Alexander VI had high expectations for Caesar, in fact, he had great expectations for his own women, in addition to Geoffrey's bear child, he had made a rigorous and careful future plan for Giovanni and Caesar, according to that plan, Giovanni could become the military commander of the future Papal States, and Caesar could one day become the third pope of the Borgia family.

In this way, the Borgia family will continue to prosper, and for at least the next hundred years, they will be one of the most prominent families in Rome and Iberia.

But Giovanni's sudden death was a fatal blow to Alexander VI, and even though Caesar tried to prove to him that he could fulfill the dream that Alexander VI had always wanted to achieve even without Giovanni, Alexander VI could not erase the irrepressible sadness in his heart.

And Alexander VI had a vague feeling in his heart that if Giovanni lived, perhaps their relationship with Alexander would have become more harmonious, because although Giovanni did not show much intimacy with Alexander, he seemed to be much kinder to Alexander than Caesar.

This probably began with the First Romagna War, after which Giovanni's attitude towards Alexander changed significantly, and he even acquiesced to a certain extent to the completely inhumane ambiguous relationship between Alexander and Lucrezia, which had led the Pope to think that it was a good opportunity to improve relations with the young man.

It's just that everything was ruined by Giovanni's accidental death, and Caesar was obviously not a brother-in-law who could get along well with any brother-in-law, as for the reason, Alexander VI did not want to delve into it, but Caesar was indeed the main source of tension between the Borgia family and Alexander.

"Do you think Gombray threatens us?" The Pope looked at his son in silence, Caesar had obviously drunk so much that he forgot to put on the face that was ruined by syphilis, watching him keep wiping the thick water overflowing from the dark red scars on his face that had been slightly festering with his handkerchief, the Pope stirred a few times casually, driving away the faint unpleasant smell in the air, "Don't you think he is making the biggest fortune for our family so far, you just have to look at the recent earnings to know how much we have made in the past year or so, and the most important thing is that You should know that this allows me to intervene directly in the finances of the Holy See as a matter of course. ”

Although the Pope claims to be God's walking agent on earth, and indeed has the supreme power in the whole of Christendom, this does not mean that the Pope can really do whatever he wants.

Maybe it could have been centuries ago, or in the time of Urban II and Innocent III, but now, after centuries of rivalry, the cardinals have finally loosened a few corners from the hands of the powerful pope, and in addition to winning over some dioceses with special influence that are almost entirely under the jurisdiction of the cardinals, the finances of the Vatican have gradually formed a special financial committee to manage, and the pope cannot easily intervene in a series of changes in this affairs.

And now, with the issuance of the gold Ladia, Alexander VI once again reached out to the treasury of the Holy See, and in the name of the gold Ladia coin, which was the guarantor of the credibility of the Holy See, and that he himself was the guarantor of this guarantee, he openly demanded that the Finance Committee must report to him every month, and at the same time he appointed his own private secretary, Nomello, to organize a group called ' The Faculty Review Council's working group, while recognizing himself as the head of the group, made Nomelo his liaison with the Finance Council in order to keep abreast of the Vatican's finances.

These measures led many to exclaim that Alexander VI was trying to restore the situation in which the Pope had monopolized power, but the cardinals could not refuse for a time when the issuance of the gold Radia coins brought clear signs of improvement in the financial situation of the Holy See.

But now, Caesar suddenly proposed to be an enemy of Alexander, much to the displeasure of the Pope.

"Father, of course I know that the man has done a lot for you, and I also know that when the two of you conspired to rob those nobles and rich businessmen of their money, you didn't tell me in advance, and made me a fool!"

"I didn't tell you because I knew you were going to spoil it, and even thought it might be a good opportunity to kill Alexander," said the Pope angrily, "and in fact we did a good job, and you almost messed it up." ”

"Then you think he's more useful than I am, so you gave him Lucrezia and asked her to be his mistress and bear him a child, without ever asking her if she wanted to?"

"Shut up, don't think I don't know why you hate Alexander so much, or that you hate all the men associated with Lucrezia, even your brother Giovanni! You must know that if he lived, he would not have put forward such a stupid idea, because he knew how to get the best benefit for the Borgia family, and not to frame his own family for the kind of reason in his heart that he could not declare to the public," the Pope yelled at his son, his face flushed, "And remember that I am your father, I gave you life, and I am God's spokesman in this world, I will not allow you to speak to me like this, you are offending the second only God in this world!" ”

"That's what you think, I hate Giovanni?" Caesar had a look of disbelief on his face, "Do you still suspect that I murdered him, and listen to what you call that person, 'Alexander', what an intimate title, maybe in your mind he and Giovanni are more competent as your son, then what am I?!" ”

Caesar questioned loudly, and as he walked up and down the room, he overturned the marble globe in front of him in his way in anger, and with the dull sound of the globe hitting the ground, several attendants hurried in.

"Get out of here!"

The Pope roared at the stunned-looking squire, who coughed violently, and only after drinking the wine poured by his personal servant did the Pope ease up a little.

When there were only two people in the room, looking at Caesar, who was sitting in a chair with both hands clutching his hair, Alexander VI walked over and looked down at his son, then raised his hand and patted him lightly on the shoulder: "Listen, I don't want to hear those words from you anymore, you know that we now have more power than any pope in 2 centuries, and I will use this power to pave you a path worthy of you, but you must give up those bad thoughts, and don't forget what we have now," Speaking of this, the Pope turned around and walked to the table, picked up a fine Radia gold coin, and shook it at Caesar, "It's all through this, and it's Alexander who can make it all work." ”

Caesar looked up slowly, his gaze looking through the gaps between his fingers at the gold coin that shimmered in the sunlight and nodded silently.

Caesar left in frustration, and when he came to the corridor, he met Nomelo who was standing not far from the door, looking at Nomerlo's smiling expression, Caesar snorted vaguely and said hello, and then he walked sideways to the end of the corridor.

Nomelo looked at Caesar's distant figure and groaned slightly, before turning around and pushing open the door and entering the Pope's office.

In the room, Alexander VI sat alone in a chair, his gaze fixed on the toppled globe, so distracted that he didn't notice that the secretary had come to his side.

"Am I being too him," Alexander VI looked up at Nomelo with some confusion, "since Giovanni's death, I have pinned all my hopes on him, I have indulged him in everything, even his undeserved feelings for Lucrezia I have turned a blind eye, but my indulgence in him has made me find that he is disappointing me more and more." ”

Nomelo listened silently, knowing that the Pope was just trying to express his inner displeasure, not to get any advice from him, because it was clear that the Pope knew what to do in his heart.

"He's hostile to Alexander, which worries me," seeing that Nomelo was silent, the Pope waved his hand at him, "You can go and persuade him, although it doesn't seem to be of much use, at least it will make him do less stupid things." ”

"Caesar is a very good nobleman, and he is your son, he is not stupid." Nomelo said in a calm tone.

"But sometimes jealousy blinds him." The Pope did not hide anything in front of Nomerlo, for whom sometimes Nomelo was even more reliable than his children: "I don't want to see him ruin himself because of this." ”

Nomelo nodded, and when he saw the Pope exhale, he knew that the topic was over, so he placed a heavy leather bag he had brought with him on the table next to him.

"Did you get the ledgers?" Sure enough, Alexander VI suddenly lifted his spirits after sighing for a while, and he was a little anxious to take the tightly closed ledger from Nomelo's hand, tear open the wax seal in it and look at it carefully, and then frowned slightly, "This is this month's income?" ”

"For Your Majesty, it's a little less than last month." Nomelo said unhurriedly.

"But this is the second month, you know, before that, our revenue was growing month by month, but what happened during this time, are we going downhill?" Pope Zhou asked with a frown.

"Actually, the Finance Committee has taken note of this, and there is also an account of the recent purchases of various materials from the Vatican, you can take a look," Nomelo said after handing the other ledger to the Pope, looking at Alexander VI, who was staring at the ledger with a more and more gloomy expression, "During this time we are actually more in the return of the gold coins that were issued before, you know, especially after the Count of Montina put in the gold that he brought back from Hungary, we should have made more money, But that doesn't seem to be the case now. ”

"Is it because we only issue gold coins and don't buy other goods in large quantities?" Alexander VI tapped his hand at the ledger, the last time the earnings had increased because I had ordered the expansion of St. Peter's Basilica, and then ...... "the Pope looked at the accounts of the next two months" and said that we had very little business after this except for the money from marble. ”

"That's right, Your Majesty, it's obviously very correct that you said that gold has no effect in the treasury except for dazzling, so maybe you should make all this money active."

Alexander VI caught up with Nomelo's words, he didn't know much about the Vatican's finances before, and through Pope Nomelo he gradually learned that he might not be the person with the most gold in the world, but he gradually realized that he was probably the one who had the best chance of making more gold from the goods of the entire European market through constant buying and selling.

"This is our chance, Nomerlo," Alexander VI looked at the secretary earnestly, "sometimes gold is more lethal than guns and knives, and guns will allow you to seize the territory and wealth of your enemies at most, but gold will allow you to rule the whole world, so we have to do something, I mean we have to get the whole Vatican and Rome moving, for example we can spend our money by rebuilding the drainage of the city from the Roman era, which seems like a waste, But we can also increase taxes on merchants by improving the status quo of the city, and of course this is just the beginning, and spending enough money on goods and then exchanging those goods for more wealth is what we should do, rather than just looking at a pile of shiny metal drooling. ”

Nomelo nodded slowly, he recorded the Pope's words, and then he used his position as the Pope's liaison with the Finance Council to convey His Majesty's ideas on the economic planning and development of the Vatican to the stubborn cardinals, and then under the guidance of the Pope, he began to build the economy in full swing.

While Alexander VI was racking his brains to boost domestic demand, a distraught Caesar returned to his home in Rome.

After driving away a few prostitutes who had stayed at home to serve him, Caesar finally came to his senses from his anger.

It's annoying to run into a wall from my father, but when you think about it, it's not very surprising.

Caesar knew that the Pope's "favor" for Alexander was more due to the visible benefits he brought to the Borgia family, and once he was no longer useful, Caesar did not think that Alexander VI would look the other way because he was the father of his granddaughter.

"Or maybe I'd be braver, maybe a bloody but proven conspiracy could make things completely simpler."

Caesar cheered himself up, and at the same time he had a glimmer of hope for Konstantin.

Just as he did not believe that Alexander VI would really regard Alexander as a son, Caesar believed that the elder Rovere was only interested in Alexander because of the current situation, and that he thought that perhaps he could gain the support of the elder Rovere by reconnecting the relationship between the elder Rovere and the French king.

Caesar began to write a letter to the King of France that he thought was insightful, and he decided to contact more people who were obviously unlikely to be bought by Alexander, who would become important figures in the future anti-Montina coalition, including the Farnes, the Roverets, who might be on his side, and Nomerlo, who was clearly a great influence on Alexander VI.

Caesar's plan was simple, he originally wanted to destroy the Duchy of Romagna-Tuscany that Alexander had gradually built up through a series of horizontal and horizontal combinations, but when he found that the complex methods seemed to be ineffective for a while, he decided to deal with his enemies in the most direct and effective way.

With Nomerlo's consent, Caesar made a proposal to Alexander VI through his private secretary to hold a grand birthday celebration for his father.

Many important people in Rome were invited to the celebration, and as the Pope's daughter and granddaughter, Lucrezia and Estelles were obviously going to attend.

Caesar sent a messenger to Pisa, and he also sent a message to Montina.

In the letter, Caesar invited Alexander to attend the Pope's birthday celebration in Rome as a close friend of Constantine, not as his brother-in-law, and he deliberately did not even specify the exact date of the celebration in order to prevent Alexander from returning from Lombardy.

Caesar began to frequent the homes of the nobles he thought could be allies, and for the first time since his last crushing defeat at Ferrara, he had appeared so active, and when he had drawn Julia Farne into his little alliance, Caesar knew that his plan had already succeeded for the most part.

Julia Farne is undoubtedly one of the few people who can have a great influence on Alexander VI, and now that the Pope is surrounded by anti-Montina elements, Caesar feels that as long as he does things clean and decisive at this time, when everything is a fait accompli, Alexander VI will naturally accept the facts.

To Caesar's delight, the messenger returning from Pisa brought him good news, Alexander was in Pisa!

When he heard the news, Caesar even felt that even God decided to help him because he couldn't see Gombray.

Caesar's good fortune was not the only thing, for after several long days of waiting, the letter he sent to Louis XII was finally answered.

In his reply, Louis XII's unspecified but obvious reply gave Caesar hope, and he knew that he would only need to show old Rovere the hope of regaining Genoa, which would be enough to impress the stubborn and greedy cardinal.

And when he soon received from Constantine the elder Rovere a kind reply that he was willing to accept his release, Caesar quickly set a date for Alexander VI's birthday celebrations.

In his opinion, January 31 was a good day, because the following February, the month of Rome, was traditionally the month of executions.