The seashore in November is very cold, and even though the sea has been eroded by the sea for many years, there are still large blocks of ice in some places, and from a distance, the edge of the deep blue sea seems to be dotted with countless white crystals.

The waves in the distance are surging, and even looking at them from the shore can't help but make people feel thrilled and courageous.

The sky was overcast, and the lead-gray clouds pressed low, as if something was about to fall from the clouds.

The roaring waves can be heard from afar, giving the illusion that a big wave will sweep ashore at any moment, sweeping everything away and taking it with them.

The sea is always mysterious and terrifying, because no one knows what the world under the sea is like, and no one knows when the sea, which was as calm as a sleeping beauty, will suddenly wake up and become a crazy devil.

But the sea is full of charm, and countless people have stood on the shore and looked into the distance, trying to find the world on the other side below the horizon.

A man who looked like a merchant walked along a very rough path to the big house at the top of the hill in the cold sea breeze.

Like other houses built by the sea, this large house is made of stone and sturdy wood, and with the exception of the doors, windows, and roof, the house looks sturdy, but there are still some signs of decay in some parts of the house that have been eroded by the sea breeze for many years.

Walking into the garden surrounded by low walls, you can see the flowers and plants planted in the yard, but most of these flowers and plants have withered under the cold wind, and because of the erosion of the sea breeze all year round, the land here is not good, so even the flowers and plants that are still alive look wilted and lifeless.

He knocked on the knocker of the beast's mouth that hung on the door, and after a while, as the heavy door opened, a servant appeared in the doorway.

Seeing the merchant, the servant was not surprised that there would be guests on such a cold day, but asked with a slightly indifferent expression although respectful: "Who are you looking for?" ”

"Inform your master that a Barrician merchant named Matthews Thiego has come to visit him."

The servant looked at the man for a moment, led him into the living room, and then nodded and turned away, although the man looked very richly dressed, but this did not attract much attention from the servant, after all, there were too many people who came to visit the master every year, and many of them were powerful people.

Tiego sat down comfortably, the glow of the fireplace lit in the corner of the house warmed him a little, and after a while the chill that almost came out of his bones faded away.

Bareari was much warmer than this hellish place, Thiegor murmured to himself.

Indeed, the Mediterranean coast is really too comfortable compared to the place on the edge of the ocean, and even when sailing at sea, it is not too uncomfortable.

And those terrible waves also frightened the merchants, and as long as they thought that they were only seen from the shore, Tiego wondered what terrible things were waiting for those who explored the secrets of the sea in the depths of the ocean, where no one had ever visited.

The sound of footsteps came from the wooden staircase, and Tiego immediately regained his thoughts, he knew the importance of his visit, although he was not very sure what the count's intentions were, but he remembered very well that before leaving Pisa and returning to Bareari, Alexander had carefully instructed him several important things, one of which was to visit the family.

The footsteps were heavy and slow, accompanied by the clatter of crutches on the ground, which made Tiego realize that the visitor must have been an old man.

Sure enough, an old man with gray hair appeared at the top of the stairs, and as he walked down the stairs, Tiego was surprised to find that although this person was already a little hunchbacked, he was very tall, even if he was slightly bent, it still made Tiego feel that he had to raise his head slightly to be at eye level with him.

"A guest," the old man looked at Tiego as he was about to speak, raising his hand to stop him, "let me guess, you don't behave like a nobleman, you should be a merchant, and I can smell the money on you people even from a long distance." ”

The old man finished speaking a little unreasonably, and waved his hand to signal Tiego to sit down.

"I'm old, so I don't have to worry about whether it's annoying, but it allows me to see more things, young man, I don't think you're coming to visit me."

Tiego was a little overwhelmed, or he didn't know how to answer.

The bunch of words that had been prepared before suddenly became completely useless in front of this old man, and he even had the illusion that he seemed to be standing naked in front of the other party, revealing all his secrets from the inside out.

"I have come to visit you on the commission of my employer," Tygo tried to keep his voice quiet, and his tone was made to emphasize that he had come to visit the old man himself, "my employer wishes to show you enough respect. ”

What is enough respect, soon the old man saw from a letter that Thiegor had brought.

And Tiego couldn't help but be secretly happy when he saw the surprise on the old man's face, which seemed to be indifferent to everything.

At first, he didn't know why his Lord Earl had invested so much, but now he understood a little from the old man's indifference, in fact, more of an arrogant attitude.

Obviously, there must have been a lot of guests who had come to visit before, so it was polite for the old man to meet a businessman who didn't know where he came from or who his supporters were.

But now judging from the look on his face, the Earl's letter must have moved him.

"Wait a minute," the old man looked away from the letter, looking at Tiego, "I have read this, and I have to admit that this employer of yours is the most generous man I have ever met, and now let me think about the purpose of this Count of Montina. ”

The old man looked at Tiego with a cloudy but shrewd gaze, and after a moment he opened his mouth slightly as if to say something, but then closed silently.

The old man stood up with the letter and walked to the fire, and looked at it carefully by the light of the fire, which shone on the side of his face, and reflected the slight movement of his wrinkled cheeks.

Tiego felt that the wait was a little long, but he sat there patiently, knowing that the longer it was, the more important the old man would be, and it was a good thing for him.

Portugal's relations with Castile were not very good, or never had been.

So a merchant of Bariari of Castile was not so popular here.

This is Portugal far from Castile.

Compared to Portugal's long-term vision of conquering the seas and opening up sea routes many years ago, Castile's qualifications are much shallower.

Even as recently as a dozen years, Castile had focused only on how to expel the Moors and regain lost territory.

But it was in the past ten years that Queen Isabella of Castile, with her extraordinary abilities, suddenly became unusually interested in the sea.

Especially in recent years, the Queen's sponsored navigators have ventured into the depths of the Atlantic, and some of them have discovered many things that no one has ever discovered before.

However, the Portuguese did not stop, they were more active in exploring the sea course, for this reason they constantly had friction and even conflict with the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon, and the result was that this contradiction was finally placed in front of Alexander VI, who had just taken over as pope at that time.

It was from this that the famous papal meridian, which divided the whole world in half, was born.

The old man had been looking at the letter repeatedly, as if studying its contents.

Tiego waited patiently, his eyes glancing at the row of models of sailboats on the long table on the wall of the drawing-room, some of which he had ridden and some of which he had only seen.

In particular, the galleons of Galen and Caravel, which were much larger than the average galleys in the Mediterranean, fascinated Tiego a little.

"The person who wrote this letter was very bold." The old man spoke suddenly, folded the letter carefully and put it in the pocket of his thick coat, and then walked back to his chair and sat down on crutches.

Tiego looked at the old man with some confusion, he knew of course that the earl was very bold, or sometimes a little too bold.

But this was the first time he had heard someone say that about a letter-writer.

The old man seemed to see Thieg's doubts, and he raised his hand as if to get the letter out of his pocket, and then stopped.

"He promised me a lot of things, some of which I didn't even find easy to believe."

"My employer is very trustworthy."

Tiego said honestly that in this respect he felt that he could use it as a living proof that at least in a little more than a year, the brother and sister had indeed fulfilled what had been promised to him, and that if he did the math, he would have received much more than he had promised.

"If that is the case, I should be more cautious," the old man was not impressed, "We all know that any generous promise must be paid for a sufficient price, and I don't know if I can afford to pay that price." ”

"My employer treats you with a lot of respect and will never make a condition that will make you feel embarrassed."

Tiego smiled.

The other party was willing to bargain rather than refuse, which made Tiego feel that this time it should not be in vain.

"What makes me embarrassed," the old man poked the crutches in front of him with both hands, "I just wonder how your employer can be so generous, or so confident that your investment will not fail," said the old man's eyes turned out of the window, looking at the undulating and turbulent sea in the distance, and he said in a quiet tone, "No one knows what will happen at sea, sometimes the whole fleet may capsize in a blink of an eye, no matter how big the sea ship is, it is as small as a grain of sand in the sea, and those heretics, They can suddenly appear in front of you at any time, and then cut your throat and burn the boat, these are common things at sea, and when you leave land in a boat, the only one who can bless you back to shore is God. ”

The old man's words made Tiego a little distracted, and from the old man's gaze, he could see that it seemed to be a memory of the past, and perhaps those thrilling experiences of the past.

"So I'm curious why your employer would spend so much on an old man like me, knowing that he might lose money."

"I'm curious," said Tiego, a little helplessly, for he really didn't understand why Alexander was so sure that investing in this man would pay off, after all, as the old man said, the great risks at sea are unpredictable, "but my employer has always been stubborn, and he is unlikely to listen to persuasion, but fortunately his luck has always been good." ”

"Good luck," the old man nodded, "he does need luck, because we don't have much left but that." ”

As he spoke, the old man picked up the pen from the table and wrote a line in the blank space underneath the letter.

Then he folded the letter and handed it to Tiego.

"I don't know why your employer is so confident, but I am interested in his offer, and if my nephew discovers a new sea route to India in the course of this adventure, as she suspected, I promise you that I will advise him to sell the right to trade with the Mediterranean ports to your employer first." The old man said, and a smile appeared in his cloudy eyes, "After all, he was so generous and gave me such a generous gift. ”

Tiego finally breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that his mission was complete.

Like the old man, he could not understand why Alexander was so sure that the Portuguese navigator named da Gama was going on a long-lasting, uncertain sea expedition.

For this, Alexander did, as the old man had said, give him a very rich gift, a gift heavy enough to tempt even the most contemptuous of money.

A stake in a sugar cane plantation in Crete would soon be transferred to the name of the man named Markt da Gama through the arbitration chamber of a well-known Portuguese chamber of commerce.

And such a reward is only to be able to obtain a possible trade right in the future,

This is a bit crazy for many people, after all, da Gama's voyage has no idea whether it will be successful, and even if they can return to Portugal safely, no one can guarantee whether there really is a new sea route from Europe to India that has never been discovered.

This made Tiego think that Alexander might have become overconfident because of his previous success, and maybe even a little crazy.

For this reason, he had to write to Zhisa to report these thoughts to Alexander, hoping that the calm and wise Earl's news would take into account the great risks involved, and then dissuade Alexander from such an almost insane act.

But what Jean Tiego did not expect was that Mademoiselle de Countess sent him a reply of reprimand.

"I don't know how you could have the wrong idea that my brother has lost his mind, I must warn you that this is obviously wrong, and that you are still writing to me to ask, don't you know that you may have lost a great opportunity while you wait for my reply? I have to solemnly remind you here that the only thing you should do is to carry out the task assigned by the Count of Montina to the letter, and not to question my brother's decision because of your personal speculation. ”

Thiegor was taken aback by such a harsh reprimand, and he felt that he was really in trouble, and at the same time he was indeed reckless in questioning the Count.

What the siblings had done, Tiegoo knew better than many people, and it was because of this that he was convinced of the extraordinary abilities displayed by the siblings.

And now it is clear that the brother and sister made such a decision, which makes Tiego not only immediately retract his previous suspicions, but also secretly regret his decision to doubt the Count.

Tiego remembered what Alexander had said to him, which had always puzzled him, but he didn't remember that even in the middle of the night, he would jump out of bed and walk back and forth a few times to calm his excitement.

"Thieg, I think maybe one day you'll be the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but maybe the most special Chancellor of the Exchequer in history."

From an ordinary merchant to the Chancellor of the Exchequer of a country, this is probably the dream of all businessmen, and it is possible to realize such a dream, and every time he thinks of this, Thiegor feels that he was captured by Jisha at sea, and it may be the luckiest opportunity of his life.

The big house on the top of the hill was already far behind him, and although the sea breeze was still so cold, Tiego didn't feel very cold.

After all, he had just been given a certificate of shares in a plantation worth tens of thousands of florins, or hundreds of thousands, or maybe even more, just thinking about it made him feel hot all over.

He didn't know if it was really worth the Count's money, but now da Gama, the name was deeply imprinted in Tiego's mind at this time.

Looking back at the house behind him that stood on the top of the hill, facing the sea, Tiego took a breath, and then was so flooded by the sea breeze that he quickly shut his mouth.

"There's one more person."

He muttered to himself, then took out a piece of sour bread and a piece of dried mutton that was about the same as a stone from his bosom, and tore off a small piece of the bread with the jerky, and chewed it vigorously.

With a long way to go from the Portuguese port city of Sines to Valladolid in Castile, Tiego wondered if he should buy a horse on the way.

As Alexander had ordered, he went to Valladolid to find someone.

"Maybe the man isn't there yet, but it doesn't matter, you just need to find his whereabouts."

Tiego did not forget what Alexander had told him in his letter.

"Be careful with that man, who is strong-willed and cunning and ruthless, and all you have to do is let him know that I'm interested in him."

Tyego recalled Alexander's command, silently recited the man's name in his mind, and began to hurry.

Christopher columbus.