Randy led his army to pacify the entire Lithuanian region, and brought together all the elders of the large nomadic tribes in Lithuania with great fanfare to announce the formulation of policies.

Now that the Lithuanian region has just been pacified, you need to give them a little sweetness, of course, the most important reason is that these nomadic tribes themselves live a tight life, and it is impossible to have excess wealth for the empire, so the livestock must be fattened and then killed, the reason is the same.

For the time being, the policy of the Lithuanian tribes was based on the nomadic tribal policy of Livonia, Prussia, Poland, and Finland, and no taxes were charged, only a symbolic tribute, and the newborn lambs were tender, and people were sent to join the Norman army.

In fact, in the previous war, the Lithuanian light cavalry that joined Randy's army, Randy did not want to let go of any of them, as he said, if he wanted to conquer and hold the whole of Eastern Europe, there were not enough relatives, so this temporarily recruited cannon fodder Lithuanian light cavalry unit was not only not disbanded after the war, but was expanded and strengthened, and did not want the Norman hussars to take out their eliminated equipment and use it to equip these Lithuanians.

These light leather armor, scimitars, short compound bows, although in the eyes of the Norman professional troops are somewhat outdated, but for the Lithuanians are first-class equipment, most of the refitting is completed, the combat effectiveness of this batch of Lithuanian light cavalry has been improved to a certain extent, this year is not easy to do any work, even if it is cannon fodder, you have to have strength.

After Randy's victory over Vytautas, he stayed in Lithuania for a while, and left 2,000 hussars in this area, together with Joseph's 3rd Hussar Corps, which came south to converge, there were 6,000 soldiers to fight in the entire Lithuanian region.

As for those Lithuanian villages and towns that were accustomed to a nomadic life and began to choose to settle down, Randy took the time to plan their administrative areas and formulate a tax exemption for half a year, in fact, Randy did not suffer a loss by doing so, because in the first few months of recovering this area, it was impossible to do a good job in appointing local officials, without local officials, there would be no tax collectors, and without tax collectors, there would be no complete tax system, and it would take at least several months to establish a sound administrative system in a region.

Randy writes to the eldest princess of the Norman Empire, now the overseer Aurora, asking him to immediately assign a sufficient number of tax collectors to the region.

But I don't know if it's because of her special relationship with Enides, or because of some other reason, the average of the officials selected by Aurora from Norman University is about six stars, and even a small number of officials are about eight stars, which makes Randy very satisfied.

On the seventh day in Lithuania, after receiving information that the law and order situation was good from all over the Lithuanian region, Randy breathed a sigh of relief, stretched his waist, and immediately drafted an order, and the troops went straight to Szk, intending to take the whole of Belarus into his pocket!

The conquest of Belarus, in Randy's opinion, was only a matter of form and time.

Does anyone in Belarus among the Rus, Slavs and Tatars dare to stand up against their tyranny?

Even if there were, the hussars would have their heads cut off!

Speaking of hussars, Randy really likes it, when the main army stayed in Lithuania, the hussar corps directly under the emperor under Randy had already gone south to Minsk to deal with those people who dared to resist tyranny as Randy said!

In addition, along with the hussars, there was also an army that could be regarded as an infantry unit, the inland special fleet of the Baltic Detachment, and these Viking light infantry cruised in various river regions of Eastern Europe on the Dragon's Head battleship, and they also had their part in this operation.

Half of them followed Artoria and went south south to Poland along the Vistula.

The other part travels south from Riga along the Daugava River, passing through a short stretch of land flooded by the river in the summer, and then entering the Nyamuna River basin and continuing south until it reaches Minsk.

This group of highly mobile light infantry is another reliance of Randy, and if the battle of Minsk is frustrated, they can use this infantry to attack the city and let them know that they know how powerful they are.

While the Norman Empire was aggressively advancing into Eastern Europe, the rest of the continent was shattered with glasses.

For this emerging European power, an ambitious monarch like Randy, but any normal person will guess his next goal, some people speculate that Randy and Burgundy will carve up France together, and some people speculate that he wants to use North Saxony to seek the position of a candidate for the Holy Roman Empire and intervene in the Holy Roman Empire, and some even say that the Norman Empire will enter the Iberian region next, on the grounds that the Iberian countries did not follow the orders of his alliance lord and ceased war with the Eastern Romans, Randy can use this reason to send troops to punish them, and by the way, add some territory to himself.

But Randy's ultimate goal is Eastern Europe!

Eastern Europe! In the traditional sense, even a European power such as the United Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania has not obtained the corresponding status with France and the Holy Roman Empire, and in people's hearts, it is not even as good as Hungary, the Catholic shield, so Randy's decision made all the masters in the entire European continent who held the pearl of wisdom shatter their glasses.

Most of the European nobles celebrated with their crowns, did that guy's brain show funny? The essence of the European continent is not taken, but instead goes to fight with those barbarians in Eastern Europe, now everyone is safe, what should you do!

Under such circumstances, even the Papal States, which most wanted to restrain the Norman Empire, did not want to do much, and directly ignored the request for reconciliation of the autonomous government in southern Poland, continued military reform behind closed doors, calculated the northern Italian powers, and accelerated the annexation of the Naples region of southern Italy.

However, when the European countries ignored the invasion and expansion of the Norman Empire, there were many people of insight in the East who saw Randy's intentions.

Eastern Europe! Unexplored Feng Shui treasures, vast plains of millions of square kilometers, and large numbers of nomadic cavalry in the steppes, these resources would be ...... if they were acquired by the warlike and murderous Norman Emperor

"The empire needs to maintain stability in the north, and while the empire confronts enemies from the east, I don't want a behemoth state to emerge in the north of the empire, not the previous Kievan Rus, nor the current Normans."

After receiving the news of the Norman Empire's full-scale invasion of Eastern Europe, Basil II, who was overseeing the army on the front line and defeating the Ottoman Turks, immediately made such a decision.

"What you say is true, Your Majesty, but please note that the Empire's finances are not in good shape right now, and we cannot fight on two fronts at the same time." General Elius reminded.

"Of course I do! My friend Elius, I am not old enough to be so faint. ”

"Panic!" Elius immediately lowered his head and said.

Basil II waved his hand: "Don't worry, you're right, I don't want to send an army to deal with that northern boy for the time being." ”

"Then Your Majesty, do you want to ......?"

"The empire only needs to borrow strength, all the countries in Eastern Europe do not want to perish, and they do not have the courage and ability to fight the Normans alone, but if they are integrated, it will be a different matter, but they themselves have many contradictions and do not trust each other, so they can only wait silently to be broken by the Norman Empire one by one, so ......"

"As long as the Eastern Roman Empire stands up and raises its arms, expresses its willingness to be their alliance leader, and integrates them, it can do the role of suppressing the Normans!"

Elius's eyes lit up, and he understood what his monarch meant, and he couldn't help but blurt out.

"But my subordinates feel that the empire should also send some troops, and send a convincing person with high enough prestige and status to successfully complete this plan."

"Rest assured, I already have the right person." Basil II smiled, looking unusually confident.

And it was this incident that bothered Artoria.

In the beginning, her war in Poland went very smoothly, even more smoothly than Randy.

After taking Warsaw without blood, the 50,000 Celtic Norman army continued to move south, experiencing all kinds of wars along the way, and the combat experience increased unprecedentedly, after being nurtured by Randy's use, Artoria's ability in war was greatly improved, and along the way, Artoria gave full play to the advantages of the hussars to drive as many Poles south as possible into the city of Krakow.

At first, the Polish nobility in Krakow was happy, after all, more population meant more soldiers, which could make Krakow's defense stronger.

But it didn't take long for someone to notice that something was wrong!

With such a large population, in addition to bringing soldiers, there was also a natural decline, poor medical care, and some Polish refugees who had seen the brutality of the Normans began to spread rumors that were exaggerated countless times, which made the people in the city panic, and even the refugees might even be mixed with Norman spies.

All right! If these are minor problems, they can be solved by increasing the number of patrolling guards, carefully taking the time to divide the slums, grouping refugees, and strictly banning rumors.

But here is one more important question! That's food!

Krakow's original reserve of food was not much, after all, the foundation of the self-government is very thin, it has been less than two years since its formal establishment, and now the refugees are pouring in, this reserve of food is simply not enough, in this case the self-government must adjust its policy, evacuate the refugees to the towns further south, and then Artoria will kill the city with a fierce fire, after a battle without suspense, the Poles who killed lost their armor and fled back to Krakow in embarrassment.

Immediately after that, Artoria surrounded Krakow, and after two months of waiting, Krakow's grain stocks bottomed out, and Artoria sent people to shout every day:

"You have no food and grass inside, and no reinforcements outside, so if you don't surrender at this time, when will you wait? We Normans speak the word, treat the captives preferentially, take only the first evil, and never ask questions. ”

Under such a psychological offensive, the people in Krakow were panicked, the food was exhausted, and it was about to be finished, if it were not for Artoria's fierce reputation, the Poles in the city were afraid that the city would be slaughtered after surrendering, and the city would have been opened and surrendered long ago.

As for Artoria's assurance, no one takes it seriously at all, after all, Artoria's credit rating is not high, and she is not as good as Randy who can put on a show.

But even if it goes on like this, it won't work, if you can't eat enough, you won't have the strength to defend the city, and in the end it will still be broken through, and then people will have more reason to slaughter the city.

Seeing that Krakow's situation is getting worse and worse, and it is about to reach the point of breaking bones and cooking, and changing children and eating, Artoria has encountered such a situation.

In the south of Eastern Europe, the powerful country of the Eastern Roman Empire suddenly announced in a loud voice that it would intervene in the war in Eastern Europe, and called on all freedom-loving and peace-loving peoples to stand up and resist the tyranny of the Norman Empire.

At the same time, during the two months of Artoria's siege of Krakow, the Eastern Roman Empire was ready for war.

Although it is true that it cannot cope with two wars at the same time, the emaciated camel is bigger than a horse, and the Eastern Roman Empire can raise an army of 30,000 men with a casual recruitment.

A regular legion, a garrison legion, a temporary conscription legion,

There are also 7,000 private soldiers, including Her Royal Highness Lilianu, the crown prince of the Eastern Roman Empire.

The candidate chosen by Basil II this time was his daughter, Princess Lilianu, the crown prince of the Eastern Roman Empire.

In the last two years, the princess who has almost everything arranged has risen rapidly, and Basil II is very surprised to find that he seems to have been a little unable to see through his daughter, she does not know when and what means to get the support of some of the military, some of the merchants, and some of the nobles.

Although Basil II was sure that there were not many of these people who dared to support her rebellion unconditionally, the final outcome of this situation is unknown.

In addition, Her Royal Highness the princess's own prestige has also risen rapidly, and even Basil II has to admit that his daughter is indeed his own, inheriting a lot of his war cells, and is invincible in war, as long as he hones a little, the Eastern Roman Empire can add another famous general.

"So it's not time yet......"

Basil II shook his head at the thought of this, thinking that he might have been more surprised if he had discovered this situation twenty years later, but now Basil II felt a little worried compared to the surprise.

Basil II is only in his fifties this year, and he is in very good health, and he will not fall down on the golden spear of the ten women of the night, so he feels that he can live for another twenty years, at least twenty years.

So when you are approaching the legal retirement age, but you feel that your body can still stand it, and you can work for another 20 years, you suddenly find that you have a very good heir, and the age is much more suitable than you, which is basically this complicated feeling.

Especially when this heir is ambitious and has a great desire for power, he will feel very uneasy.

Will this girl not be able to wait for me to die, and give me a hard time?

Is it indeed quite possible that there are still fewer messy things in Roman history?

Basil II, who had figured out these things, was very uneasy, but he could not deal with his own daughter on trumped-up charges, and besides, he was such a descendant, and if he died, the throne would not be passed on.

suppressed and suppressed her, let her arrogance be restrained, and frustrate her prestige.

Basil II had such an idea, he was not optimistic about Lilianu from the beginning, nor was he optimistic about the patchwork Eastern European alliance, and the purpose of pushing Lilianu out was twofold.

Yu Gong can block the aggressive Normans, and even block it for a while, and when the Eastern Roman Empire defeats the Ottoman Turks, then Basil II can personally lead the army north.

For selfishness, Lilianu is not Randy's opponent, let her lose a lot in Randy's hands, and she is secretly publicizing and publicizing, then the Eastern Romans will understand how big the gap is between themselves who defeated Randy and Lilianu who was defeated by Randy, and won't their throne be stable at that time?

(End of chapter)