On May 6, 1910, King Edward VII of Great Britain and Emperor of India died suddenly of pneumonia at Buckingham Palace. Although he had ruled England for only nine years, when he was at his funeral, there were nine emperors marching through the procession on horseback - what a magnificent spectacle!

In addition, there are five crown princes, more than forty royal nobles, seven queens, and a number of special envoys from non-imperial countries - representing almost all the more than seventy independent states on the planet today!

I saw these princes, nobles, dignitaries, and dignitaries, all dressed in colorful colors, all of which were purple and red, and royal blue and green. They rode in three rows, in one of London's most imposing avenues, and in the mild spring sun, their feathered helmets, gold silk garments, crimson ribbons, and jeweled medals glittered without resistance.

The gathering of dignitaries from so many countries on a similar occasion can be said to be the first time in history that it is unprecedented, and perhaps, the last.

As the coffin left the palace, one of London's most prominent symbols, the large bulky bell on the Tower of Parliament, rang out with a dull chime, nine times.

The sun in the world is slowly rising, but the sun that never sets in the empire has gradually set in the west-Liu Ping, the prince of Wurui, who is the representative of the Chinese Empire in the team, said in his heart.

Two days ago, 19-year-old Liu Ping arrived in Britain by airship accompanied by Zhang Zhigao, the prince of Zhengde, who was among the five elders; following last year's Dahua Airbus' "Ao Guang" airship completed its epochal round-the-world voyage in 18 days, passenger airship routes from China to European countries were opened one after another.

At this moment, the solemn crowd in mourning clothes did not focus on this young prince from the far east. The emperors, the emperors who dominated the continent, or rather, the emperors who turned the wheel of fate on Earth, were the most eye-catching of this long funeral procession.

At the center of the line was the newly ascended King George V, the second son of the late King, whose full name was George Frederick Ernst Albert Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who was forty-five years old, and whose German surname shows the island's royal family's connection to the European continent.

To his left is the Duke of Connaught, the king's only surviving brother, George's dear uncle.

The figure on the right is the "leader of the new crusades" who has often been unhappy with Britain in recent years, the German Emperor Wilhelm II. The Emperor, riding a grey horse, wearing a crimson British Field Marshal's uniform and holding a Field Marshal's Scepter, wore an overly serious, harsh, and even somewhat neurotic expression on his world-famous bearded face.

William was riding alongside his cousin George, passing the 1st Royal Heavy Cavalry Regiment as Honorary Colonel and saluting the flag, and correspondingly, two years before George was made Duke of York, in 1890, during his visit to Berlin, George had been conferred the title of Honorary Colonel of the 1st Prussian Guards Regiment by his cousin Wilhelm.

This is Europe, this is the European royal family.

They were followed by George's two uncles, King Frederick of Denmark and King George of Greece, and his cousin, King Haakon of Norway.

In the third row are three other European monarchs: King Alfonso of Spain, King Manuel of Portugal and King Ferdinand of Bulgaria with a Muslim silk turban. The maverick king of Europe, who not only proclaimed himself Tsar, but is also said to have searched for the full costume and emblem of the ancient Byzantine Emperor in order to dress it in case he would one day reunite the Byzantine territory under his staff, a move that would have made them haunted if not despised by the previous monarchs, who were also the Ninety-Fives.

The ninth monarch in the middle of the fourth row, King Albert of Belgium, although he was extremely imposing and adept at riding, was said to have not liked the glitz and pomp of royal etiquette, and he was always cramped and absent-minded in such a procession, and was naturally ignored by the audience who were keen on the appearance of heroism. At this time, he was only thirty-five years old, and he had only been on the throne for one year.

Albert rode on the right and was the heir of the elderly Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Tall, fat, dressed in a black corset and feathered green feathers on his helmet, he was the source of European tragedy in an alternate history, and it is unknown what his fate would be in the uncertain future.

To Albert's left is another crown prince from the Islamic world, Prince Yusuf, heir to the Sultan of Turkey, who wears gold and silver in luxury.

Three royal nobles from the East are in the fifth row: Liu Ping, Prince of Wurui, the eldest son of the Emperor of China; Prince Fushimi Miya, brother of Emperor Meiji of Japan; and Grand Duke Mikhail, brother of the Russian Tsar.

Liu Ping was sandwiched between two royal nobles who could be his uncle at the same age, and as the youngest representative of the team, he did not have the slightest panic and uneasiness, and he was probably muttering in his heart, "It's not like that".

Why should he let himself be present and not his sister, who is the crown prince, to attend such a grand scene? Liu Ping didn't want to think about it, since it was his father's order, he just did it, besides, just having the opportunity to fly to Europe, thousands of miles away, had already made his sister Yuchun, who was left at home, so envious that she was about to cry.

Liu Ping didn't like the tall, heavy white feather hat on his head, he loved the leather flight cap with earmuffs fluttering around, and then put the goggles on the top of the leather hat, is there anything more handsome than this? However, I am afraid that there will be no chance to combine it with his beloved flying cap for a long time to come, and the prince stares helplessly at the Turkish cap and shiny feathered helmet in front of him dangling and swaying as the horse's back undulates.

The procession slowly advanced, and behind Liu Ping was the brother of the King of Italy, Duke Augusta, wearing a sky blue gold-trimmed shirt and an emerald green feather helmet. To the left of the duke is Prince Karl, brother of the King of Sweden; On the right is Prince Henry, the husband of the Queen of the Netherlands.

They were followed by the crown princes of Serbia, Romania and Negoro, as well as a group of small German royal families: the Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Schleswig-Holstein, Waldeck-Pyrmont, the Grand Dukes of Coburg, Saxe-Coburg and Sax-Coburg-Gotha (note that this is where the surnames of the British royal family come from today), the Grand Dukes of Saxony, Hesse, Württemberg, Baden and Bavaria. In addition, there was a prince of Siam, a prince of Persia, five princes of the former royal family of Orleans in France, and the brother of the governor of Egypt who wore a golden tassel Turkish cap.

In this splendid procession were three men dressed in civilian clothes: the Swiss Special Envoy, Mr. Gaston Karan, the French Foreign Minister, Mr. Pichon, and the US Special Envoy and former President, Mr. Theodore Roosevelt.

Edward VII, the great monarch to whom heads of state gathered in unprecedented pomp, was known as the "uncle of Europe". He was not only the uncle of Kaiser Wilhelm II, but also the uncle of Tsar Nicholas II, whose wife, Alexandra's sister Mary, was Tsar Nicholas's grandmother. His niece, Alex, was the Tsar's empress; His daughter Maud was the queen of Norway; Another niece, Ena, was the queen of Spain; The third niece, Mary, is also about to become queen of Romania. His wife's royal family, in addition to occupying the Danish throne, also gave birth to the current tsar for Russia, and provided kings for Greece and Norway. As for the other relatives, the descendants of each of the nine children of his old mother, Queen Victoria, cockroaches filled the courts of Europe.

Therefore, purely from the point of view of family relatives, the major royal families in Europe are basically a big family.

Drums and flutes sounded, and the coffin was carried out of the solemn hall of Westminster Abbey by twenty sailors dressed in blue and white navy shirts and Panama hats.

Suddenly there was a terrifying flash of sword light in the sunlight, and it was the heavy cavalry in high, shiny helmets with sideburns standing in salute.

With four shrill whistles, the sailors carried the coffin onto a purple, red, and white gun carriage – what a great military tradition?

On either side were dense, silent crowds, and the funeral procession moved slowly between two red cordons of Royal Guard soldiers.

The hearse was towed by the British Mounted Artillery, and was accompanied by sixty-three attendant lieutenants of the late Majesty, either colonels or captains—five dukes, four marquises, and thirteen counts.

This is England, where nobility, titles, status, and time-indelever traditions permeate every corner of high society.

Three British field marshals: Lord Kitchener, Lord Roberts and Sir Evelyn Wood rode side by side, and behind them were six field marshals.

Then there was Sir John Fisher, the former First Sea Lord, a close friend of King Edward, who was known as the "Father of the Dreadnought". This man has a quick temper, a strange temperament, and likes to be arbitrary, so his popularity - everyone can see it.

After that, one after another, a platoon of richly dressed infantry cavalry, either with spears or standing knives, marched neatly to escort the hearse forward. Among them were the bearskin-clad Kolstrim Army, the skirt-clad Gordon Highlanders, the helmet-to-eye Guards Cavalry, the red-uniformed hussars, the lancers with spears, and the Elizabethan royal musketeers, the prestigious light and heavy cavalry detachments from Germany, Russia, and Austria, and the cavalry units of other nations where Edward had served as an honorary commander—such a grand military spectacle did not seem ironic to the funeral of a man known as the "peacemaker."

Behind them came a grand procession that instantly reminded you of the Middle Ages: heralds in medieval fat heraldic robes, squires with silver staffs, royal attendants in red and yellow tassels, Scottish archers (with bows and daggers that could be sent into the museum), judges in wigs and black robes, chief justices of the High Court in crimson vestments, bishops in purple robes, royal guards in black velvet hats and Elizabethan trim collars, and a team of trumpeters dressed in black and white squares.

Then there is the horseback procession of the imperial nobles who have been described in detail just now.

Behind the distinguished knights was a carriage in a glass carriage, carrying the newly widowed Empress Dowager and her sister the Empress Dowager of Russia, both of whom wore black veils in front of their faces, and their expressions could not be seen clearly.

Then there were twelve ordinary black chariots, carrying queens, noblewomen, and other princes and dignitaries who did not ride horses.

Walking along Whitehall, Boulevard, Piccadilly and Hyde Park to Paddington Station, the long funeral procession slowly walked slowly, and Liu Ping suddenly felt that such a funeral was too face-saving.

The band of the Royal Guards Cavalry played a funeral song that Liu Ping had never heard before, but the mournful melody had nothing to do with him, Liu Ping absentmindedly pulled the reins, and his mind suddenly broke into the forbidden area.

Will my father's funeral be as grand and dignified as it is today? How many eminent and noble people from this earth will come to pay their respects? Will the King of England come? Will the German Emperor come?

Could it be that it is possible to become a great empire on which the sun never sets, such as Britain?

Simple thoughts, gloomy dissipation of lamentation, Liu Ping looked at the rice flag flying high in the distance, and secretly shouted to the altar of the god of inner impulses: Your empire is probably running out, and our empire will really not fall, wait and see!

When he returned to the hotel after the funeral, Liu Ping was greeted by the terrifying enthusiastic eyes of the hotel waitress - hey, this lady, saliva is flowing out!

"Your Highness has worked hard, please go back to your room and rest for a while, it's lunchtime soon." Zhang Zhigao, the accompanying patriarch, said with concern.

"No, I'm not tired yet, why don't you talk to Yuan Lao Zhang with me."

Zhang Zhigao readily agreed.

The two sat down in the small living room of the suite, and the waitress in the white apron served English tea.

"What does Your Highness want to talk about?" Zhang Zhigao habitually threw two sugar cubes into the tea.

The young eyes flashed with enthusiasm and intellectuality: "Today, I saw the British and German monarchs walking together, looking like brothers, and later the German emperor rushed to open the door for the Empress Dowager, I thought it was very interesting." ”

"What's a funny way?"

Liu Ping spread his hands: "The year before last, they attacked each other in public because of the Indian arms case, last year they scolded each other because of the uneven distribution of spoils in Abyssinia, and recently they quarreled even more because Germany wanted to intervene in the Persian revolution. ”

Zhang Zhigao took a sip of tea and nodded with a smile: "Your Highness, this world is like this, attacking each other is because of national interests, and it is also the need of national interests to be courteous to each other, scolding you is not necessarily because he hates you, being good to you does not necessarily mean loving you, personal perception does not matter, everything is based on interests." ”