The winter in Alijoe Castle is a bit boring. The already simple streets seem even more dirty because of the melting snow not long ago. Fortunately, the city, which is not too big because of the disgusting smell of urination everywhere, looks dilapidated and has no anger.

The news of the arrival of the Ottomans made the locals panic. They could see people everywhere preparing to leave here. Although they knew that even if they arrived elsewhere, they would be driven away by the Ottomans soon, but they could temporarily escape the pagans' luck and urged them to try to find a refuge that could escape the war.

Soldiers can be seen passing by on the street, but most of these soldiers looked numb. Both themselves and their lord obviously did not think they could resist the Ottomans.

There are also some mercenaries who don’t know where they come from. Although they have different destinations, they fight for money, and are not optimistic about the place in Zagreb.

Whether a city will spend a lot of money to hire mercenaries to defend itself depends on whether the city dares to compete with their enemies.

Zagreb does not seem to have such courage, which can be seen from the fact that even the nobles who could be heard on the streets were planning to negotiate with the Ottomans.

After the Duke of Signachi in Zagreb was killed, no second duke could appear in the city. The reason for this was that after the Duke of Signachi was killed, the nobles discovered that no one wanted to see other people's owners of the city.

Someone once proposed to elect a side branch of the Duke of Signachi family to inherit the title. Although this person was supported by the local rioters because of his Orthodox religion, he eventually became a stalemate because he was strongly opposed by the nobles from other places.

It was only then that people realized that although they had chosen to remain silent about the death of Duke Signachi, those Croatian nobles who believed in public religion as the Duke could not tolerate the appearance of an Orthodox who was likely to be involved in the Bosnian crown becoming the Duke of Zagreb.

The rioters also could not accept that a priest duke appeared after overthrowing Duke Signachi, and they could not allow Viscount Herva to return to Zagreb.

They knew very well that if Herva came back, what would have been waiting for them would certainly be the cruelest revenge.

The result of the mutual stalemate was that the title of Duke of Zagreb was always hanging, and although the local nobles could not elect an Orthodox duke, they controlled the city of Zagreb.

However, this stalemate was broken with the news of the Ottoman invasion, and the nobles of Zagreb knew very well that they could not resist at all, which made them decide to send envoys to the Ottomans without any struggle.

Rumors of negotiations or surrender, or rather, spread across the streets and alleys of Zagreb, made the locals even more panic.

In addition to the locals, some mercenaries who had heard the news were also disappointed. They originally thought they could take on a good business here. Many such cities would try to arm themselves as much as possible even if they finally chose to surrender, which gave the mercenaries a good opportunity to make money.

But they did not expect that the nobles in Zagreb chose to negotiate directly without even considering it.

So when the news came, many people began to find a way out for themselves, because they had already heard about the heavy taxes of the Ottomans. Many merchants began to sell goods at a low price and prepared to leave, while farmers who could not leave began to find ways to hide the valuable things in their homes.

People leave the city every day, but some people want to enter the city.

Several people passing by the street casually stepped on the dirty water splashed on their boots, and Alexander frowned and looked down at the stains on the boots.

The men kept cursing while walking. Although the people spoke very quickly and had a rather strange accent from the locals, the captain of the scout who followed Alexander could barely hear a few words.

"The master and the others are scolding those great nobles," the scout explained to Alexander. "Although I didn't understand, it's roughly what it means."

Looking at Cacho, Alexander laughed. He didn't expect that this soldier from Agri had a good language talent, at least he mastered more local languages ​​in a shorter time than others.

However, this also made Alexander hope that Nashan would come to Bosnia as soon as possible. Thinking about the Balkan mountaineering people who were waiting for training, he had never looked forward to seeing his father-in-law as soon as possible as he is now.

"The locals seem to be dissatisfied with the nobles' preparation for surrender if they don't want to resist," explained Cacho. "These people seem to be the little nobles near Zagreb. They are preparing to help defend the city, but now there are news that the nobles are preparing to negotiate with the Ottomans and then surrender. These people are very angry because of this."

"Of course they will be dissatisfied. They will not only be angry about it, but also do something bad because of this." Alexander sat in the corner of a tavern and looked around. It was deserted not because the place was remote but because people no longer had the interest to come to such places.

Zagreb is actually a city full of joy. The castle of Alijoe and the castle of the right bank form the two centers of the city, which makes Zagreb have two different urban areas from the beginning.

Because of this, Zagreb gradually formed the habit of competing with each other in the north and south urban areas. Locals like to use cider to compete with which urban areas in the north and south, and like to use meat patties mixed with choking seasonings to compete with which food is sweeter, and also like to use more other things to compare which one is higher and who is lower in the two urban areas.

All of these make the Zagreb people happy, and it also makes them love their hometown even more.

"They will do something bad," Alexander said affirmatively, and seeing his subordinates' confusion, he smiled. "I will do it even if they don't."

Alexander confused his people with strange words, but he knew what he was talking about.

Zagreb in history was indeed eventually ruled by the Ottomans, and it took nearly three centuries until the decline after the failed siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Empire, that Zagreb and other cities in the Balkans were lifted out of the Ottoman rule with the state.

But Zagreb did not surrender.

Even after many years, the Zagrebs in history did not surrender. They were conquered after fierce battles and even cruel street battles.

But now these Zagreb nobles are going to surrender, which Alexander does not know.

"How could it surrender?" Alexander looked at the city outside the door. "Believe me, at least this time, this city will not only not surrender, but may become another swallow."

The long prayer echoed over the narrow and empty church, one after another, as if the long years had become a river that no longer flowed here because of this prayer, and completely stopped.

Alexander stood outside the church and listened quietly. This was the time to pray for the second time in the church. As for the first time, it would have ended before dawn.

A loud bell sound came from the towering bell tower of the church, and the sound was so loud that people's ears were aching.

The streets in front of the monastery are not wide, and some places are even very narrow. Due to the terrain, houses near the monastery are much shorter than those of the monastery. The sloping streets extend to the forest behind the monastery not far away.

Somehow, Alexander remembered Quesimodo. He felt that if there was a bell ringer in such a church, he would have to be as ugly as Quesimodo, otherwise how could he endure the deafening bells and such a monotonous life every day.

Life in the monastery is boring and full of darkness. Alexander once stayed in the monastery for a while. He knew that if a person could not stand loneliness, he would not be able to stay in such a place. Otherwise, he would either choose to leave like him in the end, or he might go completely crazy in the high prison-like courtyard wall.

The church in front of me is very tall, with many carved solid exterior walls standing like a castle. You can see faint lights and swaying figures inside the church's open door.

Behind the church is a building of different heights that rises along the terrain, where is the monastery of Alijoe in Zagreb.

Alexander looked at the monastery seriously. He knew that the monastery was extremely solid, because in more than ten years, a very fierce battle would take place under the walls of the monastery.

The Ottomans would eventually completely conquer this land, and Northern Bosnia would not be spared. Zagreb would be surrounded in the war of conquest, and the final resistance would take place and end in this monastery.

Alexander walked slowly along the tall courtyard wall. He stroked the solid wall bricks, believed in the fierce battles that were attacked here, and then smiled softly.

Looking at the puzzled eyes of the guards not far away, Alexander smiled. Of course, he came to this monastery not to pay tribute to a guard battle that had not yet happened, but to see with his own eyes whether the building of this monastery was as unbreakable as the legend.

After all, it is said that the defenders who retreated to the monastery guarded the place for a full four days. Due to the terrain, the Ottomans could not use artillery at all. It was not until four days later that the Ottomans demolished the building opposite the monastery and emptied the space for setting up artillery, and then blasted the wall of the monastery to finally capture the solid building.

The bell finally stopped, and Alexander also came to the church gate not far from the monastery. Looking at the group of priests in dark robes slowly coming out from inside, his eyes kept searching until he saw a voice in a bishop's robe appear.

The figure was very eye-catching among the group of people wearing dark robes. Even though he was surrounded by several high-ranking monks wearing dark red robes, Alexander immediately noticed the man.

Although I have never seen it, he should be the dean of the Arijoe Monastery.

Alexander waved his hand gently and saw the hunting guards slowly approaching, he slowly walked towards the monastery who was surrounded in the middle.

The monastery apparently had no idea that anyone was staring at him, and accompanied by several high-ranking monks, he walked along the narrow street, all barefoot.

This is a custom in the local church in Zagreb. In fact, this custom comes more from the pagan custom when he was not converted to Christ in the early days. When he converted to Christ hundreds of years ago, this custom was preserved and given new ideas by monks at that time.

On special days, the priests of the monastery had to walk barefoot through the cold ground into the forest, which foreshadowed the experience of Christ walking barefoot through wilderness and valleys and finally heading to Jerusalem.

Monks in the monastery have been on this road for hundreds of years, and every generation of them has memorized this ritual, so today they have not found anything special.

The forests in Zagreb are very dense, or the city is built in the forest, so the monks entered the forest before they could walk out.

The ground was cold, but the monks still walked forward devoutly on the road that had been walking too many times until they saw a team of cavalry appearing on the road not far ahead.

In the past, even the nobles had to make way for the monks when they encountered this situation, but this time, these cavalrymen stopped but just stood on the road and watched them quietly.

The monks looked at the cavalry in front of them with some surprise. The monks walking in front couldn't help but slow down and finally stopped.

The monastery noticed something strange, and he raised his head and looked forward in surprise.

A long neigh of a horse came from the deep of the slightly depressing and dull forest. Pagasus slowly walked out of the dark shadow of the woods and came to a bright place where the canopy above his head was thinly shining through the sunlight.

Looking at the man riding on the horse, the dean and the deacons around him were vaguely uneasy.

"God bless you, if you want to steal anything, you're wrong. We have nothing but the sacred monk robe that God gave us." The dean walked out slowly, and he looked at Alexander who looked down at him. Seeing that the man was just looking at him silently, the dean stopped and suddenly asked, "You are not robbers, so what do you want to do?"

Alexander slowly urged the horse to move forward. He passed by the monks until the end of the team and returned the same way. Finally, he returned to the dean, bent down and whispered, "I want to talk to you, Lord Dean."
Chapter completed!