“Is the situation optimistic?”

"It depends on how big your heart is. At least from my personal point of view, Thessalonika is very bad." Juan Baptist, standing in front of Justinian, said, and at this moment he was looking through the dusty old files in the city hall with Justinian. The piles of old papers still preserve the situation of the city when the imperial administrative system was not completely paralyzed several years ago. Compared with the situation after sending people to investigate, Baptiste did not need to answer, and Justinian also basically understood the situation of the entire city.

"Oh, you think so too, it's really a headache!" Looking at Baptiste, who had just arrived by sea last night, Justinian had to shruggle helplessly, "There is no way, the prosperity of the empire, which was second only to Constantinople, has now become like this. Even if I was prepared before, I really didn't expect that I would come to this point."

"The population has decreased by one third, and municipal income has naturally shrunk significantly. Under this circumstance, no city will inevitably decline." Baptiste spread his hands and replied. According to his optimistic estimate, even if the entire city really no longer experiences war, it may only return to half of what it was before the war when it was recovered in a short period of time.

After all, after the damage caused by the Crusaders, the loss of people fleeing here, and the sea trade routes were cut off by the Venetians. Although less than two years have passed, the blow to Thessalonika was fatal. The damage to the economy by the war was terrifying, just like a plague. The Molia region was once an important silk production area of ​​the empire, but it was burned by the Normans and became a desolate ruin and was forgotten.

Justinian knew this very well, so he transferred Baptiste over - although this actually attracted many oppositions.

The reason is very simple. This man named Baptist was originally a Latin person who had just been loyal to Justinian, which made many people unable to rest assured of him. Now Justinian asked him to rush to Macedonia to manage the city. When he first learned the news, many people felt that their governor had gone crazy.

However, in the end, Justinian finally convinced most people to entrust the Latin man in front of him with important tasks. After all, Baptiste is one of the few Latin people who are good at civilians, and Justinian has always lacked such help. In just a few days, Juan Baptiste, who was responsible for managing the recovery of Thessalonika after the war, did not disappoint Justinian. He soon formulated a set of effective plans based on the root of the city of Thessalonika, which gradually restored the order of the recovered city.

"Although order has been restored, you should have offended people a lot during this period!" Justinian asked.

"This is natural. After all, being a Latin person is originally an original sin. If it weren't for your support from Justinian, I would never have intervened in such a hot life. But is this really good? I'm afraid this will not help you to be a nobleman." Baptist shrugged and smiled bitterly. In fact, he was a little confused about Justinian's reason for doing this. Even if he doesn't deal with the nobles, he has to consider the political influence of those people. To be fair, this is not a wise decision.

But Justinian smiled with a hint of joke, "Fengping? Do you think I will care about that kind of useless reputation? Even if I offend all the nobles in Macedonia, I will not hesitate. Unless those people want to repeat the mistakes of those people in Moria, their so-called dissatisfaction can only be useless complaints." It seems to be a demonstration and a confidence, Justinian

It seemed that the nobles in Macedonia did not take the attention of the Macedonians at all. However, after being stationed in Thessalonika for a week, Baptiste had confiscated the private property of many nobles at his instruction. The reason was that many Roman nobles cooperated to surrender to Boniface during the Latin invasion. Such a legitimate reason made the nobles dare not speak out, and all their lives and deaths fell into Justinian's hands.

"Then I'll give you everything here for the time being." After handing over all the government affairs to Baptist in front of me, Justinian stood up from his seat, stretched his body and felt relieved, and then set off to leave first.

"Please rest assured, Lord Justinian, I will do my best to do this." Baptist also respectfully sent Justinian to the exit. Until Justinian's back completely disappeared from his sight, the expression on the face of the Italian man gradually changed a little strangely.

Baptist said coldly towards the rows of bookshelfs with things behind him: "Justinian has gone far away. When are you still going to hide here?"

At this time, a man slowly walked out - it turned out that he had been hiding behind him and eavesdropping on the conversation between Justinian and Baptist. This person was no one else, but Prince Theodor Ducas himself. He should have come here openly and should not have been alone and secretly hiding here. If Justinian saw it, he would have noticed the trick at first sight.

"Oh, it's so dangerous, haha, I almost got knocked out." Prince Theodor, who looked at Justinian's departure, sighed meaningfully.

The calm Baptist said lightly: "Even if it is broken, it's nothing. I'm just working with you, Prince. Even if Justinian sees it, I will believe my explanation."

"You are very calm, but if Justinian knew that you had received my promise before he made up his mind to convince Achaia to send troops to Tripolis, would he still trust you as always?" Prince Theodor, who was pointing out, sneered.

This sentence fell into Baptiste's ears, causing the Italian man who was originally dealing with the matter at hand to froze his expression. Although he immediately returned to his original state, he was no longer as calm as before.
Chapter completed!