All the emperor could do was to find a more reliable nobleman for Karl's wife to remarry, at least to ensure that his wife and children would not be bullied after the past, and let his son inherit his father's inheritance. Of course, Carl also understands this fact, but he has lived in Jinhewan for ten years, and his mind has been confused by Hong Tao, and he has no serious identification with the church before.

"Captain Karl...... Your Excellency the Duke is probably not as powerful as you say, this is the Empire, not the Far East...... "Herman's cultivation is good, after all, where is the age and experience. He was the emperor's foreign minister, and if he could be emotionally influenced by others at every turn, he would not be able to do this job.

"Far East...... To put it mildly, if Duke Aite was willing, he could take the fleet of the East to take down all the ports in the Mediterranean within a year. You haven't been to the East, you don't know how prosperous it is, and you don't know how many people there are. The Duke's homeland is said to have a population of 100 million, the capital has a million people, and the few coastal cities I have visited are the smallest more than the Venetians. Do you know how the duke's fleet dealt with the Great Cannibals? It's the A\La\Bo! Five warships completely annihilated fifty cannibal warships in one morning, and there were thousands of prisoners alone. However, he is not a man who likes to fight, he prefers to do business with others, and this time he came back to send me home, this is the promise he gave me at the beginning, otherwise it would not be two warships, but a lot! ”

Carl is actually a very straightforward person, he doesn't have much on his mind, and he is worried that his cousin will make inappropriate judgments. thus rejecting Hong Tao, the god of wealth. He knows it well. Even if Hong Tao looked at his face and didn't do anything out of the ordinary to his cousin's empire. As long as he cooperates with other countries, his cousin's empire will end sooner or later. Over the years, he has almost gotten tired of Hong Tao's methods of tossing people, which is called endless, and he firmly believes that Hong Tao has not used all his strength, and the tricks of thieves are useless. Although his wife and children are gone, and his fief is gone, he doesn't want his motherland to become the target of Hong Tao. That would be very awkward for him.

Karl ...... His Majesty's empire was also built through several wars, whether it is the Papal States or the Lombard Union, we will not be afraid. No matter how many warships your duke has, and he doesn't have the strength to take down so many ports, he can't go against the whole of Christendom, can he? I believe in the great eastern power you are talking about, but it is too far away, and His Excellency the Duke may not be able to convince his emperor to come so far to attack our empire, right? At this time, the queen suddenly interjected, don't look at her and Jiang Zhuyi acting like a girl when trying on new clothes, talking about national affairs. Immediately changed his appearance, although his voice was not high. But the idea is clear.

"That's what I can't say, I can't betray my savior, and I'm already a subject of the duke, let alone my country. The problem that Her Royal Highness said may be a big problem for others, but not for Duke Aite. In fact, there is no emperor above him, and he is fully capable of being a bigger emperor and building a bigger empire, but he is not happy. He said he didn't want to be an emperor, that would be too tiring. As for the issue of troops, he once said to me that future wars will not be less than the number of people, but more than technology. He invented a weapon that could turn cities into ruins from a mile away, or smash ships on the sea to pieces at a distance of a third of a league. I myself have led a fleet to destroy cities and villages more than once, and I don't want to be in my cousin's country. Besides, he's not here to fight, at most he wants to do business here, and he's a clever businessman, and the empire needs more money, so why can't you cooperate with him? Karl still had a lot of respect for his sister-in-law, saluting before speaking, and trying not to use radical words.

"His goods are very good, I have seen the list of goods that Giogio gave me, and the price is much cheaper than that of the A\La\Bo. But these things are run by the Venetians, and they certainly don't want to see anyone else sell them cheaper than them. The current situation in the Empire is not very good, those guys in the north do not want to send troops to help the Empire fight the Lombards, and if the Venetians are involved, the Pope will have more reasons to limit my authority. It's not about money, it's about timing, and the timing isn't right, at least until I'm done with the Lombards. The Emperor, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly turned around and gave Karl a final answer. He thinks about the problem at a deeper and more comprehensive level, and does not consider it from a single angle, as the emperor, he has to balance the interests of all parties.

"I suggest that you go and have a good chat with the duke, for this Duke of Aite is unmatched in how to fight, how to harm people, and how to make money. In fact, I told him about Your Majesty a long time ago, and he had a good impression of you, especially when it came to dealing with the Pope, and he should be on your side, cousin. I don't know why he hates the Pope or the whole church, he has a lot of secrets. For example, he had never been to the Empire, but he could speak Latin, German, and even the languages of the island of England, and knew some things about the Crusades. Before we arrived in Sicily, he knew that Mount Etna was here and told his daughter about the eruption as if he had been there. In his hometown, people regard him as a god behind his back, and talking to him will at least not be harmful. ”

Karl finally understood why the emperor was lukewarm to Hong Tao, and the standard of hospitality was very high, but it was all out of gratitude. It turned out that the empire was not in a good situation at this time, and there were too many enemies, and I was afraid that there would be another strong enemy because of Hong Tao's accession. Venice is a small city federation, but it has a great influence in the Mediterranean and even in Europe. Because they were the only ones who could do business with the Arabs smoothly, many of the goods of the European court and church were provided by the Venetians, and generally no one wanted to mess with them. Once this group of merchants is in a hurry, they can spend money to hire a lot of mercenaries, and if they really fight, they can't tell who will lose and who will win.

"Harmful?" Friedrich II was not too accustomed to his cousin's way of speaking, especially in terms of words.

"The small kingdom that he destroyed can't be counted on two hands, and the big country with a population of tens of millions can't help but toss him for two years, and his real soldiers who died in battle can be counted on two hands. I've never seen anyone more adept at how to toss others. He used to be the devil in my mind, a demon who eats people and doesn't spit out bones! Slowly, I realized that he himself was not a murderer, and he rarely killed people himself, but the number of people who died because of him was estimated to be as large as the population of the empire. Don't think that he doesn't dare to do it again, he often says to his subordinates that in this world, there are only two kinds of people, one is the one who can cooperate, and the other is the one who can't; The former must be protected, the latter must be eliminated, and whoever affects his interests is an enemy. Carl wanted to describe Hong Tao as a demon, but he was afraid of arousing his cousin's anger, so he had to keep putting gold on the demon's face, with only one purpose, so that his cousin could face Hong Tao squarely and not make rash decisions.

"Then my dear cousin, if I were to go to war with your duke, where would you be on your side? Is it to help your cousin defeat him or to help him defeat your cousin? Friedrich II listened more attentively this time, walked back to his seat, sat down, looked up and asked Karl a question.

“…… I would use my life to persuade him not to go to war with His Majesty the Emperor, but it wouldn't necessarily work. When I die, he will take all his anger out on the Empire, and he hates the people around him for lying to him and betraying him. At that time, he was really a demon, and he looked at everyone as much as he looked at the dead. I don't want things to come to that point to say so much to His Majesty the Emperor. This question is very painful, Karl stared at the balls and weighed it for a long time, but still kept his agreement with Hong Tao, or said that he came back this time disappointed more than hopeful, after living in Jinhewan for ten years, he found that his hometown seemed to be less attractive to him.

"Well, dear cousin, I believe in your character, so tell me how to talk to this Duke of Ait? It's the first time I've met someone like this, and it's very interesting. Friedrich II listened to Karl's answer, and instead of being angry that his cousin was not firmly on his side, he laughed.

"Actually, Duke Aite is a very good talker, he is very erudite, very humorous, knows almost everything in the world, and His Majesty will certainly have a lot to talk to him. He doesn't have to say anything, his mouth will never stop, he sometimes knows more about the Empire than I do, and I don't know where he knows that. When Karl heard that the emperor was willing to talk to Hong Tao seriously, his smile returned to his face, and he began to pick what he could say to introduce Hong Tao to the few people present like a storyteller.

The second insomnia is the little salamander and Hong Tao, the little girl is very curious about this big castle, the children who grew up in Jinhewan are bold, and they have to take Hong Tao to explore all over the castle, where to drill in the dark, and finally ran to the roof to see the stars. I was tired of tossing, and I didn't sleep when I returned to the room, pestering Hong Tao to tell him the story here. It is easy for a child to get excited when he suddenly arrives in a strange environment, and he can't sleep when he is excited, which makes Hong Tao bitter, he originally planned to have an in-depth discussion with Jiang Zhuyi about the structure of underwear, but this time it was also in the soup.

(To be continued.) )