A large drawing, unfolded on a large table, shows a schematic diagram of the construction of the road from Montina to Florence.

However, if you look closely, you can see that a large network of roads is already on the map, with Montina, Florence and Pisa as the center.

Draw a circle around the three places with your finger and tap lightly on the map.

"How much will it cost to build such a road complex?"

Alexander rubbed his head with a little headache, and although he knew that building roads was expensive, after seeing the exploration report submitted by Leonardo da Vinci, he really realized for the first time what kind of problem he was facing.

Speaking of which, since the beginning of the Naples planning, Alexander has not encountered too many things to worry about money, this is a very bad era, yes, but it is also a good era to accumulate wealth.

From the time of the establishment of the Trade League, Alexander had accumulated a huge amount of wealth in a short period of time, and Alexander felt that he could buy the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, the most noble in Europe, after all, he remembered that the Fugol family later spent only 350,000 florins to put Charles V on the throne.

And what about him, how much can he pay for that crown? Alexander had mischievously pondered this question, knowing that he would not be able to become emperor even if he was willing to pay such a sum of money, but this did not prevent him from imagining that he could buy a crown.

But now he had to worry about where to start with the money to build the road.

Not from Montina to Florence, not to Bologna, Ferrara or Livorno, but to a road network covering almost the entire central part of Italy, which would be the most basic blueprint Alexander conceived for the development of Central Italy in the near future.

The road would connect all the cities of Romagna-Tuscany, an era in which easy access was fundamental to a defense system based on a limited army.

Alexander did not want to expand Montina's army indefinitely, not because he was reluctant to spend money, but because the rapid expansion would inevitably affect the general level of the army.

Maintaining a certain number of well-trained professional armies was Alexander's aim, and he even thought Caesar was doing a good job in some respects.

In order to maintain a large area of Central Italy with such an army, it was necessary to have a convenient and extensive transportation network.

The cost of building such a network is obviously staggering, but it is clearly not a loss-making deal.

Alexander was well aware that, in addition to the rapid mobilization of his troops, the ease of transportation would allow him to strengthen his control over all of Central Italy, and that more efficient business contacts would bring a greater return on this investment more quickly and enormously.

It may take five years to build, and it's a bit of a lot......

"That's a lot of money," Barondy pulled the blanket that had slipped under her shoulders to cover her exposed skin, a little cold, "maybe we should borrow money." ”

Alexander looked up at Barendi, thought for a moment, and muttered in a low voice, "I've borrowed it." ”

Seeing Barondi's puzzled eyes, Alexander had no choice but to explain: "I have borrowed a sum of money from Josa before, and it is used to pay for the expenses in Lombardy. ”

Barondi frowned and tried to say something, but didn't speak.

After a while, she looked at Alexander, who was staring at the drawings, and asked in a low voice, "So is there anything else we can do?" ”

Alexander half-attached to the table carefully looked at the locations of the cities marked on the map, and gradually his fingers dotted a few times in those places, and the brows that had been condensed together slowly loosened.

He raised his head to say something, but was suddenly attracted by the fact that the blanket draped over his body, who was also half-crawling on the table, was looking at the map seriously and did not notice that the blanket draped over him was already crumbling.

After a moment's thought, Alexander threw away the quill he had just picked up, and then he grabbed Barendi around the table and grabbed her blanket in her whispered exclamation.

In the corridor, Shel, who was already standing farther away than before, looked at the squire on the other side with an expressionless face.

These people had already been here the day before, and they had been waiting for a long time, until they were sure that the master would not come out again today, and then left disappointed.

But today they came again, and the questions were similar to yesterday.

"When will the adults come out?"

"Maybe it will come out immediately, maybe it will take a long time, or wait until they get tired of it."

Schell looked back at the closed door and replied in the same words as the day before.

Then, just as the squires were about to leave, the heavy door of the vault was suddenly opened, and Alexander appeared in the doorway draped in a blanket.

"Shel, go to Ulliu, I want him to come to me at once, and that Machiavelli, send someone to Pisa to find him, and ask him to come to Montina as soon as possible."

With that, Alexander slammed the door shut.

But then the door suddenly opened, and Alexander leaned out of it and said to Schell, who was about to leave, "Go and call Madame's maids, and ask them to bring some clean clothes, and have them prepare hot water in Madame's room." ”

With that, the door slammed shut again, leaving only a group of people standing in the corridor looking at each other in a daze.

Machiavelli had been dragged out of bed, and after he had barely managed to get dressed, he was still a little dazed for a moment because he was not fully conscious.

Machiavelli was "studying," or rather studying, the miracles of Alexander.

From a small country lord from Naples to the soon-to-be-emerging monarch of the "Duchy of Romagna-Tuscany", Machiavelli believed that Alexander was indeed working miracles, and the more he delved into the traces of Alexander's journey, the more incredible and incomprehensible he felt.

"If I were to cite the charismatic and legendary characteristics of the greatest monarchs in history, I could cite the pagan and brutal Roman emperors who preceded the Lord, and I could also cite the great kings who believed in piety and chivalry, but whoever he was, the reason why he wore the crown was not just because of cruelty or only because of mercy, but that wisdom and vision beyond ordinary people were the key to their ultimate ascension, with the help of the biographies of these great monarchs written by the ancient sages, It is easy to get a sense of the character and characteristics of these ancient kings, and to learn useful things from them, but I would say that this does not seem to apply to the Count of Montina, the Lord of Agri, the Regent of Pisa, the protectors of Florence, Livorno, Pavia, Monza, Ferrara and Bologna, and staunch supporters of the crown of Naples, and perhaps in the future there will be various other titles. Giuliante Cambrai, there is no existing way to conclude the reasons and the secrets of his success, and I would like to say that I have a strong hunch that what we are seeing now is really just a small part of the vast territory that has just been revealed, and that I may be one of the lucky ones to witness the unveiling of that mystery. ”

Machiavelli barely remembered that he had gone to bed until dawn the night before he had studied "The History of Alexander" all night, but as if he had just closed his eyes, he was awakened by the sound of a loud door slamming outside.

Then he faintly heard the voices of servants and men talking, and then he was dragged out of bed by several soldiers who had broken into the bedroom.

At that moment, Machiavelli thought that he was back in Florence, ruled by Savonarola, and that those who broke into the room were the "canon committee".

It wasn't until he saw the dark red uniforms of the hunters in front of him that Machiavelli woke up from his fright.

"Lord Lord wants to see you, my lord."

Ignoring Machiavelli's questioning, the hunter dragged him out of the house, and then, after rudely stuffing him into a carriage, the hunter jumped on his mount and escorted the carriage away.

And in Montina, Ulliu, who was in the vault, listened to Alexander's command: "I will wait until Machiavelli comes to arrange for him a very important task, but all this will be after Caesar's troubles are over, so Ullius tells me, are you sure you will get enough information?" ”

Listening to the old man's inquiry, the Moorish touched the short beard that had just grown on his chin, shrugged his shoulders and said, "I am a master who has put a lot of effort into this, not to mention that even if I don't believe in myself, I still believe in your arrangement." ”

Looking at Ulliu's smiling expression, Alexander nodded slightly: "Then wait for Machiavelli next, I hope he doesn't just play with his pen to disappoint me." ”

A middle-aged man who looked like a merchant walked into Skop's villa on the hill of Ivo in the eastern part of the city of Rome.

As one of the Seven Hills of Rome, Ivo is relatively remote, and most people who want to live here do not like the hustle and bustle very much, but prefer to enjoy a quiet life.

Skop is not such a person, but his wife wants to enjoy that quiet life.

The Farner family was prominent in Rome, and this prominence came from the nepotism between Julia Farne and the Pope, but the Farner family itself was indeed quite prosperous in the early years, and now with the status of "Bride of God", the family is even more popular.

The Farner family is the protector of the underground black money in Rome, whether it is the usury of the Jews, or the tax evasion income of some unscrupulous merchants, the Farne family can make the money safe and secure without any fault with their ability to see the sky in Rome, and the reward for doing so is a large amount of commissions and commissions, which makes the Farner family earn a lot of money, not to mention, but more importantly, this makes their family have extensive connections in Rome and is very open.

Except for some short-sighted people, no one thinks that relying on Giulia Farne alone can make the family prosper forever, after all, the Pope is not young, and his personality of liking the new and hating the old is also well known, so the people of the Farne family are very good at taking advantage of the rare opportunity to plan for the future of the family, and they are doing quite well,

Julia Farne's aunt, another Julia Farne, was already quite young, and after being widowed by two husbands, the Lady of Farne married a handsome mercenary with a large fortune and a large piece of rich territory, as well as another very controversial territory.

Skop suddenly changed from a somewhat powerful mercenary captain to Madame Farne's husband, which not only made him rise to prominence at once, but also became a hot figure in Rome because he became a member of the Borgia family.

Madame Farne was also a well-known beauty in Rome in her early years, but as she grew older, she gradually wanted to live a comfortable life, and after the death of her two husbands, she received a large fortune enough for her to choose her own way of life, so she bought a large building on the hill of Ivo, which became her and her third husband's home after some renovations.

Skop's ambition is not very big, he is dedicated to just guarding his wife, who is more than ten years older than himself, but very healthy and able to give birth, after giving birth to 6 children for him in a row, seeing that his wife is still healthy and long-lived, and may even live longer than him, Skop of course refuses to give up, just when he was going to let his wife get pregnant for the seventh time, he encountered a little trouble.

Ulliu's appearance completely disrupted Skop's life, and when he heard that he might be involved in Giovanni Borgia's death, Skop knew that something was going wrong.

Skop hopes that he will inherit all of his wife's inheritance smoothly in his lifetime, and not end up seeing God without leaving a lot of children except for a lot of children like his two predecessors, so although he is disgusted by some of the requests made to him by Ulliu, he does not want to fall out with the annoying Moor, let alone expose himself to Giovanni's death.

As for that Caderon, Skop didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore, and in his mind, as long as Ulliu's demands weren't too excessive, the matter might not be leaked, and then there would be no danger of letting the Pope know.

Just thinking about having to tell Urius some news about the Borgia family, Skop couldn't help but think that maybe Alexander and Borgia didn't have the same relationship as they seemed.

Especially when Caesar began to be active in Rome, Skop became aware of the contradictions.

Due to his frequent contact with Roman merchants, both overt and covertly, a visit by a merchant was not uncommon for the Farner family on the hill of Ivo, but when the man brought him a message from Ulliu, he became unhappy.

He knew that Ulliu had grabbed his pigtails, but this feeling of being blackmailed was really bad, but after hearing that the Pope had said "If Giovanni lived" in front of Caesar not long ago, Skop knew that he had to continue to endure the Moorish blackmail, otherwise if the Pope knew that he had instigated that Cadron to seduce his wife while Giovanni was alive, maybe he would be in a catastrophe.

"You need to know what Caesar was trying to do, we know he must have a conspiracy, but I want to know more about how he did it......" The messenger was indeed a merchant, he was in the jewelry business, so that he would have enough reason to enter and leave the houses of the nobles, but these people were also messengers sent by Uliu, most of these people did not know what kind of news they were delivering, in the era when there was no post office in the modern sense, many merchants also served as messengers for postmen, Not to mention that they can get extra pay, and some people have been in relationships with some big names because of it.

Ulliu's request gave Skop a bit of a headache, and he feared that it might arouse Caesar's suspicions.

However, the content of the next secret letter suddenly made Skop stunned, and he even began to get excited after reading it carefully.

"My lord is very concerned about some troubles that your lady may have in her realm in Parma, and you know that the Count has just returned from Lombardy, and I trust that my lord can help you in this matter."

Looking at the contents of the letter, Skop's spirits suddenly perked, he had heard about Alexander's actions in Lombardy not long ago, and he was quite angry because of jealousy for this Caesar.

At that time, Skop didn't have any other feelings than to sigh at the man's power, but now that he saw Ulliu's secret letter, Skop suddenly realized that perhaps Count Montina could really be a great helper to Madame Farne's disputed territory.

Parma, located on the border between Romagna and Lombardy and close to the border with Venice, has always been the sphere of influence of the Holy See because of its proximity to Bologna.

Julia Farne's relationship with Alexander VI gave the Farnés a lot of confidence, but when they tried to capture Parma, they found themselves facing a formidable opponent, the Duke of Vicenza, Francisco Malvese, who was supported by the Venetians.

This is an opponent that is an extremely headache for the Farnes, or an enemy that is almost completely invincible because of the support of the Venetians, especially after two defeats in two conflicts that are small in scale but have a lot of influence on the Farnes, and the Farnes have no idea of fighting Parma anymore.

But now the news revealed in the secret letter of Uliuu made Skop hope rise again in his heart.

Madame Farne's suspiciously beholdening body had made Skop almost give up some of his little calculations, but he still hoped that his children would inherit that large territory, and of course it would be perfect if it included Parma.

"Please reply to the Imperial Officer, I will find a way to prepare the goods he needs."

Skop decided to fight for his child's future, he was not sure what method Caesar would use to carry out his conspiracy, but thinking about it, it was nothing more than those methods, and Skop thought about it, and felt that if he was careful, he could still get some news without arousing Caesar's suspicion.

Importantly, he knew who Caesar had contacted in Rome, which allowed Skop to roughly guess what Caesar was going to do.

As for who would emerge victorious in this conspiracy in the end, Skop did not care, and it was actually in his favor regardless of the outcome.

If Caesar wins, with his long-standing coveting of Romagna, he will inevitably take the opportunity to annex all of Romagna.

If Alexander becomes the victor......

Skop thought for a moment, and he thought that maybe this would be a big blow to the Borgia family, but for the Farne family, as long as they could get Parma, then it was nothing.

After all, Alexander VI was already old, and it was impossible for the future Farner family to rely entirely on the Borgia family, and even thinking about the reputation of the Borgia family over the years and the people who had offended, Skopp even felt that maybe he should find a way out for himself earlier.

In short, Skop thinks that this wave will not be lost.