Chapter 597: Great Victory on Three Fronts

Chapter 597: Great Victory on Three Fronts

With a siege platform closer to the city and overlooking the city, the attack distance of all the crossbows has been greatly increased, covering almost half of the area of ​​Vienna. Moreover, the crossbows not only fired stone bullets, but also threw burning oil tanks into the city, causing fires everywhere in the city and chaos.

For several days, Martino launched attacks on Vienna in this way. Although he had not yet launched a full-scale siege, he had already caused considerable casualties to the defenders on the city head, and caused panic and chaos in the city. He not only showed the Austrians the terrible siege ability of the Romanian army, but also implicitly told Albrecht that Romania was strong and had enough ability to guarantee the huge consumption of hundreds of thousands of troops, and could carry out a continuous siege.

Then, the Romanian army launched super siege towers. They slowly advanced towards the walls of Vienna under the protection of siege equipment such as arrow shields and infantry following closely behind.

The defenders on the city head saw these behemoths that were taller than the city walls approaching them, and they were very panicked. The generals who arrived after hearing the news were also stunned.

At this moment, the siege tower stopped advancing, and the infantry on the top floor began to shoot arrows at the defenders on the top of the city. The lower layer of the siege tower also opened the baffle, revealing the hideous face of the artillery. The shells whistled towards the top of the city, and could knock down several soldiers at a time, and the death was horrible.

Albrecht looked at the towering siege platform not far away and the huge siege equipment in front of him with lingering fear, and a strong sense of helplessness suddenly rose in his heart...

These days have been a complete disaster for Vienna. One-fifth of the city was attacked by artillery, and a small half was burned to ruins.

With enemy troops besieged outside and heavy losses inside, Vienna was like sitting on a volcanic crater that was about to erupt, and it was possible to be destroyed at any time. Finally, at the next meeting, the Archbishop of Vienna proposed: accept Romania's request and negotiate a truce with it.

After suffering from the hardships of water shortage, fire, daily threats from Romanian and Hungarian artillery, and great mental pressure, most of the generals and citizens who had once unanimously expressed their unwillingness to surrender to the heretics were relieved as if they had been pardoned when they heard the proposal of Albrecht and the Archbishop.

Vienna surrendered!!! When the Austrian envoy walked into the camp of the Allied forces with a lost and depressed look, the good news quickly spread throughout the Allied forces, and cheers were heard everywhere.

The first domino fell in Vienna, so that all the princes who were still waiting and watching no longer had any luck. Upper Austria, Tyrol, and those neighboring countries of Austria... sent envoys to Vienna to express goodwill to Alexander and Lajos, and took the initiative to ask for food and supplies.

The murderers who killed the prince were also handed over, and they were all beheaded to commemorate the prince. Lajos also cried, he finally avenged his father.

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The news of Vienna's surrender also spread to other places. In Hungary, people sang and danced to celebrate this great victory. In the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund could only cry to make up for his inner loss.

Now there are problems in the east, west, south and north. What should he do?

At this time, Brandenburg sent people to propose peace terms, including ceding Silesia and making himself the king of Prussia.

This request is simply against the will of heaven. Why do you have to become the king? No, absolutely not.

But if it doesn't work, Brandenburg will continue to fight. If they are allowed to enter Prague and become the king of Bohemia directly, then they don't need him to be crowned, they will directly ask for it.

In the west, the situation in France deteriorated sharply. Stephen officially entered Paris, set up a central government and set up institutions. Now only a small part of France has become a loyal servant of the Bartland Dynasty, and most of them have been deprived of their property. These properties were transferred to the British, and different rewards were given at the same time.

The rewards were given according to rank, and these new French nobles also had to assume military obligations corresponding to the value of their territories, such as equipping towns with garrisons, providing troops for the king, and repairing castles used as storage or military fortresses. Many generals also obtained castles and manors under similar conditions.

The income of the new nobles in France came not only from their own industries, but also from salaries for government positions, taxes, security tolls, and "protection fees" obtained through extortion. In addition, there were spoils of war and ransoms obtained from other parts of France. The latter not only benefited the great nobles, but also ordinary soldiers.

The ruling institutions in Paris were divided into three parts: finance, religion, and military affairs. Stephen implemented three policies for local tax reduction, religious changes, and army building. The messy taxes that French farmers had to pay before were simplified, and at the same time, the submission of northern France made trade between England more frequent, and the English Channel changed from the first line of defense to the second line of defense, so that the southern counties of England could rest assured and no longer worry about invasions.

Stephen had a special affection for this "new land", probably because he saw himself as the heir of William the Conqueror. He always spoke of "my land" with obvious pride. He tried to make his new subjects like him, taking care not to make the ruling institutions too "English", and issued licenses and protections to encourage the development of trade and commerce. He also stopped the army from plundering.

But by now, France had made almost no preparations to meet the enemy, and the nobles were still hopelessly divided into the Burgundian and Orleanist factions, fighting each other endlessly. Charles VI's madness was getting worse and worse. The two crown princes of France died in infancy. The new crown prince Charles, born in 1403, was still very young, mentally immature, physically unfit, and his future was not optimistic.

The British army was unstoppable, and John, Duke of Burgundy, began to feel afraid and tried to reconcile with the Orleanists who controlled the crown prince. The Orleanists lost their capital, causing widespread dissatisfaction among the people, and their power became weaker. Many people believed that they should be held fully responsible for France's misfortune.

The Archbishop of Reims said: "If it were not for the glory of Orleans, Normandy would still be French territory, the noble blood of France would not be divided, the nobles of the kingdom would not be exiled, the battle would not be lost, so many outstanding people would not be killed that night at Gerol, and the king would not have lost so many loyal friends." The Dauphin was regarded as a puppet of the Orleanists and was also blamed.