Looking across the strait from the top of the hill in Messina, you can clearly see the coastline on the opposite bank and, if the weather is good, even the outline of the city of Chore Calabria.

The Strait of Messina is a very strange place, with its complex underwater topography and reefs, which has been considered one of the most dangerous seas by seafarers in the Mediterranean since ancient times, but it is not the most peculiar place, what the Strait of Messina is really known for is the strange mirage that often appears here.

Whether on shore or on a ship, many people who pass by here will see the dreamlike vision, which in ancient times was believed to be the magic of the Sirens to seduce travelers, and indeed countless ships have sunk at the bottom of the sea because of the vision that can never be touched.

As a result, the Strait of Messina was once a nightmare for voyagers, but it has always been an important gateway to the Tyrenian Sea from the Mediterranean.

Whether it was the invasion of the Mediterranean by the ancient Romans or the Carthaginians coveting the richness of Italy, both sides used Sicily as an important springboard for invasion of the other, so that the Strait of Messina from the Italian peninsula to Sicily became a battleground for both sides.

Sophia stood on a large balcony in a thick robe in the back garden of a huge hilltop villa built on the hillside, and the balcony was very large, and the light marble railing was slightly inclined inward, so as to protect the person standing on the balcony even if there was a steep cliff underfoot.

The balcony is semi-circular, almost half protruding from the outside of the cliff, and several stout stone pillars support the bottom of the balcony, and it looks like it is half-suspended in the air when standing here, which is said to have been the intention of the Roman tribune who built the hilltop villa in the first place.

Sophia was in a good mood now, and the unexpected surprise of seeing her old friend had softened her attitude towards the Messinians a lot, and she even had the rare feeling to allow the Wallachian fleet to allow the port officials to come on board for inspection after entering the port of Messina, although this was a rule left over from the Black Death, but without Osborne's persuasion, Sophia would probably have taken her people straight through the checkpoint.

The Archduchess of Wallachia was secretly relieved that the Wallachian army had come to ally with the Queen of Sicily, and that the Messinas were ready to deal with a group of villains.

Sophia was not in a hurry to rush to Palermo at once, she was waiting, waiting for Josa to come and make a request to her.

In the same way, she was waiting for those nobles in Palermo to bow to her.

Sophia's heart was small, and she could not forget the embarrassment she had with Alexander when she was driven out of Sicily, and she could not forget what glory Alexander had promised her to appear in front of those people when she returned to Sicily again.

Now that Alexander is not around, which makes Sophia regret, but that doesn't dampen her desire to regain ground from the Sicilians.

What's more, when she thought of that hateful sister, Sophia felt that she was not asking too much.

Sofia liked the hilltop villa, arranged by the Messinans, or rather Osborne, and she remembered the happy times after they met Alexandria again in Naples.

At that time, they were in the villa opposite the port of Santa Lucia, enjoying the happiness of reunion, and Sofia naively thought that the two of them would never be separated again.

With a soft sigh in her heart, Sophia turned back to the hall in a somewhat depressed mood, she missed Alexander a little.

Bodeped walked in from outside, and the Grand Duchess could leave everything she could to relieve the fatigue of the sea trip at the hilltop villa, but as an advisor to the Emperor, Bodeped had to deal with the Messinas.

To Bodpaed's surprise, the Messinas did not seem to be so interested in the possible imminent war, and their caution about the arrival of the Wallachians was surprising, leaving the old Greeks at a little confused for a moment as to what to do.

It is clear that the Messinas did not want to get involved in the dispute between Aragon and Naples over Sicily, for whom whoever became their monarch was part of the Kingdom of Sicily, so it was either adventurers or sheer foolishness to come forward and claim support for either side at this time.

But when Bodped relayed this cold attitude of the Messinas to Sofia, he was somewhat surprised to find that His Royal Highness the Grand Duke was not angry, but seemed rather happy.

Sophia felt that she had finally grasped the weakness of that Shosha, and the thought of having to deign to plead for her help in such a situation made Sophia laugh even in her sleep.

Because the uneasiness caused by the imminent arrival of the Aragonese army was not so strong in the city of Messina, and many of the Messinans, both nobles and commoners, regarded the feud between the two Sicilian royal families as their own private matter, at least because of the sense of security that came with being far from Palermo, which made them feel that this possible war had nothing to do with them.

Had it not been for the sudden appearance of a large number of Wallachians in the city, the Messians would sometimes forget that a war was approaching them.

While Sofia was in Messina wondering how to get Jisha and the Palermo people to bow to her, new information about the movements of the Aragonese army had been sent to Jisa.

"Are the Aragonese ready?" Jisha asked with a little surprise, this was much faster than she thought, although the Aragonese expeditionary force was still in Valencia, but it seemed that the entire expeditionary force was ready, and as long as they got on the ship, it would not be a few days before they appeared off the coast of Sicily.

There was a great deal of debate among the trade coalitions about where the Aragonese army would land, with many believing that they would attack Palermo directly, while others thought that perhaps the Aragonese would land elsewhere on the island and then march on Palermo by land and sea in conjunction with the returning Aragonese fleet.

These two opinions are-for-tat, and it is difficult to see high and low for a while, and in the city of Palermo, which is controlled by the coalition forces, there are also various rumors.

She knew that this was a critical moment for her, and if she did not quickly unify opinions and form an effective command of the coalition forces, then perhaps before the enemy arrived, there would be a serious split within the coalition forces because of these differences.

"Of course, it is best to have a single army that obeys the command in the war, but sometimes we have to choose to establish a coalition army, so that because of the different purposes of participating in the war, the various units in this coalition army have different commitments to the war," Qi Sha looked at the "Book with the Generals" in his hand, and gently rubbed his white forehead with his fingers from time to time, "So when arranging and planning, we must consider how many obligations each army of the coalition army can undertake, and it must be explained that Any attempt to impose the primary battlefield duties on the secondary belligerents is dangerous, and every qualified general must keep this in mind. ”

"So I'll have to deal with the Aragonese on my own." Ji Sha said to herself a little helplessly, in fact, she had already known that this was the case before, but now that she was carefully reading the content of this "Book with the Generals", Ji Sha couldn't help but feel a little proud of her brother's wisdom.

With the sound of soft footsteps, the lady-in-waiting walked up to the queen, and after a slight pause to see you put down the book in your hand, the lady-in-waiting delivered the letter she had just sent from Messina.

Ji Sha did not rush to open it, but as if holding something rare, she put the fluttering letter in the palm of her hand and raised it to her eyes to look at it, and after a while, she suddenly smiled and looked at the waitress beside her: "Madam, can you guess what is written in the letter?" ”

Although she could guess some signs, the waitress shook her head cautiously and silently.

"I can imagine that the uncultured Bohemian woman must have haphazardly demanded in her letter that I should personally go to Messina to meet her, or that she would make all sorts of conditions which she considered to be humiliating to me," said Jossa laughing, "and she always thought that I broke up her marriage to my brother, and I suspect that she might even hate me more than she did with Barente, though she was not wrong." ”

The lady-in-waiting stood silently and listened, knowing very well that the queen didn't really mean to say anything to her, but purely to herself, so she just had to be a loyal listener.

As one of the people who knew the secrets of the Queen's siblings best, the lady-in-waiting knew exactly what she was supposed to do, and the Queen didn't mind sharing with her about the affairs between their siblings, even the Duke's affaires.

The queen is obviously not so generous as she seems, and sometimes when she hears some rumors about the duke, his wife, or a lover, she always seems indifferent in front of outsiders, and sometimes she will use these rumors as a joke to tell the queen, but from time to time she complains about her brother's bad habits of not seeing beautiful women.

At this time, the lady-in-waiting, who was a loyal listener, listened very quietly and carefully, but she knew very well that this was actually the queen's warning to her, and as the queen's most trusted person, she could listen to the queen's complaints to her brother, but she was destined to bury these secrets in her heart forever for the rest of her life.

"Perhaps she thinks that I will not accept these conditions, and then she can take the opportunity to make things difficult for me in every way," said Josha, as she cut open the wax seal with a paper cutter, and after reading it for a while, she covered her lips and let out a soft laugh, "Listen to this passage, and in order to show her gratitude, Her Royal Highness has asked the Queen of Naples to personally greet Her Highness at sea in her own ship, and Her Highness is to be placed alongside the Queen rather than the Queen, and the Queen is to formally acknowledge her gratitude to the Wallachian reinforcements in the form of a declaration, I think these must have been the ideas of her Greek advisor, and so on, what was that man's name, like Bodpade. ”

The waitress seemed to be about to say something, but she immediately closed her mouth and looked at the queen's expression as if she was joking, and the waitress, who thought that she already knew a lot about the character of Jisha, knew that in fact, the queen must have been very angry at this time.

She continued to look at the letter, and she had a smile on her face the whole time, so that it was impossible to tell what was going on in her heart.

It wasn't until she finished reading the letter that she raised her eyebrows slightly, clenched her right hand into a fist, rested her elbow on the armrest, and held her beautiful chin in deep thought.

The lady-in-waiting stood patiently, knowing that the queen was thinking about something very important.

Sometimes the lady-in-waiting was amazed at the wisdom shown by the queen and her brother, and the siblings exchanged letters frequently, sometimes every few days, sometimes even once a day.

The contents of these letters are very important secrets, and the two of them will keep telling each other about their problems and various ideas, I don't know how many times, and the queen who receives the duke's letter in the middle of the night will be so excited that she can't sleep all night.

The lady-in-waiting began to think that the letters were sweet words, but it was only later that she realized that the two siblings were often discussing important matters that could determine the fate of countless people, because the queen often called a royal council immediately after receiving a letter from the duke, and many surprising things would happen afterwards.

As for the secret letters that really wrote the secret feelings between the two, the waitress could gradually guess some signs, because every time she received such letters, the queen would look as lovely as a little girl, and even once when she saw the queen looking at the letters, she might have been ashamed of some of the words in them, so she threw herself on the bed and buried her face in the soft pillow and rubbed it incessantly.

"Go and get all the generals."

She suddenly gave an order, and at this time she looked serious, not at all like a young noblewoman who was supposed to enjoy a comfortable and happy life at home, and now she was the queen of Naples and the commander of the trade alliance.

The generals rushed to the palace, they looked at each other with inquisitive and provocative eyes, the difference of opinion had caused a rift in the coalition forces, the purpose of the previous military action to punish the unfair trade of Sicily had been achieved, and now it was natural that the spoils of war would be divided.

It's just that the Aragonese reacted unusually quickly and unexpectedly to the coalition forces, and they were also uneasy about the threat posed by the Aragonese fleet in the Mediterranean.

This even made some of the coalition generals think that it was a fool's choice to invade Sicily rashly, and now they are considering whether they should leave this land of right and wrong as soon as the Aragonese have not yet blocked the sea, so the sudden summons of Jisha made the hearts of these generals who already had other ideas full of suspicions.

Jossa didn't wear armor, she didn't really like the armor that looked flashy but was a bit too bulky for her, especially after hearing that a certain bohemian woman had also made such a gorgeous armor, and she didn't want to wear something that didn't really work.

However, she had a vague feeling that Alexander liked her way of dressing, and she even remembered Alexander's almost fascinated look when she first saw her in full armor in Kosenza Castle.

It's just that although she is wearing a gorgeous dress, she has a serious expression, and her eyes are firm and majestic when she looks at those generals.

"We don't know where the Aragonese will land, so in addition to the army guarding Palermo, we must have an army that can compete with the Aragonese who land anywhere at any time," Josha glanced over the generals, seeing their surprised and uneasy expressions, the corners of Josha's mouth curled up slightly, and an imperceptible smile flashed, "You should already know that we can get help from the Wallachians, but it will come at some cost." ”

"But Your Majesty, Sicily was first occupied by us," said Elliott, son of the Count of Taranto, with a slight displeasure, "and we have all bet everything on this opportunity, not to take advantage of the Wallachians. ”

Elliott's words resonated with a wave of discontent, and the generals of the coalition forces, or the agents of the merchants, expressed their displeasure, and some even fiercely offered to drive the barbarian Balkan barbarians out of Sicily.

After saying that, she watched in silence as everyone performed, her expression so calm that she had a smile on her face, and when the men shouted in excitement that they wanted to meet the Wallachians before the Aragonese came, she looked back at the waitress standing beside her.

The waitress immediately showed a look full of admiration, and she did secretly admire the queen's wrist from the bottom of her heart.

Both the coalition generals and the Grand Duchess of Wallachia tried to put pressure on the queen to get what she wanted.

It was only a small hint from the Queen, and now it seemed that they were going to have to compete with each other before they got their wish.

The generals continued to talk, until the chief of ceremonies next to them tapped the heavy staff in his hand on the ground.

"Our common enemy is the Aragonese," said Tsusa, "and we must also consider the threat to us if the Aragonese might land elsewhere, so I have decided to accept the Wallachians' terms, but before that time I need someone to go to Messina in my place." ”

Saying this, Josa's eyes were already on Elliott, and before the young viscount could say no, she had already said to Elliot, who had almost become her stepson: "Viscount, I think this matter is best done by you, and please take me to greet Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess, and tell her that I am looking forward to the performance of her new army on the battlefield." ”

Elliott had something to say, but Zhosa had already begun to tell the others what was next.

Just two days after Elliot left Palermo for Messina by boat, news finally came that the Aragonese expeditionary force had departed.

It's just surprising that the Aragonese expeditionary force after leaving Valencia suddenly went unknown!

Hearing this, Jisha knew that the most worrying situation had finally happened.

It is clear that the Aragonese army, as previously suspected, did not intend to land directly near Palermo, but chose to land elsewhere along the Sicilian coast.

This means that the long coastline of Sicily will be completely open to the Aragonese.

The coalition forces quickly sent scouts to reconnoiter where they thought the enemy might land, only to know that the move was clearly futile.

On December 25, the Aragonese army, which had disappeared for a few days, finally found its whereabouts, and the report was reported to Asha with a strange look on her face as she looked at it.

The Aragon Expeditionary Force landed on 22 December in the southwestern coastal port of Calibo, Sicily!