While Julian was secretly planning the assassination and sending someone to report the plan to Lange, on the other side of the town in Dusseldorf, a tired and unshaven messenger was riding a thin traveling horse, his eyes wide and bloodshot. With his eyes wide open, he loudly shouted at the townspeople walking on the street, and entered the Duke of Cologne's castle without any hindrance.
After two years of recuperation, the town of Dusseldorf regained its pre-war vitality.
The merchants who had fled due to the war have picked up their shops again, and the townspeople who had been hungry and emaciated due to the siege have regained their rosy cheeks through their hard-working hands.
Because Count Berg received the title of Duke of Cologne, some skilled craftsmen and free men looking for job opportunities came to the capital of the principality. Dusseldorf is now more prosperous than before the war.
"What's up?"
In front of the castle gate, a stern-faced guard stretched out his hand holding a short spear and blocked the door, blocking the way of the messenger.
"It's me, Tommy." The messenger took off his broad hood, revealing his head full of diarrhea, "Don't you remember me? I often come here to deliver messages for Lord Count Lange!"
"It's you," the guard Tommy scratched his head. He had met many people. In his memory, there was often a messenger with diarrhea on his head who brought letters from Count Lange to the Duke. "I know You, but I'm sorry, you can't go in today, the Duke is not feeling well. Please give me the letter, and I will forward it to the Duke."
The messenger's face became a little unsightly. He had never encountered such treatment before. Even if the Duke was sick, he would never turn him away like this: "Believe me, Tommy, this letter is very special." It’s important, I must hand it over to the Duke myself.”
Guard Tommy narrowed his eyes and his tone became cold: "No, even if this letter contains ten gold coins, I can't let you in."
The messenger's face turned green and white. He gave the guard Tommy a meaningful look, then put the parchment letter sealed with fire paint under his arm, and reached for the money bag at his waist. However, the crisp sound of crackling silver coins had just begun, and Tommy cut off his attempt.
"Don't think about bribing me, it's in vain. Oh, forget it, seeing how insistent you are, I'd better tell you the truth. Don't tell anyone else, you big tongue," the guard Tommy looked around. He lowered his voice and said to the plague-headed messenger, "The Duke has recently received definite news that someone is plotting against him in the near future, so he will not see any outsiders now."
"What," the messenger looked a little shocked, his suspicious eyes rolled around, and then handed the letter to Tommy, "Well, don't forget to send the regards of Count Lange to the Duke of Cologne. .”
"Of course." Guard Tommy nodded and took the letter and a Denier silver coin on the back of the letter.
In the past few days, he has stopped many messengers from vassals and low-level nobles who came to petition. Some of them were armed, and some looked harmless. As the Duke's personal bodyguard, Tommy didn't dare to have any idea of letting down his guard.
Because once something happens, the Duke family will never let him go.
Unable to determine who the assassin was, the Duke of Cologne thought the best thing to do was to say he was ill and shut out all strangers.
Although doing this made him look timid and easily made his vassals and subjects talk about it, it was still better than being assassinated.
Obviously, having just tasted the taste of power, the Duke of Cologne is now even more jealous of his life.
The guard Tommy actually revealed the news on purpose just now. It was the Duke himself. This will make the rats in the dark aware that the person they want to murder has become more vigilant, and it will be very difficult for them to succeed again. At this time, most of the assassins only knew that it was difficult to retreat and returned without success.
And Tommy, who "accidentally" revealed the news, could get a Denier silver coin as a fee, and he was also willing to help the Duke spread the news quietly.
"Lange and Wolfe's daughter is getting married..."
At this time, the Duke of Cologne was lying in a very comfortable posture on a chair covered with soft wolf fur, reading the letter and sorting out the interests involved behind it in his mind.
If he guessed correctly, Lange is still coveting the two rich territories of his brother Simon.
However, Simon is an extremely tough hedgehog. The combat effectiveness of his private soldiers is surprisingly high, and the armor coverage rate is also very impressive. I am afraid that just relying on the private soldiers and conscripts from Lange's own territory will not be able to make Simon surrender. Instead, it will make Simon surrender. He himself suffered a lot and lost face.
Thinking of this, the Duke of Cologne couldn't help but feel glad that he had made the right decision. Fortunately, he helped Simon get rid of the constraints of Lange's family head, allowing them to become the first heirs of each other's territory, allowing them to compete with each other. Otherwise, the Dorsten family will now have the most powerful power in the entire duchy.
However, judging from this trend, the ambitious Langer is working secretly to make this thing slowly become a reality. After Lange and Baron Wolfe form an in-law alliance, the relatively stable situation in the past two years will be broken.
The Duke is a man who is content with the status quo. He is not happy to see a family with the strength to challenge his authority appear in the duchy.
Even though he knew that Lange and Wolfe would never betray him unless he implemented tyranny, who could guarantee that their heirs would have any unreasonable intentions?
"Perhaps I can pass the law of high monarchy..." Duke Cologne rubbed his temples, picked up the hot beer on the table and took a sip.
The Principality of Cologne currently implements a limited monarchy law. Compared with vassal autonomy, the current law only increases the ratio of feudal taxes and conscription of vassals.
If the High Monarchy Law is passed, in addition to higher feudal taxes and levy obligations, the most important point is that private wars between vassals are not allowed without the permission of the monarch.
However, this obviously treats the symptoms rather than the root cause and does more harm than good.
What the Duke of Cologne needs to do now is to improve his reputation, restore his strength, and stabilize the situation in the duchy, rather than using up his reputation to implement high monarchy laws and reduce the favorability of most nobles towards him.
"It's really a headache." Duke Cologne shook his head.
Perhaps it was a complete mistake to make Lange an earl in the first place. Before canonizing him, this guy had never shown any ambition. During that time, in order to gain power, he was as obedient and docile as a kitten. Although his whole body was like ice, he did not look threatening.
Well now, after he became the earl, he began to make secret plans. If he lets it go, God knows whether he will join forces with Count Wolfe to target the other barons after he annexes Simon, until he is strong enough to showdown with him again.
Therefore, lords never like ambitious vassals, especially those who are good at disguise and cunning like Lange.
But even so, the Duke of Cologne can conclude with certainty that the assassin who recently tried to do evil to him was not sent by Lange.
Lange had no reason to kill him, because not only did he have to bear the huge risk of the matter being exposed, but he also didn't get even a little benefit.
The Duke of Cologne thought that these assassins were probably hired by the remnants of the Earl of Loon family.
He never gave up the pursuit of the remnants of the Earl of Loon family. Similarly, the nobles who fled to foreign countries never gave up the assassination of their enemy, the Duke of Cologne.
"Your Majesty, I brought Baron Winter's greetings and his letter on behalf of Lord Winter."
A man with most of his face buried in a gray hood walked in directly from the door. If Lange's rogue messenger was still here, he would be surprised, because whether it was bodyguard Tommy or other guards, No one came out to stop this mysterious messenger.
"Very well, you have to be careful and don't let others notice you." The Duke of Cologne said to the gray hooded messenger, and winked at a hunchbacked servant next to him, who took the messenger's hand knowingly. He took the parchment letter and gave him a Denier silver coin as a reward.
"Aha, this Simon is really smart," Duke Cologne couldn't help but praise as he read the letter. "It seems that he has captured Lange's intentions more keenly than me."
It turns out that Baron Winter, who directly belongs to the Duke of Cologne, is the Duke's new spymaster. Since he was canonized as a baron, he has been secretly monitoring the dynamic events of the entire principality for the Duke.
Although he worked in the dark most of the time, he liked to decorate his cloaks and cloaks with white swan feathers. Therefore, he had a nice nickname, "White Feathers."
No, as soon as Simon's letters and gifts of goodwill to him arrived, he sent someone to tell the Duke of Cologne about it.
"Tell White Feather Winter to try his best to help other baron vassals in the United Principality of Simon who are directly under me." As he said, the Duke of Cologne took off a special silver ring from his finger covered with rings and handed it to him. Gave the messenger, "This is my token."
The messenger lowered his head, respectfully took the silver ring from the Duke's hand, saluted him, and left in a hurry.
"Things didn't get worse, but started to become more and more interesting." Duke Cologne breathed a sigh of relief, feeling much more relaxed than before.
He knew that Simon had found a way to rebalance the power of both parties. Now, he only had to continue to stand in the middle and ensure that his family was the dominant one.
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