The camera returns to the Mediterranean. Southern Italy, June 1495.

It didn't take long for the French to learn about it after the landing of the Castilian and Neapolitan armies on the eastern shore of the Strait of Messina on June 1. So, the commander of the French army, Aubigny, marched south from the city of Naples according to the orders left by King Charles VIII of France.

Their goal is to drive the enemy army into the sea!

That sounds incredible. The French army was trapped in the Italian region, lacking food, weapons, ammunition, everything, supply lines and return routes were cut off, the city of Naples was located in the middle of the Apennine Peninsula slightly south, the Strait of Messina was the southernmost point of the Apennine Peninsula, and the opposite shore was Sicily, ruled by Aragon, which was equivalent to the other party's doorstep. When the French had such an unfavorable balance of forces, they had to go all the way south to the Strait of Messina, and drive the enemy into the sea at their doorstep? It's a fantasy to hear it, and it's time to retreat - in the eyes of the discerning person, this is certain, Charles VIII himself has retreated to the north - how can the French army in the south retreat?

Of course, Aubigny, as a famous general, naturally did not really want to drive the Castilians and Neapolitans into the sea in the Strait of Messina, he thought that the enemy could not stay on the edge of the Strait of Messina all the time, right? I'm going to go north to liberate Naples! Then you can have a good fight!

According to history, Aubigny's judgment was correct, and the French army did win the first battle of Seminala. Even so, the French suffered a strategic defeat that eventually turned into a tactical defeat in which only a few survived.

And now, Ferdinand and Gonzalo have conducted a thorough analysis of the combat methods and combat effectiveness of the French army, and summed up the methods of dealing with the French in advance, and it is not impossible to defeat the knights of the French edict, but in this war, the time is not yet ripe for use - the military conditions are not yet sufficient, and the political is unnecessary and the gains outweigh the losses. So the conclusion is to pretend to be a grandson for the time being! Just stay in the city of Lezo, set up cannons, and hold on to the city. So the Spanish side really put their troops on the east shore of the Strait of Messina. Wait for the French to come here across half of the Apennines.

The French don't want to visit the Strait of Messina! Can they stop halfway? However, it does not work, and the enemy army will stand firm. And the possible march is also an order of the Dharma King, which must be obeyed. Besides, they didn't know that the Spaniards were determined to hold out. As for the withdrawal of troops and the return of troops, how can it be done? Isn't this a deserter? To this is the charge of disobedience.

In this way, the French, the French had to make a really long journey to the Strait of Messina, of course they thought that they would definitely encounter the Spanish army on the way, but the truth was that they would have to rush to the sea themselves to drive the outnumbered enemy into the sea......

At this time, the French were starved of food and wages, syphilis and malaria were rampant, and even Aubigny himself contracted malaria, and it was getting worse and worse.

On 25 June 1495, the French reached Seminara, where they were supposed to be victorious, but now they had no enemy to overcome, and they rested for a short time before continuing their march south. Aubigny's malaria worsened, and he had to endure the disease and march south. It was clear that the Castilian and Neapolitan armies were not going north to fight him, and were waiting for him to send them.

At this time, the Castilian army was unhurriedly transporting supplies, placing artillery, and fortifying the city defenses. Also, an important task was to train the unorganized and undisciplined Calabrian militia of nearly 10,000 men, and Ferdinand also proposed some regulations for military training, not asking them to fight valiantly like the Castilian army, but at least to prevent the enemy from rushing at him and fleeing before he could reach his sight.

On June 30, 1495, the French army finally "arrived" under the city of Lezzo, and the reason for the quotation marks was that the vigilant Aubigny kept the French army at a certain distance from the other side. There was no siege.

It is even more difficult to attack a city held by an enemy army with superior forces than to ascend to the sky, let alone the current situation of the French army. Although the bastion was still early, it was not easy to attack the city. The fortress was the first to appear in Italy during the battles for cities in the early stages of the Italian War.

That night, the French were pitifully encamped, and in fact they did not even have enough tents. While the French were hungry and cold, the Spaniards had already reaped a rich fruit in the Italian war, getting Corsica, which they "deserved" to get.

If the French army wants to capture the city of Lezo, on the one hand, it needs a superiority in troops, and the French army does not. On the other hand, powerful artillery is needed.

Artillery had become an important tool for siege by this time. In the thirties of the 15th century, artillery had begun to get rid of the classical blind pursuit of big, which greatly lost mobility. It was discovered that in addition to making the cannon larger, another way to increase the power could be found, and that was the double diameter technique. There is a certain relationship between the four factors of the gun's bore pressure, caliber, barrel length, and projectile velocity, and when the caliber is constant, the longer the barrel length of the artillery, the greater the bore pressure, and the faster the projectile muzzle velocity.

However, the multiplier technology, and the artillery weapons that applied it, did not immediately gain popularity, and at that time, there was also a powerful weapon called the giant catapult. This is the crystallization of one of the highest levels of medieval technology in Europe. However, when the development of the stone cannon came into trouble, this method of improving mobility and increasing power at the same time began to be widely used. As a result, single-barreled front-loading guns made using the casting process became mainstream, and these guns were equipped with wooden turret carts that could be dragged by a small team of horses, and could be equipped with lugs and brackets to achieve a balance between firepower and mobility.

Artillery at first gave the French great benefits. In the Italian War, the French army often relied on powerful and advanced artillery to break through one city after another in Italy.

However, the First Italian War was an exception! Because this war was completely launched by the King of France with the spirit of the second second, he did not make any careful preparations. Rao was so, and the French army also brought 136 field guns, which was already a high proportion compared to the total number of 23,000 troops of the French king. However, it has already been said that due to the lack of supplies and the need for a strategic retreat, most of these artillery pieces have been discarded, and now only 10 are in the hands of Aubigny, how can this be a siege? The Castilian and Neapolitan armies defending the opposite city have more than 20 artillery pieces!

The battle could not be fought, and the French were very depressed. However, the Castilians had no intention of making trouble for the time being. The Southern Theater of the First Italian War was thus in a stalemate.