Alexander left the city of Bucharest shortly after the departure of Tzepes's army.

It was planned that his troops would join up with the local defenders near a riverside fort closest to southern Bucharest, and then use it to establish a temporary defensive line on the west bank of the Dembvica River.

Ladislas II was worried that Bucharest would be besieged, so he hoped to keep the Ottomans at the outskirts of the city some distance from Bucharest, and it would be better if he could use the fortresses along the river to prevent the enemy from attacking the city from the river.

However, the king also knew that this idea was a bit unrealistic, after all, the defenses of the lower reaches of the river were much weaker than the upstream, and the only thing the king could hope for now was that the Ottomans would be hindered by the fact that the Dembvica River was now entering the spring flood.

As for the Montina army, Ladislas II believed that they might not necessarily be able to prevent the invasion of enemy forces on land.

The king did not believe in the strength of Montina's army, but because from the entrance to the Danube and the Dembvica rivers to the bottom of Bucharest, the terrain was completely flat wetlands and shallow marshes, which were obviously not conducive to the impressive musket troops of the Montina, and the almost undangerous terrain provided the Ottoman cavalry with too many detours.

This is why the king finally agreed to Alexander's offer that the nearest fortress along the river should be relied upon, because although he hoped that the Ottomans would be stopped as far as possible on the outskirts of Bucharest, he did not want to see a bad situation in which the Montina army might be surrounded by the enemy or cut off from retreat, and the Montina were obviously an important force in the siege of Bucharest when needed.

Alexander was also aware of the king's intentions, so although he was initially met with strong opposition, he always insisted on disagreeing with the proposal to send Montina's army further away, and if not for more reasons, he even wanted to place his troops only in the vicinity of the city, on the edge of the swampy wetlands south of the city.

However, the king insisted that the distance was too close, and if the Ottomans wished, they could transport their cannons to the wetlands, find a place where they could place their cannons, and from there they would be directed at the city of Bucharest.

Although the king's fears may sound a little fanciful, Alexander admits that it is not impossible, and that the Ottoman army is now a new army that is determined to forge ahead and not adhere to the old customs, and it may not be possible for them to put the artillery emplacements in the swamp, but it is not impossible to pave a path out of wood for the artillery to pass through in the impassable swamp.

So Alexander, after some consideration, agreed to the king's suggestion and let Montina's army advance towards the nearest fortress along the river, one of only two on the lower bank of the Dembvica, and the other on the other side of the river farther away.

The previous generals were obviously influenced by Mehmed II's first siege of Bucharest, and the swamps and wetlands south of the city were indeed not conducive to the deployment of large troops, so all the attention of the people at that time was focused on those places in the upper reaches of the river, but now it seems that both Bayezid II and his generals have clearly learned the previous lessons and understood the characteristics of Bucharest's defense. Therefore, it was unexpectedly chosen the direction of the lower reaches of the river, which was generally considered inconvenient for the deployment of troops, as the key point to break through the city.

"Or maybe the Sultan is not sure which side to start the attack from," Alexander said to Gompati beside him, "The Ottoman pincer offensive has given them the initiative, and there is no better way for Bucharest than to defend passively, so if Chipes stops the attack of the Ottoman left flank, then we will face a fierce battle." ”

"Shall we now hope that the Grand Duke will win or lose?" Gompati frowned at the green and gentle terrain in the distance, he bent down and grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground, looking at the muddy water flowing from between his fingers, his expression became a little more solemn, "This place is not suitable for our musket troops, the ground is too wet, it is estimated that it will be worse at night, and the gunpowder will get wet." ”

Alexander nodded, he had already found out about the terrible situation, which made him think that maybe he should have insisted on placing his troops on the edge of the marsh, but the idea was only a brief moment before he forgot that the king would not agree to this suggestion, in fact, he himself did not think it was appropriate.

Placing their forces on the edge of the marsh might have brought the power of the Agri musketeers to use, but that would undoubtedly be tantamount to abandoning the river forts that were to be used to deter the Ottomans who might attack Bucharest from the river at any moment.

Unexpectedly, this trip to the Balkans was much more thrilling than he thought, Alexander thought to himself helplessly, and then looked back at the team.

In addition to the Montinas, because he had agreed to Alexander's conditions, Ladislas II had allowed him to command the Greeks and recruit soldiers at will, and in order to allow Alexander to do his best, the king also offered to let Sophia give orders to the Greeks, and with Sophia's influence on them, he believed that the old and young who were thinking about the restoration of the country all day long would be happy to obey.

Alexander declined the king's kindness and volunteered to tell the princess about it himself.

Ladislas II hesitated for a moment and agreed to Alexander's request, but before leaving, the king kindly reminded Alexander that Sophia's mood did not seem to be so stable, or that Sophia was thinking about something to dismantle or cut someone.

In fact, Ladislas II was not unaware of the relationship between Alexander and Sophia, but the two of them remained silent very tacitly, just as the king was actually well aware of the previous relationship between his wife and the captain of her guard, and it was precisely because of this relationship that Ladislas II felt that it was most appropriate for Sophia to play the Greek princess, at least not because she needed to kill too many people's mouths.

It's just that Alexander didn't see Sophia in the end, and he only got a very cold "got it" reply from Sophia's maid, and then he had to rush back to his army to prepare.

However, Sophia complied with Alexander's request, and when he was already a little disappointed and set off with the Montinas, several Greek nobles approached him.

These were representatives of great status and prestige among the Greeks, and two of them made a deep impression on Alexander.

Bodpaed, a very steady old Greek nobleman, who was no longer young, his hair and beard were slowly turning from gray to white, and he did not seem to be in good spirits, but the old man caught Alexander's attention.

This was because he was slightly surprised to find that this old man obviously had a rare erudition in the Balkans, perhaps because of his perennial wandering, this old man had a pair of eyes that seemed to be able to perceive the world, his words were not much, but he was often to the point, and most importantly, this man had a learned mind, which made Alexander feel that talking to this man was like fighting with a library with countless volumes.

He could easily cite some of the classics of the Greek or Eastern Roman Empire's past, and when the talks reached an impasse, Bodped was able to ease the mood and then cleverly put forward their terms in a way that sounded more comfortable, while in fact he was always sticking to his own interests.

This was undoubtedly a skilful and clever diplomat, and Alexander even thought that the Greeks were able to stay in Bucharest in a slightly embarrassing situation.

The other man was named Georgiliruo, a man who was different from Bodepade, and if Bodepade was a lake rich in resources but unremarkable on the outside, then Georgiliurou was a mountain made of the strongest marble in Greece.

Sharp and tenacious, this Giorgio Leruo reminded Alexander of Caesar and Giovanni, or rather, this man was more like the Borgia brothers as one, except that this Giorgio Leruo was more concerned with the revival of Greece.

This man was undoubtedly a fanatical regent, and in his words Alexander could see the shadow of a passionate but not reckless man of action, and while discussing with Alexander how to arrange the defense, Georgiliuo seized the opportunity to ask Alexander for more weapons.

Of course, Alexander will not agree to those conditions at will, in fact, it is already a little difficult for him to maintain the supply of Montina's army now, the previous battle has caused a certain loss of troops, both in terms of troops and weapons, although it can be used to expand the cheap and high-quality Balkan regiment on the spot to replenish the lost troops, but the trouble caused by new recruits and the loss of weapons is difficult to meet the requirements for a while.

This disappointed Alexander, who was holding a large amount of gold coins in his hand and wanted to replenish his equipment, and at this time he felt that money may not be everything.

However, although Alexander's request was rejected by Alexander, he offered the Greeks a sum of 6,000 gold florins, and after providing them with funds for the purchase of equipment, he advised the Greeks to advance along the east bank of the lower Dembvica River, because according to his assumption, if the Ottomans were to go up the river, they would need to find a way to intercept them on both sides of the river.

The Greeks accepted Alexander's suggestion gladly, knowing that it was unlikely that the main force of the Ottoman right flank would cross the Dembvica River and threaten the east bank of the river, which undoubtedly meant that Alexander would take the initiative to attract most of the forces on the right flank of the Ottoman army, which made the Greeks feel much more favorable to Alexander, and when they took their leave, the attitude of these Greeks was obviously much more enthusiastic than when they came.

Neither Gompati nor Agri's officers expressed any objection to Alexander's initiative to take on the main force of the enemy, but the Pisa and Genoese expressed obvious displeasure.

As for the officers of the Montina Regiment, they were rather strangely silent, which made Alexander wonder if someone had warned them not to interfere with these things.

And this man, if not Gompati, is Busako.

Alexander could understand why the two men would do this, the other regiments expressed dissatisfaction at most because of the military arrangement, but the Montina regiment because of its special relationship with Barendi, if the news of the objection was known to Sophia, it might cause unnecessary trouble.

However, despite his dissatisfaction, Alexander still insisted on this order, and the reason why he had such an arrangement was not because of Sophia.

The Greeks did have a firm and fanatical desire to restore their country, which at least did not have to worry about the defeat of Alexander on the battlefield, but although these people had a high level of enthusiasm, most of them had no experience in fighting on the battlefield, perhaps they were brave and good at fighting, but if they could not obey the command on the battlefield, they would be a burden.

Unlike today's Balkan regiments, the Balkans had grown to know what to do after training along the way and in previous battles, and Alexander believed that with a little more experience, these Balkans might not become the backbone of his army like the Agri musketeers.

Even Alexander had a vague idea, perhaps inspired by his father-in-law, to think about the establishment of the Swiss Guard by Old Rovere in the future, and he also thought about the future of the establishment of such a guard composed of Agri and the Balkans at the same time as the expansion of the hunting guards.

Sometimes a soldier who is too brave is not necessarily the most needed, and discipline is always more important than anything else, and it is for this reason that Alexander did not put the Greeks in his ranks.

"And I doubt that the old men of Greece would be so willing to do such menial work," said Alexander, looking at the Balkans who were paving the way in the swamp in the distance, carrying large and small logs, "and the Greeks are so proud, most of them are descendants of the exiled nobles of the Roman Empire, who may not be fit to be a warrior but not a good soldier." ”

"So you think these farmers are fit to be soldiers?" Gompati asked with a smile.

"At least I'd rather recruit these peasants than the Genoese," Alexander looked in the direction of the Genoese regiment and shook his head slightly, "go and tell them personally, let them speed up, even if they think it's a shame to do this kind of camp, but if they delay me because of them, I'll punish them." ”

A herald was immediately ordered to go, and these soldiers, who had been specially selected from various units, were forced to learn Alexander's requirement that all officers be able to speak and write Romanesque Italian, so that his orders could be conveyed without any errors due to language barriers, and that the high salaries of these soldiers made them more conscientious in their tasks.

"It is better to set up a school as soon as possible, or at least to train a group of junior officers who can follow the command, so as to avoid a recurrence of the bad situation that we had in the Alger River." Alexander had been hiding this thought in his heart for a long time, but he really didn't have time to do these things for a while.

I don't know if Alexander's warning worked, or if it was provoked intentionally or unintentionally by the neighbor's Pisa regiment, the Genoese soldiers, although still slow, finally moved, and soon Alexander found that there seemed to be a small commotion there, which made him a little curious.

"What's going on over there?"

One of the attendants ran over and asked, and came back after a while to report: "It seems that a Pisaman challenged the Genoese to see who could build the road faster, and the Pisa, with a large group of men, won the entire Genoese regiment, and Genoa thought he was cheating, so they quarreled." ”

"A brigade won a regiment?" Alexander thought for a moment and suddenly asked, "Tell me, is that Pisa man leading the second Pisan brigade?" ”

"Yes, sir."

Alexander nodded and said nothing, but after a while he gave an order: "Let the officer of the second brigade of Pisa come to me." ”

"Is that Nicolas Jo Maccheni of Termoli? My lord. Busako, who was next to him, thought of such a man, "I remember that he seemed to have fought well in the Alger River." ”

"That's good." Alexander muttered to himself.

Bussako looked at Alexander a little strangely, he felt that Alexander seemed to be hesitant, as if he was a little embarrassed about something, but after only a moment he seemed to have made a decision.

A young officer ran over, his body was dirty and covered with mud, and even his thick black hair was full of curls and muddy water, but his face was full of excitement, and when he saw Alexander, the young officer immediately hurriedly saluted: "My lord, Marcheni, the officer of the second brigade of the Pisa regiment, is waiting for your orders." ”

Alexander watched as Maceni was silent for a moment, which made the young man, who had been excited by the previous victory over the Genoese, a little uneasy.

"I heard that you won a Genoese regiment with a brigade when you made a bet, tell me how you did it?" Alexander asked.

"It's very simple, adults, I just divide the manpower into two teams according to different road sections, one team is responsible for laying wood and the other team is responsible for tamping, and I started from the farthest point to pave backwards, so that the people who carry materials back and forth to pave the road will not be delayed by hindering the people in front, and those who are responsible for tamping only need to follow the work all the way back to the side, this is actually very simple adults." Macioni said with a smile, looking at the way Alexander looked at him, he was a little uncertain, and couldn't help but look at Gompati who was looking at him with curiosity, "My lord, did I do something wrong?" ”

"No, you didn't do anything wrong, on the contrary, you did well," Alexander smiled, and then he suddenly asked, "Tell me what you think of your lieutenant?" ”

"You're talking about Giovanni, he's a good guy and I'm on good terms."

"So do you think he can command the second brigade?"

Alexander's words stunned Marchioni, who was a little nervous but still smiling: "My lord, did I do something wrong?" ”

"No, I want you to come to me," Alexander said, waving his hand again, "Forget it, you better go back and command the second brigade." ”

Doubtful, Maccheni saluted and prepared to leave, but he had not taken a few steps before Alexander stopped him.

"Be careful, Nicolas Jo Macioni of Termoli, don't die easily," Alexander admonished, and then he looked back into the distance of the marshes, "knowing that this time we may have more difficulty than at the Alger River. ”