April of the Song calendar is the middle of May in the Western calendar, and in the early morning of April 1, 329 of the Great Song Dynasty, Kublai Khan was helped out of the bath by the guards, and the fat on his body was in a drooping state, swaying inelastically. When she arrived outside the bathroom, the female master who pushed the oil helped the sweaty to lie down on the massage table, quickly took out the bottle filled with high-quality olive oil, dripped oil on the palm of her hand, and the slender palm began to slide over the sweaty skin, letting the olive oil soak the dry and loose skin of the 74-year-old man.

After this service, the maid stepped forward to dry her body with a huge Song State bath towel. I brought cotton underwear with an oversized waistband and changed it into Da Khan. After that, drape the Great Khan in a breathable linen robe.

Walk to the lounge next to it in linen slippers and sit down on a wicker chair. Sipping on the invigorating black tea, Kublai Khan's heart was relaxed, he once felt that bathing would make him as weak as the Southern Barbarians, and when the Southern Barbarians showed a more vicious side than the Mongols, the Great Khan's resistance to bathing dissipated a lot. By now, the Great Khan had begun to get used to such days. A bath can clear his mind, an oil push can bring his itchy skin back to normal, and a massage can make his sweaty and sore muscles more comfortable. After completing these preparations, Kublai Khan even felt that he was much younger at this time.

After breakfast and changing into official court clothes, the 74-year-old Kublai Khan walked into the Golden Temple and sat down on the dragon bed. The civil and military forces on both sides of the line bowed neatly to Kublai Khan's knees. The Great Khan picked up the tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses and put them on, and looked condescendingly, and everything in his vision became clear.

His useless son Zhenjin did not appear, which made Kublai Khan feel better. If real gold appeared in the court, Kublai Khan didn't know how he would react.

In addition to real gold, there was not much left of the Hanchen in the Mongolian court. Not long ago, the number of Hanchen in the court was more than one percent. I don't know which Hanchen wrote to Kublai Khan to abdicate and let Zhenjin become the Great Khan. Kublai Khan was sure that he had not seen this recital, and if he did, he would have ordered the Hanchen to be dragged out and his body to be dismembered.

It was not Hanchen who exposed the matter, but the remnants of Ahma's party. Kublai Khan could fully understand the anger of these people, and after seeing the accusations of these people, Kublai Khan also felt the anger that rushed to the sky. He never expected that someone would dare to let him abdicate, and part of his anger was that the remnants of this group of Ahmad would dare to provoke the relationship between Kublai Khan and his son Zhenjin.

After confirming that Zhenjin led his private army to attack Ahmad and kill his biggest political enemy, Kublai Khan felt that this son, who was closely surrounded by Confucian scholars, was finally completed. Able to solve the enemy by decisive means. Moreover, Ahmad was very important to the imperial court in Dadu, and when Kublai Khan was unable to maintain power in Dadu, the value of Ahmad and his henchmen became very limited.

Now the bad prince Hanchen in the court and the Ahma remnants who murdered the prince have basically been cleaned up. Looking at the lack of 20% of the official ranks, Kublai Khan felt that an evil fire was born in his chest, and he wanted to find out the person no matter what. After making a round, Kublai Khan's eyes fell on the Archbishop of Baghdad sent by the Holy See.

"Bishop Claude." The Great Khan shouted.

Hearing this, the dignified bishop came out of the line and knelt down to the Great Khan: "Honorable Great Khan, I don't know what you command. ”

"Did you ask the Holy See last time about the ritual of being baptized as a Christian brother?"

Bishop Claude's handsome face twitched a few times, but he still replied calmly: "Your Excellency Great Khan, the Holy See is still deliberating on this matter. ”

Kublai Khan looked at the bishop who was kneeling on the ground, and decided in his heart that he wanted to clean up the Holy See. The traitors who challenged Kublai Khan's authority were all those who once knelt down to Kublai Khan, but the Holy See insisted that Kublai Khan was welcome as a brother to Christendom. The ceremony had to be that Kublai Khan knelt down to receive the crown from someone sent by the Holy See in order to complete the ritual of 'divine authority of kings'.

Kublai Khan found it unbearable for such an existence. Today, when he found it particularly difficult to accept, Kublai Khan said to Bishop Claude: "From Baghdad to Rome, it will take two months at most. I asked you to convey it to the Holy See before, and I have written to the Holy See, at least more than half a year ago. Is the Holy See so slow? ”

Bishop Claude heard Kublai Khan's dissatisfaction, and he quickly explained: "Great Khan, this matter is very important. Careful deliberation is required. I will write another letter to the Holy See and ask them to send emissaries to explain the reasons to the Great Khan. ”

"Don't bother." Kublai Khan said to Bishop Claude. After speaking, Kublai Khan turned his head to look at the group of Mongolian generals, "The Holy See is so busy, we will invite all the members of the Holy See to live in Baghdad." What do you guys think? ”

As soon as the generals heard that there was going to be a battle, they immediately knelt down and sang: "We will go wherever the Great Khan tells us to go." Whatever enemy the Great Khan asks us to capture, we will send them to the Great Khan. ”

Bishop Claude never expected the situation to turn out so suddenly that he began to wonder if he had learned Mongolian wrong. Then he heard Kublai Khan say, "Send him to the dungeon and keep him under strict guard." ”

Five days later, on the sixth day of the fourth month, the orders of the Mongol Great Khan had arrived in Cairo along the post road. But Marshal Boyan was unexpectedly not in Cairo, he was near the Mediterranean Sea at this time. Look at the 10-meter-wide and 2-meter-deep freshwater canal. According to the design of the Great Song Engineering Team, a canal was dug north of the eastern point of the east-west Sweetwater Canal. The purpose of the canal was not to bring fresh water to the Mediterranean, but to provide drinking water for the laborers who would later dig wider and deeper canals. Boyan admired the design, and after the canal was dug, it was only a matter of time before the canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea was built.

When Marshal Boyan returned to Cairo, he took a boat, and along the way, the oarsmen paddled hard, and they covered 600 miles of waterway in two days. Returning to the Egyptian governor's palace and reading the order of the Great Khan, Marshal Boyan lowered his head and drew a cross. When she went home for dinner in the evening, Princess Maria couldn't help but ask, "What makes you so happy?" ”

"Can you really see that I'm happy?" Boyan asked his wife.

"Your eyes are lit up." Maria said with a smile. To be able to see her husband so happy, even if she didn't know why, Maria could feel happy.

"The Great Khan ordered the march to Rome."

"Oh! Thank God. Princess Mary could not help but draw a cross and praise God. Since the local church in Rome defected from the Orthodox Church and established itself as the Holy See, there has been a deep hatred between the Orthodox Church and Christianity. Eastern Rome was no more hostile to the Eutheistic Church than the Crusaders of the Holy See. At least the Cult of God did not plunder Constantinople several times. Whether for religious or secular reasons, the Eastern Roman princess wanted to see the destruction of the Holy See.

"Thank God." Princess Maria's son shouted with his mother in a milky voice.

With a smile in her arms, Princess Mary kissed her son's little face. By the time she put her son back in his chair, the smile on Princess Maria's face had faded. If you want to attack Rome, you have to pass through the territory of Eastern Rome. The Mongols were so powerful that the Eastern Romans were fiercely wary of their transit armies.

"Don't worry. This time, the Great Khan was going to go to Egypt and the southern shore of the Mediterranean. From Tunisia to the north, into southern Italy. Boyan calmly comforted his wife's uneasiness.

At dinner, neither husband nor wife spoke of the war. The atmosphere at the dinner table was harmonious, and both of them were very happy.

The next day, Marshal Boyan called the representative of the Great Song Dynasty in Egypt, "You leave for a while." ”

"Okay." The person in charge of the Great Song side responded decisively, without even asking why. Because of what Marshal Boyan didn't want to say, no matter how he asked, it was in vain. Then the person in charge continued: "After we left, the bitter salt was sent to Constantinople. ”

"Hmm." Handsome Boyan replied simply.

The Great Song men began to assemble rapidly, and by April 18, they had gathered near the mouth of the Nile. At this time, a convoy of Great Song ships arrived here. Both sides were steamships, and ships from the Red Sea soon stopped to make contact. Not long after, a man who looked to be about thirty years old landed in a small boat.

"You're all going to leave Egypt?" The man who landed was the first to ask.

The older of the Great Song Dynasty personnel recognized this person as Yang Congrong, and said in surprise: "Head Yang, why are you back again?" ”

Seeing his old friend, Yang calmly smiled and replied, "I am already the director of the Eastern European Department of the Ministry of Rites. Naturally, I want to come back. ”

"I've been promoted." The old staff of Da Song said with a smile.

"When you go back, you will all be promoted." Yang calmly responded. After that, he asked why everyone was leaving.

Hearing that this was Boyan's order, Yang calmly showed a surprised expression, and he said, "In this case, is there enough boat." If that's not enough, we've got just a lot of space on board. ”

"It's nice to have a vacant seat. We have exactly a few thousand tons of bitter salt from Egypt to be delivered to Constantinople. Boyan was in such a hurry, we were thinking about how we could stuff all these things on the boat. ”

Yang calmly's fleet came from a long distance, and there was a lot of load vacated at this time. All the space in each cabin was used, and the aisles and under the beds were stuffed with bitter salt. After this side was done, with the sound of the whistle, the fleet began to move north. The wind and waves in such a bathtub in the Mediterranean Sea were very small, and the fleet marched like this, and finally arrived at Constantinople safely.

Entering the Great Song Embassy in Constantinople, Yang calmly sighed to the new ambassador: "But I didn't expect such good luck." Boyan asked our people to leave. ”

The ambassador was puzzled and asked, "What's so good about that?" ”

"The official family has ordered an offensive in the direction of Horin in Mongolia this year."