Although there were many conflicts between the princes of the Holy Roman Empire, there were also many blood marriages between them, coupled with this situation, the three dukes had a sense of sadness, among which Albrecht II of Austria was the most sad.

Because the old duke of Bohemia, who was both his cousin and his father-in-law, and his guardian until he was a minor, he had the best relationship with the old duke of Bohemia among the holy Roman princes, and the alliance was the strongest.

At this time, Lucivid, Duke of Hesse, whispered: "I don't know how Your Majesty is doing, and there is no news from the crown prince." ”

This sentence directly obliterates Albrecht, which is sad at all.

The emperor and crown prince are all missing, and the Holy Roman Empire will once again fall into the period of the emperors recommended by the princes, Lucivide, Albrecht, and these two are all dukes canonized after Frederick came to power, and the territory is not as big as his own, plus his father-in-law died in battle, he may have the opportunity to fight for the territory of Bohemia, and several of his cousins are inactive, most of them are not their opponents, so doesn't it mean that they have a chance to become the Holy Roman Emperor?

The more the Duke of Austria thought about it, the more excited he became, and the sorrow just now immediately disappeared, and he just wanted to return to the country quickly and become emperor.

Before Albrecht's dream was finished, he heard someone roar like a thunderbolt: "I'm all right, Henry is all right, regroup, I'm going to drink those damned Greeks to fight to the death." ”

When everyone looked over again, they saw the Holy Roman Emperor and the Crown Prince with dusty faces, walking over with a group of remnants of the Holy Roman Empire.

"Damn! How is he still alive? No! ”

"He should be dead, after such a defeat, what face does he have to be an emperor?"

Suddenly, when he heard the news of His Majesty the Emperor, the three dukes had different faces, among which the Austrian Duke Albrecht was even more indignant, and was extremely angry about the shattering of his dream just now, and his face was naturally not too good-looking, although the other two dukes were not as obvious as Albrecht, but they did not think much of what Frederick said about fighting to the death.

The Holy Roman Empire's coalition army gathered some remnants of the defeated generals, and the number of troops barely reached seventy or eighty thousand, plus the miraculous return of His Majesty the Emperor, so the morale was slightly boosted, and after asking the locals to know that this place is still more than 300 miles away from Budapest, and it is a small place that usually has no people and is unknown.

The Holy Roman Empire army fought for a day and a night, so far they were finally able to rest, but when they broke through, everyone only cared about themselves, basically did not grab any baggage, and they were highly nervous before, so they didn't care too much, but this will stop Everyone found that their stomachs were already rumbling with hunger, but there was no food here.

This is just a small place, even if it is all looted, even the human flesh is not enough for the Holy Roman Empire army to eat a full meal, this can be bad for the emperor and the dukes, the eastern feudal royal power has such a high social status, but there is also a saying that the emperor is not bad hungry soldiers, then the imperial power is not very high in the West, the effect can be imagined, if there is not enough food, this group of soldiers whose morale is not very high will soon disperse, leaving only a few professional troops and feudal knights with relatively high loyalty.

Even if you don't talk about this, how can the soldiers have the strength to fight if they don't eat and don't have enough to eat?

What if this catches up with the Eastern Roman army?

Of course, this fear is somewhat unnecessary, Basil II feared that if the persecution was too tight, the Holy Roman Empire would fight back, and the Eastern Roman army would suffer heavy losses. As a result, only a small number of lightly armed cavalry were sent to listen to the news, while the main force celebrated the victory on the outskirts of Budapest.

But the emperors and dukes of the Holy Roman Empire did not know about this, so they were in a hurry, and Emperor Frederick gritted his teeth and sent knights, cavalry, and retinues who could barely move to leave their armor and heavy equipment here, and made a cameo appearance as horse bandits, and went around to collect food.

In the end, after tossing for a long time and robbing a dozen small villages around it, it was barely enough to scrape together 70,000 mouths of grain, and the quality was so poor that even the rancid water for the cattle was fed, and the soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire complained again and again, and some even preferred to go hungry rather than eat this pig food.

At this moment, the emperor and the dukes listened to the complaints of the soldiers outside the camp, and saw that some chickens, ducks, fish, and meat in front of them had no appetite, Frederick sighed, and motioned to the other three dukes with his eyes, saying: "Warriors who fight valiantly for Jesus Christ really do not deserve this treatment, this is simply an insult. ”

"Give us all the food we eat! Father! At least we were the last to go to war. Prince Henry pleaded.

"Indeed! His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is right. The Dukes of Brandenburg and Hesse responded.

Only the Duke of Austria was not very cooperative, and snorted coldly: "We have been treated like this, and we don't know whose fault it is." ”

Hearing Albrecht, Duke of Austria, say this, Frederick's face was a little unbearable, and he coughed twice, hoping that the other two dukes would play a round, but the other two dukes looked at the top of the tent, as if there were angels dancing striptease on it, so attractive, completely ignored the hints of His Majesty the Emperor.

“MD！ Cut down all of you from now on. Frederick cursed in his heart, and wanted to say something, but the Austrian Duke Albrecht snorted coldly, stood up and walked out directly, making Frederick angry enough.

"Your Majesty! The Duke of Austria is still young, so don't be like him. The other two dukes also had good things to say about Albrecht.

The morale of the army is unstable!

Frederick fought on the battlefield for decades, and naturally could see that if he didn't do something, his history would end here, how could this work? He still had a lot to do, suppress the pope, become the most powerful emperor in all of Europe, defeat all opponents, and turn the Holy Roman Empire into a powerful, unified state.

But if you want to accomplish this, you must first get the Duke of Austria Albrecht, the only remaining duke in the civil strife of the four electors, except for himself, is his biggest opponent and obstacle, but in order to maintain the stability of the country and the throne, Frederick had to try to satisfy the greed of this guy, that night, Frederick called Albrecht over, the two sides secretly negotiated and bargained for half a day, Frederick had to accept Albrecht's conditions as if it were blackmail.

"First of all, you have to make sure that I can get Bohemia!"

"Secondly, in the future, I feel that I should have a greater say in the question of the Kingdom of Hungary than the other princes, because it is closer to Austria."

"Thirdly, there is the status of the country, Bohemia has won the title of king, so I think I can ......"

"Don't you think you're asking too much? Is Austria not enough to satisfy your ambitions? Frederick asked impatiently, and when Albrecht said the first two conditions, Frederick could still listen patiently, but when Albrecht vaguely said that he would become king of Bohemia after obtaining Bohemia, Frederick could not sit still.

The Holy Roman Empire is indeed a patchwork country, and before fully joining the empire and becoming an Elector, Bohemia did maintain the title of king for a long time, and even said that this title sometimes existed at the same time as the title of Holy Roman Emperor, and when the Elector of Bohemia became emperor, they did not recommend adding another crown to their heads, so in fact, there should be three crowns in the entire Holy Roman Empire.

The most important of these is the crown of the Kingdom of Germany, the second most important is the crown of the Kingdom of Italy, these two crowns are permanent, all the Holy Roman Emperors, will declare themselves to be the king of Germany and the king of Italy at the same time, only Bohemia is not the same, so Frederick is a little unacceptable.

For this old man, who was nearly seventy years old and attached great importance to tradition, it would be a great shame for him to have a Bohemian king during his tenure, as if he had been slapped in front of the whole world, so he had to object.

"Of course not, Your Majesty, just as a territory as large as the Holy Roman Empire cannot be satisfied with your ambitions, in fact I have never seen a king in this world that satisfies the territory he governs."

"The Holy Roman Empire must not have a second king! In the case of Bohemia, I would support you in gaining dominion there, and in the case of Hungary, as long as we can defeat the Greeks, I can also promise you the lion's share of the spoils, but the king absolutely not, I categorically disagree. ”

You old bastard, when you're dead, there's a bigger name waiting for me to fight for!

Albrecht pretended to hesitate and showed unwillingness: "Okay! My Majesty, I may give up my last request. ”

Frederick was also relieved to hear Albrecht finally make a compromise: "Then so be it, duke, I hope you can keep your promise and continue to be loyal to me." ”

"Of course! Your Majesty! I have always been faithful to you,"

In this way, a crisis that would have collapsed the entire empire disappeared into nothingness, both sides got what they wanted, and Frederick could continue to be emperor of the Holy Roman Empire until his death.

However, the Holy Roman Empire's war against the Eastern Roman Empire was completely defeated, and then they were discovered by the light cavalry of the Eastern Romans, followed by round after round of attacks, and the Holy Roman Empire, which had not fully recovered and was not at all an opponent in terms of troops, was defeated again, this time the defeat was even worse, and the army that retreated to Italy was less than 40,000 men.

Frederick finally gave in to the facts, and he issued a statement recognizing the independent status of the states of northern Italy, and at the same time canceling all the nobles he had originally canonized, and did not dare to let the city-states of northern Italy no longer be responsible for transporting food, but the Holy Roman Empire instead.

Of course, this was the end of Frederick's concessions, and he still thought that Randy was not up to the task of commander of the coalition forces, and that he should be a little older, more titled, and more respectful.

"Hehe, do you want to see me laugh?"

Randy, who had been watching the Holy Roman Empire's jokes for a while, muttered to himself after receiving Frederick's statement.

Randy was right, the other party did want to see him laugh, because Frederick saw the fighting power of the Eastern Roman army, and after two defeats at the hands of the Eastern Roman army, he made a wrong judgment, that is, the Eastern Roman army was very strong, at least stronger than the army of the Latin technology group.

With the same number of European Catholic forces, it is absolutely impossible to defeat the Eastern Roman army, he can't, and neither can Randy.

But after making this judgment, Frederick did not think about combining the two armies together and winning by numerical superiority, but thought that if Randy was also defeated, others would understand that it was not that I was incompetent, but that the opponent was too strong.

Frederick's thoughts naturally can't be hidden from Randy, and Randy, who has a lot more information than Frederick, can naturally look down on this idiot with a higher profile, and let him see what a real emperor is.

However, Randy also knew that Basil II was not an easy opponent to deal with, and that if he wanted to defeat him, he had to concentrate all his forces, such as the 5,000 troops left in Venice and the 20,000 troops left in Marseille, as well as the 5,000 troops left for him by Genoa.

These 30,000 troops are all the most elite professional troops, and it would be a shame to put them in a garrison position.

Randy then convinces his allies to mobilize a small number of levies again, replacing them with those improvised conscripts and rallying them together.

At the same time, Randy's series of victories also spread throughout the European continent, and many restless adventurers, devout cultists, wandering knights, and flocked to join Randy's army for fame, profit, and faith.

When Frederick failed, crossed the Alps, and fled back to the Holy Roman Empire, Randy's power had reached its peak, and it can be said that this was the most Randy could command in his life, because after defeating the Eastern Roman Empire, this alliance had no meaning to exist.

Randy's current support is as follows......

Forty-eleven Norman regulars, this is the most capable unit under Randy's command.

100,000 Norman conscripts, equipped with the most rudimentary leather armor and helmets, underwent a short period of military training, weapons are spears, shields, scimitars, bows and arrows, can form a hedgehog circle formation to enhance combat effectiveness, much stronger than the general country's recruited peasant soldiers, but compared to the regular army is far behind.

In addition to the 140,000 Norman troops, Randy also commanded 50,000 troops from France, 35,000 Northern Italian troops, 10,000 Venetian troops, and 15,000 spontaneously organized crusaders, adding up to a total of 240,000 troops under Randy's command.

Before marching, Randy also sent an invitation to Frederick of the Holy Roman Empire, hoping to join the coalition army, and Randy was willing to let Frederick serve as the deputy commander-in-chief of the coalition army, but Randy only said that he didn't want to take Frederick to play in his heart, and Frederick also let out a roar of refusal to participate in the war.

The Catholic coalition did not receive 50,000 members of the Holy Roman Empire, and the lack of Germanic warriors made this army somewhat a fly in the ointment.

(End of chapter)