The Rise of the European Emperor

Marin is not very courageous, after all, he is a person who has died once, and he is even more shy. Moreover, people who are rich and wealthy also cherish their lives more than the poor. Why do poor mountains and bad waters send out elite soldiers and troublesome people? Because they have nothing but their lives. But rich people have everything, so they don't need to work hard.

The same is true for Marin. When he first crossed, he had nothing, and naturally he had to work hard to gain wealth. To this end, he designed an ambush of 8,000 French knights, with only more than 1,000 recruits. If the French were calmer, they could have killed him. But after he succeeded, especially after he became a prince, there was no need to take too much risk. Only when I went to Daming did I take a risk because of my obsession.

Therefore, Marin used the "reconstruction" of the Second Corps as an excuse to bring back half of the real Second Corps, but he was actually afraid of death. After all, it is not very safe for a legion to face more than 40,000 enemy troops. With the 5,000 veterans of the Second Corps, not to mention defeating the enemy, at least it can support the arrival of reinforcements.

Moreover, "rebuilding" the Second Army has another effect - that is, it makes the princes of the Eight Kingdoms more believe that the original Second Army and Third Army have indeed defected. Otherwise, Beihai Kingdom would not have to "rebuild" the Second Army.

...

Sure enough, as expected by Malin, after hearing the news of Beihai Kingdom's "reconstruction" of the Second Army, the eight princes were very happy...

"It seems that the opponent's skills are exhausted. It is said that the rebuilt Second Corps is basically the people who originally transported food. What kind of combat power can it have? We will win this war!" Brunswick-Wolfen Henry, Duke of Bittle said happily.

"However, I heard that among the 10,000 people in this new recruit, not all of them are civilians. There are also a thousand people who are said to be the former straw hat swordsmen, who were once the elites of East Frisian. It is said that this army The army that defeated the Earl of Oldenburg in 1483 forced Gerhard VI, Earl of Oldenburg, to abdicate and give way to his son Adolf." Henry Road, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

At this time, Charles, Earl of Geldon (the former Duke of Geddes), interjected:

"Lord Henry, I have heard about this. However, it was not because the Straw Hat Swordsman was too strong, but because East Frisian joined the army of the Bishopric of Münster at that time and defeated the counties of Oldenburg. ."

"Moreover, those straw hat swordsmen are the elite of the Serksner family. After Marin seized the country of East Friesland, he didn't trust them and left them idle. That is to say, those straw hat swordsmen have not been in service for at least 10 years. Wars have been fought. Once strong, now at least thirty or forty years old, it has already started to decline."

"What's more, even if they are still at their peak, our Gaildon warriors are not afraid of them. If the Second Army dares to go out to the city for a decisive battle, our army in the Earl of Geldon is willing to take the lead in attacking this Second Army and confront those Straw hat swordsman!" Charles, Earl of Geldon vowed.

In fact, he also played tricks—the real elite of Beihai Kingdom was the First Army Corps, and the first Army Corps in front would definitely suffer heavy casualties. And to deal with the newly established Second Army, even if it was against the 1,000 straw hat swordsmen, Count Charlie was worth it. Because the army of the Earl of Gelden is learned from Swiss mercenaries, and its combat effectiveness is strong. Although it can't keep up with the serious Swiss mercenaries, it is stronger than the average German mercenaries. It's still no problem to face the 1000 straw hat swordsmen head-on.

As long as his 3,000 Gedes veterans can defeat the 1,000 straw hat swordsmen, then those recruits from the Second Army of Beihai Kingdom are no match at all...

Sure enough, seeing Charles, Earl of Geldon, volunteered to fight, the princes had to agree. And the elite veterans of the 3000 Gelden Country also took the opportunity to avoid the powerful enemy of the First Army...

...

Just as the eight princes were discussing how to deal with it, on the sea, a fleet transporting many people had passed through the English Channel and was about to approach the mainland of Beihai...

Where did this fleet come from? Who was on the ship?

It turned out that this fleet was the transport fleet of the North Sea Country. What was transported on the ship were the mercenaries brought back from Italy...

Italian mercenaries? That's right, it's the legendary Italian mercenary with average combat effectiveness! Moreover, there are as many as 10,000 people!

The 10,000 Italian mercenaries were named by Malint. Of course, not to invite them to help defeat the Eight-Power Allied Forces, but as a group performance to prove that Beihai Kingdom is really "poor in skills"...

If there are enough soldiers and horses, why would the North Sea Kingdom go to Italy to hire Italian mercenaries whose combat power is worse than that of German mercenaries?

The fact that Beihai Kingdom hired 10,000 Italian mercenaries just proved the dilemma that Beihai Kingdom had no soldiers to use. If there was a chance, which German prince would be willing to hire Italian mercenaries with average combat effectiveness?

Therefore, the role of these 10,000 Italian mercenaries is to bring out the desperation and helplessness of the North Sea Kingdom...

...

Marin annexed 8 hostile vassal states and never worried about war. The only thing that worries him is legal matters.

Therefore, Marin must not let the princes see the fact that the Beihai Kingdom has set a trap for the eight princes. Otherwise, even if Marin annexed 8 vassal states, the princes of the Imperial Prince Court could deny the legitimacy of his annexation of 8 vassal states on the grounds that he "deliberately framed his opponents".

To this end, Marin did not hesitate to play a huge game of chess, using various methods to express the current misery of Beihai Kingdom. The worse the performance in the early stage, the less the other princes can see the flaws.

Therefore, these 10,000 Italian mercenaries are clearly the "group performance" that Marin invited from Italy at a high cost. Their main role is to show the helplessness and despair of Beihai Kingdom. Even, people mistakenly think that this is the last "trump card" of Beihai Kingdom...

...

Moreover, since it is used to "show weakness". Then, these 10,000 Italian mercenaries naturally won't choose any elites, but specially selected the cheapest mercenary group in Italy...

This Italian mercenary is composed of 11 large-scale Italian mercenary regiments. And the biggest feature of these 11 Italian mercenary regiments is that they are cheap...

In Italy, mercenaries are also divided into three, six, and nine ranks. The most expensive Italian mercenary, the commission is 5 pfennig per person per day. Its combat effectiveness is comparable to that of an upper-middle German mercenary.

And the cheapest mercenaries are some cheap mercenaries with low combat effectiveness. For these people, the daily commission is only 2.5 pfennig, which is cheaper than the average German mercenary's 3 pfennig per day. As for combat power...it's slightly stronger than the militia...

These cheap Italian mercenaries, their biggest role is actually to help defend the city. After all, when defending the city, it is not necessary to have a strong combat effectiveness of the soldiers, as long as the combat effectiveness is above the average line.

Moreover, when Marin hired this group of Italian mercenaries with low combat effectiveness, he also deliberately leaked the details of this group of Italian mercenaries to the princes of the Eight Kingdoms, so that they would be more confident and arrogant...

( = )