After passing through Pavia from Milan, you will enter Parma, the territory of Matilda, the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and it can be said that the road south to Rome is basically safe, and no hostile forces dare to oppose the Norman army.

Along the way, part of the supplies needed by William's army were provided by the Republic of Genoa, and the other part was delivered to William by the Tuscan Grand Duchess, and only a small part of military supplies such as weapons needed to be transported from China to Italy through the Rhône.

Of course, since his daughter-in-law Matilda was so cooperative, William naturally would not let the other party suffer, so he not only bought the supplies sent by the Tuscans at a suitable price, but also allowed her to attack the Republic of Ancona.

Compared to the sincere help of the Grand Duchess Matilda and the Tuscany, the Genoese were more selfish, and they did not demand monetary compensation from William, but hoped that he would lead an army to attack the Republic of Pisa and wipe out the country completely.

Naturally, William knew the reasons for the Genoese urgency.

The Republic of Genoa has always regarded the Republic of Pisa as its number one rival, and the two sides have been in constant friction, and the war has lasted intermittently for hundreds of years. Around 1200, a hot war was going on between Genoa and Pisa, and the only way for the Crusaders to sail to the East was Venice.

The rivalry between the two countries was mainly due to the struggle for trade supremacy in the western Mediterranean, and the insatiable pursuit of wealth by these merchant city-states was simply unsatisfying, and they did not want to have a monopoly in trade.

Among the four city-states of Italy, the Genoese controlled the maritime trade between the French coast in the western Mediterranean and the Christian countries of the Iberian Peninsula, the Pisians controlled the Roman coast in the western Mediterranean and the maritime trade in North Africa, the Venetians dominated the trade with Byzantium, and Amalfi was the smallest of the four city-states.

Judging from the trade zones divided by these respective city-states, as long as they exterminate the Pisa, or even only need to use William's hand to inflict heavy damage on the Pisa, they can monopolize the trade hegemony in the western Mediterranean, and then peek into the trade monopoly of the eastern Mediterranean over the Byzantine Empire.

In particular, Venice's geographical superiority compared to Pisa and Genoa threatened the trade hegemony of Pisa and Genoa, and the hatred and exclusion between the three became more and more intense.

In fact, the Genoese had already planned for it, and at this time the Pisas and Venetians were William's enemies, and they were eager to take this opportunity to convince William to help them defeat the Pistons and Venetians, so that the Genoese could dominate the Mediterranean trade.

The Genoese request was very reasonable, and William had no reason to refuse, after all, the two city-states of Venice and Pisa were too ignorant of the times to foolishly side with his enemy, the Holy See, and could not allow William to show mercy to their men.

However, in William's mind, he was still prepared to leave the two city-states of Pisa and Venice alive, after all, everyone knew that monopoly was not a good thing for anyone, especially for William, which meant that if he wanted to start trading and sailing in the Mediterranean in the future, he would have to look at the faces of the Genoese.

More than 100 years later, in the Fourth Crusade, the Venetians led the Crusaders step by step with the threat of material supplies, and let them attack the Byzantine Empire and its capital Constantinople in order to establish absolute hegemony in trade.

From here, William knew that once the Genoese had eliminated the Pisas and Venetians with his help, they would use their trade monopoly to threaten the central government, just as the Venetians did during the Fourth Crusade.

William has no doubt about this, after all, these Italians do not have any mutually beneficial, win-win, open and inclusive thinking, eliminating competitors and eating alone is the goal they strive for, as long as they can achieve this goal, they can do anything.

After listening to the Viceroy of Genoa, Manfrido. After Doria's suggestion, William was noncommittal, he was not prepared to inflict too much harm on the Pisa, only that they surrender to him and swear allegiance, and he would naturally declare the protection of their interests.

Of course, if they did not understand the current affairs and continued to follow Pope Nicholas in Rome against him, he would naturally not show mercy.

When William and his entourage arrived in Florence with an army of 70,000, his daughter-in-law, the sixteen-year-old Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Matilda. Advance. Surrounded by nobles, Cassano came to greet William.

At this time, Matilda was already a sixteen-year-old girl, she had a soft black slightly curly shoulder-length hair, delicate facial features, thin eyebrows and bright eyes, and a well-proportioned and coordinated figure.

"Matilda of Cassano, has seen His Majesty William." Matilda stepped forward and bowed.

"No need to be polite, Your Excellency Archduchess Matilda, you are the fiancée of my son Richard, and the Normans and Tuscans are even more family, where is there such a formal manner?" William said with a smile on his face.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Matilda smiled and nodded slightly, straightened up and said, "Your Majesty, I have brought twelve thousand soldiers to assist you this time. ”

"That's great, no matter how many troops I have here, the more the merrier." William smiled and stroked his palm: "You have given me so much support, I don't know what I want?" ”

"Your Majesty, we are in dire need of a port to the sea in order to develop foreign trade, and I hope that you will surrender Piombino to me after the conquest of the Republic of Pisa." Archduchess Adilda pleaded earnestly.

"I will naturally grant your request, and when I attack Pisa, I will canonize Piombino to you." William didn't think much about it, it was only a minor issue for him, after all, Matilda and the Tuscans were closer to him when it came to intimacy.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Matilda bowed down again.

After converging the 12,000 Tuscans again, William's army swelled again to 80,000 men, a direct increase of more than 30,000 compared with the previous Norman army of 50,000.