It was so sudden that before he could even figure out who the enemy was, Alexander was already following the people to climb the castle walls.

Outside, the night was dark, the undulating mountains were completely shrouded in darkness, and the originally bright moon had been obscured by dark clouds at some point, which made the heavens and the earth seem to have lost the last bit of light.

The slots in the eaves of the castle were already full of torches, and the people looked down by the light of the torches.

Although it was almost completely shrouded in darkness, even in the light of the fire, you could still see the faintly swaying figures in the distance.

"Who is it?" A soldier carefully asks his companion next to him, but receives no answer, and the sudden appearance of an enemy of unknown origin makes everyone secretly nervous.

"French?"

"How is it possible, the French have already been driven away."

"That's the Ottomans, heretics!"

"Don't be stupid, the Ottomans won't come to Cosenza even if they call, they should go to Naples or Venice."

The people on the city wall whispered, looking at the shadowy figures in the distance, nervousness and excitement enveloped everyone for a while.

"Be careful, don't be careless!" The captain kept reminding him along the ramparts, his armor glistening in the firelight, and the clattering sound of his armor clattering as he walked.

"My lord, do you know who it is?" A soldier asked the captain as he approached.

"I don't know where they came from, maybe hell, but if they dare to attack, we'll let them know that Kosenza is even more terrible than hell."

The captain's words immediately caused a burst of laughter, and the originally tense atmosphere eased a lot.

Many people began to whistle and wave torches outside, and some of the bold ones even jumped on the battlements and dangled from top of the city.

In the darkness of the night outside the city walls, I don't know how many enemies were slowly approaching, and when they finally stopped, they could faintly see the reflection of swaying figures and weapons reflected in the moonlight.

The captain of the knights had a few torches poked into the jacks peeking out of the wall, and then shouted out to the people below by the bright light: "Who are the people outside, report your names and origins!" ”

The captain's shouts were not answered, but some shadowy figures began to run back and forth in the distant woods, as if they were busy with something.

"Where did they come from," the captain pushed his helmet back, wiping the sweat from his face and staring at the dark shadows below.

"These don't look like the French." One of the guards whispered near him.

"Stupid, of course not French," the captain scolded angrily, "but it shouldn't be those mercenaries, it seems that there are quite a few of them, but there is nothing to be afraid of." ”

"Your Excellency, are we going to send someone out to see," one of the knights asked, "we should at least know who they are, or send someone to call for help from Naples." ”

Looking at the deep night, the captain hesitated for a moment but shook his head and rejected the suggestion: "No, we don't know how many of them there are, it will be risky to send people out, and it may be better to wait until dawn." ”

Alexander stood in front of a battlement and looked out, he was careful to hide far from the light, and his body flashed behind the battlement.

There should have been no lethal long-range weapons in this era, and as for the arquebus, although powerful at close range, neither the range nor the rate of fire nor the accuracy were enough to pose an absolutely lethal threat to people.

But even this Alexander did not dare to take it lightly, and for the first time he really participated in the battle and the nervousness of the unknown enemy made him try to be as cautious as possible.

Alexander did not believe that he was the kind of hero who would walk around him even if he stood in front of the enemy, but he remembered all kinds of examples of inexplicable deaths on the battlefield.

"Why are you scared?" A knight came up and looked at Alexander with a mocking look, even though he was nominally ruled by the same royal family of Aragon, but he did not seem to have a very good opinion of the Sicilians, whether Neapolitan or Cosenza.

"Just be careful." Alexander didn't care about the other party's contemptuous eyes, only those who survived on the battlefield could despise others, and those who were always self-righteous often didn't end well.

"They're so far away that even the most powerful crossbow can't threaten you." The knight looked at the figures outside, who had always been hidden in the darkness, "And we have the walls to protect it, and Kosenza has not been captured for many years. ”

"When was the last time it was captured?" Hearing this, Alexander couldn't help but ask.

"Last time, I wasn't born yet, and it was said to be ......."

Bang!

A muffled sound suddenly came from his side, and Alexander turned his head to look, and was stunned to see that the knight, who was still talking just now, had fallen on his back!

The armor on his body slammed into the ground with a dull sound, and the half-black tail of the arrow embedded in his forehead pointed strangely at the sky.

"There are crossbowmen!" There was a panicked cry from the city wall, and no one could have imagined that the other party would attack from such a distance, although it might just be a crossbowman hiding in the bushes close to the wall, but no one dared to be careless.

Several people standing on the battlements jumped down in embarrassment, and one even accidentally fell out of the wall because of panic.

"Don't panic!" The captain's voice rang out from afar: "Extinguish the torch!" ”

The torches planted in the walls of the city were immediately thrown away, and for a time there was a darkness all around.

"What's going on?"

The captain rushed to the man who fell to the ground, looked at his still twitching body, hesitated and slowly pulled out the dagger, he lowered his head and picked up the man and whispered something in his ear, then raised his wrist and slit his throat.

Alexander watched in silence, although he had seen many dead people on the bloody night in Palermo, it was always a riot, maybe bloody but different from the battlefield.

If what is happening in Palermo is full of madness, what is happening in Cosenza has a certain indifference that he is still hard to get used to.

It is indeed indifference, an indifference to life, which can be towards enemies as well as towards one's own people.

"He's the captain's brother." A man whispered to Alexander.

Alexander was slightly stunned, but then the captain turned to look at him: "My lord, if you don't have anything else, maybe you can go and accompany the earl and miss, you are not needed here." ”

Looking at the captain's gloomy face, Alexander nodded in agreement, he knew that it was better not to anger this man at this time.

And he did want to go to see Jisha, who had suddenly heard that the enemy was attacking and people had involuntarily run up the city wall, and now although he didn't know who these enemies were, he remembered Jisha after stabilizing a little.

The Count had already put on his armor, and although he looked like a tumbler in armor dangling from his lost arm, Alexander still vaguely felt the majesty he had when he stood in the middle of the hall and shouted.

But now the Count's majesty could only be exercised in front of his daughter, and after a while of shouting, the Count's attendant poured him a glass of wine, and soon the Count was carried back to the room with a mutter.

At this time, Josa had already changed into a lighter robe, and when she saw Alexander, she greeted him and whispered about the situation outside, and when she heard it, Josa looked at Alexander a little blankly.

"Don't you know who the enemy is?"

"It's too dark, and the enemy obviously doesn't want us to find out where they are," said Alexander, who suddenly remembered something, "yes, they seem to have come from the north." ”

Josha's face froze slightly, she knew what Alexander meant.

She and Bellery had gone north before, thinking that if they had met those people a little later, Ash's face turned slightly pale.

"Don't worry now, Kosenza won't be easily breached, and we have enough food," Tsusha wanted to say some good news to make her depressed mood better, but then her tone slowly sank, "But we were attacked, and no one would know about us, would they?" ”

Looking at Jisha's inquiring gaze, Alexander, who didn't want her to worry, finally nodded.

"Kosenza is indeed difficult to attack, but it would be a bit bad if no one knew, unless our enemies were few in number, and we might have to wait to run out of food."

"But who are they, and no one knows who our enemies are until now?" Jisha walked around a little impatiently, "It seems that the people here live too leisurely, and we haven't really fought for a long time. ”

"Haven't fought with the French either?" Alexander regretted this sentence a little, and sure enough, he saw the slightly vicious gaze cast by Jisha.

"Uncle Modillo and the French are getting along well." But she tried to explain, though her face flushed slightly as she said this.

Although Modillo does have a high reputation in Naples, his relationship with the French has also made him a traitor in the eyes of many Neapolitans, and even a noble lady like Tsusha has heard of this.

As Modiglo's in-law and ally, Cosenza was not threatened during the French invasion, which became a reason for being attacked by many people.

"Uncle Modillo may have his own reasons." Now that he has confessed his identity, Alexander naturally wants to side with Modiglo, and he doesn't think Modillo has done anything wrong.

In this era, the meaning of the state is so vague that it is difficult to grasp, in fact, if you think about the fact that a king on the other side of the Mediterranean is also the king of Sicily, you can roughly understand how much this is involved, while France and England, two old enemies across the sea, have been fighting for a hundred years because one king has justifiably claimed the inheritance of another country.

"What do we do now?" Josha's thoughts quickly returned, she looked out of the hall, and suddenly pulled Alexander through a side door to a corner, "What do you think if we run away at this time, no one will pay attention to us." ”

"You're still trying to escape, and you're going to let me run away with you?" Alexander looked at his sister in disbelief.

"Be quiet," Josha looked around, then continued to whisper, "Listen, even though there are many enemies outside that can besiege Kosenza, this castle can be defended for a long time. Soon Napoli will know that Uncle Modillo will definitely come to us, so there is no need to worry about that. But if that happens, maybe Alfred might take the opportunity to propose, I don't know what Uncle Mordillo thinks, but I don't want to marry the prince, so I think I'll have to run away as soon as possible. ”

Speaking of this, Jossa paused to look at Alexander's expression and continued: "And you don't want Uncle Mordillo to know now, do you, you must know that he is a very shrewd man, and if I didn't help you, maybe you would have been seen by him if you approached our mother casually, or at least doubted your purpose, because you don't look like her suitors." ”

Alexander coughed, he was a little unaccustomed to this way of saying it, though he also knew that this was what the atmosphere of the day seemed to be.

"Who do you think is out there?"

"I don't know, but I don't know anyone else who will attack us suddenly except the French, after all, our territory still belongs to Naples." After saying it with some anger, she looked at Alexander again, "You really refuse to leave with me?" ”

"It's not that I don't want to, but if it's too risky to go now." Alexander reluctantly explained, "I know you're worried that the Count might not be able to leave if he comes to Cosenza, but if you fall into the hands of those people outside, it's not even worse." ”

"Of course I have a way not to be discovered," Zhisa said, glancing at Alexander again, "Actually, I could have left without being discovered by you, but I didn't expect you to notice Boleri's actions." ”

Alexander was stunned for a moment, and then he understood the meaning of Zhissa's words.

Obviously, there should be secret passages in this castle that can be exited, but for some unknown reason, Jisha did not choose to use these secret passages.

"Don't risk it anymore." Listening to the footsteps of people passing by, Alexander whispered in Josha's ear, "Let's find out who is out there before we decide what to do." ”

After speaking, without waiting for Ji Sha to say anything, he walked quickly through the side door and walked into the hall.

At this time, he realized that he didn't know when Bellery was already waiting outside.

"If you don't want to kill her, persuade her to stay." Alexander said in a low voice as he passed by Beleri.

Bolery seemed to want to retort, but he still didn't say anything.

As soon as Alexander walked out of the hall, he saw a panicked Massimo running towards him.

"It's been a terrible trip," the monk chattered, "My lord I know you may have a lot of tribulations with you, but I never thought I would go to war one day, you know that I am a devout monk and not a warrior, and my weapons are the Bible and my faith rather than my sword and gun, so I would be grateful if you could get us out of here as soon as possible, my lord." ”

"It's a pity that I didn't promise you not to go to battle when I hired you," Alexander casually pushed away the nagging Massimo, "but if you want to leave now, I won't stop you." ”

"What, leave? Right now? "Massimo was taken aback" from the eyes of those bohemians? What are you kidding, my lord! ”

"What did you say?" Alexander suddenly stopped and looked at Massimo: "Do you know who they are?" ”

"Of course I know, when I see the unlucky man who was shot by the arrow," Mahimo muttered, "it's a Bohemian arrow, I've seen it with a woman before, and she boasted to me that her husband was a Bohemian archer, but the woman ...... it."

"Come with me!" Before the monk could continue to show off his affair, Alexander grabbed him and walked towards the wall: "You go up for me to see it, and then tell me everything you know!" ”