The Mureš River is an east-west river between Upper Wallachia and Hungary that eventually flows into the Danube River into the Black Sea and is the natural border between Wallachia and Hungary.

At the beginning, Rowa?? After the crushing defeat of the invasion of Hungary, he crossed the river and fled all the way east to Moldova, which now Alexander is going to cross into Hungary and then along the borders of Hungary with several countries, from the southern plains into Italy.

Alexander received a cold reception in Upper Wallachia, where the atmosphere was noticeably more alienated than in Wallachia, except for the general contempt and indifference of the locals towards the people from Bucharest, and the undisguised hostility towards Alexander, who belonged to Transylvania.

When Sophia decided to move the capital to Bucharest, the Transylvanian nobles showed a strange silence, and for this land, in fact, if it were not for the past when the Vlad family had ruled Wallachia, it can be said that the two sides were not only very estranged, but even two completely different countries.

Therefore, the attitude of many Wallachians towards Tépes became more complicated, on the one hand, they could not forget the brutality and bloodshed of Vlad III's rule, and on the other hand, they had to rejoice that the territory of Wallachia had almost doubled because of the time of the Tsepes, so that Wallachia became somewhat strange towards the Transylvanians.

They were wary of a possible separatist rebellion in Transylvania, and at the same time tried their best to appease these distant relatives, perhaps sensing this scruple in Wallachia, so the Transylvanians were arrogant towards Bucharest, and as for Alexander, perhaps in the eyes of many Transylvanians, it was polite not to draw a sword against him.

During his lifetime, Cepes tried to restore the glory of his father, Vlad III, and for this reason he did not hesitate to bow before Sofia in order to regain the recognition of the Wallachian nobility as soon as possible.

It must be said that Cepes's vision is still very vicious, just when many people do not buy Sophia, or even if they recognize her status as a Greek princess, they always think that she is just a puppet of King Ladislas II of Bohemia, Cepes is very firmly on her side and became one of the first people to support her.

If things go on like that, maybe even if he doesn't get Sophia's favor and marry her according to the plan, and then regain control of Wallachia, he can still get a good reward for his strong support before, just like those Greeks or the knight named Djilas in the new capital of Wallachia to get a very good position and become Sophia's cronies, but his ambition is too great, Or it could be that the son, who was the former ruler of the land, couldn't bear to be someone else's subordinate, and he finally chose to take the risk, but his choice was clearly wrong.

The cost of this choice not only cost Cepes his own life, but also tensioned and complicated relations between Transylvania and Wallachia.

As Alexander's party marched north along the Dembovica River into Transylvania, he soon felt an air of faint hostility, which made Schell nervous, as a Wallachian, he was well aware of the estrangement between the two peoples, and this time at court gave him some idea of what was going on.

So although he knew that it was unlikely, he still suggested to Alexander to change the route, but Alexander rejected Scheer's suggestion with a tight time, which made him only cheer up, vigilantly monitoring every village and town he passed, every pass, when he found someone peeping from a distance, he would immediately order the hunting guards to enter the guard, his nervous behavior made the hunting guards follow him from time to time is a toss, and many soldiers couldn't help but complain after a long time.

"I'm right," explained the guard officer to the two squad leaders who complained to him privately, "and if you don't want to wake up one day and find yourself surrounded, or simply tied up and hung from a tree, you have to keep your eyes wide open and your ears pricked up, and don't forget that we're in Transylvania." ”

"But when is this a head, the brothers are so tired these days that they can't stand it anymore," said the captain of the squad dissatisfiedly, "and if we go on like this, we will not wait for anyone to attack us, and we will exhaust ourselves ourselves." ”

"If you keep going, everything will be fine as long as you cross the Muresh River." Schell could only comfort his men in this way, although as far as he knew, there might not be much less trouble after crossing the river.

Compared with the high tension of the guards, Alexander seemed much more relaxed, he knew that if nothing happened, then his trip would be very smooth, even if something happened, as long as the hunting guards could solve it, it would not be a problem, but if even the hunting guards could not stop it, even if he was nervous and worried at that time, it would obviously be useless, so the only ease along the way was Alexander.

As for the explanation to Scheer that the reason for not going back in the direction of Croatia was because it was more convenient, it was Alexander who did not tell the truth.

Compared with the filth that had just happened in Croatia, Alexander did not think that Herva would be so generous and careless, and his knowledge of Herva made Alexander unwilling to take that unnecessary risk, and the possibility of being attacked by so-called unknown gangsters on the way through Croatia was obviously much greater than that of crossing Transylvania.

Schwara Castle was an important stronghold of Vlad III in the early years, where he twice defeated the Hungarian attack, which earned him the support of the locals, and although it was true that people cheered about his fame and feared the brutality of his rule, it was arguably one of the most loyal parts of Transylvania to the Chippers.

The hunters walked vigilantly along the road, and Schell could feel that the soldiers were breathing much lighter, as if they were afraid of alarming something terrible.

It has been said for a long time that Vlad III's ghost is attached to the castle of Schwara, and even though the rector of Tlegumulez, the capital of Transylvania, came to the castle to exorcise the demons, it is still believed that Vlad's evil spirit wanders in the castle, which looks terrible from afar.

Alexander hadn't been here "before", and the last time he came to Wallachia, he had passed through Transylvania, but not so deeply, and this was the first time in his life that he had actually visited the famous vampire homeland.

Transylvania is beautiful, but perhaps the pagan horror stories are so deeply ingrained that the sky seems to be forever shrouded in a gloomy haze, as if something would jump out of the black-looking woods at any moment.

Alexander rode his horse and looked closely, and he sensed that someone had been following their team, sending distribution posts from Schell to all sides to increase the guard, and he knew that the guard officer was ready.

"Is there really anyone coming to the door?" Alexander pondered in his heart, and at the same time couldn't help but look back at one of the carriages that followed the group.

The car was filled with a fresh local product brought from Bucharest, a replica of the "16th-century Gatling" that Josha had brought with him, and Josa had left that terrible weapon in Bucharest, which was one of the few kindnesses she had towards Sophia.

The people of Bucharest remember the terrible power of this weapon vividly, the most intuitive of which is the slaughter of the black mercenaries, in which the weapon showed amazing lethality, and Alexander himself used this weapon to defeat Caesar's last dreams on the outskirts of Rome.

Sophia was also very interested in this weapon, although it was inevitable that it was a little difficult because it was left by Jisha, but she still had a few copies of it as it was, and after a few test shots, Sophia was considering whether she should increase the size of this thing and then build a batch of cluster guns specially used to defend the city.

Alexander does not intervene in Sophia's cranky thoughts or whimsical, many things will naturally appear when they should appear, even if it looks like a detour or completely embarked on another development path that is different from history, it doesn't matter, as long as you grasp the direction at a critical moment, not to mention that Sophia's ideas are not necessarily wrong, some so-called strange weapons and technologies in history are actually not wrong in themselves, but there is something wrong in time, And Alexander believed that if he only changed a little in this regard, maybe something strange would either come forward or appear in reality at the right time.

Alexander was sometimes keen to take risks because of the huge rewards, but he also knew that it was stupid to take a blind adventure without preparation, and it was obviously safer to return from Transylvania than through Croatia, but it was only after being prepared to go on the road with confidence.

The outpost that had been placed near the shallow woods on one side raised the alarm, and the procession immediately stopped, with Alexander and the carriage as the center, and the hunters quickly formed a phalanx.

The musketeers crouched down with their muskets in their hands and stared at the jungle in front of them, while the soldiers behind drew their sabers and spears, ready to engage the enemy at any time.

The Chasseurs were the second all-firearms army of the era, and while the musketeers were still armed with sabers for combat, all of them were already armed with short spears, some of them even having more than one.

As for the first all-firearms army, it was the 1st Cosenza Grenadier Company established by Josa, which made Alexander wonder more than once whether Josa would be recorded in history as the queen of Naples in the future, or whether he would go down in history for establishing the first all-firearms army in Europe.

The sentinel's warning sounded again from the edge of the woods, and the hunters stared at the looming figures that could already be seen, some licking their tongues nervously, others grinning at the corners of their mouths, revealing a mouthful of black and yellow teeth, as if they were laughing happily.

Alexander stood not far from the carriage, with two layers of guards at his side, front and back.

Knowing that such a tight guard is as easy to notice as a glowworm that glows that night, it's better than being accidentally killed by some blind cat who touches a dead mouse.

Alexander acknowledges that history is created by a series of inevitability, but he also believes that there is always some chance in this inevitability that can also shape a new history.

He did not want to be proof of this so-called accidental change in history, and Alexander had already laid out for himself the next path, at least for the foreseeable period of time, and he did not want anything to change.

The other party stopped near the edge of the woods, and the hunters had noticed a group of people of unknown origin on the slope on the other side of the road.

The situation seemed to be a little bad, and Alexander muttered to himself, he knew that if these Transylvanians were going to attack him, then now should be a good opportunity, the people in the woods could effectively pin down the hunters with their attacks, and the enemies on the slopes could pose a great threat to them as long as they had a sufficient number of long-range weapons such as firearms or crossbows.

Just as Alexander wondered if he should order the "classical version of Gatling" to strike first, a shout with a slight accent suddenly came from the woods: "Over there, are you soldiers of the Duke of Rometesia?" ”

Hearing the shout, Schell, who was standing at the front of the line, was stunned, he resisted the urge to look back in Alexander's direction, took a step forward and said loudly: "Yes, this is the duke's guard, which of you are stopping the duke's procession, to offend the master of Romagna and Tuscany, the mediator of Lombardy, the contractor of the sacred marriage contract of the Grand Duchess of Wallachia, and ......"

Seeing that Schell had put all his titles on display as if he were announcing the name of the dish, Alexander shook his head helplessly, he found that after such a long time, he realized that Schell really had the potential to take over Uliouban.

However, it is clear that Schell is still not as shrewd as Ulliu in some areas, at least the Moors will not be so reckless as to run to the front of the group and give the other party a chance to make a black move.

"Who are they?" Alexander frowned, he sensed that the other party didn't seem to want to fight, at least not so far.

"yes, who are you?" Schell asked in a loud voice, gesturing quietly with the hand behind him.

After noticing his action, the corners of Alexander's mouth curled, and he felt that Schell was not so reckless again.

Several hunters quietly raised their guns, all of whom were hunters from Agri and Wallachia, and their marksmanship was so accurate that many of them could rival the marksmen of the Ottoman army, who were known for their marksmanship.

Whether it is Pressure Shan or Ji Sha, they are not very interested in the so-called sharpshooter, which is of course related to the general accuracy of the current firearms technology, but the main reason is that they do not pay attention to the accuracy of the marksmanship of individual soldiers, but pay more attention to the soldiers who have undergone strict training, and the terrible power of large-scale fire brought about by shooting at the same time.

However, this did not mean that Alexander's army did not have the talent to be natural sharpshooters, as the mountains of Agri and the Balkans produced mountain people with a more resilient character than the rest of the world, and produced some of the earliest and best marksmen of the era.

"God forbid," there was a cheer from the woods that seemed to be surprised, and then a figure suddenly stood up from behind a tree, and saw the muzzle of a row of black holes immediately raised towards him, the man paused at his feet, and then tilted his head to show a helpless look, "May I ask who was talking to me just now, I believe it must not be the Duke himself, but it doesn't matter, can we talk?" ”

Schell looked at the man carefully for a while, this is a man who looks quite strong, his dress and demeanor prove that he is not an ordinary civilian, from the traces of wear and tear on his robe, it can be seen that this person has been wearing armor all year round, Schell took two more steps forward from the front of the team and stopped: "It's me, the guard officer of His Royal Highness the Duke, if you have anything to say to me." ”

The man nodded and walked forward, and when he approached one of the hunters closest to him, he stopped and slowly lifted the lining of his robes, revealing a hilt of his sword, and seeing the vigilant look of the hunting guard, the man slowly drew his sword with the hilt of his sword upside down, and then continued forward until he walked in front of Schel.

Seeing Sher reach out to him, the man handed the sword over, but before he could let go, he retracted it slightly: "Be careful, this is not an ordinary sword, this sword has a curse on it." ”

The man's words made Scheer's expression stiffen, and the Balkans were often very persistent in superstitious things, even if the priests generally scoffed at this typical pagan thing, and even criticized it harshly, but all kinds of superstitious legends still circulated among the Balkan mountain villages and towns, and even many nobles were obsessed with believing in that kind of ghost legends.

The man seemed pleased with Scheer's performance, and he smiled and walked past Scheer, and after a moment's scrutiny, walked towards Alexander.

"Stop, just say there."

Alexander spoke when the man was almost a few paces away, he was not used to letting strangers get too close, and now the distance was just right, even if he had a musket hidden on his body, although the distance was already dangerous, Alexander was sure that his chasseurs would never give the other party such a chance.

"You are very vigilant," the man bowed, then straightened up and said earnestly, "but it is a good habit, which Vlad III did not have, and he was so arrogant that he thought that he could frighten everyone in a terrible way, until he finally gave his life." ”

As soon as the man finished speaking, he heard the sound of the hunters around him raising their muskets and aiming them at him, and the short spear in Scheer's hand was already pressed directly against the back of his head from behind.

"If you dare to act rashly, I will show you at once what true terror is." At the same time, Schelle's angry voice sounded behind him.

The man raised his hands slightly, and as he slowly turned around to signal to the hunters around him that he was not a threat, he smiled at Alexander reluctantly: "Your Excellency, please believe that we have no hostility towards you, but it may be another matter if you are someone else." ”

The man's expression slowly became serious as he spoke, he straightened his back and looked at Alexander face to face, and then asked, "My lord, I wonder if you have heard of an organization called the Dragon Knights?" Seeing Alexander's surprised face, the man bowed again and saluted, "Your Excellency, as an envoy of the Dragon Knights, I am willing to serve you. ”