Sicily Part 2

The First Italian War began when Milan blockaded multiple Sicilian ports in an attempt to reduce the wealth of the rapidly growing Italian state. King Roger raised armies quickly and ventured north towards Florence, but met with considerable resistance. When the city finally fell, Roger had to hold his troops back in the city to recover, as well as hold Florence from any counterattacks from the numerically superior Milanese forces coming down from the capital.

Newly adopted general Tizrano di Calpizato got the call to go forth and continue the offensive, but he was turned back by the superior forces at Milan itself and was forced to retreat. His battered and bloodied army barely made it to the Po River when Milan's general Catalano Rossi caught up to him. This battle was a great opportunity for Milan; wiping out Calpizato's army would mean both of Sicily's offenses had been turned back, and they could begin retaking their holdings in Italy.

General Calpizato surveyed his forces. Two groups of sergeant spearmen, four divisions of Muslim archers, a hastily-mustered regiment of militia crossbowmen, his personal bodyguard, and the leftover artillery from the failed siege of Milan, three trebuchets and two mangonels. His spies reported that Rossi's army held some 2500 men, far more than roughly 600 fighting men Calpizato had. Arguably worse than that, Rossi's army was made up primarily of swordsman and spearmen, which would assault the weakness of his own army, melee shock power.

Under normal circumstances, this battle would have been unwinnable. However, Calpizato knew the terrain well, and picked the one place he felt he could defend his frail troops and equipment; the bridge over the Po river. He set his archers and crossbowmen on either side of the bridge, with the spearmen clustered at the end to hold the line and present a wall of spearpoints to any attackers. Behind this front stood the siege weapons, and Calpizato himself rode back and forth behind his men, rallying them with a tremendous and fiery speech.

Rossi aligned the Milanese forces in a simple column, and charged across the bridge, counting on sheer weight of numbers to win the day. A sound strategy, if a potentially costly one. Rossi, however, underestimated Sicilian ingenuity.

King Roger had made it a priority to build as many siege workshops as possible, and promoted the pursuit of technological superiority. Nowhere was this better reflected than the mangonel, a wooden device designed to launch fire pots, vessels designed to create a fireball on impact. Calpizato was trained extensively in their use both as an offensive weapon and a defensive weapon, and the two he brought with him to the Po river would serve him well on this day.

As the Milanese troops marched across the bridge, they were beset with arrows, crossbow bolts, rocks fired from the trebuchets, and explosive barrels of combustible fire pots. By the time the first ranks reached the spearmen, their morale and ranks both were shattered, and they were easily turned back by the spears. Calpizato urged his men on, constantly instructing the archers and mangonels to adjust their firing arcs, watching from the top of a nearby hill to better see the layout of the battle.

Sheer numbers began to take their toll. The first few ranks of the spearmen succumbed, and the Milanese forces were getting inside the trebuchets' firing arc. Milan had also led with their spearmen, leaving their more powerful shock troops to battle the increasingly exhausted Sicilian spearmen. Calpizato weighed his options, and knew he had no choice.

Calpizato led a charge into the front of the Milanese forces, battering through his own spearmen in a spirited and gutsy strike. Seeing their own general's bravery in the face of utter defeat rejuvenated the Sicilian forces, and they began to fight with a righteous fervor. The advance of the Milanese troops stopped, and for a time they were pushed backwards.

Cavalry cannot stand up to a protracted melee, however, and Calpizato's bodyguard was being cut down around him. One full group of spearmen lay dead, and the other fought at less than 50% strength. The Milanese army was decimated, yet they still fought on. Rossi knew that if they could just break through this final line, they could wipe out the rest of Calpizato's forces and turn the tide of the war.

As the last of the spearmen fell, one group of Muslim archers threw down their bows, drew their short swords, and bravely charged into battle. Their light padded armor could not stand up to the swords of the Milanese troops, and they knew this charge would be to their deaths, yet still they rushed forward to protect Calpizato and the artillery, hoping that if their deaths could buy another minute, maybe two, perhaps the battle could still be won.

Their sacrifice would not be in vain. A barrel from the mangonel landed in the midst of the Milanese forces, incinerating nearly a hundred men in a single shot, among them General Catalano Rossi. The blow to morale was the final straw, and the Milanese army broke, retreating from the battle, with some of the few remaining falling to arrows that fell down into their exposed flanks.

When the dust settled, the Milanese army was thoroughly devastated. Over 2000 men fell during the battle, their bodies piled high on the bridge. The Sicilian army was also ravaged, having lost both ranks of spearmen, most of the brave archers who charged forth to hold the line, and every member of Calpizato's bodyguard save the general himself. Battle estimates credit the mangonels with almost 50% of the Milanese casualties.

The defeat at the Po river, along with the fall of the islands Corsica and Sardinia, led Milan to beg for peace one year after this battle. King Roger accepted with little hesitation, and later ordered forts be built at each river crossing so Calpizato's strategy could be used in standard defenses.

Calpizato returned to Naples for a medal ceremony, and later led another regiment during the Second Italian War against Venice, where he fell honorably in battle outside of Zagreb in eastern Europe.