression of genuine doubt.

“If you don’t accept it…what are you going to do?”

Shi Xian’s mouth shut tight.

He was right.

What could they do to Rome whether they sold their goods or not?

They had nothing to do with Rome in terms of military, political, or economic power.

< 256. The Crack in the Heavenly Order 2 > End