The nickname Red Beard has a special meaning in the Mediterranean. Compared with Black Beard, which has only gained fame for robbing new colonial routes in recent years, the Pirate Red Beard brothers have been in this industry much earlier.

Shortly after Mohammed II conquered Constantinople, the sultan, who vowed to conquer the entire continent, was like Europe launched attacks again and again.

Among these fierce warriors from the East, one soldier was rewarded for his bravery in combat. He obtained a piece of self-cultivated land and tribute land distributed by the Sultan on an island in the Mediterranean. According to the Ottoman rules, the Sultan would take back two-thirds of the land after his death, and the rest could be passed to his son.

The Ottoman named Alifa gave birth to several sons in the following years, and he didn't choose much land to leave for his descendants.

The result is that his sons become pirates, and as their strength becomes larger and larger, the family has become the most powerful pirate group in the Mediterranean.

Alifa's sons are all very fierce. The eldest of them, Schoen, became a famous pirate leader. At the same time, because of his conspicuous red beard, he has such a nickname.

However, in this pirate family, there is one named Heiding, who is the most ambitious among their brothers.

In his opinion, when pirates end up having no way out, he was eager to build a real country and make his family a prominent king who could be on par with the Ottoman Sultan.

Such ambition may be too big and far away for a pirate, so even his brothers think he is too whimsical.

But Heiding obviously didn't think so. He actively formed his own fleet, while trying hard to convince the other brothers to look further. His goal was to defeat the fleets of countries that protected their respective maritime interests in the Mediterranean, and then forced them to recognize their family's status in the Mediterranean.

For this reason, Hereading first launched an attack on the sea forces of Sicily in a spring a few years ago, when the cold wind in February raged in the Mediterranean, but this did not blow out the heat that he longed to hunt.

So he ventured to approach Sicily with his own ships, and then on the sea not too far from the southern port of Sicily, he attacked a ship that fled from Crete to Sicily.

Most of the ship carried the remains of Eastern Romans. These Eastern Romans fled Constantinople decades ago, and then some settled in Crete, while others were worried about the spread of war, and finally decided to flee to the European continent with a large number of rare treasures.

At that time, Hereading seized the opportunity and attacked the ship. He robbed the wealth on the ship and captured a large number of slaves. After watching some people jumping into the sea, they drifted away on the sea with broken wooden boards and debris floating on the sea in despair, he proudly left the sea with the robbed spoils.

It was also from that time that Heileding launched a robbery of Sicily that lasted for many years.

Heiding was very convincing, and the rich rewards he received deeply touched his brothers, so the Red Beards gradually changed their style of robbing at sea. They began to consciously establish their own sphere of influence, and at the same time, they also ruthlessly attacked those enemies who tried to invade their territory.

These include Aragon and Sicily.

Over the years, Hereading has become one of the largest forces on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. They have established bases of light or darkness in North Africa along the Mediterranean coast. With their rich maritime experience and cunning wisdom, the Redbeard family not only avoided the encirclement and annihilation of powerful enemies again and again, but also repeatedly attacked their enemies at sea.

The boldness and achievements of the Red Bearded Brothers made the Mamuruke Dynasty, which was already in danger in Egypt, look at it differently. They felt that these pirates were a good step to restrain the increasingly difficult Ottomans.

So they gave the Red Bearded Brothers a variety of support to help him restrain Ultraman's maritime power.

However, unlike his brothers who thought this was a god-given opportunity, Hereading did not want to put his destiny entirely in the hands of the Mamuliks. While he was unceremoniously receiving a large amount of funding from the Mamuliks, he secretly followed the Ottomans and occasionally attacked the Europeans across the Mediterranean with them.

However, the Ottomans were not what Hereading thought was reliable. His eyes were still staring at Sicily, because in his opinion, Sicily was a huge obstacle to his future establishment of his own pirate kingdom.

Heiding was obviously a man who did what he said. During these years, he cleverly dealt with the sudden rise of trade alliance, but he did not forget the plan he had originally set.

Hereading has always believed that if he wanted to establish his own country on the western coast of the Mediterranean, the only option would be northern Africa.

This forced him to clash with Sicily, so he always seized every opportunity to attack Sicily's strength, because he knew that once one day faced those strong enemies head-on at sea, Sicily's unique position on the west coast of the Mediterranean would probably become the key to the enemy's containment.

However, this time, Hereading's attack on Sicily was a bit too fierce. The fleet sent from Sicily to Aragon to transport taxes for the first half of the year encountered a devastating blow from Hereading. The crew members who barely fled back to Sicily reported their experience to Flomensa. After confirming that the pirate fleet of Hereading's had almost cut off the waterway from Sicily to Aragon, Sicily Governor Flomensa had to send people to ask the king for help.

The sea route from Aragon to Sicily was cut off by pirates, and Ferdinand was deeply shocked by this unexpected and unexpected news.

He had heard of all the rumors about the pirates raging the Mediterranean, and he had indeed suffered a lot of losses, but he had never suffered such a huge loss.

The demise of the entire fleet made Ferdinand feel distressed for the money he lost, but he was more worried that the pirates had obviously formed a large scale, and the cut-off waterway made the connection between him and Sicily more difficult, which was very dangerous at this time.

Ferdinand did not care about his anger, and he immediately summoned his Aragonian generals to know how these people planned to solve the sudden troubles in front of him.

Most Castiles can't say they are gloating about the sudden accidents encountered by the Aragonese, but they won't worry about them. Some people do have the intention of watching the fun, and some even think that the time for those pirates to make trouble is really wonderful, at least in this way, Ferdinand can be less involved in Castile's affairs because of his rush.

Although the maritime power is not as powerful as Castilla, the Kingdom of Aragon still has a strong fleet, but is a little at a loss for this enemy that almost suddenly emerges.

Although they had known that the pirates were extremely rampant, they had never attacked the entire fleet head-on in the past, so this made Ferdinand not have a good way to deal with these pirates for a while, and the maritime threat from the Portuguese also prevented him from drawing the Aragon fleet, which was confronting the Portuguese near the Azores with the Castile Navy, from the Atlantic Ocean. If it weren't for Manuel

If Manuel was not an extremely religious believer, Ferdinand even suspected that the Portuguese might have colluded with the pirates, otherwise how could the pirates attack Sicily's fleet at this time?

Another reason why Ferdinand was also confused was that sending the Aragon fleet to the North African coast to entangle with pirates at this time would inevitably lead to the extreme weakening of his power in Iberia, which is quite unfavorable for him now.

Ferdinand finally decided to send his fleet to North Africa. He could not lose contact with Sicily. Even if it was only a short time, it was extremely dangerous at this time. In addition to the Ottomans who might attack from sea at any time, the alliance between France and Naples had already made him unable to sleep or eat, but now he was worried that losing contact might make Sicily difficult.

"Send our fleet to find the abominable pirates and tell them that even if they cannot eliminate them, they must hit their arrogance, and let them know that it is necessary to pay the price to get close to the continent, and then build a line of defense on the sea there to ensure the safety of the waterway between Aragon and Sicily."

Once he made clear what he wanted, Ferdinand's orders became concise and clear. He did not interfere with what the officers should do, but only told them what he wanted, so that his men could command their fleets flexibly to the greatest extent. In this regard, Ferdinand was much more enlightened than his in-laws, the emperor Maximian.

News that the Aragonese were about to withdraw the fleet soon spread in Valliardode, and the Castiles were mixed in praise.

Withdrawing the fleet at this time when the war with the Portuguese was about to begin, it was undoubtedly a very bad decision, but this time was so clever. The disadvantages caused by the Aragonese on the battlefield to Castile were regarded as a rare opportunity to weaken Ferdinand in the palace. The Castiles watched Aragon's fleet slowly move from the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean in this contradictory mood.

In Malaga, there is also a man watching the fleet passing by.

In fact, many captains and sailors of Aragon knew this man, Christopher Columbus, the famous adventurer in the sailing world, is a hero in the minds of many people. However, as he fell out of favor in front of the queen and his wife, this man's figure gradually disappeared in front of people.

Even if some people know that he has been free after a short prison break, they think that Columbus has lost the chance to return to the sea because of the queen's neglect. After all, it is impossible for him to organize a huge ocean expedition fleet again by himself.

So the Aragonese didn't know that Columbus was now in Malaga where they had just passed, and were still looking at the shadow of the ships that gradually disappeared from the sea.

In October, two news came to Vallied, one after another.

Don Bavi, who had always been arrogant and unreasonable before, suddenly became respectful. Although he repeatedly attacked the royal army in Andalusia and even drove the counter-rebel army out of Andalusia, he showed some signs of being moved about the negotiations proposed by the Queen.

Although he was still reserved in the correspondence, he could notice the meaning of "it's easy to discuss" that was vaguely revealed between the lines.

Isabella was a little confused about Don Bavi’s unexpected behavior. The advantage on the battlefield did not make him more unscrupulous, but instead showed signs of dancing negotiations. This made the sick queen vaguely guess what might have happened to Don Bavi.

Just because she could not find out the specific information, Isabella had to ask people to strengthen her inquiries about Andalusia, while sending envoys to show her kindness to Don Bavi.

If Don Bavi's weird behavior is a good sign, then what came from Toledo is obviously bad news.

According to Isabella's intention, the envoy who announced the so-called "Training to the Old Capital of Princess Juana" not only did not see Juana, but even the city of Toledo was unable to enter.

After learning about the purpose of the messenger, the noble parliament announced overnight that it had officially recognized Juana's regent status. At the same time, they proactively announced Juana as the official heir of the Astamara family in Castilla as the same Castilla noble.

All this process took place in one night, and the time was short and the situation was too hasty compared to any such ceremony.

But all these rituals were performed under the testimony of Pope Alexander VI, but this is enough to prove that all rituals are legal and effective.

So when the messenger who had been traveling day and night finally arrived at Toledo, the representatives sent by the noble council who had been waiting outside the city only easily told him: "It's over."

After the messenger had to rush back to Barryalido overnight to report the bad news after arguing repeatedly and was even forced to expel.

As for this accident, according to the words from some people serving the Queen, people learned that the Queen had sent everyone out after listening to the messenger's report. In the whole day after that, except for the Moore servant beside her, even Ferdinand was turned away by her.

Toledo's actions meant that the noble parliament had completely abandoned Isabella and declared Juana's rights on its own, which was completely opposite to Valliardodo.

Don Juliormando stood side by side with Alexander in front of a stone house built with local grey bluestone as materials.

The house is very large, with two floors of upper and lower structures not much shorter than other three floors. The windows of the house are very small. This is a typical Iberian structure. It can be imagined that behind these windows in the early years, there were always wary soldiers holding bows and arrows standing behind them, ready to explain to the invading enemies at any time.

The doors of the house are also very narrow, and even if both fans are opened, they can only allow one person to enter.

The door was closed and you could hear someone walking inside, but no one came to open the door.

"They have refused to come out since they got here," Don Juliomando said to Alexander helplessly. "I'm worried that she will embarrass us all by the formal ceremony. You must know that she does look crazy sometimes."

"Crazy Juana."

Alexander talked to himself in a voice that only he could hear. In fact, he was not willing to see this poor woman. It can be said that the only innocent person in this era was probably Juana.

It is hard to believe that in such an era, women with such status would have such pure love. Juana regarded Philip as her only value as if she was obsessed with a priceless treasure. This pure and unreal love happened in such a complete political marriage.

So Alexander knew that whether it was history or reality, it was destined to be a tragedy.

I went up and knocked on the door again, and the footsteps that seemed to be walking back and forth in the room stopped, and then a slightly nervous voice finally came out: "Who are you and what are you doing?"

"Princess, don't you want to treat the prince?" Alexander asked while seeing Don Juliormando on the side shaking his head, but he ignored the chief veteran and continued to say to Juana who seemed to be close to the door inside, "Believe me, princess, I can make Philip feel at least better."

"Who are you?" Juana's urgent question came from inside.

"Gombrey, Duke of Romanthesia," said Alexander.

The door fell into silence again, and Don Juliomando opened his hands helplessly. He had encountered such a thing before.

Alexander waited patiently. He believed that Juana would open the door. As long as it was related to Philip, she would do whatever it took, even if it was something that made her worried and afraid.

Sure enough, the closed door opened a crack, and a big shiny eye looked out from the crack.

"I know you, I have seen you in Valliardo." Juana said with certainty first, then looked vigilantly at Don Juliormando beside her, and then her eyes quickly showed a look of alertness. "I have seen you too, you want to separate me and my husband."

"That's for..."

"Can you cure my husband's illness?" Juana directly interrupted the chief veteran, staring at Alexander waiting for his answer.

"At least I can make him less painful," said Alexander, seeing Juana hesitant, he tentatively reached out and pressed it on the door. "Can I go in, Your Highness? I think I can take a look at the situation of the prince first."

Juana finally made a decision and let out a "hmm" sound and then retreated, and the door opened gently.

"Duke, can you really cure Philip's illness?"

Alexander noticed the strange look on Don Juliormando's face when he asked him this, but he did not answer but walked into the door.

"Until now no one can cure his strange disease. Maybe you happened to have some solutions, but just like those pirates attacking Sicily, it might be just a coincidence." Don Juliormando said with a frown afterwards.

Alexander suddenly stopped, and he turned around and smiled at the elders and said softly: "Those pirates, do you really think that is a coincidence?"
Chapter completed!