Rome in 1509 was an eventful time.

Before his election, Pope Julius II, also known as Cardinal Lovere the Younger, was only regarded as a puppet of his "uncle" Cardinal Grande Lovere - because Cardinal Grande Lovere's accident in France lost his masculine characteristics and was unable to become pope through formal ceremonies, he had to pin his and his family's decades-old ambitions on this illegitimate child, although Cardinal Lovere the Younger, under the direction of Pius III, as the head of the Jurisprudence Judges, added a lot of trouble to the religious people in Rome. But more people still think that he is just a young man who does not understand the world, and although he holds power, his reckless and extreme personality dooms him to become a real monarch.

What they failed to guess was that Cardinal Lovere's personality did not make him a revered monarch, but he could become a feared dictator, and the day after he became pope, he arrested his father at the Council of Cardinals and personally executed him some time later - if this did not highlight his ruthlessness, then his actions afterwards make people tremble when they think about it - he refused the Lovere family's request to restrain Cardinal Grande Lovere, Hang the body of Cardinal Grande Lovere on the Pont Sant'Angelo, with the thieves, until he rots and falls into the Tiber.

Privately, people say, is he not afraid that the soul of Cardinal Grande Lovere will come to his bed in the middle of the night and wail and weep at him?

Julius II did dream of him, Cardinal Rovelle the Great, his creator and destroyer, and sometimes, still dressed in crimson cardinal robes, with a ring on his hand and a cross around his neck, and scolding and questioning him like thunder; Sometimes, as they had seen for the last time, he was dressed only in gray-white linen underwear, the cross around his neck had been turned into a noose, the ring on his finger had been turned into a blue-black bruise from his struggle, and his mouth was constantly pleading and praying – if there was anything in common between the two nightmares, it was that Cardinal Grand Lovere must have cried out at the end......

"Kill the Medici!" "Kill Julio. Medici! ”

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Julius II jumped up from his bed, and awoke from his mind, almost habitually, with pain in his limbs and inside his body like an ant eating bone, but he only waved his hand and drove away the attendants who had rushed to him at the sound of the noise, and drank the poppy juice he had prepared before bedtime.

He knew that the juice extracted from the fruit of this plant was not good for his body, but now, this was the only thing that would give him a moment of peace, and as the pain wore off, Cardinal Grande's warning in his dreams rang like a bell in the ears of the young Pope - no, this phrase did not only echo in dreams, in fact, when he gave the order to execute Cardinal Grande Lovere, Cardinal Grande Lovere pleaded and threatened, but when "Lard" put the noose around his neck, He looked Joshua in the eye and knew that things were irreparable, so he struggled to say the last words of his life.

"Kill the Medici!" "Kill Julio. Medici! ”

Ask yourself, Julius II didn't want to kill Giulio. Medici? When he peered into the depths of his soul, he found that he was willing. He did prevent his father from doing anything to Giulio, but at that time, he was a pupil of Cardinal Picomini, and he knew how much Giulio was favored by their teachers, and he didn't want his father's rash actions to ruin his existing peaceful life—he couldn't be sure, after all, Cardinal Grande Lovere had abandoned him once, and of course he could have abandoned him a second time—only Cardinal Picomini, who, though cruel to anyone other than Giulio, kept his promises, as people think, and he promised, Joshua could take refuge with him, and Joshua would be able to earn a place in the Picomini Palace.

But his heart was still full of pain.

Cardinal Picromini was annoyed that he did not recognize the favor that Giulio had "bestowed" upon him, but he did not think that a child of his age could really do anything great by his own will! Julio. What the Medici did to himself was not so much a medical skill as the misdeeds of a young child—he survived only if God was willing to take care of him! Otherwise, he had never heard before that a man blowing into another person's mouth could pull him back from hell; Or by covering the burned skin with fish skin, the burn would heal without medicine - at least he himself tried, but none of them worked.

He was just a lucky guy who escaped from the executioner!

If he was still a little hesitant at the time, wait for Julio. As soon as the Medici became the archbishop of Lucca, and as a priest, he knew all too well that with Giulio, he would never be able to win the favor of Cardinal Pictromini and those around him!

Pope Julius II silently recited the name, stroking the cross that never left him—he remembered the expression of Cardinal Picromini who hung the cross around his neck, and would he regret it if he had really watched it from heaven? The disciple whom he had always loved did not take charge of the church and preside over the reform as he expected, but the disciple who was never valued by him and was not liked by him became the master of the whole Christian world...... And his philosophy was meticulously implemented.

It's him, it's Joshua. Lovere, not Giulio. Medici.

Thinking of this, Julius II's mood couldn't help but lighten, even if he remembered that Louis XII was unwilling to follow his wishes and insisted on choosing Milan as a battlefield against the Venetians, so that the frequent conflicts with the Spaniards were not so troublesome, there was always a way to solve it, he thought, all the things in the study of Cardinal Grande Lovere were inherited by him, and no one knew the French better than Cardinal Grande Lovere, who had been a close minister of two kings in France, whether it was Charles VIII or Louis XIIAlthough they carry the crown of the king, their nature is not much different from that of a merchant or a jackal, as long as they have enough sweet bait, they will obediently act according to his heart.

He also guessed why Louis XII politely rejected his proposal - Louis XII's queen, Anne, Duchess of Brittany, was Julio. Medici's protector, and his mirror business also came from Constena. The Medici devotion, the intelligence officer left to him by Cardinal Grande Lovere, said that Louis XII wanted to negotiate with the Medici that he could canonize the Medici family as the Grand Duke of Florence, and in exchange for the Medici family to help him take the city peacefully.

That way he didn't even have to spend a single soldier on Florence.

Louis XII despised himself too much, and Julius II laughed in his heart, didn't he have any other choice but France?

A priest whom he trusted came to tell him that Gonzalo of Spain. Morality. Córdoba, Duke of Terranova, Governor of Naples came to the audience.

Gonzalo strode into the hall of royal power, perhaps to show his majesty, the Pope, who was in no way inferior to his female monarch in madness, always liked to receive envoys and cardinals in this place, but did not know that every time Gonzalo walked in, he felt that the white figure sitting alone under the canopy was weaker and weaker, thinner, and smaller.

He kept his thoughts deep in his heart and respectfully kissed the Pope's hand, of course, he knew that some villain who was inclined to the flames would kiss his robe as the Pope wished, but neither Gonzalo's current title, nor his status as the Queen's emissary, nor his affection for Joshua. Lovere's instinctive hatred, he wouldn't do that.

After hypocritically going back and forth, Julius II impatiently made his request - he did promise that if the Spaniards were willing to join his League of Cambrai and reclaim the territories occupied by the Venetians for the Papal States, he would recognize their queen Juana I's ownership of Milan and Naples, but the problem was that although the Spaniards joined the League, their army did not achieve much success, and, as the grandson of the Duke of Visconti of Milan, Louis XII was clearly more powerful than Juana I to succeed Milan.

Such an answer, of course, could not satisfy Gonzalo, and the tough soldier, who was nearly sixty years old, still had a youthful and fiery temper, and he immediately said that he could retake Milan from the French, even without the support of the Pope.

Joshua. Lovere, who had hardly been humiliated in this way since he became pope, was so furious that he almost called the guards to arrest this daring creature and throw him into the prison of Castel Sant'Angelo—there were many fools out there who dared to challenge the Pope's authority so easily, anyway! But a sudden pain brought back to his senses, and he closed his eyes to hide his true emotions, "then," he said, "can you do another thing for me?" If you can do it, I can consider your request as well. ”

"What kind of thing is it?" Gonzalo asked, "Please speak." ”

"I want your queen," said Julius II, "withdraw to Giulio. The Medici's asylum. ”

Gonzalo's eyes flickered: "I don't understand what you mean, isn't he the archbishop of Florence?" ”

"A sinner too."

"What crime did he commit?"

"Isn't blasphemy against the Holy Spirit enough?" Julius II said: "Is it not a sin that the people call him a saint, and call the walls he built miraculous, which the Holy See never recognized?" He smiled slightly: "For your queen, this is only a small matter, and compared to Giulio and Medici, I am the disciple of the saint Picromini, his heir, so that I can give her a true, complete blessing - if she is willing to give up the Medici, I can give him a holy relic belonging to my teacher, or I can make St. Picromini the patron saint of her and her family, and she can even place her mausoleum at the feet of the saint, how about it?" Isn't that enough? ”

Gonzalo furrowed his eyebrows, "I can't be sure...... I need to report this to my Majesty......"

"I trust that your Majesty will make the right choice," said Julius II, "and you should also be admonished, in any case, that she is a woman, and that women are always easily deceived." ”

After the Spaniards left, Julius II sat on his throne and thought quietly for a while, he had moved to leave Giulio. The Medici's thoughts, not out of gratitude or pity, were to make Giulio . The Medici also tasted the suffering he had suffered, but he changed his mind, and Cardinal Grande Lovere's final warning may have been justified, he didn't want to keep the Medici anymore, so he let Giulio . Die, Medici has so much to do and doesn't want to bother with him anymore.

And, in the dark, there was always a voice reminding him that if he continued to indulge, Julio. The Medici would eventually become a major problem for him.

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Julio, who was far away in Cadiz, did not know Joshua. Lovere, his former friend and classmate, had a deep sense of malice towards him, but since that vigil, he had stopped looking forward to Joshua. Lovere was able to be kind to him, though it would seem strange to others—because it was common sense that Joshua . . . Lovere should be grateful to him and love him, not an enemy.

But Giulio could vaguely guess why, and in fact, when Cardinal Picomini said that Joshua considered himself a child and was therefore unable to repay his favor, he sensed that something was wrong—could he have extorted from his friend, a disciple of the same teacher, for something he could not have paid? Even the illiterate commoners don't think so, and the poor children who have grown vaccines from his hands, even if they can't get gold coins or jewelry, bring what they think he will like—a beautiful stone, a flower, a bowl of beans...... They didn't think he would get angry or punish them.

So, this is Joshua. Lovere's life was his own, and he decided that he would have to pay an unimaginable price for those three life-saving favors, so he ...... The fear of ignorance compels him to refuse to admit it, and even deliberately distorts the facts, so much so that even he believes the lies he himself has concocted.

Thinking of this, Giulio couldn't help but feel heavy, in addition to these, there was also the smallpox that Duarte brought to Istanbul - just like he warned Duarte, the smallpox virus can survive for more than 12 months under the right conditions, but how much, no one knows, that small glass bottle, like Pandora's box, as soon as it is opened, the plague will come out of it, and inside, there is not even hope.

But he could not punish Duarte for this, although what he did could lead to the death of countless innocent people, but the few nights he spent in Istanbul, and what he saw in the underground palace, was enough to make him want to destroy the city - and Duarte stayed there for three whole years, as a slave, two masters, the first an innocent and cruel child, the second a perverted and cruel adult, who turned Duarte into a devil, and now, Duarte was simply feeding back what they had taught him.

Even so, Duarte still did not make up his mind, this bottle with smallpox scabs was put on his chest, in his underwear, for a whole fifteen days, and in the end, even though they were about to leave Istanbul, he still did not take it out, who knows, maybe it was a malicious trick of fate, he was unwilling to do it, but his enemies did it for him.

And today, the latest intelligence of the Assasins has been put on Giulio's desk - the civil war in the Ottoman Turkish Empire has broken out.