In Augsburg in spring, the warm and bright sunlight sprinkles on the buildings built with mostly cool gray stones in the spring, which makes the city that has always been shrouded in gloom seem a little more lively.

Outside the city, the flowers blooming in the fields are purple and red, and on the fields farther away, the green wheat fields are undulating like waves under the caress of the spring breeze.

Jacob Fugol stood on a very high rock and looked into the distance.

The lush farmland in the distance looks like a good mood, and spring is always refreshing, probably because things are coming back to life, and even bears can be jubilant and happy this season.

The small river on the outskirts of Augsburg was babbling, and the crystal clear water washed away the pebbles on the bank, and Jacob Fugol, wrapped in a thick robe, stood barefoot and with leather boots in his hands, and a curly-haired hound jumped on the stone on which he had stood and looked down at him condescendingly.

Jacob Fugol looked at the hound and smiled.

This curly-haired hound used to be his watchdog in the Augsburg mansion, and when the Fugol family was swept away, many of the watchdogs were gone, but when they moved back to the mansion, they saw that the curly-haired hound was still faithfully guarding the dusty and empty house.

Since then, the curly hound has been Jacob Fugol's sidekick, and he even allows him to sleep in his bedroom, always taking the faithful dog with him when he goes out.

The curly-haired hound barked a few times in the distance, and Jacob Fugol looked up to see a man running towards him on a horse along the path by the river.

As he got closer, he recognized it as his nephew, Adam Jr., who Jacob was more interested in than his two brothers as a promising son in the family.

Jacob Fugol's vision is still very accurate, if there is no change, little Adam Fugur will become the head of the Fugol family in the future and bring the family to the most glorious peak, although the subsequent decline of the Fugol family is undoubtedly because of him, but little Adam Fugur is indeed a very capable person.

This is evident from the fact that he took the place of his father and two uncles and represented the Fugol family in the reaping of the depreciation of the French Ladia's gold coins and won a great victory, and that Adam Fugol Jr. was "a man who really dared to take risks with gold", as his uncle put it.

"Uncle." Little Adam Fugar jumped off his horse quickly, and he stepped on the pebbles to the shore with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and when he saw his uncle with his boots in his hands and his feet soaked in the water, he touched it a little, and then took off his boots and stepped into the water.

"Why are you doing that?" Jacob asked playfully, "I'm trying to calm myself down, but what you need now is enthusiasm." ”

"Uncle, have you heard about Vienna?" Little Adam's feet alternated back and forth in the icy water, and his voice trembled a little, and he asked, "It seems that there may be a big move this time." ”

"This palace minister has already told me," Jacob glanced at his nephew's feet that were shrunk by freezing in the water, "Our palace minister's judgment of the emperor is still very correct, but then again, after all, 2,000 florins a year is not a small amount. ”

"The Kotschach family is worth this money," little Adam finally couldn't stand it anymore, and ran to the shore in embarrassment and sat down and kept rubbing his feet that were already frozen red, "What did the palace minister say, uncle?" ”

Jacob also went ashore, and he sat down to wipe his wet feet with a dry cloth, and then climbed into his boots and stood up with the help of his nephew, and jumped on the spot twice vigorously.

"I heard that this will cool the blood, and although it is a little uncomfortable, at least it will be better to bleed," Jacob said as he walked toward the shore with his nephew's support, and he greeted like a curly-haired hound lying on a stone basking in the sun, and then the two of them slowly thought about the city of Oxburg.

After the signing of the humiliating Treaty of Milan with the Trade Union, Kotschach was dismissed by an enraged Maximian, but instead of returning to Vienna, Kotschach went north to Augsburg.

The Fugol family received the dismissed and ousted palace minister very warmly, which may seem to others to be a bit redundant, after all, with Maximian's angry attitude at the time, Kotschach's chances of making a comeback were probably very slim, and such a useless bureaucrat seemed to be of little use except for his fiefdom pension.

However, the Fuggers did not seem to see it that way, and they prepared a small but comfortable house for Kotzchach, which was in no way inferior in opulence and decoration to the Kotschach family's residence in the Austrian territory.

And more than that, the Fugol family generously paid for all the expenses of the servants in the Kotschach household, including seven or eight able-bodied male servants and almost the same number of maids, as well as cooks, grooms, and hunters.

In addition, the Fugol family generously gave Kotschach a piece of well-soiled farmland, which allowed the former palace minister to rely entirely on the harvest of his own land to support his family.

This generous gesture was met with a promise that Kotschach would stay in Augsburg, and the former court minister would become the "lifelong advisor" of the Fugol family.

And his only job is to judge Maximian's actions.

As the right and left hand of Maximian's court, Kotschach was too familiar with this emperor, and his familiarity with the Vienna court was also difficult for others to compare, so he was able to sift out the closest answer to the truth from the rumors that were true and false, and at the same time, he could also detect Maximian's true intentions from those words and deeds about the emperor.

For this reason, the Fugol family gave Kotschach an additional 2,000 florins every year, which was not counted in the previous large number of gifts.

The return on the huge investment is also abundant, and the Fugol family is now not only rapidly recovering from its previous losses, but also moving in a direction that it has never been exposed to before.

The Fugols' relationship with the Trade League is somewhat delicate, and they are not subordinate to the Trade Alliance, but join as collaborators.

And this was Alexander at the beginning.

Alexander did not want the Fugol family to be his little brother or vassal, he promised when he sent someone to find Jacob that all this was the cooperation between the two sides, and he would not deliberately restrict the Fugol family from doing things for their own interests, as for the relationship between them, Alexander directly set a clear tone of cooperation.

It was this more rational suggestion that allowed Jacob Fugol to see the mature side of the young man.

It is clear that Alexander knows who to maintain and what kind of relationship he should have, such as Skop and Nomerlo, who will use pure profit to make them submit to him, and with the Fugol family, he uses gold and wealth to re-establish the calm look at the past and imagine the future.

"Uncle, will the emperor send troops?" Little Adam asked cautiously, although he also had his own ideas, but he wanted to hear his uncle's judgment.

"You should ask what good will it do the emperor if he sends troops?" Jacob smiled and pointed to his nephew, who got into the carriage with the help of little Adam, and then stroked the hair of the miscellaneous hound curled up at his feet, and said to little Adam, who was pacing slowly by the carriage on horseback, "It is clear that the emperor will bargain with the king of Aragon in this matter, so whether he sends troops depends on the price given by Ferdinand." ”

"So do you think, I mean, what price does Kotschach think the emperor will ask for to send troops?" Little Adam asked with interest.

"Milan." Jacob spat out the word.

Little Adam's face immediately showed a smile, although he was in his 30s, he looked like a child at this time: "Yes, Milan. But do you think His Holiness Cardinal would allow this to happen? ”

Hearing Little Adam's question, Jacob glanced out of the car window at his nephew on horseback, the sun was shining and the birds were singing, and Little Adam looked full of energy.

"If I let you go to Rome, I hope you don't let me down."

The smile on Little Adam's face became even stronger, he touched his beard and looked down at Jacob Fugol: "Uncle, we have a lot of friends in Rome, I think they must be willing to help me." ”

"Be careful, the emperor also has a lot of people in Rome, you must know that we are undoubtedly enemies of the emperor now, although there are many people behind us to support, but those people will not take the initiative to stand up and become the emperor's target unless they have to."

"Those people," said little Adam, pouting slightly, looked at the city of Augsburg, and then bent slightly at the horse, leaning closer to the carriage and whispering, "Uncle, do you think that the German princes will one day openly oppose the rule of that emperor?" ”

"It's hard to say," said Jacob, leaning against the door of the car and lowering his voice, as they were now discussing secrets that were so inhumanely incomprehensible that even in the middle of nowhere, the uncle and nephew were cautious, "it all depends on whether the Duke of Rome Thesia can win this war, and if he does win, perhaps we will see a completely different Europe." ”

Little Adam's heart was slightly excited by his uncle's words, he knew what Jacob's words meant, and he couldn't help but feel a little awe of the young duke from the bottom of his heart when he thought that the actions of the Duke of Rome Thesia might involve or even affect the entire continent of Europa.

The Fugol family never let their fate depend entirely on others, which is a valuable experience that Jacob Fugol has learned over many years of business, so when Alexander proposed to cooperate with them, Jacob agreed without hesitation.

They returned to Augsburg, where they had lived in their mansion for a long time, and then, thanks to their close ties with the trade alliances, began to infiltrate the territory of the German princes.

However, at that time, the Fugol family was thinking about getting rid of Maximian's influence as much as possible, because they knew that there were many contradictions between the Trade Alliance and Maximian, or even if the relationship eased in the future, if they continued to rely on the emperor, once something happened, the Fugol family might not become the target of the emperor's revenge.

In fact, the historical Fugol family did end up being a victim of the later Holy Emperor Charles V because of their excessive emphasis on and attachment to the monarch.

After helping Charles V spend money to buy the title of emperor, the Fugol family, who had reached the pinnacle of glory, inevitably became the emperor's cash box, and the failure of repeated investments in Charles V put the Fugol family in a difficult situation, and finally the family was wiped out in the European wave stirred up by themselves.

And it was Adam Fuggor Jr. who caused this situation.

Now, however, the Fugar family has taken a very different path because of their complicated relationship with Alexander's trade alliance.

They became the "men behind the back" of the German princes, who had benefited from them to some extent, which allowed them to quickly recover from their wounds, and they secretly helped the unruly princes to fight against the Emperor of Vienna.

And with the help of the huge veins of trade alliances, from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, from Oslo to Constantinople, the Fugol family also extended its tentacles to various parts of Europe.

"Uncle, why did that duke only offer to cooperate with us in the first place?" Little Adam suddenly asked as if curious, and when he saw the meaningful gaze cast by his uncle, Little Adam let out an "oh" sound of understanding,

"Everything the Duke did had a purpose," Jacob said slowly, looking at his nephew, "he knew it would be more convenient to work with us than to simply let us do things for him, and he even offered to suggest that we get along with the princes, and now it seems that it was all his plan." ”

"Do you think he had already figured out how to deal with the Emperor's intervention at that time?" Little Adam asked with some curiosity.

"I don't know if he thought of this, but now it seems that everything is going in that direction, isn't it, you must know that now we have put too much energy and money into those princes, and now is a rare opportunity for us, if the emperor wins the war, it will be fine, but if he loses, ......"

"Our chance has come?" A hint of excitement flashed on little Adam's face, "Uncle, at this time I am beginning to look forward to going to Rome. ”

"Go to Rome, and then promise the cardinal that we will do everything in our power to help his son become Duke of Milan," Jacob Fugall told his nephew, "Old Rovere should be very troubled now, Ferdinand will definitely support him in taking Milan in order to get the emperor to send troops, this is not a good thing for old Rovere, he needs someone to help him fight against the emperor at this time, so let's cheer him on." ”