Vol 7 Chapter 77: Battlefield (middle)

When the second-level Administrative Secretary of the Florence Governor ’s Government walked up to the floor of his office, he saw several familiar men sitting on the chairs beside the corridor outside and whispering.
Seeing the second seat of the Secretary of the Administrative Secretary, the men who dressed as businessmen immediately stood up and greeted him.
"Dear Secretary, we are waiting for you," an old businessman with gray hair is obviously the old businessman who is the leader of these people. He said carefully and saw the eyes of the Secretary Secretary throwing him at him. The old businessman shrugged his slightly prominent belly slightly and said in a slightly proud tone, "I am Giovanni Dartmila of the Florence Wool Industry Association. I think you should remember me."
"I do remember," the second secretary nodded. "I remember you were the first person to propose the exchange of Ladia gold coins in the industry association, because you made a big profit."
Hearing what the secretary said, the old businessman named Giovanni Dartmila had a smug smile on his face. No wonder he was very proud of it. Because of his long-term vision, his family The dumping war that affected the whole of Florence a few years ago became one of the few local merchants who made a fortune. This even Sazi, who was the governor of Florence, was quite envious when he mentioned it in private.
"Sir, you know that it's not easy to do business this year. The big things of this small profit are not only less now, but because of the frequent battles, we may lose our lives. What's more, this way, let us I ca n’t rest assured. "
Giovanni Dartmila chatted and followed the secretary into the office, as everyone else was not qualified to follow in, so he could only wait in the corridor with anxiety.
"Okay, tell me what's the matter," the second secretary sat down and looked at the businessman opposite. He knew that this not-so-obsessed old man actually had a huge impact unimaginable by others. As the 12 most important industries in Florence The most important leader of the wool industry guild in the guild, this Giovanni Dartmila controls a large number of wealthy businessmen, and these businessmen are the big gold behind many Florence parliamentarians. In short, this is even a governor Sazi is also unwilling to offend people easily.
But now this person will stand so carefully in front of him, but the second secretary is not surprised, because this person is obviously very clear who is the real person in Florence.
And Machiavelli is obviously very proud of his current status. After all, as the second secretary, he can decide the fate of Florence. This has never been in the past, and it is estimated that it will not appear again in the future.
And he will have the achievements of today, of course, because of the little Duchess who is now in Pisa, and another reason is that he made the wise choice and brave performance when the Genoese tried to attack Pizza.
Even now, Machiavelli will be awakened whenever he dreams of that experience in the middle of the night. Sometimes he is even wondering how he had such courage at the time, but fortunately he not only survived, And good luck.
"Sir, the French are coming, do you think we have to do the necessary preparations?"
The inquiry of the old man Dartmila awakened the second secretary who suddenly fell into memory, which made Machiavelli glance at the old man a little unpleasantly, and then asked in dismay: "So what do you think we should do?
"Maybe the French will occupy Florence. I remember when Charlie occupied us a few years ago and asked us to pay the defense tax. I don't know what rules the French King will have now?"
Machiavelli frowned. He was not disgusted by the old man. He knew that there was no loyalty to these businessmen. The only thing they should loyal to was yellow orange gold. He was worried about whether all Businessmen all have the same thoughts as this old Dartmila.
Machiavelli believed in Alexandria, which in fact had nothing to do with loyalty. He would trust Alexandria so much, just thinking of his previous experience.
But if the Florentines really choose to see the wind and rudder because they think that Roman Thesia is bound to fail, Machiavelli will not stubbornly oppose everyone. The person who does that is really stupid, even if he is still present. At the same time as the chief diplomat of Rome Thesia, he was at least wise not to face everyone in Florence.
With this in mind, Machiavelli decided to explore the old man's tone first.
"Is this what you mean, or is it the wool industry guild, or everyone in the guild?"
Machiavelli asked seemingly disrespectfully. Although he knew that if there were such guilds in Florence as a whole, he would definitely hear the wind, but he still decided to be more cautious.
"How can everyone agree on this kind of thing, but please be assured that we can let everyone join if we need it, but the key now is the Principality of Rome Theseia, isn't it?
Dartmila showed a reserved smile. He knew that the second secretary was testing him, but he was not easy to deal with. Now he wanted to find a way out for himself before the French came, but for Rome He did not give up completely in the Principality of Thesia. After all, the prince had created too many miracles in the past. This time, although it looks very bad, it may not have any unexpected results.
Therefore, he would not easily give up the great ship that brought him great wealth, because of the changes in front of him.
Machiavelli nodded in agreement, he understood that the old man was almost telling him that he was looking at the wind, which made Machiavelli secretly annoyed and admired his boldness and free and easy.
It's just that it's impossible for him to be as casual as the merchants. When he chose to sell Florence to Pisa, he had no way out.
"Florence has decided to join the Holy Alliance. No matter whether you want it or not, we are now standing with Roma Thesia, and there are many people joining this alliance, so at this time, you still have to choose ..."
Machiavelli, who had just said "to be more cautious", was interrupted by a knock on the door. As the door opened, the young man who appeared to be in a hurry had broken in without waiting for the servant to announce.
Ronza Sabbatini's anxious look surprised Machiavelli. This young man who originally came to Florence to study art has caused him great suspicion of art because of the blows he suffered, especially in the eyes. After seeing Botticelli, whom he had always admired, actually burned those precious masterpieces of his later years because of the confusion of Savonarola, and also lashed out at the art, even calling it a fallen poison, Ron left. Sabbatini no longer knew what was right and what was wrong.
Because of this, he has already given up his dream of becoming an artist, but he did not return to his hometown of Bologna, but stayed in Florence.
He is now an agent of the futures exchange that James Columbus established in Florence, and he has done quite well.
According to Machiavelli, the exchanges in these cities are not only the hubs of business transactions in various places, but also the intelligence relay stations set up by the Duke of Rome Thesia in various places. Will be continuously sent to the center of the Principality, Montina, where there have been some students recruited by the Duke of Rome Thesia from Bologna and Pavia University in the name of hiring officials to form a confusing Duke Attendance Hall. Was sent to this attendant hall for screening and judgment.
So now seeing the strange look on Ronzo Sabbatini's face, Machiavelli immediately realized what might have happened, he stood up immediately, and after Dartmila saw that he had to resign disappointedly. , He beckoned to Ronzo Sabbatini: "What happened, is it that the French have arrived outside Florence?"
Seeing the self-proclaimed humorous jokes didn't make Ronzo Sabbatini relax, Machiavelli knew that things might be really not small.
"The Jew named Joseph Macheney just sent someone a strange letter. I think you must read it."
Ronzo Sabbatini said carefully that he gave Machiavelli the letter that had been squeezed out of shape, and then looked at him earnestly, seeming to hope that he would puzzle himself.
Machiavelli opened the crumpled stationery and looked at the very simple sentences above. He was at first as confused as Ronzo Sabbatini, and then he slowly sat down and pondered.
"Adult, if I understand correctly, that Mazzini is asking us to release all the Ladia coins in hand?" Ronzo Sabbatini asked. "But do you know how to do this ..."
Machiavelli didn't wait for Ron Zobartini to finish up and then raised his hand to block him. He picked up the letter and looked at it carefully, and then found a few seemingly unimportant words in the letter. He first asked Ronzo Sabbatini to wait in the room, and he went to the room by himself, and found one of the many Bibles on the shelf and turned it over.
In some specific pages, Machiavelli quickly found the answer he needed. When these words were pieced together into a word with a certain meaning, Machiavelli could not help opening his mouth slightly and then looked up. Looking towards the cross on the wall.
"God forgive me." Machiavelli murmured to himself, and then lit the letter.
When he walked outside, his eyes first fell on Ron Zabartini's face and then stopped, then he stretched his arms around the young man's shoulders and walked out while saying, "Go do it, some Things are destined to come, since this makes us all the experiencers of all this, maybe in the future when we get old, these experiences will become the most proud wealth in our life. "
Ronzo Sabbatini left the second secretary's office in a state of anxiety. Before leaving, he noticed that Machiavelli once again called the former businessman Giovanni Datmira into his room.
But Ronzo Sabbatini didn't know that when Datmira came out of the second secretary's room, the look on his face scared the others because it was too weird.
The French army entered the territory of Romagna, and the news spread to the whole principality of Thesia in almost a few days.
This made the people who had just enjoyed short-term peace tense again, and unlike the previous wars, this time almost everyone felt that for some reason, the war suddenly seemed to be related to themselves. This can be Farmers have been organized to train and use weapons, and villages and towns of all sizes have announced the hoarding of food, cloth, vehicles, and wine.
It seemed that overnight, past wars that had nothing to do with civilians were gone forever.
What's more, the news about the war was different from that of travelers who had just passed by. Some people ran to some big villages and towns almost every day to tell everyone where the French are now and what the Duke's army is doing.
Over time, the people gradually became accustomed to this unrelated matter and became a part of their lives.
At the same time, people began to use the terms "their army" and "our army".
"I heard that the French have arrived in Bratan," in a village, a woman twirled her clothes and said anxiously, "I don't know where that place is, but I heard that I will be in Florence soon, that's not Does that mean they are coming to us? "
"Don't listen to those nonsense," another chubby woman retorted unhappy. "The Duke's army defeated the Ottomans. Could the French be better than the Ottomans?"
"But I heard that there are many people in their army, we are less than half of them, and," the previous woman whispered in a low voice. "I heard that the Duke is not in Montina now. It is his wife who is in charge of the whole army. . "
"Then don't worry about it," although the uneasiness is also revealed, the fat woman still insists on her own opinion. "If it is replaced by that Lucrezia, it may be really awkward. It ’s stupid not to find North, but the Duchess is a terrific woman. I heard that she even defeated the Pope, so our army should still be able to defend it. "
Hearing such powerful proofs, several women in the vicinity made a cry of surprise, but then the topic naturally turned to whether the Duke liked his wives, or the lover who was pretty but stupid. Things went up.
In the same way, such topics can be heard everywhere in the Principality. People no longer ignore the war as they did in the past, because they find that this is indeed a big thing in their lives.
However, the rumours that were spread very badly were not completely unfounded. In mid-May, Louis XII's army finally captured the not-so-important stronghold of Pesha.
However, this result did not please the King, but instead he vaguely felt that the situation did not seem to be as smooth as he expected.
Pesha is a semi-military town not far from Pisa. The French offensive was originally a few days ago. This place should have been left behind, and then the French striker should have been drinking Maal. Upstream of the Nuo River, and then look at the city of Florence.
But the development of the matter was quite unexpected by the French.
Pisa, surrounded by Bowenken ’s heavy soldiers, not only was n’t precarious, but it did n’t surrender. Instead, they used the port to send an army along the coastline to Livorno, not too far from Pisa. Kishi launched a harassing attack on the French.
Due to the Arno River blocking, although Louis XII had a far larger number of troops than the enemy, every time the French army tried to send troops to destroy the enemy, the coalition forces would immediately escape the Arno River, Then, by virtue of the obstacles of the river, they formed a confrontation with the French army.
This caused the French army's attack to be greatly hindered, and even a small Pesha took a long time to finally force the enemy to surrender.
When Louis XII walked into Peixia, the originally cool weather was slightly hotter, which also made the King of France inexplicably anxious, because he had heard that the Venetian army had passed Ferrara, and Constantine, who had run away from the abandoned city, had also reorganized an army of about 1,400 men and came to Romagna with the Venetians.
As for Maximian, although the Austrian army should not have entered Italy so fast, Louis XII felt that he must speed up his march when he thought that Milan might be threatened.
In this situation, Louis XII had to condescend to write a letter to Caesar. While praising his bravery and loyalty, it also implied that he was almost rested and should be moved.
The letter arrived in Caesar's hand a few days later, which made Caesar excited.
The feeling of annoyance because of the cold encounter of Louis XII disappeared instantly. There is hope and confidence again.
What made Caesar particularly happy was the timely arrival of the officers he had recruited from the Bologna Military School, which made him feel that the Pope's army was finally gradually improving. Although it was not possible to make a large number of firearms because of the short time, at least one although the number was not The musketeers, which are more than enough, have been assembled.
"I heard that Russa Kosenza relied on her musketeer company called the Grenadier Company, so I think she now has an opponent." Caesar said with confidence as he looked at the army in front of him. Then he turned to the foreign military officer who stood on one side of the lip and had two curling beards. "I heard that you were once a hero who resisted the Ottomans, and was one of the best students in the Bologna school. Now I put This army is handed over to you, I hope you will not let me down. "
"Please rest assured, Lord Duke, I will never let you down, and may even have some unexpected surprises."
Twisted her beard with her fingers, said the knight of Kurash, the landlord from Bangan Kachulica, said lazily.