The Emperor's Worries

Late at night, Laszlo paced slowly on the terrace of Hofburg Palace.

Darkness engulfed Vienna, and everything fell silent.

Earlier today, he received news of the Venetians invading Milan.

It was a good time, but the troops he needed were not yet ready.

The situation in Naples also worried him so much that he couldn't sleep.

The last time this happened was when he was besieged by Mehmed II in Varna.

In terms of military strength, the Imperial Army could certainly crush the Mantua Alliance, but the cost of war was immeasurable.

The Venetians once spent two million ducats in military expenses during a two-year war.

What does that mean? Two million gold coins!

Even with such enormous expenditures, Venice only experienced a slight disturbance, without damaging its foundation.

Those merchants were so rich that it made him envious, which was one of the reasons Venice had to die.

And for Laszlo, raising a large army was never the problem; the problem was how to maintain such an army.

The Ottoman reparations plus the wealth extorted from Poland still left hundreds of thousands of florins.

A considerable portion of Austria's fiscal revenue was invested in the nation's development.

Even so, the cost of maintaining the army still accounted for 40%.

The taxes received annually from the Imperial Diet were all used as military funds to maintain Austria's standing army.

However, after the recovery of Bohemia, the military expenses of the Saxon Army were equally shared by Austria and Bohemia, greatly alleviating Austria's financial pressure.

Both the Bohemia and the Saxon Army suffered considerable casualties in the fight against Poland and have not yet recovered.

If standing troops were transferred from the Bohemia region, it could very likely lead to a rebellion in Bohemia. Recently, disturbances in the Kuttenberg mining area have become increasingly frequent, but the soldiers of the Saxon Army do not tolerate these rioters; those who led the riots were quickly executed.

The religious inquisition movement deep in the Bohemia countryside was scorned by the people; corrupt priests actually extorted money from people, otherwise they would falsely accuse them of being involved with Hussites.

When this matter came to light, Laszlo was so enraged that he almost directly ordered the execution of the Catholic priests involved. Considering the church's reputation, he could only send them to a lifetime monastery in the end.

This made Laszlo more cautious. He sent some royal officials to Bohemia to supervise the religious inquisition, and at the same time sent secret agents to secretly investigate and prevent bailiffs from also embezzling and extorting the people.

The final result proved that his vigilance was correct; indeed, two royal officials were bribed by priests and conspired with them to engage in extortion.

It's just that this time they were much more restrained, and the amount of money extorted was also smaller, which did not arouse too much public resentment.

Finally, Laszlo personally instructed the Court of the Empire to publicly try the corrupt officials and hang them in the market of the villages they had extorted.

This incident barely suppressed the public anger in Bohemia. Laszlo realized that this was not a long-term solution, but the Hussite threat was even greater.

Of two evils, he chose the lesser, and could only try his best to strengthen supervision and reduce the occurrence of such incidents.

Fortunately, the main area of the religious inquisition was North Bohemia, which suffered heavy losses in the Second Hussite Wars, and German immigrants from Bavaria and Saxony continued to move there.

Considering that the situation in Bohemia was not good, it would be difficult to get support from the Bohemia in this war.

In fact, if he insisted, the nobles in Moravia and South Bohemia would be very willing to assemble a conscript army of over ten thousand to assist the Emperor in battle, but such an army's combat effectiveness would not satisfy Laszlo, only adding to the logistical pressure.

He did not pursue a path of elite troops, but reality forced him to constantly reduce the size of his army.

A hundred thousand strong army was very impressive, but it would cost hundreds of thousands of florins in military expenses every month.

Note, this does not include supply expenses, but purely troop wages.

There have been many historical examples of what happens when military pay is delayed.

The most recent instance was when the Teutonic Order delayed pay to Bohemia mercenaries, who then counter-attacked and captured the Teutonic Order capital, selling it to the Poles.

If he couldn't afford the military pay, then he should recruit fewer troops. The current scale of warfare in Europe has not fully expanded, and the size of the troops does not need to be as astonishing as the Ottoman.

At this time, ensuring the combat effectiveness of the troops is extremely important; troops that are not capable enough are just a burden if recruited.

The same was true in Hungary; in just a few years, the number of Hungarian standing mercenaries was halved, which greatly improved Hungary's financial situation.

But with a major war imminent, the awkward situation became apparent: without the large cavalry force that Hungary had supported with all its national strength, it would be somewhat difficult for Laszlo to contend with the combined enemies.

Currently, there are still about ten thousand Hungarian Border Guard in the Imperial Army in Naples, which is half of their total strength.

The remaining half of the army is stationed in Croatia, ready to attack the Venetian coastal territories at any time.

Conscripting Hungarian nobles could only be considered a last resort; unless absolutely forced, Laszlo would not demand military obligations from Hungarian nobles.

These greedy Hungarian nobles loved to inflate prices, and if their demands were not met, they could start a rebellion at any time, forcing the monarch to compromise.

Laszlo only required them to bear financial obligations, paying war taxes, to replace military obligations.

He didn't need to worry about the situation in Serbia, but Skanderbeg was still in Naples, so Albania might only have the ability to defend itself.

As for Bulgaria and Macedonia, there's no need to say more; the Venetian Greek territories were completely surrounded by the dynasty's domains.

They had naval supremacy, but did they have enough soldiers to guard every piece of land?

Clearly, they did not.

This was Laszlo's advantage, and he knew it well.

Wallachia and Moldavia were not conscripted; Laszlo's order to them was to be vigilant against Lithuania and the Ottoman.

As for Moria, which is always overlooked, Laszlo only hoped that Thomas could hold his own territory; if he couldn't, the lost land could only be recovered by the Emperor himself.

After much deliberation, Laszlo's worries eased slightly.

Adalbert had already recruited over twelve thousand German mercenaries.

Due to the Swiss Confederation prohibiting all Swiss mercenaries from accepting the Emperor's summons, the recruitment of mercenaries this time was much slower.

Some Imperial princes provided a total of three thousand troops, whose military expenses would be paid by the Emperor during the war. In addition, the Emperor also had to pay an extra sum of money as a token of gratitude to the princes who provided assistance.

Thus, the army gathered in Vienna reached fifteen thousand, plus the newly formed Imperial Guard that was about to complete training, bringing the total military strength to over eighteen thousand.

The entire Independent Army was sent to Naples to participate in the war, and the six thousand Austro-Hungarian Army troops in Graz were standing by.

With such military strength, Habsburg could withstand a war for two or three years, but if the war dragged into a long-term war of attrition, things would become unfavorable.

"Laszlo, it's very late. Let's go to rest."

Leonor came up behind Laszlo at some point, wrapped her arms around his waist, and gently persuaded him.

"Hmm."

Laszlo nodded lightly, but his pensive look immediately made the Empress realize that he had not let go of the worries in his heart.

She tightly held her husband's hand and led him towards the bedchamber.

Laszlo felt the warmth in his palm, as if a force was being transmitted through it, allowing him to temporarily cast aside the complex thoughts in his mind.

"I know you worry about the nation's many affairs every day," Leonor's voice was soft, like a spring breeze, "but you must know that you don't need to bear all of this alone."

Laszlo showed a slight smile and said sincerely, "It's truly a blessing to have you by my side. Don't worry, this will be the war to end all wars. If we can achieve victory, the days ahead will be much easier."

"You're always like this, full of worry when you're alone, but you put on a confident and optimistic facade in front of others," Leonor said somewhat helplessly, wanting to scold him but unable to bear to, "I hope everything truly is as you say... but a war to end all wars, it sounds alarming."

Laszlo remained silent; his disguise had been seen through by Leonor.

In truth, he only had about a seventy percent chance of winning this war, but anything could happen, and who knew if the course of the war would change due to some unexpected event.

The two returned to the bedchamber and lay quietly on the bed. A warm embrace completely relaxed Laszlo's tense nerves.

Soon after, Leonor heard steady breathing beside her pillow, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly upwards, silently praying for Laszlo and Austria's victory in her heart.