Qin Dong was just about to go out with a few guards dressed in Roman costumes, when he was stopped by Soma from behind: "Hey, Qin, what are you going to do?" ”

Qin Dong had to stop, waiting for Soma to come over before he said, "There's something to go out for, aren't you going to the monastery to see your friends?" If it's too early to go, maybe we'll go back when, and you won't have time to see them again! ”

Soma patted her little head: "I almost forgot about this, well, I'll go now, I hope they're all still there, Daru, let's go!" ”

"Yes, master!" Daru walked over and bent down to pick up Soma and put it on his shoulder, then stooped out of the door, the arch was so short for a giant like Daru that he nearly broke the porches in the house several times.

Finally fooled Soma, the troublemaker, away, Qin Dong breathed a sigh of relief, called a guard to explain, and when Alfald returned, he told him to go to Gebuus's house to meet.

Horse, in this era, whether in the East, or in the West is a valuable means of transportation and extremely important strategic resources, its price is not expensive, even a very ordinary horse is not the average civilian can afford, of course, the general horse only needs to feed forage, but the war horse can not only feed the forage, if you want to ensure that the war horse can fight at any time, you must often feed soybeans and other food crops, so that the war horse can maintain enough sprint and running endurance, with the horse as a means of transportation, Not only should you be able to afford a horse, but you must also be able to ride a horse. If you don't know how to ride a horse, you need a carriage and a coachman, and if you can't ride a horse but use it as a means of transportation, you have to keep horses. Coachmen were also raised, so even in a large city like Constantinople, which connected the East and the West, there were not many people who could ride horses on the streets, but there were quite a few carriages.

There are a lot of carriages on the street, but there are few people riding horses, Qin Dong and others riding horses on the street have attracted the attention of some residents, but it is only a side-eye, not in a big city like Constantinople is not uncommon.

When I arrived at Gebuus's house. Pethius and Gebuus had just finished breakfast, and when they saw Qin Dong coming, they beckoned Qin Dong to sit down. He also asked the servant to bring the brewed oriental tea.

After chatting for a while, Peteaus said, "Bull, my uncle has been busy finding buyers for the goods these days, hoping to sell them for a good price. It's rare for you to come back. Just a few more days of rest, by the way, have you seen your mother? I'll take a look tomorrow! ”

"I didn't see my mother when I came home yesterday, and the neighbor said he was picked up by a relative in Rome, and we came back too late, and it looks like I have to go to Rome!"

Peteus didn't know what Qin Dong meant, but he still said, "That's the case, it seems that I haven't been able to see my sister recently." Well, you've never come back. If you don't understand business matters, just rest for a few more days! ”

"Yes, uncle!" Qin Dong agreed, turned to Gebuus and said, "Master Gebuus, last time you said that my mother's jade pendant was received from a ruffian, I wonder if you can still find that ruffian?" ”

Gebuus said: "As long as he is still in Constantinople, it is easy to find him, and when he finds it, I will send someone to inform you!" ”

Qin Dong hurriedly said, "Then you have to worry about it!" ”

Not long after, Afald came, and Qin Dong and Pethius and Afald had a secret conversation in Peteaus's room.

After making sure that there was no one outside the door, Qin Dong said: "I'm not afraid to tell you the truth, this time we came to Constantinople mainly to do a few things, the first thing is to find my mother, we came a month late, someone picked up my mother first, I think this person's purpose is to use my mother to blackmail me at a certain time, she has now arrived in Ravenna, but she should be safe, the person who took her should not harm her for the time being, now we can only put this matter aside for the time being, and talk about it later."

The second thing, I expect that our Xiongnu Empire is likely to fall into civil strife in the next year because of Da Shan Yu and his several brothers fighting for power, Da Shan Yu is a little indecisive in this person's character, it is precisely because of this that I have a premonition that what will happen next, once there is civil strife, the first thing we want is self-preservation, how to protect ourselves? First of all, we must develop our own strength, we must be able to ensure self-sufficiency in production, sufficient living materials, and strategic resources must be able to meet our own needs, second, we must train and recruit more troops, and thirdly, we must have good relations with our neighbors.

The first two points, we can solve our own efforts, the last point is difficult, is to have a good relationship with the neighbors, if the Huns have civil strife, our primary enemy is not the Eastern Roman Empire, let alone the Western Roman Empire, but their own people, those commanders or commanders must want to annex other tribes to strengthen their own strength, our position is on the border, if we don't want to be swallowed by our own people, we must temporarily have a good relationship with the Eastern Roman Empire, So that they don't attack us from behind when we fight with other Hun tribes!

It's not easy to have a good relationship with the Eastern Roman Empire, my current status is too low, if I can be promoted to the commander of the Ten Thousand Commanders and have actual military power, then it will be easy to talk directly to the Eastern Roman Emperor, and I am only a thousand commanders now, the strength is too small, and it is a little difficult to contact the high-level of the Eastern Roman Empire, but you don't have to worry, I will find a way to get it. ”

Now the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire is Marcian, Marcian is a professional soldier, before becoming the emperor is a general with actual military power, he served under the Eastern Roman Empire ministers Aldabrius and Aspar father and son for 19 years, and finally obtained the position of tribune and senator, after the previous emperor Theodosius II accidentally fell from a horse and died, because Theodosius II had no children, the throne faced no male royal family succession, Valentinian III of the Western Roman Empire, however, was the cousin of Theodosius II, in a secular view. He was more qualified than anyone else to inherit the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire, so that the power of the Eastern Roman Empire would fall into the hands of the Western Roman Empire. It is likely that it will be reunited into the Roman Empire, and Theodosius II's sister Pulkaria and a minister of the Eastern Roman Empire did not want the entire empire to be taken over by the Western Roman Empire, so she and the powerful minister Aspar joined forces to put Marcian on the throne of the emperor, and married Marcian, and the two ruled the Eastern Roman Empire together, so as to give an explanation to the people of the empire.

Pulkaria is a power-hungry person. A woman of great vigor and vigor, she is a faithful believer in the two natures of Christ and God. Extremely disgusted by the idea that Christ is monophytes, she supported the orthodox church against monophytes in the midst of church disputes. Having lived in the court for a long time, she knows the sorrow of marriage. Therefore, she vowed to be chaste for life, and there was a period of time to study in the monastery and take vows, but she later married Marcian because of power, which shows her desire to control power. What kind of Cheng dù did you see?

She was two years older than Theodosius II. In the wisdom of politics. She was much stronger than Theodosius II, and she also took advantage of the cowardly character of her younger brother Theodosius II to gain real power, and in 414 AD, at the age of 15, she used her political wisdom to win over the powerful minister Ardabrius, became the supreme commander of the Guard, and was awarded the title of "Augusta" by the Senate (Augustus for men and Augusta for women) and became the regent of the Eastern Roman Empire, the de facto controller of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The mother of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, Plasidian Asian, was Pulkaria's aunt. Neither of these women of the House of Theodosius was an ordinary woman, although they were not emperors. But all his life he exercised the rights of the emperor.

Therefore, if Qin Dong wanted to maintain good diplomatic relations with the Eastern Roman Empire, he had to meet Marcian and Pulkaria, the two de facto rulers of the Eastern Roman Empire, and his strategy was to maintain good relations with external forces and buy enough time to deal with internal affairs, which was one of the main purposes of Qin Dong's visit to Constantinople.

Peteus and Afald glanced at each other after listening to Qin Dong's words, and then said at the same time: "Yiqiē obey the arrangement of the adults, I don't know if the adults need us to do anything?" ”

Qin Dong touched his chin and thought for a while, then said: "Peteaus, you concentrate on the sale of goods, the value of this batch of goods is very expensive, you must sell it at a high price, I will find a way to find those nobles, no matter what kind of goods it is, as long as it can be sought after among the nobles, the price will definitely soar rapidly!" Think of a way! ”

Pethius nodded: "Yes, my lord! ”

Qin Dong said to Alfald again: "Leave ten people for Pethaus to call, you take the others to go around the streets every day, as long as you see people from the east, people who look the same as me, remember their location carefully, what they do, what they specialty, make a record every day, and give me the record at night, I want to see it!" ”

Qin Dong's request was extremely strange, which made Alfold and Peteaus very puzzled, but Alfold still said that he would unconditionally follow the request of the pro.

Qin Dong summed up three purposes in his heart, first, to find his mother, second, to pull relationships, and third, to recruit talents from the East, the first of which has failed, the second purpose has not yet been settled, I don't know how to start, and the third recruits talents, it is not clear whether things can go smoothly, and I will only know until I have to do it. Since we don't know where to start for the second purpose, let's start with the third purpose, which is to recruit talents.

Alphard, who received Qin Dong's orders, immediately gathered everyone, a total of seventy-eight, leaving ten for Petheus to call, and the remaining sixty-eight were divided into groups of four, each group was responsible for a street, and began to look for people in the city of Constantinople in the afternoon of the same day, as long as there were Orientals who looked similar to Qin Dong, they were followed, and found someone to agree on the situation of these people.

In the course of an afternoon, each group found one person, a total of seventeen, and had a detailed understanding of the people they found, and in the evening Affard handed Qin Dong the parchment that recorded the seventeen people.

Qin Dong took the parchment and looked at it, he found that eleven of the seventeen people were people like retinues, all of them came from the east to engage in commerce and trade with the head of the family, three had a chance to persuade them to choose to stay and work with him, and five were merchants, only one of these five merchants lived in the city of Constantinople, and started a family here, named Zhong Hui, this is the person Qin Dong was looking for, and the other four were all going back to the East, Qin Dong couldn't keep them even if he wanted to, and the last one was a mercenary named Liu Yang, This one is uncertain.

This Liu Yang's reputation in the mercenary world in Constantinople is beyond Qin Dong's imagination, Liu Yang is twenty-six years old this year, and he appeared in Constantinople four years ago, in these four years, he has taken over a total of two hundred and thirty-two tasks, each task has been completed very well, there has never been a record of failure and failure, he is also the only mercenary in Constantinople City who has no failure record, so he is very famous, not only in the mercenary world, but also in the aristocratic circle. Correspondingly, his commission was very high, ridiculously high, and he did not accept tasks with less than ten gold pounds, and even so, many nobles hired him by name.

Qin Dong took a fancy to Liu Yang and businessman Zhong Hui, Liu Yang's ability is undoubted, he has indirectly completed two hundred and thirty-two tasks in four years, and there is no record of failure, and many of them are completed with others, from this list, Liu Yang is a person with strong organizational skills, it is not easy to integrate the mercenaries who work together, from another aspect, his personality charm is very strong, not counting his personal force. This person is not easy to convince, Qin Dong decided to go out in person, as for the businessman Zhong Hui, Qin Dong decided to give the task of persuading him to Charlie Cao, judging from the investigation, this Zhong Hui is very superstitious, from the mouth of their family, I know that this person often worships God at home alone, so it should be no problem for Charlie Cao to fool him, and you can also take this opportunity to try Charlie Cao's skills.

Qin Dong then asked Cao Charlie to come and said: "Dao Chief, look at this person, this person's name is Zhong Hui, originally from the Central Plains, I don't know why the whole family came to Constantinople and settled here, he did a little business here, but his house is not ordinarily big, I estimate that they should have brought a lot of property when they moved here, this person is very familiar with people from all walks of life in Constantinople, he is a long-sleeved person who is good at dancing, Taoist chief, I want you to convince this man to come with me to Pazar! ”

Charlie Cao asked, "Is the Lord trying to recruit this person for his own use?" ”

"That's exactly what it means!"

Charlie Cao made a joke and said: "Do your best!" (To be continued......)