Elliot stood in the pale white wilderness uncertainly, feeling bitter in his heart.

The Viscount of Taranto was now an emissary of the Allied forces in Wallachia, and Elliot had heard many legends about her before meeting the Grand Duchess for the first time, but none of them were as strong as the shock and surprise that followed the meeting.

According to Elliott's later private retinue to his retinue, it was a miracle that the Grand Duchess would become the lover of the Duke of Thesia, and that the two of them were able to give birth to twins.

Elliott had the impression that Alexander was actually a very dull man, and he seemed to be very methodical in everything he did, and it was difficult to see the duke acting very casually, according to the passionate Italians, who was dull and boring.

But the Archduchess of Wallachia was a different story altogether, and despite the legends about her bravery or the exaggerated legends, the Archduchess was a spoiled little girl who apparently thought that everything should be done according to her will, and that she would lose her temper if she didn't.

As in the discussion of how to fight the Aragonese, Sofia showed unusual toughness, demanding that the Wallachians be the main attack on the Aragonese army, and quite self-consciously setting the time for the attack to be the day before Christmas.

This decision was a difficult day for the Coalition forces, but it didn't matter to the Wallachians, Orthodox Christmas was much later than this one, and Sophia chose this day to clearly embarrass Josa.

It's just that Elliott, who has been worried that Jisha will not agree, didn't expect that the Queen of Naples just moved her eyebrows slightly and nodded in agreement to this time, which made the viscount, who originally thought it would take a lot of speech, to be a little disappointed.

On December 22, 1501, the coalition forces marching from Palermo and Messina to Calibo, south of Sicily, had reached Ragusa and Noto, not far from Calibo.

Ragusa is a big city in the south of Sicily, the city was famous for its olive oil in Roman times, and it was the olive oil business that made Ragusa grow rapidly, and by the late Middle Ages Ragusa was a large city in the south with nearly 20,000 people.

And because of its distance from places like Palermo or Messina, which are inevitably involved in any kind of disputes, Ragusa has quietly become a trading center in southern Sicily, and with its relatively easy access to water, it has been quite prosperous for a while.

The arrival of the coalition forces caused quite a stir in Ragusse, and although it had been known that the Aragonese army had landed at Caribo, and that they had sent emissaries to ask Ragusa to provide them with all the supplies they needed, the locals did not take it too seriously.

They always believed that war was still far away from them, and that whoever ruled Sicily only had to send a representative to swear allegiance, and as for which side to choose, the Ragusa people were not very interested from top to bottom.

Unlike the Sicilians elsewhere, the Ragusa are more realistic and philistine, they can do business with anyone, they can make friends with anyone, they don't have to kill someone in the family because they have a feud with someone else, they prefer to deal a fatal blow to the other person in business if they can, rather than relying on the trick of using a knife to settle disputes.

The Ragusa are an alternative to Sicily, and because of this they do not talk to the rest of Sicily.

The suddenness of the war left the Ragusa at a loss, but they quickly adapted to the change.

The Ragusa were slick and sent large quantities of grain, meat, olive oil and wine to the Caribo, hoping to get rid of the insatiable Aragonese as soon as possible.

At the same time, however, they reported the news to Palermo, and in the eyes of the Ragusa they had done their duty, and nothing else had anything to do with them, so when the coalition forces suddenly appeared outside the city, the Ragusa were at a loss.

However, they immediately sent an envoy to meet the coalition forces, and when they learned that it was actually the queen of Naples herself, the city governor of Ragusa immediately went to meet with the officials and local nobles.

She was kind enough to summon the local noble squires of Ragusa, knowing that she would need to use them to take care of the city for her in the future, so she showed the charm of a benevolent queen, even though she knew that the people of Ragusa were not welcoming her.

In Noto, Sofia apparently did not have so much trouble, and she led her army along the coastline with a rapid advance along the coastline under the local guide that the Messians had found for her, and when she reached Noto, Sofia made a temporary stop here, for she wanted to know where she was now.

Although she only knew that the two sides would meet in a big way, and she did not explicitly state that she would personally command, Sophia believed that just as she would definitely come, Jisha would definitely come to the battlefield.

The experience in Bucharest made Sophia believe that she had strengths on the battlefield that no one else could match, which once made her quite proud, because it was obviously impossible for Barendi or Lucrezia to compare with her in this regard, and as for Josha, she may have some trouble, but she should not be stronger than her.

However, when the news of the Italian war reached Wallachia, Sophia felt a little uncomfortable, and she knew that her role in Bucharest was more like a flag, which was very different from the fact that Jossa actually commanded a war in Italy in place of Alexander, in which several countries participated.

Especially after the famous Battle of Siena, Josa was given the title of "Commander-in-Chief", a title that has hardly been received by women since ancient times, which made Sophia feel as if she was eating her favorite sweets and suddenly mixed something bad.

So she was anxious to prove her worth on the battlefield again, at least to make her understand that this time she was not willing to come to Sicily to be her foil.

Noto is not well known among the port towns of Sicily's coast, and this port town is not much bigger than Calibo in terms of size.

In fact, in southern Sicily, both the inland Ragusa and the coastal port of Victoria are more suitable for landing or garrisoning than Noto and Caribo.

The reason why Count Don Sanchod chose to land at Calibo, and to stay in this small coastal port town rather than march inland, was that he had carefully studied the deeds of the Queen of Naples before setting out.

The Count did not despise the enemy because the opponent was a woman, and he earnestly inquired about the queen from some Catalans who had just returned to Aragon and had fought in the Italian war, and then he came to the conclusion that "this woman is not simple" is not very optimistic.

Count Don Sanchod was worried that the coalition would attack him before the Aragonese fleet returned, but he was more worried that the enemy fleet would attack his convoy at sea, so he sent a large number of men to reconnoiter the coastal port docks near Kalibo to be ready to move to other parts of Sicily by sea, while keeping the fleet out of the coast off the coast of Cari to prevent it from being attacked by the coalition fleet.

However, he did not expect that the sudden appearance of Wallachia in Messina had ruined his original plan to advance to the southeastern coast of Sicily and then rapidly expand the territory occupied in Sicily, so that the Aragonese army of Count Don Sanchod seemed to be in danger of being surrounded by the enemy.

If Josa was a true queen in Ragusa, Sophia was like a foreign conqueror in Noto, who brutally forced a large number of houses in Noto to give her army, and at the same time offered the locals to levy all kinds of supplies to supply her soldiers.

Sophia had always been very hostile to Sicily, and she felt that the people of this place were her enemies, and it was because of them that she and Alexander were forced to separate, otherwise perhaps they were now raising children in some corner of Sicily and living happily.

When news of the Wallachian arrival in Noto reached Calipo, Count Don Santchud was drinking tea with the abbot.

The two men had become good friends since the last conversation, and although the Count did not know much about the past of the abbot, who was supposedly sent from the Grand Diocese of Rome, he had learned a lot about the Duke of Thessia from the abbot.

Though it was strange that the abbot seemed to know the duke too well, he wrote a letter to Aragon for the king's reference.

When he heard of the arrival of the Wallachians, Count Don Tantiud noticed that the abbot seemed to have a strange expression, and it was the first time the count had seen the abbot lose his temper.

"Rest assured, Abbot, those Orthodox Christians will not encroach on your holy monastery, for I will not allow this to happen." After reassuring the abbot, Count Don Sanchod immediately ordered all the officers to be summoned, and he looked a little excited and even faintly happy, "It's a little faster than I thought, but it's okay, they're just in time." ”

Count Don Sanchod smiled at the men who were soon coming, for it was the first time he had come to Sicily that he had been so relaxed, and although he had always seemed confident before, he had always been very cautious in the face of strong enemies.

This relaxed appearance made his men a little puzzled, because according to the Count's plan, they had already prepared the route of marching along the coastline to the northeast, and now the appearance of the Wallachians had disrupted the original plan, so why did the Count show such a look?

"It's a good situation for us, isn't it," Don Santyud said to the generals in front of him with some excitement, "and now our enemies have not yet converged, this is a rare opportunity for us, I have been worried that the Neapolitans will let their fleet attack our ships, if that happens, maybe we will be in great trouble, but our enemies are too anxious, the Neapolitans are in Ragusa, and the Wallachians are in Noto, do you know what that means?" Count Santchud looked at the officers in front of him and asked excitedly, "This is our chance, a good opportunity to break the enemy individually." ”

The Count's words made the officers equally excited.

Despite the strength of the Aragonese army, they were still apprehensive about the expedition far from their homeland, since unlike their previous battles with the Italians, or even the Ottomans, they did not have any support in Sicily, while their enemies could get enough help from their mainland in time.

It can be said that before the return of the Aragon fleet, the expeditionary force of Count Don Santchud was not in a very good situation.

But now, as the Count had said, a golden opportunity had appeared before them that could be broken by each.

"But it's Christmas soon, my lord." An officer said with some hesitation: "It doesn't seem like a good idea to start a war on this holy day." ”

"But those Wallachians are Orthodox."

"But this is Sicily."

The officers could not help arguing, and they kept talking until they noticed that the Count had not spoken.

"Ready to pull!" Don Santyud did not explain anything, but gave the officers a direct order: "Throw away everything you don't need, bring only enough dry rations, and we will rush to Noto to meet the Wallachians before the Neapolitans can react." ”

There was only a brief silence, and then the room burst into cheers, and the vague uneasiness that had been felt since the landing finally relaxed at this moment as Don Santchud made up his mind to fight.

The Aragonese army was unusually swift as soon as it began to move, and the strength of the army, honed by the wars of the Reconquista, despite the many years had passed, was on full display, and the sound of the armour rubbing against the armours of the Aragonese as they hurried through the streets, and the icy cold light of the weapons in the winter enveloped the Caribo.

This caused many locals to rush to the city's church out of anxiety, praying that they would not be drawn into this sudden war.

Snowflakes were drifting on the sea, and the woods outside Noto were already covered with a thin layer of hoarfrost.

Sophia wrapped herself in a thick fur coat and shrunk her body, revealing only a face that had shed its baby fat and had begun to show the characteristic charm of a young woman

The curved eyebrows are much more slender than before, and it also makes her always seem to be so energetic that she can never run out of liveliness to become a little gentle.

However, the current Sophia has somewhat destroyed this rare beautiful image because of her bulging cheeks.

Especially when she stuffs a sticky gum in her mouth, she looks like a fat groundhog when she moves her mouth.

A local stole a glance at Sophia, a guide who had been half-forced to be brought to her by the Wallachians, who had thought he was going to be food for some terrible and cruel pagan king.

What he didn't expect was that he saw a young woman who was so beautiful that he was dumbfounded, and she was also a female archduchess.

It's just that now the appearance of the archduchess eating sweets greedily made the guide a little disappointed, you must know that when he first met her, this person even thought that he had met Diana, the goddess of hunting in ancient Roman legends.

The man thought so at the time, because he saw Sophia shoot a dog barking at her with a delicate crossbow, which immediately silenced the few Noto officials who were complaining to her at the time.

Sophia then stationed her army in the city of Noto, but instead of rushing to find a place to rest, she took a group of officers and guides to the outskirts of the city not far from Noto.

"This is a good place," Elliot sighed as he looked at the undulating terrain that then sloped toward the shore side, and then he looked back tentatively like Sophia, who kept stuffing caramel into her mouth, "Your Highness, are you planning to fight the Aragonese here?" ”

Sophia tilted her head slightly and thought about it, and then waved her hand casually, as if to say perfunctorily: "This is it." ”

Elliott couldn't help but be stunned for a while, especially when he remembered what Shosha had told him before.

"Your Majesty thinks that the Aragonese will take the initiative to attack us," Elliot felt the need to remind the Grand Duchess of the seriousness of the situation, "Count Don Thornchud was Ferdinand's right-hand man, and he was a difficult soldier to deal with in the Reconquista. ”

Sophia glanced at Oreot, then took out two more pieces of gummy from the bag held by the maid next to her and put them in her mouth, as the slightly sour sweet taste spread in her mouth, Sophia's big eyes immediately bent into two crescents of satisfaction.

Elliot patiently continued to explain to Sophia the situation at hand, the Wallachians were about 2,000, the coalition army was about 4,500, and the Aragonese were 6,000.

In fact, this is a situation in which both sides are evenly matched, both in terms of strength and situation.

Aragonese's fleet may soon return to the western shores of the Mediterranean to blockade Sicily and cut off the coalition retreat, while the coalition fleet could be ready to attack the Aragonese convoy and leave the expeditionary force alone.

At this time, the battle at sea and on land became extremely important for both sides, and any defeat could lead to a change of control of Sicily.

And now the situation is no less serious for the coalition forces that have not yet converged.

"If the Wallachians had landed in Palermo at that time......"

This thought had come to Elliot more than once, but he also knew that it could only be ifs after all.

The fact is that, according to the intelligence, the Aragon army had already taken the initiative from Caribo and was approaching Noto, and it was clear that Don Santyud's intention was to break each of them before the coalition forces converged.

And he chose to target the Wallachians, who were clearly inferior in numbers.

"Your Highness, two days, as long as we hold on for two days, we can wait for Her Majesty's reinforcements." Elliot patiently told Asha that although the Aragonese were menacing, it should not be difficult for him to hold out for two days.

It's just that he didn't notice that listening to his words, Sophia's face that was originally smiling because of the smell of gum candy had gradually lost her smile, and her eyes were fixed on the plain leading to the south in front of her, and suddenly she raised her hands and patted it hard.

An attendant immediately walked over, and under Elliott's inexplicable gaze, Sophia pulled out a piece of paper from a small wooden office box that the attendant had opened and wrote a few words crookedly, and then she took off the ring seal hanging from her neck, dipped it in ink, and pressed it the paper.

Elliott quietly looked at the ugly handwriting, and then his face turned ugly.

"Attack!"

That's the only word on that piece of paper.