"I, I don't know anything," the man who was about to speak seemed to change his mind again, he leaned his back hard against the trunk behind him, and looked down at the ground uneasily under Alexander's gaze, "I'm just a worker, I really don't know anything." ”

Alexander frowned, and he looked at the woman with inquiring eyes.

"What are you talking about," the woman squatted down in panic and grabbed her husband's hand and shook it, "Didn't you say that you knew about Colombo, didn't you say that if you said it, you could finish the black-hearted aristocrat who drove you home from the mine, and now why don't you know what you say?" ”

The man angrily shook off the hand that was being grabbed by the woman, then raised his head to look at Alexander and said in a rough voice: "My lord, I don't know anything, don't listen to her, I just talked nonsense because I was driven out by the mine owner." ”

Alexander was really a little annoyed this time, not only did he take a big risk, but he even did not hesitate to let people knock the tail of the tracker unconscious, which was already ready to completely turn his face with Colombo, but this person actually said that he just said a few angry words because of annoyance.

If this was true, then Alexander didn't mind letting him know the consequences of casual nonsense, and he didn't mind using any means to get the person to speak if he was hiding something.

"It seems that someone needs to know what they are doing wrong." Alexander looked at Paolo Busaco next to him, and the silent captain of the guard walked up to the man two steps ahead, he crouched down slightly to look at the man in front of him, and then raised his hand.

"Please, don't," the woman put her arms around the man's neck in panic and pulled him into her arms, "he will say, he is already very sick, and if you beat him again, he will die." ”

The man couldn't stop panting and tried to break out of the woman's arms, but he couldn't muster his strength.

"I used to be a hunter," Paul Busako whispered, "I know how to catch wild beasts, and I know how terrible wounded beasts are, so I can always think of ways to deal with them." Trust me, I have a way to make you miserable but not die. ”

Paul Busako's words made the man's originally ugly face turn earthy, and he looked at Busako's hand in horror, and when he saw Busako's hand fall on his outstretched legs, the man let out a trembling cry of fear: "Don't, please don't do this." ”

The woman rushed forward to stop her, but was immediately held down by the Agri soldier next to her.

"Your legs were broken?"

Paul's voice was not high, but it frightened the man, and he nodded and stared at Paul's hand for fear that his lips were shaking and he couldn't make a sound.

"Say what grown-ups know, or you know what I'm going to do." Paul's voice was still low, but it sounded like the moaning of the devil from hell.

"I really don't know what's going on," said the man, feeling Paul's hand begin to strain, and he continued without waiting for the terrible pain to come, "I only saw some people and things, I only knew that Colombo hid them very tightly, and I didn't know the rest." ”

Alexander motioned for Paul to stop, and asked with a little confusion: "Where are these people and things you are talking about, and why did Colombo hide them?" ”

"I don't know, I just saw it by accident," the man said, looking at Alexander suspiciously, "who are you, my lord, and why do you know this?" ”

"You don't care who I am," Alexander knew what the man was afraid of, and he crouched down and looked at the man, "If you tell me everything you know, I'll let you out of here, and I'll have someone heal your leg, although you may not be able to walk, but if you don't heal it, you may die." ”

The man was still hesitating, and his fear of Colombo made him undetermined for a while, but the woman couldn't bear it anymore, and she immediately kept nodding: "My lord, we will talk, as long as you can help us." As she spoke, she looked at her husband anxiously, "Why don't you say, do you want your legs to rot like this?" ”

The woman's miserable appearance finally moved the man, he gasped violently to calm himself down a little, and then said: "Actually, I don't know much, I was originally a captain on the Sangsang Roni mine, with a dozen people to explore the deposit, and the deposit is ......"

"I know what it is." Alexander interrupted the man and motioned for him to continue.

The man licked his tongue, as if he felt a little dry mouth, and a guard next to him stuffed a water bag into his hand, and after taking a few sips of water, the man finally calmed down: "The coal in Sanroni Peak is buried very shallowly, and in many places you can see the coal seam as long as you dig a few feet above the ground, but most of this coal is not much, and many pits will not be dug for long before they dry up and need to find other deposits again, so I did this." ”

"My husband taught me how to identify the coal I was looking for and where to find it." The woman whispered from the side, as if to testify to her husband.

"Just a few months ago, I found a nice deposit in a place behind the Sunny Peak, the layer is very shallow and there is a lot of coal, that place is a little far away and no one usually visits, at that time I only found the deposit because I accidentally passed by there and looked at it casually, I think I didn't notice that place before because it was relatively remote, it was in a very secluded col," the man's voice became low, his eyes were fixed on the ground, as if recalling the original experience, "I was very happy, I came back and reported to the mine owner that I had expected to get some reward, but Colombo didn't take it seriously, and when I mentioned the place to him again, he became angry, saying that I was simply deceiving him, and then drove me to work in the mine, and did not let me take anyone to look for the deposits. ”

The man's words aroused Alexander's interest, and he looked at the man and smiled slightly, and said, "But you think it's strange, I don't know why Colombo did this, so you start to think if it's a little weird, so you went to that place again, right?" ”

The man looked at Alexander with some astonishment, then nodded with a wry smile: "Yes, my lord, I was so curious at the time, you know that even if you don't believe me, the mine owner shouldn't be so angry, as if I did something wrong, so I decided to go and see what was going on in that col again." ”

Speaking of which, the man looked back at his wife next to him and asked in a slightly skeptical tone, "My lord, if I tell me everything, will you really help us get out of here, I don't know who you are, but if you can't help me, it's all over." ”

"My lord is Lord Agri," said Paolo Busaco, "who is also known as the hero who saved Naples, and who was a member of the Council of the Roman Order, and you should understand how important the promises made to you by those who possess these statuses." ”

The man obviously didn't know what the lord of Agri was, but he knew about Naples, and as for Rome, it was a little difficult to know.

And perhaps it was because of hearing Rome that he had a look of excitement and eagerness on his face.

"That's great, nobleman from Rome," the man muttered in a low voice, and then looked up eagerly, "I did go to the col again, and this time further, and then I found that the place was bigger than I had thought, and there was a larger basin behind the col, and there I saw an army. ”

Army?

Alexander looked at the man with some surprise, and when he saw his affirmative nod, he also squatted down and looked into the man's eyes: "Tell me what kind of army it is, and do you know who they belong to?" ”

Seeing that Alexander's expression became solemn, the man licked his lips again, he originally wanted to make some more requests, but looking at Paul Busako, who was staring at him next to him, he continued honestly: "I can't tell you the number of that army, because I was very frightened at the time, and I was afraid that they would be thinking that they were listening to the news, so I left quickly, I think there are about a hundred, but they should be more than just a few people." ”

"Why do you think that?"

"Because I noticed that although they were in that basin, they didn't bring anything, and you must know that it was so cold during this time, they couldn't have even raised a fire, but if they lived, they would be seen, so I think they should have lived somewhere else, and that col was just for them to store things." "Because the coal bed is shallow, all the coal burns on its own, and when we see it, we go to that place to look at it, but I have never seen smoke rise in that place, or not that there is no smoke but they are afraid that someone will find out and extinguish it sooner." ”

Alexander nodded silently, but he still felt strange.

An army hidden in the Sanroni Col, although it may not be very numerous, but if it is used well, it may be an unexpected force.

Judging from the man's account, Colombo not only knew about the existence of this army, but also spared no effort to try to hide them. 、

Alexander thought for a moment, suddenly stared at the man's face and said, "You still haven't told you anything, do you?" ”

The man's face changed slightly, and he looked at Paolo Busako who was standing beside him uneasily, and at this time, the latter was holding a sharpened branch in his hand and playing with it, looking at the tip of the white miserable branch, the man nodded nervously.

"yes, I think it's strange that those people don't have any flags even though they're in the army, and they still have a lot of stuff left in that basin, as if they used it as a place to store things."

"A camp?"

"Yes, a camp, they don't seem to live there, they just use it as a makeshift camp," the man nodded nervously and said, "I saw so many things at that time, I thought I could make a fortune by the way and was going to steal some of the things inside, but they were very well guarded, but I found a strange flag among them." ”

At this, a strange look flashed in the man's eyes, which contained great fear, and some doubts that seemed unspeakable because of disbelief.

"A flag?" By this time Alexander felt as if he had reached the crux of the matter, and whatever the man had discovered, the flag was clearly the real reason for his fear: "Tell me do you know the flag?" ”

"No, I've never seen a flag with that pattern, but I've heard people say it, and I was terrified because of it, but no one dared to tell me, because it was ridiculous, and I didn't know who to believe or who would believe me, and I broke my legs because I was distracted and had an accident when I went back to work."

Or maybe he was really frightened, the man seemed to try not to mention the flag, but looking at Paolo Busako's impatient face, he finally said in a tone of disbelief: "I saw a moon and stars juxtaposed on that flag, and I swear I was not mistaken, I have heard that pattern, but it is not, it is ......"

Speaking of which, the man could not say any more, but just looked at Alexander with blank eyes.

Alexander also looked at the man in front of him, he couldn't have imagined that the last thing he heard would be such an unexpected answer.

In the era of heraldry as a highly advanced science, people who were able to grasp the various complex and varied origins of heraldry and family genealogies were often regarded as scholars with a wealth of knowledge, not only who were well versed in the origins of the coats of arms passed down from each family, but also with the background in which these complex coats of arms were formed, and many of them could even trace the connection of the Merovingian era thousands of years ago from the pattern of a seemingly ordinary shield.

It was just the crescent moon and the stars, but this pattern did not need to be explored by the heraldic officers, because the empire with this pattern and banner was on the opposite side of the Mediterranean, because the owner of the flag was staring at the whole of Europe, and in front of that banner, even the most powerful monarch in Europe was also nervous and terrified.

"The Ottoman Crescent Banner?"

Alexander was surprised and surprised, and only now did he understand why the man did not dare to say what he saw, even after breaking his leg and being driven home by Colombo without a livelihood.

Because who would have believed that a Milanese nobleman would collude with the Ottomans and even hide an Ottoman army?

Even Alexander was skeptical of the news at first, but then he knew that the man was not lying.

Because if he wanted to lie, he could have made up even more inexplicable lies, and even if he said that he had seen an angel, Alexander would not have been surprised.

But he said he saw the Ottomans.

But then a strange mystery came to Alexander's mind.

"How did the Ottomans get here? Isn't it true that no one has discovered so many people? Because of the strangeness, Alexander couldn't help but whisper to himself.

"My lord," said the man, who seemed to be much more relaxed as he told the secret that had been in his heart, and when he heard Alexander's muttering, he hesitated and took the initiative to speak, "They are not those Eastern pagans, they are Europeans. ”