Tuscany in July is a very beautiful season. Although it is a little hot but not very poisonous, the sun holds up a huge umbrella that is everywhere on its head. This steaming and hot umbrella will be covered until the low in August, and then the weather will gradually cool. In September, the fields here will be dyed with a magnificent color by the golden ears of wheat. At that time, the whole of Tuscany will be a dazzling view.

And now, walking on this plain, you can see green fields.

Although the road to Montina has been simply repaired, it is still rugged and difficult to walk, which makes Alexander miss the straight and smooth roads, but he knows that he doesn't have the ability to build such a road, even if he has it, he won't do it, because it's a waste of resources.

Alexander could understand the need for the ancient Romans to build a huge network of transportation so that it would be easier to allow Roman legions to appear in those provinces that were ready to move at any time, but he also knew that the Romans would at most just do that. If they were asked to invest more financial and manpower to build those roads into the standard of Roman city, whoever made such suggestions would be regarded as a mental disorder and ridiculed.

Alexander needed a path that would allow his army to pass through and provide convenience for the gradually prosperous business exchanges. Although it seemed that it was not comfortable to walk on it now, he felt much more satisfied when looking at the large grass on the roadside that was taller than people.

Montina's army marched much faster than other armies, or at least in today's era, its army's marching speed was already at the top of the list in Europe, mainly from training methods that were almost forced and hypnotic to the soldiers.

Rhythmic music can make people resonate instinctively. Every time they take a step, they can't help but follow the result of the rhythm. They can ignore the troubles caused by fatigue to the body. Appropriately accelerating the beat speed can also accelerate the speed of the army without realizing it, and this acceleration can last for a long time.

The march further requires regular training. Alexander heard that the new recruits were cursing about the continuous marching of the castle after being taken to Montina, and then being driven to continue marching around the castle. He also heard that many people were even secretly discussing to find an opportunity to teach the veterans who were training them like crazy.

Those were old Agri soldiers selected by Ofurai to train recruits. Of course, these people were trusted and had rich combat experience. Each of them had participated in every battle Alexander experienced when he came out of Agri. Only such soldiers could make the recruits not dare to violate their orders even if they were indescribable to hate them.

Alexander was preparing to train these veterans well. Although some of them were actually less than 20 years old, they were called "uncle" in the team, and this title was almost replaced by the regular title in the team.

At this time, there was an "uncle" beside Alexander.

This is a bare man with hair on the left half of his head. He is not old and should be less than 30 years old. Because he was almost lifted off half of his scalp in the battle in Oral Town before, he looked ferocious. He is one of the most terrifying training officers in the minds of many recruits.

The recruits called him Uncle Danfu, but Alexander knew that this was not his name, but the sailor from Pisa did not want more people to know what his original name was.

"Can the army be faster?" Alexander asked.

"It should be faster," Uncle Danfu said an answer that would immediately curse when the recruits heard it. "When they were in Montina, they ran faster than this. Speaking of which, once a guy hung a few pieces of meat on them, and then drove a few hungry dogs to chase them."

Alexander's mouth moved and no response. He already knew a little about how these people trained the recruits. It would definitely not be a pleasant thing, but as long as there was nothing wrong with it, he didn't want to worry too much.

If you want to quickly train a group of farmers from the mountains to become qualified soldiers, how difficult or even cruel this process is, you can tell if you think about it.

Alexander would not naively believe that those disciplined armies were armed with so-called lofty ideals and beliefs, at least in this era or in a century or two later, the cruel training that was almost inhumane and promised to be rich in spoils after victory were always the only way to get a well-trained and obedient army.

"Then let the team ahead speed up," Alexander gave the order to the messenger on the other side, and then he turned to look at Uncle Danfu. "Have you thought about it?"

"Sir, do you want me to study?" Danfoe pushed his head and put on his helmet. Because of the scars on his head, his helmet always seemed to be tilted to the side, which made him look even more rude. "To be honest, I don't know if this is a good thing. You know, I can only ride boats and fight."

"It's not just you, all of you, I mean you 'uncles' have to learn. Of course, this is after the battle," Alexander looked at the front of the team. "I heard that in the future, the war will no longer rely on you to swing a heavier two-handed sword than others. You should see that the two-handed sword in front of the musket is no longer so useful."

"But sir, you have to admit that the two-handed sword is still very powerful. In Oral, you have seen me kill the head of a Milan Knight with one sword."

Speaking of his complacent things, Danfu used to reaching his hand into his helmet and touching his head with a bulge of scars. Only when he saw Alexander looking at him did he nod his head secretly.

"Okay, I listen to you all by myself, but I am a stupid person and can't learn the captain's ability."

"Even Ofulei just wanted to be a sculptor at the beginning," Alexander smiled slightly. He didn't know what the future of Ofulei would look like if he didn't follow him, maybe he would spend his whole life in Agri's farm, or as he said, he would become a good sculptor, but he knew that none of these should be what Ofulei wanted.

Ofulei has a natural rigor, which allows him to carry wooden boards and carbon pens with him to record all the passing places. His keen observation of the terrain always makes him involuntarily consider whether the environment he is in is favorable.

These habits made him a rare staff talent, and many battles also allowed him to gradually have the ability to stand alone.

The main reason is that Ofulei is still very young, which gives him more shaped futures.

If nothing unexpected happens, Ofulei will become Alexander's chief of staff in the future, and the veterans he selected will become grassroots non-commissioned officers who play an important role in Alexander's future army.

Alexander is not short of people who can stand alone, because his army has not reached that scale, but what he urgently needs now is the grassroots non-commissioned officers who can stabilize the bottom of the army for him. This is why he decided to prepare to let these "uncles" go to school after this unexpected conflict with the Genoese.

"If we encounter Genoese in the wild, how confident do you think we are?"

Alexander finally asked this question he was most concerned about.

Only people like Danfu can give real answers to how the soldiers train.

"The Genoa are very powerful. We have trained with them," Danfu's face slightly darkened. "Sir, I have to say that many of our soldiers have never seen blood. At least they can't compare with us."

Alexander nodded, knowing who Danfoe said ‘we’, which included veterans Agri, Bohemians, sailors recruited from Pisa, and himself.

"We need them Danfu," Alexander said to his men. "I also know that it is difficult for them to fight the Genoese, but now we have no choice. I believe Cargino will not miss this good opportunity, so he must be coming to us, and he will intercept us before we enter Montina."

"That's right," Dan Fu said softly. As an uncle, except for the dozens of subordinates he usually trained and guided him to take care of, he didn't care about how to fight or who he fought. Now Alexander's words still made him a little confused about what was going on on the battlefield, but he at least knew Alexander's intention to call him here.

"Please rest assured, sir, we will take care of those subordinates," Danfu curled his lips and inadvertently showed a cruel smile. "It's a pity that this is not on the boat, otherwise I have a better way to make them obedient."

Looking at Danfu's appearance, Alexander suddenly seemed to have a black turban, a big vest, a scimitar in his hand, and a black eye mask on his eyes. This made him start to wonder what Danfu did at sea before.

Even though the Montina army crossed the North Arno River accelerated its advancement, it still could not reach Montina immediately. This was because except for the Bohemians who could come and go like the wind, the entire team could not be so uniform, which naturally delayed the speed of the entire army.

More importantly, there are also five artillery and ammunition from Gompatti in the team.

This greatly restricted the marching speed of the entire team. When the sky was just dawn and the camp of Montina's army was still silent, a rapid sound of horse hooves broke through the tranquility of the dawn, hurriedly crossed the still dark plain, and ran towards the camp.

The guards heard the sound from afar, but they could only tell the direction and number of people coming from the sound of their hooves. They were a little nervous and tightly holding their weapons. Just as a musket soldier was ready to shoot desperately and report to the camp at the same time, a familiar whistle came from the opposite side.

"It's Bohemian, the scout sent out." Another sentry stopped his companion in time, and at the same time rubbed his eyes as much as possible so that he could see the blurry shadow that was already very close.

The Bohemians rushed past the guards almost without stopping, and with the sound of hooves, the camp immediately caused a commotion.

Alexander was dreaming when he was woken up by Busako. He dreamed that the currency issued in the name of the Vatican was rampant throughout Europe, but as more and more people were using his gold coins, they would find that something was changing.

Alexander laughed in his dream, and he told himself that he only knew how this happened, and that he only knew that it was a huge scam from the beginning.

It was at this moment that Alexander was awakened by Busacco. When he opened his eyes in a daze, he saw Busacco's seemingly strange eyes.

He didn't know that Busako misunderstood what good things he was doing in his dream, and the news brought by the Bohemian scout immediately attracted his attention...

Although he had expected it, when he heard that Cargino's army appeared less than 20 miles away from him, Alexander couldn't help but curse gently.

He knew that Cargino had made up his mind to intercept him halfway, and it was obvious that the Genoese were too impressed by the defense of Montina's army, which left him without even the idea of ​​a tentative attack on Montina Castle.

On the contrary, Cargino apparently believed that Alexander, who was eager to return to Montina, was his prey.

Defeating Alexander in the wild and then forcing him to give up Montina Castle is indeed the best solution at present.

Cargino was very fast, and at least the only way to block Alexander's destination from departure to occupation was completed in one day.

This made Alexander be wary. He knew that although this distance and speed were nothing to Montina's army, the Genoese could react so quickly, which shows that Cargino was indeed a different opponent.

Alexander never underestimated Cargino, especially after experiencing the Battle of Oral, Cargino's keen grasp of the fighter also left a deep impression on him. As for this person who spent money to win honors, perhaps this was a shameful act in the eyes of others, but Alexander felt that this person obviously had the flexibility and keenness that ordinary people rarely had.

"Not less than 20 Falis?"

Alexander thought for a while and took out a map from his bag. This was the Tuscany map drawn by Ofulei after asking the merchants passing by him after providing him with the terrain. Although the accuracy of such a map is questionable, it is at least rare at this time.

"It's here."

A Bohemian drew a circle in a place on the picture. Although the circle seemed a bit big, Alexander already knew about Cargino's location.

"This is indeed the road to Montina," Gompatti said to Alexander after a closer look. "This is the flattest place. If we don't pass here, we have to pass through the entire mountain area to the east, but if we do that, our losses will be too great."

Alexander shook his head slightly, knowing that the loss Gompatti mentioned was his artillery.

Alexander knew that the mountainous area was completely impossible to pass artillery, and even the Bohemian war horses were difficult to pass, and all the supplies carried by the team had to be abandoned.

But what is really important is not these, but that the team can turn to the west after crossing the mountain area. At this time, Cargino is likely to use the terrain to transfer positions and continue to intercept their way.

"This is probably the so-called advantage of inside combat."

Alexander thought to himself that he was not a military expert. In his impression, he was not very familiar with this pure military skill except for some vague concepts.

However, although he was not familiar with it, he also knew that Cargino had the advantage of the terrain, which forced him to either run around and take a detour, but even so, he could still be intercepted again, or he would accept a battle with Cargino on this plain.

It is obvious that Cargino chose this place as the battlefield to fight him with it carefully thought out.

Montina is about one day away, which ensures that he will not encounter any attacks from behind when he launches an attack on Alexander.

Cargino may even plan to wait until he defeated Alexander's army, and he still has time to turn back to face Montina reinforcements who might have come to pick him up.

In this way, he could defeat the enemy one by one while avoiding the attack and defense battles that Montina's army was best at.

"Fight inside." Alexander muttered to himself again.

"Sir, we may be able to move into the defense on the spot," Gompatti suggested, "Ofulei will definitely come to rescue us, and then we can attack on both sides."

"Cargino also knows that Ofulei will come to support us. What do you think would be the result if we defended on the spot?"

"Then he will have a chance to defeat Ofulei first, and then turn to deal with us." Gompatti sighed helplessly. He knew that his suggestion would obviously not be adopted, which made him a little annoyed. "This guy is really hard to deal with."

"Cargino is a real soldier," Alexander also sighed slightly. This was the most difficult opponent he had ever encountered so far. This man even gave him the illusion that he seemed not to be fighting an opponent of this era. "Gonpati, our only hope now is that your artillery is really as useful as you said, and the speed unique to our Montina army."

Alexander's words made the officers around him look excited, knowing that Alexander's speed was not meant by themselves, but by the army of Ofulei, far away in Montina.

When Cargino chose the battlefield, the itinerary he considered was based on the marching speed of his Genoese, and what was the marching speed of the Montina army?

Alexander looked at the map again, and a plain from the mountain to his army attracted his attention.

"It's here," Alexander tapped his finger on the map. "If I were Cargino, I would have chosen the battlefield here."

Looking at the place and recalling it a little, Gompatti frowned slightly. At this time, he finally understood why Alexander told him that his artillery was hope for victory.

This is a very open plain, and it can be said to be a good place born as a battlefield.

But for the Montina army, this may be a paradise born in the fire, or a hell that sinks into it.
Chapter completed!