For this reason, although the city-states of Northern Italy were nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire, psychologically the Germans were regarded as invaders and did not approve of the idea of the Holy Roman Empire, or rather the short-lived Lombard Kingdom.

Unless the new Holy Roman Emperor, is Italian!

Of course, this is absolutely impossible, and the strange democratic politics of the city-state citizens is incompatible with the feudal aristocracy common to the mainland, so Northern Italy, which believes in commerce, money, and the so-called parliamentary system, is incompatible with Germany, which believes in feudalism, aristocratic blood, and feudal system.

In this way, it was easy for Randy to persuade the city-states of Northern Italy to obtain a large amount of military supplies from them at a very cheap price, which was a very good deal for Northern Italy, which started with industry and commerce, although the profit was small, but it could also make the industry and commerce that had been hit hard because of their concern recover more quickly, and they could retaliate against their old enemy Germany, why not?

The two sides hit it off, and Randy even planned to sign further alliances with the city-states of Northern Italy, but the mayors and governors of the city-states seemed reluctant to participate in this issue.

Randy thought about it for a moment, and then understood the truth.

Fighting for life and death with the Eastern Roman Empire, it was a critical moment for survival, but fighting against Germany was not so important, and now is the time to concentrate manpower and material resources to restore production and compete for supremacy at sea, how can it consume so much strength for those Germanic barbarians in the north?

"A businessman is still a businessman after all, and business is business."

Randy was merciless in his comments about the civic leaders of the city-states of northern Italy.

After a few days, almost half of the bounty Randy received from the Papal States was turned into all kinds of baggage, and the wagons of the logistical baggage soldiers were once again filled with all kinds of hard black bread, smoked fish, bacon, and if nothing else, the Norman army of 80,000 men ate them with their stomachs open, and these things could be eaten for them for three months.

What's more, there are many merchants who are not afraid of death, driving their own carriages behind the army, and most of these merchants want to collect the spoils of war from the soldiers.

They don't have to think about the 1/2 loot that belongs to Randy, because the price given by Enides is too high, but the soldiers can't enjoy such benefits, some of the bulky loot is too cumbersome to carry around, and it is easy to be stolen, so at this time, the benefits of the military merchants can be reflected, sometimes some soldiers also get something that doesn't seem to be valuable, but is actually very valuable, this is also the time to test the businessmen's eyesight, if the businessmen can make this deal, Pick up a leak, and maybe you will get rich overnight.

Twenty days later, Randy's army was rested, the military supplies were stored, and he asked for a piece of paper from the Holy See to get Frederick's membership as he wished, but in Randy's opinion, such a disengagement was not as useful as it was against Feng IV last year, and it might even cause the hatred of the German princes, but after the expulsion, it was also a shock to the residents of the North Saxon territory, making them hesitate before defecting to the new master.

At the same time, I passed the book with Artoria's flying pigeon, and finally got a reply!

After being deciphered by the Norman spies, Randy looked at the decoded letter and cried, Artoria didn't seem to take the Holy Roman Empire's declaration of war seriously, but was very interested in Randy's claim to the throne.

However, this is not to say that Artoria will disobey Randy's orders, in fact, Artoria still promised to temporarily suspend the war with Moscow, and sent emissaries to survey the boundaries, Artoria claimed that this would at least swallow the old Poland and Ukraine, as a return for Lithuania's participation in the war, and reluctantly hand over Belarus to them, and the indemnity could not be less than 300,000.

In addition, Artoria claims that she likes Randy's redesigned Imperial Banner very much, and is recruiting tailors and weavers near the army to quickly replace her army flag with a new Phoenix Banner, which may delay a little, but Artoria has experienced continuous battles and also needs a certain amount of time to rest, so she can take this opportunity to adjust properly.

Artoria also praised the commander of the 2nd Hussar Legion, General Ziten, claiming that although he was a short, ugly-looking man, he was still very useful in fighting, especially when directing the hussars to charge, and when they were scattered around to loot military supplies, these hussars were even more useful than the average regular army.

Finally, Artoria wrote a whole article: I really want to see your letters.

and unilaterally agreed with Randy: take Frankfurt as the end point to see who on both sides can break through there first.

Randy shook his head, looking at Artoria's letter full of optimism, with a wry smile, since you want to compete with speed, don't spend too much time on things like flags, although with Frankfurt as the end, such a distance Randy seems to have a slight advantage, but in fact, if Randy wants to attack South Germany, he still needs to cross the Alps, and the two fortresses at the mouth of the Alps, Salzburg and Innsbruck, are dangerous places that are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is extremely difficult to break through.

On the contrary, it is very simple to attack from the north, 1/3 of the entire northern part of Germany, under the control of the Norman Kingdom, 1/3 of the area has just changed hands, the situation is very chaotic, the Holy Roman Empire can barely grasp, but only the southernmost, about 1/3 of the territory, plus the whole Germany is in the Central European plain, the terrain is flat, easy to gallop cavalry, Artoria wants to march, but it is much simpler than Randy.

"Forget it, let's not mention these for now." Randy put the crooked letter close to him, intending to use it as an important tool to make fun of Artoria when he quarreled with her in the future, and then began to analyze the affairs of other countries, and the Norman spies and spies around him all listened to the orders of their monarch and sent other countries related inquiries for Randy's reference.

First of all, France, and the country that Randy pays the most attention to.

Philip II has been a little nervous recently, after accepting the Duchy of Aquitaine in its entirety, Philip II's strength seems to have recovered, but not much, in the second battle of Budapest, the loss of 50,000 French troops is not easy to recover, in this point Philip II is quite inferior to Charles.

Although Charles was close to the end of the total annihilation in the end, in fact, he lost the most only Swiss mercenaries with high salaries, and the loss of Burgundy's own army was only 5,000, although the loss of 5,000 soldiers and horses was also a nerve, but it was much better than Philip II's instant loss of 20,000 troops.

Although Philip II also wanted to learn from Frederick, to say:

There can only be one king in the whole of France, and that is I, Philip II, who will send troops to Burgundy, but he really doesn't dare, on the contrary, Charles is likely to make some moves.

Charles, who has recently won the title of king, seems to be a little dissatisfied, or for him, the crown of the Kingdom of Burgundy is a little bit worse than the crown of France.

Regardless of the feud between France and Burgundy, who won and who lost, Randy understood that the whole of Western Europe was the same, and it was unlikely that Norman would be attacked by Western Europe until the two countries were divided, and certainly not likely to receive Western European assistance.

As for the rest......

In Eastern Europe, the Hungarian envoy came to the Papal State again, almost crying to death in the Pope's Chamber, although the country was barely restored, but there was nothing, except for refugees, the most was the dead body, King Akira felt that he was the Hungarian king, and it seemed that he was not at ease when he was the leader of a nomadic tribe in the steppe during the previous period, so he had to come to the Papal State again to cry, so this country can be basically ignored.

At that time, Vytautas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, this guy has been mixing well recently, if the contract with the Grand Duchy of Moscow goes well, this guy will be able to get the rich land of Ukraine, and his strength will increase again, although in the previous war against Moscow, Vytautas chose the strategy of alliance with the Normans, but as a person who experienced the collapse of the United Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, he will never forget the hatred between him and the Norman Empire, so he ......

"Perhaps Artoria should be reminded to pay attention to the Grand Duke of Lithuania."

——————————

Eventually, after assessing the defensive strength of Innsbruck and the two fortresses of Salzburg, Randy decisively chose to send troops from the Eastern Alps passes, rather than gnawing on these two hard bones.

These two forts built in the Alpine Pass seem to be stronger than Randy imagined, and both are built on excellent terrain, and the garrison is more than 4,000 people, and all of them are elite troops, and the garrison is said to be very comparable, in this rugged terrain, the army cannot be deployed at all, and the large counterweight catapult cannot be deployed, and the siege will be extremely difficult, and if you don't get it right, you will need to besiege it for three and five years, and you will not be allowed to enter, so it is better to take a detour.

As Burgundy, who had been upgraded at the same time, had good relations, and had a common enemy of France, Randy felt that he could gain military access from Charlie and then enter the Holy Roman Empire from the Swiss mountains, so that he could go around behind the opponent's two heavily fortified fortresses and attack from the opponent's unsuspecting flanks.

In fact, during the twenty days of preparing the army, Randy had already sent a letter to his envoys stationed in Dijon to negotiate with Charles of Burgundy on the issue of military access.

The end result was that Charles was willing to sign this treaty with the Normans, agreeing that the Normans would attack the Holy Roman Empire through Switzerland, without the need for money, food, or other supplies.

Of course, it is not correct to say that it is free of charge, Burgundy wants to unilaterally sign an alliance with Norman against France, which is an incomplete alliance treaty against France alone, stipulating that when France attacks Burgundy or Norman, the other country must unconditionally declare war on France, aid its allies, and send troops to attack France.

"What an interesting treaty!" Randy made such a comment on Charlie's treaty whose hostile significance was so obvious that an idiot could see it, and did not hesitate to agree to Charlie's conditions, now that Philip II is not an idiot in this situation, what is his ability, why, how dare he attack Burgundy, which has just won the title of king, prestige, morale, and has reached a higher level?

Unless......

"I see!"

Randy thinks that he can see Charlie's intentions clearly, and he always declares war first, or does not declare war, or creates trouble on the border, these things are very easy to operate, as long as he wants to do it, he can even send someone to disguise himself as the French army to attack himself, so as to get an excuse to attack France, and when there is such a covenant here, then ......

All right! Maybe Charlie is very wishful thinking, but what does it matter? France, a tragic country, occupies a large territory, but there are many princes and the country is not prosperous, so it doesn't matter if you fight a dozen.

Eventually, Randy signed the treaty and led his army out of the eastern foothills of the Alps, where he stayed in France for a while, where he turned around and entered the Swiss mountains after being protested by the French.

In the mountainous areas of Switzerland, Randy finally saw the barren land here, and the poverty of the people here, it seems to be worse than the serfs in France, at least the French people barely have land to cultivate, as long as they work hard and God gives face, they can live half starved and half full, but the Swiss mountain people can't, their land is too barren, even if these guys work hard, the weather is very face-saving that year, they can't eat.

With the exception of the area around the capital city of Bern, where they were barely able to produce a little food, the Swiss everywhere had to either become mercenaries or die, and there was no second option.

"What an unfortunate people! Wrong place of birth, but then again, without such difficult conditions, there would be no medieval Swiss mercenaries and the best Swiss banks in the world. Randy sighed as he recruited a thousand Swiss mercenaries at a relatively low price.

Randy didn't want to rely on these mercenaries to fight the world, but wanted to see if he could successfully replicate the tactics of these mercenaries, and now he also has a lot of German-Germanic races under his command, and these people's specialties are two-handed sword mastery and super long spear mastery.

Recently, Randy observed that there seem to be many people with high understanding among the Normans, who can master the powerful weapon of halberd, so it is a more urgent task to introduce a group of Swiss mercenaries as blueprints and instructors to train qualified ultra-long spear troops and halberd troops for their country, so that their country can get rid of the embarrassing situation that no one can use the super-long spear array and can only rely on mercenaries.

In total, Randy's army spent nearly three months detouring from Rome to the Alps, then out of the Alps into France, and from France into the Swiss mountains, and in between in Bern and the Swiss, for a slightly shabby New Year!

(End of chapter)