The Rise of the European Emperor

To be honest, Marin was relatively speechless to the princes of the Principality of Lüneburg. Obviously there is such a large grassland, 7,200 square kilometers, and the Shanghai stock market in later generations will be about a thousand square kilometers. Such a large grassland, not to mention reclaiming it as fertile land, at least used it for grazing, right?

But the dukes of Lüneburg would rather leave it unused than take advantage of it. Counting to later generations, it still retains the title of "Lüneburg Wasteland".

Of course, there are salt mines in Lüneburg, so there is no shortage of money. Therefore, the dukes of Lüneburg who didn't think about progress naturally didn't want to develop the prairie well. Like the coal bosses of later generations, if they have mines at home, why should they go to farm?

Marin coveted this grassland, not for any economic development, but for treating it as an important military area.

In this grassland, Marin is mainly used to raise horses. At the same time, large-scale military exercises can also be carried out. It seems that later generations of NATO troops stationed in Germany often conduct military exercises in this grassland. Especially some tank group exercises are often held here. After all, the rest of Germany is more developed. It is also difficult to find a place where there are not many people for military exercises.

Moreover, the location of the Lüneburg Heath is excellent. This is the hinterland of North Germany and belongs to the core area. If the cavalry is stationed here, no matter where they attack or support northern Germany, they can arrive quickly. After the capture of Lüneburg, the main force of the Cossack cavalry will probably be moved to the Lüneburg Wasteland...

...

Not to mention the military value of the Lüneburg Wasteland, Marin is now supervising his subordinates to search the property of the city of Lüneburg.

However, because the city of Lüneburg is an important member of the Hanseatic League, Marin also had to treat it with caution. Because there are many important business families in the Hanseatic League in Lüneburg.

When dealing with these Hanseatic business families, Marin had to be cautious and not rob casually.

Therefore, Marin had to control most of the merchant families in Lüneburg first. Then, send people to the cities of Hamburg and Lübeck in a hurry, and ask them to show the list of people to protect.

Marin's attitude is-all Lüneburg Hanseatic business families that the allies Hamburg and Lübeck want to protect will not move. As for those in Hamburg and Lübeck who didn't come forward to protect... Naturally, they have to check...

In this way, Marin finally searched nearly half of the business families in Lüneburg. These families are all families that have a bad relationship with Hamburg and Lübeck, and most of them are vassals of the Welf family. In this way, there is no psychological burden to grab Marin...

In the end, Marin snatched property and food worth four million gold coins from the Welf family and nearly half of the Lüneburg merchants. However, there are about a million money and food in it,

It was originally snatched by the coalition forces of the princes of the eight countries from Beihai. Therefore, what Marin's men actually grabbed in Lüneburg City was only worth more than three million gold coins. But even this number is very scary. After all, in this era, it is considered pretty good for a general prince to have one or two hundred thousand gold coins.

However, Lüneburg has salt mines. Salt was known as "white gold" in Europe in this era. With a salt mine in hand, and it has been mined for hundreds of years, it is not surprising that the city of Lüneburg can confiscate so much money. In fact, if the other half of the Lüneburg merchant families were searched together, the total value would easily exceed 5 million gold coins. However, in order to maintain friendly relations with the Hanseatic League, Marin still held back. After all, a little intolerance leads to a big conspiracy. Besides, Marin is not very short of money...

Although the Hanseatic League is a group of cities, each city has limited strength. However, when the Hanseatic League is gathered together, it is also an important political force that cannot be ignored. Right now, Marin's annexation of eight vassal states requires diplomatic support. Therefore, he cannot fight against the Hanseatic League. Moreover, it is not necessary.

Therefore, after inspecting and disposing of the merchant family pro-Welf family, Marin stopped the inspection in Lüneburg. Anyway, the money and food confiscated was enough for him to squander.

...

After completing the inspection of the city of Lüneburg, Marin left only part of the army, and then continued south with most of the army.

However, this time going south, Marin no longer gathered 30,000 troops to go south. In order to pursue efficiency, Marin divided the army into 6 parts-he personally led 15,000 people and continued southward, heading straight to Wolfenter, the capital of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenter.

As for the remaining people, except for the 2,000 people who continued to be stationed in Lüneburg, the rest were divided into five groups-one group went to Detmold, the capital of Lieper County, and the other group went to Bentheim-Teck The down payment of Tecklenburg in the County of Lunburg, one group went to Lefeld, the capital of the County of Lasburg, one group went to Gelden, the capital of the County of Gelden, and the other group went to the capital of the County of Rietberg Terberg...

Of course, the group going to Lefeld still has a task - to send people to capture Schaumburg, the base of Count Antonios...

However, except for Marin, there are a lot of people, and the other five routes have two or three thousand soldiers in each route. After all, what they went to capture was only the capital of a small and insignificant uncle country.

The domestic troops of these small countries were brought out by the princes to attack the Beihai Kingdom, and those who stayed in their own countries were all crooked melons and jujubes, and there were three or two kittens. Just send two or three thousand people there, and they can be conquered.

Only Wolfenter, this important city, because it is the lair of Henry, the leader of the invasion of the North Sea, its defense is no less than that of Lüneburg. It is said that there are more than 3,000 regular soldiers guarding the city. In addition to the recruited civilians, it is estimated that the number of defenders will exceed 10,000.

Therefore, Marin planned to bring more people and take the main force south to besiege Wolfenter.

In addition, the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenter has a mining city that Marin values ​​very much-Goslar.

The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenter and the Principality of Brunswick-Lüneburg are similar in that they both make their fortunes from mining. The difference is that the Principality of Brunswick-Lüneburg mainly makes money by mining salt mines and selling salt, while the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenter mainly relies on Rammelsberg near the city of Goslar. Silver, copper, lead, and gold from the Ge mines (Europeans at this time did not know how to refine zinc). As the most important silver-producing region in northern Germany, Goslar has always been the cash cow in the hands of the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenter. It is said that in order to ensure the safety of the city of Goslar, not only the capital city of Wolfenter was replaced with iron city gates, but also the city of Goslar was replaced with iron city gates to avoid being easily breached by the enemy...

I don't know what Duke Henry thinks. It is obvious that the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenter is strong enough, and he insists on provoking the North Sea State. How should I put it, I can only say that human greed is endless...

...

When Marin swung his army southward, in the city of Gelden in the southwest, Charlie, the Earl of Gelden, who escaped by chance, was ordering his men to pack up the valuable property and ship it together, intending to transport it away...

"My lord, why did we run away? Can't we wait for Lord Frederick and the others to come back to administer justice?" One of Earl Charles' personal guards asked puzzledly.

Charlie, Earl of Geldon shook his head and said:

"I also want to wait for Lord Frederick and the others to come back to support justice, but I'm afraid I won't be able to wait until then..."

His spies have sent a secret report - the city of Lüneburg was breached by Marin's army in a special way for a long time...

This news made Earl Charlie terrified. He knew that the rich Brunswick-Lüneburg Principality specially replaced the thick cast iron gates for the city of Lüneburg, which were extremely strong. Such a strong iron gate was dropped by Marin in less than half a day, not to mention the city of Gelden, which has a much lower defense than Lüneburg?

Earl Charlie was worried—until Frederick III and others came back, he himself would be captured by Marin's army and become a prisoner...

Moreover, he was also worried that the coalition of princes composed of the elector Frederick III of Saxony and others might not be able to beat the army under Marin's command.

So, just to be on the safe side, he simply asked people to ship the only remaining gold and silver treasures in the Earl of Gelden, and planned to go to France for refuge...

Charles, Earl of Gelden, was an ally of the French in the past, and it was with the support of the French that the original Principality of Geddes was restored and became a prince at the level of the German powers. Later, although the Principality of Geddes was defeated and had to cede most of its territory, France did not completely abandon him, but said that if he died, he could come to France for asylum...

No, Earl Gelden is almost at the end of his calf now. Thinking of this, he plans to seek asylum in France.

As long as he fled to France, Marin didn't have the guts to send troops to France to catch him...

...

The day after Earl Gelden's ship left Gelden, Marin's detachment arrived in Gelden City...

As Marin expected, the capitals of these small counties are basically wooden doors. Marin distributed the gunners to each army, first burned down the oak city gate with the blended gasoline, and then broke through the city gate with a bomb. As for the three or two kittens left in the city, they couldn't deal with two or three thousand enemies, so they could only surrender...

...

And Marin's side is also very smooth. Because, when he was besieging the cities of Wolfenter and Goslar, he was pleasantly surprised to find that these two cities, like Lüneburg, did not pile up bricks and stones in the gate holes behind the iron gates. Logs and other sundries. As long as the latch is corroded, the city gate can be pushed open...

Therefore, Marin's army easily broke through the two cities of Wolfenter and Goslar, and completed the most important occupation of the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenter. Moreover, the old background accumulated by these two cities for hundreds of years has also made Marin full, and he is almost "satisfied" - in these two cities, Marin confiscated more than five million Gulden gold coins belongings...

In this way, the remaining 6 vassal states were quickly swept away by Marin by dividing his troops into six groups... 14