Ladies in summer clothes lit wormwood incense in the Western Roman Palace, which made Queen Maria, who was seated on the throne, feel better. The Western Roman Empire had just been rebuilt, and the financial situation was extremely difficult, and she knew that this was not the time for a big construction. The simple decoration uses a lot of ordinary materials, and even the slightly pungent smell of wormwood is more popular than the lime walls.

The Eastern Roman envoy in front of him sneezed a little and continued, "Your Majesty, this is a letter from Baselerus. ”

The handmaiden sent the letter to Queen Mary, who opened it and looked at it, and it was all greetings. Later, he asked about Maria's eldest son marrying a noble woman from Eastern Rome. Queen Mary told the messenger to go to the inn to wait for news. When the messenger left, Mary asked the maid, "Where is Augustus?" ”

"Augustus is on the rooftop." The maid hurriedly replied.

Maria stood up and walked to the roof of the palace, and when she came out of the stairs, she was greeted by the glorious sunset. The blue sky above the seven hills of Rome, the red sunset, and the orange and yellow clouds seem to shatter the rainbow and paint it on a canvas called the sky. Near the edge of the rooftop, looking in the direction of the sunset, was the queen's husband, Boyan. Maria did not immediately step forward, she saw her husband's white temples reflecting a golden glow in the setting sun, and the straight figure seemed to be in the painting against the background of the sunset. It looks majestic, like the sculptures in the city of Rome. Maria walked quickly to Boyan's side and grabbed Boyan's arm. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Boyan ask, "Maria, do you think I've changed over the years?" ”

Maria was stunned for a moment, but saw that Boyan was still looking at the sunset where there was only a trace of figure left in her field of vision. Mary's nose suddenly soured, and tears almost welled up in her eyes. How many times when she was young fantasized about holding Boyan's arm to watch the sunset together, and when she woke up from her sleep, she listened to the snoring of the Khan King next to her, even if Boyan's appearance in her memory was blurred, she could still clearly remember only Boyan's name. With her youth gone, the Khan returned to heaven, and Maria, who had already decided to enter the monastery, recognized Boyan at a glance from the army of Kublai Khan. Mary whispered, "My dear, you have not changed. ”

"Really?" Boyan sighed with some suspicion.

"What's wrong? My dear. Mary sensed that her husband was more sentimental than usual.

"Hao Ren has a letter." Boyan's voice was like a sigh.

After hearing this, Maria was also very sentimental, she and Boyan's son had reached the age to talk about marriage, and she was really old after giving birth to three children almost regardless of life and death. However, Mary still spoke out of her mother's words, "Our daughter is not yet old enough to marry. ”

"Nope. Hao Ren didn't come to talk about it, he asked me if I had nothing else to ask for in this life. Boyan sighed.

Hearing that it wasn't about the children, Maria was a little baffled. Why did Hao Ren suddenly remember a question about life and write a letter to him?

Boyan was silent for a moment, then turned his head to look at Maria, his face did not have the usual tenderness, only an emotion that bordered on sadness. "Maria, I wanted to be a Roman from a very young age."

Maria smiled slightly, she remembered the young envoy of the Ilkhanate forty years ago, who was no more than twenty years old, and after talking about theological matters, she said in a calm voice that did not match his appearance at all: "Princess, I want to be a Roman. ”

Boyan looked in the direction of the sunset again, and at this time, the sun could no longer be seen in the sky, and the color of the sunset looked particularly intense. "Mary, my life's dream is to marry you, fulfill the last wish of the cowardly general, set off the flames of war from Azerbaijan to Egypt, and burn the Mamluk dynasty to the ground. And then there's the need to be a Roman just like you. ”

"Hmm." Princess Mary looked at Boyan with some pity and replied casually. She didn't know why Boyan was so sad, so she hugged Boyan tighter.

"Hao Ren asked me if Kublai Khan's wish had been fulfilled when he died. This guy didn't get what he wanted in life, so he didn't believe that other people's wishes might not be so great. Boyan continued to tell the sigh in his heart. He had thought that Hao Ren's wish was only to build a country in his mind, and if that was all he wanted, Bo Yan could fully understand. Boyan himself and Kublai Khan had only such expectations. Kublai Khan officially became the Great Khan at the Kuritai Congress, and Boyan became the emperor of the Western Roman Empire. Both of them got their wish.

"My dear, Your Excellency Hao Ren's wish is far higher than yours?" Maria finally took advantage of this opportunity to straighten out her thoughts.

Boyan's eyes lit up, and he nodded and replied, "Hmm." We just want what the world can give us, but Hao Ren wants to create a world he wants. ”

"Isn't it enough to get what the world can give us?" Mary asked nonchalantly. At this time, she was thinking about herself, her husband, her children, and her country, and she had got everything she wanted. This satisfaction made Maria extremely happy.

"Alas...... Never mind. "Boyan had spent a lot of time trying to figure out what Hao Ren wanted, but even if he knew, what would he do. Boyan knew how Hao Ren admired Han culture, no, he admired the new Great Song Dynasty created by the Zhao official family of the Great Song Dynasty. But Boyan didn't believe that Hao Ren could succeed.

By this time, the afterglow of the setting sun was so faint that it was about to disappear, and the clouds had changed to blue, green, and purple tones. Such a calm color also made Boyan's mood get rid of his previous excitement. If Hao Ren really wants to achieve his expectations, there is only one way, which is to convene the Kuritai Conference and become the new Great Khan himself. But for Hao Ren, if he did this, he would just be a Mongol. The 'righteous name' insisted on in Han culture is gone.

"It's cold, go back." Boyan took Maria's hand and walked towards the staircase. At this turn, he suddenly thought that if Hao Ren could really persuade the princes to believe in the Han people, the next thing would probably be Zen Rang. The princes of Sinicization must not be able to tolerate the existence of a Mongol Great Khan. Maybe Timur Khan didn't know anything about Sinicization, but it was because he understood that the success of Sinicization was the day of his Timur's demise, so he was so ...... to Hao Ren

"My dear. Barcellus of Eastern Rome wrote to us asking for advice on which noble daughter to choose. Even at the age of sixty, Maria still talks about her most important things.

"Oh?" Boyan also put aside the affairs of distant Mongolia and listened intently to his wife's story.

"Well, I've already thought about it, let's find the descendants of the Komnenos dynasty." When it comes to marrying her son, Mary is particularly excited.

"Why?" Boyan was unfamiliar with the bloodlines of the various dynasties of the Eastern Roman Empire.

"I think the Komnenos are more noble." Maria spoke her feelings. The only reigning member of the Komnenian dynasty, Baseleus Isaac Komnenos, was originally from the mountains of Paphragnia and was of Armenian descent. The surname "Komnenos" comes from a small town called Komne. Isaac was the orphan of Manuel Komnenos, the eastern general during the time of Basil II, who allowed him and his brother to learn and grow up in a monastery. Later Isaac served as the military governor of the Byzantine Anatolian Military District.

This Barcellus implemented a number of new policies to strengthen the centralization of power and weaken the power of the aristocracy. So after his abdication, the Komnenos dynasty was cut off. After carefully reading the history of the Eastern Roman Empire, Maria became very close to the Komnenos.

"Good. It's all up to you. Boyan agreed. His own ambition was only to revive Rome, and for this purpose, the Beryans had to marry with the descendants of the Eastern Roman dynasties to ensure that the Beryans had a sufficiently strong Roman bloodline. So as long as you are a descendant of the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire, it doesn't matter which emperor it is.

Before the last rays of the setting sun in the city of Rome were gone, Constantinople was completely dark. Director Xie Song listened to the report a little absent-mindedly. The content of the report is that Hao Kang, the prince of the Yuan Kingdom, became the governor of Damascus and the minister of water conservancy of Mongolia, and the newly appointed governor of Damascus first solved the local prince, and then obtained nearly 1,000 swords from the Yuan State Damascus. It is said to act as a local official, especially a tax clerk.

There was nothing particularly strange about Hao Kang's actions, and Xie Song was not interested in it at all. He was concerned about why he had not been able to obtain a higher status in this personnel adjustment and return to Athens to take up his post. Many officials of the same level as Xie Song have been promoted.

Just as he was thinking, the telegraph operator hurriedly ran in and handed a telegram to Xie Song. Xie Song looked at the telegram, and his eyebrows furrowed. The telegram asked Xie Song to gather information on the relationship between the slave dynasty in northern Tianzhu and the Mongols. Xie Song thought about it for a while, and finally remembered that there was such a country in the north of Tianzhu, which had been fighting with Mongolia for many years.

After thinking about it, Xie Song was even more puzzled, why did he, the director of Constantinople, care about the affairs of the east thousands of miles away? What did this slave dynasty do that made the Great Song Dynasty send all the intelligence gathering operations to Constantinople?

If Xie Song knew Da Song's opinion of Tianzhu at this time, he would probably be even more confused. The latest telegram was sent to Kaifeng, which alarmed the ministers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. Yang calmly doesn't care, his wife has been losing her temper these days, and it's not a bad thing to run out in the middle of the night, just breathing.

Luo Yiren and Lu Baifeng don't see that they have a firm love for 996. 996 is the latest slip of the Song Dynasty officialdom, according to the system, the Song Dynasty is 9 to 5, every Friday off. Six days a week, five working days, one day off. And this 996 is to go to work at 9 o'clock in the morning and leave work at 9 o'clock in the evening, six days a week.

The two ministers were very unhappy, and they were not very excited to look at the latest telegram. A telegram was sent from the Karakoram region, where a military station had been established in the Western Regions Province of the Great Song Dynasty. That area was the closest to the northern slave dynasty of Tianzhu, and the news was the fastest after the telegraph network was available. From there, I got the news that the slave dynasty had been mobilized, and war was about to break out.

At this time, there was no news from the central part of Tianzhu that the Great Song Dynasty had controlled, and there was no sign of war in the news sent before. One can only judge that the target of the slave dynasty's war is most likely Mongolia. Lu Baifeng said unhappily: "A barbarian is so tormented by people. Minister Luo, you may be able to work hard to see if you can be this yellow bird. ”

Fear of power but not virtue is the standard for distinguishing barbarians from civilized countries in the Great Song Dynasty, Yang calmly listened to Lu Baifeng's evaluation of the slave dynasty's naked attitude, and felt inexplicable melancholy in his heart. The foundation of the Quadripartite Alliance is a civilized state, and the foundation of a civilized state is the ability of the country's court to guarantee the agreement. Europa believes that the other three members of the Quad are essentially recognizable to the repayment of debts, and that credit is a common virtue of humanity and nations. Of course, there are people everywhere who are not successful, which requires the control of various risks. Once it is classified as a 'barbarian state', there is no basis for trust. Unexpectedly, Tianzhu actually fell into the state of barbarians.

When Yang calmly tried to digest this huge stimulus, Luo Yiren said: "We can only rely on guesswork now. If they expressed their intention to make peace with the slave dynasty, would they think that the Great Song Dynasty could be bullied, and put forward all kinds of excessive demands. ”

Yang calmly knew that this was the standard of the barbarians, eager for quick success and quick profit, and Da Song had always been a slap in the face for this kind of guy. Since he didn't know much about Tianzhu, Yang Congrong interjected: "Let's make a report for tomorrow's morning meeting." ”

The Great Song Dynasty now has a strict system and a stable country. Therefore, it is very important for Zhao Guanjia to make a report on the department at the morning meeting. As soon as Yang Congrong's words were finished, Luo Yiren sneered, "Have you noticed that the news sent from the front was actually sent five days ago." ”

"Huh?" Lu Baifeng was shocked, "Five days ago? After speaking, he hurriedly took the telegram and looked at it, and in the bright candlelight, he saw that the date of the telegram was five days ago.

Luo Yiren said very unhappily: "Recently, the Ministry of Telecommunications has expanded its recruitment and increased equipment. Spent so much money to get the telegraph speed down! What the hell are these guys doing! ”

Yang calmly did not say anything, he himself attached great importance to the telegraph system, so he could understand the anger of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Ministers. Both of these departments had to deal with countries thousands of miles away, and they were directly affected by the chaos in the telegraph system. Lu Baifeng was old after all, and after a short period of dissatisfaction, he persuaded: "Forget it, it's not our turn to talk about this matter first." Vice Minister Yang, you are most familiar with this place in Mecca. We know that the scriptures of the True God Church say that they are to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. But they did not know why they did not go to Jerusalem. ”

Yang Congrong could only cheer up, "If it is said in the scriptures, then you have to ask the person who wrote the scriptures." As far as I know, many people actually make pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Why do you ask this? ”

"Well, we heard the news before, it is said that the slave dynasty fought with the Mongols for this purpose."