The Rise of the European Emperor

The councils of the cities of Lübeck and Hamburg quickly approved plans to use army mercenaries to attack Danish naval positions on either side of Copenhagen Bay.

After receiving the news, the combined fleet immediately passed the news to Marin. However, Marin did not immediately organize the sea crossing, but asked the combined fleet to clean up all the waters around Zealand Island first. Especially in the sea area from Jutland to Zealand, the sea has to be cleaned up, and there cannot be a single Danish ship. If you encounter it, deduct it all...

In fact, this is a hint of the combined fleet, to snatch the Danish civilian ships...

The Kingdom of Denmark is not only a strong naval power, but also has a lot of Denmark on civilian ships. There are a lot of merchant ships and fishing boats. That's all, fishing boats, those merchant ships are all competitors of the Hanseatic League.

After hearing Marin's arrangement, the Lübeck and Hamburg's fleet commanders understood. Then, only half of the warships of the combined fleet were left to monitor Copenhagen Bay, and the rest of the ships went all around the island of Zealand to "clean up the sea".

When these warships encountered merchant ships, they immediately swarmed up and stopped each other. If it was found that the merchant ship belonged to Denmark, it would be seized without a word. Then, the sailors on the ship were temporarily reduced to coolies, and the merchant ship itself was directly confiscated.

In particular, the Combined Fleet blocked the Great Belt Strait to the west of Zeeland, cutting off Sealand from the rest of the Danish islands. Neither fishing boats nor ferries are allowed to go out to sea. Once found, the ship is either detained or sunk.

However, everyone found it too inconvenient to transport the Allied Army from Obanrow to Zealand. Because, the island of Funing and some densely populated islands are separated from each other, which affects the safety of navigation. So, Marin made a decision-the army continued northward, captured the northern port city of Veele, and boarded the ship there to cross eastward.

The city of Vejle is not big, but it is an important port. It mainly exports livestock from Jutland and is an important livestock export and wholesale market. Zealandia, the core of Denmark, also relies on the meat and skins of livestock imported from Vejle from Jutland.

Before, Marin sent cavalry to rob horses everywhere, and outside Vejle, they robbed an important horse farm belonging to the Danish royal family and robbed 1,800 horses. Among them, there are more than 800 good horses that have been trained to be war horses. According to the owner of the captive horse farm, 500 war horses that have been trained in the horse farm have been sent to the city of Vejle, waiting for the Danish royal family to send a ship to Zeeland to supply the Danish army.

However, because of the war, the Danes' fleet had shrunk to Copenhagen Bay and could not come to transport horses. In other words, those 500 war horses are still stranded in the city of Veele.

Not only that, there are many, many cattle and sheep in the city of Veele. Most of these cattle and sheep are to be transported to Zealand and become the beef and mutton on the table of Copenhagen nobles and commoners. However, because of the war, transportation is currently suspended.

As it happens, there are too many obstacles to encounter Auburnrow to Zeeland. So, Marin simply ordered - take Veele first. Not only can you get a port facing the island of Zealand, but you can also intercept the horses, cattle and sheep in the city, making a lot of money.

Then, Marin assembled the army again and continued to march north...

At this time, the main body of the army was still 30,000 people, but the auxiliary soldiers were all changed. The 20,000 main and 10,000 cargo troops led by Marin have been divided into 5,000 troops and stationed in several cities in the Principality of Schleswig.

These baggage units are different from those in Hamburg and Lübeck. They have received several months of military training and are barely considered recruits. It might be a bit of a problem to have them play against each other's fighters, but it's not a big problem to garrison a captured city. After all, the rural nobles around the city have been cleaned up by the army.

On the other side of Lübeck and Hamburg, the troops stationed in several cities in the Principality of Holstein were later transferred from the mainland and did not split the original army of 10,000.

Therefore, up to now, the 30,000-strong army of the main body of the coalition has not changed much.

As for Marin's side, after dividing 5,000 baggage units, 5,000 Germans were temporarily recruited from the southern region of the Principality of Schleswig to act as civilians to help the army transport the baggage... and the stolen goods...

An army of 30,000 people is an unstoppable torrent that crushes all obstacles. Halfway through, the city gate of Haderslev, a small town north of Obenlo, was too fragile. Under the bombardment of more than a dozen heavy artillery pieces, within an hour, a hole in the city gate was broken. The demolition team took the powder keg and easily blasted the city gate. At this time, behind the city gate, the defenders of Hazelslev were still piling up masonry and wood behind the city gate... As soon as the demolition team exploded, the defenders were directly buried under the bricks...

There are only 200 defenders in the city, how can they be opponents? As soon as the army entered the city, they surrendered immediately, and the entire siege process took less than half a day...

After scavenging the official silver treasury and the reserves in the granary, Marin took the army and left without leaving the defenders stationed here. Because this small town was not his goal in the first place.

The army continued north, reached Vejle, and surrounded the city...

When the coalition forces arrived in Vejle, there were many fences with livestock on the side of the port pier outside Vejle...

As a livestock export port, it is obviously impossible for livestock to be kept in the city. After all, livestock poop has a bad smell. Therefore, most of the livestock are kept in some temporary pens near the pier outside the city, waiting for the merchant ships to carry them away.

When the coalition forces seized the port, the fence on the dock was full of horses, cattle and sheep. However, the 500 war horses mentioned in the information were put into the city because they were valuable materials. Most of the livestock on the pier are cattle and sheep, and there are also some draught horses, but they are not very valuable.

Marin didn't care whether it was valuable or not. After capturing thousands of cattle and tens of thousands of sheep on the dock, Marin immediately arranged for some of the cattle and sheep to be killed and added meals to the soldiers.

After eating and drinking, the army began to attack the city early the next morning...

Although Vejle was a livestock export port, the city itself was not very important. Therefore, the city gate is not too thick, but it is much stronger than the city gate of Haderslev. After bombing for a long time, a hole was smashed out of the city gate. Then, the demolition team buried thousands of powder kegs...

After a loud bang, the east gate of Veele broke down...

When the army invaded the city, the defenders were divided into two factions...

It turned out that there were about 100 guards directly under the Danish royal court in the city. They came this time to help the royal family select war horses at the royal family's horse farm outside the city of Veele. This time, they selected 500 war horses and planned to bring them back to Copenhagen as special war horses for the Royal Guard. Unfortunately, before they could return to Zealand, they encountered the invasion of the combined fleet, and the Danish navy shrunk. Naturally, they did not dare to return by ordinary merchant ships, so they were temporarily stranded in the city of Vejle.

There were originally only 400 garrisoned troops in the city of Veele. When facing the coalition army of 30,000 troops, the faces of these local garrisoned troops turned green, how could they dare to resist? As soon as the city gate was broken, most of the local defenders chose to surrender. Only the 100 Danish royal guards, loyal to the royal family, chose to resist. They retreated into a castle and continued to resist the coalition.

Marin sent people to launch a total attack on the castle, but they did not expect that these royal guards were highly skilled in martial arts, and they caused 70 to 80 casualties to the army. Seeing that he could not attack for a long time, Marin got angry and withdrew all the troops. After blowing up the gate of the castle, he threw a lot of firewood into it, and then lit a fire...

In an instant, smoke was everywhere in the castle. No matter how good the martial arts of these royal guards are, they are also smoked to tears. In the end, the remaining 80 royal guards, after being smoked out of combat effectiveness, surrendered helplessly. After the surrender, Petersen, captain of the Royal Guard, probably felt that he had no face to face the King of Denmark, but chose a suicide attack and was beaten into a sieve by the musketeers (Catholicism prohibits suicide, he can only commit suicide in this way).

For this loyal subordinate, even though it is an enemy, Marin also admires it very much. So Marin personally held a funeral for Captain Peterson, and trumpeted this example of loyalty and patriotism to the soldiers. Of course, those living royal guards were not so lucky. They were all chained up and put in jail...and, before going to jail, they were all publicly despised...

Marin did this in order to stimulate the loyalty and patriotism of his subordinates. He lifted up the dead Peterson, and also hoped to set an example and let his soldiers learn more. As for openly despising the captured royal guards, it is for his subordinates to see - look, the surrender of the mutineers will not end well...