The Rise of the European Emperor

Arguing between countries is very time-consuming. It is not that England decides to send people, and they can directly cross the Calais to handle affairs, and they have to wait for the reply from France.

Of course, Robinson must have no problem going to Calais. Because, Baron Marquis, Baron Robinson's good friend, is currently in France, and is receiving courtesy from the French court. As long as Marquez helped to speak up and showed that Robinson was "one of his own", it would not be a problem to allow him to enter Calais.

The only problem is probably the problem of the landing of the army...

After all, that was the landing of an army of 20,000! The Strait of Calais is indeed very narrow, less than 30 kilometers. However, the landing of the army is very troublesome. If you use the commercial pier in the port of Calais, only a few hundred people can land at a time. It is estimated that it will take a few days for an army of 20,000 to land. Moreover, the premise is that the French do not block.

But because it was a surprise attack, 20,000 British troops were required to quickly land and surround the Calais fortress, and seize the fortress before the French army sent reinforcements. Therefore, login speed is very important.

So, these days, Edward's soldiers are training to land. But practice and practice can't change the big problem of insufficient berths at the Port of Calais.

Marin would like to recommend the method of "landing on the beach" applied by the North Sea State, allowing the army to wade and land. However, the sea water is a bit cold in spring, I am afraid that the English soldiers are not used to it.

Fortunately, among the 20,000 troops, the 5,000 Beihai soldiers are all accustomed to wading and landing. Many of them participated in the wading landing in Edinburgh, Scotland a few years ago. Moreover, most of them are equipped with the artifact of wading and landing-long leather boots.

Long leather boots are not afraid of the tide, and the beach by the sea is not as easy to sink as the silt of the swamp. Therefore, wearing this kind of shoes is very convenient for landing.

This is made after imitating the rain boots of later generations, but the tube is longer. Moreover, the materials of the two are also different. The rain boots of later generations are all rubber products, and the cost is low. But in this era, the output of Marin's Cuban rubber plantations was still very small. Rare things are more expensive, rubber is obviously more precious these days! Therefore, it is better to use leather as the material for leather boots! In this way, these 5,000 people were equipped with the first batch of leather boots in Beihai, most of which were made of animal leather exchanged from the North American Indians.

In addition, since it is a "beach landing", there must be a small boat that can directly rush to the beach. There is no rubber boat, it can only be made of wood. However, normal wooden boats seem inconvenient to be stacked on board, and there are at most two or three small boats on a large ship.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Marlin might as well build a raft...

In fact, bamboo rafts are better and more buoyant. After all, bamboo is hollow. But Europe does not produce bamboo, so we can only use rafts.

The raft is generally buoyant,

Not as good as bamboo rafts. However, it is easy to manufacture, and many of them can be stacked on the deck of the ship, which is convenient for soldiers to land on the beach. Therefore, the simple and low-cost raft has become the most important tool for soldiers on most ships to land on the beach. These days, the British soldiers are practicing how to use rafts to row from the boat to the beach and land on the beach.

As long as the raft beach landing is well practiced, most of the soldiers can be sent ashore in one night, without delaying the time of the army's surprise attack. In this way, even if the French send reinforcements from Paris, it will be too late to support Calais...

...

While the British were busy negotiating with the French, the spring plowing of the two countries had not yet ended. At this time, most of the spring plowing in the two countries has come to an end. That is to say, the plowing of the land has basically ended, and now it has entered the stage of sowing.

But these two countries do not have the columbine carts that Marin introduced from the Ming Dynasty, and sowing can only be done manually. It is the cooperation of men and women. The male farmers are responsible for digging a small hole in the ground, while the women are responsible for spreading the seeds into the hole, and then filling the small hole where the seeds are buried with soil with their feet. Then, step on it lightly with your foot. Of course, you can't step on it too firmly, otherwise, the seeds will be unable to break through the confinement of the land and germinate. This is also technical work, the land is too dense, and it is difficult for seeds to germinate. It doesn't work if the soil is too loose, which will affect the seeds from taking root. Of course, experienced farmers don't have to think so much, they can solve the problem with a single kick. This is a matter of experience...

However, the sowing efficiency is very low. Only one or two mu of land can be sown a day, generally no more than 3 mu, which is about half an acre.

Of course, there is another option, which is to sow directly—after the ox plows the ground, the seeds are directly sown into the ground. Then, use a wooden pickaxe to simply smash and turn the clods of soil plowed up by the plowshare. After breaking the clods of soil, scrape up the soil and cover the seeds that have been scattered...

But this kind of spreading is not very effective, especially, the randomness is very large. In some places more seeds were sown, in others not sown. Moreover, multiple seeds germinate together, resulting in competition for nutrients. Then, no one can grow a few crops well...

Therefore, Europeans are now more respectful of the on-demand technology that men and women cooperate with. Although it is slower, the effect is much better than extensive spreading. In terms of yield, sowing sometimes yields less than a hundred pounds per mu. And on-demand, basically broke through the 100-pound yield per mu...

And at the critical moment of planting this spring, in the castle of a large manor near the capital of the former Principality of Burgundy, Dijon, a group of nobles from the Burgundy region are gathering in the banquet hall of the castle...

Of course, they are not holding any banquet, but a secret meeting...

The owner of this castle is Paul Lizarazu, a Viscount of Burgundy. Originally, the Lizarazu family followed Charles the Bold, but after the death of Charles the Bold, Louis XI took the opportunity to annex the Duchy of Burgundy. the French royal family.

However, after all, it is a fool on the wall. The Lizarazu family has never regarded the French royal family as the monarch they must be loyal to, but because they cannot resist the power of France, they have no choice but to rely on it. In the eyes of Paul Lizarazu, the interests of the family are obviously more important...

...

And the theme of this secret meeting is also very interesting - this is a private gathering of the nobles who lend money in the Burgundy region...

Ever since he came up with the method of using compound interest to cheat French farmers, Marin secretly sent a large number of spies into the disaster-stricken areas of France, secretly contacted the local French nobles, and bewitched them to lend usury at compound interest to the victims in order to achieve The ultimate purpose of depriving farmers of their farmland and property.

The Burgundy region has only been subordinated to the French court for decades, and has not completely returned to France. After all, the bold Charles had been seeking to establish the Kingdom of Burgundy alone, and his internal propaganda had always been de-French. And Paul Lizarazu, who came from that era, naturally couldn't say how loyal he was to France. Similarly, many nobles in Burgundy do not have a strong sense of belonging to France.

Marin's spies entered the Burgundy region, and Paul Lizarazu saw the huge benefits, so he was the first to stand up and respond. Then, all the nobles who responded formed a group headed by Viscount Paul Lizarazu, which specially targeted the disaster victims in the Burgundy region and issued usury loans at high interest rates. And this group was also called "the usury group" by Marin.

And this time, the secret meeting of the usury group was to discuss how to tamper with the seeds loaned to farmers...