According to the history that Marin knows, the coalition forces will take a long time to gather troops. It wasn't until the French went north that they initially gathered an army of more than 30,000.
Originally, the commander of this coalition army should be the highest-ranking Shenluo Emperor Maximilian I (the Pope is not a secular monarch, and it is impossible to personally lead the army). However, the sad Maximilian I was trapped in Worms (the imperial city, one of the meeting points of the Imperial Parliament), arguing with the guys from the Imperial Parliament. The emperor was still quarreling at Worms when the French northward contingent arrived. Even, because the emperor did not come, Shenluo's tens of thousands of troops did not specifically participate in the Battle of Fornovo, which blocked the French army from going north. At the same time, the Spanish army led by Gonzalo de Cordoba was in Sicily, spying on the border of Naples, but did not dare to land in Naples, and confronted the French head-on. So, in fact, the Battle of Fornovo was actually fought by the Italian coalition forces. The nominal commander of the campaign was Gonzaga, the Marquis of Mandoba. However, the Marquis of Gonzaga lacked prestige and mediocre ability, so he was unable to command the coalition forces smoothly.
Therefore, the coalition forces hastily intercepted the French army with poor command. There are few French soldiers, and they are unwilling to fight the coalition forces, and they can't afford the logistics. As a result, the French dropped a lot of spoils looted in Italy and retreated hastily to France.
In this way, the two sides were evenly matched. King Charles VIII of France successfully withdrew, and afterwards both sides claimed victory. However, no one has enough evidence to explain.
In fact, the real situation is that the French broke through the Allied defenses and fled back to the country, but lost all their baggage and looted property. The coalition forces failed to intercept, but seized a large amount of supplies. In particular, when Charles VIII deliberately scattered the treasure on the road, the cavalry of the coalition army were busy dismounting and looting the property, and they stopped chasing and killing 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 raging syphilis. At the same time, the Neapolitans also launched guerrilla warfare against the French army under the leadership of King Fertino of Naples, consuming the strength of the French army.
Under multiple blows and the threat of the Holy Alliance to cut off the alliance of the French army returning home, Charles VIII retreated northward with his main force in a panic. Moreover, the main force for the northward retreat was mainly 8,000 French knights.
The reason why the knights are allowed to go by land is because it is not easy to ship war horses. For example, infantry could return in French ships. However, cavalry is more difficult. First of all, a horse on a boat needs to occupy the positions of several people. Moreover, horses need a lot of food and grass. Plus the horses have to poop all over the place...
Therefore, it is very difficult and difficult to ship 8,000 horses. Because, at this time, Europe had not yet designed a ship specially designed to transport a large number of horses (there were many ships with separate compartments, and Zheng He had a ship dedicated to loading horses on his voyages).
Horses cannot be kept together for a long time. When the horse owner 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 draft horses. When two war horses are put together, if the owner is not around, it is easy to fight with each other. For example, biting each other with mouths and kicking hooves can easily cause horses to be injured. And if the male horse (uncastrated) is close to the mare, it will waste energy doing that shameful thing.
Therefore, it is best not to put war horses together to avoid troubles between the two beasts. Because of this, in those stables, there is usually only one horse in each stall.
And if the horses were to be shipped, the ship had to be refitted first to make partitions like stables to prevent the horses from touching each other. If you put a group of horses on the deck overnight, some horses will definitely be injured in the fight.
If it was a few hundred horses, Charles VIII might have shipped them back home by ship. But 8,000 horses are not easy to arrange. Therefore, he simply returned home by land with 8,000 heavy cavalry.
In fact, the 8,000 heavy cavalry don't only have 8,000 war horses. In addition, they usually have another horse for driving. War horses are generally used to charge before the battle, and will not be used to carry armor on the road, so as to avoid the lack of physical strength of the horse during the war.
In this way, Charles VIII's cavalry has at least 16,000 horses. Therefore, he had to go back home by land. Otherwise, there are not so many shipments.
At the same time, the powerful Venetian navy has bypassed the Apennine Peninsula, appeared on the route from Naples to France, and began to block the route. If it was by sea, maybe Charles VIII's ship would be sunk by the Venetian navy. Therefore, in terms of safety, it is better to go by land.
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At the end of April, the 11,000 troops of the Holy Roman Empire, led by the emperor himself, came to Venice to hold an alliance with Venice. Of course, the emperor also wanted Venice to help pay part of the bill.
In addition, Venice also gathered 10,000 mercenaries; the nobles of the Italian states also brought 4,000 armored heavy infantry; Regular cavalry rushing into battle) to fight together.
Under the alliance of several parties, the number of coalition forces has exceeded 30,000. In addition, the Spanish army arrived in Sicily, facing 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 a group of mercenaries have also been recruited, the Papal State borders Naples. Therefore, the troops recruited by the Papal State had to defend Rome and other major cities to prevent them from being attacked and looted by the French.
You know, the French killed along the way, and I don't know how many towns they looted, it was just scratching 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 States have publicly stood against France. If you are not careful, the French army will break through Rome and loot or something. And the pope and bishop of Rome are mostly wealthy local tyrants. If he was robbed by the French, wouldn't he cry to death? Therefore, the troops of the Papal State could not participate in the alliance, and they were directly used to defend Rome.
Among the bigwigs who participated in the alliance, the highest status is naturally the emperor Maximilian I. As the highest status present and also a professional who understands military affairs, everyone unanimously elected Maximilian I as the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, responsible for intercepting or even destroying the French army.
In addition to the emperor as the coach, the Marquis of Mandoba Gonzaga and the Venetian commander Niccolo Pitti Liu Nuo jointly served as the emperor's deputy.
In fact, there was a downside to this appointment. It is precisely because of the word "common" that it was difficult for the two to coordinate in the Battle of Fornovo, which delayed the fighter to a certain extent.
And His Majesty the Emperor, after the alliance was successful and he took 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 wanted to increase taxes, but there was no door.
If the imperial parliament had approved the tax increase early, the emperor might gather 20,000 troops to go to Italy, trying to defeat France at once. However, it is almost difficult for the people of the Imperial Parliament to unite until the moment when the mainland is in danger. Usually, they can quarrel for days over trivial matters. 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 limited power of the emperor, and he had nothing to do with the dukes and earls in the territory.
As for Marin and the imperial army of 11,000 people, they were thrown in Venice, 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 Earl Alfred was mediocre and timid. However, because he was born in a branch of 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, whom the emperor relied on most, he had to stay in the country to command the army and guard against the Hungarians. After all, the Habsburg family's lair was taken away by the Hungarians, which was a scar in the hearts 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 following days, Count Alfred led the imperial army to dawdle in Venice, waiting for the emperor's return. As for Marin, he took his phalanx, practiced the basic skills hard, and was ready to fight at any time.