In a gloomy room, a huddled shadow leaned motionless against the corner.

There was a shudder, and the shadow shook slightly, then suddenly stretched out, revealing Caderon's face in the darkness, first dazed, and then nervous, as if remembering something.

The pain in his head reminded him of what had happened before, and he knew that he had been attacked, and he didn't know who the attacker was or where it was.

However, the letter he snatched was still tightly clutched in his hand, and the letter had been crumpled into a long strip, but he refused to relax like a man in the water grasping the last straw.

It was dark, but the silhouette of the surroundings could be faintly seen through the light overhead.

The room was dim, the roof was low, and most importantly, the room seemed to be rocking back and forth, and the sound of people coming and going overhead on the "roof" made Caderon quickly understand that he was in a boat.

He immediately became nervous.

Caderon had heard about the slave trade, which was not the preserve of Europeans, and that some courts in the East also needed a large number of white slaves, who were more popular if they were young men and women of outstanding appearance, and most of the origins of these slaves were illegally obtained by slave traders through various means.

Caderon knew that he was beautiful, because he was once considered the favorite of Alexander VI, and thought that if he was kidnapped and sold by such a slave trader, it would not be a good outcome for him.

Cadron struggled at once, and then he realized that he was not tied, and he noticed the letter in his hand, which suddenly gave him an even more terrible suspicion, perhaps better than being abducted by slave traders.

There was a creaking sound from the deck overhead, and a light came in, and then a man descended the narrow wooden ladder into the cabin.

The light was dim, so Cadron couldn't see the man until he was very close to him, but to his disappointment, he didn't know the man.

"Who are you, and why are you keeping me here?"

Although he knew that it was unlikely to get a response, Caderon still couldn't help but ask, but the other party really didn't seem to want to answer, this person just looked at him coldly, just when Caderon thought that he would not get an answer, this person suddenly spoke: "You better be honest, because we have a long way to go, and I won't be polite if you cause me trouble." ”

"Where are we going, where are you going to take me, did that Cambrai make you do this?" Caderon asked nervously, and he saw the man take a step closer to him, and he couldn't help but shrink into the corner, and then he noticed the cup in the man's hand and a few black-looking dry breads.

"Eat, I don't want you to die on the road," the man narrowed his eyes slightly as he said this, "You know that you are very valuable." ”

Cadron blankly took the food from the man's hand, and looked at the back of the man ignoring him and leaving, Caderon was a little confused.

He began to think that he had been kidnapped by slave traders, but then he thought that it had fallen into Alexander's hands, but now he didn't know what was going on, he seemed to have been sold, but what was the sentence on the letter he was holding?

Caderon looked at the letter that he had crumpled into shape, and slowly unfolded it, and in the dim light he saw again the words that made his heart beat: "How does God destroy man?" ”

Who was this man, where was he going, and what was it all for, Cadron took a bite of the hard bread, and listened to the shouts of the sailors who came and went overhead, and he gradually became sure of one thing, the ship he was on had already left Valencia, and now no one knew where he was, and he did not know what was waiting for him.

The disappearance of the pope's retinue, Pelotto Cadherón, was more or less a big deal, and those who heard the news quickly began to speculate about who had kidnapped the pope's retinue for what purpose, whether it was someone who was going to do something to him just after the pope arrived in Valencia, or maybe the pope had already begun to make a move before anyone reacted?

Speculation was rife circulating in Valencia, and people wondered what Alexander VI's reaction was, and surprisingly, the pope did not seem to be very concerned about the disappearance of his retinue.

On the contrary, the Duchess of Gandino seemed to be very concerned about this matter, she sent people to inquire about the news, and at the same time reported the matter to the town hall very solemnly, so that the Valencia city hall had to send people to help find the whereabouts of the pope's entourage, but many people remembered Giovanni's death at the beginning, and then thought about the favor of many popes said to be in Cadron, and couldn't help but secretly think that maybe the Borgia family suffered some curse?

When Alexander visited again, Alexander VI was still waiting for him in the rose garden, and when he saw Alexander coming, the Pope looked at him from a distance, and he was thoughtful until he came to him.

"Did you do the Cadron thing?" The Pope asked, "Is it because he is in your way?" ”

"Your Majesty, maybe you already know ......" Alexander looked at the Pope and did not continue.

"I know of course that he is Maria's lover," said Alexander VI dismissively, "it is not a big deal, just as you are Lucrezia's lover." ”

"Your Majesty."

Hearing Alexander's slightly disgruntled tone, the Pope smiled: "You may be upset when I say that, I know it's a bit too much to compare you to Cadron, but do you really think that he is getting in the way of that Tiego?" ”

Alexander did not deny it, seeing that the Pope seemed to be slightly disappointed, he felt that it was better to talk about it now, after all, Caderon had been sent away, and believed that it would not be long before news about him came, and then there would be nothing to hide.

"Your Majesty, can you tell me why you left Caderon in the first place, knowing that even his father, Jem, is of little use if he is alive now."

Alexander's words surprised the Pope, who looked at Alexander in surprise, but then slowly leaned back as if relieved, leaning against the pillars of the gazebo.

"That's right, yes, that's the only way to explain everything," he muttered softly, then looked up at Alexander, "How do you know, I didn't think anyone was paying attention to this, you must know that even those who paid attention to Jem at the beginning only paid attention to him, and no one would notice the woman who sent him to him, let alone a child who might not have existed." ”

"But in spite of this, you still bet on this child, didn't you think that in a few years even Jem himself would no longer be useful?"

"Of course I know, but like your Sister Alfort, who knows if she's useful," said the Pope, looking at Alexander with a slightly mocking look, "and your uncle, Count Mordiglo, I don't know where he is now, but I'm sure he must be smiling happily, you probably think that he had ambitions to get his hands on the throne of Castiria from the beginning, but in fact he may not even have the ambition to unify Sicily, he just wants to keep Naples, And by giving the couple some trouble you can probably slow down Ferdinand's annexation of Naples, which is probably what he wanted to do in the first place. As for the future, I can only say that human ambition is endless. ”

"So Caderon is just a dispensable bargaining chip for you?"

"A chip that may never be useful, but can also serve an unexpected purpose." The Pope corrected Alexander's words, and then he gently spread his hand and said to Alexander in a gesture that he had no reservations at all, "Now I have no secrets to you, so I think you can trust me completely." ”

"I hope it is as you say, Your Majesty, I hope so." Alexander looked at the Pope and nodded slowly, but he knew that this was only the beginning, and it was too early to say what it would mean to work with Alexander VI.

In the "Valencia Office of the East India Company", Tiego looked at Alexander with a nervous expression, he guessed that his personal relationship with Maria de Luna would not be hidden for a long time, but he really did not expect that the Pope was not only aware of the past affairs of Maria de Luna and Caderon, but even that he had guessed his relationship with Maria de Luna in this short period of time.

"So be careful, Tiego, I think you're a little proud now," Alexander reminded, "never forget who you're dealing with, and if you're careless, any one of them can tear you to shreds, including your Duchess." ”

Tiego tried to tell the difference, but he didn't know where to start, he admitted that he was indeed a little carried away during this time, and sometimes he even had the illusion that he was the king of the darkness, but now he was told that the things he was proud of were clear to others, maybe they didn't know his true purpose and details, but just the exposed things were enough to deal a fatal blow to him.

This forced Tiego to face the reality seriously, and at the same time began to calm down and reflect on his previous self.

"But don't blame yourself, that Cadron won't come back, and all you have to do is calm down and continue to complete your mission."

Alexander comforted Tiego appropriately, he didn't want to lose Tiego's confidence by hitting him too hard, after all, in Alexander's mind, Tiego was the best choice to take charge of the colony in the future.

Alexander had a general idea of what his men would do for the future.

The Duchy of Rome Thessia was now beginning to take shape, and whether he wanted it or not, he was under great pressure to continue to use the bureaucratic system dominated by the old nobles of Montina, and it was precisely because he still used these people that the Duchy of Rome and Thesia was able to form a national framework so quickly.

This may sound paradoxical, but it is actually the only way to go, but it is the main reason why Alexander would rather take the risk of confronting the French head-on, because the creation of a state is often accompanied by a series of wars, some of which are aimed at establishing his international position externally, and some of which are aimed at reasserting order and rules internally in order and rules caused by war.

Now it seems that the effect he needs is not bad, although the forces represented by the old nobles of Montina are still an important part of the Duchy of Rome and Thesia, but because of the war, Alexander's new military aristocracy is gradually and rapidly infiltrating every corner of the duchy in a more acceptable way.

This approach was successful in Roman Thesia, and Alexander was planning to gradually establish the rule of the future "Kingdom of Italy" in this way.

But he didn't plan to do the same in Iberia.

Obviously, whether it is Castile or Aragon, there is a great conflict between the old and the new nobility within the two countries, which is why after the establishment of the Kingdom of Spain, the Spaniards have plundered the resources of the New World in an almost crazy and irrational way.

The Spanish intelligents were not unaware of the short-sightedness of the colony, and the destructive plundering of the colonies would only lead to growing hostility between the natives and the mother country, yet the Spanish royal family continued to support the aristocracy in doing what they wanted.

Alexander believed that their purpose was only to satisfy the greed for wealth of the old and new aristocracy to ease and transfer the contradictions between them, and that the occasional participation in the wars for European hegemony could do the same.

This seemed like a good idea, and it did work a lot in the beginning, but they didn't expect that the rise of the British at sea would undermine their calculations, and that the great hegemony that the British had established on the seas would completely obsolute the Spanish colonial era.

Alexander did not want to face such a problem when he stepped onto the stage of Spanish history, so he preferred to provoke Manuel's ambition and make what is now Portugal a fierce rival of Spain at sea.

Only in this way will he be able to set the future Spain on a path very different from history.

The title of the Empire on which the sun never sets is an intoxicating glory, but if this glory is only based on robber-like plunder, then the final result will only become an afterglow of memories and emotions for future generations.

Alexander didn't know what the end result would be for the nation he would build, but he could try to avoid the lessons of history, so that now Iberia would have to go through a nirvana-like test before taking that crucial step toward the threshold of the Age of Discovery.

At the beginning of August, an envoy who had arrived in Valencia with a merchant ship brought several letters from Italy.

The letters were meant to be sent to Andalusia, but each letter from Italy had to be transited through Valencia first, and the letters were transcribed into as many copies as they were sent to Alexander's possible location, and according to the rules established by Alexander himself, the cipher and decoding index used for each letter were different, so there was no need to worry about being deciphered, even if they fell into the hands of someone else.

The people of this era did not understand the importance of keeping secrets, and the secrets in Alexander's hands were really not to be sloppy, especially the letters from Josha, and it was hard for him to imagine what kind of uproar would be caused if the letters she wrote to him were made public.

"Although I don't want to admit it, your wife's performance in this war is quite satisfactory, at least much better than another woman who is good for nothing but pleasing men," Alexander rubbed his somewhat aching head and continued to look at it" There are now several different speculations about what the French will do next, and there are also different opinions on the strategy we should adopt next. But my dear brother, although I already know what you are going to do next, I would like to ask again if you have decided to do so, knowing that it would probably mean serious damage to our relationship with our current ally, so I would like to get confirmation from you again, after all, it is so important to us. ”

Alexander looked at the letter and groaned slightly, as Zhusa said in the letter, even if the planned strategy after the war had been formulated in advance, Alexander still had to seriously consider whether he should continue to carry out the plan he had set before in this rapidly changing situation.

The French suffered an unexpected blow in Central Italy, and the French army, which had been almost completely annihilated, including the French king, was now facing a huge problem.

At the end of July, all sorts of bad news from mainland France finally reached Louis XII.

Louis XII was deeply shocked by the accidental shelling of castles off the coast of France by British warships.

Even if the English entered the war in Italy and attacked the French supply lines at sea did not touch Louis XII's sensitive nerves, the attack on the French mainland by the British fleet shook him completely.

The shadow of the Hundred Years' War still hung over the French, so the actions of the British fleet irritated the French even more.

During this time, Louis XII was deeply disturbed by the riots that had taken place in France for many years, but in fact he had only been on the throne for less than two years, and he had not even entered Paris as king, and the turmoil in various parts of France could not help but disturb him at this time.

However, the conditions proposed by the Holy Alliance were too harsh, especially since the Neapolitans actually wanted the French army to dismantle all the fortress artillery between Piedmond and Nice, so that Louis XII felt as if he had an invisible noose around his neck.

Moreover, perhaps having heard of the Neapolitan conditions, and the Austrians also offered to sell them a certain amount of copper raw materials or articles of copper at very low prices every year, so that Louis XII felt their deep malice.

Louis XII had calculated what would happen if he agreed to these terms of the Holy Alliance, and concluded that the French army would be able to maintain a barely self-sustaining artillery capacity for at least 10 years, and would not be able to resume artillery production quickly.

This meant that for a long time, the French army would be very passive on the battlefield because of the lack of powerful offensive weapons.

The Holy Alliance's rationale for this condition was unusually clear: "This was done to ensure that the French army would not become a threat during the armistice." ”

Naturally, Louis XII could not accept such conditions, and the negotiations reached an impasse, and the frequent bad news from China urged Louis XII to get out of the quagmire of today's Italy as soon as possible.

The Emperor's predicament was evident, and in the letter he even described in great detail how Louis XII rebuked his generals, even to such right-hand men as Charlain and Borwicken.

"So brother, do you really think it's necessary for us to continue with the plan we made earlier? The fact that the French nowadays are only thinking about getting out of trouble makes me wonder if they still have the courage. ”

Looking at the questioning in the letter, Alexander thought for a moment and picked up the pen and began to reply to the letter: "My sister, I am glad that you and your sister-in-law can get along so well, this war has made us closer, and I sometimes even hope that the war will not end, because it can solve us a lot of troubles, both in public and private......"

At this point, Alexander paused and smiled, he knew that Jossa should be able to understand what he meant, and only think of the look with which she might be angry at the sight of this, Alexander's smile became soft.

"As for the future strategy against the French, I think it is necessary to remind you of the purpose of our previous plan, we should be soberly aware that the war in Rome is by no means a separate war, the conflict between Manuel and Isabella is already on the verge of breaking out, so we need the French to play their due role at this time, so we must continue according to the plan we have made before......"

Alexander barely left the "East India Company Valencia Office" for a whole day, he needed to read a lot of letters, and he needed to reply to many more.

Then he found that neither Shosha, Barendi, nor Lucrezia seemed to have the same habit, that is, they liked to observe and describe their lovesickness and love for him in those serious letters, and he did not know if they intended to do so, but they were happy to see this kind of competition that pleased him.

In August, just as the Holy Alliance and the French were at a stalemate and negotiations reached a stalemate, the Queen of Naples, Jossa Cosenza Astamara, suddenly reached an agreement with King Louis XII of France in the name of Naples and Roman Thesia.

A new military alliance was born.