After sending the letter to the imperial capital, Rostislav thought it would take a long time for him to receive a response.
The Imperial City is always full of things to do, and we don't know how many requests for support we have to deal with every day. It's normal for the waiting time to be longer.
In addition, it would take a lot of time on the road, and it would be best to wait for more than half a year. Rostislav only hoped that the envoy from the imperial capital would arrive at the moment he sent troops.
This experience is also the result of many interactions between Ross and the Imperial City. After all, the Church of Ross is to a large extent a place where the Imperial City exiles losers. The Imperial City is more or less indifferent to matters regarding Ross.
The Ross Church could only endure this. From this aspect, the Ross Church was in a very difficult situation. On the one hand, it faced various compromises required by the princes and the people, and on the other hand, it was not taken seriously by the imperial capital.
However, if history develops according to normal time, the imperial capital will find that the Ross Church, which they originally looked down on, will become an indispensable and important component of the imperial capital, and even get into disputes over going to Ross to make money.
But that’s for the future, let’s talk about it now.
What was unexpected this time was that the speed of the imperial capital was much faster than before.
Just six months after Rostislav sent the letter, that is, half a year later, the imperial capital dispatched a team to the remote northeastern Rus'.
So in July 1062, Rostislav was standing in front of the city gate of Moscow, waiting for the team from the imperial capital. Next to him was the other host of this meeting, Adam, both of whom were wearing their most gorgeous clothes.
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The Prince of Moscow did not wear a hat, but he wore a golden chain mail under his luxurious fur cloak, which was enough to convey the prestige of the prince.
Under him are a group of majestic red war horses, and the war horses are also covered with a thick blue linen horse coat.
Adam wore a robe embroidered with various gorgeous animals, a luxury product from Persia, and his hands were covered with gold and silver rings, showing his wealth.
He has a lot of gold and silver jewelry on his head, which makes his face even more beautiful. If you look at this face alone, many people would even think that it is a girl.
Although his face was a bit effeminate, and it was difficult to hide his temperament even when he was riding a majestic war horse, his temperament did not drop at all. In the eyes of the people, Adam's body was filled with the majesty of a ruler.
This is actually the result of the training of Rostislav and Zoe. Anyway, the prince of Moscow has always believed in a saying that kings are not born. It doesn’t matter whether you are a king or not. The key is whether you look like a king. As long as you look like a king, then
Nothing matters.
In order to set off the power of these two rulers, there were naturally armored warriors all around. Needless to say, Rostislav's subordinates were never short of armor, and many of them even wore uniform styles of armor.
Adam's side was a bit shabby. Bulgar warriors with different armors stood there. Even though they were all in iron armor, compared with Rostislav's team...
Although it was not unimpressive, it just looked a bit low in momentum, but neither Rostislav nor Adam cared much about it.
In front of them were the clergy of the Moscow Church. In order to welcome the team from the imperial capital, Bishop Luca brought out all the good things from the Moscow Church.
All kinds of expensive candles are placed beside the road as if they cost nothing, and the air is filled with the smell of high-quality incense. These things are not cheap, because Northeast Russia can hardly produce these, and they can only be used during religious festivals.
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As for the clergy, almost everyone put on embroidered robes, and the various magical instruments in their hands were also made of gold and silver.
Seeing this scene, Rostislav wanted to hit the church, but he quickly suppressed his desire because it was not necessary.
The Moscow church looks so splendid now just because they have squeezed out all the good things they can. As for how rich this church is? I can only wait and see.
As the prince of Moscow, Rostislav was very clear about these.
After the clergy, there were a large number of people watching the excitement. They heard that the legendary envoys from the southern imperial capital were coming, and they all wanted to see the scene in the distance and see what these visitors from the imperial capital were like.
However, almost an hour has passed since the beginning of the wait, and the team from the Imperial Capital has not yet arrived, which caused a lot of commotion in the crowd. Some impatient people are now wondering whether the Imperial Capital envoy is fake.
However, Rostislav was not shaken by this, because the imperial team had previously sent an envoy to inform Rostislav that they needed to change clothes, so it would be delayed for a while.
"Coming! Coming, coming."
Finally, with the shouts of the people, the Imperial Capital team appeared in front of everyone.
The first thing everyone saw clearly was the purple flag and the Orthodox cross juxtaposed with it. Then, the Imperial Capital team appeared in front of everyone.
The main body of the team were priests wearing black cassocks. They either held gold and silver canes or held gold and silver magic weapons, and marched in an orderly queue.
Many servants scattered among the clergy held flags, with various embroidered flags flying above their heads, forming a colorful sea.
The leader is riding on a horse. His cassock is also black, but there are shawls embroidered with crosses hanging on both sides of his shoulders. As for the pastoral staff in his hand, it is even more carefully carved, showing the technical level of the craftsmen of the imperial capital.
On both sides were escorting warriors. The entire bodies of these armored warriors were wrapped in armor, and they were riding extremely expensive war horses.
There is no doubt that this team shows the majesty of the imperial capital. Look at the gorgeous robes, many of which are made of velvet and silk. As for the textile craftsmanship, it is even harder for Ross to compare.
After this team, there were many people in ragged clothes. These people were pilgrims who followed this distant road. When they saw this huge religious team, they spontaneously followed it. There were even some religious people in it.
Greeks and Bulgarians.
Looking at such a team, Rostislav couldn't help but squint his eyes, because the number of clergymen and their guards who appeared in front of him far exceeded his expectations.
The prince of Moscow thought that there were only a hundred people at most, but what appeared in front of him was clearly three to four hundred, or even five hundred and six hundred. How could there be so many people? The imperial capital must have paid too much attention to them.
Just when Rostislav had this kind of doubt, in front of him, these clergy from the southern imperial capital were already facing Bishop Luca and the others who were welcoming them.
Both parties came forward according to etiquette, and then conducted a ritual exchange in Greek. Rostislav understood what they were saying, which was roughly about identity confirmation, daily greetings and other routines and rituals.
Rostislav has never liked too many complicated ceremonies, but anyway, this is the church's business, this is their internal ceremony, and he is too lazy to care about it, so he can just wait.
However, Rostislav was very surprised to say that Bishop Luca had not been in contact with his southern colleagues for so many years, but he was still so clear about these rituals and did not hesitate to perform them.
Rostislav was not the only one who disliked what he saw. In fact, almost everyone at the scene did so. Most of them could not understand Greek and could only see the priests chattering away.
Rostislav felt bored even if he could understand it, not to mention the audience, who just felt baffled, but the scene was generally satisfactory to them, even though their princes were not that luxurious.
Fortunately, their ceremony did not last long. Then Bishop Luca led the leader of the team in front of Rostislav and Adam. Only then did they see clearly that the leader of the team was a man with black hair and black eyes.
A strong middle-aged man.
"Salute to you, Lord Rostislav, and Lord Adam."
To Rostislav's surprise, the man next spoke in Russian, and it seemed that the man had mastered this language very well.