From the Chimone hill to the new castle of Montina, one passes through a land about forty fats wide, which is often overcast and sunless because of the dense forests that cover it all year round.

There have been many legends about this primeval forest, among which the most popular one is the story of the Rose Cave.

In this story, there are both stubborn but still kind old kings, beautiful and brave princesses, and naturally there are young and handsome princes, witches and accomplices who are hated and spurned by everyone.

But these obviously pagan tales did not impress Giovanni Borgia, who was now watching the forest and the paths looming in the woods wring his thick eyebrows together, and Giovanni was not much better at this time than the legendary prince who was frustrated by the frustration of his love.

"If I had to go through here to get to Montina, I'd rather take a longer detour." Giovanni said to the people around him, "This kind of place is the nightmare of the army, and I can imagine that a few old ladies with sticks and a dog can make my army suffer a lot in this forest." ”

"My lord, we could lose a lot of time if we took a detour, and there was no place on the road that could supply us with so many troop supplies."

There was some anxious reminder from his men, who didn't quite understand why Giovanni insisted on taking a detour, although it was indeed a dangerous option to go through the forest, but in all seriousness it was actually similar for both sides.

If their enemies are going to organize an attack in the forest, they must also consider how to fight the enemy, but also consider that the dense and gloomy terrain will also affect them.

So as long as you are careful during the march, it is not completely impossible to walk through the forest.

But now Giovanni's stubbornness confused his men, as if he knew that the enemy would ambush him in the forest.

"Detour," Giovanni stubbornly ordered, looking at the hesitant generals and lowering their voices, "listen, I don't require you to understand what I think, but you must obey my orders." ”

Duke Gandino's words made several generals who were still hesitant immediately realize that the duke's temper was obviously on the verge of anger, which made them immediately nod their heads and express their willingness to obey the duke's orders.

Looking at these generals who were leaving, Giovanni sighed silently, he reached out and stroked the half mask on his face, the pain of the ruptured wound on his face that he had pulled because of anger made him feel very bad, after taking the wine jug from the hand of the attendant next to him and pouring it twice, he looked at the gloomy forest in front of him, but his face looked slightly better.

Giovanni didn't really care if the forest was dangerous, he wasn't a novice to the battlefield for the first time, and he wasn't one of those students who followed his teacher in a completely dogmatic way to learn all kinds of military knowledge, not only had he participated in the Reconquista with his half-brother Louis Borgia before, but he had also been sent to Queen Isabella several times as his brother's emissary to attend some important military meetings.

So he knew very well that the forest was not a very good battlefield for both warring sides, especially for the armies of Venice and Milan, who liked to rely on heavy infantry to crush their opponents, the forest was much more terrifying to them.

Giovanni wished he had arrived a little later, preferably after the Genoese had already engaged the enemy, and he felt that the best time to be on the battlefield was at that moment.

Just imagine that the enemy's formation had been unfurled, and the unsuspecting flanks were almost completely exposed to his army, and that it only took a charge, or at most a few fierce attacks, to tear the enemy apart little by little, and the result thrilled Giovanni.

Of course, it would be even more satisfying if that pesky Cambrai was inexplicably killed in battle.

When he heard the news that Alexander and Lucrezia were in love, Giovanni felt that he had been tricked.

He knew too well how important Lucrezia was to their father, which made Giovanni feel that it would be too bad if that Gombre became his brother-in-law.

Although he knew that it was a very small possibility, and that it was unlikely that their father would accept such a son-in-law who was useless to their family because of Lucrezia, Giovanni did not dare to bet that it would not happen.

Moreover, he knew very well that Alexander and he really did not get along.

The main thing is that Giovanni beware that Alexander and Caesar will come together!

Giovanni knew that his previous attempts to use Alexander must have aroused Alexander's disgust.

As for Caesar, although the relationship with Alexander is also tense, if you think about it carefully, you will find that the contradictions between them seem to be fierce, but in fact they are far from the point of life and death.

Ever since Caesar renounced his priesthood, Giovanni had felt tremendous pressure from his brother, and he naturally did not want another family member who might side with Caesar.

Although there was no basis for this, Giovanni was convinced that if Alexander had to choose, he would have sided with Caesar.

Let the Genoese and Alexandria fight to the death with the Venetian forces of Milan and Venice was a good idea for Giovanni.

In fact, from the very beginning, Giovanni had expressed his dissatisfaction with Alexander's participation in this war as Count of Montina more than once in front of his father.

For Montina, the Venetians coveted it, and Giovanni had been staring at it for a long time, but when he heard that the old Rovere actually took Montina as Barendi's dowry, he pondered more than once, not knowing which lucky guy would become Montina's new owner.

What Giovanni didn't expect was that this lucky guy turned out to be Alexander.

On Giovanni's orders, the Papal troops turned east along the forest, where they would again pass through the foot of the Chimone mountain and, after a march of 80 to 100 fataries, attack from east to west against the combined forces of Miwe stationed in Reial.

At this time, Giovanni did not know that Pitiglino had given various orders to break down, and he did not know that in fact, about 18,000 coalition troops were waiting for him in Reialo in front of him.

The scouts were running back and forth as fast as they could, one news after another coming from the front, and the frequent transmission of information was both fresh and amusing to the Genoese who followed Alexander.

While not denying the role of the scouts, the Genoese thought that the act of almost exhausting the scouts was a bit redundant.

"We will soon join our main force, and they will be waiting for us in Orar, where the best Genoese fragrant pear will be served to you."

The Genoese officer on the horse looked at Alexander with a slightly arrogant eye, he didn't really think too much of this lucky fellow who had won the Count of Montina through marriage, although Barentia's appearance was nothing to be proud of, but her illustrious birth was enough to make her one of the most desirable targets.

If it weren't for the fact that old Rovere didn't seem to be very keen on marrying off his favorite daughter, how could he have cheapened a country lord from Naples, and supposedly a poor boy from Sicily.

"Oral is said to be a wealthy place, isn't it?" Alexander asked with interest.

"Of course, the place is very rich," the Genoese licked his tongue, "there is the main road from Genoa to Tuscany, so this place was very lively many years ago, you must know that the famous harvest festival of Oral has been around for many years, every year people choose a person in the town to play the role of the harvest angel, and then men and women go to the fields for a tryst after the blessing of this guardian angel. ”

"Isn't this a pagan thing?" Gompati, who had been watching a copy of the picture book in his hand, raised his head in astonishment: "Doesn't the father of those women care?" ”

The Genoese smiled ambiguously and said, "The fathers of those women are equally fond of this kind of festival."

The Genoese remark caused a burst of laughter, and for a moment the people around seemed to forget that there was still an enemy army of tens of thousands of men that could appear at any moment, and many of the Agri and Bohemians urged the Genoese who knew about the customs of Oral to tell them what was going on.

Alexander did not discuss with his men the peculiar customs of Oral, but beckoned Gompati to march with him.

"You have to get your artillery to go faster."

Alexander instructed that the reason why he had not forcibly crossed the river before was not only because of supplies, but also because of the artillery.

Alexander paid a lot of money to get those cannons from the Pisa, so of course he was reluctant to give them up.

And if you want to cross the river with those guns, once you reach the other side of the North Arnault, you may encounter the Miwe coalition forces at any time, and at that time, the artillery may become a burden.

Because of this, Alexander decided to follow the left bank of the river all the way north, but the heavy artillery still slowed down the group's advance.

"My lord, I think we should probably modify the gun carriage," Gompati looked back at the gun carriage behind him that was struggling to make its way down the road, "the four wheels of the gun carriage don't seem to be able to handle that much of the gun, or we should add a few more pairs of wheels." ”

How many more pairs of wheels to add?

Alexander's mind flashed to the image of a monster with five pairs of wheels rumbling forward with a cannon on his shoulder, crushing the enemy, and then he looked at Gompati and shook his head helplessly.

"I said, friend, why can't you think the other way around, maybe it would be better if the wheels of the gun carriage were a little less."

Gompati looked at Alexander with some puzzlement, he didn't understand why he had to reduce the wheels at such a time, but looking at the smile on Alexander's face, he suddenly remembered that when he was guarding the city gate of Pisa, Alexander seemed to have this expression on his face when he asked people to modify the cannon.

Maybe reducing the wheels really helps? Gompati couldn't help but ponder in his heart.

Alexander didn't want to make too many suggestions about Gompati's modification of the artillery and gun carriage, the development of any kind of technology has its background, and it was difficult for Alexander to imagine what would happen if a batch of weapons capable of rapid fire appeared at this time, but this did not prevent him from slightly modifying the muskets of the hunters on the road.

After discarding a few muskets, Alexander used a few tooth springs he had obtained from a watch merchant in Pisa to equip the muskets with a mechanism that seemed to be more labor-effort and reliable than a simple trigger, and watched as the musketeers stiffly pulled the trigger on the outside of the barrel, the muskets roared and Alexander wiped the grease from his hands.

"My lord, your soldiers shoot much faster than the others," Gompati said in surprise, he was attracted by the sound of gunfire, and when he heard the dense and non-stop shooting, Gompati, who had been shooting in multiple rows in a row, couldn't help but open his mouth in surprise after looking at the shots of the musketeers who were only three rows of squatting or standing, "I can even guess how terrible you are standing opposite these musketeers." ”

"No, it's your artillery that's really scary." Alexander looked at the gunners who were busy in the distance.

Believing in Alexander's murderous miracle in Pisa, Gompati decided to take the plunge and try his hand at a two-wheeled gun carriage.

Removing the coupling in the middle of the gun carriage, placing the gun on a reinforced two-wheeled crossbar, looking at it, and then throwing the rope lasso on the horse, a simple two-wheeled gun cart began to walk cautiously on the road.

"You can make some holes in the carriage of the gun to calculate the distance," Alexander said casually, looking at the straight artillery, "so that you only need to fix a different hole with a wooden wedge each time, and you can easily adjust the angle of fire of the gun." ”

Gompati was stunned, then he nodded suddenly, it was obvious that he had understood what Alexander meant, and he began to keep muttering to himself: "Yes, that's right, and in addition to this method, we can also have other ways to change the angle of the shelling, you must know that some artillery is very heavy, and it is impossible to rely on manpower to lift the fixed wooden wedge, so can we use a winch, or simply use a large winch to adjust the angle of the artillery?" ”

Gompati asked Alexander as he spoke, but when there was no response, he was not discouraged, but continued to babble to himself.

Alexander smiled slightly, although he did not force the emergence of any new technology, but if he could promote more changes under his own inspiration, he would be happy to see it.

The flexibility to adjust the angle of artillery fire and change the structure of the artillery carriage may not seem like a great change, but who knows what kind of reaction it will bring in this era?

Alexander thought indifferently as he moved along with the group.

By the time another scout rode up to him, it was already getting dark.

"My lord, we see the town of Oral," the scout shouted, then he raised his head and poured two mouthfuls of water before continuing, "and we have seen the terrace outside the town you mentioned. ”

"Mesada, what mesa?"

The Genoese officer, who had just arrived after hearing the news, asked a little strangely.

"The mesa outside the town of Oral," explained the scout, "Your Excellency, tell us to see if there's a mesa there. ”

"It seems that my memory is not bad," Alexander muttered in a voice that no one else could hear, and then turned back to Gompati who came by, "it seems that we are going to break up for the time being, you follow the scouts to set up all the artillery on that platform, and we are going to meet the Genoese of the town." ”

Despite his doubts, Gompati made a difficult crawl towards the terrace with his artillery units on Alexander's orders.

As he panted and pushed the modified two-wheeled gun carriage to the edge of the mesa, looking at the town below with an almost unobstructed view, Gompati's face could not help but feel a trace of doubt.

"Is the artillery here to bombard the town?"

Gompati muttered to himself.