"Inglae, from now on the army of Cologne will immediately enter the preparatory stage, I hope that in a month, my army will be able to go to the battlefield immediately, I think you should be able to do this!"
Maximilian said to a middle-aged man who was the commander of the armed forces of Cologne, one of the electors of the Holy Roman Empire, and although Cologne did not have a large army, a small but capable army was a must.
Before Maximilian came to Cologne, Cologne had an armed force of 15,000 men, and after Maximilian's arrival, under the orders of the Elector, Cologne's armed force grew to 20,000.
As the elector of the Holy Roman Empire, the Elector of Cologne has always been the first of the seven electors, and if you talk about wealth alone, the Elector of Cologne is not inferior to the monarch of any country.
You must know that the political system of Cologne is theocracy, and the ruler of Cologne is not only the Elector but also the Archbishop of Cologne, whether it is within the empire or in the entire Holy See, the Elector of Cologne is a force to be reckoned with.
What's more, the Elector of Cologne has a very feared right, that is, if the Elector of Cologne is not satisfied with the heir to the throne of the Empire, he can initiate an Electoral Council within the Empire, and then the seven Electors decide the ownership of the throne.
Now Maximilian had already thought of using this right, which has been used less than five times in history by the Elector of Cologne, and has not been used by any Elector of Cologne since the Middle Ages.
"Your Highness, the army of Cologne will always be ready for war for you, I assure you!"
Ingrid boldly made assurances to Maximilian.
The main reason why this commander has such confidence is that Maximilian is very willing to throw money at the army.
Maximilian was rich, and his wealth came not only from the gifts given to him by Queen Teresa during her lifetime, but also from the constant annual taxes he received when he became Archbishop of Cologne.
There is a very important tax in the history of Christianity.
This tax is the most important pillar of church activity, and that is the tax item known as "tithing."
According to the Bible.
In the book of Genesis, the Christian prophet Abraham gave a tenth of his annual income to Melchizedek in the city of Salem, which is considered to be the origin of tithing.
Before the 4th century, the Christian church did not practice tithing, and believers were free to give as they pleased.
After the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the state religion, the church began to advocate the collection of this money.
And before the sixth century.
Tithing gradually became widespread in Catholicism and Western Europe.
By 567 and 585 C.E., tithing was mentioned in the major councils of Europe and eventually adopted as a necessary criterion for consecration of the church.
In 779 A.D., Charlemagne of the Frankish kingdom enacted a law to implement tithes, and in the middle of the 10th century, Western European countries successively implemented them, which were regarded as taxes.
After the Reformation, tithes continued in Catholic and Protestant countries.
In 1563, the Holy See and the Holy Roman Emperor convened the Council of Trento, which reaffirmed that the Catholics must pay tithes.
Soon after, there was a conflict between the European powers and the Church.
European countries gradually abolished this tax system, but for the time being, there are still relatively few countries that have abolished tithes, although several major European powers have abolished tithes, but tithes are still popular in some ecclesiastical territories and some princely territories.
Cologne has not abolished tithes today, and not only that, but every year Maximilian even arranges for tax collectors to go to the towns of Cologne to collect the tax according to the register.
This allowed Maximilian to come up with a large sum of money to support the army without having to make his life thrifty.
"Very well, then Lord Richard.
I will now send you to Prussia and tell King William that if he is able to support me at the Council of the Electors, I can transfer to him the region of Austria Poland which he has long desired, and I will continue to recognize the treaty he has signed with my brother Joseph II."
"Your Highness, rest assured, I will definitely convince the Prussians" One by one, the people in the room were assigned tasks by Maximilian, and in addition to ordering the mobilization of the army, he also sent several groups of envoys to the various electors to carry out persuasion activities.
He hoped that if a council of electors was held as a last resort, these electors would be able to support him, and of course the price he would pay for it would be acceptable.
At this moment, in Maximilian's mind, if he could not seize power in Austria, then he must not let Leopold wear the crown of the Holy Roman Empire.
Because these are all his!
No one in the world has ever been stupid, and Leopold, who was born in Habsburg, is naturally not the kind of stupid idiot, and he didn't have a tit-for-tat confrontation with Maximilian before because in his opinion, Maximilian was his younger brother, and when Maximilian was young, it was Leopold who took care of him, so for this youngest brother, Leopold was full of a kind of doting that seemed to be a father's love for his children.
But now Maximilian has become the biggest obstacle to Leopold's ascension to the throne, although Maximilian has been driven back to Cologne before, but he will never be reconciled, Leopold, who has taken care of him, naturally knows that his younger brother will stick to what he likes to the end, and he doesn't seem to see the word give up in his body, and he must get what he likes.
Thinking of Joseph II's words to take care of him before his death, Leopold was saddened, it was never easier to say than to do, if Joseph II could do it, I am afraid that the emperor would have been down a long time ago, but how is the blood relationship between brothers so simple that it can be easily parted.
Maximilian's ambitions, Leopold, knew that he could not have surrendered the throne of Austria to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire.
In Leopold's think tank, the think tanks planned countless plans for Maximilian, and some even proposed to settle his plan in Vienna while Maximilian was coming back, but such a plan was rejected by Leopold without hesitation.
Ferdinand in Vienna, Leopold didn't care, because although the archduke followed Maximilian but never was a careerist, the reason why he supported Maximilian was because the two grew up together and were close in age, so compared to the two elder brothers, Ferdinand was naturally closer to Maximilian's younger brother.
As I said before, as the Elector of Cologne, Maximilian has the right in his hand that is very jealous, in this case, Leopold is not willing to turn his face with his younger brother, he hopes that Maximilian can support him!
If Leopold had known what Maximilian was up to, he would have agreed to do it to his brother at once.
Ushakov stood in the captain's chamber of the flagship, from which he could see the entire battlefield directly ahead, after two hours of shelling, the port of Riga had been completely reduced to ruins, and now all the warships of the Baltic Fleet were extending their attacks, and all the naval guns were ravaging those main targets in the city of Riga.
Although the naval guns of the fleet could not cover the whole of Riga because of the range, these distances were enough for Ushakov.
It was dark, no one was sleeping in Riga, the streets were full of people flying like headless flies, and Kutuzov's army was engulfed in the crowd.
Although the order to retreat has been given to Kutuzov, the 25th and 27th regiments cannot be withdrawn at all, and at this moment, those already crazy crowds can not care whether you are an army or not, the ** of survival occupies the entire brain of people, and it is even more difficult for the troops scattered by the crowd to maintain a complete formation.
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Ushakov held the telescope and looked at it, with the help of the flames that were ignited by the artillery fire, Ushakov found that a suitable position for landing had been cleared in the port, and more importantly, there was no human figure nearby, and as soon as he saw this, Ushakov immediately ordered: "Send a signal to our ships and order them to immediately accelerate to the coast for a landing, and let Pelenovich's ships get out of the way for me!"
"No!"
Seeing the signal from the "St.
Peter", Perenovich immediately ordered ten forward warships to turn to the right side of the sea, and the coast in front of them, which had already been swept away, would be the place where the army would land. .........................................
"Your Excellency General, the 27th Regiment has applied for support!"
"!
Tell Sergei that I don't have anyone on my hands, and ask him to withdraw the army for me immediately, and immediately send two regiments to the southern gate to clear the people of Riga and let them leave immediately, so many people are gathered in the south, who knows if something will happen!
” Kutuzov sat in a marching tent south of Riga, which was very safe, at least the guns of the warships at sea would never be able to hit here.
Kutuzov already knew about the enemy who attacked Riga, and as he expected, it was Paul's men who were playing tricks.
There was an old soldier running out of the port, and this veteran happened to be guarding Riga before, and Riga happened to be one of the main ports of the Baltic Fleet, so he could recognize some of the warships of the Baltic Fleet.
Although it was dark and dark, all the warships of the Baltic Fleet were now turned on by the lights, and in this way, under the illumination of the lights, the veteran was surprised to find that all the main warships of the Baltic Fleet he knew were actually gathered outside the port of Riga!