The roar of a rather heavy artillery bombardment was still rumbling in his ears, and despite repeated dissuasion from his attendants, Louis XII could not wait to come out of his bunker and stand on a high ground to observe the enemy situation on the opposite side.

A sweaty artilleryman shouted and waved his hand at the side, but the king didn't seem to see it.

The artillery of this era was very dangerous, not only to the enemy but also to oneself, and it was not uncommon for a battle to send one's own people because of the explosion of artillery, so many people were secretly worried about the king's proximity to the artillery position.

However, Louis XII could not care so much now, and he needed to deal a heavy blow to the enemy, especially after seeing the presence of the Papal army in the direction of Siena. His Holiness realized that perhaps time was running out for him.

"In order to preserve the security of the Papal Territory and the supreme authority of the Vatican over the city of Siena, and with the authority conferred on me by the College of Cardinals, I request that the withdrawal of the troops of both sides from the outskirts of Siena be amended by noon on the 15th, otherwise the Pope's armed forces will regard this act as an affront to the Vatican and declare war on this justifiable ground." ”

Skop is obviously playing a small trick here, he reveals to the French army the consciousness of declaring war without specifying the goal of declaring war, which seems to be fair, but in fact, one only needs to think of the exilment of Alexander VI and the fact that the old Rovere became the largest person in the Vatican today, you can know who this enemy of the declaration of war is hinting at.

So as soon as the battle began, the French king launched a fierce assault on the Neapolitan army, and although it seemed a bit of a luxury to completely crush the enemy before noon, Louis XII hoped to first occupy a more favorable battlefield position by successive attacks, so that he might be able to deter Skop from acting rashly.

The idea was good, and the French advanced very smoothly with the superiority of their forces, and although the Neapolitan army put up fierce resistance, the Neapolitan army had to retreat again and again from the pre-repaired fortifications in the face of a steady stream of enemies.

On the outskirts of Siena was a wide area of hills, which would have given a defence advantage, and Louis XII had realized that the Neapolitans had retreated here in order to take advantage of the terrain to resist, so he decided to defeat the Neapolitans at all costs before the Papal army entered the battle.

The French artillery fired fiercely as never before, and not long after Louis XII took refuge in his bunker, he heard an explosion that was very different from the shot, which was the detonation of gunpowder in the vicinity after an artillery bomb.

The huge shock of that moment made the king's attendants turn pale with fright, although the king himself did not take it lightly, but he still gritted his teeth and persisted, and just after the shelling ended, he desperately walked out to see the results of the shelling.

During the short period of stalemate between the two sides and Siena, the Neapolitan army built several improvised fortifications on the ground, many of which were now bombed to the ground, and the French were surging towards these gaps.

Seeing this, Louis XII's heart relaxed slightly, and only then did he have time to look at Louis de Bourbon, who was standing aside with a worried expression.

"Do you still think that the Romantesians are trying to defeat me?"

Hearing the king's inquiry, Louis de Bourbon's earthy face showed a hint of hesitation, and then nodded firmly: "Yes, Your Majesty, I still hold my point of view, even if you think I am making excuses for my failures, but please believe me that we are facing a much stronger enemy than we think." ”

"I do not doubt your intentions," said Louis XII, in a slightly lowered voice, to the Duke of Bourbon, "I am asking you whether you think that we should be prepared to leave a way out for ourselves at this time, knowing that in order to prevent the Papal army from having an excuse to enter the war, I must defeat the Neapolitans in front of me before noon, so I must throw all my troops into battle, and I will not have too many troops for you to deal with an enemy that may only be of your imagination." ”

"But your Majesty is by no means conjecture," the Duke of Bourbon vehemently argued, "if you cannot draw enough troops for me, I can go back now and reorganize the troops under my present command, but then I can hardly guarantee that I will be able to stop the attack of the Roman Thecian army." ”

The French king groaned slightly, for the Duke of Bourbon's sudden return in embarrassment and brought a possibility that the French army would be surrounded and annihilated such an idea that seemed inconceivable, many generals thought that this was just an excuse for Louis de Bourbon to hide the unexpected defeat and shirk responsibility, although the king himself thought so in his heart, but out of his always cautious character, Louis XII did not want to veto his idea so hastily.

It's just that the threat of the Papal Army makes him have to think carefully, in addition to the battlefield reasons, more importantly, he wants to avoid a head-on conflict with the Vatican as much as possible.

It would be ideal if the papal army could be forced to remain neutral, otherwise they would not dare to act rashly, and a direct military conflict with the Vatican would be the last resort, as it would likely lead to the further isolation of France in Christendom.

Eventually, Louis XII decided: "You can go back and get ready, I will try to send a group of troops here to support you, but don't get your hopes up, the most important thing for me now is to defeat the incredible queen in front of me." ”

A hint of disappointment crossed Louis de Bourbon's eyes, and although he knew that this was likely to be the outcome, he still hoped to get enough support.

His soldiers were exhausted, their baggage and supplies were lost heavily, many were wounded, and above all, demoralized, and the unexpectedly brave of the Roman-Thesians made the French already fearful of them, and the Duke of Bourbon would not forget to see with his own eyes those soldiers who abandoned their wounded companions and fled for their lives simply because they heard that the enemy was coming, even if they would have been laughed at afterwards, but no one at the time condemned such despicable acts.

"I will do my best, Your Majesty," the Duke of Bourbon grabbed the dirty hat from his head, pulled off the feathers that had been twisted together on it, and after a little hesitation, tore off one and handed it to the King, "but Your Majesty, I beg you, if I send someone to bring you such a feather again, I want you to believe that it is because the situation has reached a critical moment, for the sake of France, for you and your army, I beg you to believe me once." ”

Louis XII took the dirty feather with a slight groan, and looked at the back of the Duke of Bourbon, who bowed and turned away, and the French king silently stopped with a gloomy expression and turned his back to look at the battlefield.

Another French attack began, this time with the Swiss mercenaries at the front, the professional soldiers from the mountains who were unaffected by the hills, and they crossed the obstacles with swift hands and feet but in good formation, and then rushed towards the enemy not far ahead.

The complete fighting spirit and fierce mountain style were vividly displayed at this moment, and even in the face of the oncoming dense rain of bullets, the Swiss barbarians shouted battle horns while constantly approaching the enemy position.

The army of Napoles was finally shaken a little, and many of the soldiers began to retreat involuntarily, and the battle line fluctuated like waves, and this is when the harsh training of the grenadiers and the experience of fierce battles with the Ottomans became invaluable.

Even though the Swiss had rushed very close, the grenadiers stood still in the face of the spears in their hands, and when they heard the order to shoot, they calmly raised their weapons and aimed at every target they could hit, and then fired in unison, turned, backward, and reloaded.

All the movements were simple and mechanical, and the deafening sound of gunfire and the pungent smell of gunpowder still made the young soldiers feel a little excited, while some of the veterans looked calm, as if all this was just participating in the usual training, and as for the enemies who were shot down one after another, many of them did not even look at them.

"What is he waiting for, Skop," said Omo anxiously at the back of the position, glancing at the queen from time to time, as if he wanted to make some suggestion but was not sure, but at last he finally said with determination, "Your Majesty, I can go to the Papal army and ask them to attack immediately." ”

Tsusha glanced at Omo, seeing the anxious look of the young military squire, her light eyebrows moved slightly as if she wanted to smile: "Don't you think this might be better, how many people do you think Louis will mobilize to spy on them in order to prevent the Papal army from attacking?" ”

"3,000 or 4,000?" Omo thought for a moment and said uncertainly: "But even so, wouldn't it be better if Your Majesty had the Papal Army attack now, and our situation now is not very good." ”

"It's true that if they attack now, we will have less pressure, but then Louie will run away."

Jisha finally laughed, her smile with a hint of innocence made the eyes of the attendants next to her light up, at this moment the majestic queen looked like an innocent child, but her words made everyone's hearts shake suddenly!

It turned out that the queen did not just want to defeat the enemy, he even wanted to completely annihilate the French army under the command of the French king himself!

"It's a very careful plan, and maybe you won't believe that someone could have laid it all out a year ago and even gave up Milan for the sake of it."

When she said this, her eyes were a little misty.

She remembered the wonder she had felt when she heard that Alexander had given up Milan on his own initiative, after all, it was a rich city where almost all monarchs did not hesitate to fight against each other.

As the center of Lombardy, Milan has an undeniable importance, but it is such a city built with wealth, Alexander never stretched out a finger to it, even if he had reached Pavia and even occupied Monza for a time, but in the end he stopped under the city of Milan.

At the time, many people, including Josha himself, could not understand Alexander's decision, after all, the capture of Milan meant having a major influence on the Lombardy region, and his abandonment of Milan could only be understood as his lack of confidence in his own strength.

Of course, she did not believe that Alexander did not have the guts, so she wrote a secret letter to Alexander expressing her full support for his attempts to win Lombardy, for which she even promised Naples troops if needed.

But Alexander rejected her.

"It's going to be a very hard battle," said Jossa to the officers, putting down her memories, "we are in the heart of Rome in the heart of Thesir, and now that the French have penetrated here, they are surrounded by enemies, and the only thing we have to do is to make the French too deep in the end and have no way to escape." ”

With the words of the Shosha falling, a few sharp whistling from far and near, the attendants immediately hurriedly escorted the queen to hide behind the cover, and then there was a dull roar and the screams of the unfortunate soldiers who had been hit by the cannonballs from the positions in front.

"Your Majesty, the French are attacking again! You should probably step back behind! An officer shouted.

"Oh, I'm standing far behind enough," she said to the officers, "Please don't forget that I am your sovereign, and since Louis can stand on the other side, I must also stand in my place, and if you don't want to put me in danger, do your duty." ”

Heavy artillery bombardment, non-stop volleys and brutal cold weapons of spears and swords, the battle that began at dawn on July 15 gradually entered the white heat, although they had to divide their forces to monitor the direction of Siena for fear of the intervention of the Papal army, but the French army still relied on the great superiority of the Neapolitan army in terms of strength, and gradually took the initiative after paying a huge price.

The sun was slowly moving towards the middle of his head, which made His Holiness anxious, who had hoped to gain an advantage by making steady progress.

The frequent activity of the Papal army in the direction of Siena City made it impossible for him to ignore, although he believed that even if the Papal army joined the battlefield, as long as the blocking army could successfully stop the enemy in the direction of Siena, he would win, but Louis knew that if he did, even if he won the battle, he would probably find himself in the dilemma of being surrounded by enemies on all sides.

Louis XII could even imagine that this was probably exactly what the Vatican wanted to see, that he could be driven out of Italy without being an enemy of him, so that when Louis de Bourbon received another bloodstained feather, the French king flatly refused the Duke of Bourbon's request after hesitating for a while.

"Now defeat this Josa Cosenza Astamara is the key," Louis XII firmly ordered the generals who were also aware of the bad situation, "I will say that your eyes only see the enemy of the present, and I see the enemy of the future, if I can't defeat this woman on the other side, we will not only add a Vatican to the list of enemies, but maybe even Aragon, not Naples is also the Kingdom of Sicily." ”

The king's words puzzled the generals, but by this time the king had no time to explain to them about the battlefield, and after a short hesitation he ordered another 1,000 troops to be drawn from the direction of Siena and thrown into battle, and at the same time, in order to deter the Papal army, he ordered the remaining French army to take the initiative to approach in the direction of Siena.

A man and a horse panting messenger broke into the courtyard, and if he hadn't been waving a strange-looking flag in his hand along the way to prove his identity, he might have been shot before he could rush into the city.

Not many people knew this flag, but it was because of this that the identity of the person who came would not be suspected, and when he saw the cavalry that was crumbling after breaking into the courtyard, Kurash first snatched the flag from his hand and looked at it carefully, and after making sure that it was indeed the symbol of his hometown, Kulash pulled the man off his horse and poured a scoop of cold water on his head.

"Attack, attack begins!" The man only shouted this sentence and snatched the kettle and kept pouring it into his mouth, even though Kulash kicked his thigh with his kick, but he still finally relieved himself after he had drunk enough, "Master Gompati's attack has begun, and now he is beating that Louis de Bourbon, and my lord wants me to tell you to prepare for battle." ”

Hearing the news, Skop looked up at the top of his head, and the harsh sunlight shone on his face so hot that he couldn't open his eyes.

"What time is it?" Skop asked the man next to him.

"It's not noon yet, sama." The attendant, who knew what Skop was going to ask, replied in a low voice.

An officer hurriedly barged in, his expression looked a little strange, excited and nervous with a hint of overwhelm: "The French army, the French army is approaching us!" ”

"What happened?" Kulash immediately asked.

"We noticed that the French seemed to be moving, and then they began to approach us," replied the officer hurriedly, "what do you think they are trying to do, sir?" ”

Skop and Kulash looked at each other, and then the two of them said in unison: "Louie can't hold his breath!" ”

At this time, the French army, which should have avoided friction with the Papal army as much as possible, took the initiative to provoke, which was originally very abnormal, and thinking about the news brought by the messenger sent by Gompati, all these answers were already coming out in front of the two of them.

"What should we do, sir?" The officer asked nervously, "Shall we hold on to our positions or retreat a little?" ”

"Retreat?" Skop asked rhetorically, and then suddenly said loudly under the gaze of the people around him, "In view of the hostile attitude of the French army towards us, I declare that the provisional agreement with the King of France shall be abolished with immediate effect, and from now on we will officially engage the French army!" ”

Skop's words made the officers look stunned at first, and then the surroundings were in a hurry.

"Tearing up the Entente would make your reputation worse," Kulash shook his head, he wasn't worried about Skop, of course, but surprised that this man could break his word so easily, "Or do you think it's worth the price?" ”

"Someone once told me that the price to pay for breaking Cigna is only to see if it is worth the gain, and if it is worth it, it is not a shortcut to success." Skop smiled, "It's obviously worth it for me now. ”

"Can you tell me who is the person who said this to you? I hope I don't run into him in my life. Kulash frowned.

"His name is Niccolò, Niccolò Machiavelli." Skop replied by turning his head before turning over on his horse.

A French squad of more than a dozen people moved forward through a bush, and a soldier pulled a red fruit from the thorny branch and took a bite hard, the sour taste made him shiver, he wanted to throw away the fruit but after thinking about it, he stuffed it into his mouth again, and another sour stimulated his taste buds, but this time it was slightly better.

"Whoosh~"

A sharp sound of breaking wind came to his face.

Sharp arrows pierced through the soldier's two bites of fruit through his fingers, burrowed through the chewed flesh, poked into his throat, and a string of blood hung from the back of his neck.

The soldier immediately fell to the ground on his back, blood and bitten flesh spurting out of his mouth, he could no longer hear the panicked cries of his companions, nor could he feel the ground vibration caused by the sudden rushing cavalry, and when the smashing horses' hooves trampled the dirt around him and flew by, the soldier's eyes were already staring straight at the sky, and his body slowly stiffened.

The commotion in front aroused the vigilance of the French army, and the sound of trumpets rose and fell between the ranks, looking at the enemies waving the papal flag rushing in their direction, many French soldiers could not help but stand there a little dazed, not knowing how to deal with the sudden change.

However, this haste was only temporary, and the French soldiers came to their senses as the officers shouted loudly, and when they saw the cavalry in armor rushing from the side like an enemy, there was a burst of cheers in the ranks of the French army.

The French cavalry was met by a group of Swiss mercenaries armed with spears, elite troops hired by Skop at great expense through the Trade Alliance.

As in the frontal battle between the French and the Neapolitans, the battle between the Papal Army and the French army was at an unusually high intensity from the start, and the strong will to fight displayed by Skop surprised even those around him.

No one knows why he behaved so violently, a stark departure from his previous desire to maintain a subtle spectatorship between the French and the Neapolitans.

Only Skop himself knew, just as this war was extremely important to Alexander's Duchy of Rome Thesia, for Skop, it was also a crucial battle for him to become Duke of Parma in the future.

Either sink together, or glory together!

The Papal Army, commanded by Skop, attacked the French in an almost frantic manner.