The famous Venetian family Barbarigo and Lu Xiao heard rumors about them from Caterina when they were still staying in Forli.
Barbarigo was a noble who rose as a merchant. Thanks to the prosperous port connecting Venice to the world, they accumulated a large amount of wealth and connections through maritime trade, and gradually became an important noble in the Republic of Venice.
After completing the initial accumulation of capital, the Barbarigo family was no longer content with the business world. They extended their tentacles to all areas of Venice like octopuses.
This naturally includes the political circles of the Republic of Visney. Due to the domineering style they displayed with the support of the Templars, even the current Doge of Venice, Giovanni Mosenigo, showed courtesy to them.
There are three contemporary well-known figures in the Barbarigo family, namely Emilio, who is in charge of business affairs, Marco, who is versatile in politics and business, and Silvio, who is the prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Venice.
As the saying goes, if the upper beam is not straight, the lower beam is crooked. With Rodrigo, a Grand Master of the Templars who is passionate about power, most of the people he values can't get rid of the characteristic of greed for power.
According to the information provided by Catalina, every member of the Barbarigo family has a strong negative character.
Emilio is cunning and cruel. Anyone who threatens his position in the Venetian business community will be forced by him to cooperate with other political members of the family and use various disgraceful means to drive his competitors to a dead end.
Marco is headstrong and extremely greedy. As one of the richest families in Venice, Marco, the eldest son of Barbarigo, has been able to easily obtain everything he wants since he was a child, including ships, jewelry, gold, and even... people.
The pampering of his elders made Marco develop a greedy and conceited character. Anyone or anything he took a fancy to, no matter who it belonged to before, would eventually be forcibly taken away by him.
When Silvio was very young, he witnessed his uncle in the clan kill his father in order to fight for property. At a young age, he was forced to live with his uncle who was the murderer of his father. He was bullied and ridiculed by his peers since childhood.
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Silvio's twisted childhood developed a tolerant character, and the anger of jealousy and revenge kept burning in his heart until he single-handedly planned and completed the brutal revenge against his uncle and regained the property that belonged to him.
After Rodrigo returned to Rome, he gradually became reclusive and became less enthusiastic about attacking the Assassin Brotherhood, but the Templars' pursuit of the Piece of Eden did not end.
Except for the tight-lipped Rodrigo himself, other members of the Templar Order did not know that the Assassins had obtained information about the Golden Apple of Cyprus.
In order to succeed before the Assassin Brotherhood, Rodrigo issued an order to the Barbarigo family, urging them to persuade the Governor of Venice to expedition to Cyprus as soon as possible. If they could not persuade the Governor, they would simply replace him himself.
With the contact of Giovanni and Mario, the Ottoman branch and the Egyptian branch of the Brotherhood successively sent personnel to sneak into Cyprus.
Today, Cyprus is nominally controlled by the Rousignan dynasty founded by the French.
In the 14th century, as Cyprus gradually prospered, Venice and Cyprus had a series of unpleasant frictions, which led to hatred between the two sides.
In 1426, Venice instigated the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt to invade Cyprus.
After the defeat of the Lusignan Dynasty, it lost its independent control over the kingdom, became a dependent state of the Mamluk Dynasty, and gradually became an overseas colony of the Republic of Venice in the next half century.
The current Doge of Venice, Giovanni Mosenigo, has little interest in completely annexing Cyprus. The lobbying of the Barbarigo family has not played a big role. Rodrigo and the Barbarigo family have gradually lost interest in Mosenigo.
patience.
It was against this background of undercurrents that Lu Xiao came to Venice. According to Antonio's description, the Barbarigo family, who did not want to wait any longer, should have killed the governor in the near future.
Mosenigo's stance towards the Templars and Assassins is biased towards neutrality. If the Barbarigo family is allowed to take power, the Venetian Brotherhood will inevitably be more severely suppressed and may even lose all its strongholds in this water city.
"So, what do you want me to do?"
Lu Xiao leaned against the unfinished desk in Da Vinci's workshop, crossed his arms on his chest, looked at Antonio and asked: "Assassinate all direct members of the Barbarigo family?"
"No." Antonio shook his head: "We only need to kill Marco, Emilio and Silvio."
"These three people are the most die-hard Templar supporters in the Barbarigo family. As long as they die, I can operate secretly to support members of the Barbarigo family who have good relations with the brotherhood."
Lu Xiao was a little surprised by this: "There are still members of the Brotherhood in the Barbarigo family?"
Antonio smiled nonchalantly: "Which big family has only one voice? Due to the tough and brutal behavior of the Marcos, many people in the Barbarigo family are very dissatisfied with them."
"I understand."
Lu Xiao stood up straight again and said: "I need more information about the three Barbarigo Templars. Where they often go, the time and pattern of going out, please sort it out and give it to me as soon as possible."
…
The Assassin Brotherhood's power in Venice is far less powerful than that in Florence, but from another perspective, in this city that does not belong to our side in the first place, it seems that it is not too much of a loss to carry out limited destruction of the city in exchange for the defeat of the Templar forces.
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When in Florence, the Brotherhood could not act too outrageously due to concerns about the views of the Medici family, the Assassin's allies, but this did not exist in Venice.
Antonio, who controlled the Thieves Guild, was very efficient. Within a few days of Lu Xiao and Da Vinci settling in Venice, he sent over all the information Lu Xiao needed.
"Oh, that's pretty fast."
Da Vinci was still busy studying the manufacturing and improvement methods of the Hidden Gun recorded in Altaïr's Codex. Lu Xiao went through the information secretly sent by the Venetian thieves in the studio alone in detail.
In addition to the Barbarigo trio mentioned earlier, Antonio also singled out a government official named Carlo Grimaldi, who was also one of the important members of the Templars in Venice.
Carlo was a member of the Venetian Council of Ten. He held a high position and was deeply trusted by Doge Mosenigo.
Antonio speculated that the assassination plan of the Barbarigo family would be carried out by Carlo, who had the easiest access to the governor.
These materials also give some suggestions on the threat level and assassination priority of the Venetian Templars.
The person with the highest priority is not Marco, the head of the Barbarigo family, nor Silvio, who is the prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Venice, but Emilio, who is a businessman.
Emilio is the money bag of the Barbarigo family. He manages the most important financial transactions of a large family.
Moreover, all the materials needed by the Barbarigo family to assassinate and rebel were purchased using Emilio's connections and smuggled into Venice through smuggling channels.
Antonio's thieves recently discovered a batch of strange goods. For the first time, Emilio purchased a large package of herbs that could not be sold at a high price, which was seriously inconsistent with his previous business philosophy of being stubborn about money.
"herb?"
Lu Xiao subconsciously thought of the quick-acting poison recorded in Altaïr's handbook: "Could it be that the Barbarigo family plans to assassinate the Governor through poison?"