"Your Majesty, Count Scars's troops are already less than five hundred. Would you like to meet with him?" Count Horthy said while helping Ladislaus bake his boots.

"Okay, okay, let that Marquis of Casestepson or the Marquis of Carsonstepuser, the one with less than two hundred men left, have dinner with me, and I will give each of them five hundred talers tomorrow."

, and then send them back to their own territory." Ladislaus turned over his smelly socks. He used to be a king who used to have two new pairs of socks every day, but now he has reached this point.

Compared to soldiers, Ladislaus's life was certainly very good. At least he still had dry quilts, which his attendants would take out and tidy up every sunny day.

Marching along the river bank for more than a month and being stationed in humid places every day caused the bedding of many Austrian soldiers to rot and disintegrate. Coupled with several autumn rains, the sanitary conditions continued to deteriorate, resulting in more and more non-combat attrition.

And 90% of this attrition is concentrated on Hungarians.

This is natural. Compared with the Austrian army, which has a basic medical system and better supplies, their life is indeed difficult.

The pursuit force, which once swelled to more than 50,000, has actually recovered to about 40,000, including 29,000 Austrian troops and about 10,000 Hungarian auxiliary troops.

In fact, Ladislaus did not have much hope for the combat effectiveness of the remaining Hungarian troops.

However, these Hungarian nobles did not dare to leave, for fear that retreating at this time would offend Ladislaus. After all, leaving at this time may be considered an act close to betrayal.

Most of the Hungarian nobles were reluctant to respond to Louis II's mobilizations.

Maybe they don't have the great malice and ambition like Fedtaler and Szaboray. But their actions did destroy their motherland together.

Although Ladislaus claimed to be the legal heir of Hungary, his power base obviously lies in Austria. Although Austria has a much closer relationship with Hungary than the Ottoman Empire, not only does it not have to change its faith, but more nobles

There is hope that one's own position can be preserved, and at least the loss will be relatively small.

But this is still a disaster for all Hungarian nobles, and the collapse of the power system will be harmful to them all.

These Hungarian nobles are in a situation where everyone is in danger and are trying hard to show their value.

It's ironic that three months ago they refused to fulfill their obligations within reasonable limits and now they were so enthusiastic that Ladislaus was in trouble.

However, no matter how big the psychological factors are, they cannot solve the actual problem. They are not prepared for such a cruel war at all.

Except for a few big nobles who came with only their elites and could still hold on, those nobles who had mobilized their peasants and soldiers to the maximum extent could not hold on anymore.

But they didn't dare to leave on their own until they were sure that they had Ladislaus's real understanding.

Therefore, through Duke Horthy, they all hoped to see Ladislaus before retreating and explain their difficulties.

Ladislaus did understand their incompetence and the need to

Therefore, he accepted Duke Horthy as the "dinner broker".

It's a pity that in this business, in addition to wasting time and effort, he also had to pay breakup fees.

But Ladislaus really didn't want these Hungarians to follow him.

On the one hand, Ladislaus was unwilling to treat the obvious differences between the Austrian and Hungarian armies, but on the other hand, the Austrian standing army was fifteen thousand, and the logistics system was organized based on this number. Under maximum mobilization conditions

It can support 30,000 people in combat. This system is currently at its limit.

Although Machiavelli has once again mobilized civilians to strengthen land transportation, both cost and timeliness have determined that this is only a drop in the bucket.

A more important reason was that Ladislaus did not want his potential taxpayers to starve and die pointlessly.

In fact, Austria's war potential is deteriorating sharply. Unlike the Ottomans' transportation difficulties, Austria's problems are more serious.

The problem for the Ottomans is that the rear warehouses are piled up and cannot be transported to the front line, and the warehouses in Austria and Vienna are almost empty.

Machiavelli increased the mobilization of civilians and increased the burden on the state treasury.

Although the Austrian army's march south caused the big bankers' loan interest rates to Austria to drop slightly, Ladislaus and Machiavelli agreed that the expanding deficit must be controlled to the maximum extent.

Now those bankers are already fighting against the doctrine that Hungary has lost a large amount of land from its old owners. These territories are the basis for Ladislaus to build a larger standing army, and they cannot all be lost to these guys. This is the most important war dividend.

However, Hohenzollern wrote letters every day asking for money and supplies. Winter was coming soon, and Buda really needed to make necessary reserves.

"Duke Horthy, please have dinner with me today. Please also comfort the two Your Excellencies who are leaving and let them know that I am very satisfied with my loyalty to them." Ladislaus looked at it.

Duke Horthy, who was next to him, decided to give him a sweet date, not for

He must have benefited from his brokerage business in this business, but because Machiavelli's letter today mentioned that Duchess Horthy made a one-time purchase shortly after arriving in Vienna.

War debt of one hundred thousand thalers.

Although the Horthy family has great wealth, it can indeed be regarded as a wise idea to be able to come up with such a large sum of money after the war.

Ladislaus decided to give him a reaction.

"It's really my honor." Although Horthy arranged a lot of dinners, he didn't get a few meals himself, and he also calculated that Machiavelli should report to Ladislaus about his purchase of national debt.

That's it.

As a veteran politician, he knew that buying national debt was best done in a low-key manner. There was no need to tell the monarch to superficially show loyalty.

However, the amount of treasury bonds purchased must be large, otherwise it will be a loss if it is not noticed by the monarch.

The only formal job Ladislaus gave him now was to manage the army treasury. Although this job was very noble in some courts and could not be done by anyone but the monarch's absolute confidant, Ladislaus's poor treasury only had less than

Seven thousand thalers is purely an honorary position.

At this time, the signal corps came to report that Jevich's envoy had arrived, and Horthy resigned.

The river fleet is now the first focus of Ladislaus's attention. The army and fleet must report to each other every day to ensure safety.

Ladislaus insisted on listening to Yevich's logbook every day, which put the upstart from the Principality of Muscovy under great pressure every day, and also made his stock market rise continuously in Austria.

Even with Dare and the Hohenzollern officer raised his voice.
Chapter completed!