Caesar, Duke of Apulia of Italy. Morality. Altwell is plotting how to reap the benefits of this rivalry with the pope.

He remembers the last time he led his army into the city of Rome, it was two years ago, but his mind still remembers the prosperity of the city of Rome.

The greedy Caesar coveted the riches of Rome, and if it had not been for William's steward Osborne and Pope Gregory VI to stop him, he and his Normans would have been tempted to sack the city of Rome.

Thinking of the imminent sacking of Rome, Caesar couldn't help but show a look of longing, no matter how steady and mature Caesar was.

Caesar and his Normans were not in the least ashamed of the blasphemous idea of lusting to sack the riches of Rome, nor did they repent to God for their desire for wealth and land.

The desire for wealth and land was deeply rooted in the Norman soul and was why the Normans ventured all the way from Normandy to Naples in southern Italy.

If they could not gain enviable wealth and territory from this great adventure, then why did they Normans venture to Italy? Wouldn't it be more convenient to do things under William?

And William's thirst for talent is not necessarily smaller than that of Caesar, Duke of Apulia, and the conditions and promotion channels provided are not necessarily less than those provided by Caesar, but these Normans with a natural adventurous character still worked tirelessly to fight Italy, in order to seize wealth and territory from this expeditionary adventure, the most attractive of which is undoubtedly the innumerable amount of wealth in the city of Rome.

The desire for the riches of Rome was the common will of all Normans, and if Caesar had disobeyed him, even if he had become duke of Apulia and Calabria, the Normans under his command would not hesitate to betray him and install another duke.

Morality. The Outville family was prosperous, and only Caesar's father, Tancreed. Morality. In the Ottwell branch, there were fifteen brothers left, of which there were as many as twelve male members who had reached adulthood, even excluding the long-deceased former Duke William. Morality. Outville and Humphrey and Drago, who were imprisoned by Caesar, and the remaining family members who could pose a threat to Caesar were as many as nine.

Therefore, even if Caesar was unwilling to attack Rome, his noble vassals would not agree, and if Caesar went against the common will of the Normans, his Norman nobles would unite to support another German. The members of the Outville family are the new dukes.

Such a situation was absolutely not allowed by Caesar.

What's more, Caesar himself had been longing for the riches of the city of Rome for a long time, so why should he restrain it? Why go against your heart and not pursue it?

So Caesar and the Normans, eager for the riches of Rome, marched on the city with all their might.

Gregory VI was undoubtedly thrilled by Caesar's 'help', and it seemed that he had already opened his way to the future of returning to the papal throne with the help of the Normans.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Caesar and the Normans did not have the slightest desire to restore Gregory VI to the throne.

Helping Gregory VI restore the Pope is to slap the face of the HRE Emperor Henry III, to provoke Henry III, and to do evil against him, which is undoubtedly a great risk.

For the sake of Gregory VI's empty promises, at the risk of being targeted by the HRE Emperor Henry III, to support Gregory VI to restore the throne, how could the Normans do such a risky business with small returns.

......

Under the city of Rome, 20,000 Norman troops have been assembled and ready to fight, including all kinds of siege equipment such as the counterweight trebuchet given by William, and the Normans can start the siege as soon as Caesar's order is reached.

Caesar held up the bronze monoculars he had brought from William years ago and took a closer look.

He found that the city was already full of soldiers standing in battle, including church knights and levies, Italian mercenaries and Genoese crossbowmen, and even knights from Germany.

The current Pope, Clement II, is a German bishop and it is not surprising that the reuse of Germans is a matter of course.

But it is strange that there is no Papal Guard, the ace unit of the Church, on the city walls.

This unit did not appear, either it was hidden by the church and used as a killer weapon, or due to some change it temporarily lost its combat effectiveness, and was scattered and grouped into its own troops.

Obviously, the second scenario is the most likely.

When Clement II first ascended to the papal throne, the first thing to do was to wash away the imprint of the previous popes, and the Papal Guard, the elite of the Holy See, was the largest and most profound imprint of them.

The Papal Guard, formed by Benedict IX and reused by Gregory VI, has begun to have its own mind.

The last time Benedict IX wanted to regain the papal throne, the papal guard began to move, and if it weren't for Henry III, I am afraid that Benedict IX would have succeeded, and there would have been nothing to do with him Clement II.

Therefore, Clement II was extremely jealous of this elite papal guard, and carried out several major purges, replacing many important officers in the army.

But Clement II still felt unsafe, and in his opinion the knights from his fellow German lands were more reliable than the papal guards.

As a result, he gradually cut the military spending of the Papal Guard, and then gradually dismantled and integrated the elite into the various units.

At this time, there was no trace of the Papal Guard on the battlefield, and Clement II had no honor guard to compete with the Norman knights, and his fate was only defeat.

On the battlefield, the German knights were completely unscrupulous, and after being easily provoked by the Normans, they went out of the city to meet the attack, but they were bullied by the Normans, who used spears and horses to teach the German knights how to behave.

When the remaining German knights returned to Rome, the morale of the defenders in the city was inevitably affected by this defeat, and the morale of the Holy See army was very low.

Seeing the opportune moment, Caesar ordered the whole army to attack the city, and under the cover of the bombardment of the counterweight trebuchet, the Normans took advantage of the siege to climb the head of the city and gain a foothold, and began to slaughter on a large scale.

At this moment, one of Caesar's pawns in the city of Rome - a mercenary suddenly turned against the water, and they directly opened the city gate to let the Normans enter the city.

There was no difficulty in this war with the Holy See, and compared to the war two years earlier, this Clement II was simply a military idiot.

The Normans entered the city without any delay, and they eagerly began to loot the wealth of the city of Rome, whether it was the estates, mansions, warehouses and freight stations of the city's nobles and wealthy merchants, or the residences of ordinary citizens.

Of all the fruits of victory, the fattest nature was to be enjoyed by Caesar, to whom the papal see's centuries-old wealth had finally opened its doors to him.