Tiegor rode his horse, swaying with the jolting of his horse, and sometimes when he heard someone shouting something in front of him, he tried to lift his tired and heavy eyelids to look forward, and when he saw that there was nothing serious, he closed his eyes again and continued to stare in confusion.

Tiego had been walking on this road for a long time, and the rugged mountain road made him miserable, and the food on the road was unspeakably unpalatable.

Although it was the season of spring, Tiego did not feel the benefits of spring at all.

It had been a long time since he had seen Maria de Luna, and Thiegor had complained more than once about the duchess's erudition that the Duchess had arranged for him.

He has not been idle since he left Valaridot, even when he returned to Valencia, he only took the opportunity to wait for his subordinates to do something and hurriedly went to see the Duchess, and then the two of them couldn't wait to seize the time to make love, and in this way, they were disturbed twice halfway, almost so that Tiego was suffocated before he could be completely released.

Then he ignored the Duchess's resentful eyes, and hurriedly took his leave, and what followed was a long journey.

He sailed south from Valencia and then to the southern port of Curle**.

He then led his men up the Hucar River, the largest river in southern Aragon, toward the western interior.

This was the best route that Tiego had carefully planned, and he set out cautiously, even with some trepidation, for he did not know if the Queen of Sicily had landed in Malaga when he entered the south of Castile.

Because of this, Tiego knew that his trip was very risky, or that if something went wrong, everything he had been doing for a few years might come to naught.

However, he also knew that the duke's siblings had been sparing no effort to support him precisely to make him play a role at this time, and it was also a critical moment that he had been looking forward to.

If successful, Tiego felt that he was even fully qualified to propose to Maria de Luna openly without insulting her, and that the fact that he could become the stepfather of the noble Duke of Gandino alone was enough to make him worthy of all his hard work.

As for his wife and children, Thiegor could only say sorry to them, he had already planned to leave them a large sum of money sufficient for a prosperous life in the future, but now it was time for him to think about his family, so he felt that a noble duchess was more suitable to be his future wife.

Tiego had written privately to the Duke for this purpose, hoping for his support and understanding, and he had a vague sense that the Duke would not approve of his own actions, although his life was more colorful than his.

Sure enough, although he did not explicitly condemn this choice in the letter, Alexander repeatedly instructed him to make proper arrangements for his wife and children.

Thiegaux, who had finally received the duke's tacit approval, was so excited that he had decided to formally propose to Maria de Luna, but before that could do so, he had to get the errand done.

There was a lot of noise in front of him, and Tiego looked up impatiently, and he noticed that several sturdy Catalans were knocking a shorter fellow to the ground, and then punching and kicking each other, which gave Tiego a headache.

He was fed up with the Catalans, the best mercenaries indeed, but undoubtedly the most disgusting of scoundrels and ruffians, who had no less bad reputation for doing bad things than they did on the battlefield, and who could compete with the Swiss barbarians who were like mountain donkeys.

"Let go of that unfortunate man, or I'll whip you," Tiego shouted to the mercenaries, and when they didn't seem to be going to stop, he threatened, "If you don't stop, I'll deduct your commission." ”

The words worked immediately, and although they were still scolding, several mercenaries finally stopped, and they glared at Tiego in annoyance, but finally chose to back down under his more annoyed gaze.

"Keep that man away from them," Tygo instructed his men, who noticed a strip of black cloth tied around the arm of the man who had been beaten, "and he was much more useful than the ruffians." ”

The subordinate nodded, and walked over to beckon the man to Tiego's side.

"Ever been a gunner?" Tiego poked the man's arm with his horsewhip, "I see you have an armband that only gunners have, or you carry it casually, if that then I'll give you to those men and let them take care of you." ”

"I did it for the French in Rome," replied the man, touching the bloodshot from the corner of his mouth, "but I fled after the French lost the fight." ”

Tiego became intrigued, and he continued to ask, "What battles have you been in?" ”

"Genoa, Alexandria, Siena and San Giragnano battles, I have participated."

"That's remarkable, I've heard that all the French soldiers who were able to escape the battle of smoking were blessed by God."

Tiego laughed, he had an unusual admiration for the Queen's extraordinary performance in the Italian War, so no one knew that he was not insulting the man by saying this.

"It is God's favor," said the man, with a hint of fear in his eyes, as if he remembered a terrible past, "the Neapolitan artillery is farther and more powerful than ours, but what is really terrible is that they shoot accurately, and the interval between each shot is much shorter than ours, and they sometimes do not blindly attack the enemy ranks, unlike us, they regard the destruction of artillery as a more important thing." ”

"But you still escaped, and your luck is good." Tiego nodded, he liked those who were lucky, like most Iberians, although he was denounced by the Church as heresy, but Tiego was also superstitious, and he even quietly carved the little idol of the duke's siblings into hiding, because he thought the duke's siblings were auspicious symbols of good luck for him.

"Are you going to take us to war?" The gunner looked at the team in front of him, "I was killed by the Catalans because I was sarcastic, but if you're going to use me, just give me a few cannons and some guys who can help, I'll be much more useful than them." ”

"Well, let me see what you're capable of," Tiego asked his attendant to give the man a horse, and watched him roll on the back with some difficulty, Tiego picked up the hem of his tattered clothes with his horsewhip and looked at him, and saw a few bruises on his ribs, Tiego took out the flask hanging from his saddle leather bag and threw it to him, "Drink a little pressure, if you really do what you say, trust me and you'll be running soon." ”

In addition to maritime trade and the coveted almost monopoly of the Valencian silk market, the business of his "Catalan Defense Consultancy" was also thriving, and sometimes he even had to deal with clients himself.

This time, Tiego took a big deal, and according to what he said when he recruited the mercenaries in Valencia, this time he was going to personally lead the Catalan mercenaries to complete a very important task, and he did not say what he was going to do.

Although this is somewhat unruly, it is understandable, after all, Valencians are so talkative, maybe there is some secret to this single deal.

However, according to the rules, this kind of business that cannot directly explain the place is obviously very dangerous, so the remuneration must be more generous.

In this respect, the Catalan defense consulting company has a good reputation, at least the Catalans who were sent to Pisa in large numbers during the Italian war, although they experienced a brutal war, almost all of them made a lot of money.

This time, the mercenary force led by Tiego himself recruited about 1,200 mercenaries, including Catalans, which was not only the biggest business of the Catalan defense consulting company, but also the other peers.

However, the journey from the Hucar River to the west was arduous, especially as they had to cross two mountain ranges halfway up the river into the Guadaville River basin, and the difficult march almost overwhelmed Tiego's body.

It's just that he also knows that now is the most critical time, although it is not clear whether the queen has successfully landed, but according to the business he negotiated with the "client", he must bring this mercenary force to the place.

A tall mountain in front of him seemed to never be able to climb, and Tiego had to be taken care of, vowing never to do it again after the deal, but when he thought about it, it might be the last time he would lead the army himself.

The Duke should also know that I am not this material, Tiego thought to himself, but this time because of the importance of the matter, even he had to go into battle himself.

There was a loud noise in front of him, and soon two mercenaries with one man came in his direction.

"You are?" Tiego looked at the man.

"I am an attendant of Lord Don Bavi," the man said, taking out a letter and handing it to Tiego, "I am here to meet you at the orders of Lord Duke, and you can no longer go along the Guadaville River, for Gonzalo's army has blocked its upper reaches. ”

"Oh, that's great, you've got good news for us," said Tiego, a little annoyed, "do you want us to go all the way to Seville?" ”

"Maybe it's not needed anymore," the attendant shrugged a little helplessly, "Actually, it's not so easy to find on land, you probably don't know, the Sicilians are coming, and they, together with the royal army, have cut off all roads to Seville." ”

A hint of surprise crossed Tiego's face, and although he was confident that the queen would arrive on time, when he heard the news from this Downbavi's entourage, Tiego still felt as if he had lost his strength all of a sudden.

He knew that he was still very worried, and when he accepted the Duke's order to contact Don Bavi, he did not know if the Coalition Commander would hire the Gatlonians as he had hoped, after all, he was from Aragon, and perhaps that Don Bavi would refuse him because of his doubts.

In fact, Don Bavi was not worried about hiring Catalans to fight for him at first, but as the war became worse and worse, and the 'Catalan Defense Consulting Company' repeatedly showed rare sincerity, he finally chose to accept the help of this mercenary merchant from Aragon.

"Where are the Sicilians now?" Tiego seemed to be concerned about the situation of the war, "To be clear, I don't want my men to crash headfirst into the positions of either side, we are here to fight and make money instead of dying." ”

The attendant immediately carefully briefed the mercenary merchant about the situation outside Seville, and when he heard that there had been a battle between the three sides just two days earlier near the Two Sisters Lake in the east of Seville, Tiego couldn't help but ask with concern what the outcome of that battle was.

"The result is not good," said the attendant, somewhat dejectedly, "the men of Gonzalo have knocked our cavalry off their horses one by one like hares, and we have lost hundreds of men, while the Sicilians are there to watch the excitement, but Gonzalo does not seem to dare to offend the Sicilian army easily, and after their victory they retreated to the north bank of the Guadaville River, and now they are frozen against each other across the Guadaville River." ”

Tiego was secretly relieved, as an Iberian he was more familiar with Gonzalo's daimyo than the Sicilian, which was why he was more worried about whether the Sicilian army would be able to withstand the Castilian attack.

Now it seems that at least the two sides have not really clashed on the battlefield now, or rather, both sides are looking and waiting for an opportunity to defeat the other in one fell swoop, because after all, there is still a coalition of nobles on the sidelines.

"We have to enter Seville as soon as possible, the Duke has been waiting for too long, some of those nobles are already preparing to surrender or flee for their lives, if there is no good news, maybe they will surrender themselves before anyone attacks Seville."

The loyal entourage kept urging, and at the same time he looked at the reaction of the merchant in front of him worriedly, although most of the mercenaries will usually abide by the contract after receiving the deposit, and it is said that the reputation of this mercenary company is not bad, but after all, the current situation is really unfavorable for Seville, and it is not impossible for these Catalans to break the contract and escape if they have bad knowledge.

Fortunately, this time they met a very trustworthy businessman, and although they seemed a little hesitant, they eventually prevailed in the high morality of abiding by the contract as a merchant.

"Then we will have to hurry," Thiego finally decided, "I think there is an opportunity before us, and while they are in a stalemate, we will at once advance along the south bank of the Guadaville, and the Sicilians, who have just arrived, will at least be better to deal with than Gonzalo." ”

The entourage nodded a little blankly, he actually had no idea at this time, and he was able to insist on staying here and waiting for these Catalan mercenaries, only because his loyalty to the Duke over the years made him dare not think about betraying the Lord and escaping alone.

But at the thought of passing through the middle of the two enemy positions, the retinue turned pale with fright, and trembled slightly.

This made him follow the Catalan mercenaries almost in a daze, he didn't even know how they managed to escape from the narrow area between the two armies, and when he finally saw the walls of Seville, the attendant knelt down in excitement and kept kissing the dirt on the ground.

The sudden appearance of the Catalans aroused a wave of suspicion among the Andalusian nobility, and when they heard that a mercenary unit had suddenly entered the city, many immediately realized that this was a method that Don Bavi had been hiding from them.

Obviously, Don Bavi, who was already the dominant force in the coalition, would be even more unscrupulous after receiving the support of this mercenary force, but even though they knew this, those nobles could only endure it for the time being.

And with the advent of this mercenary force, the contrast between the forces of the three sides also changed, and for a time the Andalusian nobles had new hopes that they could hold Seville.

The arrival of the Catalan mercenaries was undoubtedly a great surprise for Don Bavi, who even thought that these Catalans might not be willing to fulfill their contract in such an extremely unfavorable situation.

So when he heard that the Catalans were coming, he had him push himself to meet the commander of the mercenary force.

To his surprise, the merchant named Tiego actually came, which surprised Don Bavi and felt that this person was really bold.

"Don't worry, you won't regret this investment, and when we defeat Gonzalo and the Sicilians, I'll hire your mercenaries for a long time to become a standing army in Andalusia." Don Bavi made a promise to Tiego, but he was also telling him that he didn't care about spending more money to have such a professionally loyal and brave army.

"That's what we're hoping for, so we'd rather take a risk than get the job done on this contract." Tiego replied that he did seem to be a real businessman at this time.

Don Bavi looked out the window at the soldiers who were packing their equipment and luggage and asked, "Tell me what the name of this mercenary of yours is." ”

"Fourth Regiment," Tiergo smiled, his tired face, "they are the glorious Fourth Regiment of Catalonia. ”