James Columbus and the young man named Ron Zor Sabatini did not have any further trouble, and their party encountered some other mercenaries along the way, but when they took out the pass that cost 20 florins, they left disappointed.

Obviously, these Florentine mercenaries had reached an agreement with each other and divided the territory, and they had to protect the merchants who belonged to their territory while buying and selling their passes.

However, James and the others felt that something was not quite right, because although those mercenaries always seemed to be busy and didn't care, they seemed to be a little nervous, and seemed to have something else to do besides coming out to collect protection money.

But it obviously had nothing to do with James and the others, and after a long walk along the road to Florence, through a hilly area about a few hundred feet high, you could see the whole city on the banks of the Arno River.

Coincidentally, after nearly a day's journey, when the sun had just cast its first rays the next morning over the notch of Mount Cetinia in the east, James happened to pass the top slope of the hills.

Looking at the city below that was shrouded in a rose-red glow by the dawn of dawn, James couldn't help but let out an excited whistle.

He saw the sight as a very auspicious sign, and the rose-red sunlight seemed to him like countless florins scattered throughout the city, and then he only had to try to pick them up one by one and put them in his purse.

The young Ron Zor Sabatini was also attracted by the sight in front of him, he took a deep breath of the crisp morning air, and then couldn't help but let out a cry of joy.

"This is such a beautiful city, and it is a blessing of God in this world," cried out Roenzo, "can you imagine how many great masters have been born in this city, whose names can be lined up from Florence to Rome." ”

"There's so much gold here," James nodded approvingly, "this is a true city of wealth, and there is no other city in the weaving and dyeing industry that can compare with it." ”

For the first time, Ron Zuo looked at James with a little contempt, he felt that there was really not much to talk about with this philistine merchant, thinking that he would soon be able to meet the master he admired, Ron Zuo even wanted to leave these companions and run all the way into the city.

But the dull sound of horses' hooves striking the ground ruined everyone's joy, and they looked at the few men on horseback running from the slope below, and soon they realized that if they had met before, they were Florentine mercenaries.

The mercenaries, like their colleagues, examined James and them very carefully, and then they urged the merchants to hurry into the city.

"What's going on, I think you guys are busy."

James asked with some curiosity, he didn't want to ask, but it was always good to know more news, after all, Florence is very different from before, and James doesn't want to crash into it with a black eye.

"You should thank God for your good fortune," a mercenary took a sip from the flask handed by James and hurriedly got on his horse, "There are suddenly a lot of robbers near the city, they specialize in robbing merchants, and many people have already been robbed. Now the Florentines are already a little panicked, and the town hall has ordered us to patrol the neighborhood non-stop," and after saying that, the soldier suddenly reached out to James and made a gesture to count the money, "You're going to get rich." ”

As he spoke, the mercenary urged his horse to chase after his companion, who had gradually walked away in front of him.

Looking at the mercenaries who disappeared behind the slope with dust in their hands, James was slightly stunned at first, and then raised the flask and poured it into his mouth vigorously.

Then he shouted to the others, "Guys, we're going to get rich!" ”

"Rich!"

Everyone erupted in excited cries like James, and one even hugged Ron Zuo, who was still confused, and kissed him non-stop.

"Why are you so happy?" Ron asked with some confusion.

"Stupid, haven't you heard, a lot of merchants have been robbed," James hugged Ron's face and shook it twice, "This means that not only do we have fewer competitors, but the Florentines will be willing to pay a lot of money for our things, we have made a fortune young man!" ”

Then James and his companions cried out in the young man's astonishment: "Long live, long live the robbers!" ”

The attack was a good thing for James, too bad for the looted merchants, and even affected the lives of the Florentines.

What bothered the Florentine government was that these bandits who suddenly appeared were cunning, and they may not be many in number, but they often made all kinds of preparations in advance, so every time the mercenaries arrived, they saw only a group of angry merchants who had been robbed.

The robbers will take everything they can and destroy what they can't, and then they will quickly disappear until the next time they reappear somewhere else.

The presence of the bandits had attracted the attention of the Florentine government, and they had to send mercenary teams to patrol farther away to protect the passing merchants, but the bandits' scattered movements around the city made patrols meaningless, and the mercenaries took advantage of the opportunity to sell passes, which made the merchants disgusted with Florence.

There is a noticeable decrease in the number of things on the market, as the risks of transportation have increased, and the goods that can be shipped to Florence have become scarce and more expensive.

The people became restless and agitated, and the Florentines gradually turned from resentment to anger at the government's laxity in the work of eradicating the bandits.

As we head into September, the cooler weather is not making things worse in Florence.

The harassed merchants had to organize and hire a sufficient number of mercenary guards to act, and the prices of various goods in Florence became ridiculously high due to the increase in costs.

This has even begun to affect people's lives.

All this was a headache for the Florentine government officials, who turned to their leader for inspiration from him, and Savonarola's advice was to "hold a great Mass that will free us all from this anxiety about the world." ”

The suggestion apparently did not satisfy the officials, who had to go back to the town hall to consider what to do.

It was proposed to send troops to carry out a large-scale purge of the bandits near Florence, but this proposal was quickly rejected.

It is clear that the robbers are very clever, and they are always able to avoid search and patrol, and their behavior even makes one wonder if they have their own internal problems in Florence.

But that's not what the officials are afraid about, what they're really worried about is whether the mercenaries will be willing to do the job as they are told.

It is clear that the long running around to eliminate a group of robbers who no one knows the details of the work is not only hard work, but also perhaps dangerous, because the Florentines are already vaguely aware that there may be someone behind these robbers who are supporting them.

This speculation is not unfounded, the robbers have not even robbed as much of the goods they have destroyed, and it is hard to believe that no one has been able to find out where they are hiding after all this time, unless someone is sheltering them.

At this thought, the Florentine officials dismissed the idea of purging the bandits, because they knew that it was better not to leave anyone else with any excuse to find at this time, especially the Vatican's unrelenting pope.

The mutual hostility between Savonarola and Alexander VI was a headache for the Florentines.

In particular, some of the top officials, many of whom hoped that the abbot would improve the bad relations with the Vatican.

Because only in this way can Florence emerge from isolation.

What's more, this is the only way to cut off the Medici family's avenue for support.

The Medici family never gave up hope of trying to recover, and in recent years they lobbied everywhere for help, even in the most difficult times, and they did not hesitate to spend a lot of money on those who might be able to help them, hoping to get support.

And in Florence, at least among the officials who were already in high positions, no one wanted the Medici family to return to power.

It's just that it is as difficult to hope that Savonarola bows to the Vatican as it is to hope that the mountain will come by itself, which makes the officials feel very embarrassed.

The price of bread in the market is rising, figs are too expensive for ordinary people to buy because of the difficulty of transportation, and as for wine, because the archons advocate a life of poverty, even in normal times, it is already rare, and now it can only be bought at a high price on the black market.

The Florentines felt an inexplicable panic, and people began to think of ways to buy more things for their homes, because no one knew what was going to be in demand next.

Such a September was very unhappy, and the incompetence of the Florentines towards the officials was reaching an unbearable point.

This terrible situation was not eased until good news came from Pisa.

First, there was grain, which was so cheap that the price of bread in the market immediately fell back to its original level, and then there were other things that were urgently needed on people's tables, such as meat, eggs, and cane sugar, which were equally cheap.

As for the condiments, they are more expensive, but they are already affordable for some wealthy families, and the most important thing is that these things do not need to be bought secretly on the black market, but can be seen in the market.

Then there were other things, from the needle and thread used by housewives, to the short sticks with heavy iron ends that men sometimes needed to defend themselves when they went out, from the delicious fish of the sea to the fragrant wine that was opened in jars, and whatever people needed it would be brought from pizza in the flat-bottomed boats that sailed up the river.

What really appealed to Florentines was the unusually low price of these things.

A loaf of bread costs only half an eju, which compared to the price of the previous two eju, made the eyes of the budget-conscious housewives smile like crescents.

Mutton, pork, and rare sugar, as well as rare sugar, are not at all to worry about either not being able to buy them at all, or being inflated because they are out of stock.

These changes that followed the arrival of the merchant ships in Pisa made the ordinary Florentines ecstatic, and the local merchants gradually began to feel uneasy after the same joy had passed.

First of all, some merchants who saw the market and hoarded Juqi became victims of the tide of these cheap goods.

When the first shipments arrived, they weren't worried, because no one thought that the Pisans would do a loss-making business.

In the eyes of the merchants, it was clear that the Pisan was just trying to scare them with the low price at the beginning, and then to blackmail them into trying to steal a piece of business from the Florentine.

So the Florentine merchants weren't in a hurry, they didn't believe that the Pistians had enough goods for them to splurge so much.

So the merchants began to just look coldly, and when they finally realized that the form was wrong, they began to buy the goods of the pizza people in a frenzy.

They did not believe that the Pisan people could afford such a huge loss, and even when they heard that these merchants were related to the Count of Montina, they went even further into a frenzy of acquisition.

The merchants believed that if they had the support of the Count of Montina behind them, the Count would not be able to tolerate the waste of money in his pocket.

So whether it is in the market or on the docks, there are always people waiting for those pizza merchants, and as soon as they appear, these ordered brokers begin to buy the goods in the hands of the pizza merchants in a frenzy, and they and those behind them believe that the pizza people will not be able to hold on.

But the facts have hit the self-confidence of these Florentine speculators time and time again.

No matter how much is eaten, there will always be more to come.

And more and more out-of-town merchants are joining the frenzy of dumping into the Florentine market, in the eyes of those people, Florence has become a piece of fat dripping with blood, and they are a bunch of greedy sharks that smell blood.

The Florentines did not understand how they could have become like this, they felt as if they were throwing stones into a bottomless abyss.

No matter how many florins they put in, they would be swallowed up by the pizza or the merchants who came from God knows nowhere, and as soon as they moved the goods into their warehouses, more goods of all kinds came in.

The Florentines finally began to get frightened, and as soon as they noticed that the movement of the Pisans seemed to be slightly smaller, the speculators decided to reduce the size of their acquisitions first, thereby reprieving the increasingly embarrassing books, and at the same time, after deliberation, all agreed to sell as soon as possible the goods which they had hoarded to the point of causing them uneasiness.

The Florentine merchants began to sell their wares, and although they could no longer make a profit, they still felt that they were making a good deal because of the low prices they had bought from the Pisa.

Do the Pisbians still have the strength to continue fighting with their own people, and aren't they already showing signs that they are about to lose because of their lack of strength?

Or maybe the pistons are still not reconciled, but the Florentines believe that as long as they get rid of the hoarded goods, they can quickly return a large amount of money, and then they can wait for the pistons to deliver them themselves, and then bite the guys mercilessly.

The speculators began their plan with confidence, and they let their men move the goods out of the warehouse and transport them to the market to sell, and the merchants could not help but smile as they looked at the loaded wagons.

But something unexpected happened to these speculators!

The pisbians suddenly began to tilt all their wares towards Florence in a way that bordered on losing their minds!

Cheap, cheaper, cheaper!

The profits obtained by the previous large dumping of duty-free and low-cost were instructed to invest in a more powerful dumping wave, and then this wave rushed towards Florence.

The resistance of the speculators kept the trade war, which had been unfair from the beginning, lasting only a pitiful four days, when a body was found in the Arno River on the fifth day, Sangha came.

This man was a hoarder, and when he died, it was discovered that the vast wealth that had been in his name had been turned into a variety of goods piled up in warehouses that could not be sold at all.

The man was desperate, he tied himself to a stone and walked step by step into the Arno River.

This sudden suicide. It caused quite a stir in Florence.

The supreme consul of Savonarola intervened, and he personally inquired into the cause of the speculator's death, and after repeatedly confirming that he had committed suicide, the consul ordered that no funeral should be arranged for the man, and that he should not be buried in any of the cemeteries attached to the church.

The punishment was severe, and although the consul did not order the man's head to be cut off, he was buried at a crossroads not too far from a church, and a tombstone without a cross was erected.

This man's name will be known to countless passers-by in the future, people will know about his suicide, and his family will face permanent disgrace.

The consul made this decision with a deep hatred of the greed of the merchants, denouncing the unscrupulous merchants who hoarded the odds, and expressing great indignation at the strangers who treated Florence as fat.

"God has seen all this, so He will eventually throw the greedy into hell, and when all this filth is washed away by the fire of the last days, only the truly pious people and nations will have the opportunity to tell posterity what is happening here today."

These were the last words of Savonarola after praying in the Cathedral of the White Flowers, and when he came out of the cathedral, he saw the countless Florentines gathered at the entrance of the church to wait and guard him.

"We'll get through it, and one day we'll look back and see that it's not just worth it, it's the trials and tribulations that test the city and all the people in it."

Savonarola spoke aloud to the people in front of him, and walked through the cheering crowd under the protection of a group of soldiers towards his little house.

The Florentines seemed to have calmed down after this minor incident, and the city officials, with the intervention of the consul himself, launched a severe crackdown on the merchants from other places.

Many people's goods were confiscated, some valuable goods that clearly violated the "anti-luxury laws" were destroyed on the spot, and the Florentines once again lived with a Bible in one hand and bread in one hand, and no other third thing.

But those days didn't last long.

Soon, the Florentine black market saw the emergence of something that was more expensive than the market, but still acceptable, and the popular black market trade moved from sugar, seasonings and wine to a wider market.

The speculators who had been warned and punished before began to panic, they still hoarded a staggering amount of goods in their hands, but they could only watch the black market trading in full swing, which made them angry and worried about the backlog of goods in their hands.

Eventually, the men mustered up the courage to elect a few delegates to the home of an important Florentine figure, who, after paying the price of their flesh, promised to do something for them.

The merchants waited eagerly for the time when they had finally received the exoneration from the town hall and were allowed to put their hoarded goods back on the market, and many of them fell to their knees and wept bitterly in their excitement.

But after venting, they immediately geared up one by one to make a big fight.

In the eyes of these Florentine merchants, the Pisaans should have passed their best days, and now it was their turn to reap the riches.

And then, they didn't think it was, the pizza man, again!

They came in a long flat-bottomed boat.

Arrived in a fully loaded carriage.

They came with donkeys and mules that were so crushed that they couldn't walk.

There was even a person who carried 200 liters of grain on his shoulders and walked without changing his shoulders for more than a dozen miles in one breath.

Florentines have money!

Florence is full of opportunities!

Florentines are stupid and have a lot of money......

Rumors of all kinds, which had already spread, spurred the Pisa, Barga, Engli, and even further Corsican and Sardinia towards Florence.

The ports that could be freely accessed by joining the free trade zone, the negligible tariffs, and the wonderful way of lending goods on credit from the place called the exchange made these people flock to Florence like crazy!

One day, two days, three days!

Even worse than the previous results appeared.

Florence, which had only lasted three days, had completely fallen, and no one cared about the fate of the speculative merchants, only whether they could buy cheaper and larger goods, or whether they could try their luck on the black market and pick up a treasure for a small amount of money.

Another person appeared in the Arno River, who had been killed with a knife, and just as the murderer was speculated, the body of a third person was found in the river.

And these two men were one of those Florentine merchants who went bankrupt.

The town hall did not track down the murderer again, they just buried the other two people in the same way that they buried the first deceased.

When it was time to be buried, a yellow leaf also flew into the grave that was quickly filled in.

Autumn is coming.

And on a street not far from the Baptistery, a merchant dressed as a man was walking into a very old house.

"Tell the honorable Archon of Pazzi that a merchant wishes to be summoned by him."

"Your name." The attendant at the door asked lazily.

"James, James Columbus." The merchant replied with a smile.