"Citizens of Genoa, citizens of the great republic, an unfair treatment has befallen us like a curse, issued by the Pope, led by the Holy Roman Emperor, imposed on all the citizens and citizens of Genoa, this decision of the Pope is not only unfair, but also greatly damaged the spirit and credibility of the citizens of Genoa, the merchants are suppressed everywhere, goods are confiscated, private property rights are violated, and it is completely contrary to the traditions that have always been there, is an impudent affront to the Republic of Genoa,"

The consul of Genoa, Francisco de Laginha, spoke in the civic square in front of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.

The Pope's decision was evidently a great shock and bewilderment to the Genoeans, and to a certain extent frightened, which was exactly what the Pope had hoped for, and which certainly deterred the nasty opponents, but what was so much feared by the populace was exactly what the higher echelons of the Republic wanted.

"We want them to know that our freedom and democracy are what we defend with our own strength, that we have been given to us by God Christ, that no one can overthrow our country and government by any means, that we will defend our dignity and position by force, long live the Republic of Genoa, long live the ruling government of the Republic!"

Regardless of the inner thoughts of the people in the audience, they had to respond with warm applause, and at this time, the Genoese crossbowmen arranged in advance by Rakginia entered in a line, carrying crossbows on their shoulders and wearing robes, looking very powerful, which made Laginia even more arrogant.

At the end of his speech, Laginia did not return to his own government, but to a large estate in the suburbs, which is his main destination today.

"Come with me, Lord Consul, gentlemen have been waiting for a long time."

Someone greeted them at the door, and Lagginia naturally followed the locals.

"Have all the gentlemen arrived? No one is absent, right? ”

Rakinia asked with concern, naturally hoping that the more people who came, the better.

"It's all here, and we all hope that the consuls will explain to us about the relationship with the Pope, you know, we have a lot of debts with the Holy See, and if we go to war with the Holy See, then someone between us will suffer."

The people who greeted Rakinia were also well-dressed, and at first glance they were big names who were usually respected in the area.

"Your Excellency Aldorfi, you are going to be on my side this time,"

Laginha smiled bitterly, the meeting here is actually the central meeting of Genoia, and the people here are also high-level figures in Genoa, and they are the actual rulers of Genoia,

"Without the support of your Excellencies, the country would not have the strength to go to war with the Holy See and Regensburg at the same time, but if it has your support, it is a very simple matter, can all the respected dignitaries present be able to endure the interference of foreign powers?"

And the object of Laginia's request, Count Aldorfi, just smiled and looked directly into Laginia's eyes,

"Rest assured, Your Excellency, although a war with the Holy See would be detrimental to the interests of the bankers in the country, they have never had the power to discuss politics, and this is no more true at this meeting."

The political structure of Genoa, the number of bankers in Genoa is very large, and in such a republic, it should have been the bankers who held the political power.

But the reality is just the opposite, although the bankers are rich, but the political position is not an absolute advantage, there are several reasons for this, first, people generally hate these usury bankers, their existence often brings not a good thing, on the basis of profit, they do everything,

Second, the influence of France came to Italy, in history, at this time France was already going to invade Italy and control Genoa, originally the establishment of the Northern Italian League at that time also had the presence of the French in it, but due to the turmoil of the situation in Christendom and the instability of the domestic princes, Charles VII wisely gave up his plot against Italy temporarily, but was ready to wait for the situation to change,

Although France did not intend to unify Italy by force, infiltration could still be done, as was the case in Genoa, where the aristocracy held power in France at the same time as it did in Genoa.

It is worth mentioning that Genoa is very famous for its banking sector, both historically and today, and its lending business is even as far as the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Portugal, which is relatively famous in the Mediterranean world.

Laginia knew that the Count from Lyon was telling the truth, but his concern was not that, but that some nobles might have been assimilated by the merchants of the banking and financial industry to become the spokesmen of the other party, which meant that he needed to do something to gain the support of the bankers and not be able to use force completely.

All the way to the garden, you can see that there is already a large group of people waiting here, the whispers gradually disappear with the entrance of Laginia, and the eyes have shifted to Laginia, as the people in front stand up, like the waves of the sea, people stand up one after another,

"For Genoa, Amen!"

After Rakiniya returned the salute, Rakginia came to the seat prepared for him and looked at the nobles around him, ready to accept everyone's questions.

"Governing Laginia"

Someone shouted Laginia, attracted the other party's gaze, and then nodded,

"We all heard that today the ruling government issued a statement on armed conflict with the Holy See? This has left us all with some doubts, are we ready? ”

Laginia was calm, he could recognize that the other party was a viscount, and the family crest was clearly hanging on his chest, and he considered the sentence,

"Yes, what the Holy See has done to us is indeed a bit excessive, not only contrary to tradition, but also not abiding by the law, we still do not know what the Holy See's code of conduct is, it is entirely dependent on the Pope's own preferences, but the bishops did not elect the Pope carefully, the successive popes were neither pious nor necessarily talented, and now they are doing such and such things to us, San Alfonso could have abolished this Pope in the first place, even if we could not follow it, Can't we resist? ”

Laginia's words chilled the scene, and it still took a little time for everyone to digest the information about the obvious tendency to govern.

"But... The ruling should know... The Holy See is our big customer... If you lose these... It's going to be a tough time for us to trade in the future. ”

The speaker is rambling, in fact, what he wants to say is not necessarily what he says.

"It doesn't matter, the Papal States itself has its own fleet, and there is not much trade between us and them, even if we lose this order from the Holy See, our goods will not worry about buyers, and we don't have to worry about how much impact it will have on us."

Rakginia responded only to the issue of trade, and both sides began to play dumb.

The banking industry is still a relatively upright industry, but in the Middle Ages, such things as usury were too common, or rather, such things were common in any time period, and it was not uncommon for usury to force people to die, and people hated usurers.

In the regulations of the Catholic Church, it is clearly stipulated that pagans, suicides and usurers are not allowed to be buried in the church cemetery after death, which means that these people can only be buried in the wilderness after death, let alone the soul wants to go to heaven, which shows the severity of usury.

But helplessly, although everyone prohibits such a thing on the surface, but people can not avoid encountering a difficult time, no matter who he is, the Italian economy in this period is developed, and there are many people who make a living from usury, cardinals are naturally one of the objects of usury, and there are many people engaged in this industry in Genoa, and everyone is actually most concerned about this problem.

But it was evident that the matter was not on the table, and to talk about the usury industry, which everyone spurned, and to spread it at such an important national meeting, did not add a layer of holiness to the punitive actions of the Holy See, and people would surely say that "the holy crusades are once again waging war against all evil speculators", and that would be very disadvantageous to Genoa.

For the things that I care about the most, I can't ask directly, which makes people start to get anxious, but at this time it confirms the sentence, don't worry about it first, let me be anxious first,

"Regginia is in power, and as for our domestic banking sector, I'm sure you must know that the cardinals are our big customers, and they have a lot of money stored in our banks, and if this money is leaked because of the war between us and them, it will greatly hurt our own banking industry, what are your preparations for this?"

What do bankers in this era rely on to make money, first of all, they are lending, not necessarily usury, but ordinary loans can also get a lot of income, and the borrowers at this time are all nobles with their own territories and castles as guarantees, and they generally do not worry about the other party defaulting.

Secondly, even if they are engaged in trade, bankers are not all bankers, and many of them have dual identities, which is not surprising at all, at this time Genoa's ocean-going trade was very developed, even as far as China, and the trade activities were extremely developed.

Some people died, but not completely......