For this reason, the city-states of northern Italy, although nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire. But psychologically, this group of northern Italians only regarded the Germans as invaders. For the Holy Roman Empire, this idea was not very well recognized. In other words, it is not as good as a short-lived, short-lived recognition of the Lombard Kingdom.

Unless out of office the Holy Roman Emperor was an Italian.

Of course, this is basically impossible -- the strange "people" politics of the citizens of the city-state is incompatible with the feudal aristocracy common to the mainland. Therefore, Northern Italy, which believed in commerce, financial power, and the so-called parliamentary system, and Germany, which believed in feudalism, aristocratic blood, and feudalism, were incompatible.

That's it. Egil easily persuaded the city-states of northern Italy to obtain large quantities of military supplies from them at a relatively cheap price. And this is also a very good deal for Northern Italy, where industry and commerce started. Although the money is less, it is a little less profitable. However, it can enable the industry and commerce, which were severely damaged by the war, to recover more quickly. More able to retaliate and strike at its old enemy Germany. Why not?

In this way, the two sides hit it off. Egil even planned to further conclude treaties of alliance with the city-states of northern Italy. However, the mayors and governors of the city-states were reluctant to get involved in this issue.

After a little thought, Egil figured out the truth: fighting the Eastern Romans to the death was a critical moment of survival. And the war against Germany was not so important. Now is the time to concentrate manpower and material resources to resume production and compete for supremacy at sea. How could it be so much effort for the Germanic barbarians to the north?

"Businessmen, in the final analysis, are businessmen, and the eyes of small citizens are so short-sighted. It's stupid, it's a waste. 1，

So Egil was merciless in making such comments on the so-called citizen leaders of the city-states of northern Italy. Of course, this waste is still useful today. So Egil was still polite to them on the surface.

In a few days, almost half of the bounty Egil received from the Papal States became a variety of weights. And the wagons of the logistical rice soldiers were once again filled with hard black bread, smoked fish, and bacon that were not perishable. If nothing else, the Norman army of 80,000 was ready to eat, and these things were enough for them to eat for three months.

What's more, there are many businessmen who are not afraid of death and want to make a windfall, and they also follow the army in their own carriages.

Most of these merchants wanted to collect the booty from the soldiers, and they didn't have to think about the one-half of the loot that belonged to Egil. Because the price given by the system is much higher than what they give. However, the soldiers did not enjoy such benefits. And some of the bulky loot is very troublesome to carry around, and it is easy to be stolen, so the benefits of accompanying the military merchants at this time can be reflected. And sometimes some soldiers also get something that doesn't seem to be valuable, but is actually very valuable. At this time, it is time to test the eyesight of the merchants, if the merchants can make this transaction and pick up such a leak. If you can't say it, you will get rich overnight......

That's pretty much it. Twenty days later, Egier's army had rested, the munitions had been stockpiled, and he had obtained a paper from the Holy See to get Frederick's membership expelled. However, in Egil's view, such an excommunication should not be as effective as it had been against Otto I last year, and might even arouse the hatred of the German princes. However, after such expulsion, it was also a shock to the inhabitants of the North Saxon territory. Let them hesitate a little before joining the new master.

At the same time, the flying pigeon biography with Artoria finally got a reply. After being decoded by the Norman spies, Egir couldn't help but laugh when he read the decoded letter. Artoria does not seem to have taken the declaration of war by the Holy Roman Empire as a dagger. However, he was very interested in Egil's recklessness as emperor.

Of course, this is not to say that Artoria will disobey Egil's orders. In fact, Artoria still pledged to temporarily suspend the fighting with Moscow. and sent messengers to survey the boundaries. Artoria claimed that this would require at least swallowing up the old Bōlan region and the Ukrainian region. In return for Lithuania's participation in the war, it was enough to reluctantly hand over Belarus to them. And the indemnity cannot be less than 300,000. ,

In addition to this, Artoria claims that she is very fond of the flag of Egil's redesigned empire.

And she is calling the tailors and weavers near the army to hurry up and replace the flag of her army with a brand new phoenix banner. This may take a little delay.

However, her army has also experienced a series of battles and needs a certain amount of rest. It's a good time to take a break.

Later, Artoria praised the commander of the Second Cavalry Corps, General Ziten, claiming that he was a short, ugly-looking man. But it is still useful to fight. Especially in the command of the cavalry in a group charge, as well as the work of scattering around to loot and obtain military supplies. The role of these cavalry was even greater than that of the average regular army.

Finally, Artoria wrote an entire article: "I really want to see you. And unilaterally agreed with Egil: "Take Frankfurt as the end point." See who on both sides can get the first step out of the crack, and whoever wins. ”

"Really," Egil shook his head, looking at Artoria's letter full of optimism, and felt like he couldn't laugh or cry: if you want to compete with speed, if you want to meet quickly, don't spend too much time on flags. In addition, although the end point in Frankfurt seems to be an advantage for Egil, in fact, if Egil wants to attack southern Italy, he needs to cross the Alps and the two fortresses of the Alpine Pass, Salzburg and Innsbruck, are both easy to defend and difficult to attack. It's extremely difficult to break through.

On the contrary, attacking from the north is very simple. A third of the entire northern part of Germany was under the control of the Norman kingdom, and a third had just changed hands, and the situation was chaotic. The Holy Roman Empire could barely grasp only about the southernmost thirds of its territory.

Coupled with the fact that the whole of Germany was located in the middle of the Central European plain, the terrain was flat, and it was easy for cavalry to gallop, and Artoria wanted to march, but it was much easier than Egil.

"Forget it, don't mention this yet......" Egil kept the crooked letter close to him, intending to use it as an important prop to make fun of Artoria in the future when he quarreled with her. After that, he began to analyze things about other countries. And the Norman spies and spies around him also listened to the orders of their own lord, and brought in other countries' related inquiries for Egil's reference.

First of all, France, and the country that Egil pays the most attention to. Philip II seems to have been a bit of a goofy in recent times. After taking over the Duchy of Aquitaine, Philip II himself was restored. But not much recovered. In the Second Battle of Budapest, the loss of 50,000 French troops could not be recovered casually.

In this respect, Philip II is quite inferior to Charles.

Charlie was also close to annihilation in the end. But in fact, he lost the most from the Swiss mercenaries who demanded that high salaries. And the army of Burgundy itself lost no more than five or six thousand. Although the loss of five or six thousand soldiers and horses can be regarded as a broken nerve. But it is much better than Philip II's behavior of losing 20,000 troops in an instant.

Therefore, although Philip II also wanted to follow Frederick's example, he said: There can only be one king in the whole of France, and that is I, Philip II, and then send troops to Burgundy. But he really didn't dare. On the contrary, Charlie is likely to make some noise......

Recently, Charles, who has won the title of king, still seems to be a little dissatisfied, perhaps for him, the crown of the king of Burgundy is a little worse than the crown of France............... ，

Regardless of the grievances and feuds between France and Burgundy, who will be born and who will be responsible in the end, Egil understands that this is the case in the whole of Western Europe. Until the two countries are decided, it is unlikely that Norman will be attacked by Western Europe, and certainly will not receive aid from Western Europe.

As for the rest, in Eastern Europe, the Hungarian emissaries came to the Papal States again, almost crying to death in the Papal Chamber. Although the country has barely recovered, it has succeeded. But there is nothing to do, and the most common thing besides refugees is dead bodies. King Attila felt that he, the king of Hungary, did not seem to have felt as relieved as he had been a nomadic tribal leader in the steppes some time ago. I had to come to the Papal State again to cry Qin Ting.

So, the country can basically ignore it.

It's Lithuania, well, Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania. This guy has been mixing well lately. If the contract with the Grand Duchy of Moscow goes well, then this guy will still get such a rich land as Ukraine. The strength will increase again. Although in the previous war against Moscow, Vytautas chose the strategy of alliance with the Normans. But as someone who experienced the collapse of the United Kingdom of Lithuania in Bōran. He would never forget the hatred with the Norman Empire. So......

"Perhaps a little caution should be given to Artoria, and to pay close attention to the Lithuanian Grand Duke," Egil said to himself, before writing a love letter. ！。