After the Purple Horde's first failed attempt to control the capital, how to modify its strategy became a matter of urgency. At that time, Guo Kang's great-grandfather Guo Gai was the one who made the final decision, so their family also knew about this matter.

Entering the capital, the Cao family, who was originally one of the founding princes, fully promoted. At that time, Cao Meng, the ancestor of the Cao family, visited the Greek court as an envoy. Cao Meng was good at dancing with long sleeves and was very good at getting things done, and soon hooked up with the eunuch Michael Hael.

At that time, the Greek court was extremely factional, and the battles were intricate. Not only are the officials intriguing, but the senior officials are also forming gangs. For example, the great treasurer, the patriarch, the navy duke and others at that time all chose sides while also managing their own forces.

The eunuch Michael was a confidant of the first emperor, so he sided with the first emperor's son John V against the co-ruling emperor John VI, who was once the prime minister of the first emperor.

But the problem is, here in John V, there are also many factions. For example, the Queen Mother regarded herself as the guardian of John V, taking advantage of the situation to monopolize power and exclude other ministers. Michael also had many disputes with the Queen Mother, and seeing that the situation was getting more and more unfavorable, he began to think of other ways.

Seeing that John VI had begun to hook up with the Ottomans, Michael took the initiative to welcome the Purple Horde as foreign aid, so that he could also sit firmly in the seat because of this credit. Therefore, he began to help Cao Meng in his activities, and finally even decided to accept Cao Meng as his adopted son and let him inherit his political property to show his determination.

And this failure hit Cao quite hard. Although the direct reason was that Li Tiance was busy watching the play and was unguarded, Cao Meng felt that he had not arranged it well, which affected everyone.

Therefore, after the incident, he has been desperately covering the evacuation of Li Tiance and others. Finally, at the city gates, he was attacked while trying to negotiate with a mob. Although everyone took advantage of the chaos to escape, Cao Meng was seriously injured and died not long after.

After this incident, the Li family and the Cao family were completely married to the Greeks. Others were also outraged and demanded retaliation. Just as John Khan and the Northern Horde army came to their aid, the people hoped to return to the city and punish the thugs. At the very least, they should also set a fire outside the city and make a good demonstration, so that the Greeks will know that they are not to be provoked.

At this time, Guo Gai stood up and stopped Li Tiance and others who were about to draw a knife to kill, and tried to appease everyone.

He believed that it was a premeditated attack, and that no news had been heard before, and that it was likely that the two factions of Greeks had cooperated. Otherwise, someone would have come to whistle and expose the conspiracy of the opposing side a long time ago.

But this kind of cooperation is too rare to last long.

If you rush to attack the city now, you may have to suffer great losses. Moreover, the Ottomans and Serbs were still operating in the vicinity, making the operation a significant risk.

The Art of War says: A king cannot start a war because of a moment of anger, and a general cannot go out to fight because of a moment of anger. He knew that everyone was aggrieved, but as a commander, he should always take whether it is in line with the interests of the country as the biggest premise and then consider personal feelings.

To attack now is to force other forces to join forces. And venting their anger outside the city will not do any harm to the enemies in the city - the outside of the city has long been looted by various forces, and even if there are left, it is difficult to say whether the nobles in the city will pity these villagers.

Therefore, for the sake of today, it is better to wait for them to change themselves. It won't be long.

Guo Gai was highly respected in this group, and everyone reluctantly followed his advice and withdrew to make repairs.

And the development after that, as he said. Seeing the withdrawal of the Purple Horde's army, the Greeks thought that they were intimidated by the city walls and could only swallow this dumb loss, so they relaxed.

The city soon returned to its old state, and more than two officials kept fighting among themselves. John V even played the Romance of the Three Kingdoms with his two sons. In most of the capitals, there were at least four opposing forces at once.

After a few years, the Greeks in the city finally couldn't stand it anymore. Some nobles took advantage of this opportunity to turn back again. They took control of the city gates, greeted the Purple Horde army, and took the initiative to capture and execute a large number of people who had participated in the previous attacks to show their sincerity.

As for the two officials, they were exiled to Crimea by the Purple Horde.

"The princess was thrown back to Constantinople, but the city had changed hands, and her father had gone north to hunt Crimea." Guo Kang said: "That's why I said that this situation is actually quite embarrassing. ”

"Isn't it more embarrassing for Mary Kodun on your side?" Jeanne asked.

"Not really." Guo Kang said: "She never took her family seriously, and later during the Civil War, her first reaction was to avoid the rebel soldiers, go to the south of the Moreah, and grab the family's last territory." I suspect she's happy that her father has fallen. ”

"Of course, I think it would be embarrassing for the immature Greek aristocracy. As for those who are deep enough and experienced enough, I guess that if we embarrass them, they themselves will not. ”

"Nobles...... Maybe you don't care about changing allegiances. Jeanne herself can understand.

"yes." Guo Kang nodded: "A noble family, if it wants to continue for a long time, it is not only a question of whether it can fight. Whether you can stand in line in time and change the door may be a more important skill. The Greek aristocracy has always done a good job in welcoming the new dynasty. ”

"However, several generations have passed now. The military government also began to be implemented in Greece, and the remaining family funds of the nobles were constantly dismantled and digested by the Khanate. Especially after the reform of the military government and the Antar War, their ability to meddle in local military politics in their traditional sphere of influence no longer exists. ”

"That's why Master Wang reminded you just now that Queen Anna is not a descendant of the family." Guo Kang finally said: "Because we don't need to marry the Greeks anymore. ”

"The intermarriage of the Purple Horde Khan's court, in fact, only the first generation is really to win over the Greeks here." He explained: "The marriage with the Empress Dowager Helena was not so much about wooing the Greek nobility as it was about restraining the Greek nobility. Because she came from Trabzon on the southern shore of the Black Sea, Georgia was behind that country, and it was not in the same league as the Greek nobility here. ”

"Kotun of Basil III was a Serb. At this point, it's already very clear. ”

By their father's generation, Rome had stabilized. There is no goal that needs to be stabilized through marriage, and there is no group of people outside the system who deserve to be wooed by special marriage. In this way, you can actually marry whoever you want, and the scope has been much looser. ”

"Didn't I just say that the relationship between their parents is okay? If it had been back then, it would have been a luxury. He shook his head.

"What about your two grandfathers, those distant relatives?" Jeanne turned to Theodora.

"The queen mother actually dislikes them." Theodora shook her head: "Don't look at them one by one, I really can't see who has any real skills." ”

"The children of the current generation are only a little smarter named Constantine, and I don't know if there is any hope of becoming a talent in the future. Other...... Forget it. ”

"I told my father-in-law a few years ago that it would be better to let these old Greek nobles go to archaeology." Guo Kang said with a smile: "Anyway, they will know more about unpopular Greek culture, so it is better to give full play to their abilities and go to Athens, Crete and other places to dig ruins." As a result, last year, it seems that it was really organized. ”

"It turned out to be your idea. The queen mother said that Mrs. Huang mentioned it, and I thought it was her or Mr. Huang's idea. Theodora was surprised.

"yes." Guo Kang was also a little proud: "By the way, if anyone behaves well, let him go to the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea and dig there." ”

"Why?" Theodora asked curiously.

"He's Guo Banxian, just listen to him." Tuohuan waved his hand and said nonchalantly.

(End of chapter)