In the winter afternoon, the warm sunshine spreads all over the earth. Guo Kang leaned against the big tree in the small garden, feeling increasingly lazy and unwilling to move.
The bells rang, and what seemed to be Constantinople's landmark, Hagia Sophia, began services again.
The Guo family's residence is located in the fourth district near the Royal Palace of Constantinople, where the rich and powerful gather. From the garden, you can see Hagia Sophia - also known as the Empress Temple among the adoptive father and others. Her magnificent main building, and the four huge Sulu ingots surrounding it, are very conspicuous even here.
Guo Kang has always been suspicious of who designed this layout.
But now, he is not in the mood to think about it. The soreness in his limbs made him just want to continue lying down and do nothing else.
It has been several years since he came to this world, and he still can't stand the devilish training from his adoptive father.
Last night, he had a strange dream. He dreamed of a fire rising into the sky and covering an unknown city. The momentum was like the end of the world described by the Greek priests. He wandered around the city in a daze, not knowing what to do. After waking up, I felt depressed and depressed.
After breakfast, Guo Kang still couldn't calm down and decided to go out to relax. As soon as he went out, he saw his adoptive father practicing kung fu.
He was shirtless, completely ignoring the cold air in the depths of winter, and he whirred an iron rod, causing a layer of white mist to rise from his tangled body. Guo Kang said hello to him, and he put down the iron rod and came over to ask kindly.
Guo Kang said that he was just not feeling well. The foster father heard this and nodded seriously. Then, he picked up the two stone locks and handed them to Guo Kang.
"Kang'er, don't think too much. As long as you exercise for a while, your worries will disappear." The foster father said with a hearty smile.
As a result, Guo Kang was pulled by him to practice for more than half an hour, and he still doesn't want to move.
While I was thinking wildly, a head suddenly popped out of the wall and looked around.
As soon as he saw him, Guo Kang knew that he would not have any rest today.
Before he could stand up, a handsome young man skillfully climbed over the wall and jumped into the garden. He was still holding a long pole in his hand. As he strode towards him, he shouted to him: "Don't lie down, get up quickly! Master Wang wants to see you for something!"
"If you have something to do with me, can't you go through the main entrance?" Guo Kang said angrily: "Last time, my adoptive mother told me that if Li Xuanying tries to climb over the wall again, she will be kicked out..."
"The front door is too winding." Li Xuanying waved her hand: "Why does your door open to the east? Every time I walk down the street, I have to go around in a circle. I will apologize to my wife the next time I see her."
"If you get caught next time." He thought for a moment and then added.
Guo Kang has a headache for this kind of guy who casually goes into other people's homes. However, the other party said "I'll wait for you outside" and turned around and left.
The wall of the Guo family was actually not short, but Li Xuanying grabbed the long pole in his hand, ran a few steps, thrust the pole into the corner of the wall, jumped over the wall in one go, and was able to pull the pole over as well.
Guo Kang rolled his eyes. I looked around and found no one was there, so I ran to the corner. After gaining some energy, he used a stone crack in the wall to jump up onto the wall and climb out.
"My skills have improved a lot, kid." Li Xuanying hugged the long pole and said with a smile: "But it's definitely better to use bare hands than using a spear. Do you want to learn from me? Call me big brother, and I will teach you a few moves passed down from your ancestors. "
"If your ancestor knew that the pole was used to climb over the wall, he would probably beat you to death." Guo Kang said angrily: "Why did Lama Wang find me?"
"It's probably a matter of credentials." Li Xuanying said, "You can go to Suo Niangniang Temple and ask him yourself, and you will know."
The Great Lama Wang is a nickname, but the real title seems to be "The Great Patriarch Wang". However, Guo Kang and others got used to calling this joking nickname and could not change it.
In this world, there are far more people from the Central Plains to the Western Regions than in the world where Guo Kang came from. For example, Lama Wang was originally a wandering sorcerer. When he was young, he lived in the river and made a living by pretending to be gods and ghosts. However, the competition in this industry was too fierce and there was no future, so we decided to change places and reopen our business.
He heard that the Roman Empire was now ruled by the Purple Horde Khan, and after some thought, he felt that the most promising one in the Khanate should be Lamaism. So, he memorized some scriptures, got dressed up, called himself a great lama from the East, and prepared to start a new business.
Unexpectedly, at this time, the Purple Horde Khanate officially believed in Orthodox Christianity, and the lama was no longer popular. Lama Wang faced the risk of losing his job again, and had to start from scratch again.
However, while he was working for a church worker, he met the Patriarch Yin, who had just been appointed by the then emperor. Taoist Master Yin was also unfamiliar with the place and was quite troubled by the environment here. Seeing that Lama Wang was smart, he accepted him as his disciple, which gave him an extra helper.
Fortunately, Lama Wang's basic skills are already solid, and he is very good at professional tasks such as giving speeches and performing miracles. With the guidance and support of Taoist Priest Yin, he rose to great heights in the church. After Taoist Priest Yin passed away, he naturally took over as the Patriarch.
Of course, this is actually nothing. The Roman Empire has always had a tradition of emperors interfering with the church. In the past, it was common for emperors to send trusted eunuchs to serve as pastoral capitals. The Great Lama Wang was at least a religious person, more "serious" than the eunuchs.
After leaving the Guo family's house, the two walked along the road towards the Empress Temple. Thanks to the victory in the previous war, the city has been relatively stable in the past few years, and there are more and more people there, especially profiteers from Venice.
Venice and the Khanate have always maintained a traditional friendship. When Batu conquered the west and entered the Black Sea coast, he established contact with Venetian merchants.
The merchants provided detailed intelligence to the Mongol army. In return, Batu's army would protect their business interests and drive out their competitors. Under the guidance of these Venetians, the Mongols were sometimes more familiar with the local geographical environment than the local princes themselves, which provided great convenience for combat. The merchants of Venice naturally made a fortune.
When the Golden Horde was on the verge of collapse, a force under the Khanate gradually became stronger on the west coast of the Black Sea - of course, at that time, they did not have this name.
The leader, Boyan Timur, claimed to be a descendant of Batu, the Khan of the Golden Horde. With the help of his friends, Guo Gai, the ancestor of the Guo family, and others, he broke away from the Golden Horde and established a new Khan's court. Although Guo Kang seemed to have never heard of this force in his original world; and even in this world, Boyan Timur's identity and lineage were quite suspicious. But in such a chaotic environment, no one bothered to study these details.
From then on, the Khan's court had close contacts with Venetian merchants because of their common interests.
Later, after years of hard work, they successfully moved south to conquer Constantinople. Because the Khanate believed that it was also a Roman government, it also imitated the Romans and used purple as the most noble logo of the Khan. Although the official name still follows the Roman Empire, everyone generally calls it the "Purple Horde Khanate".
The Venetians were among the strongest supporters of this move in order to restore their local trading position. For the Khan's court, the Genoese power here was too strong. To balance them, Venice is undoubtedly the best choice.
Passing through these pedestrians coming and going, they quickly arrived at their destination.
The Wang Lama has several offices. In addition to being the abbot of the Sophia Empress Temple, he also serves as the royal shaman and participates in various necessary diplomatic occasions and religious ceremonies. Normally, it's really hard to find where he is.
Fortunately this time, there was a priest waiting for them in front of the gate. But Li Xuanying said that he still had something to do and asked Guo Kang to go alone.
Guo Kang could tell something was wrong at a glance.
"If something happened to you, you wouldn't come to me." He pointed out bluntly: "If you just inform me, you can send a servant. Is it worth it for the young master of the Li family to abandon other things and go there in person? Now you are in a hurry Let's go... Let me think about it, you just want to take the opportunity to escape to the theater, right?"
Li Xuanying blushed and hesitated to speak.
It's not that Guo Kang can't understand him, but his excuse is indeed a bit speechless. But his family is really strict and there is no good solution.
Like the Guo family, the Li family is also a meritorious prince of the Purple Horde Khanate, ranking among the pillars of the country, and has a high status. Li Xuanying's great-grandfather Li Tiance had five battles and five victories that year, completely defeating the Hungarian-Polish coalition, and with the support of the Holy Roman Empire, there was no longer a powerful force in the northwest that could directly threaten the hinterland of the Khanate.
This war is considered to be one of the two founding wars of the Purple Horde Khanate. After this battle, the Purple Horde took advantage of the internal struggles of the Palaeolian dynasty to expel the emperors John V and John VI who were fighting a civil war in the city with little resistance, and easily entered the monarchy. Fort Tantino. Li Tiance himself also received great honors from it.
Constantinople was designated as the seat of the Purple Horde Khanate and was renamed "Dadu". Li Tiance was appointed "Jing Zhaoyin" and became the first general of the capital.
——In fact, the Khanate has known about this city for a long time. Because this is the capital city established by the Roman Khan, it was once called "Khan Bali": Khan is the Khan, and Bali is the city. Taken together, it is the "City of the Great Khan".
The Oros people under the Khan's court also know this name. They called the Great Khan Tsar and the city Gel, so Khanbali became "Tsar Gel" in their mouths.
The people who ruled Oros back then were the Vikings from the north, and they still retain a deep cultural influence. These Vikings, also called Rus, called Constantinople "Miklagad". Mikla means big, and Gard means this city. Therefore, the name is simply "大城", or "大都".
From this point of view, Tsargrad, Khanbali, and Dadu are all the same place. Everyone thought that Dadu was the easiest to hear and remember, so they used it to replace the original name that was too long.
However, after the war, Li Tiance became complacent, obsessed with Greek dramas, and ignored business all day long. Just two years later, while the main force of the Purple Horde was away fighting, the two Emperor Johns actually joined hands and, with the support of HRE and Poland, sent their cronies to sneak back to Constantinople and incite the citizens to revolt.
At the critical moment, Li Tiance, who was responsible for defending the city, was watching a play and was suddenly besieged by the actors. Caught off guard, Li Tiance was seriously injured. Only with the desperate rescue of Cao Meng, another Zhuguo and veteran, did he escape from the city in a hurry. However, his men suffered heavy losses, and even Cao Meng died of injuries.
The following year, Li Tiance also died of injuries and depression. Before his death, he gave his son Li Yinglin three arrows and asked him to fulfill his three last wishes: to fight back the expelled Constantinople, to eliminate the old enemy Poland-Hungary Alliance, and to outlaw the arrogant pseudo-Holy Roman State. And these last wishes have not yet been fulfilled. Therefore, everyone in the Li family keeps the hatred of the country and the family in their ears every day.
Li Xuanying grew up in this environment since she was a child, and was urged by her family to learn the art of war and practice martial arts every day. His entertainment activities are much less than those of other noble children. Going to the theater was a sore point for the family and was strictly prohibited.
Guo Kang's thoughts are more "free". He feels that as long as he doesn't delay his business, it's not impossible to have fun. He waved his hand towards Li Xuanying and said that he didn't care and would not file a complaint against his family.
Li Xuanying, as if she had received an amnesty, ran away with the iconic pole in hand.
