The Rise of the European Emperor

Frederick III didn't expect Marin to be so disrespectful to himself in public, and what he said was so reasonable that he was stunned there for a while.

However, as a political veteran, Frederick III quickly adjusted his mentality and said loudly:

"Okay, I'll assume you don't help His Majesty the Emperor unify Germany, but where did your 40,000 troops come from? Why do you hire so many troops? Do you want to unify Germany yourself? You know, even His Majesty the Emperor, Austria Combined with the army in the Netherlands, there are only more than 20,000 people. It can be said that the whole of Germany does not have as many troops as you."

"What's even more disturbing is that your army of 40,000 is a strong army, and there are almost no weak soldiers. With the most powerful army in Germany, Marin Hoffmann, what do you want to do? Do you want to leave the emperor alone and be the overlord alone?"

Immediately, the scene became agitated. Although they knew the result, but Frederick III said it again on the spot, everyone still felt very shocked. You must know that many of the princes present have hundreds of troops under their command. Those with thousands of soldiers and horses under them are considered powerful princes. Marin's army of 40,000 people, and it is a powerful army of 40,000 people, is indeed scary.

And this is also the main reason why many princes agreed to stand on the side of Frederick III and jointly suppress Marin's upward momentum. Everyone's military strength is very weak, you are so strong alone, what do you want to do?

Even those religious princes were suppressed by the Holy See, and they hoped to suppress Marin in their hearts. After all, his military strength is too strong. And King Vladislas II of Bohemia was actually not very happy to see Marin so powerful. However, he doesn't care much about these things, and has been busy giving birth to a son all these years. Otherwise, as the head of the secular electors and the only king among the princes, the elector of Saxony would not have allowed the elector of Saxony to take the leadership of the secular princes. In addition, the relationship between Marin and the Jagiellonian Dynasty has always been good, so Vladislas II is full of ambivalence on Marin's side. At least, he won't crush Marin. But in fact, he was also worried about Marin's strength.

Frederick III pointed out the fact that Marin's military was strong, not only the faces of the secular princes were not good-looking, but the faces of the religious princes were also full of sorrow.

At this time, the religious war had not yet broken out, and the authority of the Holy See was still very heavy. Therefore, these religious princes dare not give face to the Holy See. However, from an inner point of view, they also hope to suppress Marin's momentum. After all, most of these religious princes also came from the families of secular princes. No one wants their family to be wiped out by Marin's strong expansion.

Seeing everyone's faces changed, Frederick III was very proud. However, he knew that was not enough. After all, those religious princes stood aside, including King Vladislas II of Bohemia, who was slightly higher than him in de jure, and none of them opposed Marin.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Frederick III continued:

"Not only do you have a powerful and terrifying military power, but you are also very ambitious. I heard that this time, you plan to let Denmark cede Jutland and the Kingdom of Norway... What? Marin knight, you have only been a few years. Count, do you want to be king?"

"King of Norway! That is an existence that can be on an equal footing with His Majesty the Emperor. The monarch of an independent and sovereign kingdom is half a level higher than His Majesty Vladislas. What, little knight Marin, you want us to be all Germany. The aristocrat, you have to salute you before seeing you? You have only been a noble for a few years? You actually want to climb on the heads of all the German nobles?"

Now the aristocratic crowd is even more turbulent. For these nobles and princes, their noble background is the capital of their pride. And, as vested interests, they are the staunchest proponents of bloodline theory.

However, now that a knight's son is going to climb on their heads, how can they not be jealous and dissatisfied? If you are on an equal footing with them,

They might be able to grudgingly accept it. However, if Marin is one level higher than them and becomes the king of an independent kingdom, it would be quite unacceptable. You must know that, despite the precautions against the unification of Germany by His Majesty the Emperor Maximilian I, it can be seen that when the monarch of Maximilian I is seen, they must also respectfully bow first. Even against Maximilian I, they were secretly stumbling. On the bright side, they must respect monarchs who are higher than them.

Who is Marin? Eleven years ago, Marin was just a wandering knight who was kicked out of his home. He was not even a nobleman and had no right to inherit. How long has it been? Not only did they become counts, but later they became dukes. Now, even more, I actually want to be a king... Does this mean that I want to go to heaven?

Nobles are animals who want face. To put it mildly, it is called focusing on glory. To put it bluntly, it is to die for face. Many nobles, with bad finances, are already too poor to be exposed. However, for the sake of face, they still pay attention to pomp. If you run out of money, you can directly borrow usury loans to continue to maintain aristocratic pomp. If they can't pay back the money, they sell the privileges directly to the merchants who lent their money.

In fact, many imperial cities and Hanseatic commercial cities, they can achieve autonomy, is to spend money to buy from the hands of emperors and lords.

Such a group of face-saving groups, sometimes, they are more concerned about Marin, the guy who was a homeless wandering knight 11 years ago, climbed on their heads and forced them to salute him first. In the eyes of them who consider themselves noble, this is a shame, and it is a great shame...

Seeing that the nobles' emotions were aroused, Frederick III was triumphant, while Marin secretly cried out badly. Because Malin saw that the complexions of many religious princes also changed...

If those religious princes were led by this public opinion and turned against them, then the situation would be unfavorable for them. So, Marin decisively decided to change the subject——

"Everyone, don't listen to his nonsense, how can I have an army of 40,000? To be precise, I only have 30,000 main troops. The other 10,000 troops are borrowed from the UK, and all the soldiers are English! If you don’t believe me, after the negotiation is over, everyone can go to our army to verify!”

"Borrowed? You can still borrow 10,000 strong soldiers? Is there such a good thing? Please bring me 30,000 troops, and I will borrow them too!" Frederick III said mockingly.

Marin shook his head and said:

"What I said is inaccurate. Strictly speaking, I hired them. The price of hiring is to give them a large part of the compensation they received after defeating Saxony!"

"Who believes it?" said Frederick III, squinting and troubled.

"I swear to God there are 10,000 men in my army who were hired from England!" Marin was playing a trick here. Those 10,000 people were indeed mercenaries he hired from England, and he was right. However, he concealed that the owner of this army was himself. To outsiders, they thought he was 10,000 English mercenaries hired from the English mercenary leader. Even if it was later discovered that it was wrong, there was nothing wrong with Marin's oath.

Seeing that Marin swore in the name of God, everyone believed it. After all, this year, no one dares to blaspheme God. Theocracy, before the religious wars, was higher than secular governance.

But Frederick III remained persistent:

"I remember, your Third Army is still stationed in the mainland, right? You still have an army of 40,000!"

Marin immediately replied:

"That's the fake Third Army, the real Third Army, always by my side. The Third Army stationed in the mainland is a militia recruited temporarily!"

"Aren't you afraid that your homeland will fall and you will be homeless?" Frederick III said in surprise.

"What am I afraid of? I have a main force of 30,000, and an army of 10,000 hired from England. With a force of 40,000 in hand, who would dare to attack my homeland? Besides, even the conscripted militia, relying on the strong city wall, will not It can last for a long time. Besides, who dares to attack my rear? Not afraid of my 40,000 army revenge?"

"The decisive battle with your army of 50,000 will directly decide my life and death. If I lose, with your old shamelessness, you will definitely grab my territory and make me lose everything. Therefore, the battle with you is the only way The most important thing. If you win, you can keep everything and get a lot of compensation. If you lose, you will lose everything and become a hapless stray dog. So, I brought all the local elites here. In the end, I won the bet It's gone!"

"I have no plans to deprive you of everything after winning. At least, you are still the count of East Frisian!" Frederick III quickly denied. But in fact, he really has plans to rob Marin's territory... Well, only Texel Island is left for Marin, which was originally Marin's fief. Moreover, a small island, Frederick III did not take it seriously. However, in this situation, he would never admit it.

"Don't admit it? I paid a lot of money to buy the information, saying that you once said that you were going to snatch the East Frisian country!" Marin said angrily. In fact, he also pretended to cheat Frederick III.

Unexpectedly, Frederick III really said this, and more than once. Therefore, Frederick III actually blushed... Although he disappeared quickly, many people still saw it. Frederick III denied it again, but no matter how he looked at it, he lacked confidence.

Seeing this, Marin immediately chased after him and said:

"Look at him, look at his face! How vicious is our Lord Frederick? I am fighting in Marin, only to let others cede part of the territory. But he is better, he directly wants to deprive the other party of all the territory! Such greed and viciousness Man, do you still believe him?"

The princes were stunned for a while, not knowing what to say.

And Marin struck while the iron was hot and said:

"Everyone, have you ever thought about it? Although I, Marin, got a lot of benefits from winning battles. However, which war did I initiate first? I was forced to fight back, okay? So, I have always been righteous. one of them..."