I don't know when the proverb that all roads lead to Rome became popular, so much so that many years later, people as far east as far away would often talk about it.

However, this statement is obviously an exaggeration, at least Alexander felt that it was not easy to get to Rome.

After a long march from Agri, Alexander's party finally joined Queen Joanna and her party at a wooded fork in the road not far from Naples.

It should have been a happy event, and if Mahimo had been there, he might have taken out a pen and recorded this exciting page in the little notebook he had with him, but a little exaggeration was inevitable, and it was not known that the monk might have described the meeting as a historical event of great significance.

It's just that this meeting has not only brought about an increase in the number of people all at once, but also some rather tricky troubles.

Not only was the queen's procession numerous, but the large and small luggage she carried was an eye-opener and dazzling for the Bohemians and Agri.

In addition to the large and small cages with shrewd workmanship and intricate carvings, there are all kinds of furniture, sculptures that are too large to be packed and transported, intricately woven bird cages, xenobion cats held in the arms of maids, and a large group of hunting dogs jumping forward and backwards.

As for the entourage, there were more than a dozen personal maids and retinues around the queen, as well as guards, male servants, cooks, grooms, and even a clown.

Unable to live up to her passion for art, the queen decided not to live up to her passion for art, so she brought with her several artists and troubadours who were said to be well-known in Bologna or elsewhere.

In short, although the size of the team was not as large as Alexander's food delivery team, both the complexity of the personnel and the troubles it brought made Alexander feel more tired than dealing with the disobedient Bohemians under his command.

As a result, Alexander had to reconsider his plans to go north.

There are two main roads from Naples to Rome.

One is along the west bank of the Liri River and the Tyrrhenian coast, via Cape Chiceo, along the coast all the way to Rome, which is much more convenient because of the gentle terrain and the many towns along the way.

The other runs north from the east bank of the Liri, through the narrow valley of Bruini, and then turns west to Rome.

This road is not easy to walk, and many places are not suitable for vehicles because of the complex and changeable terrain.

Mordillo hoped that the grain would reach the French as soon as possible, so when choosing a route for Alexander, the count naturally thought that it would be most convenient and faster to take the route from the west bank of the Lilly River.

Alexander had indeed intended to follow the Count's route, but when he saw the Queen's exaggerated procession, he had to reconsider the route.

Although the road on the west bank of the Lili River was smooth and convenient, there was an insurmountable problem that prevented such a team from passing.

If you go from the west bank of the Lilly River, you will have to pass through a place called Latina, which is now under the control of the French.

And Rome, too, is still in the hands of the French.

After the victory at the Battle of Forestino, the coalition forces did not take the opportunity to march on Rome with all their might, but crossed the city of Rome and pursued the French all the way north.

This angered the King of France, and Charles VIII believed that the coalition forces wanted his life, so he would rather give up the glory of recovering Rome than pursue him all the way.

Faced with this unfavorable situation, Charles chose to avoid it, he threw the army to his generals, and returned to France alone, but the war did not end with Charlie's departure.

At least for now, Rome and some nearby cities are still in French hands, and Latina is the gateway to Rome.

Alexander didn't care about handing over the grain to the French in Latina, and although the hapless James Columbus would have to pay a lot of money, Alexander felt that he was still making a profit on the deal.

But now, because the queen was going with him to Rome, Alexander had to replan his journey.

He needs to take into account Joanna's safety, especially since the team she is carrying is undoubtedly a big burden, and Alexander wants Joanna to arrive in Rome safely.

As he said to Nashan, Joanna was his key to Rome.

Rome is now in the spotlight again, from the king of Aragon, to the emperor of Holy Rome, to the governor of Venice and to the duke of Milan.

Whoever can be the one who will be able to recover the city where God's agents in the world reside will be the greatest victor in this war.

And this is why the coalition forces did not march directly into Rome.

No one wants to be the first to see someone else pass through the Arc de Triomphe in Rome, let alone the possibility of receiving the papal blessing.

So when the coalition army was about to reach the city of Latina, known as the gate of Rome, under the nose of the nervous French defenders, the coalition army first jumped to try, and then stopped for a week, just when the French could not bear this inexplicable depression and decided to desperately go out of the city, the coalition army suddenly retreated.

The coalition decided to use another method to break the impasse that everyone was holding each other back.

That is to simply abandon the march to Rome and go all out to pursue the King of France himself!

Even after Charlie left his army and returned to France, the coalition still bit the French army fiercely, because they knew that if anyone turned around at this time, the others would definitely follow and turn back immediately, so that Charles VIII, who had escaped the fate of the destruction of the whole army, might recover and make a comeback immediately.

But Alexander was in a dilemma, and he had to hand over the grain to the French without a trace, and he also had to send the queen to Rome, which forced him to change his original route and choose the road from the east bank of the Lieri through the valley of the Bruini.

A small group of cavalry came running from a distance, and Alexander saw Carlo in front.

To Alexander's slight surprise, the hunter he met at Agri's farm seemed to be a natural scout, and his years of hunting experience had given him unusual sharpness and vigilance, and the whole team even had to be explored by him in many cases before they could move on.

The way things will turn out is also related to the war that took place not long ago.

When the French evacuated Naples, in order to stop the pursuit of the coalition forces, they destroyed almost all the bridges and many roads leading to the north, and the west bank of the river, which had many towns along the way, was better, while the east bank, which Alexander decided to take, was much slower to recover because of the scarcity of towns.

"My lord, the road ahead is blocked again," said Carlo, urging his horse to Alexander's carriage, his mouth spitting hot air and sweating on the top of his head. ”

"No, just clear the way," Alexander shook his head, he had little hope or disappointed that all roads would lead to Rome, and it would be unwise to waste the scouts' physical strength for no reason, "Take your people to rest, eat and sleep, and there is still a lot of work for you to do." ”

"Yes, sir." Carlo nodded, turned his horse's head and ran towards the back of the group.

"Aren't you going to let a bohemian take this guy?" Nashan, who was riding a horse and following the carriage slowly, asked, "If it is more suitable to be a scout Bohemians, they don't even know what it means to be tired." ”

"No," Alexander happily rejected, "I must make sure that the scout is the most reliable, and this Carlo has been with me through adversity, so I trust him a little more." ”

Alexander didn't go into too much detail, and he certainly wouldn't say because the hunter knew very well that he had resisted the tax collectors sent by Frederick, so now he had no other way but to follow Alexander.

And there was one more thing that Alexander knew but did not foresee, and that was about the whereabouts of Frederick's tax collector.

Although no one mentioned it to him, he knew that the tax collector had been taken away by Caro.

The hunter had taken the dead tax collector into the wasteland, and he was the only one who returned.

Alexander didn't want to know what Carlo had done with the tax collector's body, but he knew that the hunter's only way out was to be loyal to him.

The team had to stop because of the road blockage, which annoyed Joanna a little.

The queen's concern was not that she was in a hurry, but that she was not used to living this life of eating and sleeping in the wilderness.

The freshness of coming out of Naples quickly became boring with the terrible bumps of the trip, especially the increasingly cold weather, which made Joanna feel that the trip had turned into torture.

And to the queen's boredom, whenever he stopped sleeping, Alexander would order the soldiers to rehearse a strange formation, and watching the disheveled soldiers rehearse the same movement over and over again with spears and muskets from cut branches, Joanna quickly turned from curiosity to boredom.

Alexander, however, seemed to be so pleased with this monotony that he would even give a sudden order to the trumpeter to blow the trumpet at night, and then the queen would endure the anger of being awakened from a good dream, and listen to the neighing of horses in the Agri camp not far from the tent, and then the incessant repetition of the commands "hold the spear", "hold it", "advance", "raise the spear", and "fire".

Joanna endured it at first, but at last she could not bear the torture that made her feel like a sin, and she asked Alexander to come to her tent, and tactfully told him that she needed to be quiet and not spend every night as if she had been in the barracks all day.

To the queen's complaints, Alexander only replied very calmly: "I am sorry Your Majesty, all this is for your safety and the safety of all of us, you probably know that the French have not been completely defeated, they even occupy many key points leading to Rome, and the only thing we can do now is to train our soldiers as much as possible, only in this way can we ensure that there will be no accidents in the event of an encounter with the French." ”

Joanna was tempted to tell Alexander that even if she did meet the French, she believed that they would not dare to behave rudely to her as the queen of Naples, but an incident occurred the next day that made her somewhat restrained.

The Bruini Valley is a very special place formed by a very narrow lowland and the hills that stretch dozens of towers on both sides of the valley.

The topography of the valley slopes from northwest to southeast, and the Liri River runs through the valley from the northwest of Mount Bruini.

It was noon when Carlo entered the valley with the scouts, which made the queen a little unhappy when she heard the news, and seeing that the lunch she thought she had eaten well seemed to have to be settled in the carriage, the queen was accustomed to sending her attendants to the front of the procession to invite Alexander.

"It looks like the queen is going to be in trouble again," Nashan pouted as he looked at the running retinue, "I have to say that my queen is much more easy-going than her, are they really from the same family?" ”

Alexander looked at the old man a little speechlessly, and Alexander always felt a little strange about the matter between him and Ferdinand's aunt.

Not surprisingly, Joanna asked Alexander if he could wait until after noon before proceeding, and in Joanna's opinion, Alexander's arrangement was not only bad but also a bit stupid to insist, and she really couldn't understand why she should give up lunch and hurry at this time.

"Your Majesty, the terrain of the Bruinie Valley is complicated, and if we miss the day, we may have to spend the night in the valley," Alexander replied calmly, "It is very unsafe, although we are numerous, but it would be too bad to be attacked in such a narrow place." ”

"You're too cautious, I'm surprised by the rumors I've heard about you before," Joanna's expression was slightly unpleasant, this was not the first time, she even felt that this person didn't really seem to take her seriously, which made the queen feel that her dignity was being despised "Didn't you once hesitate to be the enemy of that nephew of Córdoba for the sake of a woman?" ”

Hearing Joanna's words, Alexander frowned secretly, although he knew that she was only implicitly sarcastic about himself, but Alexander could not accept her insinuation, because it involved Sophia.

"Your Majesty, if you think that my personal rivalry should also be manifested in this trip, you may be somewhat misunderstood," Alexander looked up at Joanna, "sometimes a person's bravery is necessary, but sometimes this reckless bravery can bring danger to others, if this person is the commander of a team, then this person has a duty to think about this team, and anyone who fails to do this is only stupid even if he is brave." ”

Joanna looked at Alexander in amazement, of course she could hear the meaning of his words against her, but she didn't expect Alexander to say it so unceremoniously.

"Your Majesty, if there is nothing else, I will take my leave."

Without waiting for Joanna to respond, Alexander bowed slightly and turned to leave.

Behind him, Joanna's face was suddenly covered with a layer of gloom.

Do you have to endure this person's unreasonableness just because you received his money?

A wave of anger rose in Joanna's heart.

And at this time, Alexander's heart was not comfortable.

Originally thinking that as his relationship with Joanna changed, he could borrow the queen's powers, but as something happened during the trip, he had new ideas.

Obviously, Joanna is not a person who is willing to be controlled, whether it is because of her pride as a royal family or the habits she has cultivated over the years, the queen still tries to show him her origin and authority again and again even after accepting his gifts, even from the various interferences along the way, it can be seen that the queen is not willing to become a vassal of others, even if it is only in some very small places, she still tries to make others obey her arrangement.

Alexander felt that this was not a good sign, and at the same time, he also secretly wondered in his heart, Groningen should know that this queen was difficult to control, so why was he willing to spend so much money on Joanna?

Alexander returned to his team and saw that Carlo had returned, but to his surprise, Carlo was actually injured.

"My lord, it's French." Carlo's face was a little pale, and there was a long wound on his back that ran diagonally across his blood-stained clothes: "We were attacked, the French had an army in the valley, and our men met them. ”

Alexander's heart sank slightly, he didn't expect to meet the French so quickly, and what was worse, the other party was obviously different from the French he had expected to be able to contact secretly.

Throughout, Modillo's decision to secretly support the French was not only secret, but perhaps even unknown to the French themselves.

The reason for this embarrassing situation is that the person who asked Modillo to deliver food to the French was not French.

King Ferdinand II of Aragon.

The name flashed through Alexander's mind, and it gave him a bit of a headache.

He knew that he would not be able to meet the French in public, otherwise Modillo would not reach out to save him if there was any rumor of it.

What's more, there is also a Queen of Naples in his team.

"Order the convoy to stand by," Alexander ordered, feeling a little nervous, after all, it was the first time he had actually faced an army, and it was the French army, which claimed to have fought the Hundred Years' War with the British, "gathered all the convoys together in defensive formation. ”

"You're going to fight France?" Nashan asked with interest.

"Yes, against the French." Alexander urged his horse forward, looking at the hills in the distance, he waved his whip fiercely: "Prepare for battle!" ”

No one thought that war would come out of nowhere!