The Rise of the European Emperor

Seeing that Emperor Maximilian I requested a temporary adjournment, representatives of the princes, such as Elector Frederick III of Saxony, did not stop them, because they also wanted to adjourn. Therefore, Frederick III simply proposed to suspend the meeting for half a day and reopen it tomorrow.

In the afternoon, Maximilian I convened representatives of allies such as the Swabian League to discuss countermeasures in private. On the side of the alliance of princes, there are also private meetings, but the scale is much larger...

In addition to dozens of representatives from the Alliance of Princes, representatives of the princes of the Church, including the Archbishop of Mainz, also participated. Their main topic is - asking for money...

Although after occupying the Franche-Comté area, the deficit of the alliance of princes has been filled a lot. However, because they lost too many soldiers and horses, they were unable to maintain it.

In particular, Frederick III was extremely nervous when he heard that Frundsberg had recruited 15,000 soldiers. He believes that if there is no further expansion of the army, the offensive and defensive situation may be reversed when Frundsberg completes the digestion of the 15,000 mercenaries.

Therefore, he asked the princes of the church to support money and food, and even support soldiers and horses, so as to expand the coalition forces of the princes to at least 40,000 people. In this way, we can cope with the huge changes that may occur in the Swiss region.

Archbishop Uriel von Gemmingen of Mainz frowned and said:

"Lord Frederick, I agree in principle to support you with some money and food. However, supporting soldiers and horses is tantamount to a blatant confrontation with His Majesty the Emperor. As the Speaker of the Holy Roman Empire, it is inappropriate for me to do so."

Philip II, Archbishop of Cologne, and Richard, the trusted Archbishop of Trier, also agreed with Archbishop Uriel, and believed that it was inappropriate for church princes to directly send troops to participate in the confrontation with the emperor. However, it is no problem to provide some money and food.

Elector Frederick III of Saxony quickly explained:

"You three bishops, you have misunderstood me. What I mean is not to ask you to directly send troops to help, but to let you 'disarm' some troops..."

"Abolished? What do you mean?" The three church electors were a little confused.

Frederick III explained:

"It's like this. Although Germany is rich in mercenaries, with the outbreak of the war, we gathered 60,000 troops, and Brunswick and other countries also gathered 40,000 troops. In addition, Spain occupied Morocco and hired mercenaries. There are 20,000 German mercenaries. Therefore, the German mercenary market is in short supply. Even if you have money, you may not be able to hire enough troops.”

"Of course, it doesn't mean that you can't hire mercenaries anymore. Rather, the better mercenary regiments have been hired away. Even if you go to recruit now, you can't recruit enough experienced mercenaries. At most, you can only recruit some Inexperienced, or scattered mercenaries. But the big war is coming, we need a lot of veterans with combat experience|..."

Archbishop Uriel of Mainz immediately reacted:

"You mean, let us terminate the contract with some mercenary groups. Then, you will hire them again?"

Frederick III nodded again and again:

"Exactly, there are still established mercenaries who can fight, and they have all been hired. Anyway, the bishops don't want to fight. How about using 'financial difficulties' as an excuse to deliberately 'disarm' some mercenaries? .Not too many, a family gathers a little, so many churches and vassal states can always gather more than 10,000 people..."

The three archbishops winked at each other, then nodded. But Archbishop Philip II of Cologne added:

"It is okay to abolish some mercenary groups, but you are not allowed to reach an agreement with these mercenaries before they leave our territory. You must wait for those 'disbanded' mercenary groups to leave our country before you can sign an employment agreement with them This is also done to avoid misunderstandings by His Majesty the Emperor. After all, we don’t want to tear ourselves apart publicly.”

Frederick III nodded, but slandered in his heart:

"Do you think His Majesty the Emperor doesn't know that you are not dealing with him? But, I know it, you are just in the dark..."

In the end, the three church electors agreed to represent the majority of the church princes and promised to provide some money and food to the princes' coalition forces. In addition, he also promised to fire a group of mercenaries on the grounds of "financial difficulties" after returning to facilitate the employment of the coalition forces of the princes.

...

That night, before the gates of Worms closed, a low-key convoy drove into the city to find a place to stay. This team is the mission of Beihai State.

On the night after entering the city, Johnny, who was the envoy, didn't go out, but stayed in the mansion honestly and showed up in the front yard. This is intentional for people to see, as for who to see? Of course it is the Archbishop of Mainz...

After all, Worms is the territory of the Archbishop of Mainz, and the Archbishop naturally has many eyes and ears. Johnny was walking in the front yard and was naturally seen by the people of the Archbishop of Mainz.

However, what the Archbishop of Mainz did not know was that in the Beihai State Mansion in Worms, a black shadow left from a secret passage in the backyard of the mansion...

This black shadow is Kohler. He came to Worms City with the mission, but he did not show his face. The emperor's line in the distance. Then, through the back door where the emperor walked, he entered the emperor's residence...

...

"Kohler? Why are you here?" Maximilian I knew Kohler, a close confidant around Marin. The emperor was surprised by Kohler's arrival. Because, this time, the Beihai State Mission seems to be trying to make the name not Kohler...

"I am here to meet His Majesty on the orders of my Grand Duke!" Kohler saluted.

"Your Grand Duke? Caesar? No, Caesar has not officially succeeded to the throne. Could it be... Marin is not dead?" Maximilian I stood up in shock.

Kohler nodded and said:

"Your Majesty, please help keep it secret!"

"Secret? Why? If you know that Marin is still alive, the small countries in Brunswick would not dare to make a mistake... Could it be that... you plan to attack those countries?"

Kohler nodded:

"Yes, Your Majesty, our Grand Duke has taken a fancy to the silver mines in the Harz Mountains and the salt mines in Lüneburg. Therefore, let them be aggressive first, so that we have a reason to annex them."

"So, why did you tell me this?" Maximilian I vaguely guessed something.

"Yes, Your Majesty. After all, you are the emperor, and you have a lot of power to speak. Our Grand Duke would like to ask your Majesty to support our North Sea Kingdom and those eight vassal states in a life-and-death duel at tomorrow's meeting!"

"A life-and-death duel? Isn't that something between knights? How can it be done between countries?" Maximilian I was a little out of his mind.

"Yes, it's a life-and-death duel! But our ostensible Prince Caesar is only 10 years old, so obviously he can't compete with several princes personally. Therefore, what we mean by Beihai is—to let His Majesty and the princes witness that the two sides have a life-and-death battle Duel war! Only this kind of duel-like war can have a chance to annex the opponent. After all, according to the rules of duel, the winner has the right to decide the life and death of the loser!"

"Duel war? Interesting...Your grand duke has so many ideas, you actually came up with a duel war between countries. The duel between the princes...It's very exciting..." Maximilian I smiled, but soon, he After changing the subject, he said:

"It's okay to support you, so what can I get?"

"The Bank of Siena will lend His Majesty another 300,000 gold coins, which is enough for His Majesty to hire another army." Kohler gave the conditions.

"However, Germany no longer has any mercenaries with strong combat effectiveness to hire..."

"I have some new information, which may be useful to His Majesty!" Kohler said with a slight smile. Then, he leaned close to Maximilian I's ear, told Maximilian I the information he had just heard from Worms' North Sea spy, and gave his own suggestion...

After hearing this, Maximilian I laughed loudly and said:

"Okay, deal! Tomorrow, I will support both of you in a duel war!"

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