The clatter of horses' hooves pierced through the early morning mist of the Sea of Marmara, and a huge convoy of more than a hundred elaborate carriages slowly drove into the gates of Constantinople, loyal to the Tsar.

The horses were all plain-colored, without a single hairy Arab-Anglo horse, and the carriages were marked with a two-headed black eagle emblem shrouded in gold veil, telling the world that these carriages belonged to the great Normanov family.

The carefully selected Slavic soldiers at the gate of the castle were dressed in bright dresses, and their eyes were proudly tilted to the right at an angle of forty-five degrees, and then turned slowly and neatly as the convoy passed.

The soldiers in the city don't have that spirit.

It's August.

Although the summer on the Mediterranean coast is cool, there is only a coarse military uniform adapted to the Russian climate, and the gray animals who have to be strictly dressed because of etiquette are sweating profusely.

Armed with rifles, they kept a close watch on both sides of the street to prevent a mob from attacking the emperor's car.

Although the atmosphere was extremely oppressive, some Ottomans secretly opened their windows and looked at the arriving conquerors with complicated expressions.

Some of them had numb eyes, some looked wary, and some had undisguised contempt and anger on their faces.

But no matter what attitude they use to welcome their new king, nothing will change the fact that this ancient city is about to usher in a new dynasty.

Of course, in a sense, these "Greeks" who have forgotten who their true ancestors were, this time they can barely be regarded as recognizing their ancestors.

It's just that this ancestor is a bit biased.

While the natives of Constantinople were secretly looking at His Majesty's carriage, the people in the carriage were actually secretly looking at them.

"Mom, it's a beautiful city, it seems to be more beautiful than St. Petersburg."

In one of the carriages, which was particularly graceful and luxurious, three women were lying by the window, looking out curiously.

It was the youngest of them who spoke.

She has a slightly baby fat face.

Judging from the expectations of the Chinese people for Mao Mei, it is difficult to call her appearance amazing, but it is by no means ugly.

In fact, as the only daughter of Alexander II, Maria can hardly be called to have anything to do with Mao Mei.

His father was mostly of German descent, and her mother was the eldest daughter of a HRE prince, the Duke of Hesse.

Therefore, when everyone lowered their expectations and asked her to look like a German woman, this Princess Maria was actually very cute.

At this moment, she looked at the ancient streets and exotic buildings of Constantinople, and showed a smile that she had not seen in a long time.

Her mother, Queen Maria, said happily: "Mary, you are finally smiling, I have not seen your smile during the whole journey, I am so worried about you, my darling." ”

Princess Maria smiled slightly: "My dear mother, don't worry about me, I can come to the place where Mr. Zhu Youzhen overlooked, my mood will suddenly improve......"

"Zhu Youzhen?"

Another graceful and luxurious lady showed a strange look, "This is the name of an Oriental, right?" What does he have to do with Kingburg? ”

"Julia, my dear sister, you've been on the boring island for too long!"

Queen Mary shook her head, took a book from under the cushion and handed it to her.

The woman known as Julia was the second daughter of the Duke of Hesse and is now the Lady Prince of Battenberg, who lived for a long time in Windsor Castle in the Burke Army of England.

Princess Maria and Prince Alfred happened to be guests at her home before they met.

And Julia also has a well-known grandson, the so-called model husband of Her Majesty the Super Long Standby - Prince Philip.

·

In Queen Maria's view, her sister's marriage to the boring and cold island filled her life with darkness.

It is for this reason that Queen Maria has always opposed her daughter's marriage to Prince Alfred.

It's just that now, with the drastic changes in international political relations, the husband, who was originally opposed, has made up his mind to carry out this political marriage.

Empress Maria had no way to convince her husband not to trade her daughter's happiness for so-called "political resources".

She also knew that as she grew older, her daughter no longer had that unwarranted longing for Prince Alfred, whom she met when she was young and ignorant, and she had been smiling all the way, or rather, trying not to show sadness.

Julia has nothing to object to her sister's statement.

England is really not fit for life.

Whether it's bad weather, pollutant-laden air, hard-to-swallow food, or stupid and arrogant British, it's really unbearable.

Julia heard the anger in her sister's words, and as she took the book, she said:

"Sister, I'm sorry, I've done my best about that, and I don't understand why those old-fashioned guys have to stick to such rankings...... Anyway, when I get to the UK, I will do my best to help...... Oh my God, this book is beautiful! ”

Julia looked in amazement at the beautifully bound book in her hand and the brightly colored and novel illustrations on its title page, "Your empire? Is this a book printed in Moscow? ”

"No, it's a book that my husband has banned by order......"

Queen Maria lowered her voice and said, "You can try to read it, but remember not to let others find out, how can you say it...... There are some ...... in this book There's something not quite normal...... For example......

"For example, the fiery and sincere relationship between Mr. Zhu Youzhen and Constantine XI!"

Princess Maria interjected with great interest, "Mom, I don't think it's an abnormal thing, but the most beautiful feeling in the world!" ”

"Maria, how can you think that? This is against God's will......" Queen Mary hurriedly reprimanded.

"Okay sister, isn't it just love between two men? This kind of thing is very common in England. Julia hurriedly started to make peace.

"Oh no, my aunt, those furry savages, how can they compare with the love of the prince of Greece and the son of heaven of China? Look at this! ”

Mary swept away her previous malaise and excitedly flipped to the last page of the book, which was a full illustration.

Under the beautiful painting style, two beautiful men wearing clothes with different styles from the East and the West but both are extremely elegant, hugging each other affectionately.

But if you look closely, only the Oriental man in the red robe is the entity, and the man in the Byzantine costume is just a phantom floating out of the coffin.

And the real him has already turned into a handful of white bones in more than a hundred years.

The man holding the phantom smiled, but a crystal tear slipped from his eye, wetting the dull coffin.

A simple illustration vaguely sketches a poignant and melancholy silhouette of the story, which Julia can't help but read from the carriage.

I have to say that the creature of the rotten girl is indistinguishable from ancient and modern China and foreign countries.

If you want to get traffic as quickly as possible and conquer the city in the field of cultural communication, there is nothing more suitable than using these dirty bombs.

Of course, "Your Empire" is also a banned book in the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Fugui did not write it under the pseudonym "Yellow Crane", but under the pseudonym of "Laughing Pig".

As for whether the old uncle who arranged himself in this way will be angry under Jiuquan, Zhu Fugui can only say that your old man's level of governance is like that, and it is natural to dedicate himself to the great cause of the victory of Ming culture after death.

After all, he has helped him gain many hairy little fans for so many years after his death, and he must only be grateful in his heart.

Anyway, judging by the results, "Your Empire" was definitely a huge success in Tsarist Russia.

In addition to the beautiful story and the fascinating subject matter, the illustrations drawn by the artists of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts are absolutely indispensable.

With these illustrations, even Russians who don't know much can get a general idea of the story.

In fact, it is not only aristocratic women like Princess Maria who have grown up in the boudoir, but after the conquest of the castle this time, many people among the gray cattle are looking for the mark left by Constantine XI in the story to Zhu Youzhen in the whole corner of the castle.

Not to mention, they really found a lot of places.

After all, the Ming envoy to Istanbul has not eaten rice for so many years, selling grape juice is just a sideline, and reselling and forging cultural relics is his main business.

Many Russian soldiers with a low level of education believed that the story of Zhu Youzhen and Constantine XI was true, and that the evil Green Cultists and the ill-intentioned Tatars had joined forces to erase this history.

Coupled with the terrible casualty ratio they suffered when fighting against the Ming army, there was even a phenomenon at the grassroots level of the Russian army that they avoided serving in the Far East on the grounds that they were unwilling to fight with Zhu Youzhen's descendants.

Of course, the strength of the Ming Dynasty is still the most decisive factor.

If the Ming Dynasty was still as fishy as the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the moral consciousness of these gray animals would definitely not be so high.

·

Watching, Aunt Julia was quickly fascinated.

She said before that there was one thing she had done her best for, but there was still no way to change the outcome.

This is actually a question of Mary's status ranking among noble women after marrying into England.

Whether it is Europe or China, the status of the main wife is very high.

And how high the status of the main wife is often depends on the strength of her mother's family.

The most extreme are some princesses in the Tang Dynasty, and the horses are like slaves in front of her.

Of course, in most cases, marriage is about a good match, and the husband and wife are also on equal status.

In the eyes of Empress Maria, she herself is the eldest daughter of the Archduke of Hesse, her husband is the Tsar of the Russian Empire, and even the Eastern Roman Emperor, and her daughter is married to England.

Victoria is better known as the Empress of India, but to put it bluntly, she is just the Queen of the United Kingdom.

Her late eldest daughter, the crown princess of the German Empire, was ranked ahead of Maria, but now Victoria's attitude is that all her daughters, whether married or not, and Princess Alexandra, the eldest daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark, the wife of Crown Prince Edward VII, will be ranked ahead of Maria in status.

Julia tried her best to get the word in the middle, but in the end she couldn't reconcile the contradictions.

This was difficult for the Normanovs to accept.

After all, if nothing else, the King of Denmark is a god, and his daughter deserves to be ranked in front of the only daughter of the Eastern Roman Emperor?

So this time, the Normanov family took advantage of the historical opportunity of recovering Constantinople to strike while the iron was hot, and wanted to hold the wedding of Princess Maria and Prince Alfred in her mother's house, which can be regarded as a reversal.

·

Soon, the carriage arrived at Topkapi Palace.

Julia reluctantly closed the book, and said with some embarrassment: "Sister, I think this book is very interesting, can you lend it to me......"

"Take it."

Queen Maria smiled and said, "I knew you would like it." Compared to the old-fashioned and boring Britain, the outside world is much better! ”

She glanced up at Topkapi Palace and couldn't help but sigh, "I dare say that Constantinople must be the most beautiful city in the world!" ”

"Not really!"

Julia retorted in unison with Maria.

"Oh?"

Queen Mary was a little surprised.

She said that Constantinople is the most beautiful city in the world, and of course an exaggerated compliment.

At least in her opinion, St. Petersburg will not be much worse than here.

But now is a good day for the reconstruction of the Eastern Roman Empire, and it is definitely not wrong to compliment the beauty of the castle, but I didn't expect my sister and daughter to express strong opposition.

Are they talking about London? Or Paris?

Well, it's true that it's not as good as London and Paris, but they don't have enough face for themselves, the Eastern Roman queens.

Julia said that she realized that she shouldn't have swept her sister's face like this, but when she saw her niece say the same, she immediately had confidence.

"Sister, if I hadn't been invited to the Ming Olympics six years ago, and had the privilege of visiting the Phoenix Capital of Ming with Princess Sissi of Bavaria, I would have thought that this is the most beautiful city in the world, and I think Maria would have agreed with me."

Maria nodded: "Mom, what my aunt said is right, it was that time when I was invited to visit Mingguo, I learned that there is such an ideal country in the world, Mr. Zhu Youzhen's descendant Mr. Zhu Fugui is also a gentle and elegant man, but it's a pity that he seems to like women." ”

"A beautiful man is a beautiful man, and being gentle is nonsense......" Julia couldn't help but whisper to herself.

"Julia, are you familiar with Mr. Zhu Fugui?" Maria asked.

"Ah......h

Julia was a little flustered for a moment, and hurriedly said, "How can I know that kind of tyrant, you know, he has a bad reputation in England......"

"Oh, I see."

Maria shook her head and said, "Mr. Zhu Fugui just has his own reasons why he has to do this, just as we came here, and just as Mr. Zhu Youzhen went all the way west from Beijing. ”

"Maria, I think you have to distinguish between reality and reality." Queen Mary said helplessly.

"Okay, Mom, I'll take care of it." Mary stuck out her tongue and jumped out of the carriage.

Queen Mary looked at her daughter's back, sighed, and was helped out of the car by the maid.

Julia, who stayed at the end, patted her chest and secretly said that it was dangerous.

She opened Han Yun's latest handbag and carefully placed "Your Empire" inside.

At the same time, a large check with an indiscernible number of "zeros" was lying quietly in a handbag.

Julia murmured softly: "Sister, don't blame me, you don't know the horror of the London stock market crash, and you don't know the terrible prices in Britain today...... Without this money, Battenberg would be completely bankrupt, I would need to buy luxury goods, and Alice would need a carefree childhood, not going to school with those mud-legged kids......

If you want to blame, blame the damn war, blame Churchill who killed a thousand knives, and blame Zhu Fugui who played with people's hearts......

After all, who would have thought that Elisabeth, the Hungarian financial queen who now dominates the European financial circle, is actually the mistress of the tyrant Zhu Fugui of the Ming Kingdom behind her? ”