King of German Mercenaries

At the beginning of December, Marin went to the agreed battlefield to inspect again, and found that there was a 30-kilometer-wide flat 5 kilometers east of the battlefield, which could allow the Saxon army to escape. So Marin hurriedly organized farmers to dig a wider river in the 3-kilometer-wide area.

The creek doesn't need to be deep, just wide enough. If the Saxon army escaped east, it had to cross this creek. Infantry wading across the river is naturally no problem, but plate knights in heavy armor, even their horses in heavy horse armor, never think of crossing the river. Because the knights and war horses that are too heavy are likely to sink deep into the mud in the river. Unless, use a wooden boat to cross the river or build a bridge. However, Marin obviously will not leave such flaws. The people near the river, even the wooden boards will be confiscated, not to mention the boats left on the river.

It finally arrived on December 10th, and tomorrow the army is about to set off. In order to boost morale, Marin decided to "show" a miracle to boost morale...

The so-called miracles are naturally faked. In Europe, however, forgery of miracles is blasphemous, so evidence must never be left to be discovered. Therefore, the very classic trick of "100 copper coins facing upwards" used by the famous Northern Song Dynasty general Di Qing cannot be used. Because, those 100 transformed copper coins are flaws. If any curious subordinate discovers the mystery, he will become a blasphemous sinner.

So, Marin decided to use another method - Kongming lanterns...

To this end, Marin secretly made four huge Kongming lanterns connected in series in advance, a total of 28 Kongming lanterns, strung together with iron wire, just spelled out four letters - SIEG...

"sieg" means "victory" in German, and making a Kongming lantern that spells out the word "victory" is naturally to fool the soldiers. Moreover, Europeans have never seen Kongming lanterns, so it is easy to fool them. If it were left in the same period of Huaxia, maybe any knowledgeable scholar would have recognized it as Kongming Lantern at a glance...

To this end, on the evening of December 10th, Malin specially held a swearing-in and prayer meeting before the expedition. Marin first made an impassioned speech, and shamelessly hinted at his identity as a "God's favored one", and believed that this expedition would be a great victory for his side.

In this regard, the soldiers are actually dubious. In fact, even optimistic soldiers think East Friesland will hold on to its territory this time around. Want to beat Saxony, few people have such an idea. Because the power of Saxony has been deeply rooted in the hearts of Germans for hundreds of years. Marin, with his mere East Friesland, wants to compete with Saxony, it seems not very wise. However, because of the strict military law in the military, no one dared to say anything disheartening, so as not to be punished for the crime of "shaking the military's heart". A few days ago, some people were locked up in a terrifying "little dark room" for spreading pessimistic arguments, and they have not been released yet...

Therefore, the morale before the expedition was actually not high...

Marin took the soldiers and faced the holy city of Jerusalem in the southeast, praying to Jesus...

(Actually, because there are few people in the southeast, there is an uninhabited forest under the direct jurisdiction of Marin, which is convenient for the men sent by Kohler to "show" miracles...)

At first, everyone didn't care. However, at 8 o'clock in the evening, a little "Spark" suddenly appeared in the southeast direction... This is not the most important, the most important thing is that this "Spark" is spelled into four huge letters - S , I, E, G, which together means "victory" in German...

The illiterate soldiers were fine, but the literate officers were stunned...

"Sieg...sieg...Master, even Jesus gave a sign of victory! Master, we are sure to win!" Schwartz didn't get Marin's explanation, so he mistakenly thought it was true The "miracle" of...

"My God! Is the count really a favored one? Otherwise,

How can the stars spell the word 'victory'? we win? "Frenzberg was also very shocked when he saw the "miracle" appear, and slashed a cross on his chest.

Even many devout officers, seeing the miracle, knelt down and prayed directly. Although the soldiers were illiterate, they did not know what the words in the sky to the southeast were. However, being able to spell letters with "stars" must be a "miracle". So, I knelt down on the ground...

And Marin also took the opportunity to kneel on the ground and shouted:

"Thank you for the blessing of Jesus, your most faithful believer, Marin, will obey your holy will and defeat the greedy Duke of Saxony!"

On the side, Kohler, who knew the inside story, took the opportunity to raise his arms and shout:

"Jesus is above, we will defeat the Saxons! Defeat the Saxons!"

"Defeat the Saxons!"

"Defeat the Saxons!"

...

All the soldiers shouted with Wang Qing, and in an instant, the morale, which was not high, soared to the top, and it was directly full...

Marin looked at the enthusiastic officers and men with great satisfaction, and felt that he had a better chance of winning this time...

In fact, since the formation of the army, Marin has fought many battles with everyone. However, there has never been a single case of defeating the enemy head-on. Even, the only time his subordinates confronted the enemy was on Texel Island. But even that time, there was no victory, and the army returned to Den Burg.

The major victories under Marin's command were all based on night and sneak attacks. So, very unconvincing. In the eyes of outsiders, even many people in the army itself, only think that Marin's command is superb and cunning. However, there are many people who are not optimistic about the specific combat strength of Marin's army, even his own people in the army.

After all, in several major victories, they were all unprepared enemies who attacked by surprise, and they were not crushed head-on. Therefore, everyone is actually not very confident in their hearts, and they don't know how to fight against people head-on.

This is what Malin is extremely worried about. Attacking the enemy naturally does not require any morale. Because, the army of this side naturally has advantages, and even has a sense of superiority in the heart. Even in the bloody Long Street battle against Emden, the Friesian prisoners of war under the hapless Sivager acted as cannon fodder. Therefore, Marin's subordinates are basically not face-to-face with the enemy's army.

When it comes to the front, morale is very, very important. If morale is low, it is easy to collapse after suffering a certain amount of battle damage. But if morale is high, that is, if you are more confident, even if there are a lot of losses, but the soldiers are confident that they will win in the end, then it is easy to defeat the opponent in the end...

On the battlefield, in addition to comparing skills, tactics and equipment, the most important thing is morale and confidence. Especially in the era of very cruel face-to-face combat, whichever army is more morale, it is easier to win. And if morale is low, even if the equipment and techniques and tactics are more advanced, it is useless.

Therefore, Malingan took the risk of the world and faked this "miracle", just to stimulate the morale that was not high and increase the chances of winning for his side.

Sure enough, the power of religion was at work in ancient times. All of a sudden, tens of thousands of Marin's men seemed to be fighting chicken blood, and they didn't care about the numerical superiority of the Duke of Saxony's army...

The next day, Marin set off confidently towards Lier County with an army of tens of thousands of "full blood, BUFF and morale" early in the morning...