When the Second Parliamentary Secretary of the Directory of Florence walked up to the floor of his office, he saw several familiar men sitting in chairs beside the corridor outside, exchanging heads.

When he saw the Second Parliamentary Secretary, the men who looked like businessmen immediately stood up and greeted him.

"Dear secretary, we are waiting for you," said an old merchant with gray hair, who was obviously the leader of these people, and said cautiously, seeing the look that the secretary threw at him, the old merchant slightly shy and slightly protruding belly, and said in a slightly proud tone, "I am Giovanni Dartmila of the Florentine Wool Guild, I think you should remember me." ”

"I do remember," the second secretary nodded, "I remember that you were the first to propose the introduction of the Radia Gold Exchange in the Guild, because you made a lot of money from it." ”

Hearing the secretary say this, the old merchant named Giovanni Dartmila has a smug smile on his face, and it is no wonder that he is very proud of this, because it is because of his long-term vision that his family has become one of the few local merchants who have made a fortune in the dumping war that affected the whole of Florence a few years ago, and even Sazi, who is the governor of Florence, is envious when he mentions it in private.

"My lord, you know that it is not easy to do business these days, and the small and big things are not only less now, but also because of the frequent wars, we may end up with no return, not to mention the current situation, so that we can't rest assured."

Giovanni Dartmila chattered and followed the secretary into the office, and the others were not qualified to follow in, so they could only wait in the corridor with an anxious face.

"Well, tell me what's going on," the second secretary sat down and looked at the merchant opposite, he knew that this inconspicuous-looking old man actually had a huge influence that others could not imagine, as the leader of the most important wool industry guild among the 12 main trade guilds in Florence, this Giovanni Dartmila controlled a large number of wealthy merchants, and these merchants were the big financiers behind many Florentine councilors, in short, this was a person that even the Governor Sazi did not want to offend easily.

But now that this man would stand so carefully in front of him, the second secretary was not surprised, for this man clearly knew very well who was really in charge of things in Florence.

And Machiavelli was obviously very proud of his current position, after all, as the second secretary, he could decide the fate of Florence, which had never happened before, and it is estimated that it will never happen again.

And he will be where he is today, not only because of the little duchess who is now in Pisa, but also because of the wise choice and bravery he made when the Genoese tried to sneak up on Pisa.

Even now, Machiavelli wakes up every time he dreams about that experience in the middle of the night, and sometimes he wonders how he could have been so bold at that time, but thankfully he not only survived, but also handed in good fortune.

"My lord, the French are coming, do you think we have to make the necessary preparations?"

Old man Dartmila's inquiry woke up the second secretary who had suddenly fallen into a memory, which made Machiavelli look at the old man a little unpleasantly, and then asked stupidly: "Then what do you think we should prepare?" ”

"Maybe the French will occupy Florence, I remember a few years ago when Charles occupied this place and asked us to pay defense taxes, I wonder what the current King of France will have?"

Machiavelli frowned, he was not disgusted with the old man's words, he knew that there was no such thing as a loyalty to these merchants, the only thing they should be loyal to was yellow, orange and orange gold, and he was worried about whether all merchants had the same idea as this old man Dartmila.

Machiavelli believed in Alexander, and it had nothing to do with loyalty, and he trusted Alexander so much because he thought it was all about his previous experience.

But if the Florentines really chose to steer the wheel because they thought that Rome Thescia was bound to fail, Machiavelli would not stubbornly oppose everyone, and it would be foolish for him to do so, even if he was still the chief diplomat of Rome Thesia, but he would at least be wise not to fight against everyone in Florence.

With this in mind, Machiavelli decided to probe the old man's mouth first.

"Is this your own meaning, or is it the Wool Industry Guild, or the meaning of all the guilds?"

Machiavelli asked disrespectfully, though he knew that he would have heard the news if the entire Florentine guild had such a thing, but he decided to be cautious and clarify the situation before responding.

"How can we all agree on this kind of thing, but don't worry, we can get everyone on board if we need to, but the key now is the Duchy of Rome and Thesia, isn't it, my lord?"

Dartmila showed a reserved smile, he knew that the second secretary was testing him, but he was not easy to deal with, now he certainly wanted to find a way out for himself before the French came, but he did not completely give up on the Duchy of Rome Thesia, after all, the duke had created too many miracles in the past, although this time it looked bad, but it may not be possible that no one would have expected the result.

Therefore, he would not easily abandon Rome, the great ship that brought him great wealth, because of the changes in front of him.

Machiavelli nodded approvingly, he understood that the old man was almost telling him that he was looking at the direction of the wind, which made Machiavelli secretly annoyed but also admired his boldness and ease.

It's just that he can't be as casual as these businessmen, and when he chose to sell Florence to Pisa, he had no way out.

"Florence has decided to join the Holy Alliance, whether you want to or not, we are now standing with Rome Thesia, and there are many people joining this alliance, so it is still ...... to make a choice at this time"

Machiavelli, who was about to say, "Be careful," was interrupted by a knock at the door, and as the door opened, a young man who looked a little hurried entered, before the servant could tell him.

Machiavelli was a little surprised by the anxious look of Ron Zó Sabatini, a young man who had originally come to Florence to study art because of the blow he had suffered had made him have a lot of doubts about art, especially after seeing with his own eyes that Botticelli, whom he had always admired, actually burned those precious masterpieces of his later years because of the bewitchment of Savonarola, and also lashed out at art, and even called it a degenerate poison, Ronzo Sabatini no longer knew what was right and what was wrong.

He had already given up his dream of becoming an artist, but he did not return to his native Bologna, but stayed in Florence.

He is now an agent of the futures exchange established by James Columbus in Florence, and he is doing quite well.

As far as Machiavelli knew, the exchanges in these cities were not only hubs for business in various places, but also information transfer stations set up by the Duke of Rome Thesia, through which a huge amount of information would be sent to Montina, the center of the duchy, where there were already a number of students recruited by the Duke of Rome and the University of Pavia in the name of hired officials to form a mixed duke's chamber, and those information would be sent to this chamber of the dukes. for screening and judging.

So now seeing the strange look on Ron Zo Sabatini's face, Machiavelli immediately realized that something big might have happened, he immediately stood up, and after Dartmila had to retreat in disappointment, he beckoned to Ron Zor Sabatini: "What's going on, is it that the French have arrived outside Florence?" ”

Seeing that the self-confessed humorous joke didn't ease Ron Zor Sabatini, Machiavelli knew that things might really be a big deal.

"The Jew named Joseph Maccheni has just sent a strange letter, and I think you must see it."

Roenzo Sabatini said carefully, handing the pinched letter to Machiavelli, which was almost deformed, and looked at him with eager eyes, as if wishing him to clear his mind.

Machiavelli opened the crumpled letter and looked at the simple few sentences on it, first a little dazed like Ron Zon Sabatini, and then slowly sat down and fell into deep thought.

"My lord, if I'm not mistaken, that Maccheni wants us to release all the Radia gold coins we have?" Ron Zor Sabatini asked, "But do you know what to do if you do it......"

Machiavelli raised his hand to block Ron Z Sabatini without waiting for him to finish, he picked up the letter again and looked at it carefully, and then found a few words in the letter that seemed unimportant, he first asked Ron Zor Sabatini to wait in the room, and he himself went to the inner room alone, and found one of the many Bibles on the shelf and flipped through it.

Machiavelli quickly found the answers he needed on certain pages, and when he pieced them together into a sentence with a specific meaning, Machiavelli opened his mouth slightly, then looked up at the cross on the wall.

"God forgive me." Machiavelli muttered to himself, then lit the letter.

As he walked outside, his eyes first fell on the face of Roenzo Sabatini, and then he put his hand around the young man's shoulders and walked out and said: "Go and do it, some things are destined to come, and in this case let us be the witnesses of all this, and perhaps in the future, when we are old, these experiences will become the proudest wealth of our lives." ”

Ron Zor Sabatini left the office of the second political secretary in a state of apprehension, noticing that Machiavelli had once again called the previous businessman named Giovanni Dartmila into his room.

But what did Ron Zor Sabatini know was that when Dartmila came out of the room of the second secretary of state, the look on his face was too strange to startle the others.

The French army had entered Romagna, and the news spread throughout the Duchy of Rome and Thesia almost in a matter of days.

This made the nerves of the people who had just enjoyed a brief period of peace tense again, and unlike the previous wars, this time almost everyone felt that for some reason, the war seemed to be suddenly involved with them, as can be seen from the fact that the peasants were organized to start training in the use of weapons, and the villages and towns of all sizes began to announce the hoarding of food, cloth, vehicles, and wine.

Seemingly overnight, the past of wars that had nothing to do with civilians was gone.

And the news about the war was different from the casual talk of the travelers who passed by, and almost every day people went to some large villages and towns to tell everyone where the French were and what the Duke's army was doing.

Over time, people gradually began to get used to this kind of unrelated things and became a part of their lives.

At the same time, people began to use the terms "their army" and "our army".

"I hear that the French have arrived in Bratan," said a woman in one village, wringing her clothes with great sorrow, "I don't know where that place is, but I have heard that they will soon be in Florence, so does that mean they are coming to us?" ”

"Don't listen to the nonsense," retorted another fat woman, unhappily, "the Duke's army has defeated the Ottomans, so could the French be better than the Ottomans?" ”

"But we have heard that there are many men in their army, and we are less than half of them, and," whispered the woman before, in a low voice, "I heard that the Duke is not in Montina now, and that it is his wife who is in charge of the whole army. ”

"Then don't worry," although she also showed uneasiness, the fat woman still insisted on her opinion, "If it is that Lucrezia, it may really be a bit bad, after all, that woman is said to be stupid except to be able to fascinate the Duke and not find the North, but that Duchess is a powerful woman, I heard that she has even defeated the Pope, so our army should still be able to hold it." ”

Hearing such a strong proof, several women in the vicinity let out a cry of surprise, but then the conversation naturally turned to whether the Duke liked his capable wife, or the beautiful but stupid lover.

Again, such conversations can be heard everywhere else in the Duchy, and people begin to ignore war as much as they used to, because they find that it is indeed a big event in their lives.

However, the rumours that had been widely spread were not entirely unfounded, and in mid-May, Louis XII's army finally captured the not very important fortress of Pesha.

However, this result did not make the King happy, on the contrary, he had a vague sense that things did not seem to be going as smoothly as he had expected.

Pesha is a semi-military town not very far from Pisa, which should have been left behind a few days before the French attack, and the French advance should have drunk the upper reaches of the Maarno River to see the city of Florence in the distance.

But things turned out to be quite unexpected for the French.

Surrounded by Bauwicken's heavy troops, Pisa was not in danger or surrendered, but instead used the port to send an army along the coastline to Livorno, not too far from Pisa, and from there sent troops to harass the French from the south bank of the Arno River.

Because of the Arno River, although Louis XII's army was far outnumbered by the enemy, every time the French tried to destroy the enemy, the allied forces would immediately flee the Arno River, and then use the river's obstacles to form a confrontation with the French army.

This greatly thwarted the French attack, so much so that it took a small pesha a long time to finally force the enemy to surrender.

When Louis XII walked into Pecha, the otherwise cool weather was already slightly hot, which also made the French king feel inexplicably anxious, because he had heard that the Venetian army had passed through Ferrara, and that Constantine, who had abandoned the city and fled, had reorganized an army of about 1,400 men and came to Romagna with the Venetians.

As for Maximian, although the Austrian army was not expected to enter Italy so quickly, Louis XII felt that he had to speed up his march at the thought that Milan might be threatened.

In this situation, Louis XII had to deign to write a letter to Caesar, praising him for his bravery and loyalty, but also suggesting that he was almost rested and that it was time to move.

The letter arrived in Caesar's hands a few days later, much to Caesar's excitement.

The previous frustration of Louis XII's cold reception disappeared in an instant, and at the same time, because after this period of recuperation and the use of Ladia's reserves to expand the army, he also regained hope and confidence.

Caesar was particularly pleased with the timely arrival of the officers he had recruited from the Bologna Military School, which made him feel that the Papal Army was finally gradually perfected, and although it was not possible to manufacture a large number of firearms because of the short time, at least a small but decent musket unit had been formed.

"I've heard that Josa Kosenza relied on her musket unit called the Grenadier Company, so I think she has an opponent now." Caesar looked at the army in front of him and said confidently, then he turned back to a foreign officer standing beside him with a beard with two curled lips and said, "I have heard that you were once a hero of the resistance against the Ottomans, and that you were one of the best students in the Bologna school, and now that I have handed over this army to you, I hope you will not let me down." ”

"Don't worry, Lord Duke, I won't disappoint you, and there may even be some unexpected surprises."

Twisting his butter-soaked beard with his fingers, Knight Kulash, a landlord from Bandan Kachulitsa, said lazily.