As the weather gets hotter, so does the tension.

The French gathered an army of more than 6,000 people in Nice.

The French fleet was already on standby from ports in the Mediterranean.

The royal banner of King Louis XII of France had reached Avignon, not far from Nice, which was the site of the two-pope split that later became the initiation of the three-pope farce.

Rumours continued to make people feel uncertain, and many people began to leave their homes for fear of the coming war, especially in Milan, where more and more people left the city, and even the nobles and some knights eventually gave up their honor and fled quietly.

Although the French had not yet arrived, Ludviko Sforza was already a little desperate, and his plea for help from the Vatican was in vain, and although Pope Alexander VI did not explicitly refuse, the emissaries sent back were by no means good news.

The Pope's son, Caesar, openly proclaimed the mercy of the French king throughout Rome, calling him "a noble man worthy of respect" and calling the impending French invasion "a mere armed outing full of friendship."

Such remarks made Ludvico's whole body cold, he knew that the Borgia family had been bought by the French, and they had not only completely broken with Sforza in personal relations, but also openly sided with the French.

As for the other dignitaries of the Vatican, Ludviko was disappointed to find that they seemed to be completely unconcerned about the fate of Milan, so much so that they were much more interested in a grand procession in the name of Lucrezia than in the future of Milan.

This made Ludviko feel unspeakable sorrow, he felt as if he had come to the end of his fate, but no one was willing to reach out to him, which gave him the urge to give up completely, so he simply indulged in the graceful bodies of his many mistresses, and even ignored the fierce and condemning letters written to him by his niece Caterina Sforza of Forlì.

Ludviko felt betrayed, not only by the Vatican, but by many people in Milan.

When he heard that da Vinci, whom he had always liked and even tolerated unusually tolerant, had quietly fled Milan with his friends and a large group of student craftsmen, he felt that he had been betrayed in the deadliest way of all.

He was even more exhausted by the sight of many Milanese leaving the city and fleeing to the countryside for refuge, which made him suddenly have an emotional outburst during a dinner party, cursing loudly in front of many guests.

The scene was very embarrassing, and although the guests were sincerely frightened at the time, there was no reverence for the duke in the depths of their eyes, not even fear, and they only looked at him with indifferent eyes, and then hoped that the farce would end soon.

Ludvik knew very well what they were thinking, and when he returned to the room, the Duke shut himself up for a long time, and when he reappeared, he sent a letter to his niece, Caterina Sforza of Forlì.

"I don't know if I'll be able to do my duty anymore, so I'm going to entrust some affairs to you, I know my brother has always regretted that you're not a boy, otherwise you would have been a formidable warrior, so now I want you to show your courage to help your uncle through when the family is in danger."

No one knows how Ludeviko was feeling when he wrote this letter, after all, he was so unscrupulous in the first place to snatch power from his nephew, and then became the Duke of Milan after his nephew's inexplicable violent death, all of which seemed to indicate that Ludevico's relationship with his brother's family was quite delicate, and Caterina Sforza, as his brother's illegitimate daughter, certainly did not have much better relationship with this uncle.

But now Ludviko has no other way, and the repeated disappointments have made him lose his cool, and he no longer knows who to turn to for help, which makes him feel that even if the famous Foley's tigress has no affection for him, at least at this time the only one who can turn to him is him.

Ludviko pinned all his hopes on his niece, he knew that Caterina had a small but strong army in Forlì, and the most important thing was that this woman had a strong enough will to never back down even in the face of enemies much stronger than her, which was what Ludviko valued most now, because he no longer knew who to trust, and he didn't know once the French called, The ministers and officers who had been dining with him the day before would have betrayed him by fleeing or even defecting before the battle, and Caterina Sforza would not have such a worrying danger.

Ludviko waited anxiously, hoping to get a reply as soon as possible, and he felt that his niece would not refuse him, and that Caterina Sforza would not see Milan fall into the hands of the French, whether out of duty to the family or for practical gain.

What Ludviko did not expect was that while he was waiting for his niece's reply like a desperate prisoner awaiting trial, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximian suddenly sent a messenger.

This was a real surprise to Ludvik, he already knew that the emperor had suffered a lot of losses in the Swiss war, and even had to be forced to sign an armistice agreement agreeing to the declaration of independence of the four Swiss states, which was obviously a big blow to the emperor, so Ludviko even had little hope for support from the emperor.

But now that the emperor took the initiative to send someone to Milan, Ludviko seemed to see a glimmer of light all of a sudden.

However, the glimmer of light seemed to have disappeared too quickly, and when Ludviko figured out the Emperor's intentions, he almost drove the Emperor's envoys out of the city on the spot out of disappointment and anger.

Maximian actually sent someone to borrow money!

The Emperor ran out of money, and that's the news that Ludviko had been waiting for.

And the news also sent Ludviko into a panic after the initial anger.

Maximian had no money, which meant not only that the emperor's usual expenses would be drastically reduced, that the grand tournaments he was going to hold would have to be cancelled, but that he would have to be more careful when it came to providing for his mistresses.

The real trouble was that the emperor would not be able to pay his army in full, and an army without pay would not be able to fight.

Help from the Holy Roman Empire was about to come to naught, and Ludvik felt the urge to go mad.

And then Katerina Sforza's reply to him almost became a fatal punch to knock him out.

Despite a period of cynicism in the letter, Forlì's tigress eventually agreed to offer Milan some help in any way she could, including five artillery pieces and an army of about 400 men.

This was already the greatest help that Caterina could provide, and even when it came to artillery, she did not forget to remind Ludvik, "Once the crisis in Milan has passed, please return these artillery as soon as possible, because I also need the protection of these big guys here." ”

Ludviko knew that he was really cornered, and it was clear that those who could help him were not tied up, and those who could help were either standing on the sidelines or being hostile.

Ludviko also considered offering the Emperor a sum of money so that he could reorganize his army as soon as possible, but he quickly dismissed the idea.

Ludviko had vaguely heard that the Emperor's financial problems had been troublesome recently, and although the details were not clear, he believed that it was by no means a small number.

Now is the critical time for money to be used everywhere, and considering how big the financial void can be that can cause trouble for the emperor, Ludviko worries that his money may be wasted.

Ludviko's fears were not unfounded, in fact, apart from him, the emperor's envoys were now almost all over Europe.

And their only mission is to borrow money everywhere.

It's no secret that the emperor is short of money, but this time he is not only short of money, but may even be in danger of bankruptcy.

The Fugger family, the money bag on which Maximian had been subsisting, was in trouble, and the news had now been whispered in many places.

Especially the businessmen who did business with the Fugger family were most touched by the news.

People can keenly perceive that the chambers of commerce of the Fugger family in various industries have become cautious, they just stopped all kinds of large-scale trading to shrink the funds, and then quickly completed some transactions that even if they made less money or even lost money, although they were very cautious when doing so, the businessman's keen sense of smell still made many people aware that something seemed to be wrong with the Fugger family.

These speculations were not easy to dispel once they appeared, and with the chaos in the market caused by several plunges in copper prices, people finally realized that the Fuggers were really in trouble this time.

The Chamber of Commerce, which had business dealings with Fugger, began to feel uneasy, after all, the huge family was involved in a wide range of businesses that could affect most people, and now the Fugger family seemed to have a problem with their funds, whether this would affect the interests of everyone in several or even more major industries, which immediately caused all kinds of speculation.

People always like to think wildly, and if a large group of people are together, they will turn their thoughts into complete delusions, and if these people are all very smart in the first place, then what they can create out of nothing may later be afraid even of themselves.

The merchants were frightened by themselves, and some of the big chambers of commerce began to make frequent contact with the Fuggers, hoping that they would either come forward to clear up the rumors, or simply put up a sufficient amount of security to prove that they were fully capable of supporting the existing industry.

But these two requirements are not fulfilled by the Fugger family.

It is of course very simple to clear up the rumors, and it is only necessary for any one of the three Fugger brothers to tell everyone in public all the unfavorable legends about the Fugger family, which is now a great moment from victory to victory, from glory to glory.

But both Jacob Fugger and his two brothers knew that such a declaration was actually betraying the trust of the Fugger family, and if they could not do what they said, once people found out about the actual situation of the Fogel family, such a lie would cause a hundredfold or even a thousand times the loss of what it is now, and perhaps even those who were willing to believe in them would have to stand against them.

But when I took out a deposit, I felt my whole body tremble just thinking about Jacob Fugger.

So far, not many people know how much money the Fugger family has lost in a short period of time, even some important members of the family only know that the loss is very large, but the three Fugger brothers know very well that in just one month, the wealth of the Fugger family has invisibly evaporated by nearly a quarter or more!

As for how much this loss was, even Jacob Fugol could not say.

Because this loss is changing rapidly almost every day, and according to his speculation, this number is now infinitely approaching the seven-figure mark.

The Fugols may be the richest millionaires of our time, but that doesn't mean they can actually come up with millions of florins or ducats.

In addition, the intangible loss that comes with the loss of money is terrible.

What really worries Jacob Fuguel is that he has a premonition that all this turmoil has only just begun.

Jacob felt as if there was an enemy hiding in the shadows staring at the Fugol family, and he even suspected that it was the enemy's plot to demand a statement from them, because if they did, it would soon be proven to be a deception, and it would mean ruin for the Fugol family.

And the doubts from the emperor also gave Jacob Fugol a headache.

The advantage of sponsoring monarchs to wage war is that they can get enough rewards when they win, but if they lose, they will lose all their money.

In the past, the Fugol family had a considerable return on investment in this area, and the several wars launched by Emperor Maximian were winners, which made the Fugol family always glad that they had found a reliable investment object.

But somehow, all of a sudden, things didn't go well.

The Emperor's crushing defeat in Switzerland was only one aspect, and in the Lowlands, Maximian's son, the beautiful Philip, the governor of the Lowcountries, was overwhelmed by the small port of Rotterdam that had popped up from the previous year, and the merchants of that place were jostling with the Chamber of Commerce supported by the Fugol family.

The Swiss fiasco left the emperor in debt, and in order to deter the German princes, Maximian decided to spend a lot of money to expand his army, and at the same time, in order to deal with the French, Maximian had already proposed to the Fugol family at the beginning of the year the idea of borrowing again to recruit troops.

These places that need to spend money are like wounds cut on the behemoth of Fugol, and blood is constantly being pumped out, but to Jacob's horror, something has happened to the Hungarian copper mine that they have given all hope for.

What kind of crisis the Fugol family is facing now is unimaginable to outsiders, and even Jacob Fugur himself does not know what their enemies will do next.

But Jacob had some idea of their enemies, and he thought that at least the Jews of Venice were involved in this sordid scheme, and that the merchants of the Lowlands were also involved.

However, these people were only unimportant players in the plot to besiege the Fugol family, and Jacob had a feeling that the main messenger hiding in the shadows might soon come from behind the scenes.

Before that, however, the Fuggers had to pay a significant amount of money for the Emperor's withdrawal from Switzerland, and at the same time, the Fugars received bad news that was obviously worse for them.

A procession of merchants sent by the Hanseatic League from the north took advantage of Maximian's dismal departure and entered the four newly declared independent Swiss states, and these northern merchants began to lobby the local Swiss people with a beautifully minted gold coin called Ladia.

It was a new gold coin that looked beautiful and generous, and the merchants who came from the north or simply from the lowlands spared no effort to market their new currency to the Swiss, and for the sake of the local people's concern about the credibility of the new gold coin, the merchants offered to use it to obtain from them other cheaper and better goods in priority for the natives who traded with it. In this way, the new currency, called Ladia, was almost only in the hands of the Swiss and could be returned to the hands of the lowland merchants without any risk.

At the very least, this made the locals feel that the trade did not look like it was a loss, and the merriness of the merchants to trade in Radia clearly contributed to the locals' appreciation of the gold, which looked very good.

And for the merchants from the Lowlands, they had nothing to lose, because while the locals were keen to buy the cheap goods they offered with the Radia, a merchant named Grogenein had already dealt with the local dignitaries who were not yet accustomed to being transformed from military generals to administrative officials, and after several consultations and proving that the gold coins he provided were certified by the Pope, Grogenein was allowed to promote Radia in the four Swiss cantons.

But in fact, of course, things will not be so simple, the real reason why those dignitaries so easily agreed to Groganing's gold coins to enter the market of the four Swiss states is actually as early as half a year ago, when Rotterdam took advantage of the opportunity of the closure of the port to monopolize the entire winter market in Western Europe for almost a few months, Grogenin sent people to get in touch with the Swiss.

In the months that followed, even when funding was tight, funding for the four Swiss cantons in the Low Countries continued, and now that the previous investments were not only perfectly correct, but could have brought a return that would have made many of those who had objected at the beginning faint with excitement.

But the only thing that puzzled Grogenin was that Alexander, who advised him to do his best to finance the Swiss, was sure that the four Swiss states, which were not at all favored at the time, would succeed.

Jacob Fugol's premonition was apparently fulfilled, and while the Emperor Maximian was still on his way back to Vienna, a letter from the Varise was placed in front of the Emperor.

"Your Majesty, the rumors in Rome that the Fugger family may have gone bankrupt are very worrying, and what is more noteworthy is that the news that the Fugger family has decided to dispose of a large amount of the ore business for which they have signed an agreement because they have lost all their money in the Hungarian copper mining business, which obviously annoys the king of Ladislas, and the Fugger family has undoubtedly offended Wallachia and Bosnia, which now have close relations with Hungary. Rumor has it that the Fuggers will probably have to give up many of their businesses in those places as a result, but that's not the worst of all, as they seem to have signed a very mysterious loan contract with the Venetians, and they don't seem to want you to know about the money. ”

Looking at this letter, in the name of old Rovere, but sent by an emissary sent by the Pope, Maximian could not help but fall into deep contemplation.