In Europe in the last month of 1499, there was no big difference from other times in the past.

The cold and wet winds, whether the biting winds blow from Siberia, which is now rarely visited, to the eastern coast of the Atlantic Ocean, or from the snowy Scandinavia Peninsula to the warm Mediterranean coast. In short, at this time, whether it is war-torn Italy or other places where it is lucky to be peaceful, there are still chaos everywhere.

Although it was the end of the century, in the eyes of most people in this world, 1499 is no different from anything in the past. People believe that life will continue like this, and they also believe that the next hundred years, 200 years, and even longer will continue to live like the long thousands of years in the past.

But Alexander knew that this was not the case.

There will be countless examples of what the sixteenth century looks like, but all these examples only illustrate one thing. The 16th century was an era of change, an era that completely ended the previous darkness of a thousand years.

Who will appear in this era?

Martin Luther, who split the entire Western church world, or Copernicus, who completely subverted humanity's understanding of heaven and earth for thousands of years, will also appear, Galileo, who turned his attention to the distant starry sky, and brought scenes of tragedy and comedy onto the stage with the spirit of humanism, making countless audiences obsessed with the art created for it, and turned Shakespeare into obsession with the art created by them.

These people either raise up society's doubts about religious rule that has been deeply rooted for thousands of years, or openly challenge the ancient principles that have been completely regarded as natural, or use completely trembling words to criticize those authority that has long been recognized and dared not be evaluated by history.

The sixteenth century is destined to be an era that will completely change too much past and create too many futures. It is this era that allows mankind to slowly wake up from the long-term ignorance of the past and cast fearful but curious eyes towards the future that reveals a slight dawn.

At the same time, the 16th century was also an era of real prey on the weak. New World and New World. Behind these wonderful words are barbaric occupation and bloody massacre. The terrible and cruel darkness of the Indians ruthlessly killed on that land.

Alexander was familiar with these. He knew a lot of things that would happen in this era next. At his age, he believed that as long as he was not so unlucky, he might be able to witness too many moments destined to shine in history, and even some of them.

In early December, the Austrians and the French army fought a large battle north of Alexandria. Both sides were 33,000 French troops commanded by Count Langserge and about 32,000 Austrian Turin Legion headed by Austrian Palace Minister Kotschach.

This is a classic battle where the concentration of troops has formed a local advantage. Although even if the troops are concentrated, both sides have not formed any real advantage. However, in the case where the French were originally facing a three-way encirclement and the total enemy's total force once reached 55,000, Louis XII was actually a perfect military commander.

After quickly defeating Montina's army with overwhelming strength, Louis XII put pressure on Genoa and quickly mobilized the army to regroup. Then, while Emperor Maximian had not yet completely awakened from his missed opportunity, he led more than 30,000 French troops to attack the Kotschach tribe, who had not had time to meet with the emperor.

Louis XII chose Kotschach, whose troops were almost comparable to his, rather than Maximian, who had obvious weak forces and had only about 18,000 men because of his concerns about Montina's army.

The defeated Montina army chose to retreat east instead of retreating into Genoa, which made the King of Dharma breathe a sigh of relief, otherwise it would obviously affect his future capture of Genoa, and the Montina people would make this choice. Louis XII believed that this might be related to the intrigue between those in Rome.

However, the Montina army retreating eastward did not withdraw from the Lombardy area, and the distance between them and Maximian was not far, which made Louis XII very worried that if he fought with the emperor, it would likely attract two sides of the Montina people.

Louis XII was deeply impressed by the performance of Montina's army. Whether it was the skillful use of firearms or the casualties caused to his army, these made the King realize that this was a difficult opponent. What impressed the king the most was that even if they retreated, they could still maintain a surprising organization that did not completely collapse. This made Louis XII not doubt that the Montina people would likely regroup in a very short time. If such an army suddenly appeared on his back when he fought with Maximian, Louis XII felt that it would be difficult for him to guess what would happen.

Therefore, although the Austrian army of the Turin Legion was strong, the Dharma King still chose this relatively "weaker" opponent.

This battle didn't last long, or it should have been a long battle for both sides, but it was interrupted by an accident that no one expected.

On December 6, just the third day after the battle began, when he was already moving towards Alexandria slowly, the French army immediately took the initiative to attack the Turin army. Then Maximian, who was eager to order the speed of the march to speed up, reacted. A French army that emerged from somewhere suddenly landed at the Point of Port Fino near Genoa, and then the French army, which was like a sky-falling place, quickly approached Genoa.

In the face of such unexpected accidents, the Genoese were completely panicked. Although there were such a firm voice as the Dorian family, the Genoese parliament, under the control and manipulation of Governor Vicolé Cargino, still passed the decision to surrender to the French.

In the early morning of December 7, Genoa's Governor Vicolé Cargino led the Genoa parliament representatives to leave the city to ask for surrender to the French.

For the third time, Charlun became the occupant of a famous Italian city.

Faced with such a result, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximian had to admit that his military operations in Northern Italy had actually failed completely.

The French army occupied Genoa with 7,000 people. This army was originally at a disadvantage compared to the emperor, but as Louis XII, who quickly stopped attacking, withdrew from Alexandria and then occupied Taro Valley for the second time, the total strength of the French army reached nearly 40,000. Although this was still at a disadvantage compared to the 50,000 troops of the Austrian army, Genoa's surrender really hit Maximian's spirit.

At the same time, Maximian knew very well that with the fall of Genoa, the French would no longer have to send reinforcements to Italy by long road trips, but would just load the troops from those French ports on board, and then it would take only two or three days to send a large number of troops to Italy's land.

On the contrary, the Austrian army has been fighting continuously for more than half a year from Swabian in Switzerland to Italy. Thoughts and war-weariness are spreading throughout the army, and even some nobles have begun to show disgust for war.

Even the emperor himself began to get a little impatient with this war that would come to an end. Although he captured Milan, he lost Genoa. The colder weather made the army's actions more and more difficult. You should know that the originally planned route from Milan to Alexandria, the Austrian army actually walked halfway through a week.

However, these are not what the emperor is most worried about. What Maximian really worried about is the big financial support that had been negotiated through Cardinal Old Rovery, who seemed to have lost interest in him.

Maximian was actually very clear about what was going on. His slackness in the battle of Taro Valley obviously angered Alexander, so even if Montina's army did not meet with him after withdrawing from the battlefield, but instead adopted a strange attitude of maintaining neutrality, Maximian did not find it strange.

But the cut off his funds made the emperor feel a little uncomfortable.

Since the Fugers went bankrupt, Maximian was a little confused for a while. He was worried that he might gradually lose his influence on Italy because he had no money to support the army. When he thought that the French might annex those city-states, Maximian felt unable to sleep or eat. So when Old Rovere told him that Count Montina was willing to provide him with a sum of funds that would allow him to fight a war with the King of War, although he knew that this could not be a free lunch, Maximian immediately accepted it happily.

With this money, he was able to reorganize 10,000 reinforcements from Austria and Switzerland, thus gaining the confidence to start a film with the French.

However, in the battle of Taro Valley, the Austrian army's actions completely angered Montina. According to the letter description written by the envoy sent to Montina, when he heard about the failure of Taro Valley, the future Countess of Montina was so angry that he roared at the Austrian envoy, and his disobedient look "not like a noble lady with a noble status."

Then, the Montina army was immediately ordered to withdraw to La Spezia near the north of Romagna, a harbour. According to the report of the Austrian envoy to the emperor, "The Countess believed that if necessary, the Montina army should be directly on board the ship and return to Pisa, and this action did not require responsibility to anyone, and should not bear any moral condemnation, because 'we have been betrayed'."

The Montina people were no longer reliable, and what's worse was that their money seemed to be unreliable, which put the emperor in a dilemma. He was unwilling to give up Italy to the French, but he had no confidence to fight his opponent alone, which made the emperor regret his previous inconvenience, but all this was obviously useless.

The situation seems to be completely controlled by the French.

A crackling sound of raindrops slapping on the glass woke up sleeping Alexander. He moved, and then felt half of his body numb and sore that it was not his own.

Alexander turned his head carefully and looked at it. Seeing Ruosha who was lying in his arms and his head was tightly against his chest, he slowly lay back on the sofa.

The two of them were covered with blankets, and Alexander guessed that it should have been for Ruosha's maid to put on them.

As for the queen and the count, the "brother and sister" who had a deep relationship, in addition to Sher, the people around Ruosha have gradually discovered the relationship between them that is absolutely difficult to express to others.

In fact, this is a secret that cannot be kept at all, especially the personal maid and female officials around Ruosha, which is even more difficult to conceal.

An unintentional look and an intimate action that could not help but become natural. When all this gradually became natural, the strange feelings between the brother and sister were no longer a secret for the people around them.

At first, Ruosha's maid was indeed frightened by the scene she saw. She was very worried that the Count would kill her to silence her because it was really scary. However, after swearing to Ruosha to keep the secret and be loyal to the hostess, Ruosha finally chose to believe her.

"We can't keep this secret forever, and don't you think one day in the future we might need someone to help us with more trouble?"

Ruosha asked Alexander this at that time, and she didn't say anything about the trouble, but Alexander could guess it.

Feeling the sister next to him moving, Alexander slightly stood up to lie down more comfortably.

"It's raining?" Ruosha slowly opened her eyes. The ignorance she had just woken up made her look a little stupid, completely different from her usual intelligent but lively appearance.

Alexander smiled. He was the only man who could see Ruosha like this. As long as he thought about these things, he felt that many things were not that important.

Ruosha seemed to be a little awake. She lifted the blanket and sat up from the sofa, then rubbed her forehead that was a little painful and walked to the table, picked up the cup and poured herself a glass of water and drank it. Then she sat down weakly and let out a painful moan: "Oh, my headache."

Alexander looked at Ruosha after the hangover interestingly, then looked at the empty bottle thrown on the table and shook his head, "I told you that the rum has a lot of potential, you are asking for trouble."

Ruosha leaned back, and her head was tilted backwards to the top of the chair back. When she heard Alexander's words, she turned her head and looked over.

"I remember you said that Lucrezia is always crazy after drinking too much." Seeing Alexander seemingly a little stunned, Ruosha couldn't help but smile, and then she asked with a smile, "Do you know why I think Barenti is more suitable to be your wife?"

"Because she looks very much like you?" Alexander conceived. He was actually always wondering about this. Speaking of which, Ruosha seemed to have no good feelings for Lucrezia, let alone Sophia. Of course, Sophia couldn't get along with anyone, but compared to Ruosha did not oppose his marriage to Barenti from the beginning.

After thinking about it for a long time, Alexander could only attribute it to the fact that the two of them had many similarities.

"It's because she will never care about what kind of woman you have," Ruosha turned around and lay lazy on the back of the chair, placing her chin on the back of her hand, looking at Alexander without blinking. "Unless that woman endangers her status or causes disadvantage to the Kombray family, she will never be entangled in such trivial matters. She is a smart and rational woman."

Alexander wanted to say something, but in the end he remained silent. He knew that Ruosha was actually saying it well. Barenti was a calm and rational person. She always focused on the interests of the family. She used to be the Rovere family, but now it is the Kombre family. She regarded this as her responsibility, believing that God gave her even more wisdom than many men in order to make her shoulder this responsibility that many men could not bear.

Ruosha stood up, she pulled a blanket and draped it over her body, and then slowly walked towards the balcony.

This room has a large balcony. The marble pillars with more than a dozen small angels as railings make the entire balcony stand out. Outside the wall facing Santa Lucia Bay, below is a huge garden with large flowers and trees. Although it is winter, the warm and humid climate of the Mediterranean makes the garden still lush and green even in December.

This is Ruosha's living room in the Naples Palace. After the French retreated, they immediately accepted the pain of the palace. They discovered that the palace had been looted. Speaking of which, this is the second time this palace has encountered such a disaster in recent years. The last time was done by Charles VIII's army five years ago.

Although the messy palace was not suitable for moving in, the nobles were no longer in a hurry to ask Ruosha to enter the palace immediately, because this indicates that the orthodox royal family of Naples will return again.

Ruosha, who returned to the palace, refused to return to her original room when she got married, and did not move into the room where Frederick had lived as some people suggested, but chose this suite that was not very conspicuous in the palace as her living room.

For the reason for choosing this suite, it is said that it is clean and sunny. Whether it is for those close friends such as Sher or Ruosha's personal maid, the reason why the queen chose this place was because it was closer to the Earl's room in the palace.

It was raining outside, and the wet and cold rain fell on the marble handrail on the balcony. Ruosha felt a little cold and wrapped the blanket on her body again.

"It is said to be snowing in Genoa," Alexander looked at the dark sky. "This is rare, isn't it?"

Ruosha was stunned for a moment. She didn't quite understand what Alexander meant, which made her a little bit surprised that the rum she drank last night was really harmful, and she still had a little restless mind.

"Didn't you notice that the winters in recent years are particularly cold," Alexander asked, "this is not a good thing for many people."

Ruosha was stunned for a moment again, a trace of confusion flashed in her beautiful blue eyes, and then her eyes suddenly lit up.

"I remember what you proposed in the agreement with Louis that he had to end the war in Lombardy before 1500?" Ruosha asked vaguely excitedly.

"Yes, it's obvious that this agreement is a deadline for everyone." Alexander said, standing side by side with Ruosha on the balcony, allowing the cold rain splashing from the railings in front of him to fall on his body. "After the severe winter comes, both sides of the war will enter Dongying for winter, and a temporary truce will be announced at this time. This tradition has been on the battlefield for a long time, and may have been hundreds of years, but from now on, this tradition will be changed."

Alexander said, turning his head and asking Ruosha, "Didn't you ask me before that why you would rather let Barenti be my wife? Now I also want to ask you, do you know why I must let Louis defeat the emperor?"
Chapter completed!