Vol 7 Chapter 15: New World

After the main training anniversary in early October, Alexander did not stop his footsteps in Portugal. Instead, his activities became more frequent.
He has heard about Manuel in history, and after seeing the king with his own eyes, he also has a new understanding of the character of Manuel I.
Portugal has always seemed to be a younger brother who was always suppressed around Spain after the reunification. Even before the era of double kings, Castilla has been firmly pressed on Portugal's head.
This has made the Portuguese kings feel breathless. Even Portugal will become a nautical power, and Prince Enrique will be so dedicated to opening sea routes, mostly because Portugal is surrounded by Castilla on the Atlantic Ocean on three sides. It can be said that if there is no passage from the sea to the outside world, Portugal has completely blocked Castile from the land and cornered the corner of the Iberian Peninsula.
This is obviously unbearable for any country. The kings of Portugal have been committed to breaking the siege of the Castilians, but this idea on land is obviously not easy to realize, and his huge neighbor In comparison, Portugal ’s size is too small and its strength is too weak. In this case, a group of Portuguese talents represented by Prince Enrique will spare no effort to break the passive situation blocked on the peninsula by opening up the overseas world. .
In this regard, Manuel I is no different from his previous kings, but there are some things that are not special in other kings, that is, they are almost blindly confident in themselves, even self-proclaimed. I was the astounding self-expansion of the man chosen by God.
If his queen Maria is an out-of-date religious fanatic, then Manuel, because of his unexpected throne, regards his luck as a messenger of self-confidence to fulfill God ’s mission to the world. .
He firmly believed that Portugal would rise in his own hands, and more than that, he even believed that the mission of saving the world of Christ was to be accomplished by him. In this respect, he was not even serious about the Vatican in his heart, because He felt that the Holy See ’s attitude towards the pagans was too weak. The pagans far away in the East should be treated not as polite messengers but as cold swords and spears.
If you want to form a crusader against the pagans, Manuel feels that he is the commander of the army.
Alexander saw Manuel ’s incredible belief in the castle of Saint John. He was invited to watch a performance in the castle, which was actually a small military exercise. When seeing the army wearing armor, flags and outer covers embroidered with cross marks on the front of the castle's performance field, Alexander was stunned first, and then there was an illusion that time had gone back for two centuries.
Following the defeat of King Louis IX ’s expedition to Tunisia, the vigorous Crusades ended in the late 13th century, although there have been several such expeditions afterwards. Compared with the scale of the nearly one and a half centuries from the beginning to the end of the 13th century, by the 15th century, the Eastward Expedition had become a far-reaching thing, even in the 1444 Varna battle that claimed to decide the alternation of Ottomans and European offenses and defenses It can no longer be compared with that era.
But now, Alexandria seems to have produced the illusion that a crusader has worn through the curtain of history, with the decay of the rotten corpse, and then a group of armoured soldiers holding the cross and oncoming.
"This is the greatest move, isn't it? Duke, the Eastward Expedition is the most remarkable feat in European history," Manuel I stood with him in a slightly flamboyant tone and looked at the following martial arts field. The army that ran back and forth and lifted up the smoke and dust "Please do n’t mind me saying this, if possible I would rather suggest that the Holy See focus on more practical aspects than just focusing on the sacred sites."
"Your Majesty, what you said is more practical ..." Alexander turned his gaze to the ground below. He saw a small group of cavalry rushing out from behind a wooden fence symbolizing the castle, with a pattern held up in front of the knight. The quaint spear "Please forgive me, that would not be ..."
"Yes, Holy Gun," Manuel I nodded. "This is the miracle of the Eastward Expedition."
Alexander nodded slowly. At this time, he could be sure that Manuel was serious, because the kind of fanaticism in his eyes could not be pretended, which made Alexander suddenly have a feeling, perhaps compared with the blind faith of Maria. Manuel is the one who has really gone crazy because he thought he was crazy.
"Duke, you should tell the Vatican everything you see here," then Manuel suddenly lowered his voice and said, "I think many things here are abnormal, at least not what I want to see of."
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, can I ask what you think everything here should look like?"
"Of course, I know that our army nobles and people are devout, but this is not normal. In Portugal, people are only concerned with how to carry out a more mass, build a bigger church, and people in other places. It ’s just that I only care about my own things. This is wrong. To know the money and manpower, we can build a new army, but now those precious resources are wasted on such things. I ’m certainly not saying that mass and building churches are wrong, but compared to building an army that can fight pagans, is n’t it so important? "
Manuel seemed to be a little excited. He spread his hands and said to Alexander nonstop. Then he tried to calm his tone down again. After lowering his tone again, he said, "That ’s it, I hope you can To prove everything here to the Vatican, I mean here we are too far away from the Holy See, so many things are not clear to the Vatican, the queen ’s mother is a very wise queen, but she seems too keen on her Discovering those miracles in the country, she seems a little obsessed to make Castilla a holy place in her mind. It is said that she even named the villages that seem plausible in some places as the name of the place where was born in the Bible. I think you If you are going to Valladolid, you should be able to notice this a little bit. "
Alexander nodded slightly, and he almost understood the meaning of Manuel's words.
Manuel apparently always had a deep sense of vigilance against his parents of the twin kings, even if he married their two daughters in succession, this vigilance not only did not decrease a bit, but seemed to be stronger.
So Manuel would say these things to him through this invitation.
Isabella ’s ambitions are indeed too obvious. Her attempts to establish a new holy place in Iberia are so obvious that they seem to have been completely uncovered. It is no wonder that it will cause Manuel ’s uneasiness. If one day his mother-in-law suddenly decides to unify the whole Iberia in the name of the worldly monarch, then he may face a disaster.
Thinking of these, a strange thought suddenly flashed in Alexander ’s mind, that Manuel ’s enthusiasm for trying to reorganize the Crusaders may actually be an excuse. He hopes to prove in this way that he is also devout and even more crazy, only Only then can there be reason to contend with the growing ambition of Isabella.
Alexander was fascinated by this thought, and once this thought came into being, he looked at Manuel's various behaviors inexplicably and had a plausible feeling.
Perhaps the impression that the Portuguese later established a trading empire at sea was too deep-rooted, and Alexander always equated them with cunning businessmen and greedy colonists, because in his view people in this country are more concerned They are always pursuing wealth. In this regard, they are no different from any country that is keen to open up territory and plunder.
"Your Majesty, I can certainly report your views to the Vatican, and this is indeed my task, but before that I think you should also listen to my suggestions," Alexander said to some puzzled Manuel Say "You should already know that Columbus discovered new land through his route."
"India, he arrived on the east coast of India. We all know, Duke, what do you suggest?" Manuel frowned slightly. He did already know this, and he personally summoned Dammam not long ago. Gama and the new route that James Columbus showed him were very good, but Manuel still refused them while he was excited, and now he heard Alexander ’s old sayings again, which made him a little unhappy. We have a very clear line, you should be more clear than this. "
"The world boundary defined by His Majesty the Pope."
"Yes, it is because of this that I can get along peacefully with the queen ’s parents, or maybe our fleets will be fighting for the territories overseas to kill you and I ’m alive, but now we are all in peace, right? Columbus may be in him I made a lot of money on that route, but I am not losing money either. "
Manuel said slightly, and at the same time he looked at Alexandria strangely. Although the Pope was born in Valencia, he would n’t think that Alexander VI would be too partial to the couple. After all, the Vatican is complicated. He is not without spokesperson there.
So Manuel was not very worried about the fairness of the Pope, but even then he would not think that Alexander VI would turn against the couple, and now the Pope ’s
son-in-law
encouraged him to follow Columbus What's going on?
Feeling Manuel's skeptical look, Alexander felt it was time to say something that really moved him.
"Your Majesty, I will remind you that this is because there may be a little ridiculous, but if it is true, it is too incredible rumors," Alexander leaned forward slightly and said in the king ’s ear, "I do n’t know if you heard A navigator named Amerigo Vespucci, I think the chief officer of your nautical firm, Elliot Don Antonio, can tell you about the specific situation of this person. I want to say this is the time People should be exploring the so-called Indian coast and islands that Columbus discovered, and according to his speculation, it is likely that Columbus arrived not in India. "
"Not India, where is that?" Manuel asked in surprise.
"Americo Vespucci believes that what Columbus discovered was a place that no explorer had visited before, and a piece of land that has never been marked on any map, that is to say this is a brand new, before The area that no one knows about, and the area is very large. "
Manuel's complexion finally changed.
"You mean, it's a place that nobody knows even before the Lord?" The king asked carefully. After all, in this era, many people think that the world has been completely explored, and it can be said that there is no world. Nowhere is known, but now Alexander ’s words make Manuel a little uneasy.
A place that was completely undiscovered by predecessors and still possesses great wealth. What does this mean? Manuel is very clear: "That place is very big?"
"It's not clear yet." Alexander knew that it was impossible to say too much in detail at once, even the fact that Amerigo Vespsi's guess about the new continent had not yet appeared, and it was calculated according to time. Pusi should indeed be exploring the New World at this time, but he officially questioned Columbus's discovery, but it was a few years later.
But it doesn't matter, Amerigo Vespucci could not know that someone would cheer for his achievements in advance, nor would he know that there might never be this opportunity.
"But based on the speculation of Amerigo Vespucci, maybe Columbus underestimated the size of the land he found, and the place was so unexpected," Manuel breathed slowly. Slowly becoming dignified, Alexander continued to say, "The places where Columbus arrived were warm and even hot. According to his description, the climate of those places is similar to those of Africa, and according to the study of Amerigo Vespsi ~ EbookFREE.me ~ He found that there seems to be a long coastline in the north of the land or farther south, which is even colder, which means that there may be a much larger land than we thought. , A truly new world. Your Majesty, I think you should know better than anyone, what would it mean if there was such a land. "
Manuel nodded silently, his eyes no longer paying attention to the knights still running back and forth in the field below, but fixed his eyes on the railing in front of him.
After a while, he suddenly turned back to Alexander and said, "Let your Columbus come to see me."
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, James went to Castile," seeing Manuel's face with annoyance, Alexander continued. "In fact, he heard that his brother Christopher Columbus seemed in trouble. I was in a hurry, but as far as I know he seemed to tell Da Gama what he knew about the new route. "
"That's it?" Manuel couldn't help but show a hint of joy again. He grabbed the wooden railing in front of him, and sometimes grasped and loosened. After a while, he seemed to make up his mind, turning his head and ordering the followers not far away Go and ask Da Gama to let him see me, now. "