Machiavelli hurried out of the town hall, carefully looking around, and seeing that no one was paying attention, he immediately passed through the crowded National Square, and then into a nondescript house in the corner of the square.

Before entering, a gurgling sound came from the house, and as a small door opened, it became clearer.

Machiavelli walked into the house, and surprisingly this house was not very tall from the outside, because there was only a single floor from the floor to the roof, so from the inside of the house, it looked unusually tall.

A scaffolding about three people tall stood in a circle in the middle of the house, and there was nothing else in the whole house except for a few tools scattered around the scaffolding.

Surrounded by the scaffolding is the embryo of a tall marble statue, which, although not yet fully formed, is a very large figure that has been completed.

The room was smoky and dusty, and a man with a soaked towel wrapped around his face and a pair of shorts on his body was standing on a scaffolding with a hammer and hammer and chiseling the statue, clumps of rubble and smoke splashing down, while several men standing below kept pouring water on the marble statue and the man.

I don't know whether it was sweat or muddy water running down the statue and the man's body, his hair curled into strands, although there were often water threads sliding into the corners of his eyes, but the man never moved, but just blew upwards hard, as if to blow the muddy water off his face, and his eyes were firmly fixed on every texture that fell from the hand, not a single nick.

Machiavelli stood below and looked up at the marks that the man had carved into the marble statue, and although he knew that the statue was still a long time before success, he could not help but be thrilled by what he had already learned about the statue from the man before.

Finally, with the sound of what seemed to be a long hammer slamming on a hammer echoed through the house, the man wrapped in muddy water like a wet clay figure stopped, leaned back on the scaffold and looked at the statue in front of him with some weakness, and then sat down slowly, as if admiring his work with some intoxication.

"Master, excuse me." Machiavelli said cautiously, "But I have something to discuss with you, can I?" ”

The man looked down tiredly, and glanced at Machiavelli with a hint of confusion in his eyes that were still a little like a hot flame because of the previous excitement, and greeted him as if he recognized him after a while: "Your Excellency, what is the matter that made you come in person?" ”

"Master, when will your masterpiece be completed?" Machiavelli asked with interest, and when he saw the man slowly climbing down from the scaffolding with his messy hair, he immediately greeted him, "I know you can't tolerate the slightest flaw, and you will have to be completely satisfied with it, but I wonder how much time it will take, you know it's important." ”

"Why, sir, didn't the Florentine government promise me that it would be completed only if I was satisfied, and why is it necessary for a time limit now?" Michelangelo asked with some annoyance, and he looked at Machiavelli with some dissatisfaction, a little unhappy with the bureaucrat's sudden visit.

Michelangelo has been living in Florence for two years since he left Rome, and his skills have changed surprisingly in these two years.

Machiavelli smiled helplessly, and in fact the Florentine government did not come up with a specific time frame, but they had long since lost the heart to the statue, which they had given a great deal of attention to.

"It's a bit different from what was agreed before, but you know there's been a change," Machiavelli followed Michelangelo to the corner of the room, watched as he took off his shorts and tossed them aside, picked up a jar full of cold water and drenched himself from head to toe, before he continued, "Actually, this is what I want to ask, because it concerns a mutual friend of ours." ”

Michelangelo's altar above his head froze, the muscles on his back condensed into protruding lumps, and then he lowered the altar and turned around, looking at his naked, muscular body, Machiavelli couldn't help but think of the rumors that the master seemed to have a special preference, and he couldn't help but step back and keep his distance from the other party.

"I know who you're talking about, but you're not very clever about him here," Michelangelo said to Machiavelli, who was secretly relieved, after grabbing a clean gown and putting it on his body without wiping his body, covering some key parts, "but what do you want to say?" ”

"I mean, the lord may be going to take over Florence officially," Machiavelli said in a low voice, then looking at the statue in the middle of the room, "If I'm not mistaken, maybe something will change soon, so if you can finish this statue by that time, I think it will give this spectacle a greater significance." ”

Michelangelo listened to it and groaned, although he didn't understand too much what this somewhat annoying politician was saying, but the money he got from this person was real real money, and the secret allowance was much more than what the Florentine government gave him.

"It doesn't get in the way of me finishing the work, knowing that it's a masterpiece that I might never have been able to do myself."

Michelangelo muttered and finally spoke, and although it sounded like he was still holding his own eye, Machiavelli could already hear the loosening of his words.

"Rest assured, Master, we all know what this means for all of us." With that, Machiavelli and Michelangelo stood side by side under the scaffolding and looked up at the already large statue: "This is a real masterpiece, believe me, master, you will go down in history because of this work." ”

"I think so myself." Michelangelo nodded a little meaningfully, and after a while, as if remembering something, he said to Machiavelli, "I think you will too, and we will all leave a footnote in history." ”

Listening to Michelangelo's belated business blowing, Machiavelli still smiled with satisfaction: "I know the master, I believe it's for sure." ”

In the Florence City Hall, Chief Consul Sazi stared at the government dignitaries sitting on both sides of the table with an ugly face, these people were elected by the Florentine government, but he knew that in fact, although most of these people had the support of different industry guilds behind them, if you dig deeper, you will find that behind these industry guilds, they are all the shadow of the free trade alliance.

Unconsciously, Florence was completely controlled by the FTA from top to bottom, which made Sazi feel more desperate than being forced to become a protected person of Pisa, who could still fight back, while the former made him feel that Florence no longer belonged to him and did not belong to the Florentinees.

There were even times when he wondered if the entire Florentine government had become a puppet of Rome and Thesia, but now that didn't matter, a real choice was in front of him and all the Florentines.

"The French have set out from Pecha, and they are now almost at the cold mountain," an official pointed to a hill northwest of the city of Florence on the map, and then the official swallowed his saliva as he looked at the already darkened Sazi, and his finger swept down the whole city and pointed south, "and the Neapolitan army set out from Siena two days ago, and it is assumed that they are now almost at the vicinity of the King's Hill in the south of the city." ”

The official's words made the faces of all the Florentine officials present change, although they knew that the situation was bad, but they never expected it to be as bad as it is now.

Both villains stretched out their hands to the beauty of Florence, so to whom should they be "honored" to untie their clothes?

"There is no time, we must call for help from the Neapolitans," an official suddenly stood up, the pom-poms on a soft orange hat on his head bobbing comically with the violent shaking of his head, as if to add to the atmosphere of his words, "We have a treaty of alliance with Pisa, and we have declared war on the French before, is there anything to hesitate about?" ”

"Yes, I'm a little skeptical about the purpose of this meeting now," another official joined in with a fierce voice, "what we're going to do is how to defend the city and cooperate with the Alliance, but now I don't seem to hear that, I have to wonder if someone wants to blatantly break the treaty?" ”

Sazi looked at these people who couldn't wait to jump out, he knew that the guild behind these people had a deep relationship with the trade alliance, and some of them even seemed to be the spokesmen of the trade alliance in Florence, while the supporters behind the others also had different attitudes because of their connection with that alliance.

"We are indeed part of the Holy Alliance, but can we stand up to the French ourselves, knowing that even our protector Pisa is now under siege by the French." Sazi said dissatisfied, he knew he had to speak, otherwise he and Florence would be forced to break with the French before the meeting was over, which he absolutely did not want.

In fact, although he overthrew Savonarola, Sazi was supportive of Savonarola's choice to cooperate with the French.

"The Neapolitan army has arrived, and don't forget that they easily defeated the Pope's army in Rome, and even killed Caesar." Another official spoke, and the man looked at Sazi with a slightly disgruntled gaze, "It is not a good choice for us to appear to be vacillating at this time, perhaps it will anger the League and Pisa, and even the Duke of Thessia himself." ”

The official's threatening tone froze Sazi, his gaze swept over to the others, and seeing the hints in their eyes, whether explicit or implicit, Sazi suddenly felt that he was a complete stranger in this room.

There was a sound of heavy footsteps from far and near, and there should be a lot of people listening to the sound, and the eyes of the archons couldn't help but cast their eyes on the door.

The two closed doors were slammed open, and they bounced back against the wall with too much force, and then they were blocked by the crowd that had crowded in.

The shiny armor and dangling swords made the archons' faces change in an instant, and they seemed to see the terrible commotion of a few years ago.

"My lords, please don't panic," Machiavelli, who was at the front, bowed to the consuls, and then he looked at the equally uneasy look of the consuls. ”

"What's going on, leading the soldiers into the Council of Archons, I ask you to explain, or else you will be punished for rebellion." Sazi asked with an ugly face.

"This is not a rebellion, in fact a new appointment," Machiavelli bowed to Sazi, then took out a statement and read it aloud, "In the name of Her Royal Highness Estelles Giulian de Combrai, Duchess of Pisa, and in view of the present situation, in order to better fulfill the duties of Florence to the Holy League, I hereby decree that the Florentine Consul shall be changed to the Military Governorate, and that the Consul Francisco Saczi shall be appointed First Military Superintendent, and the other Consuls shall serve in turn, and that the State Governor Niccolò shall be appointed in turn. Machiavelli was the chief commander of the Directory and had full command of the Florentine army......"

At this point, Machiavelli paused, tilted his head slightly, and showed half of his head from behind the parchment statement held high, looking at Sazi, whose face was already a color of earth, and first said, "Congratulations on your promotion to the rank of Overlord," and then continued to read his head, "Florence will go all out to support the Holy Alliance, and any attempt to make peace with the enemies of the alliance will be regarded as collaborators, and with the permission of Her Royal Highness the Duchess, the right to be punished by military discipline!" ”

Listening to Machiavelli's murderous announcement that had become hoarse at the end, Sazi, who had wanted to stand up and reprimand loudly because of anger, unexpectedly found that his legs seemed to have suddenly lost his strength and did not react, and his hand on the table was numb because of too much excitement, and with a sudden dizziness, Sazi's eyes went black and fell to the table.

On July 7, 1501, the Neapolitan army entered a small town on the hill of the Kings on the outskirts of Florence.

While the army was busy setting up camps, setting up sentry posts, sending out rangers to observe the typical examples, and so on, the queen of Naples, Josa Cosenza Rastamara, suddenly took the lady-in-waiting and a small group of guards to sightseeing in the town.

The townspeople are smart enough to hide in their homes, so the streets are quiet.

Walking on the fairly clean stone road, Ji Sha looked at the houses she passed by with great interest, and then she pointed to a house built on the mountain in the distance along the mountain and said excitedly, "That's it." ”

Then the queen lifted her skirt slightly, and took the lead and walked forward.

In the confusion of the entourage, they came to the building, which was actually a very ordinary house, and the only advantage was that the higher ground allowed them to better see Florence in the distance.

"That's where my brother lived."

After deciding to make this house the queen's residence, Jisha told the waitress why she chose this place, which made the waitress unable to think of how to respond to her sister, who seemed to be smiling because of this little thing.

But when the Florentine emissaries arrived, they saw a solemn and even somewhat cold queen.

"Machiavelli?"

The envoy certainly didn't know what the meaning of the queen's smile was, but even with a smile on his face, he didn't feel the slightest change in the queen's body that made him relax a little.

"Convey to me the orders of your commanders, I want the Florentine army to obey me, tell him that this is my order, and that this order is above all else at this moment." As she spoke, she stood up and looked out the window at the city of Florence, "Louis is waiting for me there, let me see if he is the real king of France." ”

Josha's provocation was quickly answered, and in the early morning of 8 July, the French army, having established a strong camp at Leng Mountain, marched towards the city of Florence, about 10 miles away.

Later that same day, the Neapolitan army, which had waited for the news, began to descend from the king in the afternoon, and was approaching the French in opposite directions.

When he heard about the actions of the Neapolitan army, Louis XII was slightly surprised.

"Are you sure that the Neapolitans are not going to enter Florence?" The king looked at the scout in bewilderment, and after receiving a clear answer, Louis suspiciously tapped the small scepter that was used as a horsewhip in the palm of his hand, "What is that woman going to do, you must know that she only has 3,000 people, and I have ......"

Louis XII shook his head, he thought it was unreasonable, or rather ridiculous.

No one would be stupid enough to try to use 3,000 men against an army of 20,000 men in the field, even if the opponent is a woman.

Then something suddenly occurred to Louis XII.

He immediately called the general in charge of the scouts, and after making some arrangements, the king's eyes fell again on the location of the Neapolitan on the map.

"Do you want Florence as a bait for beauty, or do you want to be the Joan of Arc of Rome?" The King thoughtfully tapped his finger on the map and asked in a low voice to himself.

Also on 8 July, an army entered Borato, not far northeast of Florence.

The 6th Regiment of Rome Thessia of Busaco arrived from Bologna!

Also on the same day, the Northern Army of Roman-Thesia, commanded by Gompati, crossed the Chimone hill and rapidly approached in the direction of Florence.

With Florence as the center and Pisa and Montina as the secondary, the French army with the combined forces of Rome Thesia and Naples took up positions in central Romagna!

The total number of troops invested by both sides, 37000VS28000!