- There are 1,000 words added to the previous chapter.

Duarte held the letter that Giulio forwarded to him, looking at the immature handwriting on it, the Prince Charles's wording was not uncourteous, but it did not completely lose the pride and reserve of a future ruler, and the degree between the two was very good, Duarte read both sides repeatedly, and then laughed: "It reminds me of a person." ”

"Cardinal Buins." Giulio said.

"What a, it seems that this lord has been completely conquered by this prince."

"Everybody has their own ideas, and every moment they have their own ideas, and the reason why Boins would want to be on our side, of course, is because he also has a deep dislike for the current church, and he wants to change, but it's not something we can give him right away."

"But the Church is a great ship," Duarte said, "and it will capsize with a sudden change of direction, and did he not see that Julius II had gone before?" ”

"He is not young after all, he will be seventy this year," said Giulio, "and he could not wait, and he had a prince by his side, and although Charles was only a child now, he was destined to become a king or emperor in the future, and Buins, his teacher, could easily inject his ideas into his head." ”

"So there was something wrong with my previous statement, should it be the opposite?"

"It's hard to say, they should be influencing each other." Giulio smiled and said, "Support each other, and the relationship between them should be good." ”

"Perhaps," said Duarte, "according to the information sent by the merchants, Buyns had tried to reform the local church in Utrecht, but the mourning lady did not approve of it, and even threatened him with the removal of him from his post as prince's teacher if he continued......"

"He compromised."

"This is also a helpless thing." Duarte also smiled: "Why did Margaret choose Islam and then Boins, isn't it because although they are Dutch, they are not in the Netherlands all year round?" There is really no better way to kill three birds with one stone without roots, but with the name of the Dutch, and to appease the Dutch people, but not to allow Charles to gain enough strong support, and to block Charlie's connection with Austria and Spain. ”

Giulio shook his head slightly, he had never despised women as much as men now, but what they could do was sometimes terrifying.

At this time, there was a gentle knock on the door, and at first they thought it was something urgent, no, no, it was the monks who had come to remind them to eat, and they had lit the candles in the room, and then they realized that the light in the room had been very dim, and it turned out that before they knew it, dusk had gathered its wings and landed in the solemn courtyard of the Vatican Palace.

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And farther away, the smell of dusk was filled with a suffocating stench and dampness, and on the banks of the Ravenna River, with mountains of corpses and blood, this battle, from a thunderous crit to a millstone-like tug-of-war, thousands of living people were crushed by the war machine, leaving miles of brilliant and terrifying images on the dark green and gray canvas—the loser was miserable, but the victor was not happy, as far as the eye could see, the mourning was everywhere, and the ears were full of wailing and weeping, and even the death was accustomed to death, He also created a lot of generals with his own hands, and he couldn't help but look away.

He saw a familiar monk rushing towards him.

The general remembered him because his face was real...... Unbelievable, but his words were far more persuasive than his countenance, General Cardona could not believe that he would believe him and put himself in an extremely dangerous situation—but he proved right, and the death of the French commander, Gaston, had finally tilted the tide of the war in their favor.

"Give me a horse, please!" Machiavelli shouted, his tone and words lacking due respect, but the general didn't care, because the other man's eyes and demeanor showed that he had encountered an extremely terrible thing, what made him so afraid?

"What happened?" The general likewise shouted: "Tell me, and I will give you not only the best horses, but also the soldiers, and let them follow you." ”

"Yes, I need soldiers too." Machiavelli looked directly at the general: "I got news from the prisoners of war that the French king Louis XII was not in Milan, nor in Naples, he went to Rome!" And his 20,000 soldiers! ”

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St. Paul's Gate.

It was the largest open gate of Rome today, and at night it dropped its latches, lowered its iron gates, lit its walls with torches, and watched vigilantly over the Via Marco Polo, which stretched out from Rome to all corners of a vast territory, like the other twenty-eight avenues, and was the most distinct and at the same time the most lamentable vestige of a glorious empire.

But tonight was as peaceful and calm as usual, and after a few hours the most astute guards were tired, leaning against their spears or battlements, and taking unnoticed naps, when a group of soldiers suddenly appeared out of the morning mist, and the guards under the walls gave a warning signal, and the guards on the walls immediately straightened up, but they relaxed at once, for the man had come from the city of Rome, and their captain was none other than the sons of the House of Orsini.

"You're early." The captain on duty said that he was from Cadiz, and he was not a nobleman, but only the son of a craftsman, and that he was able to become a captain entirely because of Giulio Medici, their lord and guardian, so his sense of responsibility was heavier than that of ordinary soldiers.

"It's only two or three hours early." The captain of the Orsini family smiled lightly: "Wouldn't it be good to go back and rest early?" ”

"We're going to do what we're told." The captain of Cadiz said with a serious expression: "Go back, and take our place in three hours." ”

"Then we will have to spend all our time on the way back and forth," the captain of the Orsini family affectionately stretched out his hand and took the arm of the Gardis, "Look, it's all my fault, last night's banquet ended too late, I wanted to go to sleep, and as a result, hundreds of little devils danced in my head, and I couldn't sleep, so I had to do things first, so let's do it." He said, "If you insist, then you can come three hours early to take our place." ”

"So we're breaking the order twice." The captain of Cadiz said rigidly: "No, please go back, and take our place in three hours." ”

"Even bishops have a time or two when they have violated the doctrine," said the man of the House of Orsines, "besides, we are only a bunch of mortals," he drew a heavy silk bag from behind his waist, "take it, good man," and said sweetly, "if you feel that two sins are too heavy, then it is better once, and you can take our place as you were at the beginning, and with this extra time you can go out of the city, and meet the messengers of love, and let them soothe your tired body and mind." ”

As he spoke, he kept an eye on the look of the Cadiz, and when he saw that the other party did not seem to be at all impressed by his words and gold coins, a trace of anger could not help but leak between his eyebrows, and his hand turned behind his back again, but this time it was no longer the money bag that he was holding.

Fortunately, just before he stretched out his hand for the second time, a son of the Colonna family appeared, and when he saw him, the people of the Orsini family immediately raised their vigilance, after all, the feud between the Orsini family and the Colonna family can be traced back to the time of the Three Popes, although in the time of Alexander VI, because of the oppression of the insatiable pope, both families had suffered such a catastrophe, but as soon as Alexander VI died, they returned to Rome in a majestic manner, in the time of Pius III, they were not valued, in the time of Julius II, they did not have time to hold the handle of the young pope, and when Leo X, the generous and happy pope finally let them see a ray of light, but compared to the Colonna family, the Orsini family is more arrogant and arrogant, after all, the Orsini family has three popes, and the Colonna family has only one.

In normal times, the people of the Orsini family don't care about drawing their swords and fighting with the people of the Colonna family, but today they have other important affairs, which makes the children of the Orsini family rarely provoke first, and the son of Colonna, when he saw Orsini's coat of arms, also showed an ugly look, he only had two friends around him, and Orsini's team had at least fifty people, he tilted his head slightly, hiding the inconspicuous fear, and said to the captain of Gallis: "I am the son of the Colonna family," He said, "Please send some soldiers with me so that I don't get hurt by some unscrupulous thugs." ”

The captain of Gatiz was immediately embarrassed, although he was only the son of a craftsman, but the people of Cadiz to become captains, they must pass the teaching and testing of the Monks of Mercy, he is not an ignorant person, of course, he knows the weight of the Orsini family and the Colonna family in the city of Rome, they are hostile to each other, but they also balance each other, but if something unfortunately happens to the son of the Colonna family, then the existing peace in the city of Rome will definitely be broken, but it is impossible for him to divide some soldiers - but, to say, It was equally impossible for the Orsini family to give up this opportunity, and the captain of Orsini had already put away the money bag, and the soldiers behind him also showed eager expressions.

"We're with you." The captain of Cadiz said at once, and then he saw the regretful expressions of the Orsines, and without thinking twice, he gathered his soldiers and left the city wall with the son of the Colonna and his friends.

"It's a bit of a pity." After the figures of the group faded into the leaden white mist, a soldier of the Orsini family said, and their captain only showed a sinister smile: "There is no pity," he said, "until the dust settles...... he did not continue, but all those who knew the inside showed the same sinister smile as him, and they rushed to bust - extinguishing the torches, opening the city gates, and clearing the "debris".

Originally, if those Cadiz insisted on not leaving, it was also one of the miscellaneous things, but if they could not do it, Orsines' people did not want to do it, when these Cadiz people first came to Rome, they had inquired about their strength under various names, although the soldiers raised by the Orsini family could kill them when they were not vigilant enough, it is difficult to say whether there will be one or two fish that slip through the net, it is best to be able to deceive them, what they need is an unsuspecting Rome.

"It's strange," said one soldier, "that there isn't much 'clutter.'" ”

In Julio. Before the Medici reformed Rome, there were always many thieves, beggars and prostitutes inside and outside the walls of Rome, just as schools of fish would gather in places rich in sediment, and they would tend to be lively and fast-moving, so that whatever they did had a goal and a way out, sometimes, in order to maintain a favorable position, they would not leave their "throne" for food or sleep, but today, there are very few "clutter" here, and even if there is, as soon as they see them, those guys will flee quickly.

"Then there is." The children of the Orsini family muttered for a while: "It is possible to be less, after all, the Medici have been cleaning up Rome. He would have been a little skeptical if it had been a smooth journey before, but it turned out that the people of Cadiz were indeed a stubborn obstacle, and if it weren't for the sons of the Colonna family, they must have been worried that if the sons of Colonna were killed, they would be angered by the Colonna family, and in any case, the sons of Colonna had already turned to them for help.

This little twist and turn reassured him, and the Orsini family had now cleaned the inside and outside of the city gates, and the soldiers bit the cork in their mouths, and hummed and pulled up the iron gates, erected the latches, and opened the gates, and then a horse, a man, galloped out of the city, and about half an hour later, a group of richly dressed light cavalry galloped in, with white feathers in their hats, which were the symbol of the French army.

The children of the Orsini family smiled smugly.

As soon as the cavalry entered Rome, they scattered, and it was evident that they were on the duty of reconnaissance - their horses, with their slender legs and small hooves, made a loud sound on the stone roads of Rome, and someone heard it, and pushed open the window and looked around, but saw nothing, the moon was already setting in the west, the stars were sparse, there were no street lights in the streets at this time, and it was difficult for people's eyes to see at night, so they at most just scolded and closed the windows and fell asleep peacefully.

No one was aware of the looming crisis, and perhaps they didn't care, and Louis XII was pleased with the reaction.

His army swarmed him forward, through the city gates, and onto the avenue.

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