In October 1496, an army walked out of the mountains from a small place called Agri in southern Italy.

At that time, no one would have thought that three years later, this army would become a powerful army that was famous in Europe.

From the day Agri came out, he kept fighting, constantly dealing with different enemies, constantly fighting in different places, and victories again and again made the Europeans an ever-winning army, and made all the soldiers in this army think they are invincible.

But a place called Taro Valley completely broke their invincible dream.

Although they faced the French army, which was known as the most powerful on the European continent, and although they faced several times the enemies they were facing, they could even use them to give the enemy a heavy blow and huge casualties that were far greater than themselves, failure was a reality that could not be avoided.

To this failure, the Montina army responded very fiercely, and it could even be said to be shocked. From officers to soldiers, from Balkans to hunting guards, the emotions of the entire army seemed to have suddenly fallen into a low tide. Everyone saw that the expression on the faces of others was actually the same as themselves, confused, confused and incredible.

The Montina army, which had strong firepower and advanced tactics that could almost despise all enemies, was defeated by the French, which made many soldiers even shake their combat effectiveness.

"I actually lost to the French, that's what your soldiers said," said Rusha, sitting opposite Alexander, eating the aromatic trout trout, funny. "You should go and listen to their tone at that time. It seems like how ridiculous it was to lose to the French."

Alexander took the wine glass and drank a sip of the wine. The unique sweet wine made him nodded slightly. Although this distilled wine made of sugar tasted less good than the rum I remembered, if you think about these current brewing techniques, Alexander didn't care so much.

The key is that this wine is much cheaper than wine, and even the worst-quality wines are much more expensive than this rum. When Alexander came, at least before the famous plantation was promoted in the New World, Crete's sugarcane garden was his treasure house.

"It's a bit ridiculous," Alexander's answer made Ruosha raise her eyebrows gently. "I mean, it's only now that I've won the first real defeat."

Ruosha was surprised to say something, and then she couldn't help but burst into laughter: "Do you still think you should defeat it earlier?"

"I think that with their arrogance, they should have learned some lessons before this," said Alexander, picking up the report sent by Gompatti. "Look at this, they did not change any tactics at all after defeating the French for the first time, but they still waited for the enemy with the town of Taro Valley. Their purpose was to defeat the French again in the same way, but this time they suffered a loss, because the French not only increased their troops, but also understood how to deal with them. It is not a simple failure, but a challenge to all the tactics used by the Montina army so far."

Ruosha thought about it and nodded slowly. She couldn't help but admit that Alexander said it was right, which even reminded her of her experience in the Balkans.

"You're right. If I had met the Ottomans in Slobozia, I might not have been so smart. I must admit that the most powerful firearm may not have played the best role."

Ruosha's words made Alexander quite pleased. He actually had the same concern for Ruosha, worried that she would not be able to accept the setbacks of failure because of her indulgence and mastery of powerful weapons. However, it seems that his sister is indeed a truly smart girl now.

"But aren't you worried? The French seem to be preparing to attack Genoa." Ruosha asked with some slightest "that may put you in a difficult choice."

Looking at Ruosha's seemingly naughty expression, Alexander couldn't help but smile bitterly. He knew what Ruosha was hinting at, and now he was indeed facing a somewhat subtle choice.

Even at this time, Alexander was not completely on one side but was still free. He besieged the French army occupying Naples and expelled the French army stationed in Pisa. His army also caused great casualties to the French in the town of Taro Valley, but this did not mean that he was the enemy of Louis XII.

On the contrary, at this time, he showed enough strength and determination to wrestle with the Dharma King, which in many people think is just to increase the bargaining chips in order to make the following conditions.

Even Ruosha thinks so.

This was nothing, and all wars were like this. It was precisely because of this that the British-French War had been fought for more than 100 years, while the Italian War would be fought for 70 years.

But for Alexander, there is a small problem now, that is, he needs to choose between Alexander VI and Old Rovery, who should stand on the side.

Alexander VI was all about hooking up with the French, and both Rovery, both out of his personal needs and his responsibilities to Genoa, had already made him stand almost openly on the opposite side of the French.

This posed a big problem for Alexander. After all, as Barenti's husband, he seemed to be closer to Old Rover, but as the father of Lucrezia's daughter, he had an extraordinary relationship with the Pope.

What is more important to Alexander is that the Ladia gold coins, which are an important pillar of his trade alliance, were issued through the Vatican, which prevented him from breaking with Alexander VI.

"This is indeed a troublesome thing, but fortunately this failure helped me." Alexander smiled at Ruosha. "I didn't even think it would be the result myself."

Ruosha showed a thoughtful look. She held her cheek slightly and tilted her head, as if she was thinking about the meaning of Alexander's words. Her focused expression made Alexander, who was a little fascinated, quickly lowered her head and drank a sip of wine.

"Don't think about it, I'm going to remove the siege of the palace." Alexander used drinking to conceal his disobedience. Speaking of which, although this failure had given many Montina's army a severe lesson, it also reminded Alexander that the enemies he faced were definitely not as simple as he thought.

"You want to let that Shaerlun go?" Ruosha asked with some surprise.

"To be precise, it's a deal with Louis," Alexander raised his hands and made a helpless gesture. "I can sign an agreement with the French to remain neutral, with the condition that I can lift the siege of Charlen, and the French must ensure that they do not cross the Lombardy region."

Ruosha's beautiful big eyes narrowed slightly, which made Alexander quickly lower his head and ate the chopped large pieces of fish sauce, but the taste of the fish sauce in his mouth did not feel anything.

"It's not good for you to do this. It will annoy your wife's father." Ruosha's eyes slowly widened, and then she said as if nothing had happened.

"Balendi will explain to me that Montina's interests are the most important thing now." Alexander said first, and then involuntarily explained, "Fiancée, she is still my fiancée."

"It's not good for you to do this. You will annoy your lover's father." Ruosha still said in an innocent tone.

"Lucrezia needs to consider Estrece's interests, after all, she is her mother," then Alexander continued, "She is indeed just a lover, and I even feel a little guilty about this."

Ruosha slowly raised the wine glass with an expressionless face, looked at Alexander's face, and drank the rum in the glass in one mouthful.

Life was not easy for Charlun, the commander of the French occupation forces in Naples.

As the former commander of the Roman occupation army, Charlon had sufficient rich experience in rule over the occupied areas. It was precisely because of this that when choosing the candidate for the commander in Naples, Louis XII did not choose the Earl of Proswan who was determined to win this position, nor did he choose other nobles who believed that they could be competent for this position, but chose Charlon.

This is indeed an honor, because it not only allows the exercise of great power like a king in the occupied land, but also means that those who hold this position in the future are likely to become the chief minister of the French court.

There is no palace minister in the French court, which means that almost every important minister has the opportunity to become or replace others as the chief minister in front of the king.

As an important figure who served as commander of the occupied area twice, Shahrun was obviously a strong competitive candidate for the Chief Minister.

However, now Sharlun is trapped in the palace of Naples. With the high-walled castle and sufficient grain storage in the palace, Sharlun is still somewhat confident that he will persist until the reinforcements arrive, but he really cannot let go of his current situation.

Sharlun did not complain about Alexander's nearly sneak attack on him. After all, all the agreements between the two sides were more of a secret transaction in private, and these things could not even be taken to the sun. Otherwise, the French might have to fight against Aragon, so Sharlun had nothing to blame the Naples for the attack of the Naples.

But this does not mean that Charlon will forgive, or understand Alexander.

During the period of siege, he was imagining why Alexander suddenly launched an attack on the French army until he heard that the coalition of Gonzalo and the Venetians landed in the southwest of Crete.

Charon didn't know what kind of deal there was between Alexander and Gonzalo, but he quickly noticed the changes.

Sharlun felt that he had discovered something, but he was unable to determine for a moment. Being surrounded in the castle made him unable to understand what was going on outside, until one day Alexander sent his marching captain as an envoy.

Shahrun was very cold to Ofulei's visit. After listening to Ofulei's intention to get a truce, Shahrun was a little surprised at first, and then he suddenly felt something.

"Tell me the captain, your count is in trouble," although Charon asked casually, but his body wrapped in the black armor was already tense. Although he did not get Ofulei's answer, he continued quickly, "If I was not wrong, your count's situation should not be very good now, otherwise he would not have offered a truce."

Ofulei looked at Charlen quietly. He remembered that before he came, the Count had said that the Frenchman could probably guess what had happened, and the Count was not against telling him what had happened, but Ofulei didn't want to tell the truth to Charlen so easily.

"My Earl hopes that you can hand over the palace peacefully. After all, this palace is of great significance to the Naples royal family. In order to satisfy His Majesty, the Earl believes that the ceasefire is the best result for both sides."

"Is that true," Charlem looked at Ofulei. Or, as I said, what deal your count needs to use me to make with the king, tell me what it is, and know that if my deal succeeds, I have to leave Naples and maybe meet on the battlefield in the future, but everything here is over. Why don't you tell me if that is the case?"

Ofulei pondered for a moment, then nodded slowly: "Sir, this may be good news for you, the Count needs to exchange you and your army for King Louis's recognition of him neutrality."

Charon's breath suddenly became a little rapid. He looked at Ofulei with attention. Although he knew that it was unlikely that he would get much useful information from the Montina, he had already vaguely guessed some possibility.

"Captain, maybe you can tell me more things, such as whether the French army is advancing towards Rome." Charleon looked at Ofulei, and he felt that he had discovered the truth, which made him very excited.

Ofulei ultimately did not tell Schallun what happened in northern Italy, but he brought Alexander back to Charlun's reply that he agreed to the truce.

After listening to Ofulei's report, Alexander said to Ruosha: "The failure of Taro Valley town was unfortunate and lucky for the Montina army. Unfortunately because we did suffer a lot of casualties, and luck because we lost very early, so that at least we can know more about how to face adversity before encountering greater setbacks."

"Similarly, this failure also created a reason for me to put myself out of the matter," Alexander looked at Normezi, who was once again given a major mission and said to Ruosha next to him, "Do you know what I hate the most about the French?"

"What is it?" Ruosha asked curiously.

"I hate their stupidity that likes to swing from one extreme to another," Alexander stared at the back that slowly disappeared "and this time I'm going to make them pay for this stupidity."

At the end of November 1499, Nolmezi, who was ordered to Count Montina, appeared again in the barracks of King Louis XII of France, just as when Louis happened to defeat the Milan army, but this time he saw the French army attacking Genoa.

What surprised Louis XII was that while Alexander offered to exchange his freedom of the besieged Charon tribe for neutrality, he also proposed a condition that surprised Louis XIII.
Chapter completed!