The weather showed no signs of improving, and in fact it was the coldest winter of the century, at least on the way there were even unsuspecting travelers who froze to death.

And it wasn't just the weather, when the scout came back to report that the bridge ahead had been destroyed due to an avalanche, Alexander knew that the first problem of the trip had arisen.

Caesar wanted to open more than just the roads between Rome and the coal mines of Sanroni, he needed to get news from other places as soon as possible, and he wanted to restore Roman control over these places as soon as possible.

Alexander was well aware of Caesar's eagerness, and in a time of chaos in which land could change hands at any time due to a turmoil, the prolonged loss of sources in certain places could give others an opportunity.

While providing Rome with valuable coal, Sanroni also garrisoned an army that controlled the mountainous northeast of Rome because of the difficult terrain, and this army belonging to the Vatican did not receive the attention of the French because of its remoteness and the fact that the French obviously did not attach much importance to such things as coal, or they did not know that such a team was stationed there, and the eyes of the French were fixed on the big cities.

The destroyed bridge was a wooden bridge leading to a village, and the village on the other side of the river could already be seen from this side of the river, and because of the dry season in winter, most of the river water had actually dried up, but the banks on both sides of the river were a little steep, and the wreckage of a wooden bridge with erection of stubble below poked at the smashed ice, and in a few places the river was blocked by the smashed bridge, and large chunks of solidified ice were embraced.

"My lord, this place is not easy to pass," said one of Carlo's Agri scouts, panting, "the whole river is not wide, but it is very steep, and even if you can go down to the bottom of the river and cross the ice, it will not be easy to go up to the other side. ”

"Send people to search as far down and downstream as possible to see if there is a suitable place to cross the river." Alexander could only order this at this time, and he looked at the village in the distance opposite with some melancholy, and a shadow passed through his heart.

Carlo hasn't come back yet, I don't know if I've found something or something has happened, and the enemies who suddenly appeared and disappeared before are now nowhere to be found, Alexander always feels that they won't admit defeat so easily, although the attack on the night before repelled them, but he knows very well that the enemy has not suffered a real blow, although the death of a seemingly important figure and the loss of a cannon, but if they don't give up, the threat to themselves is still great.

Alexander knew he wasn't thinking nonsense, just look at the situation in front of him.

Although he suffered a defeat, as long as the enemy harassed him all the way, he would bring a lot of trouble to himself, after all, the enemy was in the dark and he was in the light, not to mention that the other party was very clear about his destination, and only a few attacks on the road were enough to make him tired.

Especially at such times, Alexander even suspected that the bridge had been deliberately sabotaged, and if he had ordered the troops to cross the river in this way, they might have been attacked as soon as they reached the ice.

The village on the other side seemed quiet, and even though he knew that there were so many people coming from this side of the river, no one came out to watch, which made Alexander feel that something was wrong.

"How long will it take to rebuild the bridge?" Alexander asked the Agri, some of whom had worked as carpenters on farmsteads, and although they knew that it would not be a trivial task to rebuild a wooden bridge, he had only to be able to pass it, not to build a new bridge.

"My lord, this is not good," said an Agri soldier who lifted a stone and threw it into the river, and as the stone Chaha hit a large lump of ice and then slid far out of the ice, the soldier shook his head, "If we want to barely be able to do it, we can cut some large logs from the woods and fix them on the river with those old bridge piles, but such a bridge can't hold many people, and so many of us have not been strong in the past." ”

Alexander frowned slightly, he knew that the soldier was right, there was no way to rebuild the wooden bridge without all the tools, and it was not a good idea if the enemy was really peeping around and ready to sneak attack.

"Send someone to the village across from it, and ask them to prepare some hot water and hot food for us," Alexander instructed the scout, "be careful, and if anything goes wrong, get out at once, I don't want to lose you food." ”

"Yes, sir." One of the scouts nodded gratefully, and immediately led his companions slowly down the riverbank, from where they were to cross the river from the ice.

What would I do if I were one of those enemies? Alexander thought to himself, as he stood on the bank of the river and carefully surveyed the village opposite, where there still seemed to be no movement, and farther behind the village was a large expanse of towering jungle that stretched out on either side with no end in sight.

While Alexander was standing on the bank of the river and observing the scene opposite, in the woods behind the village on the other side of the river, two people were standing in the shadow of a tree and observing him.

"What is he doing, why is he still not in the river?" One of them asked, and the man had very thick and long brown curls that hung down slightly to his back, making him look like a rather strong lion, while the other was older, and his hair was short, and his hair was already sparse and fluttering in the wind.

"I think he's worried about a possible attack," said the short man, pointing to the black spots that had suddenly appeared along the riverbank, apparently people, who seemed to be struggling to climb ashore, and then a few men walked cautiously towards the village, "We young men are still very cautious. ”

"That idiot of Tiego has made things worse," said the long-haired man dissatisfied, "and the worst thing is that he not only gave his life and got nothing, but also made this Cambrai vigilant." ”

"Stop scolding Tiego, he has gone to God, he is a good man and a devout believer, but recklessness has killed him." The short man stopped his companion's complaints, "And you can't help but admit that this lad is much more cautious and cunning than we thought, and perhaps we underestimated him from the beginning." ”

The long-haired man nodded reluctantly, and he came out from behind the tree and leaned against the tree to look at the people carefully, because the clothes on their bodies were dark, and they were in the shadows of the woods, so they were not worried about being discovered.

"At first, we thought that this young man was a hairy boy who had never seen the world and had been locked up in the convent, but we didn't expect him to bring us a lot of accidents," the short man leaned against the tree like his companions, crossed his arms and shoulders, and watched the scouts enter the village, "We all underestimate him like Tiego, so we have to be careful this time, after all, if we fail again, the patience of the adults will run out." ”

The long-haired man snorted, and then asked a little strangely, "But I really don't understand why adults pay so much attention to this kid, who is he?" ”

"That's not what we're supposed to ask," the short man patted his companion's arm and turned to walk into the woods, "We'll just do our job," he said, pausing and looking back at the other side, "Maybe some of the people who went to look for him before knew who he was, but unfortunately they were all killed by that fellow Kunto." ”

Speaking of Kunto, both of them couldn't help but fall silent, although it had been a long time, they still couldn't forget the scene when they attacked that man in the small city called Arszhenda.

Even if they were unprepared, when a group of them attacked, Kunto's hasty counterattack posed a great threat to them, even after being so badly injured, the man was able to escape, although his body was cold when he was finally found, but it cost them several lives, which they still can't forget after so long.

By the time the scouts returned, the sun had begun to set in the west.

After careful inquiry, Alexander got a general idea of the situation in the villages on the other side.

It is a village belonging to the Vatican, and the fields near it are all ecclesiastical, and from the village to the northeast behind the woods, there is a large area of land.

The arrival of the French did not seem to have had any effect on the village, and they continued to make a living from farming all day long, as in previous years, during the slack period after the winter wheat sowing, the people of the village would do some other work, and although they were forbidden to leave the village according to the canon, there were still people who would quietly leave the village and go to the larger towns to find opportunities to earn a living.

A very ordinary village, there is really nothing to doubt.

Listening to the scout's report, Alexander couldn't help but ponder slightly, wondering if he was thinking too much, he always felt that something was wrong.

"Why didn't the people in the village come out when they saw us?" Alexander asked: "Don't say they didn't see us. ”

"They said it was because they didn't know who we were," and the scout looked back at the woods, "They said that there had been a small group of robbers recently because the roads were blocked, and that two of their villagers who had gone to the town in front of them to sell something had also been robbed, and one of them had just died of his wounds, so they were afraid that we would not come close. ”

Speaking of robbers, Alexander somewhat understood.

Although in the direct domain of the Pope, it is not safer in times of such turmoil than in other places, and even travel between villages can be somewhat dangerous, especially when it is snowy and the neighborhood is isolated due to impassable roads, and it is not new for robbers to become bold and murderous.

"We have to cross the river," Alexander said, looking at the village opposite, "Half of the Bohemians remain by the river, and I'm going to take fifty men with me." ”

"My lord, do you still need to bring musketeers?" One of the leaders of the Agri soldiers asked, and when he saw Alexander pondering, he said, "If there is anything happening, the musketeers can shoot at any time and tell the news." ”

Alexander thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

In fact, he did not want to disperse the power of the musketeers too much, and Alexander knew very well that with the current power of the muskets, if they could not be used intensively, not only would they not work, but sometimes they might even become a burden.

And a well-trained and excellent musketeer is no less valuable to him than a knight in the eyes of those nobles.

Alexander hoped that musketeers would become the backbone of his army in the future, and although firearms could not compete with cold weapons in terms of technology or size, he certainly knew that firearms were destined to replace cold weapons.

Alexander wanted himself to be the key man who led the firearms to truly dominate the battlefield, and not to anyone else.

At least not Gonzalo.

Alexander pondered as he watched as the Bohemians dismounted, because the horses could not cross the river, and the Bohemians had to temporarily change from cavalry to infantry.

Several Agri musketeers were also ready, and they were to cross the river with Alexander.

Because it is the dry season in winter, the water level of the river is very low, and it is steep from the top bank to the riverbed.

Looking at the Bohemians walking cautiously in front of him, and then at the slightly transparent ice under his feet, Alexander couldn't help but think that if the river suddenly cracked at this time, it would really kill him.

The riverbed on the other side was not so steep, and it was more or less able to climb up, and when Alexander finally climbed up the riverbank, he couldn't help but urge him to speed up and enter the village when he saw that the sky had darkened significantly.

It's a small village with only a few dozen households, and it's not a lot of people compared to the land they have to cultivate.

But Alexander knew that although there was a lot of land, in fact these peasants themselves did not get any benefits, and as the property of the Holy See, they had to pay 7% of all their income to the Holy See in addition to the prescribed tithes.

This may sound strange, but in fact it is already very benevolent to these peasant names, and some lords will even make their lords pay a larger share of various taxes in kind, and if these taxes in kind are to be turned into pure money taxes, the loss to be converted will have to be calculated separately.

It was already much darker when he entered the village, and when he looked back at the other side of the river, he saw that the fire had begun to camp, and Alexander asked the scouts to lead him towards a decent looking house in the village.

Along the way, he could see the eyes of some villagers looking out of the doors and windows of their houses, and he could also see some flickering figures in the courtyard, and the people in the village seemed to want to see it, but they seemed to be afraid of something.

"My lord, I heard from the people in the village that robbers often come during this time."

One of the scouts explained that when he came to the door of the house, the scout was about to reach out and knock on the door, but the door had already opened on its own.

A gray-haired man stood in the doorway, looking at the Agri soldier who had come before before at Alexander, who was standing behind him.

"This is my lord, Lord Gombray of Agri," said the soldier in a deliberately arrogant tone, "I have already told you before, that we are going to requisition your house here. ”

"I beg your pardon," the farmer bowed, "everything here belongs to the priest of the town ahead, and you must be agreed by the priest if you can stay here." ”

Agri's face was filled with anger, and he seemed to feel embarrassed in front of his master, and immediately angrily reached out and pushed the farmer in the chest.

"Get out of the way, my lord is the nobleman of Agri, that is, the cardinal of Rome and those great nobles are very polite to our lord." As if that was not enough, the soldier added, "Our lord is on a mission under the orders of His Majesty the Pope, and even the cardinal has blessed him." ”

The soldier's words made the farmer's face look surprised and incredulous, and he looked at Alexander with awe and doubt, as if for a moment he could not believe that a big man had suddenly arrived in his house.

"Okay, we're just staying here for one night, and we'll go to the town in front tomorrow, and the bridge here needs to be repaired by contacting the people in the town in front."

Alexander casually walked into the house and looked at it casually, and gradually there was a hint of doubt in his eyes.

He walked to the door again and looked out into the village, and the confusion in his eyes intensified.

Both the house and the village looked ordinary, but somehow he felt that something was missing.

And in the woods outside the village, the two men who had been secretly watching Alexander and their crossing of the river were watching the lights of the village.

"Almost." The long-haired man said.

"Wait, be patient," said the short man, soothing his companion, as he sharpened his sword on the stone a few more times, and touched the sharp blade of the sword, "We've waited so long, and we don't care about the time of the night." ”