In contrast to Louis XII's desire to use young people in an attempt to change the declining atmosphere of the French court, the Count of Lanceger of Brittany was an old man over half a hundred years old.

In order to prevent Brittany from leaving France, Louis XII chose to divorce his cousin Jeanne of France, and then married his cousin's wife, Anne of Brittany.

Louis XII chose the Comte de Lancet as the commander of the French army, not only because of the general's rich experience in warfare, but also because he was a prominent nobleman in Brittany, because there was a constant rumor in France that the king was preparing to seize the power of the nobility, which forced Louis XII to dispel this bad rumor by reusing the generals of the principality.

However, this rumor apparently frightened many people, especially the nobles of the country, who were no longer so active in providing soldiers, knights, and food supplies for the king, and the idea of self-preservation began to make them watch Louis XII perform alone in Italy.

In fact, this rumor is not entirely aimed at the current French king, some people say that since Charles VIII and the earlier Louis XI, this kind of use of foreign conquests to take advantage of the opportunity to consume the strength of the lords in order to weaken the nobility has been carried out in secret, which makes many nobles more suspicious of the king's stubborn intention to invade Italy.

As a result, the French army was delayed in receiving reinforcements for various reasons, and Louis XII finally had to announce that he had launched an attack on the Austrians even in winter.

The reason why the French king was so impatient, in addition to the huge shortage of reinforcements and supplies, made it impossible for him to continue to consume with the Austrians, and another reason was his scruples about the Montina.

The Montina army, led by Gompati, rested in place after retreating into La Spezia, which was near the sea, but these were only superficial actions, and in fact, according to the reports sent out, Louis XII knew that the Montina were actively mobilizing their forces.

It was not clear what the Lady of the House of Rovelle, who had never been married, but who had already assumed the Countess of Montina, was thinking, but because of this he had to consider the circumstances under which the Montinas would re-enter Lombardy.

Louis XII could understand Barentia's reasons for doing this, and she was obviously worried that the war would affect the future Duchy of Romagna-Tuscany that had taken shape for the House of Gombray, and that even if any of the warring armies sent sporadic soldiers into their territory, it might attract other countries to find an excuse to enter the land, and then the future principality with no clue would be involved.

But understanding is one thing, but watching the Montina people keep increasing their troops in La Spezia, Louis XII became anxious.

He would not forget that Alexander's armistice with him lasted only until the last day of 1499, which meant that if he did not want to give the Montinas an excuse to intervene in the affairs of the Lombards, he would at least force Maximian to switch to the defensive with a favorable battle before the beginning of 1500.

So Louis XII, after much deliberation, decided to break with the previous practice of a truce in winter camps and launched an attack on the Austrians.

The French offensive was so rapid and sudden that it completely disrupted the practice of warfare that had been practiced for many centuries, so much so that when it was reported that the French army was moving northeast of Alexandria, and that there seemed to be information about the cutting off of the Austrian army with Milan, Maximian I was at first incredulous.

However, the emperor soon discovered that he had made a mistake, and the French army launched an unexpected attack on the Austrians who had already entered the winter camp in the snowy winter.

He himself has lost count of the number of wars he has fought in, from an ordinary noble knight to a general in Brittany, and then to a commander of the French army.

At the beginning of the battle plan, Louis XII wanted to force Alexandria in order to achieve the goal of defeating the emperor, and in the eyes of the French king, except for those troublesome Swiss mercenaries, the Austrian army was actually vulnerable.

However, Count Langserge stubbornly rejected the king's suggestion, in the earl's opinion, launching a campaign in winter is risky in itself, and if you want to attack the enemy's winter camp at such a time, it is even more stupid, after all, the winter camp is different from the ordinary temporary camp, the winter camp is stocked with a large amount of food and winter supplies, and the winter camp is built more solid and comfortable, which is enough for the enemy to resist for a long time in a favorable situation, and as long as the enemy's supply lines are not cut off, Then they don't have to worry about what might happen.

The Austrians could comfortably hide behind warm camps and fortifications and waste time with the French in the field, and when the French could no longer bear it, they could wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

Louis XII was not a stubborn man, at least he was self-aware on the battlefield, so he quickly agreed to the advice of the Count of Lanserge, and after leaving behind 5,000 defenders, led a French army of about 40,000 to the northeast of Alexandria, with the aim of cutting off the connection between Alexandria and Milan.

A winter campaign unfolded on snowy northern Italian soil.

"Winter camps and temporary camps are different ......"

When Alexander, who was far away in Naples, received the report of the Lombard battle, it was already a few days later, the rain had stopped, the weather was a little cold but not sad, and the most happy thing was that after these busy days, the port of Naples was busy again.

"The winter camp is more like a long-term camp, because you can store a lot of winter supplies, it is a temporary town, and the two armies can even communicate with each other during the truce of the winter camp." Alexander smiled slightly when he said this, he was not completely unaware of this wonderful war, in fact, even centuries later, this seemingly inexplicable thing happened, and in the temporary truce, the soldiers on both sides would temporarily put aside their mortal enmity and live in peace, and in that precious moment, everyone seemed to forget about war, the cruelest human behavior in the world.

But now was clearly not the time for calligraphy, and Alexander looked down at Josha, who was frowning as she stared at an order on the table in front of him, and from this angle, Josha's blond hair spread over her shoulders, completely obscuring the collar of her skirt held up by the towering mountains.

This made Alexander feel a little regretful, but he knew that now was not the time to focus on this, and it was clear that he needed to convince Josha that he was short of money again.

"So what do you want to do, pay the bills for the French?" Zhisa frowned slightly, raised her head and glanced up at Alexander, who was standing behind her, "Do you know how much money we need now, you know, I just placed an order for 40 guns, these guns are used to make up for the previous losses in Genoa, I want to use them to strengthen the defense of Naples, and the other Jew named Joseph Butini is negotiating for us and the Venetians about ordering warships, I think we need to strengthen our navy." ”

"My dear sister, I think you're becoming more and more like a queen," Alexander said half-jokingly, half-seriously, as he watched as he spoke in a slightly serious manner, and then he tapped his chin on the top of his head, which elicited his sister's slightly resentful muttering, "But even then we have to come up with this money to let the French live their lives, knowing that the next is a real winter." ”

Alexander said with a flash of thought in his eyes, the 16th century was indeed the eve of the dawn, and after a full century of gestation, the subsequent world would enter a completely new era, an era that could truly be called a great change not seen in thousands of years.

However, the 100 years of the 16th century were not entirely full of sunshine, and in addition to the countless killings and destruction caused by humans themselves, nature was also ruthless in this 100 years.

In the long future, the change of weather will completely affect the whole world, from the east to the west, the damage caused by the gradually bad climate of the Xiaoice period will be more and more obvious to affect all aspects, the biggest obvious change is that not only the winter becomes colder and longer in the year, but the weather in spring and autumn will be much colder than before, so the result is that there will be a large reduction in farmland production in many places, and famine will become more and more frequent. And the resulting turmoil may even shake the very foundations of a seemingly powerful country that is weakened by changes in its natural environment.

This was true in the East, and the same was true in the West, where France would be plunged into a long period of internal turmoil because of the lack of food harvests, which would not affect the rule of the French royal family, but would have forced Louis XII to stop his adventures in Italy.

In two or three years, Louis XII would have discovered that Italy was a bottomless quagmire, and he would eventually choose to give up and continue struggling in this abyss.

In a few years, the French would simply be at odds with the Ottomans, whom they had previously regarded as natural enemies, and by the time of Louis XII's good son-in-law, François I, the two countries that had been incapable of destroying each other would simply wear a pair of trousers.

Alexander didn't want to see that.

"It's our purpose to keep the French evenly matched with the Austrians in Lombardy, and have you forgotten that the French have even invaded Pisa before, and that the French have shown signs of intervening when Gompati was fighting in Ferrara," Alexander patiently explained to Josa, "so I have to make sure that they all have something to do, even in the winter, because it will get colder and colder, and it would not be good if they all set up winter camps at this time, It is in our interest to keep them completely caught up in the war in the North, because I need them to be unable to get out of this war for a long time. ”

She listened patiently to Alexander's words with her chin in her hands, sometimes frowning slightly in confusion, sometimes pondering Alexander's words with understanding, and after a while she raised her eyebrows and asked, "Do you really think the French will continue to wage war in such winters?" ”

Looking at Josha's somewhat disapproving demeanor, Alexander smiled and didn't say anything, he knew that although Josha had an almost obsessive trust in him, he also knew that Josha was intelligent and assertive, so she would choose to support herself unconditionally, but she would not be so blind to take his words as a creed.

In fact, this is somewhat troublesome for Alexander, because if he wants to make Josha fully support him, he must come up with reasons that are enough to convince her, and there are some things that Alexander cannot explain.

The historical French would not have attacked in the winter of that year, and would have made a truce with the Austrians as in any previous war for a long time, and then waited until the following spring to move slowly with the bears waking up from hibernation.

But as a result, the French would suffer an unexpected setback because they had been delayed for a whole winter.

This setback would have caused Louis XII to be so devastating that he, like his predecessors, would have to temporarily withdraw from Italy.

This setback came from an opponent that the French had not thought of before - England.

The defeat of the Hundred Years' War led to a complete split between England and France, leaving England untied with France and beginning a history of its own, but that did not mean that they did not want to reassert influence on the continent.

Charles VIII's invasion of Italy gave the British an opportunity to re-engage in European affairs, but before they could react, Charles withdrew to France disheartened by his defeat.

The subsequent re-invasion of Louis XII gave the English another chance.

The engagement of Arthur, Prince of Wales, to Ferdinand's daughter, Catherine of Aragon, made Britain an ally with Aragon, and this was only one step in the English's attempt to return to Europe.

Alexander knew that the English would join the Holy Alliance, dominated by Aragon and Austria, in the summer of 1500.

The British and Aragon then relied on their powerful navies to impose a tight naval blockade of French-occupied Genoa.

Alexander didn't want to see the French suffer such a setback, because that would give Ferdinand a respite......

Keeping Ferdinand so firmly pinned down in northern Italy that he had no time to take care of Naples was Alexander's goal.

Alexander couldn't tell him that he could accurately predict that the British would join the Holy Alliance, let alone the exact time when the British would send troops, but he could still find some reason.

"We have provided a lot of money to the Emperor, but we are not philanthropists, and any investment needs to be returned, so we must ensure that our investment can be recouped handsomely, so my dear sister, how do you think we should claim a return?"

"That's why you want money? Give the French another sum of money? Jisha asked a little strangely.

"A sum of money that is enough for us to recover all the money we have invested," Alexander lowered his head and touched the smooth and silky blonde hair of Josha, feeling that Josha's head seemed to stiffen slightly, so he pressed against the top of her head and continued: "In fact, those ports in France that I value, now Rotterdam has gradually been able to compete with Amsterdam, but it is not enough, we need more ports to serve us, the Mediterranean Sea is still too small, like a bathtub compared to the Atlantic, but compared to the wider world, Even the Atlantic Ocean seems so small, so we need ports, as many as possible, not just one Rotterdam. ”

Josha listened quietly, she felt that she could understand Alexander's meaning, just as he had told her about the Free Trade Alliance, and she quickly understood the key, which made Josa think that she could understand her brother best.

But since when did Alexander discuss many things with Barendi, and Zhisa thought about it, and then thought that it should have been after Declaring War on Montina from Genoa, and Barondi had left her father and arrived at Montina alone.

Jisha actually admires Barondi very much, this is a woman who is rational but can make choices for happiness, but somehow, even if she personally admits to agree with Barendi to become Alexander's wife, she will still feel very uncomfortable in her heart.

"Are you going to get the French to sell the port?" Although she frowned, she had already begun to estimate in her heart how much it would cost to get the ports Alexander had spoken of from the French.

"No, France and Rome are different, even if we wrap Louis's army in gold, the nobles who own the port will not voluntarily give up possession of the port because of an order from the king," Alexander stood up and walked over to the bookshelf and took out a map from the grid with the emblem on it, which looked a little rough drawn, but it was already the most detailed map of France that Alexander could get his hands on, "Many of the ports we need were not under Louis's direct rule, Some don't even recognize his dominance, as in this case. ”

Alexander's finger touched a spot on the map on the Atlantic coast.

"Believe me, this can be the starting point for us to infiltrate the tentacles of the free trade alliance into France, and the location of this place can completely connect France with the lowlands of Flanders, and even extend Rotterdam's influence directly into the interior of France."

Listening to Alexander's confident words, Jisha's eyes couldn't help but focus on the inconspicuous-looking coastal city, looking at the name of the city marked, she looked up at Alexander slightly, and then asked in a somewhat puzzled tone: "Antwerp?" ”

"Yes, Antwerp, trust me, this place will make us rich."

Alexander said as he lowered his head again and touched Josha's silky hair as the rest of his eyes fell on the name of the map Antwerp covered by Josha's fingers.

Antwerp, where the Portuguese would establish the largest spice supplier on the coast of Western Europe.

However, this is not the most important thing, the important thing is that it is an important military port for the future Spanish Armada to contain the British in the north.

So this money, Alexander felt that it was still worth spending.

Thinking so in his heart, Alexander lowered his head and touched the forehead of Jisha, and whispered in a dreamlike whisper: "Dear sister, the new century is coming, believe me that this is our time. ”