Prato tried to make himself look calm, at least on the surface.

He felt that he could deal with these barbarians from the East, and in his opinion these Ottomans had no other ability than to use knives and guns, but since their lives were in the hands of others, Prato still had a deferential look on his face.

Prato fell into the hands of the Ottomans purely for reasons of greed.

When he first arrived in the Balkans, Prato was completely stunned by the "affluence" of the locals.

This is not to say that the Balkan farmers are really rich, but because of the abundance of copper here, the price of bronze objects that are considered treasures elsewhere is surprisingly low, and even in families with better family backgrounds, there are one or two items that can be taken and sold, which in Prato's view is simply sitting on a mountain of gold all day without knowing how to use it.

So while he ate and drank in Bucharest and even got to the king's table, he sent his men out into the countryside to gather all the bronze objects that he could get his hands on.

Prato didn't really know what Alexander was thinking, but he could vaguely guess that it had something to do with the copper price that was getting hotter and hotter across Europe.

Prato has always remembered the fiasco of his early failure in the sale of copperware, and now he feels an indescribable sense of accomplishment when he has the opportunity to participate in the huge vortex that is churning the copper price throughout Europe.

Because of this, Prato was finally not satisfied with a small fight in the neighborhood, and he set his sights on every town and village in the entire Balkans.

War is good, that's Prato's conclusion after leading a group of men through the streets and towns of the villages.

Because of the fear of the future, many people began to sell their property to avoid the war, and bulky and useless bronze objects became cheap goods everywhere, as long as you walked into some decent villages and towns, you can see that some people are selling their belongings for nothing, changing their money and preparing to flee, and Prato is like a fly that appears early in April, looking for prey everywhere.

As a result, the closer he got to the Ottoman-ruled area, the greater his gain, so he went further and further, not only into the Ottoman territory, but even deep into it.

The appearance of such a group of people soon attracted the attention of the local Ottomans, but Prato acted quickly, because he tried to practice the truth that time is money, so the Ottomans always found his traces and followed the lost ones, and his actions attracted even greater suspicion.

Eventually, Prato's move caught Elup's attention.

Alup was not having a good time during this time, and Helva, Duke of Zagreb, was causing him much more trouble than he had previously thought.

Especially in April, Helva's movements have become more frequent, and Eleup has a feeling that Helva's methods are more powerful and planned than before, which makes him wonder if Herva is being helped by someone.

Maybe it's someone from Hungary, Eleup speculated.

Although King Ladislas II of Hungary was in Bucharest, Hungary never openly declared itself an enemy of the Ottoman Empire, and the Balkan nobles had so far only fought the Ottomans in the name of an alliance and not in the name of Ladislas II himself, so there was no war between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, at least nominally.

Because of this, Alphap found things even more difficult.

On several occasions he accurately judged the direction of Helva's main force, but when he led his army to the resistance that was about to annihilate Helva in one fell swoop, the cunning Duke of Zagreb led his beaten army directly north into the mountains, and then crossed the Carpathians into Hungarian territory.

It was not that he did not dare to enter Hungary, but it was obvious that Herva had already made contact with the Europeans on the Hungarian side, so there were a few times when Ellup encountered a large number of local cavalry not long after entering the Hungarian steppe, which made Ilup realize that things were really difficult.

It is clear that Herva had made the camp in Hungary his logistical and permanent camp, and then after each rest, he waited for an opportunity to cross the border to harass the Asmans, and although the precipitous mountain border did somewhat limit the access of Herva's army to Croatia, the complex mountainous terrain also provided the duke with natural protection.

Elup was annoyed, the Sultan had urged him more than once to try to deal with the hated "Darius of Croatia", and the current situation showed that it would be very difficult to eliminate the resistance in Croatia.

Moreover, Elup was vigilant to find that the actions of the Croatian resistance had recently become very sharp and dangerous, and they would sometimes seize the opportunity to take the initiative to attack some small Ottoman forces that had not had time to join the main force, and by all indications, it seemed that the "Darius" was no longer willing to be only in Croatia, but was showing signs of harassment towards northern Bosnia.

This forced Ilup to change his original plan, ruling the vast majority of the people in a fair and enlightened manner while punishing the natives who still refused to bow to the Sultan with the most brutal means, and after a series of bloody repressions, he ordered all the Ottoman troops in the occupied areas to concentrate their forces around their main towns, and then the local armies marched from their own areas in an irregular straight line to the north.

In Elup's opinion, the camp in Hungary should not be the main camp in Helva, because the terrain of the Carpathians makes the road restricted, so although it is safer to retreat to Hungary, there are many risks that may be taken in the process of retreating.

Elüpp believed that Herva should have a main camp in Croatia that could supply and recuperate his army, while Hungary was forced to do so in order to protect the main camp from detection.

So Elup decided to concentrate his forces to the north, his purpose was to find out Helva's stronghold in Croatia and destroy it, so as to shake the resistance of Helva's army, or simply force him to completely withdraw from Croatia and flee to Hungary.

To this end, Ilup even prepared for the possibility that Helva could pass through the gaps between the armies and enter Northern Bosnia behind him.

And what made Ilup so determined was an order sent by the Sultan.

Bayezet ordered Ilup to serve as a Roy? The invasion of Hungary was prepared, and the Sultan gave Eleup another task in the order, which was to send someone to get in touch with Archduke Karl of Caniola.

It was no secret that the Sultan wanted to invade Hungary, and as one of the Sultan's close ministers, Elup, even participated in the development of the plan to invade Hungary, but no one thought of Roy at that time? Will suddenly surrender, so now by Roy? As the commander of the invasion of Hungary, this was obviously the result of the Sultan's impromptu change of decision, but it was a much heavier burden for Ellup.

After all, whether as a former legendary hero or now as the king of Bosnia, Rova? It still has a role to play in the suppression of local resistance. Without Bosnia, Ilup faces even more problems.

But Elup could understand the Sultan's intentions in making this decision.

The undeclared "tacit understanding" with the Kingdom of Hungary allowed the Sultan to be more flexible in dealing with the enemy, after all, Ladislas II was born into the royal family of Jagieła, Poland, and the Sultan did not want to directly confront the monster of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania at this time.

So the Sultan decided to send Rowa? An attack on Hungary would have kept Ladislas II at bay and avoided the possibility of angering one or even several more powerful enemies.

The Sultan's order to Elip was to try to be Ruwa? The expedition to help, which not only required supplies for the Bosnian army, but more importantly to try to stabilize the rule in the rear, otherwise Rova? It's hard to go on an expedition with peace of mind.

According to the law of the Hlva army during this time, he judged that the main camp of Herva in Croatia should be somewhere southwest from Zagreb, not only because every time Herva's army moves, it will often retreat to the southwest, but more importantly, Elip has found out that when Herva did not become a duke and went into exile, he had been supported by the Catholic nobles in southwest Croatia.

At the same time, Alphap ordered a strict investigation of the suspicious people who appeared in various places, and he hoped to find among them the spies sent by Helva, so that the traces of the "Darius" could be found more quickly.

Because of this, Prato was unfortunate enough to fall headlong into the net laid by Eleup for Helva's spies, and because he was not an ordinary "spy" at first glance, Prato was soon sent to the Governor's Palace in Zagreb, which Herva had set up.

Prato was obviously more knowledgeable about current affairs than the Ottomans imagined, and there was no need for torture at all, so Prato happily told everything he knew.

"You're saying you're a businessman?" Elope looked at the Europeans opposite, in fact, the identity of this person could be seen from the confiscated goods, and Ilup also knew that the confiscated should be more than these, but as for where the lost things went, he was not interested in knowing.

"Authentic businessman, I think you must know the venerable King Ladislas of Hungary, I have a good conversation with the king, I have friends in Rome, Pisa and Florence, and even I know an Ottoman nobleman like you."

Elope looked at Prato coldly, he didn't believe this person because of Prato's words, but his later words aroused Eleup's interest.

"Who are you talking about the Ottoman nobles?"

Although he could vaguely guess in his heart, when he heard Prato say Ashulk's name, Elope couldn't help but be slightly stunned.

"Do you know Ashulk?" Eryup asked curiously, "Tell me how you met him, and what he's doing now." ”

Prato opened his mouth, he felt that his luck was probably exhausted with the collection of so many low-priced bronzes, otherwise how could he casually say a person's name This Ottoman nobleman just knows it, aren't the Ottomans much more than the Europeans, so aren't their nobles also more, but this person actually knows that Ashulk.

"You know that I actually only know that nobleman, no, I do know that nobleman but not very well," Prato explained as best he could, seeing that the face of the obviously high-ranking Ottoman in front of him darkened as his words grew, Prato hurriedly said, "Actually, it is my master who knows that nobleman." ”

"Oh, you have another master now," Ilup said of his wife, who was a fan of the European furniture and utensils, but he had not forgotten Bayezid II's hostility to foreign cultures, and considering that the Sultan had even ordered the removal of the oil portrait of his father, Mehmed II, Eryup often reminded himself to be vigilant, "It makes me wonder which of your words is true, maybe you are a spy." ”

"It's a misunderstanding, for God's sake you must believe me, I'm telling the truth, my master does know that Master Ashulk, and I swear they're still very good friends." Prato said anxiously, he had noticed that the Ottoman warrior standing not far away with a scimitar in his hand was waiting for this man to speak, and if one of them didn't deal well, he might have to move his head next.

"Who is your master, say something useful and I will probably spare your life." Eryup was already a little impatient, and if he hadn't heard about his brother, he would have ordered the slippery head to be tortured.

"My master, Count Montina, is the Count of Montina, Count Alexandre Giulian de Cambrai," said Prato anxiously, as if not thinking that it was important enough, and added "my lord is the father of Mademoiselle Duchess d'Estelles of Pisa, and Mademoiselle Duchess's mother is Mademoiselle Lucrezia, daughter of Pope Alexandria, and my master is ......"

Prato was anxious to reveal Alexander's identity, but he didn't notice that Elope's expression had changed when he heard Alexander's name.

"Cambrai?" Elope asked unexpectedly, and after seeing that Prato nodded immediately because he noticed that what he said this time was working, Eleup frowned slightly and continued to ask, "Tell me, does this Cambrai you mentioned have an uncle who is the count of Naples?" ”

"Yes, you're right!" Prato nodded as if he had grasped a life-saving straw, "You should be talking about Count Mordillo, but that is your uncle, and your mother's mother now lives with her brother, and your lord's sister is the Countess of Cosenza, and the Lord's Agri domain was inherited from her." ”

Elope looked at Prato with a strange look on his face, and it was not until he realized that the situation seemed to be different from what he had thought, and Prato stopped uneasily.

"I know that your count's uncle and his sister, and since I have a little business relationship with them, you are also a friend of my friend," said Elop slowly, "but you probably don't know that your Count Montina is the biggest supporter of Helva, Duke of Zagreb, and this Helva is a rebel I must eliminate, so I say friend, you are in a bit of trouble this time." ”