Chapter 2080: Chapter 1521: If You Do Not Abandon Me, I Wish to Worship You as My Godfather!

In the turbulent European winds of 1495, the gaze of almost every King and Duke was fixed upon the Italian Peninsula, upon the very center of this Catholic World.

The great army of France swept southward at speed, clearing Northern Italy and Rome in three months. Naples, which lay in the path of the French Army’s spearhead, had already collapsed at the first blow of the army’s Vanguard. The swift French Cavalry Corps, supported by siege Firearms units, seemed so powerful that no opponent could be found for them! 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

The young King Charles of France, full of high spirits, led his Knight Corps in formation and strode proudly into unresisting Romagna, like a swaggering military parade. The authority of the Vatican came crashing down! Pope Alexander VI, with his greed and worldly power plays, had stirred up this conflagration of war, and the flames were burning not only the Pope’s Divinity and reputation, but had long since grown beyond the range of his control.

Faced with the rapid advance of the French Army, the Sicilians fled at the mere sound of the wind, while the Venetians were greatly shaken. In their terror and dread, they activated their most powerful "Golden Weapon"! Envoys of the City-State Republic, carrying bonds and Gold Coin, began the "summoning" to form an Alliance. The indebted Dual Kings of Iberia had to be pulled in, the impoverished Shenluo Lords had to be pulled in, and every Mercenary Group across the lands had to be hired, the more the better. Under the Venetians’ formidable "money-splashing," a Holy Alliance against France was rapidly taking shape!

Meanwhile, in the Holy Roman Empire, Duke of Austria Maximilian was also watching every turn of the Italian war, displaying his wariness and hostility toward France. Of course, he was a curious sort of Knight monarch, better at the propagation of bloodlines than at fighting battles. As the Clan Leader of the Habsburg family, he once again seized the fine opportunity the Almighty had granted, marrying into both Milan and Aragon at the same time, scattering his branches across Europe, and composing the legend of the "Lower-Body Fortress."

Yet no matter how the situation of the Italian war might develop, no matter how this protracted conflict might twist and turn, one inevitable outcome had already been decided in advance: as the brutal battlefield at the very center of the struggle, the divided Italian States were destined to become the price of this war!

Just as the Poets of Italy in this age described it, the prosperity of the Renaissance was cut off abruptly; the era in which the Italian States led Europe into flourishing would, along with the Vatican’s fallen triple crown, depart forever and never return.

"Quante calamità, quante ruine portate dalle armi straniere sulla terra che fu culla di civiltà e d’arte.... How many disasters, how much destruction, have foreign arms brought upon this land that was once the cradle of civilization and art!..."

While the fires of war raged on without end in Northern Italy at over forty degrees north latitude, and ships shuttled in and out of every coastal port, on the other side of the world, at the same latitude, the Ezo Sea Area had already been covered in drifting ice for a thousand Li.

From north to south, the icy winds of Siberia froze the land, and the Thousand Islands Cold Current brought chill along the coast. Divine Kutadai Port on the southern shore of Sakhalin Island was completely frozen over, and the Beiyu Cold Swamp Tribe on the North Coast of Ezo land was the same. In the central western Ezo, however, the Beiyu Cold Shore Division, where three Japanese-style merchant ships were moored, was the furthest point in the Northern Sea Domain that could barely still be navigated, and it was also the place where the Kingdom would meet the Envoy of the Tiantai Sect.

"Buddha protect us! The icebound Sea of Ezo—just when I thought I was about to leave these snowy mountains and rivers far behind, they confront me once again! In this world, worldly ties truly are hard to cut, and purity is hard to find... Ezo land and the Shandan Golden Tribe! This murky water that grows muddier the more it’s stirred—after all, I have still stepped into it~~"

Disciple of the Tiantai Sect Mori no Kiyoshi let out a long sigh, the icy wind lashing his sighing face. Then, dressed in a dark, high-quality Monk Robe, with Matsushita Zou Jirou following behind him with bowed head, and the anxious Mizhu monk in tow, he stepped off the cargo-laden Biancai Ship onto the shores of Ezo land.

Yes, the identity under which he had come this time was no longer that of a wealthy rice house merchant, but of an Envoy of the Tiantai Sect sent to ransom prisoners. The amusing part was that although he had taken off his merchant’s garb and put on a Monk Robe, the blade-bearing Escort aboard his ship had instead all taken off their Tiantai Monk Soldiers’ robes and adopted the guise of Ranger Warriors. Even the Tiantai Sect prayer flags on the ship had all been taken down, making them look like an utterly ordinary merchant vessel.

"Oh Buddha! So this is a village of the Ezo People? Hm, this stretch of wooden fence and wooden houses is indeed quite simple and plain!..."

Mori no Kiyoshi narrowed his eyes, surveying the snow-covered village of the Cold Shore Division. The previous Gold trade had all taken place in the bay by the Korobetsu River to the south; this large village of Ezo People was indeed his first visit. And his appearance here now also meant that the carefully maintained trading distance he had kept with the Shandan Golden Tribe had now vanished. He had been drawn into a deeper vortex, and entwined himself more tightly with the Golden Tribe of Shandan...

"Hahaha! Sen, my friend, you have finally come as promised! I’ve been waiting for you several days... Was everything smooth on this northward journey?..."

Zuwaro, wrapped in fur, spread his arms wide and strode eagerly from the village longhouse. At his side came High Priest Loshanda, Warrior Captain Tamicao, Vanguard leader Fu Shan, Priest Ali, Priest Ryuzoji Temple Jia Hong, and the Beiyu Hebin Chieftain of the Cold Shore Division.

All the important Leaders of the Kingdom along the Western Sea were present here. And in the villages of the Beiyu Division, nearly two hundred of the Kingdom’s Warriors had already been secretly deployed in advance, though most did not show themselves. It could be said that, for this meeting, the degree of importance the Kingdom attached had already reached the highest level!