The Rise of the European Emperor

Jacob Fugger is no novice. When Maximilian I mortgaged the Tyrolean silver mine to him, he had studied mining and smelting technology for a long time and was familiar with the production process of silver mines.

After Marin explained to him the benefits of blast furnaces, rail mine cars, and high-manganese steel mills, he knew in his heart that with these three technologies, it would be no problem to increase the production efficiency of the Tyrol silver mine by half. Therefore, he accepted Marin's love. Therefore, with a big wave of his hand, he directly agreed to lend Marin 500,000 gold coins without interest. Then, it was useless for Marin to transport the money to the Principality of Württemberg, which directly offset the 400,000 gold coins owed to him by Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg. As for the other 100,000, Marin needs to be transported to Stuttgart. In order to provide convenience for Marin, he paid all the gold coins to avoid too many silver coins, making it difficult for Marin to transport.

And Marin also reciprocated, expressing his willingness to provide the Fugger family with enough high-manganese steel mills and transmission belts for blowers. These two things are not available in other European countries. Not to mention high manganese steel, other countries have no idea how it is made. Marin bragged directly to Jacob Fugger, saying that it was a steel mill made of meteoric iron, which was very wear-resistant and sounded very powerful. Jacob Fugger didn't know anything about metal anyway, so he could only let Marin brag. Moreover, he doesn't need to understand, as long as what Marin gives meets the requirements. As for not meeting the requirements? At that time, we will not give priority to selling silver to Marin...

As for the drive belt, it is made of sisal fiber. Now, mass production of sisal fiber has started in Cuba. Marin's fleet, cables and even the main line of the sail have begun to use sisal fiber. It is also a trivial matter to separate a little sisal fiber to make a transmission belt. The transmission belt made of sisal fiber is also wear-resistant. If ordinary flax rope is used, the turbine belt may be worn out as the water turbine rotates. In this case, things will be delayed. The wear resistance of sisal is just in line with the characteristics of the long-term movement of the transmission belt and is not easy to break.

Holding the IOU of 400,000 gold coins from the Fugger family and 100,000 gold coins, Marin led his men to Stuttgart, the capital of the Principality of Württemberg to the west.

After Marin entered the Principality of Württemberg with 800 cavalry, he found that the situation here had become tense...

The time has entered May, and the spring plowing in the Principality of Württemberg is basically over. At this time, Duke Ulrich of Württemberg felt that the time was right to turn against those rioting peasants...

However, because preparations are still in progress, Duke Ulrich is currently arranging the army, including the thousands of mercenaries lent to him by Marin, around his territory and around the noble territories loyal to him, so as not to prevent him and his Diehards were hurt by peasant uprisings.

However, the confrontation in the negotiations has already begun. Duke Ulrich already intends to tear up the original promise, but because the preparations have not been completed, he has not finally announced the tearing up of the promise. Kaspar, the leader of the Württemberg peasant uprising organization "Poor Conrad", also felt the danger. He has begun to gather the backbone of the "Poor Conrad" organization, gathered in his blacksmith shop, and secretly forged swords for the uprising. Kaspar himself was a swordsmith, and just as the uprising needed swords, he brought the backbone of his organization and began to use the night to forge swords in the basement to make military preparations for the uprising.

Even when Marin entered Stuttgart with his troops and 100,000 gold coins, he was targeted by spies from the "Poor Conrad" organization.

It's just that "Poor Conrad" is just an amateur peasant organization, and the level of spies in it is not very good, and they couldn't get close to Marin's team. Just as they were about to approach, Marin's scouts began to draw their knives...the other party was scared away...

And when Marin entered Stuttgart, he deliberately covered his face, and made his men wear black robes, covering all the signs of the North Sea State, so as not to scare the "Poor Conrad" organization. After all, the army of Beihai State is too prestigious. If the people of the "Poor Conrad" organization know that the North Sea State is standing behind Duke Ulrich,

They may not dare to launch an uprising. At that time, where will Marin get people to go to America?

Therefore, Marin deliberately concealed his identity. Even the thousands of people who had assisted Duke Ulrich before took off their Beihai military uniforms and hid their flags to avoid scaring the "poor Conrad".

Knowing that Marin came to visit and brought IOUs and gold coins worth 500,000 Gulden gold coins, Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg was very happy and prepared to throw a big banquet to entertain Marin. However, Marin refused.

The reason is very simple. Once Duke Ulrich entertains Marin with a big banquet, the news of Marin's coming to the North Sea Country cannot be concealed. If they knew that a powerful prince with tens of thousands of troops was standing behind Duke Ulrich, would those peasants dare to rebel?

Duke Ulrich also thought it made sense, so he secretly entertained Marin. At the same time, a gag order was issued to the people in the Stuttgart palace.

Duke Ulrich is probably the most indebted prince in Germany now, and Emperor Maximilian I should have been in debt of more than one million, poorer than him. However, the emperor mortgaged a lot of copper and silver mines, resulting in only a few hundred thousand in arrears. Anyway, he doesn't plan to take back those mines. Therefore, in terms of debts, the poor emperor Maximilian I did not have as many as Duke Ulrich. In terms of debt, Duke Ulrich ranks first in Germany.

Therefore, he was happy with Marin's arrival. Because, if the cooperation with Marin is successful, his million-dollar debt can be paid off at once. There may even be a surplus...

During the dinner, when Marin saw that there was no one around, he would never speak indiscriminately, so as not to leave people with a clue, so he began to give Duke Ulrich a trick:

"After the uprising begins, you can send troops to drive the rioting peasants to other people's territory as much as possible, preferably where there are many people..."

"In addition, send people to infiltrate the rioting peasants, and deliberately advise their leaders to engulf as many peasants passing by as possible. If there is a chance, you can also use their hands to get rid of some nobles who don't stop talking about you. As long as those nobles are killed, you can use excuses to take back their territory and expand your territory. In addition, the money and food robbed by those rioting peasants are also your spoils of war..."

Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg, nodded after hearing this, with a golden light in his eyes:

"Good! Good! Good! Haha, I'm going to get rich this time..."

"Black eating black" has always been a good way to make a fortune, of course, the premise is that you have a good appetite and strength. Otherwise, it is easy to be overwhelmed. As the monarch of the Duchy of Württemberg, Duke Ulrich obviously has the ability to annex the assets of the nobles in the territory. The premise is that those nobles must die...

No matter what kind of nobleman they are, no matter how poor they are, they are just short of cash. Generally speaking, the biggest assets of noble families are land and various fixed assets. There are three catties of nails on a rotten ship, let alone a noble family that has been passed down for hundreds of years? As long as the master and heir are dead, Duke Ulrich has an excuse to recover his fief and manor. Of course, including various other fixed assets. Take it to auction, you can get a lot of money...

What? There are guards and attendants in those noble manors? This is simple, Marin's opinion is to let Duke Ulrich use the name of "preventing civil unrest" to recruit guards and attendants under their command from nobles who do not deal with them, including militiamen recruited during wartime. However, without recruiting them themselves, only one or two attendants are left for them...

In this way, when the peasant uprising army hit these people's manors, it would be difficult for them to resist the attack of the peasant army because they had no soldiers in their hands. Then, Duke Ulrich sent people to infiltrate the peasant army, and then persuaded the peasant army to kill the nobles, including their heirs. In this way, the noble family became extinct. At that time, Duke Ulrich will annex his family property, and it will be easy and happy...

This kind of vile idea of ​​borrowing a knife to kill someone made Duke Ulrich immediately listen to it. In order to get enough money, Duke Ulrich also worked hard. After Marin left, he immediately arranged for a few confidantes to sneak into the "Poor Conrad" organization in disguise, intending to wait for the peasant army to launch an uprising, and then take the opportunity to confuse the peasants to kill some nobles who did not deal with the Duke... If Those peasants were not happy, and they didn't mind personally killing those nobles who were at odds with the duke. Anyway, after they joined the peasant army, their identity was "riot peasants". In the end, the peasant army is still responsible...