The most important place in Taranto is not the Palmetto Palace, but the Aragonese Castle, which is close to the corner of the city and deep into the bay.

The castle, which was built by the French in its early years and was eventually completed after the reign of the Aragonese royal family in Naples, was built on a rather steep hill with no other road to go up than a narrow stone walkway.

And because the hill juts out from the shore, it is impossible to even walk to the foot of the hill at high tide unless you are driving a boat, except for the boardwalk above the water.

Such a castle could have been tasked with protecting its owner, and at one time the Taranto people relied on the strong walls of the Aragonese castle and the sharp weapons on its walls to fend off invading enemies.

After the defeat in the naval battle, Count Horsen regarded the castle as an important bulwark against the Ottoman invasion in the future, and after becoming a count, he simply ordered the rebuilding and reinforcement of the castle of Aragon, as if it had become the forefront of Taranto's resistance to the invasion.

The banquet was held in the hall of the Aragonese Castle, and when you walked along the stone plank path to the castle gate, you could only see the terraced courtyard built along the mountain, because of the hill, not only could you not walk in a carriage in the castle, but you could not even ride a horse, so in order to enter the hall, you need to follow the rugged and winding road up the hundreds of steps.

When she got on and off the car on the flat ground inside the castle gate, she happened to see several gorgeously dressed figures disappearing at the end of a staired mountain road, which made her believe the Count's previous words, and the Count of Hossen obviously attached great importance to this banquet, and invited many nobles from Taranto City, and of course merchants.

In the eyes of the Taranto people, making money is often the most important thing, they can sit down with anyone to talk about business, as long as it makes them profitable, they don't mind whether you believe in God or Allah, which god you say anywhere else.

It was precisely because this idea was too strong that when they received Alexander's suggestion, Taranto's chamber of commerce first rejected his suggestion because they found it difficult to accept, and even forcefully demanded that Count Horsen drive away all the merchants that Alexander had sent to Taranto to dig up the wall, and then they wavered because they felt that it was profitable, and if it weren't for the fear that they might lose their money in the future because the treaty might be abolished, those Taranto merchants would have been desperate to hang with the gang in the port." The "Office of Free Trade" brand guy hooked up.

Accompanied by a few retinues, she walked up the steps, and the castle of Aragon had no inhabitants, except for some officials and the army, only servants who served the castle, which made the castle seem somewhat deserted.

The halls of the Aragonese Castle have a somewhat oriental color, and the same narrow and unusually tall arches set off the solemnity of the hall, but this is not necessarily the case with the people inside.

The long tables that stretch out on either side of the center line are filled with a variety of mouth-watering foods, the aromatic beef broth always catches the eye, and the dumplings are packed with various fruits like a hill on the plate.

As she walked through the door, she noticed the commotion that had fallen slightly silent in the hall, and all eyes were on her, countless pairs of eyes searching her face, as if they were vying to find something worth exploiting from her looks.

As she walked along the passage vacated by the midline, everyone bowed slightly to her in respect, but she knew that these people were just like the terrible sharks she had ever seen, and that they might pounce on her at the slightest chance to bite into the flesh.

The Earl had completely escaped the accident that she had taken him by surprise not long ago, and with a smile on his face with a neat gray beard, he not only stood up and nodded slightly when he saw him, but also took the initiative to pull the seat next to her.

The Count's action caused a stir of sideways attention from the people in the vicinity, and for a time the rumor that Count Horseen might marry Miss Cosenza became a topic of private discussion again.

"Your banquet is extravagant." Dusty said politely and slightly distantly that she could not have been unaware of the rumors between her and the Earl, and that in addition to Elliott having called her stepmother, George Anne had vaguely revealed the marriage to her before, and her tone at that time was completely settled.

"It's great to have your compliment, speaking of which, we can't compare with Naples here, not to mention that the king's banquet is the banquet of the Count of Mordillo's house, which is enough to make us all envious." Count Howzen seemed to be pleased, and he raised his glass to the guests around him, and the people raised their glasses and cheered to Josha, "Look, everyone welcomes you." ”

At the Earl's compliments, Zhisa smiled noncommittally, and after the Count left, she took out some of the documents that Alexander had left for her before leaving, which she needed to do, and now looking at the Taranto people in the hall, Zhisa slowly stood up.

The hall was silent, and everyone looked at the girl with interest.

She was just seventeen years old, but she was already the Count of Cosenza, such an identity was enough to attract a lot of attention, and the process of her becoming an Earl attracted a lot of attention.

A person who had deposed her rightful heir and gained status was the center of all kinds of gossip, and if she were a young and beautiful woman, there would be so many rumors and conjectures about her that they would go all the way to the Mediterranean.

"Taranto, I know that my presence has made many of you happy, but there are certainly those who do not want to see me, because I will not do you any good, and may make your life worse," as soon as Kosha spoke, a group of Taranto people who had expected to hear a familiar cliché were stunned, and a burst of uneasy whispers spread through the crowd, and people looked at them in amazement, who was surprised by them, and Kosha had already continued" I would like to say that I have brought good plans and ententions, and I would like to tell you that the business with Rome and Genoa will benefit all who are involved, and that there is enough wealth in them to give them opportunities even to all those here, and I would also like to tell you that since the Venetian navy is preparing to establish a reliable supply line along the Mediterranean, there is a sufficient opportunity for all of us, but these are not the most important things, for you can see these things, And you're smart enough not to be easily impressed by me. As she spoke, she turned her head slightly to look at Massimo standing behind her, and after Massimo handed her a small cloth bag, Asha slowly opened the bag under everyone's curious gaze and poured the contents onto the table in front of her.

In addition to those who were closer, those who were a little farther away became curious because they couldn't see what was on the table, and some couldn't help but stand up, and some even leaned out from the table to see what was on the table.

Jisha picked up the scattered object from the table and held it up with her fingers.

It's just a normal Florin and Ducat, respectively.

Just when the people were a little disappointed, Ruo Xiao continued: "This is a Florin, a Ducat, and the only guarantee I bring to you, and the rest is my plan. ”

"Miss, it is impossible for one Florin and Ducat to buy all the Taranto people, in fact, you can't buy one person here even if you prepare ten thousand each." A man in a black robe, who looked as fat as a moving wall, struggled to stand up, and as soon as he spoke, the people around him who were whispering fell silent, and then looked at him with expectant eyes, "I want to say that Miss Count, you may be very smart, but you are not a merchant, in fact, many nobles here are not merchants, so although they like wealth, they don't know how to get rich, so they need us." ”

The man's words immediately resonated, and some of the people around him had begun to shout at him, and some even slapped the table.

"That guy seems to be a member of the Taranto Chamber of Commerce," Massimo said with some uncertainty, "I think he should have the last name......

"Alvanliot," Masha had already named the man for him, "a Jew." ”

"Yes, a Jew," said Massimo in a tone of disgust, and then continued to flatter, "you have such a good memory, Mademoiselle Countess, that you can even remember such a person's name." ”

Ignoring the sycophant monk, she looked at the chubby Jew, and she knew that this man was because the guys from the "Free Trade Office" had said a lot about this man in their letters to her, and it could be said that this man was the leader of the most vehemently opposition to joining the free trade zone in all of Tarrant.

And it was clear to him that the main reason for this man's strong opposition was that he controlled almost all of Taranto's largest share of the business—iron ingots and fine timber.

In order to build a fleet strong enough to cope with the future Ottoman invasion, Count Hosen tried his best to raise all kinds of supplies, although the Venetian fleet was strong enough, but the count still believed that only his own ships were more reliable, so in addition to trying his best to raise funds, he tried his best to buy enough fine iron and high-quality oak from all over the world, and these are the essential materials for making war ships.

Alvaniot was the one who did it for Hawson.

The Jew's vast contacts and connections allowed him to get as many goods as the Earl was satisfied, and although his prices were often so high that Horsen felt like he was being blackmailed, his persistent desire to build a fleet of his own made him have to accept the Jew's ridiculously high asking price again and again.

Because of this, Alvanliot not only made a lot of money with Horsen, but also used his relationship with the Count to establish a considerable influence in Taranto.

In Alvanlott's eyes, Taranto was his territory, and in a time when Jews would be discriminated against and ostracized anywhere else, he unexpectedly became a prominent figure in the city, all because of Horsen's dependence on him, which made Alvanliot sensitive to any possible challenge and opponent who would shake his position, and when the Neapolitans had just built that "office" in Taranto, Alvanliot was keenly aware of these people's bad intentions. Especially as these men began to stir up a stir among Taranto's guilds and merchants with one tempting plan after another, Alvaniot sensed that an outside force was trying to invade Taranto, or rather, his territory.

"Miss Count, while I respect your status, could you please tell us what your plans can bring us all?" Alvaniot walked to the middle of the hall and stretched out his arms and said to the people around him, "You said that by joining this trade zone, which is called this name, we can get enough benefits, and our goods will not be subject to high ship taxes and many other taxes, so that we can get more profits than before at even cheaper prices, right?" "The Jews look at Shosha," which sounds very good, but you have deliberately failed to tell, or try to make us ignore, another thing, which is that while we are making money, merchants from other places can make us as much or even more money, and the result is that when we return home with dozens of florins with more than before, we find that many of our friends and relatives have gone bankrupt in Taranto, because their goods cannot be sold by those foreign merchantsAnd the truth is, how many of them are making other people's money as you say? ”

Alvaniot's words caused a commotion, and many people exclaimed, they knew that Alvaniot's words were not wrong, in fact, as he said, the merchants who could transport goods to other places to make money were a minority after all, and most people still had to continue their lives in Taranto.

Although almost all of the people who could attend the banquet in this hall belonged to some of the few people, Alvaniot reminded them of another thing, and that was that Taranto was not a place with abundant resources after all.

It cannot be compared with Venice and Genoa, the old rivals of maritime trade for more than a decade, nor with Rome, with its great wealth, or even with the Lombardy region, which is not close to the coast but is known for its richness.

In fact, Taranto was a fortress, a military fortress that held the Tirenian Sea.

Count Hornen's eyes changed slightly, and he tilted his head to look at the Earl, who was standing beside him, and at this time the Count was already considering whether to open his mouth to find a step down for the young Countess, so that he might win the unexpected favor of this beautiful girl.

Just as Count Hornen was about to open his mouth to speak, Josha, who had been quietly listening to Alvaniot speak in a provocative tone, finally spoke: "You are right, this is the danger you are going to face, and you haven't even seen it more clearly, and I can tell you what you really are facing now." ”

As she spoke, she threw the two gold coins in her hand forward.

The coin fell to the ground and rolled forward until it rolled in front of Alvaniot and hit the tip of his shoe, then it swirled and slowly stopped.

Alvaniot looked down at the shiny gold coin on the ground in front of him, and when he raised his head to meet the gaze of Josha, he saw a cold look in Jesha's eyes.

"Now let me tell you what will happen."

Ji Sha's indifferent voice made the hearts of the people in the hall suddenly tighten.