King of German Mercenaries

Henry, Duke of Luneburg, felt nothing for Marin's asking price in money. However, Marin proposed to the Duke of Saxony to cede Friesland, which was a big deal.

In the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon for nobles to be captured. Also, asking for a ransom is normal. However, requests to cede land are relatively rare. Because the aristocracy is only "expensive" by having land. If there is no land, or lack of land, how can it be expensive?

Of course, it is not that the land was not ceded. But half of that happens when power is against power. The nobles in the Middle Ages valued order the most. As a newly promoted nobleman, Marin wanted to cede such a large piece of land from the Duchy of Saxony as soon as he came up, which made Henry, Duke of Luneburg, instinctively feel uncomfortable.

Because the Duchy of Lüneburg is not far from the Counties of East Friesland, and there is only one Bishopric of Münster or the Counties of Oldenburg in the middle. If Marin annexed Friesland this time, and next time he annexed the Bishopric of Munster or the Earl of Oldenburg, then, next, he might annex Lüneburg...

So Henry, Duke of Lüneburg, was uncomfortable...

Then, Duke Henry returned to Lüneburg on the grounds that he could not be the master, and told the news to the waiting Duke of Saxony, and suggested that the Duke of Saxony united with other great nobles to put pressure on Marin...

The purpose of the pressure was not to not pay the money, but to get Marin to dispel the idea of ​​taking West Frisland. The combat effectiveness of Malin's army was already there. Even a powerful country like the Duchy of Saxony can't beat him. If Marin is opened for expansion, maybe the next expansion madman will appear.

Saxony could not hold Marin, nor could Lüneburg. Therefore, the Duke of Saxony began to send his men to ask for help from his nephew, the Elector of Saxony, and the other six Electors. Even the Duke of Saxony personally rushed to Innsbruck to ask for help from Emperor Maximilian I, who had returned to Austria, hoping that the emperor would stand up and make peace...

Around the New Year, the seven emperors of the Holy Roman Empire successively received requests from the Duke of Saxony for help. Except for the Bohemian King Wladyslaw II who expressed no interest, the other six emperors were all interested in Marin's expansionist tendencies. , expressed vigilance.

On top of that, Marin was ostensibly an important thug under Emperor Maximilian I. Therefore, they are not willing to see Marin have more territory.

Therefore, in addition to the King of Bohemia, the other six emperors, all in the name of mediation, asked Marin to give up his territorial claims to West Frisian. However, out of the dark psychology of being happy to see the unfortunate Saxons, except for the Elector of Saxony, the other five Electors expressed no objection to Marin's ransom demand.

Based on the principle that Marin could not demand the cession of West Friesland, under the witness of the representatives of the six major princes, Marin and the Duke of Saxony negotiated in Papenburg, a city in the north of the Bishopric of Münster near the counties of East Friesland. ...

In this regard, Marin expressed extremely depressed. Originally, he planned to take over West Frisian completely. However, all of a sudden, the six major emperors and princes jointly put pressure on him, so that he had to accept their "suggestion" in humiliation...

There is no other reason. If it is one of the six great emperors, Marin will not be afraid. Now, after defeating the 24,000-strong army of the Principality of Saxony, Marin's limelight is unremarkable, and the morale of his generals is also particularly strong, and he seems to be confident. At this time, Marin was not afraid to confront any vassal state, not even the elector.

However, when the six emperors and princes united, Marin had no choice but to counsel. As a rising aristocracy, what Marin wants at this stage is not rapid expansion, but urgent need to be recognized by all parties. After all, his rise was too short, and his foundation was not solid. Moreover, newcomers are vulnerable to joint suppression by old-fashioned forces. This is not only applicable to princes fighting for hegemony, but also to the workplace of later generations. Some new employees emerge too quickly, and they are easily boycotted and suppressed by old employees.

By the same token, Marin, the "new employee" of the aristocratic world, is rising too fast, and it is inevitable that he will be hostile and jealous of those old-fashioned aristocratic forces. In desperation, Marin decided to keep a low profile and lay a solid foundation.

You must know that any elector can gather an army of 20,000. With the six great emperors and princes together, it is not difficult to gather hundreds of thousands of troops. Such a number has already exceeded the total population of East Frisian. No matter how much Marin took it, he would not dare to say that with 10,000 people, he would be able to fight an army of hundreds of thousands. Unless, all his men use advanced weapons that are hundreds of years ahead of this era...

But at present, the army under Marin can only say that it is one step ahead of the times, and it is not a problem for 10,000 people to beat the opponent's 20,000 to 30,000. If you want to hit hundreds of thousands, don't dream... So, Marin decisively gave up the territorial claim and began to bargain with the Saxons in other aspects...

For Marin's other types of demands, the representatives of the other five Electors except the Elector of Saxony were very supportive. Because, the electors are not so harmonious. If the seven great emperors were so united, perhaps the Habsburg family would have been killed by their union long ago. Among the electors, there is also a lot of filth.

For example, the Saxony business district is the second largest business district in the Hanseatic League, and the Electors of Saxony and the Dukes of Saxony benefit greatly from this. Their respective financial revenues are far higher than those of other electors. This inevitably caused the jealousy of the other electors.

Therefore, they secretly encouraged Malin to weaken the Duke of Saxony. Anyway, as long as Marin doesn't want to expand, they are still willing to support Marin to bite a big piece of meat from the Duchy of Saxony. After all, East Frisian in Marin, plus the Wadden Islands, is only three thousand and a few hundred square kilometers, but it is only a county (European county, generally two or three thousand square kilometers in size), and it is difficult to stand up. .

Even, for the failure of the expansion of the Duke of Saxony, the five great emperors are very gloating. Therefore, as long as Marin does not touch the red line of the territory, the representatives of the other five electors all express their support...

Although the Duke of Saxony was dissatisfied with the ransom price of Prince George and the knights, he still accepted it. You know, of the 1,980 knights that Marin captured, 1,200 were borrowed from the Elector of Saxony. Needless to say, these people must be redeemed.

Then, on the ransom of the regular infantry, the two sides began to haggle fiercely. In fact, the asking price of Marin 50 gold coins for an infantryman is not too high. It's just that the Saxons have captured too many people this time, which has exceeded the capacity of the Duke of Saxony.

Because, according to Marin's asking price, the Principality of Saxony would not be able to collect so much money even if it sold iron. After all, that was 1.64 million gold coins. The annual fiscal revenue of the Duchy of Saxony is only about 300,000 gold coins. Moreover, this money is not saved, but more than half of it will be spent. The rest of the year, at most tens of thousands of gold coins. Right now, the Duchy of Saxony can take out a maximum of five or sixty thousand gold coins. Most of the rest can't even be taken out.

Marin thought for a while, the Duchy of Saxony really couldn't get that much money. However, Marin did not want to suffer. In the end, Marin came up with a plan of "population as gold coins"...

Marin suggested that since the Saxons could not afford that much money, the population could be used to offset the money. For example, the 8,000 conscripts and 10,000 people who were captured by the Saxons, Marin planned to turn them all into serfs under his own name...

Of course, just wanting a man is not enough. These young men are certainly good laborers, but a man alone cannot have children. This is not good for the future population growth of East Friesland.

Therefore, Marin demanded that the Duke of Saxony send the families of these 18,000 young adults to East Frisian. In exchange, Marin is willing to waive the compensation of 500,000 gold coins from Saxony - anyway, the Saxons can't afford to pay that much...

Although Albrecht, Duke of Saxony was not happy to lose so many strong men, he could not come up with so much money. To this end, after considering it, he still accepted Marin's plan of "counting the population as gold coins". However, there is a big difference between the two sides on the amount of those populations that can be used for gold coins...

According to Marin's plan, the Duke of Saxony had to pay a huge ransom of 1.14 million gulden gold coins in addition to sending the 18,000 young and strong family members to East Frisian. The Duke of Saxony feels that it is still too high. You must know that there are only 500,000 gold coins in his treasury. He is not the king of France, and even if he is rich, he is only a duke of a principality. Therefore, being able to take out 500,000 gold coins is already the limit. Any more, and the Duke of Saxony will be on loan.

However, the loan is not so easy to repay. These years, those loans to the nobles have an annual interest rate as high as 10% to 15%. If you take out a loan of 1 million gold coins, the annual interest alone will be as high as 100,000 to 150,000 gold coins. That's almost half of Saxony's annual income, and the Duchy of Saxony could go bankrupt if it borrowed so much.

Therefore, Albrecht, Duke of Saxony, must have hoped that the more gold coins the strong men could offset, the better. As for the population, the Duchy of Saxony, as one of the most prosperous vassal states in Germany, is not lacking. At present, the Principality of Saxony has a population of more than 800,000, plus more than 200,000 in West Frisian, there are more than one million people. Therefore, the loss of tens of thousands of people is still bearable. Moreover, in the Principality of Saxony, because of the long-standing peace, the population is too large. After all, the food production of this era lies there...

During the negotiation break, Albrechtela, Duke of Saxony, lowered his face and begged the representatives of the other five emperors in a low voice to ask them for help.

The representatives of several great princes were actually very conflicted at this time. On the one hand, they were happy to see the Duke of Saxony's jokes. On the other hand, they don't want Marin, the "lack" of Maximilian I, to be too proud...

In the end, they chose a small handful of the Duke of La Saxony...

Then, with the help of several representatives of the great emperors, the Duke of Saxony finally won a "discount" - he only needed to send the 18,000 strong family members, and the cash payment was reduced from 1.14 million to 1 million...

With a loan of 500,000 gold coins, the Duke of Saxony can still bear it through gritted teeth. Only, the Duchy of Saxony has been in debt for many years, but it will not go bankrupt. After all, the bustling business of the Duchy of Saxony is there.

In fact, several other emperors and princes were also happy to see Marin's jokes. Because, 18,000 strong men, including their families, must have a total of 50,000 or 60,000 people.

50,000 to 60,000 people have the same number of mouths. The influx of these people into the East Frisian country, the consumption of food alone, is an astronomical number. Even if Marin gets 1 million gold coins, it is estimated that most of it will be spent on feeding those immigrants...

Moreover, several major princes also have a lot of intelligence about the counties of East Friesland. They agreed that East Frisian could not feed that many people. Because there are too many swamps in East Friesland, suitable for arable land, and cannot support such a population... In the end, these populations may even overwhelm the East Frisian Country - which is what they would like to see ...

However, what they didn't know was that Marin could support tens of thousands more people because he had mastered advanced agricultural technology. You must know that, apart from reselling the grains of other nobles that Marin bought for the autumn harvest, his own grains basically did not change much. The reason why he didn't move is to wait for the immigrants to consume it. That's the total output of 500 million pounds of rye, enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people for a year... I didn't expect that before he started immigrating, the Duke of Saxony was eagerly 18,000 strong men were sent, and they were also responsible for sending their families - this is good, and Marin doesn't have to worry about immigration...

When signing the final treaty, Marin suddenly thought of something special request - those young men without wives, the Duke of Saxony must be responsible for sending an extra young female serf to marry those young men... After all, the 18,000 Young and strong, if there are thousands of bachelors, finding wives for them will be a problem. Therefore, Marin directly pushed this matter to the Duke of Saxony. Even many soldiers under Marin are still bachelors. The wretched Marin directly asked the Duke of Saxony to help him solve this matter together - who said that Saxony has a large population... Moreover, Marin also pointed out that he must be a young yellow flower girl, otherwise he would refuse to "receive the goods" "—and this is to prevent the Duke of Saxony from charging barren old wives...

In the end, Marin said something - if you don't send enough women, don't go back, your son will sit in my prison...