Milan, Holy Roman Emperor Maximian has been entering the city as a victor for more than a month.

The battle in Ostato had been over for a long time, and for Maximian it was not a good one, and he had lost in terms of victory or defeat on the battlefield.

His army suffered heavy losses near Varese, and the Austrian generals even had to throw away their artillery in exchange for a chance to retreat, which disgraced the Austrian army in the Battle of Ostato, and if it weren't for the fact that they were not so bad that they lost their flags, Maximian would have punished them severely.

Outside the battlefield, however, Maximian could proudly claim to be a victor.

The Austrian army, which had sent troops from Turin and Varese successively, not only took Milan in one fell swoop, but also seized the opportunity to seize the largest supply base of the French in Italy, which made the emperor, who had already retreated because of the bad situation, suddenly cheer up.

He immediately rejected the minister's proposal to negotiate with Louis XII to end the war, and at the same time ordered the court minister Kotschach to continue to contact the wealthy Count Montina, for he now had a large collection of valuable gadgets to be sold.

Many of Maximian's so-called precious objects were actually in the collection of the Sforza family in Milan, while others were French trophies in Italy, which were left in Milan by the French, and with the occupation of Milan by the Austrians, the precious paintings, carvings, jewels and fabrics became the possession of the emperor.

However, Maximian was obviously still very shrewd, and he knew that what he lacked now was not the luxuries that adorned the court, but the real money that could pay the army, so he was now anxious to exchange those things for a sum of money from a rich man, and the "rich Count Montina" seemed to be a good choice.

When the envoy learned the details of some specific art treasures in the emperor's possession, Barundi assured the envoy that the emperor's request would be met.

As soon as the messenger had left, Barentia wrote to her father, Old Rovere, in which she directly asked him to agree to pay her her share of the Genoese property in advance, and then she wrote a letter to Lucrezia after thinking about it.

The letter was simple, but somewhat presumptuous, with Barentia begging Lucrezia to "temporarily lend her Estles' share of the annuity as the protector of Florence."

This request was really a bit excessive, and when Lucrezia saw the contents of the letter, she was surprised and felt a little incredulous, and she immediately wrote back in a very stern tone to question the purpose of Barentia's request, which seemed to Lucrezia to be undoubtedly mocking and mocking their mother and daughter.

And Barondi's reply surprised Lucrezia, for she replied in a condescending tone, entirely as Alexander's wife: "All this is to reassure Alexander, because as his wife I am obliged to consider and care for all the offspring who have my husband's blood, and although it is not a pleasant thing, I will not shirk my responsibility, so I think this opportunity is very rare for your daughter, because it will give us all a large number of valuable art treasures, These things can not only be used to enrich the court of all of us, but also to make the young House of Cambrai appear noble and worthy of respect. ”

The last sentence is what Barendi wants to say, after all, although it seems to be famous now, no one in this family can help but admit that the Gombray family is still a nouveau riche.

If the nouveau riche wants to be affordable, it is a useful way to buy a large number of works of art to fill the façade.

Barondi wanted her descendants to have not only wealth to rival any monarch, but also to have a family name that would be admired and respected, and that the reputation of a patron or protector of the arts would be important.

Maximian's large number of coveted masterpieces of art aroused Barentia's strong interest, especially in the short Second Romagna War, when the Austrian army appeared in time to contain the French army, which made her feel good about the emperor for a while, and in her opinion, doing such a deal with the emperor can be said to be beneficial to both sides.

And Alexander's letter to her also made Barendi guess that Alexander seemed to have some new plan for dealing with France and Austria.

This is evident from the fact that he first sacked the Fugger house so that half of the Emperor's treasury collapsed at once, and then he suddenly lent the Emperor a large sum of money through old Rovelle to support him in arming his army and continuing to fight the French.

"Since it's all about giving money to the Austrians, why can't I take the opportunity to get enough out of it?" Barenti's calculations were astoniting, and her supposed benefits were paintings, carvings, books, and a large collection of precious books that had been collected in the Duomo of Milan for Maximian.

When she heard that the French had dismantled the 12 bronze angel statues on the corner roof of the Milan Cathedral, which was being renovated, and prepared to transport them back to France, she immediately asked the envoy to bring her a message of interest in the 12 bronze angel statues to the emperor.

Maximian heard this and hesitated for a while, the 12 angel statues were designed and carved by the famous sculptor master Bavivoli Vion when the Milan Cathedral was still capped, although the cathedral is still under construction, but people can't wait to install the 12 angel statues on the four corners of the base, since then Milanese people will involuntarily look up at those angel statues when they pass by every day, which seems to allow them to feel the light from God through these statues.

But now that the statues were to be sold, Maximian was a little hesitant, and he was a little worried that it might anger the Milanese just after he had recently declared Sforza's status as Duke of Milan inviolable.

What Maximian didn't expect was that it was Ludviko Sforza who helped him with this dilemma.

The Duke of Milan, who had been driven away for more than a month, finally obtained the emperor's public declaration of the protection of his title after returning to Milan under the protection of the Austrian army, which made Sforza overjoyed, but he also knew that the emperor was not in a good situation now, so he immediately took the initiative to hand over all the spoils that the French had seized and collected to the Austrians, even those things that were stolen from his palace He did not show the slightest intention to regain them, and when he heard that the 12 bronze angel statues could be sold for a good price, Sforza approached Maximian and offered the idea of using the 12 bronze statues for more military expenses for the emperor.

Maximian was overjoyed by Sforza's intellect, and after encouraging the duke, the emperor sent again to Montina to tell Barentia: "Everything is negotiable. ”

To the surprise of Emperor Maximian, it was not Barentia who had asked the messenger to bring back the reply, but Montina's Genoese regiment.

As a Genoese regiment that was not very favored in Alexander's army, its position in Montina's army was somewhat embarrassing.

Because of their Genoese origin, the army was still nominally Genoese, although the command of the army was entirely owned by Alexander. So even though they had participated in almost every Balkan expedition of Alexander, and had done their best to prove themselves in the Battle of Bucharest, they were still slightly different from the rest of Montina's army.

This was not just because of their distinctive Genoese equipment and clothing, nor because they flew the Genoese flag instead of Montina's pennant, but because, at least nominally, the real master of their army was Barentia.

Upon her return to Monttina, the Genoese regiment was handed over to Barentia by Alexander, who had transferred the Genoese regiment to the north of the territory at the height of the Battle of Ferrara, when she was ready to face the French directly.

When her life was at stake, Barendi instinctively chose to believe in her fellow countrymen, and although the confrontation with the French was ultimately avoided, the Genoese regiment somewhat re-established its reputation for the great damage caused by the danger of other troops in Bucharest several times.

Joining the Genoese regiment in northern Italy was a small but brave Bohemian cavalry, which was not left behind by Nathan, but was sold to Alexander by Sophia at a very "reasonable" price.

Many of these cavalrymen from Bohemia became mercenaries like the Wallachians, and when Alexander returned to Italy, Sophia leased them to Alexandria as a labor export, along with the Wallachians as an "export commodity".

The appearance of this army, which totaled about 2,500 men, did not attract much attention in the first place, after all, 2,500 men was really nothing for a battlefield where the total number of men on both sides had reached nearly 80,000.

But what neither side expected was that the army did not stop after entering the Lombardy region, but advanced along the road north of Genoa towards the east.

The Emperor, who did not receive accurate information until two days after Montina's army entered Lombardy, was astonished that, although he had recaptured Milan, he was well aware that the defeat at the Battle of Varese had caused his field forces heavy losses, and that without the reinforcements brought by Kotschach, the only thing he could do was to retreat to Vienna with the remnants of the defeated army.

Now an army appeared that did not seem to have a large number of troops, but it was frequently active behind him, and although he had received help from the Count of Montina before, the Emperor still felt very uncomfortable with the frequent movement of an army of unknown origin behind him.

For Louis XII, any army that appeared in Lombardy at this time was sensitive and suspicious.

Louis XII, who had lost the logistics base of Milan, in order to ensure the safety of his army, immediately ordered the French army, which was preparing to pursue the victory on the battlefield, to quickly withdraw from the battlefield after receiving the report of the loss of Milan.

The French had to make another painful withdrawal, as Charles VIII had done, and at the same time were being pursued by the Austrian army from Varese, who had been defeated by an unexpected comeback, and the French army had to be on guard against the siege of Turin and Milan.

In this difficult situation, they had to retreat to Alexandria.

It was only then that the horrors of the deployment of Austrian troops in Turin and Varese were realized.

When Varese's victory was offset by the loss of Milan, the Austrians in the direction of Turin became a serious threat that could cut off his retreat back to France at any moment.

To Louis XII's great surprise and Maximian's skillful arrangement on the battlefield, if it were not for the fact that the Swiss had indeed gained independence, he would have even suspected that the defeat of the Austrian army in Switzerland might have been a smokescreen deliberately used by the emperor to induce him to send troops to Italy.

At a time when it was inevitable to be cranky because he overestimated the emperor's strategy, the appearance of the Genoese army, which had always belonged to Montina, made Louis XII even more suspicious.

Louis XII's strange attitude towards the French had already caught Louis XII's attention, especially after the elder Roveret seemed to have become in frequent contact with the emperor, and Louis XII had already vaguely guessed that this might be the key to the transformation of the Roveret family.

At such a time, such an army suddenly entered Lombardy and then advanced eastward, and Louis XII immediately became cautious.

2,500 men was not much, but if they were united with the Austrian army, it would mean that the French would face encirclement from three directions, and Louis XII was even more uneasy about how the Genoese would react.

If it were not for such a single army, but for the whole of Genoa openly siding with the emperor, Louis XII felt that his only option was to withdraw his troops immediately and return to France, even if he lost the opportunity to annex Milan and Naples, rather than being forced to withdraw after suffering the same heavy losses as his predecessors.

Although the weather in Lombardy in November was cool and not dry, the rich humidity brought to the plain by the Tyrenian Sea fertilized the vast land, making Lombardy the richest grain region in the history of Italy.

Louis XII lamented the fertility of the land and coveted its wealth, but he knew that because Lombardy was so good, there was the most competition for this land in history.

"Your Majesty, it's a little cold outside." One of the attendants cautioned that while the king was known for his generosity, he was also terrible when he was in a bad mood.

"Haven't you come yet?" The king asked suddenly, but he knew what the king was asking.

"No, not yet, Your Majesty." The squire replied in a low voice.

Louis XII exhaled, and a white mist immediately surged in front of him, and then the white mist drifted away with the wind and disappeared.

He looked up at the clear but cool sky, and after a moment turned and walked towards the house behind him, where his temporary imperial camp was.

The silence was suddenly broken by the sound of horses' hooves, which were so fast that they almost went straight in the direction of the king's camp.

Louis XII paused and turned to look, though he wasn't sure if it was the man he was waiting for, but maybe it was something else important?

A soldier jumped off his horse and held a letter high before he was stopped by the guards.

"Your Majesty, letter from Naples!"

The letter was written by Charlon, and Louis XII, who opened the letter, closed the letter after only two lines, and then opened it after a while and read it slowly.

"Your Majesty, since Isardien and Corsican threatened Gonzalo de Córdoba to abandon the attack on Naples, the Neapolitan army once again confronted our French army, and in the early morning of October 29, the Neapolitan army suddenly attacked our troops stationed outside the city with artillery, and then the enemy launched an attack on the city of Naples, and at the same time a large number of spies mixed in the city joined forces with the enemy, Your Majesty, I have to ask you here, on November 2, Naples was lost."