Caesar looked at the battlefield in the distance with a gloomy face, and the terrain where he stood was very good, and he could clearly see all the battles that were taking place on the battlefield, and he could also clearly see the various changes since the start of the battle.

When the Neapolitan musketeers on the opposite side began to shoot, Caesar's thoughts were the same as those of his French friend, who believed that the Neapolitans' premature shooting not only lost the opportunity needed to grasp the events of the ensuing battle, but also proved the calm and composure that the Neapolitans should have in the face of a strong enemy.

A truly courageous and experienced soldier cannot act rashly on the battlefield.

This is especially true of an army that is too early to react because of the enemy's actions or even inducements, and often gives up the opportunity to the enemy.

So Caesar, after seeing the Neapolitans firing, not only did he not get nervous, but he relaxed at that moment.

But what happened next made Caesar know that he was talking about experience, and from this time on, it was no longer useful.

Caesar would not have known what the Neapolitan grenadiers were doing, in what he thought was completely blind, but they were stubborn and rigidly applied what they had learned from the training ground to the current enemy in accordance with the new combat principle of "act first, deploy first, and fire first" that they had trained countless times, and even mechanically with their eyes closed.

So much so that when the rows of bullets rushed at the opposing Papal army with the formation of several columns that seemed to be shallow and close, but undoubtedly exerted the power of almost all firearms because of the wide frontage of the columns, Caesar immediately saw the formation at the front of his army, as if it had been carved out of the frightening gaps in the ranks with hammers by invisible giants.

The gaps were a frightening bright red, and they grew larger and larger in the Papal army as muskets were fired from the Neapolitan positions, so much so that the Papal army's advancing formation was slowed down by the terrible blows.

"That woman has a very strong army."

Caesar looked at the grenadier formation opposite, and he noticed that the formation of that army was much more neat than the other troops, and their dark yellow uniform and apparently well-crafted cuirass looked familiar, and as he watched the uniform movements of that army, Caesar suddenly realized that he seemed to have seen this kind of command and control of the army in Alexander's army, which he had always envied.

At this moment, the thought of "Cambrai in the Neapolitan army" quickly flashed through Caesar's mind, but he immediately rejected this idea, because according to his father, Alexander should have been in Iberia at this time, and although no one knew what he was going to do, Caesar saw this as a rare opportunity to declare war against Rome Thesia at this time.

There were bursts of messy or gunshots, this time the gunshots were obviously much thinner than the thunderous gunshots just now, but they were much closer.

The Papal musketeers began to fight back.

Although the losses were very heavy, but at this time the battle formations of the two sides were already very close, the spearmen in the front had begun to tilt their spears forward, and at the same time, the people behind were accustomed to blocking the shields above the spearmen's heads, but this time the rain of arrows did not come from the overhead, but a large whistling projectile flew in front of them.

With the Papal army counterattacking. Casualties began to appear among the Neapolitan army, with occasional spearmen and soldiers in the typical taranto short vests falling from their positions, while the Neapolitan musketeers began to retreat with a flurry of whistles.

"My lord, the Neapolitans are backing up." An officer shouted excitedly, he jumped on a severed stump and put his hand in front of him to look closely, and then he cried out again: "Our men have rushed up, and those Neapolitans are running backwards like rabbits." ”

Caesar's joy had just crept up in his heart, but then he was enveloped by a wave of unease.

He noticed that the formation of the Neapolitan army was not chaotic, the retreat of the long lines formed by horizontal lines was not chaotic, and even in some places, because of the retreat of the musketeers and the spearmen holding on to the spot, the entire Neapolitan front was seemingly inadvertently turning into a huge W-shape, and the Papal army, in order to surround the phalanx of spearmen protruding in front of the line from both sides, was involuntarily rushing towards the recesses on both sides of the huge W.

Caesar's uneasiness grew stronger and stronger, although he knew that he could completely cut off the Neapolitan army by breaking through the phalanx of spears that stood out of the line, but somehow he always felt that the current situation was in an unspeakable danger.

Caesar opened his mouth, he wanted to order the troops to stop advancing immediately, but looking at the enemy phalanx that had been almost completely surrounded on both sides, like an isolated island that could be submerged at any moment, his already slightly raised hand couldn't help but froze.

"Do you have any commands, sir?" An officer next to him asked in a low voice.

Caesar shook his head wordlessly, annoyed by his indecision, and when he didn't know what judgment to make, he instinctively grabbed the hilt of the armor-piercing sword at his waist.

The moment he touched the cold hilt, a glimmer of spiritual light instantly shook in Caesar's heart!

He suddenly took a few steps forward and carefully looked at the positions of the two sides in front of him.

On the battlefield, the Papal Army was desperately charging at the phalanx of spears, which were already almost surrounded from both sides.

In order to cut off the retreat of this enemy force, more and more Papal troops tried to rush behind the flanks of the enemy phalanx.

And just in front of them, behind the bottom of the Neapolitan recess, which had formed a W-shape, Caesar could vaguely see that the tight carriages were right behind the recesses of the enemy's formation.

In an instant, a nightmarish memory burst into Caesar's mind!

He remembered the terrifying experience outside Rome, the scene when he thought he was sitting on Alexander, but in fact it contained a terrible weapon like a demon in hell, which instantly made Caesar's pores rise all over his body, so that his clothes were soaked in cold sweat in an instant!

"Retreat! Order the troops to retreat! ”

Caesar roared hysterically at the trumpeters beside him, his voice changed tone with fear, and his face was distorted as if he had seen a ghost!

The trumpeter was frightened by Caesar's appearance, and he raised his horn to his lips but blew only a long inaudible sound, while his eyes were always fixed on Caesar, because he did not know what to do, and he could only keep puffing out his cheeks but could not find a tune.

"I'll let you blow the trumpet and make them come back!"

Caesar clutched his sword and threw himself at the trumpeter, his eyes shining with a fierce light, and no one doubted that he would stab the trumpeter to death with a single sword, which caused the officers around him to immediately gather around him to stop him from making a terrible move.

Fortunately, this slight block finally made the trumpeter understand, and he immediately puffed out his cheeks with all his strength and blew a long trumpet of retreat.

The sound of the trumpet quickly spread into the distance.

"Your Excellency?"

Several officers looked at Caesar in astonishment, wondering why Caesar would order his army to halt its advance when victory was imminent.

With this horn, the trumpeters distributed behind the position also raised their horns in confusion and prepared to blow them.

Caesar looked in the direction of the front line, and he saw that the Papal army was still advancing, but the call to retreat had been heard, and he let out a long breath.

But then, the muscles on his face that had just been trembling because of the sudden relaxation after extreme tension suddenly froze!

Caesar had a look of fear in his eyes, and at that moment his desperate look made the officers watching him involuntarily turn their heads to see what he had seen.

The flaps of several carriages that were parked at the rear of the position had fallen by this time, and the vague shadows that emerged from the carriages were not clear because they were too far away.

But somehow, perhaps the familiarity of the dangers on the battlefield had been deep in their bones, so those officers still felt a chill from the bottom of their hearts at this moment.

Then they saw a terrible scene that they had never seen in their lives.

A living hell appeared before their eyes, the stench of brimstone, boiling flames, thick smoke and thunderous roars.

At this moment, one thought of the description of hell in Dante's Divine Comedy.

It's just that the hell in the Divine Comedy only comes from Dante's pen, and what appears in front of them is a real hell!

The Papal soldiers who rushed to the front had no idea what they had been hit, and many of them had been torn to shreds by the oncoming rain of bullets before they could even react, and large swaths of blood and various colored internal organs squeezed out of their bodies torn apart by the projectiles flew sideways in all directions.

Several soldiers who had their legs broken by bullets and fell to the ground were not even killed by pain and blood loss, but were suffocated alive by the corpses that kept falling down and pressing on them.

The terrible weapons on the carriage rotated monotonously with the operator's trigger spring, and the rows of muskets rolled down like windmills after the shot, and then a new row of muskets had been rolled upwards, and with the snapping sound of the clasp gears, the cold and terrifying weapons kept repeating the same action, until all the flints that were finally inserted into the wooden troughs were beaten, and a choking smell came out.

By this time, the carriage had been completely surrounded by gunsmoke, so that in the distance only a few large smoke clouds could be seen rolling up the hillside, and the gunfire like hell had finally fallen silent, and the only thing left was the mournful screams that gradually rang out.

On the slopes of Mount Rocadisas are a few mires of flesh and blood that have been indistinguishable from people, men and horses, or simply do not know what they are.

Caesar stared blankly ahead, he knew that he had guessed correctly, and that he had indeed made the right choice, but it was all so late!

And the price of this short delay was that the Papal Army paid nearly a hundred lives in this instant.

"Retreat." Caesar finally spoke, his slightly pale face without any expression, just staring at the few scarlet "mires" that almost collapsed in the distance.

"My lord, are we going to retreat?" Caesar's appearance was worrisome, and the officers were disturbed by his order, and the officer mustered up the courage to say, "But the retreating Neapolitans may pursue at this time, and then our army may collapse." ”

"No, they won't pursue us," Caesar looked further up the hill, looking in the direction of the Neapolitan camp, the corners of his mouth twitched, but he unexpectedly smiled again, "I know what that woman is going to do, she won't just be satisfied and beat me." ”

The officers looked at each other worriedly, and although they were worried, Caesar had no choice but to order the Papal army to retreat.

To the surprise of these officers, the Neapolitan army did not pursue.

On Mount Rocadispas, Jossa fiddled with her gloves and looked at the Papal army that was gradually retreating below, with a look of regret on her face.

"I didn't expect Caesar to be smarter this time," she shook her head helplessly, and then looked at the carriages with some pity, "It won't be so easy to lure him into the bait next time." ”

There was a rush of footsteps, and Tsusha didn't even have to look back to guess who it was.

"Your Majesty, why don't we continue the pursuit?"

An angry and even somewhat rude voice came from behind, and Jossa slowly turned to look at Elliott, the son of Count Horseen of Taranto, who was angrily waiting for her to answer.

"If we attack at this time, the Papal army may collapse completely, and we may even have a chance to capture Caesar," said Elliott dissatisfied, "but why did you order a forbidden pursuit?" ”

"Why?" Zhosa looked back at the Papal army, which had retreated down the hillside and was slowly gathering on the plain in the distance, then she turned back to look at Elliot, "So what do you think we should do after defeating the Pope's army?" ”

Elliott froze, and then his face grew strange.

"You don't know what to do, do you," Josa smiled playfully, "because you don't know what to do with the Pope, do you want to abolish him and install a new pope?" If so, I think perhaps your father, Earl Hornen, would have declared you a heretic sooner than anyone else. ”

Elliot listened silently to Josa's sarcasm, but this time he was neither angry nor sneering, for he realized that he had just done something stupid.

The Anti-French Holy League was created to compete with the ambitious French King Louis XII, and no matter how Caesar used his position as the Pope's son to take a stand in order to achieve his own ambitions, the enemy of the Holy League would not be the Pope.

But if Caesar is completely defeated now, then the Holy Alliance will face a very delicate and even somewhat embarrassing situation, that is, how to deal with Alexander VI, who is supporting Caesar behind his back?

Is it really as Zha said to abolish the pope?

If you think about it, you know it's impossible.

After all, the so-called coexistence of the three popes created by the French at the beginning is something that the Vatican absolutely does not want to see again.

But if Alexander VI was allowed to sit on that throne, it would be tantamount to admitting that his support for Louis XII was correct, and the existence of the Holy Alliance would become meaningless and even in danger of falling apart in an instant.

"But should we let Caesar return and reorganize his army, knowing that we don't have so much food for us to continue to consume with him calmly."

Annoyed, Elliot whipped the tall grass with his horsewhip.

"No, we don't have to worry about that," Jossa turned to look at the Papal Army down the hillside, "they'll come to us themselves, and I promise it won't be long." ”

Elliott looked at Josha in bewilderment, and then he was somewhat surprised to find that although Josha's eyes were staring down the mountain, Elliott bet that the look on her face was completely different.

It was the expression that seemed to come to mind something proud, or simply sweet.

At this moment, the Queen Regent of Naples is more like a girl who is reminiscing about some sweet past.

The first battle between the Papal army and the Neapolitan army ended so abruptly.

Despite suffering heavy casualties, Caesar's adventurous retreat in front of the enemy won him the respect and reliance of his soldiers.

But when he returned to the Vatican and walked into Alexander VI's room, the confident smile on Caesar's face disappeared in an instant.

Looking at his father and private secretary Nomelo who were waiting for him, Caesar uttered something that would never have been said in front of others: "We may lose this war." ”

"How is that possible?" Alexander VI was surprised but not flustered, he just felt incredulous about Caesar's judgment: "I know you've lost a battle, but it's nothing, soon we will have a new army, you're doing a good job, that Zhosa Cosenza wants to force us to choose neutrality or support the Holy Alliance, and not directly oppose the Vatican, in this case we are actually undefeated, aren't we?" ”

Alexander VI's words did not reassure Caesar in the slightest, and he began to tell the Pope about what he had seen on the battlefield, and when it came to the astonishing new army of Naples and the terrible weapons that were simply creating a massacre, Caesar was more envious than afraid.

"I now know why that woman dared to send most of her army to Pisa, because it was enough for her to have such an army, and our current army simply cannot fight them, so we must build an army like the Neapolitans to fight them."

"That's not easy, you know it takes a lot of money," Alexander VI looked at Caesar's flickering gaze and slightly frowned, he knew what Caesar was thinking, but he couldn't make up his mind for a while, "No, no, that's too risky, you know that those Ladia coins are used as reserves and credit for the Holy See's currency." ”

"We only need to use a small part of it, and when we win the war we have everything, and this small part allows us to win the war." Caesar said eagerly, "We must organize our army as soon as possible, and you know that if we don't get enough results, even in front of Louis we will lose our value." ”

Caesar's words made Alexander VI's heart suddenly move, and his eyes looked at Nomerlo, who was always silent on the side, but before the private secretary could speak, he had already stopped with a slight wave of his hand: "I already know what to do, indeed, as long as we win the war, we can get everything." ”

Listening to the Pope's words of determination, the words that Nomelo was about to utter finally did not come out.

At the beginning of May 1501, the battle between Naples and the Papal army on Mont Roccatipas on the outskirts of Rome came to an end for the time being.

At the same time, in Pisa, the French army launched a fierce attack on the city of Pisa.

At this time, a Jew walked into the Fogel house in Grossburg.