"What if he returns to Rome to be crowned, sits on the throne of the emperor and then comes back to us? At that time, whether it is strength or reason, we will be absolutely weak, and we will definitely be the object of the wall falling down and everyone pushing us. ”

The old earl patted his head in annoyance, and began to complain again.

"That's why I brought in the Duke of Normandy, his people control the Vatican, and we can influence the choice of the next pope, and this person must not be the former Imperial Archbishop Gailius, he and Duke Henry colluded too deeply, and they will inevitably be complicit after taking the throne, I am inclined to the emperor's teacher and close friend, Bishop Rebel."

I threw the peeled shrimp into my mouth and chewed it with relish.

"So what? Even if he is not crowned, he is the irrefutable king of the whole country, the supreme lord who everyone nominally swears allegiance, and the Roman crown is just a dispensable toy, and it is not difficult to force the Holy See to be crowned at any time when the power is consolidated. ”

The Earl of Hanover shook his head, thinking that I had thought things too simply, and that a false title would not make Duke Henry dare not take a step beyond the thunder pool.

"You're right, who cares about the icing on the cake?"

I picked up a huge shrimp and began to peel the shell seriously: "What if Bishop Rebel holds Charlemagne's holy spear in his hand?" His Majesty the Emperor specially entrusted it to him for safekeeping before setting out on the expedition. ”

"God!" The old earl cried out in astonishment......

"That's a lot of weight, and Duke Henry can't want it."

Charlemagne's holy spear, or perhaps another name for it, is the Longinus spear.

The legendary Spear of Destiny is a sacred relic that every believer is familiar with, passed through the hands of many famous rulers, and finally obtained it by Charlemagne, the most powerful ruler in Europe at that time, and has since been passed down among the Frankish kings as a symbol of supreme royal power.

Legend has it that after Jesus and two other thieves were crucified, a Roman soldier named Longinus, in order to confirm whether Jesus had really died by torture, pierced Jesus in the heart with a spear, and a large amount of blood splattered from the wound, enveloping the whole spear, and at the same time sprinkled on Longinus's eyes, and at this time his almost blind eyes healed on their own, so that the iron-hearted executioner could not help but shout:

"What a miracle! He is the Son of God! ”

Sensing God's call, Longinus retired from the Roman army, was baptized as a devout believer, fled with the Holy Spear to the Valais region, where he preached, and was later posthumously named St. Longinus by the Holy See.

Legend has it that as long as you hold the spear of Longcinus, everyone within a hundred and twenty feet will be submissive, and the person who wields this spear can dominate the world, but those who lose it will also die instantly, cursed by God, and will not be liberated until the day of the Last Judgment.

Even so, there are still many people who want to get it.

After Longinus' death, the spear was preserved by his descendants and passed down from generation to generation until the Roman emperor sent a large army to the Valais region to suppress the Christian uprising, and the spear eventually reached the Roman court.

When it was time for Constantine the Great to conquer the world, during a march over the Alps, he obtained the Holy Spear, and then the Battle of Mirivian Bridge, which decided the ownership of the throne, Constantine the Great stabbed the Eastern Roman Emperor to death with the Holy Spear, and reunited the Eastern and Western Romes at a relatively small cost.

He believed that it was God who helped him in the dark, thus legitimizing Christianity and eventually becoming the state religion of Rome, and the holy spear became a symbol of supreme power.

After the fall of Rome, the invading Visigothic leader Aralle obtained the Holy Spear when he sacked Rome and kept it with him, but his kingdom fell apart and the Holy Spear returned to the Romans.

Until the next ruler of the ages: Attila, the whip of God, appears!

When the king of the Huns led a large army to the city of Rome in great danger, Pope Leo I personally went out of the city to negotiate with him, and after promising a huge amount of gold and a ransom with a Roman princess, Attila set out on his way home full of spoils, and when he retreated, he threw the holy spear offered by the pope back among the Romans, and shouted arrogantly:

"Get your spears back, I don't know the god who gave it power!" Soon after, Attila was found dead on her wedding night, and his death remained a mystery.

Charlemagne, the ruler of the first time in European history, restored Rome to its glory and united much of Europe, and people finally prostrate at the feet of a single ruler once again.

The Emperor inherited the Sacred Spear from his grandfather, Charles, the Hammer, and at a time when belief in God had become the universal consensus of all, the bearer of the Sacred Spear helped him to consolidate his dominance and unite the hearts of the people and conquer the lands of the barbarians and the infidels.

Throughout the Emperor's life, he put the Holy Spear within his reach, no matter how dangerous the situation, he was able to save the day and laugh to the end, until he returned triumphantly from the last time he led the army, and accidentally slipped the Holy Spear from his hand, and at the same time a meteor magically crossed the sky, Charlemagne never fell ill again, never led his army again, and achieved any victory for Christ, and after his death, the empire was divided into three, and the war was endless.

After the German king crossed the Alps and conquered the Lombard Kingdom in northern Italy, the holy spear returned to the hands of the Franks, although the Frankish dynasty at this time existed in name only, and the people of the eastern and western Frankish countries preferred to call themselves Germans or Frenchmen, but Otto the Great still relied on the appeal of the holy spear to achieve brilliant victories and build a huge empire step by step.

After Charlemagne, the Holy Spear became a symbol of the absolute imperial power of the Saxony and German kings, and every emperor proved that he was under the command of the Heavens, without which no lord would have recognized your power.

"Should I praise you for being well-informed, or should the emperor be the first to anticipate the enemy?"

The Count of Hanover grinned at his bearded mouth: "You control the Holy See, Bishop Gerbert holds the Holy Spear, and Duke Henry wants to become emperor...... Hehe, a complex and interesting relationship. ”

"In this case, Duke Henry will have to choose to cooperate with us, so that he can ascend to the throne relatively smoothly."

I pursed my lips and said softly, "Without the Holy Spear, Duke Henry is a puppet emperor, no one will submit to his rule, and any nobleman can attack him in the name of this." ”

"But you still can't guarantee that he won't trouble us after he ascends the throne, and once the holy spear is given to him, we will have no more shields to rely on."

The old earl put down the dagger he was holding, and said to me worriedly, "If you find the right opportunity, he will surely tear us apart!" ”

"So I arranged some conditions and used this opportunity to force him to agree."

With a gleam in my eyes, I leaned on the table and replied confidently, "Believe me, the allure of the holy spear and the throne is enough for him to swallow all the bait in one gulp, even if there is a sharp hook hidden behind it." ”

"Tell me about it!"

The old earl picked up the dagger again, and was looking at which part of the lamb to start with: "I am more interested in what I have to say below than what I have just said, after all, from the comparison with each other, what is just now is some sauce, and the bargaining condition is the real mutton, I am very hungry." ”

As he spoke, he slipped a piece of mutton from the shoulder blades of the roast lamb and threw it into his mouth and chewed it.

Seeing him eat so happily, I also felt that my appetite was greatly increased, and I tilted my head to choose which position to take: "According to the old custom, once Duke Henry is crowned emperor, his duchy must be transferred to his brother or close relative, and since the duke now has no heirs or brothers, we can only find one of the other candidates to inherit Bavaria." ”

"This sauce is really good, and eating it with lamb can just neutralize its flavor."

The old duke sucked his fingers and admired me, as if he had not paid attention to me.

"I want to transfer the Duke of Lower Lorraine to Bavaria, and then reunite the two Lorraines, so that with the addition of Saxony under the command of the emperor himself, the number of principalities within the empire will reach six, and the distribution of power will be more balanced, and there may be a three-to-three situation."

The old earl frowned and thought for a while, and said: "Duke Henry, plus his own vote, must pull in three other dukes, in order to reach a unity of opinion within the empire, as far as the current situation is concerned, except for the Duke of Lorraine, he has no reliable friends." ”

"This is only the first step to restrain his power, if Duke Henry really has the ability to put other dukes on his side, it is impossible to prevent him from gradually grasping the leadership of the empire by relying on the constraints of decentralization alone, those adults' style of acting, I believe you know better than me, rootless wall grass, running with the wind."

I shrugged my shoulders and grimaced, amusing the old earl: "The most important thing I have come to you to discuss is that I want to elevate Hanover and Nijmegen to duchies at the same time, and on the other hand, the traditional four principalities and Lorraine will be elevated to grand duchies, in order to show our noble status and absolute right to speak in the affairs of the empire." ”

Hearing this, the Count of Hanover's eyes widened violently, as if he did not believe his ears, and he stood up and took me by the word for word:

"Hanover became a principality? Are you kidding me? Not to mention how the other dukes will object, even Duke Henry will never let your attempt succeed! ”

(End of chapter)