Capital Datang

"Your Majesty, the Prince of the Tang Dynasty, Prince Wu, is here to visit. Now the fleet is almost at the Jiangkou outside the city!" In the main hall, an Eastern Roman Navy officer stepped forward to report.

"What?" Hearing the news, Constance II in purple stood up from his chair with an incredulous expression on his face.And the Queen Irina and his good friend Foris next to him also looked in disbelief.

"How is this possible? The Tang Dynasty is far away from us, and the prince of the Tang Dynasty is extremely noble. Even if he wants to come, he will definitely notify us in advance, but we have not received any news now. The other party must be a fake. ?” Forres quickly reacted and spoke first.

However, as soon as Forres' words fell, the officer who came to report immediately said: "Your Excellency the Consul, we also suspected it at the beginning, but the other party showed the two Popes of the Tianzhu Empire, and there are four main warships. Accompanying protection, it definitely doesn't look fake."

"Warship?" Constans II's eyes lit up when he heard it. He had long heard that the Han people had superb shipbuilding skills, and the performance of those Han merchant ships was better than that of Roman warships. This made Constans II I am also very curious about the warships of the Han people. I have always wanted to see what the other party's warships look like, but I didn't expect it to be realized so soon.Capital Datang 647

"Your Majesty, shall we change into our costumes and inform the ministers at the same time to prepare to welcome the Prince of the Tang Dynasty who came from afar?" At this moment, Irina, who had been silent beside her, suddenly said.The two emperors of Tianzhu are also the sons of the Tang emperor. Since they have their credentials and the warships from the Tang Dynasty, this can naturally prove the identity of the other party, so the next thing they need to prepare to meet .

"That's right, tell the ministers to meet you at the port. The queen and I also need to change clothes!" Constance II said very excitedly. He had sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty for exchanges before, hoping to use this to bring the two countries closer. relation.However, the arrival of Li Ke was the first time that the Tang Dynasty sent an envoy to contact Rome on its own initiative, and the other party was a noble prince. The political significance of this was very important.

Following the order of Constantinople II, the news of Li Ke's arrival spread quickly. As a result, the whole of Constantinople was a sensation, and all the nobles changed into formal clothes in the shortest possible time.And the ladies also put on their most beautiful clothes, and then rushed to the port in a carriage.

Constantinople is surrounded by the sea on three sides, so strictly speaking, the entire city is built on a prominent trapezoidal peninsula, of which the east facing the peninsula is the exit of the Bosporus Strait.The terrain on the southern side of the peninsula is dangerous, and the imperial palace is located here. However, although the imperial palace is built near the sea, there are cliffs behind it, which cannot be climbed at all. Sea walls.There are also soldiers guarding it, so the safety of the palace cannot be questioned.

To the north of the city is the famous Golden Horn Bay, a long and narrow bay about seven kilometers long, and one of the world's leading natural ports.Most of Constantinople's naval and maritime transportation activities are concentrated here, and the port mentioned by the people in the city generally refers to this place.

When Li Ke and their fleet sailed towards the Golden Horn.Just passing by the eastern end of Constantinople, the Royal Palace is also just south of this end.Therefore, when the fleet passed by here, Li Ke and the others held the binoculars in their hands and observed the situation of the palace from a distance.

The emperor of Eastern Rome also combined political and religious power, so the imperial palace was also called the Holy Palace by the Romans. It is also because of this that the buildings of the Holy Palace have an obvious religious style. What Li Ke and the others saw was all a A spired building that looks like a Roman church is not much different, but the building is bigger and more majestic.

Li Ke looked at the majestic Holy Palace in front of him, and couldn't help comparing it with the Taiji Palace in Chang'an. It turned out that the size of the Holy Palace was still not comparable to that of the Taiji Palace, at least the area of ​​the Taiji Palace was smaller than that of the Holy Palace. The larger ones are much larger. As for the architectural styles, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. It is impossible to say who is good and who is not. However, the Holy Palace is better than the Taiji Palace, that is, the Holy Palace is mostly made of marble, while the Taiji Palace is mainly made of wood, so this Zuosheng Palace must be stronger than Taiji Palace in terms of firmness and fire resistance.

"Your Highness, His Majesty the Emperor of Rome has sent envoys to welcome you!" While Li Ke was admiring the scenery of the Holy Palace, a very crisp voice suddenly said.Li Ke put down his binoculars and looked back, just in time to see Kelisi standing beside him in a palace dress. Although Kelisi was a Persian woman, she was blond and blue-eyed in a palace dress, which had a special flavor.

"Well, yes, come with me to meet the Roman envoy!" Li Ke nodded and said, I don't know if he praised Kelisi for what he said, or if he dressed well?And Ke Lisi naturally followed closely beside Li Ke with a look of excitement.

At the beginning, Chris didn't know Li Ke's real identity, she just thought he was an important figure in the fleet, but soon she found out that even the captain Lu Wan respected Li Ke very much, even at any time. Li Ke will always have a few guards around him to protect him, which makes her curious about Li Ke's identity.

After they entered the Aegean Sea, Wang Fangyi from the rear joined them with four warships, and then Li Ke finally revealed his true identity. As a result, this little slave girl, Ke Lisi, was so shocked that she didn't even dare to look up for a few days. Li Ke, it wasn't until she entered the Black Sea Strait that she slowly recovered a bit.

Now Chris is serving as Li Ke's translator and also his maid, and she is the kind who can warm the bed.It's just that the poor little Ke Lisi has just adapted to Li Ke's identity, but now she has to go with him to meet the Roman emperor, which makes the little slave girl very nervous.

Li Ke walked to the side of the warship, just in time to see a Roman warship next to their ship, but because their warship was too tall, several officials on the other side's ship wearing Roman official uniforms had to look up. , and when one of the officials saw Li Ke above, he exclaimed immediately: "His Royal Highness Wu Wang, it is really His Royal Highness Wu Wang!"

"Huh~" Li Ke followed the voice, only to find that this Roman official looked familiar to him, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it before.

At this moment, the guards on the warship put down the rope ladder, and then several officials below climbed up the ladder, and after the official who spoke just now came up, he immediately walked a few steps to Li Ke and saluted: "See His Highness King Wu , don't you remember me?"

Although Li Yin felt that the other party looked familiar, he really couldn't remember where he met him, but he quickly remembered another thing, that is, Rome sent an envoy to Chang'an, and the other party's name was Ciro. He once participated in the first Winter Games, which happened to be organized by him and Li Yin.

Thinking of this, Li Ke immediately pointed at the other party and laughed loudly: "Of course, the old man at the sports meeting remembers it. It's just that the world is wonderful. I didn't expect that we would meet again in Rome, thousands of miles away from the Tang Dynasty, more than ten years later."

The one who came to greet Li Ke was Xi Luo, the envoy to the Tang Dynasty. The reason why Constans II sent him to greet him was because he knew Chinese, and because Xi Luo mentioned in his book I have been to Li Ke, and I have spent a considerable amount of space describing Li Ke's reputation in the Tang Dynasty, so Constans II sent Ciro to identify whether Li Ke is really His Royal Highness King Wu of the Tang Dynasty?Capital Datang 647

Hearing Li Yin's words, Xi Luo also seemed very excited, stepped forward again and said gratefully: "I haven't seen you for many years, His Royal Highness Wu Wang still has the same demeanor, and after so many years, I haven't come in time to thank the two Highnesses, if I don't In that sports meeting, I may still be a samurai in Tubo until now, and I will never have the opportunity to return to Rome.”

The reason why Xi Luo said this is mainly because after that sports meeting, he won a gold medal for Tubo, and he got the attention of Songtsen Gampo. Later, he was promoted and freed a lot, which gave him the opportunity to jump out of Tubo. , and then lived in the Tang Dynasty for two years, and finally returned to the Eastern Roman Empire from the sea, so he was right to say that the sports meeting changed his destiny.

However, Li Ke was a little surprised when he heard it. He didn't know the meaning of Xi Luo's words?Originally, after Xi Luo went to Datang as an envoy, because of his legendary experience, he aroused the interest of many newspapers. Many newspapers interviewed him and introduced Xi Luo's experience in the newspapers. , For this reason, it also caused a sensation, and at the same time, it also brought a bit of legendary color to the sports meeting.However, Li Ke was worried about overseas development at that time, and later went to Li Yin's place, so he didn't see it at all, and of course he didn't know about Xi Luo's experience at the beginning.

However, although Li Ke didn't understand the meaning of Xi Luo's words, he could tell that the Roman envoy not only knew him, but also expressed gratitude to him. Chatting with the other party about the changes in Tang Dynasty in recent years and Li Ke's situation in recent years, the result made Xi Luo's favor for Li Ke even more.

After Xi Luo and the others boarded Li Ke's warship, the Roman warship that sent them led the way ahead, and after passing Constantinople, the Golden Horn as a port finally appeared in front of them.

I saw that the entrance of this long and narrow bay is not very wide, and at the entrance, a water village was built by the Romans. The water village has four huge entrances and exits. A large number of ships enter and exit the bay from here, which looks very prosperous. .

And when Li Ke and his fleet passed through the entrance to the Golden Horn Bay, what caught their eyes was a scene of an extremely busy port, and on the wharf on the south side of the port, there was a scene of a sea of ​​people. Almost all the residents of Constantinople who received the news gathered on the pier, ready to enjoy the elegant demeanor of the prince of the Tang Dynasty who came from thousands of miles away.