The Rise of the European Emperor

In September, Schwartz and Woolf Essbrand came to Hamburg and Marin with their armies stationed in Wittenberg and Berlin respectively. Then, Marin led the army to the court.

Before leaving, Marin sent away Joachim I, the Elector of Brandenburg who had been a hostage for a long time with him, and released some officers of the Electorate of Brandenburg as Joachim I's entourage. Even, in order to make the released officers of the Electorate of Brandenburg look good, Marin also returned some weapons and equipment for free. Otherwise, if Marin didn't send some weapons and equipment, Joachim I would probably have to lead a group of people in a state of tragic arrogance.

Moreover, Marin also gave Joachim I and his party a horse to ride. Of course, it's all pull horses. The price of war horses is high, and Marin will not return them.

In this way, Joachim I and hundreds of officers under his command drove the Electorate of Brandenburg all the way bleakly on horseback. As for most of the captured soldiers of the electorate of Brandenburg and the electorate of Saxony, according to the treaty, they could not be released until the other party paid the indemnity. The same goes for prisoners of war, including the electorate of Saxony, although the reparations of the electorate of Saxony are passed on to the Duchy of Saxony. However, Marin still insisted on keeping the captured Saxon soldiers, digging a canal for him for a year, and then sending them. Of course, officers or something must be sent first.

Because these officers are from aristocratic backgrounds, and if they are asked to dig canals to do coolies, they may not be able to do it. Perhaps, these people will also be doing a disservice. In addition, it is indeed a bad rule to let nobles dig canals as coolies, and it is easy to arouse the dissatisfaction of other nobles. Of course, for those ordinary knights, Marin stayed to dig the canal. Only the baron and the heirs of the baron's family are eligible for early release. Moreover, those who came from knight families have good physical strength and great strength, and they are very good at digging canals.

Apart from these captured regular army officers and soldiers, those captured civilians were strong, and Marin had no plans to return them at all. They even asked the two countries to send over the families of those strong men. And this is also the condition for Marin to reduce the ransom of hundreds of thousands of gold coins to the two countries. Otherwise, if there is no reduction or exemption, each family needs to pay a ransom of one hundred thousand gold coins.

On the Danish side, Marin mainly released those nobles and the original tens of thousands of veterans, so that they could have the capital to fight against Sweden's annexation. As for the new army of nearly 20,000 captured, except for the noble officers, they were all pulled to the south of the Munster area to dig a canal. With so many strong men helping to dig the canal, Marin believes that the canal will be dug soon. At that time, East Friesland will be able to contact the Ruhr area, where its hometown Bochum is located, by water. Then, Marin took over the Ruhr area, basically, the core site was established. As for other places, we can only make plans after the Protestant war begins.

As far as the German region is concerned, Marin believes that the most elite region is the Ruhr area. With the Ruhr area, an industrial revolution is possible. Although the time is relatively long, at least the resources are in their own hands first.

In addition, potash mines are also very important. After all, potash is an extremely important fertilizer and guarantees a good harvest. Therefore, the potash resource,

It is Marin's second strategic resource that must be mastered.

Although the German region is small, potash resources are very rich. In later generations, Germany, which is only 350,000 square kilometers, ranks second in potash resources, second to Huaxia, but higher than the United States.

Among them, an important potash producing area in Germany is the Duchy of Lüneburg. The Harz Mountains in the south, as well as the Hanover region, are important potash producing areas. Lüneburg's mineral salt, in fact, a lot of potash. If it is KcL, it tastes similar to normal table salt, and it is impossible to tell the difference. And those bitter salts, mainly sulfate salts, may be sodium mirabilite or potassium sulfate. It's hard for the average person to tell the difference, but Marin knew that, using blue cobalt glass imported from Venice, it was possible to tell whether there was potassium in mineral salt by a simple flame reaction.

Through this means, Marin has already made Kohler take several potash mines in the Harz Mountains under the name of an unknown chamber of commerce. In addition, there are also large-scale potash mines in the Archbishopric of Magdeburg.

However, the potash mines in the Harz Mountains and Hanover belong to the Duchy of Lüneburg. And the Archbishopric of Magdeburg is not something Marin can move.

However, Marin knew that these two vassal states, after Martin Luther set off the Reformation, were the first vassal states to turn to Protestantism. At that time, as long as Marin holds high the banner of maintaining Catholicism, he will be able to take the Duchy of Lüneburg and the Archbishopric of Magdeburg in an open and fair manner. Anyway, the Principality of Lüneburg is now a neighboring country of Marin, and it is very convenient to send troops to occupy it. The Archbishopric of Magdeburg is also close to the Principality of Lüneburg, and it is also very convenient to attack.

When the country was established, Malin's army passed through the Oldenburg area and it is no longer called the Earl Country, because the Oldenburg family is already the ruler of the Iceland Country. In Oldenburg, Marin met his eldest brother Adler, who was staying here.

After years of experience, Adler is no longer that ignorant young man. Seeing his younger brother Marin, Adler was also a lot more cautious, and actually saluted Marin first.

Sister-in-law Liv was also there, and Liv was specially sent by the old Hoffmans to accompany the boss. Because Adler still has only one daughter, Margaret, and has no male heir. Therefore, sister-in-law Liv was ordered to cooperate with Adler in making a villain.

Marin didn't notice it before, but this time he saw Liv's belly bulging. Obviously, this is a success in creating a villain.

Sister-in-law Liv is still so pungent, if not pregnant, she might wear plate armor to compete with her eldest brother. Seeing that Marin had changed into a suit that can only be worn by a grand duke, she was outspoken and envied:

"Oh, Marin, you are already a grand duke. You are several levels higher than Adler!"

The speaker has no intention, but the listener does

Marin immediately realized that it was time to mention the title to the boss.

Before, Marin himself was an East Frisian earl. If he wanted to reward his subordinates, the Viscount was already at the peak, and he could not reward an earl as well. Moreover, the title of Viscount is not popular in Germany, and it is very rare. It has only appeared in the Netherlands and the Lombardy region of northern Italy, and the scope of power generally does not exceed a castle and its surroundings.

Of course, that was because there were no official viscounts and viscounts in the imperial title system. But in Marin's North Sea Grand Duchy, Marin can set up a formal viscount.

The reason for the establishment of viscounts is to imitate the three-tier system of barons and raise the three grades of viscounts, deputy viscounts and sub-viscounts, in order to facilitate the award of meritorious soldiers. Otherwise, if your subordinates have already reached the baron, you can't jump up to the earl, right? So, it's best to get a viscount to transition.

For example, at the end of this war, Schwartz, who is the highest official baron of the third baron, should be mentioned according to his credit. If you don't realize this title, do you want to mention the earl? That span is a bit big, so it's more appropriate to be promoted to viscount

But his eldest brother, Adler, was very different. As the eldest son, the original first-in-line heir, according to European traditional practice, even if the Hoffman family inherits the Earl title of the Bullock family, it should be Adler first. Although Marin succeeded in making Adler willingly give up his inheritance, he could not treat him badly. Otherwise, people will be accused.

Just like Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after abolishing his eldest son Liu Jiang as the crown prince without any fault, he was given special treatment and allowed him to be a prince, but he used the emperor's honor guard because it should belong to him.

Although Adler didn't contribute much to Marin becoming Earl, his pick was there. As long as Marin claimed to have inherited East Friesland from his mother, Adler was the eldest son.

Therefore, Marin must treat Adler preferentially. For example, in this award, a hero like Schwartz must give up first, and let Adler come first. Moreover, Marin can't be stingy. Schwartz would be made a secondary viscount, and Adler would be made a full viscount all at once. That's the power of blood.

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