Along the left bank of the Tiber River, stepping on the shore of the full slope of young flowers that have just been drilled out of the ground, although it is still very cool, a trace of spring can be felt in the face.

The city of Rome was already in sight, and he could already see many people coming out of the city, and he could see the troops coming, most of them moving away from the roadside, or hiding in the wilderness far away, and Alexander knew that they should be French.

Charles' initial foray into Italy was ambitious, as evidenced by the fact that he not only claimed the crown of Naples, but also claimed possession of Milan.

In addition to these, he also brought a large number of merchants and French artists in his army, but he did not take these people to do economic and cultural exchanges, but asked them to help him plunder this long-coveted land more efficiently.

Charlie, of course, hoped that he would gain a foothold in Italy, but he was not arrogant enough to think that it would all be easy, so while intensifying the military invasion, he borrowed merchants and artists to take advantage of the opportunity to quickly plunder all over Italy, and a large amount of wealth and various artistic treasures were loaded by him one by one and transported back to the French mainland, especially when they felt that the defeat was decided, the French plundered a large number of things with impunity.

As the main French army retreated north, the civilians who accompanied the army had to remain in Rome under the protection of the French occupying Rome, although they could no longer run as unscrupulous as they had begun, at least not in terms of safety.

It's just that now that the coalition forces have begun to attack, and the French have obviously been defeated, those civilians have to think about their own future, almost every one of them has followed Charlie to loot, and if you think about it, you know that if the French fail, they will definitely not have a good result.

The victims of the French plunder, of course, hated it, but they had not dared to resist before, and now that the coalition forces had begun to attack the city, and it seemed that the city would soon be liberated, the anger that had been brewing for a long time among the citizens of Rome finally broke out.

The French began to flee Rome in a hurry, mostly running west along the Tiber, hoping to catch a boat to France, if not to France, as long as they could get out of here.

Alexander motioned for the procession to move more slowly, noticing the fear on the faces of the Frenchmen who saw them with a look of jealousy, especially some of the Frenchmen in the slowly dressed carriages.

He was not sympathetic to the Romans, and in fact many of the treasures in the city of Rome, which were regarded as treasures of mankind, were taken by the Romans or later the popes from other places, and they were not very clean compared to the French.

He ordered the line to slow down because he knew someone was supposed to pick him up.

Sure enough, patches of smoke and dust rose from the road in the distance, and looking at the looming figure of the cavalry, Alexander waved his hand to his side.

Paul Busako shook off the prepared flag, inserted the end of the pole into the saddle sleeve and fastened it, and then he gently led the horse to the front of the procession.

The opposite group had slowed down, and then stopped a short distance away, led by a knight who looked no less than aged, with a distinct rosacea embedded in the center of his face, and a completely ungroomed beard with a dishevelled and pitted face that looked like the ground had just been pllowed.

When he saw Paolo Busaco standing at the front of the group, the knight also led his horse alone to the open space between the two teams.

"In the name of the Council of Order, you must come with me," said the knight, although he looked at Paul Busako, to Alexander behind him in a slightly helpless tone, "for God's sake, let's not make trouble for everyone, okay, so that I can go home as soon as possible." ”

Alexander smiled, he knew this knight, a man who could not be very dutiful, as a herald of the Council of Order, who seemed to Alexander to be more like a porter without a sense of responsibility.

He led his horse forward to the other party and smiled: "If I refuse to listen to your message, are you going to have someone take me away by force?" ”

The knight looked back at his men behind him, then at the team behind Alexander, and then pouted: "Whoever wants to take you away, as long as you don't look for me, I think it's best if I'm in my bedroom at this time, but since I have such an order, I still have to carry it out." ”

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Knight Skop," Alexander took another step forward, slightly interlacing the knight's horse, "Is Caesar going to see me?" ”

"It should be said that the Council of Order asked you to make a statement," the knight corrected at first, and finally gave up the explanation when he saw Alexander's looking gaze, "Well, that's what Caesar meant, isn't it all the same?" Caesar, Council of Order, Council of Order, Caesar, I don't see any difference. ”

To the too blatant truth of the Scop Knight, Alexander did not answer.

Speaking of which, Skop was a well-known figure not only in the Council of Order, but even in the city of Rome, but his fame was somewhat strange.

Skop was a mercenary before, in this era, although being a mercenary is hard and dangerous, but because of the perennial war, it is a profession that is the most worrying about not finding a job, and as long as he is slippery enough and lucky, he may not only survive in the end, but also save a lot of money.

Skop has a small mercenary team of his own, relying on his generosity and boldness to his subordinates, and Skop quickly became a big name in the mercenary world.

At that time, Skop originally thought that he might have to be a mercenary leader for the rest of his life, but maybe God really liked him, and once when he was working for a young employer, he met a woman who changed the fate of his life.

When he first heard the rumors about Skop, Alexander's first reaction was that the mercenary leader had cuckolded his employer, but after listening to it, he realized that he had actually cuckolded his father, who had been dead for many years.

Suddenly changed from an employment relationship to his stepfather, of course the employer would not agree, when he heard the news, he immediately rushed to his mother's castle with people to catch the rapist, but perhaps too ashamed and angry, on the way to the castle, the young employer suddenly fell off his horse unexpectedly, and broke his neck at once.

This sudden accident made the employer's mother extremely sad, not to mention that this was her only only son, and the thought that no successor to her huge territory would eventually be cheap for those poor relatives who had long been red-eyed, the noble lady was unwilling, so she pinned all her hopes on her lover.

And Skop did not disappoint Mrs. Skop, after some efforts, Mrs. gave birth to a big fat daughter in the next year, and then since then the cultivation has continued to spread out, and the lady can still give birth smoothly at the age of nearly 50, and soon the Skop family will prosper.

It's just that such a person is destined to be unacceptable to the nobles, and many people are talking behind his back about whether this Skop has the help of the devil, otherwise with his face that does not look handsome at all, or even ugly, how can he touch the heart of a lady who has been widowed for many years.

What's more, the death of his "stepson" is too coincidental, if a "good thing" can be explained, then if there are many good things, it is not so simple.

Even the fact that Mrs. and her husband have only given birth to one son after many years of marriage, but they have not stopped having children since they married Skop, has also been used as evidence related to the devil.

It's just that even so, Skop's position has always been very stable, and the love between him and his wife seems to be extremely strong, it is said that last year he made his wife pregnant again, according to the Skop's birth law of every other jump, this baby should be a daughter......

Not only that, but when the Council of Order was established, with the help of his wife and his own mercenary army, Skop became the herald of the authority that almost once controlled the fate of the city of Rome.

Speaking of which, he was so lucky, and naturally had a deep relationship with his noble lady lover.

The lady's surname was Farne.

Compared with the one of the most prominent families in Italy, the Farne family at this time was not so glamorous, on the contrary, many people talked about the women of the family with all kinds of subtle hints, and sarcastically mocked their men with disdain and contempt.

But whether they want to admit it or not, thanks to Alexander VI, the Farnes gained more than enough.

Because of this, although many people talked about Skop, he never encountered any trouble.

Despite his feud with the Farnes, Alexander has no ill feelings towards Skop, mainly because he finds him interesting.

As a herald, Skop was incompetent, and he never actively fought for Farne or the Borgia family.

On one occasion, however, Alexander saw that he had seized a few of the townspeople who had read the yellow tabloids about Alexander VI and his mistress, and then in the horror of the men, Skop tore up the leaflets with his hands and said disdainfully: "What is this, I have seen much more than what is written on it." ”

"Where's Caesar?"

"Where else, Town Hall," laughed Skopha, "the French have fled, and now Rome is completely controlled by the Council of Order, or rather, by the Borgias. ”

Skop's words made Alexander smile, he always felt that this seemingly reckless mercenary was not simple.

Although he often said things that made others jaw-dropping, if you think about it carefully, you will find that this person often didn't say anything.

"I say, you'll have to go with me alone," Skop said, looking warily at Alexander's army, "with at most one guard." ”

"The hunters will follow our lord."

Paolo Busako drove forward, but as soon as he finished saying this, with a crisp unsheathed sound, the tip of a sharp sword was already pointed at his throat!

There was a brief dead silence on the road in an instant, and then the soldiers on both sides immediately raised their weapons and gathered in the middle of the road.

Paolo Busako's face turned a little blue, he never imagined that this knight would suddenly move his sword against him, and what was even more terrifying was that he felt that he had no chance to resist in front of this person.

The hunters' reliance on muskets and sabers made them better suited to the battlefield, and when they faced a skilled knight, they found themselves incomparable.

"You don't seem to have as many people as I do."

Alexander tilted his head disapprovingly to look at the cavalry behind Skop, although he had vaguely guessed from the expressions and demeanor of these people that these people should be the elite of Skop's mercenary team, or the soldiers closest to Skop, but Alexander didn't care how powerful these people were.

As he said, there were far fewer people in Skop than there were in his Agri and Bohèmes.

A few elites can certainly create miracles, but when on the battlefield, the side with fewer people will always suffer.

"Not as many as you," Skop said proudly, looking back, "but they're the best, and they could have killed you before those hillbillies and bohemians of yours rushed over." ”

"At the risk of all of you being slaughtered here?"

Alexander looked at Skop in disbelief, although he didn't know this man completely, from the rumors he had heard about him, Alexander didn't think that he was a man who was willing to put his life on the line for the sake of his mission.

Alexander's words seemed to poke at Skop's weakness at once, and his originally tough attitude immediately softened, but when he withdrew his sword, he still tapped the tip of his sword lightly on Bussako's shoulder.

"My fourth child is about to be born, and I don't want to have no father as soon as she speaks out just for such a trivial matter, so you can take as many people as you want."

Skop muttered under his breath and turned around with his horse, ignoring the angry look thrown at Busako, and rode with Alexander in the direction of Rome.

The hunters quickly followed, and farther back, Carlo led the group to distance themselves from them, advancing slowly.

"These guards of yours are actually good, but they don't seem to be good at individual combat," Skop expertly pointed out the problem of hunters after looking at them for a while, "If I'm not mistaken, they're not actually your guards, at least you don't want to think of them as simple guards." ”

Alexander glanced at Skop in surprise, he knew that the mercenary leader was right this time.

The Hunters were not so much a guard as a battlefield reserve that Alexander had cultivated.

At the critical moment, the key direction, invest the key power.

Alexander had expectations for the huntsmen in an unexpected way.

"I think I owe you a thanks," Alexander said abruptly, instead of continuing the subject of the huntsman, "I know you actually deliberately gave me a reason to lead the guards, but I wonder why." ”

"Why," Skop pulled the reins and looked at the majestic shadow of the Colosseum that was already clearly visible in the distance, and turned back to look at Alexander with a slightly amused look, "because someone doesn't want you to be taken advantage of so easily." ”