The Rise of the European Emperor

The French envoy was a little dumbfounded. He happened to have studied the seal and the monarch's signature, and recognized the king's signature. Moreover, you can still smell the special ink.

But the result surprised him—this purchase contract turned out to be real! The seal and signature of the King of England on it, including the smell of the ink, are exactly the same as the official English documents, which are obviously genuine. In this way, Marin succeeded in throwing the pot away.

Seeing that the envoy believed in the purchase contract, Marin smiled in his heart, but explained with aggrieved face:

"Messenger, you know, I am also the Earl of Newcastle in England now! His Majesty the King wants to buy a batch of muskets from me, do I dare not agree? I didn't send troops to directly participate in the war, I think I value the relationship with the great French Kingdom... ..."

Seeing that they did have a formal contract, and the time seemed to be a long time ago, the French envoy had no choice but to believe that Marin was unintentional. However, he didn't know—Marin turned around and bought another 30 Hongyi cannons for England...

Although it is indeed a bit embarrassing to do so, its benefits are also obvious-this makes the French unable to get angry...

Moreover, in this era, it is not surprising to admit to France. After all, France at this time is the most powerful country in Europe. Just like later generations, are you ashamed of being cowardly to Lao Mei? It's really embarrassing, but it's not particularly embarrassing if everyone does it like this...

In this way, the French envoy who had been limp was sent back in such a ignorant manner. The news it brought back was obviously of little value.

In France, there is also a big discussion on the safety protection of sewer iron gates at this time. Because, according to John Laffey's investigation results, it seems that the Calais Fortress was breached by the British through the iron gate of the sewer.

In addition, after Tudor's Margaret mother and son were assassinated, the British escaped from the iron gate of the sewer, which made the French realize one thing-the British seemed to have found a good way to open the iron gate of the sewer. Therefore, we must strengthen the defense of the sewer iron gate!

And we all know that the smell of sewer is very bad. Especially in summer, the smell of sewers is simply unbearable. Therefore, the soldiers guarding the sewers are generally deployed tens of meters away to avoid being smoked.

But after the British used the sewer to bypass the city defense twice in a row, the French learned from the pain and decided to strengthen the defense of the iron gate of the sewer.

For this reason, in order to ensure the safety of the city, King Francois I of France ordered that a guard post should be built next to the sewer exit, and soldiers should be on duty directly next to the sewer exit...

This is a pain for the French soldiers on duty at night,

Because the sewer smells really bad! If it is stationed next to the sewer exit, it will kill people...

However, for the sake of safety, the French ruling and opposition parties still decided to station soldiers and horses next to the sewer exit to ensure the safety of the iron gates of the sewer. As for the unaccustomed soldiers, who cares...

In fact, the French didn't know that when they planned to use the iron gates of the sewer to attack Calais, Marin was ready to give up using this method in the future.

One can do one thing and two can't do three things. If you use this tricky method once or twice, maybe someone will be fooled. But wanting to take advantage of this loophole all the time - I'm not a fool!

Therefore, Marin is not afraid that this loophole will be discovered. Anyway, he doesn't plan to use it next time. With aqua regia, let alone corroding the iron lock of the sewer, it can directly corrode the large iron gate. If it's a wooden door, it's even easier - a barrel of gasoline can burn the wooden door!

In this way, the French are busy in vain. It's just that the French soldiers who were sent to guard the sewer exit were miserable and had to endure the stench of the sewer. Especially in summer, it stinks to death!

...

After sending away the French envoy, Marin was busy with his own affairs. Right now, Marin has his own major affairs to be busy with, a very, very important event - the replacement of junior officers in the army!

Twenty years ago, when Marin created the North Sea Army, he basically used mountain people from southern Germany and farmers from Alsace. Even grass-roots officers such as the company captain and squad leader are hired illiterate mountain people. Because, there are no literate grassroots officers available under him!

But 20 years on, things have changed a lot. Especially more than 10 years ago, after Marin occupied the County of East Frisia, he started to open a school in East Frisia, and also held a crash course for young officers, and began to acquire some literate people.

The crash course for young military officers has been held for several years, and hundreds of young military officers have been trained. Later, these hundreds of young officers were incorporated into the army and became the first batch of literate grassroots officers in Beihai.

But this was not enough. Later, Beihai State selected a group of not very smart (the smart ones were arranged to continue their studies) but very loyal and brave teenagers among the primary school students in ordinary schools, and continued to train them as officers.

Before going to Daming (around 1508), the first batch of primary school students graduated, and a group of about 1,000 primary school graduates were sent to the part-time non-commissioned officer school for further training. Primary school graduates are generally around thirteen or fourteen years old when they graduate, and now six or seven years have passed, and the first batch of primary school graduates have all grown up...

In fact, last year, 1,000 non-commissioned officer students became adults, and another 1,000 students graduated to adulthood this spring, making Marin suddenly have 2,000 more non-commissioned officers in his hands!

This is a non-commissioned officer who has been educated since childhood, and his level is much higher than the students in the crash course for young officers. Anyway, their cultural level is equivalent to that of junior high school students in later generations!

Of course, in the junior high school curriculum, a lot of knowledge is incomplete (Marin deleted it on purpose), but at any rate, this group of people has received a complete elementary school education. Unlike those students in the crash course for young officers, the level of knowledge is only like the third or fourth grade of elementary school. There's no way, it's quick, the foundation is poor...

And these 2,000 disciples are solid and normal non-commissioned officers, which is what Marin values ​​most. For the hundreds of students in the crash course for young officers, Marin discovered that they were not brainwashed enough, and their loyalty to themselves was not as good as these cadets who had received formal education since childhood.

You know, what Marin implements is a loyalty education similar to that of the Beibai. These children have received the brainwashing education of "absolutely loyal to the Hoffman family and absolutely loyal to the Grand Duke Marin" since they were young, and they are very loyal to themselves. And those students in the crash course for young officers, although their loyalty is higher than those of the mercenaries recruited from the mountains in southern Germany, they are still not enough to make Marin completely at ease.

Therefore, after the two batches of non-commissioned officers graduated, Marin paid so much attention to it. Because these children made Marin very relieved. At least, in terms of loyalty.

The only downside is probably that they are too young. Unlike the first batch of graduates of the crash course for young officers, many of them are in their twenties and can be entrusted with important responsibilities.

If these newly grown children are rashly let them serve as military officers, Marin worries that they will not be competent. After all, not everyone is a genius. On the battlefield, experience is also very important.

After thinking about it for several days, Marin finally let him find a solution - let these cadets enter the army first, serve as the squad leader or even the deputy of the company captain, and learn command experience from those veteran squad leaders and company captains . After a few years of experience, they are capable enough, and then let them replace those veteran grassroots officers. Anyway, at that time, many grassroots officers will grow old, just let these loyal children take the top...

Of course, not all 2,000 cadets will be placed in the army. Marin only plans to select half of the excellent students to enter the army as deputy positions for training. The other 1,000 people are temporarily unable to serve as officers because of their grades. However, Marin will program them into a new army. Many military reforms that could not be implemented before can just be tried in this army composed of educated young people...