At first, he asked about Agnes's personal situation, although the other party answered very fluently, but Zhao Jia always felt that Agnes seemed to be hiding something, but Zhao Jia didn't care about it, because he didn't care much about Agnes's personal situation, he was concerned about the situation in Europe, so Zhao Jia asked all about this aspect.

Seeing that Zhao Jia didn't ask too much about his identity, Agnes was obviously relieved, and then tried her best to answer Zhao Jia's following questions, and even told some secrets that ordinary nobles could hardly know, fortunately, Zhao Jia didn't know about this, and it was impossible to judge Agnes' identity because of this.

When it comes to Europe, there is certainly no way around a famous empire in history, that is, the powerful Roman Empire, but even the most powerful empire will have its decline, and the same is true of the Roman Empire, which was divided into the Eastern Roman Empire and the Western Roman Empire more than 600 years ago, but the two empires did not hate each other, but cooperated with each other.

The Eastern Roman Empire was also known as the Byzantine Empire in later generations, but the name Byzantium was imposed on the Eastern Roman Empire by later generations, and in fact the subjects of the Eastern Roman Empire always called themselves Romans.

It's just that the geographical location of the Eastern Roman Empire is really not good, and in the Asian part they need to face the threat of nomads in Central Asia and West Asia, such as the Persian Empire, the Arab Empire, the Seljuk Empire, etc., which were all enemies of the Eastern Roman Empire, and their part of Europe was also invaded by the Normans.

Therefore, in the history of the Eastern Roman Empire, they were attacked by enemies from all directions almost all the time, and when they were strong, they defeated the enemy, and when they were weak, they were almost destroyed by the enemy. According to Agnes. A few years ago, the Eastern Roman Empire was in crisis, and even fell into a situation of annihilation, but at the time of the crisis of the empire, the current Eastern Roman Emperor Alexei I suddenly rose to stabilize the situation on the northern border in a short period of time, and is now at war with the Seljuk Empire. Although they were not able to defeat the other side completely, the situation began to tilt in favor of the Eastern Roman Empire, which also ushered in a period of revival for the Eastern Roman Empire.

Compared with the Eastern Roman Empire, the fate of the Western Roman Empire is more bumpy, from less than a hundred years after the division of the Roman Empire, the Western Roman Empire has been attacked by various barbarians, even Rome has been sacked by barbarians several times, the most serious one is the invasion of the Kingdom of Alan, they devastating the destruction of the city of Rome. The Western Roman Emperor was also killed, and the Western Roman Empire survived for several more decades before finally falling.

Although the Western Roman Empire fell, the Germanic people in Europe established a unified empire, and they also admired the Roman civilization very much, so they combined with the Catholicism left over from the Western Roman Empire, so that the Germanic emperors were canonized by the pope. Inherited the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, in order to distinguish it from the original Western Roman Empire. So they called themselves the Holy Roman Empire, but this empire did not have much to do with the original Roman Empire, and the main body of the empire was composed of Germanic peoples, not the original Romans, and Agnes came from this Holy Roman Empire.

It is also a coincidence that the Great Song Dynasty was founded only two years before the Holy Roman Empire. Both countries have experienced more than 100 years of development, and in the original history, the Great Song Dynasty had begun to enter a period of rapid decline, but because of Zhao Yan's intervention, the Great Song Dynasty became stronger and stronger. Especially after the destruction of Western Xia, it was in a period of rapid expansion.

Compared with the expanding Great Song Dynasty, the situation of the Holy Roman Empire is a little bad, as the most powerful empire on the European continent, and the only empire, the Holy Roman Empire basically has no enemies externally, which they are luckier than the Great Song, but their internal contradictions are much more serious than the Great Song.

In the internal contradictions of the Holy Roman Empire, the most serious is the contradiction between the pope and the emperor, when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, Catholicism was also a great loss of strength, and later relied on the power of the Holy Roman Empire, only slowly recovered, and in the concept of Catholicism, the pope should have a supreme position in the world, and the emperor naturally had to obey the orders of the pope, which was certainly unacceptable to the emperor, so the contradiction between the pope and the emperor was naturally becoming more and more acute.

At the beginning, Catholicism was attached to the Holy Roman Empire, so although the pope was unwilling, he still had to obey the emperor's orders, and some popes wanted to resist, but many people were abolished by the emperor, such as the previous emperor Henry III, who abolished the pope many times during his reign, which also marked the complete overriding of the imperial power over the divine right.

However, since the death of Henry III, the successor Henry IV was only a child at the time, so the imperial power fell into the hands of an archbishop, which also made Henry IV have been living in the shadow of the pope, and when he became an adult, he has been engaged in a fierce battle with the pope, a few years ago, Henry IV finally drove the then Pope Gregory VII out of Rome, and set up a new pope, which is finally a big eyebrow.

However, although Henry III had the upper hand in the battle with the Pope, the contradictions within the Holy Roman Empire were not only so, the Holy Roman Empire was not like the Great Song Dynasty, it was a unified empire, in fact, the Holy Roman Empire was more like the Zhou Dynasty in the history of the Central Plains, on the surface there was only one Zhou Tianzi, but in fact, there were a large number of vassal states in the country.

At the beginning, the Holy Roman Emperor was strong and could suppress these vassal states, but as time went by, the strength of these vassal states became stronger and stronger, which also made them no longer willing to obey the emperor's orders, and the pope ran out from time to time to make trouble, so the current Holy Roman Emperor was also tired of coping.

In addition to the Holy Roman Empire, there are several other larger kingdoms in Europe, such as Hungary, England, Poland and other kingdoms, although these kingdoms are not as powerful as the Holy Roman Empire, but they are also several forces that cannot be ignored in Europe, so when Zhao Jia asked, Agnes also briefly introduced this.

Zhao Jia was extremely interested in Europe, and when he talked about it, he forgot the time, and he didn't notice that the sky outside the window had darkened, but Agnes was very patient, although she didn't even drink a drop of water after coming here, she still answered Zhao Jia's question softly.

However, at this time, Yi Kela, who was a translator, couldn't stand it anymore, and saw that after he translated a sentence of Agnes, he suddenly coughed and smiled bitterly at Zhao Jia: "Childe, we've been talking all afternoon, it's dark outside, and I'm not in good health when I'm old, so should we take a break?" ”

Hearing Yi Kela's words, Zhao Jia noticed the sky outside, he didn't feel tired, but Agnes had just suffered a big change, although he was calm on the surface, but the mental pressure must be very great, and his face was already a little tired at this time, as for the interpreter Yi Kela, he was almost seventy years old, and translating was a more mentally draining job, so he was also mentally exhausted now.

Seeing this, Zhao Jia also said apologetically at the moment: "It's my negligence, Manager Lu, you go and prepare a table of wine and food, and help me greet Yi Kela, and in the next period of time, Yi Kela will temporarily hire me as an interpreter, and I will ask Agnes some things these days, and Agnes here, and let people bring some food." ”

Hearing that not only did there be food and drink, but also something to do in the next few days, Yi Kela also showed a happy smile, and then expressed Zhao Jia's meaning to Agnes, but Agnes suddenly said a few words after hearing it, and at the same time, a pair of big blue eyes also showed a little shyness.

Ikla laughed when she heard Agnes's words, and then said to Zhao Jia again: "Childe, Agnes said that she has been adrift at sea for many days, so I hope to prepare some hot water for her to bathe." ”

"Huh? Don't you Europeans take a bath? Zhao Jia was a little surprised when he heard this, because he heard his father say that since the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the whole of Europe has been in a barbaric and backward state, especially many Europeans think that bathing will cause diseases, and Catholicism does not advocate bathing, so many Europeans do not have the habit of bathing at all. When Zhao Jia saw Agnes before, although her appearance was good, the smell on her body was not very good, which also made him more sure of the rumors that Europeans did not bathe.

Yi Kela translated Zhao Jia's words, but Agnes was flushed after hearing it, and she didn't know whether she was angry or shy, and then she said a series of words, and Yi Kela also hurriedly translated: "Childe, she said that they Europeans also often take baths, especially the aristocracy has the habit of bathing regularly, although she does not take a bath every day when she is at home, but she will wash every three days, although the church does not advocate bathing, but it is human instinct to love cleanliness, except for a few particularly devout priests, no one will not take a bath, In addition, she knew that the smell of her body was a little unpleasant, but she said that he had been adrift at sea for months, and he did not have enough water, let alone the luxury of bathing. ”

Hearing Ikola's translation, and then looking at Agnes's shy and angry expression, Zhao Jia couldn't help laughing, but he also had some doubts in his heart, his father obviously told him so, why was it different from Agnes's description?

In fact, what Zhao Jia didn't know was that Zhao Yan said that Europeans did not take a bath, that was in Europe one or two hundred years later, after the ravages of the Black Death, European medicine believed that bathing would lead to disease, so it was forbidden to take a bath, and the whole of Europe was stinking at that time, but when the Holy Roman Empire was first established, under the influence of the Romans, the European upper class nobles still preferred to take a bath. (To be continued.) )