Le Havre, a city on the Atlantic coast of France.

This is a place located on the east coast of the Strait of Lamanche. Not long ago, many people didn't know about the existence of this coastal town. However, since the past two years, it has not only become lively, but also because a rich man is willing to spend a lot of money on this bay that is curved inward like a hook, it is gradually becoming the most promising harbor city on the west coast of France.

Like the famous city of Caen, Le Havre was across the sea from Britain across the sea, so in ancient times it was one of the important coastal fortresses for the French to resist British invasion. Here you can see a long series of beacon towers built along the coastline. During the Hundred Years' War, the French once lit bonfires on these beacon towers to warn the British to invade. Now, although most of these beacon towers have gradually been abandoned, they are still somewhat preserved.

Two soldiers wearing loose half-armored armor walked out of the beacon tower yawning. They were not wearing helmets, and their weapons were simply placed in the house and not taken out. After all, the war with the British had been too long. Since the British were driven out of France 43 years ago, France's land has never encountered threats from the other side.

So this day was no different from the previous ones for these soldiers stationed at the beacon tower.

After stretching again, a French soldier rubbed his slightly swelling forehead and looked at the distance in the sea.

Then he was suddenly stunned.

A large ship was slowly exposed from behind a promontory that broke into the sea in front. The half-fall sails and the front spinnersai that were swelled by the sea breeze made the boat look extremely huge. As the boat gradually showed its whole body from behind the promontory, it was clear that the porthole covers on the upper and lower layers of the ship's side were completely open. Then the soldier was frightened to see that a cannon was pushed out from the wide open portholes in sequence, and the pitch-black muzzles were facing their direction!

"Enemy~"

The soldier shouted in horror. As soon as he finished speaking, accompanied by a roar of muffled thunder coming from the sea, a whistling sound swarmed towards the beacon tower!

"Bang bang bang"

A huge continuous explosion sounded on the coast in an instant, and the explosion of smoke columns rose into the air with the splash of soil. The soldier even felt the heat that made his scalp tingle when a shell passed over his head. Then he felt that the ground under his feet kept shaking, and even had the illusion that this steep slope could be blown into pieces at any time and slide down the coast.

The French shouted in fear that in the huge danger of bomb craters blowing around or deep grooves plowed out by terrible iron balls, he turned around and ran away desperately, completely ignoring his companions who could no longer see the shadow.

The soldier kept running towards the high place until he finally couldn't run and fell to the ground. At this time, the terrible shelling finally stopped.

The Frenchman's dazed up and looked down. When he saw the coast that was instantly blown up, the beacon tower in front of him, and the companion who was rolling and crawling like him was not far away.

After a long time of blowing, nothing was blown up?

The soldier stared blankly at the sea boat that was still slightly drifting out of gunpowder, and his mind was a little unstoppable for a moment.

The boat seemed to have no intention of continuing to fire. They began to turn slowly and swim towards the deep sea area.

Looking at the flags flying on its high-rise tail boat tower, the French soldier suddenly woke up from a dream and screamed: "British! The British are calling! Go and report!"

In the city of Le Havre, a businessman was counting the gold coins in his wallet with a smile. In the past two years, Le Havre has been in great prosperity. I heard that this is entirely because the Portuguese discovered a new route to the East. Many ships transporting pepper from the East will stop at the port of Portugal for a while, and then several ships will go north along the coast. They will unload goods in Le Havre. Gradually, Le Havre has become the largest pepper distribution center in France.

This soon made the city of Le Havre rich, and the people in the city could clearly feel that life was getting better and better. The arrogant Parisian merchants are now starting to talk to the locals on the streets politely, hoping to find some ways to buy more peppers.

This made Le Havre very proud. They felt that as long as they had a good relationship with the Portuguese, Le Havre could continue to flourish, so Le Havre can also be said to be the strongest call for troops to intervene in the Iberian Peninsula.

The merchant was lying around the wallet and was about to put it into his pocket. A sudden sound of horse hooves suddenly rushed from the opposite side. Before he could look up, a figure had passed by him. The rapid speed caused the man to stagger. The wallet in his hand fell to the ground, and the Ladia gold coins inside immediately rolled and fell all over the ground.

The merchant shouted and immediately squatted down to pick up the gold coins in a hurry, and cursed constantly. When he and a guy who wanted to secretly pick up a gold coins and slip away, the sudden sound of bells in the distance made them stop, and at the same time looked towards the Le Havre Town Hall in the distance.

Soon, news that the British attacked the beacon towers on the coast near Le Havre spread throughout the city.

In an instant, Le Havre was boiling.

Although half a century has passed since the Hundred Years' War, the 116-year turmoil has become a pain and shadow that the French cannot erase. Now the British have taken advantage of the French king's expedition to a foreign country to bombard the French coast, which immediately aroused a strong reaction in Le Havre.

What made the Le Havres more worried was whether the British would invade in the next place. After all, Le Havre and the Portsmouth Port in Britain were only separated by a not-very wide strait. If the British really planned to invade France, the city of Le Havre would have fallen before reinforcements from other places arrived.

These speculations caused panic among the whole city. The municipality of Le Havre sent people to report to Paris immediately, and ordered the city's defense to be strengthened, and the port should be blocked when necessary, ready to deal with the British invasion at any time.

For a moment, there was a tense atmosphere in Le Havre.

Just when the whole city was uneasy, another accident caused Le Havre to panic.

Just the day after the shelling incident, a man hurried into Le Havre City. The man claimed to be the agent of Groggenin, the big businessman who invested heavily in Le Havre. After issuing a letter of authorization signed by Groggenin himself and a ring with his family badge, the man announced that Groggenin would withdraw all investments in Le Havre. At the same time, he specifically proposed to exchange all Ladia gold coins for Florin when paying the dividends he deserved.

The news surprised the officials of Le Havre City Hall. After saying all the good things and bribed the agent, these officials heard an inside story that surprised them from this person.

It is said that in Italy, King Louis XII of France had formed an alliance with the Pope, and they had to face an anti-French alliance composed of a total of 7 countries and city-states. The Pope's actions have obviously angered the free trade alliance dominated by Roman Thesia and Naples. Under the call of the Regent Queen of Naples, the trade alliance has publicly announced that it would completely block any trade exchanges with the Vatican and France. Even Sicily, which has always been in harmony with Naples due to historical reasons, has agreed to sign the trade blockade, which is known as the largest trade blockade in European history.

"My employer is the main member of the trade alliance. Believe me, immediately replace all the Ladia in your hands with Florin. You should know that from the Netherlands to Venice, everyone will refuse to do business with the French and the Vatican. In addition, because Ladia was issued by the Holy See, but you think that a blocked Holy See has much strength to ensure the value of Ladia. What's more, in order to establish an army for his son, Alexander VI used the Holy See's vault, and now the British are involved. It seems that the situation is really bad."

The drunk businessman finished nagging to the official Le Havre who was accompanying him, and then he started to compete with a piece of smoked fish in front of him, not paying attention to the ugly expression on the faces of the officials around him.

This person's words soon reached the town hall. The officials who thought it was an opportunity when Groggenin invested in the port of Le Havre began to feel uneasy. They knew that if it were not true, Groggenin would not have been able to lose a large amount of money and recover the capital. What's more, with Ladia's current status, he deliberately made people to completely exchange it for Florin. All this can only show one thing. The Holy See, which issued Ladia's gold coins, may have really encountered big trouble this time!

These officials couldn't help but get nervous. They began to instruct people to exchange the Ladia gold coins in their hands for Florin. Once the officials started doing this, the news would immediately leak out.

First, there were merchants, then wealthy families, and later, hawkers who didn't even earn a few Ladia gold coins a year also became busy.

Florin in Le Havre suddenly became in short supply. When people found that there were fewer and fewer Florin on the market, an inevitable thing finally happened!

Ladia gold coins begin to depreciate!

Even though it has the same quality and weight, in order to get out of hand as soon as possible, some people began to change Ladia to Florin as soon as possible in a 1.5:1 way. Once this hole was opened, an uncontrollable storm spread rapidly from Le Havre to other parts of France!

In late May, the hot weather was gradually beginning to get hot with the monsoon blowing from the Mediterranean Sea. On the north bank of the Arno River, a group of French soldiers were taking off their clothes and taking a bath in the river.

After capturing Pesha, Louis XII did not continue to march, but had to stop moving forward.

The troops of Venice and Ferrara are now advancing towards the French from the northeast, and according to the latest information, the Austrians have sent troops from Austria again, and their direction is obviously Milan.

This made Louis XII suddenly have some bad premonition.

He was worried that if he continued to go deeper, he might be cut off from retreat. If that was the case, unless he could destroy all enemies before the Austrians arrived, the best choice now is not to be too far away from Genoa, after all, Genoa is still in his hands now.

At this time, for Louis XII, Caesar's importance was reflected.

If Caesar could advance with him and then meet in the center of Romagna, then with their troops and areas under their control, it would be enough to fight against any enemy, and perhaps even take the opportunity to force the Romanesian army, which had always been avoided, to accept the decisive battle, and thus completely defeat the slippery enemy once and for all.

Louis XII has now known that Kombre was not in Romanesia, which made him feel a little relieved. Although there were indeed some capable generals under Kombre, Louis XII believed that a coalition without joint command was actually easier to deal with.

As for the Naples army led by Ruosha himself, Louis XII did not take her heart. After all, the Naples army defending Pisa now had to hide in the city because of previous mistakes and could not take action. Ruosha herself was said to have only less than 3,000 people. Louis XII believed that Caesar, who seemed to be confident after he had already rested, could deal with it.

So he decided to temporarily let the army stay on the north bank of the Arno River, and at the same time wrote to Caesar again, telling him, "It's time to prove your courage to everyone again."

Caesar's answer to Louis XII's letter was that he decided to accept Louis XII's advice, first decide to defeat the Naples army, and then immediately go north and meet with Louis XII in the hinterland of Romagna.

Nearly half a month of resting and resting gave Caesar another hope. Although the unexpected move of the Naples army to transport food supplies in time by sea surprised him, seeing that not only has the previous number restored, but the performance of the army is also very different from that of the Popes, Caesar felt that it was time to see the truth with the Naples again.

On May 26, the Popes began to move outside the city of Rome.

What surprised Caesar was that the Naples gave up their camps on Mount Rocadipas and set up their camps closer to the coast. Caesar knew that this should be to facilitate the access to supplies from the sea, which made Caesar quite envious of the Naples' powerful sea transportation.

Ruosha has been paying close attention to the actions of the Pope Army. In fact, she is clear about every move of the Pope Army. Sometimes Caesar herself doesn't know what happened in the army, but the information has been sent to Ruosha.

So when the Popes built their field camp in the town of Marno, 6 Far miles away from Rome, Ruosha understood Caesar's intentions after only a little thought.

"Caesar has learned to be smart this time," Ruosha was a little surprised. She looked at the generals in front of her and made a helpless gesture. "He seemed to want to force us to the beach little by little."

"Your Majesty, we are too close to the coast, which may leave us without a chance of activity," said one general worriedly. "Maybe we should retreat south right now, at least not to face the coast."

"Then, Caesar will keep forcing us to retreat like this, and then he may quickly move north after forcing us. You must know that the situation in Romagna is not optimistic now, and Louis may attack Florence at any time. If that happens, the Romanesian army must send troops to fight the French before the reinforcements arrive."

"But your majesty, now the French can do this, so it may be too late even if we rush there."

Another officer said with some concern that he did not understand why the originally wise queen would be so stubborn when it came to the Duke of Rometheia, even if she was putting herself in danger. Although it is recognized that the relationship between the queen and the sister is good, when it is related to the fate of the country, this impulsive behavior of emotional action is very worrying.

"No, Louis will not attack at this time," Ruosha said in a questioning tone. "Without Caesar meeting from the south, Louis XII will not risk going deep into Romagna easily, because if he cannot quickly conquer Florence, he will be in danger of falling into the quagmire of the Principality of Romethesia, unless Caesar opened a path for him from the south, so even if his offensive was frustrated, he could continue to go south and even occupy Rome again."

"But your Majesty is just your speculation after all. If the French launch an attack in advance..."

"No, Louis will definitely wait for Caesar to set up a passage for him from the south," Ruosha's voice rose. She glanced at the generals and suddenly smiled at them. "Because this is what my brother said."

Hearing the Queen's words, the Florentine officers couldn't help but look at each other in shock.

On May 27, early in the morning, the weather was very good, and the storm from the sea smelled a little fishy and salty. The Naples army entering the position was a little unstable and prepared for the pre-war preparations.

This time, the First Grenadier Company was arranged to the center of the position, where there was a vineyard, and a low stone wall of not too high extends from northwest to southeast along the undulating terrain.

The end of the low wall to the right is defended by a taranto sword and shield soldier of about 400 men, commanded by Elliotto, the son of Earl of Hosen, and on the left is guarded by the spear guard of Cosenza.

The vineyard is still green now, and a few grenades who picked out hard grape beads and stuffed them into their mouths were immediately stimulated by the sour smell and grinned.

"That Caesar is not giving up," a soldier spitted out the grapes in his mouth, and carefully checked the flint in the musket. After confirming that it was indeed stuck, he said to his companion next to him, "Betting that he will definitely not be able to escape this time, how about it?"

"I want to bet with you, but I think so myself," the companion picked up his helmet, and then asked a loud voice to an officer standing on the wall not far away looking into the distance, "Did you see anything, captain?"

The officer did not answer, but kept staring at the distance. After a while, he suddenly grabbed the whistle hanging on his chest and blew a sharp and sharp sound with all his strength. Then he jumped off the wall and shouted loudly: "Come here, the Pope is here!"

On May 27, the pope army of about 3,700 reorganized by Caesar and launched an attack on the Naples army again.

It was also on the same day that news about Ladia's gold coins being run wildly finally reached Rome.
Chapter completed!