"Congratulations, Your Majesty!"

"Congratulations, Your Majesty!"

……

In Naples, the French generals raised their glasses to congratulate Louis XII on his glorious victory in the war. Louis XII was also happy to laugh, and he clinked glasses with his men cordially.

He was so happy that France had won a brilliant victory in this great battle that was related to the fortunes of the country. It can be said that after this war, the prestige of the Kingdom of France will reach its peak and become the recognized first power in Europe.

The most important thing is that in the future, the volcanic ash of the Kingdom of Naples, he can dig up as much as he wants. If you dig it up and transport it back, it's a good fertilizer!

Unfortunately, it's already June, and it's a bit too late to fertilize the country's farmland. Volcanic ash is not a fertilizer for future generations, and the fertilizer melts when it enters the water. Even during the growing season of crops, it can be applied retroactively. However, volcanic ash is soil, which cannot be applied halfway, and can only be used as base fertilizer in the field before planting crops, otherwise it will bury crops. Therefore, if France wants a bumper harvest, it can only wait for next year's spring ploughing to use volcanic ash soil as base fertilizer.

At this time, Count Durt stood up and raised his glass:

"Congratulations, Your Majesty, look, is it time to send someone to negotiate with Spain about the official belonging of the Kingdom of Naples to France?"

Louis XII nodded and said proudly:

"Yes, the Kingdom of Naples originally belonged to France and belonged to me!"

John. But Raffi hesitated:

"I'm afraid, the Spaniards won't agree so easily, right? After all, this is a kingdom and a crown! ”

How rare are crowns? Despite the fact that there are hundreds of countries in Europe (Germany accounts for most of them), there are only 11 sovereign kingdoms in Europe, including France, Spain (including Castile and Aragon), Portugal, Denmark, England, Norway, Poland, Navarre, Sweden, Hungary, and Naples (Scotland is extinct), plus the Kingdom of Bohemia, an intra-HRE kingdom. And as strong as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, they are only Grand Dukes and cannot be called His Majesty the King.

Therefore, the land is a small matter, and the throne is a big thing. At the beginning, Marin also had his heart set on the Norwegian throne. But later, for fear of being jealous and beaten, he didn't dare to ask for the crown in the end. And the seven electors of Germany are on the same level as in the past, but no one calls the electors His Majesty, and after all, he is half a head short of the king. Only Germans would think that the elector was no worse than the king. Outside of the HRE, such as France, the French considered the HRE Emperor to be on the same level as the King of France, and the Elector was inferior to the King, at most half a rank higher than the Duke, and about the same as the Grand Duke.

Therefore, in this day and age, the crown is very tempting. Even in the destroyed Byzantine Empire, the French and the Habsburgs had a quarrel over that crown. For example, Charles VIII forcibly bought the Byzantine Emperor in exile Andres. Palaiologos was crowned by Byzantium, but Maximilian I paid for Andrés. Palaiologos bought the right to confer the throne.

In this way, France and the Habsburgs each claimed the Byzantine throne and did not concede to each other or recognize the other's succession......

And that's not all, Grand Duke Vasily III of the Grand Duchy of Moscow because he was Andres. Born to Palaiologos's sister, the Byzantine princess Sophia, she also claimed to have inherited the throne of the Byzantine Empire. Now he began to call himself "Tsar".

Originally, in 1514, Vasily III sent a letter to Maximilian I, recognizing each other's status as emperors. But this plane, because of Marin's turmoil, Maximilian I from Andres. Palaiologos bought the Byzantine throne in his hands, how could he recognize the throne of Vasily III? Therefore, Vasily III can now only regard himself as emperor, and everyone else as him...... After all, the Grand Duchy of Moscow was a barbarian state in the eyes of Western Europeans of this era. Not to mention, it is still an Orthodox pagan country......

At the moment, the three families are fighting over the Byzantine throne. The main thing, of course, was the controversy between France and the Habsburgs. As for Vasily III, it was simply ignored. And for the dispute between the two families, Pope Julius II was cunning, he declared - the two families of France and the Habsburgs, whoever captured Constantinople, or the holy city of Jerusalem, he recognized as the Byzantine emperor......

Who can do this? So, let's tear each other up and quarrel. At least, there is no danger to life......

……

The throne is at the next level, and the competition for the throne is also fierce. For the Kingdom of Naples, Spain and France have also been torn apart for many years, and they have met each other several times. So, even Louis XII did not dare to say that the Spaniards would give in so easily.

Therefore, it was too far away, and Louis XII did not have that confidence. However, Louis XII believed that as long as France controlled the Kingdom of Naples, he would continue to dig up volcanic ash. After the autumn harvest next year and the grain production in the French king's territory skyrocketed, France had the capital to raise an army of 100,000 to directly attack Spain and force the other side to make concessions.

……

In fact, Louis XII did not know that by this time, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Juan III of Castile, had already retreated and were planning to give up the Kingdom of Naples.

The news of the defeat of the Spanish army was transmitted back to Barcelona through carrier pigeons, and then to the court of Zaragoza. When Ferdinand II heard the news, he fainted with anger. When Juan III learned the news, he hurriedly brought his wife and children to visit Zaragoza.

As soon as he woke up, Ferdinand II burst into tears:

"Cabrera and Domingo mistook me!" Until now, he has refused to admit his mistake of transferring Gonzalo. Of course, as a king, you can't easily admit mistakes. As for the one who bears the blame, of course, it is his subordinates.

"What now?" Juan III asked.

Ferdinand II thought about it, sighed and said:

"Or, send someone to negotiate with the French. The Kingdom of Naples gave him the right to buy it, but the other party had to pay 2 million ducats to buy it. In this way, we also have steps down. ”

Juan III was right to think about it, and it would be too humiliating to directly admit that France owned the Kingdom of Naples. And to sign an agreement, "sold" to the French, at least save a little face.

In fact, the father and son did not know that although there were only 20,000 of the 60,000 Spanish army left, most of the officers were still there, and the shelves had not dispersed. They only looked at the data and thought that the Spanish army had suffered unbearable losses......

……

That night, two carrier pigeons took off from Zaragoza and flew northeast......

On the morning of the third day, Marin learned that the two kings of Spain wanted to compromise. It is clear that the North Sea Kingdom has eyeliner in the court of Zaragoza......

"Hehe, the Spaniards want to withdraw from the war? It's so easy......"

Marin called Kohler and commanded:

"You arranged for a spy from the North Sea Kingdom in France to commit intentional murder and defect to the Kingdom of Aragon. Then, the secret that the volcanic ash would produce high grain yields was revealed to Ferdinand II. With this decoy, I don't believe the Spaniards would give up the kingdom of Aragon! ”

Puzzled, Kohler asked:

"The volcanic ash you are talking about, Sicily also has it. Why did Spain desperately go to Naples with the French? It's not a good deal! ”

Marin shook his head and said:

"It can't be counted like that! France has the largest population in Europe, more than twice as many as Spain. If the French have enough food, they will have great potential. When the time comes, the French will easily raise an army of 100,000, or even hundreds of thousands, and what will Spain resist? ”

"So, even if Spain doesn't get ash itself, it will never want to see the French get enough food out of ash. In a word, the Spaniards, even if they did not get it, would not tolerate the French enemy to get it...... Anyway, they still have ......"

Kohler nodded, and turned to arrange the matter. And neither the complacent French, nor the Spaniards, intent on compromise, knew that their desire not to fight was so difficult. Because, in private, there is a demon named Marin, who is forcing them to fight each other......