The twenty-third day of the lunar month, a small year! The Golden River and the Malacca hoisted the Imperial Black Eagle and the Royal Flag, and set off from the port of Palermo with six schooners of Renaya and began their journey north along the western side of the Apennine Peninsula, with the aim of being the port of Renaia. There is no need to be sneaky about this expedition, the news that the emperor is going to personally conquer Re Na Yagang has probably spread throughout the Apennine Peninsula a month ago, and it is estimated that even the A-La people now know about it. This is also in line with Hong Tao's wish, the war alone may not attract too many Lombard troops to gather in the port of Rena, but with the addition of an emperor, the temptation increases several times. If the other side can defeat the Imperial army, and by the way, take the prisoner of this belligerent emperor, hey, do you say that this ransom is coming in an uproar? Maybe the cities north of the peninsula will have to join the Lombard League.

The Pope's position on this issue was immediately apparent. According to Herman, at this time the army assembled in the port of Rena, there were far more than 4,000 men, and the Pope and the Venetians had reached some kind of consensus privately, and the Knights Templar provided at least 1,000 to 1,050 members of the Knights for the Lombards, and also participated in the army of the Lombard League under various names, preparing to defeat the emperor in this battle, and then see if he could capture some more nobles who supported the emperor and use them to demand ransom.

If the emperor can't come up with this money, it doesn't matter, the pope will help the emperor out, but the land of Italy will have to be carved out of the Papal States. Then the trees will fall apart, and some cities will certainly fall to the Lombard League or the Venetian city-state. In this way, even if the emperor returns to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies alive, I am afraid that he will not be able to become the emperor. Being able to stabilize the two Sicilies is already a good result. Perhaps even the German princes would rise up against the emperor, who never asked about German affairs. The Pope could take the throne back. Sell it at a good price, what a good deal!

"Your Majesty, it seems that your popularity is really not very good, at least not in the Christian world. When you need help the most, most of the princes under your rule are watching the excitement, and some even throw themselves on the enemy's side. If I were to sit in your seat, I would never spare them after this battle was won. If you don't die, you have to let them lose their skin! Hong Tao didn't think it was big enough, and he used these really shameless things to stimulate Friedrich II, in case the emperor was impulsive and planned to kill the Papal States and return to Germany, then he didn't have to bother to play any special economic zones, just put usury. What is war? War is the best chance for the capitalists to get rich!

"Your Excellency, don't pay attention to those people, they have nothing to do with me in my eyes. I'm more interested in these copper pipes on your ship than this question. Carl apparently didn't get your permission, and he wouldn't tell me what they were for. Whereas, you took away my best cousin. As compensation, can you tell me what they are? "It's a pity that Friedrich II is not confused, and he doesn't have the impulse in case, if he is okay, he will not live now. He didn't even pay attention to Hong Tao's provocation, but concentrated around the two small 80mm bronze cannons on the stern, and almost reached into the barrels to touch them. In fact, since he got on the ship, this emperor who is said to be very knowledgeable has not been idle, as long as he can go to the place must come over to see, if it is not for Hong Tao to order the artillery deck to be completely closed, he will definitely not look at these small copper cannons and ask questions.

"Carl really doesn't really value the money for these copper cannons, but your eye is accurate, they are indeed made of copper, I call them artillery. It's weapons, and when you get to the hot port, you'll know how powerful they are. Since he dared to let the emperor get on the boat, Hong Tao was not afraid of him to see it.

Although artillery can be talked about by a junior high school student in later generations, in thirteenth-century Europe, it was like an atomic bomb. I know that I can't make anything, and just finding the right copper alloy formula will require a lot of financial resources to experiment for several years, and then there will be a gunpowder formula. At present, there is no Internet, telephone and telegraph, and unless the Europeans can travel across the ocean to learn from the Great Song Dynasty, or take the risk to learn from the Mongol army, they will not be able to figure out the whole set of artillery technology for a while.

But then again, what if the Europeans really developed artillery? There is no suitable copper alloy to thicken the barrel, and it can still be improvised, it is nothing more than sinking some. There is no shipbuilding technology to put artillery on the fortress, at least it will not be so easy for the sailing ships of Jinhewan to come again in the future, after all, other people's guns are also cannons.

For this, Hong Tao is still not worried. At this time, Europe was not as rich as the Mongol Empire, and it was not even as rich as the A-La-Bo people. Without the resources of the Middle East and North Africa, they are so poor that they can make cannons. Copper is money in the Great Song Dynasty, and it is also a precious metal in Europe, and it is also money! Cast a cannon with several tons of good copper, where to put it? Does a small number work? Is there a lot of minting?

According to their current state system, the wealth is all in the hands of the princes, and the princes who rely on the sea are afraid of warships, so why should the princes who do not rely on the sea pay you to build cannons? Therefore, a highly centralized state like the Great Song Dynasty was more advanced than its contemporaries in Europe in this regard, and it could do one thing with all its might, but it would never work in medieval Europe.

"Is the sailor on the mast holding a cannon too? Could it be that this weapon hurts people with the eyes! "Friedrich II was very imaginative, and the answer to the cannon would not be seen until Rena, so he turned to something else, and the telescope became his goal again.

"Your Majesty is really knowledgeable, and in the future there is something called a laser, which can indeed see whoever dies. But this one is not, it's called a telescope, I also have one here, if you like it, I can give it to you as a gift, and it has my Chinese name on it. You pull it away, and then put the small end on your eyes, and look at the ship behind you...... "Hong Tao's broken mouth is anyone's dare to tease, even the laser is here, why don't you talk about death, and by the way, tell the emperor about Star Wars or something."

“…… This is the principle of a magnifying glass! It's so ingenious that I can't even imagine how it works, can you just stack two magnifying glasses on top of each other? "According to Hong Tao's demonstration, Friedrich II tried the telescope, and after studying it again and again for a while, he immediately came to the correct conclusion, it seems that the emperor is indeed very knowledgeable.

"It's pretty much the same, but you need a convex lens on the big head side, and a concave lens on the small head side, and the amplitude of the convex and concave needs to be adjusted, and if you use it the other way around, it will shrink the object." Hong Tao is not afraid of the Europeans with telescopes, if you have them, you can have them, there is no high-quality optical glass, and they can be exhausted by polishing particularly pure crystals. Hong Tao plans to answer this question of the emperor in detail, and by the way, to test how much the emperor knows about the principles of optics, and to understand the academic level of Europe or the Arab world from one side.

"The curvature of the mirror can really change the angle of light, and when I was a kid, I used to use the sun's rays with my father's magnifying glass to burn ants, but reversing the curvature and restoring the angle of the light is so ingenious. Karl is right, His Excellency the Duke is indeed a very learned man, but I still don't understand some of your theories. Why do you attach so much importance to the sea, and even assert that the sea can change the wealth and poverty of a country, life and death, this is what you yourself wrote about in your book, but unfortunately Karl only translated me a few pages. The emperor saw Hong Tao squatting on the deck and drawing pictures with his hands dipped in tea, he simply sat directly on the deck, revealing two hairy calves from under the long coat, and followed Hong Tao to discuss the optical problem in depth.

"Let's take your kingdom, if I come with five warships this time and destroy all the port cities of Palermo, Naples, and Bari, what do you think will be left of your kingdom of the Two Sicilies? Without shipping, the A-La-Bo and Byzantines will not be able to trade with you, and your kingdom will slowly wither. By the way, and Focha, I heard from the Empress that you are building a palace there, and although it is not near the sea, it is a short distance on horseback, if I want. My fleet can carry a few thousand people and go ashore whenever and wherever you want, but your army can't be there every day, right? "Hong Tao really dares to say it, he dares to say that he will raze everyone's hometown in front of the emperor, and he is not afraid that the emperor will secretly hate him.

"It also makes sense, it seems that I must read the book of His Excellency the Duke carefully when I go back, but unfortunately there is only such a book, if only there were more Chinese books. I brought in a lot of scholars at the university in Naples, both Christians and Jews, and even a few A. Ala. They are all very good, and when we have time, we will work together to translate the books into Latin, and then translate the Latin books into the Arla, where there are many, many books, but there are no Chinese books. Friedrich II didn't seem to care much about Hong Tao's vicious metaphors, and then talked to Hong Tao about books. From the look in his eyes, he can see that when he talks about books, his eyes light up, and this kind of heartfelt love cannot be concealed.

"This is very easy to do, I have books here, please come with me, there are many books in the cabin, it will take a few days to arrive in Rena, the commander of the fleet can teach Karl, he likes to do this kind of thing, but he doesn't like to read very much." Hong Tao also likes to talk to the emperor about other things, and it is very annoying to always calculate how to fight and how to make money every day.

(To be continued.) )

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