At the end of 1500, looking back, it was not as calm on the European continent as ever, and the Ottomans were forced to stop on land by the defeat at the Battle of Bucharest, but at sea they were victorious.

With the Ottomans' last colony in the Mediterranean being occupied by the Ottomans, almost the entire eastern Mediterranean was already under the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and Crete became extremely important.

In November, a small fleet of Ottoman naval vessels tentatively launched a modest attack on Crete, and although the Ottomans withdrew immediately after a slight setback, it was enough to send the whole of Crete into a panic.

The panic caused by Alexander's misunderstanding when he first arrived in Kalibo became a reality almost four years later, and this time the Europeans clearly realized that the Ottomans were really going to invade Crete.

The Ottomans caused a wave of panic on the eastern shores of the Aegean and Mediterranean, which then spread to the dining tables of European households.

As the largest sugar cane plantation in Europe, Crete was responsible for nearly half of Europe's sugar supply, and sugar suddenly became one of the most sought-after luxuries, when it became clear that the supply of sugar would be in short supply due to the arrival of the Ottomans, or even become as short as pepper.

Whether it was the court of the nobles or the mansions of the wealthy merchants, people began to buy in large quantities all kinds of things that tasted sweet that had begun to rise in price, such as cane sugar, beets, honey, and even some pollen ground into sweet pulp, and people tried their best to store some of these things in their homes, while some nobles had ordered to strengthen the guards of their domains, after all, a piece of good honey or a beehive that was picked directly could be sold for a good price.

At the same time, the route to Crete became the most noticeable artery in the Mediterranean, and every merchant ship from Crete became a priceless treasure, and whenever a Cretan merchant ship docked, a large number of brokers on the docks flocked to it, and the barrels and barrels of jaggery that were brought up from the bottom silos would not wait for them to settle down on the shore and people would run up to ask for the price, and as all kinds of unfavorable rumors about the situation at sea grew, the price of sugar also rose like crazy. Later, in some places, there were signs of using cane sugar as currency directly.

This crazy price increase made many people see the opportunity to make a fortune, and some nobles began to send ships to Crete to prepare for a windfall, but soon they found that things were not as simple as they thought, and it was clear that no one could make a fortune in the sugar market, whether it was the elusive pirates of the Mediterranean or the feared Ottoman navy, which was undoubtedly the most terrible risk on their way to adventure.

Only a very small number of lucky chambers of commerce were able to get a stable supply of goods from Crete, and among them, the chambers of commerce of the Free Trade Association have undoubtedly become the biggest victors of this "sweet cause".

Groups of landless peasants who had been left homeless in Europe by the wars and cold weather of the past few years were put on ships to Crete, where the depletion of the population due to the war and the exodus had left large tracts of plantations abandoned, and the unmanned sugar producing areas became the best place for these landless peasants, as those who kept shouting at the refugees roaming the streets at the intersections of towns and ports with their bronze bells in their hands said: " You don't have anything left, could it be worse? ”

This sentence really touched many people who have left their homes and have nothing.

yes, could it be worse?

In that case, why not try your luck in Crete, which sounds dangerous, but with all the heart-warming promises of the men who solicit workers and the merchants who keep waving posters they don't know, some people decide to take the plunge.

But not everyone was able to do the work, and the healthy and able to do the heavy work was given priority, and the selected strong laborers were selected and sent to the places called the trade union offices to settle down temporarily, and then these people were sent on ships from all over the country to Crete to grow sugar cane.

An Ottoman named Ashulk played an important role in this process, and the merchant ships under his care did not have to worry about pirate harassment and Ottoman naval raids, but were paid an expensive but definitely worthwhile fee to the Trade Federation each time the sugar was brought in.

Because of this business, this emissary from the Sultan of Constantinople has become the most popular pagan in the city of Rome, and even Pope Alexander VI once said in public that this man was simply "King Solomon's favorite servant".

Bringing back sugar, which was already considered a luxury by Europeans, to all sorts of goods on the continent that workers and Crete needed, this short route became for a time the hottest route to fortune in the Mediterranean.

At the same time, Jossa received a letter from Iberia.

Seeing that the queen waited calmly until the messenger had withdrawn, she immediately turned around and went into the living room and closed the door, and the maid of the lady could only walk helplessly to the corridor and guard the door, she knew that for a while the queen obviously did not want to be disturbed unless it was something important.

Alexander wrote a lot in his letters, after all, there was a lot to say about the heartfelt confession that he hadn't seen for a while.

What caught Josha's attention was that Alexander was much more concerned about the situation in Crete than she had imagined.

"My dear sister, although what is happening now is as I guessed before, but I think that we are not doing enough, if we look at the scale before leaving, we can still muster very few workers, and the work that can be carried out in Crete is not large, I can understand that you may fear that the Ottomans may eventually occupy Crete and cause us to lose all our money, but as far as I know, at least for a long time this worry is superfluous, please do not ignore what I have done under the city of Bucharest, Even if they had won enough victories at sea, it would have been enough to stop the Ottomans from continuing westward for a long time, so I believe that Crete would be safe for a long time, and please don't forget that I have other plans, and if successful, may even completely resolve the future crisis of Crete. ”

"So continue to recruit workers, and as many as possible, these sturdy laborers are by no means simply plantation workers, they have a lot of roles to play, and the most important of them is that I hope that these people will be ready for a huge and unprecedented expedition in the future."

Seeing this, she frowned a little confused, she had heard Alexander mention more than once that the vast land on the other side of the Atlantic had never been discovered, but although she inevitably had all kinds of reveries about such a place, she still couldn't imagine for a moment what Alexander was talking about an unprecedented expedition.

Still, she felt Alexander's eagerness to make this happen as soon as possible, and she couldn't help but feel a strong curiosity about the new world.

She was not at all like a queen lying on the bed reading Alexander's letters, and then sometimes she suddenly got up and ran to the great table and looked at the map on it and compared it with the descriptions in the letters, and sometimes when she saw a certain paragraph, she immediately threw herself on the bed and rolled between the soft pillows and blankets with the letters, until at last she calmed down and looked at the last paragraph carefully.

"I miss you so much, sometimes I even want to leave everything around me and run to the beach and jump on any boat to rush to you, but often at the end I resist this urge, before I leave, I promised you my own crown, this crown will be the most peculiar and unique in the world, so for this I can't leave, and all you have to do is to be ready to wear such a crown in the future."

Looking at the letter, Zhisa smiled slightly, she held the letter in one hand, and the fingers of the other hand lightly tapped on the letterhead: "Alexandre Giulian Gombray, this is what you promised me, if you can't do it, I will let the whole world know what you did, and then even the Pope will not be able to protect a villain who is trying to make his sister give birth to a child for him." ”

12=At the beginning of the month, a visitor visited the Château de Montina.

Barentia, the Duchess of Rometesia, was slightly cold and even somewhat hostile to the arrival of this guest, not because the guest was Jewish, but because he was backed by other women of Alexandria.

Joseph Buccini stood cautiously in front of Barentia, he had heard of the duchess before, but this was the first time he had seen her.

"So, you also serve the Duke?" Barendi looked at the Jews and asked with an indifferent expression, seeing that the Jews bowed and nodded respectfully, she thought about it and waved back the servant standing at the door, "Okay, now tell who sent you, is it the Queen of Naples or the Queen of Wallachia?" ”

Joseph Buccini listened carefully to Barendi's words, and then quickly noticed from her tone that they were all slightly different in tone when addressing the two queens, he bowed to Barendi again, and then spoke: "Your Majesty, Your Highness, you also know that the whole of Europe is crazy about sugar now, even some nobles, if you can have an extra dessert on the table, you will feel very embarrassed, Your Majesty thinks this is a great opportunity for us, so she sent me to advise you, hoping to strengthen cooperation with you in this matter." ”

"Oh."

Hearing that Barendi only answered and didn't say anything more, Joseph Buccini couldn't help but cast an inquiring glance at her a little helplessly.

Barendi looked at Buccini without blinking, she knew that this Jew was one of Josa's dependents, and the other was the Tiego who was now beside Alexander, which made Barenti suddenly feel a little lonely, and at this moment she couldn't help but wonder in her heart that maybe she shouldn't be too harsh on Longstantin, maybe she could have a helper when necessary.

"So how do you think we should work together?" Barendi finally asked.

Buccini breathed a sigh of relief, he had actually been prepared for the Duchess's indifference, after all, when he decided to invest in the Queen of Wallachia and her children, Buccini had already thought about the stake very clearly.

Although he knew that doing so might anger the Duchess, at the time, Buccini firmly believed that investing in the then precarious Queen of Wallachia would be more rewarding than investing in the Duchess, and even though Valentia was now the Duchess of Rometesia, he still thought so.

It's just that Buccini was a little uneasy about this visit, he was worried that the duchess would not listen to his advice at all because of jealousy, and now seeing that Barenti could still face it calmly despite his unkind face, Buccini couldn't help but think to himself, maybe this was the reason why the Duke of Rometesia married this Barente of Genoa, not the Queen of Wallachia.

"Madame, we need a bigger business," said Buccini, taking a step forward and staring cautiously at the look on Barentia's face, "I mean, Lord Duke holds almost half of the sugar in Europe, and this is not just wealth but power, and in this case you and your husband are entitled to a higher status and respect than we are now, and all this can be done if you can support us." ”

"You guys?" A hint of vigilance flashed in Barondi's eyes.

"Yes, before I can admit that I was the one who offered to support Queen Alexandra of Wallachia, and even now I don't think that choice was wrong, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying working with you as well."

"Do you think this collaboration is sugar?"

"No, it's not sugar, it's wealth and power." Buccini said with some excitement, "You can make every table in the European court a delicious meal, or you can make their banquets boring, this is power, and it is enough to make too many people have to bow their heads to you." ”

Barendi listened carefully to Buccini's excited speech, and she couldn't help but admit that this Jewish speech did have some kind of seductive power, but thinking about her husband, who was better at demagoguery, Barendi couldn't help but shake her head secretly.

"Then how are you going to open up this big business that you are talking about, I know you may be ambitious, but you are Jews," Barondi finally smiled, leaning back on the comfortable back of the chair behind her, and looking at the agitated-looking young Jew in front of her, "You can't enter any court, you don't have the opportunity to negotiate terms with any noble, or even if you can get a contract, you can't guarantee that you will be protected by those terms, So what are you going to do? ”

Barenti's words made Buccini's originally excited face slowly cold, he lowered his head and looked at his feet, and after a long while, he raised his head to meet Barenti's gaze and said: "This is the reason why I asked to cooperate with you, since this is an opportunity that can bring us such wealth, we must not give up, and this really needs your help." ”

Looking at Buccini's faintly excited expression, Barendi thought for a while and then nodded: "Tell me, what do you think should be done?" ”

"Madame," said Buccini, holding back the emotions surging in his heart, "we need someone who can occupy more markets in Europe for us, as you said, these people can enter the court of the nobles, be able to deal with them, and at least get a guaranteed contract, so that our business can go farther, even to the territories of the German princes." ”

Looking at Buccini, Barondi pondered for a moment and suddenly nodded: "I think I already understand what you mean, it just so happens that there are some people like you said, and they can fully meet these conditions of yours." ”

Speaking of this, Barondi's hand involuntarily rested on an envelope that had just been opened by Darkly under the table in front of her.

"Believe me, the Fugger family in Augsburg is the best agent for this deal."