Recruiting sailors is a complicated and cumbersome affair.

Whether a person has real skills or is just bragging, in addition to asking some basic questions when recruiting, it is also necessary to pay attention to whether the recruitee has other intentions.

If you recruit a guy with terrible skills, then everyone is likely to be killed by this person, after all, a pig teammate at sea who has no village and no shop is often ten times more harmful than the enemy.

This requires recruiters to have not only a wealth of experience themselves, but also a pair of discerning eyes that can tell if you are lying from your speech and behavior, and from what may be a casual remark, and even whether the recruitee may panic because of the danger.

As for whether these people have unfavorable intentions for themselves, it is also up to the observation and judgment of the ship's owner and captain to decide.

This seems a bit unreliable, after all, in this era of closed news, it is not so easy to find out the details of a person, let alone an extremely complicated place like Malaga, where all kinds of people come and go.

So looking at the sailors who were selected one by one on the basis of pure personal judgment and some rough recommendations from the crew's guild as if they were picking cattle, Alexander couldn't help but feel that he was very lucky that there were no major mistakes in the first few voyages before Columbus.

"No, actually, something happened," Columbus shook his head with emotion when he heard Alexander say this, "We always use whips to teach them to obey when we first notice that there is a thorn in the head, and then we have to hang a few people to deter the others." ”

Although he knew that this must be the case, Alexander still felt that it was really unreliable to do so, that rebellions at sea would not be condoned, and that the captain or the commander of a fleet had the highest and final right to execute such a thing, and that the ultimate right to combine justice and law enforcement allowed them to kill the crew, but even so the rebellion at sea was never quelled.

As long as there is a slight carelessness, all kinds of incidents will arise on a ship, sometimes not a big deal at all, but simply because of the enormous pressure brought about by the constant sailing on the boundless sea, and the conflicts between sailors and sailors, sailors and officers, and even officers and officers, or between officers and captains, can easily arise that are difficult to bridge, and finally lead to terrible conflicts of bloody events.

However, it is precisely because of this that the sailors' guild of Malaga has provided a good place to resolve these conflicts to a large extent.

A commotion in another room not far away caught Alexander's attention, and he asked him to inquire about what was going on, and the attendant who quickly came back excitedly reported to him that the room was "being singled out".

This intrigued Alexander, who wondered how the sailors of this era settled their disputes, after all, after a long journey full of dreary conditions, everyone needed to release the fire that had been deposited in their hearts, and this was obviously a good place for sailors to skillfully resolve disputes and conflicts through fighting.

"At least if they can work together next time, they won't be killed as soon as they go out to sea," James explained to Alexander, "It's terrible to live at sea for a long time, and no one can guarantee that they won't go crazy, so it's good for everyone to vent their anger here." ”

Alexander listened attentively, knowing that he knew too little about seafaring, especially in this day and age, when the poor means of transportation and communication, and the continued heavy reliance on religion made life a terrible day in the very difficult profession of a sailor.

This is also the main reason why many experienced sailors receive unusual attention and often become sought-after goods.

People with rich work experience in any era will be respected in their own trades, and these people are often very proud, because they are completely free of jobs, especially in some trades with their own special skills, these people often have a very high status and prestige.

The fight next door ended quickly, and as he watched two men drag a bloodied man with a drooping head through the porch, Alexander groaned thoughtfully.

He was reminded of the Lisbon Maritime Office, as the world's first vocational school to train seafaring talents, the Lisbon Maritime Office provided a large number of seafaring talents with extraordinary skills for the later Age of Discovery, some of whom became familiar figures in history.

At the same time, Portugal also relied on such a group of seafaring talents, which was able to start a long-lasting maritime hegemony with Spain in the economic and military aspects of ocean exploration.

It seems that at the same time as the establishment of the Army Academy, a naval academy will be established.

Alexander thought to himself with annoyance.

He was rich, and not ordinarily rich, the kind of man who could casually compete with any monarch who claimed to be rich, at least in the West, with the presumably not many people who could compete with Alexander in wealth except for the Ottoman sultans and the rich viziers.

But the establishment of a naval academy is really not something that can be solved with money.

Seafaring talent is an asset that cannot be ignored in maritime countries, so it is very difficult to find such a large number of talents who not only have rich experience themselves, but can also convert this experience into theory.

It seemed a bit too reckless to think about building a naval academy on another voyage, and Alexander knew that he didn't have that much energy to juggle it, and that such a school would take a long time to prepare, and more importantly, such a school could only be established in a maritime city like Portugal or Spain bordering the Atlantic, not in those of the Mediterranean.

And now this is obviously a bit of a luxury for him.

But the matter was already ingrained in his heart, and he felt that this future naval academy could be presided over by James, the hybrid of his Drake and Highredding, who was working well on the seas along the islands of the new colony and along the new route to the East, and many people were terrified of the group of pirates he led, but because they did not know where these people came from, they could only grit their teeth but could not seek revenge on him.

Alexander even believed that there were probably people in this sailors' guild who had suffered his loss, but none of them could have imagined that the group of pirate leaders who were raging madness at sea would have the courage to stand here and recruit his men in a big way.

"Tell me James," Alexander whispered to James curiously, "what are you going to do if you're looking for sailors here, but they don't want to be pirates, because if you let them go, they might reveal your identity." ”

James had a look on his face that looked as if he had eaten something bad, and seeing that his mouth was moving without making a sound, Alexander tilted his head to the side and patted him lightly on the shoulder.

"The ocean is very big," but James replied, "and it's very dangerous, and no one can guarantee that he will come back safely after going to sea, so ......"

Looking at Alexander elsewhere, he nodded silently, he knew that James had done a lot of things, and there were some or some details in them, and Alexander didn't want to delve into them.

The age of the Great Voyage was romantic, adventurous, and equally full of blood, cruelty, and even sin.

The sea is full of uncertainties, and in addition to the terrible forces of nature, the rest is the threat of hostile competitors.

While guarding against pirates at all times, the seemingly well-behaved merchants themselves could become pirates who plundered others at any time, and the role swap between hunter and prey was so easy that hardly any sailor who went to sea dared to pat his chest and say that he had not done those dirty deeds.

Alexander asked Columbus to prepare for his next voyage as soon as possible, and he did not know if this would be the last voyage expedition of Columbus's life, as history had done, but he had already arranged a very different route for Columbus than the last voyage in history.

This route will allow the Columbus brothers to go further than Amerigo Vespsy, who had already gone to sea earlier, and it will also be a route full of efficiency.

They will be exploring farther south and north than ever before, and they will know what they are up against when they find that the coastline, which they thought was a dotted archipelago, has become a long path that seems to never be explored.

The time and expense of such a voyage was staggering, and it was for this reason that Alexander decided to let the two brothers accomplish this feat together.

According to the plan, their fleet was to divide into two fleets and head north and south after reaching the new colony of San Salvador, and wherever they went, according to Alexander's orders, they had to turn back at the beginning of 1502, and then rendezvous in San Salvador to return to Spain together.

Considering this, the expedition would probably not return to Spain until the second half of 1502, and the expedition, which was supposed to last more than a year, would be the prelude to the real unveiling of the New World.

An exciting, yet unsettling time is coming, the best and worst of times.

They are already standing at the door of this new era, and the looming dawn is beckoning to them.

Obviously, this is the most suitable time, the court of Barriaridus is probably already in chaos at this time, Philip's infection is actually only the beginning of the early exposure of those chaos, Isabella's gradually revealed suspicion of Ferdinand, Ferdinand's irrepressible ambition revealed by Philip's sudden illness, and Don Bavi's attempt to fish in troubled waters, all of which will swell up like leavened bread during this time.

At this time, Isabella was actually very lonely, she had to deal with her ambitious husband and her suddenly restless son-in-law, and on the other side of the Pyrenees, the threat of the French at any moment was stimulating her keen nerves.

All these troubles will be in front of Isabella at the same time in a very short time, which leaves her with no time and energy to reconsider Columbus, which is why Columbus was dismissed and even imprisoned the last time she returned to Spain, because Isabella no longer has the energy to restrain this equally ambitious explorer.

So it's better to send him straight to jail so that at least he can calm down before the queen finds time to refocus on him.

It's just that Alexander obviously doesn't intend to give Isabella a respite, and now that everything is ready, let himself plan this last and most glorious expedition for Columbus instead of Isabella.

Historically, Isabella's last encounter with Columbus ended with his last expedition.

Isabella, who was already in poor health, did not see the unification of the United Kingdom, which she had always longed for, nor did she really see the true face of the new continent discovered by the exploration of the Atlantic that she had fully supported.

It's just that even if Isabella is still obsessed with new routes and colonies, she simply doesn't have the time and energy to think about it.

And she will never have such a chance in the future, and Isabella, the queen of Castile, will die in more than two years!

This is a "secret" known only to Alexander.

It was because he knew this that Alexander dared to stand up and provide everything he needed for Columbus's second expedition.

The preparation and time required to build an ocean-going expedition is a long one, and even with the huge amount of money that can be spent without thinking about the cost of expenditure, money is not always everything.

The Columbus Brothers Expeditions, a company that suddenly appeared in Málaga, was hastily established after paying a guarantee of 60 gold pesos to the local city hall of Malaga.

The company's office is located in a room in the hallway downstairs of the sailor's union.

Even if the "Columbus Brothers Expedition Company" opened by nailing a wooden sign to the door, the room was crowded with a large number of sailors on the first day, and the prestige of Columbus's several explorations of the new colonies and bringing back great wealth is still talked about, although he once had a short prison sentence, many people are still very optimistic about him.

This made Columbus somewhat regain some confidence, but he also remembered Alexander's blow to him at the beginning, in fact, he only needed to calm down and think about it carefully to understand that Alexander's words were right, Isabella may think that he still has some use, but his previous excessive greed did anger the decisive and stubborn queen.

This is evident from the fact that she gradually replaced him with a large number of new explorers, so even if Isabella used him again, Columbus knew that the idea of sharing the colony with the king that he had longed for was obviously impossible to achieve.

Then he needs to find a new owner, and now it seems that Alexander is a good choice.

The duke's generosity, and above all his seeming confidence in discovering a new world beyond comprehension, made Columbus feel as if he already knew everything about it, and only needed to prove it himself.

It's a bit of a ridiculous idea, but it's precisely because of this self-confidence that he has not spared a stingy investment that has made things so much easier for Columbus to get things done.

The ships that needed to be prepared, the sailors to be assembled, the fresh water reserves, the food supplies, the hull accessories, the weapons and guns, the weather records, the current charts, and all sorts of supplies that were so complex that they needed to make a long list were quickly raised with more money than before, in exchange for a much shorter time than ever before.

But even so, the voyage was not a short one, so after paying for all this generous signing, Alexander left the brothers in Malaga, where he had more important things to do.

However, it was only during the short stay in Malaga that bad news continued to pour out of Seville.

Don Bavi's coalition of nobles was once again engaged in battle with Gonzalo, but this time the battlefield had shifted to La Conada, not far from Seville, which not only meant that the coalition of nobles was losing ground, but worse, Gonzalo had enough forces to move closer to the southwest of Seville to threaten Darville and the downstream link with Seville.

The aristocratic coalition has so far been able to resist only by being able to obtain material support from all over the country through the Dalville River and the seaport bordering the Atlantic.

But if the Dalville River to the Atlantic Ocean were to be cut off by Gonzalo, Seville would be an isolated city.

At this time, the aristocratic coalition really knew Gonzalo's power, but it seemed to be a little late, probably because they found out that the victory was already in hand, Gonzalo was no longer as active in negotiating with the Andalusian nobles as before, and he even had those envoys sent to his military camp directly driven out, for the current Gonzalo, it was in Isabella's interests to take advantage of this rebellion to completely destroy the old aristocratic system in Andalusia.

Although the time was only a few days, Don Bavi had already sent people to deliver letters to Alexander more than once, and by this time the scheming duke could no longer see his previous composure, and from the increasingly fierce tone of the letter, it could be felt that Don Bavi had begun to mess up.

"Duke, I want you to abide by the agreement with me, and I prefer to believe that your departure from Seville at this time is fulfilling the promise made between us, rather than fleeing, so I ask you to give me an answer as soon as possible, because it is not only about me, but about the survival of the entire Andalusian noble alliance. Of course, I will not forget your sincere help, so I have decided to accept your offer to obtain the right to operate the Seville Exchange after careful consideration, and I hope that you will be able to complete the agreement between us in a timely manner, even in order not to damage this beautiful exchange due to the war. ”

Looking at this letter, which was full of threats but could not hide his embarrassment and begging for help, Alexander smiled.

Don Bavi's arrogance had paid for at this time, but that wasn't what made Alexander laugh, what he really found interesting was what Don Bavi had urged him to do.

"Well, all the business is left to you," Alexander said to the Columbus brothers, "and I look forward to the miracle you will bring to me, and it will be a feat that will give us all the opportunity to leave a footnote in history." ”

After giving orders to the Columbus brothers, Alexander took Schell and his Balkan Guard aboard again.

This time, their destination was Valencia.