An hour later, the disheveled couple leaned against the wall, telling what had happened since they left.

First of all, Artoria said, with the hussars in North Germany to burn and loot, and then the war expanded, taking advantage of the situation to Hamburg, Lübeck, Bremen, which is now the North Saxon region, and then fought several tough battles with the Saxon army, Artoria led the army to continue eastward, after obtaining the national reinforcements and the Lithuanian alliance, with an absolute superiority of troops, without suspense defeated the 50,000 army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and finally led the army into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, after a series of massacres into Moscow, Forced the Grand Duke of Moscow, Catherine II, to make concessions.

The battle was rich for the Norman Empire, in addition to the 200,000 indemnities from the Grand Duchy of Moscow, there were commercial treaties that were more favorable to the Norman Empire, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow also promised to completely abandon Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, these three rich and fertile lands.

"It's just these places, the current situation is quite chaotic, although I left some cavalry, and recruited some tribes and nobles to arm, but I can only barely maintain order, the situation is further north the better, the further south we are, the weaker our control, it can even be said that in the southern region of Poland, we are completely unable to master any resources, there is the territory of local noble armies, bandits, nomadic tribes, these chaotic armed forces, although the combat effectiveness is not strong, but the victory is in a large number, what should we do, You need to come up with ideas. ”

Randy nodded, "That's in the north...... How many cities are we able to master? ”

"Poznan and Bialystok in southern Poland are the only two cities, although Krakow in southern Poland and Kiev in Ukraine belong to us in the agreement, but in fact Krakow has its own autonomous government, and local nobles and businessmen unite to manipulate the political situation, while in the Ukrainian regions, the people there are emotionally more inclined towards the Zaporizhzhia Khanate in the Crimea region, and economically and culturally more towards the Eastern Roman Empire in the south."

"It seems that the situation there is even more miserable than I imagined, and it is really difficult for you."

"I'm not done yet! In addition to these, there is also something inappropriate on the Lithuanian side. ”

"What's wrong?"

"Although Belarus has been given to them, the Vytautas guy does not seem to be very satisfied, he said that you promised to recognize him as the heir of the United Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, and now that the war is over, he wants you to fulfill your promise and cede Poland and Ukraine to him."

"That's what he said?"

Randy was a little angry, there are so many insects that don't know whether they are alive or dead these days, and Vytautas has less than 40,000 soldiers and horses, why do you want such a large territory?

"It's a little more tactful than I said, but that's what it actually means."

Randy nodded, lost in thought......

Do you want to destroy them? Recently, the situation in Europe has stabilized, so the focus of the Norman Empire's next step is still to focus on Eastern Europe, digesting all the territory that has been swallowed recently, and it is better to recruit the demobilized conscripts after a period of time, and the regular army will also take a while to return to its heyday, as well as military reform, so that the time will be longer, and at this time the war with Lithuania seems to be a bit more than worth the loss.

But if Lithuania is not eliminated as soon as possible, and when they annex Belarus, will it not be a problem to raise tigers? In fact, Randy did get information before, after Frederick wrote to these kings, Vytautas was indeed quite moved, and unlike Randy's promise, Frederick's promise was more direct, he promised to support Vytautas to claim the title of king of the United Kingdom, and support Vytautas to obtain ownership of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Prussia, Livonia, and all the territories of Eastern Europe.

Although the news of Ranti's annihilation of the Holy Roman Empire's army and Emperor Frederick's death from a hundred arrows had already reached before Vytautas's cavalry, a bucket of cold water directly doused Vytautas's ambitions, but after this incident, there was a clear rift in the fragile alliance between the Norman Empire and Lithuania.

"Alright! You can do whatever you want, that guy has also sent a messenger, and it should be there in a few days. ”

Randy chuckled and said as if talking to himself, "What a coincidence! The Germans, the Holy See, the Lithuanians, their emissaries are all arriving in a few days. ”

"Really?" Artoria casually answered, leaning on Randy's shoulder, closing her eyes and not speaking.

The next day, Artoria woke up without seeing Randy......

The next day, Joan of Arc wakes up with no Randy to see her......

Randy was working hard in his study at this time......

Although in fact, most of the things in the empire are run by the system Enides itself, there are not many things that need to be mastered by Randy, and the real heavy work is intelligence analysis.

It was done yesterday, and now we are waiting for the envoys of the three countries to come to the door themselves.

Negotiate conditions, write a treaty, maintain peace for a few years, wait until the strength of both sides recovers, and hit a dog's head in the head.

The real reason why Randy got up early and ran to the study to be diligent is to make Artoria not suspicious, although Artoria has accepted the existence of Joan of Arc before this, but this cold-blooded queen actually just treats Joan of Arc as a surrogacy machine, plus Joan of Arc itself is not inferior to her skills, so Artoria You are a little jealous, but now it is different, Joan of Arc has been seriously injured and cannot have children, and her skills are completely useless.

Randy naturally doesn't care, and even thinks that Joan of Arc is hidden in the deep palace by him like this, which is not a bad ending, but if Artoria knows that this woman who no longer has any use value can still get Randy's favor, then I am afraid that it seems that a little nun who has an intellectual disability and is not very good at birth may be valued by the queen, becoming a second-generation breeding machine, and the guarantee of safety is much better than Joan's.

Therefore, before Randy has thought of a perfect way for the time being, it is impossible to have a private meeting, and it is better to wait until he returns to Gothenburg and send Joan of Arc to the newly built convent to find time for her......

The simple-minded Artoria easily accepted Randy's reason, but on the contrary, she felt heartache because Randy worked so hard, and wanted to cook some soup for Randy to replenish her body, and after cutting more than a dozen case boards, she was invited out by the palace kitchen.

Of course, in fact, if Randy has nothing to do, it is a bit incorrect to go to the study just to mess around, and Randy is indeed doing something.

In terms of military affairs, due to the number of dwarven mercenaries, the Norman Empire itself also has a large number of Germanic people who are good at using ultra-long spears, so Randy decided to abandon the dwarven secret room guard mercenary unit and use the Swiss gun array as a model to create a universal ultra-long pikemen for the empire.

In addition, because of the light cavalry troops, the empire has recently recruited light cavalry troops on a large scale, and now it has formed a stable source of three soldiers.

Hussars from Finland......

Cavalry archers from Eastern Europe......

Ranger from Hungary......

These lightly armed cavalry units also need to be further reorganized and standardized.

North Saxony and Poland and Ukraine in the east, these regions also need to be pacified as soon as possible, and how many troops will be needed to pacify these? And how many troops are needed to garrison them? What kind of political system should be in place in these places? These things need to be solved by Randy, including the fact that these things are actually just one word!

Money!!!!!

Military reform, recruiting troops, pacifying local tyrants, these things all need money, and a lot of money, which is another trouble.

Randy has indeed gained a lot of money after various wars before, but all parts of the empire need money, and if you don't plan carefully and spend it lavishly, I'm afraid it won't take a few days for this money to be spent.

But no matter how you calculate it, Randy ends up with a very pessimistic conclusion.

If you want to annex and digest the whole of Poland, Ukraine, and North Saxony, you need at least 20 million gold coins.

Such a large sum of money, even if it is a rich guy like Randy, it is not something that can be taken out casually, even if it is carefully calculated over and over again, the final result is more and more headaches.

Just when Randy was getting more and more headaches, Brandenburg was quite like a dove occupying a crane's nest, and when a large number of Normans were accommodating, Ukraine was infiltrated by the Zaporozhye Khanate, the Autonomous Government of Southern Poland, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the Eastern Roman Empire, the long-awaited Lithuanian envoy finally came, and Randy also met the envoy unofficially in his study.

The first impression this guy left on Randy was very good, he had a face with Eastern European characteristics, closer to the general facial features of the Orientals, a high nose bridge and sunken cheekbones, wearing a new sheepskin jacket, riding boots, felt hat, and a very simple scimitar with no decoration hanging on the belt, looking no different from the nomads who served in Randy's army, but this favor did not last more than a minute, after this guy finished introducing himself, Randy always had a sarcastic smile when facing neutral and hostile characters, It appears at the corner of the mouth.

That's what Cheng said:

"The great Norman Emperor, the Venerable Duke Vytautas, on behalf of your most loyal ally, Grand Duke of Lithuania, rightful heir of the United Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the most powerful tribe in the steppes of Eastern Europe, and the owner of the most powerful cavalry, wishes you a long and healthy life."

After saying this, the messenger bowed deeply, and then stopped at this action, waiting for Randy to speak.

This was nearly five minutes, and even if the messenger was an idiot, he understood that Randy was making things difficult for him, and he couldn't help but want to get angry, but as an envoy, he could still remember his mission, and finally held back his emotions and raised his head slightly to peek at Randy, only to find that the Norman emperor was also looking at him with a scrutinizing gaze.

"That's amazing!"

The messenger's heart beat violently, and he immediately lowered his head and did not dare to move, just a moment of staring at each other, the messenger felt that he had returned to the time when he was targeted by wolves in winter, when the old hunter beside him had pointed out to him, that was the wolf king.

When he looked over, the wolf king seemed to notice his gaze, and stopped and turned to meet his eyes.

The envoy stood on the spot, his limbs stiff, as if he had fallen into a river of ice.

Knowing that the confrontation between the wolves and the hunters slowly dissipated, the envoy gradually eased up.

I remember the green and cold eyes vividly, and those eyes were also ill-intentioned, with the emotions of a playful and condescending predator, which made people feel awe.

The more the envoy thought about it, the more frightened he became, the more he couldn't control himself, the more he thought about it, and he broke out in a cold sweat, and he didn't dare to say a word.

Finally, it took an unknown amount of time before Randy, who was sitting at the top, snorted softly, snapped his fingers, and asked the maid for a glass of cold wine.

"You......"

Randy took a sip of wine and said, "I have heard of a kind of person who is very honest on the surface, but in fact he is full of flowers and intestines in his heart, I have never met this kind of person before, so I don't know if this is true or not, but after seeing you today, I realized that this kind of person really exists." ”

Randy spoke slowly, and the messenger bent over for too long, feeling like his spine was about to break, and psychologically he was almost collapsed under the influence of Randy's huge coercion.

"Loyalty? Powerful? Do you want me to live a long and healthy life? I'm afraid that among the people who most want me to die immediately, your Grand Duke should be in the top three. ”

"I ......"

The envoy couldn't say a word, his knees were weak and he wanted to kneel, but because the range of movement was too large, the two knight guards next to him misunderstood, thinking that he wanted to assassinate, but the two brand-new hand and half swords were placed in an X-shape in front of him, and the envoy used all his strength to maintain a standing posture, and almost hit the blade of the sword, scaring him into a cold sweat.

"Go back and tell Vytautas, tell that greedy guy that I am already very tolerant, Lithuania and Belarus are the two territories that are my biggest limit, and if he wants more, let him take it himself." With that, Randy returned to his seat with some trepidation, waving his hand like a fly, motioning for the knight to drag the guy out.

Randy has adopted a policy of intimidation, threat and suppression for Lithuania with great ambition but limited strength, rather than blind accommodation or useless appeasement, and in the recent past, the policy of the Norman Empire will also be tilted towards Eastern Europe, putting pressure on Lithuania from a practical point of view, so that this guy can be honest.

However, Randy also knows that such a strong subduing may be effective for some cowardly peoples and incompetent rulers, but for the fierce Eastern European nomads and the powerful Grand Duke of Lithuania, it can only make him hide deeper, like a tight spring, the stronger the power of suppression, the greater the force of rebound.

But Randy doesn't care about these, the hegemony in Randy's heart needs the whole open and flat, fertile land, and strong folk customs of Eastern Europe, not part of the incomplete Eastern Europe, so the contradictions between him and Lithuania are irreconcilable, and a big war will inevitably break out between the two sides.

Just buy a little more time, and that's enough!

(End of chapter)