King of German Mercenaries

From what Marin knew of history, the coalition would take a long time to gather troops. It was not until the French went north that they initially gathered an army of more than 30,000.

Originally, the commander-in-chief of this coalition should have been the highest-ranking Emperor of Shinra, Maximilian I (the Pope is not a secular monarch, and it is impossible to lead the troops in person). However, the tragic Maximilian I was trapped in Worms (the imperial city, one of the meeting points of the Imperial Council), quarreling with the guys in the Imperial Council. When the French retreating north arrived, the emperor was still quarreling in Worms. Even, because the emperor did not come, Shinra's tens of thousands of troops did not specifically participate in the battle of Fornovo to block the French army northward. At the same time, the Spanish army led by Gonzalo de Córdoba was in Sicily, peeping over the border of Naples, but did not dare to land in Naples and confront the French head-on. So, in fact, the Battle of Fornovo was actually fought by the Italian coalition. The name coach of the campaign was Gonzaga, the Marquis of Mandova. However, the Marquis of Gangchaga lacked prestige and had mediocre abilities, so he could not command the coalition smoothly.

Therefore, the coalition forces hurriedly intercepted the French army under the condition of poor command. There were few French soldiers, and they were unwilling to fight with the coalition forces, and they couldn't afford it logistically. As a result, the French dropped a lot of the spoils of looting in Italy and hurriedly retreated to France.

In this way, the two sides were evenly matched. King Charles VIII of France successfully evacuated, and both sides claimed victory afterwards. However, no one has enough evidence to explain.

In fact, the truth was that the French broke through the Allied defenses and fled back home, losing all their baggage and looted possessions. The coalition failed to intercept, but a large amount of materials were seized. In particular, when Charles VIII deliberately threw the treasure on the road, the coalition cavalry were busy dismounting to loot the property, and they did not go after the French at all...

Moreover, Marin once heard a saying that syphilis, which has been rampant in Europe for hundreds of years, seems to have broken out in Naples during this war.

In fact, a large part of the reason why Charles VIII fled back to the country in a hurry was to avoid the rampant syphilis. At the same time, the Neapolitans also launched guerrilla warfare against the French army under the leadership of the Naples king Fertino, consuming the French army's strength.

Under the multiple blows and the threat of the Holy Alliance to cut off the French army's return to the country, Charles VIII panicked and withdrew his main force north. Moreover, the main force of the northward withdrawal was mainly 8,000 French knights.

The reason why the knights were allowed to go overland was because it was not easy to load a warhorse into a ship. For example, infantry could return in French ships. However, cavalry is more difficult. First of all, a horse will take the position of several people. Also, horses need a lot of forage. Plus the horses have to poop everywhere...

So, loading 8,000 horses into a ship is very difficult. Because, at this time in Europe, there were no ships specially designed to carry horses in large quantities (there were many ships with separate compartments, and Zheng He's voyages to the West had ships specially designed for horses).

Horses cannot be kept together for a long time. When the owner of the horse is present, the war horses are often more obedient. But once the master leaves, it's hard to say. The character of war horses is often much more intense than that of drawn horses. When two war horses are placed together, if the owner is not there, it is easy to fight with each other. For example, biting each other with their mouths and kicking each other with their hooves can easily cause injuries to the horses. And if the male horse (unneutered) and the mare are next to each other, they will waste their energy doing that shameful thing.

Therefore, between war horses, it is best not to put them together to avoid the two beasts getting into trouble. Because of this, those stables generally have only one horse in each stall.

To transport horses, the ship must first be refitted to make stalls-like barriers to prevent the horses from contacting each other. If a group of horses were put on the deck, some horses would definitely be injured in the fight over the night.

If it were a few hundred horses, Charles VIII might have been shipped back to the country.

But 8,000 horses are not easy to place. Therefore, he simply took 8,000 heavy cavalry to return to China by land.

In fact, the 8,000 heavy cavalry did not only have 8,000 war horses, in addition, they generally had another draught horse for traveling. As for war horses, they are usually mounted to charge before the war, and they are not used to carry armor on the road, so as to avoid the lack of physical strength of the horses during the war.

In this way, Charles VIII's cavalry numbered at least 16,000 horses. Therefore, he had to travel by land to return to China. Otherwise, not so many ships ship.

At the same time, the powerful Venetian navy, which had bypassed the Apennine Peninsula, appeared on the route from Naples to France, and began to block the route. If they went by sea, perhaps Charles VIII's ship could be sunk by the Venetian navy. Therefore, from a safety point of view, it is also better to go by land.

...

At the end of April, the 11,000-strong army of the Holy Roman Empire, led by the emperor himself, came to Venice and held an alliance with Venice. Of course, the emperor also wanted Venice to help pay for part of the bill.

In addition, Venice also gathered 10,000 mercenaries; the nobles of the Italian states also brought 4,000 iron-clad heavy infantry; and the Duchy of Milan and the Duchy of Mandova sent a total of 6,000 light cavalry (not The regular cavalry in the formation) fought in concert.

Under the alliance of several parties, the number of coalition forces has exceeded 30,000. In addition, Spanish troops also arrived in Sicily, across the sea from Naples, numbering several thousand. This group of people is enough to deter the French army in Naples, so that the French must allocate a large number of troops to guard against the Spaniards.

As for the Papal State, although it also recruited a group of mercenaries, the Papal State borders Naples. Therefore, the army recruited by the Papal State had to defend several big cities such as Rome to prevent it from being sacked and looted by the French.

You know, the French came all the way, and I don't know how many towns they looted, they just scratched the ground. Previously, the reason why Charles VIII did not sack Rome was because he needed the Pope to appoint him king of Naples. Now, the Papal State has publicly sided with France. If you are not careful, the French army will break through Rome and come to loot or something. And the popes and bishops of Rome are mostly rich local tyrants. If you were robbed by the French, wouldn't you cry to death? Therefore, the army of the Papal State could not participate in the alliance, and they were directly used to defend Rome.

Among the bigwigs participating in the alliance, the one with the highest status is naturally Maximilian I, the emperor. As the highest-ranking person present and a professional who understands the military, everyone unanimously elected Maximilian I as the commander-in-chief of the coalition, responsible for intercepting and even destroying the French army.

In addition to the emperor as the head coach, Gonzaga, the Marquis of Mandoba, and the Venetian commander, Niccolò Pitiliuno, jointly served as the emperor's deputy.

In fact, this appointment is bad. It is precisely because of the word "common" that in the Battle of Fornovo, the coordination between the two was difficult, which delayed the fighter aircraft to a certain extent.

And His Majesty the Emperor, after the alliance was successful and he got the position of commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, he ran back to the country and quarreled with the princes of the imperial parliament in the country to ask for money.

Until now, the princes of the empire are still arguing about whether to participate in the Italian war. The emperor wants to increase taxes, but there is no door.

If the imperial parliament had approved the tax increase early, the emperor might have gathered an army of 20,000 to go to Italy, and strive to smash France at one time. However, it is almost difficult for the people of the Imperial Council to unite until the time when the mainland is in danger. Usually, I can quarrel for a few days for a trivial matter. At the same time, they were also afraid that Maximilian I would take this opportunity to strengthen himself. Although Maximilian I was capable, he was limited by the emperor's limited power, and he could not do anything about the dukes and earls in the territory.

As for Marin and the imperial army of 11,000 people, they were thrown in Venice and temporarily led by the emperor's deputy, Count Alfred, a collateral member of the Habsburg family from Styria, Austria.

But Marin, who had been in the imperial system for more than a month, heard that this Earl Alfred was mediocre and not very courageous. However, because he was born in the Habsburg family in Styria, Austria, and was more loyal to the emperor, he was entrusted with the command of the army.

As for Frederick II, Earl of Hohenzollern, the emperor's most reliant, he had to stay in the country, command the army, and guard against the Hungarians. After all, when the old Habsburg family's nest was taken away by the Hungarians, it was a scar in the heart of the Habsburg family. Even if he sent troops to Italy, Maximilian I did not dare to give up his vigilance against the Hungarians.

In the days that followed, Count Alfred took the imperial army to spend time in Venice, waiting for the return of the emperor. As for Marin, he brought his phalanx, practiced his basic skills hard, and was ready to fight at any time.

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