The Rise of the European Emperor

Unlike the three major knights ordered by the Holy See (Hospital Knights, Templar Knights and Teutonic Knights), the Wing Knights are a secular knights. The previous three major knight orders were strictly speaking groups of armed knights. All the previous grand masters must be single and unmarried monks.

Strictly speaking, the Flying Wing Knights formed by Simon is a secular knights. It stands to reason that he is not eligible to be recognized by the Holy See. For example, the Knights of the Garter in England and the Knights of the Golden Fleece in Burgundy have not been recognized by the Holy See.

But this is no problem here in Marin. After all, his father-in-law was the Pope. Moreover, Simon's site is indeed located in the easternmost part of the Catholic region. It is said that the army formed by Simon is a barrier to the Catholic world, and no one else can say anything. After all, it is also true.

Therefore, strictly speaking, the Flying Wing Knights are just a secular knights recognized by the Holy See. But because of the recognition of the Holy See, it is a little more dazzling than the general secular knights. After all, in this era when Protestantism had not yet risen, the name of the Holy See was still very loud. With the recognition of the Holy See, although the Flying Wing Knights cannot catch up with the reputation of the three major knights, their reputation among the people is definitely very high.

In this way, when the people sent by Simon recruited wandering knights, it really went a lot smoothly. After all, the Knights are "regular" Knights approved by the Pope...

To put it bluntly, Simon is too unknown. If Simon were to lead the formation of the Knights alone, probably no one would come. After all, Simon is currently unknown. Only by embracing the thick thigh of the Holy See and letting the Holy See help promote it, can someone be willing to come and join him.

Sure enough, as Marin expected, after being publicly recognized by the Holy See, with a "wow", the Flying Wing Knights became famous...

Then, when Simon advertised recruitment in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, many people actively came to apply.

Simon first selected a thousand young and strong ones, and gathered them for training by dozens of Polish hussar instructors sent by Sigismund I. And Simon himself ran back to make a villain with Princess Anna...

As for the remaining troops, Simon's men will slowly recruit them. After all, in this era of "communication basically depends on shouting", message delivery is really too slow. I really want to recruit thousands of people, I guess it will take a long time...

After all, in this era, there are many knights living in the countryside, and transportation and news transmission are very inconvenient. To recruit them, you have to wait for notices to be posted in rural areas.

Besides, Marin estimated that it would take several years until the religious war broke out. The Knights don't have to worry so much, they can recruit people while training. Considering that the outbreak of the religious war will take a long time, Marin asked to find a younger wandering knight as much as possible. In this way, when the religious war really breaks out, the members of this group of knights will not look too old, just in time...

...

And while Simon was busy recruiting people, Marin also received a letter from King Edward in Aurich-England was already preparing to attack Ireland...

In fact, as early as the summer, Edward was persuaded by Marin and began to prepare for the use of force against Ireland. However, Edward didn't have enough food for tens of thousands of horses, and he didn't have the money to buy food from Marin. Therefore, we had to wait until the end of the autumn harvest to collect a batch of new grain as food for tens of thousands of troops. Now, the autumn harvest has long passed, and Edward has also conducted a nationwide grain requisition in the country. When Marin received Edward's letter, Edward's food and grass were almost ready...

This is also a common problem of European monarchs in this era-the preparation period for war is longer. No way, at this time in Europe, except for Marin, who has a high grain output and has never been short of food, the monarchs of other countries are all the ones who are short of food.

Often when a war is fought, the monarchs of European countries need to collect food across the country. Otherwise, there would be simply not enough food for tens of thousands of troops. So, the wars in Europe these years,

Often the scale is only 10,000 to 20,000 people. If there are more people, it will be difficult for the monarchs to afford military expenses and food.

Although Marin has a lot of food, he will not pretend to be taken advantage of and provide Edward with food for free. After all, it doesn't make sense logically. If you are too enthusiastic and take the initiative to repost, it may arouse Edward's suspicion.

Therefore, Marin could only watch with cold eyes, watching Edward collect grain from all over the country during the autumn harvest in the name of collecting "war tax".

The "enclosure movement" in England was still in its infancy at this time, and the nobles were only enclosing public land, and had not yet developed to the stage of enclosing the arable land of small tenant farmers and self-cultivating farmers on a large scale. Therefore, the grain production in England is not bad now. An autumn harvest was over, and Edward barely got together the military rations.

According to the previous agreement, Edward will lead 10,000 of the most elite Guards in England, plus 10,000 of the Sixth Army promised by Marin, and 5,000 soldiers and horses of the Fourth Army, a total of 25,000 people, to attack Ireland island. Moreover, Edward will personally lead the army to unify the entire island of Ireland.

What Marin said last time reminded him-if the island of Ireland is completely unified this time, he will become the first monarch in British history to completely unify the island of Britain and the island of Ireland. Even if he died, he could still earn the title of "Great Emperor".

Therefore, Edward naturally needed to go to Ireland to brush his face this time. Although there is no need to take the lead, it is also necessary to maintain a sufficient sense of presence. Only in this way can we take all the historical achievements to ourselves.

In fact, in Ireland at this time, those indigenous forces generally do not have a total force of more than 5,000. Even if the military strength is added together, it is only more than 10,000 people. Counting the militia formed by the people, there may be tens of thousands of people. After all, there are only about 250,000 people in the entire island of Ireland at this time.

Therefore, this time Edward attacked with an army of 25,000, the possibility of failure is very low. Originally in history, Elizabeth I mobilized an army of 17,000 and fought for 9 years because the Irish Resistance Army received support from Spain from the sea at that time. Spain had lost the Armada to England before, and was worried about it, so it strongly supported the Irish to find fault with England, which made England spend so much power to suppress it.

But now, whether it is Spain or France, these two big countries that are capable of supporting the local forces of Ireland, they have first pinched themselves in Italy, and have no energy to support the local forces of Ireland. Therefore, when attacking Ireland at this time, the local aboriginal forces could not get strong help.

Even, Marin felt that it was possible to divide the army into several groups this time. After all, the military strength of the indigenous forces is so weak.

However, whether it is Marin or Edward, they both know one thing - the resistance forces on the island, in addition to the natives, may also be the few earls left during the Norman Conquest...

Don't look at the four powers of the Earl of Desmond, the Earl of Ormond, the Earl of Ulster, and the Dominion of Wexford, which are nominally subject to the English royal family. However, who knows whether these four forces are really loyal to England.

These few have been toubobs on the island of Ireland for too long, and they have long regarded Ireland as their own territory. Maybe they will be offended that England put their hands in it. After all, England has not taken the island of Ireland seriously for hundreds of years. At this time, England suddenly sent a large army to the island of Ireland. These four princes may not really welcome them. If one is not careful, he may be stabbed in the back by these four princes.

Therefore, both Marin and Edward felt that it was better to be cautious so as not to capsize in the gutter. In addition to being careful about the resistance of those natives, you must also pay attention to the movements of the four princes, so as not to be fooled by them...

According to the original plan, Edward will take 10,000 guards to fight. Marin's Fourth Army in England will send 5,000 troops to accompany him. They will first arrive on the west coast of England, and then board a ship for Dublin to land. On Marin's side, the Sixth Army, mainly composed of Scottish Highlanders, will be dispatched from the mainland to Dublin to join Edward.

After receiving Edward's letter, Marin called Heynckes, the head of the Sixth Army, to get him ready to take the army to Emden Port, prepare to board the ship, head to Ireland, and join Edward and his party. Then, launch an attack on the indigenous forces on the island of Ireland...