Late December 1318.

Bran rode in a carriage and moved towards the Merchant Hall of Meath City.

As far as the eye can see, the streets are depressed.

The monks who were innocent were setting up tents to distribute wheat porridge.

Bran even saw Old Dean Franklin.

The old man dragged his composed body and handed out food to the civilians bowl by bowl.

Before lowering the curtain, Bran in the carriage said to the outside of the carriage, "Get a few bags of wheat and give them to the old abbot, now the Holy See in Venice is financially constrained."

The clergy from all over the country could only support themselves, and if there was a request from the old abbot in the future, all of them were approved. ”

"Yes"

After entering the commercial hall, log in to the main room.

Bran was followed by Morru. Jones, and Arnold.

The rest of his men were sent by Bran to speed up the recovery of the territory

Every once in a while, Bran would replace his relatives and followers, and let the people who went out come back to follow him and go out with his own people to practice.

This effect is good, and in the long run, each subordinate basically has the ability to judge and dare to decide some things.

Arnold's swordsmanship has improved again.

He now acts as Bran's bodyguard.

Loyalty and honesty are the characteristics of Arnold.

He does whatever Bran says.

He was extremely slow to read and write, and he couldn't learn the talent of internal affairs, so he used it as a martial artist.

Moru's ability is more balanced, although he is a mercenary, but he is very hard at learning to read and write.

In two months, I learned all the knightly etiquette.

At the same time, he also helps Bran take care of the mountain maidens.

After bringing Gana back from the valley, Bran didn't pamper her once.

See each other once in a while and talk to each other.

Today, she has everything, but she is also like a caged bird, living with Bran's heart.

Moru is also the deputy of Ichisu, with eight people in charge of it, and while handling intelligence, he also reports on Ichsu's actions at all times.

Once you're seated, the hot food is served.

Bran was hungry, and he hadn't eaten this meal in two days.

This morning, after the last fortress in Northern Italy had fallen, he finally let go of the big stone in his heart.

The servants brought milk, eggs, and scones.

I've tested the poison in the kitchen first.

Smelling the aroma, Bran listened to Moru's return as he used his knife and fork.

Arnold clenched his sword and stood behind Bran.

The heat of the food made his stomach throb, and now he was the guardian of the lord, and he was hungry for as long as Bran was hungry.

"Your Highness, the first thing is the matter of the territory, now the territory of the four counts in the north, the Grand Duke has sent a letter to ask you what your distribution plan is?"

"Quinche is quick to take refuge, his territory is not moving, but he has ambitions for the northern fort, tell Simondo to pay attention to it, and put six more posts along the northern border.

The Earl of North Carolina, since he could not pay the ransom, let him transfer a baron, and this territory was directly under the jurisdiction of the Teutonic Knights, under the custody of Desley.

The other two were those who had been attacked and surrendered by us.

After settling the accounts and letting them settle them, they will make a plan, and remember, leave the wheat, livestock, iron, wood, etc., of their lands, a minimum enough to survive the winter, and send the rest back to Florence, partly to pay off the debts of the nobles, and partly to put it in the Teutonic storehouse. ”

Their territory is about to be broken apart by Bran.

Bran simply finished eating, pushed the plate open, and immediately someone came in to collect it.

The servant brought a basin of water, and told Bran to wash his hands, a towel to dry, and a pot of tea for him to rinse his mouth.

His lifestyle gradually followed that of his grandfather.

Aristocrats should look like nobility.

When you're full, get the map.

Bran sent a map of the four counties and the territory of Barça County to the court, while continuing to listen to the government.

"Your Highness, the next thing coming from the North is a letter from Your Excellency Durham.

The letter said that the Frankish army, which had set out from Normandy, had encountered a rough wave and was broken on the way, while William of Scotland had completely withdrawn from England because he had been defeated by the Vikings led by the Black Prince and Hunurenen. ”

Joan is so powerful?

Bran remembered several encounters during his time with the Knights.

Over the course of a few years, the members have developed individually.

"The letter said that there are now two kings in the hearts of the people of England, a long-legged king and a black prince."

"Write a letter congratulating England, and send Durham a little wine, and a word, and when I have my hands free, I will help him build up a small navy, and give him absolute prestige among the lords of Ireland.

Later, the goods were all south to the peninsula through the Strait of Gibraltar, escorted by his own fleet. ”

The Sea of Gibraltar is now off the coast of the Western Peninsula.

Hearing this, Moru, who was the deputy director of intelligence, said, "Your Highness, there are parrots, black souls, blackbeards and other sea thieves in the Sea of Gibraltar.

Blackbeard has contact with us, but the other two have no relationship with us or Florence, so why don't you send someone to find out first?"

The islands in the ocean are shrouded in mist, and pirates occupy these strongholds.

The exploration point is to send people to negotiate and buy a permit before they can pass through the sea area to do business.

If you don't have a pass, if you really run into it, you may be robbed.

After Ashy set the list of the Seven Sea Pirates.

One in the North Sea, one in the Black Sea, one in the Sea of Gibraltar, and four in the Mediterranean.

The seven of them were made more famous by the high bounties, and Blackbeard was at the top of the list, and he was re-assembled to join a group of pirates who admired him.

Recently, though, he was overtaken by Captain Dark Soul.

The Seven Pirates according to the bounty are:

The Black Soul Pirates (Mediterranean), Serge Bemi, nicknamed "The Prince", offered a bounty of 1,600 gold rubles.

The Lion Pirates (Mediterranean), Barbarosa Redding, nicknamed "Blackbeard", offered a bounty of 1,300 gold rubles.

The Blue Whale Pirates (Mediterranean, off Jerusalem), Garon (female), nicknamed the Nine Ghosts, offered a bounty of 1,200 gold rubles.

Jackdaw Pirates (Sea of Gibraltar), Kidd. Loda, nicknamed the Parrot, offered a bounty of 800 gold rubles.

"Wait."

When Moru read the name of the Jackdaw Pirates, Bran shouted to stop.

"Where did this 'jackdaw' come from? Shouldn't it be a 'horse face'?"

"Your Highness, Horseface has been executed by the Kingdom of Castile, Horseface failed to attack Port Ceuta, and now his opponent, the Pirate Jackdaws, has become the strongest pirate in that area."

The pirate flag they used was a gray ice-colored crow, and the parrot was nicknamed because he had a parrot on his shoulder. ”

"How many?"

"It's rumored to be more than five hundred."

"Okay, let's mark his forces first, and tell me about the information you found about Serge Bemi."

Moru began to take out the information of the enclosure letter, and read out all the information that the merchant ships had sent out to explore.

"Serge was born in the port of Venice in the year .1296,

His father and grandfather were Venetian sailors.

During the First Battle of Tongxia, he died at the hands of Ashklai,

At the age of twelve, he went to sea with sailors in order to provide food and clothing, starting as a cleaner at the bottom.

Successively sailor, co-boatswain, helmsman, co-captain.

It took only four years to become the deputy captain of the merchant marine.

Later, the caravan was captured by Blackbeard, and he had the audacity to spit on Blackbeard's saliva.

Blackbeard was dropped on the deck for a day, and after putting it down, he continued to vomit, because of his excellent courage, and was finally accepted by Blackbeard as his subordinate.

Two years later, he got rid of Blackbeard and came out on his own.

With only one boat, in one year, eleven boats were robbed, expanding the fleet to a hundred.

With the Black Skull Ghost Banner, it began to be called, Black Soul Regiment.

Now active for a long time in the western Mediterranean from North Africa to the coast of Port Ceuta,

He attacked ships flying the flag of Ashclay and robbed a craft ship to be sent back to Constantine.

Legend has it that he was a generous man who once released pirates who wanted to assassinate him.

That's why it's called 'His Royal Highness the Prince'. ”

"Why did you leave Blackbeard?"

"I don't know."

"How many of them are there now?"

"Five to six hundred, from small canoes, speedboats, dhows to warships."

"Pay close attention, send someone to step on the spot, and find out if Chai Su supports him, or if he is an independent pirate."

Pirates are also a scourge to Bran, a merchant ship full of goods, going back and forth to the Mediterranean, if it is successfully sold, can make 80% to 40% of the profit.

But with pirates, you can only earn eighty percent to one and a half times.

If you hit the reef and the goods are damaged, you will have to lose money.

Seeing Bran pondering, Moru said, "Your Highness, there are still a few new star pirates in other passages, do you want to ......?"

"Tell me about the big countries to the north."

Seeing that Bran was not interested, Moru sorted it out and took out Frank's intelligence letter first.

"This letter is from the Duke of Lyon, he ......"

"Go on."

"He greeted His Royal Highness Elder many times in the letter, but I couldn't say it! In addition, we were given a deadline to send a special envoy to apologize. ”

"As soon as the winter snow comes, at least until March, nearly a hundred days away, send him a letter, saying that we will talk until the snow dissolves, or that he is welcome to come in person."

"This letter is from Swabian and was written by Her Excellency Emily of the Kingdom of Swabia." Moru took out another one.

He hadn't opened the letter yet.

"Bring it!"

Bran's purple eyes were red, and Arnold, who was frightened and distracted by hunger, continued to straighten up.

After reading it, Bran angrily tore up the letter.

"Reply to the woman, look at the face of my uncle and Vesta, can I spare her a dog's life, want to kill me?

She thinks I'm still in Swabia and can dominate me casually?

Let her tell Kai and Tieshan by the way, telling them that it is best for these two to escape from the bright world and take refuge in the Vikings or the Oriental Grasslands to raise horses for the rest of their lives.

Otherwise, one day,

I will cut off their limbs, so that they will not walk.

Away from their eyes, for they have no words,

Cut off their tongues, so that they may not speak!"

"Yes, yes, yes."

The messenger who entered the transcription kept nodding, and the ink of the quill spilled out.

"Add one more, let her remember to help me take care of it, the manor I received and the fief of Vesta, I will pick it up myself one day!"

Bran, who was in a calm mood, was furious by the threatening words in Emily's letter.

Mo Lu didn't speak, just waited, His Highness taught himself, don't make any decisions in the chaos, you will regret it.

After a while, Bran regained his composure and continued to let Moru Nian.

"This letter is addressed to you by the former Governor Albert."

The letter was full of apologies and begging Bran to release him from house arrest.

Bran listened, reminiscing about his teenage years.

Then he had Albert brought here from his compound.

Two hours later, the carriage followed Albert.

Since Bran ousted Albert from power, the two childhood friends, fellow convent classmates, and even partners in the first days of life have become strangers to each other.

Albert was imprisoned for half a year, but Bran did not embarrass him, and he had food, clothing, shelter and transportation.

He's in good spirits.

"Albert."

"Bran."

The two faced each other, simply shouting their names, and neither was addressed by any other title.

Bran shouted to use it to conquer the chess.

"I lost last time, let's play the next game this time, don't forget the 'rules'."

"Okay."

Albert thought that Bran was still nostalgic.

Bran finished speaking, but he didn't move, after Albert had laid it all out.

Brandau, "Wrong. ”

Albert looked up, "What's wrong?"

Bran pushed Albert's king, queen, and prince other than the chess pieces with his hands and pushed them out of the chessboard.

"You still have a wife and daughter with you, and I have everything, knights, bishops, infantrymen, why do you follow me?"

Then Bran put the infantry, the knights, the bishops, all at Albert's side with the king, queen and prince.

"Within two steps, if you don't get checkmated, I'll let you go, otherwise ......"

With that, Bran shouted.

Albert's hands trembled, and he took and put and put and put and took and held.

Finally he thought of something,

He picked up the queen's ......

Put it in front of yourself!

So that the queen was eaten by the infantry, and his own king could stop one more step.

After Bran had eaten the queen, Albert protected the king with a prince.

After he took this step, he was sweating profusely, but he laughed out loud, "I won, I won!"

"Your queen and prince were abandoned like that?"

Albert didn't understand what Bran meant.

"Didn't you say in your letter that you would take your wife and daughter and leave Florence forever, give up everything, go to the north and never return?

Now, in order to save your life, you have easily lost your queen and your daughter, what have you learned in the monastery? What about your kindness?"

Bran added, "You forgot the 'rules', in the conquest chess, when the king, the queen, and the prince are next to each other, the prince can be turned into a knight, and the queen can take two more moves.

You can turn the prince into a knight, go directly diagonally and take me back, I will go back to the guard, you put the queen behind the knight, the three sons are still on the same line, this is the 'three kings on the same side' in the conquest chess, before moving the king, you can't be eaten. ”

Albert looked at the chessboard obsessively, and it turned out that this is what Bran's "rules" just now!

"If a person can give up anything in order to survive, the danger to me is too great, what do you say?"

Albert felt tightness in his chest, and he tried to choke Bran by the neck, but he knew he couldn't win.

"Bran ......"

"After taking control of your chamber of commerce and the city, I found a large number of letters from your stronghold,

Many of them are watching over our estate,

You've even tried to kill all my men and exile my grandfather to an isolated island. ”

"Listen to me, that's grandmother!"

"That's it."

"The chess just now was unfair, and after two moves, it was not a dead end in the end!"

"Then let's play the next game, the rules are the same."

This time Bran straightened the pieces, but Bran was left with only one king, one queen, and one prince.

Albert had them all, and surrounded himself.

Same situation.

"I'll come first."

Bran resisted desperately, following the way he had just taught Albert.

One step, two steps, until six steps are taken!

Albert just reacted!

He has a chance to eat both the queen and the prince halfway, but will let the king of Bran meet his own king and checkmate him!

"Enemy and friend 'Wangcheng Translocation', this is a remnant score!"

Step 9 is over.

Albert saw that the king of Bran was going to touch his castle next.

After this step, Bran's king will be able to jump two more steps forward, and if he skips, he will checkmate himself.

If you don't want to be skipped, you have to send your other pieces to fill it up.

Albert took the power one by one, and was slashed by the king of Bran, sword by sword.

When the last infantry captured, Blandau,

"You and I may be the same kind of people, valuing interests,

But I will never give up on my loved ones, never!

In an hour you came to the manor, and called my brother,

Older men, go to the monastery, you follow me, ask me everything,

People always think about the old feelings, you go back and think about it, this game of chess, who should survive and who should leave. ”

Albert slowly stood up, politely refused to be helped by the servant, walked out of the large commercial hall, took one last look, boarded the carriage and left.

That night, bad news came out of Mrs. Meghan's estate, the youngest teenager in the history of the peninsula was in power, drunk and unconscious, and died with her wife.

The little girl was adopted by Bran in a safe place and was fed and clothed for the rest of her life.

Bran moved Albert and Liana's graves to the vicinity of the girl's adoptive parents' home.

The adoptive parents were both Bran arranged.

Bran does not hide the fact that the girl is an adopted daughter, but the biological parenthood is changed to that of a hardworking businessman.

Throughout her life, the girl spent it without food and clothing.

At the age of seventeen, he also recruited a young and promising knight second boy.

He gave birth to four sons and three daughters.

Four sons became knights, and one daughter became a countess.

They all wore their grandfather's family crest, the irise.

The little girl passed on Albert's bloodline.

In the sixth year after Albert's death, Mrs. Megan, who had been in the convent for many years, was seriously ill when she saw her lively and lovely granddaughter, who only hugged her gently, while the girl, under the guidance of her adoptive parents, called out softly to her grandmother.

Mrs. Meghan, who heard this shout, passed away with a smile on her face and tears.

......

When the news of Albert's death reached Bran, who was correcting the official document.

He is good at copying scriptures, and he rarely breaks with a pen, and rarely writes two letters wrong.

His old acquaintance is missing, but his time will come.