Three hundred and ninetieth chapters brothers fight against the wall
"Ingley, from now on, the army in Cologne immediately enters the preparation stage. I hope that in a month, my army will be able to go to the battlefield immediately. I think you should be able to do this!"
Maximilian told a middle-aged man who looked quite heroic, and this middle-aged man was the commander of the Cologne armed forces. As one of the electoral states of the Holy Roman Empire, although Cologne did not have a large-scale army, a small and powerful army was a must-have. Before Maximilian came to Cologne, Cologne had an armed force of 15,000 people. After Maximilian arrived, under the order of the electoral, Cologne's armed forces grew to 20,000 people.
As the Holy Roman Empire, the Elector of the Cologne has always ranked first among the seven Electors. If we only talk about wealth, the Elector of the Cologne is no less than the monarch of any country. You should know that the political system of Cologne is a unity of politics and religion. The rulers of Cologne are not only the Electors but also the Archbishop of Cologne. Whether in the empire or in the entire Holy See, the Elector of Cologne is a force that cannot be ignored.
More importantly, the Elector of Cologne has a very fearful right, that is, if the Elector of Cologne is not satisfied with the heirs of the Empire's throne, he can initiate a meeting of electorals within the empire, and then the seven Electors decide the issue of the ownership of the throne.
Now Maximilian has thought of using this right. In history, this right of the Cologne Elector was only used less than five times. After the Middle Ages, no Cologne Elector had used this right.
"Dear Your Highness, the army of Cologne will always prepare for you for war, I promise you!"
Ingley made a bold promise to Maximilian. The main reason why this commander had such confidence was that Maximilian was willing to spend money on the army.
Maximilian was very rich. His wealth not only came from Queen Teresa's gift to him during his lifetime, but more from the continuous tax revenues he had every year after becoming the Archbishop of Cologne.
There is a very important tax in the history of Christianity. This tax is the most important pillar of church activities, and that is the tax item called "tithing".
According to the Bible. Genesis, the Christian prophet Abraham devoted one tenth of his annual income to Melchizedek in Salem, which was regarded as the origin of the dedication. Before the 4th century, the Christian church did not pursue tithing, and believers gave freely as they wish. Since the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as the state religion, the church began to advocate the collection of this money. Before the sixth century, tithing gradually became popular in Catholicism and Western Europe. By 567 and 585 AD, tithing was mentioned to the major European councils and finally adopted as the necessary standard for dedication to the church.
In 779 AD, the Frankish kingdom Charles the Great signed a law to implement tithes taxes. Western European countries successively implemented it in the mid-10th century and regarded it as taxes. After the Reformation, the tithe system continued to be implemented in Catholic and Protestant countries. The Holy Roman Emperor convened the Tronto Council in 1563 to reiterate that believers must pay tithes.
Not long after, conflicts arose between the regimes of European countries and the church. European countries gradually abolished this tax system, but for the time being, there are still relatively few countries that abolished tithes. Although several European powers abolished tithes, tithes dedication was still popular in some church territories and some vassal territories.
Cologne has not abolished the 11th dedication now. Not only that, every year, Maximilian even arranges tax officials to go to various towns and towns to collect the tax according to the roster. This allows Maximilian to spend a large amount of money to support the army without having to make his life thrifty.
"Good, then Lord Richard. I will send you to Prussia now and tell the King William that if he could support me when the Electoral Conference, then I could transfer the Austrian Polish region he longed for, and I will continue to recognize the treaty he signed with my brother Joseph II."
"Your Highness, please rest assured, I will convince the Prussians."
The people in the room were assigned tasks by Maximilian. In addition to ordering the army to mobilize, he also sent several batches of envoys to various electoral offices for persuasion activities. He hoped that if the meeting of electoral was convened as a last resort, these electorals would be able to support him, and of course he could accept the price he paid for.
At this moment in Maximilian's heart, if he could not seize the Austrian regime, he would have to prevent Leopold from wearing the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. Because in his opinion, these are all his!
No one in the world is a fool, and Leopold, born in Habsburg, is naturally not the kind of stupid idiot. He didn't confront Maximilian before because in his opinion, Maximilian was his younger brother, and when Maximilian was young, Leopold was taking care of him, so for this youngest brother, Leopold was full of the seemingly spoiled by his father for his children.
But now Maximilian has become the biggest obstacle for Leopold to ascend the throne. Although Maximilian had been driven back to Cologne before, he would never be willing to do so. Leopold, who had taken care of him, naturally knew that his younger brother was persisting in what he liked to the end. He couldn't see the word "giving up" in him. If he liked, he would definitely get the hand.
Thinking of Joseph II's words to take care of him before his death, Leopold was sad and said it was easier than to do. If Joseph II could do it, I'm afraid the emperor would have done it long ago, but how could the bloodline between brothers be so simple and could be easily given up.
Leopold knew Maximilian's ambitions, and it was impossible for him to hand over the Austrian throne and the Holy Roman Empire. In Leopold's think tank, the think tanks planned countless plans for Maximilian, and some even proposed to solve his plan in Vienna when Maximilian came back to attend the funeral, but such a plan was denied by Leopold without hesitation.
Leopold didn't care about Ferdinand in Vienna, because although this grandfather followed Maximilian, he was never an ambitious man. The reason why he supported Maximilian was because the two grew up together and were similar in age, so compared to the two older brothers, Ferdinand naturally became closer to Maximilian's younger brother.
As mentioned earlier, as the electoral of Cologne, Maximilian's right in his hands is very fearful. Under such circumstances, Leopold was not willing to turn against his younger brother. He hoped that Maximilian could support him! If Leopold could know what Maximilian was doing now, he would definitely agree to attack this younger brother immediately.
Ushakov stood in the captain's room of the flagship, and from here you can see the entire battlefield directly in front of him. After two hours of shelling, the port of Riga has completely turned into ruins. Now all the warships of the Baltic Fleet are extending to attack, and all the naval guns have ravaged the main targets of Riga.
Although the fleet's naval guns cannot cover the entire Riga due to range, these distances are enough for Ushakov.
It was pitch black, but no one fell asleep in Riga. The streets were filled with people flying around like headless flies, and Kutuzov's army was even more entangled in the crowd and could not move forward.
Although Kutuzov's order to retreat has been issued, the 25th and 27th Regiments cannot withdraw at all. At this moment, those already crazy people cannot care whether you are an army or not. The desire to survive occupies the entire brain, and the troops dispersed by the crowd are even more difficult to maintain a complete organization.
Ushakov held up his telescope and looked at it. With the help of the flames ignited by artillery fire, Ushakov found that a very suitable location for landing had been cleared in the port. More importantly, no people were seen nearby. As soon as he saw this, Ushakov immediately ordered:
"Send a signal to our ships, ordering them to speed up to the coast immediately for landing, and let the Belenovic's warship make way for me to make a channel!"
"promise!"
Seeing the signal from the "St. Peter", Pelenovic immediately ordered ten forward warships to turn to the right side of the sea. The coast that had been swept in front of them would be the place where the army landed.
"Your Excellency General, the 27th Regiment applies for support!"
"Bad! Tell Sergei that I don't have a single person on my hands, and ask him to withdraw the army immediately. He also immediately sent two regiments to the southern gate to guide the people of Riga to let them leave immediately. So many people gathered in the south, who knows if something will happen!"
Kutuzov sat in a marching tent south of Riga. It was very safe here. At least the naval guns of the warships at sea would never be able to hit here.
Kutuzov already knew the enemy of Riga this time. As he expected, Paul's people were making trouble. A veteran ran out of the port, and this veteran happened to be the guards of Riga, and Riga used to be one of the main ports of the Baltic Fleet, so he could recognize some of the warships of the Baltic Fleet.
Although it was dark, all the warships of the Baltic Fleet were now turned on. In this way, under the lights, the veteran was surprised to find that all the main warships of the Baltic Fleet he knew were gathered outside the port of Riga!