The Loire Valley in September is exceptionally beautiful, with a colourful landscape everywhere, a beautiful scene of purple and red, and a huge carpet of colours dotted with the characteristic Loire roses.

The smell of pollen mixed with the smell of pollen even obscured the disgusting smell of the castle.

September is undoubtedly the most beautiful season in the Loire Valley, but Louis XII did not have the leisure to enjoy them.

About half a month ago, after some efforts, the rebellion in Montpellier was finally put down.

The next question was how many heads to cut off or how many people to exile, during which time the church appealed to the king.

They wept of the great loss they had suffered in this "rebellion of a vile mob", the loss of the precious treasures of the Church that would make even the most generous people feel sorry for them, and the innumerable treasures, tapestries, sculptures, and large quantities of wine hidden in the cellar were gone, and this loss must be decided by the king.

Louis XII was also a headache for the Church, and in order to quell the rebellion in Montpellier, he had already made a number of concessions to the nobles, which forced him to terminate his original plan to gradually reclaim the rights of the nobles, and at the same time, in order to prevent the Church and the nobles from colluding with each other, he had to find a better way to deal with the greedy demons who demanded this and that from him.

In addition, Louis XII also noticed the great dissatisfaction of the people, and the repression of Montperier disappointed the people at the bottom who had great hopes for him, and the people said "he is still a king" or "he is a tyrant", and he was also worried about the adverse effects of such public opinion on Louis XII, who wanted to gain a good reputation among the people.

The French had to start thinking about how to deal with this unfavorable situation, and he had to restore the confidence of the people in him, but without offending the interests of the church and the aristocracy, which left Louis XII in great confusion.

This puzzle that plagued him was not resolved until the arrival of a report sent by Victor de Conté.

Victor de Condé sent no good news, to Louis XII's surprise was that the kingdom of Navarre, which he thought could be infiltrated by the Castilian Civil War, was finally intercepted by Alexander, and when he heard that the Moor was jumping up and down in the court of Navarre and finally ruined his good deeds, Louis XII somewhat regretted why he was not slaughtered in the first place.

It's just that all this is already like this, although I am annoyed, there is no way.

Louis XII could only ponder how to let the French continue to strengthen their influence in the north of the Kingdom of Navarre, after all, the northern part of Navarre had closer relations with France, and the king of Navarre, Jean Albre, as a French nobleman, inevitably had an inseparable relationship with France.

So there are still a lot of hands and feet that the French can do next, and this is not a long time to fight.

What really interested Louis XII was Alexander's march on Barriaride.

Unable to get enough of Victor de Condé's report, he summoned the messenger again to listen in detail about the course of the "peaceful march."

Although the messenger was also vague, Louis XII, with his powerful brain, quickly imagined an epic picture that could not be seen to be more exciting.

In the darkness of the night, a large crowd of monks, nobles, and commoners gathered together, and they looked with longing eyes at the man who stood by the campfire to make an impassioned speech.

Some knelt there looking up, others stretched out expectant hands to the man standing in front of the campfire.

And Alexander, like Moses in Egypt, waved his mighty hand, like the rain and the bright sun, infecting everyone in this picture with extraordinary charm.

At this moment, everyone is closely united in the ...... with Alexander at the core

Oh, what an exciting and desirable scene this is~

Louis XII felt that he had found inspiration, and he believed that if Alexander could do it, he could do it too.

How to make the monks and nobles and the commoners live together in peace, while himself as a king is high up and act as the final arbiter, this made Louis XII fall into the imagination of excitement.

"How about a meeting where everyone is together?" Louis XII, while spending the night with the queen, suddenly jumped out of bed and walked barefoot to and fro on the ground, while muttering excitedly to himself, "Yes, a conference of representatives of all ranks, which ennobles the status of the monks and nobles, and the plebeians are satisfied to be able to participate, and the king is the arbiter of everything." ”

"A council of nations with representatives of all classes, the monks can obtain the transcendent status they desire, so it is the first level, the nobility as the king and the backbone of the state is the second level, and the commoners are the cornerstone of the state, then the third level," Louis XII excitedly recounted the exciting idea, "The Estates-General, this is called the Estates-General!" ”

Louis XII announced his whimsy aloud, and at this moment he felt as if he had received a revelation from God, which made him excited and even faintly frightened.

God's revelation is not all gospel, and it can sometimes be disastrous because it is impossible to fathom God's will.

Louis XII did not know what kind of changes his ideas would bring to the future of France, but he felt that in the current situation, if he wanted to strengthen his position and at the same time fulfill his ambitions, then this was the best way to solve the current conflicts.

"The clergymen should be a little more honest, they make even more money than the treasury," Louis XII gloated at the queen, who looked at him in astonishment, "and there is no harm in letting the commoners teach them a lesson, and as for the nobles of the south, they should pay some price for their arrogance towards me." ”

The more Louis XII talked, the more excited he became, and he was glad that the troublesome problem had finally been solved, which made him less concerned about the frustration in Navarre.

As for Castile, Louis XII felt that it would be a long time before Alexandria could fully grasp the situation, but it gave him enough time to deal with the problems he was facing.

"Let's settle our own problems first," thought Louis XII, who had become sleepless with excitement, and simply put on his clothes and went to the table to ponder a letter to Victor de Conde, considering that he should not rush into conflict with the Castilian people in Navarre for a long time to come.

"We have a long-term plan for the kingdom of Navarre," Louis XII wrote in a letter to de Condé, "so the Count wants you to return to North Navarre for the time being to make another attempt, for there we have more supporters, and as for Queen Akarina and her husband, we will only have to maintain normal relations with them." ”

After writing such a letter in a hurry, Louis XII began to draft his ideas, which he could not wait to see.

An old man climbed up the slope with some difficulty, his boots covered with broken grass and mud, which made it even more difficult for him to step under his feet.

A servant cleverly reached out and dragged the old man up the embankment, which encouraged him to get him to pat him on the shoulder.

Ferdinand wrinkled his eyebrows and looked at the old man who walked over with his feet in the mud, and before he could speak, he asked anxiously, "How is it?" ”

"Not too optimistic, Your Majesty, not too optimistic," the old man looked back at the Ebro River surging under the embankment, his face full of worry, "worse than we thought, this is the lowest water level in several years, according to common sense, it should be the flood season now, but look at how bad it is now." ”

The old man's words made Ferdinand's frown almost twist into a pimple, he knew that this old man knew the rivers best, and no one had a more say in the matter of water than he did.

But because of this, the old man's words became a big stone in Ferdinand's heart.

Zaragoza was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon, but more importantly, the city has always served as the choke point for Aragonese land to the interior of Europe.

In addition to the coastal ports, Zaragoza has become an inland hub connecting Liberia with east, west, north and south.

Once it was a gateway to Castile, it was now the foundation of Ferdinand's recapture of Castile.

But such an important place has been threatened by drought for many years.

Thanks to its geographical location, the availability of reliable water resources is crucial to the fate of the city of Zaragoza and its vicinity.

On more than one occasion, Ferdinand suggested to Isabella that she see a large dam in the upper reaches of the Ebro River, but Isabella always prevaricated it for various reasons.

Ferdinand knew very well that Isabella's purpose was to stealthily choke Zaragoza and Aragorn by the throat, so as to force Aragorn to bow to Castile.

Although Ferdinand knew this, he could not do anything for a while.

Isabella's death made Ferdinand think that there was a chance to finally solve the problem that had been plaguing Aragon as soon as possible, but he never imagined that an Alexander would appear next.

With Ferdinand forced to leave Castile, the construction of a dam on the Ebro River has become an unrealistic dream, and even more worrying is that Castile may use the water resources that control the Ebro River against Aragon.

However, the situation in Zaragoza is no longer optimistic, or rather, the efforts of Aragonese have had little effect to stop the drought and the gradual desertification of the region.

This gave Ferdinand a sense of frustration that he was completely powerless.

Zaragoza is so important because port cities such as Barcelona and Valencia, although they are prosperous and well-developed because of their convenient transportation, they also have deep-rooted aristocratic influence.

Just as the Catalans were always looking for trouble, although the nobles in these regions seemed to be fairly submissive, Ferdinand knew very well that once he revealed his desire to meddle in the affairs of these regions, the local nobles would spare no effort to unite against him.

Unlike Zaragoza, this was the capital, the most reliable region that the king could control, and the nobility here was almost always subordinate to the royal family, which allowed Ferdinand to do what he wanted.

In addition, as a hub connecting Aragon to many parts of the interior, Ferdinand had to keep the region under control and at the same time ensure its prosperity.

"We have to find a way as soon as possible, if we continue like this, maybe in a few years this river will dry up, and then Zaragoza will become a dead city."

Ferdinand instructed the old man, knowing that it was mostly useless to say so, but he still hoped that the old man would come up with some effective solution to the crisis that was becoming more and more serious.

The old man sighed softly, he knew that the king's fears were not unfounded.

No one even knew better than he that the Zaragoza region was facing enormous problems with the increasing depletion of its water resources, but he had to face this situation at a loss.

"If Castile could ......"

The old man, who had just said this, suddenly came to his senses and stopped, glanced at Ferdinand, and when he saw the gloomy look on the king's face, he could only shrug his shoulders helplessly.

Ferdinand was in a bad mood and got into the carriage, and this long-standing predicament could only be like this, but more immediate troubles had to be solved as soon as possible.

The news sent to him by the man who remained in Valaridot was a source of depression for Ferdinand, who, although he had expected to be trapped in the court of Valaridot and unable to move again, was clearly quickly adapting to his status.

Ferdinand had already heard that, after a brief encounter with the nobles of the Barriarids, some of them had begun to look for his assistants in the new court, and for this reason many Castilian nobles had already told him that they were willing to swear allegiance.

There were even those who had been loyal to Ferdinand in the first place.

It wasn't that that made Ferdinand angry, he had predicted how the Valliaridots would behave after his departure, and what really annoyed him was Alexander's decision to arrange for the Pope to go to Madrid.

The importance of Madrid was all too clear to Ferdinand, and the decision to move the capital to Madrid in the future was the result of a long and deliberate decision between him and Isabella, and the result of a final compromise between the two parties.

It's just that he never imagined that Alexander also noticed the importance of Madrid, which made Ferdinand feel that it was even more serious than his forced departure from Castile.

Because the only explanation is that it means that Alexander thinks the same thing as them.

It seems that only being the king of Castile does not seem to have satisfied his ambitions, or that he wants to repay his half-sister for all that he has done for him, and the return gift will most likely be the crown of Aragon.

It seems that even at great cost, Maximian must be prompted to wage war against Rome Thesia as soon as possible.

The thought made Ferdinand feel even worse, but now it seemed that it was the only way to deal with that Alexander.

Ferdinand could guess what kind of conditions Maximian would propose, he would definitely ask Ferdinand to immediately declare his grandson king of Castile, which was actually a matter of course for Ferdinand, if it weren't for the fact that the coffins of Juana and his wife were still in the hands of those rebels, it would have caused great embarrassment to Charlie's accession to the throne, and Ferdinand would have already announced it.

What really worried him was that the emperor might threaten him to declare his grandson the official heir of the Kingdom of Aragon while offering Charles to succeed Castile.

Although this is the inevitable result of the future without Alexander's accident, Ferdinand could not bear to make such a decision now.

This would not only mean that his power would be provoked, but would also give Maximian the opportunity to intervene directly in Aragon's affairs.

This was absolutely intolerable to Ferdinand.

These chaotic thoughts made Ferdinand feel so bad that when he returned to Zaragoza, he was in a bad mood and did not go to a mistress's house in the city, but went straight back to the palace.

It's just that he didn't expect that there was a person waiting for him in the palace.

The arrival of the Archbishop of Zaragoza made Ferdinand vaguely guess something.

Alexander VI is about to settle in Madrid, which is not good news for many.

Whether it was Portugal or the Two Kingdoms, the kings of Iberia were accustomed to an obedient church.

For them, the Vatican is more of a representation of the spiritual world, and anyone in the Church who wants to cross this line often ends well.

But the arrival of Alexander VI is likely to break this custom, which of course upsets many people.

Even many people in the local church don't like the appearance of a emperor.

So Ferdinand could imagine the purpose of the archbishop's visit to him.

It's just that what does the archbishop mean by the deep eyes that look at him?

Ferdinand greeted the archbishop with great confusion, and then cordially inquired about the bishop's intention.

"Your Majesty, I have just received terrible news that His Majesty the Pope was attacked on his way to Madrid, and now his whereabouts are unknown."

Ferdinand was stunned, he almost plucked out his ears to determine if he was suffering from auditory hallucinations.

When he was sure that he had heard correctly, he felt a rush of ecstasy, and then a shock to himself.

Looking at the archbishop's eyes, "I can't imagine that you Ferdinand's kind intentions would do such a thing", Ferdinand instantly realized the seriousness of the matter.

"God, you don't think it's me ......" Looking into the archbishop's eyes, Ferdinand almost blurted out "I'm not, I didn't, I didn't do it." ”