Caesar had a bad time.

Or rather, it was completely unsatisfactory.

The marriage to Charlotte of Navarre seemed perfect to him, and Caesar had nothing to complain about his young wife, although he knew that it was actually Louis XII's trick to get him around, but he was very satisfied with his marriage.

The only thing he regretted was that he and his wife had been together for too short, and when they were married under the auspices of Louis XII, Caesar did not know that Louis XII had already arranged for him what to do next.

Therefore, after a short period of newlyweds, Caesar, who originally wanted to stay in France temporarily, had to return to Rome in a hurry because of Louis's need to invade Italy, and had to leave his pregnant wife in France.

Away from his wife for a while, Caesar returned to Rome in high spirits, believing that he was completely different, both militarily and spiritually, neither the Caesar Borgia who had been captured by the Montinas in Livorno, nor the Caesar Borgia who had been teased by Alexander in Pisa.

Not only was he the son of the Pope, but he was also a powerful ally of the King of France, and the key point was that he believed that he had mastered the knack for the successive victories of Alexander's Montina army.

However, the Battle of Ferrara made Caesar lose confidence in himself all of a sudden, and then Alexander went south to Naples, and in a short period of time helped his sister control the huge gains of Naples, which made Caesar feel inexplicably jealous.

But this is not the end, the Montina people's active activities in the northern Lombardy region made Caesar feel that he was hit hard, Caesar knew the French, during the period when he went to France instead of his father, he had a detailed understanding of the current situation and strength of the French army, in his opinion, although the Montina army was very strong, and claimed to have defeated the Ottomans, but they still had a certain gap with the French army, this gap is in addition to the size of the force, After all, the French army is one of the most powerful armies on the European continent, and the Hundred Years War with the British and the French have been fighting for many centuries, which made Caesar firmly believe that Alexander's Montina army, which has not yet been tempered by time, cannot be compared with the French army with rich war experience.

Caesar's idea could not be said to be wrong, and when the defeat of the Montina in the town of Tarot Valley reached Rome, Caesar was so excited that he drained several glasses of wine.

Caesar was eager to see the Montina defeated, and he was pleased that he believed that the Montina army would be demoralized and demoralized after such a heavy defeat.

Caesar actually had the same idea as Alexander, and he also believed that an army that had never tasted defeat would not only not be able to recover quickly from this unexpected blow, but might even lose confidence completely because the aura of constant victory was shattered.

However, he apparently underestimated the training of the Montina army and the will that had been gradually instilled in the soldiers through strict discipline and almost harsh training, and despite the sudden defeat, the Montina army still struggled to get out of the battlefield.

Caesar was both surprised and angry at this result, and he was reminded of his experiences in Livorno, where he had been taken prisoner, and Ferrara, who had made him vulnerable to the army he had painstakingly put together at great expense.

This made Caesar's mood change for a moment, especially when he heard that Alexander had suddenly returned to Montina and launched an army against Lombardy, and he finally realized that if he didn't do anything else, he might really be overwhelmed by the man who had robbed Lucrezia forever.

Caesar could only secretly swear in his heart that he would take away his sister's hatred for Alexander's loss of Lucrezia, while in front of others, he kept preaching the threat of a possible "Duchy of Romagna-Tuscany" to Rome and the Vatican.

It's just that he found that his arguments didn't seem to arouse the interest of too many people, or that those people didn't actually know that there was some truth in his words, but most of them chose to ignore them.

Even the Farne, part of the Borgia family, reacted vaguely to his appeal, with only Giulia Farne, who held a grudge against Alexander for killing her brother in the first place.

This left Caesar finally having to choose to deal with the people he was least willing to work with.

He knew that Constantine della Rovere was also dissatisfied with Alexander, and that his father, Rovere Sr., had always had an ambiguous relationship with Alexander, which made Caesar hostile to the Rovere family, but had to accept the reality of working with the family.

So in a high brothel in Rome, which was favored by the aristocratic and wealthy merchants, Caesar and Constantine met again.

Compared with Caesar, Constantine is much stranger to this kind of place, watching Caesar flirt with the women around him very casually, but Constantine sits there quite reservedly and just keeps drinking.

"It's nice here, isn't it?" Caesar greeted the Konstantin cup, and then he opened his arms around the two women leaning against him, "Tell me what you have ideals?" ”

"What did you say?"

"I ask you if you have any ideals," Caesar looked at Constantine's puzzled look, and his nose made a "snort" and a slightly mocking sound, "Don't tell me that you just crave championships in knightly competitions and glory on the battlefield, those things may have made you forget a few years ago, but now I don't think that means anything to you." ”

Looking at Caesar with a look of disdain, Constantine thought about the empty wine glass with both hands, and finally said, "I want to be the consul of Genoa." ”

"Oh, you're a bold idea, you know that you can't do it unless you drive out the French," Caesar looked at Konstantin and laughed, "and you know that even if you drive out the French, your dream may not be realized, do you?" ”

"Because of Cambrai?" Konstantin asked.

"That's right, because Cambrai!" Caesar stood up and pointed at Constantine with the index finger of his right hand holding the cup, "You know very well that his current aim is to try to unify the whole central region of Rome, which is bound to pose a threat to Rome and the Vatican, and he will also displease Venice by doing so, because everyone knows that your sister is his wife, so do you think the Venetians will tolerate the presence of a principality allied with Genoa on their borders?" ”

Konstantin was silent, which was what he was worried about and angry about.

Alexander's rise in central Italy did not excite the Rovere family too much, but Venice, fearing an alliance with the future Duchy of Romagna-Tuscany and threatened its own security, spread rumors of Genoese rule over the Holy See through their agents in the Vatican.

Although the elder Rovere's desire for the papal throne was undisguised, the Venetian "Genoese threat theory" still played a role to some extent.

For example, if the Count of Montina wants to wear the crown of the Duchy himself, the Rovere family must give up the purpose of pursuing the papal throne in the future, otherwise a family that gathers both secular and ecclesiastical rights and oneness is something that many people do not want.

"You know we have to make a choice for ourselves, not for someone else to choose for us," Caesar sat down in a chair next to Constantine and stared at him closely, a few dark red scars on his face that had begun to fester, the result of his recent wandering in those brothels, syphilis left a permanent ugly mark on his face, but despite this, these scars also gave his otherwise handsome face a strange charm after being destroyed and destroyed" We can be friends, can't we, and I want to get revenge on Cambrai, because he not only made me lose people, but also prevented me from becoming the Duke of Romagna. ”

Caesar did not hide his ambitions, he knew that even if he did become the Duke of Romagna, he would not cause much disgust, he might be greedy to conquer many places, but he believed that the Romans were more willing to accept him than Alexander.

Because he doesn't threaten too many people.

Alexander, however, was too threatening.

From Sicily to Naples, from Romagna to Lombardy, Caesar, while jealous of Alexander's rapidly growing power, was also pleased to see his enemies growing.

It gave him a chance to take on Alexander again.

"My father won't agree," Constantine thought for a moment and shook his head, "he works very well with Cambrai now, especially after the French occupied Genoa, and he has openly said more than once that he is willing to let Barente inherit all his possessions in Rome as long as Gombray can drive the French out of Genoa." ”

"Oh, that's a lot of money." Caesar looked at Konstantin with a little amusement, and he now knew why Konstantin had reluctantly come to meet him, despite his obvious reluctance to deal with him.

Old Rovere's so-called all his possessions in Rome were of course not just about money.

One of the reasons why the Venetians have always wanted to push their influence into Romagna is because Genoa has several territories deep into the region in Romagna, which are the result of the early years of Genoa's heyday expansion, and the Rovelles were quite active during that period, and they have taken many territories for their family in the region, including Montina, which is now almost one of the most talked about in Italy.

So in this way, it is not difficult to understand what old Rovelle refers to by his so-called property.

Seeing that Ronstantin's face was ugly, Caesar waved his hand to several women and motioned for them all to go out, then he moved to Konstantin's chair and looked at him and asked, "Do you think that the cardinal will always support Cambrai?" ”

Konstantin was stunned and instinctively shook his head, but then said helplessly: "But as long as he is an enemy of the French for a day, my father will always support him, you must know that the French occupation of Genoa has completely angered my father, and he even almost proposed to the Holy See to expel Louis from the church." ”

"I know......" Caesar whispered.

Old Rovere was indeed mad by the actions of the French, and when he heard that the French army had occupied Genoa, the cardinal, who had experienced the baptism of war, cursed Louis XII and clamed for a crusading holy war against the French, and he obviously did not just talk about it, but ordered people to find out the armor that he had been hiding for a long time, and he had the intention of becoming the god of war and the pope in advance.

"Do you think that if we can persuade the French to withdraw from Genoa, do you think we will be rewarded with the cardinal's support for us?"

Listening to Caesar's words, Constantine's heart couldn't help but move, and he looked at Caesar's face with some surprise and hope, even those ugly sores were not so ugly and disgusting in his eyes at this moment.

"If that's the case, I think it's okay, my father is a very loyal person to the Holy See, and he won't allow anyone to threaten the safety of the Vatican, even if he is our family."

"Of course, I admire the Cardinal," Caesar said casually, as he began to wonder how to make this happen.

Caesar knew that although he was admired by Louis XII, he could not convince Louis XII in this matter with his position, so he needed someone who could impress the king to do so.

Alexander VI had a much more comfortable time than his son.

Although the Battle of Ferrara cost him money, and even almost put his son in it, the cost of that war was nothing compared to the wealth he had accumulated over time.

Alexander VI never imagined that one day he would be bothered by how to spend his money, but as the market for Ladian's gold coins continued to expand, the Pope gradually found that how to spend it became a big problem.

With the purchase of a large amount of gold, Alexander VI gradually felt that wealth did not bring him the expected benefits, of course, not because money could not buy real happiness, but because the Pope found that when he just kept accumulating gold, it seemed that gold became a pile of precious metals that could only shine brightly.

At the same time, the Pope knew through the Vatican's treasurer that the price of marble seemed to be falling, which made him think of taking advantage of this opportunity to build St. Peter's Basilica.

According to the Pope's plan, he planned to add four more interconnected marble corridors to the two wings of the cathedral, so that the entire St. Peter's Basilica could stretch out to the north and south ends of a complex of buildings the size of half the size.

And he had to spend much less money than before, which gave the Pope the idea that perhaps he should exchange the money for more of what he needed, because only then could the value of the gold be truly revealed.

Alexander VI did not know that he had come into contact with the most intuitive and simple principles of money circulation, nor did he know that his idea brought praise and sigh to the grandeur of St. Peter's Basilica, which was later completed, but at least now his actions have given many people a rare opportunity.

Through his attention to the construction of the cathedral, Alexander VI suddenly became interested in the Vatican's finances, and in the Pope's view, the Vatican's wealth was actually more of a false one, because in addition to many treasures and works of art that could not be realized, the Vatican's cash was not as much as outsiders suspected.

And now, based on the credibility of the Holy See, the gold Ladia coin allowed Alexander VI to really try the charm of wealth, which made him excited, and he also had a good impression of the wishful son-in-law.

It was at this time that Caesar suddenly found his son, and the first words he said made Alexander VI stunned: "Father, I don't think we should indulge and endure Gombray anymore, because he is threatening each and every one of us." ”