August 9, 1503.

The artillery roared, and the walls shook.

Danilo, the head of Guinicki's family, had the audacity to stick out his head and look out, just in time to see a stone bullet whizzing, sending debris of the stone bricks of the city wall flying, and then ...... It was firmly embedded in it, like a mischievous child, inserting a bean into a piece of cake—and Castelluccio's parents reached out and snorted him back, as another stone projectile sped at and burst through the battlements beneath them, slashing their hands and arms, even though they had lifted their heavy cloaks in time.

"What are you trying to do?" Castrolicio's parent, Alfred, reprimanded unceremoniously: "Try your head and stone bullet that hard?" ”

"I just want to see the walls." Danilo gasped: "God, the artillery is so terrible, it's like the devil is roaring. ”

"We also have artillery." Alferred said that as a descendant of mercenaries who still had a bloody blood, he was better suited to the tragic atmosphere of the battlefield than Danilo, "We have enough artillery, and we have ammunition." "When they buy artillery and ammunition, they don't think about it that long term – some people still have a lot of interest in Giulio. The Medici's words would be doubtful, after all, Lukka had been free for hundreds of years, and for these cannons, and ammunition, Alfred vouched, and the councillors took them completely as a thank you gift to Archbishop Lucca, and in any case, Lucca's walls were almost built under his auspices and design, not to mention, the speed and power of miracles.

Danilo curled up under the battlements, his eyes closed, each stone bullet hitting the city wall would bring a shock, but only that, the maximum damage that the stone bullet could cause was embedded in the wall as mentioned above, but this damage almost became a reinforcement, and its existence could resist the next stone bullet for the Lucca - even if it left a pit, it did not affect the integrity of the city wall at all, because the cement solidified stone bricks...... It was so big that a stone projectile with a diameter of less than a foot could not form an effective attack at all.

"Is this really the wall we built?" On another day, after Borgi's runner-up again returned without success, in the golden afterglow, Danilo stood on the bastion. Guiniki muttered to himself, looking from him he could see the steep walls and several other bastions, the stone bricks were covered with bumpy scars, but like a giant elephant with heavy skin, these scars did not cause even a single fatal injury—it still looked majestic, powerful, and intact.

"No," replied Alfred, "it was God, moved by the piety of our archbishop, who sent angels down from heaven to give us the wall in one night. ”

Danilo stared at him for a moment, almost believing it, and then he couldn't help but roll his eyes: "May the devil take your ball." "I just want to sigh." ”

"I'm just talking." Alfred. Castrolicio said nonchalantly, and then he turned around, intending to check on the situation of St. Peter's Gate, which was the gate of the main attack direction of the Borgia army, and they were afraid that they would not be able to hold it, so they carried the huge cement bricks behind the gate, so that whether the Borgia army wanted to use artillery bombardment, or use battering rams or something, they would not worry too much - no, they still had the recipe for cement, and Alfred planned to pour cement on it tonight, and in a few days they would become very strong, Aside from the fact that they had to pry them open little by little after the crisis was resolved, there were few drawbacks.

But before he turned around, he heard Danilo. Guiniki cried out, and he turned back in exasperation to ask what madness the fellow was again, when he saw Danilo pointing out of the city, and shouting incoherently, "Look, look," and he cried out in ecstasy: "They are withdrawing!" Borgia has withdrawn! ”

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On August 5th, the former Roman consul and now Cardinal Isavales hosted a banquet in his villa for Pope Alexander VI and his illegitimate son, Duke of Romagna, Caesar. Borgia - Isavales was one of the few people now Alexander VI who was willing to believe in it except for Borgia, but while the servants served food and wine, Cardinal Lovere, no, not Giuliano. Della. Lovere, but Joshua. Lovere, along with the Pope's personal physician, tested them to make sure they weren't poisoned.

The banquet was a delight for the guests, and Cardinal Isavallis was proud of the ham from the Parma Mountains and the wines from his hometown of Vinito. Needless to say, wine is especially popular for ham – nothing is more popular than this soft, fatty, fragrant and rich meat, with three skilled chefs cutting the ham for them, and even then barely had time to keep up with Pope Alexander VI and Caesar. The speed at which Borgia ate – partly because of the delicious taste of ham, and partly because people at this time often used gluttony to show good health.

They ate a lot of ham and drank a lot of wine, and on a hot August day, this kind of torture of the stomach and intestines made it easy to get sick, so when they returned to the Vatican Palace, after the Pope and Caesar fell, they thought they were sick and called Joshua and the doctor to treat them.

Before that, they had been vomiting all night, and Joshua had given them the miraculous potion that had allowed the Pope to be cured, but this time, it was not as effective as the last time, and the doctors discussed bloodletting for the Pope and Caesar, giving them sixteen ounces and ten ounces respectively - but their condition was still good and bad, and no matter how much the doctors tried to save them, they could not recover their illness, especially the Pope.

Maybe it was because the Pope was an old man in his seventies after all, and he was in much worse condition than Caesar, he was gasping for breath in bed, clutching his neck desperately, as if some devil had strangled his throat, and after some time he passed out, and when he woke up, he had no strength to move, his muscles were all limp, and he shouted (in fact in a slight voice) Joshua's name, but Joshua couldn't do anything about it, he couldn't even decide if it was a disease or a poison.

Pope Alexander VI, who struggled for thirteen days in agony, finally gave up on August 18, the third day of the Assumption of the Virgin, confessed to a bishop who was beside him, took the sacrament from his hand, and said to the cardinals who had heard the news and rushed to gather around his bedside: "Go, go." When the cardinals had gone, he had the bishop anoint himself with holy oil, and he passed away in silence.

And at that very moment, Caesar. Borgia was still wheezing in the heat in a room hundreds of feet away from them, and when he heard the sad news, he immediately summoned Miguel. Corero, fortunately, Alexander VI had a hunch, Miguel. Corero came with a team of brave soldiers, and he first took Caesar. Borgia took him to a safe chamber and led his soldiers to sweep the entire Vatican Palace, searching for 500,000 gold ducats worth of belongings.

They took out some of these possessions to calm the wandering minds of the soldiers, the Vatican Palace and Castel Sant'Angelo, as well as the cardinals present, were controlled, and the Romans were surprised to find that although Alexander VI was dead, Borgia seemed to have a last chance to make a last stand.

The Borgian army besieging Lucca thus obeyed Caesar. In addition to Borgia's army, the army of General Gonzalo of Spain, and the army of King Louis XII of France, were all coming to Rome, and they all had the same intention, that is, to influence the upcoming pope elections by force, so as to elect a pope who was in their interest.

Originally, Caesar. Borgia undoubtedly had the upper hand, but just when he thought he was winning, a mob from nowhere attacked the Vatican Palace, they were only a few dozen at first, armed with torches, but after incitement and instigation, their ranks grew to thousands, and the Romans, fearing both the chaos before the election of the Pope and the rule of a mad Borgia, summoned up a rare courage and rushed into the Vatican Palace despite the swords of the soldiers and the projectiles of muskets, Rescued all the cardinals who had been caught.

Joshua. Lovere was one of them, and the thugs were kind to him, and he thanked them, and when he walked alone to St. Peter's Square, he was still a little dazed - Alexander VI, such an invincible, domineering man, died so humbly? He could barely believe it...... He had always thought that Cardinal Picromini had asked him to go to the Pope in order to take the opportunity to kill Alexander VI, and of course he was willing, and he treated Cardinal Picromini as if he were his father - even if he had to die for it, he would not hesitate in the slightest, but he did not ...... At Cardinal Izavalles' banquet, when he inspected the wines and dishes for the Pope, he was still making difficult choices – he didn't care about the Pope's favor, but he also loved Lucretia and didn't want her to be sad – even if he could only look at her from afar...... With Julio......

But suddenly, everything was over, Alexander VI died, and it had nothing to do with him.

When he looked up, he found that he had come to the gates of the Palazzo Picromini, where a monk saw him and walked away, and after a while he returned and told Joshua that Cardinal Picromini was waiting for him.

Joshua was almost galloping away, and Cardinal Picromini was waiting for him, as the monk had said.

"You're back, Joshua." It was as if Joshua had just gone out and bought some ink, parchment, instead of serving the pope, becoming a cardinal, and now ...... There is nowhere to go.