Under normal circumstances, in order to deter the enemy, the side that sent troops would falsely report the number of troops and deliberately exaggerate them in order to frighten the opponent. Among them, the most classic is Cao Cao who led an army of more than 200,000 to the south, known as 800,000, which scared the whole of Eastern Wu into urine. If Sun Quan hadn't drawn his knife and slashed the edge of the table, maybe the Eastern Wu would have surrendered a long time ago, and there would have been no classic Battle of Chibi later.

This time, however, the French did the opposite. In order not to alert the Spaniards, France, which had clearly gathered 60,000 troops, claimed that it was 30,000 troops.

The size of the army of 30,000 is a bit much for attacking the Duchy of Milan. But Louis XII couldn't help it, he couldn't say 10,000 people, right? 60,000 troops and 80,000 people, a total of 140,000 people, can you say that 10,000 troops with 10,000 people? When people are really that bad at arithmetic? So, he said that with only 30,000 troops, it was already the limit.

In order not to provoke Spain, Louis XII openly declared that this was a matter for France and the Duchy of Milan, and hoped that other countries would not interfere. Of course, France doesn't want to be eventful either......

This statement seems to be a warning to other countries not to meddle in this matter, but it has also become a relative claim - Lao Tzu is plotting to seize the Duchy of Milan, don't provoke me...... This is actually a disguised coaxing of Spain - look, I'm interested in Milan, don't worry......

The Spaniards were relieved, and of course, they did not completely let down their guard. For example, they still told the garrison of the Kingdom of Naples to be careful. But that's about it.

Mainly, it has been a coincidence lately that the attention of the Spaniards has been attracted by Zimbabwean gold, and they really don't bother to care about anything else. Now, the Spanish court is already in a mess, and it is about to stage an all-out military campaign in order to carve up the interests of the Zimbabwean Empire.

No one is stupid, once the Zimbabwean Empire falls into the hands of Spain, it will definitely produce a huge amount of gold every year. Spanish colonists at the mouth of the Savi River estimated that the amount of gold Zimbabwe used to trade with Arab traders each year was estimated to be worth tens of thousands of gold coins. Add to that the value of ivory and copper ore, and that's even more. Unfortunately, Zimbabweans do not understand the true value of commodities and are fooled by Arab traders with cheap cloth, glass and other goods, and expensive golden sands are sold for cabbage prices.

According to the reports of spies in Zimbabwe, the production technology of the black people in the Zimbabwean Empire was extremely backward. Taking gold mines as an example, Zimbabweans' gold production is still at an extremely backward level of gold panning. Most of the ore in the gold mine has not been fully utilized and developed. Because, Zimbabweans don't know how to use gold ore to smelt gold......

Similarly, Zimbabwe is very rich in copper mines, but they don't know how to smelt copper. Therefore, they had to trade copper ore with Arab merchants. Moreover, the copper ore that is traded is a rich ore, which makes the population water......

After discussion, the Spanish government and opposition agreed that if Spain occupied Zimbabwe, it should be able to produce more than 300,000 gold coins a year by making good use of the gold ore that the locals could not use. In addition, Zimbabwe's abundant copper mines can also be used to smelt large quantities of copper. Because the current copper price in Europe is very expensive, it is very cost-effective to develop Zimbabwean copper mines. Not to mention, Zimbabwe is also rich in ivory.

Of course, Spain is not currently a centralized state, but is divided into two regimes, the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon. Moreover, the kings of the two countries are not the same. Currently, the king of Castile is Juan III, while the king of Aragon is Ferdinand II, the father of Juan III.

In addition to the difference in monarchs, there were also differences of interest between the courtiers of the two countries. For example, this time on the issue of the rights and interests in the gold mines of Zimbabwe, the ministers of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon almost fought.

The nobility of the Kingdom of Castile believed that the Spanish voyages were driven by Queen Isabella I, and that the Kingdom of Aragon was just a free ride. Therefore, Zimbabwe's interests should be vested primarily in the Kingdom of Castile.

But the nobles of the Kingdom of Aragon did not do it, and they strongly demanded that the benefits be shared equally. Moreover, their leader, Ferdinand II, still had a great influence on Juan III, the king of Castile. For this reason, the nobles of the two kingdoms of Spain are currently busy arguing over the division of interests in the future. As for the military operations of the French, a little attention was paid to it.

Then Louis XII was pleased to find that his own march into Italy had not been interfered with by the Spaniards......

This time, because most of the French military forces were dispatched, Louis XII also personally put on the battle and prepared to fight in person. In any case, Louis XII did not think that his army of 60,000 would fail this time.

And, before leaving Paris, John. In turn, Raffite followed Marin's instructions and offered Louis XII a ploy - bluffing......

Because Louis XII took away most of the elite of France, Paris, France at this time was actually very empty. If England took the opportunity to invade, it would certainly bring great harm to France. Even if you can't capture Paris, you can still scourge a vast area of northern France.

So, John. Lafite advised Louis XII to recruit 20,000 men and leave behind some loyal noble generals. These 20,000 people were simply trained, put on a show, stationed outside Paris, locked up in barracks, and deterred the enemy country.

The Habsburgs in England and the Netherlands saw that there were "20,000 troops" stationed outside Paris, so they naturally did not dare to invade easily......

Louis XII was overjoyed and adopted John. Lafite's suggestion, and let his henchman, Count Durt, serve as the defender of Paris, responsible for leading the 20,000 people who look like it, plus 4,000 real defenders, to control the city of Paris. In this way, Louis XII was able to safely lead his army of 60,000 south to Italy.

This time, Louis XII learned the lessons of his first two expeditions into Italy. He ordered the soldiers not to look for women when they arrived in Italy, lest the whole army be infected with syphilis, as in the case of Charles VIII's expedition. If it weren't for syphilis, Charles VIII would have taken control of the Kingdom of Naples long ago.

As for the Second Expedition to the South, the French lost to Gonzalo. Morality. Musket phalanx in Córdoba. And this time, Louis XII was well prepared - he brought enough cannon fodder infantry to attract enemy fire. And the most precious French knight, he intends to use at a critical moment. In the field, it is used to charge from the flanks without musketeers, avoiding the Muskets, the sworn enemies of the Plate Knights......

Surrounded by 20,000 French knights, Louis XII arrived at Lyon, the largest city in the southeast, and waited for the rest of the army to join him. Once the troops were assembled, the army marched eastward, preparing to cross the Alps and march into Italy......

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