Christmas quickly arrived.
Due to Theodore's recent major victories, Manuel specially organized a small but inspiring event on the holiday itself.
During the parade activities that began on Christmas Eve, he even brought his wife, sailing from Mangup to Theodosia, then proceeding to Phanagoria and returning to the capital, Mangup, via Karasubazar.
During this time, he also actively interacted with the common people, showcasing himself as a monarch, for example, kindly stroking the hands of the sick, visiting churches, and engaging with local lords.
Of course, he also selected a few poor lucky individuals to grant them tax exemption for the coming year.
In other words, he was using this festive occasion to both boost the entire Principality's war enthusiasm and inform his subjects that the war would not harm them, while also significantly increasing his presence in the local areas and strengthening his control over them.
As a result, Manuel's control over the local regions indeed increased considerably.
However, it was a pity that his current status was still only the Crown Prince of the Principality, so doing these things was somewhat odd.
Although he could now seize the opportunity to ascend to power earlier, due to family ties and the current situation, he still wanted his father, Alexius, to personally bestow the title of Prince upon him.
For this purpose, on Christmas night, Manuel personally wrote a letter to his father, who was currently on a 'southern expedition' in Trabzon, hoping that Alexius would return to the Principality, fulfill his duties as the Prince of the Principality, and incidentally consider the issue of succession.
Days of celebration are always fleeting; after Christmas, Manuel once again devoted himself to formulating governance policies for Northern Crimea.
As previously mentioned, after confirming that Haji Giray had no intention of retaking Northern Crimea within six months, and predicting that the Crimean Army would continue to pursue and fight with the Golden Horde army, Manuel decided to begin attempting to integrate Northern Crimea from a military occupation zone into the core territory of the Principality.
To ensure the implementation of decrees and to emphasize the importance of the area, Manuel did not issue decrees in Mangup, but instead went to Akmechet, a town he was quite optimistic about, and began to gather personnel to refine his preliminary plans.
For this, he even brought his wife, Barbara, there.
After relatively rigorous discussions, around the New Year, which was early 1431, he summoned the Principality's most important internal affairs officials and the powerful figures of Northern Crimea to the town hall in Akmechet, and read to them the new regulations for Theodore's rule over this region:
Firstly, Northern Crimea would allow freedom of belief, but since the Principality's state religion was Eastern Orthodox, 1/10 of Northern Crimea's mosques would be converted into orthodox churches, and at the same time, the orthodox church would be encouraged to build monasteries and new churches.
To achieve this resolution, Manuel truly pushed back against other dissenting voices in the Principality.
In addition to reasons of stability, it was also because, influenced by his past life's thinking and the idea of a universal empire, he was quite keen on freedom of belief.
Secondly, he decided to grant the local Tatar nobles the treatment they deserved, allowing active collaborators among them to participate in the political structure of the Principality.
In fact, because he wanted to raise several Tatar cavalry units, the original plan was quite a compromise.
However, when he finalized this policy and sought advice from his ministers, most of them expressed opposition.
Among them, Posadas, who came from a commoner background, even directly questioned him, saying, "Your Highness, why should we tolerate these ruthless and despicable pagan Tatars? In my humble opinion, they should all be killed or driven away, leaving only the land.
People go, land stays, how good would that be?"
Manuel was momentarily at a loss for words, and silently muttered to himself, "Can you stop saying such 'human group star' remarks in front of me!"
Nevertheless, he had figured out his subordinates' thoughts and began to consider the current situation of both sides.
In view of this, he ultimately revised the plan, changing the most crucial item to allow only active collaborators to participate in the Principality's current political ecosystem.
Thirdly, regarding tax law, he decided to implement the tax laws he designed in the theodosian code in Northern Crimea as well.
The difference was that since Northern Crimea was primarily composed of pagan nomads, he intentionally lowered the pagan tax significantly for the sake of stability.
At the same time, Manuel also granted tax collectors the right to directly go to the grassroots level to collect taxes.
As a result, inadvertently, or perhaps half-intentionally, the Tatar lords of Northern Crimea became dissatisfied, because they had always regarded their tribes as their private property.
Paying taxes was acceptable, but sending people directly to collect them was not.
It should be known that previously, whether it was the Golden Horde or Crimea, taxes were always paid voluntarily by them.
Fourthly, Manuel decided to introduce Roman agricultural techniques to the Northern Crimea region, encouraging the reclamation of wasteland and the transition from nomadism to settled life.
Of course, considering that Northern Crimea was still primarily composed of nomadic tribes, this measure was certainly not mandatory.
In fact, he did not intend to enforce it, but merely declared that those who transitioned from nomadism to settled life and reclaimed wasteland would receive tax reductions.
At the same time, he reiterated the protection for Eastern Orthodox people who reclaimed ownerless wasteland, but how to determine whether it was "ownerless," and whether the judgment during this period would favor Eastern Orthodox people, could only be said to be a matter of individual interpretation.
Although Manuel tried his best to tolerate the Tatar beliefs and traditional way of life, his resolutions did not seem to be recognized by the Tatars.
Led by the mullahs, whose status and wealth were damaged, these jurists began to consciously incite the muslim to resist taxes, rebel, and continue to attack infidels.
The Tatar nobles, who felt they were not as well off in the Principality as they were in the Khanate, were also not very accepting of these new regulations.
Opposing the transition from nomadic to settled life, they preferred to continue living freely as before.
And those with foresight, or at least those who considered themselves to have foresight, began to arm the herders under their rule, hoping to secure the title of Crimean Prince for themselves after the Golden Horde Khanate stabilized.
In summary, Manuel's policy of tolerance did not seem to be as effective as he had anticipated.
The main reason was that the differences between the nomadic and agricultural commercial lifestyles of different religions and cultures were simply too great, and it would be difficult for the two to coexist peacefully without the healing power of time.
If he wanted them to coexist in a short period, then he would have to use some thunderous methods.
This was something Manuel later realized; although he had some inkling at the time, he did not take it seriously.
Because he only regarded the decree issued in Akmechet this time as a makeshift solution.
It was just a pity that circumstances were stronger than human will, and sometimes he did not have time to deliberate repeatedly.