On September 14, two battalions of Orlando crossed the ridge and entered the territory directly under the jurisdiction of Holy See in the west.
According to the information collected, French Army has occupied the city of Siena and is attacking the remaining towns.
"Siena was one of the first city-states to declare war on France. It is not surprising that they were occupied by the French Army."
He sent more reconnaissance teams to avoid being trapped by the enemy.
During the lunch break, Orlando heard sporadic gunfire from the front. He stuffed the half-eaten bread back into his pocket and ordered all ministries to assemble urgently.
Fortunately, this was just a false alarm. There were no enemy troops ahead, but a group of bandits raiding the abandoned village.
When Orlando arrived, the battle was over. The reconnaissance team wiped out all the bandits, killing 20 of them and capturing 15 others.
According to the bandits, this village was burned down by the French Army scouts, and the bandits only came to harvest wheat from nearby farmland.
"You mean we mistook good people and mistook a group of kind-hearted farmers for bandits?"
Orlando Checked the packages of these people, and there were bloody jewelry and women's clothes inside. It looked like they had been stolen from some unlucky villager.
He walked into this charred ruin, with crumbling houses and a well in the center of the village exuding a strong stench of corpses. Standing by the well were five fat crows. When they noticed someone approaching, they flapped their wings and flew unsteadily into the sky, as if they were full of food.
Orlando was worried about the spread of the disease, so he ordered the soldiers to seal the wellhead with earth and rocks, and then quickly left the ruins.
The further you go, the more obvious the traces of the war are. The villages near the road are uninhabited, some of the wheat and grapes in the fields have not had time to be harvested, and a group of wild dogs roam freely through the ruins, competing with crows for carrion on the ground.
Arriving at a fork in the road, Orlando asked the group of captured bandits, "How to go ahead?"
A bandit pointed to the path heading west. "If you go straight from this path, you can reach Siena in less than two days. The road condition is very poor.
The south is the main road. If you don't want to take the mountain road, you can make a circle to the south and then go to Siena. This is the route that merchants usually take."
Orlando unfolded the map and hesitated. Suddenly, a semaphore came from the west hillside:
A group of enemy cavalry was discovered, consisting of hundreds of people. They were expected to leave the mountainous area within half an hour.
"Not good!"
In frontal combat, this group of cavalry cannot defeat 1,200 Mountain Infantry. However, if they wander around the periphery, they will be an extremely difficult problem. Mountain Infantry must remain vigilant at all times, otherwise they will be disrupted by the cavalry and suffer a one-sided massacre.
Orlando is looking for battalion and company level officers.
The situation was critical, and he had no time to deploy more complex tactics, so he said in the fastest tone, "The first battalion is blocked at the mountain pass, and the second battalion will move backwards to block their retreat and try to keep this unit."
Orlando ran all the way to the mountain pass, where the reconnaissance force was cutting down trees to serve as roadblocks. The officer put down his iron ax and reported more detailed information to him, "This is not French Army's Decree heavy cavalry, but some mercenary riders in messy costumes. Some are wearing plate armor, some are wearing chainmail, and some seem to be mobile infantry on horseback."
"No matter what kind of troops are on the opposite side, we can hit them without fail." Orlando held on to the tree trunk to catch his breath. Before leaving, he told the first battalion commander, "Don't hit too hard at the beginning. If you repel the enemy as soon as you meet them and they retreat, our outflanking troops will not be able to block the rear."
Leaving the mountain road, Orlando walked through the chestnut forest on the north slope. The soldiers dispersed into small groups and marched westward vigilantly.
During the march, soldiers were strictly prohibited from chatting, and the forest echoed with the sound of slight clinking of equipment and the sound of someone stepping on dead branches.
Bang! Bang!
Gunshots began gradually outside the woods, but there was no sound of Three-Pounder. The first battalion commander obeyed Orlando's instructions and did not use artillery to kill the enemy for the time being.
"Quick, stop the enemy before they retreat!"
Orlando was running in the forest. Musketeers and the officers were wearing light leather jackets and were faster. Plate Armor, the melee infantryman, was heavier and gradually fell behind.
Within a few minutes, Orlando climbed to the top of the tree to observe the situation.
The enemy's team stretched for hundreds of steps on the narrow mountain road, and the cavalry could not spread out. They tied the reins of their mounts to the tree trunks and then launched an attack on foot.
Suddenly, shouts of killing appeared on the southern hillside. Orlando saw that the other outflanking troops were exposed, so they stopped covering up and immediately rushed towards the mountain road below.
"Fire!"
Musketeers fired a round of shots in a hurry, and the violent noise made the group of war horses panic. They screamed loudly and tried to break free from the restraints of the reins.
Realizing that ambushes were continuously rushing out of the hills on both sides, the riders were also panicked. The riders at the end of the queue chose to run away, and most of the cavalry were blocked on the mountain road, fighting with Mountain Infantry equipped with spears and Halberd.
Orlando ordered the staff around him, "Raise the fireworks and notify the first battalion to launch a general attack."
A red firework shot into the sky, and the sound of gunfire was loud at the exit of the mountain road, followed closely by the piercing charge whistle.
Being in a disadvantageous terrain, it was difficult for the cavalry to stop the infantry's attack. The formation was divided into multiple parts and they quickly gave up resistance.
After the war, the second battalion commander happily found Orlando: "We killed seventy people, captured two hundred, and dozens of others escaped. The brothers captured three hundred horses. This time we made a lot of money. Unfortunately, we are not cavalry and cannot use these horses."
To severely damage a battalion-sized cavalry unit at a very small cost is a great achievement worthy of reporting to the headquarters.
Orlando is worried that if we hit the opponent too hard this time, the opponent must know that our main force has arrived and may make corresponding arrangements.
He wrote a brief report, translated into Ciphertext, and then asked a small group of messenger riders to return to Ancona.
When the frontline report was received, the second echelon of Vitus had not yet arrived.
The battle report records the information provided by the prisoners:
Tuscany's enemies number more than 20,000, half of them are French Army, and the other half are servants. Next, their task is to suppress the rebellion to the south, and then cross the mountains to attack the east coast and capture Ancona and other towns.
"The enemy knows about our landing, so he will definitely not be stupid enough to go to the east coast. The most likely thing is to block Via Flaminia and prevent our main force from going to the west."
The second echelon is expected to arrive two days tomorrow, but Vitus is unwilling to delay.
He led 10,000 soldiers to leave Ancona first, without carrying heavy artillery or excessive baggage, and followed the main road deep into the interior.
This approach is not safe enough, but war is inherently a high-risk matter.
Recalling all the dangers he experienced in the past: Cyprus, Thessaly, Boçak, Sakarya...Vitus felt an indescribable excitement, as if he had become younger.