Your Majesty the Empress, I am really not a traitor!

Daxia is responsible for the construction of the tower, and the Weixi Empire is responsible for the technology. After the completion, the Xia Kingdom has the actual right to use and control the tower, but the Weixi Empire enjoys the priority of borrowing the tower for communication compared to other countries. right.

Emperor Feite had a broad vision, and he knew very well that what the current Weixi Empire wants is higher interests, not the petty profits in front of it. If the Weixi Empire wants to survive under the siege of the church, it needs Have an ally with sufficient potential—this ally must be large enough to be able to provide a large amount of resources and commodities at any time for the currency in the hands of the Weixi Empire to be realized, and at the same time, be able to quickly digest the domestic power when the church is besieged in the future. stockpiled goods.

Moreover, it also needs to have enough influence.

Regarding the high tower, it seems that Xia Guobai has gained the research results of the Weixi Empire's high tower, but for the Weixi Empire, the establishment of the high tower can make the exchanges between the two countries closer than other countries, and can also indirectly strengthen the Weixi Empire. The ability of the Western Empire to control other Western countries—after all, the tower is still a cooperation project between the two countries. Whether it is information exchange or business exchanges, the Weixi Empire can always be one step ahead of other countries.

Emperor Feite did not come directly this time. It is said that some major reforms in the Weixi Empire need to be handled by Emperor Feite himself, so he could not get away. In the end, he sent his eldest prince to participate in the commencement ceremony of the entire project.

Considering that the other party is a prince, according to Daxia's etiquette system, the emperor of Daxia cannot easily go to meet his foreign ministers, but the eldest prince is a prince with a great status in the Weixi Empire. Xia Yuxiao finally expressed respect , let Qin Ji and Prime Minister Long go together.

"Lieutenant, are you in good condition?"

On the carriage, Prime Minister Long asked worriedly.

To be honest, Prime Minister Long's impression of Qin Ji is not bad. From outsiders' point of view, Qin Ji seems to be a typical configuration of treacherous ministers - first he controlled the army, then he controlled the government, and after that he acted arbitrarily in many actions.But Prime Minister Long knew Qin Ji's real purpose in doing these things, so in many cases, as long as Qin Ji did not go too far, Prime Minister Long would not say anything.

But today, Taiwei is in a very bad state.

His appearance was indeed well-groomed, but he still had dark circles on his face, and his eyes were full of exhaustion. The few steps he took when he got on the horse just now completely lost his previous momentum. personal.

"It's all right." Hearing the old man's concern for him, Qin Ji smiled, then shook his head, "It's just that there are too many things recently, so I've been too busy, and I'm just a little tired."

Daxia is now at a node, above this node, Qin Ji will naturally have a lot of work.

He needs to take care of the affairs in the north, and he doesn't want to let Tian Jiji go. Now he has to come forward in this matter. Recently, he is communicating with the nobles of the Hedea Empire in the west to see if he can find an opportunity to do something big.. ....

There is too much work, and people are busy, not to mention, the demand for Lingyan seems to be a bit...

Ah, the body won't be able to continue like this.

"Do you need to take a break? It's about half an hour away, so you can take a nap." The old man asked.

"No need, Prime Minister, it doesn't matter. I'll just catch up on sleep later."

"Well, if that's the case, let's review the ceremony process..."

When the carriage arrived at the ceremony site, the craftsmen were already in place, and the officials in charge of supervising the site had already put on their official uniforms and were waiting here.

When they saw Qin Ji and Prime Minister Long appear, everyone bowed and saluted to welcome the arrival of the two important ministers of the country.

"Excuse me, everyone has worked hard."

Qin Ji waved his hand, then whispered something to Lingyan.

Lingyan understood, she immediately made a gesture to the surroundings, and the scale guards at the gray scale immediately set up defenses along with the escorting guards to ensure that there would be no accidents at the scene.

Facing it, the eldest prince also stepped out of his bright silver carriage at this moment.He delivered a fairly good speech to everyone present. The core of the speech was to emphasize the friendship between the two countries and hope that everyone can work together.

Speaking of which, His Royal Highness is not too young. I heard that he is already in his 30s, and his younger brother is probably in his 20s. In terms of order, he should be the future emperor, but it seems that this The eldest prince has no idea of ​​governing the country at all, so he doesn't want to fight for the position of emperor at all...

Obviously, the two merchants are top-notch, and I heard that they have made great military achievements, but they don't want to be involved in the vortex of power. They just want to be a prosperous and wealthy prince. I have to say that this eldest prince has a bit of a protagonist style.

The ceremony continued, with Qin Ji as the host, burning incense and praying, chanting words to pray for the ancestors to bless all the best in the sound of bells and chimes, and then offering wine to heaven and earth.The ceremony is over here.

However, during the ceremony, Qin Ji was quite embarrassed about one thing——

Why does this eldest prince always stare at him, and his eyes are so hot?

Grandma, didn’t you meet Nantong? ?

Chapter 43 Information Exchange

At the dinner after the ceremony, there was a lot of wine and wine. Due to the recent friendly relationship between the Weixi Empire and Daxia, the atmosphere of the banquet between the officials of both sides was also relatively harmonious.

Sitting in his seat, Qin Ji was a little overwhelmed by the toasts from the officials of the two countries in turn. Fortunately, the officials on his side knew that his Taiwei was not good at drinking, so they all cleverly helped him drink some.

But, there are always some people whose drinking is irresistible.

The eldest prince Moran Versilia walked in front of Qin Ji, holding the unique jade thick wine in his hand, and the white wine was shaking in the cup.

"Taiwei, it is a great honor to meet you when I came to your country at the order of my father. I have been very interested in everything about your country since I was young."

From Qin Ji's point of view, Moran is definitely a typical "Prince Charming in women's hearts". He is wearing a straight and luxurious white dress, with handsome features, blond hair and blue eyes, and elegant manners. He is obviously in his 30s. But as young as 20 years old.

No matter in terms of appearance, temperament, behavior or conditions, this is definitely a sought-after item. I heard that Emperor Feite is planning to marry a granddaughter of the Pope as his wife—it is true that this is definitely a pure balance of interests, but let His father thought that he needed the pope's granddaughter to be worthy of his son, and these conditions were absolutely excellent to the extreme.

"His Royal Highness is knowledgeable and knowledgeable, and it is also a great blessing for the two countries to be interested in our country."

Qin Ji replied like this.

The prince seemed to be easy to talk to, although he didn't know his true character, but the other party was indeed a polite type, Qin Ji was naturally willing to chat with him a little more.

He raised his wine glass, faced the first prince's toast, and drank up the fine wine in the glass.

"The wine in your country has a unique sweetness and is very mellow." Moran's smile looked so warm and reliable, "Our Weixi Empire is rich in wine and a kind of sugar cane wine. I don't like the latter. It tastes a bit Directly, although the former is delicious, compared with your country's, it is less sweet."

"If you want, Your Highness, I will order someone to prepare some for you before leaving."

"Then trouble you."

After saying this, Moran sat on the chair next to him after being invited by Qin Ji.

"This exchange is very important to my father. In fact, he sent me here to let me get acquainted with your country. He hopes that I can take over the affairs between our country and your country in the future." Moran said When I got here, I looked at Lingyan next to me, and showed that standard smile, "Isn't this lady taking a seat?"

"I am the Taiwei's bodyguard, you and the Taiwei don't have to worry about me."

Lingyan's voice was cold, but polite. When she said this, Moran was obviously taken aback for a moment, and then patted her head.

"Sorry, you are such a noble and beautiful woman, I thought you were the Taiwei's companion." Moran praised her a little, "There are so many talents around you, Taiwei."

In fact, his praise would sound a little rude to the conservative people in Xia Guoli, but Lingyan doesn't care about it, and neither does Qin Ji—this is the usual etiquette on the other side, it sounds nasty, but they pay attention to this .

"Although she's a guard, strictly speaking, she's no different from my family," Qin Ji smiled, "But after all, it's not convenient for her to sit down because her identity is left here for official business."

"Then forgive me for not inviting this lady to sit with me."

After finishing the courtesies, Prince Moran sat upright in his seat, and he approached Qin Ji:

"It really surprised me to see you, Taiwei Qin, from the very beginning when I knew your reputation in China, I noticed many of your behaviors. I know a thing or two, that you will marry the emperor of your country in the end, not only me, but even the top leaders of our country have never thought of it."

"It's just that they got married because they fell in love." Qin Ji prevaricated the other party with a smile.By the way, I also praised the other party's Xia Guo dialect in my heart - Moran's Xia Guo dialect was exactly the same as that of Xia Guo people, and it was impossible to tell that this was a foreigner without looking at his face.

"Is that true? Taiwei?" Faced with his prevarication, it was obvious that the prince did not buy it. His smile was still gentle, but Qin Ji could feel the other party's doubts, "You and your majesty the emperor The marriage may seem to you to be just a move to maintain the domestic situation, but it has caused other countries to completely change their policies towards Daxia. Maybe you may not know that after you and His Majesty got married, many church countries gave up The commercial and military interception that Daxia is going to launch."

As for the reason, it is very simple, because Daxia's own strength is enough to allow it to withstand the enemy's target, but the premise is that Daxia's interior must be stable enough.

Before that, many countries knew that Qin Ji was a "treacherous official". There must be a power struggle between the traitorous official and the emperor. The struggle between the two sides would naturally create many loopholes for them.

Originally so.

Until I see the monarchs and ministers get married...

"Although I expected this matter, I didn't expect the effect to be so good," Qin Ji said, "What about your country? What was your country's attitude towards our country at the beginning?"

"Tell the truth?" The prince smiled a little badly.

"If possible, it's best to be truthful."

"To be honest, at the beginning, we planned to exchange business routes with you. In terms of relationship, we originally planned to develop in a good direction. However, if you and your wife—or His Majesty are not married, maybe We don’t dare to tilt more chips to you.”

"I see. I never expected that my marriage with His Majesty would actually lead to the friendship between the two countries."

Qin Ji was not surprised at all. Xia Yuxiao and his big wedding will bring about international changes. He knows this very well, but he is not a high-level executive in other countries after all, so he doesn't know what these countries will do or how I thought, so I just waited for work.

"This time, on the one hand, I came here to witness the construction of the tower on behalf of my father, and on the other hand, I also hope to share a piece of information with your country."

The eldest prince glanced at the people around him, then leaned towards Qin Ji, and said in a low voice.

"Oh? Your Highness, please tell me."

"You should be very clear that there have been signs of sectarian division in the church recently. In fact, since the Holy Maiden escaped, there have been reports within the church that the power of the holy arts is increasing, and the efficiency of some clergymen's use of the holy arts has improved by leaps and bounds. …”

When the First Prince said this, he looked very cautious, always looking around.

"The power of the holy art has increased? The church has split, the saint has escaped, but the power of the holy art has increased instead?"

Qin Ji frowned.

No matter how you think about it, this logic doesn't work.In the power system of the church, the saint is the medium to communicate with the Lord. The holy power of the church comes from the Holy Lord in the teachings. The medium of communication with the Lord has disappeared. In theory, it should be that the power has been weakened. ! ?

"The same is true for the members of the clergy in your country?"

"That's right, although the churches of our Weixi Empire are no longer directly under the control of the Pope, our clergy still have similar situations."

"That shows that this has nothing to do with what the church considers 'orthodox' or not. The problem should lie with the entire belief system."

Qin Ji can't make more inferences at this moment, he can only write down such an important piece of information first, find a way to pay attention to the relevant situation, and then make a judgment.

Chapter 44 Speculation

"What about the church?"

With a piece of caramel in her mouth, Qin Siyue vaguely repeated the question Qin Ji asked.

"That's right, is there any news about the church in our intelligence in various church countries recently?"

The influence of the church is extremely wide. It is no exaggeration to say that most of the human world is now under the control of the church, and their every move has a profound impact on the entire human world.

"At present, there is nothing abnormal about the information from our side. If we insist, we have confirmed the situation of the saint. At least now the saint is not in any personal danger. Why, are you planning to snatch the saint back?" Qin Si Yue frowned, and then patted Qin Ji on the shoulder, "Brother, I know it's normal for men in this world to have three wives and four concubines, but I still have to advise you, don't strike at a woman when you see it, the saint is indeed She looks good and is a nice person, but you have to think about it, there is a lot of bad things about the church behind the saint."

"Go, go, when did I say that I was going to attack the saint!?" Qin Ji was very speechless at his sister's divergence, "It was the news from the eldest prince of the Weixi Empire, who said it was the church The sacred art seems to have become stronger recently after the saintess left, I would like to ask if you have any clues here."

"I can't do anything about this. The church's core figures in terms of holy arts have to go through strict selection. For example, our intelligence personnel can't get in at all. We haven't figured out their evaluation system until now."

Qin Siyue took a few bites of the caramel in her mouth and swallowed it down.What my brother wants to know, she naturally wants to help, but the problem is that she can't do anything now, the church's selection of this group of core clergy is very strict, if the ability is assessed, many people in the grayscale office still have hope It can be passed, but when it comes to assessing beliefs, it will be laborious.

The church's assessment method is completed entirely by "sacred" power, how can ordinary people know the measurement mechanism of that thing.If you want to know, you have to enter the core layer, but to enter the core layer you have to test, but if I want to test, I have to know the measurement mechanism, and if I want to know the measurement mechanism, I have to enter the core layer...

An endless loop belongs to yes.

"So, from your point of view?"

Since there was no reliable intelligence information, Qin Ji decided to directly obtain some reference opinions from his sister's analysis.Qin Siyue may be able to come up with a reliable idea after reading a lot of books.

"From a religious point of view, the holy arts of the church are said to be the power bestowed on them by their lord in order to allow believers to protect themselves. From the point of view of casting spells, their power does rely on 'gifts' from unknown sources, low High-level holy arts are still based on aura, that is, packaged 'magic', while high-level holy arts, that is, those that require chant, come from the Lord—this is recorded in ancient books. of."

"Since it is the holy art of the saint's departure, it must be the latter. The saint's real power in the church is actually not great, but the divine power is still quite honorable. I have read the chronicles of the church before. The church has had the rank of saint since its earliest birth, and it appeared earlier than the position of pope."

"That is to say, there is reason to suspect that the saint is really representing the Lord?" Qin Ji listened to his sister's narration, and immediately understood the importance of the saint.

Since it is a clergyman who appeared earlier than the Pope, it means that the status of theocracy is definitely not lower than that of the Pope.

"That's right, judging from the verifiable knowledge in books, there is indeed a communication between the saint and the Lord. She will pass the oracle of the Lord to the believers of the church in a language and method acceptable to mortals, and communicate with the Lord. A bridge with human beings. It is said that the earliest sacred art came from this.”