From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

Chapter 249 Grand Commander Erwin de Medici

Watching the commissioner climb down the wooden ladder, Major Serurier couldn't help but smile, and then shook his head with regret:

"I thought knights were all virtuous people."

"These people are not knights, they are just citizens of Valletta Port; but compared with these people, those knights are really of high moral character."

Grosso curled his lips in the direction of the city in disgust. It looked like he had been tricked by these commissioners many times when he arrived in Malta.

"Just don't screw up." Lawrence helplessly held his forehead, but did not stop Grosso's bad taste.

"Don't worry, I'm measured." Grosso laughed, opened the trap door, took a look into the cargo hold, and said:

"Besides, if you don't show them something, they won't believe your identity. If you come up and tell him that you are the Governor of Corsica, he will probably tell you that he is the Pope."

Sure enough, as soon as Grosso finished speaking, the echo of the commissioner's words came from the cabin:

"Oh! They are really strong men. Yes, they can make a lot of money, hahaha."

"That captain is serious, why don't you put shackles on the slaves? Hey, over there, open your mouth and let me see your teeth!"

"You! What are you going to do! Don't you know who I am? Are you damn slaves going to rebel?! Someone is coming, someone is coming!"

…

Accompanied by a high-pitched scream mixed with fear and panic, Mr. Commissioner's voice suddenly stopped, as if his mouth was blocked with a rag, and only a helpless whimpering and choking sound could be heard from behind.

After a while, several National Defense Force soldiers carried the tied-up Mr. Commissioner onto the deck and looked at Lawrence in confusion.

"Just leave him here, you go down."

Lawrence said to the soldiers calmly, and then glanced at Mr. Commissioner on the ground.

He was sweating all over his body, his face was even pale, his whole body was twisting violently, and he kept making whining sounds.

After winking and asking Grosso to untie him, Lawrence knelt down and said softly:

"Mr. Commissioner, it seems that you can't take anyone away from me, but don't worry, I am here to bring salvation and protection to all Maltese people, and you have a share in it."

Grosso pulled the saliva-stained rag out of his mouth. The commissioner coughed violently twice, and then shouted:

"Damn it, who are you?! Who are the people in the cabin!"

At this point, the commissioner finally realized that the fierce-looking, muscular men in the cabin were not slaves at all, but looked like subordinates of the young man in front of him.

Since the young man in front of him has such a large number of followers, his status must not be ordinary.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet." Lawrence slowly stood up, looked at the commissioner condescendingly, and said calmly:

"I am Laurence Bonaparte, the Governor of the Republic of Corsica, the Royal Tax Collector of France, the first equerry to Crown Prince Louis, and the second son of the old Count Bonaparte."

"Governor of Corsica?"

The commissioner's pupils trembled obviously. Of course he knew these names, and he knew more clearly the power behind them.

But he never imagined that the Governor of Corsica would appear on the island of Malta on a mediocre merchant ship with at least hundreds of soldiers.

"Are you really Laurence Bonaparte?" The commissioner gasped and struggled to get up from the ground. It was obvious that he had been beaten badly in the cabin just now.

Lawrence nodded slightly and motioned to Grosso to fetch a diplomatic document from the captain's cabin and show it to the commissioner.

The content of the official document was also very simple. It just said that Lawrence would personally lead people to the island of Malta. The key was that at the bottom of the official document were the personal seals of the Governor-General of Corsica and Lawrence. These two seals are not easily forged. of.

The commissioner carefully looked at the seal on the official document, and combined with the soldiers he had just seen in the cabin, he was eighty-nine percent convinced of the identity of the young man in front of him.

"His Excellency Bonaparte"

He bowed tremblingly, forced a smile on his face, but the smile was uglier than crying, and he said intermittently as if he was stuttering:

"I never thought you would come to the island of Malta. I."

If the act of soliciting bribes from the Governor of Corsica is exposed, let alone whether he can keep his lucrative job, or whether he can save his life is a question. After all, the laws set by those guys in the Knights The law is quite strict.

However, Lawrence was too lazy to argue with a small corrupt official. The most important thing at the moment was to contact the Knights as quickly as possible and covertly, so Lawrence just asked calmly:

"Let's not talk about this first, I hope you can do something for me; who is the highest level of the Knights you can contact?"

The commissioner swallowed and said nervously:

"The senior member of the Knights? He is the Secretary General. He coordinates and manages the affairs of the port. If there is an emergency, I can also meet with the Secretary General."

"Secretary General, very good." Lawrence handed the official document in his hand to the other party and ordered:

"You immediately hand this official document to the Division Chief and ask him to forward it to the Grand Commander. That's all you need to do."

As the financial manager of the entire Knights, the Secretary is already the core leadership at the top. There is no problem in letting him convey the news of his arrival in Malta to the Grand Master.

Fortunately, the island of Malta is only a micro-country, with a population of only two to three thousand knights and four to five thousand citizens. Otherwise, it would not be so simple to meet the top leader of a regime under normal circumstances.

The commissioner quickly took the official document and held it tightly in her arms like a mother holding an infant. Then he ran off the ship without looking back and ran towards the building on the right side of the port. Castle ran.

About two hours later, a young man climbed onto the merchant ship where Lawrence was again, but it was not the commissioner just now.

His expression and eyes were very resolute. He wore a chainmail suit that covered his navel. The outer robe had a black octagonal cross printed on the front and back. He wore a two-finger-wide long sword at his waist. He did not wear a helmet. , replaced by a small hat with red tassels.

There is no doubt that this is a genuine knight of the Knights Hospitaller, and judging from his equipment, he also has a middle-to-upper status among knights. After all, ordinary infantrymen cannot afford to wear expensive chainmail.

The young knight stepped onto the deck nervously, looked at Lawrence, who was about the same age as himself, held his sword and bowed:

"Your Excellency Bonaparte, by order of the Grand Master, hereby invites you and your entourage to meet at Fort Manoel."

Fort Manoel, this Baroque-style, functional and aesthetic fortress is located on Comino Island, Malta's sister island, across the sea from Valletta Port. Due to its quiet environment, it is not affected by the port. Due to the noisy influence, he was favored by the Grand Master and led the knights to stay here.

Lawrence simply gave instructions on the affairs of the ship, and ordered all the captains and soldiers to continue to wait on the ship. After that, he took Grosso, Serurier, and a few Wehrmacht soldiers as escorts to go with the knight. Fort Manoel.

The group took a small boat to Comino Island, which was less than two thousand yards away. The soldiers with good water conditions could easily swim across this distance.

After climbing hundreds of gray stone steps along both sides of a protruding hill, the group entered the main hall of Fort Manoel with the release of the guards at the door.

The sunlight in the main hall is very dim, even at noon. Perhaps the architect of the castle deliberately designed this in order to pursue the serious and solemn Baroque style that was popular at the time.

A total of six core members of the Knights Hospitallers have arrived in the main hall. They are sitting on both sides of a long table, and there is no sound of conversation.

There are no tableware on the long table, only a black and white table runner and a few silver double-layered candlesticks. The flickering flames on these candlesticks emit a faint light that can barely illuminate the entire long table, allowing each other to see each other. Find out what the other person looks like.

The young knight who led the way stood at the door of the main hall. He did not go in. He stood outside and bowed deeply toward the inside, and loudly reported:

"Grand Commander, Your Excellency Bonaparte and his entourage are here."

An old man on the inside of the long table stood up slowly. He was wearing a dark red solid-color robe without any decorations. On his head was a black flat hat similar to a bishop's crown. Only the short cloak on his shoulders was embroidered with knights. The octagonal cross emblem of the regiment.

He turned to look at Lawrence at the door and said in a deep voice:

"Your Excellency Laurence Bonaparte, the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem welcomes you. Please take your seats, distinguished guests."

His voice is not loud, but the ingenious acoustic design of the main hall allows its echo to be clearly transmitted to everyone's ears, giving the listener an unreal feeling of listening to sounds from outside the world.

Compared with the restraint and nervousness of Grosso and Cerulier, Lawrence seemed much more straightforward. He went straight forward and pulled out a chair for himself to sit on, and invited them to sit next to him.

The old man who spoke just now slowly introduced himself after seeing several people taking their seats:

"First meeting, Monsignor Bonaparte, I am Erwin de Medici, Grand Master of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, defender of the faith and helper of suffering."

Lawrence glanced at Erwin, a little surprised that this grand leader was from the famous Medici family.

But this is also reasonable. When nobles are unwilling or do not have extra territory and titles for their second son to inherit, they will basically let their second son join the army or teach. Therefore, priests from noble backgrounds have never been uncommon.

For example, the two younger brothers of the Duke of Choiseul were Jacques Philippe, an Austrian field marshal and a lieutenant general of the French army, and the other was Leopold Charles, the archbishop of Cambrai.

After introducing himself, Captain Erwin paused for a while, and then directly asked a question that was of concern to all the higher-ups of the Knights present:

"Your Excellency, I heard that you led an army to the territory of the Knights on a merchant ship. I wonder what you want from this humble servant of God?"

Several members of the Knights were staring closely at Lawrence. They never expected that the Governor of Corsica would come to Malta in this form.

If it was to attack the Knights, Lawrence could launch an attack directly without sitting here talking to them at this moment; and if it was for diplomatic purposes, there was no need to board a fleet full of soldiers without prior notice. Merchant fleets arrive in Malta.

Lawrence responded to the gazes of the knights one by one, nodded to them, and finally looked at Grand Captain Erwin and said in a deep voice:

“I’m not here to take, on the contrary, I’m here to give.”

"Given?" Captain Erwin licked his chapped lips, briefly savored the word in his mind, and then asked:

"What do you want to bestow?"

"Peace, stability, protection"

Lawrence uttered three words in sequence, and then explained directly in front of everyone's puzzled eyes:

"The era when the Knights settled in Malta is over, and a ferocious falcon has set its sights on this piece of fat."

Captain Erwin raised his eyebrows, feeling a bad feeling in his heart, but he could only signal Lawrence to continue.

Seeing this, Lawrence stopped trying to be mysterious and leaned on the table with his chin in his hands. His eyes swept across the senior knights present like a sword, and he declared directly to everyone:

"The Royal Navy of Great Britain will invade the island of Malta early next month."

As soon as the words fell, Lawrence's echo became the only sound in the main hall.

No one in the Knights realized what the meaning of these words was. Maybe they just realized it but didn't want to believe it, or believed it but didn't want to face it.

Immediately afterwards, the main hall, which had been dull and solemn just now, suddenly erupted into a panic. The senior members of the Knights looked around and asked the people around them, wondering whether Lawrence's words were true or false.

"quiet!"

Captain Erwin, who has always been calm, also maintained his usual calmness at this time. Although his heart was also turbulent like everyone else, on the surface, the grand leader still showed his calm behavior. Quickly stabilized everyone's mood.

"Your Majesty Bonaparte, we must not speak in vain, just as we must not use our Lord's name in vain."

Captain Erwin exhaled a long breath and said slightly tiredly:

"The British Royal Navy is going to attack the island of Malta? This kind of atrocity can only be done by infidels, how can it come from a Christian brother?"

Just like the reaction of Major Serurier and Grosso when they heard the news that day, Captain Erwin did not believe that the Royal Navy would launch an attack on the Knights Hospitaller, which was famous for its charity and relief work.

The senior executives present also realized this truth, and their eyes looking at Lawrence were full of suspicion and suspicion.

"Is this young governor planning to use false information to plot against the island of Malta?"

This idea has appeared in the minds of every senior member of the Knights. After all, when Governor Bonaparte visited the island of Malta, he also brought an unknown number of troops with him.