Venetians on the retreat?

A Milanese knight on his horse tugged at the reins, his eyes under his thick armor mask looking back in confusion in the direction from which the horn had come from, and although it was impossible to see what was happening outside the town, he instinctively made the move.

Behind him, the Milanese knights looked equally stunned, and some of them even struggled to turn their horses' heads to see what had happened.

Naturally, the charge stopped inexplicably, and the two sides were at a stalemate with each other only a few dozen meters away, separated by corpses all over the street and various obstacles and debris abandoned on the side of the road.

"My lord, we can hit this distance." A musketeer whispered to Alexander, as if he was afraid that the Milanese on the other side would hear it.

Alexander slowly put down the musket in his hand, and the continuous shooting of this heavy weapon for a long time had made his shoulders and arms almost numb, and looked at the Milan cavalry opposite him who was cramped in place, Alexander slowly shook his head.

"Go tell Gompati to stop shooting." Alexander suddenly remembered that he had just sent Paolo Busako to give Gompati the order to bombard the Milanese with all his might, and it was obvious that it would be superfluous to do so, and he estimated that perhaps something new had taken place outside the town.

Soon, Alexander proved his guess from the actions of that group of Milanese cavalry.

The Milanese began to retreat.

Looking at the Milanese cavalry that had changed direction, Alexander slowly leaned against the breastwork of the barricade, he looked back at the soldiers next to him, and gave a third order to Gompati to one of the soldiers next to him.

"Go and tell Gompati that he can do what I gave him."

The soldier immediately turned around and ran towards the terrace, only a distance of more than 100 meters, and soon ran there, on the way the soldier also met Carlo and Ofleuil, who had just heard the news.

"What happened? Where are you going? Carlo shouted at the sergeant, if he hadn't seen him running towards the terrace, perhaps he would have taken the man for a deserter, after all, the previous battle had been so fierce that not only the Genoese, but even the Agri had fled.

"I'm going to give the butcher an order," the soldier accidentally called out Gompati's nickname, "Milan looks like she's running away!" ”

"What did you say?" Carlo was stunned for a moment, as if he thought he had misheard, and looked back at Ofleiyi next to him, and then saw the same surprised expression on Ofleiyi's face, "You said that the Milanese ran away?" How is this possible? ”

"I don't know, I'm going to give orders." The soldier kept running towards the terrace, and when he reached the artillery position, he looked at the terrible artillery with awe, and then ran to Gompati and Paolo Busako, who were also looking puzzled.

"My lord, let me tell you, you can do what he gave you before."

For a moment Gompati seemed a little surprised, and he pressed the soldier for Alexander's orders, and until he was sure that he had been mistaken, he looked back in the direction of the Milanese, and then took out a note from his pocket with a string of numbers written down on it.

Gompati quickly adjusted the direction and height of the cannon with the wooden disc under Paulo Busako's bewildered gaze, while Busako could hear himself muttering: "How is this possible, are the Milanes really defeated?" ”

Soon, the angle of fire of the artillery was finally determined, and looking at the skids that had been sawed at different angles under the barrels of the guns, Gompati whispered again: "It seems that it has to be changed." ”

Then he took a deep breath and gave the order to the artillerymen, who were already waiting: "Shoot!" ”

The artillery fired in unison, and this time it was not even tested with a single cannon first.

The cannonballs roared into the air with a roar and muzzle flames, whistling towards the furthest reaches of the town's edge.

Gompati did not immediately order the cannon to be reloaded, but ran a few steps ahead to see the direction in which the shells were flying, despite the pungent smell of gunpowder.

Soon, there was a loud sound of cannonballs hitting the ground at the edge of the town, but because of the dense houses blocking it, he could only judge the distance of the impact point from the few thin columns of smoke that rose immediately.

"Damn, it's not accurate," Gompati scolded in displeasure, and he returned to a cannon to continue to carefully adjust the angle of the shelling, and when he had calculated again, he gave the order to shoot.

A few shells flew into the sky again, this time with a much more concentrated shelling effect than before, which made Gompati slightly satisfied, while Paolo Busako next to him was puzzled.

"What are you fighting here?"

"Don't you want to know?" Gompati was busy resetting the artillery, and casually said, "This place is a well outside the town of Oral. ”

At this point, Gompati paused and looked at Paul Busako as if he was a little stunned, and then the two people with ignorant faces pouted in unison.

"Adults sometimes give inexplicable orders," Gompati said casually as he worked.

Paul Busako didn't open his mouth at first, as the captain of Alexander's guard, he knew exactly when to be silent, but as he watched the third round of shells fly out in the direction of "that well" that Gompati had said, Busako hesitated and finally said:

"Sometimes it does, but we all know he must have done it for a reason."

"There is a reason," Gompati nodded, "and for the well, he told me after he had the Bohemians search the town, and for this I even went to measure the distance from here to the well, so I believe there is a reason." ”

Gompati didn't know why Alexander had to ask him to record the maximum distance he could shoot at the dry well on the edge of the town of Oral, and he could only arrange the artillery fire at the angle calculated after the previous record.

And the first time those shells fell at a distance from the dry well, they caused panic among the Milanese.

Because it was one of the main routes for the Milanese to retreat outside the town.

The sudden retreat of the Venetians unnerved the Milanese, who were frantically attacking the town, and immediately shook the Milanese's position.

They did not know, of course, that this consequence was caused by their own actions, but that the left flank of the Venetians had suddenly been routed, and that some of the fleeing Venetians had fled to the town in a panic, and that the disturbing news had spread among the Milanese.

But before the Milanese could figure out whether the panicked Venetians were true or false, more and more scattered Venetians fled from their positions.

And so the news they brought became disorganized.

But whatever it was, it only meant one thing, the Venetians were defeated.

How the 7,000 Genoese defeated the 10,000 Venetians, the Milanese had no time to figure out, just as their 5,000 men could never defeat Alexander's army, which had only 2,000 men.

The Milanese were worried about their current situation, and once the Venetians were defeated, the Genoese army might quickly turn around, and then the Milanese would be in danger of being completely surrounded and annihilated by the enemy!

The action that was supposed to annihilate the enemy turned into the possibility of being annihilated again, and the Milanese really don't know how this battle came to be.

Although some people had complained from among the Venetians that it was the result of their unauthorized departure from the battlefield, the Milanese did not want to argue with the embarrassed Venetians for this waste of tongue, let alone time.

What they had to do was to quickly get out of the battle with the enemy on the opposite side, and then evacuate the dangerous town while the Genoese had not turned around.

The Milanese also signaled a retreat, and the Milanese army began to retreat outside the town.

The clearing outside the town became dangerous, and it was not known if the Genoese would immediately surround them if they noticed their move, so the Milanese could only gather their army near an abandoned parapet built earlier on the edge of the town.

Even a retreat had to be as orderly as possible, and Milan's generals knew very well that an undisciplined retreat could turn into an uncontrollable rout.

But their enemies don't seem to want them to leave the town of a nightmare for the Milanese.

A string of seemingly aimless shells suddenly fell overhead.

Before the shells hit the ground, the whistling sound, which had already sounded a little familiar to the Milanese, attracted the attention of many people, who all looked up at the sky, and most of them were confused, except for a few who suddenly thought of something.

Then they felt as if the ground around them suddenly jumped, and then smoke and dust rose in all directions, and there was chaos.

A cannonball smashed into the ground, but because it was already full of mud and the ground was so soft in early summer, the huge projectile landed on the soft grass, jumped up slightly and pulled a short shallow ditch in the ground, and then it didn't move.

The commotion caused by another nearby cannonball was a little bigger, and it landed directly on a tent, except for the tent that instantly smashed the tent into a hollow and the four corners were vacated, accompanied by a loud noise, and a large flickering golden light flew straight into the sky like a fountain that suddenly gushed out of the ground, and then fell with a crackle.

Instantly, it rained gold coins near the parapet.

"God!" A Milanese general let out a low cry, unaware that the coincidental shell had actually hit a tent full of military boxes.

Seeing the golden rain in the sky, the mercenaries, who were originally a little panicked by the shelling, instantly became excited.

They scrambled desperately towards the spot where the gold coins had been dropped, and there were even some Venetians among them.

"Stop! I command you to stand! ”

A Milanese officer shouted loudly, and next to him several of his cronies raised their spears and threatened the mercenaries who were rushing towards them, but no one paid any attention to them, some of them turned slightly and ran past them, and some simply rushed towards them.

The Milanese people involuntarily raised their spears, not because they were kind and could not bear to hurt their comrades, but because they saw more and more people rushing behind them, but even so, after only a little hesitation, they were knocked to the ground by the people who rushed over, and in the trampling of countless feet, the Milanese officer and his men kept rolling and struggling, and let out a miserable scream.

The officers and mercenary captains of the Milanese shouted desperately to prevent more people from getting involved in the chaos of the gold looting.

They began to feel frightened, and some involuntarily looked up at the sky, as if waiting for the next shelling.

"Here we go again!"

Sure enough, with a frightened cry from someone who didn't know, many people looked up at the sky, and when they saw the blurred black dot, the team that could barely hold on immediately fell into chaos.

The shells, which no one knew where they would fall, made everyone feel that they were in danger, and the only thing they could do for those with little experience of this kind of shelling was to instinctively take a step and run in all directions.

And once they started to flee, the seeds of panic began to sprout wildly in the crowd, unearthed and then sprinkled like a plague on more people.

The more crowded the place, the faster the panic and helplessness spread, and when the thousands of soldiers who had just experienced a bloody battle were suddenly swept away again by panic and terror, no one's deterrence or reprimand.

Milanese, collapsed.

The first to flee were the Venetians, and this time they used their actions to give the Milanese who had previously left the battlefield without permission to taste the same bitter fruit.

Seeing the hordes of Venetians desperately running towards the wilderness outside the town, some Milanese began to flee into the wilderness after them.

While the others were still hesitating, the cannonballs flying overhead again made them finally make up their minds.

More and more mercenaries broke away from the long-established ranks and ran into the wilderness, ignoring the resistance of the officers.

When the first team of mercenaries with flags under the leadership of their captain also fled into the distance, the commander of Milan clutched his head in agony.

The mercenary captains no longer helped the Milanese to prevent their men from escaping, but instead shouted to their companions and hurried out of town.

Even the Milanese began to riot and waver, they looked at each other with the same thoughts in each other's eyes.

"My lord, we have lost," said one of the Milanese knights, plucking up his courage to the commander, "and everyone has seen that we have done our best for the Sforza family, and now we must get out of here." ”

The commander slowly lowered his hand and raised his head, his face was dull, and he didn't seem to be fully conscious, but when he saw a few horsemen running by not far away, he seemed to suddenly calm down.

"We'll have to retreat," the commander slammed his head into a fist with his gloved hand, "but we can't go to the Venetians, they'll be eaten by that Calgino." ”

The commander said as he climbed onto his horse with difficulty with the help of his entourage.

"Blow the trumpet, gather the army as best we can, we will make a detour and retreat towards Reialo, Pitiglino is still there, we will go to him."

"And what about the others?" The knight whispered.

Hearing this, the commander showed anger: "They themselves chose to die, then let God punish them for their betrayal." ”

With that, the commander clamped the horse's belly hard, and with the neighing warhorse, he took a step and ran into the distance.

The commander's flag was moving, and many people saw this scene, and the first thought was "defeated".

No one thought about maintaining the last order, and the Milanese began to retreat like a tide out of town, some of them exchanging their weapons for a full load of gold coins, others simply empty-handed just to be able to run more easily.

When the last round of shells hit the open space near the dry well, there was not a single Milanese to be seen, except for some discarded debris.

This scene fell into the eyes of the two scouts, and they couldn't help but cheer loudly and whistling happily towards the town.

From afar, I could see the scouts running with their hats shaking, and even if they hadn't heard what they were shouting, many people could guess from their excitement that something big might have happened.

And in the first "Milanese ran away!" After the shouts were heard, an earth-shattering cheer erupted from behind the barricades.

Although after hearing about the retreat of the Venetians, they knew that the Milanese would definitely withdraw soon, but after hearing the news, the people couldn't help but shout and cheer excitedly.

Less than 3,000 to 5,000, they won, which is not only a proud achievement, but also a great significance for the Agri.

For the first time, the Agri proved their fierceness and bravery as a southern mountaineer in a real battle.

"My lord, are we going to launch a pursuit?" Carlo's face was flushed with excitement, and he looked at Alexander with shining eyes waiting for orders, and at this time Carlo felt that it was no problem for him to chase after Rearo.

Alexander did not answer immediately, but looked at the mesa not far away.

Just a little bit. Alexander laughed bitterly in his heart, and when he sensed that he had underestimated the madness of the Milanese in trying to destroy his artillery positions because of their hatred for the guns of Gompati, Alexander almost held on to the order to throw away the hard-won artillery, and then the whole army retreated.

And Alexander was also secretly glad that Cargino did not give up the rare opportunity to resolutely launch an attack on the Venetians.

Now it seems that everything is so logical, and perhaps even in the eyes of those who don't know the truth, Oral's battle is simply a classic battle of winning with less planned, but only Alexander understands how much effort and risk he has put in to achieve this result.

What if the Milanese were more determined to attack the artillery positions?

What if Cardino doesn't fight back in time?

What if the Agri can't hold out to the end?

But there are no ifs.

"Don't pursue," Alexander smiled lightly, "let's get ready to meet our friend who has won a great victory." ”

On the afternoon of May 3, 1497, in the town of Oral, Alexandre Giuliante Gombray triumphed.