On the night of September 6, after a heavy rain during the day, the sky seemed much clearer. Although, there is still a little cloud cover, but it is already very thin. Plus there is a crescent moon hanging in the sky. Therefore, there is still a little visibility at night, although it is very low.
The French army ran away, afraid of alarming the Italian coalition forces and the Swiss who didn't know they were abandoned. So, the French didn't light the torches. Because the torch is too conspicuous at night and can be seen from a long distance. If each of the 8,000 French cavalry held torches, anyone who looked at it from a high place could spot the movement 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 uses infantry to run and chase, it may not necessarily be slower than heavy cavalry. If you are bitten by the enemy, you will basically be unable to escape. Under the darkness of night, the cavalry is not as powerful as the pikemen. Moreover, Charles VIII abandoned the Swiss mercenaries without authorization. At that time, the Swiss mercenaries may not be willing to help him escape.
Therefore, Charles VIII's order was that at least the torches could not be lit until they left Fornovo and could not see any light from Fornovo. Before that, the French army could only rely on the faint starlight and the faint moonlight blocked by dark clouds.
This mountain road, because some places have steep slopes, is not suitable for walking vehicles, and can only pass horses and pedestrians. Therefore, there are limited pedestrians on the road, and there is still a lot of green grass on the road, which has not been completely leveled. And it is precisely because of the existence of these grasses that the road after the rain is easier to walk than the bare Roman road by the river.
Marin was teaching everyone how to scare the French, but Sauer hurried back and said to Marin:
"Sir, the French are coming!"
Marin was startled, and his heart began to tense up. But in order not to affect everyone, I still pretend to be relaxed and say:
"The French are coming, everyone, remember, after the battle starts, you must capture Charles VIII alive! Whoever captures Charles VIII alive, I will reward him with 10,000 gold coins!"
"10,000 gold coins..." Many mercenaries who worked as soldiers for money salivated uncontrollably. Stimulated by Marin's heavy reward, many people forgot to be nervous, and only money was left in their eyes...
When the French got closer and closer, Marin asked everyone to climb up the hillsides on both sides. As for the bottom of the mountain, there are only ditches, wooden stakes, horse traps and trip ropes that block France in the front...
In fact, Marin originally planned to directly lead people to line up below to forcibly block the French army. Doing that, although there is a high chance of blocking the French. However, under the ruthlessness of the French, they must be desperate. Because they have no choice but to go this way.
However, the 1,100 people under Marin were all novices who had never fought. Asking them to fight 8,000 French knights in the first battle is too demanding. If he lost, he might die here too.
Marin regretted that he didn't find some weak opponents to practice his courage beforehand, and he saw blood. Because only veterans who have practiced courage and seen blood dare to fight to the death. The recruits who fought for the first time did not dare to fight to the death with the superior enemy, they did not have that self-confidence.
Moreover, Marin had talked with Swiss officers in the army before, and knew that Swiss mercenaries beat knights, not only spearmen, but also a large number of halberds. The reason why the halberd was used was to hook the knights wearing plate armor with the halberd and bring them down. Because spears cannot pierce plate armor. If it is a plate armor knight who only uses a spear to resist the charge, the casualties will be limited. The Swiss often used a halberd to hook the knight down, and then poked slowly with a spear, or used a mace and other weapons to kill or injure the fallen knight.
However, Marin has only spearmen in his hands, not halberds, and bows and arrows have no harm to plate armor knights, and Marin has no muskets now. Really straight to the death charge of the plate armor knight, the phalanx is easy to break through. Therefore, Marin had no choice but to ambush the French on two high slopes. Even if the ambush goes wrong, it will be difficult for the French to rush up the high slopes on both sides.
Even if the French knights dismounted and fought on foot, it was difficult to climb the high slope because of the heavy plate armor on their bodies. Even when climbing up a high slope, it is easy to be pushed down by spearmen. But if you take off the plate armor, you can easily be stabbed to death by a spear when you climb uphill.
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 is that Charles VIII is running away and has no time to entangle with Marin. Therefore, Charles VIII's attention should be on cleaning up the traps on the road, rather than fighting desperately with Marin's men.
And Marin's task is to cause a lot of damage to the French before the French clear the traps on the road. At the same time, try to create chaos for the French army.
While Marin was thinking about how to respond, Kohler suddenly came over:
"Master, I want to ask for an errand."
"you say!"
"I want to chase those Italian peasants back!"
"What are you doing?"
"Let them disguise themselves as reinforcements!"
"This... is a really good idea!" Marin reacted, creating momentum, and it would be better to use a living person.
"Where did the peasants go?"
"I just asked Tara to take people to a nearby village to spend the night, and I will chase them back."
"What if they don't like it?"
"It's nothing, just some cowardly farmers. The young master will give me 20 people, and I promise to bring them all back."
"Okay, organize the thousand Italian peasants as soon as possible. You lead them around behind the French, light more torches, and line up a little thinner. It looks like a few thousand people. Then, when you approach this side , Let them shout 'Catch Charles VIII alive' to scare the French." Reminded by Kohler, Marin also instantly thought of a way.
"Then what if the French send people 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 of you takes two. When the team reaches a certain distance, stop and don't make a sound. Wait until I find signs of the French breaking through the line of defense in front of them." Afterwards, I will remind you with firecrackers, and you immediately lead people to light torches and start clamoring."
"Master, but I'm worried that the French will send out their last troops to stop me..."
"Are you stupid? If the broken troops want to intercept, they also intercept us. Because if they go to fight you, we can cut off their retreat."
"Yeah..."
"Also, I will send people to throw more big rocks to the rear of the French army to block the way they are riding their horses. The French are fleeing for their lives, so they may concentrate on clearing the rocks in front, but they may not bother to clean up the rear."
"I'm relieved, young master, I'll go!"
"Well, let me give you 50 people, lest you can't overwhelm the group of farmers."
"Thank you, master!" Kohler led 50 soldiers to the village where Tara and the group of Italian farmers were located. Tara itself brought 10 people, plus Kohler's 50 people, the total reached 60, which was enough to suppress the 1,000 farmers.
It's just that Kohler needs to hurry up and make torches in a hurry. Marin asked, and each of them had to take two torches to scare the French as much as possible.
Then, let 2,000 torches go looser, walk out of the formation of thousands of troops, and confuse the French...