Just when the Danish monarchs and ministers were planning to use the power of France and the Grand Duchy of Moscow to save Denmark, they did not know that the French were also in trouble...
It turned out that after the signing of the Treaty of Granada, France and Spain divided the Kingdom of Naples. The French occupied the northern part of the Kingdom of Naples, including the city of Naples. The Spanish occupied part of the southernmost part of the Apennine Peninsula.
Strictly speaking, the Spaniards suffer losses, and the French take advantage. After all, France is the most powerful country in the continent. And Spain is not as strong as Shenra and Poland on land. Of course, this is when Turkey, who is cheating, does not participate in the evaluation...
However, when the Granada Treaty was signed, a region called Capitanata at the junction of the two territories was ignored.
However, this Capitanata is a very important area. The land there is fertile and an excellent pasture. Of course, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that it is a huge valley and an important area on the Apennine Peninsula that travels south and north.
The cattle breeding industry in the Kingdom of Naples is relatively developed. Every winter and summer, there will be a large herd of cattle, passing through the Capitanata region, going north to summer or south to winter.
When a large number of cattle passes here, local officials can set up a card to collect "transit tax", and the number is quite large.
In this era when kings could only rely on collecting tariffs, commercial taxes, city entry taxes and transit taxes, transit taxes are definitely a wealth that cannot be ignored.
Moreover, more importantly, both France and Spain are very unhappy with the other party sharing the rich Kingdom of Naples with them.
As a result, the two countries had a dispute over the Capitanata area where a large amount of taxes could be imposed, and no one was willing to give in to each other...
Originally, the French had the advantage. Because there were many French people. France was too strong. There were as many as 20,000 heavy cavalry alone, which was not considered infantry. Moreover, they could also recruit Swiss mercenaries to fight, and they were considered top powers at the top level of Europe.
However, Spain is not bad either. Especially, Gonzalo de Cordoba had specially ran to East Friesland and learned from Marin the famous "Marin square formation". The biggest feature of the Marin square formation is to restrain heavy cavalry. Therefore, the Spanish were not afraid of the French.
Although Gonzalo de Cordoba had only 10,000 men under his command, most of whom were infantry, he was not afraid of the French. As early as last winter, he began to boldly confront the French army and compete for the transit tax.
When the news reached Paris, France, Louis XII was very unhappy. Moreover, he had long been determined to kick Spain out of the Kingdom of Naples. Therefore, Louis XII suspended the support for the confrontation between the Swiss and the emperor, and hired 13,000 Swiss mercenaries from Switzerland. This action temporarily paused the offensive in the Graubinden area controlled by Maximilian I, and also made the emperor feel relieved.
In addition, Louis XII also planned to hire 17,000 Italian mercenaries from Italy, then draw 10,000 French heavy armored cavalry from the local area, gather 40,000 troops to head south, compete with Spain, and then completely drive the Spaniards out of the Kingdom of Naples.
When Danish Foreign Minister Eriksen arrived in Paris, Louis XII had already planned to lead the army south...
So, when the French had a war to fight, the Danes' dream of obtaining military support from France was shattered...
However, Louis XII did not want Marin to be arrogant. Although he could not directly send a large army to support Denmark, the French still generously allocated 50 6-pound rear-mounted bronze cannons and a large number of gunpowder and shells from the arsenal to Denmark to help Denmark guard Copenhagen.
In addition, Louis XII also borrowed 200,000 gold coins to the Denmark King Hans, encouraging him to hire more mercenaries and fight against the four-nation coalition forces. With this money, the Danes had no problem recruiting 10,000 troops.
The most important thing is that if the 10,000 troops were placed in the wild, they might not be the opponent of the 30,000 coalition forces commanded by Marin. However, it is enough to protect Copenhagen, which has a tall and strong wall.
After all, that is tens of thousands of troops, and if you send thousands of people to block the city gate, you can block the city gate...
In this way, Eriksen left France with a little disappointment. However, he did not return empty-handed. With so many artillery and ammunition, and 200,000 gold coins that could hire tens of thousands of mercenaries, he could be considered an explanation when he returned. However, he was inevitably disappointed without the support of the expected French army.
In fact, what Eriksson didn't know was that the musketeers under Marin specifically restrained the French knights. Even if France sent a large army to support Denmark, it might not be effective. The French escaped the disaster without supporting Denmark.
However, when the French army headed south, they would face the 10,000 Spanish army that also used the "Marin square formation", and they could not get it. Because since Gonzalo de Cordoba returned from studying, he had trained the 10,000 troops under his command for a year or two. Moreover, Ferdinand II generously equipped him with 50 bronze cannons in the rear, which further enhanced their firepower.
That's not all. Since Columbus acted as the leader and brought back a large amount of spices from India with the Spanish fleet, the Spanish Kings made a profit of more than one million gold coins by selling spices, and suddenly became rich.
So, with money, Ferdinand II ordered another 10,000 Spanish mercenaries to be hired through Sicily and sent to the Spanish-controlled area of ​​the Kingdom of Naples to be under the command of Gonzalo de Cordoba.
Information sent back from Paris showed that French King Louis XII led more than 20,000 troops south (he didn't know that Louis XII had already sent people to Italy to recruit ten thousand mercenaries). Since he was rich, Ferdinand II was unwilling to admit defeat. So he added 10,000 troops, intending to fight with the French in the Kingdom of Naples. It would be best to defeat the French and drive the French out of the Kingdom of Naples...
In this way, while the war in the Nordic region was raging, the two powers of Italy, France and Spain in southern Europe began to secretly accumulate strength, all thinking about driving away each other and taking over the Kingdom of Naples alone...
Chapter completed!