What happened in the town of Tampla shook the entire diocese, as the territory of the Holy See, there would be a priest involved in the murder of a lord, which made the diocese unexpected and full of suspicions, I don't know how many people were alarmed, for a time the diocese was full of all kinds of speculation, and as the northern diocese of Rome directly under the Holy See, people immediately turned their attention to the diocesan priest.

As a substitute for the bishop, the diocesan priest is quite a remarkable person, because the bishop is old and has been sick, in fact, the affairs of the entire diocese have already been completely represented by the priest, and many people even know that the priest can take over as bishop only after the bishop is called.

The fact that Tempra had happened was surprising, and the next day the priest had arrived with someone in person, and it was the first time that such a big man had come to the town.

Almost the entire town ran out to greet the priest, but the priest was not concerned with the reverence of the parishioners, he was anxious to know what was going on, and he wanted to see the lord of Agri immediately.

The priest still knew a lot about what happened in Rome, and he knew that the Council of Order headed by Caesar Borgia was now in charge of Rome, and he also knew that this Gombray was not only a member of the Council of Order, but also a very important figure around Caesar.

As clergy, the priest was of course very interested in people related to the pope, not to mention the fact that it involved a murder and a priest.

There had never been a shortage of intrigue in the Church, and even more strange and cruel than some courts, so when the priest rushed to Tempra upon hearing the news, he was ready to face an angry lord and a whole host of things that he couldn't explain.

However, he did not expect that when he came to Tempura, the reply he received was the unexpected news that "the lord had left in the morning".

Alexander couldn't have stayed in Tampula all the time, in fact he had been delayed for too long, in fact, if you look closely, you will find that after he left Rome, because of the trouble all the way, he actually didn't go far at all, and even if the road was clear, he would have not only arrived at the coal mine of Sanroni at this time, but even if everything went well, he had already started to go back.

So Alexander decided to simply leave the previously wounded soldiers to recuperate while continuing to supervise the repair of the bridge, while he himself continued to advance towards Sanroni with the rest of his army.

However, he still left the priest with a lot of problems, and when he searched carefully, people were surprised to find a well-hidden secret room in the priest's room, and when they entered this strange secret room and looked at the inverted cross enshrined in it, which was bound with a chain, the priest let out a cry of horror and surprise!

At this time, Alexander was already far away from Tempura.

Sanroni Peak is located on a branch of the Apennine Mountains, and the whole peak is high in the south and low in the north, which is somewhat different from the trend of other peaks, so from a distance it looks like a huge wave going up the current suddenly cutting the calm water flow, but it is very imposing.

As one of Europe's earliest coal mines, the coking mines of Sanroni have a remarkable place in Italy, and many even regard it as the heavenly fire stolen by Prometheus, these magical stones that could burn made Milan's armor stronger, allowing the Venetians to build more iron nails for their warships, and giving people elsewhere the opportunity to use the heat generated by the stone to quickly dissolve bronze and then forge more brilliant art treasures.

Without even having to go to the bottom of the Sandroni Peak, Alexander could already see people staggering down the mountain with baskets of different sizes on their backs.

The baskets of these men were more or less filled with loose pieces of coking coal, and when they saw Alexander's team, they all immediately became nervous, some could barely pretend to be calm, while others simply threw away the basket and turned away.

This immediately attracted attention, and the Bohemians quickly rushed towards those who were panicked and wanted to flee, but after a few whistles, those who were about to flee were stopped by the Bohemians, and at the sight of the cavalry on their tall horses circling them, they immediately gathered together in fright, and their eyes showed a look of fear.

"What happened," Alexander slowly led his horse forward, motioning for the Bohemians to get out of the way, and then slowly passed by them, "who are you and why are you running away?" ”

No one answered, and all looked at him with fear, and as soon as he passed, the men bowed their heads, as if afraid that they would be found.

Alexander was caught by a short-looking man with a large basket around him that didn't seem to match his thin body.

Alexander drove up to the man, stooped slightly, and gently lifted the coarse cloth hood on his head with the whip in his hand.

An exclamation rang out, and the man looked up in fear, revealing the face of an unexpected woman.

"A woman," the group seemed surprised that there would be a woman among their companions, and they glared at the woman angrily, and some of them kept shouting, "no wonder she is always alone, never with us, how can there be a woman, this must be the bad luck she brings." ”

This elicited the approval of the others, and everyone glared at the woman, as if they had been arrested solely because of her.

"Shut up, you stupid pigs!"

Carlo cursed loudly, both of Carlo and his Agri soldiers had changed a lot since he hanged the village chief in Tempora's village.

Unconsciously, they no longer see themselves as ordinary people like those rural people, and they begin to look at those who were like them before with the eyes of a dominator.

Alexander put down his horsewhip, looked at the men, and said, "Tell me who you are and why you are running away, or I will have my men arrest you." ”

"Your Excellency!" The recognized woman screamed in horror as she stepped forward and tried to grab the reins of Alexander's mount, only to be pushed to the ground by the guards next to her.

Alexander motioned to stop the guards, looked at the woman who had risen from the ground and was about to pounce forward, and waved his hand at her: "Just tell me what you have to say." ”

"My lord, please don't arrest us, we just picked up some unwanted gravel from the mine, we didn't steal," the woman cried out uneasily, and finally knelt on the ground, "I beg mercy, my lord, I don't want to be driven to work in the mine, I still have children at home!" ”

"Then you came from the mines," Alexander said, getting off his horse, taking out a piece of coking coal from a basket and smashing it a stone, which was instantly shattered, and some of the pieces had glittering crystals in them. ”

"My lord, it looks like they were stolen from the coal mines."

Several soldiers gathered together the scattered baskets that had been thrown away by those men, and for a moment they all looked at Alexander with terrified eyes.

"How far is it from here to the coal mine?" Alexander wiped the coal stains off his hands and asked casually.

"It's not too far, just past the hillside ahead," the woman replied nervously, and then asked with a little hesitation, "Aren't you Lord Colombo's men?" ”

"Colombo, who is he, the owner of the coal mine?"

"You really aren't?" The look on the woman's face relaxed slightly, she tried to take a step forward, and seeing that Alexander was not hindered, she took another step forward and whispered, "My lord, please let us go, if Lord Colombo finds us, he will definitely arrest all of us to work in the mines, if then we will have no way to live." ”

"You haven't told me who that Colombo is," Alexander continued, "is he the owner of this coal mine?" ”

"We don't know, but Lord Colombo is the big man here, and he is in charge of the whole coal mine, and he is in charge of the quarry over there." The woman said and pointed in one direction on the mountain.

"It seems that this Colombo is a powerful man." Alexander smiled.

"I heard that Lord Colombo is a nobleman of Milan," the woman whispered, looking at Alexander, and then she continued, "My lord, don't you know Lord Colombo, then please let me go, I just want to change something to eat for the children of the family, it is too cold this year, and my husband is sick again." ”

Alexander walked slowly past the men, looking at the crushed coals in the baskets thrown on the ground, and he took out another piece from one basket.

It felt a little heavy in the hand, and looking at the jet-black stone without luster, Alexander casually threw it on the ground.

Most of the crushed coal in these baskets was uncombustible coal, but the woman's basket was not very good, although it was not very good.

"You're clever enough to pick out the best things," said Alexander, looking at the woman, and seeing her look of alarm, he asked, "Tell me where you 'picked up' the coals." ”

Alexander deliberately accentuated his tone, and when he saw the woman's face pale and look at his companion on the side, he beckoned slightly to the guards to take the woman aside.

The woman stood in front of Alexander with a disturbed expression, her eyes fixed on the basket of crushed coal at his feet.

"You must have found these coals yourself, didn't you," saw the woman's expression change when she heard this, and Alexander continued without waiting for her to speak, "You know better than anyone else what kind of coal to find, light weight, and it looks like a large pile of pieces stuck together, some of which are shiny. But there are certainly not many such good coals, and you must not want others to know, so you are looking for these coals by yourself, right? ”

Alexander's words made the woman's face uneasy, and she opened her mouth to say something, but she could only swallow because of nervousness.

"Tell me who told you this, and don't say you already knew, no woman would know about it."

Alexander's tone became stern, and he stared into the woman's eyes, which made the woman even more nervous and frightened.

"Yes, it's my husband," the woman looked at Alexander with horror on her face, "My husband is a worker in the coal mine, and he was kicked out because of his injuries, and there is really no way for the family to do it, so I thought about picking up some broken coal and selling it for money." ”

"It's stealing," Alexander smiled, "As far as I know, Sanroni is a territory belonging to the Holy See, and everything here belongs to the Church, so your actions are stealing, and according to the law you are punishable." ”

A look of horror appeared on the woman's face, despair and fear turning her already pale face blue.

Alexander knew why this woman was so frightened.

In this day and age, stealing is punishable by a very cruel punishment!

Cutting off a finger, or even an entire palm, is a common thing, and this harsh punishment can be pervasive even for even the slightest mistake.

The woman was clearly frightened by the thought of those terrible punishments, and it was this fear that Alexander needed.

Along the way, Alexander found that although this winter was unusually cold, except for some places near Rome where it snowed heavily, the rest of the country did not suffer much snow, and even when they came to the vicinity of Sandro Peak, they found that there was almost no snow here.

If Rome was closed down because of heavy snowfall, it did not suffer from such difficulties.

Alexander couldn't help but think of the famous saying: All roads lead to Rome.

Even if the road was blocked for a while, it would not be difficult to open the other roads to Rome, unless the people here did not intend to do so.

Perhaps, there is more to what is happening here than just a heavy snow closure.

Alexander, who had already thought of this, naturally wondered what was going on in the mines of Sanroni.

The presence of this woman had helped him a lot, and he thought that her husband had worked in the mines of Sanroni before, and he felt that this was a rare opportunity.

Now that I think about it, there really is a reason why Caesar was so desperate to open the road blocked by heavy snow.

Alexander thought to himself, and couldn't help but look up at the mountain.

At this moment, the sentry's characteristic birdsong suddenly came from the front.

The peak is not very high, and there is a very undulating hill lying in the middle of the mountain from the foot of the mountain, so although it does not look far, it takes a long time to walk.

In the distance, in a low depression, a cloud of smoke was rising, and as it appeared and disappeared among the uneven hills, a troop of cavalry could be seen speeding in their direction.

The coal thieves immediately looked frightened, and they tried to flee in all directions in a panic, but were stopped by the surrounding Bohemians, and for a moment fear and anxiety enveloped them.

"Let them go," Alexander ordered, looking at the approaching procession in the distance, "but this woman is to stay." ”

Hearing Alexander's words, the woman's face turned pale for a moment.