Ladislas II hesitated with a sharpened quill in his hand, the ink on the nib had already congealed together, forcing him to move the quill aside and flick it down slightly, dipping it in the inkwell again.

Alexander did not rush the king, he sat patiently opposite and watched Ladislas II's movements in silence.

He understood how unwilling Ladislas II was at this time.

Whether it's a powerful cannon, a work of art of extraordinary value, a magnificent building, or simply a coinage, copper is the most precious asset as a strategic material, so it is understandable that Ladislas II hesitated or even regretted the final signing of the Entente.

But it's one thing to be able to understand, it's another to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to plunder this resource.

For a long time, Hungary's copper mines have been the protagonist of the European metal market, in addition to the huge reserves of copper, the reserves of iron, tin and gold as the associated mines are also coveted, and the production of gold was once a barometer of the rise and fall of European gold and economy.

Of course, it is understandable that the king will feel distressed, especially when Emperor Maximian's hand is stretched too long, and if he makes a ruthless decision to "prefer to be with the enemy than with the emperor", it may not be new.

However, Alexander was now signed for the Hungarian copper mine in exchange for what was arguably the largest sugar contract in Europe, so although he was still reluctant, the king finally signed his long list of full names at the bottom of the contract, and then stamped it with a seal.

When the eye-catching seal was stamped on it, both men seemed to hear each other's soft exhalation.

At this time, the king thought to himself, "This rotten thing has finally come to an end." ”

But Alexander thought, "It's finally over for now." ”

Although he was awarded a contract for the Hungarian copper mines, Alexander knew very well that the treaty was now just a piece of paper.

Southern Hungary is still in the hands of the Bosnians, and if Helva can't take Rova? Get out of Hungary and everything in the contract is just a bunch of useless clauses.

However, Alexander was not worried about Helva's enthusiasm, after all, a crown of the Bosnian king was enough to excite the most unpromising people.

But the key is the Ottoman army outside the city.

The Ottoman army, which numbered nearly 80,000 men, was facing off against a coalition force of about 60,000, with the Ottoman left flank now storming the northern city of Dembvica and the right flank already deep into the eastern part of the Bucharest Plain, and it was clear that the Ottomans were trying to encircle the city of Bucharest for a long time.

And on the central front, under the personal supervision of the Sultan, the Ottoman armies launched a continuous onslaught on Bucharest with a ferocious offensive.

The fortress of Bukur was under great pressure as the vanguard of the southern end of Bucharest, and in order to be able to withstand the enemy's attack, Ladislas II, in his capacity as the leader of the coalition, had already announced that the Montina army would be allowed to recruit soldiers at will among the Balkans.

This decision caused some resentment, but both the importance of Bukur and Alexander's relationship with Sophia and his special position quickly subsided this opposition and resentment.

No one knows how important this decision was for Alexander, and in fact it was no less important to him than the acquisition of Hungarian copper.

The combination of the Balkans' fierce folk culture with an abundant army and a new army made Alexander seem to finally see a glimmer of light.

On 13 May, the Ottoman army attacked Bucharest again, this time with such ferocity that when Sophia happened to be on patrol as scheduled, her entourage had to take up arms and climb the walls to engage the Ottomans in a fierce battle because of the enemy's onslaught.

Sophia was almost dragged by the guards to escape from the shelling of the debris everywhere, and then she was placed in a house near the dead end of the city, listening to the shouts of killing outside, Sophia couldn't help but clench the sword in her hand, and several hunters around her were nervously ready to shoot at the Ostics who might break through the walls and storm the door.

But it was Alexander who walked through the door.

The moment she saw Alexander's figure, Sophia rushed over desperately and hugged him tightly, and her mouth kept making a constant "ahh

"Don't worry, I said I'd never leave you again."

Alexander took Sophia's face and kissed her lightly on the lips, but then when he wanted to leave, Sophia hugged her neck tightly, so he had to keep kissing hard until Sophia was almost suffocated against his chest.

"Now it's time for me to take command of the army, if the fighter plane is delayed because of kissing you, someone will want to fight with me."

After Alexander said it half-jokingly, he ordered the hunters to protect Sophia, and then he ran with the guards in the direction of the city wall.

This attack of the Ottomans was ferocious, one could even say insane.

The cannonballs kept blasting at the city wall, and every impact made the people on the city wall tremble, not only because of the instability under their feet, but more importantly, they were worried that the city wall might collapse next.

"The walls of this era no longer meet the needs of defense," Alexander's mind flashed through this thought, but at this time such a feeling was completely superfluous, since it was impossible to instantly turn the defense of Bucharest into the needs of the current war, then the only way to deal with it was to eliminate the immediate threat as much as possible.

The fortress of Bukur was connected to the main city of Bucharest by a not-so-strong wall, which was built at an east-west slope, so although most of it was within the range of the Ottoman artillery, only a section close to the fortress was destroyed.

The Ottomans moved a lot of artillery into this area, and their intention was to use artillery fire to block the link between Bukur and the main city.

Although the siege artillery could not be delivered in time due to harassment and destruction by the Resistance forces in the occupied territories, the amount of artillery that had already been sent to the front line was enough to make such a blockade a threat sufficient.

The losses of Montina's army were not small, and even the previous two field battles were not as many as the casualties they suffered when they defended the city now.

The Balkans were added to the ranks in two main groups, and in addition to a large number of soldiers from all over the Balkans, the Greeks became the main part of this replenishment.

And with the addition of new recruits, Alexander clearly felt that the command of the army had become much more difficult.

Ofley, Alexander suddenly remembered the marching captain he had been using very easily.

Although Gompati was a natural artillery commander, he was obviously not a qualified chief of staff, and he had neither the experience nor the patience to train new soldiers, which made Montina's army a lot more numerous, but the combat effectiveness of the soldiers was not as good as before.

"It is necessary to organize one or several units of veterans, such a force should be temporary, the size depends on the needs of the battle, when it is not needed, it will be scattered and assigned to each company as the main force of the unit, and if necessary, it will be quickly organized to form the core of the whole force in order to complete important tasks."

Alexander jotted down this passage on a piece of paper, he had decided to organize a commando team, and looked at the Ottoman position outside the city that was constantly rising with thick smoke, Alexander frowned slightly.

"My lord, there should be an artillery position for the Ottomans."

Busako whispered, vaguely feeling that something was wrong, and the thought of it made his eyes glance at Alexander.

"Busako, you said that if ......" Alexander just said that this felt a little strange atmosphere, he turned around and saw that Busako was looking at him with a strange look, Alexander was stunned for a moment and then smiled: "Don't worry, I won't take the risk myself, I mean if we organize an army to attack the Ottoman artillery positions, how many chances do you think?" ”

"Destruction of enemy artillery?" Busako touched his chin and narrowed his eyes, as long as Alexander didn't take the risk himself, he was still willing to use his brains more in this kind of thing, after all, although the captain of the guard had a prominent status, he was much worse than those officers who had gradually become independent in the army.

Busako was one of the first soldiers to follow Alexander out of Agri, and many of the veterans who followed the count with him are now commanders of all levels of the army.

And the most dazzling of them all is Oflair, although the position of captain of the marching army has been with him for a long time, but no one doubts that if the Montina army needs a chief of staff, then Oflaiil must be the right choice.

"How many people do you think will be needed to do this?" Alexander asked again.

"That's not a good idea, my lord," Busako finally shook his head, "the Sultan must be very careful about those artillery, and it is impossible to storm there without enough troops." ”

"But as long as we can destroy their artillery, everything will be much easier," Alexander said reluctantly, "We should really be grateful to Helva, otherwise we may face heavy artillery." ”

"Give me an army, my lord!" Busako spoke suddenly, his face flushed with excitement, and his eyes glared at Alexander, "I can promise you that you can destroy those cannons." ”

"It's dangerous, Busako."

"I know, but it's an opportunity for me, you know I've always wanted to be a qualified officer." Busako's voice was in a hurry.

"You're already a qualified officer."

"A good guard," Busako argued a little rudely, then shook his head vigorously, "I'm sorry, my lord, I didn't mean to offend, but I want to prove that I'm an officer and not just a guard." ”

Alexander groaned for a moment and nodded, he could understand Busako's feelings, and in fact he was indeed considering whether he should let Busako join the army.

And it's not just Busako, with the addition of new recruits, Alexander has decided to add at least a third of the hunting guards to the army to serve as junior officers.

The short number of hunters will be selected from among the Balkans.

In Alexander's mind, it was impossible to keep a 500 to 800-strong Chasseur as the last reserve, at least at the present size of Montina's army.

"Give you two companies," Alexander decided, "the Ottoman artillery is too much of a threat to us, and it will be dangerous if we can destroy their artillery positions, but as long as you do it, I promise you that your wish will be granted." ”

"Yes, sir." Busako replied in a low voice, knowing that this was his chance, whether to become a figure like Oflaiyi who might go down in history in the future, or to die as an unnoticed guard, a battle that would be the key to his fate.

According to the structure of Alexander's army, two companies of less than 500 men in total were assembled, these were two companies drawn from the Balkan regiment, and the successive battles thoroughly aroused the fiercest and most bloodthirsty wildness of these peasants, and the soldiers who had not had time to change into the Mondina uniforms that they envied them were in tatters, and although Alexander had tried his best to arm them, they were not well armed. But this did not prevent these Balkans from becoming the most feared soldiers on the battlefield.

Alexander noticed early on that the Balkan regiments had the fewest prisoners after each battle, and the reason for this is clear with a little thought.

Busako was thrilled, knowing that if the outcome of the battle was satisfactory to the Count, then the two Balkan companies would most likely become the troops he commanded in the future.

However, Busako was not content to be a single Dalian captain, and his goal was to become the commander of the Second Balkan Regiment, which was expanded on the basis of these two companies.

Perhaps in the future Ofleiil would become chief of staff in Montina's army, but Busako was confident that he would gradually catch up with the stonemason's nephew.

On the Ottoman artillery position, a soldier plucked out his itchy ear with all his might, and then plugged the ear hole with a wooden plug.

Sensing the heat coming from the hot barrel, the soldier shifted to the side.

The continuous shelling caused the bronze guns to suffer huge losses, and more than one of the guns had been killed or wounded by the bore, but the Sultan still ordered that the fire must not stop.

There was another roar, and as the muzzle erupted with a burst of flames, a cannon fell with a thud on the wooden gun mount, bringing up a cloud of dust on the ground.

The soldier immediately grabbed a long-handled wooden strip wrapped in a large bag of black cloth and cowhide next to him and ran over, stuffed it into the barrel of the cannon and brushed it vigorously.

Not far away next to another gun, an elderly gunner took advantage of the free time of the auxiliary soldiers to clear their chests and tore open his belt to release a soak of urine that had been held for a long time, just as he was shivering twice and was about to tie his trouser belt.

Through the thick smoke, he saw a pile of black spots in the distance.

The old gunner didn't notice at first, but soon noticed that the black dots seemed to be running quickly in their direction.

He wiped his red and swollen eyes, which were smoked with gunpowder, and looked at them carefully.

"What's going on with these people?" The old gunner muttered, he didn't know whose troops these people were, but seeing them running backwards, the old gunner pouted slightly, "No matter who commanded them, if the Sultan knew, he would sentence the whole team to death." ”

After the old gunner finished speaking, he tightened his belt and buckled it, walked to the side of the gun, beckoned the deputy gunner, and prepared to continue firing.

But then he heard a strange cry from the deputy gunner: "Look! Look at those people! ”

The startled old gunner cursed dissatisfiedly, and he looked in the direction of the secondary gun's finger.

By this time, those who were approaching them had come closer, and through the drifting smoke, the old gunner could finally see the appearance of those people.

"Yes...... Enemies, enemies! The old gunner let out a shout of surprise, and at last the others saw that they were coming at them through the gap between the two Ottoman armies of a strange-looking army.

"Shoot at those people!"

The old gunner shouted, and a group of soldiers desperately turned the direction of the gun, and when the muzzle of the gun had just turned around, the old gunner, who couldn't wait for the gun to be reset, couldn't wait to urge his companion next to him to stuff the shell into the muzzle.

With a roar, the cannon body suddenly shook, and at the same time, a black shadow wrapped in flames roared out!

The cannonballs almost landed directly in the middle of that team!

Even from that distance, the veteran gunner could not help but roar excitedly at the sight of the mutilated bodies flying up the ranks of the enemy.

At the same time, some other artillery pieces that had been reversed began to bombard the coalition force that had suddenly appeared.

The events that took place on the artillery positions immediately attracted the attention of Bayezid II.

The Sultan, who was waiting for the possibility that the next round of shelling might bring down the walls of Bucharest, was surprised to find that although he could still hear the sound of cannonballs, he could not see a single shell falling on the wall in the distance.

The news that followed came as a surprise to the Sultan.

An enemy force had the audacity to break through the gap between the ruined fortress of Bukur and the walls of Bucharest, apparently with the aim of attacking the artillery positions.

"Go and stop them." Bayezid II ordered with a heavy face, knowing that his generals knew what to do, and that the Sultan could imagine the intensity of the shelling from the continuous sound of the cannons.

The Sultan believed that under such ferocious bombardment, the army that ventured into the assault would collapse before it could rush to the artillery position.

But even so, the Sultan was surprised that the Count of Montina dared to take such a big risk, and somehow there was a vague apprehension in his heart.

The Sultan's face became unpleasant, he had never felt this way before, and it made him suddenly feel that he might really be old, and that he would think that an insignificant European nobleman might pose a threat to him.

"There are so many monarchs prostrate at my feet that they can compare with the stars in the sky, no one can stop me from conquering Europa, I am the monarch of this world, the king of kings!"

Bayezid II burst out with a whisper of rage, angry at the offense that the Count of Montina had done against him, and even more so at his own feeble anger that was uneasy for a short time.

"By my command, I want that Count Montina alive," the Sultan ordered to those around him, "to tell everyone that I want them to bring that man to me alive, and that I will cut off his head with my own hands." ”

"Yes, Supreme Sul."

The retinues next to them lay on the ground in fear, they had seen the Sultan so angry for a long time, and at this time they even secretly admired the young earl in their hearts for being able to make the Sultan lose his temper so much.

There was another burst of shelling, and the Sultan frowned suddenly, and he could hear something strange from the sound of the artillery, which sounded dense this time, but the time for shooting was noticeably longer, unlike the previous scattered but continuous shelling.

"Haven't you stopped that enemy army yet?" The Sultan asked in a deep voice.

"My Sultan, the enemies appeared too suddenly, but they are now surrounded."

An attendant replied cautiously, he had just received the news that the enemy army had finally been cut off from behind by the troops on both sides after accidentally breaking into the position.

And in front of them, all the guns on the artillery positions were firing heavily at them at a very close distance.

Bayezid II nodded slightly, although there was always an inexplicable uneasiness in his heart, but after hearing the report of his retinue, he had already left those enemies behind.

"Order all the artillery, and when the enemy force is finished, open fire on Bucharestt with all your might, and I will enter the city before Ramadan."

"Yes, Supreme Sul." The retinue knelt down respectfully and kissed the Sultan's boots, which was the etiquette that must be followed when receiving an official order from the Sultan.

When the retinue's lips had just touched the mud-stained upper of the sultan's boots, he suddenly faintly heard a sharp whistling sound, which changed from far to near, from small to loud, and he only had time to raise his head involuntarily, and then he felt a huge earthquake on the ground!

Busako touched the wound on his head, the blood blurred his eyes, making it impossible for him to see the road ahead, and if it wasn't for someone next to him to support him, he might have fallen long ago.

Another scream came, and not far away, several Balkan soldiers were directly smashed into a pile of blood that could not tell what it was, and the limbs of several people were twisted together as the shells kept rolling on the ground, and scattered meat scraps kept splashing.

Busako's army suffered heavy casualties under Ottoman artillery, and the Ottoman troops surrounded on both sides had cut off their retreat.

It was clear that they were going to let the artillery blow his army into a pile of smithereens.

Knowing that his first battle was probably his last, Busako looked at the soldiers next to him who had been killed and wounded, and Busako, who was already dazed by the artillery fire, raised his saber angrily.

"Rush forward! Kill those Ottomans! ”

Busako's shouts spurred the Balkan peasants, who were also furious and frantic because of the bombing, and when they saw that the retreat behind them had been cut off, the Balkan soldiers, who had been completely desperate, began to desperately launch a fierce attack on the Ottoman artillery positions.

The Ottomans, who had only cut off the retreat, immediately noticed their movements, but because the artillery had been firing non-stop, in order to prevent them from being bombed by mistake, when they realized that the situation was not right, Busako's troops had rushed very close to the artillery position.

The Ottoman gunners were finally frightened as they watched the enemy get closer and closer, and finally they could clearly see the angry and crazy faces of the enemy.

At first, more and more Ottoman soldiers fled from their gun emplacements, and many of the gunners turned and fled before they could even fire the loaded shells.

"Rush up and destroy those cannons!" Busako staggered forward with the help of the man next to him, and when his hand finally touched the hot barrel of a cannon, his spirit was instantly lifted by the pain.

"Blew them up." Busako gave the order.

"Maybe we should shoot these shells out and then blow them up." A soldier looked at a loaded cannon and said curiously.

"Then shoot the shells out." Busako waved his hand, "Then blow up the artillery." ”

The Balkans began to scramble with their artillery, and by this time the nearby Ottoman army had already rushed up.

"It's too late," Busako looked into the distance, casually pointing in a direction that looked like the enemy was congregating, "firing at it." ”

With Busako's order, the guns were aimed in that direction and ignited the twist.

With the roar of cannons, the smoke of gunpowder instantly filled the entire sky.

This day is May 16, 1499.