Alexander had heard the name of the Dragon Knights, and he knew that this Order was a rather mysterious semi-armed religious group that originated in Bohemia, this is a strange group that believes in Catholicism, but it is quite oriental in its actions, this Order was an armed group of monks organized to protect the diocese in the early years, and they chose to side with the Church in the Hussite War, but the victory in the war did not bring them any benefit, on the contrary, because of the questioning of their way of acting, The Church compares them to the Hussites.

The reason for this was that the armed monks, after uniting with the local nobles, believed that their contribution to the diocese would be enough for them to receive the taxes paid by the peasants alone, and the nobles who joined the Dragon Knights were willing to spend money to support such a fierce army of armed monks who could do anything for money.

In fact, by the time the Order had become a dominant force in northern Wallachia, especially in Hungary and Transylvania, and many nobles had secretly joined the group in the hope of gaining their protection.

And this order of knights in the name of faith continued to recruit and expand their own power, but also accumulated a large number of amazing wealth.

Vlad III had secretly joined the Dragon Knights, in order to convert and marry his later Catholic wife.

Vlad III made this decision on the simple grounds that his rule in Wallachia was becoming increasingly precarious, and that the invasion from Hungary and the threat from the Ottomans had made his rule even more shaky, and that he had chosen to convert to Catholicism in order to gain the forgiveness and support of the Bohemians, and that by marrying a Bohemian princess, he had secured his seemingly precarious position.

It was at this time that Vlad III joined the Dragon Knights in order to gain support, and at the same time donated a large amount of property to the Knights, and it was rumored that in order to get the support of the Knights, the nobles would say a few kind words for him in front of the King of Bohemia, and Vlad III emptied almost all the treasures he had stored in Schwara Castle.

As a result of this, the Balkan tyrant, known for his brutality, did not get the support he craved, and even shortly after his death, his son Tsepes was expelled from a small territory under the protection of the Order, and then Tzepes was able to return to his homeland after many years of wandering.

Many people who are familiar with the Dragon Knights are actually very uncomfortable with the Dragon Knights' behavior of collecting money and not doing anything, but people also know that this Knights not only has a huge local influence, but also because they have accumulated wealth over the years and are very wealthy, which makes people unwilling to offend this reasonable group that has gradually transformed from a quasi-army to an armed consortium.

Alexander knew about the Dragon Knights, not only because of his knowledge of Vlad III, who was known as the original form of the "first vampire", but also because of Prato's detailed descriptions of this eccentric group entrenched in northern Wallachia and southern Hungary during this time.

After Prato came to Wallachia with money and connections, he began to wave around with a large number of gold coins in his hands that blinded the eyes of a group of people, which naturally attracted the attention of the Dragon Knights, and at the same time, all kinds of reactions they had to take out because of their vigilance quickly entered Prato's sight.

At that time, Prato was only interested in making more money, so of course he was very aware of the sudden appearance of a mysterious competitor, but this gradually made him understand some of the actions of the Dragon Knights in the Balkans.

It can be said that this is a secret chamber of commerce with a private army, but their background is not those rich businessmen, but a group of local nobles, large and small.

When he heard that the other party was an emissary of the Dragon Knights, Alexander's expression moved slightly, and he motioned for Schell to put away his weapon, and then walked up to the man.

"I can't help but say that you remind me of the former Grand Duke Vlad III of Wallachia," seeing the man's helpless look at the name of Vlad III, Alexander did not pay any attention to him, but looked at the woods and the high slopes in the distance, "I wonder if this is how you want to meet and meet, or is this your peculiar custom?" ”

"Duke, you're a busy man," the man raised his arms and shook back and forth a few times in a strange fast and slow rhythm, and then the team on the slope slowly retreated and gradually disappeared to the top of the slope, and then the figures in the woods flickered, except for a few people who came out of the woods, and the rest quickly disappeared into the woods.

Alexander looked at the men, at the smug look on the man's face, and he knew that these locals were demonstrating against him.

These people know every mountain, every river, and every jungle here, and this causes great trouble for their enemies.

Historically, even after ruling the land for hundreds of years, the Ottomans still did not fully control all the lands in the Balkan mountains, and in many places spent the long period of Ottoman rule in a tacitly independent way, and even after centuries, the people of this land still brought trouble to the world again and again because of their own peculiar customs and completely incompatible temperament.

"We wish we could talk to you," said the man, who was standing with the others, for they all had the same beard, and at first glance it seemed that they could not tell who was who, "we are messengers sent by the Order, and we have come to deliver the message of our own free will, so don't expect us to say anything by torture, or we will speak because we can't bear the pain, but even then you have no way of knowing whether what we say is true, and as for threatening our lives, Rest assured, no one cares about us. ”

As soon as the man spoke, Alexander was a little speechless, and he couldn't help but remember that Vlad III almost never cared if the other party was a messenger or not, and that he had more than once hanged the messenger sent to him by others on the gate of the castle, and that there were so many other forms of torture that all those who were sent to see him regarded this trip as a death sentence.

Perhaps this was not the work of Vlad III alone, and it is clear that in the Balkans there did not seem to be such a thing as a matter of indiscretion, and even in their opinion, respect for the emissaries of the enemy country meant fear and cowardice towards the enemy.

"Who told you to bring the message?" Although he could guess it, Alexander wanted to hear if the answer matched his guess.

"Our elders, or leaders, you can call them whatever you want, but you can only see them if you agree to our terms." The man said, "Besides, my name is Vateretto." ”

Alexander looked at this man who claimed to be Vateretto, and the Dragon Knights would suddenly send someone to find him, which he really didn't expect, but now it seems that the other party obviously intends to deal with him and use knives and guns from time to time, which makes Alexander guess the purpose of these people.

Sure enough, not long after following the men far past Schwara Castle and on a road leading to a nearby village, the man named Vateretto said a little impatiently: "Duke, please believe that we have no ill will towards you, but we may not be so polite to your men. ”

"My men?" Alexander asked a little strangely, and then he nodded knowingly, "I think you should be talking about Prato, and I think he is the only one who would make you so annoyed." ”

"Yes, it's the one named Prato, this man of yours has caused us a lot of trouble, some of us have been punished for him, you must know that he is making our money on our turf."

Speaking of which, Alexander guessed the intentions of these people to some extent, but he did not expect that these local nobles would so openly regard Upper Wallachia as their own forbidden land, which made Alexander suddenly feel that maybe he had chosen this path was a very correct choice.

Sophia's time as Grand Duke of Wallachia was still too short, and even though she had already gained great prestige in Bucharest, the nobles of the local country still wielded enormous power in the outlying places.

The fact that the decree does not leave the island of Paris may be simpler in Wallachia.

Fortunately, Sofia now controls most of the south bank of the Dembovica River, and the situation in Upper Wallachia, mainly Transylvania, is somewhat grim.

Vateretto was evidently a man of all his word, as he himself said, and did not say anything useful except to complain to Alexander that Prato had robbed them of a lot of their business, and it was evident that the reason why these people wanted to see Alexander was as simple as that, or that it was taken for granted to them in the first place.

"All you have to do is tell that man not to come into our territory to make money again," said Vateretto, a little impatiently, "he will definitely listen to you, and it will be good for all of us, and as long as that Prato does not come to us for trouble, we are willing to do business with him, and many nobles are interested in what he has brought, and I believe that it will make a lot of money, but only with our permission." ”

"Wait a minute, I guess you mean that Pukato can't do business in Transylvania even with the consent of Archduke Sofia Alexandra, right?" Alexander narrowed his eyes slightly at Vateretto.

"Of course not, how can this be, you must know that Vlad III promised the Knights complete privileges in Transylvania," said Vateletto in a tone full of surprise, "We regard this as his promise to admit that the Knights have everything here, and you must know that there is more than that much of the property he promised to give to the Knights, but in the end he was able to give it very little, which made him have to sell his rights in Transylvania to the Knights as collateral, so from that time on, In fact, Transylvania had become the private land of the Order. ”

Vateretto said with a pride in his words, as if he didn't care at all about upsetting Alexander, and it was clear that the privileges the Dragon Knights had had held in Transylvania over the years had made them completely forget who the true owners of the land were, or that they had ceased to regard it as part of Wallachia when they chose to abandon Vlad III.

"You should keep this oath, only then is it reasonable, otherwise the consequences will be serious," Vateretto said seriously, seeing that Alexander had been looking at him, Vateretto tilted his head slightly, "You probably think I'm intimidating, but that's the truth, even the nobles of Transylvania don't dare to object to it." ”

"Is that so," Alexander squinted his eyes again, looking at the man who had the audacity to speak in front of him, "do you think that Archduke Alexandra should keep such a promise?" ”

"It is necessary, the rights of the Order cannot be provoked," said Vateretto in a haughty tone, "I know that you are the hero of the Battle of Bucharest, but so what, the Order rules everything in Transylvania, and will continue to do so in the future, so you should accept this fact." ”

Vateretto continued to speak to himself, his tone sometimes muffled by inaccurate pronunciation, but Alexander could still hear what he was saying.

Alexander listened silently to the nagging of this uninvited guest, even if he had found that the people here were obviously hostile after entering Transylvania, he had never expected to meet such a person next.

This is a man who does not take him, or rather Sophia in Bucharest, in no regard at all.

Behind him was a large group of local nobles and monks, who may now call themselves a knightly order, but in Alexander's eyes they were a clear divisive force.

Alexander suddenly felt so familiar with this scene, and then he thought of the Teutonic Knights, who had once run rampant in Poland.

The Poles foolishly introduced the German knights into their land, and then they tasted the real bitter fruit, and Vlad III apparently did the same stupid thing, in order to gain the support of Bohemia, in addition to showing a lot of wealth, he did not hesitate to put Transylvania in front of the Dragon Knights, and now Vlad III has become a dry bone, but the hidden danger he left behind is exposed at this time.

"Looks like we're on the right track." Looking at a looming village in front of him, Alexander told himself.