In this way, the third great border war became a dream. otbnkotgt The reason why it is said to be "basic" is because after that, William started a backup strategy.
Now that the White Army and the New Circassian Army have been mobilized, it would not be good to end like this without doing anything.
Half of it is for training troops, and the other half is for expanding territory.
William once again launched an attack in the name of Crusade to the east, Holmgard, the last independent kingdom of the Slavs.
If there were no problems, there would be no suspense in this war.
Although Holmgard also has an army of more than 5,000 men, if fully mobilized, it can have an army of more than 20,000 men.
But in the face of continuous defeats, the Slavis in Holmgard had already lost their courage.
There are no outstanding talents, and there are not enough modern troops.
Because it is located on the border, it has almost no industrialization capabilities.
Previously, all gunpowder weapons were imported from Novgorod.
After Novgorod was annexed by William, Holmgard lost its arms import channels.
At the same time, this country does not have such a high awareness of "strategic reserve resources".
In today's situation, when gunpowder weapons are used less and less, officers at all levels of the army will naturally not let the soldiers train.
Therefore, one can imagine the quality of Holmgard soldiers.
All in all, this is a small country that relies solely on agriculture and animal husbandry economically, is basically in the Middle Ages militarily, is sparsely populated, and has low morale.
If it were not to further expand his influence, William would not even want to attack him.
In fact, if Holmgard could be more sensible and surrender voluntarily, then William would not be unable to consider accepting it.
However, King Slavi of Holmgard did not seem to realize this.
In other words, he felt that he had a responsibility and enough arrogance to support him in not surrendering to William.
Because, first of all, the title of the Hereford family is only that of Grand Duke.
And he is the "King".
How could a king surrender to a grand duke?
Even if the grand duke's power and strength were ten times his, or even more.
Furthermore, with all three other independent Slavi countries being annexed, Holmgard has become the only Slavi country in the Old Continent that still remains independent.
Under these circumstances, His Majesty the King felt it was his duty and obligation to shoulder the mission of reviving the Slavi nation.
Therefore, even though all conditions were unfavorable to him, he still insisted on continuing to be hostile to William and the Hereford family.
"So, it doesn't matter if such an incompetent waste cannot see the situation clearly, it doesn't matter if he dies."
William thought in his heart.
Now, the only problem that bothers him is the weather.
After the time entered September, Holmgard, which has a very high latitude and the northernmost land has entered the Arctic Circle, received its first snow.
In the south, when the war between the dark elves and the centaurs ended, the entire Holmgard was covered with a thick layer of snow.
The average temperature dropped to minus 30 degrees Celsius or even lower.
It would be almost impossible to attack Holmgard in this situation.
Therefore, William had to wait at least three more months.
Around April 1749, another attack was launched.
Under this situation, William was naturally not willing to sit around in his own home.
At the same time, now, the various territories of the Hereford family have basically stabilized.
Whether it is government affairs or military affairs, he does not need to pay too much attention to them.
After thinking about it for a while, William decided to take advantage of this rare time to go out for a walk.
A long time ago, he had wanted to go to the interior of the empire, or even to Britton.
Because, despite having experience in previous lives, I know what industrialization is all about.
But this world is still subtly different from the previous life.
Therefore, in order for the Hereford family to develop better, William felt that it was necessary for him to conduct inspections in relatively developed countries.
Because at the beginning of spring, we will launch an attack on Holmgard.
Not enough time.
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So it was impossible for William to go to Briton.
In fact, even if he went to Franconia to meet the emperor, it would still be too late.
Therefore, William has two goals for himself.
One is Polotsk.
He is going to inspect the development of Hereford Comprehensive Company in Polotsk.
Next, it’s time to go to Shilonsk.
It is the one with the greatest degree of modernization, national strength and population among the four grand duchies of Wende.
William is going to "reconnaissance on the enemy."
In addition, William also wants to exchange views with Archduke Henry of Shilonsk on behalf of Archduke Otto.
Although one of William's goals was for his family to obtain the title of King Wende.
But at least so far, the relationship between the Hereford family and the Trieste family is pretty good.
Although the independence from the Grand Duchy of Mazovia with more than one-third of the territory has caused the Trieste family to lose a lot. strength.
But before that, most of the time, the Hereford family appeared as supporters of the Trieste family.
Not to mention the engagement between William and Elise.
Let’s just talk about the tacit understanding between the two families in the second great border war.
And Archduke Otto's performance in various public occasions can give people the feeling that "the Hereford family and the Trieste family are allies."
Even, in a sense, the alliance of the two families is the greatest guarantee for dealing with the internal problems of the Wende Kingdom.
With the combined strength of the two families, the comprehensive national power has far exceeded that of Grand Duke Dietrich of Livonia on the northern coast and Grand Duke Viall of Turov in the south.
More importantly, the two grand duchies of Shilonsk and Mazovia were connected together, dividing Turov in the south from Livonia in the north.
This ensured that the alliance of the two families could defeat the two opponents separately.
With such an advantage, if the Hereford family and the Trieste family really work together, then it would be natural to defeat the other two grand dukes and obtain the throne of the king of the Kingdom of Wende.
However, the question is, who should give the throne of this king?
The Grand Duke of Mazovia, Leszek, had completely lost his ambition to conquer the world after experiencing the tragic failure of the Crusade expedition to the Slavic lands.
Totally nothing to worry about.
But Henry, another Grand Duke of the Trieste family, was different.
Although the defeat of the Crusades caused Archduke Henry to suffer heavy losses.
But Shilonsk's family is rich.
If you have money, you can do whatever you want.
Archduke Henry could still raise an army of 30,000 mercenaries in the shortest possible time to do whatever he wanted.
Moreover, compared to the Archduke Leszek who did not have any ambitions.
Archduke Henry's ambitions never ceased.
From beginning to end, he wanted to be King Wende.
He even said that now he wants to be the king even more.
I mean, after getting the support of Grand Duke Leszek and the Hereford family.
Not too smart though.
Unexpectedly, we can comprehensively analyze the current situation from a strategic and tactical perspective.
But the most basic point is that after gaining the support of Archduke Leszek and the Hereford family, he still understands that his power has increased.
In fact, last year, Archduke Henry sent several letters to Archduke Otto.
Asked Archduke Otto "When will he fulfill his promise."
But at the beginning, it was because of the unstable situation on the large border and the failure of the Crusaders.
Therefore, Archduke Henry was more conservative and his tone was gentler.
Then, William went on a crusade to attack Novgorod, and Archduke Otto also had reasons to evade.
However, after Archduke Otto was crowned Grand Duke of Novgorod, Archduke Henry became a little impatient.
The tone also became more aggressive and urgent.
Although it's not to the point of pointing at Archduke Otto's nose and swearing, it's almost there.
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It can be said that the alliance between the Trieste family and the Hereford family has reached a very dangerous point.
Under such circumstances, William did not want to abandon the alliance with the Trieste family casually.
This is not only because the actual conditions do not allow it, but also because the Hereford family has made a promise before this.
The Hereford family supports Archduke Henry to become the King of Wende.
Before, the Crusaders gathered in Krakow, Otto When the Archduke and Archduke Henry often met, Archduke Otto expressed this tendency several times, openly or secretly.
Many caring people must have kept him in mind, waiting to take it out one day to destroy Archduke Otto's reputation.
William was very dissatisfied with this point.
If he were to do it, he would definitely be able to fool Archduke Henry into confusion, and he would not miss any clues.
When Archduke Henry turned against him in the future, he would not be able to find any evidence even if he cursed.
However, Archduke Otto obviously does not have this ability.
"In this case, what should I do?
Do I really want to hand over the position of King Wende to that mediocre person?"
On the way to Polotsk, William thought in his heart: "But it would be really bad if I broke the contract.
The expedient measure at that time caused me so much trouble.
But of course, then again, if I hadn't done this at that time, then I probably wouldn't have had the chance.
I'm worrying about these things here."
William thought of this, sighed, and then shook his head: "Forget it, just take it one step at a time." 160420oshow7: