A few days later, Qin Dong and Liu Yang rode back from hunting outside the city, and when they passed through the city gate, they found that a large number of soldiers and horses were going out of the city to the west, so they asked Liu Yang: "Big brother, what's going on, why are so many troops going out?" ”

"Oh, you said this, I also found out this morning, I heard that a month ago there was a wing of troops from Dirmit to escort a batch of tax silver to Constantinople, but Constantinople lost the news of this army more than ten days ago, some of the ministers suspected that the leader of that army, Pedro, absconded with the money privately, so Emperor Song Ming sent troops to hunt down Pedro and the army he led, you see there is a notice over there that wants them!" As he spoke, Liu Yang pointed to the city wall on the left side of the city gate.

Qin Dong turned his head to look, and there was a wanted notice written in white cloth on the city wall, Qin Dong didn't know what happened to Pedro in the end, according to Balhan, who was pursuing at the time, came back and said that Pedro was gone, only four soldiers fled, and there was no Pedro among the four soldiers, which Barhan was very sure of.

In any case, whether Pedro is dead or alive, he can't escape the charge of losing the tax money, this crime is very big, big enough to make him lose his head, and now Constantinople has sent someone to investigate and pursue, even if he is not dead, after being caught, the only way is to escape, to flee to the Western Roman Empire or beyond, only in this way can he live.

The reason why Qin Dong dared to come to Constantinople afterwards was that he concluded that Pedro did not dare to come in the direction of Constantinople again, although Pedro had seen him, as long as Pedro did not return to Constantinople. There was no chance to see him, and there was no opportunity to tell Constantinople about his affairs.

Qin Dong thought very well, and it should be like this according to the normal situation. As long as Pedro still has a little sense and is not dizzy, he will never dare to return to Constantinople, but Pedro is not an ordinary person, his identity is not ordinary, Qin Dong miscalculated, and a disaster is destined to wait for him.

Not long after Qin Dong and Liu Yang rode into the city. On the way to the city gate came five beggars in rags, all of whom were on wooden sticks, and their tattered and dirty clothes smelled of the most unpleasant.

See the tall golden gates. One of the beggars in the middle exclaimed: "God, we have finally returned to Constantinople, and I dare to swear that I have never experienced such a tragic thing in my life." The four of you went through it with me. Without you, I would have died in the wilderness, and I said I would repay you, and you will follow me in the future, and I promise you a lot of gold and silver coins to make in your pockets! ”

The four beggars hurriedly said, "Yes, my lord! ”

The beggar in the middle is Pedro who fell into the grass when he was being pursued by Balhan's troops, and the other four beggars are the last four Roman soldiers to escape into the bushes.

The five of them walked to the gate of the city and smoked away a large crowd of civilians who were about to enter the city, and the leader of the Roman soldiers on duty at the gate covered his nostrils. Holding a short sword, he pointed at the five people and muttered, "It stinks, you are not allowed to enter the city." Let's go, let's go! ”

"My lord, don't you have to pay the gate tax? We give money! At Pedro's signal, a beggar stretched out his hand, and in his black palm lay two shiny silver coins.

When the Roman soldier squad saw that the beggar really took out the money, he didn't want the money, so he pointed to a soldier and said, "You go and get the money!" ”

The Roman soldier who was pointed at suddenly made a bitter face, covered his nostrils and grabbed the two silver coins in the beggar's hand, and the team leader saw that the money was taken, and immediately drove Pedro and others into the city like a plague god.

After entering the city, a beggar said, "My lord, you see that our body is too dirty, why don't you go find a hotel to take a bath, change into clean clothes, and then go to your brother's."

Pedro thought about it and categorically denied: "No, we are wanted now, once our true colors are revealed, we will definitely be caught by the people of the City Guard, anyway, this place is not far from my brother's home, everyone bear with me, as long as we see my brother, we will be safe!" ”

"Okay!" A few people agreed, and immediately walked forward, these people were really annoying, and they were disgusted.

It didn't take long for the five of them to reach the door of a very luxurious building, and Pedro hesitated and walked towards the luxurious house.

At the door, two warriors wearing silver chain armor with short swords and iron spears saw a beggar walking up the steps, and immediately aimed their spears at Pedro: "This is Lord Muller's mansion, beggars go away!" ”

Pedro was about to reveal his identity, but he held back, he retreated, then turned and walked down the steps, and the four beggars at the bottom of the steps saw that he was back and hurriedly asked what was going on.

"We are now wanted, no one can trust me except my brother, I can only reveal my identity when I see my brother in person, who among these people knows if there is a mercenary person, if there is such a person, he informs the sheriff, we are in trouble!" ”

"Yes, yes, the adults are very thoughtful, let's bear with it a little longer, and then decide what to do when we see the adult's brother!" One of the beggars said.

The five of them waited at the door of Muller's mansion like this, Pedro's younger brother Muller's official position is not big, he is just a clerk in the palace, but his secret identity is not trivial, Muller is the chief face of the current queen Pulkaria, Pulkaria is fifty-four years old this year, because she is well maintained, she looks only about forty years old, although she once vowed to be chaste for life in order to avoid political marriage, but this is just a joke, otherwise she would not marry Marcian and be Marcian's nominal wife, In this way, you can ensure that your rights will not be left behind. And Marcian is fifty-seven years old this year, and he can't meet Pulkaria at all, Pulkaria can only find a face to solve his physical needs, and Muller, one of the young, strong and good-looking palace clerks, was so taken by her, although Muller was a little frightened at first, but after a long time, he became more and more bold, and he regarded himself as the queen's man for a long time, and often called himself the emperor on the couch.

The affair of Pulkaria and Müller is no longer news in the palace and in officialdom. Even Emperor Marcian had heard of it, but Marcian did not make any moves, which made Müller even more presumptuous. The ministers were afraid that Mueller would blow the pillow wind while sleeping with Pulkaria. Therefore, they all stammered him very much, which made him a small clerk like a minister at the top of the ranks.

The five men waited all day, each dizzy with hunger, until late evening when they saw a carriage under the escort of a dozen armor men come to the gate of Müller and stopped, the coachman put a low stool beside the carriage, and then opened the wooden door, and a young man in a robe stepped out of the carriage.

Pedro, who was squatting under the tree, saw the young man's appearance. His feet bounced up as if they were springed, and the whole person quickly rushed over, and the surrounding armor soldiers saw someone rushing over. The leader of the guards immediately shouted, "Protect your lordship! ”

The armorers drew their short swords one after another, and some held spears aimed at Pedro who was rushing over, and Pedro knew that he was in a hurry when he saw these armorers. Hurriedly stopped and shouted: "Muller." Muller, it's me, I'm my brother! I'm your brother! ”

The young man's official changed his face when he heard this voice, and then he stared at Pedro carefully, and said with a look of sudden realization: "It turned out to be my cousin, how did you become like this?" This is not the place to talk, let's go in first! Someone, invite my cousin and his friends to come in and rest. Fetch water for them to bathe and change into clean clothes! ”

"Yes. My lord! ”

"What's going on? I'm obviously his own brother, how can Mueller say I'm his cousin? Pedro was puzzled, but he followed Muller into the mansion gate.

After washing up and changing into clean clothes and eating, Pedro was invited to a secret room, Mueller sat in the secret room, saw Pedro come in, quickly got up and closed the door of the secret room, and finally said: "Brother, I have to call you cousin just now, I hope you don't get angry, by the way, how did you become like this?" You used to be very fat, and you haven't seen you for a few months, how did you lose weight like this? ”

Seeing that Muller finally admitted his identity, Pedro happened to ask about his situation, and immediately felt so aggrieved that he snorted and cried, and told in detail what he had experienced in the past half a month, and finally cried aggrieved, like a child who was bullied outside.

After hearing this, Mueller sighed with a look of hatred: "Brother, I told you a long time ago, don't get too close to our brother-in-law, he is poor and afraid, so he always tries to make money, but our family is different, our family has never been short of money, what do you want so much money for?" If you hadn't stolen someone else's goods and horses, would someone else have ambushed you along the way? I asked you to spend money to buy an official job, plus I will help you speak here, and gradually improve your official position, just to let you be a strong foreign aid for me in the future, and the two of us brothers will take care of each other one outside, and the other will take care of each other, so that even if someone wants to move any of us, we have to think about it carefully, not to let you give me trouble, don't you understand? Now you know how big the basket you poked? The whole empire is wanted for you, if it weren't for the queen's efforts to protect me, I'm afraid I'm already in prison now."

Pedro didn't expect things to become so strict, in his opinion, his younger brother is deeply favored by the empress, he eats quickly and plays well in all aspects of Constantinople, he shouldn't be implicated by himself, he didn't expect that even his younger brother was almost affected by himself, he worried: "Muller, is there really such a strict zhòng?" Aren't I going to finish my life, brother? ”

Mueller said angrily: "What do you think? Tax silver is the main source of income for the imperial treasury, this money is the forbidden body of the emperor and empress, the main means they use to win over ministers and army generals, is their lifeline, who touched their lifeline, do you think they will not kill? But when the news came back, some ministers asked the emperor to uproot our family, if it weren't for me begging the empress, the empress would have spoken in front of the emperor for the sake of me serving her well in the past few years, only you will be held accountable, and no one else in our family will be implicated!

But brother, you don't have to worry, you can stay at my house with peace of mind, and after the rumors pass, I will find a way to arrange for you to go to Rome, the emperor is also old, and he won't live for many years, and you will come back after the emperor dies! ”

As soon as he heard that he was going to Rome, Pedro was like a frosted eggplant, and he was stunned, only in Constantinople could he walk sideways, and went to Rome, a place where he was unfamiliar with life, how could he mix? If you don't talk about bullying others, it's good if you don't get bullied by others.

Reluctantly, he asked, "Mueller, is there no other way?" I don't want to go to Rome! ”

Mueller looked ugly and said, "What can I do?" Unless you know where the robbers are and who they are, do you think I'm the emperor? I can forgive your sins at will, even if I am the emperor, for this kind of thing, I can't forgive your sins casually, as soon as this kind of mouth is opened, the laws of the empire will be child's play! Got it? Okay, don't think about it, take advantage of this time to rest and recuperate, by the way, you and a few of them can only stay at home, and you must not go out! If your identity is discovered, I won't be able to protect you anymore! ”

Pedro nodded: "Yes, I know!" ”

"Alright, you go back to your room to rest, I have to go out again!" Mueller said.

Pedro wondered, "It's getting dark now, what else do you have to go out?" ”

"You don't have to worry about this!" Mueller walked out.

Pedro looked at his brother's back, and suddenly realized that Mueller must be attacking again to serve Pulkaria, he remembered that Queen Pulkaria was already an old woman in her fifties, and couldn't help but feel sad that his brother had to endure facing such an ugly old woman every day, and at the same time he couldn't bear Muller to wronged himself for the sake of his family.

Back in the room, the four Roman soldiers who were protecting Pedro's return hurriedly greeted him and asked, "My lord, is there a way for Lord Muller to exonerate us?" ”

"Hey!" Pedro sighed and said: "It's impossible to get away with it, I'm afraid we still have to continue to bear this charge, but don't worry, Lord Muller has already arranged it for us, and after a while, they will arrange for us to take refuge in Rome, and then you will go with me, you will eat whatever I eat, and I will definitely not treat you badly!" ”

The four Roman soldiers looked at each other and sighed, as if that was all there was to it. (To be continued......)