"Archbishop, it's time now!"

Peter looked down at nearly half of the speech, and couldn't help but feel a little regretful, after all, it is also a rare honor to preside over a coronation ceremony for an emperor, a tsar, Caesar and the like like this, Peter has been preparing for a long time before he plays, but because Her Royal Highness the Empress has wasted too much unnecessary time before, the time originally left for him has been forced to be cut a lot.

Peter had no choice but to stop speaking, and handed the speech to a nearby field orderer, who opened the mahogany box on a wooden tray and took out a dazzling crown inlaid with diamonds, precious stones, and jewels, made entirely of pure gold.

This time, Randy did not use steel to forge the crown, one of the reasons was because the Rus' in Eastern Europe did not understand the meaning of his steel crown, and the other was that Randy gradually wanted to show off.

"An emperor, even a king, a grand duke, has a crown made of gold, but a great emperor like me can only have a crown of steel, and it's a bit embarrassing to say it."

Randy used such a pretext as an excuse to obtain such a priceless crown from the royal jeweler at the cost of tens of thousands of gold coins, as for the gems and something, they were all exchanged from Enides at a low price, maybe there was a problem with the values of the Enides system, and these stones that looked very good-looking, but had very limited practical use were sold for the price of cabbage, if it weren't for Randy's values, he thought that the dot roll was closely related to his lifespan, If you don't want to exchange some rolls for a large number of re-buying and reselling, maybe the matter of the Norman Empire's military reform funds has been solved.

But then again, these extraordinarily exquisite, extraordinarily delicate, very large jewels, even a rich man like the Pope's Holy See may not be able to afford them, and as soon as such a priceless crown came out, the surrounding nobles couldn't help but cheer.

"It's incredible, such a beautiful crown, it's a work of art."

"It's so beautiful, such a gem."

"Oh my God!"

The nobles exclaimed, the men were a little better, but the women were a little unbearable, looking directly at the huge sapphire on the crown, which was more than thirty carats, and only wanted to snatch these things over.

"This is the authority that God has given you, my Tsar!" Archbishop Peter ignored the exclamations around him and said this to Randy.

"That's what I'm looking forward to!"

Unlike the last time he answered Pope Innocent III in Rome, this time Randy wasn't saying anything honestly fearful and humble.

"This thing is for me, and only I am worthy of such authority."

After Randy finished speaking, he snatched the crown from Archbishop Peter's hand amid the exclamations of the nobles.

At least half of the people at the coronation thought that Randy was crazy, this was not the Renaissance, let alone the revolutionary France where atheists were prevalent after the first industrial revolution, it was the Middle Ages, the Middle Ages when theocracy was prevalent, and it was the dark Middle Ages when papal power was enveloping the whole continent.

Randy's blasphemous act, let alone crowning another person, would be regarded as a heretic by the angry people on the spot, tied to the stake and burned to charcoal.

But Randy was still smiling, smiling gently, as if he had everything under control, and slowly put the crown on his head.

"This, this, this," Archbishop Peter sweated with his head at the time.

The word heresy had already jumped out of his throat, but in the end, he couldn't say a word, and he looked at Emperor Randy with two guilt in his smile, motionless.

"I'm so sorry!" Randy turned, took out a small crown from the crate that seemed to have been immobilized, and placed it on top of Artoria's head.

"Randy......" Artoria looked at Randy with some unease.

"Relax, dear, everything is under my control, it will be fine."

In the corner of the banquet hall, the Norman Baron Talleyrand, who held the position of clerk, sighed softly, as the emperor's secretary, he also shared part of the responsibility of the historian, responsible for recording Randy's daily life, and the reason why Randy let him hold such a position is precisely because this guy is very tactful, and he will not be afraid of being beheaded for justice and truth like a normal historian, so that Randy can manipulate history.

As it is now, the notebook that Talleyrand used to record has such a history written by Randy long ago.

"This is a historic moment, a moment when the whole world has changed color, this moment Randy von Hoffmann, doing such an earth-shattering thing, this snatching has opened an era, the superiority of the clerical power and the imperial power, the superiority and inferiority of the secular power and the power of the church, are fully displayed at this moment, at this moment Gaius, Julius Kaid, Charlemagne's soul possession, he is not alone in the fight, not alone!"

For the meaning of his monarch, Talleyrand can more or less guess some, now the Papal States has ill intentions, and if it is not good, it will be the situation of the eighteen-way princes crusading against the Normans, of course, Talleyrand is very confident, even if the twenty-eight-way princes come together, they are not the opponents of the Norman Empire, but the crux of the problem is that Randy does not want to fight.

As Randy's clerk, he knows exactly what Randy wants to do in the next few days.

That is, based on Eastern Europe, the next step of political and economic reform, to expand the strength of the Norman Empire, instead of war, endless war, this is not a good thing for the country, Randy knows this very well, so he doesn't want to fight, but not fighting does not mean that Randy is soft.

It seems that the Eastern Roman Empire, which is a nominal vassal, actually has no effect at all, so it even gives Randy a reason to meddle in the affairs of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the so-called softness naturally doesn't matter, after all, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Norman Empire did not have much intersection before this, and there are very big differences in culture, religion, and living customs, so Randy is not afraid.

But the Papal States are different, if you really take a step back from them and let the Papal States meddle in the affairs of the Norman Empire, there will definitely be endless troubles.

Therefore, if you don't want to fight, and you don't want to give in, then you can only intimidate and bluff with force.

Liaising with the Eastern Roman Empire to discuss the so-called unity of the Eastern and Western sects is only one of them, and this time snatching the crown is also one of them, and the third move of Randy's series of combo punches is the Norman offshore fleet arranged on the island of Malta, after a period of rest and construction, the main island of Malta and the other two small islands have been completely fortified, towering towers, ballistas, catapults, and the recently invented heavenly fireworks canister.

The castle was as majestic as a mountain, enclosing almost half of the island, and in this era before the invention of gunpowder weapons, such a large fortress with enough men and horses to defend it, even if a million troops attacked, as long as there were no fatal mistakes, it could be defended forever.

The whole defense system just encloses a large harbor, this harbor is surrounded by cliffs on three sides, and there is only one port island that can accommodate three warships in parallel, which is set as a water gate, and the interior is a large harbor with a water depth of 1,000 meters and a radius of more than 10 kilometers, and the flat tidal flats on each side are here.

Marshal Carter led the fleet to Malta last year, and the third thing he did was to survey the terrain, and he found such a treasure of feng shui, where only a small number of locals fished, and he couldn't help but say, "This is where heroes come in." ”

After more than a year of construction, there are already three scientific research institutes specializing in the study of warship technology, two shipyards, 12 dry docks, more than 50 docks, and more than 300 warships of the open sea fleet moored here.

Calculating the time, Randy's flying pigeon to Marshal Carter should have reached his hands by now, and when the time comes, the entire fleet of 20,000 navies will go out, go around the waters of the Holy See, and launch a few heavenly fireworks, so that others will mistakenly think that this is Greek fire, and it would be better if the Holy See could mistakenly think that the Eastern Roman Empire and the Norman Empire were iron enough to exchange core technologies with each other.

First befriend the Eastern Roman Empire, get in touch with the Orthodox sects, tell them that they have a way out, then snatch the crown at the coronation, tell them about their determination, and finally send a powerful fleet around the waters of the Holy See to tell them what they are capable of.

In this way, Randy's intimidation move can buy himself at least two to three years to survive until the death of the other Pope, or continue to spend a lot of money on army reform and create a huge navy, hoping that these bastards will have enough pockets to provide them with extreme luxury, while maintaining the same large army and navy scale.

Randy turned to look at the nobles and waved, and then the sparse applause rang out, and it grew louder and louder, and finally it seemed to explode, accompanied by cheers, Randy's charismatic personality made him look so different in everything he did, even if it was blasphemy.

Randy generously accepted the request of the nobles to jointly report that they hoped not to implement the emancipation decree, in fact, such news was also deliberately spread by Randy to make the nobles panic, and then use the conflict between the crown snatching and the Papal States to make them feel that there was an opportunity, and finally readily agreed to their proposal.

Satisfied? When you're satisfied, go back and have fun!

Randy played a little trick to make this group of nobles immediately feel that they had taken a big advantage, and the emperor was opposed to the church, and he had to get our support, so we could get more benefits, such an illusion was generated, and finally enough satisfaction was obtained, and once people were satisfied, they would become unenterprising, and people who did not want to make progress would not rebel, Randy hoped to maintain internal stability in other countries in this way, that is, to exchange economic and political interests for the support of the nobles, Let them choose between themselves and the Holy See, and if not choose themselves, at least remain neutral.

In fact, seeing the group of nobles leave happily, Randy felt that his solution was very effective, and if he thought about it, he could figure out that this cunning emperor had not given anything......

——————————

November 16, the day after the successful conclusion of the coronation.

Randy agreed to the nobles' request in the morning, and in the afternoon, the nobles prepared to go home in twos and threes, and Randy was also relieved, thinking that he had finally sent this group of uncles away, and he was afraid that he would be able to eat the poor directly, I really don't know what Louis XIV thought back then, and he was willing to unconditionally support the nobles of the whole country.

"You have that idle man who is thinking nonsense, why don't you think about the business, the relocation of the capital, and the request for help from the Grand Duchy of Moscow, what should you do? You'd rather decide sooner. Aurora's unhappy voice came from behind Randy again.

"There is no need to rush this kind of thing, the relocation of the capital, the most important thing is the relocation of the Royal Consulate, this matter is your sole responsibility, sister, as for the Grand Duchy of Moscow...... Let them wait a little longer and not die. ”

The so-called surprise was like this, although he sent envoys to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Zaporozhye Khanate at the same time, asking them to submit to him, but Randy really didn't expect that the two countries would agree so readily.

Or that the Zapori Khanate, which has milk is a mother, and no milk is a father, surrendered and recognized the Norman Empire as the suzerain, Randy was not surprised by such a thing, from when he was still the king of Norway, when he fought against Sweden, Novgorod, and Moscow, after defeating many Cossacks in that battle, he has never suffered a loss in the past few years in the southern and northern wars, and the Cossacks have never suffered a lossThis is for sure, and now the Norman Empire is powerful, the territory includes most of Eastern Europe, and the Eastern Roman Empire, the only one capable of stopping the Norman Empire, has long been bought by the Norman Empire, so it is reasonable for the Cossacks to consider the Norman Empire as their suzerain.

But what surprised Randy was that the Grand Duchy of Moscow, a country that has been mostly Slavic, is more distant from the Rus and Vikings in terms of blood relations, and it was even more popular in the European turmoil last year, and it was forcibly annexed Novgorod, the national power has soared, and its own ruling class is also very enterprising, and Catherine II is a generation of heroes, why did she surrender so easily?

At that time, Randy still thought that if the other party could cut down the messenger he persuaded to surrender, he would be able to attack the Grand Duchy of Moscow justifiably, without seeking to occupy it all, because the Norman Empire now occupies too many new territories, and if it annexes the new territories, it will be too much to expand, but it is better to weaken the power of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, but soon when the envoy returns with the Grand Duchess of Moscow, Catherine II's letter of allegiance and a letter asking for help, Randy knew that he didn't need to weaken the Grand Duchy of Moscow now, in fact, the powerful Grand Duchy, which once had ambitions to sweep Eastern Europe, was now on the verge of extinction.

"Are those Cumans really that strong?" Randy looked very puzzled, 100,000 steppe nomadic cavalry, it seems very scary to say, but in fact, these guys with superb equestrian skills, courage and wildness are indeed very good soldiers, but when they really encounter Norman hussars on the battlefield, they can only be crushed.

Randy's evaluation of them is a very good soldier, a soldier rather than a soldier, the difference between the two is like the difference between high-quality iron ore and alloy steel, after systematic military training, reorganization and redressing, the steppe nomadic cavalry can indeed become very powerful soldiers, but before this, in Randy's eyes, these are just a group of mobs.

So Randy was very surprised, looking at the diplomat returning from the Grand Duchy of Moscow and asked.

"The Grand Duchy of Moscow also has a territory of several million square kilometers and a population of tens of millions, and the commander Semenov is also a talent, even if the number of troops is not as good as that of the Cumans, it should not be so easy to lose if the city is fortified."

"This ...... The subordinates did not know much about the military aspect, but it is said that the strategy implemented by the Grand Duchy of Moscow was not much different from what His Majesty said, and after a field battle, it did not take advantage of anything, and then under the leadership of Semenovsky, all the 50,000 troops gathered were withdrawn into the city of Novgorod, and the walls were cleared for defense. ”

(End of chapter)