(It may be very late for the third update, so don't wait, and compensate for the update tomorrow.) ）

Château de Château de Château de Chinon, France, January 1429.

Christmas had just passed, and the New Year had just arrived, but there was no festive atmosphere in the castle of Chinon, but a gloomy cloud, and both the attendants and the nobles who came and went could not help but be worried, even if they forced their faces to laugh.

The battle report from the front had been reported a few days earlier, and the reinforcements to rescue Orleans had failed and had to be defeated.

This news is extremely desperate for the French court at this moment, even if the Dauphin Charles tries to relieve the pressure of the public, it is to no avail, yes, for the current France, this is already in a crisis of destruction.

Since the beginning of the Hundred Years' War, after the defeat at the Battle of Acuquin more than ten years ago, the whole of France has completely lost its sharpness, and it has been defeated again and again in the face of the British army. Now that the north and southwest of France were occupied by the English and the south-east by the Burgundians, France had lost more than two-thirds of its territory, and the only one-third of the territory of the sermon was in jeopardy.

If the Franco-French army had desperately stopped England in the north on the Loire and defended it with the help of the city of Orléans, I am afraid that the whole of France would no longer exist.

But it is precisely because of this that the siege of Orleans is so important, once Orleans falls, the whole of France is completely unsafe, and the English army can directly move south and completely annex the only remaining French territory......

In such a situation, if you have to compare it to the Song Dynasty, the north was broken by the Jin Dynasty, and the Song people were forced to retreat all the way to the south of the Yangtze River, while Vietnam and other countries in the south took the opportunity to collude with the Jin people to annex the southern lands.

But in a sense, the situation of Crown Prince Charlie is even more tragic than this......

Because, at least the other rulers are still orthodox kings and emperors.

But now, his mother, who didn't like him at all, is even openly saying that he is not his father's child and is not worthy of being a king, and the nobles are talking about it, and his royal lineage is even seriously questioned.

......

In the main room of the castle, the eyes of the crown prince Charlie were bloodshot, and after hearing that the rescue failed, he couldn't sleep all night yesterday, but even if he looked tired, he had to insist on standing up.

He looked at the minister in front of him and said in a deep voice.

"Bruno, you tell me how much money we have now. ”

Bruno in front of him and several ministers beside him looked at each other, looking at each other, not knowing how best to answer, and finally said hesitantly.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, now...... Now we ...... There are less than thirteen thousand francs. ”

When he said the numbers, the minister couldn't help but lower his voice, his face full of uneasiness.

Hearing this number, Charlie fell silent and did not speak.

What does thirteen thousand francs mean? That's a lot of money for a single family.

Two or three francs can buy a good bottle of wine, a dozen francs can buy a weighted bantam horse, a hundred francs is enough to buy a good horse, many noble squires earn only two or three francs a month, and the average worker may not even earn a franc a month.

But what does this mean for a war?

Nothing!

The soldiers' armor needs money to be maintained, and the horses also need the highest number of rations, warm clothing, military rations, and soldiers' salaries......

Money is needed in every way, and if you fight a war, you will have to spend at least 10,000 francs to replenish supplies, and if the loss is large, maybe 100,000 francs will not be enough to fill this hole.

Less than 10,000 francs meant that Charles could not even wage a slightly larger war at the moment, and he had no money to fight.

How ridiculous is that France, once home to more than 5 million people and millions of francs in annual tax revenues, is now the richest country on the European continent to be embarrassed for money.

After a long time, a voice rang out in Bruno's ears.

"Bruno, you can try to communicate with those merchants and sell them some of my land, such as my territory in Danli, and see if you can get some more money. ”

Under these circumstances, the crown prince also had to choose to sell his land to merchants in exchange for war funds, but he was only silent.

"Your Highness......"

Bruno's hesitant voice sounded, as if he didn't know how to explain it to the crown prince in front of him, and finally gritted his teeth.

"Danley's territory, you sold it to the merchants of Danleyston last week. ”

Across from him, the voice fell silent again.

"Then sell Moulin's estate. ”

"Last week, those Luxembourg businessmen bought it. ”

"Auxerre. ”

"...... two months ago"

"Those lands in Bourges, that should always be ......"

The young voice on the other side seemed to be a little angry because of Bruno's words, and he couldn't help but stand up, but before he could finish speaking, a voice had already whispered.

"Your Highness......"

There was a little bit of unbearability in that voice.

Silent.

The young voice didn't speak again, and although the minister in front of him just lowered his head and didn't speak again, he could also understand what the other party hadn't said yet.

His hands clenched tightly, but in the end he sat down dejectedly, and his body was filled with a dazed atmosphere.

Foreign enemies have invaded, wars have been lost and defeated, the nobles are restless, they are not even sure whether they are the king's children, the succession to the throne has been questioned, and in this time of crisis, the treasury is empty......

All kinds of bad news came one after another, and it never stopped, and every day I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by these bad news.

In all fairness, Charlie is a very hard-working ruler. Unlike his mentally ill father, he was very clever and unusually frugal, desperately calculating, saving money in an attempt to get a chance at victory, standing in the way for a long time, and struggling to support him until now, and all the nobles who knew him marveled at his talent.

However, no amount of effort could change the fact that France had been defeated again and again.

Seven years have passed since the death of his father, Charles VI, but the crown prince has not even been crowned and officially crowned, is there anything worse in this world?

Charlie didn't know, but at least he didn't think there was any.

At the moment, it seems that only a miracle can keep this country alive, but can this miracle exist?

Charlie looked out the window in a daze, the gloomy weather was just like his mood.

Time is running out for France.

This year, Charlie was twenty-six years old.

......

France, Vauculal, the stronghold of the Dauphin.

Robert, who was wearing armor, looked at the person in front of him, frowned, and said dissatisfied.

"Why are you here again? This is not where you women should be. ”

And in front of this garrison commander, the young girl dressed like a boy did not rush to refute, she had a composure in her body that far exceeded that of her peers, she just bowed slightly towards the garrison commander in front of her.

Raising his head, there was no fear on his dignified and quiet face, and his bright eyes were full of a certain brilliance.