Don Bavi had himself pushed himself down a slightly rugged path, and although the castle walls were thick and there was a Guadawicki River outside, he could still faintly hear the hustle and bustle of people in Seville on the other side of the river.

The city of Seville was divided in two by the Guadaville River, and the castle of the Grand Knight, which was used as a defense of the city, stood proudly on the east bank of the river, and Don Bavi vaguely remembered the excitement and pride he felt when he sent people to quietly occupy the castle and overlook the city of Seville on the opposite bank from the city walls.

His men then took over the city.

At that time, it was probably the proudest time of his life.

But now he still walked in the castle, but his mood was completely different.

Although the city of Seville was still under his control, the faintly audible rumbling of artillery outside the city seemed to remind him that he was in a bad situation.

He had been advised more than once whether he should leave Seville temporarily, and although all the nominal reasons were high-sounding, it was impossible to hide the fact that he had fled in defeat.

Don Bavi coughed for a while, and the people behind him slowed down and tried to stop, but he waved his hand to stop him: "Keep walking." ”

Listening to Don Bavi's vague orders, the attendant had no choice but to push the wheelchair and continue to walk upwards with difficulty.

The path was a bit rough and steep, but fortunately the road was flat rather than the steps, and with great difficulty, the wheelchair was finally pushed to a fairly smooth platform, and the attendant hurriedly wiped the sweat from his head, and then began to pack the clothes for the duke.

Tang Bawei let his entourage fiddle with it, his eyes fixed on the door of a house on one side of the mesa until it was completely cleaned up before motioning for his entourage to knock.

The people of the house obviously knew that he was coming, so they knocked on the door and opened it at once, and two noblewomen, who looked at ease, came out and stood on either side of the door, and they saluted Don Bavi slightly, and then invited him into the house without asking.

Sister Alfurt stood in the open space in the middle of the house, her hands clutching the hem of her skirt, looking a little nervous, and she bowed slightly when she saw Don Bavi enter.

"No, Your Highness, it is I who should salute, so that at least I can still feel like a Castilian nobleman, and not a traitor as they say." Don Bavi's tone was slurred, and although he had only said these few words, his breathing was already a little rapid, and the attendant next to him immediately gently tapped his back, and at the same time expertly handed the water bladder he was carrying to his mouth.

"You've seen that I'm not in good health right now, which is not good news for all of us, and now the coalition forces can hold on because I can still command them even if I am in a wheelchair, but if I fall, everything will not exist."

Although Don Bavi was a little pessimistic, there was still a kind of pride in his words, he actually looked down on the Andalusian nobles who were allied with him, in his eyes these people were a rabble, whether on the battlefield or in the court, they did not play a role at all.

"What do you want me to do?" Sister Alfurt was still a little nervous, and although she had been with Don Bavi for a while, she couldn't convince herself to relax, and every time she thought that her whole life had been spent in this person's planning, and even that the long 19 years she had spent in the convent were caused by this person's plan, Alfurt's mood was full of mixed confusion.

Don Bavi carefully examined the exotic beauty in front of him with slightly cloudy eyes, and if you only look at it from the perspective of admiring a pure woman, Alfurt in front of her is even more peculiar than her twin sister Maria, her typical European chiseled appearance is matched with dark brown skin as smooth as coffee, and the beauty of the mixture of two completely different is really impressive.

If you think about her peculiar background, it gives the thrilling beauty of a dark queen wearing a crown ready to take revenge on her blood relatives, which could be a great drama, even in the works of the immortal tragedies of ancient Greece.

Don Bavi thought as he pushed himself towards Alfurt, stopping until the maid beside her reminded him that he was a little too close to the princess.

Don Bavi looked up at the dark-skinned girl in front of him, he was going to marry this girl, and he didn't think about whether they could have a child at this time.

Now the situation of the Andalusian coalition army is very bad, Gonzalo's non-stop attack has given them no respite, and the coalition army that has been defeated several times in a row has developed a sense of fear in the face of Gonzalo's army, especially in Córdoba, which has made the last trace of courage in many people's hearts have been lost.

The morale of the army, which had been raised by Alft's appearance, had now fallen to the valley, and many people, whether they were nobles, knights, or ordinary soldiers, were now thinking about their own way out.

The reason why he didn't immediately decide to marry Alft when he brought Alft back to Seville was because Don Bavi considered that she was needed first to stir up the morale of the army.

A pure, solitary princess who lived in seclusion in a monastery for 19 years, even if her complexion is so special, but this involuntarily gives people a peculiar charm.

Don Bavi was clearly very good at exploiting the intense curiosity about mysteries and curiosity in the human heart, and his plan was successful, and if it weren't for Gonzalo's madness on the battlefield and sabotaging his arrangements again and again, Alfurt would have been much more useful than he was now.

Don Bavi did not know that if Alexander were here, he would have advised him to abandon the unpromising profession of rebellion and become a playwright, perhaps he would have been inspired to write the famous tragic masterpiece "Othello" a century earlier.

However, it seemed to be a little late now, and although Gonzalo's main force had not yet crossed the Guadaville River, his left army had cut off Seville from the upper reaches, and it was already too late for them to make their way along the river to the ports of the Atlantic.

There was much debate among the coalition as to whether or not to hold Seville, with the exception of a few stubborn nobles, who believed that Seville should be abandoned if the situation was bad, and they cited the example of more castles and forts left by the Moors in the south to defend it, and even to enter the mountains of Mount Muracen if necessary to continue the long-term struggle.

But Don Bavi knew that these were just excuses, and what was the use of the castle fortresses that had been abandoned for many years if even the city of Seville and the positions with the Guadaville River as a natural line of defense could not be defended.

As for entering the mountains of Muracen to continue the resistance, he doubted that the nobles would be able to endure the hardship, and perhaps at that time, those people would think that his head was probably the best bargaining chip with Gonzalo.

By this time, Don Bavi already knew that the defeat of the coalition should be a foregone conclusion, and he didn't know exactly what the others had plans for, but he knew that there must have been someone secretly colluding with Gonzalo, which was not surprising, and he would do the same.

So Don Bavi decided to marry Alfurt.

Even if he fails in the end, he will leave his own mark on the blood heirs of the Astamara family, which is of course his obsession with power, but also revenge on Isabella.

"We'll be married in 2 days, don't you want to say something, Your Highness?" Don Bavi looked at Alfurt, he wondered what the young woman was thinking now, and he thought it would be very interesting to know whatever it was.

"It's my honor to be your wife," Alft whispered, she first looked at the female companion next to her, and after seeing their hints, she untied a small handkerchief from her head and handed it to Don and Bavi, seeing him raise his arm with some difficulty, Alft Xiu bent down slightly and stretched out his hands for him to hold, "For me, you have always taken care of me like a father and a husband, and now you can be my true husband, this is a gift from God to me." ”

Don Bavi's thin face showed a satisfied smile, and he moved his lips, and the two lips, which were unusually deflated because they were toothless, rolled and spat out an "oh" sound.

Alfurt stood in front of Don Bavi and watched him quietly, her years of life in the convent had made her more adaptable and tolerant of loneliness than anyone else.

She could have spoken a word all day without feeling lonely, and she had developed an endurance for suffering, which seemed to her the Andalusian nobles to probably never understand how she could wear such rough linen robes without the slightest discomfort, and the ladies certainly did not understand whether daily prayers were more important than precious stones and splendid silks.

But Don Bavi was happy with her performance, and she could see that.

He enjoyed the feeling of being able to decide everything for her, or rather to keep her firmly in his own hands.

Alft knew very well that her fate was decided by the old man, and that he would soon become her husband.

"We have to get ready, the wedding is very grand, and although I don't think your father will bless us, I have sent a letter to Ferdinand to invite him to our wedding."

It was only when he heard this that Alfurt's face, which had always been indifferent, fluctuated slightly.

She seemed to be a little confused at first, and then remembered that Don Bavi said that her father and Ferdinand were actually the same person.

"Oh," Alfurt replied briefly, and then she looked at Don Bavi as if she didn't know what to say next, as if waiting for him to continue.

"That's it." Don Bavi waved his hand to his retinue and asked him to push him away.

But as he was about to leave the house, he motioned for his wheelchair to stop, and with some difficulty turned back to Alfurt and said, "Your wedding dress is beautiful, I think you must have been beautiful that day." ”

Looking at the closed door, Alft was a little dazed, she ignored the two ladies next to her who continued to talk about what to do at the wedding, but looked at the door silently.

Don Bavi had him pushed out of the Grand Knight's Castle and into the carriage, which stopped as it crossed the bridge across the Guadaville River.

Throwing his eyes through the car window and looking at the river with a much rarer number of boats coming and going, Don Bavi's already gray brow moved slowly.

He took out a handkerchief with some difficulty, looked at it first, hesitated slightly, wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth, and when he wanted to put the handkerchief away, his hand shook and fell on the floor of the car.

Don Bavi looked at the handkerchief on the ground with a sigh of fascination, and when the attendant bent down to help him pick it up and handed it to him, he grabbed the attendant's hand.

His strength was not great, but it hurt to pick at his fingernails on his arms.

Don Bavi stared at his entourage, his eyes like owls searching for prey in the night, and even though he was now old, it still made his followers nervous.

"Sir...... Am I doing something wrong? The attendant asked uneasily.

He was a close associate of Don Bavi, and for many years he could be said to have been loyal, but the more he did so, the more he became aware of the old man's ruthlessness.

"You have done a good job Mandoza, there is no more faithful retinue than you, and for this you should go to heaven when you die," Don Bavi said very seriously, and then he stretched out his other free hand tremblingly, and gently stroked the face of the retinue, "You have been with me for many years, and I feel that you should be rewarded a little." ”

"Sir, you have given me a lot of rewards." The retinue meant it, and though Don Bavi may have become more difficult to serve than he had ever been because of his age, he was indeed a generous master, and he was never stingy in rewarding his men, and he was generous to his servants.

"That's not enough, I think you deserve more."

Don Bavi slowly let go of his hand, his eyes flickering, as if pondering some difficult determination, and after a while he waved his hand lightly, and let his attendant beckon the driver on.

"There's a lot less boats on the Guadaville now, aren't they?" Don Bavi was already looking at the boats on the river, and his expression was even more gloomy.

"Yes, sir, it is said that even the exchange has become very depressed." The attendant replied cautiously, he knew that the master would definitely not be happy to say this, but he still told the truth.

"People are scared," Don Bavi said to himself, as if to ask his retinue, "Gonzalo is coming soon, and we all know that no one is his opponent." ”

This time, the retinue did not speak, but listened silently.

"Soon," Don Bavi muttered to himself, then glanced at his entourage, "but maybe I still have a chance to ......"

The people of Seville were indeed panicking, especially the Andalusian nobles who had participated in the rebellion, and not only had their ambitions to confront the king long gone, but even whether they could keep their territory was no longer their primary concern.

Isabella is indeed a wise queen, but she also has the decisiveness and cruelty that all wise monarchs do not lack.

She would not have any mercy towards the rebels, and her husband Ferdinand was in no way inferior to Isabella in this regard.

The terrible fate of the defeat was conceivable, and no one doubted Ferdinand's cruelty, and Gonzalo probably didn't have any conscience to cut off his head.

The coalition of Andalusian nobles, which had begun to have their own intentions for fear of falling apart, was already on the verge of falling apart after the fall of Córdoba, and the only reason that had not yet completely divided them was the rumors that seemed to come from the north that the Portuguese and the French were at war with Castile.

This became the last straw for the Andalusian aristocracy, who sent people to the north more than once to inquire about the news, and some simply offered to get in touch with the Portuguese as soon as possible.

However, this was not so easy, as Gonzalo's attacks became more and more intense, and the emissaries sent to Portugal were not heard from, which caused the Andalusian nobles to despair.

When Tang Bawi returned to the governor's palace, he happened to see several nobles leaving in a hurry, and these people immediately looked a little hurried and uneasy when they saw Don Bawi, and after almost hurriedly saluting, they hurriedly withdrew.

"These people probably won't come back," Don Bavi said to his wheelchair-bound attendant, "they look so panicked, obviously afraid of what I'm asking, these people, they think I'm old, but in fact I know better than any of them how bad things are now......

As he spoke, Don Bavi's voice fell until he couldn't hear it at all, and his body shook as if it were about to slip.

The attendant immediately took out the bottle of black medicinal wine from the cloth pocket on the first floor of the wheelchair, skillfully uncorked it and poured it into Don Bavi's mouth, so that after a while, Tang Bavi woke up as if he had suddenly woken up.

"I'm going to fall asleep again, am I?"

"Just for a moment," the attendant named Mandoza shrugged and shook the bottle at Don Bavi, "but you don't have much medicine, sir, but it's a bit dangerous to go back to the territory to get it now." ”

"As long as someone wants to make money, there is still a way." Don Bavi muttered under his breath, closing his eyes as if preoccupied, and letting his attendant push him slowly down the hallway.

In the chamber of the Doge's Palace, a group of nobles waited anxiously for Don Bavi, and some of them looked relieved when they saw him appear.

Seeing this scene, Don Bavi snorted secretly, he knew that these people did not have confidence because they saw him, but simply felt that as long as he was there, even if the army was defeated, there was a scapegoat, at least until his head was cut off, they were safe.

And the sudden gathering of these people made Don Bavi realize that something big might have happened, and that just a change is often not a good thing now.

Sure enough, these people brought him very unexpected news.

The defenders of Bingolola in the lower reaches of the Guadaville River surrendered to the king's army the night before.

Bingolola was the confluence of the Guadaville River with the Covones River, which led to the southern port city of Malaga, and the loss of Bingolola meant that the coalition army's plan to retreat south by water was no longer realized.

Although he was ready to hear the bad news, Don Bavi was stunned for a while before finally accepting the fact.

"So we have no way out?" Don Bavi looked at the nobles in front of him, "I think that's why I saw those people leave in a hurry before, so now everyone knows about it?" ”

"It's too bad that the person who sent the news didn't keep his mouth shut," Don Bavi explained helplessly as a small nobleman in front of him, but his twinkling eyes betrayed his mind, "Maybe we should consider giving up Seville now, we still control a lot of land in the south and south, and even have access to the mountains of Mulacen, so we don't need to defend Seville." ”

Although he felt weak, Don Bavi tried to sit up straight, he knew that he must not back down at this time, in Seville he was still the supreme commander of the coalition forces, but once he left the city, his position was in jeopardy, and then perhaps what awaited him was betrayal, or even murder.

"I will not leave Seville, and I have one thing to announce to you," Don Bavi took out the slightly stained handkerchief from his pocket with a slightly trembling hand and shook it casually at them, "I have agreed with Princess Alfurt that our wedding will take place in the Cathedral of Seville in two days." ”

"What?!"

People looked at Don Bavi in amazement, and some couldn't help but whisper.

By this time, the aristocratic coalition had already known that the Alfurt princess had no effect on them, but it was precisely because of that woman that they not only lost the opportunity to negotiate with Ferdinand, but also deeply irritated Ferdinand, so much so that he decided to deal a severe blow to the coalition army.

Otherwise, with Ferdinand's suspicion of Gonzalo, it would have been impossible for him to return to military power unless absolutely necessary.

But now Don Bavi was going to marry the princess at this time, which made the nobles suddenly think that he was playing a joke on the fate of everyone.

They began to vehemently oppose the marriage, and some even threatened that if Don Bavi insisted on going his way, they would go to Gonzalo alone to negotiate.

"You guys are a greedy and shameless bunch."

Don Bavi whispered to himself in a voice that only he could hear, he was not swayed by the threat of these men, but on the contrary, he felt that his decision might be the source of turmoil for the Astamara family in the face of an already doomed endgame.

Even though he probably didn't see such turmoil, he believed that by marrying that woman, he could sell a seed of revenge for the future.

The aristocrats were still noisy around Don Bavi, so they didn't see a single retinue hurrying into the conference room.

"Grown-ups!" Finally, the attendant had the courage to shout loudly after carefully reminding him a few times, and when he saw the old man looking at him when he heard the voice, the attendant licked his lips nervously and said loudly, "The report has just come from Malaga that the army of the Queen of Sicily has landed in Málaga!" ”