"Why did you cut your hair so short and shave, and Italy wanted to be a Roman after staying for a long time?"

I poured myself a full wine, pulled over the chair and sat down, curled my tongue up, slowly swallowed the sweet and slightly bitter liquor, the fermented liquid had a silky texture, smoothly caressing the tip of the tongue, passing the essence of the essence to the depths of the taste buds, I let out a long breath of comfort, and began to chat with Duke Richard.

"The Romans used to say that all barbarians with long hair and beards were savages, and although the ancestors came from the far north where they had never been, I wanted to be a more recognized civilized person, knowing that even in France, the nobles who had the money to hire two bards dressed like wives and hummed at banquets would be considered high and civilized, hell alike!"

Richard's Adam's apple kept shaking as he spoke, and the barber nervously stopped what he was doing, and if he hurt the noble lord, his eyeing attendant would surely tear himself apart.

"Vassalage elegance is a kind of life taste and attitude, everyone fights and kills without new ideas, appreciate the harp and tongue-twisting verses to distinguish the grade, if you can casually recite two popular love poems, it is even more superior."

I took another sip of ale, and I was so happy that I couldn't open my mouth, for fear of letting go of the fragrant fragrance that lingered between my lips and teeth.

"I'm very energetic after the barbing, like a handsome little Roman."

Richard laughed heartily, and the barber, who had just started with a razor, became nervous again, shaving half of his stubble and the other half distinctly, like the black-and-white smock that Norman knights often wore.

"You are making fun of me, now I can hear the vague meaning of the word, and some time ago I found someone to read Astotle's "Rhetoric". You see, I'm also half a literate person. The black duke's smug nunu jaw.

"It was Aristotle of Greece, who was once a teacher of Alexander the Great." I corrected the error in his words and took the trouble to explain a little.

"Alexander the Great? I know him, that brave Macedonian boy! Sweeping across the entire Persian Empire, until the end of the world kobold country, God has not been so far away since the creation of the world, legend has it that he has a god-given war horse, what is it called? ”

"Biseverus, the shooting star of the night."

I said the name almost reflexively, and Brad Pitt's heroic appearance of taming a war horse in the movie is simply too sultry.

"As for the country of the legendary kobolds, it is a fallacy based on false rumors, they are just some Indian tribe that believes in dogs as totems."

"Yes, that's right, that's the name."

Richard danced excitedly again, focusing on the famous war horse, the barber suddenly exclaimed in a low voice, and I heard the sound, only to see a small blood mark on the white neck of the black duke, and then slowly blood flowed out, and the barber was so frightened that he sat down on the ground.

Richard, who felt the pain, touched the wound that was not yet the size of the thread, and said to the barber who was kneeling and begging for mercy: "Do you want me to see people with half of my beard?" Get back to work! With that, he licked the blood off his fingers nonchalantly and continued to talk to me.

Yo? What a change in temperament!

I was amazed at the change in my temper and tried the flask instead, the atmosphere in the room was still oppressive, and I could only hear the sound of the breeze outside the window gently caressing the floor curtains, and the barber shivered to pick up the razor, hesitating for a long time.

Waiting impatiently, Richard rose up without warning, pulled out the dagger on his waist and stabbed it into the opponent's lower abdomen, twisted twice with hatred, and only exposed the counterweight ball on the back of the handle, the latter stared in pain, stunned for a trace of * before he could send it out, and the red and black blood soaked through his clothes, like a big sponge that sucked life, draining the vitality of the human body.

"Hate people's stuff!"

The black duke cursed in disgust, pinched the razor three times and divided it by two to clean the remaining half of his beard, and the two attendants came in and dragged away the curled corpse, and the long blood path was paved with a red carpet, but unfortunately it was not the other side of happiness, but the altar of death.

Is this a demonstration with me? What sin did he commit by being blind to a living life?

I sighed in my heart, but not to be outdone, I sneered: "It seems that no matter how much you read, you can't change the nature of the samurai, God has given you a soul to kill, but he has not taught his knights to fear life." ”

"God only taught me to fear force."

Richard flashed out of the place for the servant to scrub the blood on the ground, walked across from me and poured wine: "To survive in this bastard world, God's teachings are definitely needed, but before praying sincerely, do you have to make sure that you have a pure land that will not be disturbed?" ”

"Relying on violence to fight violence with killing, you will never get what you call the Pure Land, on the contrary, what is created is hell, hell on earth." I quietly launched a counterattack.

Richard shrugged his shoulders indifferently, tilted his neck as if he had been thirsty for a long time, and the red syrup of the fine wines produced in Milan flowed down the corners of his mouth, and he replied as rough and vague as ever:

"No one will listen to you when you hold the Bible in your hand, only with a long sword in one hand and a Bible in the other, so that people can sit down honestly and obey, isn't the Pope's lesson profound enough? Before Charlemagne's protection, the Holy See could not even defend the small hill of the Vatican, and was chased by the enemy like a mourning dog. ”

"I warn you that this is blasphemy, my lord."

I slammed the cup on the table, pretending to be very pious and warning him in a righteous way, and I almost deceived myself.

Richard also put down his glass and looked at me confrontedly: "Blasphemy is better than dying on the pilgrimage, let's not be naïve, sir." ”

"In that case, I would like to thank you for your care, Lord Duke, so you are going to accept the entire city as a thank you gift in advance?" The other party's strong arguments made me out of anger and tried my best to be sarcastic.

"You really should thank me, Randy, whether it's from a friend's point of view or a cooperative relationship, otherwise you would never be standing in front of me and roaring now, and you're waiting for you by the Norman knights waiting outside the city, understand?"

He simply omitted the honorifics, raised his voice an octave and said directly: "If that puppet king Aduin is still alive, he may reveal some bits and pieces of information to you, and use this as a condition in exchange for his own freedom, am I right?" ”

It was very uncomfortable to be held by someone's nose, and I deliberately kept silent to see what else he had to say.

Richard had anticipated my reaction, so there wasn't much embarrassment on his face: "From your attitude, I can completely tell that the secret that Aduin told you has not yet verified the results, right?" ”

"Don't go around in circles what you want to say." I interrupted him stiffly.

"Something happened in Nijmegen! At least the situation is not optimistic. ”

Richard did not wait for me to retort, and immediately continued: "I received a secret message from Paris twenty days ago, which was sent by His Majesty Robert in an expedited manner, in which he asked me to cooperate with the puppet king to annihilate your army under the city of Milan and solve this trouble once and for all......"

"I don't make any special mention between the lines, but I can guess who the villains involved in the conspiracy are, His Holiness the Vatican Pope must have a share, the Count of Luxembourg and the petty nobles of Brabant, they are trembling in the shadow of Nijmegen, always hoping to get rid of the shackles, the Poles who hate you to the bone may also join in, and there are countless enemies within the empire......"

"Of course, the main executor of this plan is not me, but His Majesty Robert, the high-spirited Robert, the king's army set out before me, and rushed to the empty Nijmegen, I am right, Nijmegen is empty."

He crossed his shoulders and stared at me intently, waiting to admire the panicked expression.

The sudden news was like a basin of cold water falling on my head in the hot summer, which not only woke me up instantly, but also shivered fiercely, and my mind was temporarily short-circuited and blank.

"You mean Nijmegen is under attack?" My voice was low as if I was talking to myself.

"Even if this were true, I need not worry that the troops of Paris would attack Nijmegen, unless they flew over Flanders with their wings, they would not be able to get around my father-in-law's defenses! Wait a minute...... Why are you telling me this, and it's doubtful that His Majesty Robert isn't worried about you leaking secrets? ”

Richard frowned as if he was really thinking seriously: "Listening to you say this, there are indeed many loopholes in the matter, I do have enough reasons to betray you, and I also have enough reasons to betray His Majesty Robert, compared to the two, I hope to take the opportunity to completely solve the trouble in Nijmegen......"

Speaking of which, I am not so confused in my heart, at this time people are swordsmen and I am fish and meat, horizontal and vertical, so I simply scold, and Richard can let me sit here and argue with him, at least to show that he does not want to hurt me at all, on the contrary, he wants to pull each other tighter.

"Settle Nijmegen once and for all? That's the truth. I curled the corners of my mouth and smiled softly, my tone flat and indescribable.

"Hmph, of course this is true, should I thank you, kind Duke Nijmegen?"

Richard detonated like a spark of dynamite, and his angry hair was not enough to describe the appearance of his hair standing on end:

"Nijmegen is an ally of Normandy, yes, but in fact? We're just stupid hounds running around! You toss a bone in Normandy as a reward, and we're grateful for the wagging tail! But Calabria is not even a bone, at most it is a poorly boiled vegetable leaf, and the oil and water are pitiful! ”

"The troublesome Saracens have been harassing the ports and farms, causing the locals to be displaced, and our soldiers have to be tired of fighting fires everywhere, so tired that they are really like wild dogs, and the Romans of Brindisi have to be on the lookout for the same fleets as they go in and out of their own gardens, coming and going as they want, and intimidating ships of all sizes into the harbor with all their might, so that the merchants dare not berth for business, and as a guarantee and obligation to Nijmegen, we must also be on the lookout for business, Split a part to stare at the Holy See hiding in the Vatican to make small moves, you pat your chest and say, is there such an ally? ”

I opened my mouth to refute a few words, but in the end I licked my lips and said nothing, what could I say? Aren't those all designed traps?

Richard continued to roar unsatisfactorily: "Oh, by the way, there is Genoa, the pearl of the Ligurian coast, here is indeed rich, and the climate is warm and pleasant enough, it seems to be a big bone full of fat, it is so perfect, even God can not find any flaw, but unfortunately the reality is not what people want." The Saracen warship sailing from Sardinia sailed down the river can reach this almost dangerous coast in only half a day, facing the repeated disgrace of Burgundy, behind which several Lombard city-states are not so friendly, and the unpredictable puppet king is entrenched in Milan and is said to be alone, you let Normandy help Nijmegen guard the road to the south, like a guard dog tethered to the door! ”

I listened calmly, but my mind was fast thinking about how to get rid of my suspicions, after all, emotional people are easy to do something out of the ordinary, and it is the best policy to save your life.

"Finished?"

I raised my eyebrows, and my tone changed abruptly: "Even if your guesses are all true, then why don't you just kill me?" You're not going to be kind enough to give me a chance to plead your case, are you? ”

Richard's Adam's apple trembled, and he opened his mouth to answer the question: "His Majesty Robert has offered a lot of attractive prices, as well as the double insurance guaranteed by His Majesty the Pope, which is quite tempting, such as handing over the whole of Lombardy to Normandy, letting little Henry marry my daughter, to establish a marriage relationship between the two families, and so on." Randy, they also want to use Normandy as a hound, but they have lost more bones and fatter than you. ”

"Are you willing to be a hound? Wandering from one house to another, if there are bones, they will work? "I caught the hole in his words and prepared to launch a sharp counterattack.

"Do I have the power to set the rules of the game?"

Richard asked rhetorically, "Or rather, you've lost the power to make the rules of the game, friend." ”

"You have!" I replied in the affirmative, in order to strengthen my persuasiveness, I deliberately exaggerated my arms to render the effect.

"That's why you came to me, you don't want to be a hound, but want to be the master of a leash, friend, I knew your ambition from the beginning, that eagle-like ambition, I know, and only I know, you want to follow the example of your ancestors who once made the whole of Europe tremble, and shake the world again with your roar, add glory to the battle flag of Normandy, and leave a heroic legend for future generations!"

Richard squirmed the corners of his mouth without squeaking, and he faltered.

I knew what I was talking about, so I decided to strike while the iron was hot: "Let's work together again, you know better than me what the two of you can bring to each other, the temptation of success is much more than what His Majesty Robert promised you, this is the fattest bone, you and I, all of us are bloodhounds, mad dogs greedy for deliciousness, there is only one real master in the world, and that is power, supreme power!" ”

This book was first published from 17K, the first time to see the genuine content!