At Othello's command, the massive infantry phalanx quickly split into dozens of smaller phalanxes, maintaining their strict formation as they turned and retreated towards Verona, with cavalry interspersed between the phalanxes, ready for battle at any moment.
Even when split into dozens, the enormous phalanx remained cumbersome and its advance was still slow, but Othello had no better option. His cavalry had suffered heavy losses, while the enemy's more than two thousand cavalry were almost completely intact. Once the infantry lost the protection of the phalanx, if the enemy cavalry charged and they couldn't reform their ranks in time, it would be an almost certain massacre.
Splitting the large phalanx itself created an opening for the enemy cavalry to attack, and this was one of Othello's objectives. Besides increasing the retreat speed and avoiding entering artillery range, splitting the phalanx was also meant to lure the enemy cavalry into an attack.
Othello believed that the key to a successful retreat lay in defeating Duke's cavalry. If Duke's cavalry were defeated, the Papal States' pursuit efficiency would be greatly reduced, and the army could disperse and retreat. As long as the Papal States' cavalry initiated an attack, he would have a chance to counter-attack.
However, Duke's cavalry, despite posing as if they were about to charge, merely followed Othello from a distance, keeping him out of reach yet unable to shake them off.
Meanwhile, the artillery within Ferrara city was successively loaded onto carriages and pulled out, clearly having been prepared in advance, and their speed was significantly faster than Othello's retreat.
Facing the steadily advancing enemy, Othello hesitated. Given the current troop comparison, Othello was not unable to fight, and even had a slight advantage, but the problem was that the enemy relied on the city walls, and their mobility was superior, allowing them to retreat into the city at any time, making it impossible to effectively annihilate them.
Suddenly, a deep, heavy sound of footsteps came from afar, and the battlefield's clamor lessened considerably. A chill ran down Othello's spine: Duke's reinforcements had arrived.
Tens of thousands of Papal States soldiers quickly appeared within everyone's sight, without a moment's pause, surging towards Othello's forces like a tidal wave.
Having been tricked by Claudio and then suddenly facing an enemy several times their size, with almost all the bodies left behind being friendly forces, fear quickly spread under immense pressure. Even though well-trained, Othello's legion's formation was thrown into disarray, forcing them to stop and reorganize their ranks.
During this interlude, six regiments of the Field Army quickly cut off Othello's retreat, while the remaining two regiments blocked Othello's flanks. The fully armed Papal States soldiers stood in stark contrast to the lightly equipped Venice soldiers.
From the direction of Ferrara city, all of Claudio's soldiers and artillery had exited the city. The first deployed artillery had already opened fire again on the Venice phalanxes, throwing several recently stabilized phalanxes into disarray once more.
"Othello, your army's defeat is set, and so is Venice. After so many inquiries, you must already know that the destruction of the Venice Navy, the fall of Venice city, and the capture of the Doge of Venice are all true.
As for Lorenzo's rebellion, it was not fabricated out of thin air. It's just that Claudio is loyal to His Holiness the Pope, Rome has elite guards, and Karl has already led his army back to suppress the rebellion, so this rebellion had no chance of success from the very beginning.
His Holiness the Pope is tolerant and benevolent, valuing talent. Join us, and you won't have to make meaningless sacrifices; you can still achieve great things, a truly great cause! Why bury yourself with a nation beyond salvation and a group of incompetent councilors? You don't want your thousands of soldiers to die with you, do you?"
With victory in hand, Duke did not launch a general assault amidst the chaos but instead began to persuade them to surrender with reason and emotion.
"Don't waste your breath! My insufficient forces were due to my negligence, and falling for your schemes was my foolishness. But Venice only has soldiers who die in battle, not generals who surrender!" Far from feeling any goodwill, Othello felt Duke's earnest persuasion was outright humiliation. "All forces, listen to my command, break through to the north!"
However, after Othello gave the command, most of the phalanxes remained motionless. Some were indeed in such disarray that they couldn't move, while others pretended not to hear the command: with such a disparity in forces, wouldn't breaking through be equivalent to sending us to our deaths? Moreover, Othello himself hadn't moved.
Only a very few phalanxes awkwardly made a symbolic attempt to break through, only to retreat after leaving a trail of bodies under the dense barrage of firepower.
Othello was enraged and about to explode when Capello walked towards him. He immediately pointed a finger at him and demanded, "Capello, why are you not in your position, coming to me? Did you not hear my order to break through just now?"
"General, don't be anxious. The enemy is too strong, we cannot act rashly. Moreover, most of our army's phalanxes truly cannot be organized for a breakthrough right now," Capello feigned helplessness.
"Then do you have any better ideas?" Othello asked impatiently. He knew what Capello was saying; they were already fighting to the death, so why bother with these details?
"General, look over there."
"What's over there?" Othello looked in the direction Capello pointed, but saw nothing.
In a flash, Capello suddenly drew the sword from his waist and, with all his might, thrust it through Othello's left heart. Blood gushed down the blade, staining Othello's armor red.
"Capello, you dare...!" Othello's eyes widened, his face filled with anger, unwillingness, and despair.
"General Othello, you said we must have a spirit of sacrifice. To defend Verona, you sacrificed tens of thousands of civilians; and for the lives of thousands of soldiers, I can only ask you to sacrifice yourself! When a prairie fire rages, it's not just the weeds that turn to ash, is it?"
Capello's eyes flickered, his heart filled with bitterness and helplessness. If the tide hadn't turned completely, with no chance of survival, why would he not want to fight alongside his old superior who had promoted him?
Noticing the change in the center of the Venice phalanx, Claudio ordered a halt to the shelling, and the noisy battlefield suddenly quieted down considerably.
"Capello! You actually betrayed the General!"
With a hysterical roar, half a broken spear whistled towards Capello, hitting him squarely in the back of the head. With a thud, Capello fell backward into a pool of blood.
Inside the leaderless Venice forces, a fierce conflict immediately erupted. Capello's guards and Othello's guards, those willing to surrender and those unwilling, all fought in a chaotic melee.
However, those who wished to die had already fallen in battle, and those who wished to live had always wanted to live. Under the overwhelming superiority of the Papal States, most Venice soldiers sided with the surrendering party. As the last stubborn soldier fell, a white flag slowly rose over the Venice phalanx.
"Not the best result, but good enough," Duke commented with satisfaction, having not intervened in the internal conflict of Venice at all.
After a simple integration of the remaining four thousand surrendered Venice soldiers, the battlefield was left for Claudio to clear. Duke once again led his army north, with the Venice surrendered soldiers at the vanguard, effortlessly capturing Verona, which had few remaining defenders. All other surrounding fortresses and strongholds surrendered at first sight.
After this battle, throughout all the continental territories of the Venice Republic, there was no longer a single army that could pose a threat to Duke's offensive.