The weather shows no signs of improvement. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that this year is the coldest winter of the century. At least there are even travelers who have been frozen to death due to lack of protection on the road.

It wasn't just the weather that was bad. When the scout came back and reported that the bridge in front had been destroyed because of an avalanche, Alexander knew that the first problem of the trip had emerged.

What Caesar hoped to open up was not just the road between Rome and the coal mines on Sanroni. He needed to get information from other places as soon as possible, and at the same time, he hoped to restore Rome's control over these places as soon as possible.

Alexander knew Caesar's anxious mood. In this chaotic period where land could change ownership at any time due to a turmoil, once some places lose their sources of information for a long time, it may give others an opportunity to take advantage of it.

While providing Rome with precious coal, Sanroni Peak also stationed an army that was not large in number but condescendingly controlled the mountains in northeastern Rome due to its dangerous terrain. This Vatican army was remote and the French obviously did not attach much importance to coal, so they did not receive much attention from the French, or they did not know that such a team was stationed there, and the French were staring at those big cities.

The destroyed bridge is a wooden bridge leading across from a village. You can already see the village opposite from the river. Moreover, due to the dry season in winter, most of the river water has dried up, but the river banks on both sides exposed are a little steep. Below is a piece of wooden bridge wreckage with stubble poking on the broken ice surface. Several places even blocked the river channel because of the smashed bridge body, and large pieces of solidified ice lumps were raised.

"Sir, this place is not easy to pass," said a scout Agri, who was under Carlo, walked over panting. "Although the whole river is not wide, it is very steep. Even if you can go down to the bottom of the river and pass through the ice, it is not easy to get to the other side."

"Send someone to search upstream and downstream as much as possible to see if there is a suitable place to cross the river." Alexander could only order this at this time. He looked at the village far away in the opposite direction with a little sadness, and a shadow flashed through his heart.

Carlo has not come back yet, and he doesn't know if he has discovered something or something has happened. The enemies who have suddenly appeared and disappeared suddenly are nowhere to be seen. Alexander always feels that they will not admit defeat so easily. Although the attacks at night have repelled them, he is very clear that the enemy has not encountered a real blow. Although a person who seems to be very important has also lost a cannon, if they still don't give up, it will still be a great threat to themselves.

Alexander knew that this was not a random thought, and he would know it by looking at the situation in front of him.

Although he suffered a failure, as long as the enemy harassed him all the way, it would cause him a lot of trouble. After all, the enemy is in the dark and he is in the light, not to mention that the other party is very clear about his destination. Just a few attacks are needed on the road, which is enough to make him run away.

Especially at this time, Alexander even suspected that the bridge was deliberately destroyed. If he ordered the team to cross the river like this, perhaps he might have been attacked as soon as he walked on the ice.

The village opposite looked quiet. Even though he knew that there were so many people coming to the river, no one came out to watch it. This made Alexander feel something was wrong.

"How long will it take to rebuild the bridge?" Alexander asked the Agri people around him. Some of them had done carpenter work in the farm. Although he knew that rebuilding a wooden bridge was not a small project, he just had to be able to pass it, not to build a new bridge.

"Sir, this is not good," an Agri soldier lifted a stone and smashed it into the river. As the stone hit a large bulge of ice, it slid far on the ice. The soldier shook his head. "If we want to barely be able to do so, we can cut some big logs from the woods and fix them on the river with the original bridge piles. However, such a bridge cannot withstand many people. So many of us used to be very unsolid."

Alexander frowned slightly. He knew that the soldier was right. He could not repair the wooden bridge without various tools. It was not a good idea if the enemy was really peeking nearby and was ready to attack at any time.

"Send people to the village opposite and ask them to prepare some hot water and hot food for us," Alexander told the scouts, "Be careful, if anything is wrong, evacuate immediately. I don't want to lose you for the sake of food."

"Sir, please do." A scout nodded gratefully and immediately walked slowly down the river bank with his companions, from where they were going to cross the river from the ice.

What would I do if I were those enemies? Alexander thought to himself, and he stood by the river bank and looked at the village opposite. There was still no movement there, and further behind the village were large areas of towering jungle that had no end to see.

When Alexander stood on the bank to observe the scene opposite, in the woods behind the village on the bank, two people were standing in the shadow of a tree observing him.

"What is he doing? Why is he just a river?" One of them asked. The man had thick and long brown curly hair, which drooped slightly to his back, making him look like a lion with a strong head, while the other man was older than him, his figure was shorter, and his already sparse hair was floating around in the wind.

"I think he is worried about being attacked," said the short man, pointing to the several black dots that suddenly appeared on the edge of the river bank. These black dots were obviously humans. They seemed to struggle to climb ashore, and then several people walked carefully into the village. "We are still very cautious."

"That fool in Tiego made things messed up," said the long-haired man dissatisfiedly. "The worst thing is that he not only saved his life but also gained nothing, but also made this Gumplay alert."

"Don't scold Tiego anymore. He has gone to God. He is a good man and a devoted believer, but he has taken his life recklessly." The short man stopped his companion from complaining. "And you must not refuse to admit that this young man is much more cautious and cunning than we think. Perhaps we have underestimated him from the beginning."

Although the long-haired man was reluctant, he nodded. He walked out from behind the tree and leaned against the tree to look at the people carefully. Because the clothes on his body were dark and they were in the shadow of the woods, he was not worried about being discovered.

"At the beginning, we thought this young man was a furry child who had never seen the world and had been locked in the monastery, but he did not expect that he would bring us many surprises," the short man leaned against the tree like his companion, holding his shoulders, watching the scouts enter the village. "We underestimated him like Diego, so we have to be careful this time. After all, if we fail again, the patience of the adults will be exhausted."

The long-haired man nodded, and then asked strangely: "But I really don't understand why the adults pay so much attention to this kid. Who is he?"

"This is not what we should ask about," the short man patted his companion's arm and turned to the woods. "We just need to do our own work," he said, and stopped and turned to look at the other side. "Maybe some of the people who went to find him before knew who he was, but unfortunately they were all killed by that guy Kuntuo."

Speaking of Kuntuo, both of them couldn't help but feel silent. Although it had been a long time, they still couldn't forget the scene when they attacked that person in that small town called Arszhentu.

Even without any precaution, when a group of them launched an attack, Kuntuo's hasty counterattack brought them a considerable threat. Even after being injured so seriously, the man could escape. Although his body was cold when he was finally found, several lives were taken into account, which made them still unable to forget after so long.

When the scout came back, the sun had already begun to go west.

After careful inquiry, Alexander had a rough understanding of the situation in the villages on the other side.

This is a village belonging to the Vatican. The fields nearby are all from the church, extending from the village to the northeast behind the woods, with a large area of ​​land.

The arrival of the French did not seem to have any impact on this village. They still make a living by farming all day long. Like in previous years, during the slack farming period after winter wheat sowing, the people in the village will do other business. Although they are prohibited from leaving this village according to the canon, some people will take advantage of this time to quietly leave the village and go to a larger town to find a living opportunity.

A very ordinary village, there is nothing to doubt.

Listening to the scout's report, Alexander couldn't help but ponder, wondering if he was thinking too much, he always felt something was wrong.

"Why don't the people in the village see us?" Alexander asked "don't say they didn't see us."

"They said it was because they didn't know who we were," the scout looked back at the woods. They said that there were small groups of robbers recently because the road was blocked, and two villagers who had gone to the town in front to sell some things were also robbed. One of them died just because they were injured, so they were afraid that we would not dare to get close."

Speaking of robbers, Alexander understood a little.

Although it is in a territory directly under the Pope, it is not safer than other places in such turbulent times. Sometimes travel between villages is somewhat dangerous, especially when it is in a snow disaster and the nearby roads become isolated and helpless, it is not new to robbers become bold and cruel.

"We have to cross the river," Alexander looked at the village opposite. "Half the bohemians stayed by the river, and I'm going to bring fifty people over."

"Sir, do you still need to bring musketeers?" asked a leader of an Agri soldier. Seeing Alexander thinking, he said again, "If there is anything wrong, musketeers can shoot at any time."

Alexander thought for a while and nodded in agreement.

In fact, he didn't want to disperse the power of the musketeers too much. Alexander knew that with the current power of the musketeers, if they could not be used in a concentrated manner, they would not only not work, but sometimes they might even become a burden.

And a well-trained and excellent musketeer is of no less valuable than the knights in the eyes of those nobles.

Alexander hopes that the musketeers will become the backbone of his army in the future. Although firearms cannot compete with cold weapons, regardless of technology or scale, he certainly knows that firearms will be destined to replace cold weapons.

Alexander hopes that he is the key figure who leads the firearms to truly dominate the battlefield, not others.

At least it can't be Gonzalo.

While thinking, Alexander watched as the Bohemians dismounted, because the war horses could not cross the river, so the Bohemians could only temporarily change from cavalry to infantry.

Several Agri musketeers were also ready to cross the river with Alexander.

Because it is the dry season in winter, the water level on the river surface is very low, and it looks very steep from the river bank above to the riverbed.

Although the river surface has ice, it is always uneasy to step on it. Looking at the Bohemian walking carefully in front of him, and looking at the slightly transparent ice surface under his feet, Alexander couldn't help but think that if the river surface suddenly cracked at this time, it would have really taken his life.

The riverbed on the other side was not so steep and could make people climb upwards. When Alexander finally climbed up the river bank, looking at the sky that was obviously dark, he couldn't help but urged to speed up and enter the village.

This is a small village with only a few dozen households. Compared with the land they have to cultivate, there are really not many people in this village.

But Alexander knew that although there was a lot of land, these farmers themselves did not get any benefits. As the church property belonging to the Holy See, 70% of all their income was paid to the Holy See.

This may sound incredible, but in fact it is already very kind to these farm names. Some lords even ask their constituents to pay more shares of various physical taxes. If these physical taxes are to be turned into pure money taxes, the loss to be converted must be calculated separately.

When I entered the village, it was already dark. Looking back, the fire had already lit up on the other side and began camping. Alexander asked the scouts to take him to a house in the village that looked quite decent.

Along the way, he could see some villagers looking out from their doors and windows, and also see some figures flashing in the yard. The people in the village seemed to want to see, but they seemed to be concerned about something.

"Sir, I heard from the people in the village that robbers often come during this period."

A scout explained that when he arrived at the door of the house, the scout was about to reach out to pat the door, but he didn't expect that the door had already opened itself.

A man who looked gray-haired was standing at the door, looking at the Agri soldier who had been here before, and then looking at Alexander standing behind him.

"This is my lord, Lord Gombre of Agri," the soldier said deliberately in a arrogant tone. "I have told you before that we will requisition your house."

"Please forgive the Lord Lord," the farmer bowed. "Everything here belongs to the priest in the town ahead. Whether you can live here must be agreed by the priest."

The Agri soldier showed anger on his face. He seemed to feel that he had lost someone in front of his master. He immediately reached out and pushed the farmer in anger.

"Go aside, my lord is Agri's noble, the cardinals of Rome and the great nobles are all very polite to our lords." As the soldiers seemed to think it was not enough, they added another sentence, "We are the Lord of the Lord who is carrying out the mission under the orders of His Majesty the Pope, and even the Cardinal has blessed him."

The soldier's words made the farmer's face look surprised and disbelief. He looked at Alexander with awe and doubt, as if he was still a little unbelievable for a moment, a big man suddenly came to his home.

"Okay, we'll just stay here for one night and go to the front town tomorrow. The bridge here needs to be built with people in the front town."

Alexander said casually and walked into the house to look at it casually. Gradually, a trace of doubt appeared in his eyes.

He walked to the door and looked out into the village outside, with the doubts in his eyes getting stronger.

Whether it is this house or the entire village, he always feels missing something.

In the woods outside the village, the two people who had been secretly monitoring Alexander and the others across the river were watching the lights lit in the village.

"It's almost done," said the long-haired man.
Chapter completed!