After Kalinin took control of the city of Little East Lake, part of Anastasia's family was killed, and many more people fled, saying that in the inner court of every prince, there were one or two Rurik.

At the time when Kalinin was strong, these people were of little use. But as soon as Kalinin weakened, the princes would make a fuss about these Rurik, whether it was waging a war to restore the small city of Donghu or blaming Kalinin in the assembly of nobles, no one was more useful than the people of the Rurik family. Kalinin once tried to win one or two Rurik by marriage, but most of the Ruriks who were willing to stay in Little East Lake City were side branches or even illegitimate children of the family, and the orthodox Rurik preferred to go into exile elsewhere rather than cooperate with the Romanovs. The Rurik family is the backbone of East Vikchia's opposition to the Romanov family, although Rurik lost power in the small East Lake City, but in the noble council, there are still quite a few boyars from this family, under the rule of various princes, there are still many Barons Rurik waiting for opportunities.

Anastasia's great-grandfather was the prince of Little East Lake, but her father was not even a boyar. After the death of his father as a child, her mother from Ivangelrod returned to her hometown and later married a judge of Ivangelodes. The judge, who had retired and served two terms as a canal officer, now living in seclusion in the countryside, was a comrade-in-arms of Anastasia's grandfather, and was said to be nearly seventy years old, more than thirty years older than her mother. According to Anastasia, she also had several half-brothers whom she had never met, and occasionally her mother would mention relatives in her letters, but she had no other contacts.

While Kalinin took advantage of the plague to take control of Little East Lake City, Anastasia hid in the home of a scholar under the cover of a servant. The story after that struck me as a little unbelievable: she said she had unimpeded access to the inner city. Sometimes she was given directions, and sometimes she didn't even need the help of her servants--- she said that the inner city of Little East Lake City had many secret doors and underground passages. Connecting the houses in the town to some of the hidden rooms in the inner city.

Anastasia, a fool of Rurik's stay in the inner city, says she often roams the fortresses of the inner city at night. Listen through the walls as the Romanovs discuss how to eradicate the remnants of the Rurik family. Sometimes she even put on makeup to become a maid and meet the members of the Romanov family with her own eyes. According to her, she was one of the maids of the tray when I was kicked out of the restaurant of the Romanov family, after which she hid in the attic and heard my conversation with Yuri.

She said that the Romanovs had to spend a lot of money on renovating the inner city even during the war, because some of the servants had already informed. The minions of the Romanovs also discovered many secret doors and tunnels, which made Yuri determined to investigate them thoroughly. Anastasia says it's getting harder and harder to sneak into the inner city. But it's not impossible. Nowadays, Kalinin and Yuri have to arrange guards in the middle of the bedroom to watch for the night, even when they are sleeping, and the old servants will be replaced at the first opportunity, which is due to this concern.

"The Romanovs owe too much blood debt, and they have to pay it back."

"Yes," I said to her, "if the inner city is so devastated as you say, why haven't I heard of a single successful assassination of the Romanovs?" You will be able to walk safely through the inner fortress. Why not poison it? ”

"It's a men's business, it's none of my business."

"Aren't you Rurik?"

"Aren't you also a Romanov?"

"Could it be that you are an illegitimate child?"

"A side daughter," said Anastasia, "is probably not as good as an illegitimate child." Since the year before. An old boyar dreamed that I would marry his eldest son, who was born an idiot, and my grandmother actually felt that there was nothing wrong with that. Do you think I'd like a family like this? ”

"Then let's just change the name. With the name of the Rurik family, waiting for the Romanovs to come and cut off your head? ”

"They won't cut off my head. They will let me marry a Romanov. Anastasia gave a sly smile, "One of my cousins." It is the fiancée of the Romanov Baron of the Riverlands, and the marriage will be consummated after a while. ”

"Gregory?"

"It should be him."

"How I don't know." I asked curiously.

"Does Kalinin need to tell you everything? Timmy Citizen '''Oh, excuse me, future Timmy Boyar?'' ”

"Be sarcastic. The Romanovs took me in, so I'll be sure to tell them the truth. ”

"It's late." Anastasia said, "Yuri has figured out most of the secret doors and tunnels, and some places have been sealed off with stones. You might as well suggest that the Romanovs replace all their servants, and tell him that there are people in Little East Lake City who ask the servants for news of buying the inner city. ”

"Who?"

"The Parliament, Rurik, the Valans, the Pioneers," Anastasia counted one by one, "as long as there are enemies in Kalinin, there will always be news of the inner city that someone will buy." But what if you know, run back to Xiaodonghu City to serve? Come on, I just want to borrow your carriage and go to Ivangorod, and I will pay you, I have no affection for the princes of the past, and those male relatives of mine hide in the corners day and night to plot an uprising. These things have nothing to do with me, just as they have nothing to do with you. If Kalinin could stabilize the price of grain and fill the market with strange goods, the number of people who wanted to assassinate him would immediately be reduced by half, which was much more effective than sending guards to arrest him. ”

"If everyone in the Rurik family thinks the same way as you, then it's normal for your family to be wiped out."

"That's why it's wiped out."

I know that it is normal for aristocratic girls to dislike their own family. Because these young girls are often arranged to marry old men or foreigners when they are most youthful and beautiful--- when the old men climb into bed, they exhale like rotten pears in their mouths, and after a few minutes they fall asleep panting, and in these few minutes these old men are as soft as loaches; The foreigners were even more unbearable, and once there was friction between the two parties to the marriage, these married women were forced to enter the monastery. He was even secretly murdered. But even so, I was surprised by Anastasia's indifference to her family. On this point. The Romanovs are indeed much more united, although each member of the family will have many grievances. But on the whole, it is still the premise of the family, and there is nothing wrong with sacrificing oneself when necessary.

It seems that those families who come from poverty and have difficulty in making ends meet, or those who have been in adversity for a long time, mostly value blood relatives, while the members of families who have enjoyed peace and ease for too long have only an indifferent feeling for the family, and they wish to get rid of it. Anastasia was not too touched by the deaths of many of her relatives. This seems cold and selfish to me.

"Can you guarantee that your stepdad will recommend me?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

"It's like nothing." I said to her.

"If you send me to Ivangorod, you may get a big boyar who will hold you up, and if you don't send me there, you won't have this recommendation. Don't you think it's worth it to take me? Because you didn't do anything at all. ”

I have encountered this kind of thing many times, with an ethereal promise in exchange for my current cooperation, and in the future, when I need to reciprocate, I can only pray for the other party to find out with my conscience. Even this time the nomination of the Great Boyars. I can only rely on the Varan lurkers that Giovanni promised. I am ready for all the great boyars of the Romanov family to regret that only a few dozen boyars can be produced every year, and such nominations are a good opportunity to strengthen the friendship of allies. Even if you don't have a fiefdom, the boyar is a very good position, and you can recruit soldiers as a lord when you become a boyar. They can also enter the inner court of the princes and become their vassals. If Innocent can be bishop, maybe I can get a nomination from him. Bishop Philip, I don't know if he will nominate me because of Giovanni.

"Is that what you think?"

"Yes." She said to me.

"Okay. You can't give me any trouble along the way. "I threw her a set of groom clothes," he said, changing into the outfit and sitting on the roof of the car. ”

She was a little stunned, "What do you mean by that?" ”

"If there is a woman next to me out of thin air, everyone will be suspicious. If one of those horsemen recognizes you as Rurik, you'll be placed under house arrest and sent back to Little East Lake along the way. Do you want that? ”

"You can't bring a maid or something?"

"Have you read too much of Martin's story? Is it a nobleman who has a beautiful maid? I looked at him, "Besides, I'm not a nobleman at all, just a soldier." I can take a groom boy to run errands, but I can't travel around with a maid. You've been in Xiaodonghu City for too long, do you really think that the nobles are as decent as your relatives? ”

"You did it on purpose. Even if you are an illegitimate child in your family, you will not be a groom. ”

"Quite the opposite." I gave her my clothes and said, "Put it on, or get out of the car." ”

"Here?"

"Don't be cowardly."

She gave me a contemptuous look, and then began to take off her leather jacket and fleece pants for the groom's shirt and thick bucket pants.

I knocked on the roof of the car, and Iyu, who was snoring and sleeping, was woken up by me. He grumbled a few times, chewed his mouth, hooked the door open with his foot from the side of the carriage, and wriggled himself and jumped into the carriage.

""What''s this'' Iyu saw Anastasia and looked at her with his eyes rubbed.

I pointed to Anastasia and asked Iyu, "Do you think she's a nobleman or a commoner?" ”

"You're fooling around with a?! How do I know if a nobleman or a commoner, this is the chick of the Romanov family, the good one of yours? Aristocrats, of course. Iyu frowned and looked at Rurik, "Much worse than the chief, Timmy, you're really blind." ”

Instead of listening to Iyu's muttering, I said to the female Rurik, "Hear me, you don't look like a commoner at all. ”

I wiped a hand of dust from the boots in the box, wiped it on her face, and told her to go to the next town and roll in the dust, which was almost like a stableman.

Then I kicked the front seat of the carriage and kicked it a few times before Crusedel's scolding came over, "What are you doing?" ”

Iyu poked his head out, "See for yourself." ”

Cruzedale also crawled over, "Something is going to wake me up." Could it be that Timmy is fooling around with a woman'''! It's really a woman, and she's so ugly. ”

Anastasia: "'''"

"I don't know this woman. Don't guess. "I said to Crusedel, "She has enemies in Little East Lake City. Now Ivangorod has taken refuge in my weapons case. You dress her up like a man and go find Jack. That guy is one of the knights who goes with him, and you go to him and ask for a horse. The two of you switch horses and let her sit in the front to catch the car, or sit on the roof of the car and watch the luggage. ”

Anastasia didn't react at all to my pranks, but was cooperative, looking at me like an adult looking at a stupid child. This made me deliberately tease her and did not achieve my purpose. She casually climbed out of the carriage with the Kujits, making fun of each other and chatting with the Kujits. Instead, I became like the little stable boy who was left to dry.

The more I thought about it, the more I felt bored, and although she said that my stepfather recommended me to do the boyars, it really didn't make sense for me to be so rude to a noble daughter. Occasionally, Anastasia would ride a horse, but when she rode a horse, she was very straight at the waist, full of aristocratic style, which attracted people's attention. All I had to do was get her back to the front of the carriage, pick up one leg, and leave the other leg dangling in the air. That's what he looks like a loose groom boy. The carriage stopped and went, and in the middle we met a group of nobles from Chud City, including a few Rurik Boyars, but Anasitasia said she didn't know any of them. To be on the safe side. During that time, I still let her stay in the carriage.

The first thing you see before approaching Ivangelod is a large cemetery. This has become the new signpost for the towns of Eastern Wiki. Plagues, wars, famines, and the death of large numbers of civilians. The cemeteries around the town could no longer hold so many corpses, so citizens built a large number of new graves along the avenues between the towns. It is used to bury one's own family. The market outside Ivangelod has not been open for a long time, and it used to be bustling with people, but now there are only endless tent shelves, abandoned campfires, stoves left behind from workshops, and rubbish such as pottery shards and rotting leather. The gates of the city were also much deserted, and the soldiers who checked the entry and exit cheered up the nobles who arrived and instructed them to enter Ivangorod.

The assembly of the nobles is about to take place, and the town will have a brief period of lively and prosperous life.

As soon as I entered the town, I had to feel how well the town was built, with the floor almost entirely paved with stone bricks and a reservoir at intervals to prevent the spread of fire. Ivangorod seemed to be a large Valankov, the planks on the ground had not been replaced for many years, they had been trampled into the mud, and the buildings on the side of the road were still farther out than the one below, and the top floor was almost closed in the air. The streets are full of pillars supporting high-rise houses, and there are still people dumping manure, and the manure on the ground is piling up, overflowing, and pigs and dogs playing in the mud as I did when I first came. This time, however, there were fewer citizens than last time, but there were a lot more beggars.

Anastasia said that she was going to the Vitegra Fort, where her stepfather's family domain was located, and she promised to make her mother and stepfather thank me.

"Go ahead." I said to her, "Let's think about letting your stepdad take you in first, and then let him think about recommending me." I don't think giving you a ride is enough to get your stepfather to recommend me as a boyar. Let's go, Rurik. The farther you run away before the Romanovs chase you, the better. ”

Cruzeidel grunted with his hookah, and Iyu alone dragged my weapons case out of the compartment, muttering, 'It's so much lighter.' Jack calls us over from afar, and the Romanovs have settled in the horse market to let us go together. I said we'd go over later, and Jack repeated the name and left with a few cavalry from Little East Lake.

Dressed as a stableman, Anastasia took us to a ready-to-wear store, which she said was her stepfather's property.

The shop was burning with spices and smoking those gorgeous clothes. On a blue Kugit carpet, there is a woman with a handle flat on her waist. She was as thin as a stick. When she saw a stableman, a varan, and two kugits entering his garment shop, she frowned and said, "There's nothing for you here, soldier. Used clothes are sold in the market. ”

Then our stableman took an iron ring from his bosom and gave it to the woman.

The woman looked at us suspiciously, her eyes shining with surprise, and she called for a timid maid to settle us, and hurried into the house inside. After a while, a young man came over and whispered a few words to Anastasia, and took her away. After that, Anastasia didn't show up, and after we waited for half an hour, the woman who was looking at the shop came out and dropped a small bag on the edge of my table.

Curious, I opened it to reveal a few silver coins with chips cut to the edges, which at the current price would be enough for me and two Kugit to drink.

Kruusedel looked at it for a while, and then suddenly burst out laughing, and Iyu grabbed my pocket, glanced at it and sighed, "It's more than that, to help someone else's family herd sheep on the grassland for a few days." ”

I thought it was funny, and I tied my money bag to my waist and left the ready-to-wear store with the Kujits. The woman looked at us in surprise, as if annoyed by our reaction.

The Kugit wanted to visit Ivangorod, and I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. The tea hall of the Salander people was full of Ryazan nobles, and when we passed by the tea house, many Ryazan soldiers were carrying boxes; Several of the Princes of Riverlands have joined forces to rent a house in Berke, and a group of children are asking some of the soldiers of Riverlands how they fought against the Berkes, and the owners of Berke are sweating profusely; The station of Dadonghu City is the closest to Xiaodonghu City, across the horse market, and the leather here stinks, but there is nothing too wrong with it; The people of Chud lived alone, in an inn attached to a brothel, and when we passed by their quarters, they had closed the door of the inn; The Maharaja de Nia bought a mansion in Ivangelodes and lived on the outskirts of the city.

The city suddenly became much more crowded, and even at night it seemed more lively than during the day.

It was getting late after we walked around the old town, so we set out on our way back to the city.

After passing through the Berk district, we passed the King's Gate of Ivangorod, from where we followed the avenue to the end of the horse market.

A carriage passed us in the wrong direction and headed out of the city.

No, the carriage stopped beside us.

I was covered in mud, wading through the mud of Ivangelod, and I was covered in ash.

The door of the carriage opened slightly, and then the groom's shirt, trousers, and tattered boots were thrown out, and then the carriage door slammed shut. As soon as the groom raised his whip, the wheels of the carriage slipped through the mud, and a puff of mud was splashed, and the two stout black horses worked hard to get the carriage to roar away from us, slow and fast.

The three of us looked at the carriage as if we were three piles of mud splashed by the wheels.

Iyu patted me on the shoulder, "That's how life is. ”

Cruzeidel took a puff of hookah and let out a puff of smoke, "At least we have the money to drink at night." ”

A beggar came up to me and asked me if I wanted this outfit. I waved my hand and let him take it, and the beggar grabbed the hands of the three of us and kissed each of us, leaving a yellow sticky saliva, and rubbed our hands all the way behind our butts when we went back.

When I was about to arrive in the horse market, a cavalryman from a small Donghu city gave me a letter.

Inside the room, I used a knife to cut open the seal.

"To Mr. Timmy:

Today I have learned that the mission from the city of Little East Lake has arrived in Ivangorod, and after receiving the letter, please come to me at the church residence next to the church before the meeting of the nobles. The bachelors of your family and the messenger of Bishop Philip are with me.

Your faithful Archpriest of the Holy Oak Order, Witness of the Angel's Sword, Bishop Philip's incomparably close friend, Sword of Parliament, Shield of Parliament, Guardian of the Church, Protector of Refugees, Abbot of the Abbey

Innocent

The final title took up half of the letter, and at first I almost thought it was a prince or something, writing to me. It wasn't until I skipped over a large number of empty titles that I realized that the person who wrote was Dean Tom.

What is he looking for me for? (To be continued.) )