At a time when Prato seems to be immersed in a never-ending nightmare, Bucharest is experiencing the biggest crisis in its short history to date. ★ New Thinking Chinese Network members hand-played ★

In the early morning of April 17, the Ottoman army, which had been on the other side of the river, suddenly crossed the Alger River without warning, and then its left flank quickly advanced north of Bucharest, while its right flank advanced east along the north bank of the Danube.

The coalition army, which was still shouting for the initiative to attack, became panicked for a while, especially when they heard that the advance of the left flank of the Ottoman army was advancing in the direction of Dembvica, everyone could not help but be surprised.

Compared to Bucharest, Dembvica is not a place of interest, and the reason why the coalition forces immediately became terrified when they heard the news was because this place could be said to be the "holy place" of the Wallachians.

As early as the beginning of the 10th century, the famous Orthodox scholar Kirill came to the Balkans, where paganism was still rampant, and the great scholar created a more recognizable Kirill alphabet based on Latin, and after his tragic death due to overwork, his brother Steptus continued to refine and promote the Kirillic alphabet and spread the teachings to the locals, finally bathing the Balkans in the glory of God.

Because of this achievement, the brothers Kirill and Testethius became one of the few saints in history to be recognized as saints by both the Eastern and Western Churches, and both brothers are buried in the land for which they gave their all, and their tombs are in Dembvica.

For centuries, despite the war clouds and disputes in the Balkans, no matter how big the war was, no one ever invaded Dembvica, and even the ferocious and savage robbers did not dare to offend that place, and over time Dembvitsa became a holy place in the minds of the Balkans that was not inferior to Constantinople or even Jerusalem, and many locals were proud to be able to make a pilgrimage to the Double Holy Sepulchre in Dembvitsa from thousands of miles away, and because of the influence of Kirill, which was later Slavic, Even the Rus' from as far away as Kiev and Moscow would come all the way to Dembvitsa to pay homage.

It can be said that Dembvica is a holy and forbidden place in the minds of the Balkans, a sacred place that must not be desecrated.

Now Dembvica is in danger of being attacked by the infidels at any moment.

The sudden move of the Ottomans can be said to have completely shattered the dream of a counteroffensive in which the Bucharest people were immersed, or it was a real reminder to them who was the protagonist of this war.

The crisis in Dembvica also completely disrupted Ladisras II's calculations, he did not expect that the Ottomans, who had been standing still, would suddenly take action, let alone that they would make a big move as soon as they struck, the Ottomans advanced in the direction of Dembvica obviously to force the Bucharest side to give up their favorable defensive intentions, and induce the coalition forces to go out of the city to engage them, which seemed to be the result of Ladisras II's thoughts, but this time the Ottomans took the initiative to invite the opponent, then it was obviously prepared.

The right flank of the Ottomans was also a source of concern, and the swift occupation of the northern bank of the Danube after crossing the Alger River made the Bucharestans suspect that they intended to follow the Danube into the Dembvica River, which takes its name from Dembvica, and then break into the city of Bucharest against the current.

In fact, this plan was carried out by Mehmed II at the beginning, but at that time, Mehmed II was downstream from the upper reaches of the Dembvica River, preparing to break through the city defense of Bucharest along the river in one fell swoop, and the commander of the defending army, who had been prepared and foreseen at that time, placed most of the artillery and defensive weapons in the fortress along the river in the upper reaches of the river, as a result, the Ottoman ships were attacked by the defense line along the river all the way south, and when they finally broke through a section of the river defense and approached the city of Bucharest, The Ottoman army, which had lost most of its combat effectiveness due to heavy losses, could only look at the city and sigh and return with a feather.

This time, instead of following his father's previous tactics, Bayezid II decided to enter the Dembvica River from the mouth of the Danube, so that many of the precautions that the Bucharest people had been taking to prevent the Ottomans from the upper reaches of the city might continue the old method were instantly turned into useless ornaments.

"The Ottomans may just be luring us, their real intention is to attack from the upper reaches, otherwise they would not have sent troops to Dembvica, and the current of the Dembvica River is very fast, especially into the mouth of the Danube, if the upstream is not only laborious and time-consuming, but also has no advantage for the attacking side."

In the castle, Ladislas II said to the allied nobles sitting below with a gloomy face, his expression was very bad, in fact, he had not closed his eyes since he heard that the Ottomans had crossed the Alger River the night before, and the sudden changes on the battlefield made him anxious, Ladislas II always felt that something seemed to be wrong, but for a while he couldn't figure out what was wrong.

According to his original plan, the coalition army must have taken the initiative to attack the Ottomans, with the strength of the original coalition army of nearly 50,000 and the subsequent addition of more than 6,000 people of Montina's army, the army of nearly 60,000 was not much inferior to the Ottomans, who claimed to be 100,000.

The key is to force Bayezid II to bring back the Bosnian army that is preparing to invade Hungary, so that no matter what the outcome of the initiative is, Hungary can temporarily avoid the fighting, and then even if the Sultan wins, he will be exhausted after a big battle, and then he only needs to take the initiative to negotiate peace, and then use the Balkans as a bargaining chip to bargain, I believe that Bayezid II will finally sign a contract that satisfies everyone.

As for what would happen to the Balkans, Ladislas II did not think about it, or he did not care so much, for him Hungary, which was now troubled by internal and external troubles, was what he cared about the most.

The plan was so perfect that Ladislas II felt that he could save Hungary without Sophia's name as a Greek princess.

But the surprise action of the Ottomans disrupted all his calculations, and even now he was in danger of being surrounded in the city, and as for Hungary, it was impossible to take care of it.

"Your Majesty, are you saying that we are still using the upper reaches of the Dembvica River as the main direction of defense?" A nobleman asked tentatively, and it could be seen that the king was in a bad mood, although as a local nobleman, there was not much need to worry about whether he would provoke the king, but the exalted status of Ladislas II was still daunting.

After all, in addition to the Kingdom of Hungary, he was also the king of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and he himself was a royal family from the powerful Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom.

This series of halos was enough to make Ladislas II hold his head high in front of the Balkans, not to mention the fact that they were now hungry for the king's support.

"Yes, the Ottomans are cunning, they are deliberately seducing and provoking us by setting up a feint to confuse us in the lower reaches of the Dembvica River, and at the same time sending heavy troops to invade the city of Dembvica," the king's impassioned shout echoed through the hall, his eyes sharp and determined, and everyone who looked at him could accurately sense the king's unquestionable attitude, and it was only when it fell on the two men sitting not far away that the king's gaze softened slightly.

Ladislas II was a little strange in that he had noticed that Cepes seemed to have something on his mind from the beginning of the meeting, while Alexander on the other side was simply absent-minded.

This annoyed the king, who felt that he was being despised for it, and then he paused and said to the two men: "What do you think, then, that you are the Grand Duke of Wallachia, dear Chesses, and that your experience, Count, can provide us with valuable advice. ”

The two people, who were obviously both outside the imaginary object, seemed to be stunned at the same time, and then they both instinctively looked at each other.

"You ...... please"

"Then I'm ......"

The two people who spoke in unison first looked at each other in amazement, and then Alexander silently made a gesture of "please".

Ladislas II stared at the two men with a heavy face, and saw Chipes stand up and the king slowly sit back in his seat.

Chipes was not in a hurry to speak, and he was not thinking about how to deal with the current situation.

The willingness to distract Chipes was a piece of news he got by accident.

Sophia finally relented after a long chase at Prato, and then she unceremoniously ordered something to be prepared for the two men she hated, for she wanted to ask them about Alexander.

Morko had mixed feelings, and while he was obsessed with Aloxia, he felt that he was attracted to the princess, which made him think that his will as a knight had been tested, so he even ran to the Patriarch to make a confession.

As for why the Patriarch had such a strange look on his face when he listened to his confession, Morko did not pay attention.

The two men who were left behind were warmly received, including a whole smoked buttery chicken, a plate of cold vegetable salad made with cold lanolin salt and stirred with fresh milk, and a delicious balkan ginger wine.

As for the main dish, it is a wheat cake filled with finely stirred meat filling, dried fruits, and sprinkled with pomegranate juice.

Such a meal was not as good as the food on the king's table, but it was rich enough.

Just looking at Sophia, who was sitting on the main seat with slightly squinted eyes and looking at them from time to time, Prato couldn't help but have a bad feeling in his heart.

As Morco knocked over the clay pot in front of him in nervousness, looking at the white grains of salt sprinkled on the table, Prato suddenly had a terrifying feeling that this might be his last supper.

The appearance of Cepes saved two people, and Prato seized the opportunity to constantly compliment the Grand Duke on his prestige, and even the Ottomans knew about the Grand Duke's bravery.

Cepes casually responded, and he would come with him just to get Prato to inquire about the Ottomans.

Ladislas II's actions always struck Cepes as odd, prompting him to wonder what made the king make the decision to rush to the initiative.

And the answer he received from Prato surprised Chipes.

The news of the Bosnian invasion of Hungary shook Cepes so deeply that he ignored the frequent hints of help from his opponents, and threw the desperate Prato again to Sophia, a devil with fangs, and hurried away by himself.

Cepes finally understood the reason for Ladislas II's strange behavior.

In order to alleviate the crisis of war facing Hungary, the king decided to prompt Bucharest to take the initiative.

This made Cepes angry in his heart.

In Tzepes's view, Ladislas II was completely irresponsible and used Bucharest and even the whole of Wallachia as a shield, which he could not tolerate.

Cepes realized that he had to stop Ladislas II, and that the only one who could help him do it was Alexander.

It was only when Chipes decided to reveal this to Alexander that the news suddenly came that the Ottomans had crossed the Alger River and marched towards Bucharest in a closed circle!

Chippes was also shocked by the news, and if for others Dembvica meant a holy place in their minds, then for Chipes, Dembvica had a more unusual meaning.

The remains of the mausoleum of his father, Vlad III of Wallachia, are in the cemetery of the Icon Church in Dembvica.

When Vlad III's head was sold to the Ottomans, his faithful men buried his decapitated body in Dembvica, hoping that the light of the Kirill brothers would bless their lord from hell.

Now the Ottomans are suddenly approaching Dembvica, and Chipes cannot help but be alarmed.

The thought that his father's tomb might be ruthlessly destroyed by the Ottomans made Cepes uneasy.

To stop the king, it was necessary to stop his plan to sacrifice Wallachia in exchange for the security of Hungary, and Tzepes had already prepared it, and when he heard that the king had ordered the nobles to be summoned to discuss the countermeasures, he decided that he must thwart the plot of Ladislas II at the meeting.

Now looking at the king and the many nobles who were looking at him, Cepes reminded himself that he had to calm down, at least until now, Ladislas II should not have known that his plans had been discovered, which gave him enough chance.

"We must reinforce Denbvitsa."

Cepes's first words provoked a chorus of nobles, some of whom were of high status, whispered to each other, while some of the minor lords sitting on the staircase tables on either side had already stood up and made peace.

"Silence!"

The master of ceremonies struck the ground with the heavy staff in his hand, making a dull "thump" sound, and waved his hand to the guards around the venue, signaling them to remind the noisy nobles to behave.

"Deembvica is our holy place, the resting place of our brothers of St. Cyrill, the sacred place that proves that we have converted to God from ignorant and evil pagan worship, and that even if only one pagan foot enters Dembvitsa is a disgrace to us all." Cepes exclaimed, his voice full of courage and fiery passion, and at this moment no one doubted that he would shed his last drop of blood to defend Dembvica.

"Yes, we do want to protect the Holy Land, there is no doubt about it." Ladislas II nodded approvingly, knowing that Chipes was right, that Dembvica was too special and sensitive for the Balkans, and he could even imagine what kind of fierce resistance the Ottomans would encounter in Dembowica, which would probably be the most brutal religious war the Ottoman army had faced since the conquest of Constantinople.

"But perhaps we can have a more effective way," the king looked at Tempes, "Don't you think that the Ottoman army in the north of Bucharest is a little too far ahead, if we take the initiative at this time and concentrate enough forces to defeat the Ottoman army in the north first, so that we can not only relieve the siege of Dembvica, but also take the opportunity to inflict heavy damage on the Ottomans, then the situation will become more favorable to us." ”

The king's words made many people's eyes shine, and some of the young and vigorous lords already showed excited looks.

Tsepes's heart moved, he could not help but admit that the king's suggestion was indeed full of temptation, and if he thought about it carefully, it was indeed a good idea, but when he thought of the true purpose of Ladislas II, he could not help but wonder what kind of plan the king had.

And what made Cepes always wary of Ladislas II was the death of his father, Vlad III.

Although there is no evidence to date that Vlad III's death was related to Ladislas II, Chipes knew that there must be a shadow of this king behind it.

Ladislas II seemed to sense something, and he sensed that Chipes was wary of him, unlike in the past, when there was a conflict between the two men but never revealed it openly, and today, although not hostile, Chipes was clearly wary.

The king's eyes couldn't help but fall on Alexander, who had been sitting silently beside him, and somehow, the king felt as if the two people in front of him seemed so absent-minded today.

"Earl, what is your opinion?" Ladislas II reminded in a low voice, and then his tone was slightly heavier: "Your experience in fighting the Ottomans is invaluable to us, please share your opinion, it is important." ”

Alexander then slowly raised his head, and then the king noticed that his eyes were a little dark, apparently because he had not slept well the night before.

"Your Majesty, my opinion ......"

Alexander had just spoken, but then he stopped and stared straight at the door of the hall.

Alexander's strange appearance attracted attention, and people looked back at the door.

They then saw Sophia, in full armor, standing under the open door of the conference hall.