The Emperor's hand slammed on the table on which the candlestick was placed, and the whole side hall was surrounded by his guards, and it was only him, Theognes, and Nickdemia in the scene.

"What Caesar, what Ducasse! In Thrace, I made an alliance with the Ducasse family, and now I and my mother feel remorseful that this family can only produce a bunch of incompetent fools and silverfish, but relying on the huge military estate, vainly trying to climb the dragon and the phoenix, they will only harm the empire. The Emperor's anger was very strong, "Even the prince John, that is only because he is my son, I have always hated him for having the blood of the Ducasse family in his body, even"

"Your Majesty, the capture officer is reporting on the military situation on the front line, so don't mention too much about the affairs in the palace in front of him." The little bird, Nicoldemia, drooping his aging eyelids, interrupted at the right time to remind.

"Yes, yes!" Alexios also had an epiphany, he walked over and kindly put his hand on the shoulder of the kneeling Diognis, "You did the right thing, it is not your responsibility for Bohemond to take it away, I will investigate this matter sooner or later!" However, at present, it is not possible to get rid of the culprits, because there are Pechenegs in the north, Normans and Za'tars in the west, and Turks in the east, all of which are the henchmen of the empire, and if they are hastily pursued, they will only plunge the imperial capital and the empire into turmoil. Now, then, you can go back to Asia and serve as the spearhead of General George's army, and do your best to recover Asia. ”

After saying that, the wardrobe manager Nicodeia duly held up a heavy money bag, "It is pure gold, which Your Majesty specially allocated from the mint to give gifts to meritorious men like you." ”

Diognis excitedly took the purse, held it on his chest, and then he swore to St. Michael, St. Dimitri, and St. Theodore, in turn, that he would do everything in his power to die for His Majesty the Emperor.

The trivial whispers in the palace were slowly drowned in the dark night, and they were not heard.

In the early morning, the figure of Gao Wen, holding a luggage roll, standing in front of the gate of the guard barracks of the emperor's inner palace, looked particularly lonely, he had closed the camp when he returned yesterday because he saw Peter, so he held a blanket and spent the night on the streets outside the palace.

"Welcome to the Great Shield Guard!" Finally, the commander of the guard, who was also Yudohya's elder brother, Yagfi, enthusiastically took Gawain by the arm and stepped into the walled camp, "You are good, wearing a purple ribbon from the Emperor, authentic Roman purple, a color that no other place in the world can produce. ”

Then, many of the warriors of the guard gathered around, laughing, full of wine, pointing at Gawain, and after hearing Yagfei's introduction, a short guy with dark yellow hair on his face smashed down the huge round shield, "Stephen. Gawain, how does it look like a Celtic little man's name? ”

Then all the warriors burst into laughter, "We are the shield guard of the inner palace here, nine hundred people, but they are often insufficient due to casualties, a total of three sub-units. Outside the imperial city is the outer palace guard, which is also the emperor's 'middle army camp team', with seven sub-units and about 4,000 people. This bastard was from Iceland named Farov, and he was the leader of one of my sub-units. ”

"Hey, little one, you're still in Turkic armor? It's fragile like tree bark, and my tomahawk can split three guys at once. Farov swung his axe vigorously, and the other samurai took the opportunity to stir up.

"Ignore this bastard, everyone here suffers from boredom when they're not fighting, and when they meet a new recruit, they're like smelling dogs, and that's you, Farov, you curly-bearded Icelandic hillbilly." As he spoke, Yagfi pointed at Farov, and the group laughed even more joyfully.

"If a man has no beard, it's like a girl without a fat buttocks, and a girl without a fat buttocks, like a village without a church." Faroff's eyes widened, his beard open, and he uttered this "wise saying" from Iceland, and all the big men laughed so hard that they couldn't stand up straight, and some pointed at Gawain and mocked, "Look at this guy with the name of Celtic, they are the same as the Normans, they are all tainted by the wind of the interior, the tunic tunics, the light chain mail, the smock embroidered with roses and daffodils, the princess-like buttocks, and the short Roman-Greek hair, not even the beard." ”

The more he spoke, the more out of place, most of which Gawain did not understand, because it was Varyag, Danish, Saxon, but there were also those who spoke Greek, and he understood this part perfectly.

"Bang!" Gawain pulled out his sword and slammed it into the ground of the school field, this was a signal, and immediately many veterans would scream in mind, it seems that today's recruit welcome meeting will have fun.

Over there, Farov, who had been prepared, laughed, held the battle axe in both hands, and walked in front of Gawain, "Boy, don't shed blood in the palace, then we will adopt a more elegant way to prove your ability, and be qualified to carry the shield of our Varangian Guard, and the purple tassel given by the emperor!" ”

So saying, Faroff walked to the wall in front of a row of wooden dummies, and then he roared, and the tomahawk in his hand slashed down like lightning, and the wooden dummy, which was about the size of a real person, was split in half by the sound of a crack, and then he quickly came to another dummy, and with his hand, he lifted the hook and sickle at the end of the tomahawk with his backhand, and cut the dummy into flying pieces from below.

"How? This tomahawk, which no one can control with one hand, was brought by me from my hometown. Farov triumphantly, and then he roared, raised his hands, and then threw his great battle axe, spun and thrown, like a dragon out of water, flew a long distance, and slashed into the farthest skull of the dummy.

Then, Faroff drew his equally large and sharp Viking sword, "Look at it, boy, this sword is much lighter than a battle axe, and I can use it with one hand." In the midst of the cheers, Farov shouted "decapitation", and then the sword flashed, and the head of the dummy flew out, and the "limbs" - the limbs of the dummy, were cut off one by one, and finally Farov stretched out his sword, inserted it into the trunk of the dummy, picked it up, and swayed in front of Gawain with great satisfaction.

"You cut dummies very well, but on the battlefield, no enemy will be as motionless as this wooden man, and no enemy will be like this wooden man, with uncovered armor and helmets." Then, Gawain took a deep breath and pulled out his long, narrow sword of phosphorus fire.

"Sure enough, it's a girl, look at his thin sword, probably for embroidery." A tidal wave of laughter rang out behind him.