From Corsica to the Fourth Rome

Around nine o'clock in the morning, Grand Master Erwin once again summoned all the top brass of the Knights and invited Lawrence and Major Serurier to have an interview in the main hall.

This highly respected grand leader has become much older in just a few days. There are obvious dark circles around his eye sockets, and the wrinkles spreading across his entire face seem to have deepened a lot.

It seems that Grand Captain Erwin hasn't had a good night's sleep in the past few days.

It would have been difficult for him to predict that in the last few years of his life, when he was about to step down as Grand Master, he would have to deal with such a crisis that would affect the fate of the entire Knights.

Lawrence and Major Serulier finished breakfast in their respective rooms and went downstairs to the main hall, where everyone in the Knights had already been seated and waiting for a long time.

Even during the boring waiting time, these knights and monks sat quietly in their seats like marble statues, closing their eyes tightly and saying nothing, as if they were communicating with their God in the sea of ​​spiritual consciousness. .

Noticing Lawrence and Seruriel coming, Grand Captain Erwin slowly opened his eyes, stood up tiredly and slowly and greeted:

"Your Excellency Bonaparte, please take a seat."

His voice was like a withered vine tightly wrapped around an ancient tree, vicissitudes of life and ancientness, yet still resilient and strong.

After a few people were seated, Captain Erwin frowned and glanced at the empty seat next to him, which was the seat of Guard Captain Franche.

"It's really weird," the grand leader murmured softly. He looked up at a clock in the corner of the main hall. The scheduled meeting time was about to come, but the guard captain Franche, who was also an important figure in the knights, was still late. Attend.

Grand Captain Erwin sighed with a complicated expression, looking very disappointed with his useless nephew.

The Knights were already facing a life-and-death crisis. He had not slept a wink for several nights because of this. He did not expect that France could not even be punctual on such an important occasion. Erwin could only look at it with an apologetic look on his face. To Lawrence:

"I'm so sorry, Your Excellency. There may be something wrong with our captain of the guard. I just sent someone to rush him. If you don't mind, please wait a moment."

"Of course I don't mind. Everyone encounters accidents sometimes. Just like the British navy, isn't it also an accident for you?"

Lawrence naturally shook his head indifferently. Among all the people present, he was the only one who knew what Franche was up to.

Hearing Lawrence mention the British again, the strong man sitting opposite the grand commander frowned and glanced at Lawrence, closed his eyes dissatisfied and refuted:

"Your Excellency Bonaparte, your example is not appropriate at all. We don't know yet whether the British ships will come to Malta. Well, the British haven't come yet. You Corsicans People come more diligently than anyone else.”

Captain Erwin instantly turned to look at the strong man and scolded him majestically:

"Giotto! Don't be rude to Your Excellency Bonaparte. Apologize to Your Excellency immediately!"

"It's okay, Your Excellency, Grand Master." Lawrence waved his hand nonchalantly and looked at the strong man known as Giotto with a smile:

"Although Archimandrite Giotto's words are a bit fierce, I can understand the reasoning. I also believe that Archimandrite Giotto will change his views in the face of the facts."

During the few days he lived in the castle, Lawrence also basically got to know the six senior members of the Knights.

This majestic and vigorous man named Giotto holds the position of Grand Priest within the Knights, but what he is actually responsible for is related to the lifeblood of the entire Knights' existence - pirate plunder. affairs; the entire Maltese naval ships are also commanded and managed by him.

In this sense, Archbishop Giotto's power and status are even higher than that of Franche, who is the captain of the guard. He can be called the second-largest figure in the entire knight order after Grand Master Erwin.

And unlike Franche, this Grand Priest did not achieve his current status by virtue of his kinship with Erwin.

Like Grosso, he was just a low-level sailor on a plundering ship at first. He relied on fighting with swords and guns to make everyone recognize his strength and bravery, and finally he rose from sailor to captain step by step. From the captain to the current Grand Priest.

This is why Giotto dared to slam the table and angrily call Franche a coward that day. With his status and qualifications, naturally, like Grosso, he completely looked down on Franche, a nobleman who relied on blood ties to rise to power.

Of course, Lawrence admired such talents very much, so he didn't care about his rude behavior.

After being reprimanded by Erwin, Archbishop Giotto still looked at Lawrence obediently and reluctantly whispered an apology.

The people at the table waited silently for more than ten minutes, but Franche, the captain of the guard, was still nowhere to be seen. Seeing this, Grand Captain Erwin couldn't wait any longer and announced helplessly:

"That's all, our captain of the guard may have encountered some trouble. Your Excellency Bonaparte, let's get started."

From the perspective of Grand Captain Erwin, it is actually unimportant whether Franche, the guard captain, is present. Anyway, he has no right to speak and can only obey his own decision-making. Waiting for him to attend the meeting here is purely out of necessity. It's just a matter of etiquette and process.

After getting Lawrence's approval, Grand Captain Erwin looked through a thick notebook in front of him, put his glasses on the bridge of his nose, glanced at the summary of the last meeting, nodded and said:

"Your Excellency Bonaparte, according to the information you revealed to us last time, the Royal Navy will hide marines in merchant ships close to Malta and then launch a surprise attack?"

"That's right." Lawrence nodded to confirm, and directly relayed Baron Bertula's words to Erwin:

"If the raid fails, the Royal Navy will consider using its fleet to surround Malta for siege. This operation will be carried out by a squadron of the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet."

"A whole squadron?"

Archimandrite Giotto at the table couldn't help but take a breath. As soon as the formal negotiation phase entered, his expression became much more serious, and the initial hostility in Lawrence's eyes disappeared.

Moreover, the Grand Priest, who was experienced in naval warfare, also knew very well what it meant for an entire squadron of the Royal Navy to surround Malta.

That means that the small island of Malta will be completely surrounded by a second-level ship as the flagship, five to ten third-level ships as the main force, and double-digit cruisers and frigates.

In the face of such a navy, the more than twenty galleys used for pirate plunder on the island of Malta are like children's toys. It only takes three salvos to wipe out the Knights' maritime power.

Grand Captain Erwin took off his glasses and asked Giotto worriedly: "Is it possible to deal with it?"

When it comes to matters involving the navy, even Grand Master Erwin must fully refer to the opinions of Giotto, the experienced Grand Priest.

"It's impossible." Giotto didn't care about Lawrence's presence and shook his head directly:

"If a whole squadron of the Royal Navy really invades Malta, we can simply give up the idea of ​​fighting for sea control. It is better to seal all the ships in the port. This can preserve some of the fleet's strength and concentrate on defending the fortress on the island. ”

Having said that, looking at Grand Master Erwin's haggard look full of anxiety, Grand Master Giotto also added thoughtfully:

"Of course, the premise of all this is that the information provided by His Excellency Bonaparte is true."

Hearing Archimandrite Giotto once again question the authenticity of this information, Grand Commander Erwin seemed helpless.

The fundamental reason why the first two talks ended in vain was that the Knights were simply unable to prove or falsify the intelligence brought by Lawrence.

Under such circumstances, if you want to choose a plan to implement, it would be like flipping a coin and guessing its head or tail. Naturally, Grand Master Erwin will not leave the fate of the Knights to probability so easily. Destiny, which is why he remains indecisive to this day.

Although the senior leaders of the Knights cannot judge whether the intelligence is true or false, they all tend to side with Archbishop Giotto: expelling the Corsican and French people. If the British really come, it will be nothing more than another attack. It's just a reenactment of the siege of Malta two hundred years ago.

Only Franche, a dandy who was not considered a knight at all, hoped that Grand Captain Erwin could bow to Louis XV for protection because he was greedy for life and feared death.

But in the final analysis, the only one with the final decision-making power is the still indecisive Grand Captain Erwin.

The meeting and discussion at the long table reached a deadlock for a while. Just like the previous two times, as soon as the authenticity of the intelligence was raised, the meeting would immediately reach a dead end.

Grand Master Erwin knocked his head irritably, and was about to ask for more information from Lawrence, when he saw a monastic knight suddenly walked into the main hall, stood twenty feet away from the long table and leaned over to report. road:

"Inform the Grand Master that the captain of the guard, France de Medici, has arrived outside the castle."

Grand Captain Erwin sighed distractedly, waved his hand and ordered:

"Forget it, let him go back to Valletta Port and do his own thing. It doesn't matter whether he participates in this meeting or not."

The knight who received the order stood still and did not act. He hesitated for a while and continued to report:

"However, Grand Commander, Captain Franche seems to have something important to report to you."

"Huh? What's important?" Captain Erwin was stunned for a moment. He knew that Franche was in charge of the security and defense of the city's fortress, and this aspect of the matter should not be taken lightly.

Grand Captain Erwin quickly changed his words, ignoring the presence of Lawrence and Seruriel, and ordered:

"Send Franche over immediately!"

"yes!"

After the knight left for more than two minutes, the guard captain Franche hurriedly rushed into the main hall of the castle.

Franche seemed a little nervous. He could not even breathe smoothly while standing in the main hall. However, his longing for his old life made him adjust immediately. He took a deep breath and stepped forward and said:

"Uncle, no, Grand Commander! Yesterday I arrested several fishermen in Valletta Port. I have determined that they are all spies who collect money to sell information about the island of Malta, and"

Hearing the presence of spies, Captain Erwin immediately couldn't sit still and quickly stood up and asked: "And what?!"

"And" Franche bit his lip and said with difficulty: "The person they are selling information to seems to be the British!"

"What did you say?!"

Grand Captain Erwin's eyes widened, and this Grand Captain, who was known for his calmness, felt a little at a loss for a moment.

Opposite me, Archimandrite Giotto frowned and asked calmly:

"You said they were British insiders? Do you have any evidence?"

Franche was already prepared for this, or in other words, Grosso was already prepared for this. He nodded skillfully, took out a small book full of writing from his robe and handed it to Erwin, explaining:

"This is the confession from the interrogation of those fishermen, and they all signed it."

Grand Master Erwin quickly reached out to take the confession and read it. Even Archimandrite Giotto didn't care about etiquette and stood directly behind the Grand Master to read the confession handed over by Franche with him.

This confession was very detailed and complicated, and it took Erwin and Giotto a long time to read it from beginning to end.

The gist of the confession was quite clear. In order to earn some extra money, those poor fishermen accepted a commission from an unknown British captain to inquire about information in Malta on behalf of the captain.

It also said that in order to get more rewards, one of the daring fishermen took the risk and chose to approach Franche to obtain information about the Knights. Only then was Franche himself aware of it and caught them all.

"Such a thing can happen!"

Grand Captain Erwin put down the confession in his hand in a daze. He and the top brass of the Knights knew very well that at this time, if a British captain came to Malta to buy intelligence, such behavior would be incompatible with what Lawrence said about the Royal Navy. There are inextricably linked.

"Hiss." Captain Erwin kept taking deep breaths and leaned against the back of the chair.

In the face of this confession, he felt that he had to change his wavering attitude. If the British would really attack the island of Malta, then this behavior of buying insiders would undoubtedly be a prelude to blowing the clarion call for attack.

Archimandrite Giotto picked up the confession distractedly, flipped through a few paragraphs at random, frowned at France, his eyes full of suspicion and distrust, and said sternly:

"France! Where are the spies you mentioned? Take me there, I want to see for myself!"

Normally, Franche would tremble with fear in the face of the Grand Priest's stern rebuke, but today, he remained calm in the face of danger and nodded with a serious look on his face, as if he had already anticipated Giotto's reaction:

"It's in the dungeon in Valletta Port. Just go there and the guards there will take you in."

"Huh!" Archimandrite Giotto snorted, rolling his sleeves. After simply nodding to Erwin, he ignored Lawrence and left Manoel Castle without looking back.

As the mastermind behind all this, Lawrence just sat calmly on his seat, saying nothing, as if he was indifferent to the world, quietly waiting for Grand Commander Erwin to speak.