1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 346 Lighthouse Project
Amidst the gentle breeze and drizzle, the Mediterranean world enters a rich and gentle autumn. Precipitation gradually increases, the weather becomes cooler, many inland rivers have once again assumed the important role of communication, and many farmlands and pastures are flourishing with vitality.

For European countries, the surprising and bizarre year of 1474 has finally come to an end. The autumn and winter with abundant rainfall are about to arrive, and the new year is about to begin. Risks? Opportunities? It is still unknown.

From the establishment of the League of Barcelona to the beginning of the Burgundian expedition, from the outbreak of the War of Granada to the rise of Latin pirates, from the complete destruction of Venice to the horrific tragedy in Florence, the people of the Mediterranean have experienced too many changes that they could not have expected.

Some people are disgraced, some rise to prominence, some leave their homes, and some return home in glory. There are heroes, heroes, traitors, spies... However, most people choose to be numb and keep themselves out of trouble, not because they are indifferent, but because, in this Mediterranean world full of conspiracy and bloody violence, such things are too common.

The death of Henry the Incompetent brought the chaos in Iberia to a new climax. The three claimants to the Kingdom of Castile each occupied one side and were accumulating their own strength. Large-scale military conflicts had not yet broken out.

As the heir designated by the late king before his death, Juana I was busy whitewashing her own background and strengthening the authority of the "legitimate queen" under the guidance of loyal old ministers. However, her efforts did not have much effect. The stain on her bloodline was too difficult to wash away. The princes in various places still harbored evil intentions and did not respect the king's orders.

Fernando was busy borrowing money to organize his army and waiting for the right opportunity to march south. The ten-year Catalan rebellion brought countless disasters to the United Kingdom of Aragon. The economic centers on the eastern coast were far from recovering their former glory. The destruction of the largest silk weaving base on the Iberian Peninsula also made it difficult for trading ports such as Valencia and Barcelona to maintain their former transit status. Silk fabrics and woolen cloth from Granada no longer entered the Christian world through Aragon, and their trade income plummeted.

The little King Carlos, as usual, watched the busy adults indifferently. Apart from learning languages ​​and characters, his favorite thing to do was to hide alone on the cliff of the Malaga Palace, holding the wreath given by his eldest brother, watching the sunset and the clouds rolling.

At this time, little Carlos had already been awarded the title of Honorary Member of the Knights Hospitaller. The Emperor of the Eastern Empire was his grandfather, Pope Rovere of the Roman See was his godfather, Count Alonso of Cordoba was his raiser, and Grand Master Giovanni of the Knights Hospitaller was his martial arts teacher. With noble titles and an ancient and long bloodline, his future seemed bright.

In Granada, the coalition forces of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Knights Hospitaller were laying siege to the city of Granada. The resolute and courageous Moorish king sternly rejected the edict of surrender and insisted on fighting for his beliefs to the last moment.

Granada is a fortified city. The Moorish Red Castle located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains serves as both a military fortress and a spiritual symbol. The military and civilians in the city are united, making the city easy to defend but difficult to attack.

However, what is certain is that no one has ever been able to hold out for long when they are trapped deep in the enemy's territory and only have an isolated city left. Not to mention morale, the Moors will not have enough food to last until the beginning of next spring.

Outside the Mediterranean, the Eastern Roman Empire's wars were lackluster; the gap in science and technology was simply too great to be made up by bravery and numbers.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, in the paradise called Elysium by Eastern Roman immigrants, the New World expeditionary force had destroyed the Aztec Empire. The lake city of Tenochtitlan was spared under the restraint of Archbishop Valens and the protection of the emperor. Except for those disgusting sites of human sacrifice, it did not suffer any damage. Tenochtitlan was renamed New Constantinople, and Aztecs willing to convert to Orthodoxy were granted citizenship. The emperor's first decree was simple, with only three articles: no human sacrifice, no cannibalism, and no city-state wars or tribal feuds for the purpose of human sacrifice and cannibalism.

Just as the New World expeditionary force was clearing out and intimidating the remaining city-states, Latin pirates supported by France and England attacked the island of Cuba across the Mexican Plateau, and half of the city of Havana was burned down.

In a sense, in the original time and space, Cuba was the most vulnerable colony to looting during the Age of Discovery. The Greater and Lesser Antilles Islands provided a good shelter for pirates. The Spanish colonists, who lacked a native population, were unable to mobilize enough garrisons here, and destruction and reconstruction became commonplace.

However, the Eastern Roman Empire in this time and space implemented a completely different ruling philosophy from the Kingdom of Spain in the original time and space. The mode of exploitation continuously transitioned from simple and crude robbery and massacre to gentle and covert capital plunder. The indigenous groups on the island survived due to the invention of the cowpox vaccine and were introduced to the embrace of Eastern Orthodoxy and Greek. They quickly entered the agricultural era from the precarious primitive communal era. This group of gentle people whose intelligence was reduced by cassava toxins had a good view of the Eastern Roman Empire, at least much better than the Latin pirates who only knew how to burn, kill and loot.

At least, unlike pirate sailors, a mature capitalist will never deliberately kill his own "cattle and horses".

After the fall of the Aztecs, the status of the Taino people was greatly improved. As long as they learned Greek and converted to Orthodox Christianity, they could even serve as officials in the western continent.

So, when the pirate ship led by Belive arrived at the island of Cuba after a long journey, they did rob a lot of wealth and did not encounter too many Eastern Roman regular troops. However, their plan of "inciting the natives to rebel" did not come true. Instead, several bishops led the Taino people to take up arms and rushed towards them.

The pirates filled the ship's hold and fled immediately, leaving behind only half a burning city and black smoke filling the sky. Under the black smoke were the hateful eyes of the Taino natives.

In this unprovoked attack, apart from the money and jewels, the Eastern Roman Empire did not suffer much loss. The era of Caribbean pirates was far from coming, and a powerful world empire would never be destroyed by pirates.

In addition, the Eastern Roman Empire not only discovered the importance of strengthening colonial defense, but also gained a lot of deeper benefits -

After this attack, under the biased explanations and emotional output of the priests, the Taino natives who converted to Orthodox Christianity learned for the first time what heresy was.

Heretics are robbers. This highly subjective idea began to take root in the hearts of the Taino natives. For the Eastern Roman Empire, this was an absolutely good thing.

Now, they have converted to Christianity for less than a generation and do not have a deep understanding of these theological matters. If they are not guided, it is likely to lead to ideological confusion and provide an opportunity for foreign enemies to intervene.

The priests of the Eastern Roman Empire explained it dozens of times, but they probably didn't understand it very well. But as long as the Latin pirates came a few more times, they understood it all.

This little incident did not have much impact on the expansion of the Eastern Roman Empire. For a long time, the masters of the Old World looked down on anyone and anything in the New World. The great victory of the Mediterranean world could cover up all discordant voices.

In the far east, the Battle of Diu, which determined the fate of the Indian Ocean, came to an end. Without the support of the Ottomans, Venice and Mamluks, the Arab coalition fleet was defeated as expected. The battle was quite boring. None of the more than 30 ships of the Eastern Roman Empire sank, while hundreds of small dinghies of the Arab coalition navy were smashed to pieces.

After this battle, the reputation of the Indian Governor-General Albuquerque became famous throughout the Indian Ocean. The Arab era that lasted for a thousand years in the Indian Ocean came to an end. The powerful force brought by the strong ships and powerful guns intimidated all the old and remaining enemies. The brave and courageous Albuquerque marched into Cochin State with the power of a great victory and successfully acquired the first trading port on the South Asian subcontinent.

Albuquerque's ambition went far beyond this. He had already begun to plan the conquest of the Port of Goa, the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca, trying to spread the Eastern Empire's maritime influence to every place in the Indian Ocean.

In Albuquerque's view, the Strait of Malacca, which controls the throat of trade, is the most important. If the Strait of Malacca can be occupied, the door to the Spice Islands will be completely open, and endless wealth will flow into Europe.

Albuquerque's intelligence officer also gave him a "big gift". Not long ago, Southeast Asian pirates rumored that a high-ranking official of the Ming Dynasty named Liu Daxia became furious when faced with the thoughts of "re-conquering Annan" and "re-voyage to the West" during the Chenghua period. He believed that this matter was a waste of money and labor, not conducive to the national economy and people's livelihood, and was not in line with the Confucian values ​​of cultivating virtue and cherishing distant places. He burned Zheng He's route map and ship drawings of his voyage to the West as a warning to future generations.

Although there was no official notification on this matter and the rumors among the people were extremely outrageous, Albuquerque was still very happy. In any case, over the past few decades, the influence of the powerful Eastern dynasties in Southeast Asia had indeed been declining. Ever since the Islamic colonists uprooted a series of Ming overseas territories such as the Jiugang Xuanwei Office decades ago, they have not been able to reproduce the glory of their seven voyages to the West.

Moreover, the current Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is Emperor Chenghua Zhu Jianshen. After ruling for such a long time, he has lost even the little bit of wisdom and sharpness he had at the beginning of his reign. Even the South China Sea pirates know about his extreme obsession with the old woman Wan Guifei, and for a time, it became the gossip of this group of rebellious people after dinner.

Albuquerque had a deep understanding of Arabia and India and could be considered an "Oriental expert", but he had never seen the giant treasure ships of the Eastern dynasties. He only heard a few words from the local people. Adhering to the principle that it is better to have less trouble than more, he adopted a cautious policy.

Now, all obstacles have disappeared, and his grand ambitions can be gradually implemented.

It was evening, and a fleet was sailing slowly on the calm Mediterranean Sea. The northern islands were in sight. The lookout on the lighthouse saw the emperor's flag and the light changed to show respect and welcome.

In the spacious cabin, Isaac was reading through documents from Constantinople. In the past few years, he had focused on the military, traveling back and forth in the Mediterranean, while state affairs were handled by the Crown Prince and the two queens.

In fact, the Crown Prince Constantine was just a child and did not have the ability to handle government affairs. Leonor also lacked talent in internal affairs and military affairs, and most of the government affairs came from Isabella.

Since the Iberian War entered its white-hot stage, Isabella rushed to Granada with Carlos, but there was not much chaos in Constantinople's administrative system. After several years of reform and reorganization, the civil government continued to improve. The officials did not need to care about the changes in power at the top and would faithfully implement the policies that had been formulated.

Local - central - deep government, after several decades, the administrative system of the Eastern Roman Empire finally got on the right track.

In fact, Isaac really did not want to maintain too large an administrative body. He always wanted to establish a relatively efficient and clean government. Through selection and elimination, he would gradually eliminate those useless people and leave behind a group of capable elites.

Whether they agree or not, Isaac has to tell officials at all levels that they become officials for their own dreams and for their own growth, not to be superior to others and gain privileges. Being a civil servant is just a job similar to that of farmers and workers, not a superior status.

All the simple civil servants in the Eastern Empire had no noble titles or personal privileges. If they did not want to contribute to war, science, culture and overseas exploration, they would be ordinary people all their lives. In return, Isaac gave them extremely generous salaries, which were more than enough to meet the daily expenses of a family and even allow them to afford luxury goods.

Even the Prime Minister of the Eastern Roman Empire, Isurt, was awarded the title because of his participation in the defense of Surt many years ago. In the army, there were many nobles with military merits equal to his title.

Officials do not produce any wealth and are completely unproductive. They are only servants, not regulators. Now they are supported by the emperor, so they serve the emperor. In the future, they will be supported by the people, so they will serve the people.

The Eastern Roman Empire already had a tradition of large government and civil service groups. The civil service system constructed by Isaac was precisely intended to restrict those things that were not in line with the trend of modern development.

Official privileges come from the government and also act on the government in turn. Unrestricted government power will not only lead to the massive proliferation of corruption, but also pose a serious threat to imperial power and civil rights. Overly bloated administrative departments will produce more and more redundant officials, and excessive supervision of society will cause science and culture to stagnate. It is indeed stable at the moment, but it will do more harm than good to the future of the nation.

Unlike technology which requires more effort and literature which can find a way out no matter what, the more abstract science and art require an open and inclusive ideology, "genius", a social environment that can accommodate "genius", a social trend that tolerates "deviantism", an atmosphere of public opinion that allows personal crazy ideas, and a prosperous era that can support the continuous growth of "genius".

The revived Eastern Roman Empire successfully met all of the above requirements. Here, civilian scientists could boldly question the new research of the Royal Academy of Sciences in newspapers, and ordinary people could express their opinions on the policies of government departments in public. If they wanted, they could even publish articles to make biting satires on the emperor, even though the emperor never read them.

Of course, this kind of ideological innovation only took root in big cities, especially Constantinople, which almost became the absolute center of science and culture in the Eastern Roman Empire.

In the prosperous and wealthy Constantinople, in the taverns, on the markets, and outside the churches, there were hopeful dreamers, capitalists, inventors, navigators, and writers everywhere. They took this as their goal and believed from the bottom of their hearts that in this enlightened and rich land, all dreams had the possibility and opportunity to come true.

Now, due to changes in the international situation, the emperor began to make the search, attraction, cultivation and protection of talents a basic national policy, encouraging thinking, funding dreams, using a large amount of secular interests to attract talents from various countries, and placing them in large cities along the Aegean coast to contribute to the empire's ideological innovation and industrial revolution.

Under the influence of the Great Movement of Discovery and the Revival of the Eastern Roman Empire, Italy's decline was inevitable, the economy was in a downturn, people's livelihood was bleak, and it seemed to be getting further and further away from its former position as the center of thought.

However, Isaac knew very well that Italy ranked first in the Western world in terms of literacy rate, cultural level, technological level and personal wealth. The accumulation of the past few hundred years had not yet been completely lost, and it had produced a large number of art masters and technology stars. As the birthplace of the Renaissance, its demise would not happen overnight.

Isaac's talent introduction plan was also mainly targeted at the Italian Peninsula, aiming at many talents of the Renaissance, covering everything from literature to art, from technology to science.

Later generations often say that the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire led to a large number of Eastern Roman talents entering Italy, and the Renaissance began as a result. This view is very one-sided and unfair. The Renaissance in Italy had already shown signs long before the fall of Constantinople. The essence of the Renaissance has never been a pursuit of ancient Greek and Roman literature and art, but a new cultural movement guided by the bourgeoisie.

In any case, the bourgeoisie of this era was very advanced and was the vanguard of promoting social progress. They turned the attention of the general public from the illusory "God" to the living "people", which led to this great ideological revolution. Art, literature, science... these were just by-products of the ideological revolution.

Isaac named this plan the Lighthouse Project, which aimed to turn the Eastern Roman Empire into a "beacon of civilization" that would attract talents from all over the world. As long as you were talented enough, you could get whatever you wanted when you came to Constantinople.

Like gold and silver? The emperor has no shortage of these.

Like a house? The emperor will build one for you according to the standards of a royal palace.

Like beauties? Take your pick of Prince Justinian's Circassian slave girls.

Even leaving all this aside, Constantinople's standard of living was the highest in the entire Mediterranean world, and its appeal to foreigners was definitely far ahead.

The first genius attracted by the Lighthouse Project was Leonardo from the small town of Vinci. After completing his studies, the young man was attracted to Constantinople by the generous remuneration. After drawing the renovation drawings for the Grand Palace, he was supposed to go home after finishing work, but he was persuaded to stay and moved into a picturesque house in the Golden Horn Bay area of ​​Constantinople. He began to travel around the empire to paint and occasionally took some architectural orders. With the demise of Venice and the coup in Florence, the two important Italian city-states both declined. The Eastern Roman Empire also extended the Lighthouse Project outward in a timely manner. In addition to increasing funding, the target of attracting talents was no longer limited.

If you have no talent but have money, you can still obtain citizenship of Constantinople. The emperor doesn't care whether your money was obtained through robbery or corruption. As long as you deposit your money in the Bank of Constantinople and spend it in Constantinople, it will be a great thing for the empire.

As a result, in just these few months, the executive office of the Lighthouse Project recruited more than a dozen talents and even more wealthy people from Italy, including many power struggle losers and corrupt officials seeking political asylum. The emperor accepted them all and refused to return them to their original countries.

If this kind of atmosphere can be continued, the wealth, technology and culture of Constantinople will continue to rise. Talents will be hard to come by, needless to say. Princes who fail in their power struggles will be the best excuse to interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and corrupt officials will leak all the confidential information of the original country.

Of course, this channel is naturally one-way. If other small countries dare to accept Eastern Roman defectors, the emperor's fleet will tell them who is the absolute overlord of the Mediterranean.

"Your Majesty has personally read that the Ottoman Chronicle has been basically edited. It covers a total of 173 years of history from the rise of Osman I to the fall of Bursa. In addition to the main body of the chronicle, it also includes biographies of every Ottoman monarch and some capable ministers. It has five volumes with a total of million words. There are more than people working on the history. I hope Your Majesty will commend us."

The signature is the royal historian Lake.

Isaac put the letter aside and nodded slightly.

While vigorously encouraging scientific and technological innovation, the Eastern Roman Empire also established the Institute of Social Sciences, which also had several departments under it, namely humanities, geography and history. It was responsible for the development of education, the study of languages, the description of the customs of various countries, the surveying and mapping of land resources, and the compilation and editing of historical materials.

When compiling history, several departments will work together, follow the unified dispatch of the head of the institute, and cover as many aspects of a country as possible.

This "Ottoman Chronicle" is the first foreign history compiled by the Eastern Roman Empire. It provides a relatively detailed account and relatively fair comments on the entire process of the Ottoman Empire from its rise to its demise. It is a practice of Isaac in writing history and also a kind of respect for the Ottoman Empire.

Of course, since the Western world does not have a long-standing historical writing tradition like the Eastern dynasties, and folk records are relatively limited, this "Ottoman Chronicle" is not as good as many historical books of the Eastern dynasties in terms of word count and details. The main part is a relatively brief chronicle rather than a biographical history. Its length is only one-fifth of "History of Song Dynasty" and one-half of "History of Yuan Dynasty". It is even not as good as "Jimin al-Tawarikh" compiled by the Ilkhanate.

However, everything has just begun, and everyone believes that the next few books will definitely get better and better.

Lake, the royal historian in charge of compiling history, really spent a lot of effort on this work. Although he was an eccentric person, he was diligent in compiling history. Completing a history book can be regarded as the fulfillment of his lifelong dream.

Isaac put away his thoughts, picked up his pen, and wrote a few lines to express his approval of the efforts of cultural workers.

For a civilization with a long history, literary materials are very important. This is not only a great contribution of the predecessors to the later generations, but also an excellent opportunity for public opinion propaganda. If handled properly, it can greatly change the views of later generations on a certain civilization and enhance the country's national pride and national cohesion.

Next, the Institute of Social Sciences will compile "History of Venice" and "History of the Indigenous City-States of Mexica". The former requires details and fairness, while the latter is required to serve politics.

There is no way. Venice has just perished, and the people involved are still alive. Their strengths and weaknesses have been deeply rooted in people's minds. We can only mix in some personal opinions, otherwise they will lose their value as a reference for future generations.

As for the Aztecs, their history was determined by Isaac, and there was no need to fabricate their dark spots. Selectively stating the facts and adding some vivid illustrations would be enough to arouse the heartfelt prejudice of future generations.

All the historical information about them was collected by Isaac and is not available to outsiders. If future generations want to understand this civilization, they can only read the historical records officially compiled by the Eastern Roman Empire.

If one day, even if the mixed-race indigenous peoples of the New World become independent, they will sneer at their ancestors and will still be pro-Roman in culture and beliefs.

After pondering for a moment, Isaac wrote a few more words and decided to increase the funds allocated to the Academy of Social Sciences.

After they have accumulated some experience, Isaac may also preside over the compilation of an encyclopedia covering all aspects, modeled after the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature, leaving behind valuable cultural heritage for future generations.

"Your Majesty, we are almost there!"

The guard knocked on the door, waking Isaac from his thoughts.

"it is good."

Isaac put away the paper and pen, sealed the letter with wax, opened the door, and handed it to the guard.

Coming to the wide deck, Isaac opened his arms, took a deep breath of the salty sea breeze, and looked at the nearby port.

This is the Port of Malta, the capital of the Maltese Islands, the only city in the Maltese Islands with a population of more than 5,000, and the unsinkable base of the Eastern Roman Navy in the Mediterranean.

Since the course of history is very different from the original time and space, it is obviously impossible for the Knights Hospitaller to go into exile on the island of Malta, and there is no city named after the Grand Master Valletta. This semi-militarized port built by the Eastern Roman Empire is directly called the Port of Malta by local residents. The local residents are mainly military immigrants and the families of Eastern Roman sailors. In addition to farming, they also provide services for passing merchant ships.

As an extension of the Eastern Roman military will in the Mediterranean, the Maltese Islands were naturally vigorously developed, but this development mainly served the military rather than the economy.

At present, after ten years of construction and improvement, the Malta Fortress Complex has been basically completed. At the end of last year, Leonardo da Vinci, who was traveling around, came here and suddenly came up with some clever ideas for the Malta Fortress Complex, which were also used by the Eastern Roman Empire.

The fortress complex mainly consists of three large fortresses distributed on three islands. If necessary, the Eastern Roman defenders can use iron chains to connect Malta, Cominotto and Gozo to hinder the enemy fleet.

On the map, these three fortresses are distributed in a trident shape, also known as the Poseidon Fortress Group. They are named after the sea god in ancient mythology, symbolizing the Eastern Roman Empire's ambition to control the ocean.

The changes in Italy also affected the Maltese Islands. The last potential threat in the eastern Mediterranean disappeared, trade transit began to recover, and more and more merchant ships passed through.

The Maltese Islands are also an important part of the lighthouse project. It is very close to Italy. The Eastern Roman government invested in building a large-scale lighthouse on the coast near the port of Malta. It lit fireworks day and night to point the way to civilization and wealth.

After arriving on the island of Malta, Isaac briefly talked to the local officials, casually asked about the lighthouse project, had a simple dinner, and then returned to his residence.

This time, Isaac came to the Maltese Islands not just for the Lighthouse Project and Poseidon Fortress.

Lighting a candle and spreading out a map on the mahogany desk, Isaac found the Maltese Islands in the center of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Maltese Islands are located between the European continent and the African continent, and not far to the south is Carthage, the "southern capital" of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Isaac bypassed the Maltese Islands, pointed his finger north, and stopped on a large triangular island.

Sicily.

Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean. It has undulating mountains in the central part, a relatively dry climate, and the population is mainly distributed in the coastal basin. It has been a beautiful but bizarre island since ancient times.

In these thousands of years, Sicily seems to have never achieved true independence, and the ruling power has been constantly changing hands among foreign powers, including the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, French, and Spanish...

For the pitiful Italians, whoever has the stronger military force can be their master. Voltaire's words truly describe the suffering and vicissitudes that the Italian peninsula has endured for many years.

Compared to northern Italy, Sicily in southern Italy is obviously more miserable. The city-states in northern Italy at least represent their own people, but the foreign rulers of Sicily will not seek benefits for these indigenous people. From the retreat of Rome to the Italian Renaissance, there has been no change for more than a thousand years.

But, in any case, the Sicilians today are no longer the original indigenous people. In terms of bloodline, many of them are very authentic Roman survivors who fled here from mainland Italy. Their bloodline is even purer than Isaac.

Under long-term foreign rule, Sicily has developed a very unique political structure. The local people are extremely distrustful of foreign kings and nobles, and sneer at the government and the nobles. They tend to unite under the banner of small local groups headed by local wealthy families. These wealthy families will maintain the most basic order, fairness and justice for the people, forming mutual aid gangs, which are somewhat similar to primitive communes.

This kind of grassroots structure had its beginnings during the Angevin Dynasty and took shape during the Sicilian Vespers War. These gang members called themselves "bold and confident people". They hated foreign governments, were ashamed to serve them and proud to oppose them. Although their order was full of violence and blood, and contained some elements of barbaric utopia, it was still a force that could not be ignored on the island of Sicily and was the desperate choice of the islanders in the face of countless days and nights of foreign exploitation.

In the original time and space, after Italy lost its position as the economic center, these people inevitably declined, but the wave of immigration from America provided them with a new soil for survival. There was still a lack of order and an underground world. This group of Sicilians revived again and gradually developed into a transnational criminal gang with family blood ties as the bond. They made everyone remember their existence with an arrogant attitude far beyond that of the past.

Later, Eastern translators gave them a derogatory name, the Mafia.

Isaac gently brushed across the exquisite map, thinking about how to deal with it.

The bell rang and a clerk came in.

"His Majesty?"

"Are they here?"

Isaac did not look up.

The clerk thought about it, nodded, and then shook his head.

"Of the ten people who received the invitation, only three showed up."

"The most powerful one comes from the small town of Corleone near Palermo."

"Whatever, just one will do."

Isaac nodded slightly.

"Let the mafia in, I'll make them an offer they can't refuse."

(End of this chapter)