The waves were rough, and Alexander stood very close to the bow of the ship and quietly looked at the sea in the distance.

This was the first time he had been to sea, and each time he had been in a different mood, some frustrated, some angry, but this time it was confidence.

Gonzalo's threat to Naples had been mitigated, and after making the threat, Alexander showed enough goodwill to collect a large amount of military expenses for Alexander, through Sicilian merchants, enough money for him to do whatever he wanted in the Mediterranean for a while.

As for the threats against Sardinia and Corsica, Alexander had promised to take back the order, but he did not promise that he would not threaten them again.

And Alexander made it clear that Gonzalo would maintain sufficient relations with the French, in order to ensure that Billy Shelly's court in exile would be sufficiently safe.

These apparently threatening moves were directed at Aragon, undoubtedly telling Gonzalo that Ferdinand's plot had been fully exposed, and not that the situation had become so because his army had happened to be in Sicily.

Alexander wasn't worried about angering Gonzalo, because he had found a better target for the general.

The great temptation of Crete was enough to make Gonzalo's heart move, and as for Naples, he could not care about it for the time being.

Rather than making an enemy of Naples, who might ally with the French at any time and then form an alliance, the idea of helping the Venetians capture Crete made Gonzalo feel that it was not only right and even wise to change the goal of the expedition, or that even Ferdinand should not be too difficult for him.

It was of great significance to Alexander that he was able to turn Napoli around, not only because he fulfilled his promise to him, but more importantly, because he used this event to finally successfully carve a rift between the seemingly unbreakable Ferdinand and Gonzalo.

He believed that as the rift grew, it would one day become the source of a complete rupture between the two men.

And in order to increase the effect of this rift, Alexander also did a lot of work with Camus and Madame Palazzo.

Madame Palace's feelings when facing Alexander were obviously more complicated than Camus's.

Although this man was not the culprit behind her husband's death, he was inextricably linked to it, and it was with Gomez's death as the dividing line, it seems that her family gradually went downhill from that time, and now she even has to beg for sympathy from the Sicilian nobles she despised at all.

So when Madame de la Palazzo received a grant from Alexandria that was also promised, she had mixed feelings, and the price of the money was that she was going to be involved in persuading Gonzalo.

As for Camus, the sleek-old man not only did not ask Alexander for any favor, but on the contrary he had sent his grandson to Bologna, the papal territory, but from the relationship between Massimo and Alexander, who had just appeared in Sicily, no one doubted whose side the metropolitan was on in Bologna.

As for Flomenza's eventual failure to accept Alexander's loan offer, it seems to have failed, but as Grogenin quietly arrived in Sicily, Alexander felt that what was going on might not be entirely impossible.

Probably the only thing that can be said to have failed is the original purpose of this trip, and the matter of saving Count Mordilo is a complete mess, although it can be determined that the finger is not the Count himself, but the fact that he has never been able to find out the whereabouts of Count Mordilo still makes Alexander feel annoyed.

The Sicilian Brotherhood, which grew over the next few hundred years and later became the largest and most influential dark organization in the world, has shown itself to be quite surprising in this day and age, and it was probably the biggest surprise of Alexander's trip.

However, although he was not able to rescue the earl, Alexander was not very worried, no matter who had no news after taking the earl, he would definitely be a little worried about the earl's safety, but after seeing that finger, he was sure that the earl was not only alive, but those people would not hurt him at least temporarily, after all, even cutting off a finger had to use a stand-in, and it was obvious that those people valued Count Mordillo very much.

Alexander thought about the gains and losses of this trip to Sicily, and at the same time a new thought had vaguely formed in his mind.

The waves crashed into the hull of the boat, and the broken splash of water splashed mischievously on Alexander's face standing next to the boat, the taste was a little salty and a little cold, Alexander licked the corners of his mouth slightly, and then wiped the water droplets off his face with his sleeve.

"Your Excellency, you should ...... Go back to the cabin......" Schell said reluctantly as he leaned against the door of the cabin, his feet dangling as if he were going to fall at any moment, and when he saw Alexander looking back, he struggled to climb the deck but twice retracted because he couldn't get under his feet.

"Scheer, it's funny how you look now," Alexander said in a mocking tone, seeing that Scheer was about to let go of the hatch for the third time to go to the deck, he waved his hand to stop the Balkans, and then walked up to Scheer himself a few steps, "Remember to never do what you can't do, that will only make you lose more than you gain." ”

As he spoke, Alexander walked down the wooden ladder down the low cabin, and in the dim light his eyes fell on a map that had been rolled out and pressed against stones on a bucket.

Alexander walked over to the bucket and crouched down, pulling the map from under the stone, his gaze falling on a corner of the map.

The map is somewhat rough and in keeping with the disproportions characteristic of our time, a map of the Mediterranean, with Crete visible to the east of the Mediterranean, which is clearly out of proportion.

"Schel, do you think Gonzalo can take Crete?" Alexander asked suddenly.

"That's not good, you know I'm not a general like Lord Gompati," Schell was a little nervous, because he was worried that the old man would make a wrong judgment because of his words, seeing Alexander's encouraging eyes, Schell thought hard and then said carefully, "Although I heard that the general is very powerful, but the enemy is an Ottoman, I think he may not be able to win." ”

Alexander was noncommittal to Schell's words, and he simply nodded on the map where Crete was marked.

The Caravel ship was undoubtedly the king of ocean exploration in this era, but this kind of ship was not actually suitable for the Mediterranean, in addition to the fact that the size of the Mediterranean Sea was responsible for the use of such workmanship, expensive means of transport were a huge waste, and more importantly, the huge hull of the Caravel type was not suitable for many places on the Mediterranean coast.

Especially after penetrating deep into the Tyrenian Sea, Caravall's bulky hull was not as agile as the galleys, especially in some areas of the complex sea, where Caravel ships had to avoid running aground in order to avoid running aground at too deep a draft.

This reminded Alexander that, although he did not know much about the topography of the Cretan Sea, he felt that perhaps the Aegean Sea was no better than it was here.

"Gonzalo's fleet seems to lack enough logistical vessels to transport supplies." The thought moved Alexander's heart.

The journey from the port on the east coast of Aragon deep into the Mediterranean was a smooth wind, and according to the original plan it was closer from Sicily to Naples, because they were entirely in Naples to collect rations, so Gonzalo's fleet did not carry much food except for soldiers.

And once they decided to occupy Crete, they would have to prepare several times more supplies than they had originally planned to occupy Naples, so that their ships would not be enough.

"It seems necessary to remind the French to hide all the ships that work." Alexander muttered, then put it away on the note beside him.

Alexandria did admire Gonzalo, and if he was able to use the musket so well with the help of foresight, then Gonzalo de Córdoba must have relied on his extraordinary genius to discover the great power of firearms on the battlefield and the prospect of inevitably replacing the cold weapon.

He was indeed full of admiration for such a genius Alexander, but he was not so polite to an enemy with such genius-like abilities.

Although he had just reached an agreement with Gonzalo, Alexander did not mind taking advantage of the opportunity to trap him if he had the opportunity, and no matter what means he used, there was no guarantee that he would take the initiative in the future, so he could not let it go.

Alexander's ship arrived in Naples at noon on the third day, and Caravel may not have been suitable for use in the Mediterranean, but it was clearly one of the most comfortable means of sea travel of the era, at least the beds were a blessing for the seasick.

Seeing the coastline of Naples from afar, Alexander narrowed his eyes slightly, he had already noticed several small ships on the sea in the distance, although they were too far away to see the flag on the ship, but Alexander could guess that it should be the French patrol ship at sea.

"French." Alexander involuntarily said in a disgusted tone that although he himself had no grudges against the French, and he had a good relationship with Charlon, whether it was as Josa's brother or her lover, Alexander had a natural dislike for the French.

"Perhaps in the near future, a war with the French will be inevitable." Alexander pondered in his heart.

According to his plan, once Gonzalo was led to Sicily to temporarily resolve the crisis of the enemy, then the conflict with the French was bound to come soon.

Or even if Gonzalo still had his sights set on Naples, Alexander knew he had to make a decision between the French and the Austrians.

He made this decision because of the coming 1500 years.

The year 1500 is the time when the 15th and 16th centuries meet, and there are not many major events that will take place in this year, but there is one that Alexander must not ignore.

That is the year that a child will be born, and his name will be Charles, the future King Carlos I of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

Alexander didn't know much about this monarch who truly unified Spain, except that he was the founder of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and what impressed Alexander more deeply in his heart was his parents.

Juana of Castile, and her husband, the Governor of the Netherlands, the pretty Philip, Duke of Vienna, was known for his good looks.

Although Charles V later proved to be the most powerful monarch of the entire first half of the 16th century, and it was he who officially ushered in the glorious era of the Habsburg dynasty vying for supremacy on the European continent, Alexander certainly did not worry about an unborn child.

He cared that with the birth of a child from his titular cousin, the Iberian kingdoms would grow closer to the Habsburgs, and that even if he could achieve his goal of seizing the crown, it would probably cost a great deal to pull Spain out of the whirlpool of war in Europe.

If that's the case, it's definitely unbearable for him.

Think about it, just when the Europeans were fighting to the death, the new world was gradually fading the veil of mystery, like a graceful beauty coming, and at this time a group of stupid and reckless men had no time to look at the intoxicating face of this beauty, and would only blet themselves and the enemy incessantly, until one by one the treasury was empty and unsustainable.

Alexander, of course, did not want to see such a thing happen, at least not to see the future Spanish kingdom exhausted in this war, which is why he suddenly supported Maximian.

He needed someone who could help him contain Louis XII and his French army.

And if they don't want the future Spain to consume the vast resources they had accumulated in this long Italian war, then the only way is to break up the relationship between them and the Habsburgs, which will become more and more solid with the birth of Charles V.

"Groganin, I hope you don't let me down." Alexander looked back in the direction of Sicily, where there was no shadow in the distance.

At the end of October 1499, with a cold sea breeze, Alexander once again landed on the land of the port of Santa Lucia.

To avoid embarrassment on both sides, he used Qiao Er's name.

Charron sent someone to meet him on the docks, and when they met at the palace, Charron did not even sit on the throne for the sake of his feelings.

"Count, is your trip going well?" Although he had heard a lot of reports, Scharron was still very interested in seeing Alexander himself.

"It should be said that it is going well," Alexander smiled as he looked at the Frenchman, "but the rest may not be so optimistic." ”

In November 1499, Montina's army was ordered to enter northern Italy.