"Yes," Simon nodded, his fingers gently stroking the exquisite gold ring, feeling the amazing and exquisite lines on its surface, "It is my pleasure, Prince."
"No, you deserve this," Otto said unequivocally, "but speaking of which, the Norse in the north have not invaded the northern part of the kingdom on a large scale in the past two years."
"Yes. Thank God, this also gave my territory a period of recuperation." Simon felt his mouth was a little dry and licked his dry lips.
"Speaking of God," Prince Otto paused and looked into Simon's eyes, "Many people say that these barbarians are divine punishments sent by God, whether it is the invasion of the Norse or the catastrophe of the Magyars. Plunder. Do you believe this?"
Otto's question made Simon stunned for a moment, and he thought about Otto's purpose in asking this question. Perhaps he wanted to know whether he was a religious lord or a secular lord?
Regardless, Simon decided to speak his true mind. He had a feeling that Otto's blue eyes seemed to be able to see through everything, including lies. There are no advantages to lying on this issue, only disadvantages. As for what Otto will think after speaking out his thoughts, that is his business.
"Many people think that I am a pious man, including the Archbishop of Cologne and the Archbishop of Mainz." Simon glanced at Otto from the corner of his eye, and the latter nodded slightly inadvertently. It seemed that he at least heard about this. "However, I'm afraid I don't agree with this statement."
"Oh?" Otto looked a little surprised. This may be different from the answer he expected Simon to say, "Why?"
"If you don't talk about faith and soul, and just look at it from a human perspective, I think the Magyars and Norse are not much different from us in nature. They also have their own consciousness, and they also need various resources to survive. It's just that they are very primitive and barbaric in the way they obtain resources, such as plundering resources through unprovoked invasion and killing, instead of obtaining resources through peaceful farming, animal husbandry and trade." After Simon finished speaking, he felt in his heart Somewhat uneasy. He didn't know what Otto would think of this statement.
"That's very good, please continue." Otto saw Simon's hesitation and faint lack of confidence, so he encouraged him.
"These barbarians are still stuck in the barbaric tribal period in terms of their territorial system, their way of governance, and their way of thinking. I think this is the root cause of all their current barbaric behaviors. Of course, this may also be related to the paganism they believe in. They are very aggressive and have a martial tradition. I don’t know much about it. In any case, some people in the kingdom are now frightened by these barbaric pagans and describe them as devils from hell. and divine punishment from God. In fact, based on my experience of defeating them twice, these barbarians are not invincible as some cowards say, as long as we have sufficient soldiers, abundant supplies, sufficient confidence and reasonable Tactics, it’s very easy to beat them.”
"Interesting," Prince Otto nodded approvingly. A brisk smile appeared on his face, which made Simon relax a lot. "I'm glad that there are nobles like you in the kingdom with wise opinions. I have heard many People's answers are nothing more than "God will bless us anyway", or "We are atoneing for our sins." I don't object to these statements, but I am more willing to see rational analysis.
"Thank you for your compliment." Simon finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"This time the Magyar army invaded, many nobles and even clergy were saying that this was God punishing us. But obviously, they were not sent by God, but because the armistice agreement had expired. It's as simple as that. ." Otto's eyes looked into the distance again. The mountains shrouded in rain clouds in the distance had become hazy at some point. It was a huge rain curtain, and it was moving towards Henneberg at a speed visible to the naked eye. Fort attacks.
"Looking at it from another perspective, at least the kingdom no longer has to pay the humiliating Magyar tax. After so many years of repairs, I don't think we will suffer the same disastrous defeat as nine years ago." Simon said optimistically.
Nine years ago, the Magyars swept through Bavaria, Swabia, Alsace, and even crossed the Rhine to plunder
The unsuspecting Duchy of Upper Lorraine and the Kingdom of Champagne in West Francia, then crossed the Rhine River through Franconia and returned to the station near the Danube River.
In this year, King Heinrich and the Magyars signed a humiliating armistice agreement. The Kingdom of Germany had to pay a large tribute to this group of invaders every year in exchange for the Magyars not attacking the Saxon region. Promise of. Note that the armistice only covers Saxony, which means that Thuringia, Bavaria, and Swabia are not protected by the armistice.
During this time, King Heinrich built a large number of castles in the eastern part of the kingdom and encouraged nobles from all over the country to build castles. At the same time, in the Saxony and Thuringia regions, the king spent a lot of money training cavalry troops. Today, this newly formed cavalry force has begun to take shape.
You must know that before this, there were basically no cavalry in the entire German region, and even nobles who could afford horses were more inclined to fight on foot.
During this period, "Fowler" Heinrich gained a new title - "City Builder". At the same time, his founding and training of a cavalry force to defend against the Magyars was as significant to the entire German kingdom as Alfred the Great of Wessex's founding of the Royal Navy to defend against the Vikings was to all of England.
"You are an optimistic person," Prince Otto turned his head and looked at Simon, then looked at the rain curtain that had approached the farmland outside the castle, "Ah, the heavy rain is coming. Go to the tower to avoid the rain. If there is Sora, I welcome you to come to me anytime to talk about your views on other matters."
"It is a pleasure, my lord."
…………………………
Prince Otto returned to the dining chair on the right side of King Heinrich, but Simon had no intention of returning to his seat.
He recalled the encounter and conversation just now, and then realized that his back was soaked with sweat. Prince Otto said that if he was free, he was welcome to find him at any time. If he said this, it seemed that he still recognized his opinion.
Otto was actually an unsmiling person who was good at hiding his true emotions. This was one of the reasons why King Heinrich chose him as his successor with confidence. However, the biggest difference between him and Lange is the overall temperament and personality, as well as the message conveyed in their eyes.
Simon walked along the side corridor toward the door, looked at the long dining table, and at first sight saw the snobbish Earl chatting happily with Lange. He couldn't help but frown. Lange always seemed to be able to quickly find people who had similar interests with him and quickly become friends with them.
Earl Wolfe was chewing on the oily roasted wild boar, as if food was more attractive to him than social interaction. Simon thought that he was a simple guy who did as he pleased, but it was a pity that he and Langer were on the same side.
Duke Amadeus still couldn't get a word in the argument. In fact, this was also related to his military level, which could not be said to be good. He knew that he could easily make a fool of himself on this topic, so he pretended to be indecisive and tried to avoid speaking. "As cautious as ever." Simon muttered quietly, shook his head, stopped looking at them, and continued walking forward.
The heavy rain came as expected, and the servants, under the supervision of the butler, nimbly closed the wooden windows to block the thunder and raindrops from the warm castle tower. The banquet atmosphere in the hall did not seem to be affected at all, but Simon was still worried whether his soldiers would get sick in the heavy rain.
Simon's other baron allies had already eaten. Baron Winter and Baron Carl seemed to be as intolerable to the snobbish earl who could speak with his eyes as Simon, so they stood by the wall holding wine glasses and chatting in a low voice.
Baron Lemaître of Siegburg, an old drunkard, had passed out drunkenly on the table and was snoring. This time, Simon can understand him. After all, this journey is not easy. Everyone is very tired. Eat a big meal and drink a lot and then sleep. This is the best comfort.
And Baron Hale of Ulz, he was a solitary fellow and seemed to prefer to be alone. Ludwig once told Simon that Hale's eldest son drowned inexplicably in the river near his territory three months ago. Simon thought, this is so unfortunate. He is such a poor man. He should just let him be alone. Be quiet. Mo
Interfering in the lives of people you are not familiar with in a pretext will only arouse the other person's resentment.
"How was your meal, my friends?" Simon slowly came to the wall, and Baron Carl and Baron Winter looked at him in unison.
"It's very good. It's probably the best meal I've had in the past two weeks of marching. Of course, if there weren't some annoying guys, this meal can be called impeccable." Baron Carl raised his glass slightly to Simon He greeted me and took a sip of fruit wine.
"What about you, Simon, where did you go just now?" Baron Winter asked Simon with a smile.
"It's so stuffy here. I just went to the top of the tower to breathe."
"But I saw Prince Otto coming out of the stairs with you."
Simon was a little surprised. The tower hall was quite big, but it was really noisy now. It was crowded with nobles from all over the place. Some of them were drinking, singing, bragging, arguing, and so on. However, in this environment, Winter could still see Otto and herself at the exit of the stairs in the distance like a hawk. This insight was not possessed by ordinary people.
"I happened to meet him on the roof." Simon shrugged.
Winter did not continue to ask any more questions. Simon was not his prisoner, and any further questioning would feel like an offensive cross-examination.
"By the way, who is that annoying guy?" Baron Carl narrowed his eyes. Simon and Winter followed his gaze and saw that the snobbish Earl was clinking glasses with Lange and drinking.
"When he introduced himself to Count Lange just now, he said that he is Count Ditwen of Pashao." Baron Winter's eyes also turned cold. "He is the military director of the Duke of Bavaria."
"No wonder he looks so aggressive," Baron Karl said with disgust.
