While Maximian was struggling with the difficult choice of whether to go east or west, his in-laws Ferdinand were also facing a troubled choice in Iberia.

Sevilla's defeat was something Ferdinand did not expect.

Although he hated Gonzalo, Ferdinand never denied his military talents, on the contrary, Ferdinand always considered Gonzalo to be the greatest general he had ever met, if not one of them.

But such a general, whom he had high hopes for, suffered a heavy defeat in Seville.

Hearing this, Ferdinand was skeptical at first.

He did not doubt the truth of the story, but suspected that Gonzalo was secretly complicit in the play with his enemies.

However, as more and more information about the Battle of Seville returned to Vallaredot, Ferdinand had to come to terms with the fact that Gonzalo had indeed been defeated by the siblings.

But this made Ferdinand angry and furious.

He began by cursing Gonzalo's incompetence in private in front of a few of his cronies, but at last he could not hold back his anger and publicly expressed his disappointment at the defeat at the Battle of Seville at a court gathering, even sternly stating that he was "very skeptical that some of the generals were capable of taking on the task."

Such words surprised those present at the time, and people did not expect Ferdinand to express his doubts about Gonzalo so directly, which made many people secretly wonder what the king meant by saying this.

Ferdinand was furious, but he certainly hadn't lost his mind, so he wrote a personal letter as soon as he had published his dissatisfaction with Gonzalo.

In the letter, he still complained, but between the lines, it revealed that he still trusted and relied on the other party.

Ferdinand knew very well that Gonzalo had never regarded him as his own monarch, and although he was annoyed, he could not do anything about it.

For him, it would be a blessing for Gonzalo to remain honestly loyal to the Castilian royal family, and he still used this man, so no matter how arrogant and rude Ferdinand was, he could only try to be patient.

The priority now is how to deal with the hateful brother and sister.

Ferdinand now felt a real threat.

After the Battle of Seville, most of Andalusia, south of Castile, had fallen to the siblings.

Unlike Don Bavi's rebellion, which he never saw as an opponent, the siblings were now a major problem for Ferdinand.

He now found that he had underestimated the shameless brother and sister before.

The elder brother covets his daughter's throne, while the younger sister has her eyes on his crown.

In the eyes of others, this is nothing more than an infighting between two astamara and another astamara.

Some people have even privately called this war "the second war for power".

This was of course unacceptable to Ferdinand, who forbade the use of such confusing expressions and ordered severe punishment for those with ulterior motives who tried to legitimize a nonsensical invasion.

Even so, Ferdinand could sense that something was going on in the atmosphere in Vallaridot.

Especially after the Council of Toledo nobles sent someone to deliver a letter to him, Ferdinand felt a stronger sense of intrigue.

To Ferdinand's anger, the Council of Nobles offered to mediate between the two sides as an arbitrator, which Ferdinand could not accept in any case.

He knew that the elders who had been hiding in Toledo didn't really care who won or lost, or even who would be the king, their only concern was whether their rights were lost.

But this was absolutely unacceptable for Ferdinand.

He knew very well that if he accepted the advice of the Council of Nobles, it would undoubtedly be tantamount to acquiescing in the qualification of that Gombray to compete for the throne, but this was absolutely intolerable to Ferdinand.

However, Ferdinand calmed down immediately after his anger, and decided that there must be some dirty deal involved, and although he could not say "how much Gombray has given you, I Ferdinand will pay twice", he immediately sent his court ministers to Toledo with "enough sincerity".

At the same time, while waiting for news from Toretto, Ferdinand ordered Gonzalo to be appointed governor of Andalusia, with full command of the ensuing war.

By the time Gonzalo received the appointment, it was already June.

The traces of the hot summer months stand out here, and everywhere is scorching, and the small canopy of tall palm trees does not provide even the slightest shade to the ground, and people have to take refuge in their houses during the hottest days of the day.

Because if it's outside in the open air, it may not take long for you to get dark.

Gonzalo sat under a pergola, a drink filled with ice and fruit juice on the table in front of him, and the crimson juice overflowed the lower part of the ice, giving the otherwise transparent ice a completely different color.

In the open space in front of them were several door-shaped shelves, each of which had a person tied to it.

The men hung their hands apart from the ends of the gantry, their shirts stripped off, revealing their sweaty swarthy backs.

In the courtyard, there was also a group of soldiers, most of them in rags, some barefoot.

Gonzalo's face was heavy as he looked at the men who were hanging there with their backs to him, his gaze swept over the soldiers who were almost exhausted by the sun above their heads, and then took a sip of the cold drink on the table.

"My lord, are you going to start?"

Gonzalo nodded to the inquiring executioner, the hot weather made people not even want to speak.

"Start~"

Following the order of the executioner, several large men who were also shirtless and burly walked over with long leather whips.

They stopped not far from the men and began to wave their whips to the slogans of the executioner.

"First time!"

"Smack~"

"Second time!"

"Smack~"

…………

The whip brought a hot wind in the air and whipped it against the bare back, and with the screams of the beaten, a scarlet blood streak immediately bulged on the back.

The whip fell on the victim's back, and each blow was so full force that after only a few blows the men were out of breath.

The beaten people were already unconscious, their heads hung weakly, their legs were limp on the ground, and their arms were still dragged by ropes to the doorway.

"Your Excellency?" The executioner came over and whispered for instructions,

"Go on," Gonzalo said quietly, seeing the executioner's hesitant expression, he raised his hand and pointed at the soldiers who were sweating in the sun, "Let them see what kind of punishment these people deserve, I don't want to see my soldiers run away again." ”

"Yes, my lord."

The executioner answered, having followed Gonzalo for a long time, and knew that beneath the lord's tolerant and benevolent exterior was a ruthless heart.

The sound of the whip whipping against the flesh was dull with a heart-rending tearing sound.

It was the sound of the horns of the whip tearing human flesh apart.

The most stubborn of the men had collapsed, his body swaying from side to side with the whip with his hands hanging from his hands, and there was only a muffled gasp in his throat, which could no longer scream.

Finally, the executioner raised his arm to stop the executioners, who were already drenched and sweating.

"Send these people back to their troops," Gonzalo said coldly.

He looked at the apprehensive soldiers, got up and walked to the edge of the pergola.

"Some of you may be complaining, and some of you may think that I am a devil, but you must know that these people are deserters, and they have abandoned not their own hearts and duties but you, and they have left you alone with the enemy."

There was a commotion in the crowd, and the soldiers looked at each other, not knowing whether Gonzalo's words were right or not, and many of them had suspicious looks on their faces.

"You would be suspicious now because you are still standing here, but is that fair to those who are dead? To desert is to rob others of the opportunity to live. ”

Gonzalo's words clearly worked, and some of the soldiers began to shout loudly, spitting at the deserters who had been carried before their ranks, and scolding them with the dirtiest words.

And more and more people are doing this, and for a while, the original resentment against Gonzalo was vented on those deserters at this moment.

"Send someone to keep an eye on it, I don't want to see a few corpses in the street tomorrow morning," Gonzalo instructed his men, "and corpses can easily cause the plague in such weather." ”

Hearing his command, the man standing by glanced at Gonzalo, and he noticed that the general was only worried that the corpses would cause a plague, but apparently did not try to stop the soldiers from lynching, which made the man understand the meaning of Gonzalo's words.

"Deserters should be hanged in the streets."

Gonzalo said in disgust, and then waved his hand to let his men bring back the dizzy team that had been standing in the sun for a long time.

When his eyes became empty, Gonzalo, who had been indifferent, suddenly exhaled, and his face showed an unconcealable exhaustion.

"I really didn't expect that one day there would be deserters in my army." Gonzalo muttered.

"My lord, it's nothing, there are deserters in all armies, isn't it, in fact, there were many of our soldiers in the past......"

"But this time it's different," Gonzalo interrupted the adjutant in a stern tone of anger, "you know that, don't you, these people are not fleeing from the battlefield, they are deserting on the way to retreat, which I absolutely cannot allow." ”

The men looked at Gonzalo silently, and everyone knew very well why Gonzalo was so angry with those deserters.

The adjutant was right, there were deserters in all armies, and when Gonzalo's expedition to Italy failed in its first battle with the French, there were incidents where a large number of soldiers deserted.

But even then, Gonzalo did not hate deserters as much as he did now.

As Gonzalo said, this time is different.

After retreating from Seville, the Castilian army headed all the way north and did not stop until it reached Córdoba.

It was on the way to Córdoba that the deserters fled.

Obviously, these soldiers were completely frightened by the Sicilian army, and although they survived the Battle of Seville, they did not seem to think that they would have such good luck in the rest of the battle, so they chose to desert.

For an army, this means that the soldiers have lost hope of victory, and for a general, it proves that his men have lost faith in him.

This is exactly what Gonzalo could not accept in any way.

He could tolerate a soldier fleeing out of timidity, but he could never tolerate suspicion of him.

Worse still, once this feeling of defeat spreads, it spreads like a plague through the army, by which time the entire army may not be able to engage the enemy again, but it will be completely defeated.

Gonzalo glanced at the few men around him, all of whom had been with him for a long time, who knew him and admired him, who had given them the honor, status, and wealth they desired, who had also served him.

Now he is facing a very difficult choice.

"My lord, the knight of Don De Klear is still waiting for you." The adjutant reminded in a low voice.

Gonzalo's jaw moved, he knew of course that Don De Klear was waiting for him, but now he didn't want to see him right away.

The whereabouts of Don de Klear were unknown at the Battle of Seville, and the last time he was heard was when he was leading his troops to try to defeat the Sicilians who were attacking the left flank of Castile.

After that, the knight was not heard from, and just when Gonzalo thought he had been killed, the knight Don de Queliard suddenly returned to Córdoba.

It was not his retinue that returned with the knight Don de Kgliar, but two Sicilian soldiers.

That's enough to say what happened to Don De Kliar.

Because of this, Gonzalo did not want to go to Don de Klear so quickly, because he knew that he would have to deal with the men sent by Alexander.

And just before that, Gonzalo had heard of Josa's public declaration in the Cathedral of Seville that he supported his brother to become king of Castile.

Gonzalo was well aware of what this declaration meant.

The Queen of Sicily is forcing all Castilians to choose sides!

Either side with Juana, who was seen as a puppet by Ferdinand, or choose the Duke of Rome Thesia, who was supported by the Queen of Sicily.

There is no middle way, and there is no ambiguity, once you choose, you must stand on one side clearly.

"That queen, it's amazing." Gonzalo said suddenly.

Seeing the expressions of "Indeed" on the faces of his officers, Gonzalo shook his head at them: "I'm not saying that on the battlefield, she is indeed very powerful, so far I have never seen a woman who can command an army like her, no, I should say that I have never seen a woman who can command an army, but this is not what I said." ”

Saying that, Gonzalo waved a little tiredly for everyone to leave.

The sun was already setting in the west, and the golden afterglow was shining in the courtyard, and Gonzalo looked at the bare execution racks in the distance, and his expression showed a faint tiredness.

There was a sound of footsteps, and Gonzalo turned back with some annoyance, and he wanted to scold the person who had disturbed him.

"You look like a lion in a trapped," a man appeared before Gonzalo, "and I got up to take off the shackles for you." ”

Looking at this man, Gonzalo couldn't help but be stunned.

He knew this man, his name was Tiego, and he was a real merchant.