A prosperous free city named Vienna Neustadt is located dozens of kilometers south of Vienna, near the midpoint of the Vienna-Graz connection.
This was one of the main cities Frederick operated during his regency in Austria. He built a family palace here,
and it served as his administrative center during his regency. This city could conveniently control the core region of Austria and the Styria area.
After Frederick was transferred to Bulgaria, this city and the family palace also fell into Laszlo's hands, becoming a temporary residence.
In later generations, there was an important Vienna Neustadt Military Academy here, and a general named Rommel once served as the head of this school.
Currently, Vienna Neustadt is the long-term garrison of the Imperial Independent Army. Stationing troops here can control the entire core area of Austria and even influence Hungary.
As for the manor garrison originally located in the suburbs of Vienna, it has been transformed into a small fortress and is now returned to the owner of the manor, Laszlo.
Laszlo decided to establish Austria's first military academy in Vienna Neustadt, naming it the Austria Military Academy.
He allocated an area near the Independent Army garrison in the suburbs for this academy, and a large number of laborers were recruited to construct the new school.
The school currently only admits students with noble status, primarily recruiting cadets from the knight class.
In terms of curriculum, according to the composition of the Austria army, Laszlo divided it into Artillery, Infantry, and Cavalry branches.
Some excellent officers who retired due to injury and some active officers were selected by the Emperor to serve as instructors at the academy.
They first formed three academic committees to summarize years of war experience, compile these experiences into books, and after review by the Court Military Committee and the Emperor, they would be used as textbooks.
An infantry training ground and a fencing dojo were also being constructed simultaneously next to the academy.
When Laszlo mentioned to Gunter the problem of the sharp decrease in the number and proportion of Two-Handed Swordsmen after several major wars,
Gunter recommended a famous great swordsman, Hans Talhoffer, to him.
This master swordsman lived in the Salzburg-Bavaria region in his early years. Of course, as a martial artist, he mostly engaged in illicit activities.
Once, he was caught and almost sentenced to hanging. After a narrow escape, Talhoffer decided to retire from his past life and fled to Württemberg to work for local nobles.
He also served as a part-time fencing instructor for the Double Pay Mercenary Group until the mercenary group left Stuttgart to serve the Emperor in Vienna.
At this time, Talhoffer was serving the local noble family, the Königsbergers, in Württemberg.
Upon receiving the invitation from Zettel, he gladly came to Vienna, bringing with him five fencing manuals he created, combining his lifelong knowledge.
However, some of the content drawn in them made Laszlo laugh so hard his stomach hurt. For example, the first ten illustrations at the beginning of the first manual perfectly taught a Two-Handed Swordsman how to go from beginner to buried.
The tenth page showed a coffin being buried...
This master swordsman also had a rather twisted sense of humor, and the latter half of his manuscript was entirely dedicated to discussing various terrifying torture instruments.
Although it contained many strange and bizarre things, from the main content, Talhoffer was indeed a master swordsman.
Soon, he obtained a position as a Court Master Swordsman. However, Laszlo himself did not need to learn the combat methods of the Two-Handed Greatsword. He entrusted one hundred selected young nobles to Talhoffer for training.
The purpose of this move was to expand the Emperor's guard. After all, besides the relatively small Court Guard, the Emperor's personal retinue usually consisted of only one thousand Demi-Lancer cavalry.
Laszlo felt that having only one master swordsman train enough great swordsmen to fill the army's vacancies was too slow. So he asked Talhoffer if there were other masters like him who were proficient in the Two-Handed Sword.
Talhoffer introduced the Brotherhood of St. Mark in Frankfurt to the Emperor. This was a guild composed of master swordsmen, gathering many Two-Handed Sword masters.
However, Talhoffer, as one of the founders of the Brotherhood, almost never participated in the Brotherhood's social activities, which often led to him being excluded.
Laszlo immediately sent people to find and contact this swordsman guild, expressing his intention to heavily sponsor the Brotherhood's development.
The Brotherhood of St. Mark, in its initial stage, quickly accepted the Emperor's invitation and relocated its headquarters to Vienna.
This made the training and selection of great swordsmen standardized and regulated.
At Eyczing's suggestion, Laszlo demanded that all master swordsmen of the Brotherhood of St. Mark swear allegiance to him personally. In return, he would grant the Brotherhood the exclusive title of 'Master Swordsman.'
From then on, anyone holding a 'Master Swordsman' certificate issued by the Brotherhood and carrying a Two-Handed Greatsword who came to serve the Emperor's army would quickly receive a mercenary job with double pay.
Only a minority of master swordsmen could receive double pay; the main body of the army was composed of massive infantry phalanxes.
At the infantry training ground, the Emperor hired some Swiss instructors who were responsible for the training of newly recruited infantry. The main training content included formation, phalanx, and battlefield maneuvers.
After the Second Hussite Wars, the Emperor's standing army began to replenish rapidly. Large numbers of peasant soldiers recruited from German villages, knights and nobles within the Empire eager to serve the Emperor, and mercenaries craving wealth and honor flocked to Austria and Bohemia.
Recently, the news that the Emperor was about to launch a war of excommunication against Poland was widely known throughout the Empire. This made Austria's recruitment offices exceptionally busy, forcing recruitment officers to set up assessment projects to select physically superior warriors from the applicants to fill the army.
Laszlo was not in a hurry to attack Poland. He did not believe that Władysław III could completely defeat the Teutonic Order.
At least not yet.
This winter, and even the first half of next year, Laszlo did not want to launch a war rashly.
Fighting the Hussites had caused a large financial loss to the treasury. Although plundering Prague and Kuttenberg recouped some losses, overall it was still a deficit.
Fighting Poland could certainly be profitable through plunder, but that would have to be based on ensuring victory in battle.
For now, he would observe. If the Teutonic Order truly could not hold on, Laszlo would have no choice but to send reinforcements, which would be a very bad situation.
Alternatively, if the King of Poland fell into decline, launching an attack at that time would be swift and decisive, ending the war in the shortest possible time. This would be the best scenario.
It was also very important to take advantage of this period of peace to develop the territory, assimilate immigrants in Bohemia to consolidate rule, improve the bureaucratic system, and continue to deepen administrative reforms, strengthening internal capabilities.