Although the weather was a bit unexpectedly cold, when a heavy snow suddenly came unexpectedly late at night, many people in Rome were both surprised and excited.

The unique climate of the Mediterranean makes it not often snowing in Italy. Now, this suddenly becomes a white world, which makes many people feel inexplicably excited.

But this weather may not be a good thing for the French in Rome.

The assassination of the Archbishop of Frankfurt made the French very embarrassed. Almost everyone knew that the Archbishop was a supporter of the imperial emperor. When Charles invaded Italy, the Archbishop immediately lobbled everywhere. In his speech, the King of France was the demon who signed a secret contract with the devil to sell his soul, and Emperor Maximian was the angel sent by God to save the world.

The nearly open hostility of the Archbishop towards the French king made Charlie hate him to the core. There are even rumors that Charlie had no appetite when he was sick, so he had to recite the names of his enemies to him before eating, so that he would feel angry and eat a lot of food with a wide appetite. On this "appetizing list", the Archbishop of Frankfurt ranked among the top.

Because of this, everyone naturally believed that the Archbishop's assassination was done by the French, which completely angered the Roman priests. Even those church members with good relations with the French felt that this was too much. As for the priests who were originally hostile to the French, someone would just write a letter to Alexander VI, asking the Pope to punish the murderer and coerce the French to hand over the real murderer, otherwise they would refuse to give the French the right to listen to the sermon and receive the communion.

This threat is really serious, so Henry de Charleon just heard the news and thought he had heard the wrong meaning.

Once such a proposal is really agreed by Alexander VI, it is actually no different from the elimination of church.

There are indeed aristocrats who have been eliminated from the church in history. They often have to compromise with the church and admit their mistakes. Regardless of whether they can take the opportunity to retaliate later, these people have to bow their heads and give in when facing extortion when facing extortion.

These people were still some great nobles and even kings.

What if it were a group of ordinary Frenchmen?

Can an occupying army, which is already full of hostility everywhere in the enemy country, still being punished at this time, still persevere?

Perhaps the news that the Pope agreed to this request had just spread, there might be a riot in the entire Roman city!

De Charlem had to ask for an audience with the pope again, but the reply from the pope's secretary this time was because the pope felt that the time was not right, so he was spared this interview.

Charlun truly felt the crisis he was facing. While he was strictly ordering the French army to be on guard, he had to ask for a meeting with Caesar Bogia again. He knew that the Pope's son was the spokesperson for Alexander VI in the Holy See, and many things could be brought to the head of the Bogia family through him.

This time, Charlem was not disappointed. Caesar met him smoothly. However, what the French did not expect was that although Caesar did not ask for the assassination of the Archbishop, he put forward a condition that made Charlem equally difficult--except for money to purchase, the French were not allowed to collect any additional supplies from the Romans.

This condition caused Sharron to explode almost on the spot.

As an occupation force, the French's life in Rome was obviously not as comfortable as they were in Naples, and even in Florence.

Although Savonalola even called Charles the father of the French allies, the French were still not very ruthless in Florence. In addition to collecting a large number of artistic treasures, in order to ensure sufficient supply of the French army, the French still took very strict expropriation actions against Florence.

As for Naples, let alone the French, who regarded themselves as conquerors, plundered gold, silver, treasures and masterpieces of art, and even emptied the food reserved in the city of Naples before they left.

However, these actions could not be restrained in Rome, because although they occupied Rome, the city did not belong to any city-state that could be conquered by them, but to the jurisdiction of the Roman bishop, that is, to the Pope.

The French had to be cautious in this city, and this occupation was even more uncomfortable than fighting on the enemy's chassis.

They have to pay attention to whether they violate the interests of the church and violate the territories of the church. What's worse is that they are worried that if they really anger the church, it will attract resentment and anger from other countries.

This is also the reason why Charlie left the city immediately after getting the crown of Naples from Alexander VI, because he knew that if he stayed here, he would inevitably be restrained by all kinds of concerns, which would be very unfavorable to him.

But now, Sharlun is not only not better than his king, but even has an earlier situation.

When he came to the Vatican, watching people spitting at French flags and throwing rotten apples on both sides of the road, Charlem could not help but worry that the riot might happen before the next day.

This made him determined on the way that no matter what the price he paid, he would have to refuse the priests' suggestion of extortion of the French army.

But Caesar's conditions made Charlen also find it difficult to accept.

If you only rely on spending money to buy military rations, it means that in order to feed these thousands of French troops this winter, the amount of money that Sharron would have to feel chills even if he thought about it.

Charlun did not immediately answer Caesar's conditions, and he took the excuse that he had to consider leaving.

But just as he left the Vatican and crossed the bridge on the Tiber River, a messenger brought news that he couldn't help but hit him hard.

After entering the Lombardy area, the main French army was briefly repaired.

Relying on the wealthy conditions of the Lombardy region, the French army, which had already appeared in a difficult situation due to supply, was temporarily relieved. Perhaps because of good luck, a French army on the right wing of the Lombardy region received sufficient reliable news based on the influence of the Lovelle family in Genoa, and then attacked the vanguard troops of the coalition forces that were pursuing the closely-sustained coalition forces.

Although the scale of the battle was not large, and the coalition forces retreated immediately when they were not good, so the losses were not large, but it was an exciting victory for the French army, which had suffered consecutive losses since September.

The French used this to think that the Lombardy region was obviously its auspicious place, and because it was already close to Piedmont, the French generals also believed that the dilemma of shortage of supplies would be solved soon.

When I saw this part of the secret message sent by the messenger, although I knew what happened later, Charlem was still very happy because the French were leaving the country here, so even if I encountered setbacks again, it would not be really bad.

But when he saw the following description in the letter, his mood began to slide down to the bottom.

After being defeated by the French army's sudden counterattack, the coalition forces did not rush to retaliate, but quickly opened the distance with the French army, which made the French people feel that the coalition forces were afraid.

During this period, Gonzalo, who was commander of the coalition, began to send his army to harass the French army for a long time.

No matter where the French army went, the coalition forces would send people to follow them from afar. If the French army turned around and pursued them, they would immediately escape, but as long as the French army turned around and continued to advance, they would immediately take the opportunity to attack.

This move began to make the French who tried to quickly replenish supplies miserable. After October, the coalition forces seemed to feel confident that they had begun to take the initiative to attack the French. After a series of battles, the French had to be forced to stay away from the vicinity of Genoa, which could have provided them with many conveniences, and gradually retreated to the northwest.

Just a few days ago, Gonzalo finally seized a great opportunity and launched a fierce attack on the French army.

The battle started in a place called Paveto about one hundred Faris off the north bank of the Po River.

At the beginning of the battle, the French army had a larger number than the coalition forces, but after the battle, even if we just looked at the dead bodies on the battlefield, we knew that the French suffered a great loss.

What's worse is that Sforza, Duke of Milan, stabbed the French army 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 to the French army from Piedmont, Sforza's army set out from Milan and headed towards the southwest. At the same time, they kept mobilizing lords from all over the country along the way, and they were about to completely block the French army's retreat and wipe out nearly 40,000 French troops and the Lombardy plains!

Such a disadvantage finally completely hit the French generals who originally wanted to compete with the coalition forces. Only then did they realize that what they were facing was not whether they could defeat the enemy again, but whether they could cross the Alps again and return to their hometown.

At this time, the French generals were not allowed to face a difficult decision, whether to continue fighting with the coalition forces based on existing supplies, or to simply throw away all the bulky things that cannot be taken away, and quickly retreat while the Milanese had not completely cut off their retreat.

As for whether to retreat west of Piedmont first, waiting for an opportunity to move, or simply crossing mountains and ridges back to France, they have not yet thought about these things.

And even if you don’t hesitate to throw away these supplies and retreat immediately, you may not be right.

Because the artillery they carried was still very deterred from the coalition forces, and even relying on the collected food, they could still last for a while even if they were surrounded. However, if these things were thrown away and only brought dry food that could be eaten for a few days, once they could not successfully escape the fate of being surrounded in the next few days, it would mean that tens of thousands of French troops would face the desperate situation of being out of ammunition and food.

Sharlun didn't know what decision he would have made if he were the French generals, but he knew that the decision made by the French generals in the end was obviously the worst of this choice.

The French did not throw away the cannons, which was too important to them. They also needed to rely on these powerful guys to pose a threat to the coalition forces, but they still threw away some things.

They threw away large quantities of food to reduce the burden.

This decision is undoubtedly the worst of all choices.

Or they refused to defend themselves, with the French artillery and still sufficient supplies, enough to create a situation where the coalition forces could potentially negotiate due to concerns about heavy losses.

Or just throw away all unnecessary things and just run back west, even if you are naked and embarrassed, as long as you can escape back to France, there will always be a chance to come back to find a place to win face.

But the French chose such a path that is unreliable from all sides.

The result of this decision was that when the French were finally about to see the city of Piedmont, the Milanese who were questioned intercepted him.

The Sforza family is a mercenary. For the people of this family, even if they have already won the title of Duke of Milan, their fighting spirit is still beyond what other Italian nobles can compare.

Charlie was polite and reasonable to Milan before invading Italy. He proposed that he would never have any covetousness towards Milan. Moreover, he could also become a strong backing for the Sforza family, who was in conflict with Venice. This suggestion was immediately approved by Ludwig Sforza, Duke of Milan.

But once he led the army into the city, Charlie's attitude completely changed.

Charles not only declared Milan as a vassal city-state under his rule, but also declared that the Valois royal family had sufficient claim to the title of Duke of Mulan.

This means that perhaps one day in the future he or his descendants will have the right to wear the crown of the Duke of Milan on his head.

This is something that the Sforza family absolutely cannot tolerate.

So when it was confirmed that the coalition was indeed sure to defeat the French army, the Milanese, who had always been ambiguous, suddenly launched an attack on the French army. Moreover, in this pursuit that concerns whether the main force of the entire French army can escape back to France, the Milan army played a key role, blocking the French army's retreat to the west in one fell swoop!

A battle inevitably unfolded in the remote suburbs of Piedmont.

The French army had 33,000 people and the coalition forces had 29,000 people.

This is a battle where the troops are not very different, but neither morale nor military strength can be compared.

Faced with the coalition forces who pursued the victory, the French army became chaotic and confused due to the retreat, and the large number of soldiers in the army who were injured due to the previous battles became a burden to more people.

What's worse is that due to the rain and snow for several days, most of the gunpowder was either abandoned or wasted or used because of the lack of supplies. At this time, the cannons that originally thought could pose a threat to the coalition forces almost became a pile of useless drag waste.

Anyway, this is a terrible experience that no Frenchman who has participated in this battle wants to recall.

"We have lost many good friends and excellent knights, and now we have to retreat to a place not far from Piedmont, and we have no food anymore, so my friend, if I can, I hope you can help us and send us enough supplies, this is a plead for you by a French nobleman who is on the verge of annihilation, you are loyal to you..."

Seeing this letter of help that was still vocal even at the end, De Charleon had the urge to curse even though he was still focused on a gorgeous wording and passionate voice.
Chapter completed!