In October 1496, an army marched out of the mountains from a small place called Agri in southern Italy.

At that time, no one could have imagined that three years later, this army would become a powerful army that shocked Europe.

From the day Agri came out, he kept fighting, constantly fighting with different enemies, constantly fighting in different places, and winning again and again made the Europeans an invincible army, and all the soldiers in this army thought that they were invincible.

But a place called Tarot Valley completely shattered their invincible dream.

Although they faced the French army, which claimed to be the most powerful on the European continent, although they faced several times the enemy, and even used them to inflict heavy blows and huge casualties on the enemy far greater than themselves, defeat was an unavoidable reality.

The reaction of Montina's army to this defeat was fierce, even shocking, from officers to soldiers, from Balkans to huntsmen, the mood of the entire army seemed to have fallen into a low ebb at once, and everyone saw that the expressions on the faces of others were actually the same as their own, hesitant, dazed and incredulous.

The defeat of Montina's army, with its powerful firepower and advanced tactics that could defy almost any enemy, was defeated by the French, which caused many soldiers to even shake their own combat effectiveness.

"Defeat to the French, that's what your soldiers say," said Narcissa Funni, sitting opposite Alexander, eating aromatherapy trout, "You ought to listen to their tone at the time, as if it was a ridiculous thing to lose to the French." ”

Alexander took a sip of the wine glass gently, the unique sweet drink made him nod slightly, although this distilled spirit made from cane sugar tastes not as good as the rum in his memory, but thinking about these current winemaking processes, Alexander doesn't care so much.

The point is that it is much cheaper than wine, and even the worst wines of the present time are much more expensive than this rum, and the sugar cane plantations of Crete were a treasure trove for Alexander when he came, at least before the famous plantations were introduced in the New World.

"It's a bit ridiculous," Alexander's reply made Josha raise an eyebrow slightly, "I mean, it's only now that I've lost the first real battle." ”

Ji Sha was a little surprised and wanted to say something, and then couldn't help but smile lightly: "Do you still think that you should have been defeated earlier?" ”

"I think that with their arrogance, they should have learned some lessons before this," said Alexander, picking up the report sent by Gompati, "Look at this, they have not changed any tactics at all after the first defeat of the French, but are still waiting for the enemy around the town of Tarot Valley, their purpose is only to try to defeat the French a second time in the same way, but this time they have suffered, because the French have not only increased their forces, but also know how to deal with them, It is important to know that this is not a simple defeat, but a challenge to all the tactics used by Montina's army so far. ”

Josha thought for a moment and nodded slowly, she couldn't help but admit that Alexander was right, it even reminded her of her experience in the Balkans.

"You're right, if I had been a little smarter when I met those Ottomans in Slobozia, maybe it wouldn't have turned out like that, and I can't help but admit that the most powerful firearms may not be the best to use."

Alexander's words were a relief to Alexander, who had the same fears about her, worried that she would not be able to accept defeat because of her addiction and powerful weapons, but now it seemed that his sister was a really smart girl.

"But aren't you worried, the French seem to be preparing to attack Genoa." "That might leave you with a difficult choice to make." ”

Seeing that Josha seemed to have a mischievous expression, Alexander couldn't help but smile bitterly, he knew what Josha was hinting at, and now he was indeed facing a somewhat delicate choice.

Even now, Alexander was not entirely on one side but was still free, besieging the French army that occupied Naples, expelling the French army in Pisa, and inflicting heavy casualties on the French in the town of Tarot Valley, but this does not mean that he was an enemy of Louis XII.

On the contrary, the strength and determination he displayed at this time to wrestle with His Holiness seemed to many to be nothing more than an increase in the chips for the next talk.

Even Jisha thinks so.

This is not true, all wars are like this, and because of this, the Anglo-French war has been fought for more than 100 years, and the Italian war will be fought for 70 years.

But there was a small problem for Alexander, and that was that he had to choose between Alexander VI and old Rovere who should be on his side.

Alexander VI was bent on hooking up with the French, and the elder Rovere, both out of his personal needs and duty to Genoa, had made him almost openly the opposite of the French.

This presented Alexander with a big problem, after all, as Barentia's husband, he seemed to be closer to old Rovere, but as the father of Lucrezia's daughter, he had an extraordinary relationship with the Pope.

More important to Alexander was the fact that the Radia gold coin, which was an important pillar of his trade alliance, was issued through the Vatican, which made him absolutely unable to break with Alexander VI.

"It was a nuisance, but the defeat helped me." Alexander smiled at Josha, "Speaking of which, I didn't even expect this to be the result. ”

Zhen Sha showed a thoughtful look, she tilted her head slightly, as if she was pondering the meaning of Alexander's words, and the focused look made Alexander, who was a little fascinated, hurriedly lowered his head and took a sip of wine.

"Don't think about it, I'm ready to remove the siege of the palace." Alexander disguised his gaffe with a drink, and although this defeat taught the arrogant Montina army a harsh lesson, it also reminded Alexander that the enemy he faced was definitely not as simple as he thought.

"You're going to let that Sharon go?" Jisha asked with some surprise.

"Make a deal with Louis to be exact," Alexander gestured helplessly, raising his hands, "I can make a neutral agreement with the French, on the condition that I can lift the siege of Charlon, and the French must promise not to cross the Lombardy region." ”

The big beautiful eyes narrowed slightly, which made Alexander quickly bow his head and eat the large piece of chopped fish sauce, but the taste of the fish sauce in his mouth did not feel anything.

"It's not good for you to do this, it will annoy your wife's father." Jisha's eyes widened slowly, and then she said as if nothing happened.

"Barendi will explain to me that Montina's interests are the most important thing to her right now." Alexander spoke first, and then involuntarily explained, "Fiancée, she's just my fiancée now." ”

"It's still not good for you to be like this, it's going to annoy your lover's daddy." Jisha still said in that casual tone.

"Lucrezia needs to look out for Estles' interests, for she is her mother," Alexander continued, "and she is indeed only a lover, and I feel a little guilty for her." ”

Expressionlessly, she slowly raised her glass, looked at Alexander's face, and drank the rum from the glass in one gulp.

The commander of the French occupation forces in Naples, Charlon, did not have a good time.

As a former Roman occupation commander, Chalon had sufficient experience in the rule of the occupied territories, and it was for this reason that when choosing a commander to be stationed in Naples, Louis XII chose not the Count of Provão, who was determined to do the job, nor other nobles who recognized themselves as qualified for the position, but Charlon.

This was indeed a great honour, because not only could it exercise the power of a king in the occupied territory, but it also meant that the person who held the position in the future was likely to become the chief minister of the French court.

There was no court minister in France, which meant that almost every important minister had the opportunity to become or replace someone else as chief minister before the king.

As a key figure who twice served as commander of the occupied zone, Scharlen was clearly a strong contender for the first minister.

It's just that now Charlen is trapped in the royal palace in Naples, with the high-walled castle and the relatively sufficient grain reserves in the palace, Charlen still has some confidence in holding on until the arrival of reinforcements, but he really can't let go of the current situation.

Charlon did not complain about Alexander's near-sneak attack on him, after all, all the agreements between the two sides were more of secret transactions in private, and these things could not even be taken to the sun, otherwise perhaps the French would have to fight with Aragon, so for the Neapolitan attack, Charlon had nothing to blame the Neapolitans.

But this does not mean that Scharlain will forgive, or rather understand, Alexander.

During the siege he had been imagining why Alexander had suddenly launched an attack on the French, until he heard that a coalition of Gonzalo and the Venetians had landed southwest of Crete.

Charlen didn't know what kind of deal was going on between Alexander and Gonzalo, but he quickly noticed the change.

Charron felt as if he had discovered something, but he was not sure for a moment, and being surrounded in the castle made it impossible for him to understand what was going on outside, until one day Alexander sent his marching captain as a messenger.

Sharon was very indifferent to Ofleuil's visit, and after listening to Ofleuil's proposal for a truce, Sharren was first a little surprised, and then he suddenly guessed something.

"Tell me Captain, what's wrong with your count," Sharron asked casually, but his body wrapped under the black armor was already tense, and although he didn't get an answer from Oflai, he quickly continued, "If I didn't guess wrong, your count's situation should not be very good, otherwise he wouldn't have offered to call for a truce." ”

Ofleigh looked at Scharon quietly, he remembered that the Count had said before he came that the Frenchman would probably be able to guess what was happening, and the Count was not averse to telling him what had happened, but Ofleiil did not want to tell Charlon the truth so easily.

"My Count hopes that you will surrender the palace peacefully, after all, this palace is of vital importance to the royal family of Naples, and in order to satisfy Her Majesty the Queen, the count believes that this truce is the best outcome for both sides."

"Is that so," said Scharlon, glancing at Ofleiil, "or as I said, your count needs to make a deal with the king with me, and tell me what it is, knowing that if I make this deal, I will have to leave Naples, and maybe meet on the battlefield in the future, but it's all over here, so why don't you tell me?" ”

Offrey groaned slightly, then nodded slowly: "My lord, in fact, this may be good news for you, the Count needs to trade you and your army for King Louis's approval of his neutrality. ”

Charlon's breathing suddenly became a little rapid, and he cast an attentive look at Oflair, knowing that it was unlikely that he would get much useful news from the Montina man, but he had already vaguely guessed a possibility.

"Captain, maybe you can tell me more, such as whether the French army is marching on Rome." Charlen looked at Oflei, and he felt that he had discovered the truth of the matter, and he was thrilled.

Ofreil did not tell Charlain what had happened in northern Italy, but he did bring back to Alexander a reply that Charlain had agreed to an armistice.

After listening to Ofleuil's report, Alexander said to Josha: "The defeat of the town of Tarot Valley was unfortunate and fortunate for Montina's army, because we did suffer a great number of casualties, and fortunately because we were defeated early, so that at least we could know how to deal with adversity before we suffered greater setbacks. ”

"In the same way, this defeat has created a reason for me to stay out of it," Alexander said, looking at the back of Normezi, who had been given a great mission again, to the next to Josha, "Do you know what I hate most about the French? ”

"What is it?" Jisha asked a little curiously.

"I hate their stupidity when they like to swing from one extreme to the other," Alexander said, staring at Normezi's slowly disappearing back, "and this time I'm going to make them pay for their stupidity." ”

At the end of November 1499, Normezi, commissioned by the Count of Montina, reappeared in the camp of King Louis XII of France, just as he had been in time for Louis to defeat the Milanese army, but this time he saw the French army attacking Genoa.

To Louis XII's surprise, Alexander, offering to trade the freedom of the besieged Charlaon for neutrality, also offered Louis XII a condition that surprised him.

"Your Majesty, I am willing to provide you with a sum of money that is necessary for you, and in exchange you must ensure that the Emperor's army is defeated before 1500."