After these troublemakers were directly dragged out, the remaining participants in the venue at least outwardly calmed down.
Coupled with their careful recollection, they consoled themselves that the land Caesar had gained in previous wars had not been unfairly distributed to them, the noble lords, and thus they all settled down.
Watching the venue return to normal, Manuel continued to read the remaining part of the "Bosporus Constitutional General Law" in his hand with a smile.
Since the subsequent content of the General Law did not touch upon noble interests as much as before, the nobles below were exceptionally cooperative with their Caesar.
The only thing that caused some of their expressions to change again was that Caesar Manuel quickly elevated greek to the only recognized official language of the entire country through the third-to-last article of this General Law.
Although according to the provisions of the previous two sets of codes, all free Eastern Orthodox and even non-hostile Christian were considered normal citizens of Bosporus, enjoying their due civil rights, Caesar now, through this article, directly elevated the status of greek in the legal system, which inevitably made the non-greek native-speaking nobles present somewhat worried.
Their worries were not unfounded; in fact, Manuel did have the fantasy of demoting all other groups who could not speak greek to second-class citizens.
Anyway, his Goths either quickly mastered greek before adulthood or were directly bilingual speakers of greek and Goth.
Not to mention, considering the situation over several centuries, he genuinely wanted to revive the situation where greek was widely spoken in Asia Minor within the Roman Empire, and thoroughly assimilate those foreign Turks into greek culture.
But overly drastic measures would only make his rule unstable.
Therefore, after discussing this issue with scholars and jurists at the time, Caesar temporarily shelved the radical idea of directly discriminating against people who did not speak greek in law.
However, as a reservation, he specifically left a relevant clause in this General Law as a basis for subsequent adjustments to the legal code.
Turning the clock back to the present, although they had some concerns about this part of the provisions, because they trusted Caesar's rationality and ability, that small group of worried nobles eventually withdrew their unnecessary concerns.
And after nearly a quarter of an hour, Manuel's reading of the General Law also drew to a close.
These last two articles were also very normal for a centralized Roman-style monarchy after the komnenos era: the general idea was to confirm that all vassals were essentially the monarch's vassals, the monarch had the right to directly intervene in affairs between vassals' vassals, and all military common soldiers'Military Farms (túntián, military agricultural colonies) were the state's "public land" and could not participate in various land transactions and hereditary transfers.
After these were read, most of the attendees felt a slight relief.
But to their surprise, Caesar, dressed in formal attire and standing on the stage, showed no sign or intention of ending, but continued to maintain his inscrutable smile, slowly uttering a few words, "By the Holy Mother, gentlemen, today is not over yet."
"To be precise, I have summoned you all today not just to promulgate this 'Bosporus Constitutional General Law'."
And at this moment, Manuel immediately changed the subject, first announcing one by one the important changes he had made after careful consideration during this period:
The first was his formal improvement of the tax collection system at this assembly, granting ordinary exaktors the power to directly enter estates and territories to collect taxes accompanied by elite soldiers, and at the same time establishing tax districts divided based on various medium and large cities, and their relevant Person in charge (fùzérén, responsible persons).
As soon as this order was issued, many nobles below could not sit still.
Even if exaktors only had such power during the annual or monthly tax collection, this reform still gave those among them who were excellent historians a feeling reminiscent of Andronikos I Comnenus's time.
Before they could calm down, Manuel then issued another new order: to promote greek education and establish schools, and the Church should assist him in this regard.
This indeed greatly alleviated the atmosphere at the scene, and the two diocesan patriarchs of Tauris and Pontus had no complaints, because they knew very well that since Caesar was going to use the Church, he would definitely give them some benefits that would satisfy the Church.
But the third new order after that made the venue boil again, because the decree Manuel subsequently promulgated contained a certain degree of compulsion:
He would control all metal mining areas within the Autocratic State through redemption.
Looking at the reactions of these subordinates, Manuel felt a moment of helplessness.
To be honest, his own implementation of these measures, in addition to discussions with himself and relevant key officials and scholars, also largely referenced the actions and ultimate outcomes of the cousins Manuel I Comnenus and Andronikos I Comnenus during the Komnenos Dynasty.
Although these indeed encroached on the interests of many nobles, they could hardly be called radical, could they?
The most important thing was—
He had an army that only obeyed him personally; how could these useless people, who had been beaten by the Muslims and had shrunk back into their own territories, have the audacity to oppose him?
The land they had lost to the infidels was recovered and redistributed by him; was it just because he was a monarch of the same clan and culture!?
Good people deserve to have guns pointed at them, Caesar Manuel thought, shaking his head as he watched the increasingly noisy venue.
After surveying the venue and confirming that the real troublemakers were some Pontus nobles with whom he had no deep ties, he stood firmly on the stage with peace of mind, somewhat regretfully sending a message to the guards, instructing them to prepare for a warning.
At the same time, Caesar's cousin, David Komnenos, the nominal co-ruler of Pontus, looked at these troublesome nobles who had caused them a lot of trouble during the Komnenos period, and a schadenfreude smile appeared on his face.
He couldn't wait to see his cousin show them what a "monarch's iron fist" was.
A minute later, a burst of gunfire suddenly came from the rear of the meeting, near the door, shocking the nobles present.
Fortunately, the muzzles of the firearms were aimed at the ceiling this time, so in fact no one was injured or killed.
And accompanying this gunshot was Caesar's increasingly gentle smile on the stage.
At this moment, facing such a statement from their monarch, all the opposition quieted down, no longer making discordant noises.
This is right, ruler and subject, this is what a monarchical state should be like.
Looking at the troublemakers who had become submissive before him, Manuel's face showed a relieved smile, "Then, let's continue today's agenda."