The roar was so loud that everyone's ears were buzzing in an instant, and it sounded as if hundreds of wasps were flapping their wings at the ear at the same time, and the waves of non-stop chirping were overlapping each other and rushing at the same time, making people even suspect that there really were countless hornets rushing from the palace in the distance.

Grand Duke Karl's face changed, he looked back outside, there was nothing unusual in the yard except for the horses standing up because of the frightened neighing and the frightened chickens running around, but thinking about the source of the noise, Carl couldn't help but have a bad thought in his heart.

Sure enough, a man rushed into the hall in a hurry, and he pushed away the crowd in front of him, and when he saw the Grand Duke, he immediately ran towards him, and he was still shouting something in a language that Alexander could not understand.

He said that the enemy had invaded Ljubljana, and that Prince Gally, who had been a little overwhelmed by this sudden turn of events, retreated to Alexander's side, and by this time he had regarded the count as his ally, and although he did not yet know what had happened, he immediately took the initiative to explain when he saw Alexander's doubts, "He said that the troops from Rome had stormed the city." ”

Speaking of this, the prince paused, and then looked at Alexander unexpectedly: "It's your people, your people have entered Ljubljana?" ”

"I just asked them to come and help me, don't worry, I'm not interested in Caniola." Alexander noticed the uncertain look on the prince's face, and he knew that the young man had clearly not learned to keep his thoughts in his heart, probably because although he hated Archduke Karl, he did not know how to deal with the possibility of the duchy being occupied by outsiders.

Sure enough, as soon as Alexander's words came out, the prince's expression became better, and he turned his head to stare at the ugly-faced Grand Duke Karl, as if wondering whether to continue to challenge him or say something sarcastic and mocking in retaliation for his previous insult.

"What did you do?" Karl only then turned to look at Alexander, because he didn't know whether it was premeditated or accidental, so he could only try to make his voice as calm as possible in order to restrain the anger that might erupt at any time, he pushed away the princess Marchidovi next to him and took a few steps forward to Alexander, and straightened up so that he could be at eye level with Alexander, "Your army has invaded my country, and they are now building fortifications on the streets of Ljubljana, I want to know that this is not something you have prepared for a long time, Otherwise, I'll have your head cut off right now. ”

As soon as the Grand Duke's words fell, the nobles of Caniola had gathered around them, and they surrounded Alexander and Prince Gally, and the anger in their eyes full of anger seemed to burn them to ashes at any moment.

"Balkans." Alexander whispered to himself in a voice that only he could hear, he could not help but admit the fierceness and tenacity of these Balkans, in fact, when you think that even a great lord like Mehmed II was beaten to the ground by these Balkan peasants, you can see how difficult the people of this land are.

But while the people were born warriors, Alexander did not believe that their nobles were as brave and fierce as the populace, but not as many brains.

And smart people always judge the situation appropriately.

"I just told the prince that I'm not interested in the Duchy of Caniola," Alexander ignored the Caniola nobles who were ready to pounce on him at any time, walked to the table and picked up an empty glass to see if it was clean, and poured himself a glass of wine, "I just want to be your arbiter, don't forget that you are going to invade a Catholic, this is absolutely not allowed, and you are trying to take the prince of Marchidovi as a hostage, I can't help but say that this of yours makes me have to express my concern about this matter, I will not interfere in the affairs between your two countries, but if this involves a Catholic state, I cannot help but express my concern. ”

"Marchdovi is not a country!" Archduke Karl roared angrily, "They are our vassals, I am Archduke Caniola, and I have the power to decide their fate." ”

"You may have the power, but you have forgotten what I said," Alexander looked at the prince, "he is a Catholic, and the people of Marchdovi are also Catholics, so I have no reason to refuse to help them." ”

"It's just your excuse, you're trying to interfere in my country," Karl stretched out his hand and pointed his slightly crooked index finger at Alexander, "but you forgot one thing, Count, you yourself are here, your army may be brave, but what do you think they will do if all they see in the end is a dead man?" ”

"yes, what do you think they'll do?" Alexander was not in the least moved by the Grand Duke's threat: "You probably don't know that my army is built on the basis of my people, and my daughter is about to be born, and if I die, they will continue to be loyal to my daughter instead of immediately disintegrating, and because I am a merciful lord and gave them land, they are very loyal to me, so how do you think they will retaliate against you if they know that I died here?" Will you kill all of you cleanly or will you be tortured to death in your way? ”

Archduke Karl stared at Alexander with a pale face, his eyes fixed on him motionlessly, as if he wanted to know whether Alexander's words were true or false.

"And why do you think I'm here?" Although Archduke Karl looked stern, he could guess that his mind was a little shaken at this time from the fact that he did not immediately give the order to Alexander, if the Archduke had indeed murderous intentions towards him before, now he was obviously hesitating whether it was worth it.

Alexander decided to take the opportunity to increase the burden of this hesitation of the Grand Duke.

"The Ottoman army is coming, but this time they will not pass through Bulgaria but will take a long detour, why should the Sultan do this, is it just because the Bulgarian route is not safe enough? But is it safe to pass through Moldova and Caniola? ”

As soon as Alexander's words came out, Archduke Karl's expression couldn't help but change slightly.

In fact, this question has been raised since the arrival of the Sudanese envoy, but in spite of all the fears, in order to avoid conflict with Sudan, whether it is a large country like Moldova and Wallachia, or a small country like Caniola, which can only go against the grain, can only try to pin their hopes on the promise of the Sudanese envoy.

But Alexander knew that Bayezid II's choice of this route was not only deliberate, but also had a far-reaching purpose.

Because of this, he was still sure that he could move the Grand Duke.

"The Sultan wants to capture Bucharest, but his bigger goal is Prague, Vienna, and even the Vatican," Alexander looked at Archduke Karl, noticing that his waist had moved up again because of the difficult sound, Alexander continued, "Attacking from the Bulgarian direction is no less tribulous, but it is not so difficult to overcome, but the Sultan has chosen the present route, because he needs to use this as a gateway for him to continue his march westward, in that case, Archduke, you think it is for this purpose." Will the Ottomans keep their promises to you when they arrive at Caniola? ”

Grand Duke Karl looked at Alexander silently, no one knew what he was thinking, everyone looked at him, just waiting for his order.

After a while, Karl finally asked, "You mean the Ottomans will take Caniola completely?" ”

"Probably not, if the Sultan is merciful, he may retain your title as Grand Duke, which will also be good for him, but the clause that they forced you to promise no more than 30 men to gather may become permanent, and he may ask you to provide him with troops, as he did with the eastern tribes, and he may send his vizier to Caniola."

"It's impossible," an old man suddenly came over, "you are provoking, you must know that the Sultan would not do such a treacherous thing, not to mention that if he wants to completely occupy Caniola, in this case, why should he retain the title of Grand Duke, you are just making excuses for your own life, of course, it may also be as you yourself said, to come to Caniola with an army to make excuses, your real purpose is really only to protect yourself from the Ottomans." ”

Alexander looked at the gray-haired old man, and at his face full of disgust for himself, Alexander couldn't help but wonder in his heart, I don't know why, no matter where he is, there seems to be no shortage of leading parties.

Although he was not sure that the old man was the Ottoman leader, Alexander could sense the man's disgust and disgust with him, or rather not for him personally, but for Catholics and Westerners.

But it didn't make a difference, and the sight of this old man reminded Alexander of all the legends about the pre-fall of Constantinople.

It is said that many Eastern Romans, because of their antipathy and hostility towards Western countries and the Vatican, even shouted that they would rather hand over Constantinople to the infidels than the Catholics to intervene.

Is this the Eastern Roman version of "Rather with friends than with domestic slaves"?

Perhaps for some Orthodox Christians, the threat from the Vatican is even stronger than that of the infidels, who would rather accept the rule of the Sultan than the help of their Western "brothers".

But Alexander didn't care about that, he just had to convince the people in front of him of his so-called "purpose".

"The threat of the Sultan has shaken the Vatican, and the Pope has issued an edict to reorganize to fight the infidels." Alexander noticed that his words had attracted the attention of the people of Caniola around him, and the eyes of the people became in a trance, which made him decide to increase his strength: "I am only the forerunner, the armies of other nobles will continue to come from the west, and I can tell you that no one else will be as good as I am, they will not sit idly by and watch their brothers and sisters be insulted in this way, they will see this behavior as a provocation to them." ”

"Are you threatening us," Archduke Karl narrowed his eyes slightly, "I don't know why you came to Caniola, but everything here is mine. ”

"But they don't belong to you," Alexander said, looking at Princess Marchdovi beside the Grand Duke, "you should be ashamed of your actions, and I cannot help but say that you have offended God. ”

"It is not up to you to decide whether my actions offend God or not!" Karl angrily raised his hand and stabbed it tightly in Alexander's chest, "You invaded my country and let your army break into my city, it would be naïve for you to think that this would end well, I will not compromise because of your or anyone's threats." ”

"Won't it be threatened because of the Sultan?" Alexander said, glancing at the old nobleman from before, "Maybe I'm wrong about you, you're preparing to rebel against the tyranny of the Sultan?" ”

Alexander's words made Archduke Karl's face instantly darken, his deformed shoulders that had heaved because he was constantly panting, and his deformed shoulders bulged like two small mountains, and a pair of small eyes revealed a cold and cruel light.

"As soon as I give the order you will be chopped into a pile of pieces," Karl looked at Alexander, his voice full of irrepressible irritability, as if at any moment he could not control it and completely explode, "Tell me, is this the case, are you going to get involved in this trouble for them?" ”

"And I said, if then all of you will have to pay for what you have done, and I mean all of you," Alexander's gaze swept around, "whether it be a man or a woman, whether it is a nobleman or a monk, my army will take revenge on all those who see it in this city, and your relatives will lose their lives for this, your property will be looted, and your churches will be overthrown, and your cities will be completely destroyed because of this, all because of the vanity of your Grand Duke." ”

Alexander's words caused the people around him to fall into a panic instantly, many of them stared at Alexander with angry eyes, and some of them showed hesitation on their faces.

"Don't be fooled!" The old nobleman reminded the people around him loudly, "He is intimidating us, just as the Venetians intimidated and seized the capital of Rome while Constantinople was at its weakest, and then shamelessly put a crown on himself, they only wanted to plunder us." ”

Alexander looked at the old man, his eyes narrowing slightly, and he casually looked at Busako next to him.

Busako's expression froze, he already knew what Alexander was hinting at him, but he didn't act immediately.

As the captain of the guard, he first had to consider Alexander's safety, so Busako did not react quickly, and at this moment, Princess Caniola, who had just left the banquet hall, suddenly appeared at the door.

Behind her, it was as if Gompati was carrying a team of heavily armed Agri soldiers.

Seeing this scene, everyone except Alexander and his men couldn't help but be stunned.