In Wallace's opinion, a trip to the Mediterranean is simply sailing in a large lake, and everything becomes lazy.

At this time, there are more rainy days, so whenever there is a rare sunny day, Li Ao will definitely set up a deck chair on the deck and invite Wallace to bask in the sun.

When he served in the Liuqiu army, everyone knew that Zhang Daozhu hated the little white face, and as a result, anyone in the Liuqiu army would be sad if their skin was whiter.

Except, of course, for white soldiers.

The first stop on their voyage was the port of Genoa.

In fact, in the plan, Li Ao originally wanted to make the first stop in Constantinople, but the captain of the Fei Lian told him that the envoys sent by Michael VIII of the Palaiologos dynasty insisted on using the silver coins they issued to settle the cost of the arms, and refused to use gold.

Li Ao gave up the business in Constantinople at that time, and the silver coins they issued were shoddy, mixed with too much lead or copper!

Even the merchants of their own country don't like to use it!

To hell with the Palaiologos dynasty------ of course, Li Ao also understood the difficulties of that Michael VIII.

After Michael VIII recaptured Constantinople from the Latins in 1261, he ordered the abandonment of all Latin customs, the restoration of most of the pre-Fourth Crusade Byzantine ceremonies and institutions, the restoration of the population of Constantinople, and the reconstruction of destroyed churches, monasteries, and public buildings, which required a lot of material and could only be developed slowly.

Worst of all, he was keenly aware of the great threat to him from the Western Latin world, especially to his neighbors Charles I of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Pope Martin IV and the Republic of Venice, as these forces sought to restore Latin rule over Constantinople.

Michael VIII had to unite with the Republic of Genoa against the Republic of Venice and other Aegean Latin states, but unfortunately, his Orthodox neighbors Serbia and Bulgaria joined the side of Michael VIII's enemies!

Faced with his most formidable opponents, the younger brother of Louis IX of France, King of the Two Sicilies, King of Hungary, Charles I of the House of Anjou who wanted to re-establish the Eastern Empire, Michael VIII provoked a popular revolt against the Kingdom of Naples in Sicily through carefully orchestrated diplomatic steps, and prompted King Pedro III of the Kingdom of Aragon to invade Sicily. This led to the division of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies into two kingdoms, Naples and Sicily.

All this diplomacy requires huge financial resources------- diplomacy without economic support is of little use.

And in order to restore Constantinople as soon as possible and defend his European provinces, he had to weaken the army on the Anatolian front, cut its salaries and cancel its tax exemptions.

In this way, the defenses of the Anatolian front became loose.

This policy led to the gradual collapse of this front, and even now, some Turkish displaced people have begun to gradually infiltrate the Anatolian region, gathering crowds from time to time to make trouble.

Li Ao had not met Michael VIII himself, but he believed that the old guy must be a big head by now.

Michael VIII himself had seen the representatives sent by Li Ao and had seen the weapon demonstration, and it was said that he was very interested------ but without real money, Li Ao would not bother with him.

His captain also said that the envoy of Michael VIII had hinted that he could give him an island or a knighthood.

Li Ao laughed at that time, he had seen countless islands, and he didn't want to give them for nothing!

The title of the Palaiologos dynasty can't catch up with him to return to the army as a squad leader!

The Palaiologos dynasty is not good, you can go to his ally Republic of Genoa, where business should be good.

It was a rare sunny day, with soft sunshine and cloudless skies.

Li Ao and Wallace were half-lying on the recliner, basking in the rare sunshine.

Li Ao asked, "You can speak Latin------ what do you think of the Republic of Genoa?" ”

Wallace said, "Ah, that's the second great power after the Republic of Venice, I've been there, and it's as prosperous as Alexandria!" ”

Li Ao listened to his introduction with a smile.

Originally a municipality of the Roman Empire, Genoa was occupied by the Ostrogothic Kingdom, the Eastern Roman Empire, the Lombard Kingdom and the Frankish Kingdom.

It wasn't until a little over a hundred years ago that they established the city council and elected the governor, which marked the formation of an independent republic.

Later, after seizing control of Sardinia and Corsica from the Hui, they extorted trade duty-free rights by force on the southern shores of the Mediterranean.

He then participated in the Crusades and established commercial colonies in Palestine.

Later, because he helped Michael VIII of the Palaiologos dynasty to restore the country, and obtained many privileges on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts, he is now in his heyday.

Li Ao asked, "Who do you think is the enemy of the Republic of Genoa?" ”

"------ of the Republic of Pisa and the Republic of Venice"

"Will they have a fight? Approximate time to happen? ”

“------”

"Haha, Lao Hua, don't blame the arms dealers for looking forward to war------ as long as they don't kill people indiscriminately, war is not necessarily a bad thing, even if there is no war, there will be war."

"Will you sell arms to the Tatars?"

"------ will, as long as they give me real money and can contact me. A real arms dealer sells arms even to his own enemies, it's just a business. ”

Wallace frowned and said, "If the Liuqiu army wants you to return to fight the Tatars, will you go?" ”

"That's great! I will put all this down and go back to fight, and I am determined to go to the main battlefield, and I must fight the Tatars to the death! ”

Wallace shrugged and said whatever you want.

Idle and bored, Li Ao asked people to bring long and short pistols, and began to practice guns on the deck again.

Wallace expertly reloaded his ammunition and unleashed the shot.

Without the arquebus, the pistol was easy to fire.

Wallace looked at the pistol and found it beautifully made------ with beautiful carvings on the hardwood butt, which was not only beautiful but also non-slip; The hardwood handle was also trimmed with silver and brass ornaments, and the small door behind the handle was opened, and there were paper-wrapped bullets inside.

The barrel is tin-plated, and the firing knob is copper-plated.

Every hairpin is a craft.

Li Ao asked people to throw coarse porcelain plates into the sea, and then shot them.

He fired five shots, none of which hit, and one shot was unsuccessful and needed to be re-fired.

In the end, Li Ao asked people to throw canned food boxes into the sea, and only a few hits were hit, reaching the score of seven out of ten.

However, he found that Wallace's marksmanship was also good, and it turned out to be five out of ten.

Li Ao said with some frustration: "In the past few years, I have been too greedy for enjoyment------ in the army, this achievement will be punished by swimming 5,000 meters!" ”

Marines and arms dealers, this is not possible at the same time.

Afterwards, they went down to the gym on the second floor of the cabin and began to practice with wooden knives, and the result was not bad, and the two were tied.

In kickboxing, Li Ao overpowered Wallace------ as there was no training for this event in the SA.

PS: Thank you for the tips from book friend 201707, Big Brother Xin and Australian Lao Wu