Unstoppable

After leaving Timisoara, Laszlo led his army eastward to the city of Lugos.

This was a very important border, the boundary between the Hunyadi Family's territory and the Royal Domain.

From Lugos all the way to the city of Deva, which was firmly controlled by Hunyadi, the lands of these two counties were all undisputed Royal Domain.

There were also two counties of Royal Domain east of the Hunyadi Family's territory.

However, the regency court in Budapest found it difficult to manage a remote place like Transylvania.

Therefore, a Governor of Transylvania had to be appointed to manage the vast Royal Domain on his behalf.

In northern Transylvania, the Royal Domain, centered around German immigrant cities, and the Carpathian Mountains territory enjoyed a high degree of autonomy.

Successive kings had barely interfered with the development of this region, apart from collecting taxes—occasionally recruiting some soldiers from here, but not many.

Laszlo, however, had sent many German immigrants here, winning the goodwill and support of these immigrant cities.

To completely suppress the expansion of the Hunyadi Family's power, he designated several counties in northern Transylvania, centered around German immigrant cities, as direct Royal Domain.

This move actually granted these regions a high degree of autonomy, making them free from the interference of the Governor of Transylvania.

These immigrant cities did not disappoint Laszlo's expectations and soon had sharp conflicts with Hunyadi.

Even so, Hunyadi still exerted his influence on Sibiu, the German city closest to the Hunyadi Family's core territory.

He dragged Sibiu into the conspiracy to overthrow Wallachia.

This caused Laszlo no small amount of trouble; he had not yet made a clear decision on how to punish Sibiu.

Although Sibiu was not the most prosperous German city, it had a very important mission.

The German immigrant conferences in Transylvania were all held there.

In recent years, although Sibiu's status as the 'Head of the Seven Cities' had gradually been replaced by Brașov, it still had a strong influence on the German immigrants in this region.

This forced Laszlo to exercise caution when dealing with the conflict between Sibiu and Wallachia.

Beyond the manipulated Sibiu, Hunyadi had also tried to exert strong influence on several other important German cities.

For example, Kolozsvár, the center of Transylvania's Royal Domain and the nominal seat of the Governor of Transylvania.

This city is Cluj-Napoca, Romania's second-largest city in later generations, and the absolute geographical, political, and economic center of Transylvania.

Interestingly, both Hunyadi Laszlo and Hunyadi Matthias were born in Kolozsvár.

And the citizens of Kolozsvár were now loyal supporters of the Emperor; they rejected any demands made by Hunyadi.

In addition, there was the interesting city of Sighișoara.

Vlad III, the Prince Vlad, was born here, and several Prince Vlad had resided here for over ten years; now there are still two deposed Prince Vlad settled here.

Sighișoara, a German immigrant city located in Hungary, was nevertheless favored by the Prince Vlad; the world is truly strange.

And as the most prosperous German city in Transylvania at this time, Brașov, famous for its textile industry, tall city walls, and Gothic cathedrals, was almost entirely unaffected by Hunyadi.

After receiving the Emperor's charter, the city council of Brașov declared that they only pledged allegiance to the great German Emperor and were not subject to the Governor of Transylvania.

Because Brașov was located in the northeasternmost part of the Kingdom and was the seat of the 'King's Domain' county, Hunyadi had no way to deal with this city.

After his attempts to expand his power and influence into northern Transylvania failed, Hunyadi instead intensified his control over the Royal Domain in southern Transylvania.

He established relatively firm rule in the four counties of Royal Domain surrounding the Hunyadi Family's territory.

Why 'relatively firm'?

Because after Laszlo's army completely massacred Timisoara, which had resisted to the end, the people in the castles, towns, and villages within these Royal Domains almost immediately remembered their original identity.

They were originally subjects of the Emperor!

The land they lived on was not that of the traitor Hunyadi, but the Emperor's own domain.

No one wanted to fight the Emperor's army for the Hunyadi Family, nor did they want to suffer brutal massacres and plunder as a result. Thus, Laszlo took Lugos without shedding blood. Here, he accepted the surrender of five cities in one go, from Lugos to Marjina.

Inside the Lugos City Hall, candlelight flickered brightly.

Laszlo sat at the head of the table, his armor already removed, but the killing intent on him had not yet dissipated.

Below the hall, the Royal Guards knights stood in two rows with drawn longswords, motionless as statues.

The gleaming swords and armor, and the cold eyes piercing through the gaps in their visors, almost made the envoys from several cities collapse in fear.

Just now, they had presented the keys to their respective city gates to the Emperor and offered a large sum of money as military funds for the Emperor, which was, in fact, ransom.

And the envoy from Marjina had brought Laszlo another gift.

"Your Majesty, this is the commander of the Marjina Pass." The envoy from Marjina presented a blood-soaked head wrapped in cloth. "He refused to betray the traitor Hunyadi. We beheaded him while he was asleep and offer this head and the Marjina Pass to you."

Laszlo nodded slightly and praised, "You have made a wise choice. I will exempt Marjina from taxes for the next three years."

"Thank you for your benevolence and forgiveness, Your Majesty," the envoy from Marjina replied with some surprise and excitement.

The other envoys looked at him with envy; they had been sent by their respective city commanders to surrender to the Emperor.

Naturally, they couldn't show their loyalty to the Emperor in this way.

Rather, only the head of the Marjina commander had such a significant effect.

Because Marjina was precisely at the end of the Royal Road. Passing through the Marjina Pass led into a very rugged mountainous area.

Through this mountainous terrain, one could enter the middle section of the Mures Valley, which was the agreed meeting point for Laszlo and Hervoye.

From there, the latter half of the valley to Deva would become slightly wider.

If the army advanced simultaneously along both banks of the Mures River and on the river itself, they could quickly reach the city of Deva.

Therefore, the citizens of Marjina's voluntary surrender saved Laszlo a lot of trouble.

Since they had performed a meritorious deed, a reward was naturally due, to show everyone that loyalty could bring Rewards.

The envoys from several cities were led by Royal Guards soldiers arranged by Laszlo to stay overnight in the military camp; he would lead his army to take these cities one by one.

"Your Majesty, the envoys from Szebes and Judenburg have also arrived. The envoy from Szebes has brought a mysterious person who claims he will only reveal his identity when he meets you."

"Oh? I didn't go looking for them, but they came looking for me? Interesting. Let them in."

Matthias's announcement piqued Laszlo's interest.

Szebes and Judenburg, a German immigrant city and a city inhabited by Jews, had actually become 'good neighbors' on the border of the Kingdom of Hungary.

When Laszlo learned about the situation of these two cities, some unpleasant past life memories surfaced in his mind.

Both these cities were on the southern marching route and very close to each other.

Because taking this route into Transylvania required passing through even narrower and more dangerous mountain paths, Laszlo abandoned the idea of advancing from there.

These two cities had naturally been fortunate enough to avoid the Emperor's army.

However, Szebes and Judenburg were themselves free cities and not subject to much control by Hunyadi.

Even if the Emperor had advanced from the south, the city residents would only have welcomed the royal army with provisions, and the possibility of battle was not high.

Soon, three petitioners with distinct appearances and dress styles arrived before Laszlo, led by Matthias.

Their very characteristic faces and attire allowed Laszlo to immediately distinguish who was a German compatriot, who was a Jew, and the remaining one was a Hungarian.