Alexander was not very familiar with Niccolò Pittigliano, and not much was known about him, except that he was a legend who could eat half a roast pig in one meal.

Even before 1495, many people, apart from the Venetians themselves, did not know who the Venetian soldier was, or even if they knew about him, they did not have a deep impression of him, but after the Battle of Fornovo, the Venetian deputy army commander suddenly became famous.

At Fornovo, the French had to retreat after losing more than 1,000 mercenaries and several artillery pieces, and the coalition forces, who were ultimately on the battlefield to declare victory, found that they had far more dead and missing soldiers than the enemy when they later counted their numbers.

Therefore, there are all kinds of disputes about who won the battle of Fornovo, so much so that there is no agreement, and even the anti-French coalition itself, which is the nominally victorious side, is full of errors and contradictions, but it is an indisputable fact that the French began to retreat on all fronts after the battle of Fornovo.

It can be said that whether or not the victory was actually achieved at Fornovo, the coalition forces dealt a severe blow to the morale of the French, which is why the French were unable to recover the demoralization that had fallen due to repeated defeats even in such a fertile place after retreating into the Lombardy region, and the result was that they finally suffered a terrible blow in Piedmont.

As one of the commanders of the Battle of Fornovo, Niccolò Pittiliuno became a rare general in the eyes of many people.

What's more, the man was respected enough for his performance at Fornovo, which was what made Alexander feel that the current situation was bad.

Alexander didn't know what would happen to the Genoese, but it was hard for him to imagine that Giovanni would be willing to cooperate with the Genoese, one side was commanded by a general with great prestige, and the other side not only had not yet met, but the generals might not be able to cooperate well with each other, just thinking about Alexander felt that this war, which was not favored in all aspects, was really difficult to fight.

Alexander didn't want to be cannon fodder, let alone fall victim to other people's intrigues, so he didn't follow the advice of someone to throw away his baggage and quickly move forward to enter the castle of Montina as soon as possible, although as the Count of Montina he did the best way to declare sovereignty, and it was more in his interests, but Alexander knew that the castle of Montina had now become a huge magnet to attract all parties, and anyone who rushed into it at this time was tantamount to taking himself as a target.

Therefore, although the defenders of Castel Nuevo Montina were less than 1,000 men, whether it was Milan, which had already arrived in Reallo earlier, or the Venetians, who had met later, the tens of thousands of troops only confronted Montina across a small plain of Reial, and never attacked the castle.

Alexander stood in front of a simple map and looked at the names of the castles and roads outlined on it, and the Genoese commander next to him kept urging, it was a soldier with a bit of Moorish blood, his black skin looked a little similar to that of Ulliu, but his pale yellow hair made him look very different, such people were not uncommon in Genoa, and strangely enough, these Moorish hybrids seemed to have a higher status in Genoa than in other places.

"My lord, if we enter the castle of Montina, with the number of us and the defenders, we can completely defend the castle." The Genoese took the trouble to try to convince Alexandri, and after seeing that he seemed unmoved, simply moved out with a more direct reason: "My lord, you have not entered Montina so far, which is very bad for you, after all, your claim is from Miss Barentia, if you cannot prove your ownership in the city of Montina, once the castle is occupied by the Milanese, it will appear passive." ”

Although Alexander knew very well about this statement of the Genoese, there was nothing he could do about it for the time being.

On the contrary, he even felt that the title of Count of Montina had become a shackle to his actions, and it was obvious that in order to achieve the claim and actual possession, he must indeed enter the city as soon as possible, but the situation in front of him was that Montina was obviously a big pit waiting for people to jump into and not climb out.

Sometimes Alexander even wondered if de la Rovere had foreseen this situation, which was why he was so generous with Montina as Barentia's dowry, because he knew that it would be difficult to get his hands on it.

In any case, Alexander had decided that he would not jump into the pit easily, and after patrolling the North Arno River for a while, he decided to abandon the crossing for the time being, and instead ordered his army to advance all the way north along the left bank of the river.

The movements of Alexander's army did not hide from the Milanese, and when the news of his march north with his army reached Reialo, it immediately attracted the attention of some people.

"Cambrai, who is this?"

A fat man sitting in a wide chair asked the adjutant next to him curiously, this person's chin was fat and big, completely covering his neck, which made it a little difficult for him to bow his head, and because there was a lot of fat on his face, his eyes were also squeezed into two thin lines, but when he asked this, this person's eyes were quite cunning and flexible, which made his appearance of being full of fat looks even more funny.

"My lord, he is a Neapolitan, and I heard that he was only a country lord not far from Cosenza, but I heard that because of his engagement to the daughter of the Archbishop of Genoa, he received the title of Count of Montina from his fiancée." The adjutant next to him whispered, while looking at the several Milanese sitting opposite, "I heard that Corenzo Sforza died at his hands, and Giovanni Sforza's death is also related to this person, so for the Milanese, this person is their enemy." ”

"Is that so?" The fat man turned his head slightly to look at the few Milanes on the other side, and when he saw the look on their faces, the fat man waved his hand, "Forget it, I already know the answer." ”

"This Gombray must die." A Milanese man did not raise his voice, but his tone was unusually firm: "This man is not only because he is an enemy of the Duke's family, but also because his claim to Montina is absolutely unacceptable. ”

The fat man snorted slightly, of course he knew that the latter reason was the real reason why the Milanese wanted to kill Cambrai.

As lieutenant general of the Venetian army, Niccolò Pitigino was clear about the purpose of the Milanese, but he also knew better what he had to do.

"An adventurer from Naples?" Niccolò Pittiliuno muttered to himself, unlike the others, he would not easily judge a person's character and ability by whether or not they deserved to die or what kind of origin the person was, he cared about whether the person was worthy of being an enemy.

Niccolò Pittiliano believed that on the battlefield there is always only one true and most valuable goal, whether that goal is an army, a city, or anything else, and that the war will not end until it is truly destroyed or conquered, and everything else is completely negligible.

Niccolò Pitigliano has not forgotten what his governor had said to him before his departure, much less the unsatisfactory life he had during these two years.

Pittiliuno did not dare to despise the eighty-year-old governor at all, let alone disrespect him, after all, the cunning skills of the governor were still fresh in the memory of many people.

Pittiglino clearly remembered that Governor Barbarig repeatedly reiterated to him the importance of Romagna to Venice when he set out to summon him, and from the Viceroy's words, Pittiglino had already vaguely sensed that Barbarig seemed to be preparing to take advantage of the opportunity to reach out to the territory of his old enemy, Genoese, in addition to strongly trying to make the Vatican bow to him.

And the Romagna region is clearly an imperative for the Venetians.

The Venetians had to secure themselves as the most powerful power on the western shore of the Mediterranean at sea, but also to rapidly expand their power during the chaotic period of the French withdrawal from Italy.

Romagna at this time looked like a piece of fat that had been placed on a plate and served on the table, and if he could not take advantage of the opportunity to eat it, God would probably punish him for wasting his good intentions.

"What is that Gombray going north, what is he going to do?"

Pittiliuno pushed aside the plate in front of him and brought the map, and a banquet immediately turned into a military meeting.

"Perhaps he was trying to get around the source of the North Arno River," guessed a Milanese, pointing to a map, "and we all know that there is no place for crossing that river, and that it would be to his disadvantage to stay by the river for a long time unless he gave up all his supplies and traveled lightly." ”

The Milanese's words made Pitiliano nod, now that Milan and Venice have joined forces, although Reialo does not seem to be easy to defend, but they need to attack instead of defending with the advantage of troops.

Pittiliuno's short and thick fingers were placed first slightly northwest of Roare, where 7,000 Genoese were approaching them, and then his hand moved to the southeast of Roare, not far from Montina, where Giovanni's 20,000 Holy See troops were stationed at the foot of the Chimone hill.

"They are going to rendezvous at Montina," Pittiglino whispered to himself, his finger poking lightly at the place where Montina was marked with a castle, and then looking at the others, "I think it is a revelation from God, and that our enemies are foolish enough to think that we will allow them to rendezvous under that castle, and this is a godsend for us." ”

"Are you going to break each one before they meet?" One of the older Milanese generals raised his eyebrows slightly, he had a large scar on the top of his head, and he looked new, it was left by a musket shot during the battle with the French two years earlier, and as a general who also participated in the battle with Charles VIII, this Milanese knew better than anyone else the style before Pitigliano.

In the eyes of those who are familiar with Pitigliino, they do not think that he is a proactive person, so to speak, cautious, but more people think that he lacks courage.

Because of this, when the French army of Fornovo abandoned the mercenaries behind the palace because of the unfavorable battle and began to retreat, Pittiliuno did not seize this opportunity to take the initiative to pursue, but began to reorganize his formation in an attempt to attack with more certainty.

This gave his enemies time to escape, and to the displeasure of the Venetian governor Barbaregg, when he found that his army had lost some unexpected numbers, Pittiliuno eventually gave up the pursuit, instead allowing his army to avoid another confrontation with the French by standing on the battlefield of Fornovo to declare victory.

Because of this, when Pitigilino returned to Venice, although he still received enough honors and great wealth, the Doge of Venice did not confer on him the highest honor of commander of the Venetian army, as he had promised, but only the title of lieutenant general of the army, which was obviously not enough for Pittigliano.

If there were no more wars, perhaps in a few years the Venetian lieutenant would have been forgotten, and by that time he would have nothing left but the reputation of the victor of the Battle of Fornovo.

There may even be a day when his command in Fornovo will be questioned or even held accountable, and at that point Pittiliuno's legendary fame may really come to an end.

But now a sudden war seems to have saved Pittigliano, giving him a chance to prove himself to others again.

Because of this, Pittigliano's unusually proactive nature makes people who are even more familiar with him a little suspicious.

"So who should we attack first?"

The old Milanese asked with a little confusion.

When he saw Pittigliano's hand moving back and forth between the sides of the map, his eyes moved as if he were an aged cat staring at the threads that teased it.

"Genoese or Holy See troops?"

Pittiglino was a little lost in thought at this moment, knowing that he needed a real victory to reprove his importance to Venice, and now was the right opportunity to not only make the Venetian army victorious, but also to ensure that Venice could send him enough reinforcements in the ensuing war for the whole of Romagna.

This allowed him to try to avoid too many losses while thinking about winning.

Pittiliuno thought so, and had already made a decision in his mind.

"To the north, we go to meet the Genoese."

As soon as Pitiliino's decision was spoken, the room was filled with exhalations mixed with excitement and relaxation.

Whether it was due to feud or the sheer numerical inferiority of the enemy, the Venetians felt that they could not afford to let go of this good opportunity to annihilate the Genoese army alone.

"And that Cambrai," reminded the young Milanese who had spoken earlier, "his army seemed to be about to join the Genoese." ”

"He has only 3,000 men," Pitiliano moved his thick lips, or even less, and even if he joined up with the Genoese, they would have only 10,000 men, while we could dispatch 15,000 men, in addition to the army that remained in the Real to spy on Montina and Borgia. ”

With that, Pittiliuno poked his finger on the map again.

"Look at the topography here, there is not enough place for them to pass from the left bank of the North Arno to the sea, and the only way they can meet the Genoese is to go northwest along the left bank of the river, so where do you think this Cambrai can escape?"

With that, Pittiliano clenched the palm of his finger on the map into a fist and slammed it into a place between Genoa and Montina. ”

"That's it, Oral, the Genoese will pass through here, and that Gombray will have to pass through it, and we'll annihilate them here."

Looking at Pitiliano's fist, everyone in the room seemed to smell the smell of blood that followed.

At the same time, on a mountain pack on the left bank of North Arno, Alexander, riding on the back of Pagassos, had just laid down his right hand covering his brow.

Looking at the North Arno River on the right, which was disappearing into the mountains as the mountains gradually faded into the greenery, Alexander gave a loud order, "Forward, Oral!" ”