In a large room in the Pisa City Hall, Alexander stood at the doorway and looked at the passage that led directly to the central hall.

The passage is long, but somewhat narrow, with several closed doors on either side of the passage, and because it is a semi-circular dome of the ceiling, the whole passage looks deep and full of solemnity.

"This is the original palace of the Zaloni family?" Lucrezia, who was standing in the room, looked at the furniture around her with some disappointment, and saw those furnishings that were expensive but somewhat old, she shook her head slightly, "I saw their family when the Zaloni family fled to Rome, they looked very shabby and pitiful, I originally thought that they had thrown all their possessions in Pisa, but now I see that the city is really poor." ”

Alexander looked back and saw that Lucrezia ignored her, and he could probably imagine what Lucrezia should have in mind to be rich, which could be guessed from the staggering dowry in each of her previous marriages.

Why do you always think of her marriages?

Alexander couldn't help but ask himself so secretly, and then he had to admit that he was paying more attention to Lucrezia now than he had paid attention to her because of all kinds of rumors.

It's just that whenever he thinks of Lucrezia's rich love life, Alexander feels that he really doesn't know which one is more serious about her.

Entering the town hall obviously made many pisbians excited, they were running around in the town hall, although they had experienced a looting by the mercenaries before, but because of the short time and inconvenient to carry, in addition to some valuable small objects were looted, many large sculptures and inconvenient paintings in the town hall were still perfectly preserved.

A rush of footsteps came from the end of the passage, and Alain Gompati hurried along, the new captain of the city defense had shown such diligence and dedication that he seemed so energetic in the middle of the night that he had taken office.

"My lord, when will the Pope's army come?" Gompati asked with a hint of anxiety on his face, "I have just received the news that an army of the Venetians is crossing the river, and if it goes well, they will all cross the Arno by tomorrow morning, and by then it will be dangerous if the Pope's army does not come to Pisa." ”

Alexander looked a little uneasy on his face, and after a little thought, he thought that since they would know the truth sooner or later, he might as well just tell them.

"Reinforcements won't come so soon," Alexander pointed to himself and Lucrezia behind him, "just the two of us, and although I know that there should be an army from the Vatican nearby, they don't know what's going on here." “

The look on Gompati's face changed, and at that moment Lucrezia felt that she must have never seen such a wonderful change in her life, from full of hope to bewilderment, to complete despair, Gompati's face changed in an instant.

Then he almost trembled and said, "What did you say? You won't tell us that there are no reinforcements, and that your identity is not ......"

"No, our identity is real, and we were indeed sent by the Pope to help you, but you must understand that the appearance of the Venetians is something that none of us expected, so you must follow my orders while waiting for reinforcements, otherwise Pisa may be occupied by the Venetians before the reinforcements arrive."

"But you said ...... before"

"I said before that we didn't expect the Venetians to come." Alexander said and waved his hand.

He really didn't expect the Venetians to suddenly send troops to raid Pisa at this time, but after thinking about it carefully, Alexander also understood that the Venetians' hand was really an unexpected and ingenious arrangement.

As a neighbor of Florence, the port of Pisa has been responsible for Florence's gateway to the Tirennian Sea for many years, and the poor relationship between Florence and the Vatican obviously makes the Venetians feel that even if they take the opportunity to seize Pisa and cause Florence to be dissatisfied, given that Venice is now at war with their common enemy, the Vatican, they can probably only acquiesce to this result for the time being.

Thinking of this, Alexander had to admire the Governor of Venice, Barbaregg, who was really an old slippery man who could take advantage of loopholes.

In fact, a few years later, Venice took advantage of the war between the Vatican and the Holy Roman Empire to gradually infiltrate the Romagna region, so that the Vatican had to temporarily put aside its grievances with the French and unite to drive out the Venetian power.

Now, while all eyes were on the northern part of Romagna, the Venetian governor suddenly sent an army to attack Pisa, and it must be said that the timing was just right.

"Organize the city defenses and prepare to resist the Venetians," commanded Alexander, and then he added, "arrange for me a few reliable men, and I will have them write a few letters for us, but it is better to find some clever ones, for I do not know where the messengers are." ”

Gompati nodded a little dejectedly, he no longer knew if Alexander was lying to him, but he knew one thing, if the people of Pisa outside knew that it was impossible for the Holy See reinforcements to arrive in time, it might make them go crazy immediately.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally gritted his teeth and nodded, but there was a hint of fierceness in his eyes as he looked at Alexander.

"I know it's too late to say anything, but if you lie to me again......"

Before he could finish speaking, Alexander had already interrupted him: "It will not do me any good to deceive you, but you just have to think about what you will get in return if what I say is true." ”

For a while, the huge amount of tax revenue of 6 and a half cents made Gompati, who originally wanted to continue, shut his mouth.

He had just learned that during negotiations with his father, Alexander had proposed that all mercenaries should be under the command of the City Defense Committee, and that the six and a half cents of taxes must also be collected through the City Defense Committee, and that he, as the captain of the City Defense Committee, would undoubtedly be a member of this committee.

Although he was skeptical about Alexander's promise that reinforcements would arrive soon, Gompati finally nodded fiercely at the thought of the huge cost of defending the city.

"Well, I know what to do, and I'll send you the messenger you want right away." Gompati said, looking deeply at the two of them, "I hope what you say is true." ”

"You're not worried that he'll betray you?" Looking at Gompati who was leaving, Lucrezia asked with some concern, "Maybe he will hand you over to those people outside when he is angry." ”

Lucrezia asked worriedly, she didn't know why Alexander had taken the initiative to admit that there were no reinforcements, and she thought that it might not be long before those who came to her would hear about her in Florence, and then they would naturally come to her rescue.

Looking at Lucrezia who was a little puzzled, although he knew that the occasion was not right, Alexander walked over, looked at her for a moment, reached out and gently supported her, and lifted her to the desk behind her and sat down at the sound of Lucrezia's soft cry.

"We have to wait for reinforcements, but we must first ensure that the Venetians will not attack, otherwise everything will be in vain, and as for this Gompati, if he does not want to be torn to pieces by those angry pispers, he will not betray us."

As he spoke, he lowered his head slightly and kissed Lucrezia lightly on the soft lips.

"If it weren't for the Venetians approaching, I wish his messengers would have found those who had come to your aid sooner."

"Why?" Lucrezia's voice was a little wheezing, her lips were a little hot from Alexander's touch, she couldn't help leaning forward slightly to catch the man's lips, and when the lips were closed again, her hands gripped Alexander's shoulders tightly.

"Then we'll have more time." Alexander kissed Lucrezia hard, then freed herself from her arms, "Didn't you ask me if I wanted to be the Duke of Pisa, I think I already told you the answer." ”

As he spoke, Alexander raised his hand and made an inviting gesture.

"Madame, please go to the main hall, I think a lot of Pibians are in a hurry to see you right now."

Alexander was right, and after the initial panic, Gompati finally chose not to tell the truth.

Not only that, but he also called a few trusted subordinates as Alexander had instructed him to recommend them to Alexander, and while watching Lucrezia, who had sat on the throne of the former Duke of Zolony and later the Chief Tribune, and listening to the complaints and complaints of the Pisa, Gompati could only pray in his heart that what Alexander had said later was true.

The mercenaries of Pisa, Xia Ran, are still quite qualified, in fact, with the continuous wars between the city-states on the entire peninsula, there is no simple mercenary who can survive, so after hearing that the Venetians are advancing, Dad immediately sent several teams of scouts, and after almost half a night of reconnaissance, he finally figured out the movements of the Venetians.

Although the Venetians live on the water all year round, they are native-born Venetians, and almost all of these Venetians who want to be soldiers are incorporated into the Venetian navy, and for those mercenaries, crossing the river is not so easy, especially at night.

So the Pisians soon got the news that the Venetians, having crossed part of the procession, had set up camp not far from the riverbank.

At this time, the city of Pisa was almost controlled by the rioters, or for ordinary Pisa, although suddenly the government of the Republic was gone, as long as it did not affect their lives, there would be no big reaction.

The Pisan officials that Alexander ordered to capture played an important role at this time.

When he had just entered the town hall and found the thick stack of financial books from the hands of an indifferent-looking low-ranking official, Alexander already had a headache, although he knew that this kind of thing should be taken over by a special person, but now he had to do it himself.

After seeing the dazzling variety of data, Alexander regretted taking it a little.

But that's not the worst of it, what really surprised him was that Pisa's finances were much worse than he had guessed.

Although it was once known as a maritime power in the Mediterranean, along with Venice and Genoa, this was after all many years ago, and it was precisely because of the growing power of the regional Mediterranean trade that the Pisan could not bear the incompetence and stupidity of the Zaloni family, and finally ousted the family that had ruled Pisa for nearly 60 years.

So looking at the string of headache-inducing figures, Alexander finally decided to bring in all those officials and talk to them properly.

Although some people had been beaten to death by rioters before, by the time they arrived at the town hall, the captured officials were less worried about their fate.

Looking at Lucrezia, who was sitting in the chief seat and looking at them, it was the Pisan people who were secretly impressed by her beauty and calmness, and this was the last bit of doubt that these Pisan people who had seen the world disappeared.

They knew that these two men should be from the Vatican, as they themselves said, and although this beautiful woman might not be the daughter of Alexander VI, she should also be from an extraordinary background.

Looking at the young man sitting at the table next to him and looking down at the accounts, several former high-ranking officials of Pisa did not know how to describe their feelings.

"I need your cooperation," Lucrezia held out the ring with the Borgia's coat of arms to the officials, "and if you are willing to serve in the new Pisan government, I will consider interceding with my father for you and forgiving you for your previous crimes." ”

Lucrezia's words were not immediately reciprocated by the officials, who looked at each other hesitantly, their eyes revealing a deep scruple.

"Don't you believe me?" Lucrezia was a little angry, feeling that she had been slighted.

"Are you worried about the Zaloni family?"

Alexander vaguely guessed their minds after a moment's thought, and then saw the answer in the faces of several pismen.

"Rest assured, I can guarantee that the Zaloni family will not trouble you," Alexander smiled at the men, "and I can tell you here that Pisa will not be in the hands of the Zaloni family, so you will be in the new government and not under the Zaloni family." ”

Alexander's words made the eyes of several officials look at him strangely, they looked at Alexander, then at Lucrezia, and after a little hesitation, a man who seemed to be the most powerful of them walked out of them.

He bowed slightly to Lucrezia and thanked her for her promise of pardon on their behalf, then the man turned to look at Alexander, and said respectfully, "Your Lordship, we are willing to do our duty in the new government of Pisa." ”

Listening to the Pisan man's words, Alexander didn't necessarily look happy, he looked at the people, and then pushed the account book in front of him in front of the man.

"The Venetians are coming, and if you don't want to be ruled by the Venetians, get to work at once. But I'm going to ask you to prepare at least 5,000 florins for me now, because maybe tomorrow we're going to have a tough battle to fight, and before that time I'll get enough pistons armed as soon as possible, so let's get to work now. ”

As he spoke, Alexander stood up and waved to Lucrezia slightly, motioning for her to leave with him.

"You trust them?" When she walked out of the room, Lucrezia asked in a whisper.

"I don't care if they will be loyal to me or not," Alexander smiled indifferently, "for I know that now the Pisaans have to choose to side with us, or they will become vassals of Venice or Florence." ”

With that, Alexander looked up at the deep night sky, and then set his eyes on the Leaning Tower under the starlight.

"We are destined to not be able to sleep tonight, so let's go and meet the Florentine messenger."