Louis de Bourbon rode on his horse and let the groom pull the reins as he kept going.

The soldiers next to them were exhausted and embarrassed, some were wounded and dragged by their companions, and some were not so lucky to be abandoned on the side of the road, and could only beg the people passing by not to abandon them.

The whole team looked procrastinating, the flags were crooked and scattered, and there was no trace of the majestic shadow before.

Louis de Bourbon, with a tired face, turned his head and looked behind him, the baggage team that could be seen before was gone, and those powerful artillery, thinking that at this time, those important supplies and firearms had fallen into the hands of the Roman Thesians.

The Duke of Bourbon looked into the distance with a gloomy expression, he did not expect that he would suffer such a crushing defeat under the city of Florence.

The unexpected came so suddenly that people didn't have time to react.

The Duke of Bourbon only had time to order the destruction of the two nearest large-caliber guns, and then he and his men were thrown into disarray by the panicked troops of the surprise attack.

The sudden appearance of the Roman Tescian army attacked the French from both sides.

Cunningly, before the offensive was launched, the enemy covered the French artillery positions with a sudden burst of heavy artillery fire.

The French artillery suffered a terrible blow in an instant under that attack without warning,

The artillery position, which was originally equipped with powerful artillery, was instantly bombed with gunsmoke, the broken limbs and the blown up materials could not stop flying in the air, the frightened packers pulled the half-blown artillery wagons and ran wildly with a roar, and the sharp edges of the wooden beams of the blown up artillery carriages rolled over the bodies of the fleeing people, tearing apart pieces of flesh and blood and spraying internal organs.

The originally powerful artillery of the French army suffered a near-devastating blow before they could exert their might, and the ferocity and horror of the main artillery of Roman Thesia, commanded by Gompati himself, was deeply imprinted in the heart of the Duke of Bourbon at this moment.

Along with the Roman Artillery, their long-range musketeers, named the Shooting Corps at Gompati's suggestion, began firing at the French at a great distance.

During the expedition to the Balkans, although it turned out that 100 unorganized musketeers could not necessarily defeat 100 well-trained ordinary musketeers, Gompati was impressed by the Ottoman musketeers' superb shooting skills.

So after returning to Italy, Gompati devoted a large part of his energy to training a musket unit specializing in long-range shooting.

The best marksman, the best muskets, and the best instructors, the result of such a painstaking investment, was the birth of a musket unit of the Northern Army that specialized in long-range shooting in battle.

According to Gompati's vision, this unit named the Shooting Corps was mainly used to suppress the opponent's vanguard on the battlefield, especially in the face of the enemy's bow and crossbow troops, this long-range fire unit with more powerful firepower was enough to deal a major blow to the enemy's forward.

This was Gompati's idea, and when he tried to see Alexander about the feasibility of the idea, Alexander replied, "You have to do everything to know right from wrong." ”

This answer changed the courage to persevere, and now looking at the French soldiers who fell in the distance with the sound of gunfire, Gompati finally let out a long breath.

The offensive of the Roman Tescian army began when the French approached the 6th regiment in Bologna.

When he found himself surrounded by the enemy, the first thing the Duke of Bourbon thought of was to get out of the critical situation in front of him immediately, especially after the artillery position was hit by heavy fire, and the Duke of Bourbon, who was not far away, even almost lost his dignity due to panic.

This time, however, his reaction was swift, and after seeing the artillery positions under attack, the Duke immediately ordered the French to stop the attack.

His idea was simple, he wanted to get his troops back to their original positions as soon as possible, and then engage the enemy head-on with the sudden appearance.

But the duke forgot one thing, on the battlefield, it was not necessarily the enemy's attack that led to defeat, but his own cowardice.

Although the surprise attack of the Roman-Thesians caused a panic among the French troops, many commanders did their best to restrain their troops, but when they heard the horn of retreat, the officers looked desperate, knowing that the battle might be lost.

Louis de Bourbon realized that he had made an extremely wrong decision shortly after seeing his troops retreat.

Retreats on the battlefield were not only cautious, but also to avoid allowing the orderly plan to turn into a disorderly collapse, and the troops under his command were now facing such a situation.

The French army, which was originally attacking the 6th Regiment in Bologna, immediately became the target to face the attack on three sides, and the only direction that could retreat and allow the retreat became their hope of survival, and the French troops began to retreat to the rear while returning fire, but when Gompati's artillery fired pieces of detonating gravel shells at the French line gathered in dense formations, the huge casualties made the French army only hold out for a short ten minutes, and finally began to retreat like an avalanche as someone turned and fled first.

"What did I do......

Even after being dragged away from the battlefield by the guards for a long time, Louis de Bourbon kept asking himself, he didn't know how he could have made such a decision, and vaguely remembered that someone was desperate to stop him, but at that time he was probably frightened by the rain of cannonballs falling from the Roman Themesia, and gave the order to retreat in the battle with the enemy, completely ignoring the dissuasion of others.

The French also threw away all their baggage and artillery and retreated outside the battlefield, and the soldiers at the front even took the lead in the direction of Florence in a panic.

Now the French were still retreating, but instead of reforming the front as the Duke of Bourbon had imagined, they were trying to flee further in complete panic, and they were now closer and closer to Florence, but farther and farther from victory, until the troops in front were unexpectedly blocked.

The Duke of Bourbon would never have thought that one day he would change direction in order to avoid the Florentines, although the sudden appearance of the Florentine army was really not a concern, but now the Duke of Bourbon did not dare to entangle with the enemy in front of him.

After angrily swearing in the direction of Florence in the native French language, he ordered the army to retreat to the southwest, for he remembered that it was the gateway between the main French army and the Pisan army, and the Duke believed that at least that direction was safe.

Now the Duke of Bourbon was anxious to report his situation to Louis XII, and at last he realized that the situation might be much more dire than he or his king had imagined, and that the Roman army of Thessia was not just trying to protect Florence or expelling the French from the territory of the Duchy, but to defeat or even annihilate the French army!

If this idea had been told to him not so long ago, the Duke of Bourbon would have thought it the most boring joke in the world, but now he was more convinced than anyone else of this sudden judgment, the Roman Thesians, to destroy the French army!

The Duke felt that he had discovered the enemy's greatest conspiracy, and now his mission had changed from the occupation of Florence to the reporting of the discovery to his king as soon as possible.

"What a bold man, they want to offend the monarch who has been given the crown by God," the Duke of Bourbon muttered as he walked, he was even a little nervous, and when he found that a soldier had stopped because he was too tired, he kept whipping the soldier on the head and face, "Don't stop, you stupid pigs, do you want to be a prisoner of the Roman Thesians, hurry up and we must meet the king as soon as possible." ”

"My lord, let us rest, we have been running for too long," begged one of the soldiers, "I am a cavalryman, but my horse is tired and collapsed on the road, and we are running for our lives, but the Romansians don't have to be like us, they probably won't be as desperate as we are." ”

"Do you think so?" The Duke waved his whip again and shook it in the air, "We are not running for our lives, we must meet the king, tell him what is happening here and be ready, so I want you to follow me on my journey, and if anyone stops, I will let him know what the whip tastes like." ”

The soldiers looked at each other, and although defeat was nothing new to them, the duke's fierce performance surprised them.

However, as if to prove the Duke of Bourbon's apprehension, a chaotic commotion spread rapidly from behind, just as the French troops were marching at a slight slow.

A scout, sweaty man, desperately pushed his horse through the crowded road, and when he saw the Duke of Bourbon, the cavalryman roared vigorously: "Roman Thesians! Roman-Thesians! ”

Although he did not ask, the Duke of Bourbon seemed to know what was happening, and he immediately shouted to the soldiers who were slowly moving forward in front of him: "Hurry up and get out of here, if you don't want to die on the road, run!" ”

The threat of death made the French soldiers more powerful than ever, and even though they were stuffed with plundered booty, they began to run as hard as they could.

Like the French, who have become excited after drinking strong wine, they are constantly running on the road, and from time to time someone is left behind, but by this time there is no time to help others, and the wounded soldiers are rudely thrown to the side of the road, and most of their money and belongings are robbed, leaving them only with their clothes and a cross.

"Don't take it all, do good deeds, and at least leave me some money to save my life, or the Romantesians will hang me." The wounded soldiers kept pleading, but this did not win any sympathy.

"Even if they leave you some money, they won't let you go, at most they will kill you and then search your corpse," one soldier muttered as he snatched two gold coins from his former companion and put them in his pocket, "I'll pray for you, friend, and then it's up to your luck." ”

The Duke of Bourbon looked at the farce in front of him with a heavy face, and then he slammed his mount and ran forward, knowing that if he continued to watch, he might order the hanging of those who robbed others out of anger.

But this is no longer important, the figure of the Roman Thesian cavalry can already be faintly seen in the distance behind the road, and the enemy's persistent pursuit makes the duke firmly believe in his previous judgment.

The retreat kept on retreating, and the flight kept on and on, until the sky slowly darkened, and the French soldiers finally stopped their tired footsteps.

The Duke of Bourbon, not knowing where he had been, ordered the scouts to keep a close eye on the movements of the pursuers of Rome Thesia behind him, while having people scout around.

The duke was finally relieved by the fall of night, and any army would be cautious in its actions at night, even the victors would not venture into such a dark night, and it was only then that the duke was finally able to breathe.

It was only after calming down that an even more terrifying thought hung over him.

How many troops did the Romantesians really have?

Until recently, including Louis XII himself, their estimate of the strength of Roman Thesia was about 15,000~20,000 people, and even 20,000 people were considered to be an overestimation of this opponent for Louis XII.

The French would think this way because when Louis XII first went on an expedition to Italy, even though he faced a great crisis in the battle of Lombardy, the strength of Roman Thescia was only maintained at most about 8,000 men, and even in Genoa, because of the frontal attack of the French army, the Roman Tercian army had to withdraw from the Lombard region for a time.

This gave Louis XII the impression that the enemy was underarmed.

Even with the addition of the Neapolitan army, Louis XII still believed that if he had fought the Roman army of Romans, before Venice and Austria entered the war, he could defeat this opponent with an overwhelming superiority of forces, and if it went well, he might have forced Rome Thesia and Naples to withdraw from the anti-French alliance.

This optimism of the French led the French army to believe that it would not be difficult to invade Rome, which led Louis XII to devise a plan to attack each of the key cities of the new principality.

The capture of those cities, or even just any of them, would force Rome Thesia to demand an armistice, a strategy that Louis XII had developed from the beginning, and the final destination was Florence.

The plan was well planned and went well, but now the Duke of Bourbon did not know if it was the right one.

In the early morning of July 15, the retreating French troops of the Duke of Bourbon hurried on the road before dawn, and according to the scout's report, the Roman Thesians were encamped less than 1 French mile from them, and although the French rearguard had erected a few simple fortifications on the main road, the Duke of Bourbon, when recalling the enemy's two-wheeled gun carriages, which seemed to be much more nimble than his own, felt that those fortifications were not at all guaranteed to be able to hold back the pursuers behind.

The duke's judgment was correct, and not long after the French army left the camp, the rumbling of artillery behind him made the retreating French army secretly frightened, and soon after, the scouts brought bad news that the enemy had broken through the rearguard defenses.

"They first blew up our offensive with artillery, then the musketeers kept firing from afar, and finally the spearmen slaughtered the poor who were not yet dead." The scout reported to the Duke what he had seen terrible: "They didn't seem to want to keep a single captive, and all who were alive were killed." ”

The Scout's report alarmed the Duke of Bourbon, but the next piece of news caught his attention.

"My lord, they seem to have those cannons, the ones we have dropped, and I hear their men shouting to collect all the pack horses so that they can be pulled to the front."

"You heard me right?" The duke grabbed the scout by the collar and asked urgently, and after receiving an affirmative answer, Louis de Bourbon hesitated for a while, and finally made up his mind to say to his lieutenant: "In my place of commanding the troops, the main force of Rome and Tesia is trying to surround the king's army, and I must personally report this news to the king, otherwise the king will not believe it." ”

The deputy opened his mouth to say something, but was rudely interrupted by the duke, who was already waving his hand to greet the guards, watching Louis de Bourbon put a shabby cloak on his body to cover his gorgeous clothes, and then ordered the standard-bearer to remain in the ranks, the deputy could only helplessly bow to the duke who was about to quietly leave the army.

"Don't be so discouraged," said the Duke to his lieutenant in a low voice, "to-day may be my personal day of shame, but it is a fortunate day for France, whose army will be saved because of me, and you will be rewarded for your duty." ”

With that, the Duke turned on his horse with the help of his servants, and after glancing at his beleaguered-looking army again, Louis de Bourbon clamped his horse's belly with his legs, and the horse instantly neighed and ran forward.

The sun overhead was like a huge ball of fire, and it took a lot of effort to take every step forward, and the clothes were completely glued to the body, and the shoes under his feet made a fluttering sweat sound.

Gompati knew that his soldiers were too tired to walk.

From Montina to Florence, arriving at the battlefield and going into battle with little rest is inconceivable for any army of the moment.

His northern legions did, and even they pursued the enemy so much that they had left Florence far behind.

But Gompati knew that the soldiers were about to reach their limit, and if they continued, not to mention the next battle, they might collapse on the way.

However, Gompati also knew that the critical moment of this war had arrived, and from the moment they formulated a strategic decisive battle with the French army on the land of Rome and Thesia, with Florence as the center, they took into account all kinds of possibilities and difficulties.

Among them, there is the impact of long-distance raids on the morale and combat effectiveness of the army, especially since no army has been able to accomplish such a move in this era.

This openly reminds me of what Alexander said when he was formulating the strategic counterattack plan for this defensive attack: "The victory of a battle, or even a battle, or even a war, often depends on who can hold out for the last quarter of an hour." ”

"Don't stop going, keep going," Gompati cried out to his soldiers in a hoarse voice, "Soldiers, you can get rewards, booty women, and good wine, but these things will eventually leave you, and the only thing that will accompany you for the rest of your life is honor, remember that you are working miracles, and if you want to one day be proud to brag to your children and grandchildren that you have fought in the greatest battles of the Duchy of Rome, then go on, Because all this can only be achieved if you go to the front! ”

In the city of Siena, Skop watched as the King's letter fingers tapped rhythmically and gently on the table.

Beside him, Kulash was boredomly fiddling with a dagger, its sharp blades flying up and down between his fingers, fearing that it might cut his fingers the next moment.

Finally, Skop stopped, he glanced at Kulash, and then pushed the letter of the King of France in front of him.

"So, my lord, what have you decided to do?" Kulash spoke lazily.

"I'm curious, what benefits did the Duke give you?" Skop asked.

"Actually, it's not me," Kulash shrugged and lowered the tip of his dagger to the tip of his index finger, "the Duke promised to give my brother a good future, you haven't met him, he is the smartest and most learned in our family, so what about you, my lord, what made you make such a choice?" ”

Skop smiled and didn't answer, but he remembered the conversation he had with Nomerlo.

Skop stood up, he walked to the door and looked at the soldiers coming and going in the courtyard, they were all very experienced veterans, and even now he could hardly imagine Caesar's despair when he found out that he had been betrayed.

"If I say I'm forced to be helpless, can you believe it?" Skop looked back at Kurash, "But fortunately, this will soon be over." ”

With that, Skop whistled between his lips with his fingers, and called an attendant to hand him a letter.

"Send it to the French," said Skop, and then admonished the squire, "if you want to come back alive, you'd better be quick-witted, and I think maybe Louis will not be in a good temper after reading this letter." ”

The squire nodded palely, and shortly after he left, the city of Siena sounded the horn of assembly.

On July 15, 1501, the Papal Army declared war on the French.

On the same day, the French army fought fiercely with the combined forces of Naples and the Pope outside the city of Siena!

At the same time, the French Louis de Bourbon troops, the Roman Army of the Northern Army and the 6th Regiment of Bologna moved closer to the battlefield one after another.

The French army totaled 24,000!

The coalition forces total 15,000!

The Battle of Siena in the Third Romagna War, begun~