Counting the seven fragments of pages still in the hands of the Barbarigo family, Venice owns nearly half of the pages in Altaïr's Codex.
In fact, long before Lu Xiao arrived in Venice, Antonio was searching for traces of the book pages under Mario's orders. Lu Xiao's actions diverted the attention of the Barbarigo family, making it easier for Antonio's thieves to move around the city.
He found four pages of information among the remaining five scattered pages, but there was no trace of the last one. Antonio speculated that it should not be in Venice.
Following the lessons of Silvio and Emilio, Marco would definitely take Dante and a large number of bodyguards with him when he went out, and at other times he would stay at home as much as possible to avoid assassins.
Under such high-intensity defense, Lu Xiao could not find the right time to take action.
In this case, the Venetian Brotherhood simply turned their attention to Doge Mosenigo.
As long as Mosenigo can be shown evidence that the Barbarigo family intends to murder him, the governor can be persuaded to send a large number of troops to deal with the Barbarigo family. Lu Xiao does not believe that the shrinking turtle can still hide at home calmly.
The agreed time for action was tonight. After bidding farewell to the three giants, Lu Xiao first returned to Da Vinci's workshop, intending to ask the omnipotent genius about the progress of cracking the Hidden Gun.
"Ah~ you came just in time."
After Lu Xiao knocked on the door, Da Vinci immediately pulled him in enthusiastically.
"Take off your right arm armor, and I will modify and install the hidden gun for you."
Lu Xiao was a little surprised by Da Vinci's progress. When he took off the arm armor and handed it to him, he asked casually: "Have you finished the research?"
"Yes." Da Vinci said with a satisfied smile: "Although it is very troublesome, the sense of accomplishment gained after officially cracking it is also unparalleled."
"As mentioned in Altaïr's Codex, if the design ideas of this weapon are spread, it will definitely change the entire world's war model."
Da Vinci, who was clever and handy, was deftly dismantling the hidden sword in Lu Xiao's arm armor, and at the same time explained a lot of mechanism principles to Lu Xiao in a cheerful tone that he couldn't understand at all.
Half an hour later, Lu Xiao was finally relieved from his thoughts. Da Vinci handed the reassembled arm armor to Lu Xiao: "Okay, let's go to the backyard and try it."
Lu Xiao tried to move after putting on the arm armor. There was a small iron pipe under the mechanism for popping up the Hidden Blade. It also needed to trigger the pressure mechanism to pop out.
"According to your suggestion, I spent a lot of energy carving that... rifling?"
Da Vinci set up a scarecrow target for Lu Xiao in the backyard: "As you said, the existence of rifling stabilizes the ballistic trajectory, allowing the Hidden Gun to accurately hit the enemy at a farther distance."
Under Da Vinci's explanation, Lu Xiao raised his palm slightly, relying on the pressure of his muscles to trigger the mechanism.
"Crack!"
Along with the black smoke rising after the gunpowder burned, a small through hole appeared on the scarecrow's head, which meant that the hidden gun made by Leonardo da Vinci had passed the test and could be put into practical use.
In his excitement, Da Vinci did not forget to remind Lu Xiao: "Lu, when using the hidden gun, be careful not to fill it with gunpowder in advance to avoid accidentally triggering the mechanism and misfiring during movement."
"Also, the filling process of the Hidden Gun is troublesome and it cannot be fired continuously in battle. Please be prepared for this in advance."
Lu Xiao put away the hidden gun with satisfaction and said: "It's already very good that the early version can do this. The physical lethality of this hidden gun at mid-range has surpassed the folding crossbow. Follow-up improvements should be made slowly."
…
It was a dark and windy night, and when the bright full moon hung in the night sky of Venice, the bustling water city gradually returned to tranquility during the day.
The guards outside the Governor's Mansion were still standing guard dutifully, their sharp eyes scanning vigilantly in the dark night to ensure that no one approached the guarded area of the Governor's Mansion.
Giovanni Mosenigo was sitting alone in his study reading letters.
This letter was sent by Lorenzo Medici, Lord of Florence. In the letter, Lorenzo warned him to beware of the Templar conspiracy.
After refolding the letter and throwing it aside, Mosenigo looked out the window thoughtfully.
'Templars and Assassins, which side should I trust? Or should I continue to maintain the previous strategy and let both sides maintain a balance in the city of Venice?'
"Stop! It is forbidden to enter the Governor's Palace!"
The shouts coming from the window woke Mosenigo out of his thoughts. Since he took office as the Governor of Venice, no one has ever broken into this well-defended Governor's Palace.
Walking to the window and looking down, a group of dirty civilians pushed past the guards and rushed into the west gate of the Governor's Palace. Then they rushed out of the north gate with a group of guards behind them with weapons drawn in pursuit. This triggered a firestorm.
A series of riots.
"Tuk tuk~ Your Excellency the Governor, Councilor Carlo Grimaldi would like to see you."
Looking away from the window, Mosenigo frowned: "At this time? Let him go back. I'm going to rest. I'll talk about anything tomorrow."
"However, Councilor Carlo said there is something important to remind you."
Mosenigo looked at the situation outside the window again. The group of civilians who broke into the Governor's Palace were nowhere to be seen. The guards who gave up the pursuit cursed and returned to their posts.
After thinking about it for a while, Mosenigo sighed: "Okay, let him in, I want to hear what kind of flattery he plans to flatter Barbarigo this time."
…
When the guards returned to their positions, Lu Xiao had already used the commotion caused by thieves and mercenaries to sneak into the Governor's Mansion quietly and reached the roof of this luxurious four-story building.
After knocking down several archers patrolling the roof one after another, Lu Xiao was about to climb down when he happened to see a thin old man rubbing his hands and restlessly pacing anxiously outside the east gate of the Governor's Mansion.
'That's...Carlo Grimaldi?'
Lu Xiao's expression tightened. Carlo's late-night visit gave him a bad feeling.
'Is that headstrong guy Marco finally tired of waiting?'
Carlo has been unable to persuade Governor Mosenigo to issue martial law. Marco, who has wanted everything since he was a child, finally became angry and ordered Carlo to poison Mosenigo tonight. Marco will be appointed to the Holy See early tomorrow morning
became the new Doge of Venice.
'We must speed up the pace!'
According to the information provided by Teodora, the governor should not have fallen asleep at this time, and was probably relaxing in his study reading literary books.
The study and the governor's bedroom were both located on the second floor. Lu Xiao quickly climbed down from the roof of the building through the window.
At this time, Carlo had just reached the entrance to the second floor through the stairs. He subconsciously touched the hidden pocket in his sleeve, and his nervousness made his stomach ache.
When Lu Xiao finally turned over and entered the study through the last window, Governor Mosenigo was raising his wine glass and preparing to drink.
"Wait! Don't drink!"
"bite!"
The crossbow arrow fired by Lu Xiao in a hurry hit the cup in Mosenigo's hand, causing the red wine to spill out, right on the face of Carlo who looked expectantly.
The two people present were stunned for a moment, and then showed completely different reactions.
Mosenigo suddenly stood up and called the guards. At the same time, he took out a long sword from the wall and pointed the weapon at Lu Xiao shakily.
Carlo spat on the ground in horror, spitting out all the red wine that flowed down his cheek into his mouth.
Lu Xiao rushed forward and put Carlo down to the ground, who was rejoicing that he had survived the disaster, and found a half-used packet of medicinal powder from his body.
"Your Majesty the Governor, I don't mean any harm. Please forgive me for disturbing you."
He wrapped the herbal bag he had brought and the medicinal powder found on Carlo's body in the scroll given by Teodora, and threw them together in front of Mosenigo, who looked alert.
Lu Xiao stunned Carlo with a knife, raised his hands and took a few steps back to show his attitude to Mosenigo.
"Carlo accepted the order of the Templars headed by Marco Barbarigo and mixed your wine with poison in an attempt to murder you and rise to power."
"This document also contains evidence of the Barbarigo family smuggling and hoarding weapons and poisons."
"If you don't believe what I say, please arrange for a doctor or alchemist you trust to check it. They can prove the authenticity of my words."