Therefore, they also started towards their winter quarters. However, Frederick had posted a contingent from Bergamo at Cividate al Piano, which would inform him of the Lombard movements through smoke signals. When the Lombard army had completed its crossing of Oglio at Pontoglio and Palazzolo, the imperial troops saw large clouds of smoke and moved to Cortenuova, which was 18 km from their current positions. The imperial vanguard included Saracens and horsemen, which were the first units to attack the withdrawing Lombards, followed by the infantry. Taken by surprise, the Milanese and Piacentines were unable to form a defense line, and fled to Cortenuova. When Frederick and his main force reached the battlefield, it was scattered with knights, slain or wounded and his passage blocked by riderless horses. At Cortenuova, other Milanese and troops from Alessandria rallied around their Carroccio, where the Lombards fought valiantly under the Saracen arrows and the Teutonic charges. A column of men from Milanese noble families, despite the arrival of other Bergamo troops, was able to protect the rest of the army's retreat to Cortenuova till nightfall. To keep the army's morale as high as possible, Frederick ordered his troop to sleep with their armor on, and to attack at the first light of dawn. On the other side, the podestà of Milan, recognizing that the troops could not withstand another battle, ordered the abandonment of the town along with the Carroccio and the rest of the baggage. On the dawn of 28 November the Imperials attacked the hastily-retreating Lombards, who collapsed with minimal resistance. Many drowned in the Oglio, which was overflowing due to a flood. About 5,000 Lombards were captured, and the wounded and killed numbered several thousand. The Milanese alone lost 2,500 soldiers Of the battlefield, Pietro della Vigna recorded:. Aftermath The Lombard League's army was virtually annihilated. Frederick made a triumphal entrance in the allied city of Cremona, with the Carroccio towed by an elephant and Tiepolo chained on it. The latter was first detained in Apulia and then publicly executed in Trani. The Carroccio was later sent to Rome as a show of the imperial power. The Lombard League disbanded. Lodi, Novara, Vercelli, Chieri, and Savona were captured or submitted to the emperor, while Amadeus IV of Savoy and Boniface II of Montferrat confirmed their Ghibelline allegiance. Milan, Brescia, Piacenza, and Bologna remained alone in arms. Frederick, now at the