Suddenly seeing acquaintances who had not seen each other for a long time, the faces of the two parties, who should have been a little happy, were not very good after meeting, except for the smile on Orgala's face, but Mel de Córdoba's face was so gloomy that it seemed that he could wring out water at any moment.

Alexander had met them in his tent, and he didn't want them to see the Kotschach palace minister until he knew what he was going to do.

Mel de Córdoba looked much more calm than he had been in Naples, and the young nobleman who had lost his dandy style was no longer so frivolous, even though Orgala next to him was snuggled in his arms, but he didn't show much smugness, but his eyes were always so unfriendly when he looked at Alexander.

"Didn't expect us to meet here, and when did you become an accomplice of the French?" Mel de Córdoba looked at the contents of the tent, looking at the messy loot piled up on the ground, he could think that those nobles must have suffered a lot of losses, "You also captured the imperial courtier, I don't think you know what that means, I know that you are the nephew of the Count of Mordiglo, but what you have done is not only for you, but also for your uncle, so I am here to help you." After little Córdoba finished speaking, he raised his chin slightly and looked at Alexander with a condescending gaze, "Release the palace minister and all the nobles, return all the property belonging to the coalition forces, and we can consider pardoning your mistakes." ”

Alexander looked at the young man in front of him who was slightly older than him speechlessly, and then shook his head after he finished speaking: "I originally thought you were mature, but I was wrong." ”

With that, Alexander passed by little Córdoba and walked towards the tent door.

"Stop!" Little Córdoba turned to Alexander's back and shouted angrily, "Do you think you have the upper hand, you think that if you arrest the palace minister and those people, you can blackmail us casually?" Your actions have angered too many people, you probably don't know that Constantine della Rovere has already returned to Rome with Charlon, they left after the news that you had captured the palace minister, no one stopped them, but they did not come to you but went straight back to Rome, they left you alone, and you finished with Cambrai. ”

Alexander paused at his feet, but instead of turning around, he continued to walk out of the tent.

Outside the tent, Caro, who was anxiously waiting, immediately greeted him, and the fire shone on his face, reflecting the anxiety in his eyes.

"My lord, is what that man said true, Lord Constantine, and they really went back to Rome? They don't care about us anymore? Carlo tried to keep his voice as low as possible so that no one else could hear him, and when he saw Alexander's silent expression, he immediately understood that this should not be fake, "How could they do that, this is a betrayal." ”

"This is the Roman Carlo, this is the Roman way," Alexander corrected with a smile, "but fortunately I have thought of this for a long time, and you should not be deceived by that little Córdoba, I admit that his uncle is indeed a great man, but compared to his uncle he is far behind, so let's wait and see what the other 'messenger' has to say." ”

Carlo looked at Alexander with some bewilderment, not understanding how he could be so calm at such a time, and then he saw Orgara coming out of the tent smiling.

"I don't know if I can talk to you." The attractive woman smiled so sweetly that Carlo involuntarily moved away from him, looking at Alexander, who was looking at him, and Lady Olgala looked at his arm, until he stretched out his arm in amusement, and she walked over with satisfaction and took his arm, and the two of them paced slowly side by side in the night of the camp, "I have heard a lot about you, and you are really an eye-opener these days." ”

"Thank you, ma'am, but so far I have been able to achieve nothing." Alexander said with a little emotion.

He did say this from the bottom of his heart, although he did do a lot of things, as Orgala said, but until now he had been like a floating aquatic weed without roots, although Agri's place had great potential as a hub in southern Italy, but because of its importance, he knew very well that Agri was able to fall into his hands only because everyone else was' He was too busy' to take care of him at all, but as long as he had his hands free, neither Frederick of Naples nor Count Horsen of Taranto would tolerate anyone occupying that land except himself.

Therefore, it was precisely because of this that he agreed to Count Mordillo's suggestion to send grain to the French in the north, both for the Count and for him, it was necessary to let the French hold on and find more things for the coalition forces.

But now it seems that all this is not going well, whether it is because Gonzalo is too powerful, or the commander of the coalition forces is too wasteful, in short, the war has finally begun to come to an end after more than a month longer than before, and this result is really not in line with his own wishes or those of the count.

Or, including the mysterious lowland merchant behind the beautiful woman next to him, he shouldn't be very satisfied.

"But you have captured the Imperial Minister, which is too unexpected for everyone," said Olgala with a smile, "You probably don't know how important that Lord is, but you must know that Gonzalo de Córdoba has great respect for him, and that he came to Rome and not in Piedmont because he was so important, because he was preparing to accept the city of Rome on behalf of the Emperor." ”

Alexander's mouth opened slightly silently, and Orgala smiled even more charmingly at the sight of his surprised look.

"Now do you know how terrible this is, you have taken the Emperor's messenger prisoner."

The emperor, who can have this title, can only be one person in Europe, that is, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire elected by the seven electors, since the fall of Constantinople, so far the only person who can crown the Roman emperor on his crown, and the current Holy Roman Emperor is Maximian I.

Alexander didn't know much about this emperor, but he knew that this emperor had a beautiful son, and this son of his had married a beautiful wife, and he and his wife seemed to be cousins.

Then he found that if he looked closely, he and the Holy Roman Emperor seemed to be a little related.

Alexander shook his head slightly to sober himself up from his thoughts, he knew that Orgala was right, he seemed to be really in trouble this time, otherwise Konstantin would not have thrown his newly baked brother-in-law aside so quickly and ran back to Rome first.

However, Alexander was not annoyed by this, the so-called marriage with the Rovere family was a bargain of interests from beginning to end, and if there was someone more valuable than Mordillo now, the archbishop would not hesitate to immediately regret the marriage, which Alexander saw very clearly.

It's just that Olgala's smile made him a little uncomfortable, he knew that it would definitely not be easy for this woman to follow, so seeing that although she said something dangerous, she still looked leisurely, Alexander continued to chat with her quietly, he knew that the comparison between the two now was who couldn't hold his breath first.

In the distance, several figures hurriedly ran around, their figures swaying in the light of the fire, mixed with loud scolding.

"You idiots, do you want to blow us all up, move those barrels farther away, away from the fire, it's all deadly stuff." An older Agri scolded a couple of young men, and when he saw Alexander, the veteran was a little surprised and immediately walked up and saluted, "My lord, I'm sorry I didn't see you coming." ”

"You're doing a good job, look at them," Alexander looked at the soldiers who began to move the powder keg into the far corner cautiously and even a little tremblingly after being scolded, "Squad leader, do we have enough gunpowder?" If another enemy comes, will you be able to stop them? ”

"Of course that's enough, my lord," the veteran used to poke his musket on the ground and hold his arm, "I used to be a soldier for a while, and I was recruited to work for King Ferdinand, and I was a musketeer at that time, and I remember that there was not as much gunpowder in the king's army as we do now." ”

Alexander nodded, he knew that the veteran was talking about Ferdinand, who was now Frederick's father, Ferdinand I, not the short-lived ghost Ferdinand who had died not long ago.

"And we still have artillery, although there is only one, but as long as it is put in a good place, it can still work." Seeing Orgara next to him, the veteran's chest straightened even more, and then he continued with a show off: "We have defeated the coalition heavy cavalry twice before in Appio and on the road, and now that we have more ammunition and artillery, I don't know what reason we have to lose." ”

Alexander nodded with satisfaction, although the veteran's words were somewhat stimulated by the woman next to him, but this was exactly what he needed, looking at Orgara, who was still smiling, Alexander raised his hand and signaled to move on.

The tall shadows of several rows of carriages blocked the way, and Orgala looked at Alexander with some confusion, until she was led by him through the gaps between the rows of carriages and exits, and she realized that she had left the camp.

"Didn't you notice this before?" Alexander pointed back, and smiled at Orgala's slightly confused nod.

When he heard the scout say that Carlo had brought back two men, Alexander had ordered the carriages that had been used as barricades to be separated on both sides, so he was sure that little Córdoba would not have noticed the cluttered carriages on either side of the camp entrance, and even Gonzalo would not have noticed the mystery so easily.

"We are prepared," Alexander said at last, gesturing to the dark distance of the camp, "we will not be afraid even if the coalition forces attack, the previous battle has been enough for my soldiers to know that they are brave enough and more qualified for more loot, so the threat of little Córdoba is of no use to me." But at this point, Alexander rubbed his finger slightly on his head, "Of course, if it was his uncle Gonzalo who threatened me so much, I was thinking about whether I should surrender sooner." ”

"Poof," Orgala was amused by Alexander's words, and she looked at the man who admitted to timidity without any disguise, "It seems that you are all afraid of that Gonzalo, is that man really that powerful?" ”

"Of course, that person is not just powerful, but a little scary." Alexander didn't mind admitting his jealousy of Gonzalo, after all, just thinking about Gonzalo's impressive record was enough to make people uneasy, not to mention that the people he defeated were all powerful big men, with this strength in his own hands, Alexander didn't think there was any shame in showing weakness to Gonzalo.

"But you don't look like you're going to surrender immediately after hearing his reputation," Olgala said with a twinkle in her eyes, "tell me what else you have to rely on besides the gunpowder and the cannons?" I always think you have something else to rely on. ”

"Perhaps," Alexander looked at the dark plains in the distance, although he knew that most of the troops would not move at night at this time, and the coalition forces had sent messengers, he still sent scouts, so if there was any danger, he could know in advance, "Actually, I don't have anything to rely on, if there is, it should be you." ”

A playful look flashed in Orgala's eyes, and she seemed happy that she had finally won this endurance battle, but looking back at the camp behind her, she was slightly frustrated.

It was clear that Alexander had shown her these things not just to show off in front of the women, but to tell her that he would not be afraid of the coalition forces even without the support of others.

After all, now the imperial palace minister and a large group of nobles who have nothing to do to come to see the excitement are in his hands, although since the Battle of Koresi more than 100 years ago, there has never been a terrible incident of a large group of nobles being captured and slaughtered on the battlefield, but no one dares to guarantee that once this person is forced to hurry, there will be no more such a tragedy.

And Orgala had a vague feeling that Alexander didn't just want to use the palace minister and these nobles to blackmail the coalition army, but had something else to rely on.

Orgala didn't want things to get out of hand, it wasn't what she wanted to see, and she believed it wasn't what Groganin wanted to see, on the contrary, it was clear from Groganin's letter to her that he didn't know if his own reason was influenced by the elders of the trade guilds in the Hanseatic League far away on the north coast, Gragenin had changed his attitude towards the war, and he seemed to want everything to end as soon as possible, Even the letter vaguely revealed the desire for the French to get out of this dispute as soon as possible.

It was because of this that Orgala came to Rome with little Córdoba, but she didn't expect that she would encounter such an incident just after she arrived.

When little Cordoba heard that the palace minister and many nobles were captured by Alexander, he offered to serve as an envoy to meet him on the grounds that he knew Alexander, and Orgala naturally could not give up this opportunity, and also followed little Cordoba to meet Alexander.

But I don't know why, maybe it's because we haven't seen each other for a long time, Orgala feels that the Alexander in front of him has changed a little bit from what he saw in Naples before, although I can't say what these changes are, but from him Orgala still feels something that he didn't have before.

Is it because of those Agri musketeers?

Orgala couldn't help but look back at the shadowy figures in the camp.

Or did he really think that he could hold off the coalition forces with that artillery?

"Release the palace minister and those nobles, you can get a large ransom," Orgara whispered, "If you can ask each of them for a lesser ransom, I think my master will be willing to pay the difference for them, of course, the 30,000 ducats you asked for from the palace minister are a bit too much, I think 10,000 ducats will not damage the identity of the palace minister and will be very beneficial to you." ”

"And then I get a much smaller sum of money than I had expected, and Grogenin gets the friendship of the palace ministers and the nobles?" Alexander asked, smiling a little sarcastically.

Seeing the displeasure flashing on Orgara's face, Alexander smiled, and when he saw Orgala appear with little Córdoba, he had already vaguely guessed that maybe there had been a change on the side of Grogenin or the Hanseatic League, otherwise neither this woman nor the rich man behind her would easily go to the front like this, they seem to be the kind of people who like to use money as a barrier and hide behind them to do things.

Now that he heard Orgala say this, Alexander didn't know what was going on on Grogenin's side, but it was clear that the man was going to do something with his money bag again.

Only this time, Alexander didn't want him to get his wish.

Olgala opened her mouth and was about to open her mouth to continue to dissuade, but was suddenly blocked by Alexander's fingers on her lips and silent.

Seeing Alexander listening, Orgala couldn't help but prick up her ears slightly, and then she faintly heard the sound of horses' hooves.

Hearing the sound of not many people, Alexander stepped back slightly, and when he saw that he was not far from the camp, he stopped and looked at the road in the darkness in the distance.

Several figures appeared, and when the soldiers who had come out of the camp shouted for them to stop, the people on the opposite side shouted: "I am Constantine della Roverre, I have come to see my brother-in-law!" ”