When the last of the people who stood in the way were gone, Giulio led about three hundred soldiers into the woods on the side of the hills, where the trees were not densely distributed, and there were horse chestnuts with vertical poles, and in early summer, the green foliage weaved a thick brocade in the air, bringing shade to the people, and the mercenaries could not help but feel a little more relaxed as they entered, and they put down their unfired arquebuses and discussed the aftermath of the war with a smile on their faces.

Giulio looked at one of the young men, a Florentine, unknown and cultivated and hired by the Medici family, and there were several people like him in Ralph's ranks, and they quickly complained that they had bought a lot of things, that they were in debt to the merchants, and that they had not received much credit for the battle, and that they had no chance of continuing to enjoy themselves after the war. These words were like a stone thrown into a pool, and the young people came to their senses and began to worry that their earlier extravagance would lead to their expulsion from the ranks or to prison.

But there were also those who feared that they would not be able to stand up to the knights who were like metal monsters, and now that the French had the absolute advantage, it was almost impossible to break through the knights' long and fierce defenses to find their soft weaknesses.

Giulio listened for a moment and said, "In that case, then we'll wait here." "Maybe some French soldiers will turn around and come to us, and we'll just raise our arquebuses and hit them, and we're in the woods, and even the cavalry won't be afraid of anything, they won't be able to approach us." ”

The mercenaries heard this, and thought it was quite feasible, so they happily prepared their arquebuses, Giulio was very generous, they did not encounter a battle, and they were well armed, although Gonzalo and the mercenary captains were not very interested in the arquebus, the soldiers were happy to use this new weapon, and only those who used them frequently knew that the preparation of the arquebus, although tedious and slow, was indeed not to be underestimated.

"I can now fire twice in a hundred miles." A young man said proudly.

"I can do it three times!"

"In a dream?"

"Hahahahaha......"

The most reassuring thing for them was that Giulio instructed them to divide into groups, and while one group shot in front, the other groups prepared, and when they had finished their ammunition, they would retreat, hide, and wait until the battle was over to ask for a reward, for the wounds left by the arquebus were not pretended by swords or spears. "I'd like to have more enemies now." One young man complained, "We have three hundred people here." ”

They waited in the woods with bated breath, and judging by the smoke and figures, the battlefield was indeed expanding here, but they could barely see a Frenchman until they were a little anxious.

So when a lightly armed knight hurried past them, a mercenary pulled the trigger without discerning who the other party was, or the Florentine lad raised his hand and knocked the barrel of his gun away, which saved a ridiculous tragedy: "That's the Spaniard!" ”

The man who was knocked off the barrel did not dare to say anything, but only lamented.

More and more people ran past them, but they were all Spaniards or Neapolitans, and it was Giulio who reminded them: "Since they are all running away," he said, "there must be people chasing them behind." ”

Sure enough, they immediately saw the Imperial Knights in silver armor.

"It's the Imperial Knight!?" The mercenaries immediately tensed, but before they could back down, someone opened fire.

The first thing they held in their hands was the new, coarse-caliber heavy gun, its projectile was close to an inch, and the amount of primer and gunpowder was twice that of an ordinary arquebus, weighing forty pounds, and they needed to be placed on a support frame to shoot, and they stood on a hill, shooting downward, and the distance between them and the knight of the edict was less than two hundred feet, and the lead projectile directly tore the knight's helmet, and the knight's face became a bloody hole gushing with blood and brains like the horse with the broken leg, and he suddenly lost his balance and fell from his horse, Even if the mercenaries couldn't go down to check on him, they knew he was going to die.

The knight's companions immediately spotted the enemy's tracks, but it was too late, like wolves smelling blood, and the frightened mercenaries, who were erased by the death of the knights, did not hesitate to pull the trigger, perhaps to perfunctory Giulio, they did have systematic training in this area, and after the initial hesitation, their movements even had a hint of merriness - after the French lost nearly twenty knights under heavy fire, they instead let crossbowmen, halberdiers, and spearmen attack, But by this time the mercenaries had also abandoned the heavy guns that had run out of ammunition and switched to ordinary long guns, which had more ammunition, and for the infantry who had no armor, or only helmets and leather armor, the arquebus was even more terrifying, and the fate that had befallen their enemies had befallen them instead, and the corpses of the French covered half of the hills.

"Use fire!" A French officer shouted: "Burn them with fire!" ”

"No way!" His subordinate responded: "We don't have longbowmen, there are people who can use longbows, but the range is not as far as their arquebuses." ”

"What about our arquebusiers?"

"They tried." The knight replied, "They are dead." ”

"We may be able to find a way to break through from their rear." The officer said that his subordinates were about to receive orders, but the herald officer of Commander Aubigny rushed to announce the order to retreat.

"But the Spaniards and Neapolitans are ahead!" The officer shouted.

The herald officer glanced into the distance, also with some regret: "Retreat," he said, "this is the commander's order." ”

General Aubigny rode on his horse, and his servants and guards surrounded him, so that the soldiers around him would not see at a glance that their commander was trembling—not out of fear, of course, not out of anger—Aubigny had the misfortune of suffering from malaria before the great battle, and he was cold and hot for a while, his shirt was soaked with sweat, and the doctor bleeds him, and his personal friar prayed for him, and asked the bishop of France to make him mass, but it was useless, he was able to sit on his horse, And not immediately fell solely because he had no way out but to win.

He won, but Aubigny doesn't think it's the end, Gonzalo is famous precisely because he has a lot of combat experience and a reputation for humility and open-mindedness, he won't ignore or hide this defeat because he wants to keep his previous reputation, he will definitely learn from this defeat and build on it - moreover, Obieny doesn't think this is Gonzalo's defeat, he was just dragged back by the stupid Neapolitans, He had hoped that the Neapolitan retreat would be a quagmire to seize Gonzalo and allow him to lose enough soldiers on the battlefield, but Gonzalo did not live up to his wishes, and he fled faster than a rabbit.

Even so, the French had the opportunity to tear a piece of flesh from Gonzalo's body, but Gonzalo seemed to have thought of this, and he let his arquebusiers hide in the woods, stopping the pursuers at all costs, if it was not impossible for them to annihilate these arquebusiers, but what good was that? A knight has to train from the age of five or six to the age of twenty, a spearman needs ten years, and so does a longbowman, but the arquebus, everyone knows, even a woman, a child can use it, it has no skill to speak of, it is more disgusting than the bow and crossbow, even if they kill all the arquebusiers, in just a few months, Gonzalo can train hundreds of replacements. His soldiers are not many in the first place, and they cannot be wasted needlessly in such a place.

As for his body, Aubigny, fearing that he might not even be able to wait for the priest to perform the sacrament on his deathbed, dismounted from his horse with the help of his servants, and with great reluctance to say a few words to his soldiers, he returned to his tent and fell into a complete stupor.

A few days later, Bernard. Morality. News of Aubigny's death spread throughout Italy.

——————————————————————————————————

Ralph walked past his soldiers with a calm face, some recognized him, while others had long since indulged in the arms of women and alcohol, but even the former they were absent-minded—their throats were dry, no amount of wine could moisten them, their hands were shaking, not out of fear but out of excitement, their blood rattling in their ears like the gunpowder in an arquebus still exploding in the barrel of the gun they held; They were all light and fluttering, and everything they saw was hazy, only the real touch of the arquebus in their hands told them that they were still in this filthy hell in the world.

Ralph didn't reprimand them, he knew that these hundred young men might be leaving him, the pleasure that hot weapons can bring to humans is completely different from cold weapons, cold weapons may give people sensory stimulation, but if you want to say mental, or hot weapons, that is a kind of ...... The tyrannical and arrogant mood, as if he was on the top of a mountain, Ralph did not notice at first, but when he returned from the battlefield and saw the exuberant expressions of his soldiers, he knew that things had changed unexpectedly.

They might also be able to equip these young soldiers with arquebuses, but after asking a few people, Ralph was stunned to find that in order for arquebuses to work in such a war, guns and ammunition were the key, and on the other hand, the gold coins used to exchange for these ammunition had to be spent like running water, a king and a duke might be able to support it, but a mercenary captain would not have such delusions.

A Neapolitan nobleman nodded to Ralph and said hello, if it was normal, the nobles would not give respect to these mercenary, but today Ralph and the others not only rescued their king, but also took away a group of Neapolitan nobles from the chaotic battlefield, the king of Naples has promised these three warriors the title and territory, just wait to recapture Naples, they can ascend to the sky in one step.

Who gave this opportunity?

Julio, Medici, the cunning fox, Ralph thought so, and his gloomy expression suddenly faded. Thinking of how the young bishop had accomplished his plan step by step - he must have seen or guessed that they had no interest in fighting, he didn't immediately confront them, well, if that was the case, Ralph was not afraid, they had met many irascible and radical employers before, but they always had a way of extorting the last gold coin while avoiding the closest battle, and there were not a few employers who were sent to hell indirectly by them, and they all wanted tinkling money anyway- He didn't, this Medici, disguise himself as a cowardly, submissive rabbit, and he justifiably bribed their soldiers in front of them, using the merchant's mouth and merchandise to lead them into his trap, and now that he remembered that it was a strange thing that a merchant could have so many arquebuses and ammunition, which had been prepared for them early in the morning—though Ralph did not know how Giulio knew that the King of Naples would be in danger of being unrescued on the battlefield, And how did they know that the Spaniards and Neapolitans would retreat from that road...... Maybe he will never know, but the ending is in front of everyone.

Julio. The Medici won big and won the big win.

Ralph shook his head and laughed, and he simply turned sharply, no longer trying to question his employer.

The fact that Aubigny was suffering from malaria and therefore decided to retreat was not known until much later, so the Spaniards and Neapolitans were full of gratitude to him, which was different from the courtesy received by Ralph and the other three, as a papal envoy, Giulio was originally of the same class as them, and the reward he received was definitely much richer than that received by Ralph and the others.

"You've been planning for a long time, haven't you?" Gonzalo lifted a heavy gun, tried its weight, after retreating, integrating and stationing, he tried this arquebus for the first time, within five hundred feet, it could still penetrate the kind of plate armor that the knights of the edict were accustomed to, and its cost had already exceeded ten florins, if it was not intentional, who would have prepared so many arquebuses and sent them to this deserted place? Gonzalo also knew that he had been deceived, but he did not think that he was wrong, in addition to his own open-mindedness, he also knew that he did not care about arquebuses at all, and if he was persuaded to equip them on a large scale on the battlefield, he would have thought that he was a spy or a madman, and that the actions of the little bishop would have spared him both jail and a great ...... Oral feces (this was often used to treat madmen in this century).

"How much do you give me like this?" Gonzalo asked.

"I'm not a businessman." Giulio said slyly, because the price his merchant gave Gonzalo was twenty florins, which was not at all expensive compared to the knight's armor and horses, but Gonzalo obviously wanted to suppress it a little, so he went directly to him, the main messenger.

"I want a thousand." Gonzalo said: "There are also ordinary long and short guns. ”

"Well...... Nineteen? ”

"What's the difference between that and twenty? A baker's dozen! ”

"How unlucky, dear, eighteen?"

"Fourteen! Enough, one more means one thousand! ”

……