With that, the young Latin nobleman took out a letter of recommendation from his embrace. The letter was signed by Pietro Lando.
Holding the letter, the young man recalled the scene of meeting his close friend from the Lando family—
"I don't want to go to the church!" he complained to his close friend from the Lando family at the time.
"Why not? Once you're in the church, can't you do whatever you want? When you become a Cardinal, whether you want little girls or little boys, it's all up to you," Paola Lando, a dashing brown-haired young man of the same age, teased him.
"What are you talking about? That's disgusting. If I want to play with little girls, why would I use the identity of a Bishop? If I'm going to play, it should definitely be as a secular lord, that's the only way it feels right!"
"Carlo, is that the point...?"
"Never mind, just help me figure something out, my dear friend Paola."
"You're impossible," Paola said, sighing as he pulled out a pen and paper and wrote him a letter of introduction. "Ta-da! A letter of introduction. Among our Lando family, or rather, my uncle's nephew by marriage, happens to be a Black Sea Consul. With this letter, you should be able to gain some experience under him and show your true talents."
"Thank you so much, Paola!"
And so, the ambitious young man embarked on a journey away from home. After recalling his secret meeting with Paola Lando, the young man looked forward to meeting this Venetian Black Sea Consul with some anticipation.
Just as he approached the Black Sea coast, Manuel, who had already dispatched two delegations, was in his palace, summoning his Patriarch and Minister of Finance to discuss how to build a new city.
"Ah, a new city?" they both asked in surprise.
"Yes, a new city. I plan to rebuild the current Simferopol," Manuel said calmly.
Well, rather than "build" or "rebuild," after all, the target location Manuel chose, the former Karasubazar, now Simferopol, was already a moderately sized village back when the Tatars ruled it.
But currently, it is merely a village. While some towns in North Tauris had their origins as early as the ancient Greek colonial period, under nearly a thousand years of nomadic influence, they have all become Tatar in style.
For Manuel, who had extensively purged Tatar rebels in Tauris, these Tatar-style towns constantly reminded him that the area still clung to conservative Tatar nomadic culture. If the region were to be retaken by a Tatar regime in the future, it would likely quickly revert to its nomadic state.
This was indeed an unstable factor for Bosporus's rule there, so Manuel intended to use this opportunity to accelerate the Hellenization of the area, reduce the proportion of Tatar culture, and incidentally diminish the influence of Bakhchysarai, a former major city where many Tatars still resided.
As for why not take the extreme measure of directly tearing down the existing Tatar traces in North Tauris? This, this, this wouldn't be free, would it? Moreover, his current purge was under the righteous banners of religion and suppressing rebellion. If he were to conduct another purge, especially one based on culture, then not only the Tatar Legion but even the Tatars who had already submitted to him would likely rebel again. This would be extremely destructive to Bosporus's economic and strategic interests. He really did not want to face another large-scale rebellion.
And after listening to Manuel's words, his two cabinet members all breathed a sigh of relief. "It's good that we don't have to build a city from scratch," they thought.
But they quickly thought of another question, "Then, Your Majesty, why don't we choose Bakhchysarai? Logically speaking, wouldn't choosing this large city, which was already a major city under Tatar rule, be more cost-effective, labor-saving, and convenient?"
This was one of the points Manuel intended to explain. He smiled and waved his left hand, beginning to explain, "Bakhchysarai is indeed a good place. It already has a certain scale, a long history, and was the political center during nomadic rule.
"But Bakhchysarai holds too much significance for nomads, not just Tatars. And even after the 'Re-Baptism' movement's purge, the local population is still predominantly Tatar. While focusing development there might have a slight conciliatory effect, if the Tatars from the mainland were to attack, would the residents of Bakhchysarai remain indifferent? At that point, wouldn't our construction achievements there be handed over to others?"
"Regarding this issue, Your Majesty, I believe we could build more orthodox churches in Bakhchysarai and resettle orthodox populations of Greek, Goth, and other ancestries to dilute the proportion of Tatars in the city," Orophin cautiously offered his opinion.
"That makes a lot of sense, but there are some major problems," Manuel said, clapping his hands in approval before patiently explaining, "If we were to rebuild Bakhchysarai to meet our needs, the time and effort required would be far too long and extensive; moreover, building or renovating Greek-style architecture there would inevitably provoke a backlash from the local Tatars; furthermore, I do not intend to let the Tatar nobles under my rule, who are still secretly stirring and opportunistic like weeds on a wall, prematurely sense any possibility of an uprising.
"In contrast, compared to Bakhchysarai, although Simferopol has a certain scale, due to the previous wars, a large number of Tatars there have moved out for various reasons. Although the Tatars currently settled there still temporarily account for more than half, their total number is only three to four thousand.
"Conversely, the Greeks, Latins, and Rus' people who have gradually moved into the area through various means, number over a thousand just among those registered. If this immigration trend can be sustained long-term, Simferopol should become a Roman-dominated city in over ten years. In other words, its potential is not weaker than Bakhchysarai's.
"Moreover, the rise of a new city will certainly symbolize that our rule in its region is on the right track, and thus, the authentic and glorious Roman culture will gradually and gently spread into North Tauris. Given this, why should we abandon this more beautiful possibility and choose to concede to unstable factors?"
Besides this, Manuel also had a latent reason for choosing to develop Simferopol: in official history, Empress Catherine the Great of Russia saw Simferopol's potential and developed it into the capital of the Crimea region. Although he didn't fully understand the reasons, he felt that the Russians' choice of Simferopol must have had its rationale.
And Orophin, who had just raised the question, after hearing Manuel's explanation, although he did not agree with some of the reasons, he had to admit that, from this perspective, Simferopol was indeed the better choice. "Your Majesty's words are very true." Arno also immediately expressed his agreement with the decision, as for the current Bosporus, allocating funds for construction was a perfectly normal matter.
After the two men in front of him both expressed their agreement and signed the archives Manuel had already prepared, Manuel smiled and officially issued the new resolution to build Simferopol, and this city would, in the distant future, become one of the most prosperous cities of the Roman Empire north of the Black Sea.