Chapter 489 The Second Norman Conquest

Sigismund was right. The Roman army quickly occupied Florence and Siena. The local mercenaries had no belief in defending their country. They just signed up when they were told that the salary was twice theirs.

"John, what are you going to do? Are you happy to give your hometown to others?"

Maso Obiqi knelt on the ground and yelled at John. John just smiled and said to him.

"I didn't want to do it to the extreme, but I didn't expect you to be unwilling to behave. You can't blame me for that."

John quickly changed his face and said seriously.

"The Roman emperor ordered that the Florence Parliament be dissolved and all the parliamentarians' property be confiscated, waiting for His Majesty's decision."

Obiang almost rushed over to hit John when he heard this. Fortunately, the soldiers stopped him, otherwise he would really go crazy.

"John, you will get your retribution one day. God will punish you."

John sneered at this. You use the Catholic God to punish the Orthodox believers. What a great official power.

"I can only blame you. It is your short-sightedness that destroyed everything."

The Republic of Florence and Siena was occupied by Rome. Now the only independent countries on the Italian peninsula are Milan, Genoa and Savoy. They also know Rome's ambitions, so they hold each other tightly and build a defense line in the Parma-La Spezia area. Austria also stationed troops in Innsbruck to prevent the Roman army from going north.

Peter also sailed to Dalmatia, and the army from the Balkans has begun to move. Intelligence from Suceava and Kharkov shows that Poland and Lithuania have begun to move, but the local nobles will definitely stop them from sending troops, and there will be no problem with Moscow guarding.

Vlad is under a lot of pressure. Burgundy and Orleans, the enemies, have actually united. Now the Berlin Alliance can be said to be surrounded on all sides, and Rome must break through.

The Aragonese army has not broken through Sardinia, but has allowed the Roman army to gain experience. The plunder of Sicily did not have much effect, so the Regency Council came up with a large-scale plan: seize Malta in the Mediterranean and open the way to the Eastern Mediterranean.

This plan is actually very risky, because the current situation in Rome is not a good choice to take the initiative. In addition, if the navy is transferred out, Barcelona will have no barrier. What should Rome do when it attacks? So they still have to discuss this plan.

I thought that attacking on multiple fronts could catch the opponent off guard, but I didn't expect that they were caught off guard. The opponent can fight N at once, but they are still arguing about who to listen to. It's really stupid.

————Dividing line————

The news of Stefan's landing in England also spread to the other three brothers, and Vlad was the first to get the news. Since the younger brother has such great ambitions, he, as the older brother, naturally has to support him.

Soon, the Berlin Alliance announced sanctions against Henry IV of England, and the routes from London to Hamburg and other cities were interrupted. England's exports suffered a major crisis.

Faced with the problems of the Berlin Alliance, Vlad also used all his brain cells to solve them. Poland and Lithuania have the second brother to attract attention, France and two vassals are attracted by the fourth brother, and the eldest brother makes the southern Holy Roman princes panic, so now the only one that is not attracted by others is the Kalmar Union in the north.

Queen Margaret is old and weak, and she doesn't have many days left. After being taken away from Finland by Michael, she has been lying in bed to recuperate, and her daily affairs are handled by her nephew Eric.

At this time, the Kalmar Union and England are allies, but because it is a defensive alliance, the alliance has the right not to send troops to help, but Eric's wife, Philippa of England, the daughter of Henry IV, keeps persuading Eric to send troops to England. This makes Vlad feel a crisis, and he wants to create time for his fourth brother to seize England.

The Elector of Pomerania led the army to the border between the two countries, and Vlad asked Eric to negotiate the ownership of Schleswig-Holstein. He believed that these two places spoke the Holy Roman language and were inhabited by Holy Roman residents, and should be governed by the Holy Roman, not Denmark.

Eric launched a series of counterattacks. Since the Viking period, Schleswig and Holstein have been part of Denmark and became the duchy of Denmark in the 12th century. His inheritance here is reasonable and legal, so why should he hand it over? It's just a far-fetched argument.

Vlad said, I'm just unreasonable. So he kept arguing, and Denmark realized that something was wrong, so he gathered the army and went to the border. In order to maintain funds, Eric introduced the channel toll, which made Denmark's finances rich. However, it also greatly worsened the relationship with the Hanseatic League. Cities such as Hamburg and Lübeck asked Denmark to exempt it, otherwise they would attack Copenhagen.

Within the alliance, Vlad began to integrate the economic situation. He began to require alliance members to unify the currency. All currencies were changed to the uniformly issued Berlin lei. In order to distinguish it from the Roman lei, the pattern behind it was an eagle looking east.

In addition to currency, the alliance began to negotiate on tariffs and strive for unified tariffs. For this matter, the parliament had quarreled, but fortunately, there was no quarrel in the military, and all were handed over to Vlad's command.

And Stefan won the support of merchants and farmers with external forces, and even some members of Parliament supported him. Because the export was cut off, many people's living standards declined, and there was a panic in the market. Henry IV could only take King James of Scotland north to Lancaster, leaving his son Henry to defend London. Henry the Younger attacked again, and the two sides fought at Aldershot, southwest of London.

The battle began with a volley of Stefan's archers and crossbowmen. However, because Stefan's bow was not powerful, it could not penetrate the British shield, and most of the arrows flew to the ground behind the British army.

Then the infantry and cavalry charged, led by Thomas, an officer who had surrendered to Stefan and had just been canonized as the Earl of Somerset, and Montagu, Baron Hastings. Both of them had been low-level officers, and later surrendered to Stefan and obtained this title. They had to win, otherwise what they had finally obtained would be gone.

On the front line, the infantry and cavalry confronted the defending British army head-on, but at this time they also realized that this was a life-and-death situation, and they resolutely refused to retreat half a step, resulting in the British shield wall still being indestructible, and the British soldiers began to shout "Holy Cross" and "Get out, get out".

Based on the experience of the previous Norman Conquest, Stefan began to order the few cavalry to repeatedly use the "fake defeat" tactics. During this day, they performed attacks and retreats many times in front of the British defense line. Every time, a part of the British soldiers would chase the enemy who seemed to be defeated, but each time they were turned back and annihilated by the cavalry. At the end of this day, the British defense line was almost collapsed. The repeated charges of the army's infantry and cavalry had made the British defense line extremely weak.

Stefan realized that the time was ripe and prepared to launch the last wave of charges. His archers and crossbowmen stood in the front again, this time with artillery. The archers adjusted the shooting angle, and most of the arrows fell on the heads of the rear army, causing a large number of casualties. As the infantry and cavalry approached, Henry and several lords were hit by artillery and mortally wounded. In this situation, they hurriedly organized a retreat, and only a small part of the British army successfully retreated into the forest. Not long after, they received the news of Henry's death. The English army began to disintegrate, and Stephen won the battle again and opened the way to London.

A month after Stephen landed in England, the Duke of Normandy officially led his army into London. He came to Westminster Abbey and officially sat on the throne of St. Edward. The bishop accompanying the army crowned him as Stephen I.