With Naga in charge of training, Mnaki and El Hesyn's butler Max Odd to deal with the trivial matters around him, and Cui Shibalang to take care of the serval Hua Biao, Lao Luo quickly set a date for his trip to Constantinople. Of course, not being able to travel with Lao Luo was the pressure of Naga and Mnaki, and after Lao Luo left, many young people were caught up in the increased training volume, and even lost the time and energy to look at the beautiful women passing by the sea or the laneway.

Getting from Athens to Constantinople was easy and fast, with merchant ships departing from Athens to Constantinople every day. Since Mussos was busy sorting out the loot that Lao Luo gave him, Lao ** did not inform Mussos and randomly found a ship to go to Constantinople. In fact, there are also many people like Lao Luo who take a boat alone, but because the population of Byzantium is too small to become large, many shrewd shipowners who want to modify passenger ships still outweigh the losses and never make the trip.

Not to mention the gossip, ten days later, Lao Luo appeared in the port of Constantinople, please this era of ethnic exchanges increased, Byzantium is also a country dominated by commercial transactions, so Constantinople's entry and exit measures are not strict, Byzantium's monarch Bashir II at this time is busy dealing with the Bulgarians, so the entire Constantinople is not strict in monitoring the face of the East. By the way, this Bashir II is the guy who later received the title of "Butcher of Bulgaria".

In this era, Constantinople was basically the largest and most prosperous city in the whole West, although it was beginning to decline, with the aggressive Papal States in the West, the Kingdom of Saxony in the northwest, Bulgaria in the north, and even further afield the Normans in the barbaric era, as well as the Faraday Kingdom in the south and the Abbasid Kingdom in the East...... None of them had a city as great as Constantinople.

The defenses of Constantinople were impregnable before the advent of artillery, and in the era of cold weapons, it would have been necessary to pay at least five times the lives of the defending army in order to conquer the city head-on, a price that no neighboring country could afford. Even the later collapse of the Byzantine Empire was due to the overall weakening caused by civil strife and the advent of artillery, which was broken by the Ottoman Turks in the middle of the fifteenth century.

Lao Luo wandered the streets of Constantinople while recalling the knowledge of Western historiography in his head. Before becoming a mercenary, in his spare time working in the United Nations peacekeeping forces, Lao Luo read a lot of books, which seemed to be very useful. If I am not mistaken, when the Byzantine Empire was at its strongest, it occupied all the well-known cities on the Mediterranean coast, so according to Constantine the Great's fetish, it should be a collection of classic works that were born in all the occupied cities.

These collected writings later influenced the entire Arab civilization and later passed on to the entire Western world. In other words, if Lao Luo can gain something here, it will almost affect the entire Western Renaissance hundreds of years later, if it is all packed up, where will the Westerners in the back look for traces of their history? And where do the scientists from the Holy See go to search for literature?

When Lao Luo thought of this, he felt that the whole of Constantinople was like a huge treasure, not a treasure of gold and silver, but a pile of things like "time and space gems", of course, how did Lao Luo think of the word time and space gems and didn't know. Even if a cold-blooded warrior like Lao Luo is on the battlefield, his heart can't help but beat faster, and now he only expects that there will not be a large number of soldiers guarding the place where the library materials are stored, as for the high wall and iron gate, in fact, there is no need to worry at all, for the special soldier Lao Luo in later generations, it is not a problem at all, although the mechanical lock is the most difficult thing to remove, but it is also the simplest, especially for Lao Luo, a cheating tool like a space ring.

Although the Byzantine Empire itself was not very populous, cities like Constantinople were inhabited by a large number of people, said to have a permanent population of more than two million, as well as merchants and tourists from far and wide, and even mercenaries and bankrupt peasants who came here to seek work. It is not easy for all Lao Luo to find a suitable place to live.

Luckily, Lao Luo arrived in Constantinople in the morning, and the city was just as large. From passers-by, Lao Luo learned that the city was originally built with reference to the layout of Rome, divided into 14 regions, and at the same time distributed to different classes of people to live.

Passing by often see high water supply canals, as well as tall domed buildings on the left and right, although the function of these buildings is not yet known, Lao Luo guesses that those buildings are likely religious or public buildings. But now is not the time to explore, Lao Luo found the academy area, and then found a hotel nearby to ask for a high-rise room to settle down.

It is said that it is a high-rise building, but in fact it is only three floors, and there are no concrete buildings with dozens of floors in this era, although Byzantium has begun to use pozzolanic cement, but it is by no means possible to complete the luxury of using steel as a keel. However, because this hotel is backed by one of the seven hills in the city, the terrain is high, and the view from the outside is still good when you open the window.

Looking at the cityscape in front of the window from a bird's eye view, Lao Luo couldn't help but think of the records he had read about the urban architecture of the Tang and Song dynasties from the literature. In the Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City was symmetrically distributed on the axis, the whole city was actually a military fortress at the beginning, all the urban areas were evenly distributed in a square type, and each square area had special fire protection facilities to prevent fires, and at the same time, this partition setting was of great significance to the security of the city. The city in front of you is completely different from the East, all the buildings are built on the mountain, and the intricate laneways are very easy to get lost. Lao Luo secretly reminded himself that he must not be anxious, even if he has outstanding combat power, but this is a completely unfamiliar environment, if the purpose is exposed, he is as obvious as a fly on a bald head.

Unable to think of an idea for the time being, Old Rosso left the hotel and found a tavern to drink, anyway, the city is not as troublesome as Cairo City, which is both forbidden and worshipped. In the college district, there will always be drunken students or professors and the like who will hang out in the tavern, no matter what time it is.

I have to say that Lao Luo is sensitive, and at the same time he is full of urgency. The Constantinople in front of him was like a messy ball of twine, and Lao Luo found a thread from it. A tavern with a lot of people close to the academy, a mess of customers, all kinds of people, white-skinned, brown-skinned, black-skinned, blond-haired, brown-haired, silver-white-haired, bearded, hooded, tall, short, fat, thin, so of course people like Lao Luo became inconspicuous in it.

The tavern has a large space, which is actually called a tavern, and it also sells a variety of food, just like in later generations. The only difference is the furnishings of the room, the clothing of the guests, the material of the tableware, and the more detailed may be the difference in the seasoning.

Asking for a glass of wine, a large roast with onion rings of olives, and a fluffy bread baked, Lao Luo found a corner against the wall and sat down, his old habit - the need for safety, and at the same time to be able to see everyone in view. Especially in such a noisy place where people are mixed with races, occupations, and countries, it is the best place to disguise their identities and listen to information.

"Diatu, it is said that the lamb made by the Arabs is very delicious, why don't you learn it?"

"Shut up, Lonados, don't you have enough meat on your plate?"

“……”

"Did you hear that? The Domino master is studying astrology! ”

"Nonsense, which guy did you hear it from, Master Domino is a famous mathematician."

“……”

"Hey, do you know what Bulgarians like to eat?"

"God knows, it is said that they eat the flesh of their comrades on the battlefield."

"God, forgive this guy, he's disgusting again."

“……………………”

The mixed words came into Lao Luo's ears, Westerners in this era did not have the kind of elegance in high-end restaurants in later generations, and discussing things while eating was their norm, just like Chinese. Lao Luo smiled knowingly, and then tasted the wine in the glass - it was not inferior to the later generations, like the roast meat on a plate, rich and juicy, sweet and satisfying to the taste buds.

"It is said that the war in Bulgaria did not go well, and His Majesty Basil II was so annoyed by this that he punished several generals who led troops in succession."

"I heard about it, but it doesn't matter, the Bulgarian barbarians can't beat our soldiers."

"But the yeoman farmers are no longer willing to continue to participate in the war, and those nobles are very stingy, they will not be willing to give up money to support Your Majesty's war."

"The nobles are vampires, they lie on the body of the empire and suck the blood of the empire, and sooner or later they will be punished by God."

"Forget it, let's not talk about the nobles, we are just scholars of learning, who will provide us with funds if we offend the nobles?"

"It is said that next year, His Majesty Basil II's budget for the academy will be reduced again."

"yes, I don't know when the war will end."

"Forget it, don't talk about these uninteresting things. I heard that Antoine was working on a new flamethrower, and I was a little worried. ”

"What's a bit of an eyebrow, that guy is a liar, how can he use wood as a jet?"

"It is said that not only wood, but also some metal devices, but unfortunately I can't see his finished product."

"Impossible, use wood as a jet, if he thinks of it, he will kill the soldier who operates it, and then His Majesty will hang him."

Lao Luo knew that they were talking about Greek fire, which was a fire-breathing weapon made from oil. The first to use oil as a weapon was the Greeks, the Byzantine Empire inherited this technology, and later this technology spread to the hands of the Arabs, and the Abbasid kingdom of the Arabs used this weapon to defeat the Tang general Gao Xianzhi in Hengrus, and since then, the influence of the Tang Dynasty in Central Asia began to decline, and the Tang Dynasty began to decline.