A few days later, a navy of fifteen capital battleships left the port of Xijing, and at the same time, the navy escorted Irina closely followed, but Irina was not on Offron's ship, but sat on the main battleship of the navy in front with Li Ke.

Li Ke and Irina at the stern of the boat snuggled tightly together, watching Xijing slowly disappear under the sea level, and a silent warmth was slowly transmitted between the two.

"Saburo, thank you for your willingness to accompany me to Rome!" Irina said softly. When Li Ke proposed to accompany her to Rome before, Irina didn't agree at first, because she knew the possible consequences of Li Ke leaving Wu, but when Li Ke repeatedly assured that there would be no problem with leaving Wu for a while, Irina agreed.

"No, Irina, I should be the one who wants to say thank you, in fact, you can stay with me without going back to Rome and live that simple and happy life." Li Ke also said with tenderness on his face, for Irina, Li Ke did have true feelings, especially after the two had not seen each other for three years, Irina's feelings for him had not changed at all, which was also what moved Li Ke the most.

Feeling the affection in Li Ke's words, Irina showed a sweet smile, and a gust of sea breeze blew, bringing a trace of coolness, which made Irina can't help but shrink into Li Ke's warm arms. But then Irina frowned, suddenly left Li Ke's arms, covered her mouth and ran to the side of the boat to retch a few times, but didn't spit out anything.

Seeing Irina's appearance, Li Ke hurriedly ran up to support her shoulder, and then asked with concern, "What's wrong." Is it seasickness? ”

"I don't know, maybe seasickness, right?" Irina also said with some doubts. She also came by boat when she came before. But I've never been seasick, and I don't know what's going on just now. Suddenly I felt a wave of nausea, could it be because of the problem of riding on such a huge warship for the first time? But it doesn't seem right, this kind of warship is more balanced than her ten-oared warship, and it should be less difficult to get seasick when you ride on it, right?

Although seasickness is a trivial matter, Li Ke is still a little worried about Irina's body, so he immediately found the imperial doctor on the ship and asked him to help Irina's diagnosis, but the imperial doctor, who is not very old, reported to Li Keyu with a surprised face after diagnosing Irina's pulse: "Congratulations to Your Majesty, congratulations to Your Majesty." Queen Irina is pregnant! ”

"Pregnant!" Li Ke couldn't believe it after hearing this, you must know that Irina and Constans II have been married for several years without getting pregnant, and after that, the time spent with Li Ke has been together for more than half a year, but she is not pregnant, so this once made Irina think that she is a woman who cannot get pregnant, and even Li Ke thinks so in her heart.

But the heavens gave them a surprise, and they had just left Xijing. Irina was pregnant, which not only surprised Li Ke, but also made Irina cry of excitement. All along, she thought she couldn't have children. This is so cruel for a woman that she decided to go back to Rome this time. also had the intention of compensating Li Ke in other aspects, but she never dreamed of it. I would have gotten pregnant at this time.

"Irina, let's go back. Don't worry about Rome anymore, let's go back to Wu, and then you give birth to our child in peace! In the spacious and luxurious cabin, Irina was half-lying on the bed, and Li Ke sat on the edge of the bed with a concerned face and spoke. It was dangerous to go to Rome this time, and Irina was now pregnant with a child, so Li Ke changed his mind, and he didn't want Irina's mother and son to suffer any harm.

However, Irina stroked her lower abdomen with a gentle face and said: "San Lang, don't worry too much, the imperial doctor said that I am only more than a month pregnant, and I am still far from giving birth, this time is enough for us to deal with the affairs of Rome, and then Rome and our children are the two best gifts I can give you!" ”

"But ......"

Li Ke just wanted to say something more, but Irina grabbed his generous palm, and then interrupted him: "Okay, my Imperial Majesty, I know your worries, and now the safety of our mother and son depends on your fleet, so now you are not persuading me to go back, but to think more about how to ensure that we can return to Rome smoothly!" ”

Seeing Irina's insistent expression, Li Ke could only sigh helplessly, he also knew that Irina was a soft and rigid personality, as long as she believed in something, it would be difficult to listen to the persuasion of others.

It is for this reason that the fleet did not return to the Black Sea straits because of Irina's pregnancy. And when the fleet reached the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, they also anchored in the city of Athens for a while, and then Irina, as the Roman empress, convened the local nobles, and was warmly welcomed by the local nobles.

At the conference, Irina and Li Ke gave a joint speech, solemnly emphasizing the bad influence of Theodosius' coup d'état, and calling on the local nobility to support them and condemn Theodosius's crimes, which was also supported by the majority of the Athenian aristocracy.

Athens was one of the most important garrisons of the Roman navy, so most of the nobles here were closely related to the navy, and the navy was previously in the hands of Forris, so the nobles here were angry at the death of Foris and Constans II, and now Irina wants to return to Constantinople and stand on their side, and they are naturally willing to support it.

It is also worth mentioning that the support of the Athenian nobles was not just lip service, and some of the nobles who were directly responsible for commanding the Athenian navy also proposed that they could lead the navy to follow Irina, so that when she returned to Constantinople, Irina would have a usable army.

After discussing the proposals of these Athenian military nobles, Irina and Li Ke decided to select a group of navies from the Athenian navy, but the number was not large, only twenty warships. However, the commanders of the ship are all important Athenian nobles, and they will support Irina on behalf of the Athenian nobles and increase Irina's political leverage.

After leaving Athens, the fleet continued to move northeast, and after several days of sailing, the Black Sea Straits finally appeared in front of them. It's just that just as they were about to enter the Black Sea Straits, they received a very shocking news, the old general Mutan was dead, and the Black Sea Fleet was split into two parts!

Mutan died very suddenly, and it was also very heroic, because he trusted someone too much, so it eventually led to his own death.

Metan has two of the most powerful assistants, one of them is his nephew Sickor, and the other is his student Charaire, Needless to say, Sickotor is one of the best sons of the Metan family, who was as famous as Forris, and was also a very young naval genius, but it is rumored that there are some disagreements between the two, and the specific reason is unknown.

Charaire is also from an aristocratic background, likes the navy since childhood, and later studied with Metan, who is in his Chinese New Year's Eve this year, is a very calm person, and is also very good at naval command, both of them are very trusted by Murtan, but it is this trust that led to Metan's death.

The entire Black Sea Strait is divided into two parts by the Sea of Marmara, of which the part connected to the Mediterranean Sea on the west side is in charge of Charaire, and the part connected to the Black Sea in the east is in charge of Siktor, and as for the Sea of Marmara, several fleets led by Metan himself are stationed and patrolled.

The betrayer of Mutan was his own nephew Sickot, and just a month before Li Ke and their arrival in the Black Sea Strait, Metan patrolled the strait with a small fleet, first after inspecting the strait where he and Charaire were stationed, and then took this small fleet to the east side of Constantinople, that is, the strait where Sickotor was in charge.

This kind of inspection of Mutan is mainly to check the appearance of the navy, to see if there are any naval violations, etc., which is equivalent to the internal inspection of the navy, although it is very strict, but there is generally no danger, and Metan does not bring many people at all, because he believes that in the entire Black Sea Strait Fleet, no one will hurt himself, especially Sickor and Charaire still have a deep relationship with him.

But it is a pity that Mutan only guessed half right, Charaire was indeed very loyal to him, but Sickor betrayed him, and when the small fleet of Mutan patrolled entered the eastern section of the Black Sea Strait, it was suddenly surrounded by two fleets from the left and right, and at the same time cut off their retreat.

Immediately afterwards, Sickor personally commanded the fleet to surround Metan and persuade Metan to surrender, and also took out many conditions offered by Theodosius, in an attempt to persuade Metan in this way.

But the stubborn and stubborn Mutan did not give in, especially when he saw that his nephew, whom he had always loved, had betrayed him, which made him feel even more distressed, so he not only rejected Theodosius's offer, but also scolded Sickotor for betraying his trust with his family.

In the face of his uncle's scolding, Sickot's face turned pale with anger, so he immediately ordered an attack. However, he had previously received orders from Theodosius to capture Metantan alive, so that he could use Metan to threaten Charaire and control the entire Black Sea Strait in one fell swoop.

In the face of ten times the enemy, Mutan and the descendants around him were fearless, and each warship resolutely carried out the order to resist to the end, but unfortunately the gap in the number of warships was too large, so Mutan could only watch his own warships fall or sink in the end, and finally only his own ship remained.

In this case, Sickotor surrendered to Mutan again, but the stubborn Mutan would not give in, and he also knew that the other party wanted to capture him alive. Therefore, he first ordered the navy on his ship to jump into the sea to survive, but half of the navy still chose to stay, and finally Metan personally broke the Greek fire fuel tank on the ship, and the whole ship was immediately enveloped in flames, and none of the soldiers on board were spared! (To be continued......)