Chapter 1260 You Will Always Be My Commander!

"Minchia! Cazzo! De La Cosa, what on earth have you been doing these days? Why did the ship first dock and then go to the sea. Sometimes it went west, sometimes it went east, and it kept going in circles?..."

"Merda! What's with the cannon noise? It kept going off. Could it be that we could encounter Berber pirates on the west coast of the peninsula?!..."

The dim oil lamp was hung on the bulkhead of the lower cabin. The light was not bright, but it made the man in the lower cabin close his eyes. The narrow cabin was in a mess, and a pungent and strong smell made people want to cover their noses. This "commander's single room" converted from a utility room was really terrible! What was even worse was the pale, skinny-looking man who was leaning on the dirty board. He only had one ear, and the clothes he had worn for three months were stained and exuded an even more indescribable smell...

"Diamine! Delakosa, what's that expression on your face? I don't need your pity! What the hell are you doing here? What the hell is going on outside?..."

"...Hey!...Cough!...This smell...Cough!"

Delakosa sighed deeply, and did not approach Columbus, his hand was still on the machete. The pungent smell made him cry a little, and he couldn't help coughing, and then he said faintly.

"Commander, our ship is too slow. We have been escaping for several days but still failed... We are about to be caught up by others... This time, I am afraid that everyone will not survive..."

"What! What do you do? A bunch of idiots!... Vaffanculo! I have said it long ago! This damn, tattered, slow reptile-like broken sailboat is just a maggot raised by a fly! It can only crawl like a maggot on the sea, and it is not as good as the two speedboats of Pinzon's stupid goose!..."

"Cazzo! When I went to Sipangu, I wished that this broken ship would hit the reef and sink, and then replace it with another two light ships as the flagship! Only a blind donkey would treasure a slow maggot ship!..."

"Maggot ship? A fly as big as an egg, a blind donkey?"

As the owner of the Santa Maria, De La Cosa's face twitched when he heard such open and covert ridicule, and his originally pitying eyes returned to coldness. He pursed his lips, gripped the handle of his scimitar, and let Columbus vent his anger until the other party questioned him again.

"Merda! Delakosa, I ask you! Who is chasing us? The Berber paddle pirate ship has a short burst of speed and will be weak in half a day. How can it be possible to chase us for several days?"

"Commander, you guessed right... The one chasing us is not the group of ambushing and looting Berber dogs... It is the Portuguese navy, a regular navy..."

At this point, Delakosa no longer needs to hide anything. He calmly told the truth, then held the knife and took a step closer to Columbus.

"What?! The Portuguese navy? Why are they chasing us? Did the Queen and King Joao go to war? That shouldn't be the case... Damn it! Delakosa, you venomous snake! When we stopped the ship, were you so bold as to rob the Portuguese village?..."

"...No. The kingdom is not at war with Portugal. With our limited manpower, how could we rob the Portuguese village? In fact, I have always been very low-key. I even put away the royal flag and pretended to be an ordinary merchant ship..."

Drakosa shook his head, and his eyes showed a little pity and guilt. He drew his knife silently and took another step forward.

"Dear Commander Columbus! The news of our exploration of the new route seems to have leaked out... I'm afraid that more than ten Portuguese clippers are searching for us off the coast of Lisbon... Tomorrow, or at most the day after tomorrow, we will be caught by them... In order to prevent the news of the new route from leaking out, for the sake of the kingdom and the queen... Each of us must keep our mouths shut, tightly, firmly..."

"What! You put away the royal flag? There was no war, and you didn't do anything, so why are you running away with a guilty conscience?!"

Columbus tried to open his eyes wide and adapt to the light that was rarely seen in captivity. Due to the lack of meat and fruit, his eyesight was very poor. At this moment, he seemed to be unable to see Delacosa's face, nor could he see the other party's half-drawn scimitar. There was a rare confusion in his fierce and stubborn eyes. His voice was confused at first, and then it became confident and excited as he spoke.

"Merda! De La Cosa, are you crazy? Why are you sneaking around and hiding from the Portuguese? Why are you hiding the news of the new route? How can such a big news be hidden?..."

"Lord! I am the Admiral of Castile appointed by the Queen herself! It's me, me! I, Don Christopher Columbus, the glorious noble of Castile, led you bunch of brainless idiots to discover a new route to the East!..."

"This is a great honor that shocked the entire Catholic world! It is a great feat that can be canonized since the advent of the Son of God!... Why should I hide, and why should I hide?! This is my achievement, my contribution! I want everyone, everyone to know! It's mine! No one can take it away, no one can take it away!... Even the noble Queen will be proud of my feat!"

"Ah!..."

Seeing Commander Columbus, who seemed to be unaware of death and daydreaming even when he was about to die. De La Cosa sighed again, his eyes were also very complicated. He murmured praise as he drew out the last section of the scimitar.

"Commander, I really admire you, your optimism and confidence! You will always be the commander in my heart... Commander, if you are asked to sail back and encounter a large Portuguese navy, you will surely be fearless and fight them bravely to the end, right?..."

"I will sail? Fight?... Dela Cosa, are you crazy? What are you talking about? We only have one boat and a dozen people. How can we go to war with the Portuguese navy, which is more powerful than the Kingdom's navy, on the coast of Portugal?..."

"Merda! Why do you always want to go to war with the Portuguese? The queen did not declare war on King Joao... Yes! I do want to 'go to war', but not on some bullshit sea, but in the court of Sintra, against those bullshit court scholars and navigation scholars who have their heads stuck in their asses!..."

"What do you mean I miscalculated? What do you mean Am I a crazy ass with delusional ideas, a navigator who dreams of sailing? ... I am the greatest navigator Columbus! Now, I will personally appear in front of that group of idiots with the news of the new route, the natives and goods from the East! ..."

"Haha! I will slap them in the face and make them all kneel down in front of the new route I discovered! I will loudly publicize the prosperity of the East, let those shitty scholars who look down on me, and let King Joao who rejected me see! He missed me, missed such a great discovery, and missed such an amazing new route! ... Only the queen, only the queen can discover my talent and appoint me as the commander of the navy! And I will only dedicate the new route that changes the world to the great Queen Isabella! ..."

"..."

Faced with Columbus's excited shouts, De La Cosa was silent for a moment, and began to wonder if the other party had been locked up for too long and had gone crazy. Or maybe, the other party was pretending to be crazy and wanted to survive? He carefully held the knife, only one step away from Columbus, and carefully watched the other party's movements. Before taking this last step, he paused and said with emotion.

"Respected Commander Columbus! Your loyalty and love for the Queen really makes me ashamed!... As a Castilian, I am not as good as you... But the struggle and fighting between nobles is not what you think. Faced with such amazing interests, if we fall into the hands of the Portuguese... the new route we discovered will most likely be mastered by the Portuguese, and will not be passed on to Castile! The Queen may never know that her loyal Commander Columbus discovered a new route to the East to the west and came back alive..."

"So, for the benefit of the kingdom, for the secret of the new route... I can only... I'm sorry, Commander..."

"Dracosa! Are you stupid?! Are you afraid that the Portuguese will detain us and seize the secret of the new route?..."

After listening for a long time, Columbus seemed to finally understand what Dracosa was worried about, and interrupted the other party's last words loudly. He laughed wildly, raised his head, and stared at Dracosa who was close at hand as if he was looking at a fool.

"God is my witness! Even if the Portuguese know about the new route to the west, so what? More than a decade ago, the Queen and King Joao signed the Treaty of Alcázovas, which stipulated that everything west of the Atlantic Ocean was the territory of the Kingdom of Castile! This is a sacred treaty witnessed by the Pope!..."

"According to the treaty, the Atlantic Ocean belongs to the Kingdom of Castile and the Queen! The new route to the west can only belong to the Queen! Even if the Portuguese know that they can reach the East by going west, they cannot enter the Queen's territory stipulated in the treaty, the Eastern territory that the Queen has granted me!..."

"...The Treaty of Alcázovas?"

Dracosa was stunned. He had never thought about this. But soon, he smiled helplessly. This silly citizen of the commercial city-state did not understand the rules of aristocratic politics at all, and always regarded the contracts of the nobles as something supreme and inviolable. Just like the stupid contract signed between the other party and the queen, monopolizing all the discoveries and offending everyone, do you still want to rely on a piece of paper to keep the overwhelming wealth? …

"Dear Commander Columbus, you have a good idea... But if we fall into the hands of the Portuguese and are detained by the Portuguese... I am afraid that the Queen will not know the existence of the new route, let alone the peace treaty..."

"Delacosa, what nonsense are you talking about? How could the Queen not know the existence of the new route?..."

Columbus curled his lips in disdain, and his confident demeanor was like the king in the cabin. He sneered at Delacosa, as if he was looking at a stupid donkey, no, a stupid donkey with a venomous snake head.

"It only takes more than ten days to get from Lisbon to the Queen's Palace in Valladolid by express horse! If you hadn't been running around in circles on the sea before, and had sailed directly to Lisbon and told the stupid Portuguese nobles and royal family that we had discovered a new route... I'm afraid that this weekend, the Queen would have heard about the new route and knew that we were back!..."

"What's so scary about the Portuguese? King Joao rejected me for so many years. Even if he locked me up, tortured me, begged me, and gave me the title of naval commander... I would never serve him again! My loyalty belongs only to the beautiful, holy and great Queen!..."

"Even if I'm detained by the Portuguese, what does it matter? As long as the Queen knows that I'm back, she will definitely send someone, the most important royal envoy, to take me, the Kingdom's Admiral, the discoverer of the new route, the Queen's most loyal great navigator, back to Castile in style!"

"Uh!..."

Hearing Columbus's wonderful imagination, Delacosa was stunned, and even the hand holding the knife trembled in shock. How could this guy be so ugly, but think so beautifully? King Joao begged him, and the queen personally sent someone to pick him up? This is simply daydreaming... Wait! Wait!

At this moment, Delacosa came back to his senses and suddenly caught something keenly, as if he saw a beam of light in the dark cabin. Although the light was weak and swaying, it exuded a sense of vitality...

"Columbus! No, Commander Columbus!... Say it again! Say it again!... If you were the one driving the ship, what would you do?..."

"Merda! Delacosa, you idiot, did you listen to me just now?!..."

"I'm listening, I'm listening carefully... What did you say just now, how to drive a ship?..."

"Bah! What do you mean by how to drive a ship? Do you still need to think about it? Delacosa, you must have been a poisonous snake in the gutter for too long, and you dare not come out in broad daylight... You even took down the flag and hid from the Portuguese navy, just like a criminal pirate. You were so sneaky that you were caught by the Portuguese in the open sea and killed quietly without anyone knowing! That kind of death is like a slug, like a maggot in the gutter!..."

Columbus raised his head and one ear, looked at Delacosa with disdain, and then shouted confidently.

"If it were me! If I were the commander, I would sail the ship!... I would openly raise the flag of the royal family of Castile, hold my head high, and sail directly to the port of Lisbon! No, I will sail tonight, and go to Lisbon immediately overnight!..."

"The next morning, I will appear in the prosperous Tagus Bay outside Lisbon! I will tell every Portuguese noble I meet, every merchant ship from various countries passing by, and everyone in Lisbon about the news of discovering the new route!..."

"I will make the stupid Portuguese scholars kneel down in front of me and slap themselves! I will make King Joao, who rejected me, regret his life and hate himself for being blind!..."

"I will announce loudly to everyone: I! Don Christopher Columbus, is the first great navigator to reach the East, the first person to discover a new route! I discovered a new route to the East, just west of the Atlantic Ocean!..."

In the narrow cabin, one-eared Columbus raised his head and squinted, sitting on the filthy board, like a king in a cesspool! Beside him, Delakosa was horrified, shocked by this domineering aura, trembling and unable to hold the hilt of the knife, retreating two steps, muttering.

"Ah! Yes! Yes!"

"So that's it! Right! That's it! That's it! That's it!..."

"Announce the news of the new route to everyone! Bring everything in the dark to the surface! This is the only way to survive! Ah! Why have I never thought of this?..."

"Commander Columbus is really... He is really... A man who is favored by the goddess of fate and has a tough life! I am really not as good as him, really not as good as him! It turned out to be right to keep him!... And the next thing can only rely on him, relying on his previous "reputation" in Portugal..."

After being shocked for a while, Delakosa came back to his senses. He threw away the scimitar in his hand with a "dang" sound, and excitedly rushed towards Columbus who was holding his head high. Then, he held the other's hand without any disgust, tears in his eyes, and spoke with a sincere and excited face.

"Commander! Respected Commander Columbus!... You will always be my commander!"

"Your injury has finally healed under my care! It's not easy!... Ah! From tomorrow on, you will be our captain! The captain who leads us to Lisbon!..."

In the dim cabin, seeing Delacosa "ferociously" rushing towards him, Columbus trembled, and his heroic attitude of dying was immediately broken.

"Delacosa! You... you are finally going to do it?! You cold and venomous snake, you started to draw your knife as soon as you entered the cabin, and you wanted to murder your respected commander!... Come on! I have been prepared for a long time, and I have been waiting for this day!... Aha! I am really blind to take you to sail! Even if I become a ghost, I will not let you go... Eh?! Wait! You... what did you say?!... Let me... be the captain again?..."

At this moment, Columbus opened his mouth wide, with an unbelievable look on his face, stunned.