A longhorned goat struggled to jump down the steep slope, the first two hooves firmly clinging to a small flat ground, and the two back hooves kept climbing up with all their might, until they finally struggled to get up and stand firm.

Seeing this, the shepherd standing behind finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Goats are very herd animals and have a very strict obedience.

The slope wasn't actually that steep and difficult, but it was the first time I'd come here to graze and graze, so the head sheep were much more cautious.

According to the goat's custom, if the first sheep does not climb the small slope, the other sheep will not go up.

Where the sheep now stand is a raised slope at the foot of the mountain, from which one can see the vast low plains of the Arsazu Valley, and the shadow of the gradually rising mountains further afield.

This is the southern foot of the Pyrenees, and the Pyrenees, which almost runs through the entire kingdom of Navarre from east to west, occupies nearly one-third of the land of Navarre, and the entire kingdom of Navarre is therefore divided into two parts.

At its peak, the kingdom of Navarre bordered the northernmost territory of the Moors who occupied the Iberian Peninsula, and the kingdom of Navarre at that time did not even regard Castile, which had been exiled for several years, and had almost no foothold.

Unfortunately, this glory did not last long, with the rapid decline of Navarra and the resurgence of Castile, the strength and weakness of the two sides not only quickly changed and changed, but later reached the point of not being a rival at all.

Especially in recent decades, with several kings of the Kingdom of Navarre descending from the Aragonese royal line, Navarre has gradually become a complete vassal of Aragon.

Because of this, in order to get rid of Aragon's control, the current queen of Aragon, Akalina, despite the opposition of many pro-Aragon nobles in the country, married the French nobleman Jean Arbre, hoping to get help from the French.

It's just that Akalina is a little naïve in her thinking.

She soon discovers that the French whom she has given hope are in fact equally ill-intentioned towards her kingdom, and although her husband Jean Arbray is also devoted to her, the influence and persecution from France and Aragon put the couple under double pressure.

The shepherd looked into the valley below and saw a faint cloud of smoke and dust rising from the hillside.

It's just that although it doesn't seem far from there, it takes a long time to get out of the valley.

The shepherds knew it might be a Frenchman from the Pyrenees again.

During this time, many French troops and transport teams crossed the Pyrenees, because the terrain of this part of the mountain was relatively gentle and the roads were easy to walk, so most of those teams would pass through here and enter Haute Aragon.

When it was almost noon, the shepherds began to drive the sheep down the mountain, and although it was not so fast to descend, the weather on the mountain was difficult to grasp at this season.

Especially in the afternoon, the temperature in such a high place often decreases quickly, and this change of cold and hot is obviously very bad for the lambs, so experienced shepherds will take the sheep to find a place to escape the heat at the hottest time of noon, and start to rush back in the afternoon.

The shepherds saw that the staggering procession had gone beyond the valley, and they were now slowly moving along the mountain road not far from the foot of the mountain, and it was estimated that by the afternoon they would be almost ready to enter the valley of Arsazus.

Although the smoke and dust raised by the procession could only be seen from a long distance, it could be seen that the scale of the procession was not small, and the shepherd could not help but laugh "heh" as he watched it.

For the locals, they don't really care who rules Navarre, they just want to know if the change of owner will lead to a tax increase.

The team made its way along the winding and rugged mountain road from the foot of the mountain, and from time to time some of the people in the team sighed that they were surprised that they had been able to climb such a majestic peak.

Uliu was with him, and he was glad that he had been able to cross the mountain unharmed.

Ulliu had originally intended to return to Rome Thesia, but a chance encounter with Charlon caused him to change his mind.

Louis XII's decision to take Milan at this time was clearly a good time.

Maximian was probably in real trouble, and this gave the French king a rare opportunity.

Uliu figured out that this pair of old men was obviously a good opportunity as well.

Although Barendi seems to be supporting the duchy alone, because Alexander's right-hand men are all by her side, her situation is not so bad.

On the contrary, Alexander, although there was a Shosa, but the Sicilians were not his own subordinates after all, and Ulliu felt that there were some lonely people around the master.

What's more, Uliuu felt that the time had finally come for him to shine.

The previous encounter in Iberia made him wonder if he had become a little stupid, but then the smooth sailing in the French court made him regain the feeling that he used to be popular everywhere.

In addition, Uliu was keenly aware that the situation in Iberia should be changing a lot as the situation changed, and he was a little worried that Ferdinand might do something terrible.

Ulliu felt that there was no one better suited to protect his lord than himself, for he could always guess exactly what kind of schemes his enemies would use, just as he thought of them.

Only those who are adept at using conspiracy can deal with those who have the same means.

Ulliu, feeling that the others were clearly not up to the task, decided to change course and not return to Rome for the time being, but to Castile.

The reason why he didn't choose to take the sea route was because he didn't know where Alexander was now, and because he had other plans.

His destination, in fact, was Barrialidotus.

Ulliu had always prided himself on being the sharp knife of the old man in the shadows, and he had followed the Jews, and although he had not been able to find the triple crown they had stolen, he had discovered many of their secrets.

He also traveled to Milan alone, and then kidnapped Leonardo da Vinci, whom he regarded as a treasure.

These were all triumphs, and as for the fact that in Rome he was the messenger of the lord among the nobles, and won the benefits for Alexander again and again, it was not so worthy of boasting to him.

But in Iberia, he suffered a lot, especially in the matter of Isabella's illness, because Ulliu could not detect the changes in the Castilian court in time, and Alexander almost missed the opportunity.

Ulliu felt that nothing annoyed him more, and he told himself that he had to get up from where he fell, or he might lose the courage to face a strong enemy.

In fact, although he was quite active at the French court during this time, even the Moors themselves could perceive that he was a little more cautious than before, so that when Louis XII told him that he had decided to send troops, he was only relieved, rather than wondering, as he had done before, whether he would take the opportunity to encourage the French and Austrians to pinch them.

Uliu knew that this was because he had not yet recovered from the shadow of his previous setbacks, so he did not dare to make any extraneous troubles, and if it had been in the past, he would never have been satisfied with just forging an alliance with the French, but would probably have pushed the French into the pit.

From east to west, the Pyrenees stretch from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic coast.

The Porteson Pass is a high mountain valley in the middle of the Pyrenees.

This stretch of hundreds of francs is the highest in the Pyrenees, with several peaks covered in snow all year round.

Soon after the Poteson Pass, you can enter the Alsazú Valley, where a great river called Garonne, which originates in the Pyrenees and flows south through the Arsaçou Valley.

Ulliu was following a caravan of Frenchmen.

Since Louis XII sent troops to Upper Navarre, many French people saw an opportunity.

They negotiated terms with the French nobles who went on the expedition, and then signed a contract with the army and became a transport caravan for the French army.

There would be so many merchants who traveled thousands of miles and even risked great risks to transport supplies for the French army, not because of any loyalty, but more because of the benefits of tax relief that they could get from the king, and business with Haut-Navarre.

Because of Aragon's control of Haut-Navarre for many years, the French merchants did not benefit from Haut-Navarre, which also led to the lack of development of French merchants here.

Now that the French army had finally sent troops to Upper Navarre, the bold merchants could no longer hold back and even risked their chances to hold a place ahead of others.

Although the terrain is mountainous and difficult to access, the rivers still play a big role.

Uliu, a small man in this caravan of dozens of merchants, was a humble fellow, but because of his cleverness, he was very popular with the caravan leaders.

So when they reached the valley of Arsazuu, they did not send him away like the other men who had been hired temporarily, but, with his consent, took him aboard the boat from the pier on the banks of the Garonne and headed down the river all the way southwest.

Two days later, he arrived in Pamplona, the capital of the Kingdom of Navarre.

Like many cities in Iberia with a rich history, Pamplona not only retains many of the buildings of the Roman era, but even the royal palace still has a faint Roman style.

Historically, the palace of Pamplona was once subjected to a great fire that nearly burned the entire palace to ashes.

Even less than 30 years ago, an earthquake caused great damage to the palace.

So the Duke of France, Duke Gaston of France, the husband of Queen Eleanor of Navarre, suggested that the palace be rebuilt.

It's just that no one expected that this repair would not be completely completed for 30 years.

In fact, if Alexander had been here, he would have told the Moors, who were standing opposite the palace, that the owner of the palace was destined not to see the day when the palace would be completely completed, because in a dozen years, Navarra would be divided in two by France and Spain.

The owner of this royal palace will have to leave his homeland and will never be able to return to this place.

Ulliu now stood not too far from the palace and looked at the building, but the Moors did not come to visit the palace because they had nothing to do, but because he had heard that a party of emissaries from Vallaridus had come to Pamplona the day before.

The sudden appearance of the messenger at this time aroused the curiosity of the Moors, who felt that the presence of the messenger of Barrialy Dord in Pamplona was enough to attract attention, whatever Ferdinand had sent for him.

So he went to the vicinity of the palace while no one was looking, and prepared to inquire about the messenger of Castile.

To his surprise, no one seemed to know the meaning of the Emissary of Castile, and people were now talking more about the princess who had just given birth to the queen.

Unable to get an answer, Ulliu decided to take a risk, and he returned to the caravan's quarters, secretly took out some of the goods that the French were going to trade with the locals, and swaggered towards the palace.

When he saw the guards standing at the gate of the palace from afar, Uliu took a deep breath.

"It's time for a good show, Uliu." He told himself.

Since the arrival of the Emissary of Castile, the relaxed atmosphere in the palace of Navarre has been lost.

For in this small royal palace there were envoys from two countries that were hostile to each other.

King Louis XII of France sent Charlaon to be the general of the French army in the invasion of Castile with the Navarres, which in itself did not have a good intention.

This is well known to both Charron herself, who was ordered to infiltrate Navarre, and Akalina, the queen of Navarre.

Although her husband was a cousin of Louis XII, Acarina certainly did not naively think that the French would send troops to help Navarre get rid of the Castilian threat, as they said, but now she really had no other way.

In contrast to the threat from Ferdinand, the French have not shown their fangs, at least until now.

In addition to Charlon, Louis XII sent another general he had recently admired, de Condé from central France, as his deputy commander of the French army.

And now, because Charlain returned to France, the general Condé became the supreme commander of the French army in Navarre.

But what Queen Akalina didn't expect was that Ferdinand suddenly sent his messenger.

In this way, the atmosphere in the palace of Navarre becomes delicate.

Ulliu, who walked through the small square in front of the palace, quickly caught the attention of the guards.

When they raised their weapons slightly and pointed them at him, before the guards could speak, Uliu had already said in a very solemn tone: "Go and report that there is a messenger from a foreign country who wants to meet Her Majesty." ”