The affairs in the Middle East were handled almost equally, and Zhao Ziliang was ready to return to Xinjing, but before that, he decided to send a person to lead the army to continue the westward expedition to the Great Food Country.

However, the matter of fighting is not so simple, although the Western Qin State conquered the Middle East, the Persian region and the Great Food Peninsula and lost almost all of the servant troops and slaves, but stationed in these areas required a lot of troops, and these regions could not provide too much tax for the Western Qin State in a short period of time.

Therefore, although a lot of war money has been made in the process of attacking these areas, if you want to rule this area and develop them, you must invest something, and the military expenses of the garrisons alone are a large amount of money every year, so that at least for the last five years, the taxes collected in these areas will not be able to cover the expenses of administrative officials, civil servants and garrisons, and the central government will have to fill some holes every year to sustain it.

Another point is that a large number of garrisons in these areas will inevitably reduce the number of troops used by Western Qin to continue the expedition, but if the number of garrisons is reduced and there is a fear of instability in these areas, more rebellions will need to be suppressed after the rebellion, and military expenditure will also be a large burden.

After careful consideration, Zhao Ziliang still decided to adopt the method in the Persian region, using the servant army to assist the Western Qin standing army in garrisoning, and the servant army was transferred from other places, and never used the local servant army, so as to prevent the local opposition forces from colluding with the servant army to launch a rebellion. In this way, a considerable part of the standing army could be withdrawn for the continuation of the expedition.

As for the matter of attacking North Africa, Zhao Ziliang decided to let Bai Xiaode be the commander after weighing, with Ma Sui and Wei Gao as deputies, let Li Muchen be the supervisor of the army, and temporarily appointed Bai Xiaode as the governor of Sinai.

The edict of Bai Xiaode has been sent to Baghdad, but Zhao Ziliang is already preparing to lead the Dragon Guard army back to Xinjing, but at this time Li Muchen reported to Zhao Ziliang: "The king, the Empress of the Eastern Roman Empire, Irina, sent someone to say that she is going to come to Jerusalem to meet the Holy Land, and she also hopes to meet with the king to discuss the development of relations between the two countries, but I am afraid that you will not be able to leave in a short time!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was stunned for a moment, his expression stunned: "Are you sure that she is the empress of the Eastern Roman Empire and not the emperor?" ”

Li Muchen said: "Of course it's the queen, this is the handwritten letter of Queen Irina sent by their messenger, with Queen Irina's signature and seal on it!" ”

Zhao Ziliang took the letter with a complicated expression, only to see that the words on the letter were written in Greek, which is not surprising, the Eastern Roman Empire officially used Greek as the official language, and the upper officials and nobles were proud to be able to speak Greek.

Zhao Ziliang returned it to Li Muchen, "Nian Nian!" ”

"Yes!" Li Muchen took the letter and read it from beginning to end.

After listening to this, Zhao Ziliang asked: "Do you say that the purpose of Irina's visit to Jerusalem this time is to make a pilgrimage, or to meet with King Gu to discuss relations between the two countries?" ”

Li Muchen said: "King, if Jerusalem is now under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Roman Empire, if she comes to make a pilgrimage, Weichen will not feel strange at all, Jerusalem has been controlled by our army, but she wants to come on a pilgrimage, this seems to be a little unreasonable, no one will believe that the real purpose of her coming here is to make a pilgrimage, why did she go earlier?" Therefore, Weichen thought that the purpose of her coming to Jerusalem must have been to meet with the king, and that the pilgrimage was nothing more than an excuse to make an illusion to the world! ”

Zhao Ziliang listened to Li Muchen's analysis and nodded: "Your analysis is reasonable, but the Lone King has no friendship with this Irina, and she has never met, even if she wants to come here to fall in love with the Lone King, I'm afraid it's impossible, right?" ”

The ministers next to him couldn't help laughing, but they said in their hearts that the king was not ashamed, and this kind of thing could be said.

Li Muchen said with a smile: "The king is so interested, didn't Queen Irina say it in the letter?" She came here to meet with the king to discuss the development of relations between the two countries! ”

Zhao Ziliang shook his head and said: "There is really no one in the Eastern Roman Empire, and he actually sent a woman to talk to King Gu to discuss the development of relations between the two countries, wouldn't Leo IV feel humiliated?" ”

Li Muchen said: "This is really incredible, even if the Eastern Roman Empire wants to use beauty tricks on the king, it can't let the queen come, this cost is too big, right?" Maybe there's something hidden in it! ”

Zhao Ziliang said with a smile: "Maybe Li Qing has read the history books of the Roman Empire and Besli (ancient China's name for ancient Egypt)?" Do you know the account of the last queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Besri? ”

Li Muchen's eyes lit up after hearing this, "What the king is talking about is Cleopatra, the last queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty and known as Besri Cleopatra?" ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded: "Yes, it's her!" ”

The two are talking about the well-known "Cleopatra" Cleopatra, who is undoubtedly the focus of the peerless diva in ancient Egypt, and people can hear her gossip news every day, she not only temporarily preserved a dynasty with her peerless beauty, intelligent mind and superb skill, but also played the two kings of the Roman Empire, Caesar and Antony, between applause, so that they fell under the pomegranate skirt and were willing to serve it.

Li Muchen was suddenly shocked that his eyes widened like bull's eyes, and his mouth grew up, "Could it be that this Irina is comparable to Cleopatra?" ”

Zhao Ziliang said: "Judging from the lonely king, Irina's intelligence, beauty and wrists are only afraid that they are not under the queen!" It's not under the lord of the Wu Zhou Dynasty (Wu Zetian)! ”

Li Muchen suddenly gasped, speaking of Wu Zetian, no one doesn't know who she is, speaking of her scheming methods, she can be called the first woman in ancient China, her appearance can be said to be beautiful, but it cannot be called peerless.

In Li Muchen's opinion, a woman whose intelligence and skills are no less than Wu Zetian's, and whose appearance far surpasses Wu Zetian's is really terrifying.

Zhao Ziliang knew that this Empress Irina began to be regent after the death of Leo IV, which lasted for seventeen years, and then she deposed her son Constantine VI and became emperor herself, which lasted for five years, and was overthrown by the courtiers in 802 AD. In fact, since Leo IV ascended the throne as emperor, she has been influencing the political landscape of the Eastern Roman Empire, Leo IV was able to ascend the throne as emperor, she did a lot of homework and advice behind the scenes, Leo IV was emperor, her influence on the Eastern Roman Empire was everywhere, and after Leo IV's death, she was even more single-handedly covered in the Eastern Roman Empire.

Zhao Ziliang put one hand on the table and kept knocking, knocked for a while, stopped and asked, "Li Qing, why do you think Irina suddenly came to Jerusalem to meet the Lone King?" ”

Li Muchen said: "Great King, if Wei Chen did not make a mistake in judgment, it is very likely that our troop movement in Armenia has caused uneasiness among the top leaders of the Eastern Roman Empire, Wei Chen has calculated, our strength in Armenia and the Caucasus has increased to about 30,000 people, which is enough for the number of a legion, this is a standing army, none of them are servant armies, this military force is very much under pressure on the Eastern Roman Empire, especially in this sensitive period, the Bolgars have just withdrawn not long ago, The Eastern Roman Empire is in ruins, and if we fight at this time, the Eastern Roman Empire will definitely be greatly damaged! Queen Irina must be extremely confident when she came this time, in front of such a peerless beauty with superb skills and intelligence, it is really hard to say whether the king can hold it! ”

"Hahaha······ Li Qing, you are fighting the army of the lonely king! Zhao Ziliang pointed at Li Muchen and laughed, and said with a smile: "This war is over, this king is already planning to return to Xinjing, and I, Western Qin, have no plans to start a full-scale war with the Eastern Roman Empire for the time being, why should the lone king take it?" Not enough, as you said, Irina must have a plan to come this time, what can she plot against the Lone King? If she wants the lone king to withdraw from the army, promise her that is, if she exchanges other conditions, the lone king will laugh and accept it, which is equivalent to picking it up for nothing, don't do it in vain, what do you say? ”

Li Muchen breathed a sigh of relief and said: "It's good that the king knows, the ministers are worried that the king and the hero will be sad and beautiful, don't follow in the footsteps of Caesar and Anthony back then, be confused by Irina, and be at the mercy of her!" ”

Zhao Ziliang smiled: "You haven't seen a woman when you are the lonely king, or what?" Forget it, you better hurry up and arrange the reception, do it properly, don't let people laugh at me Xiqin doesn't know etiquette! ”

"Yes!"

In Constantinople, Leo IV, who was lying on a hospital bed, had not seen Irina for many days, and he asked the maid who had fed the medicine: "What is the queen doing these days?" Why hasn't it been so long? ”

The maid hurriedly put down the medicine bowl and replied with sincere fear: "Your Majesty, I am just a maid, how can I know the whereabouts of the queen, I don't dare to inquire." The queen hasn't come for so long, she must be dealing with government affairs, right? ”

Leo IV frowned and said, "No, no matter how busy she is, she won't have time to come here to see me!" I command you to inquire and see what the Queen is up to! ”

The maid had no choice but to agree: "Yes, my majesty! ”

After much inquiry, and after a lot of trouble, after more than ten days, the maid finally got the news she wanted to know, and immediately reported it to Leo IV.

When Leo IV heard this, he was furious: "What? She actually went to see the King of Western Qin? How could she do that? Didn't she know that doing so would provoke criticism from the court and the people? It's too dangerous for her to do this, the king of Western Qin will definitely be unfavorable to her, change my clothes immediately, and I will convene the ministers to discuss! ”

Leo IV dragged his sick body to the Great Hall and was furious with the courtiers: "What do you all do? Are they all a bunch of stupid pigs? How could the queen be allowed to meet the King of Western Qin? Immediately send my will, order the Anatonian military districts to send troops to the border, and confront the Western Qin army on the border, if the king of Western Qin dares to be unfavorable to the empress, immediately send troops to attack, I will make him pay a heavy price! ”