The Rise of the European Emperor

At the same time that the scouts of the North Sea Kingdom carefully removed the sentry of the Gedes company, the lower Gedes area. The members of the "embassy" of Beihai Kingdom are also conspiring...

In fact, many of these so-called "missions" of the Grand Duchy of the North Sea are all spies under Kohler. And the leading "civilians" are all spies. Since Marin set up the spy school, he has trained several groups of spies, a total of three or four hundred people. Except for the first batch of spies who graduated in a hurry because of the war with the Allied Forces of Bursa, the other batches were all trained and allowed to graduate. Moreover, the first batch of graduating spies later returned to school to make up classes, making up for many of the shortcomings caused by the hasty graduation.

Today, in addition to more than 20 people died or disabled due to mission failure (spying is a dangerous occupation with a high casualty rate), the rest have gradually grown up.

The Lower Guedes region is very prosperous, and in this era, the core of the economy is agriculture. And if agriculture is prosperous, it will form a large-scale manor. Then, on the basis of the manor, a market town will automatically appear. And when there are more market towns, there will be cities...

The Lower Geddes area on the lower Rhine is obviously very prosperous, with a total of Doesburg, Doetinchem, Herronlo, Lochem, Elburg, Hardwijk, Hatem, Wagning Root, Hunt, Marsbommer, Tyre, Zaltbommer and other 12 cities.

You know, 12 cities are very enviable for the nobles of this era. Because, having a city means having a tax...

In this era when agricultural tax and poll tax could not be levied, commercial tax and road tax were the economic lifeline of the lords. Commerce mainly took place in urban areas, so the more cities that a noble ruled, the more business taxes they could collect, and the richer they were. There are 12 important cities in the Lower Gedes region alone in the Principality of Gedes. It can be seen that the commercial tax must be collected a lot, otherwise it would not have the confidence to compete with the Duchy of Saxony for West Frisian. Counting the six cities of Gelden, Ekrenz, Goch, Nieustadt, Venlo and Stralen, the entire Geddes principality has a total of 18 cities. Therefore, the Principality of Gede can develop in a short period of time after the resumption of the country and become a powerful country again.

In addition, the Lower Gedes region holds the estuary of the Rhine River, and the company of Gedes Company can set up cards and block boats in the downstream section near the estuary of the Rhine River to collect tolls, which is also a considerable wealth.

The reason why John II, Duke of Clifford was willing to replace the country of Mark for the Geddes area, in addition to the 12 cities over there, was also one of the important reasons why he could stop the Rhine estuary to collect the toll for ships. Before the development of the steam engine and the invention of the coal pellet stove, coal had no market. But the fertility and prosperity of the Rhine estuary delta region, and the convenience of setting up cards and collecting taxes at the Rhine estuary, were superior to the Ruhr coal in the Earl of Mark in this era.

The fragmentation of the German region is very unfavorable for the history of economic development. In later generations, that is, the early days of Prussia's unification in the 19th century, it started with the establishment of the German Customs Union.

Because, before that, the same goods were transported from the north of Germany to the south and passed through many countries on land, and were subject to many customs duties. The same is true for waterways. If you want to enter the Rhine River, you must first be levied a toll by the country of Zeeland in the Austrian Netherlands at the entrance, and then the Lower Gedes area will also be taxed. Then came the Duchy of Clifford, then the Archbishopric of Cologne and the Duchy of Berg... That is to say, if the goods are transported from the mouth of the Rhine to the city of Cologne, they will be taxed 5 times... If they continue to travel up the Rhine, they will be taxed more times. ...As a result, the transportation cost will be much higher, and the price will naturally rise, which also seriously affects the economic development of the German region...

The Lower Gedes area, which is blocked near the estuary of the Rhine River, is an insurmountable hurdle for shipping in the Rhine River Basin. If you want to pass here, you will be taxed twice if you go back and forth twice.

It is precisely because of this that Marin is ruthlessly digging the canal connecting the Lippe and Ems rivers. Otherwise, even if Marin got the Ruhr area in the country of Mark, the coal would have to be taxed four or five times if it wanted to be transported to East Frisland, which was very uneconomical. And after digging this canal, you don't have to pay taxes to others to transport coal...

...

There are 12 cities in the Lower Geddes region, and Marin's plan is to make a quick buck and take these 12 cities before the other princes react. Therefore, it is necessary to quickly break through the enemy's defense lines.

However, European cities are built with stone walls, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack. If you follow the normal way of playing, even if Schwartz brings an army of more than 20,000 people, even if most of the army of the Gedes company is concentrated in the upper Gedes area, if you want to win all 12 cities in the lower Geds area, It also takes a long time.

Therefore, before leaving, Marin discussed a neat solution with Kohler - in the name of taking over the Lower Geddes area, he sent a "diplomatic mission" to these 12 cities, posing as if he was going to take over the place.

Moreover, because Charles II, Duke of Geddes had promised to cede the Lower Geddes area to Marin. Therefore, it is reasonable and reasonable that the Marin delegation had planned to take over in the past, and there is nothing to doubt it.

The only thing that the Principality of Gede Corporation didn't expect is that these "delegations" are all highly combative. Except for the leading "civilian representatives" who were disguised as spies who graduated from espionage schools, the rest were special combatants disguised as ordinary followers or escorts. Even those spies have been trained by brutal agents, and their combat effectiveness is not weak.

The mission of these "delegations" was to attack the enemy's side suddenly after Schwartz's army arrived, and forcibly seize and open the city gates to welcome Schwartz's army into the city...

After all, the 20,000 troops led by Schwartz this time were all dressed in the clothes of the Principality of Clifford and holding the flag of the Principality of Clifford. Therefore, the small number of Gedes Principality defenders in the city would not have thought that the diplomatic team of the North Sea State that was preparing to "come to take over" the Lower Gedes area would attack them from behind... but as long as they raided the city gate and Open, Schwartz's army will take the Lower Geddes area quickly and quickly, and make the other German princes too late to react. By the time they reacted, the entire Lower Geddes region had already been eaten by the North Sea Kingdom. As a result, even the other German princes were too late to react. With those letters as evidence, the other princes can't say anything else...

To achieve this goal, Kohler dispatched 12 "diplomatic teams" to 12 cities in the Lower Geddes region. Then, each team has about sixty or seventy people. Now that the Principality of Geddes has gathered most of its troops into the Upper Gedes area, the defenses of the Lower Gedes area are inevitably negligent. In this way, it is relatively simple to arrange sixty or seventy people in the city as inner responders to capture the city gate and put the army in...