Iberia in the early 16th century was a place full of boiling and passion. The land occupied by the Moors for centuries was finally restored. Then, because it became stronger and stronger, it was also taken more and more by European powers. Whether it was Castilla, Aragon, or Portugal, the royal family was highly respected for the various promising actions made during this period.

Then, there are the dazzling harvests of various countries in the development of overseas territories.

Just as European countries were complaining about their forces in the Mediterranean that were almost breathless and silenced by the Ottomans, the Iberian Peninsula was thriving.

The location close to the Atlantic Ocean made their eyes more focused on the endless ocean. In the eyes of the Iberians, the Mediterranean was nowhere much bigger than a bathtub. Their eyes had long been turned to the mysterious and rich East, and the mysterious continent that was still regarded by Columbus as the east coast of India.

Or even in the countryside where they don't understand all this, people are happy that their business has become better. They know that the wine made in their vineyards can be sold out in big cities without much effort, because there are many people there who drink in buckets all day long. They also know that shipyards of all sizes are being built in many coastal cities. As long as they have the strength to work in those shipyards, and then earn a few silver houses to support the whole family. They also know that those fleets from Africa have looted many slaves. In addition to the rich, they have targeted the female slaves with smooth skin and exotic skin, more people are attracted to male slaves who are healthy and only have to give a meal but don't have to pay any compensation.

All of this is a new change in Iberia, from Porto in the north to Malaga in Aragon in the south, the entire peninsula is full of vitality that is not found in other parts of Europe.

Alexander could feel the strong smell. It can be seen from the priests holding wooden crosses and dressed in simple and solemn expressions that compared with these devout servants, the priests in Italy were simply fat bastards. Here, there were almost no one who looked fat, and even more sober jokes about clergy.

The people here respect those who serve God from the bottom of their hearts, and at the same time they are extremely pious. This can be seen from the actions of the ancient Benedictine Rules that still adhere to four prayers a day. Although they do not wear robes, in Iberia, the Benedictine Rules has become a life rule that many families consciously abide by.

All of this makes people feel that they are in a model land of heaven on earth, and even Ser, as an Orthodox, can't help but sigh at the piety of the Iberians.

Alexander was also attracted by this place. He had been here for too long on the European continent, where he saw the confusion and at a loss as the arrival of the new and old eras. Thousands of years of faith were gradually disintegrating and collapsed with the emergence of many new things. People went from anger to sarcasm, and then to indifference because of the fall of the church and the moral decline of the priests. And as far as he knew, a period of great division that would cause chaos to the entire world of Christ would happen. It would be a terrible disaster that almost caused the Vatican Church to fall into a catastrophe after the split of the East and West Churches.

And these seem to be just legends in Iberia, the Holy See, the Church, the Pastoral and the royal family that have received their support have a high status and prestige, which is enough for them to do anything.

"The king is still more interested in the new route through Africa. He thinks it is a mature route, so although he also has a desire to open the Western Atlantic route, he obviously still believes that the road to Africa should be stabilized first."

Sitting in the chair drinking the dark hot coffee, Dagama said with a little concern that he was not unfamiliar with the strange drink recommended by the Duke, but he could not adapt to it. Now he simply put down his cup and was a little excited: "Duke, are you sure? I mean those navigation diaries. I have carefully studied the routes inside. We can be sure that as long as the contents are true, we don't have to waste any effort to reach those places as long as there are 2 to 3 boats. And I have a hunch that Christopher Columbus may have arrived in a very small area of ​​the land, and maybe it is much larger than he described. If that is the case, it will be enough for us to have a place to stay."

Alexander looked at the excited Navigator. This was his first time meeting with this celebrity. He felt that this person was actually a stubborn and a bit irritable, and too persistent in wealth. Perhaps it was because of this that Manuel wanted to replace him with his confidants. After all, no one wanted a less obedient person to control such a huge source of wealth.

Alexander also believed that Da Gama was so passionate about routes to the West, probably because he heard the new news from Castilla. Just over two months ago, Columbus returned from the land he regarded as India again. Although he was escorted back this time, his own statements and the narratives of some witnesses proved how the Spaniards, including Columbus himself, who had reached the "West India Coast", wanted to rob local wealth, and how crazy they were placing one sphere of influence on that vast land.

All these made Da Gama feel a little unstoppable. Compared to being neglected by Manuel, the dual temptation of being able to sail again and obtain wealth made him unable to curl up at home and wait for the king's re-fed care.

"There must be done, to organize a large enough fleet, to completely arm them, there are already conflicts in the fight for land, since that will not only happen, so what we need to organize is a fully armed expedition," Dagama kept saying, and he picked up a coffee cup and drank it in one sip because he was a little excited and thirsty. "These all need to be sponsored, but the most important thing is to get the permission of the king."

"Then let's do these things," said Alexander to Diego, who was sitting aside and listening carefully and not speaking. "We can do all of these, raise ships, recruit experienced sailors, and provide enough funds for this sailing, so the next thing to do is to change your mind."

Tiego nodded silently. He knew that this was his task, but it didn't seem so easy to get Manuel to change his mind.

Manuel I was a very stubborn person. Although he was very enthusiastic about the wealth that might bring to the Western Atlantic route, he still valued the Eastern route more. In addition, we must talk about the influence of Queen Maria on him.

Maria was firmly opposed to the opening of the Atlantic route. She believed that doing so was "not only absurd but also a treacherous". There were many reasons why she would take it like this, but the most important thing was that she did not want a new conflict between Portugal and her mother country to fight for colonies.

Although Alexander VI had used a Pope meridian to temporarily resolve the dispute between the two major navigators, this does not mean that the contradiction really does not exist. If there is another conflict for a new course, it will make her very embarrassed.

“It’s a really tough task.”

Alexander couldn't help but admit that this matter was not that easy. No matter how you look at it, it would be a very troublesome thing to convince the couple to change their minds, not to mention that there was a conflict between beliefs, interests and various concepts.

In early October, James hurriedly left Lisbon after accepting the king's summons. He heard that his brother had sued, so he was in a hurry to Castilla to see what was going on.

Before boarding the boat, Alexander found James. After some secret talks, James took Alexander's instructions to him and embarked on a trip to Castilla.

Queen Maria was still staring at Juana. This has actually become a show in her daily life to relieve boredom. In Maria's opinion, Juana will have something to do. Even though she is in the Convent of Mercy Maria all day long, and even rarely goes to Saint Jose Castle, this cannot reduce Maria's suspicion of her.

But Alexander disappointed Maria a little.

Since she first heard that Alexander was visiting Juana, Maria firmly believed that the duke must have been involved in something. Although she did not think that the pope's son-in-law was the enemy, when she thought that Gonzalo was involved, she couldn't help but feel that there was a big conspiracy.

So she wrote a letter to her mother early on and reported everything she heard, and there was more than one letter. However, Queen Isabella seemed to not believe her daughter at all. In her reply, she told Maria that Gonzalo was her most trusted general. Perhaps he did something that made people not very satisfied, but he was blameless in the matter of loyalty.

Although Maria always obeyed her mother, she could not sit still and turn a blind eye this time, especially after sending someone to inquire about Alexander and visiting Juana twice, she became more concerned about this matter.

Soon she learned the purpose of the duke from some people who were stationed around Juana. To Maria's surprise, the cause of all this was only because of some rumors that Cardinal Mahimo had heard from the Aragonese troops stationed in the local area while inspecting Sicily.

Among the Portuguese soldiers who participated in the Aragonese army, there were rumors that Juana, who was under house arrest in Lisbon, was treated very harshly. The queen not only often deliberately made her mistakes, but even withheld her due treatment. Therefore, Castilla's former heir to the throne now lives a very embarrassing life, but even a little miserable.

The cardinal obviously thought that since he knew this, he could not turn a deaf ear, so he reported to the Pope, and then the Duke of Romanesia had another task besides secretly reviewing the holy land.

At least Maria heard this. Although she was still suspicious of this, she at least felt a little relieved.

After all, no matter how I think about it, the duke seemed to have nothing to do with Juana. The only explanation is that as I heard, he was ordered by the pope to see if Juana was treated unfairly as Cardinal Massimo heard.

Maria was very annoyed. She felt that she was still too kind to her cousin. It would be fine if she was really imprisoned in the Shijing Prison in Lisbon, but now she obviously only gained a bad reputation.

Maria felt it was necessary to clarify all this to the duke, and because the duke was on the task of reviewing the local sacred lands, she hoped that she would not cause misunderstandings because of Juana's affairs.

But the duke didn't seem to be very keen on getting along with the king and his wife. He frequently visited churches and monasteries during this period, or came and went with some merchants. Although this made Maria feel somewhat relieved, considering that she wanted to gain the favor of the Vatican, she felt that it would be better to have more contact with this duke.

So when he heard that the duke visited Juana in the Monastery of Mercy Maria again, although he knew that the whole process was accompanied by others, Maria still felt that he should take advantage of the opportunity to attend the anniversary of the Lord's Training with the duke to remind him.

The main training anniversary is the first Sunday of October every year. On this day, all churches will ring the bell every half an hour in the early morning, so that it will continue until after it is completely dark.

Alexander was awakened by the bell, and he got up from the bed and walked to the window a little staggeringly.

Listening to the vague noisy sound outside, he pushed open the window and was surprised to find that although it was still dark, there were already many people on the street.

Because it was not dawn, some people held torches in their hands. Although there were many people on the street, people tried to keep their voices as low as possible. Listening to the bells silently marking the cross in front of their chests, some knelt on the street and chanting the scriptures gently in their mouths.

Alexander stood in the window and watched the scene on the street. After a while he let out a slight sigh.

At the end of the 15th and early 16th centuries, this was a very special era.

Like on the European continent that has been covered with a thousand years of clouds, deep-rooted faith has cracked, and a trace of dawn that has never appeared before is projecting through the crack, bringing a ray of light to the dark earth.

However, it was also at this time that those who still held great respect for their faith burst out from their hearts with stronger beliefs than before.

This belief spreads around the Iberian Peninsula with strong fanaticism, and will also appear in the territory of the German princes farther away in many years. The change that triggered at that time will shake the entire world of Christ.

At the entrance of the Angel Cathedral, Alexander met Archbishop Burozon.

Seeing Alexander, the tall Archbishop greeted him in a loud tone from afar, and then he walked towards Alexander with a powerful step of a knight rather than a priest.

"Duke, I can assure you that everything you see will be very impressed, and I believe you will not forget this scene even after returning to the Vatican."

The Archbishop spoke, spreading his arms forward, and with his gesture, Alexander looked at the dark crowd in the square in front of the Angel Cathedral, accompanied by the tide of the deafening chants like the Atlantic waves.

"Duke, don't you feel like you are witnessing a real miracle," the Archbishop asked Alexander. "I know your identity makes you unable to make a more just judgment, but I can guess that you should not see this in the Vatican."

Alexander nodded silently. He knew what the Archbishop said, but he could not help but admit that such a scene was indeed invisible in the Vatican.

There are also many people gathered in the Vatican square, but who are they? Prostitutes, movies, assassins, and specialized brokers. This scene seems to have only appeared in Florence during the Savonalola era, but ironically, the man was eventually sent to the stolen rack for his overly fanatical belief.

In Iberia, the same fanatical behavior was supported by the monarch. Seeing the king and his wife walking slowly towards the Angel Cathedral surrounded by many noble knights, Alexander took a deep breath.

What he had to face was not only Isabella's daughter, but also Manuel I, a Portuguese king who seemed to have the upper hand because of the oppression of the two kings behind his wife, but in fact he had extremely firm and even almost fanatical beliefs.

Alexander suddenly felt that it was a wise choice to decide to come to Portugal first. Just look at the people here, it is not difficult to imagine what the more fanatical Castilla would look like. It would only be more fanatical than the more fanatical ones here.

Alexander did not think that he could have a chance to shake the two kings in this situation, unless there was an opportunity to leverage their seemingly solid foundation, or to make a crack in the unbreakable alliance between the two kingdoms of Castilla and Aragon.

The king and his wife, who had already walked through the crowd to the steps of the cathedral, walked to the Archbishop, who bowed their heads to the cross in the hands of the Archbishop and accepted the Archbishop's blessing.

But when she passed by Alexander, Maria stopped first. She was covered with thick white powder so that she could hardly see her true face. After a while, she slowly said: "Duke, you have seen everything that happened here, and I believe you must have personally proved how ridiculous some rumors are, so I hope you can report to the Vatican in a fair way next.

Maria's words made Alexander look at Archbishop Bruzon, glanced at the archbishop's expressionless look, and Alexander bowed to Maria.

"Please rest assured that your Majesty, I swear with my family's reputation that I will report everything I see to the Vatican." Maria looked at Alexander and was silent for a moment, then nodded slowly, reached out to Manuel's arm, who had been watching this scene, and the two of them slowly walked towards the cathedral.

"It seems that it is still correct not to go directly to Castilla." Looking at the couple's backs, Alexander muttered to himself.

Alexander, who had been helpless about how to shake the foundation of the Spanish two kings, saw hope in Portugal at this moment.
Chapter completed!