Chapter 619: All directions
The Russian army took devastating cultural measures in Livonia. For ordinary people, the Tsar announced that they would protect their lives and property as long as they converted.
These people could only obey his orders and began to destroy Catholic churches and convert to Orthodoxy. Those priests and nobles hid in the castle and did not come out, trying to hold on and wait for changes.
But Mihaly didn't care about this. He only wanted these cultures and Catholicism to be destroyed, and he didn't care about other people, dead or alive, as long as the land belonged to Russia.
Livonia had asked Mihaly for peace three times, but the other side asked him to pay 100,000 gold coins every year. This was directly rejected. In this case, let's continue to fight.
Now there is only Riga, the city left in Livonia, and Lithuania is not much better. Mihaly attacked Vilnius fiercely. Vytautas could only send reinforcements continuously, hoping to consume the Russian army with the wheel tactics.
But in Mihaly's view, continuous reinforcements without increasing too much at one time are simply a dish. On the one hand, he bombarded Vilnius indiscriminately, and even planned to dig out the bones of the Lithuanian Grand Dukes after breaking through the city; on the other hand, he fortified the city and burned all places that might be used as supplies for the enemy.
Under such circumstances, the Lithuanian soldiers had to endure more difficult conditions than usual to advance, and at the same time they hated the Russians more in their hearts. They wanted to go to Vilnius immediately and destroy the Russian army.
"Hold on, soldiers! Try harder, the enemy is almost dead!" The Lithuanian general felt that the troops were weak in attacking. Knowing that his shouting would not have much effect, he still couldn't help shouting loudly to arouse their fighting spirit.
But the Lithuanian army still made slow progress. The soldiers were exhausted, and it was difficult to protect themselves, so they were naturally powerless to attack.
The Russian army attacked Vilnius more vigorously, and the soldiers climbed up the ladders one by one. The first one was knocked down, and the next one accelerated upward without hesitation. The artillery kept firing ammunition, and the defenders had no way to do anything.
The fierce offensive soon achieved results, and the defense of the city wall was breached many times. To kill or drive away one of them, the defenders had to sacrifice the lives of several soldiers. For this reason, the people of the whole city joined in the defense of the city, but the Russian army had a bonus, so they spared no effort to attack.
A large number of soldiers quickly climbed up the left wall, turned into the walkway, and rushed to the middle section with great momentum. The defenders, who were already in low morale, saw that the situation was not good and immediately threw down their weapons and ran into the city.
This run immediately triggered a domino effect. Under the fierce attack of the Russian soldiers in front and on the side, the defenders finally collapsed. They scrambled to escape from the top of the city, but blocked the walkway in the lower city. The panicked defenders actually jumped directly from the city wall into the city, broke their legs and feet, and fell on their heads. They all lay on the ground wailing.
The people in the city were also terrified, shouting in fear: "The enemy is coming."
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Prokop came to Marianneburg. As a special envoy of the Hussites, he came to discuss cooperation with Brandenburg.
It had been several years since the Hussite uprising. During this time, they had been growing and developing in Bohemia. And took root in rural areas. Although Sigismund sent troops to encircle and suppress them several times, the other side could not eliminate themselves.
But soon, the internal contradictions of the Hussites emerged. Since Hus was unwilling to become king, they established a republic, elected representatives from various places to form a parliament, and then elected 12 people from the parliament to form a committee, which was responsible for governance. And Hus was the chairman of the committee.
But before governance, Hus was a priest and the president of the university, so he found that it was indeed difficult to rule after he began to govern the land.
First of all, the land system. The committee made a policy of confiscating the land of the Catholic Church, but encountered trouble in distribution. The Holy Grail Party, represented by merchants and nobles, proposed to invest in the purchase, but the Tabor Party, represented by the majority of civilians, demanded an equal distribution of land. The two sides argued endlessly in the parliament, and finally Hus mediated and this was passed.
Then there were finances, the military and other aspects. Each plan required a long period of discussion and compromise. This was even more true in diplomacy.
The Holy Grail Party proposed that now that their goal had been basically achieved, they could ask Sigismund to recognize the republic, so that he could be the protector of the country, and the war would end quickly.
But the Tabor Party believed that Sigismund could not be trusted. As long as they kept fighting, the other party would definitely not accept the peace request. At that time, an independent republic would emerge.
Due to the wrangling and inefficiency of the meeting, Sigismund began to unite Catholic forces to fight back. They recovered some places and stabilized the north by signing a cession treaty with Brandenburg, which made Hus realize the danger, so he sent Prokop to Brandenburg to discuss cooperation.
Prokop belonged to the Tabor Party, but he also realized the gap between himself and the enemy. The smooth sailing before was due to the help of the Orthodox Church, but now without it, it has shown signs of decline. So now we have to seek cooperation again.
"Dear Elector of Brandenburg, I come to discuss cooperation between the two countries on behalf of the Republic..."
Before Prokop finished speaking, he was interrupted by Vlad. "I think we have no relationship anymore, since you drove the believers to Silesia. I think you will be able to overcome all difficulties, of course without our help."
This was a warning. Prokop suppressed his anger and continued: "The Elector has misunderstood. The two countries are neighbors. How can we just break off the relationship? Moreover, your country has saved the Archon before. We will never forget such a favor.
Now, Sigismund has marched to Prague, and other places are also ready to move. If he occupies Bohemia, then the next target may be you."
Vlad's face changed and he slapped the table in front of him. "Nonsense"
"You will know if I am talking nonsense if you wait. You know, many people have defected to Sigismund, and they have all been rewarded. One even became the Elector of Saxony. Do you think Brandenburg will be the next one?"
Sigismund can indeed do such a thing. The land and wealth owned by the Berlin Alliance are the envy of the southern region. The Hanseatic League has degenerated into an organization that obeys Berlin. Merchants invest their funds in the city to set up workshops. If it is taken down, there will be a lot of benefits.
The alliance is now attacking Poland, and if there are people in other directions, Władysław will probably be in trouble, so it is important to find an ally.