On the 5th day of November 331 of the Great Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan's second grandson, Talama Bala, died of illness. Having lost this grandson, Kublai Khan seemed to have aged several years all at once. Mongolian custom is that the corpse needs to be disposed of within three days, and one of them is chosen between sky burial, earth burial, and cremation. The steppe religion believed that once the corpse decomposed, it could not enter the kingdom of heaven. On the 7th of November, the body of Tara Baba was cremated.

When the shaman finished the rituals, Timur, the third brother of the shaman, raised the torch and turned to look at his grandfather, Kublai Khan. Seeing Kublai Khan nodding, Timur walked to the pyre where the gorgeously dressed second brother was lying and threw the torch under the pyre. Then the flames rose up, and the body of Tara Mahbala was encased in fireworks.

Kublai Khan got up and left, and after walking a short distance, he heard someone screaming. When I looked back, I saw the corpse of Tara Maha Bara sitting up. It was shaking as if it was alive again. A moment later, with a bang, the body of Tara was back on the fire, letting the flames burn and not moving again.

Retracting his painful gaze, Kublai Khan continued to walk forward. Thirty years ago, Kublai Khan led his army to fight the Song army in Ezhou, suffering heavy casualties under the attack of Zhao Jiaren's army. At that time, they had to cremate the bodies in large numbers, and there were too many interviews. That's why Kublai Khan left in a hurry, because he was afraid that he would see such a tragic situation again.

His eyes moved, and Kublai Khan saw that Timur, the third brother of Tarama Bara, was supporting a woman who was crying bitterly, and the woman was the crown princess Kuokuozhen of the crown prince Zhenjin. She is also Timur's biological mother. Zhenjin is not only the crown princess Kuokuozhen, but naturally there are not only the three sons born to the crown princess Kuokuozhen. It's just that according to the rules since Genghis Khan, only the son born to the wife has the right to inherit the throne.

Retracting his gaze from his grieving family, Kublai Khan turned and left.

Cremation is not simply burned, after burning, the ashes should be carefully collected and placed in a gold bottle. Holding the second brother's golden bottle, Timur sighed in his heart. Their brother is a sibling mother, and he was raised by his grandmother when he was a child, and now a small bottle contains the end of the second brother's life.

Sending her grieving mother home, Timur was on guard. He didn't sleep much that night, and whenever her mother cried, Timur would go in and talk to her, or just sit beside her. In these difficult times, Timur knew he couldn't do much. All he could do was be by his mother's side.

The next morning, the crown princess fell asleep exhausted. Timur also slept outside, and stayed with him for three days before returning home. As soon as he returned home, Tokhtar was already in Timur's house.

took out a copy of the fold and put it in front of Timur, and said excitedly: "Prince, now the situation has changed greatly, we have to use the second prince's charter." ”

"Second brother just died......" Timur felt that something was wrong.

"Prince, the second prince has just died, so let's say that the second prince has discussed with you before. Now that the second prince has died, you can't let the second prince's hard work go to waste. ”

Timur felt nervous, he was making it up. He thought about it silently, and could see that he was very entangled in his heart. Tokhtar couldn't quite understand what this idea was, but he knew that if Timur couldn't figure it out for himself, he wouldn't do it. At this point, we can only wait.

"In case someone says I didn't do it......" Timur said, expressing his concerns.

Tokhtar was almost amused, but on second thought, isn't it the duty of his subordinates to solve these troubles for the Lord. He immediately replied, "Prince, if someone says that, what does he want to do?" Take the credit into his arms? At this time, he offended the third prince, and when the Great Khan returned to heaven, how would he prepare to deal with himself? ”

Timur had just passed his 26th birthday at this time, and he had not yet reached the age to naturally use power techniques, and after hearing this, he suddenly felt enlightened. Tokhtar continued: "When the second prince dies, his men have to find another master. With the crown prince presiding over at this time, they will naturally come to defect at this time. They are not afraid that the prince will continue the plan of the second prince, but they are afraid that the prince will not continue. ”

"Good. I'll talk about it right away. Timur made a decision immediately.

"Please wait. I introduced a man to the crown prince. Tokhtar immediately stopped Timur.

It didn't take long for Tie Li Buhua to take off in front of Timur. Immediately after meeting, he bowed down and saluted, "Participate in the prince." ”

"Tie Li is not spent, but he is the advisor in the second prince's mansion who helps to be the charter." Detachment introduced.

Tie Li Buhua immediately followed and said: "The second prince has returned to heaven, and the minister's heart is sad. It was a great joy to learn that the prince was able to carry out this plan. So I came to defect immediately, and I hope that the second prince will not dislike it. ”

Timur didn't expect the second brother's subordinates to come to defect so soon, and he was also very surprised. But someone is better than no one, he hurriedly pulled up Tieli Buhua, and said kindly: "Tieli Buhua brother, thank you for your hard work." ”

Two days later, Timur went to meet Kublai Khan and told him what he had planned. When Kublai Khan heard the name of Tarabala, he felt sad for a while, so he casually asked Timur about the content of the plan. Timur recounted the contents of the deliberations that had been studied more carefully throughout the day. There are people who have participated in the design before, and many things that have not been discussed in detail in the recital are taken out and talked about at this time. Kublai Khan actually listened.

Later, Timur came up with Tokhto's plan for the reorganization of the Mongol army, and Tokhtar had already merged the plan for the reorganization of the army with the Grange plan. Timur said with some unconfidence: "Great Khan, I will position this as the Eight Banners system. According to the current territory and population of Mongolia, our Mongolian army is organized into eight banners, which is the Mongolian Eight Banners. Those who believe in the cross religion can be organized into eight banners, which can be called the white eight banners. Those serfs who believe in the True God Cult and are willing to join the army can be organized into the Black Eight Banners......"

This conversation took several hours. After talking, Timur only felt extremely excited and exhausted. When he returned, he wanted to ride a horse, but then he decided that it would not work, so he changed the carriage. In the car, Timur felt nothing but a mess of his head, and he couldn't remember what he had done. The only thing he was sure of was that he was finally able to talk freely in front of his grandfather, Kublai Khan, without being pushed aside with a little disdain from Kublai Khan.

When he got home, Timur was about to rest for a while, but a guard hurriedly came to report, "The crown princess is sick." ”

As soon as he heard that his mother was ill, Timur immediately left everything behind and went to her at once. Not long after arriving, someone came to report, "Third prince, the Great Khan is here." ”

Timur immediately went out to greet him, and as soon as he knelt down to salute, he heard Kublai Khan ask, "How is your mother?" ”

"Back to the Great Khan, the doctor said that my mother was sad and didn't eat well and slept well. Occasionally, I had a cold wind, and because my body was weak, I fell ill. ”

Kublai Khan didn't say anything, but went straight to visit. It's just a few years, the crown prince Zhenjin died, Zhenjin's second son died, and if Zhenjin's wife Kuokuo Zhen also died, Kublai Khan felt that he really couldn't stand it so much. After seeing Kuo Kuozhen, Kublai Khan felt that although Kuo Kuozhen fell ill, it was not an acute illness, it was really a weak illness.

Leaving the imperial physician to treat Kuang Kuozhen, Kublai Khan came out and asked Timur, "What are you going to do in the next few days?" ”

"I'm going to stay by my mother's side."

“…… When Kuokuo is really well, you go and sue me. Leaving this sentence behind, Kublai Khan left.

At this time, thousands of miles away in Kyiv, the ice and snow can make it difficult to walk on land, but it cannot affect the rapid delivery of news by wireless telegraphy. Hao Ren has completed several new communication routes, one of which is to go directly from Baghdad to the Black Sea, to deliver news to Odessa via docks, and then to Kyiv by telegram.

Hearing that Tara Ma Ba Ra had passed away, Hao Ren felt a little uneasy in his heart. Of course, he did not plot to kill him, nor did he participate in the conspiracy to kill him. But in the current situation, Hao Ren doesn't know if anyone will say something. In addition to this factor, Hao Ren also learned some other news.

The new Pope was chosen with the support of the Teutonic Knights and the Holy Roman Empire, and now the Knights Templar, based in Gaul, have recognized the new pope, the Knights Hospitaller have been exterminated at their headquarters in Rhodes, and the other branches have elected new Grand Masters. The Grand Master of the Order continued to declare allegiance to the new Pope after being recognized by the new Pope.

Neither England nor Gaul had any intention of opposing the new pope, and no other country questioned the new pope. A new situation in Europa has been reached, and the entire Crucidian state under the banner of the Pope has formed a confrontation in Mongolia. By next year, the flames of war will definitely be ignited.

In order to face such a situation, the Yuan court held meetings for several days. After discussion, Prime Minister Jiang Guangtou concluded: "If the countries of Europa want to go to war with Mongolia, there are five ways to go. There are three land routes, and the first one is to attack our Yuan Kingdom. The second was to go through northern Greece, Thrace, and through Constantinople to engage the Mongol army. The third was to take the north coast of Africa and attack Egypt. There were two waterways, one was to embark from the western shore of the Black Sea and attack Mongolia on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. This road is basically not feasible. The second is to go to the Mediterranean Sea to the Yuan Kingdom on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. ”

Many of the ministers' books had not participated in the discussion before, and they listened very carefully at this time.

"If the Song navy is willing to fight with the navy of the Europa countries as before, there will be no way for the Europa navy to bypass Italy and enter the eastern Mediterranean. As for what the Song State Navy thinks, we don't know yet. The route in northern Africa could not be taken without the cooperation of the naval army. It takes time to organize a water army. Therefore, after the beginning of spring next year, the most likely to be attacked is our Yuan Kingdom. ”