When the French learned about the Spanish's actions, they became very nervous. Louis XII ordered that a large amount of money and grain be mobilized from the southeast region to transport it from land to the city of Naples, and were ready to deal with the Spanish siege.
But he had no idea that Gonzalo de Cordoba had no intention of attacking Naples this time, but just to cut off the French's access to volcanic ash.
Due to the losses of the last war, the Spaniards now had more than 30,000 main troops. The French left the city of Naples with up to 35,000 troops, including 5,000 French knights with high martial arts skills. The number of troops in Gonzalo was barely similar to that of the French. If they attacked the city of Naples, they would be a death sentence. After all, half of the troops on the siege were much stronger than the defending city.
Gonzalo de Cordoba also knew his family's affairs. The Spanish army was strong in field battles because of the power of the square formation. If you really wanted to break into the city to fight streets with the French, the square formation would not work. The narrow space paid more attention to personal force. In this regard, the French were much stronger than the Spanish.
Therefore, after thinking about it for a while, Gonzalo decided not to actively attack the strong city of Naples, but to sweep away other parts of the Kingdom of Naples and confiscate food. At the same time, cut off the route of the French to transport volcanic ash to the country. This plan was also approved by the two Spanish kings.
Of course, the two kings also proposed that after cutting off the French route to obtain volcanic ash, they might as well send someone to transport the dug volcanic ash back to Spain...
Although Spain has more mountains and few plains, there are still a lot of arable land. If volcanic ash can be used to fertilizer, it is best to increase yield.
You should know that the food prices in Spain are the highest in Europe because of the small amount of arable land in the area, all of which are mountainous and hilly, but the population is still large. If the yield can be increased, it should play a great role in stabilizing the price of grain. Of course, the noble families who obtain volcanic ash fertilizer can also obtain huge benefits by relying on high grain yields. As for who can get the greatest benefits? Of course, it is the Spanish royal family. In addition, it is those great noble families. After all, they have the most land. Moreover, they must be given priority to obtain volcanic ash.
In addition, because it occupied northern Morocco, the Spanish royal family and nobles could also plant barley along the banks of several major rivers in Morocco. With the help of volcanic ash, they also made great profits.
...
But these are all secondary. The most important thing is that the Spanish government and the people agreed that even if Spain cannot get volcanic ash fertilizer, it cannot be obtained by the French!
France and Spain are similar in area, but most of France are plains, which is the most important part of the Western European plains. Therefore, France has always been well-developed in agriculture and a large population. If the French get enough volcanic ash, the Spanish should not be able to sleep. Therefore, Gonzalo's first task is to prevent the French from obtaining it, and secondly, to obtain...
But no matter what, destroying is much easier than seizing. For example, attacking the enemy's food and grass and burning the enemy's food is much easier than seizing and transporting the enemy's food and grass back.
Therefore, this time, General Gonzalo still led his army to land in Salerno, more than 20 kilometers south of the city of Naples. Then, he quickly led his troops to attack Mount Vesuvius and eliminated the local French defenders. Then, the excavation and production of volcanic ash was immediately restored.
However, the dug out ash is no longer transported north by land, but is instead transported to the seaside and then shipped back to Spain.
At the same time, Gonzalo ordered the army to dig many trenches and build many fortifications on the road from Mount Vesuvius to the city of Naples to block the French army's counterattack. As for attacking the city of Naples, which is not far away? Gonzalo never thought about it...
At present, the French's main source of volcanic ash is Mount Vesuvius. Gonzalo knew very well that as long as the supply of volcanic ash on Mount Vesuvius was cut off and there was no need to attack the city of Naples by himself, the French would be anxious first.
Therefore, Gonzalo was not in a hurry at all. After leading his troops to seize the important Vesuvius area, he began to dig trenches and build walls directly in the local area, and made every effort to resist the French counterattack. At the same time, he also sent Spanish backless cavalry to rob food everywhere, especially from villages in the north, to avoid giving the French the opportunity to obtain supplies.
In addition, the cavalry sent to the north to grab grain were also responsible for destroying all bridges leading to the north and preventing the French from having the ability to reinforce Naples. Of course, those too large stone bridges could not be destroyed. But the small bridges on the small rivers were destroyed by these cavalry.
The French also realized the danger and sent French knights to stop them. However, the war horses of the Spanish backless knights were not worn in armor. They were between heavy cavalry and light cavalry, and the French knights could not catch up at all. If they sent light cavalry, they could not defeat the Spanish backless knights... When the French were determined to let the French knights remove their horse armor and plate armor pants and then chase and kill the Spanish backless knights, the Spanish backless knights had already completed their mission and returned to the camp...
Charles III, the French commander-in-chief of the Kingdom of Naples, was so anxious that he had not yet been transported from the local area. If the road was cut off, the food and grass in the city would only be enough for half a year to consume.
But fortunately, there was a counselor named Charlie beside him...
As the former Duke of Gedes, who was able to beat the Duchy of Saxony, the current Earl of Nantes is unquestionable. After carefully checking the topographic map of the Kingdom of Naples, he gave a suggestion to Duke of Bourbon Charles III - to transport grain from the coastal plains...
Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, frowned:
"This is not OK, Count Charles, I remember that the Mount Aurangsi in the northwest of Naples cut off the plains by the sea. So the Roman Avenue went from the inland. That is to say, there were no major roads along the coast. Moreover, the grain transport team was too far from the sea and was easily shot by Spanish warships..."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! Charlie, Earl of Nantes, nodded and said:
"It's true that this is true, but, Lord Duke, although Mount Aurangsi cut off the coastal plain, it's not completely out of the way."
Charles III reacted:
"You mean... walk on the mountain road?"
But then, he shook his head and said:
"It's not appropriate. Our army needs a lot of food. By walking on the mountain road alone, I'm afraid we won't be able to transport much food. Generally speaking, the army's food is transported by big trucks on the road. How many food can we transport? "
Earl Charlie shook his head and said:
"No, Lord Duke, mountain roads are not impossible to transport grain, they are just low in transportation efficiency and difficult. But for our army, what we need to solve at the moment is not a difficult question, but a question of whether it is possible. As long as we can transport grain, we will care about the transportation volume of other mountain roads."
"Also, I have seen the topographic map. The entire west coast of the Apennine Peninsula is only a few mountains near the sea, which cut off the narrow coastal plains. Between the Kingdom of Naples and the Pope, except for the Mount Aurangsi, there are only mountains on Terracina. As long as the problem of crossing mountains and ridges between Formia on the seaside of the Aurangsi and Terracina further northwest, the food can be transported here."
After hearing the words of Count Charles, the Duke of Bourbon, Charles III, walked to the map again, looked at the mountains and rivers marked on the map, and frowned and thought. After thinking for a while, he said again:
"Well, even if we send people to find the mountain road through Formia and Terracina. However, after crossing these two places, it is the Pope. We in France have bad relations with the Pope. What if the Pope obstructs our army from transporting grain?"
Earl Charlie thought for a while and said:
"This problem is not big. There are also a group of French cardinals in the city of Rome. We can ask His Majesty the King to bribe the French cardinals, and bribe the bishops who have a good relationship with France, and ask them to help cover up. You know, those cardinals are all greedy for money and can do anything as long as they give enough money."
After a pause, Count Charlie said again:
"And, I heard that Marin gave a lot of food to the Holy See as a 'tith tax'. This year, the Pope's grain harvest has been bumper, so we can directly spend money to buy food from the Pope. It doesn't matter if the price is high, as long as they are willing to sell us grain, it will not be possible to stop us from transporting grain. It doesn't matter if the food is difficult to transport, we will drive the Naples to help transport grain on the mountain road."
Charles III nodded and asked again:
"What should we do if Spanish warships shelled the grain transport team?"
Earl Charlie had plans:
"The route near the seaside is to transport grain at night and rest during the day. Those who walk on mountain roads will transport grain during the day. Anyway, the Spanish artillery fire cannot hit the mountains..."
In this way, at the suggestion of Count Charles, the French opened up a coastal grain transport route. Although the transportation volume was not large, they could win endlessly.
Moreover, Count Charles secretly bought fishing boats affiliated with the Pope and hired them at high prices to help transport grain at night around the two Jedi, Formia and Terracina, which is more convenient than walking on a mountain road.
Chapter completed!