"Oh, really?" I put down the toy in my hand and picked up the parchment with great interest and looked it up and down.

"I didn't expect that not long after I became the emperor, I was impatient to issue an edict, let me see what was written here." As I spoke, I tore off the fire paint and unfolded the paper scroll, and the complex flowery characters unique to the court clerk came into view, and the sketches were very difficult to recognize, which made me very troubled by the fact that I didn't know much words.

"Forget it......"

I couldn't afford to read it, so I tossed the scroll aside and told Rollo, "Go and ask Leonardo to come over." ”

Rollo nodded and turned to leave, I poured myself a glass of wine, relaxing my nerves that were about to be driven crazy by literacy.

Leonardo walked into the room on crutches, sat down breathlessly next to me, picked up the parchment and looked at it twice, then pinched his chin and said: "The Poles instigated the Slavs of the Elbe to cross the border and sack the border of Laushitz, and their ally, the Hungarian chieftain Stephen, led the cavalry to attack the towns of Bohemia, directly threatening the eastern border of Germany. ”

"Poles?"

I smacked my lips and chewed the wine residue between my teeth, and the shadow of the fat white man Miyeshko came to mind, and I don't know if it was still the same as before.

"Didn't their Grand Duke already express his submission to Germany? It is really a great disapproval of the world to turn his face treacherously and deny people, and to choose the period of national mourning when the first emperor is buried and the new emperor has not yet gained a stable foothold, how can it be justified! ”

The old man quietly looked at the letters on the parchment, and when I finished speaking, he opened his mouth unhurriedly: "Duke Mieszko is a smart man, and knows that at a time like this, he can stand up and say the law, so that he can get what he wants, Germany is like a molting snake, there is no extra energy and toad biting, and the Hungarians may not be interested in Bohemia, they have the same purpose as the Poles, to take the opportunity to get something real." ”

"What do you mean by that?" I listened to Leonardo's analysis, and I was a little lost to the point, and I don't know why he came to such a certain conclusion.

"I've been gathering intelligence from other countries, which has helped me a little bit in mapping out trade routes."

The old fellow leaned his cane against the table, took the glass I had filled for him, took a sip and continued: "The Emperor once asked Duke Mieszko to build a tomb for his good friend Adalbert, and promised to give him a replica of the Grand Duke's holy spear by setting up an archdiocese in Gesen. ”

"The establishment of an archdiocese? Isn't the Polish diocese subordinate to the Archbishop of Magdeburg? Doing so would undoubtedly make the Diocese of Poland separate from the Imperial Church and become an independent church directly under the Vatican, which the archbishop would never have agreed. ”

Leonardo nodded: "It is exactly so, in order to disintegrate and disperse the growing bishopric power, and to eliminate the possibility of excessive interference in the secular world, an independent Poland is also conducive to stabilizing the eastern borders of the empire, resisting the increasing invasion of the Slavs, concentrating on solving the enemies in the west and south, and restoring the unified empire of the Franks during the time of Charlemagne." ”

"What about the Hungarians?"

"In order to prevent Poland from becoming great, the Emperor acquiesced in the establishment of an archdiocese in Glen, and Bishop Asherik, although not formally appointed, is now exercising the power of the archbishop, and he has the right to crown Stephen, the leader of the Hungarians, a crown that the Emperor promised to the latter."

"Then how can Your Majesty guarantee that Poland and Hungary will not join forces to attack Germany, these two aggressive new countries have enough ability to make the eastern border uneasy."

Leonardo looked at me with satisfaction and thought more and more comprehensively, and patiently explained: "So the emperor buried a nail between them, that is, rich Bohemia, as a vassal of Germany, it is neither a territory in the de jure sense nor a control area in the actual sense, in other words, anyone has the opportunity to swallow it in their mouth, as long as your teeth are good enough." After saying that, the old guy pointed to his loose gums and made a mischievous analogy.

"But they didn't expect that the emperor would die in battle, the promises made were all in vain, and Emperor Henry didn't express his position for a long time out of his own considerations, so the two greedy neighbors couldn't wait and wanted to get back what belonged to them in person?" I asked earnestly with an eyebrow.

"It's not to take it back, it's to force the palace! Even if the German Empire was so weak, they were still no match for us, at most they were like flies in the room, and they were just annoying to fly before our eyes. As he spoke, he quickly lifted the parchment and turned the ****** that had fallen on the table into a patty.

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The sun shone in through the gaping windows on the wall, baking everyone as if they were carrying a small pot in their arms.

Leonardo's eyes were half squinted, his chin was supported by his crutches in both hands, and he stared at me as I jumped up and down in front of the map, waiting silently.

"This drawer who has suffered a thousand knives, whether he has any painting skills, is simply a cheat!"

I slapped the table so hard that the glass on it spilled a lot of slurry, and I had nothing to say about the crappy painter who could draw the scale of Gotland off the coast of Sweden with a big fathead fish across the Baltic Sea, even if you don't understand the scale, it wouldn't be so outrageous, right?

What do the chaotic patterns and nonsensical monster images that adorn the corners of the map mean? It doesn't cost anything to co-author the Duke's parchment, and you can scribble on it?

Not to mention that the monster head is ugly, it also occupies an area about the size of a fist, and I can add half of Russia to it when I am free.

"I've said don't draw these things in the corners of the map, it's really hard to ...... after repeated teachings."

The old guy yawned, ready to continue listening to the lord's chatter, but I was busy looking for a pen everywhere, wanting to make some partial modifications with my memory, Rollo was very discerning to help hand over the pen, and spread out the map with my hand and waited for me to add a pen.

"Look at the eternal right Lord Duke, how capable I am!"

As I spoke, I rolled up my sleeves and splashed ink on the map, outlining a relatively correct outline of the coastline on the basis of the original map.

"This is the real Polish coast, and here, why does the Danish peninsula look like a carrot?"

Leonardo leaned his crutches against the table, coughed lightly, took out a well-made silk handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the dirty things at the corner of his mouth, and only he had such a fortune, in the current words, the rich people at the top of the Forbes wealth list would hypocritically use oriental silk worth as gold as a handkerchief to wipe their noses, generally poor lords like us get a small piece of silk, they are eager to find someone to sew it on their chests as a complement, and show off their extraordinary tastes with their chests up. Fengya really can't be played by anyone.

Then he slowly folded the handkerchief and stuffed it back neatly, and asked me, "My lord, are you ready to respond to Your Majesty's call this time?" ”

I was biting the barrel of my pen and trying to remember what the snow-covered coastline of Russia was like, twisting my eyebrows and playing the game of you draw and guess, although it was only boring to amuse myself, and I replied without raising my head:

"Of course, we must respond positively, this is a war ****** in the name of the emperor, and as a vassal of His Majesty, he must fulfill his obligations."

"Although this year's conscription period has been greatly exceeded, as long as they can return with a full load of loot and slaves, the warriors will naturally have no objections, and the blood thirsting for glory will never stop boiling, which is the fate of the samurai."

"Then again, when did we not exceed the limit of the draft? In these extraordinary times, it should be treated extraordinarily. ”

The old fellow nodded, rubbing his hands as if rubbing the conspicuous age spots on it, he would only make people think of him as an old man in his twilight years at such times, and in public he was more like a machine with a powerful motor, as if he had an energy that could never be used up.

"In your opinion, how many lords can respond to this war mobilization?" Leonardo asked me with a playful tilt of his head.

"This time it's not just about war mobilization." I looked at my masterpiece left and right and grinned in satisfaction.

"It is also the opportunity of His Majesty to use the high-sounding opportunity to test the effect of his decree and the degree of support of the nobles, and to stand in line."

"You must know that in private, many people question the legitimacy of His Majesty's succession to the throne, and they would rather let the son of the old Duke of Swabia become an unsuccessful son ascend to the throne than an emperor who is a hundred times more savvy than himself, and think about taking back the power in their hands every day like the previous emperors."

"These people are like vicious dogs guarding their bones, and they dare to play with their lives when they fight inwardly, or in other words, power is more important to them than life."

"Are you saying that His Majesty the Emperor is ...... Really throwing stones and asking for directions? Leonardo knocked his head and thought for a long time before he found the right words, and after saying it, he was as happy as a child with a little red flower.

In the search for new things, the old guy has always maintained a strong curiosity and action, as long as I hear new ideas and new words from here, I will inevitably force myself to understand the main idea, and then do it to draw inferences from one another, so no matter what era, talking to smart people is always the easiest and most comfortable.

"That's right, throw stones and ask for directions! All the nobles who find an excuse not to send troops have since been on His Majesty's blacklist, and that cunning viper will definitely beat them with the law, so that the nobles can understand who is the master of the entire empire now, and the domestic hound is disobedient, and must starve it for two days. ”

I instructed Rollo to take down the revised map and find someone to re-transcribe it, and after he walked out with the parchment scroll, he lowered his voice like a gossip old lady and said: "But Your Majesty has forgotten that when he was the Duke of Bavaria, he did a lot of things that violated the decrees of the previous emperor, and when it came to playing separatism and engaging in conspiracy, Your Majesty was definitely an expert." Remember this sentence, the crow falls on the pig, only sees others black but can't see his own black, fifty steps and a hundred steps of laughter. ”

(End of chapter)