"Let the prince of Pannonia inherit the throne of Silesia?"

In the Marduk chamber, Alexander couldn't help but scream, and looked at Prime Minister Pitt with wide eyes.

"How dare the Hadrians be so presumptuous! Is this an attempt to completely annex Silesia as their sphere of influence?"

The ministers sitting around the round table all looked sideways at Prime Minister Pitt, this news was indeed very surprising, but for the current empire is no longer too important, Alexander's reaction is a little excessive. Silesia must be abandoned, the center of the empire must move south, and the war on the Badajoz Peninsula cannot be delayed, after all, those pagan desert talents are the henchmen of the empire compared to the Hadrians.

Watched by everyone, Prime Minister Pitt picked up the document in his hand, which was quietly handed to him by Franz at today's funeral.

"That's right, Your Highness, the day before yesterday Minister Hadrian visited the Marquis of Metternich and made this suggestion to him. I think that Hadrian wanted to test our bottom line in this informal way to see how much we could make concessions on the Silesian issue. ”

As he spoke, Prime Minister Pitt glanced at Foreign Secretary Mencken, who was in the corner of the table. Feeling the Prime Minister's gaze, Mencken's face became worse, Mencken, who had always maintained friendly relations with other countries with a moderate foreign policy, was deliberately bypassed by Hadrian this time and went to the Marquis of Metternich to discuss the matter, even if Hadrian's move was for an unofficial and favorable occasion, but for Mencken, who had been controversial, it was tantamount to a resounding slap in the face.

"These guys think they're old!" Alexander is still a little younger after all, although Prime Minister Pitt has admonished him several times before, but in the face of such embarrassment, maybe he can still hold back in public, but once he is in his cabinet, the pent-up anger quickly explodes. After all, now that the old emperor has just died, Hadrian's actions are not only provoking the empire, but also making problems for Alexander, who is about to succeed to the throne.

Looking at Alexander, who slapped the table hard, the cabinet ministers present all thought of the recently deceased Nicholas I, the crown prince consciously imitated his father and wanted to establish his authority as soon as possible, but he was not Nicholas I after all.

Although Beria always belittled his royal brother excessively, he was not wrong about one thing, Alexander's talent could not be called outstanding, at most he could make up for his lack of talent with diligence, but in the end, Alexander was still a relatively ordinary person, much worse than Nicholas I.

Prime Minister Pitt sighed secretly, and it seemed that his previous exhortation to Alexander had been put behind him. Originally, Alexander's calm performance at the funeral was quite pleasing to the prime minister, but as soon as he returned to the conference table, the crown prince began to be unable to control his emotions.

"Your Highness, the Hadrians obviously want to bargain with us, and such a condition was put forward at the beginning, and it is obviously not their bottom line. I think we can continue to negotiate with them and try to preserve more interests for the Empire in the matter of Silesia. ”

Perhaps aware of his gaffe, Alexander took a deep breath and tried his best to calm himself.

"You're right," Alexander nodded, his face looking much better, "Your Excellency Mencken, I'll leave this matter to you, I remember you said before that what the Marquis of Metternich could do ten years ago, our diplomats can do the same today, so prove it to me now." ”

Menken kept his head down, Alexander had given him a chance, and once again put him in the limelight, and if he messed up this time, then he would really have to follow in the footsteps of the Marquis de Metternich.

He was just about to raise his head and respond to Alexander's instructions, when suddenly there was a deafening explosion, as if the earth was letting out a heart-rending roar, and even the ground trembled.

"What's going on!" Alexander was taken aback, although the tremor was not very violent, but it also startled him, for for those who had experienced the great tsunami in the Gulf of Bes twelve years ago, this feeling of earth trembling had a psychological shadow.

Prime Minister Pitt was also taken aback, but he immediately calmed down and made a judgment. "Your Highness, there shouldn't be much danger in this ground movement, and Tiamat Palace is absolutely supportable. Send someone to check it out, I'm afraid that this sudden change will bring panic to the people. ”

Alexander was so kind to the Prime Minister's suggestion that he immediately instructed the royal guards to check it out. But not long after the men sent out had left, a court attendant ran into the Maduk Chamber in a panic.

"Your Highness, Your Highness......" he looked flustered, and even stammered when he spoke, "Something happened, there seems to be an explosion in the Ministry of the Interior in the north and north, and a pillar of fire rises into the sky, and now the fire is spreading to all directions." ”

Alexander and Pete looked at each other, and they both saw surprise and unease in each other's eyes.

"Immediately send troops to the Ministry of the Interior, fence off the building first, and don't let the fire spread further. "Even Alexander himself didn't expect the situation to be reversed so quickly, Beria had blocked Alexander with people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs before, but at this moment, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was about to be surrounded by his troops.

"Yes. Guderian immediately got up from his seat and hurried out to convey Alexander's instructions.

At this time, the cabinet ministers all thought that the Ministry of the Interior had a large amount of weapons and equipment in stock, and this time the Ministry of the Interior suddenly exploded, perhaps because of the problem with their ammunition depot.

So why did the interior ministry's ammunition depot go wrong? The first thing the cabinet ministers thought about was whether Beria would be ready to do it, but it seemed that his luck was not good, and this accident not only exposed his purpose, but even the Ministry of the Interior was probably going to suffer a catastrophe.

If only Beria had died in this explosion.

Alexander silently thought in his heart, if it was before his father died, he might not have such an idea, but now, as Beria gave him a greater sense of crisis, he couldn't help but think of the easiest and most effective way to kill Beria.

Prime Minister Pitt sighed, and the sudden turn of events made it impossible for him to see what was going to happen next. He looked out at the ceiling of the chamber, the dragon Marduk, with its wings outstretched, its bloody jaws wide open, looking down on their tiny humans.

——————————————

Although Prime Minister Alexander and Prime Minister Pitt and others guessed the cause of the accident at the Ministry of the Interior, it was indeed as they thought, the large amount of weapons and ammunition stored by the Ministry of the Interior was like a powder keg placed next to the pillow, and as the fire spread, the ammunition depot of the Ministry of the Interior was not spared, causing a secondary explosion that almost destroyed half of the buildings of the Ministry of the Interior. Now that the fire is completely out of control, it can't help but the Ministry of the Interior, and the flames are gradually spreading to Apu Boulevard, and almost all the areas where the Ministry of the Interior is located are facing the threat of fire.

And in the face of such a ferocious fire, the imperial capital garrison who rushed to the city had no good way, they evacuated the surrounding residents while trying to delay the spread of the fire, but no one dared to take such a big risk to extinguish the fire.

Major Marven led his troops and kept a long enough distance from the fire, and even so, he was sweating profusely on his forehead, both because of the heat wave brought by the fire and because of the anxiety in his heart now.

He did not dare to drive his soldiers to risk their lives to extinguish the fire, and when he received an order from the War Department, Guderian instructed him to give priority to the protection of the surrounding population, and did not say a word about extinguishing the fire and rescuing the Ministry of the Interior. Even if Marven is a soldier with little culture, after so many years in the Ministry of the Interior, he can still hear the meaning of Guderian's words.

The sound of horses' hooves was heard not far away, and Marven followed the prestige, and Viscount Ernest rode directly to the scene.

"Your Excellency Commander!" Marven took the initiative to run up and grab the reins of Viscount Ernest's mount, "Now the fire is too fierce, even if the fire brigade comes, there is nothing I can do, I think we still have to find a way to isolate the surrounding residents and try to stop the spread of the fire!"

Without saying a word, Ernest jumped off his horse and silently looked at the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which was covered in flames.

"Prepare to break in. He walked resolutely towards the building of the Ministry of the Interior, which was burning with flames, and seemed unafraid of the terrible waves of fire.

"Your Excellency, Division, Commander...... "Ernest's order can startle Marven, such a big fire, wouldn't it be a death to go in," this fire is too big, I think...... I think we'd better wait for the fire brigade to come......"

Ernest turned his gaze and stared straight at Marven with cold eyes. Of course, Marven couldn't stand such a gaze, one of the people he was most afraid of was Ernest, and being stared at like this by Ernest, Marven unconsciously lowered his head.

Ernest looked at the saber on Marven's waist, such a saber is a unique symbol of an officer of the Ministry of the Interior, and only he and Marven have this kind of saber in the imperial capital garrison, but Marven, as a soldier with a big head, naturally has not learned any serious swordsmanship, and has always regarded this sword as an ornament and has not used it once.

"Your sword," Ernest raised his hand, pointing at Marven's waist, "bring it." ”

Marven was stunned for a moment, then reacted, and immediately put the sword in both hands. Anyway, this sword is just an ornament for him, and he doesn't feel sorry for Ernest at all.

Take the sword in your hand, because these swords are all uniformly made, so the weight and shape are about the same, of course, with years of use, there will inevitably be some wear and tear, so everyone's sword is more or less different.

Marven's sword has naturally not been used, and he has always maintained it well for the sake of face, so Ernest got it in his hand as if it was new, barely taking advantage of it.

Glancing at his lieutenant, Ernest walked straight towards the fire.

Marven's actions startled Marven, and his first reaction was to shout to Ernest: "Commander......"

"You're here and you're going to surround the building, don't let anyone get close, and don't let anyone leave!" Ernest said loudly with his back to Marvin.

"But ......"

"You half-person just watch here," Ernest didn't give his men a chance to speak, "since you can't afford to take responsibility, stay there and watch." ”

Marven froze in place, he could roughly feel that Ernest was dissatisfied with his timidity, but what could he blame for this, he couldn't let himself go in and die!

Marven decisively didn't want to think about things that he couldn't figure out, and there was another problem that was also bothering him.

Why did the commander brave such a fire to go into the fire? Wouldn't it be better if the people of the Ministry of the Interior were left to fend for themselves?

After all, Marven was only a soldier, and he would never understand what Ernest was thinking at this time and the purpose of his risk.