Ladislaus spent the New Year of 1524 on board a ship.

The Spanish fleet commander originally planned to hold a small New Year celebration ceremony, but Ladislaus refused this dinner specially prepared for nobles and senior officers, and instead spent a little more money from his own pocket and added this budget to the celebration.

Naples bought thousands of poultry and ten pigs for all the soldiers to make everyone happy.

Ladislaus put the old Colonna's men in charge of distributing the meat and told every soldier, "This is a gift from the Habsburg Archbishop of Vienna." Even the grassroots Spanish soldiers needed to let them know about their King Fede.

Although His Majesty Nande has great authority, there is also Cardinal Ladislaus in Vienna who is also a prominent figure in the royal family of magicians.

There is also an old friend of Ladislaus in Naples, the Marquis of Pescara, who is now the Governor of Naples.

After the victory in the Battle of Bicca, the Spanish Legion no longer adopted a second-line deployment policy such as stationing in Sardinia and Sicily. Instead, it took the initiative to go to the Naples area to directly suppress the Italian city-states, relying on the Battle of Bicca to attack Pescara.

The Marquis gained a very important position in the Spanish kingdom's power system.

These nominal members of the Holy Roman Empire also paid a little more imperial tax, and many second sons of noble families could also choose to serve in the Spanish army.

Ladislaus did not disembark, but he and old Colonna still met with the Marquis of Pescara, the governor of Naples.

For the Marquis of Pescara, the visiting Austrian monarch still wanted to meet him once, no matter how short the time.

The content of the meeting was not very nutritious, just some friendly nonsense from Theo. The Marquis of Pescara did have a task on his head, but the difficulty of "helping the Marquis of Pescara seek the position of prime minister" was too high, and no amount of reward would be enough.

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The Marquis of Pescara's ambition is related to his power. As mentioned above, the two most important positions in the Kingdom of Spain after the Prime Minister in Europe are the Governor of the Netherlands and the Governor of Naples.

Although the governor's power is actually mainly concentrated on the military, he also has some say in personnel and economy. These two territories that are comparable to those of medium-sized countries make the two governors very powerful.

Of course, the Netherlands is more important both economically and militarily. And not just a little bit more. Antwerp, The Hague, and Rotterdam are no less prosperous than Venice and Liguria.

The pain caused to Naples by war and plague thirty years ago has not yet healed.

But this is not entirely a good thing for the Governor of the Netherlands. Because the Netherlands is so important, both Charles V and Ferdinand I often control the overall situation in Brussels, and the local governors are too suppressed.

, so the Prince of Orange does not have as much power as the Marquis of Pescara.

Naples was originally only a secondary direction, but as the Kingdom of France continued to pass through Italy, its importance and resources allocated here became more and more important.

This time, His Majesty Ferdinand assembled a large amount of supplies in Naples for the decisive battle with the Ottoman Empire. Although part of it was given to Ladislaus, most of it was left in the local area. Therefore, the Marquis of Pescara was able to strengthen the garrison and raised the pride of making great achievements and entering the center.

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Since he came to the throne, Ferdinand had been attacking Spanish native forces, which made his thoughts more intense, but Ladislaus was also a monarch now. He understood monarchs better, especially wise monarchs.

As a Bohemian, Sazastan served in Madrid for nearly decades before becoming prime minister.

Although the local forces in Spain need to be suppressed, letting a Neapolitan who has never had much influence in Madrid become prime minister crosses that line, a line that inspires "dissatisfaction" into "resistance."

The Marquis of Pescara was not disappointed that Ladislaus had no interest at all, although he did have ambitions.

He didn't have much hope for Ladislaus's support. After all, Madrid was the center of power of the Warlock Royal Family.

Madrid can influence Vienna. Not the other way around.

However, Ladislaus' reputation for raking in money in order to build the New City of Vienna may have spread to the Governor's Palace in Naples. The Marquis of Pescara was not a rich man, but he still had something to give.

For example, the prisoners of war captured by the Kingdom of Spain from Algeria. Although pirates are usually captured and hanged, some do become prisoners occasionally, because many of them are actually just residents of private pirate ports, and capable pirates have no chance to be prisoners.

, but just like the people who were killed in Trieste Port and the countless coastal residents captured by Barbary pirates, no one is innocent.

This is of course not a personal gift. It is very inappropriate for a minister to give a gift to a foreign monarch even if it is two countries under the rule of the Warlock Royal Family. Of course, the Marquis of Pescara has the permission of His Majesty the Emperor Ferdinand, but this is still a personal favor. Other governors

I have no interest in doing this. Hanging them all would save a lot of worry.

Although Ladislaus did not take the initiative to ask for it, after taking over a thousand pirate prisoners, his prestige has lost a lot and now only has 10009 left. Using unlimited means to make money will increase Ladislaus's monarch's prestige.

Dropped to the brink of danger.

Although Ladislaus predicted the victory of the Ottoman Empire over the Knights Hospitaller, which restored his prestige for a few hundred years, the accuracy of this prediction only made the courtiers think they were good luck, and they were not yet completely convinced.

However, Ladislaus originally thought he would lose more. Although he borrowed the wisdom in Li Di's memory and wanted to play a stone ox to clear the way, this shadowy plan did not help restore his prestige. He asked Venice

The Republic's series of concessions were openly damaging.

The strong should take it with the sword, and the weak should beg.

What's more, what you get when you beg is bound to be garbage. Those who have lived with pirates for too long are no longer good at producing like pirates. They are unorganized and undisciplined and can't even do a job like moving bricks very well.

Of course, it doesn't matter. Both Szastam and Machiavelli are people who can scare garbage. Even garbage can be transformed and exploited.

Of course, many pirate prisoners would die under whips and swords before they learned how to bake bricks, move bricks, and lay bricks.

Maybe the mortality rate will be high, but in the end most of them will continue to bake bricks, move bricks, and lay bricks.

The dead will become teaching materials for the living.

The belated first State Council in 1524 did not go well. The Fugger family rejected Ladislaus's request for a huge loan, forcing Ladislaus to postpone many of his plans.

After becoming a baron, Shylock got off to a bad start and failed to borrow money.

Although Ladislaus immediately severely reprimanded his new favorite minister, he was not surprised at all.

There are times when the Fugger family's money is tight. In this case, of course, the first step is to support Spain, the country where members of the Fugger family serve as treasurers. And His Majesty Ferdinand's Eastern Expedition plan makes this plutocrat a little unable to do what it wants.

Although Ladislaus's ability to raise funds allowed a project that exceeded Austria's national capabilities to continue to operate, Austria's finances were indeed unable to provide further support. Machiavelli's financial budget showed that no matter how frugal it was, it would not be able to achieve a surplus this year.

, being able to barely balance the fiscal balance is already because the recovery ability of Milan, a wealthy province, exceeds expectations.

This still does not take into account the cost of the war, but Ladislaus's Austria is obviously unlikely to be able to avoid the war. The Kingdom of France has an amazing recovery ability and has once again established an army to press Spain. The Duke of Bourbon is also gearing up to prepare for the war.

In one incident, after some contact with him, many nobles who sympathized with him did show signs of rebellion.

What's more, Ladislaus knew that in 1524, in addition to the Kingdom of France, there were many wars in the Holy Roman Empire.

But at this point, Ladislaus could no longer retreat. More than one million thalers had been invested in the construction of the new city. It was absolutely impossible to give up. He could only continue to persevere.

However, Ladislaus's plan to launch several more large-scale money-making operations was temporarily postponed, and he also gave up his plan to intervene in several important positions and replace them with his own confidants to increase tax efficiency.

It is the best choice to let Machiavelli and Sazastan gradually infiltrate and seize the interests originally owned by the members of the Council of State. In this process, the henchmen will always give more interests to the monarch in exchange for support and continued close trust.

His prestige is already too low. Although he is very careful, any money has an owner. Seizing it will bring enemies. Maybe their owner's status is not large enough. It has no direct relationship with the senior officials in the State Council, but indirectly.

The conflict eventually spreads from bottom to top.

If the drop exceeds the limit of 10,000, there will definitely be people who doubt his ability as a monarch. Ladislaus believes that this is a reminder given to him by the system in his soul.

According to Ladislaus, the most important thing is not to ignore this trend, but to actively satisfy this voiceless desire.

For the time being, he did not have the ability to compensate or severely punish him. There was no money for compensation, and the time for severe punishment was not good, so he decided to continue waiting. He told his ministers that someone would soon rush to give him money.

Of course, he is not idle, the thing more important than the money bag is the barrel of the gun.

The transformation of the officer corps is also proceeding according to the planned plan, and several military force examinations have been conducted in the past few days since returning to Vienna.

Not many officers were knocked down by magic missiles. Except for a guy who looked like he had been drained by alcohol and sex and wanted to activate the magic on a brooch that didn't fit him to evade the test, the other dozen or so officers who had been tested were all defeated.

Passed the exam smoothly.

Of course, there were good and bad situations. A few officers yelled wildly after surviving that moment, and a few officers looked pale and had no confidence in themselves.

The few who showed no complacency, Ladislaus marked their names on the list for future reference.

The real big trouble is the literacy test.
Chapter completed!