The draft of the Golden River was too deep, and it began to scrape the bottom when it reached Rouen, and it could not go any further, so Hong Tao and Friedrich II went ashore in Rouen. It was the residence of the Duke of Normandy, and his castle could be seen from the Golden River. Such a big ship came to the Duke's territory, and it still had the royal insignia, which the common people did not know, but someone in the Duke's family must know.

In a short time, a group of French knights came to the docks with an old man, and then Friedrich II's linguistic talents came into play, and he didn't care to chat with others, even the stevedores on the docks for a while.

"Alas...... It's good to have an emperor's name, borrow a car...... Oh no, you don't need to pay a deposit to borrow a horse, and you also come with a police officer! When Hong Tao saw the old man kneeling down on one knee to salute the emperor, and then knocking several knights off his horse, he was really a little envious and jealous, a foreign emperor still had people holding stinky feet wherever he went, not only providing horses for free, but also more than a dozen knights escorting him to Paris.

"Why didn't they salute me?" Hong Tao rode on his horse and remembered that he didn't seem to be respected enough, and he was a little indignant.

"You didn't tell them you were a duke, and I've always wondered why you used a mouse's head as an emblem, and did it have a special meaning in the East?" The emperor pointed to the long coat embroidered with emblems on his body, and was very proud.

"Oh, it's worth it for them to make me your minion, right? I myself belong to the rat, and I will be called the Duke of the Rat from now on! "Hong Tao is not in the mood to explain the attributes of China to the emperor, and that thing can't be explained in a sentence or two. Now he was more interested in the interior of France in the thirteenth century, looking left and right. See pedestrians, whether farmers or priests. are all rushing to people's teeth. But there is basically no smiling face in the harvest, and the French people in this era do not seem to be very friendly.

The distance from Rouen to Paris is not far in a straight line, about 150 kilometers, but the Seine River is about the same as the nine bends of the Yellow River, and it must be at least more than 200 kilometers to go around. You can't live in a commoner's house with the emperor, but you don't come across any decent castles along the way. Eventually, the knights found a monastery in the knight's domain, barely enough to accommodate the emperor.

"William, why aren't there nuns in the convent?" Hong Tao didn't care much about whether his bedroom was dry and tidy, he was more curious about the monks in the monastery, squinting a pair of thief eyes and touching around.

"Mr. Hong, please pay attention to your identity, this is the Lord's church, so don't talk about this." Although Friedrich II had always been at odds with the Pope and was not very interested in the Church, he was a Christian after all. Hong Tao's hint of red fruit made him very unaccustomed to it.

"Well, if you don't say it, you won't say it. Good night! Hong Tao was pouted back, and he couldn't fight back, so he had to push open the door of his room and get in.

As in the castle, the room was not small, but it was very dim, and only a small candle barely made it clear that the furnishings were visible. In fact, there were no furnishings, a bed, a chair, a small wooden table were all the belongings, and above the fireplace was a portrait of Jesus, and the life of the monks was indeed very boring. After riding the horse for more than half a day, Hong Tao was also tired, and just wanted to lie down on the bed, but suddenly stopped again, turned his head and stared at the bed fiercely, reached out and picked up the candlestick on the fireplace, lifted the sheets, and looked carefully at the straw below.

"William! Get up...... This bed can't lie down! A few minutes later, Hong Tao carried the candlestick and went into the room of Friedrich II next door, and pulled him out of the bed, regardless of whether the emperor was wearing clothes or not.

"What are you doing here? Can't you knock on the door first? "No one would be happy to be tossed in this way, let alone an emperor, and if it weren't for the night, Friedrich II would have roared.

"I'm saving your life! There were fleas and bed bugs on the bed, I looked closely and found several, they bite people! Hong Tao also lifted the emperor's sheets, brought the candlestick closer, and pulled the straw with the dagger he carried with him, wanting to prove it to the emperor.

"There are no fleas and bedbugs in the Great Song Empire? Are you just not letting me sleep for the sake of these little bugs? They will bite an emperor to death! I also have it in my palace, why haven't you poisoned me all this time? Friedrich II rubbed his eyes, he was very sleepy now, and he didn't have time to play with Hong Tao's research bugs.

"Your father and first wife both died of disease, right? Fleas and bed bugs can transmit many diseases, for example, if I have a disease, they suck my blood and then come to suck His Majesty's blood, and the viruses and bacteria in my blood will enter His Majesty's body, and if there are enough of them, His Majesty will also get sick. Don't underestimate these little bugs, they and mosquitoes are a source of infectious diseases, and they can be killed. Hong Tao didn't know much about the diseases of the European Middle Ages, except for typhoid, malaria and the Black Death, and he didn't know which of the three diseases was transmitted by insect bites. But it doesn't matter if it's serious, no one knows about these things anyway, and they don't even know what bacteria and viruses are.

“…… Is it really that scary? "There is no one in the world who is not afraid of diseases, the higher the status, the more afraid, Friedrich II is the same, hearing Hong Tao say so conclusively, and a set of sets, the emperor did not dare not believe it, and even reacted on his body, and involuntarily went around to feel for fleas and bed bugs.

"100% true, I don't think I can sleep in a bed, I have to find a place free of fleas and bed bugs, do you know where to go?" Hong Tao's real purpose is actually here, he himself is not familiar with the monastery, and he can't find another place to sleep, so he came to harass the emperor.

“…… Let's go to the chapel, there is holy water, there should be no of these little bugs! "Even the most knowledgeable emperor of this era could not escape the confines of the times, and he actually believed in the holy water.

There were indeed no fleas or bed bugs in the chapel, at least not visible on the surface, because there were no straws, no bedding, only a few rows of wooden benches. Hong Tao carefully illuminated it with candlelight, but found no trace of small insects in the cracks, it is estimated that it is too plain, and small insects do not like to come. An emperor, a duke, and two of them shrank on the benches, without even a cover, which is worse than calling Hanako. In order to cope with the long night, the two had to start chatting, chatting all kinds of things, yawning while chatting.

"Tell me about this King Louis IX of France, what kind of man he was, what hobbies he had, and had you seen him?" Although it was a small talk, Hong Tao also tried to let himself know a little more about the situation in Europe. Not much is known about the surname Louis himself, except for Louis XIII, a cognac wine that is expensive, and Louis XVI, a prodigal who was one of the few kings in Europe to be executed.

"I only met Louis once when I was younger, when he was a child. It is said that he grew up to be a very stubborn, very strict, very pious king, you should be more restrained when you go to Paris, especially don't say anything about the church, I'm afraid he won't be as good as me, everyone calls him Saint-Louis! Private warfare was forbidden in his kingdom, and two lords had to inform each other's relatives and friends of the reason for the war before going to war, and if one side asked for a truce and the other side had to accept it, whoever violated this principle would be tried by the royal court. The court is based in Paris, and in that sense, you two should have more to talk about, and you're a law-abiding guy. "When Friedrich II spoke of another king, he did not make an evaluation or a subjective analysis, but only recounted the facts, which is very fair.

"How's your relationship with him?" In fact, this is what Hong Tao wants to ask the most, he doesn't want to know too many rulers in Europe, one is enough for Friedrich II, and more is troublesome.

"We were allies for the time being in dealing with the German lords, but they did not last long, he was a devout Catholic, and we were very divided on the matter of dealing with the Jews and the Crusaders. About ten years ago, I also organized a crusade, although the Holy City was occupied, but many people were not satisfied with my approach, they always thought that how many infidels were killed and how many pagan cities were robbed was merit, including this King Louis, so if we could not tell him about the Crusade, we just passed by Paris to have a look, and left in a day. Friedrich II's answer made Hong Tao chuckle in his heart, this emperor is really relieved, he dares to run to someone else's territory alone, this person is not too reliable allies, and even has great differences, their world is really incomprehensible.

The two of them chatted in the chapel for most of the night, and then fell asleep on the chair, and when Hong Tao's biological clock took effect, the emperor had already slipped out of the chair, and slept soundly half-lying and half-lying. Hong Tao took off his coat and covered the emperor with a little, and it was better than nothing, and he walked out of the chapel alone. This monastery is not big, only two small courtyards, one in front and one behind, at this time there are already monks cleaning in the courtyard, after seeing Hong Tao, they just stroked their chests and bowed their heads slightly, and then continued to do their own things.

The flood scurried out of the monastery and walked along the gravel path to the village. The village was so small, so small that it didn't even have a castle, just a dozen or so households, and it seemed that they were all tenant farmers of the monastery, renting not the land of the lord, but the land of the monastery. These fields form a semicircle around the small earthen slope of the monastery, and instead of the mounds used in rural China to divide the fields, there are wooden signs with various ghostly symbols carved on them, presumably the boundary posts used by the villagers to distinguish the fields from each other.

(To be continued.) )