If the winter of 1500 was surprisingly cold, then the summer of this year was not much cooler because of the cold of winter, on the contrary, there was a very serious drought in some places, and at the same time, because the warm climate of spring came too late, some places that missed spring ploughing were still a bare wasteland at this time.

A young woman stood at the edge of the field and looked desperately at the large fields of wheat in the distance that had died before they could grow because they had missed budding, and her face was a desperate look that could not be concealed.

An army came on the dirt road in the distance, and the woman just looked up numbly and continued to look at the farmland in front of her, the nobles would never know the suffering of the people, and those who served in the army, even if they were once peasants, but over time they would only kill and plunder what they wanted.

The team walked on the road with dust everywhere, and the sun above their heads was also hot, Alexander looked at Pagasos, who couldn't stop making a nasal "snort" sound as he walked, looked up at the dazzling sunlight, and he greeted Schell next to him: "Let the team find a place to rest in front." ”

"My lord, we may be delayed," Schell reminded, "and we've been delayed for too long in Bucharest. ”

"But it's worth it," Alexander asked rhetorically, but he didn't expect Schell to understand what he meant, since there weren't many people who knew that he was about to march on Iberia, and probably the one among his men who knew best about what he was going to target next in the Iberian Peninsula was Tiego, who didn't often appear around him.

Tiego has been operating in Iberia for almost two years, whether it is Portugal, Castile or Aragon, during which time he has been constantly running around the Iberian Peninsula, and it can be seen from the news that he frequently sends people back that the situation in the Iberian Peninsula is changing subtly with the discovery of new continents and new shipping routes.

However, Alexander could not manage these things for the time being, as Scheer said, because of the continuous events in Bucharest, which caused the travel to be delayed and the time seemed to be urgent, so after entering Hungary, Alexander had to let the troops march overnight, but although the Balkans were good at hardship and hard work, and the hunting guards also had unusual tenacity and discipline, the poor traffic environment in the Balkans still made him have a lot of hard work along the way.

However, the trip strengthened Alexander's desire to build a road network, and the idea that a road of less than 30 fats would take him on for a week made him feel that no matter what the cost, he had to at least take his Romagna Tuscany as the center, so that the whole of south-central Italy could enter the road age as soon as possible.

Because only in this way can he firmly grasp the situation in the Apennine Peninsula.

The team walked along the dirt road next to the field, and there was still a little more to walk before there was a wood, but fortunately they were finally relieved that they had left Hungary far behind, and that they were about to enter the Veneto region, the traditional territory of Venice.

Alexander was wary of the Venetians, and although they showed an ambiguous attitude towards Fau when they sent their troops into Lombardy, it was difficult to guess if they would suddenly decide whose side they would be on, so Alexander had already sent someone to Romagna before entering the Veneto, and he needed to make some preparations there, at least so that the Venetians could think about it before doing something about it.

As he had arranged when he left more than two months earlier, Gompati had been appointed commander of the Northern Army in La Spezia, a decision that appeared to be to spy on the French entrenched in Genoa, but in fact Gompati was tasked with keeping an eye on possible threats from Venice.

Historically, the Venetians have tried to intervene in the affairs of Central Italy more than once, and because of the terrain caused by the Apennines, they have often only taken two routes each time they invade Romagna.

One is to go south along the west coast of the Adriatic, but this road is not easy to expand because of the narrow terrain, and his enemies can hold the main route of the Venetians south as long as they occupy some more critical areas, so if they are not very sure, in order to avoid falling into a meaningless confrontation, most of the Venetians will not choose this route.

The other way is to go west from Veneto into Lombardy, and from there the decision is to go straight from north to south into Romagna, or to march to Milan to conquer the entire Lombardy region, but no matter what, the Venetians' thirst for this land never stops.

It was for this reason that Alexander had Gompati stationed in La Spéa, and depending on the development of the situation, he also had the intention of turning Raspéa into a military stronghold in the north.

In fact, this is not a very good decision, because it is close to Genoa, and it is obviously unrealistic to develop into an important port that can compete with Genoa, and it is really a bit more than worth the loss to just turn the city into a military fortress, but now he can only do so much for the time being, because neither Lombardy nor Veneto is under his control, so La Spezia has become an important stronghold on the northern border of the Duchy of Rome and Tuscany.

"So, if we can unite the whole of Italy one day, maybe we can avoid this waste." Alexander thought about these arrangements and could only comfort himself with this, but he knew that the most important thing in front of him now was to rush back to Montina and marry Barendi on time, and then he could think of all these ideas near and far.

As the procession passed by the woman standing at the edge of the field, Alexander looked down at her, the woman was not very old, but the vicissitudes of life on her face made her look much older than her actual age, although the procession was not moving quickly, but the dust raised by the horse's hooves still completely submerged the woman's body, but she only looked back when the team approached, and then she just looked at the ground in front of her in despair, even if the dust choked her and coughed, she still did not move.

Alexander took a few steps forward and then grabbed the reins and motioned for the group to continue to rest in the woods ahead, while he turned over and dismounted and walked towards the woman.

The woman looked back when she noticed someone coming, and saw a soldier who could still be dressed in fine clothes, and she stepped back a little guardedly, and then watched strangely as Alexander walked to the edge of the field and squatted down, and reached out to pull a short stalk of wheat to carefully examine the shriveled buds on it.

"This land belongs to the landlord?" Alexander asked.

"It's the Lord Saratonio, he's the big man in the House of Hundred in Venice," the woman replied warily, "and our whole village farms for Lord Saratonio." ”

"This year's harvest won't be much," Alexander sat down, and a hot and dry breath instantly came up from under him, and he grabbed a handful of dry dust from the ground and twisted it, he thought that if he sat in this place for a while, he might suffer from heat stroke. ”

Hearing Alexander ask about the field, the originally nervous and vigilant woman couldn't help but relax, she looked at the uneven and crooked fields in the distance, and a desperate look appeared on her face again: "How can it be good, the wheat in this field has not grown at all, originally this time of the year is almost ripe, and it will be harvested in a few months, but now look at the fact that nothing has grown in this field, and it is about to collect the seasonal tax."

"Yes," Alexander nodded, his expression a little heavy.

In fact, Alexander did not know about the fields, but he could still tell whether the crops were growing well or badly.

1500 is a very special year, this year is not only the boundary between the old and new centuries, but also the watershed of the two eras in the minds of many people, from this year, with the advent of the 16th century, human civilization will suddenly come out of the darkness that has been suppressed for thousands of years, and then stand in the sunshine of a new world that has never been discovered, whether it is humanities, geography or science and technology in the sense of modern enlightenment, are really developed from this era.

But in addition to these, 1500 has another significance, that is, from now on will enter a long cooling period that lasts for nearly 2 centuries, in this long period of time known as the Xiaoice Age, because of the continuous abnormal weather caused by large-scale crop failures will sweep across the Eurasian continent, and at the same time, during this period due to the extension of the winter caused by widespread drought will often last throughout the year until the end of the spring, So much so that large swathes of winter wheat either froze to death during the unusually long winter, or dried up due to drought and lack of water.

"Is it all like that here?"

"What are you talking about, sir?" The woman finally looked down at Alexander sitting on the ground a little strangely, sweat running down his cheeks and condensing on his chin, although his face was covered with dust, the woman could see that the young soldier was good-looking, if he hadn't been looking at the fields, she might have thought that this soldier was trying to hook up with herself.

"I mean, that's what all the land is like here?"

"Yes," said the woman, whose face showed helplessness at the mention of the land, "not only from the old man's house, but also in other places," and the woman was a little bold to ask, "where did you come from, I mean the other places you pass through are the same as here?" ”

"All the same," Alexander threw away the straw in his hand, "and the harvest is in many places, even worse than here." ”

"Is God punishing us," the woman's voice choked up a little, "The village priest said that we should go to the church every day to confess, because this is God's warning to us, if we don't repent in time, there will be a greater disaster. ”

"Perhaps, repentance is always right." Alexander touched his pocket as he spoke, and Schell next to him immediately took out a Radia and handed it over.

"Take it." Alexander handed Radia to the woman, and seeing the look of disbelief on her face, he shoved the gold coin into the woman's hand, and then habitually said "It will be in the future"

He couldn't go on with what was next.

It was originally a good wish that the future would be better, and people were often willing to believe in it. They always believe that the bad years will pass, and then the good years will follow, and it is also true that there are always many more good years than bad ones, otherwise people would have starved to death.

But Alexander knew that this was not the case, and that this change in the weather would be a nightmare for farmers, at least for a long time to come.

And everything now is actually just a precursor to the beginning of this long Xiaoice period.

Alexander also knew that if he told others this, it might not be convincing, and he did not feel that he had the obligation and responsibility to take responsibility for the fate of so many people.

In times like these, no one is easy, and while the peasants are threatened by the changes of nature, the soldiers who trade their adventures for a better life are also in danger of dying at any moment.

All Alexander can do is make himself and those who follow him a better place in these turbulent but exciting times of opportunity.

Entering the Veneto region means that Rome is really not far away.

The Venetians showed a cautious welcome to Alexander's arrival, and in the small town of Civeret, southeast of Veneto, they sent Alexander's old friend, now the now ascended chief secretary to wait and welcome the duke on behalf of Venice, and after providing the huntsmen with plenty of water, food, and fresh enough horse feed, the chief secretary carefully asked the duke "whether he was aware of the recent series of actions of the army of Rometesia on the southern frontier."

"Yes, you know that I have just returned from a long journey from Wallachia, and the honorable Grand Duke Sophia has given birth to twins, a boy and a girl are very lovely."

Listening to Alexander deliberately divert the topic, the chief secretary could only follow to congratulate, and after a few words of compliment, the chief secretary found another opportunity to express his uneasiness to Alexander about some of the changes that had taken place on the border: "Your general Gompati is very bold, of course I am not saying bad things about him, I just want to express some kind of concern to you, and now this general is frequently moving troops on the border, we can understand that maybe it is because you have returned, His actions may have been part of a grand welcoming ceremony, but we hope that you will keep the general on the spotlight of any unnecessary misunderstandings that may arise. ”

"Of course, I'll send someone to inform him, no, I'll write to him." Alexander motioned for Schell to bring a pen and paper, which made the chief secretary, though still suspicious, get up and take his leave.

But Alexander wasn't really pretending, he really started to write letters, and as soon as he did, he didn't write one.

What was given to Gompati was to keep him acting in this deterrent manner until he returned to Romagna.

For Barondi, she was told that she had returned, and that she was about to return to Montina in the near future.

For Lucrezia, it was to pour out her thoughts about their mother and daughter.

In the end, what was given to Ji Sha was a full article of love for his lovely sister written in cipher, and more of his important ideas for the future.

The most important of these ideas is "food"!

"On the way back from Wallachia I saw many peasants who were at a loss because of the lack of harvest in their fields, and people who were overwhelmed by the inability to pay all kinds of heavy taxes and tithes, not some, but in many places, and I can assure you that this will not disappear with the new year, but will continue to appear for a long time to come, and as for the reason, I think you have already noticed that the weather has changed imperceptibly in the past two years. Winter seems to come later, which leads to large tracts of farmland being damaged during the longer and longer cold seasons.

Believe my dear sister, I can predict that this phenomenon will continue for a long time or even many years, and as for how I know, you can think of it as my knowledge of the weather as my business acumen, so just think about the achievements of the Trade Union today, you should understand that you can trust me unconditionally, so please listen carefully to me, and the first priority for us is food.

Until now, many people obviously don't realize the changes that may be brought about by the long-term failure of the grain harvest, so we have to prepare in advance, of course, these will be a long process, but with the current climate, as long as the famine caused by the weather is possible in a few years, this is a problem for us, but it is also a challenge, because it is likely to affect my plans for the future, so I think it is necessary for us to go beyond the granary of Agri. It is necessary to pay attention to the grain producing areas of Lombardy, and if necessary I may consider sending troops to Lombardy, and then I need your help, my regent of Naples.

The second is those unemployed peasants who have to leave their homes because of the barren land and tax arrears, and soon these unemployed peasants will gradually increase, and these people will bring great trouble to the localities, and the bad thing is that these people will often never want to live in peace once they have been away from the land for a long time, and this has become a kind of hidden danger, especially in Naples, I am afraid that these people will become a burden to you, so I think this threat should be taken into account as soon as possible.

What do you think about letting those unemployed peasants go to our plantations in Crete, which can not only send them to the islands far from the mainland to eliminate hidden dangers, but also contribute to our plantations, you must know that these people are real strong laborers, and they are fully qualified to work in Crete, after all, although sugar cane has made us a lot of money, but it is still far from our goal, the only regret is that the Ottomans now control the Aegean Sea, but this is nothing, We can ask our good friend Ashulk to do this for us, and I am sure that he will be glad to help him for the sake of his stake in the Cretan plantations.

So get ready, my sister, you will soon find that there will be a large number of cheap and good laborers waiting for you to choose because you have lost your land, and it will keep you busy for a long time, and I will obviously not be so convenient to visit you as often as I am married, so please come to Montina as soon as possible, I think we have a lot of important things to do besides attending my wedding. ”

After writing this long letter, which he couldn't tell whether it was a love letter, a family letter, or a letter of state, Alexander shook his somewhat sore shoulder, and at this time the sky outside had darkened slightly, looking at the little lights that had gradually lit up in the city of Civele, and listening to the unique rhyme of the Veneto dialect when people chatted on the street outside, Alexander couldn't help but smile softly and said to himself: "I'm back." ”