These days, there is not much talk of the city in Bucharest, except for the Ottoman invasion and the Count of Montina.

The young aristocracy from the West was a mystical and charming Fascination to the people of Bucharest, not only for women, but also for men who were interested in the Earl.

The other is his army, which can be said to have worked miracles.

When Montina's army stopped the Ottomans on the banks of the Muresh River, many people were surprised and intrigued by his brave move, but it did not really interest the Bucharestans as much, and the battle on the Danube plain really moved the Bucharestans.

To engage an enemy almost twice as much as their own, which was unthinkable for the Balkans.

Many Balkan nobles and their ancestors challenged the Ottomans in their early years, trying to change their fate of eventual rule, only to be defeated repeatedly.

The Ottomans looked down as if God was really blessing, so much so that many people had the impression that the Ottomans could not defeat and resist.

Rowa? The surrender of the Bucharest was much more devastating than expected, and when it was heard that the hero who had resisted the Ottomans had betrayed their enemies, many of them were completely devastated by utter despair.

So the arrival of Montina's army did not just bring a victory that was not enough to show off and a reinforcement that did not change the balance of strength between the two sides, but gave the Bucharest people hope that they had not seen for a long time.

Alexander became the savior of the Bucharest people, and he received the highest courtesy and much gratitude, but it was not obvious for a time how many people really welcomed him.

All you see is joyful laughter and all kinds of words of gratitude, one banquet after another and countless girls flock to the exotic Montina soldiers, although Rome and the Balkans are separated by only the Adriatic Sea, but the exotic style of the Montina army and the completely different atmosphere from the locals still attract many women who are willing to risk more intimacy with these foreigners.

Alexander had been going between these banquets and balls for the past few days, and the people of Bucharest seemed to want to unleash all their enthusiasm at once, and they reveled and amused themselves to their heart's content, and even the prostitutes, who were usually regarded as lowly, could be summoned into the homes of some nobles, and enjoyed the food and wine and the temporary pleasure with the guests without restraint.

"This is a city of joy, or rather a city of death," said Tzepes to Alexander at a banquet, "do you think that you can save the city by coming, in fact you yourself should know very well that it is impossible to defeat the Ottomans, so can you tell me why you came to Bucharest, and maybe I can help you." ”

"Grand Duke, you mean to help yourself, don't you?" Alexander and Chipes stood together and looked at the crowd of people reveling in the courtyard, and the enthusiasm of the Balkans allowed them to go wild without restraint, so that the banquets held in the house often ended in the courtyard, and if everyone did not drink too much, it seemed that the host was not enthusiastic enough.

The owner of the family was very welcoming, and the fertile land of the Bucharest Plain provided him with enough pasture to make a lot of money by raising large numbers of sheep and selling wool, but the arrival of the Ottomans made the owner of the family useless, so he simply returned to his home, and in addition to paralyzing himself with wine banquets and dances every day, he also took out a large amount of his family property and donated it to the city to resist the Ottomans.

And this wealthy aristocrat is now one of the biggest supporters and financiers of Chipes.

"Count, how long do you think the city will be able to hold on if it continues like this?" Cepes reluctantly asked, "Actually, everyone is asking this question, but no one dares to really answer, because they don't know when the Ottomans will attack, although everyone wonders why Bayezet is not moving, but if that person does come, you will find that those who were still full of confidence in you before will immediately change." ”

Chipes's cold words were uncomfortable, but Alexander knew he was right.

Bucharest originally had a garrison of less than 50,000 men, and even with the Montina army of 60,000 men, while the Ottoman army originally had nearly 80,000, it is not surprising that the Bucharest people would be pessimistic when you add in the Bosnian army and their apparently more advanced and sharp weapons than the Balkans.

However, Alexander knew that their pessimism was not necessary now, and he remembered very well that Bucharest fell more than a dozen years later, and that for many years after that, the Duchy of Wallachia persisted in resisting the invasion and rule of the Ottoman Empire, and it was not completely conquered until much later.

Of course, Alexander would not tell Cepes about these things, he was just a little curious about how Wallachia managed to hold out for so long after almost the entire Balkans had fallen, and perhaps the man in front of him could tell him.

"Ladislas II, or Ulassino II, he was king of Bohemia and Hungary, but he was not the Grand Duke of Wallachia, so he had no right to rule over the land, and I don't believe he would really cherish everything here," Cepes looked at Alexander to ease his mood a little, "Count, the king's intention is to use Bucharest to tie down the Ottomans, and he hopes that the Greek nobles will cause more trouble for the Sultan to delay his invasion of Hungary, For anyone with even the slightest insight can see that the Ottomans' ambitions were not limited to this, they wanted to conquer all of Europe. ”

Alexander nodded slightly, and he admitted that Chipes was right, and that the Ottomans' ambition was indeed to conquer all of Europe, or at least every other they thought they could conquer, and that it had to do with the Orientals' obsession with the land, in which the land was everything, and there was no better way to prove themselves stronger than to conquer other people's lands.

And the invasion of Europe by the Ottomans was actually just beginning.

However, Alexander felt that this was none of his business, and that the purpose of his visit to Bucharest had been half achieved, and he had now met Sophia, and found that her situation, although delicate, was at least safe for the time being, as the battle he had just fought with the Ottomans aroused the enthusiasm of the Bucharest people.

So take this opportunity to consider completing the other half of the plan?

Copper mines in Hungary, which Alexander had been obsessed with from the beginning.

Alexander didn't know exactly what the Fugger family had paid for the copper mining rights from Emperor Maximian, but he knew it was worth it.

For a period of time, the Fugger family became the copper price setters in almost the whole of Europe, and they used the large amount of rich copper ore in their hands to control the entire European market, in addition to the continuous flow of wealth into their coffers, more importantly, the family extended its tentacles into the depths of almost every European court by controlling the largest copper mine in Europe at that time.

Whether it was Vienna or Prague, the palaces of the great and small princes in Italy or the castles on the banks of the Loire in France, the Fugger family used their wealth and resources to break through the layers of relationships and began to try to influence the monarchs of Europe.

Such ambitions may seem absurd now, but it is hard to believe that the Fuggers did it.

At the height of the family, they even influenced who owned the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor!

It's just that the current Fugger family, although entrenched, has not yet become that behemoth, and they are still having to invest in obtaining the support of King Maximian in order to get the Hungarian copper mines, and Ladislas II, as the king of Hungary, is obviously very dissatisfied with this.

So everything is possible, Alexander couldn't help but think of a familiar phrase, and just then he happened to hear a muffled snort from Chipes: "What are the king's men doing?" ”

Hearing Cepes's words, Alexander heard the sound and saw the two king's men walking towards them through the crowd.

After a warm welcome to Alexander, Ladislas II invited Alexander to a meeting of the alliance chaired by the king himself, at which the king declared that the task of the reinforcements from afar was to obey his direct command.

This, of course, caused displeasure among many, including Chipes, but they also knew that they could not oppose the king's decision.

Ladislas II's status in Bucharest was undoubtedly the highest, and more importantly, he was the first to propose the meeting of the alliance convened in the name of the Greek princess.

Although Cepes had recently taken the opportunity to gather a group of nobles around him in the name of Sophia, the situation in Bucharest had become delicate again since Sophia returned to the king, or since Alexander's arrival.

The king's retinue laboriously made their way through the crowd to Alexander and Chipes.

They were sweating profusely at this time, and while shaking the clothes on their bodies, they said, "My Majesty, Your Majesty wants you to go to the castle at once," and as he said that, looking at the two who looked at each other, the attendant nodded and continued, "I suggest you hurry up, my Majesty, Your Majesty seems to be in a hurry." ”

The words of the entourage made the two of them look at each other again, and they both saw a trace of confusion in each other's eyes for a while.

Ladislas II had his eyes fixed on the fireplace, the weather in April was already very warm, although it was still a little wet and cold at night in the Balkans, but it was warm enough.

But the scorching flame in the fireplace reflected in the king's eyes, but his gaze was still cold.

The arrival of Montina's army did not make the king much happy, or rather, from the very beginning he did not think that relying on these Balkan nobles would be able to defeat the Ottomans.

Ladislas II only hoped that these people would become a barrier for him to protect Hungary,

Or at least slow down Bayese's suit.

But suddenly, Ladislas II found that his previous plans had been completely defeated.

The bad news of the sudden build-up of Bosnians to the Hungarian border put Ladislas II in a dilemma, and to make matters worse, the messenger who brought the news reported that some conspiracy seemed to be brewing in the principality of Caniola.

"That vile and shameless camel."

Ladislas II cursed viciously, and he had no affection for Archduke Karl of Caniola, who saw Karl as a pure villain, especially because of his intimate hookup with the Ottomans, which Ladislas II regarded as one of the main reasons for the threat to southern Hungary.

In the past, Ladislas II would not have been able to take a man like Karl seriously, but now he had to take the news about Caniola seriously.

The news of the sudden appearance of the Bosnians on the southern border of Hungary disturbed the king, who guessed that it was probably a strategy of Bayezid II, but although he knew it, he could not think of a solution to the problem for a while.

And Rova? The frequent presence of emissaries in Ljubljana, the capital of Caniola, aroused the idea of Ladislas II.

The position of Caniola was such that the king could not fail to pay attention to it, and at a time when it was clear that the Bosnians were ready to act against Hungary, Roy? 's emissaries were in frequent contact with Karl, which caused Ladislas II to immediately smell something unusual.

The king's musings were interrupted by the attendants who had entered the room to report, and when he heard that Chipes and Alexander had arrived, the king waved his hand and motioned for the attendants to let them in.

The moment he saw the king, Chipes was keenly aware of the suspicious gaze that the king had cast at him.

Ladislas II was indeed full of scruples, fearing that the events that had just taken place might shake his restraints on the already unruly Balkan nobles, and that they might disrupt his plans and make his previous arrangements fall short.

It was only then that the king really realized why the Sultan had stayed in, and it now appears that it was not Bayezid II's indecision to fight the war, but that he had a plan against him from the beginning.

Looking at the two men in front of him, Ladislas II suddenly felt a secret sense of happiness, although Alexander's arrival had made him very angry at first, but now he suddenly felt that maybe the appearance of this foreign count could help him solve the threat that Tempes might pose.

"My friends, you have come just in time, and I have something to say to you," said the king, motioning slightly to the two men, and letting them follow him to the window, looking condescendingly at the city of Bucharest, and Ladislas II said in a slightly worried tone, "do you not think that we have been too leisurely during this time, the Ottomans seem to have forgotten us, their army is now on the other side of the Alger, but what are our men doing, they are busy feasting and dancing every day. ”

"But Sudan hasn't done anything during this time, maybe it's better for all of us."

Chipes was secretly surprised, he felt that the king's actions were somewhat strange, and with the king's previous actions, he should have preferred to see the current situation, because it meant that the Ottoman army would not threaten Hungary at least in the short term.

But suddenly, the king seemed to have suddenly become impatient with the Ottomans, which surprised Chipes and made him more careful.

"The Ottomans may be waiting, they are waiting for us to let our guard down and then suddenly attack, it is clear that it is so, maybe at this time the Ottomans have already started to move." Ladislas II said with some excitement.

"And what do you think it should be, Your Majesty?" Alexander, who had been listening, finally spoke, knowing that the king had not come to them just to make some alarmist statements, and he wanted to know what Ladislas II had in mind.

"Attack, take the initiative to attack the Ottomans, only in this way can we avoid the possibility that we may fall into the trap of the enemy," the king finally said his plan, and seeing the surprised look on his face when he heard this, the king just smiled at him and then turned back to Alexander and said, "Count, our army should go out of Bucharest, your bravery has proved that the Ottomans are not invincible, and you proved this fact with less than 7,000 men, And now that we have almost 60,000 people, can't that create a miracle? ”

Alexander looked at Ladislas II in astonishment, and for a moment felt a little confused by the king's unexpected proposal.

To Alexander's surprise, Ladislas II immediately ordered all the nobles to be summoned to announce his decision.

"Take the initiative to attack the Ottomans and destroy them in the lands of Wallachia," the king said impassionedly to the nobles present at the conference, "Their army is indeed more numerous than ours, but do you think that the soldiers who were forced to fight for them after their conquest will be loyal to that Bayezet, or that the Bosnians will be completely obedient to the orders of the infidels, and we do not have this problem, we are fighting to protect God in the world on earth, The Count of Montina has proved that the Ottomans can also be defeated, and now we have nearly 70,000 men, and the Ottomans are not much more powerful than us, and the most important thing is that this is Bucharest, and we must not forget that the conqueror Mehmed was defeated in front of this city, and the Sultan himself even almost lost his life, and the Ottomans had an even greater advantage that time. So do you still think we can't win? ”

The king's words provoked a violent reaction among the nobles, who whispered at first and then grew louder and louder as they became agitated.

Finally, as some of the people began to respond loudly to the king's words, the whole hall became extremely excited.

Gradually, a common voice sounded in the venue: "Attack!" Offensive! ”

"It's not right, there must be something wrong."

Chipes watched as the instigated nobles looked blankly at Ladislas II, who was sitting in the middle, and then he immediately noticed the king whispering to Alexander, who was sitting next to him.

What Chipes did not hear was that the king was saying to Alexander at this time: "Count, I have decided that you will command this attack on the Ottomans, and I am sure that under your command the miracle of Bucharest will be repeated." ”

Listening to Ladislas II's words, and looking at the nobles in the hall who were clamoring for a decisive battle with the Ottomans, under the gloomy gaze of Cepes, Alexander felt that he might be in trouble this time.