"Venerable and awesome Your Majesty......," the Count of Provence glanced at the Venetian Hare Retriever beside him with a self-deprecating look, and wrote with a quill on the heavy Greek paper. The hound's head was already close to his knees, and the Count teased the dog, lifted the dog's lips, and showed white fangs in his black mouth, and stroked the golden-haired dog's breast, and then continued to let the tip of the pen run across the paper.

The British had already left, and half a month earlier, the visiting English knights had suddenly taken control of the Provençal court, and then exchanged a large amount of money for a large concession in Marseille for a period of ninety-nine years.

Subsequently, the English fleet established a base in the port of Marseille, where engineers busily surveyed the harbor, built a simple lighthouse, and placed the devil's weapons on the civil towers in the concession.

Under the threat of the army, the count could only accept his fate, and he felt even more sorry for the Germans in Italy, who might never return to the land north of the Alps.

Thinking of this, he began to write letters to King Edgar again, faithfully reporting the movements of Aachen.

The English pilgrimage regiment had landed in La Spezia, six hundred Anglo-Norman knights and three thousand five hundred longbowmen had been stationed there for repairs, heavy wagons had arrived daily in the direction of Lucca, and sailors had carried field guns and powder kegs ashore and stored them in a nearby church.

According to the intelligence of the Count of Provence, the emperor intended to crown Conrad king of the Romans before Christmas, which meant that the imperial army was far north and could not aid the Italian battlefield until spring. In order to ensure that everything was safe, Edgar wrote to the Duke of Welf, asking him to contact the Duke of Zeringen to blockade Swabia together, and at the same time sent a messenger to Bouillon to inquire further from Godfrey about the situation in Aachen.

The first snow had just fallen in Liguria, and the gray-white earth could be seen glistening in the sun from the melancholy building's pheasant moat, reminding Edgar of the winter in York.

Within a week, the entire harbor had been completely transformed into a barracks, and the monks of the pilgrim had been turned into military doctors, caring for sailors and soldiers who had fallen ill after the expedition, the lucky sick were placed in churches stacked with gunpowder, and the rest were placed haphazardly in houses abandoned by the war. In an effort to restore morale, Edgar made various efforts, even claiming that a stag wearing a cross had been found nearby, just as St. Hubert had seen. However, this rumor may not be as valid as the charcoal braziers that the longbowmen collected from nearby villages.

Not long ago, the papal envoy came to him for the third time, bringing with him a precious emerald and a crusade flag from the Holy See, informing him that the Holy See wished to enter Rome at Christmas in order to show everyone the power of God, but Edgar had to politely refuse again.

His army had suffered from torrential rains and mud and surprise attacks in Wales, and in Brittany and Normandy, the English had fought many times in the snow, but Italy was too far from home for the army to withstand attrition.

A red knight approached the wall, surrounded by ten shield-wielding attendants, the chains brushing and shaking on the pulleys, and a minute later, the red knight crossed the falling drawbridge and entered the wall.

"Give me food!" Roger de Berem yelled, "And wine, a lot of wine!" ”

"Wouldn't it be better to have two more women, my lord?"

"Bastard!" Belem, who was dressed in a red robe, scolded casually, and suddenly recognized the identity of the other party,

"Lord Robert, why is it that you are not by Your Majesty's side today, but you have time to mess with us?"

Robert Mallett ignored the sarcasm, a man who was the heir to the Montgomery family and had run amok in Normandy, and had always been dismissive of "Norman traitors" like himself who served the Westminster court.

"It's also good that Your Majesty has ordered me to pick up a guest, and to go out and get some fresh air like an adult once in a while, isn't it, my brother?"

"The priest again? Did you let a noble person like an adult go out to greet you this time? Robert de Belem was taken aback.

"It's not a big deal, adults don't have to worry." Mallett replied casually, and then mounted and left under the watchful eye of his squire.

Berem felt the anger in his chest, he was the son of the mighty Montgomery, the other party was just a court courtier with a remote territory, but now he dared to rely on the king's orders to be rude to himself, if it were not for the Duke of Robert's order to serve the English king, he would have returned to Normandy immediately, and no longer stayed to see the face of this rat.

At this time, Mallet's mind was full of shocking secrets revealed by the king: the civil war between the two brothers, Roger Bosa and Bohemond, broke out again, and at this critical juncture, the Holy See's strong reinforcement Capua changed again, and the Vatican was lost, the Pope's Curia was thrown into chaos, and the army of the opposing Pope Clement III pursued near Caesar's Palace, almost capturing Urban II, who was accompanied only by the Bishop of Tuskulen.

Soon he was targeted for his trip, a sick boy and a Lombard woman with no six gods, her chin covered by a shawl, and no jewelry, but Mallett could still see her full breasts through the tightly wrapped black robe of the widow.

"Noble Lady Capua, I am Sain Robert Mallett of the King of England, and I have come to hear your orders by order of Your Majesty." He took off his helmet and saluted to the other party in a rare knightly manner, but he was thinking in his heart that such a lovely little bird became a widow at a young age, and he didn't know how many families he had, maybe he could consider it......

The woman's hand holding the boy suddenly tightened, and tears suddenly dripped from her deep eyes, since she was usurped to power, her former beauty was only a little outline, and the pear vortex on her cheeks turned into two thin wrinkles, but at this moment, her mind was suddenly clearer than before.

"My lord, please take us to find a place to warm up first, I want to prepare for an audience with the king." She regained her former feminine tone, dealing with the Norman giant in her own familiar way.

"Yes." Robert immediately answered, enjoying the feeling of protection.

Guided by the Normans and their attendants, the exiles traveled north in humble open-top carts and arrived at La Spezia at dusk.