The Rise of the European Emperor

Originally, Marin planned to transfer a legion from the three most powerful legions in the country to Scotland to help. However, the plan could not keep up with the changes, and the Pope also needed people to attack Siena, and also needed to mobilize about 15,000 people.

As a result, the number of troops that needed to be mobilized reached 25,000. But the homeland cannot be guarded without enough soldiers and horses, otherwise, what if there are enemies coming to attack? Although Marin has trained more than 10,000 militias, the militias are just militias and cannot replace the regular army.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Marin decided to modify the plan. He decided to hand over the task of landing in Edinburgh to the Fourth Army currently stationed in Saqqara, Newcastle.

In cooperation with Edward's army's mission to attack southern Scotland, Marin asked Saqqara to find 10,000 strong men among the tens of thousands of refugees in Northumberland.

Anyway, England's attack on the Scottish border is actually a feint and does not require too many main combat troops. Originally, Sivager's Fifth Army was going to march with Edward's army. In addition, Edward will also cobble together a purely English army of ten thousand people to act together. Including a fake 10,000-man army on the Newcastle side, the total number of troops reached 30,000. Counting the strong people, there are 50,000 to 60,000 people.

But in the final analysis, when the time comes, the real main force will become Sivager's Fifth Army. And Edward's pure English army will become an auxiliary force. As for the 10,000 fake troops prepared by Newcastle, they were all soy saucers, and they were responsible for shouting "666" throughout the process...

In addition, Sivager's Fifth Army will not all be dispatched. Because Edward was worried that the remnants of the previous dynasty in London would take the opportunity to launch a rebellion. Therefore, of the 10,000 people of the Fifth Army, 3,000 elite troops will be stationed in London to protect the safety of Edward's family. And this decision did save the lives of Edward's family...

In this way, the main attack was actually 7,000 soldiers from the Fifth Army, assisted by 10,000 pure English troops, and 10,000 "cheerleaders" from Newcastle.

If it were to go to war with Scotland under normal circumstances, it would be courting death, and it would be easy to be defeated by the Scottish elite.

But it is different now, because the Scottish elite were captured or killed in the war the year before last. Now there are only 2,000 guards left in Scotland with strong combat effectiveness. The others are second-line troops or simply militias, and their combat effectiveness is weaker than the "mixed army" that England put together. Moreover, the number will never exceed ten thousand.

Moreover, the main task of the English army this time is to feign an attack to attract the main Scottish troops to defend, and to provide cover for the Fourth Army to fight across the sea. Therefore, they don't need to be too powerful, as long as they are powerful enough.

Under their cover, Saqqara's Fourth Army can take the opportunity to board a ship from the port of Newcastle, land at a port near Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and then surprise Edinburgh, capture the core of Scotland, and end the war.

...

However, Saqqara's Fourth Army seems to lack firearms. Because what Marin valued at the beginning was the long-range strike ability of the English archers in the Fourth Army.

However, the long-range strike ability of archers is useless in siege warfare. Therefore, Marin will send 20 heavy artillery to the Fourth Army. This batch of heavy guns is the infantry version of the Karen naval gun newly developed by the Beihai National Cannon Factory, and it is a 32-pound gun.

However, compared with the genuine 19th century British Karen gun, this infantry version of the Karen gun is a bit heavier. The genuine Karen naval gun is of the 32-pound class and weighs only 771.8 kg. The 32-pound Karen naval gun produced by the Beihai Guozhu Cannon Factory weighed one ton, which was nearly 230 kilograms heavier than the genuine Karen naval gun.

But there is no way. After all, the current level of science and technology in Beihai State is much worse than that of Britain in the 19th century. Moreover, it is already a miracle to be able to produce a 32-pound Karen naval gun. Because the current steel technology is too backward. Only when Marin made carbon steel can he cast such a light heavy gun with medium and low carbon steel. If you change to mature iron,

It is estimated that it must weigh two tons to be safe. Otherwise, it is easy to explode the chamber.

The 32-pound iron ball shell hit the city gate and the city wall, which was quite heavy. The most important thing is that according to intelligence, Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, has not been replaced with an iron city gate. If you use a 32-pound Karen naval gun to bombard it intensively, you can break through the city gate.

No wonder, after all, Scotland is a backcountry in Europe, and it takes a long time for many popular things to spread to Scotland. Moreover, to the south of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, there are large areas of mountains and hills, which constitute a natural barrier to stop the British army. If the southern mountains can't stop the British army, it doesn't make much sense to replace Edinburgh with iron gates.

It's just that the Scots didn't expect that Marin actually thought of using a large-scale landing battle to attack the Scottish capital.

Normally, Scotland would usually station several thousand main troops in the capital, and it would not be afraid that Marin would land 10,000 troops. After all, the defenders have a natural geographical advantage. But now, most of the main Scottish troops have been captured, leaving only a few crooked melons, and most of them will be sent to the south to guard against England. In this way, there must not be many troops staying in Edinburgh, and their combat effectiveness is limited. At this time, Marin suddenly sent 10,000 elite soldiers to engage in a landing battle. It would be strange if the opponent could stop it...

The only problem is that the consumption of gunpowder for this kind of large-caliber artillery is extremely alarming. Under normal circumstances, the ratio of gunpowder consumption to shell weight is 1:3. In other words, it may take about 10 pounds of gunpowder to fire a 32-pound iron ball shell. If there are 20 salvos, it will consume 200 pounds of gunpowder in one round. If it takes 100 rounds, it will cost 20,000 pounds of gunpowder... However, saltpeter is so scarce and expensive in Europe nowadays... So, heavy artillery can't afford it...

Fortunately, the Karen naval gun is a short-barreled artillery, and the charge weight only needs 1/8 of the shell weight. That is to say, the 32-pound Karen naval gun only needs 4 pounds of charge. The 20 Karen naval guns fired a salvo and only consumed 80 pounds of gunpowder. But this is also a lot of consumption. It is estimated that more than 100 rounds of shooting will be required to break through the thick city gate, which means that more than 8,000 pounds of gunpowder will be consumed, which is definitely a big waste.

For Marin, there is no shortage of warships or artillery in Beihai now. The only thing missing is that the gunpowder is mainly saltpeter.

The army's consumption of gunpowder is still light, and naval naval guns are the real big gunpowder consumers, and they are also gold-swallowing monsters. Today, the price of gunpowder in Europe is extremely high, reaching a high price of 1 shilling to 2 shillings. Even calculated on the basis of the lowest 1 shilling, 8,000 pounds of gunpowder would cost 8,000 shillings, worth 1,600 gold coins.

If you switch to the navy, a ship with 20 guns salvos, 50 warships with 1,000 guns salvos in one round, and thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds of gunpowder in one salvo will be gone. If there is a naval battle for a day... there are not many monarchs in Europe who can survive without going bankrupt...

The saltpeter in India is cheap. Unfortunately, after Marin bought it twice, he not only bought out the inventory there, but also attracted the attention of Spain and Portugal. These two countries are now also starting to buy saltpetre in India. But it is a pity that the annual supply of saltpeter in India is only hundreds of tons. Today, it is necessary to supply the North Sea State, Spain, and Portugal. Therefore, the amount that Marin can buy is definitely not enough to support the North Sea State warships to fight.

Of course, there is enough saltpeter in India. Now that saltpeter is so easy to sell, the Indians will definitely increase their production. But where can Marin afford to wait?

Therefore, the best way is to find another way.

As far as Marin is concerned, there are two other sources of saltpeter. One is purchased from the Ming Empire, but this is full of uncertainty. After all, who knows if the Ming Dynasty officials will lose their brains one day and not supply it.

Therefore, the safest source is to develop Chilean saltpeter.

However, although there are many saltpeters in Chile, there is also a big problem. The saltpeters are all in the tropical deserts in northern Chile. If you want to mine them, you have to go deep into the hot and dry tropical deserts...

However, almost none of the subjects of Marin's North Sea country and England could adapt to the tropical desert climate. Therefore, this plan has been shelved for the time being.

However, when thinking about going to Senegal to buy rhinoceros hides during this time, Marin suddenly thought of those bearded men in North Africa, who seem to be very adaptable to the desert climate...

After all, those bearded Arabs in white robes in North Africa have always lived in arid and water-scarce desert areas, and they have long been accustomed to that climate.

Therefore, Marin thought of whether he could buy a group of slaves adapted to the tropical desert climate from North Africa and go to Chile to mine saltpeter?

At the same time, Marin also intends to purchase a batch of "desert boat" camels from North Africa to transport saltpeter from the deep desert of northern Chile to the coastal port...

For this reason, Marin decided to send people to Egypt, contact the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt, buy docile slaves adapted to the desert climate, and a group of camels for the development of saltpeter mines in the northern desert of Chile... And, the faster the matter the better...