Rocca di Paz is not very conspicuous, even in the temple of Diana, but it is not prominent among the many famous hills and monuments of Rome.

But now, this hill on the outskirts of Rome has undoubtedly become a place of interest not only for the whole of Rome, but also for Europe.

The main French forces never stopped after they had withdrawn from the outskirts of Piedmont, braving the icy rain and snow and the mud of the roads in early spring, and the persistence was not so much tenacious as they had lost confidence in the possibility of engaging the coalition forces.

By this time, even the most optimistic people had lost faith in the ambitious expedition of King Charles of France, and the French defenders in Rome became the only French army in Italy, and Gonzalo was said to have begun to turn around and march south with a coalition of mainly Aragonese troops.

There were not many coalition troops besieging the city of Rome, but even fewer French troops defending the city, especially when the battle had just begun, the French front-line commander Count Duron was inexplicably hit by a stray bullet purely for testing and exploded, and the French army, which had no confidence in holding Rome, collapsed almost instantly.

As the French troops stationed on Mount Appio retreated from the hill during the first attack of the coalition forces, the French at the foot of Mount Rocadispas, which formed a mutual support for Mount Appio, had to retreat and gather towards the summit.

But as the French slowly retreated towards the hill as more and more French soldiers converged towards the hill, they also despaired to find that the Allied forces seemed to regard the hill as the main battlefield to defeat them once and for all.

This is what de Charlain saw when he arrived at the bottom of the mountain, because of the loneliness and fear on the battlefield, people instinctively wanted to stay with others as soon as possible, so many French troops simply abandoned their original positions and concentrated at the bottom of the mountain because they saw the flag on Rocadipas, while the coalition forces took the opportunity to quickly occupy those positions that they would have to pay some price to capture.

So when de Charlain rode his horse across an open field to the sound of gunfire in the distance, he saw groups of soldiers in the open field, completely unsure of what to do.

"It's a disaster."

Charron muttered to himself in a voice that only he could hear, his helmet mask had been lifted, and the armor that had always been black and shiny was now covered with a layer of dust, but he could no longer care about this, the situation of the French army was almost collapsing, he was shocked and anxious, and when he squeezed past the soldiers with dazed and uneasy faces, he saw several French nobles kneeling in front of a priest and praying aloud.

"It's a good time to pray at this time." Charlen walked up with some annoyance, he recognized that one of the people with a wounded face should be the king's court attendants, Charlie likes to line up the people around him to the army below, so that he can not only help him master those unruly nobles at any time, but also let his favored retainers take the opportunity to gain military merits, but now Charron does not think this is a good time to show off, "Our enemy is about to attack, if prayer can help us win, I am willing to pray with you, but now I think weapons are more useful." ”

Because the arrival of Charlon interrupted the prayer, the priest showed an unhappy look, although the white robe on his body was stained with a lot of stains because of the hasty escape before, but he still tried his best to keep his clergy inviolable, but Charron was obviously more able to attract people's attention than the priest, and seeing the arrival of this black knight, there was a burst of cheers in the French army!

"Your Excellency!" Charlie's squire hurriedly made a cross on his chest and then jumped up, his cheeks twitching from injury shook a few times with excitement and pain, and then he walked quickly to the Scharren horse, reached out and grabbed the reins of his horse, and looked up at the tall and mighty black knight, "It's great that you can come, we are ready to attack after praying, this may be the last prayer in our lives." ”

"Don't just declare that you have the life and death of others, only God can decide the fate of man," said Sharron loudly to the knights who were very excited to see him, "We have a lot to do now, and we may fail this time, but as long as we live, we will continue the next expedition with the king." ”

Charlon's words caused a cry among the French, and the attendant suddenly whispered, "My lord, shall we negotiate with them?" ”

"Negotiations?" Seeing the appearance of the squire officer Ai Ai, Sharron immediately understood the meaning of this high-profile guy who had just shouted, so he pulled the reins of the horse from the squire officer's hand, and then buckled the mask of the helmet down, and with a "click" sound, the black knight completely isolated himself from the whole thing, and then his eyes cast the hole in the mask and stared at the squire officer who was standing on the ground with a restless expression, "Listen, I can assume that I didn't hear what you just said, but I want you to go back to the flag team you led now, If I don't see your flag at the front when I hear the first trumpet, I think you've betrayed the king. ”

The squire's face froze, and although he expected that he might be reprimanded, he did not expect Scharron's reaction to be so violent, which made the young nobleman, who had always been favored, feel that he had been greatly insulted, but what frightened him more than the insult was Sharlon's order.

Looking back at the coalition forces that had been assembled and slowly advancing on the hills not far below the mountain of Rocca Lipas, the squire's face turned blue, and he remembered the collapse caused by the sudden death of Count Duron vividly, which made him even feel that Charlon was purely forcing him to die.

Heavy breathing came from the crack in his helmet, and the squire was finally frightened, knowing that the king not only trusted but even relied on his cousin, and it was obviously unwise to confront this knight who might decide the fate of all the defenders.

Charlen ignored the knights, who had noticed a banner being erected on the hillside, the coat of arms of a nobleman who had been an assistant to the former commander, Count Durand, and it made him think that at least things weren't too bad.

The arrival of Sharon obviously lifted the already somewhat chaotic French a lot, and with the appearance of his tall and mighty black shadow, there were bursts of cries in the French army, but the few nobles in front of the temple of Diana on the top of the hill did not look much, and looking over the head of Sharron, who was driving towards the hillside, they saw more of the coalition army on the hill slowly approaching Mount Roccatipas.

"My lord, I'm glad you're here to fight with us," said a gray-haired knight who bowed slightly to Sharron on his horse, and then said with a slight dismay, "but the situation is not in our favor right now. Saying that, the old man let out a helpless sigh, "Maybe the next moment we will face the fate of complete failure." ”

Sharron didn't lift his helmet visor, he turned his horse's head and looked down the hill, and when he saw a group of coalition troops approaching the foot of the hill along the undulating slope of the hills, he knew that the old knight was not wrong.

"The walls and barriers we built before were barrierd by two hills, and we could stop the coalition forces as long as we held the two ends separately," said one of the nobles, slightly depressed, "but now we only have Rocadispas, and those barriers have become completely absent, and you see, my lord, some of the coalition troops have crossed the barrier and come from the other side of the wall." ”

Scharon looked in the direction of the man's pointing, and through the puffs of smoke and dust, he could already see that a black dot was indeed advancing towards them along the barrier that the French had built before, and to the dismay of many Frenchmen, the large number of supplies they had left on the barrier position had undoubtedly become the trophies of those enemies, and if you looked closely, you could even see that as those armies advanced, there were swimming cavalry rushing back and forth between the walls and deer barbs they passed, It was clear that the men were looking at the supplies that the French had discarded.

"Why don't they go to the city of Rome," said a Frenchman with indignation, "and we have given way, and now they can conquer the city once and for all, if they keep going." ”

"Because conquering this city has never been difficult for them," said Scharlen, breathing heavily through the hole in his mask, his eyes fixed on what was happening down the hillside, "so they are not prepared to expel us, they are going to wipe us out here." ”

Sharlon's words made the Frenchman next to him change color.

Over the years, except for wars with infidels, few people have been aiming purely to kill each other, and the war has changed from the original barbaric and bloody to subtle and restrained, and sometimes the victorious side only needs to show even a show of strength, which is enough to make the opponent withdraw from the battlefield reasonably, and the victor will not be unreasonable, they are often used in the battlefield parade to declare glory, instead of the fierce pursuit of the enemy.

And no commander has the confidence to make his army go into battle at all costs, after all, for those soldiers, war is just their profession, and no one wants to put themselves and the other party in a situation of life and death just to get a commission from their employer.

So it has been too long since I heard that there would be such a fierce war, even in the supposedly long and brutal Hundred Years War between England and France, the war was still fought in a "tolerable" way.

But now Charlon's words surprised the French, and the next move of the coalition forces also proved his guess.

An intermittent sound of trumpets came from the hills, and because the wind was so strong, Sharron could only faintly hear some clues from the audible sound of the trumpet.

"Are they going to attack our left flank?" Sharron muttered to himself.

The loss of Mount Appio not only resulted in the loss of the entire section of the defensive line used to prevent the allied forces from advancing towards Rome, but more importantly, as the French had to retreat to the hills of Rocadipas, the French army, which had its back to the city of Rome, had to be gradually squeezed out of direction.

When the French who had retreated and scattered were involuntarily concentrating on the hill of Rocadipas, the French army was actually on the side in the direction of Rome.

As a coalition army crossed the fortifications built by the French and the fortifications, Charron realized that they had been cut off from the city of Rome.

Another hurried trumpet sound came from a distance, and Scharlen saw that the advance of the coalition forces had finally begun to advance up the hillside.

A group of soldiers in black robes led the way under the yellow twin eagles, their shiny spears glittering even in the dark sky, and just as the army began to spread slowly on a gentle slope halfway up the mountain, Sharon faintly felt the sound of heavy horses' hooves on the ground.

"Cavalry."

Charron turned back to the generals next to him and said lightly, his tone was calm, not panicked at all because he was in a crisis, on the contrary, there was an indescribable comfort in his heart, the oppressive and complicated life and intrigue in the city of Rome made him almost forget the taste of the battlefield, and now in the face of the enemy, de Charlon seemed to have regained the feeling he had when he was a cavalry captain.

Charlon's composure undoubtedly infected the panicked French generals, some of the nobles who had previously followed Charlon, at this moment saw the familiar back of their captain, who was not afraid of any danger, and at this moment the courage miraculously returned to them.

The horn sounded, and a group of French cavalrymen in full armor had gathered behind Charlon, their bodies completely covered in solid armor, and when they moved their bodies, the armor made a dull grinding sound, and when they urged their horses forward, even the bravest of enemies could not help but shudder in the face of them, because this was a group of formidable opponents who could make the word "crush" clear enough from the outside.

De Scharon looked at the cavalry behind him and smiled slightly, he seemed to have finally regained the feeling he had been away from for a long time, but his smile was blocked by the helmet mask, so no one noticed the faint desolation in his smile.

"Durlan, lucky fellow," said de Charlaine softly, "you died a happy death, so that you would not have to see how your army was defeated, nor suffer all the humiliation of being a loser." ”

"Your cavalry is ready, my lord," a knight waved his spear and raised it vigorously after lowering the flag on his spear a little down, "It's an honor to fight with you, my captain!" ”

"I am honored to join you in this battle today," Charlain gestured to the lower part of the hill as a group crossed the French fortifications and marched to the left flank, "They will attack from there, for they, like me, knew when they came that our left flank was about to collapse, but we were also about to meet them from there, from the front of the most dangerous enemy, and only then would they be a true French knight, long live France and the king!" ”

"Hooray! ~”

With Sharlon's words, a cry erupted from among the cavalry.

"It's a pity," Scharon muttered to himself, "if only one army, even a small one, could occupy Mount Appio at this time." ”

After saying this whimsical idea, Sharron laughed self-deprecatingly, and then raised his spear.

"Look, sir," a knight called out in a sudden hesitation, and then he raised his hand and pointed into the distance, "on Mount Appioo, it seems that there is a battle!" ”