Pope Julius II, the god of war, not only did he come close to unifying Italy, but he also left the Holy See with a Swiss Guard with excellent traditions.

As the guard to protect the Vatican and the Pope, this all-Swiss guard has been faithfully carrying out its mission since the time of Julius II, and even after hundreds of years the world has long been human, the Swiss Guard still stands firmly in its post.

And the complete stubbornness of the Swiss in this day and age is one of the things that impressed Alexander the most.

The bravery of the Swiss is the same as their stubbornness, once a golden sign in the whole mercenary world, unlike other mercenaries who often do perfunctory things on the battlefield in order to preserve their strength, the Swiss will complete their mission with a dedicated attitude, and even the army of some nobles cannot compare with them in terms of loyalty to their duties, in order to win they can firmly devote themselves to the last soldier instead of turning around and running away when they see that the situation is not good, and they will not show mercy to their opponents in order to prevent themselves from leaving a way back in the future, The fervor and bravery of the Swiss often cause headaches for their enemies, but more importantly, the Swiss do not chase away their employers and become their own bosses, as Sforza did.

Because of this, Swiss mercenaries became a sought-after commodity for a time as an example of a good soldier.

Alexander wished he had such an army, but he could not afford to hire a Swiss army of sufficient size with his current position and strength, and he preferred his army to be free from the mercenary methods that were now in vogue, and it was clear that Agri, as his vassal, was fit to be such a soldier.

Compared with the rich people of northern Italy, the poorer southerners have the advantage of being more able to endure hardship, while the people of the Apennines have the strength and resilience that is similar to that of the mountain people of Switzerland.

"Organize training for me first, then make them a model among the Agri, and eventually build an army based on the Agri." This was what Alexander wanted Nathans to do for him, and he preferred to trust the Agri more than the Bohemians.

Now, at least his Agrish Guard, a dozen or so men, had been built as he had imagined.

Choosing the most reliable muskets, armed with sharp sabers, and selecting the best horses from all the horses, Alexander had the best in store for his guard.

As a result, the other Agri, apparently jealous of the chosen guards, attracted the attention of the shorter ones.

The long-haired man remained in the church because he had already met Alexander, while the short man returned to the village with his "homeless" friends.

As the short man said, these people he recruited this time were very clever, at least after changing into tattered clothes and casually smearing their faces, they really looked like homeless people who had suffered a lot.

The arrival of these people was somewhat dissatisfying to the Tempra people, but because they were all gathered on their own, no one provoked them for the time being.

After drinking some hot soup, the short man led the men to the river, as the foreman had commanded, and as they worked, they watched the neighborhood closely, and soon they noticed something strange.

"See those who have become soldiers?" The short man asked his companion, "They don't look like the others, they seem to be the best of them, and they're always around, I haven't noticed them when I've been here." ”

"Would you like to check it out?" A man asked in a low voice.

"Don't be in a hurry," whispered the short man, his eyes fixed on the men, and suddenly his breathing became heavier, "I saw the Cambrai, and there they were, these were supposed to be his guards, but I hadn't seen them before." ”

As he spoke, several people noticed that the guards were approaching a house from which Alexander had come out.

At this time, Alexander did not know that he was being targeted, and he was walking towards the river while instructing a few villagers, and the guards crowded around him, watching all those who tried to approach with wary eyes.

"Paul, tell them not to be so nervous," Alexander said to Paul Busako, who was with him, "I want you to protect me, not to help me scare everyone away." ”

The captain of the guard looked a little puzzled for a moment, as if he didn't understand the difference between the two, but he still whispered to his subordinates not to be "fierce".

"Let's do it," whispered one of the mercenaries next to the short man, "they won't notice us." ”

"There are too many people around him," the short man frowned, "if you can't kill Gombray at once, it won't be easy." ”

"But didn't you say that he might be leaving soon, and if he did, he might not have a chance."

The words of his companion made the short man a little embarrassed, but looking at the guards, he was not sure that he would succeed in one fell swoop, and after thinking about it, he decided not to take the risk for the time being.

"Wait, maybe there's a chance in the evening."

"Didn't you attack him once before at night, he's going to be very careful." Peers objected.

"Perhaps, but now that he has moved his army across the river, he will think that it is much safer than before, and it will make him careless, and we will find an opportunity to get close to his house at night, but before that you all have to be careful not to show any flaws." The short man admonished his companion.

After speaking, the short man looked at Alexander, who was not far away and was constantly giving orders to a few locals, and his lips couldn't help but lick slightly.

He didn't know why his master had to kill him this little lord named Cambrai, and he didn't know why his master had repeatedly told him not to make a big fuss about it, and it was best to kill him quietly, but several successive defeats made the short man already annoyed in his heart, although this was not a personal grudge at all, but when he thought that his master might no longer trust himself because of this, he felt that this Gombray had become a stumbling block in front of him, He had to prove with this man's life that he wasn't so stupid and incompetent.

In the middle of the night, the roar of wild beasts could be heard in the distant wilderness, and the moonlit woods looked black.

At the edge of the woods, several figures crept in, then several more figures, and finally a dozen people gathered quietly in the direction of the village through the darkness of the woods.

The short man's eyes gleamed in the darkness of the night, and he kept his eyes on the outline of the village in the distance, while whispering to his companions to watch out for the movements of the barracks at the edge of the village.

Because of the large number of people, Alexander set up simple camps in the houses around the village as much as possible, so that the whole village was almost completely surrounded.

"He'll feel safe this way," said the short man to his companion before he set out, "know that we don't rush in and kill people with yelling, we just have to go in quietly and kill that Cambrai, and then we can quietly leave." ”

Two figures appeared in front of them, and the mercenaries immediately hid vigilantly behind the corner, watching the two bohemians mumble something as they swayed past, smelling the smell of wine blowing in the wind, and the short man quietly gestured to the person behind him.

"Remember, go in and kill the man, and then leave." The short man whispered a command, and then took the lead and crept along the edge of the house.

In the church, the long-haired man's eyes were fixed on the flickering candle in front of him, he had been looking at it for a long time, looking at the flame on the candle, his hands sometimes clenched and sometimes released.

"Can you not be so nervous," asked Father Ned, impatiently, "the way you look makes me uneasy." ”

"Then why did you keep walking back and forth from the beginning?" The long-haired man turned his head to look at the priest who was walking around behind him, "Neder, I think you are different from before, your courage has become very small now, and when the man from Cambrai came to look for you, your face changed with fright. ”

"You are not allowed to say that," the priest paused and stared at the long-haired man with an ugly face, "of course it doesn't matter to you, even if you are found to have fled back to your master, but it is the most terrible punishment for me, if the Vatican knows that I am a believer in St. Gufra, they will burn me to death." ”

"So you want to get away with it now, don't you?" The long-haired man sneered, "When we came to you before, your reluctant appearance made people feel very uneasy." ”

"I didn't refuse to help you, did I, and I didn't betray you," the priest looked at the other man a little nervously, he knew very well that the man in front of him was ruthless, and if he suspected it, he would probably invite trouble, "I am your friend, and although I don't know why you had to kill that Gombray, I will still do it with you." ”

The long-haired man looked at the priest suspiciously, and then nodded slowly: "I hope so, I hope so, you have been in this poor country for too long, and if you want me to say that it is better to do something bigger with us, otherwise you may rot in this church." ”

The priest nodded absentmindedly, looking at the slightly gloomy face of the long-haired man, and he sighed in his heart.

"Ned, you should thank us, don't you," the man stared at the flickering fire in front of him, "think that if it wasn't for the adults who saved you, you would have been hanged a long time ago." ”

The priest nodded sullenly, he knew that he would probably not be able to get out of the hands of these people in front of him for the rest of his life, and what was worse was that he had the handle in the hands of these people, which gave him no chance to get out of it.

The candle in front of him suddenly burst into a big spark, and in an instant the flames flew high, and the long-haired man was startled, and his body couldn't help but lean back, and then he looked back at the priest with the same strange face in surprise.

Although all signs except for the various visions recognized as holy by the Holy See are not recognized, and may even be considered heretical, Europeans still retain certain pagan customs, and even some clergy take seriously customs with obvious pagan characteristics, such as the ladder just holding someone's shadow against it, and the possibility of ruining fortune if the jar of water is broken.

And the sudden sparks on the candle, which was obviously not a good sign, made the hearts of the two people in the room skip a beat.

"It's just a candle," the long-haired man muttered in a low voice, but he couldn't help but glance at the priest, and seeing that the priest's expression was wrong, he snorted softly, "Isn't it?" ”

"yes, just a candle." The priest answered, but his eyes remained fixed on the candlestick on the table.

A long wolf howl was heard in the distance in the night, followed by several responses of varying heights.

The long-haired man walked to the window and looked outside, but after a while, he didn't notice anything, but the wolf howls outside became more and more poignant, and the voices responded more and more.

"Are there always wolves in this place?" The long-haired man vaguely sensed that something was wrong and turned back to ask the priest.

"The wolves in the mountains come out to look for food when it's cold, and sometimes they even break into the town to eat livestock," the priest replied casually, but then frowned, "but listening to this cry, there are too many wolves today." ”

The long-haired man looked out and listened with his ears sideways.

Suddenly, his face moved, and he stared intently at the undulating wilderness in the distance.

Several figures kept shaking in the night, if you looked closely, they seemed to be running towards this side, and behind those figures, black shadows were chasing these people quickly against the ground.

Suddenly, a shadow jumped up from behind, and with a faint scream, a figure was instantly knocked down.

The man kept rolling on the ground and struggled to get up, but several large black shadows jumped up.

Tearing, dragging, and biting, for a while the black shadows on the snow kept rolling, and at the same time, a faint smell of blood drifted in with the cold wind.

The rest of the people were still running forward without a fat, and the wolves behind them caught up again, and in the moonlight, the long-haired man saw a familiar short figure.

"Damn it!" With a curse, he grabbed his sword from the table and rushed to the door, but the priest who was ahead of him held the door down.

"You're crazy, we're all going to die if you go out at this time!" The priest's face turned blue, and his eyes were full of horror: "The wolves that are hungry in winter are more terrible than anything else, we can't save them at all, those people outside are already dead!" ”

"Open the door, you bastard, you should have hanged you for breaking the rules in the first place."

The long-haired man roared angrily, and when he saw the look of horror in the priest's eyes, he snorted and turned to open the door.

But a sharp pain suddenly came from behind him, and he couldn't help but reach out and hold on to the doorknob to support his body, but when a sharp blade came out of his chest, looking at the blood splattered on the door in front of him, the long-haired man's body shook and threw forward, slowly sliding along the door panel to the ground.

"Idiot, you forced me." The priest gasped for breath, looking at the long-haired man who didn't seem to be dead yet, struggling with his hands and feet, he drew his sword, then raised it again, and stabbed it downward.

Inside, the long-haired man finally ran out of breath.

Outside, the wolf howled horribly all night.