Although the weather was unexpectedly cold, many people in Rome were surprised and excited when a heavy snowfall suddenly arrived in the middle of the night.

The Mediterranean climate makes it difficult for Italy to snow very often, but now the world has suddenly become white, which makes many people excited.

However, the weather was not necessarily a good thing for the French in Rome.

The assassination of the Archbishop of Frankfurt embarrassed the French, almost everyone knew that the archbishop was a supporter of the emperor, and when Charles invaded Italy, the archbishop immediately lobbied everywhere, in which the king of France was the devil who had signed a secret pact with the devil to sell his soul, and the emperor Maximian was the angel sent by God to save the world.

The Archbishop's near-open hostility to the King of France made Charles hate him as much, and it was even rumored that Charles had no appetite when he was sick, so he had the names of his enemies recited to him before eating, so that he would be angry, and then he would have a great appetite for a mess of Hesse, and the Archbishop of Frankfurt was at the top of this "appetizing list".

Because of this, everyone naturally thought that the assassination of the archbishop was carried out by the French, which completely angered the clergy in Rome, even those who had a good relationship with the French felt that this was too much, and as for the priests, who were already hostile to the French, some people simply wrote a joint letter to Alexander VI, asking the Pope to punish the murderers and coerce the French to hand over the real culprits, otherwise they would refuse to give the French the right to listen to the sermon and receive Holy Communion.

The threat was so serious that Henri de Charlain had just heard the news and thought he had misheard.

Such a proposal, once approved by Alexander VI, was no different from the elimination of ectonism.

It is true that there have been nobles who have been excommunicated in history, and they often end up having to compromise with the church and admit their mistakes, regardless of whether they can take revenge later, but these people have to bow their heads and relent, even if they are in high positions, when faced with excommunication.

These were the great nobles and even the kings.

What if it were replaced by a group of ordinary Frenchmen?

Can an occupying army that is in an enemy country, already full of hostility, and who are still being excommunicated at this time, hold on?

Perhaps no sooner had the news of the Pope's request been reached, the whole city of Rome might have rioted!

De Charlain had to ask for an audience with the Pope again, but this time the Pope's secretary replied that the Pope felt that the time was not right, so the audience was dismissed.

Charlaon really felt the danger he was facing, and while he was ordering the French army to be ready for battle, he had to ask for a meeting with Caesar Borgia again, knowing that this son of the Pope was Alexander VI's spokesman in the Holy See, and many things could be brought to the head of the Borgia family through him.

This time Charlon was not disappointed, Caesar met with him smoothly, but to the surprise of the French, although Caesar did not ask for the murderer of the archbishop again, he put forward a condition that made Charlain equally difficult - the French were not allowed to levy any additional supplies from the Romans except for money to buy.

This condition made Sharron almost explode on the spot.

As an occupying force, the French were noticeably less comfortable in Rome than they had been in Naples, or even in Florence.

Although Savonarola was an ally of the French and even called Charles his father, the French were not very relenting in Florence, and in addition to collecting a large number of art treasures, in order to ensure that the French army was well supplied, the French still took very strict expropriation actions against Florence.

Not to mention Naples, where the French who considered themselves conquerors looted gold and silver treasures and masterpieces of art, and even emptied the city's reserves of food before they left.

However, these actions could not but be restrained in Rome, because although they occupied Rome, the city did not belong to any of the city-states that could be conquered by them, but to the jurisdiction of the Bishop, that is, to the Pope.

The French had to be cautious in the city, and this occupation was even more uncomfortable than fighting on enemy chassis.

They have to be constantly vigilant about whether they have violated the interests of the church, invaded the territory of the church, and worse, they are worried that if they really provoke the church, they will not attract the resentment and anger of other countries.

This is why Charles left the city immediately after receiving the crown of Naples from Alexander VI, because he knew that if he stayed here, he would be bound to be constrained by various scruples, which would be very bad for him.

But now Sharron was not in a better position than his king, but even earlier.

On his way to the Vatican, watching people on both sides of the road spitting on French flags and throwing rotten apples, Charlain couldn't help but worry that the riots might not happen the next day.

This made him determined on the way that Alexander VI would reject the clergyman's proposal to exterminate the French army, no matter what the cost.

But Caesar's conditions were equally unacceptable to Charlon.

If you only rely on spending money to buy military rations, it means that in order to feed these thousands of French troops this winter, the amount of money that must be paid is the amount that Charlen would feel chills on his body when he thinks about it.

Sharron did not immediately answer Caesar's terms, and he excused himself by saying goodbye and leaving.

But just as he left the Vatican and crossed the bridge over the Tiber River, a messenger brought news that struck him hard.

The main French army, after entering the Lombardy region, was briefly repaired.

Relying on the rich conditions of the Lombardy region, the French army, which was already in an embarrassed situation due to supplies, was temporarily relieved, and perhaps because of good luck, a French army on the right flank of the Lombardy region relied on the influence of the Rovere family in Genoa to obtain enough reliable information and then attacked the forward force of the coalition army in hot pursuit.

Although the scale of the battle was not large, and the allied forces immediately retreated when the opportunity was not good, so the losses were not very large, but it was an exciting victory for the French army, which had suffered successive defeats since entering September.

The French considered Lombardy to be an obvious place for them, and because of their proximity to Piedmont, the French generals thought that the shortage of supplies would soon be resolved.

When he saw this part of the secret letter sent by the messenger, although he already knew what had happened, Sharron was still very happy, because the departure of the French here was not bad, so even if he suffered another setback later, it should not be too bad.

But when he saw the next description in the letter, his mood began to slide to the bottom.

After being thwarted by a sudden counterattack by the French, the coalition forces did not rush to retaliate, but quickly opened up the distance between them and the French, which gave the French the illusion that the coalition forces were afraid.

During this time, Gonzalo, as the commander of the coalition forces, began to send his troops to harass the French army for a long time.

Wherever the French go, the coalition will send men to follow them from a distance, and if the French turn to pursue them, they will flee immediately, but as soon as the French turn around and continue to advance, they will immediately take the opportunity to attack.

This was beginning to cause frustration for the French, who were trying to replenish their supplies quickly, and by October, the Coalition seemed to have felt confident that they would begin to attack the French, and after a series of battles, the French had to retreat far from the vicinity of Genoa, which would have provided them with much convenience, and gradually retreat to the northwest.

And just a few days ago, Gonzalo finally seized a golden opportunity to launch a fierce attack on the French army.

The battle took place at a place called Pavito, about a hundred fats from the north bank of the Po River.

At the beginning of the battle, the French army was outnumbered by the allied army, but when the battle was over, even if you just looked at the dead bodies on the battlefield, you knew that the French had suffered a great loss.

And what's worse is that Sforza, the Duke of Milan, stabbed the French in the back at this time!

The Milanese suddenly cut off the passage between Piedmont and the French army, and while robbing all the supplies sent to the French army from Piedmont, Sforza's army set out from Milan and advanced all the way to the southwest, and at the same time kept agitating the lords everywhere along the way, with the potential to completely block the French army's rear route and annihilate nearly 40,000 French troops to the Lombard plain!

This disadvantage finally dealt a complete blow to the French generals, who had wanted to compete with the coalition army, and only then did they realize that they were no longer facing whether they could defeat the enemy again, but whether they would be able to cross the Alps again alive and return to their homeland.

At this time, the French generals had to face the difficult decision of whether to continue the fight against the coalition forces by relying on the existing baggage, or simply throw away all the bulky things that could not be taken with them, and retreat quickly while the Milanese had not completely cut off the retreat.

They had not yet decided whether to retreat west of Piedmont or simply run back to France over the mountains.

And even if you don't hesitate to throw away these burdens and retreat immediately, you may not be doing the right thing.

Because the artillery they carry is still a great deterrent to the coalition forces, and relying on the collected food, even if they are surrounded, they can hold out for a while, but if they throw away these things and only carry dry food that can be eaten for a few days, once they cannot successfully escape the fate of being surrounded in the next few days, it means that tens of thousands of French troops will face a desperate situation of running out of ammunition and food.

Charron didn't know what decision he would have made if he had been one of those French generals, but he knew that in the end, the decision made by the French generals was clearly the worst of the choices.

The French didn't throw away the artillery, it was too important for them, and they still needed to rely on these powerful guys to threaten the coalition forces, but they still threw something away.

They threw away large quantities of food to ease their burden.

This decision is undoubtedly the worst of all options.

Either they refused to hold on to the spot, with French artillery and still fairly abundant supplies, enough to create a situation in which the Allies could negotiate for fear of heavy losses.

Or simply throw away everything you don't need, just flee all the way to the west, even if you are naked and embarrassed, as long as you can escape back to France, there is always a chance to come back and win face.

But the French chose such a path that was not relied on on all sides.

As a result of this decision, when the French were finally about to see Piedmont City, they were intercepted by the Milanese who had come to inquire.

The Sforza family was born as mercenaries, and for the people of this family, even if they have won the title of Duke of Milan, the fierce fighting spirit in their bones is still not comparable to other Italian nobles.

Charles had been polite and reasonable to Milan before his invasion of Italy, and he offered to use it without any covetousness to Milan, and that he could also be a strong backing for the Sforza family, who were in conflict with Venice, a suggestion that was immediately agreed to by Duke Ludwig Sforza of Milan.

But once he led the army into the city, Charlie's attitude changed completely.

Charles not only declared Milan to be his vassal city-state, but even declared that the royal family of Valois had sufficient claim to the title of Duke of Magnolia.

This means that one day he or his descendants may have the right to wear the crown of the Duke of Milan on their heads.

This is absolutely intolerable to the Sforza family.

Therefore, when it was determined that the coalition army was indeed sure to defeat the French army, the Milanese, who had always had an ambiguous attitude, suddenly launched an attack on the French army, and in this chase related to whether the main force of the entire French army could escape back to France, the Milanese army played a key role, blocking the retreat of the French army to the west in one fell swoop!

An inevitable battle unfolded on the outskirts of Piedmont.

The French army was 33,000 and the coalition army was 29,000.

It was a battle in which the disparity in strength was not large, but neither the morale nor the strength of the army could be compared.

In the face of the allied forces in pursuit of victory, the panic of the French army as they retreated quickly spread among the soldiers, and the large number of soldiers in the army who had been wounded in previous battles became a burden to many more.

To make matters worse, due to several days of rain and snow, most of the gunpowder vehicles were either abandoned or discarded due to the lack of baggage, and the artillery that was thought to pose a threat to the coalition forces became almost a useless pile of waste.

In short, it was a terrible experience that no Frenchman who had fought in the battle would want to recall.

"We have lost many good friends and good knights, and now we have to retreat to a place not far from Piedmont City, and we have no food, so my friend, if you can, I would like you to help us, to send us enough provisions, this is a plea from the French nobles who are on the verge of total annihilation, your loyal ......"

Looking at this letter for help, which was still gorgeously worded and eloquent even at the end, de Charlen instantly felt the urge to scold out loud.