The Rise of the European Emperor

If someone carefully looks at the enlarged satellite map, they will find a phenomenon - that is, in areas with developed agriculture, ditches are generally vertical and horizontal, and they are very regular.

Those rivers cut the agriculturally developed areas into small squares, which are very neat. One word to describe it is "gridding".

In East Frisland, under the leadership of Marin, a large amount of labor is used to dig irrigation rivers during slack farming, and the "gridization" of ditches has been initially achieved. Therefore, East Frisian agriculture is now very developed.

However, this is difficult to replicate. It is not that no merchants from other vassal states have discovered the secrets of the many irrigation rivers dug in East Frisian. It's just that it's useless to find out...

You must know that digging an irrigation river is a huge project, and generally thousands or even tens of thousands of strong men are required to participate. It doesn't matter if there are too many people, but the food consumption when digging the river is several times that of usual, so this problem is very big...

Now that European food is so expensive, even if the strong men who dig rivers don’t need wages, the consumption of food is really painful. For example, if a strong man does not usually work much, it is enough to eat more than one pound of food a day. If he eats more than two pounds, he has a big stomach, because the consumption is not large.

But when it comes to digging a river, the food intake of those strong men will increase sharply. The average strong man can eat more than 3 pounds of food and consume a lot. Calculated like this, 10,000 strong men, when digging rivers, consume more than 30,000 pounds of food every day. If it is converted into rye, it will cost 30,000 pfennig, which is equivalent to 500 gold coins! If you dig for a month, but the consumption of food will cost 15,000 gold coins... It's too exaggerated...

Of course, the food for the farmer who digs the river cannot be whole wheat. If you change it to an ordinary noble, it may be mixed with a lot of soil, wild vegetables, sawdust and even stones... If you eat stones, you can give your teeth... That kind of bread, because the soil is mixed with too much, it is very hard, and it can be used as a Bricks smashing people...

The bread that Marin gave was better, it was soft, but it was also mixed with about 30% of ryegrass. At the beginning, the reason why Kohler strongly demanded the promotion of this "Koehler bread" mixed with straw chaff was because he was distressed by the huge consumption of food. If 30% of the three pounds of food for each strong man is straw, then 0.9 pounds of rye can be saved. Ten thousand strong men would save nine thousand pounds of rye a day, which is nine thousand pfennigs or 150 gold coins... That's why Marin agreed to Kohler's use of this somewhat immoral bread.

However, having said that, this "Kohler bread" mixed with 30% straw chaff is already considered food of conscience for the poor. After all, it does not squeak and is easy to digest. Moreover, coarse grains are also nutritious, at least much better than mixed with soil and stones...

Although those black-hearted nobles mix a lot of messy things in their bread, they can save a lot of food.

However, in any case, it took a month to organize tens of thousands of people to dig the river, and the cost of food input was also worth several thousand gold coins.

But the problem is that most aristocrats in Germany cannot afford such consumption. After all, most of the nobles are in debt, so how can they have the money to organize strong men to dig rivers on a large scale?

But Marin is different. Because he has mastered the secret of high grain yield, Marin has a very sufficient amount of food for the strong men to eat when they dig rivers. Therefore, the construction of water conservancy in East Frisian went very smoothly. Now, in the three regions of Oldenburg, Schleswig and North Münster, many rivers have also been dug for irrigation. Even if other nobles wanted to imitate, they had to have that wealth and courage.

Because of the tight schedule, from March onwards, spring ploughing in the Grand Duchy of the North can only be prioritized in East Friesland, Oldenburg, Schleswig and North Münster. As for the newly added provinces of West Friesland, Bremen and Jutland, as well as the province of South Münster, which is not under the control of Marin, Marin can only temporarily give up and let the original extensive farming methods be used there. engage. It is not necessary for these places to be able to produce high grain yields, as long as they do not need Marin to help.

...

Just when Marin was busy ploughing in the spring, information suddenly came from England that Henry VII was planning to send troops north and reoccupy the northern counties. Even the barracks were built, and food supplies began to gather. When the spring ploughing is over, the people can be dispatched to follow the army, and Henry VII will immediately march north to re-occupy the north...

The information came from the Countess of Salisbury, Edward's sister, Lord Margaret. Before, the Margaret County Lord did not find this situation. After all, Henry VII didn't make any preparations before, he just discussed it with a few important ministers.

In fact, Sir Richard Ball, the husband of Princess Margaret, as a close friend of Henry VII, knew the plan to send troops. It is a pity that Richard Pohl and his wife Margaret are not of one mind, and they are also guarding against his wife. Therefore, the Margaret County Lord had no idea about Henry VII's plan to send troops to the Northern Expedition.

However, after the beginning of spring, Henry VII began to gather troops, horses and forage, and it was difficult to hide the movement. Princess Margaret felt abnormal, sent someone to inquire, and at a huge cost, finally learned the news that Henry VII was about to go on a northern expedition.

According to Henry VII's plan, the British army will send 15,000 troops north, bypassing the central counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, which were messed up by thieves and refugees, and directly from the west of England. County north, so as not to delay the fighter.

As for the place where the army gathered, it was Warwickshire, southwest of Leicestershire. Ironically, Warwickshire, by law, was supposed to be the fief of Edward, Earl of Warwick...

And that Edward, Earl of Warwick, is Edward who is now going to kill Henry VII...

Henry VII imprisoned Edward for more than ten years, and naturally he also deprived Edward of his fief and sent his cronies to take over. Thus, although Warwickshire was Edward's fief, it is now Henry VII's territory and the seat of the rear camp of Henry VII's army heading north.

Although due to spring ploughing, neither the English soldiers nor the strong people could be mobilized. However, Henry VII still mobilized a group of strong men who were not farmers (such as sheep herders) and began to build camps in Warwickshire and transport food and grass.

When the spring ploughing is over, those British soldiers and strong people who have been recruited from all over the country can live in the rehabilitated camp directly, and the food can also be directly prepared by Henry VII.

By the end of March, the Warwickshire camp will be repaired, according to Lord Margaret's estimates. In addition, according to the secret information, the food and grass needed by the British army will basically be in place by the end of March, waiting for the British army to come and use it.

Princess Margaret knew that the Robin Hood Thieves had something to do with Marin, and that Marin and Edward's army would also launch an attack in early May. However, in order to make Edward's military operations smoother, the Lord of Margaret believed that before the British army assembled, he should send the Robin Hood thieves to attack the British army camp in Warwickshire and burn the food and grass. Moreover, the best time is in late April, the eve of the British army's assembly.

As a result, the British army had to re-raise food and forage, and military operations would be greatly delayed. But Edward's army will go south as scheduled. One is well-prepared, the other is poorly-prepared, and a fool knows who will win...

Marin was surprised by the information of the Princess Margaret, of course, what surprised him even more was the suggestion of the Princess Margaret - this is clearly a capable female politician! To actually know how to destroy the forage prepared by Henry VII, this is the vision of ancient Chinese advisors...

The Robin Hood Thieves Group is now estimated to have seven or eight thousand full members, all of whom are young and strong. Also, there is a 900-strong cavalry. If you just rush to burn food and grass before the British army gathers, dispatching that 900-strong horse team is the best choice...

So, to Margaret's suggestion, Marin gave an affirmative answer, and sent someone to order the Robin Hood thieves to start exploring and prepare for the British army camp in Warwickshire, Benxi. . At the same time, Marin will prepare the oil barrels they need to burn the food and grass - pour the oil on the food and grass, and it will burn faster...

It's just that, through this suggestion, Marin became even more afraid of Princess Margaret. It is certain that when Edward is in power in the future, Lord Margaret, Edward's sister, will become the superstar of the English court. This is not a good thing for Marin to control England in the future. Therefore, Marin had murderous intentions for the clever woman, Lord Margaret...

Of course, Marin would not send someone to assassinate Princess Margaret by himself. In fact, as long as he sent someone to tell Henry VII what the Princess Margaret had done, Henry VII would definitely cut her off. If nothing else, as long as Henry VII knew that Edward was exchanged by someone sent by the Lord of Margaret, he would definitely be very angry.