The deserted Moorish village was filled with deathly silence, all the houses had been broken open, and dark red bloodstains could be seen everywhere, indicating the killings that had occurred.
The well in the middle of the village was dark, and the old knight Laurent was riding on his horse, so he couldn't see clearly for a while. He jumped off the horse vigorously and walked to the wellhead to take a look. The smell of rotting corpses wafted out from the bottom of the well and reached the tip of his nose.
"Damn it! These idiots are killing indiscriminately! Such deep mountain wells are blocked with corpses..."
The old knight Lorenzo frowned, looked at the pile of stripped, swollen and rotten corpses in the deep well, and sighed helplessly.
"This water is full of corpse poison, don't touch it!"
Speaking of this, the old knight thought for a moment, then summoned an experienced retinue and gave instructions.
"God bless you! Carlo, you go upstream along the abandoned Moorish canal and look for it. There should be a mountain spring or stream there. Pay attention and see if there are any corpses by the water source!"
"Okay! Dear Knight Lorenzo, I listen to you!"
Servant Carlo nodded, stretched out his hand to whistle, and jumped onto the horse neatly. The chain mail shirt on his body was still on, and he ran away with the blood-stained sword on his waist.
"Vaffanculo! We have traveled so far and finally took a break, but we can't even replenish our saliva!..."
The young knight Giovanni was still angry and cursed hatefully.
"Which kind of wandering jihadist army is this? He even kills defenseless women. He has no sense of chivalry at all!"
Hearing such backward-era words as "chivalry", the old knight Laurent raised his eyebrows and looked at Giovanni in surprise for a while, not knowing what to say. In the Republic of Venice, he rarely heard nobles say such ridiculous things.
However, the old knight quickly remembered that when he was young, Giovanni received traditional knightly education in the Netherlands, and also served as a knight retinue of Maximilian I, the regent of the Netherlands and the "model of knights". The origin of these "chivalry" is naturally clear.
"Well, Maximilian I, the model knight, was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire three years ago. Old Sylvester planned for his son since he was a child, and if he made this investment in advance, he would definitely not lose money. !..."
Thinking of this, the old knight Lorenzo looked at Giovanni with even more eager eyes.
Giovanni was a little too naive, a little too pious, and had no experience in the matter, but he couldn't bear the thought of someone with a high starting point and a well-paved road! The experience of being a retinue of the Shinra Emperor alone is a connection that many civilian knights cannot ask for! Not to mention the identity of his father and the large business he wants to inherit...
The old knight Laurent stroked his goatee, thought carefully for a while, and then made up his mind to show off his abilities. He pointed at the well with a smile and said confidently.
"Actually! Giovanni, it's not difficult to know which team massacred this village!"
"Huh? Lorenzo, what do you say?"
"Look, the corpses in these wells have been stripped of their clothes. The only ones who can even have their clothes taken away are the poor Castilian knights, the poor English knights, the poor German knights, the poor Swiss mercenaries, poor jihadist militia..."
"Uh...you said so many things, how do you know which one it is?"
"Don't worry! Neither the Swiss mercenaries nor the jihadist militia have horses. It's difficult for them to run so far and go deep here to plunder. And the poor Castilian knights are currently in the hands of King Fernando and are besieging them. The mountain city of Barcelona. At this time, the only people who can really come out and kill are the English poor and the German poor."
"Well... Lorenzo, you seem to be right."
The young knight Giovanni thought for a while and nodded in approval. Then, he asked curiously.
"Are they the English knights participating in the Holy War, or the German knights?"
"Haha! The Lord is witness!"
The old knight Lorenzo smiled proudly, stretched out his hand from a nearby house, and broke off an incoming stream. He spread out the broken arrow in his hand and said confidently.
"Look at these three heavy arrows, as well as fir wood, and a circle of string wrapped around the arrow shafts. This must be the English jihad team! Only their knights will carry large bows for infantry warfare. And if it’s a Germanic knight, it’s usually an armor-breaking cavalry crossbow!”
Speaking of this, the old knight Lorenzuo took the broken arrow to his nose, sniffed it for a while, and concluded.
"This is yew wood from Castile. It was purchased by us Venetians in large quantities at a low price. After a little processing, it was sold to English merchants at a premium as wood for making bows and arrows! It's even possible that the wood for this batch of bows and arrows, It was shipped out from your Tlan family's seaside warehouse!..."
"Ah! English? The family's lumber business!"
Hearing this insightful analysis, the young Giovanni was greatly shocked, although he didn't quite understand it. He looked at the old knight Lorenzo with admiration, hesitated for a moment, and asked.
"Is this kind of wood-selling business... profitable?..."
"Well, in general! For this southern holy war, the Kingdom of Castile assembled 60,000 troops and fought for so many years... In order to supply the army, they have long owed a huge debt to the Republic. Now the war is still going on As it continues, they have to pay back whatever they have, and they have no power to negotiate at all. The main thing in the wood business is to stabilize the volume, but we can eat both ends... so we can make two or three times the profit!"
"Huh? Only two or three times the profit?..."
"Ha! Two or three times is already a lot. Only we Venetians, who control the fleet, supply of goods and markets, can earn such wealth. In the world of God, the only one who can truly threaten us is Genova The business group of the Republic (genoa), as well as the rising Portuguese merchants..."
"oh!..."
Hearing this, the young knight Giovanni blinked, slightly disappointed. Obviously, he does not understand what stable volume means for large business groups.
From his current limited knowledge, the most sought-after goods in the Republic's market are the ivory, spices and gems brought back by the Portuguese after their voyage from the southern continent. As long as these precious goods change hands, the profit will be dozens or even hundreds of times! And as these goods spread, there are also exciting adventure stories about the mysterious southern continent! For a young knight, this dual temptation of adventure and wealth is simply fatal.
"Witness the Lord! When I inherit the family's fleet... I will definitely take a boat to sea, go to the mysterious and wild continent in person, spread the glory of the Lord, and bring back priceless treasures!"
The young knight Giovanni swore secretly, his eyes showing a look he had never seen before. After more than a year of fighting, he was deeply disappointed with the noble holy war, and the desire for adventure at sea gradually emerged in his heart.
"God bless you! If the Portuguese can do it, we Venetians can do it too!"
Seeing the longing in Giovanni's eyes, the left corner of the old knight Lauren's mouth curled up, apparently guessing what the other person was thinking. "Lord! You have so many fantasies, but you are still too young!"
The old knight Loren Zuo smiled and shook his head, and took out a sharp stabbing blade and several armor-piercing sharp cones from the horse's backpack. Then, holding these instruments of torture and smiling, he walked towards the captive Moorish nobles who had been tied up by the riders a long time ago and had a tough look on their faces.
