When Josha appeared under the tall portico of Bucharest Castle, everyone's eyes couldn't help but focus on her.

Young, beautiful and with a temperament that is very different from the vast majority of aristocratic women, this is the Countess of Cosenza.

Several young nobles stared at the gradually walking in with rapid breath, and more than one of them felt that they should be in love, because looking at this countess, they felt the nervousness and discomfort caused by the violent beating of their hearts.

At the invitation of Ladislas II, Josa made an official audience with the King of Bohemia.

Ladislas II received him in the first wing of the castle, and according to the original plan, the king was going to make the audience ceremony more important, and he did not do it purely to summon him, but to use this ceremony to downplay the Cepes incident.

In the end, however, the king decided to summon him in the side hall, because judging from the reaction of the people in the city, there was no need for him to mobilize any more troops.

The riots in Bucharest caused by Chipes's attempt to attack Sophia's palace were much smaller than expected, and even many people, after hearing about it, reacted not so much as an accident as a sudden realization that "it was so".

The reason why Bucharest has such a reaction is largely due to the fact that many people have always believed that Cepes, who is a follower of Sophia, actually has some kind of idea about Sophia.

If he can marry Sophia, then with the exception of Wallachia, relying on Sophia's great popularity in the Balkans, it may not be impossible for Cepes to give birth to the idea of unifying the entire Balkans.

At least in the name of the successors of the Eastern Romans, apart from Greece, whether Croatia, Bosnia, or Bulgaria, Sophia had strong enough claims to these places.

This is what many people do not want to see, at least in the minds of the great Balkan nobles, whoever marries Sophia in the future cannot be the son of Vlad III, who makes all Balkans feel uneasy!

So the tragedy of Cepes was doomed from the beginning, and it would have been natural if Cepes chose someone else because he hated Sophia for betraying him, and then finally attacked the Greek princess in a frenzy.

As for the Black Army, it was entirely out of greed and at the instigation of Cepes that these unscrupulous mercenaries betrayed the King of Bohemia who had taken them in for a fee, and tried to kidnap or kill the Greek princess on the orders of Cepes, only to crush the plot under the protection of the powerful Kosenza musket troops.

Everyone acquiesced to this explanation, and even before the whole charge could be made public, it had already spread privately among the nobles.

When he met Ladislas II, the king had just drunk the medicine prepared for him by the imperial physician, and he had been in poor spirits during this time, mainly because of the pressure brought by the Ottomans, and secondarily because of his concern about the situation in Hungary.

Because of the lack of information, Ladislas did not know that the Emperor Maximian had left Vienna to settle the Swiss troubles, which made him have to deal with the Ottomans and be distracted by the possibility of a knife from the Holy Roman Emperor in the back, so that whenever a messenger sent a letter or someone wanted to report something to him, the king immediately became nervous, lest he hear bad news about Hungary.

Such a tense spirit made Ladislas II already on the verge of a nervous breakdown, even if he took the opportunity to eradicate the great hidden danger of Cepes, he still couldn't put his mind at ease.

Because this was only part of the agreement between him and Alexander, his fears could not be dispelled if he did not withdraw his troops from Hungary.

Jossa bowed to Ladislas II, and when she heard the king's polite greeting, she slowly raised her head.

The king was also slightly stunned, he had heard of the young countess's beauty, but when he looked at her carefully, the king realized that the countess was not only more beautiful than the legend had been, but also young beyond his expectations.

"Your Majesty, I am grateful for your support of my brother, and I regret your loss," said Josha, picking up a document from the tray in the handmaiden beside her and presenting it to Ladislas II with both hands, "We know that the Black Army is your favorite army, but because of their collusion with Chipes, my brother and I had to suppress these rebels, but after all, it is we who have caused you to lose this army, and we are willing to pay you a certain amount of compensation for this." ”

The king opened the document and looked at the terms that had been drawn up, and the king's eyes looked through the top edge of the document to the beautiful face opposite.

The high cost of the Black Army had already become a huge burden, and even if it had been largely disbanded by the Hungarian aristocracy, it was still a great expense to maintain the remaining Black Army troops in Bohemia, and more importantly, Ladislas II had long since grown tired of this unruly and troublesome army, especially for their loyalty, the king was always reassured.

He could not forget that the Black Army had suddenly defected during the attack on Vienna, which had led King Maximian to press on him step by step.

So when he heard that the Hungarian nobles had forcibly disbanded all the black armies in Hungary, Ladislas II was actually just as happy.

And the expensive military expenses have indeed made the king unbearable, for such a high cost and not easy to control the army, Ladislas II has actually been tired from the heart, and now there is such an opportunity to take the opportunity to get rid of the huge burden of the black army, which makes King Ladislas II feel indescribably relaxed.

The so-called compensation was a secret agreement with Ladislas II, and now she could use this reason to make the terms of the secret agreement public.

"Miss Count, I also regret the threat posed to you and to Count Montina by the Black Army," Ladislas II put aside the Entente with satisfaction, "You should have noticed that I did not mention Sophia, not because I did not consider this matter a threat to her, but because I regarded her as my family, and my queen's affection for Sophia made my daughter jealous. ”

Tsusha smiled slightly, knowing that the king was only saying this to emphasize his influence on Sophia.

In fact, there are all kinds of speculations about Sophia's future marriage in the Balkans, and some of the great nobles want to get enough out of it.

It's just that before the Ottoman army pressed the border, the Balkans were thinking more about how to resist the invasion of the Ottomans, and now with the Ottoman army about to retreat, many people's minds have become active again.

As for the marriage contract between Alexander and Sophia, Jisha could guess that the Balkans at that time should have agreed to it with the intention that the city would be destroyed at any time, so there must be many people now wondering how to break this marriage contract.

For Josha, she is not far from seeing this so-called sacred marriage contract, but if you look at the interests of Alexander or the entire free trade alliance, Josha cannot but admit that Sophia's role is very huge.

Even a little imagination can foresee the importance of a trade route centered on Wallachia and expanding to the whole of the Balkans and even Central and Eastern Europe, grain from Southeastern Europe, wool from Northern Europe, fine luxury goods from Western Europe and plantations in Crete in the Mediterranean.

The link between all of this now seems to be Sophia, so when she thinks about it, she suddenly thinks that maybe she should be a little nicer to Sophia.

The thought annoyed her for a while, but she soon figured it out.

After all, there may be several lovers and wives, but the lovely sister will always be the only one.

This thought made Josa feel a little better, but even so, she still felt a little angry when she saw Sophia who was tired of being with Alexander.

The Ottomans again sent emissaries, who brought an invitation in the name of the Sultan's governor, Hami Ressar Plom.

This time Ladislas II showed enough courage and decisiveness to decide to personally lead the team to negotiate with the Ottomans, and the place of negotiation was a small town called Budesti in the lower reaches of the Dembvica River, which was fair to both sides.

After the arrival of the Ottomans, the inhabitants of Budesti had fled to Bucharest, so that the town was not ravaged by the war, and now it was suddenly lively, and the whole town was filled with troops stationed on both sides, except that according to the initial agreement, the center of the town was the boundary, and each side accounted for half of Budesti. ，

Although Ladislas II decided to participate in the negotiations himself, because Bayezid II was unable to attend, for the sake of his dignity as a king, the real negotiation was a coalition negotiating team led by Alexander and a dozen Balkan nobles.

Not to Alexander's surprise, among the Ottoman negotiators, he finally met the commander of the Ottoman Right Wing Army, who had put him in danger several times.

It's just that what Alexander didn't expect was that although he had also expected to see him, Xi Sugu made a very unexpected request.

"I know it's presumptuous to ask, but I still wish to see your sister, the honorable Count of Cosenza," Sisukgu made a request in fluent language with a distinctly Florentine accent, and seeing Alexander's confusion, Sisugu smiled lightly, "I must admit that I have an extraordinary affection for your sister, or rather a longing, and although I haven't met her yet, I've heard about her amazing beauty, and she's done something that even many men can't, It made me really want to meet the female general who had defeated me. ”

Alexander looked at Xi Sugu silently, if it weren't for the same eagerness to reach an agreement as soon as possible, he would have wanted to start fighting immediately, at least to kill this enemy who coveted his lovely sister before negotiating.

Ressar did not seem to have changed, and the eunuch, who had the power of the Ottoman court and even represented the will of the Sultan to a large extent, had expressed full confidence in the success of the agreement, and invited Alexander to another room that had already been cleaned up.

After some casual chatter, Ressar suddenly asked in a slightly deep voice, "Earl, I think you should know the venerable Ashulk." ”

Alexander nodded slightly, knowing that the real negotiations had only begun at this time.

"And what kind of person do you think Ashulk is?" The eunuch seemed to be interested in asking.

"A man of great wisdom, nobility, and extraordinary taste, I have the impression that he has an amazing possession of European art, and in many respects he is even more fascinated by it than many of the European aristocracy."

The eunuch listened silently to Alexander's comments, and then he groaned a little and asked, "And how much do you know about his brother Elup?" ”

Alexander's gaze fell on the eunuch's fat white face and was silent for a moment, then smiled.

"I know what you're talking about, I know that this Eyrip is the governor of the occupied places, and I know what he did in those places, so if he is captured on the battlefield, I will directly order him to be hanged on the nearest tree, but we all know that this is only in the past, and now that we have negotiated, then I will not retaliate against what he did in the occupied territories."

Ressar listened attentively, and he even took out a piece of paper and wrote down Alexander's words on it, only when he heard Alexander say that he would hang Eyrip, his hand paused, and then looked at Alexander with a strange look.

"Count, we can support Princess Sophia's rule over Wallachia." Ressar suddenly said something that should never have been said by him, his expression was very calm, there was no anxiety or uneasiness on his face, and even when he saw Alexander's surprised look, the eunuch smiled, "You must wonder how I could tell you this news so easily, but I believe that this should not really be hidden, after all, you and the venerable Vizier Ashulk are close friends." ”

Alexander could hear the eunuch's obvious sarcasm as he said this, which made him even more sure that the tacit understanding with Elder was probably known to the eunuch.

"The Sultan is a great master, and his wisdom is second only to that of the ......Sultan the Conqueror," Resal continued, speaking in a low tone when speaking of the Sultan, as if he were afraid of being heard by the Sultan himself, "He also admired talent, but the Sultan did not like European civilization, and for him the paintings and sculptures corroded and even encroached on the territory belonging to the Osna culture, so after succeeding to the throne, the Sultan sent people to take down the portraits of his father painted by European painters, It was also forbidden to promote European art within the empire. ”

Alexander nodded, he had heard about Bayezet's cultural and artistic conservatism, and even Ashulk had criticized Bayezid II's conservatism in his conversations, but these words were clearly spoken by Resar, the great eunuch at the Sultan's side, and it clearly had a deeper meaning.

"Whether it's Ashulk or Elup, their families have a deep influence within the Empire," Ressar said in a tone that sounded nonchalant "and their families have always been loyal to the Sultan, I mean they are loyal to the Ottoman Sultan, and I think you understand what I'm saying." ”

Alexander chuckled softly, he had understood the meaning of the eunuch's words, and it was clear that to the Ashulk brothers they were loyal only to the one who sat on the Sultan's throne, and it didn't matter who became the Sultan.

Ressar lowered his voice and said, "Count, if you can make an agreement, you can get a friendship, we know that you want Princess Sophia to be the master of this land, and you seem to have done it now," the eunuch glanced at Alexander's face with a look of implicit meaning, and then continued, "But it is not so easy to get Wallachia, but if we can get our support and recognition, then Princess Sophia can become the master of Wallachia very smoothly." ”

Alexander looked up at Ressar with a twitch of his eyes.

"Yes, we can declare the recognition of Sophia's identity in Wallachia, but she must declare a renunciation of her claims to Roman territory." Ressar stared at Alexander's face in the hope of seeing something from his expression, but was ultimately disappointed, "It is impossible for us to allow the existence of a man who claims to have ownership of Constantinople, this is contempt and unreasonableness for the Empire. ”

"But what you want more now is to reach an agreement as soon as possible and then withdraw quickly, don't you?" Alexander smiled, "Let me think about it, the situation in the Sultan should be very bad now, and for the entire Ottoman Empire, if there is an accident in the Sultan, it may mean that a civil war is about to break out, isn't it even worse for you?" ”

The eunuch's always calm expression finally became gloomy, and he looked at Alexander as if to find out how much he knew, and after a moment he asked in a deep voice, "Is this what Ashulk told you, Count?" ”

Alexander shook his head, knowing that the eunuch did not ask this because he hated Ashurk for leaking information about the Empire to the enemy, but only because he wanted to know how much he knew about the situation inside the Ottoman Empire.

This made Alexander laugh in his heart, he was indeed not familiar with the generals of the Ottoman army, but he at least knew who would inherit the Ottoman Empire in the future.

"Think about the count, you can get Wallachia, and even the friendship of the future sultan, which is more precious than any wealth in the world." Ressar bowed slightly to Alexander, then turned and walked out of the room.

"The friendship of the future sultan?" Alexander muttered to himself, and then shook his head slightly, "I didn't expect that the chief eunuch who was known as the most loyal eunuch next to Bayezid II turned out to be Prince Selim's person. ”