When Gonzalo's fleet appeared off the coast of Sicily, there happened to be a strong sea breeze.

This subtropical storm blowing from the Atlantic Ocean propelled Aragon's fleet from the port of Cartagena in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula to the Mediterranean, so that what was supposed to be a four-day voyage took only three days for the ship's lookout to see the silhouette of Sicily in the distance.

Naturally, this gust of wind also blew to Sicily, and then someone brought back the news of the appearance of the Aragonese fleet.

This made Florencea take the gust of wind as a good sign, and although he knew that it might be a bit of a pagan custom, he preferred to think of it as God secretly aiding Sicily.

Although the Neapolitans declared war, there was still no movement, which made Flomenza gradually relieved from a little worry at the beginning, and now Gonzalo's arrival made him feel that the Neapolitans' declaration of war was a joke.

As for Count Mordiglo, Flomenza did not let him suffer much, except that he had no freedom, and the count could even read a book at will, or chat with a beautiful maid about life.

In fact, Flomenza regarded Modillo as a treasure, and the count of Naples was even more important to him than his nephew, the queen.

Flomenza wanted to get a list, or rather, a list of people whose names were almost all from Castile, some of whom were influential officials around Queen Isabella, and who Flomenza accused of trying to undermine the reign of the two kings of Castile and Aragon.

Flomenza considered himself a man who knew the king's mind very well, and there was only one king in his mind, and that was Ferdinand II.

As for Queen Isabella, Flomenza regarded him as Ferdinand's wife, the king's queen, but only a queen.

The Iberian Peninsula needed only one king instead of two, which was the thought of many Aragonese people, including Flomenza, who knew very well that this was actually the king's mind.

Using Mordillo to take the opportunity to purge Castile of many important ministers is what Flomenza thinks, so in his opinion, Mordillo is too important, and he hopes to squeeze something useful from him all the time.

When Flomenza told Modillo that Gonzalo's army had arrived in Sicily, the Doge had a triumphant smile on his face, and he wanted to remind Modillo not only of his desire to be saved by the Neapolitans after his death, but also of the great power that Ferdinand possessed in Iberia.

"Tell me everything or be punished, I think that would be too ugly, after all, it would be an insult to use such a torture instrument as you, so wouldn't it be nice to tell all the people you know for the sake of us all being better?" Flomenza spoke bitterly to Modillo because he noticed that Modillo seemed to be grinding a bit lately, which made him feel the need to be reminded.

"You mean the people you want to know, right?" Seeing the meaningful smile on Flomenza's face, Modillo just pouted slightly, "Actually, it doesn't matter to me, but don't you think you will end well if you let Queen Isabella know?" ”

"I am serving the King, and of course Her Majesty," said Flomenza, disapprovingly, "We all know that the union of Castile and Aragon did not go so well, and there are people who do not want to see the King and his wife happy, and I think it is my duty as a faithful courtier to remove these people from them, and as for who you should name, I think you can refer to this list." ”

Flomenza put a piece of paper full of names in front of Modillo, and when he saw Modillo nodding or shaking his head at the names on it, and sometimes raising his eyebrows and making an interesting "um", Flomenza waved his hand to the maid waiting outside, signaling her to come in and wait on the Count.

"I want all the people above to disappear from the presence of the king and queen, and at least some of them will not be able to stay with her any longer." Watching the maid take off his coat for Modillo and then help him take off his boots, Flomenza slowly turned and walked out the door, and as he closed the door casually, the sound inside was also isolated from the room.

The price of grain in the Sicilian market suddenly fluctuated, and when Alexander was told that the Doge's palace had ordered a large purchase of grain from the market, Alexander let out a low "oh" sound.

"My lord, what's going on?" Schell asked a little strangely, and he noticed that Alexander's expression was calm, but it was evident from the casual tense shoulders that he seemed to be very concerned about the matter.

"The Aragonese army is coming, and Florenca is collecting rations for the Aragonese."

Alexander walked to the window and looked out at the dark clouds that swept the sky with the wind that couldn't stop blowing, and the Atlantic Ocean should be rough and vicious.

It is not known if the fleet of Amerigo Vespustsy had already left Málaga, where Colombia's first expedition to the New World began, but this time a Florentine named Amerigo Vespustsy was about to take away from Columbus the right to discover the New World and name it.

Columbus did not know until his death that he had reached a completely new world, a Eurasian explorer who had been eager to discover for thousands of years, but in the end he was the only one who achieved the miracle of discovering a new world, so this continent was destined to be called America in the future, and only a small piece would be named Columbia.

Alexander thought about these things that seemed to have nothing to do with the situation in front of him, but he didn't really mind the worries of the entourage next to him.

Not far from the city of Palermo, it is a small village located halfway up the hill of the Episcopal Palace.

The village is built on the hill, and the houses rise and fall along the hill, and from the heights you can see a patch of yellow-brown roofs that hide each other, so that the alleys and streets under the eaves are always shrouded in shadow.

But if you are in the middle of it, you will know that this feeling from a distance is wrong, because the house is high and low, so there will always be a window to see the distance, and even the sea in the distance.

The strong sea breeze blew in through these windows facing the sea, and the wind was very cool and fierce, and the windows rattled non-stop.

"My lord, is it time for us to leave Sicily?" After thinking about it for a long time, Scheer finally mustered up the courage to whisper, and said that he found that since the Count had arrived in Sicily, he did not seem to be in such a hurry to rescue the Count of Mordillo, especially since the tailor Osborne had inquired for a while and then talked to the Count alone for a long time, and the Count seemed to have simply given up that idea.

Now that he had heard that the Aragonese army had arrived in Sicily, Schell had to think about it, perhaps this was a good excuse for the Count to leave this place as soon as possible, and perhaps the Lord himself was thinking so.

Alexander waved his hand to stop Scheer, he could understand that Scheer wanted him to leave Sicily sooner, but he didn't think it was time to leave.

As for his lack of interest in rescuing Count Mordillo, it was because he suddenly discovered that Flomenza was doing something that both he and the Count had always wanted to do, but could not do for a while.

The Great Purge was underway in Stilla, which gave Alexander a deep understanding of the phrase "the enemy of his enemy is his friend".

At this time, Alexander even thought that if it was best for Count Mordillo to live here in Flomensa, just think of the list of so-called conspirators concocted by the governor, and then send the people on the list to the notorious Inquisition, Alexander could not help but sigh that such characters as cool officials are indeed everywhere.

As for Gonzalo's arrival, Alexander was more concerned about how many troops he had brought with him.

"Let someone inquire about it, maybe we can know more," Alexander commanded, but seeing Scheer's unwilling appearance, he thought about it and comforted the guard, "Wait for Schelle, maybe things will change a little new." ”

"Are you saying that Her Majesty's army is going to attack Sicily?"

Schell immediately became a little excited, thinking that the queen would definitely send troops because he was worried about the safety of his 'brother', so that the adults might be able to get rid of this risky game.

Although the arrival of the Aragonese army seemed to have made the situation much more serious, firstly, Schell had obviously not heard of Gonzalo's great name, so naturally he did not know how powerful the general was, and secondly, his personal experience in Bucharest made the guards feel a kind of mysterious confidence in their master......

"Maybe not." Alexander thought for a moment and shook his head.

Gonzalo's fleet arrived in Palermo at night, because it took some time for his fleet to reach the southwest coast of Sicily and then turn back north, but as Flomenza said while waiting in the harbor, sometimes what really matters is not when it arrives, but whether it arrives at the right time.

Gonzalo's army had apparently arrived at a good time.

9,000 Aragonese troops, all Ferdinand II could give him, although the army was not very numerous, but he received from Ferdinand II the right to compensate him for it, that is, the king allowed him to levy salaries for his army anywhere during the war, without having to pay any income tax to the king.

In other words, Gonzalo's army could legitimately plunder any area he occupied, and Ferdinand did not even mention that areas such as the Vatican or under the Holy See were personally granted by the Pope.

It was a fully permissible right, and it was for this tempting reason that Gonzalo, who had this right, recruited in a short period of time nearly 2,500 Catalan mercenaries after receiving the 6,500 soldiers provided to him by Ferdinand, and then after a short training he took them aboard ships and came to Sicily.

Flomenza was very happy with Gonzalo's arrival, he knew that the illustrious captain of the Knights of Santiago was a distant relative of Queen Isabella, and he knew that the queen had an unusual trust in his brave general, this characteristic made Gonzalo actually happen to be the representative of those people that Flomensa wanted to fight, but Flomensa was not stupid, he knew that it might be possible to move others, but it was not something he could do to move the general.

At least not for now.

Today, Gonzalo is not only a close confidant of Queen Isabella, but also a popular man in the eyes of King Ferdinand.

The glory of defeating and expelling the French invasion in Italy made Gonzalo, already famous, even more famous in Iberia, and the appreciation of the two kings made his favor unique for a while, and at such a time Florenceza would not be foolish to provoke such a man in the limelight, otherwise he would have ended badly.

However, Flomenza was glad to see Gonzalo come to Sicily, because it not only helped Sicily strengthen its defenses, but also because the nobles in Castile should have become much more isolated without the support of such a powerful figure as Gonzalo.

"Perhaps it was for this purpose that the king sent this general to Sicily." Flomenza couldn't help but wonder in his heart, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that he had guessed the king's plan: "Maybe the king's secret order will be sent soon, but before that we think about how to appease the grumpy general." ”

With this in mind, Flomenza couldn't help but look at the man who was already walking steadily onto the gangplank in the light.

The lights were dim, but he recognized the distinctive face.

The originally large chin stood out, and the beard curled on both sides of the lips shook with each step, and Gonzalo's long face appeared in front of Flomenza.

"It's a pleasure to see you again, honorable commander." Flomenza knew that Gonzalo liked to be called the head of the Knights of Santiago, and that his family title as a duke was not important.

"I'm glad to meet you, too, and it's been a great deal of talk about you, whether in Zaragoza or anywhere else, that you're now the vice-king of the Kingdom of Sicily."

Gonzalo grimaced at Flomenza, and then, before the governor could recover from the shock of his words, he slapped Flomenza's unathletic shoulder and exclaimed, "Okay friend, tell me what welcome you have prepared for me, good food, wine, and beautiful women, and nothing can be done without them." ”

Looking at Gonzalo's smiling face, Flomenza's original heart slowly relaxed, and he laughed to hide the fright he had just received because of those words, and warmly invited Gonzalo to the palace.

"As you said, the captain, the wine, the food and the beautiful people, these are all prepared for your arrival." Flomenza said with a smile.

"That's great."

Gonzalo whistled lightly to show his satisfaction, then his expression sank suddenly, and as he raised his arm and waved it down, a heavy footstep suddenly sounded from the deck of the ship behind him!

Flomenza couldn't help but follow the prestige, and in the darkness he saw a group of soldiers walking down the gangplank from the boat, and the docks were full of people, and the queue of soldiers increased.

In the night, the glitter of armor and weapons came and went, and a large army was overwhelming Palermo at this moment.

"Aragon's army." Flomenza sighed in his heart and blurted out.

"No," Gonzalo, who was standing aside, sneered, "this is my army." ”