Blue Sword

"Two noble majesties." In the Golden Palace of Constantinople, the Venetian envoy wearing the robes of a wealthy businessman talked eloquently.

"There is something wrong with the bank loan for freight: In view of the uncertainty about your country's war with the Seljuks, our bank's review team believes that your country may not be able to repay the loan payable in the next three installments, so it is necessary to review your country The royal family’s income flows.”

"Let's interrogate." Theodora threw the fan on the table and said tiredly, "But let's put those Frank knights down first. How many days do you plan to continue drifting on the sea?"

"Your country's loan procedures have not been completed, so strictly speaking, the freight has not been paid in full." Envoy Venis said politely, "The ship can only sail after the down payment has been paid, and it can not dock until the full payment is made. This It’s our rule.”

"Don't you believe in the Solomonic religion?" Theodora became irritated, feeling that it was extremely difficult to communicate with these businessmen who had fallen in the eyes of money.

"Of course we are devout believers in Solomonism." Ambassador Venis said with a smile, "But to be offensive, even if His Majesty the Holy See comes to ride on our ship, we will never pay a copper less - our auditing rules are very precise. To the last six decimal places of the copper coin.”

Zoe sighed beside her. The Venetian ship loaded with Frankish knights has been drifting on the Sea of ​​Marmara for three days. However, the loan procedures for the Venetian have never been completed, and the two parties have been quarreling and tug-of-war over various trivial details.

For example, the delivery time, location and transporter of gold, the specific time of reconciliation and settlement and measures for breach of contract, and even entangled with what stamp must be on each piece of gold, and what measures should be taken to review if there is an error in the stamp.

But after all, the Frankish knights had already arrived at the outer sea, so the two majesties could barely suppress their anxiety and began to negotiate in detail with the Venis envoy.

Another day has passed, and the two sides have finally reached a consensus of more than 60% today on various disputed points that were entangled yesterday. The rest are only insignificant and small details that can be compromised.

After the Venisian envoy and his two majesties said goodbye, they left the Golden Consul Palace, came to the Venetian embassy in Constantinople, and called the ships on the high seas outside.

Governor Enrique was in the secret room. After listening to the envoy's report, he walked out of the cabin with his head lowered.

On the deck outside, Count Memphrat and the Frankish knights were anxiously waiting for a reply from Constantinople.

"Constantinople refuses to pay." When Governor Enrique said these words, the Frankish knights burst into disappointed exclamations.

They had been wandering at sea for three days. The Venetians promised to communicate with Constantinople as soon as possible, but the result of each communication was that the two majesties refused to pay.

The little patience the knights had left was gradually worn away by repeated disappointments.

Governor Enrique and Count Memphrat looked at each other, and each read the message of activation from the other's eyes.

The latter immediately slammed his spear on the deck and shouted angrily:

"Enough! We are here to kill the heretics and defend the glory of God walking on earth, not to rubbish with the Cyreans of Constantinople!"

"The pagans are in Anatolia, in Syria, and in the holy city of Jerusalem! However, these short-sighted Shires are still stingy with the few copper coins they have, and even delay the Crusaders for this. Expedition, let us noble knights who are willing to sacrifice our lives for God wander on the ocean like humble Sicilian seamen!"

His words just vented the restless anger accumulated by the knights for many days, so everyone shouted loudly.

"If they are not willing to devote themselves to the noble cause, then let us do it! If they are not willing to fight to the death with the infidels, then let us fight to the death!"

"But before that, we must settle our debt to the Venetians. Constantinople once promised to pay the remaining 10,000 silver marks, but now it shamefully reneged."

"Since they are unwilling to give out the money, let us get it ourselves, using the swords and spears in our hands!"

Many knights shouted in agreement, but more Frank knights fell into some kind of fear, and some began to shout anxiously:

"Are you crazy, Marquis? The Eastern Solomons are also believers in God. How can we attack them without authorization? What's more, Constantinople has three walls, and even high-ranking extraordinary creatures will never be able to break in. Not to mention our limited manpower!”

"Shut up!" the Marquis of Memphrat said angrily, "If they really believe in God, how can they care about this earthly money and forget about the good oath they promised?"

"I called His Majesty the Holy See last night, denounced Constantinople's repeated hypocrisy, and His Majesty's holy eyes have issued a decree allowing me to act expediently. Once we capture Constantinople, that will be The best time for the Eastern and Western churches to become one again!”

He took out the printed paper from his arms, and it turned out to be an authorization document from His Majesty Pope Innocent, allowing the Crusaders to "temporarily" use force to "maintain" order and stability in Constantinople. There is an encrypted watermark unique to the Holy See.

So the knights fell into an uneasy commotion again. Although everyone believed in Western Catholicism rather than Eastern Orthodoxy, they still belonged to the same religion. If they rashly raised the butcher knife against their brothers who were also believers, they would be judged in hell. .

Pope Innocent's authorization document slightly diluted the knights' doubts, but it was not enough to make them make up their mind.

A few hours later, the Frankish knights on the deck split into two distinct groups.

One group had had enough of wandering on the sea and was determined to follow the marquis and governor to Constantinople. They would first pay off their debts to the Venetians, and then use this as a base to fight their way eastward until they regained Jerusalem. .

The other faction resolutely refused to be ignored by the Marquis and the Venetians, saying that there were nearly ten million believers in Constantinople, and attacking the city would definitely disobey God and bring terrible divine punishment to everyone.

The two sides argued endlessly and almost drew swords on the deck.

At this time, Governor Enrique walked out calmly and expressed that he respected the opinions of both knights. However, the ship belonged to Venis, and those who were willing to attack Constantinople could stay.

For those who are unwilling to attack, whether you are going to Anatolia or back to the West, the Venetians will give you a boat, and you can row it yourself!

In the end, there were literally hundreds of vigorous knights who accepted the joke-like conditions offered by the Venetians and sailed out in small boats.

What these knights who were not familiar with sailing did not know was that the flat-bottomed boat they were riding in was specially used for landing. It had a shallow draft and an extremely thin bottom and could not sustain it for long on the sea.

Within a few days, their bodies washed up on a nearby shore.

Most of the remaining Frank knights could only follow the Venetian fleet and sail towards the Golden Horn, willingly or unwillingly.

Constantinople's defense in this direction is extremely fragile. As long as the Venetian ships can successfully break into the Golden Horn, they can launch a surprise attack on Constantinople's vulnerable flank.

………………

"Drink!" Eleanor's right arm holding the gun was slightly bent, and the gun body quickly rotated and thrust forward.

Spiral punch!

Then the gun body sank suddenly and was stepped on by Asik.

"What are the characteristics of spiral punch?" Ask asked her seriously.

"Yes..." Eleanor bit her lower lip, "During the stabbing process, the gun body is shaken and rotated rapidly to bounce off the weapon stuck to the gun body. It is usually used to break through the enemy's block.

"Since it is a defense-breaking technique, why is it used in the starting position?" Ask asked with a frown.

"I want to try to catch him by surprise." Eleanor pursed her lips and said.

Nora cried to her all night yesterday, which made her extremely dissatisfied with Asker, and her desire to defeat him became much stronger.

"Naive." Asik shook his head, "Next time, try using the Dragon Spear to start."

On the edge of the cliff in the distance, Mi'er was in a prone sniper position, holding the newly obtained Slayer III rifle and aiming at the target in the distance.

"Distance 4.6, cross wind..."

"What are you talking about?" Asik walked to her side and asked.

"Try to correct the trajectory." Mi'er replied.

"This gun has a self-aiming component." Asker grabbed her rifle and turned on the switch of the gun case in a demonstration. "Activate the infrared transmitter here, it will emit infrared invisible light with a wavelength of 14um. , visible only through the rifle eyepiece.”

"There's one more." Mi'er said, maintaining her aiming posture, "red dot."

"Move the red dot to your target. At this time, your firearm and the target red dot will be connected by this infrared light path." Asker explained, "After the bullet is released, it will automatically follow the infrared path. Light path correction flight.”

"In other words, you don't have to consider gravity deviation or anything like that. You just need to aim the red dot at the target, and the bullet will automatically track the red dot and hit the target."

With a "bang" sound, Mi'er had already pressed the trigger, and a tree burl on a tree trunk in the distance exploded, leaving a huge hole.

"Yes." Mi'er tried it according to his instructions and commented, "Self-aiming is very useful."

"In long-range sniping of more than 2,000 meters, you can hardly make up for the error through manual correction. Self-aiming is your only option." Asker continued, "In addition, this gun can also switch modes - open the wheel lock, Turn the lower barrel up and it becomes an assault rifle with a range of about 50-400 meters."

"Assault mode and sniper mode use different magazines. The latter's bullets are much more expensive, so when practicing, you should focus on the assault mode. Try to shoot in bursts and not in bursts. If you are sniping, just aim more."

"Okay." Mi'er replied.

This little girl still doesn't seem to talk much. Ask shook his head and continued to inspect the training status of others. He saw Nora hurried over with her head lowered and holding a notebook.

"Nora!" Asik called to her.

Nora raised her head in panic, then took two steps back in fear, and turned around in a low voice: "What are you doing?"

"What's the matter with your expression that you've seen a ghost?" Aske didn't know whether to laugh or cry. However, he was well aware of this and quickly changed the subject, "How is the team's current status of potion digestion?"

"Eleanor, me, and Mia have all finished digesting the potion." Nora said softly, "Hydrifa and Mier haven't taken the potion yet."

"In other words, there are five people who need to find potion materials next." Asik pondered for a moment, "I understand."

"Is that why you stopped me to ask about this?" Nora said timidly.

"No." Asik was naturally not stupid enough to say "Of course", he just smiled and said, "Let me see how you are doing."

"I'm fine." Nora stretched out her fingers, uncomfortably pulled the loose hair on her cheek, and then took a deep breath, "That's it, is there anything else?"

"No more." Asik shook his head and couldn't help but burst into tears.

Since the last conversation, the relationship between the two seemed to have fallen into a "Schrödinger state" that was neither ambiguous nor pure companionship. It’s really embarrassing to communicate with her now!

No, you can't bring your emotional problems to work. He tried hard to get rid of the distracting thoughts in his mind, and said goodbye to Nora with a smile.

Nora held her notebook and walked slowly down the mountain. When she came to a small lake in the forest, she squatted down by the water and looked at her pretty face in the reflection.

Her chestnut hair is fluffy and soft, her beautiful facial features are small and soft, and she is the type with a pure and sweet appearance.

Regardless of the graceful figure unique to female college students, she could receive more than thirty love letters and confessions in one semester when she was studying at Solomon Theological Seminary with her beautiful face.

If you really want to find a boyfriend, where can you not find him?

Why insist on hanging on this tree?

Nora stared blankly at the reflection in the lake, and tears flowed down again unknowingly.

"Asking me to wait for ten years... is really... too much..." She murmured to herself, biting her lower lip, "Ask, you bad guy..."

Tears fell on the lake, creating ripples.

She stared at the pretty face with pear blossoms and rain, and was silent for a long time. Then she wiped away the tears on her face with the back of her hand and smiled sadly:

"Why are you crying again, Nora? When did you become such a crybaby..."

She said as if she was blaming herself, reaching out to mess up the reflection on the lake.

Not far away from behind a tree, Eleanor looked at her distressedly, feeling sad and speechless for a moment.