Rome, once an inconspicuous small tribe by the Tiber River, began with the emergence of this tribal village that is no different from other villages.

From a small village built on the river at first, it gradually became a terrifying huge tribe, and then gradually developed into a huge and terrifying empire. The cities and countries named after this place are both participants in the ups and downs of history and witnesses of this history.

Countless people succeeded in this city, but more people eventually disappeared in the huge shadow of this city.

In this building built of huge stones, there were not only talented historical giants like Caesar and Augustus, but also legendary figures like St. Peter who had an unimaginable impact on later generations.

There have been too many heroes in this city, but there are more corruption and depravity here.

For thousands of years, almost every street in the city of Rome has been washed away by blood flowing for various reasons. Whether it is the blood of the conspiracy of the nobles or the blood of the struggle of the slaves, the entire city of Rome can be said to be embellishing its glory again and again with scarlet plasma.

The Romans flourished, the Romans declined, the barbarians came, the barbarians were defeated, the thick stone walls of the Roman city watched indifferently everything happening around them, and the question "Man, where are you going" still made countless people flock to this city where they can find all opportunities.

When Rome finally became the capital of God on earth, the eyes of the entire Christ world gathered here involuntarily, and people longed for God’s revelation and redemption, so his agent on earth became the hope of everyone.

The Roman bishop became the supreme pope in the minds of all Catholics. His words were regarded as the verdict of God. As time passed, the pope's power grew. When his reputation and authority reached its peak, even the nobles and even kings with huge territory and numerous armies had to lower their proud heads to the crown of the Roman pope.

But despite this, the city still cannot escape the fate of being conquered.

For thousands of years, conquerors have come and gone. Gradually, many people regard the ability to march into Rome as a symbol of proving their authority, from Attila of the Whip of God to all barbarians, from the ultimate elimination of countless glorious Goths to the red-bearded Frederick, it seems that everyone regards Rome as the best embellishment to show off their martial arts, so that the city has to play the fate of the conquered again and again.

The last time that conquered this city was Charles VIII of France.

When Charles suddenly entered Italy in 1494, the entire Apennine Peninsula was in an uproar, and people were completely frightened by the powerful army of the French king. From Milan to Bologna, Charles quickly advanced to the Lower Lombardy region without any resistance. Then, against the embarrassment of the Metic family who fled, Charles entered Florence as a conqueror. Finally one day, he struted his head up and entered Rome, the oldest city in Europe.

At that moment, Charlie was indeed fascinated by this city. Compared with this magnificent city that can be called the mother of European cities, Paris is completely a remote place that is invisible. Even if someone told him that Rome is actually no longer in line with the glory and brilliance of the ancient Roman era thousands of years ago, Charlie was still completely immersed in it.

And here, whether it is coercion or temptation, Charles forced Pope Alexander VI to recognize him as the King of Naples. At that moment, the French king was not only proud, but even sighed that "although there are many heroes in the world, they do not know who is his opponent."

However, after less than a year of this kind of pride, Charlie was defeated by the coalition forces and even had to leave the army and return to France alone.

In Charlie's opinion, there is no chance in Italy for the time being, but even so he still refuses to give up Rome. The city's temptation to him was too great, and even Milan and Naples would not make him so persistent.

So when the situation was not good, he gave up Naples, Milan, and Florence without hesitation, but he still insisted on sending people to defend Rome.

Charlie hopes that when he makes a comeback, the flag of Valois will still float above the city, and the more important reason he values ​​the city is because as long as Rome is in his hands, Pope Alexander VI dare not easily announce the abolition of his title of King of Naples. As long as this crown is on his head, Charlie has enough reasons to continue to claim his rights.

Although the Naples royal family has been restored and has publicly announced that it has refused to recognize Charles' right to claim Naples, the French king is still full of confidence. He believes that his setback in Italy is only temporary. As long as he returns to France and makes a little preparation, he can reorganize a stronger army and then sweep the entire Apennines again.

Even the nobles of Naples were not surprised.

No one thought that Charles would just admit defeat so willingly, especially when his army still occupied Rome, and no one believed that he would just run back to France in shame and never come back again.

The only difference is when will he come back?

Most people think it will be late spring and early summer in 1498, because as winter is coming, it will take at least half a year to prepare enough.

By then, perhaps the French would cross the Alps again as before and quickly invade the rich Lombardy region.

This war is not over yet. As long as you understand this a little, you will know that the war in 1494 may be just the beginning.

But no one knows at this time that this war will last so long that there is often a family of two or even three generations born in this war, and then the war will not end until death.

As for Charlie, no one would have thought that the young king who provoked a protracted war would never have the chance to return to Italy once he left.

"It seems that understanding the future is indeed the best cheater."

Looking at the city of Rome in the distance, Alexander, who was riding on a horse, stood on the top of the hill, thinking proudly.

On October 8, after more than ten days of travel, Alexander's grain transport team finally arrived outside Rome.

According to the previous agreement with James Columbus, Alexander set up the camp of the team on the top of Rocadipas, not too far from the Temple of Diana.

This hill is a major road leading from the east to the city of Rome. Looking down from the mountain, the temple of Diana, the goddess of moon in the distance, can be seen vaguely. I heard from the locals that if the weather is good, you can even see the reflection of the moonlight shining on the open-air marble pillars of the temple at night.

However, there was another last resort for Alexander to stay on this hill, in addition to meeting James Columbus.

The road ahead was blocked.

The city of Rome has the famous Seven Hills and the Tiber River, but Mount Rocadipas is far from the center of Rome.

Diana Temple is located not too far from this small hill. Although it looks a bit remote, it is undoubtedly a very dangerous place to the east of Rome.

It is not unreasonable to say that all the great roads lead to Rome. As the birthplace of ancient empires, Rome's well-connected thoroughfares are a symbol of pride.

Although the originally magnificent Roman Empire fell into the abyss of the Dark Ages as the Goths conquered Rome, the precious wealth left by ancient Rome, even after a thousand years, still benefited this city that carried too many things.

Mount Rocadipas is still a long way from Rome. From the mountain you can not only see the Temple of Diana, but also see an irregular cross-shaped road not far from the front of the temple.

This road, Rocadipas, extends all the way, and meets another road from the slope in front of the temple, forming a major transportation route leading from the southeast to the city of Rome.

The cross-shaped road leads to the city of Rome in longitudinal direction, while the horizontal one follows the downhill of the temple, leading to the bay to the west and the depths of the hilly jungle in the northeast.

On the side of the slope slightly near Mount Rocadipas, a chest wall reinforced by a wicker fence was extending along the mountain direction towards Mount Rocadipas.

In addition to nearly 300 magic codes opposite this chest wall, another nearly parallel chest wall was also built against the mountain, blocking it at the other end of the intersection.

The golden iris flag of Valois and the coalition flags with many different colors and patterns confront each other through the chest wall. On the road between the two armies, merchants and vendors were rushing through the two confrontational armies.

This scene looks a bit weird, but there is indeed a war between the French army and the sacred alliance formed to oppose Charles VIII, and the French have been blocked in the city of Rome for about three months.

The French in front of the Temple of Diana were the French troops garrisoned on the front line in the southeast of Rome.

On the hillside, although it was not clear, it was full of shadows. Alexander could see the French army who was patrolling the bust in the distance.

The coalition did not launch an attack on the French in Rome, but as autumn began, the situation for the French became worse and worse.

After several battles, the road leading to the west coast had been completely cut off by the coalition forces, and the contact with the main French forces in the north who had entered the Lombardy region of Upper Italy was also intermittent, which was enough to disturb the French. What's worse, just a few days ago, they also lost contact with the French defenders far away in the Brueni Valley southeast of Rome.

What it means to lose contact at this time is very clear.

The French defenders of Rome had to send troops to the Bruini Valley. Although they did not think that the coalition would really completely surround Rome, they still needed to figure out what was going on.

But what the French did not expect was that their army had encountered obstacles from the coalition as soon as they left Rome. What was even more unexpected was that although a temporary construction was built, it was obviously an attempt to block their chest wall suddenly appeared on the road to the hills of Rocadipas.

Faced with this sudden appearance of chest wall, the only way for the French was to immediately build a chest wall that confronted him to prevent the coalition forces from launching an attack from the east of the city.

"Rome is surrounded."

Alexander stood on the top of the hillside and looked down with surprise. The news he had heard before did not mention that the coalition forces launched a siege on the city of Rome. On the contrary, Gonzalo seemed to have no intention of taking a strong attack on the city.

In Gonzalo's view, as long as the French defenders who refused to defend Rome would naturally collapse without fighting.

This is also what Alexander is sure to be less noticeable, allowing this batch of food to fall quietly into the hands of the French.

But everything has changed completely now. Seeing that although there are not many people, it has been built to block the chest wall leading to Rome, Alexander felt that something was wrong.

A cavalry rushed from the plains north of Mount Rocadipas, and the already alert Bohemians quickly spread to both sides.

Alexander looked behind him and the convoy was still a little further away.

Because I knew that Rome was approaching, in order to prevent accidents, the team was much slower than usual, and according to Alexander's order, the team had made appropriate defensive preparations.

In addition to Carlo, there was a team of Bohemia cavalry following Alexander on Mount Rocadipas. At this time, seeing the cavalry appearing from the north, the Bohemia immediately quickly climbed to the top of the mountain, while controlling the high ground, monitoring the confrontation between the two sides in the west, while the other part began to distance the southeast along the slope.

"French!"

Seeing the other party's badge under the blue shade, Carlo immediately became nervous.

Although he had already put on the armor that Alexander had exchanged for him from the Bohemians, the hunter still couldn't help but feel nervous when he saw the knight who was gradually approaching and whose armor was shining in the sun.

However, the other party seemed to have become alert because they discovered Bohemia's actions. While they were slowing down their advancement speed, they began to quickly change the marching queue. As the team behind accelerated and spread towards the two wings, the other party quickly formed a formation of two rows in front and back.

And as they gradually approached, Alexander narrowed his eyes slightly.

"That's not a Frenchman." After carefully scrutinizing the gradually approaching army, he shook his head slightly.

"They are holding the French flag, sir." Carlo quickly reminded.
Chapter completed!