The season of autumn rains is always sentimental and melancholy, poets will write some famous poems of sadness and sadness at this time, and the masters of art can also find inspiration in the fallen leaves that they have not been able to find, and for the peasants, as long as it is not too bad, such a season is always rewarding.

In short, there are various reasons why you don't like autumn, and there are reasons why you like autumn.

But for an army, such a season is the last thing they want to encounter.

When you want to find a place to rest, once you sit down, the clammy cool air quickly pours from your soaked pants into your stomach, which will make people immediately suffer from unbearable abdominal pain.

If you stand up and walk, then the cold wind mixed with the cold rain blows in through the cracks in the armor, and sways between the skin and the armor, and when the cold wind finally warms up, they fly out through other gaps, and then another group of "guests" arrives unexpectedly, which makes the heat and the whole body shiver.

It was a real annoyance to march in such a season, and looking at the soldiers struggling in the mire, Gonzalo had asked himself more than once if it was a bad decision to start a war at this time.

But in the end, he convinced himself.

Gonzalo did not live through the Franco-Austrian War of 1500, but that didn't stop him from knowing the course of that war.

To his surprise, although he had only been away from Italy for a few years, the European battlefield had changed almost dramatically.

Winter offensives that everyone thought were inconceivable were repeated on the battlefield in 1500, and both sides abandoned their winter camps and went to the field in spite of the cold, which seemed to Gonzalo, who had been in command of the anti-French coalition a few years earlier, to Gonzalo.

The changes brought to the battlefield by the new war situation were obvious, and even Gonzalo was now afraid to say that if he were to face the French again, he would still be able to defeat Louis XII as he had defeated Charles.

The same was true of the Iberian war, where Gonzalo received a joint order from Alexander and Josa before leaving Madrid to take over the troops at the military camp on the border.

Their intention was clear, to attack Aragon first before late autumn began.

In the order, Alexander explained to Gonzalo the situation outside the battlefield and asked him to know what the war needed to achieve, and Josa, as a commander-in-chief, carefully analyzed the reasons for choosing to start the war at this time.

This made Gonzalo himself deeply convinced that this choice was the right one.

Now, he is facing self-questioning about that choice.

As a qualified soldier, Gonzalo knew very well that he had to be firm in his beliefs at this time, and the slightest wavering could lead to disastrous consequences!

Gonzalo had already sent a large number of scouts, many of whom were Aragonese, which made them extremely familiar with the local terrain and deep into the village, and the report they brought back gradually stabilized Gonzalo's already anxious heart.

In Aragon there are several large rivers that flow into the Ebro, the largest of which is the Algar, which originates from Navarre.

It was also the inflow of this river that made it possible to use the only natural dam in the upper reaches of the Ebro River, which had a gentle flow into Aragon, and it was here that the Romans built the first hydraulic works in the Iberian Peninsula.

Gonzalo's target is the old town of Alfaro, where the Algar and Ebro rivers meet.

The entire town of Alfaro can be said to have been built on the ruins of ancient Roman works, and even the stones used to build houses and pave roads in the town were collected from the ruins of the original Roman works.

Therefore, the town of Alfaro inevitably has traces of the Roman era everywhere, so it is called Alfaro, and according to the local pronunciation, it is the Roman town.

The town of Rome is a small town built along the banks of the Ebro River, and because of the large difference in terrain, the whole town seems to be built on a huge staircase.

From the head of the town to the end of the town, the whole circle is made up of terraces that stretch down to each other, connected by steps that have been gradually carved out over the years, and because of the many twists and turns of the Ebro River in this area, the whole Roman town looks twisted and twisted.

The vanguard of the Aragonese army, sent by Ferdinand himself, sometimes met the Cassie coalition in a valley near the town of Rome, in a pure encounter, in which the two sides suddenly collided head-on in the unruly valley without any expectation.

After a brief confrontation due to an accident, the two armies, who had no time to form at all, engaged in a bloody battle in this rocky valley.

The Aragonese were outnumbered, while the coalition was well-armed.

The battle between the two sides turned into a brawl from the beginning of the battle, and the two armies, who had no tactics to speak of, first slowed down a little after a brief hand-to-hand encounter, and then each looked for terrain to rely on to try to defend.

But then the Aragonese found that kind of long-range mutual fire, obviously under the suppression of the opponent's superior firepower, their own side suffered.

So the Aragonese commander made what would later be regarded by countless as the most stupid decision.

He gave the order to come out from behind a small slope used for cover and took the initiative to attack the enemy.

The Sicilians were happy to see the enemy jumping around the rocky valley and having to make their way around the difficult places.

Even LaKush didn't have time to lament the decline of the Cold Weapon Age, he put away his knight's sword, drew a musket, and after aiming it at an enemy who looked like an officer, Rakush gave the order to shoot.

As a savage Balkan, Lakush apparently did not know the rule of not shooting officers on the battlefield, and this so-called rule was never really observed on the battlefield.

On the contrary, people in bright armor will always be the first target to be set on the battlefield, so Alexander has advised Josa more than once to keep a low profile on the battlefield and not dress so "to seduce men".

It wasn't the officer who was the first to be shot down, but he was clearly one of the first to die in battle.

Because of the difficulty of the roads in the valley, the Aragonese army could not rush to the enemy quickly, and they could not even maintain their formation, but could only form small groups and advance slowly in the middle of the rocks.

This gave the Sicilians the best chance, and the Sicilian soldiers were trained on a drill ground, unhurriedly and methodically reloading, tamping, fixing the flint, aiming and shooting, and then retreating to make way for their companions behind.

More and more Aragonese were shot down, and when dozens more soldiers lay in pools of blood, the Aragonese finally began to retreat.

The difficult terrain of the valley also prevented the coalition from pursuing, and they could only watch as the Aragonese jumped around and drifted away, leaving behind only a lifeless corpse.

The battle began inexplicably and ended wonderfully, so much so that when Kulash asked his clerk to write a report on the battlefield for him, he didn't know where to start.

So he simply asked the clerk to write everything he could think of to Gonzalo, and then threw the annoying questions to his superiors.

Gonzalo, on the other hand, was initially surprised by LaKush's report, but recently he was ecstatic.

Declaring war on Aragon and attacking despite the flood season in the autumn was all aimed at forcing Ferdinand to rush into battle.

Now, when Ferdinand discovers Cassie's intentions, Ferdinand wastes his forces to send an army to the upper reaches of the Ebro River to stop the coalition forces, which makes Gonzalo realize that their plan has indeed succeeded.

Ferdinand did not hesitate to send an army into the depths alone, apparently in order to contain Gonzalo so that he could organize an army in the country in time to counterattack.

However, this was obviously not so easy, and Ferdinand was now trying to gather the army against the clock, so he would rather risk the division of the army to send this force.

Realizing this, Gonzalo could not hide his excitement, knowing that Alexander's plan had succeeded.

"It's not going to be a long war."

The promise of the Queen of Sicily once again lingered in his ears, and Gonzalo had a completely different understanding of this sentence at this time.

"No war is just a contest on the battlefield, and you can often get things at the negotiating table that you can't get on the battlefield."

Gonzalo had once dismissed Alexander's words, but now he was seriously considering whether it was all as Alexander had said.

The capture of Rome was only the beginning for the coalition forces, and neither Kulash nor Gonzalo wanted to chase after the defeated enemy.

The former was due to the fact that the terrain of the Roman town prevented the Allied strikers from fully exploiting the power of their fire, and the previous battles in the valley could be described as more of luck, and the wrong decisions of the enemy commanders led to their defeat.

However, if they were to be replaced with a more experienced and more stable opponent, they would take advantage of the complex terrain of Roman Town to maneuver with allied forces, which would not do Kulash any advantage in solitary depths.

For Gonzalo, his aim was to destroy the main force of Aragonese's army, and it was a waste to waste precious time and forces on an enemy force that was clearly no longer a threat because of the defeat of the enemy.

There was a slight tingling sensation in the cold water of the Ebro River, and Gonzalo squatted by the river and slowly washed his face, he needed to be stimulated by the cold water to calm himself down a little.

The striker who beat the Aragonese didn't excite Gonzalo too much, and he knew it was the key next.

Ferdinand would never tolerate Zaragoza's choke by the Castilians, so his only option was to retake the Roman Town area at all costs.

"It's going to be a big battle......

Gonzalo looked at the flowing river and whispered to himself, but the coldness of the river did not extinguish the hot feeling in his heart, and finally stood up on his knees, Gonzalo exhaled towards the surface of the Ebro River, and then ripped open his pants and poured into the river.

Ferdinand's face was gloomy, and he even stared horribly at the ministers standing below.

He didn't know who had leaked the news of the defeat of Roman Town!

Although he knew that it was impossible to hide it for too long, he did not expect that the lie would be exposed so quickly. Chase the book

When he was told that rumors were going on outside that the battle in Rometown had actually been defeated, Ferdinand's first thought was that the damned soldier had leaked the news.

But when he was angry and wanted to know what the man had said to whom, he was surprised to hear about a late-night chase in Zaragoza.

Ferdinand was immediately keenly aware that the incident seemed to be related to the soldier, as the men he had sent to deliver the man had never returned.

If he hadn't cared about an entourage before, but when he heard about the events of that night, Ferdinand immediately thought that something might have happened.

He immediately sent people to the attendant, but no one had seen him since that night, and the others, because he had been ordered out of the city by order of the king, would not inquire about his whereabouts.

So no one thought at all that the entourage had actually had an accident.

Ferdinand immediately sent men around to search, and soon his men found out what had happened that night, and knew that the last person to see the soldier was probably an officer guarding the gates of Zaragoza.

But when Ferdinand's men broke into the man's house, they saw an empty house.

The owner of the house had disappeared two days earlier, along with his family and several servants.

And that soldier, with the disappearance of that officer, completely lost his whereabouts.

Ferdinand smelled a clear sense of conspiracy, but he didn't know who was secretly working against him.

If Gombray had done all this, Ferdinand would never have believed it, and he knew that if that was the case, he, the king of Aragon, would be about to come to an end.

However, Ferdinand did not believe that that Gombray would be able to make waves directly in Zaragoza.

But because of this, he was even more angry and alarmed.

For it meant that in Aragon, in the court of Zaragoza, there was a force secretly trying to plot against him.

And it's certain that whoever these people are, they clearly have enough power and influence.

This was only discovered from the late night chase and the rumors of the defeat of Roman Town, and everything that happened in the middle of the night was obviously deliberately concealed.

To be able to do this was a testament to the enormous influence of those men, and it was quickly discovered that the absconding officer was a minor local nobleman born and raised in Zaragoza.

But nothing useful could be found from those who were associated with him, and his relatives and friends were surprised that he had been involved in such troubles, and his colleagues in the army knew nothing about it.

Not only did this make the trail almost completely lost, but it also made Ferdinand realize that there was probably a group of enemies in Zaragoza that he had never been aware of, and that they clearly felt that the time was ripe to cause trouble.

His enemies were likely to be among the seemingly respectful nobles in front of him.

Ferdinand secretly wondered in his heart that he was now beginning to feel that he was lucky to be able to be a king for so many years in peace.

Still, if he thought about it, he could still detect signs that he hadn't noticed before.

When Isabella chose him as her husband, Ferdinand had fantasized that Isabella would marry him as queen rather than co-host.

For this reason, he secretly carried out a lot of activities, and even spent a lot of money to bribe several important cronies around Isabella, asking them to lobby for him in front of Isabella.

At that time, Ferdinand was almost successful, but no one expected that Isabella would suddenly change her mind, and in the years that followed, the Castilian people who secretly had an eye for Ferdinand were exiled and degraded for various reasons.

Ferdinand always believed that his plans were inadvertently leaked, which also provoked a violent reaction from Isabella.

But now he began to suspect that perhaps Isabella had been quietly told of his intentions, and unless that was the case, it would not be possible to explain the gradual elimination of those people.

It didn't matter what the truth was about the past, and now he was facing doubts from the Zaragoza nobility.

"Then do you think I should apologize to you," Ferdinand stared at the nobles with a gloomy face, "and I must apologize to you just because you ate and drank all night in my court, and how many of you really cared about what was happening at the front. ”

"Your Majesty, you have gone too far," replied a nobleman's voice in a stiff voice, "we have the right to know what is happening on the battlefield, after all, it concerns our army. ”

"It's my army!"

Ferdinand roared in anger as he stood up and walked over to the nobleman, his fingers poking hard at his chest.

"Don't forget that I am your king, and even less that I am exempt from many of your taxes and obligations, and the only condition is that I be provided with the army I need. So you don't have the right to complain to me! ”

The nobleman's face was pale, and he seemed to want to say something, but under Ferdinand's stern gaze, the nobleman's expression gradually became uneasy.

"I am your king," Ferdinand raised his hand and pressed it on the nobleman's shoulder, gradually pressing, "If you still admit this, kneel before me and ask for my forgiveness." ”

The nobleman glanced at the hand on his shoulder, his cheeks trembling slightly, as if he was struggling, but finally he slowly knelt down.

"Please forgive me, my majesty."

The aristocratic disillusionment made Ferdinand secretly satisfied, but also a little disappointed.

Not this person, he thought to himself.

Then his gaze fell on the silent nobles, and seeing their helpless looks, although they were annoyed in their hearts, he erased several objects of suspicion in his heart.

Ferdinand guessed that the enemy would not be stupid not to expose himself at this time, they must be very deeply hidden, and they must be people he could not have imagined.

So who will it be?

While Ferdinand couldn't help but think about it, he kept thinking about how to deal with the embarrassing situation in front of him.

It is a shame for a king to be forced to lie to maintain his confidence among the nobility, let alone to be caught.

However, at this time, he could not take care of much, on the contrary, the exposure of the lie made Ferdinand finally breathe a sigh of relief.

He suddenly realized that it didn't seem to be a very difficult thing to expose everything to everyone.

"I need your army, your knights, and your experienced officers," said Ferdinand, like the nobles, "and if you don't want a Neapolitan woman, or simply a Castile to sit on this throne, leave your army and your own destiny to me." ”

The nobles looked at each other, knowing that neither as courtiers nor as an Aragonese could refuse Ferdinand's request, which would make them traitors to Aragon.

And Ferdinand's words did deeply move them, they could not imagine how a foreign monarch would rule over them, which made them choose him instinctively, even if they did not like Ferdinand.

Under the leadership of a general, the nobles handed Ferdinand the hilt of the sword representing their power upside down, and when they saw him symbolically holding each hilt, many people did not have the thought of "I don't know if this is right or wrong".

While the people were still angry and talking about the defeat of Rometown, something changed quietly in the court of Zaragoza.

Ferdinand suddenly ordered the appointment of a group of his personal retinues as the courtiers, although this position may not seem special, but the attentive person will find that these new ministers who have just taken office have been entrusted with the important responsibility of protecting the court.

At the same time, Ferdinand reappointed the commander of the city defense of Zaragoza.

Although this may not completely eliminate the threat of the hidden enemy, at least Ferdinand was aware and prepared.

This might have allowed his enemies to act cautiously, and the time he had bought was what Ferdinand desperately needed right now.

The changes that took place in the court did not hide from the eyes of the archbishop.

This made the archbishop realize that Ferdinand must have been aware of the danger lurking around him.

In the Cathedral of Zaragoza, the archbishop strolled slowly and pondered what to do with Ferdinand, until a priest came from a distance and stopped a few paces away from him to bow down.

"My lord, I'm back."

Seeing the clergy archbishop's eyes lit up, he lowered his voice as the clergyman took his hand and kissed it, "And what news did you bring back?" ”

"My lord, Archbishop Paul of Valencia greets you," replied the priest respectfully, noting that the Archbishop was still waiting, and continued, "and the Duchess of Gandino has asked me to bring you her greetings to you, and the Duchess has asked me to convey a word to you. ”

As he spoke, the priest straightened up, looked at the archbishop, and said slowly but clearly: "Inspired by God, the second verse of 1 Timothy is the true meaning. ”

"Prayer and blessings for kings and all those in authority that we may live in godliness and uprightness and peace."

The archbishop nodded slightly, a knowing smile on his face.