Sophia lay on the bed, her slender legs cocked upward, her slightly dark arches tensed because of the exertion, and the soles of her feet were concave into two deep sockets.

She was kicking her legs back and forth while looking at a large book in front of her with relish.

The shell of the book is wrapped in a thick layer of gold leaf, and the spine cover is made of fine silk, which has a silky but slightly greasy feel to the touch.

The book was not only large, but also very thick, so Sophia held it in her hand at first, and then simply put it on the bed and read it.

Sophia did not like to read, as even the people of the Prague court knew, and had complained to Nashan more than once for the sake of the queen, who seemed to the queen that a noble lady was always associated with grace and knowledge, or even if she did not have these two specialties, she should at least have a good temper.

But Sophia obviously doesn't have any of these things, except for a bad temper that seems to be unchangeable, and more importantly, she can indeed be described as "no learning and no skills".

Sophia's knowledge of vocabulary did not help her to write a fairly smooth letter on her own, and as for such a thing as poetry, it was even more incapable of it.

But Sophia herself never thought it was a big deal.

Although it is a regrettable shortcoming to be unable to speak, Sophia has never bothered about it, and as for knowledge, she thinks that the strength she is born with more than other women, or most men, is the most important, for example, she has begun to think about how to let them know that she knows how to know if she meets those women she hates.

Sophia's sudden interest in books is entirely due to the fact that it is actually a picture book.

The catalogue was filled with beautiful portraits, and Sophia was interested in the styles of the women's clothes in the paintings.

Sophia, almost 15 years old.

She's no longer the little girl who dresses sloppily and doesn't care, or the little girl who can make her smile with a suit of armor made in someone else's style.

She began to pay attention to what kind of patterns the ladies had on their headdresses, and how the dazzling and different styles of skirts could better set off her good figure that was proud of most women.

Especially when the Patriarch of Bucharest announced the blessing of her marriage to Alexander, Sophia paid more attention to the things of those women.

The book had been sitting on the bookshelf in the living room outside her bedroom for a long time, but it hadn't been brought to her attention until recently, after Alexander's arrival in Bucharest, to be exact.

The sound of the door opening softly caught Sophia's attention, and she looked back slightly to see Alexander standing in the doorway looking at her.

Since coming to Bucharest, Alexander and Sophia actually don't spend much time alone, although they often meet, but they are always disturbed by such and such people around them, and now this opportunity is rare, but when he walked into the room, Alexander looked at Sophia's back and was slightly stunned.

Because her whole body was completely sunk into the soft bed, Sophia's back was slightly upturned because she was holding her arms, so that her body formed a deep arc like an inverted arch bridge.

The deepest part of this arc was on her waistline, and the deep waist made her look so thin, which made Alexander secretly wonder how such a thin waist could burst out with so much strength when writhing, or how could it support the breasts that were much more majestic than other women.

And the two high points of the arc, one of which is her shoulders, and the other is the firm, plump and powerful hips that are upright.

This is also what puzzled Alexander all the time, and he wondered how Sophia's age-matched figure came about, compared to whether it was Josa, Lucrezia, or Barondi, she was really far behind Sophia, who was younger than them.

Sophia smiled at Alexander, not knowing what it meant to "proclaim a blessed marriage contract that was not recognized because it was contrary to the doctrine, but also proclaimed through the doctrine of the doctrine", and in fact most people could not understand what this mouth-consuming-sounding explanation meant.

Sophia only knew that her marriage was blessed, and she was happy, because even among the gypsies there was a rumor that a marriage without the blessing of an elder or a tribal leader was doomed to be unhappy.

Alexander, however, was well aware of the true meaning of these words, and he could not help but admire the Patriarch of Bucharest for finding such a compromise and all-encompassing statement among the two factions, after a series of quarrels and without concessions.

"It is not recognized in doctrine, but it can give the blessing of a legal marriage." This is the Patriarch's deliberate compromise interpretation, which is crucial in its recognition of legitimacy and existence.

And when he heard this, Alexander only wanted to praise the patriarch for his erudition and wisdom in the interpretation of the doctrine with the phrase "old slippery."

And this is also a statement that Ladislas II had to accept in the end, although he was very reluctant.

Alexander walked to the bed and looked at Sophia, who was still kicking her feet back and forth with her back to him, and then he suddenly reached out and grabbed the two little feet that kept swinging, and with a slightly strange laugh from Sophia's throat, Alexander pulled her slightly hard to bring her body to him, and then sat down and put her on his lap.

"Listen Sophia, we just got the news of Cepes," seeing that Sophia was always holding the big thick book, Alexander's arms used some strength, and the two of them were close together through the book, and soon Sophia had to put down the book because her chest was already a little burdensome, and she was a little overwhelmed, "Cepes's army is on the other side of the Dembvica River. ”

Sophia looked curious, she tilted her head slightly to look at Alexander, but she didn't make a sound, obviously waiting for him to continue.

"Chipes attacked the Ottomans attacking the city on the other side, and it seems that he was disrupting some of the Ottomans' plans by doing so, because the Ottomans had stopped attacking the city since this morning."

Sophia smiled and nodded, as if pleased with the good news, and then she stooped down and picked up the large book from her side and held it up to Alexander.

"What, what do you want?" Alexander didn't think that Sophia was very studious and self-motivated, so when he saw one of the paintings of a woman looking rather gorgeous, he couldn't help but sigh that Sophia had also reached the age when she began to like beautiful clothes, "Sophia, you are a big girl." ”

As he said this, Alexander felt a palpitation in his heart, from the beginning he and Sophia may have only shared hardships, then they depended on each other, and then Alexander admitted that he could no longer treat Sophia as a child.

But this is obviously not the time to fall in love, although according to the Patriarch, they are already an unrecognized couple blessed by the Church, but he did not come this time to kiss me and Sophia.

"Sophia, I want you to give orders to the Greeks to support Cepes." Alexander said to Sophia, "Let Djilas bring them the news, the Greeks have supported us in our marriage, and now it's time for us to repay them." ”

Sophia nodded understandingly, she knew that Alexander was doing something very important, and the Greeks obviously played a very important role in it.

As a result of the controversy over the marriage contract of the Greek princess, the contradictions within the alliance that had been concealed by the persecution of the Ottomans were revealed.

The voices of the Balkan nobles who had gathered in Bucharest for the purpose of exploiting Sophia were firmly opposed to the marriage contract, even outside the venue, and there were many who also expressed their support for various reasons.

Especially the Greek exiles, who also knew that the situation facing Sophia was not optimistic, and that without a strong supporter, Sophia would probably become a pawn of the great nobles, whether out of loyalty to the blood of the Roman Empire or out of their own interests, and the Greek exiles could not allow this to happen.

Originally, Cepes, who was the Grand Duke of Wallachia, was a good candidate, but they soon found that Cepes himself seemed to be unable to protect himself.

So when Alexander appeared, from the beginning of the cautious attitude to the final decision, the Greek remnants also went through a lot of consideration.

"Chipes is on the other side of the river," Djilas, who received an order from Sophia, was a little confused by Alexander's proposal, "Count, do you really think that the Ottomans would attack Bucharest from the river?" ”

"This is just speculation, but I don't believe that the Ottomans spent so much effort just to allow an army to cross the Dembvica River and attack the city on the opposite bank, although it is true that the whole city is relatively weakly defended, but the terrain there is also very unfavorable for the Ottomans, after all, it is too far away from the main Ottoman army, we only need to mobilize troops from the city, and we can rely on the advantage of the inner line to concentrate on crushing them."

When explaining to Gallas, Alexander secretly shook his head, he knew that it seemed a bit alarmist to propose that the Ottomans would break into the city directly from the river, if there were such concerns before, as the Ottoman army crossed the Dembvica River and launched an attack on the city on the opposite bank, many people began to think that the Ottomans should have heard that the city of Bucharest had strengthened the defense on the river, so they felt that they could not invade the city from the river, so they attacked the relatively weak defense of the east bank city.

For this reason, the defenders and the Greeks who had defended the fortress of Pletvi were greeted heroically, because it was because of the fort of Pletvi that more time was bought to strengthen the defense of the river.

However, Alexander knew that the Ottomans would attack from the river, and they would first break through the obstacles set up in the river, and then destroy the barrage gates used to defend against foreign enemies, and then the Ottomans would swarm in from the river.

Now the Ottomans are attacking the city on the east bank in order to solve the threat from the side of the Dembvica River as soon as possible when they break through the river, so as to prepare for more armies to invade the city from the river.

And the reason why he can be so sure is because this is how Bucharest was captured in history.

May 7 was not a good day for Xi Sugu.

According to the Sultan's orders, Sisugu launched a fierce attack on the fortress of Bukur, Sisugu did not think that this was the Sultan's revenge for the unreasonable actions taken by the Count of Montina against him, but that the Sultan tried to make the Bucharest people understand the fate of continuing to resist by destroying the symbol of resistance to capture the fortress of Bukur, so Sisugu was ready to order the slaughter of everyone inside once the fortress was captured.

But what he didn't expect was that Cepes, who had lost his trace during the siege of Dembvica, would suddenly move south from the upper reaches of the Dembvica River along the east bank of the river.

The Ottoman army sent to attack the city on the east bank was attacked by an unexpected attack, and when the Wallachian cavalry appeared, the unprepared Ottomans were defeated by the unfortunate Cepes.

The Ottomans, who had retreated in a hurry, were even driven directly down the river, with one of them hastily fleeing across the Dembvica River to the opposite bank, while the other had to retreat south along the east bank of the river as well.

Unfortunately, despite being separated by a river, Tzepes could only watch as the Wallachians pursued the Ottoman army on the other side of the river.

As soon as the news reached Bayezid II, the Sultan ordered that the remaining troops on the other side of the river should not continue to cross the river, and at the same time he ordered the Sissou Valley to suspend the attack on the fortress of Bukur and then send his troops to cross the river again, according to the Sultan, to do everything possible to help the troops on the other side of the river to attack the Sisuu Valley.

Unaware that his actions had inadvertently disrupted the Sultan's plans, Chipes seemed to see the glory of Bucharest's savior beckoning him when his army had trekked directly behind the Ottomans besieging the city on the opposite bank, and after several days of fierce fighting, finally freeing himself from the Ottoman pursuit, and then crossing Dembvica upstream.

He did not hesitate to give the order for an attack, and the near-unimaginable victory strengthened his belief that he was the true master of the city.

He decided to wipe out the Ottomans on the east bank of the river, but not long after he led the Wallachian cavalry in pursuit of the remaining enemy, he received a call for help from the infantry.

The Sissou Valley stopped continuing the assault on the fortress of Bukur and, after converging with the troops on the east bank that crossed the river, began an offensive against the infantry of the army of Chipes.

In the face of the menacing Sisugu, Cepes could only give up the idea of annihilating the enemy, and he quickly adjusted his deployment to prepare to meet the new enemy.

It was at this time that the Greeks, led by Bodpaed, arrived.

And the advice that Bodped brought to Cepes about Alexander, which made it somewhat difficult for him to accept.

"Retreat eastward, don't have an easy decisive battle with the Ottomans, everything awaits news from Lord Earl."

Cepes was tempted to reject this suggestion, but when he saw the army of Sissogu, he had to retreat eastward, but he did not understand what Alexander was talking about.

Soon, with the arrival of bad news, Bucharest was once again in a daze.

On 8 May, the Bosnian army and the Hungarian defenders fought fiercely on the outskirts of Sossburg, and the defenders were finally defeated and forced to retreat after paying a heavy price and losing their commander, and Sosburg fell, leaving the road to Baudeboch clear.