"Then go and tell your cousin that you will give us 100 archers and 50 infantry, and say that you are going to get your new fiefdom, and he will know. If he doesn't give the soldiers, I won't leave. "There are only a few thousand troops in a prosperous northern Italy, and Hong Tao feels that attacking a city is simply too simple, and there is no danger at all. So what are you waiting for, go to Gibraltar, it is estimated that the emperor will not have time to take care of himself in a short time, and there is nothing to do when he returns to Palermo.

"My fiefdom? How do I not know where it is? Did His Majesty the Emperor give it to me? Carl asked Hong Tao to say that he was confused, his family's fief is in the north of the mountain range, and he will definitely not be able to go by boat, where is the new fief?

"Waiting for your cousin to give you a fief? Your son grows up to my age, and he won't have the time to give it to you! Do you know if you have enough food and clothing to do it yourself? If he doesn't give it to me, I'll help you fight it down, and you'll be the Duke of Gibraltar from now on! No, I'm the duke, you can only be a marquis, yes, the Marquis of Gibraltar! Don't be shy, hurry up and borrow troops from your cousin, don't you want more, we can't afford to raise it, 150 is enough! Hong Tao likes to toss Carl, a stupid guy, and is happy to see him confused, of course he can't explain it to him, and he even pushes and kicks Carl off the boat.

Not to mention 150 infantry and archers, even if Hong Tao said that he wanted 500 people, it is estimated that the emperor will give them, at this time he can't wait for these two devil ships to leave here quickly, with them lying in the bay, these nobles look at themselves as if they are looking at the devil. Not only to the soldiers, but also to the ship to send a lot of bread, cream, and fruit, by the way, a box of gold coins, more than 500 pieces, his anxious mood can be imagined.

With the money and soldiers, Hong Tao is not difficult for this unlucky emperor. He quietly left with the fleet that night, and compared with this special economic zone, he valued the port of Gibraltar more, which was where he had the final say, and it was also a nail inserted into Europe in Golden River Bay, and this nail was still stuck in his throat. Europeans may not react much in the short term. That's the best, and when they build this port into a fortress, they'll know what to call like a fish in their throats.

A week later, the Golden River and the Malacca suddenly appeared outside the port of Ceuta and blew up the small port with a single fire. Then the Golden River began to release its dinghy to go ashore to arrest people, and the Malacca circled around the harbor to hunt for the ships that had escaped, and all the people on board were arrested, all the ships sank, and even the wooden harbor was burned down. The next afternoon. Tangier, also an important port in North Africa, suffered the same disaster, with the port and ships burned to the ground, leaving the Berbers helpless to watch two diabolical galleons sail away.

"This is the bridgehead of the North African A-La Bo, and if we don't get rid of it, they will come and harass us endlessly. And it takes a lot of labor to build your fiefdom, do you think I'll pay to hire it? They are the founders of this fortress city, and I will engrave all their exploits on the stone monument for future generations to remember. But you have to remember. The construction speed must be fast, and if there are not enough people, I will catch it for you. Don't care about human life, time is of the essence right now, I don't have time to waste it here. Karl didn't quite understand why Hong Tao suddenly became interested in these two ports in North Africa again, and Hong Tao didn't mind telling him why.

"You're going to build a fortress here! My God...... It will take at least two years or more, is it going to be two years to stay here? Carl now knew what the state of his fiefdom was, but he wasn't angry. On the contrary, he was very happy, because in this way, Hong Tao would have to stay in Europe for a long time. He was used to life with Hong Tao by his side, and once he went too far, Carl couldn't help but feel weak.

"What a dream! Two years? I can't stay for a year. I'll only give you half a year, not a day more. This fortress must be built, and I have drawn all the drawings, and I will build it in this way. Hong Tao pursed his lips, he wanted to stay here for two years, the question was whether Mongolia would agree or not, and the Great Song Dynasty was still waiting for him to go back.

"Why are all the buildings you design so ugly? This is true of Jinhe City, and so is this fortress......" Carl took the drawings in Hong Tao's hand, only glanced at them, and made a correct assessment. If this fortress is seen by future generations of Americans, it will be recognized at a glance, and Hong Tao is plagiarizing again! This Nima was not designed by him at all, it is a smaller version of the Pentagon, only slightly modified in each corner, and a little more outward. This allows any three adjacent corners to cover each other so that the enemy doesn't get close to each other.

Slightly different from the Pentagon, the pentagonal building of Hongtao is higher and higher as it goes inside, with a total of two circles, the highest inner floor, and a bit like a flat-topped pyramid. The reason why Hong Tao made this change was mainly because of the importance of artillery, and artillery would definitely be deployed here for defense in the future. If there is only one ring of artillery on the outer wall, he is not too at ease, and after raising the inner layer, he can arrange two circles of artillery. Even if the enemy occupies the outermost circle, it is useless, and the artillery on the upper level can bombard you with their heads down. And between the two floors of the building is a natural trench, the further you go in, the more difficult it is to attack, unless you take down both floors, it is useless.

Don't look at the fact that the fortress now has only two floors, it is because there is no time to build a bigger one, and there are not so many manpower and artillery to equip it. When needed later, the castle can be expanded, and it can be adjusted at any time by adding a layer to the outside, and then adding another layer to a larger circle. According to the current level of fighting and the number of troops in Europe, Hong Tao thought that it was enough to have more than 100 people stationed there, as long as the port behind the castle was not occupied, then there were ships that could transport supplies at any time, and 10,000 people were not afraid.

"You know a fart, you can eat it as a meal! In the future, this place will be called Karlburg, it is your home, don't fool around, you must build a strong one! No matter how thick the walls were, they were all made of stones, and there was nothing else here, but there were stones. "Hong Tao not only wants to grab a fief for Carl, but also gives him all the names, and he is more dedicated than Carl's father.

"Half a year is not enough...... If it is made of wood and clay, it may be okay, but it is not enough to have slaves with all stones, and you have to find enough stonemasons to trim the stone strips, and it will not be completed in two years...... "Carl is not a fool, he also lived in castles, although he does not know too much, but the general construction method is still understood.

"Have you forgotten how Golden River City was built? If you do this way, you won't be able to build a groundwater system in ten years. Who says the stone still needs to be trimmed? With volcanic ash and upper clay directly, the thing dries out in just over a day. The castle has five sides, and if you let Martini do it, it might be finished in four months. Let's go up first and see where this castle is built, and then calculate the construction period, if there are not enough people, I will arrest you, if you think the blacks are not useful, I will go to the north to catch the Franks for you. Hong Tao looked at the headland that was getting closer and closer from afar, and the more he looked at it, the more he liked it, this geographical location was really good! The headland is slender and stretches into the sea for several kilometers, the tip is only half a kilometer wide, the top is still flat, and there are cliffs on both sides.

"There's volcanic ash here?" Carl understood how Hong Tao was built, and it was indeed fast and sturdy to build a house with volcanic ash instead of traditional mud, but he didn't know if there was a volcano here, didn't he say that where there was a volcano, there was volcanic ash? Is there a volcano nearby?

"Don't look for it, it's not here, but it's on the Canary Islands we passed by. Here you take some of your soldiers and watch the slaves go to the stones, and the Malacca leaves you as a fort, and you send them away when the A-La Bo people from the north come. I'll take the Jinhe to help you pull the volcanic ash, as long as you have enough people, one person can grab a handful enough for this fortress. Hong Tao basically thought about the front and back on the way here, the Canary Islands are only six or seven hundred kilometers away from Karlburg, and the Jinhe comes and goes and the loading and unloading time is only three or four days. If these slaves can use up hundreds of tons of volcanic ash in three or four days, then this fortress will be built in less than half a year, in a month!

As Hong Tao imagined, the headland is indeed a flat land, stony, very strong, very suitable for the foundation of the fortress. The fort was built here, and the defense forces in the three directions of southeast and west were also dispensed with, and all three sides were cliffs, and it was necessary to walk about two kilometers to the north before there was a slope to climb. The only drawback is that the enemy can't come up, and his own people can't go down, so you can't trap yourself on it.

Hong Tao also has a way to deal with this problem, he plans to blow up the tip of the headland with explosives, so that it is a slope leading to the strait, and then let the slaves chisel the big stones later, this is a gravel road. The water on the south side of the headland is quite deep, and a small pier can be built. Attacks from all sides of the fortress are not feared, unless the enemy has a new type of artillery that shoots longer and more powerful than himself.

From this day on, Hong Tao became a professional pirate and slave trader, and he took the Golden River to sack many ports on the coast of North Africa, robbing only two things, one was a human and a young slave; One is a wooden barrel, a barrel that holds everything, and you don't want anything inside, just a barrel! By the way, he also snatched two passing sailboats, the other party spoke French, Hong Tao's eyes are red now, don't speak French, even if it is an alien language, you have to catch it. In order to prevent them from bewitching Karl's second fool, Hong Tao simply threw two boatloads of French-speaking guys to Tenerife to dig up volcanic ash, and never wanted to come back for the rest of his life.

(To be continued.) )