Vol 3 Chapter 27: Letter from Lombardy

Although the weather was unexpectedly cold, when a heavy snow suddenly arrived late at night, many people in Rome were surprised and excited. (Pinyin of biqiwu)
The unique climate of the Mediterranean makes Italy's weather not always snowy, and now this suddenly turned white world makes many people feel inexplicably excited.
But this weather is not necessarily a good thing for the French in Rome.
The assassination of the Archbishop of Frankfurt made the French embarrassed. Almost everyone knew that the Archbishop was a supporter of the Emperor of the Empire. When Charlie invaded Italy, the Archbishop immediately lobbied everywhere. In his speech, the French King signed the devil After the secret contract to sell the demon of the soul, the emperor Maximian is the angel sent by God to save the world.
The near-open hostility of the Archbishop to the French King made Charlie hate him as much as possible. There are even rumors that Charlie had no appetite when he was sick, so he had to recite the names of his enemies before eating. Then he will be angry, and then he will eat Hess with a big appetite, and on this "appetizing list", the Archbishop of Frankfurt is at the top.
Because of this, everyone naturally thinks that the assassination of the Archbishop was done by the French. This completely angered the priests in Rome. Even those who have a good relationship with the French think that this is too much. As originally The hostile pastors of the French are simply writing letters to Alexander VI, asking the pope to punish the murderers and coercing the French to surrender the true murderers. .
This threat is really a bit serious, so that Henry de Charlene just heard the news and thought it was wrong.
Once such a proposal was really approved by Alexander VI, it was in fact no different from the elimination of membership.
There are indeed nobles whose membership has been eliminated in history, and they often have to compromise with the church to admit their mistakes, regardless of whether they can take revenge later, but these people have to bow their heads and soften even when they face high penalties.
These people are still nobles and even kings.
What if they were replaced by a group of ordinary French people?
Is it possible for an occupying army in an enemy country that was already hostile everywhere, and at this time to be subjected to absolute punishment?
Perhaps after the news that the pope agreed to this request had just spread, there might be a riot in the whole city of Rome!
De Charlen had to ask again to see the pope, but this time the pope ’s secretary gave him the answer because the pope felt that the timing was not right, so this visit was waived.
Charlene really felt the crisis he was facing. While ordering the French to stay in line, he had to ask for a meeting with Caesar Borgia again. He knew that the son of the Pope was the spokesperson of Alexander VI in the Holy See. Many things were completely You can use him to bring the words to the head of the Borgia family.
This time Charlene was not disappointed. Caesar met him smoothly, but what the French did not expect was that although Caesar did not make any further request to hand over the assassin of the archbishop, he made a request to let Xia Erlun's equally difficult condition-apart from buying it with money, the French could not levy any additional supplies to the Romans.
This condition caused Charlene to erupt almost on the spot.
As an occupying army, the French were obviously not as good as they were in Naples or even Florence when they were in Rome.
Although Savonarola used the French ally and even called Charlie as the father, the French were still not very soft in Florence. In addition to collecting a large number of artistic treasures, in order to ensure the adequate supply of French troops, the French still gave Florence Very strict collection actions were taken.
Not to mention in Naples, the French, who were completely conquered by themselves, ran wildly to search for gold, silver, treasures and artistic masterpieces, and even almost evacuated the food stored in the city of Naples before they left.
However, these actions could not but converge in Rome, because although they occupied Rome, the city did not belong to any city state that could be conquered by them, but belonged to the jurisdiction of the Roman bishop, that is to say to the pope.
The French had to be careful in this city, this occupation was even more uncomfortable than fighting on the enemy's chassis.
They have to pay attention to whether they have violated the interests of the church and violated the territory of the church at all times. What's worse is that they worry that if they really anger the church, it will attract resentment and anger from other countries.
That's why Charlie left the city immediately after receiving the crown of Naples from Alexander VI, because he knew that if he stayed here, he would be bound by a variety of scruples, which would be very bad for him.
But now Charlene is not only better than his king, but even earlier.
When coming to the Vatican, watching the people on both sides of the road spit at the French flag and throw rotten apples, Charlene could not help worrying that the riot would happen the next day.
This made him determined on the road, no matter what the price paid, Alexander VI must reject the priest's proposal to punish the French team.
But Caesar's conditions made Charlene feel unacceptable.
If you only spend money to buy military food, it means that in order to feed these thousands of French troops this winter, the amount of money that must be paid is the amount of chills that Sherron thinks about.
Charlene did not immediately answer Caesar's conditions, and he needed to consider leaving.
But just after he left the Vatican and crossed the bridge over the Tiber River, the news brought by a messenger struck him hard.
After entering the Lombardy region, the main force of the French army was briefly repaired.
Relying on the conditions of wealth in the Lombardy region, the French army, which was already in embarrassment due to supply, was temporarily relieved, and it may be because of good luck. The influence of Genoa received enough reliable news, and then attacked the strikers of the coalition forces who were in pursuit.
Although the scale of the battle was not large, and the coalition forces retreated immediately when the opportunity was not good, the loss was not great, but for the French army, which had lost successively since entering September, it was an exciting victory.
The French thought that the Lombardy region was clearly their auspicious place, and because they were close to Piedmont, the French generals also thought that the shortage of supply could be solved soon.
When I saw this part of the secret letter sent by the courier, although I already knew what happened later, Charlene was still very happy, because the French outbound here is quite good, so even if I later encountered a setback, I should It won't be too bad.
But when he saw the next description in the letter, his mood began to slip to the bottom.
After being defeated by the sudden counterattack of the French army, the coalition forces did not rush to retaliate, but quickly opened the distance with the French forces, which caused the French to have the illusion that the coalition forces were afraid.
During this period, Gonzalo, as the commander of the coalition, began to send his army to carry out long-term harassment against the French.
No matter where the French army is going, the coalition forces will send people to follow them. If the French army turns around and chases them, they will immediately escape, but as long as the French army turns around and continues to advance, they will immediately take advantage of the opportunity to attack.
This action began to make the French trying to quickly replenish the supplies miserable, and after entering October, the coalition forces seemed to feel confident that they began to attack the French actively. After a series of battles, the French had to be forced to stay away from the original Can provide them with a lot of convenience near Genoa, gradually retreating to the northwest region.
Just a few days ago, Gonzalo finally seized an excellent opportunity to launch a fierce attack on the French army.
The battle was fought in a place called Pavito, about a hundred miles from the north bank of the Po River.
At the beginning of the battle, there were more French troops than coalition forces, but when the battle was over, even if you just looked at the dead bodies on the battlefield, you knew that the French had suffered a great loss.
What's worse, Sforza, Duke of Milan, stabbed the French in the back at this time!
The Milanese suddenly cut off the passage between Piedmont and the French army. While robbing all the supplies sent from Piedmont to the French army, Sforza's army set off from Milan all the way to the southwest, while While continually agitating the lords of all regions along the way, it is necessary to completely block the back of the French team and wipe out nearly 40,000 French troops with the momentum of the Lombardy Plain!
This disadvantage finally completely defeated the French generals who originally wanted to compete with the coalition forces. Only then did they know that what they were facing was not whether they could defeat the enemy again, but whether they could live through the Alps and back again. Go to hometown.
At this time, the French generals must not face a difficult decision whether to continue to fight with the coalition on the basis of the existing allowance, or simply throw away all the bulky things that cannot be taken away, and quickly retreat while the Milanese have not completely cut off the retreat.
As for whether to retreat to the west of Piedmont to wait for the opportunity, or simply to run back to France just across the mountains, they have not yet thought about it.
And even if you don't hesitate to throw away these weights and retreat immediately, you may not be right.
Because the artillery they carry is still a great deterrent to the coalition forces, and depending on the collected food, even if they are surrounded, they can still last for a period of time. However, if these items are thrown away, they will only take dry food that can be eaten for a few days. In the next few days, if you cannot successfully escape the fate of being surrounded, it means that tens of thousands of French troops will face the desperate situation of bombing all their food.
Charlene did n’t know what kind of decision he would make if he were those French generals, but he knew that the final decision made by the French generals was obviously the worst of this choice.
The French did not throw away the cannons, which was too important for them. They still had to rely on these powerful guys to threaten the coalition forces, but they still threw away some things.
They threw away large quantities of food in order to reduce the burden.
This decision is undoubtedly the worst of all choices.
Either they refused on the spot, and the French artillery and still sufficient supplies were enough to create a situation where the coalition forces might negotiate because of fear of heavy losses.
Or simply throw away everything you do n’t need, and just escape all the way west, even if you are in desperation, as long as you can escape to France, there is always a chance to come back and find a face to win face.
But the French chose this unreliable road.
The result of this decision was that when the French finally came to see the city of Piedmont, the Milanese who were inquired cut it straight.
The Sforza family was born as a mercenary. For the people of this family, even if they have won the title of Duke of Milan, the strength of their fierce fighting in their bones is still not comparable to other Italian nobles.
Charlie was polite and reasonable to Milan before invading Italy. He proposed that he would never have any coveted attitude towards Milan, and he could also be a strong backing for the Sforza family who is in conflict with Venice. This proposal was immediately agreed by Ludwig Sforza, Duke of Milan.
But once he led the army into the city, Charlie's attitude completely changed.
Not only did Charlie declare Milan as his vassal city-state, he even announced that the Valois royal family had sufficient rights to declare the title of Duke Mulan.
This means that one day in the future he or his children will have the right to wear the crown of the Duke of Milan on his head.
This is absolutely intolerable by the Sforza family.
So when it was determined that the coalition was indeed able to defeat the French army, the Milanese who had always been ambiguous suddenly launched an attack on the French army, and in this chase related to whether the entire French army could escape to France, the Milan army played a key role. Function, blocked the retreat of the French withdrawal in one fell swoop!
A battle inevitably unfolded in the outer suburbs of Piedmont.
33,000 French troops and 29,000 Allied troops.
This is a battle with little difference in strength ~ EbookFREE.me ~ but neither morale nor military strength can match.
In the face of the Allied Forces chasing after the victory, the French team's panic caused by the retreat all the time became chaotic and quickly spread among the soldiers, and a large number of soldiers injured in the army because of the previous battle became a burden for more people.
What's worse is that because of the few days of rain and snow, most of the gunpowder was either abandoned or abandoned because of the lack of the heavy vehicles. At this time, the cannons that thought it could pose a threat to the coalition forces have almost become a pile Useless drag on waste.
In short, this is a terrible experience that no Frenchman who has participated in this battle is willing to recall.
"We have lost many good friends and excellent knights, and now we have to retreat to a place not far from Piedmont city, and we have no food anymore, so my friend, if I can, I hope you can help us, We have enough supplies for us. This is a request from a French nobleman who is on the verge of annihilation of the whole army. You are loyal ... "
Looking at this letter, even at the end, still paying attention to a gorgeously appealing letter of appeal, De Charlene instantly had the urge to swear loudly.