“9…… Thousands? ”

Camus's somewhat muffled voice came out of his throat, and he straightened his waist hard, looking at his men opposite him with a slightly puzzled gaze.

"Yes, sir, the Knight Captain has brought an army of 9,000 men," the man nodded affirmatively, "in addition to most of the Aragonese army, there are less than 3,000 Catalan mercenaries. ”

"That's really a strong army," Camusi sighed a little, "Catalans, huh? They were very warlike fellows, I had seen them in France, they worked for the French and fought for the British, and wherever they went, they often left nothing, and they sometimes felt like barbarians. ”

"Now they're in Sicily." The subordinate pouted a little helplessly, "But Gonzalo arranged them all in the military camp prepared by the governor outside the city, but I don't know how long they will be honest, after all, for those Aragonese Sicily is really rich, and it is difficult for them to resist the temptation." ”

Camus nodded in agreement.

Although for many of the Aragonese nobles came to work in Sicily as if it were exile, they could not help but admit that the errand was both hated and tempting, especially for those who had little chance of climbing the ladder at court, and the affluent Sicily was the perfect place for them.

Neither the prosperity nor opulence of the cities of the Iberian Peninsula could be compared, and the intoxicating masterpieces of art were not noticed by the Iberians, but even so, the luxurious Roman life was talked about even in the religious atmosphere of Castile.

In the eyes of the Iberians, Italy was clearly a land of dreams full of gold and precious stones, and even a man like Gonzalo was once dazzled by the astonishing prosperity of Rome when he entered Rome.

Now that nearly 10,000 Iberian buns have come at once, one has to think of Camuse to guess what kind of chaos Palermo might face in a short time.

"Master, maybe we should remind the manor to be on guard," the butler standing aside reminded Camus, and when he raised his hand a little tremblingly, the butler hurriedly walked over to support him, "I'm worried that there may be some soldiers who don't listen to discipline and harass the people in the manor." ”

Camus waved his hand to silence the chattering butler, and then he looked at his subordinate, who was crouching down and half-kneeling in front of him: "Listen, go to Osborne and find the tailor, and tell him that maybe I will reconsider the style of the new dress he has prepared for me." ”

His subordinate was not surprised, he nodded silently, stood up and saluted, and walked away quickly.

Camury beckoned to the butler again: "Go and see how my grandson is ready, and if possible I want him to leave Palermo today." ”

Looking at the departing butler, Camus looked out at a brightly lit place in the distance in the dark night, where was the royal palace.

Although in the past there were also lights in the direction of the palace, today the palace is very lively and eye-catching, and from a distance it looks like daylight and even illuminates the dark sky.

"It's like a fire," said Camus, whose shriveled lips popped out, as he motioned to the servant next to him to push him into the garden in a wheelchair, and looked at the palace in the cold wind, "Sometimes it's hard to decide what to wear." ”

Osborne cautiously came to a shop, which was a woollen merchant's shop, where the tailor often bought all kinds of fur materials he needed, so although he saw that Osborne seemed to be a little too cautious, the merchant beckoned casually, and when he approached, he lowered his voice and said, "I said that you don't need to be like this, friend, even if someone follows you, they can't doubt everyone you meet, but the way you are now makes me uncomfortable." ”

"I'm just a tailor," said Osborne, reluctantly, "I've never done this kind of work, but I'm just here to bring you a message." ”

The merchant shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Let it be,' but after hearing Osborne's words, the merchant carefully checked and called the man to greet the old patron, and then he quickly left the shop through the back door.

Osborne did not know how Alexander's men passed on this information, and he had not seen Alexander since the last time he spoke, let alone heard a word about him, which led Osborne to believe that Alexander had left Palermo.

Camus, on the contrary, seemed to have decided that Alexander had not left Palermo, at least not Sicily, so he had his message delivered directly to Osborne's tailor's shop.

There was another person who determined that Alexander had not left Palermo.

Cleion left Alexander behind.

This is something that Kryan never expected.

He hid in the house near the Chamber of Commerce where Alexander and his men were hiding, and he was familiar with this kind of thing, so he didn't think he could make a mistake.

But it was this surveillance that seemed to be infallible that made Clarion stumble.

Early the next morning, a lot of people came out of the chamber of commerce, most of these people were dressed similarly, completely like a long journey, most of them wore hats or turbans, and under the wide robes they were either obviously or hidden with weapons, such a dress would not arouse too much suspicion, many businessmen would carry weapons to defend themselves, and some would even hire a few armed guards.

Kryan stared at these people, and he found that after leaving the Chamber of Commerce, these people immediately dispersed into pieces, like strangers who had completely different paths.

Batch after batch, as soon as those people left the Chamber of Commerce, they went their separate ways, some would break up after walking for a while, some would simply part ways at the gate of the Chamber of Commerce, and in the end, only a few guys from the Chamber of Commerce were left hanging around in the originally lively house.

At this moment, Clarion didn't know what to do.

He didn't expect Alexander to be so cautious, and he didn't know who to follow.

So he simply decided to keep an eye on a small group of them as if he were trying his luck to observe, thinking that even if Alexander was not among them, they would surely reunite somewhere, so that he would always find Alexander's whereabouts if he kept an eye on them.

What disappointed Crean was that he never expected these people to end up in a small fishing port outside Palermo, and then these people got on the boat and went to sea.

As a result, Clarion lost the clue to follow Alexander, which made him feel as if he had grasped a thread leading to the exit of the labyrinth, but when he followed it with great anticipation, he found that the thread had broken halfway through.

But Cleion was only slightly depressed for a moment before he calmed down again, he felt that Alexander could not have come to Sicily on such a whim and leave without doing anything, and looking back at the cautious actions of his men when they left, it was not at all like it was so much trouble to leave as soon as possible.

This made Clarion quickly certain that Alexander was still in Sicily, perhaps even in Palermo or at least somewhere nearby, which would explain why his men were so cautious.

Cleion soon found himself overlooking the fact that while it seemed like the guests had left, some remained in the Chamber of Commerce.

Those were those unassuming-looking chamber buddies, and Alexander was probably among them.

Thinking of this, Kryan suddenly felt as if he had been tricked by someone to play the role of a clown in the court, as had been the case in the Capuchin monastery before, and now it was like this.

Crean wanted to go back at once to see what was going on, but reason told him it was too late to go back, and the only thing he had to do now was to immediately find the place where Alexander was hiding again.

"You're still in Palermo, aren't you, you won't leave until Modillo is rescued, will you?" Kryan looked in the direction of the city, feeling a little relieved.

As Clarion had guessed, Alexander had not left the Chamber of Commerce at that time, he had stayed there patiently and waited, and there was no one else around him except Scheer, which made Scheer a little nervous for a while, which made Alexander have to send him to the warehouse to wait, so as not to be seen by the merchants who came and went.

Alexander did not consider his prudence to be superfluous, and the reason Camus did not betray him was perhaps because he wanted to leave another retreat for himself, or perhaps simply because he thought it was not time.

And Alexander didn't think that he would be more lucky than Charles XII, after all, even Charles XII was almost planted in his hands because of a small mistake, Alexander would not think that he was completely lucky to get to where he is now, he preferred to think that it was the result of prudence and caution.

The men in the village outside the episcopal palace were gradually arranged by Alexander before he came to Sicily, but some of them knew why they wanted to come here to do business or settle here, and some of them came purely to do business.

Although the previous guards would not all be sent back to Naples, Alexander did not let them go directly to the village after returning, but was placed in a small town not too far from here, in order to prevent anyone from being followed and chased after him.

When everyone had almost gone, Alexander left the chamber with Schell at noon, and he walked down the street unhurriedly, sometimes introducing Schell to some of the buildings he was familiar with.

Seeing that Schell couldn't help but be ready for battle because he saw patrols on the street, Alexander simply took off the saber from Schell's waist and threw it into the ditch by the side of the road while no one was paying attention.

In Alexander's opinion, after making so many preparations, if something went wrong due to some accident, then he could really only admit that his luck was not good, and even if he had a knife at such a time, Schell might be a good warrior, even among the Balkans, he was very good at fighting, but if he was really unlucky, his knife was useless.

Fortunately, everything went well, and they made their way out of the city without danger, and then arrived in the village not far from the Bishop's Palace, where several merchants who had some guess about his identity were waiting for him.

When the message from Osborne arrived at Alexander, it was noon on the second day of the Aragonese army's landing in Sicily.

The whole village was talking about the Aragonese people, some of the locals were uneasy and fearful of a possible war, but others saw an opportunity, and some of the shrewd merchants who had been aware of Flomenza's previous purchase of grain from the market were ready to make a fortune.

"Rethink the style of your clothes?" Alexander repeated Camus's remark and smiled slightly sarcastically.

"That old man is an old fox." Schell muttered a little annoyed, and when he saw Alexander looking over, the Balkans lowered their heads in a little panic.

"Don't be so careful, but you're right, Camus is indeed a very cunning person, he can still be in a high position in Sicily at such an old age, but not because others are stupider than him, but because he is smarter."

Alexander agrees with Schell's assessment of Camusi, and considering that Camus was able to take the opportunity to seize the power of Sicily after the bloody night, rather than just being a puppet as some people intended, this person is definitely not simple.

Now he was so shaken by the arrival of the Aragonese army that he clearly revealed that he wanted to reconsider his alliance with Alexander, which was not unexpected, but would not have been normal if he had been too determined.

"The Count has been imprisoned long enough, and now that Gonzalo is in Sicily, there is probably nothing more to be feared about by Ferdinand."

Alexander pondered the current situation, perhaps when Jossa declared war, many people only saw the strife between the two Sicilies, but Alexander saw much more, and now his eyes were inevitably on the Iberian Peninsula.

Flomenza wanted to use Count Mordillo to eradicate dissidents for Ferdinand in Castile, and before that, the Count's arrangements in Castile had actually set off a purge on the grounds of punishing heresy, and such two huge storms can imagine what kind of chaos would be brought in Castile.

This was probably what Ferdinand wanted to see, and if the trouble caused by the Count before might have only been fueled by him, then Fromenza's subsequent actions were probably instructed by him.

And Gonzalo may be more or less an obstacle to Ferdinand's doing, after all, such a storm will definitely involve many people related to Gonzalo, and his prestige in the Castilian army, his influence among the nobility, especially the favor of Queen Isabella, will cause all kinds of problems for Ferdinand to eradicate dissidents.

But now that Gonzalo is here, Ferdinand can do it without any scruples, and there is no need for him to use the excuse of Count Modiglo's confession, and the count himself is useless to him.

"We need to get the Count out as soon as possible, or it may be too late." Alexander said as he looked in the direction of the city of Palermo.

Looking at the city looming below the mountain, he couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

A meeting with Gonzalo a few years ago had given Alexander the bold idea of revealing the origins of George Mordillo to him, and then impress the current military genius in the name of King Enrique's bloodline.

But later, thinking about Gonzalo's favor from Queen Isabella, Alexander couldn't help but be a little worried that Gonzalo would be "Lao Tzu's current prosperity depends on Her Majesty's cultivation and appreciation, but I have never eaten a mouthful of your father's food, and my brothers killed him!" This unfortunate reaction, if that is the case, can only be described as tragic.

"No, can you really only see it on the battlefield......

Alexander thought helplessly, saying that he really didn't want to face Gonzalo head-on on the battlefield, and the thought of Gonzalo's well-trained model army and the Spanish phalanx that he would later become famous in continental Europe gave him a headache.

"Maybe there's another way, at least for the time being, not to go toe-to-toe with this 'great Gonzalo'."

Alexander wondered that he was not afraid of Gonzalo, but now was clearly not the time.

Gonzalo was indeed a formidable and formidable opponent, but he was only a military commander after all, and his fears and threats came from the battlefield, but what if he didn't need to confront him head-on the battlefield, or at least try to avoid it?

Alexander wondered about the possibility.

But now the immediate priority is to rescue the Count of Mordiglo.

After these days of observation, Alexander had a general understanding of the situation of the royal palace, and to his surprise, he did not expect that Flomenza was actually married to the daughter of the former palace minister Gomez, which reminded him of the palace minister's wife who had decisively escaped from the robbers with a musket on the bloody night, and Alexander felt that she had left a much deeper impression on him than her hapless husband.

It's just that the young lady of the palace family seems to be still in her mother's arms that year, so now......

Thinking of this, Alexander can only sigh at this year.

Alexander already had a plan for how to rescue Count Mordillo, but he needed Osborne's help.

Originally, Camus's addition could have made this matter smoother, but now Camus obviously wants to wait for the limelight before placing bets, so Alexander decided that it would be better to go it alone.

With this in mind, Alexander instructed Sher to inform Osborne that he was ready to act, and at the same time, an uninvited guest arrived at Osborne's tailor's shop.

"I really didn't expect it to be you, it's been a long time since I've seen Madame."

"It's been a long time," said the widow of the former palace minister, Gomez, who smiled as she walked into the tailor's shop, "I came with the army of the Knight Commander, and I came to see my daughter and make a new dress." ”

Seeing the former palace minister standing at the door, Osborne was a little blind.