I patted the old count on the shoulder and comforted him: "That's why we need a cooperating pope, as long as Bishop Rebel can ascend the throne of St. Peter, he will definitely be willing to pay some price, such as canonizing an earl who can turn the tide and defeat the infidels, such as using the holy spear as a weight to bargain with Duke Henry, etc...... After becoming pope, Bishop Gerbert also needed the support of several local powers to strengthen his position in Rome. ”

"You really have a plan that is not leaky, but the help of you and me is far from quenching the thirst of the near, why doesn't the Bishop choose the relatively close Duke of Carinthia as his backing?" The old earl tilted his head and pursed his lips, and said the question in his heart.

"Because Carinthia can't guarantee his power, I've already laid a stumbling block for them to prevent others from picking our peaches near the water."

I squeezed my eyes at the Count of Hanover with a smile on my lips: "I have decided to hand over Calabria to the Normans, whose presence in southern Italy will not only help the empire withstand the flood of Saracen counterattacks before we gain a foothold, but also add to the blockage of the Duke of Carinthia, so that he cannot concentrate on the affairs of the Vatican." ”

"It's kind of interesting......"

The old count shrugged his eyebrows thoughtfully: "What about the Duke of Carinthia?" This greedy jackal won't remain silent as you please. ”

"Give them the Austrian border zone, plus the neighboring Moravia and Bohemia, enough to feed the belly of the Duke of Carinthia."

I stared at the old duke and replied unhurriedly: "Believe me, the unruly Magyars alone will make the Duke very troubled, not to mention the rebellion in the mountains of Croatia, and the Poles, who also covet the fertile land of Bohemia, his limited energy cannot hinder big things." ”

At this time, the fresh breeze outside blew the tulle curtains, making the whole sunny room as beautiful as a fairyland, and the burning spices in the Saracen-style incense burner fully melted into every grain of air factor, making people breathe refreshment, and the old duke put the dagger back into the sheath and muttered: "The mutton is cold......

I smiled and knew that he had decided to get on his own ship, so I explained to him kindly: "Hanover and Nijmegen have one vote in the vote to decide the affairs of the Empire, and the rest of the dukes each have one vote, Swabia and Bavaria will be on our side, even if Duke Henry can pull Carinthia and Lorraine to tie up his chariot, the Duke of Franconia, who is jealous of him for seizing the throne, will not easily dislike it, I believe that this is the object that we can fight for, so within the Empire, We still have ways to check the power of the emperor. ”

The old earl stood up and stretched his burly body and stretched his waist, and the chain mail all over his body, with the movement of his limbs, rattled and rattled, he walked past me, pressed his strong and powerful iron pincer-like hand on my shoulder, and said:

"I love every word you say...... In addition, you look like a real emperor, maybe I'm old, and I should be glad to be able to get the duke's background for my family. With that, he left me stunned and walked out of the room laughing.

"The real emperor?"

As I savored these words, I shuddered, and a trace of indescribable fear rose from the depths of my heart, and I said to myself: "Be careful, a new enemy may have appeared, and if you embark on this road ......of no return, you will never turn back."

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Rome, the Eternal City!

A sacred place that has been destined to be glorious for eternity since its inception.

I have witnessed how many rulers of the time proudly trampled themselves under their feet, proudly accepting the worship and cheers of the whole world, but time is a merciless judge, he will not pity anyone because of a person's high spirits when he is strong, in the continuous cycle of the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, countless kings and powerful people from rise to strength, from the apex to the extinction, and finally disappear in the vast time and space.

Only at this time will people suddenly realize that Rome, where they lived, was an immortal existence in this world, an eternal legend.

"The carved fence and jade masonry should still be there, but Zhu Yan has changed ......"

Standing on the balcony facing the square, I bathed in the warm light of the rising sun, lazily stretching my waist, looking at the long reflection of the magnificent shore building in front of me that I don't know when someone carved and built, and couldn't help chanting the famous sentences that have been recited through the ages.

"My lord, the bath water is ready, please move to the bathroom."

Just when I was feeling sad with a rare literary style, Rollo knocked on the door and walked in softly and said, "The tailor has brought the robe that I had worked on overnight last night, and I have ordered them to wait outside.!"

I glanced down at my dirty shirt, turned and walked towards the bathroom next door, and said as I went, "Let the tailors wait in the drawing-room, and tell Leonardo to go to the drawing-room, I have some details to ask." ”

After saying that, I untied the strap on my shirt and walked into the bathroom where the maid greeted me with a smile.

It had been some time since they returned to Rome, and the affairs of Calabria were basically settled, and the Normans took over the defense of the area and began to build their own castles and farms, and there would be a steady stream of immigrants from Normandy to settle the area in preparation for the next attack on Sicily and the Saracen islands of Sardinia.

At the same time, there were many Norman expeditions under the banner of expelling the infidels, entering several small Christian states in northern Iberia, fighting for the local lords in the name of official or semi-official, and directly threatening the Saracens on the peninsula from the other direction, establishing a number of emirates with the Kingdom of Córdoba as the core.

The fanatical conquest of the Vikings in his blood has not yet been extinguished, and he still longs to lead a warrior with a horn helmet and a dragon head warship to dominate the five seas!

Duke Henry was a clever man, and he knew from the moment he heard the news of the death of His Majesty the Emperor, that he would be the only option, so when I appeared at the Duke's palace in Bavaria, he did not show the slightest surprise.

We chatted for a short time in a secret room where there were no outsiders, and most of them were inconsequential polite words, and he shrewdly understood that in the face of reality, he had to make the necessary concessions, and that it was imperative to eat the benefits into his own mouth, rather than haggling for things that could not be grasped for the time being.

Therefore, Duke Henry almost did not hesitate, and accepted my suggestion in its entirety, for the matter of becoming an emperor, everything else is a trivial matter, and he is confident that he has the ability to solve the power crisis that he will face in the future after sitting on the throne.

The Vatican is also silent, as if the people here have always served God wholeheartedly and devotedly, never caring about power and wealth, and those clergy whose greed is as unfathomable as a bottomless pit are trembling in the face of the oppression of the Normans, no one dares to stand up and say a word, and Bishop Rebel, who has rushed back from Ravenna, will naturally become the next pope.

Bishop Gerbert was also a wise man, he always wanted to realize his political aspirations by influencing Emperor Otto, and become a monarch and vassal relationship like Constantine the Great and his good friend Pope Sylvester I, but unfortunately God did not fulfill people's wishes, His Majesty Otto died in the war with the infidels, and this expedition was also launched at the suggestion of Bishop Gerbert, with the aim of unifying the whole peninsula and labeling the emperor himself as a saint, in order to gain higher popularity, Create the conditions for the creation of a completely centralized central empire.

Since the Normans blocked the news of the death of the Pope and began to take over the defense of the whole of Rome, the sensitive bishop vaguely guessed that something earth-shattering might happen in southern Italy, enough to change the existing political pattern of immortality, so he sent his men early to prepare to return to Rome, so when the herald had just left for a week, Bishop Rebel appeared outside the mansion to ask for an audience, I was indeed taken aback, At the same time, I also gained a deeper understanding of this thoughtful priesthood.

The death of His Majesty Otto was expected by him, and Bishop Gerbert did not show undue grief before me.

"For the rest of my life, there will be time to pray for His Majesty's noble soul."

He removed the hood from his head, revealing his tired face, wrinkled at the corners of his eyes, and now all his attention was on succeeding the pope.

Bishop Rebel did not confidently accept my arrangement, as Duke Henry did, but made several small demands of his own, including the stationing of bishops in Venice and Calabria, the expansion of the power and territory of the Papal States, and the construction of churches and the appointment of priests in all the noble territories of the empire.

"The perfect partner, but also an adversary to watch out for."

I secretly wrote down my evaluation of him in my heart, wondering if I had made the right choice and whether I would create a new enemy.

(End of chapter)