Chapter 45 Ambush Battle (Part 2)

On the night of September 6, after a heavy rain during the day, the sky seemed to be much cleaner. Although, there are still some clouds, but they are already very thin. Plus there is a crescent moon hanging in the sky. So, there is still a little visibility at night, albeit low.

The French army ran away, afraid of disturbing the Italian coalition and the Swiss who did not know they were abandoned. So, the French did not light the torches. Because the torches are so conspicuous at night that they can be seen from afar. If all 8,000 French cavalrymen were holding torches, and just looking at them from a high place, they would be able to see the movements of the French army from afar.

In the middle of the night, the horses could not run fast because they could not see. If the enemy army runs and chases with infantry, it is not necessarily slower than the cavalry. If you are bitten by the enemy, you will basically be unable to escape. In the dark, the cavalry was not as powerful as the spearmen. Moreover, Charles VIII abandoned the Swiss mercenaries without authorization. At that time, the Swiss mercenaries may not be willing to help them escape.

Therefore, Charles VIII's order was to at least leave Fornovo and not see any light from Fornovo before the torch. Before that, the French army had to rely on the faint starlight and the faint moonlight obscured by the dark clouds.

This mountain road, because of the steep slope in some places, is not suitable for walking vehicles, only horses and pedestrians can pass. Therefore, the number of pedestrians on the road is limited, and there is still a lot of grass on the road, which has not been completely leveled. And it is precisely because of the existence of these grasses that this road is easier to walk after the rain than the bare Roman avenue by the river.

Marin was teaching everyone how to frighten the French, but Sauer hurried back and said to Marin:

"Sir, here comes the French!"

Marin was startled, and his heart began to get nervous. But in order not to affect everyone, I still pretend to say it easily:

"The French are here, guys, remember, after the battle, you must capture Charles VIII alive! Whoever captures Charles VIII alive, I will reward him with 10,000 gold coins!"

"10,000 gold coins..." The saliva of many mercenaries who served as soldiers for money could not be controlled. Under the stimulation of Marin's award, many people forgot to be nervous and only had money in their eyes...

As the French got closer, Marin asked everyone to climb the slopes on both sides. As for the bottom of the mountain, there are only trenches, wooden pickets, horse traps and stumbling ropes that block France from the front...

In fact, Marin originally planned to directly lead people to line up below and forcibly block the French army. Do that, though with a good chance of blocking the French. However, under the ruthlessness of the French, they must be desperate. Because, they have no choice but this way.

However, the 1,100 men under Marin were all rookies who had never fought. Let him let them fight with 8,000 French knights in the first battle, the requirements are too high. If you lose, you may also die here.

Marin regretted that he didn't find some weak opponents to practice courage beforehand, and he saw blood. Because only veterans who have practiced courage and have seen blood will dare to fight to the death. The recruits who fought for the first time did not dare to fight to the end with the superior enemy. They did not have that confidence.

Moreover, Marin had chatted with Swiss officers in the army before, and knew that Swiss mercenaries beat knights, not only spearmen, but also a large number of halberdists. The reason why the halberd is used is to hook the knights in plate armor with the halberd and bring them down. Because spears can't pierce plate armor. If only the spears were used to resist the charging plate knights, the casualties would be limited. The Swiss used halberds to hook knights down, and then slowly jab with spears, or use weapons such as mace to kill or injure knights who fell to the ground.

However, Marin only has spearmen in his hands, no halberdists, and bows and arrows do no harm to plate knights, and Marin has no muskets now. Really straight face armor knight's decisive charge, the phalanx is easy to be broken. Therefore, Marin had no choice but to ambush the French on two high slopes. Even if there is a problem with the ambush, it is difficult for the French to rush to the high slopes on both sides.

Even if the French knight dismounts to fight,

It is also difficult to climb high slopes because of the heavy plate armor on his body. Even if it climbs a high slope, it is easy to be pushed down by the spearmen. But if you take off the plate armor, you will easily be stabbed to death by spears when you climb up the slope.

Therefore, as long as you occupy the high slope, you will be invincible. Although it is not impossible for the French to break through Marin's defense, it will take a long, long time.

The problem was that Charles VIII was on the run and had no time to tangle with Marin. Therefore, Charles VIII's attention should be on clearing the traps on the road, rather than desperately fighting with Marin's men.

And Marin's task is to inflict a lot of damage on the French before they clear the traps on the road. At the same time, try to create confusion for the French army.

While Marin was thinking about how to deal with it, Kohler suddenly came over:

"Master, I want to ask for an errand."

"you say!"

"I want to chase those Italian farmers back!"

"What?"

"Let them disguise as reinforcements!"

"This...that's a really good idea!" Marin reacted, making a move, using a real person would be even more effective.

"Where did the peasants go?"

"I just asked Tara to take people to a nearby village for the night, and I'll get them back."

"What if they don't like it?"

"It's okay, just some timid farmers. The young master gave me 20 people, and I promise to bring them all back."

"Okay, get the thousand Italian peasants organized as soon as possible. You take them around behind the French, more torches, thin formations, it looks like a few thousand. Then, when you get close to this side , let them shout 'Capture Charles VIII alive' together to scare the French." When reminded by Kohler, Marin immediately thought of a way.

"What if the French send someone to fight? These farmers can't beat the French." Kohler was a little worried.

"Don't worry, you gather your team, bring enough torches, and each person takes two. When the team reaches a certain distance, stop and don't make a sound. Wait until I see signs of breaking through the defense line in front of the French. Afterwards, I will remind you with a cannonball, and you immediately bring someone a torch and start making noise."

"Master, but I'm worried that the French will send a broken army to stop me..."

"Are you stupid? If the broken troops want to intercept, they will also intercept us. Because if they go to fight you, we can cut them off."

"Yes..."

"Also, I will send people to the rear of the French army to throw more large stones to block the way for them to drive their horses. The French are running for their lives, and they may concentrate on clearing the stones in front, but not necessarily clearing the back."

"I don't worry about it, young master, I'll go!"

"Well, I'll give you 50 people, so as not to overwhelm the group of farmers."

"Thank you, Master!" Kohler took 50 soldiers to the village where Tara and the group of Italian farmers were located. Tara himself brought 10 people, plus Kohler's 50 people, the total number reached 60, which was completely enough to beat the 1,000 farmers.

However, Kohler needs to be in a hurry to make torches in a hurry. Marin demanded, each with two torches, to scare the French as much as possible.

Then, let 2,000 torches go loose, get out of the formation of thousands of troops, and confuse the French...

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