"It's not the same as the Britons. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 Speaking of this, William sighed slightly: "Kalman IV, our Emperor His Majesty has too few resources...... No, it can't be said that the resources he can use are too small.

The forces in the Carpathian region could not move too much. There are dark elves here. Even if Kalman IV didn't care about this, the local Carpathian nobility would not agree to him - the reason why the Carpathians accepted Kalman IV as the Carpathian monarch was because of Kalman IV's ability to resist the invasion of the dark elves.

If His Majesty the Emperor was unable to protect the Carpathians, or even to weaken the Carpathians for his own benefit, then the local nobles would definitely oppose it at the first time and then break away from his rule.

And then there's Lombardy. The southern part of Lombardy is contested by the Southern Lombards, Asturians, and Berbers of the Star and Moon Cult. The northern part of the country was controlled by a number of small states, and as a reserved territory of the Holy See, Lombardy rarely intervened in continental wars......"

"There is intelligence that the Holy See is involved in the war. At this point, William, the Duchess Freya beside him interrupted him: "Whatever the actual significance of this war, at least on the surface, this war has religious issues as its cause. The dispute between traditional and new sects is the main reason.

In this case, will the Holy See still hold Kalman IV back?"

After Duchess Freya said this, there was a buzz of discussion in the room. A handful of officers felt that there was some truth in Freya's words. At the same time, there was also information that some Lombards had joined the Imperial Army. At the same time, the Holy See also issued a public statement in favor of the justice of the Emperor's war, and called on the dukes of the northern city-states of Lombardy to collect donations for His Majesty.

From this point of view, the Holy See and the Kingdom of Lombardy were indeed on the side of Emperor Kalman IV - of course, but only superficially.

"Although...... But it's not that simple. William smiled and said, "The Holy See doesn't want the sects in the north of the empire to split - but in comparison, I think the Holy See would be even less interested in seeing a unified Ostrogothic Empire, right?"

In the former, the Holy See will lose a lot of faith, plus a small part of the tithes and donations. The latter, however, is about to lose his roots in Lombardy!

Any emperor who unified the empire on the mainland would look south to the territory south of the Alps! Any emperor wanted to gain access to the wealth, population, and resources there. The emergence of a powerful emperor means that the Holy See will face a test of life and death -- compared to their survival, compared to their present privileged life, it is something that the Holy See can and even willingly accept to give up some of their interests and part of their beliefs and let the empire continue to remain divided!"

Before anyone else could speak, William continued:

"Yes, the Holy See calls for war against those Protestant countries. Again, the Holy See called on the monarchs of the small Lombard states to collect donations. But what is the amount of money, troops, and resources that really reach His Majesty the Emperor? It would be nice to have an infantry regiment! The whole of Lombardy has a population of tens of millions, and both the Holy See and the monarchs of the various small states are very rich. They can very easily organize tens of thousands of troops, or even hundreds of thousands, to come out and fight. Historically, this has happened all the time - but if you pay a little attention, you will see that the Lombards really burst into battle and organized tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of armies at the behest of any emperor, but only when the emperor went south to 'invade' the Lombardy, interrupting the good days of the Lombards. ”

Hearing William say this, the surrounding generals and senior officers did not speak anymore, and they all frowned, thinking about what William said.

Yes, indeed. William makes a lot of sense.

"But if that's the case......"

"If that's the case, then the probability of the emperor's victory, it seems, ......"

"In a full-scale confrontation, the emperor almost, no, it should be said that there is no possibility of victory at all. William said calmly: "Although a victory was won in one battle, it could not change the balance of power between the empire and the coalition forces...... We've talked about it before. The emperor ostensibly owned three possessions of Lombardy, Great Moravia, and Carpathia. But neither the forces of Lombardy nor the Carpathians could be mobilized.

The Emperor was only fighting with the power of his basic plate, which was Great Moravia.

Great Moravia was indeed the largest state of the empire, the first in terms of population, resources, and wealth. But the civil war that had just ended in the empire was also fought by the emperor with the strength of the Great Moravian state. The Imperial Civil War had only recently passed, and the power of Great Moravia had probably not recovered much. In this case, if there is another war on a larger scale than the previous Imperial Civil War, with the national strength of Moravia, I am afraid it will not be able to sustain it. ”

"So...... What should we do now?" at this point, the general and the senior officers were silent. In fact, there is nothing to say. I don't know is I don't know - I thought it was a simple matter, the Imperial army was overwhelmed, and soon the enemy army would be able to complete the territory of the enemy, and now they don't say anything.

According to William's analysis, the empire was bound to fail, so it was impossible to join the empire...... But the question is that the current coalition forces have almost lost all their strength, is it really appropriate to join the coalition forces under such circumstances? If it does not join the coalition forces, then where will Russia, which is not on both sides, go?"

So, after asking this question, everyone, including William's father, King Otto, looked at William von Hereford. The youngest, wiser, sinister, terrifying of the Hereford family, the young man who single-handedly created a vast empire that is unique in the world.

As in every previous decision, Russia, Mystya, Polotsk, Wende...... All the people who made up this nameless empire looked to William, as always, waiting for their genius, their monarch, their prophet to give them the most correct answer.

"We continue to wait. ”

So, William said with a smile.

"Go ahead...... Wait?" King Otto asked with some confusion: "If we don't send troops and join any side, we will continue to maintain neutrality?"

"Yes, we continue to maintain neutrality. William nodded: "Hereford's 50,000 standing forces and 100,000 troops continue to stand still. "We don't have much time, my friends, and this is a great opportunity," he said. To the south we are docile centaurs, and to the north we are the threatless Polotsk Sea and ice fields. The wilderness and steppes of the East await us to explore and conquer, and the empire itself of the West does not have the power to take care of us now.

In other words, my friends, we are free. At this, William smiled pleasantly: "Yes, in this case, we are free and unfettered without external pressure—we will never find this opportunity again if we do not take this opportunity to put our occupation in order, our land, and our people."

Hereford has expanded to a rather frightening degree. We are very fortunate that we are in a war that has little to do with us, and none of the current strong people can take care of us. We can continue to develop - but after this war, it will be difficult to find this opportunity. Perhaps I will live with you in a state of fear and hostility to all human nations. So...... We are neutral. ”

William's words set the policy of the Hereford family in the coming months, a year, or even a few years. The Imperial army continues to hibernate. At the same time, the imperial government wholeheartedly cultivated internal strength. The family will allocate more funds to build a more general education system, colleges and universities. At the same time, the empire will conduct an extensive census. In the new territories, William will carry out agrarian and agrarian reforms in accordance with previous experience.

With the entire empire, and indeed the entire human world, at war, William believed that the Hereford family's traditional trade in food and agricultural products would continue to flourish. Developed agriculture would further spur the empire's population growth, which was now only 10 million, and could not support the ambitions of the Hereford family. In the ensuing war, the clan would take in a large number of refugees from the empire and implement policies to encourage childbearing.

William's goal was to triple the population of the Hereford family to 30 million within twenty years.

Perhaps the Hereford family will not be the strongest country in the human world in the short term, but William believes that he can become the most populous country in the human world first.

In addition to this, the railway works of the empire's ambitions will also begin. The construction of the steam locomotive, which had been ordered from the Dwarves in the north, had already begun to be built, and unlike the strange gauge width of the "two horse bodies", which was currently very pleasant, William decided to increase the width of the rails to two thousand millimeters in order to increase the stability of the train and the volume of freight.

While this would cost a little more money – a little bit of money is not a problem compared to the benefits of an increase in track width. The empire was in a good financial position at the moment, with commerce, industry, and agriculture all flourishing. And the Hereford family is also a royal family with strong centralized power, which is very rare in the human world.

With enough power not to be hindered by the local princes and nobles, and with the power to collect taxes, the Hereford family could easily carry out any of the strategic policies that William expected.

The Empire's newest Ministry of Industry will integrate all of the Empire's current industrial systems. From the light industry in Polotsk, the steel industry in Mystia and Russia, the shipbuilding industry in Livonia and the textile industry in Shilonsk. The Empire will adopt a uniform standard for the production of standard parts and components using measuring tools made in the latest metric units of measurement, in order to bring all of the Empire's industries together into a single whole......

Thus, in September 1741, when the Ostrogothic Empire was in full swing, when His Majesty the Emperor Kalman IV was full of ambition and worried about planning a new war, when Victoria felt ridiculous and angry and was ready to increase his investment in the war, and when the other small states of the empire were in fear, the territory under the jurisdiction of the Hereford family was a different scene.

The family's administrators, departments, royal family, clergy, merchants, and landowners were gearing up for a great deal......