The Rise of the European Emperor

Soon after, under the coercion of thousands of soldiers and horses sent by Marin, the nobles of the Principality of Schleswig had no choice but to rush to the city of Schleswig to participate in the general meeting of all the nobles of Marin.

When Marin sent out the thousands of soldiers and horses, he gave them most of the draught horses, including the draught horses snatched by Denmark. So, everyone moves quickly. Even the nobles who were forced to come to Schleswig came on horseback. Therefore, in less than half a month, the large and small nobles in the entire principality gathered in the city of Schleswig.

And Marin, with Mikel, the former Prime Minister of Denmark who had just surrendered to him, warmly entertained everyone and introduced Mikel to the nobles of the Principality of Schleswig.

What made Marin frown, though, was that Mikel seemed more willing to deal with the Danes in the northern part of Schleswig. Also, Mikel doesn't speak German very well. In this case, it is easy to cause Mikel to reuse the Danish nobles in the north after he becomes prime minister.

Of course, this is no longer a worry. Because Marin had already made plans to redeem the Danish nobles' land and "gift" them to Denmark.

In this way, in the future Principality of Schleswig, there will be a situation where the Prime Minister is a Dane, but the people below are all Germans. In this way, Marin is not worried that Mikel, a lonely Dane, can cover the sky in the Principality of Schleswig.

After all, it is impossible for Marin to stay in the Principality of Schleswig in the future, but will return to Aurich. On the side of the Principality of Schleswig, in addition to handing over political affairs to Mikel, Marin also planned to send a trusted general, and stationed a 10,000-strong army here, ready to guard against counterattacks by the Danes. Meanwhile, monitor Mikel's actions.

At the banquet, Marin brought out barrels of fine wine. These fine wines are all collected by Marin from the wine cellar in the Copenhagen Palace. Originally, Marin planned to bring them all back. After all, the collection of a powerful king is definitely not bad.

However, just in time for the meeting of nobles, Marin simply took out a few large buckets to entertain those nobles...

What surprised Marin was that the Principality of Schleswig, which had a population of only 150,000, had 500 nobles and nobles. On average, for every 300 people, there is one noble...

In fact, the number of nobles is far more than that. Because, the 500 nobles who came today are actually representatives of each noble family, not all members. In other words, the total number of nobles in the Principality of Schleswig may be as high as two or three thousand, and the number is very large... In addition, those nobles who were killed because of resistance are not counted...

Marin took a deep breath, raised his big-footed wine glass, and greeted everyone first. Then he said aloud:

"Welcome to this noble meeting. I, in the name of the new Duke of Schleswig, welcome you all!" After speaking, Marin bowed gracefully.

"You're the Duke of Schleswig, what about Duke Frederick?" a Danish nobleman said in surprise in German with a Danish accent.

A cold light flashed in Marin's eyes, and he thought to himself - as expected, these Danes are unreliable, I have already controlled Denmark, and this guy is still thinking of Frederick...

Marin quickly took out the document signed by King Hans of Denmark, and the document signed by Prince Frederick himself to renounce the title of Duke of Schleswig, and let the representatives of these nobles visit.

On the side, former Danish Prime Minister Mikel said to everyone with a smile:

"Yes, I witnessed with my own eyes His Majesty King Hans of Denmark signed this document and awarded the title of Duke of Schleswig to Lord Marin!"

Mikel was the former prime minister of Denmark, and everyone present, except for the small landlords and nobles who stayed in the countryside, knew who he was. Moreover, they are also very curious, why Mikel abandoned the good Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Denmark and quit,

Came here to be the Prime Minister of the Duchy of Schleswig...

In fact, Mikel felt wronged. If he hadn't signed that unfortunate diplomatic instrument, would he have run away to save his life? However, even if he didn't run away, he was in great danger and was dealt with by the Danish King Hans as a scapegoat. In this case, he had to leave Denmark and take refuge in Marin, who was willing to take him in.

After the collective appraisal of several important local nobles, it was confirmed that the two documents are the handwriting of the Danish King Hans and Prince Frederick, and the ink is also authentic.

After confirming his legal identity, Marin began to give a speech. The content of the speech was mainly to emphasize repeatedly that the Duchy of Schleswig was an inalienable part of Germany and should not be controlled by the Danes. The Duke of Schleswig should also be held by a German...

Hearing Marin's speech, the German nobles in the southern part of the Principality of Schleswig applauded, while the Danish nobles in the north all turned black.

However, in this era, although there are many Danes in the northern part of the Principality of Schleswig, they are not as Danes in the entire northern half of the 19th century during the Pudan War.

At present, among the 150,000 people in the Duchy of Schleswig, only 40,000 are Danes. Moreover, half of them migrated from Denmark after the union of Denmark and the Duchy of Schleswig in 1460.

Likewise, of the 500 nobles and nobles present, only 100 were Danes. The other 400 people are all Germans. Usually, within the Principality of Schleswig, the Germans and the Danes also fought openly and secretly. However, the Danes have the king's backing and are more confident. Although they are small in number, they are not defeated in the battle.

Marin's speech is clearly to support the German nobles and suppress the Danish nobles. It is no wonder that the Danish nobles are happy. Some Danish nobles even whispered underneath, intending to stumble on Marin in secret.

However, after they discussed how to stumble on Marin, Marin threw out a big killer - the land redemption policy...

This policy, the first to take the Danish nobles, announced the redemption of the land of all the Danish nobles...

"Why? Why deprive us of our land?" cried many Danish nobles. For aristocrats, having territory is a true aristocracy. With a title and no territory, he can only be regarded as a noble noble with no face. To deprive them of their land is to kill them...

"When did I say I deprived you of your land? I bought it with money, do you understand?" Malimpi replied without a smile.

"Without the land, are we still nobles?" a Dane noble asked indignantly.

"That's not my business. You must know that the Principality of Schleswig is the territory of the Holy Roman Empire and the territory of the Germans. As for the Danes, it is no problem to live in the Principality of Schleswig, but I want to be a noble here. ..." Marrington stopped after a pause, but obviously, it meant no way.

"Yes, yes, this is the territory of the Germans. What kind of nobles are the Danes? It's all the ghosts of Christian I and his son!" At this time, some local Germans who did not deal with the Danish nobles. The nobles jumped out and supported Marin. Marin glanced at him, and his eyes showed the meaning of admiration - the person who knows the current affairs is Junjie...

"Well, I think, although the Germans don't recognize your aristocratic status, King Hans should still recognize it. After all, you are Danes. With the money I bought for your land, you can completely ask King Hans. Buy a new piece of land as a fief."

In this era, the entire Denmark area of ​​about 37,000 square kilometers (excluding the North Schleswig area) has a population of only 600,000, and there are a lot of free areas. As long as you have money, it is indeed easy to buy territory.

Moreover, at this time, because the treasury was robbed, it was the time when King Hans of Denmark was most short of money. These guys used the money to buy the territory, which is definitely a gift for King Hans.

Although it was unpleasant that this would benefit Hans, Marin knew that he couldn't do too much. Otherwise, if they attack other countries in the future, no one will surrender to them. Therefore, he can only buy the land of these Danes nobles with money. And allowed them to go to Denmark with money to buy territory from King Hans.

Marin told the Danish nobles that King Hans's treasury had been emptied by himself, and he was short of money at this time. If you take the money to buy territory from Hans, the territory you sell may not be smaller than the current one. Those Danish nobles thought about it too, so most of them agreed to sell the land for money. There are also a small number of people who want to oppose, but under the threat of Marin's saber gun, they have to give in.

In this way, Marin used the policy of forced redemption to clean up the 100 Danish nobles in the Duchy of Schleswig.

However, Marin did not allow the Dane nobles to take any Dane serfs with them when they left. Because Marin also needs labor...

Next, is how to deal with the problem of the German aristocracy. Marin intends to conduct an assessment among these 400 German nobles. The outstanding ones will be admitted as local officials, and the land in their homes will also be reserved. For the nobles who did not pass the assessment, the land in their families will be entrusted.

The so-called trusteeship refers to those lands that nominally belong to the nobles of the entrusted territories, but the actual managers have all been replaced by people from Marin.

However, Marin will not harm the interests of the nobles in the entrusted territories. In the past, how much food they could receive every year, in the future, Marin will give them the same amount of food every year, and there is no shortage of them.

But in fact, because Marin understands fertilizer technology, the same field, in Marin's hands, can increase the yield three or four times. For example, rye, which originally produced more than 100 pounds per mu, was in the hands of Marin and at least 400 pounds per mu. In that way, the extra two hundred and dozens of pounds of harvest will all go into Marin's pocket... But what Marin provides to the landowners and nobles is still calculated according to their original harvest...

In this way, using the original land and serfs, Marin could earn more than 200 pounds per acre, much more than the landowners.

Moreover, due to the lack of population, a large amount of land in the Principality of Schleswig is still deserted. You know, the Principality of Schleswig has an area of ​​9,200 square kilometers and a population of only 150,000, which is similar to the current East Frisian Country. However, East Frisian has only more than 3,000 square kilometers, while the Principality of Schleswig has 9,200 square kilometers. It can be said that there is a lot of land in the Principality of Schleswig, and it just hates the lack of people to develop it.

But the population problem, for Marin, is really not a problem. If he wants people, he can directly recruit many poor Germans from the southern region. As long as there is enough food, the population is not a problem at all...

Moreover, the Principality of Schleswig is a coastal area, with many rivers and lakes, no mountains, only some hills. In this kind of terrain, it is very easy to develop wasteland into fertile land. The premise is that Marin first gets enough immigrants to come...

In this way, with an order, the official assessment of the Principality of Schleswig began. It was Mikel who was in charge of the assessment. Mikel has been the Prime Minister of Denmark for ten years. He is no stranger to assessing subordinates and is very skilled. Leaving this matter to him also reassured Marin. It's just that those German nobles who participated in the assessment don't know that this assessment is related to whether they can control their own fief... Because Marin didn't tell them in advance...