The Rise of the European Emperor

Because of the order document from the palace minister Bentheim, most of them found the city of Holstein under the steps and chose to surrender. Of course, there are those who are as recalcitrant as Neumünster, while others are on the sidelines.

However, the coalition forces were too fierce, and they captured the fortified city of Neumünster in two days, greatly deterring other cities. As a result, those cities that waited and watched chose to surrender one after another, and the wind was no longer the rudder.

In fact, the reason why the siege was so smooth was inseparable from the application of heavy artillery and the use of powder keg. After all, in this era, the city gates of various cities are still mainly made of oak, and no matter how thick they are, they cannot stop the continuous smashing of 18-pound iron balls.

You know, even those warships with thicker broadsides will not be able to bear the constant smashing of the same spot by an 18-pound iron ball. Although the gates are thick, they are different from warships. The warship kept shaking, and it was difficult for the artillery to hit the same spot twice in a row. As long as it is not smashed once, it is difficult to be broken through. But the city gate is different. The city gate is fixed and will not move. The artillery fires flat. As long as the angle is adjusted, it can be bombarded repeatedly at the same point. No matter how strong the city gate is, as long as it is a wooden gate, it cannot stand this constant blow. Therefore, it is a matter of time before the city gates are broken. Then, buried a gunpowder keg in the blasted hole, it would be hard not to blow up...

After easily blasting open the castle gate of a recalcitrant baron with an 18-pounder, Marin said to Schwartz next to him with emotion:

"It seems that we have to cast iron plates on the city gate, otherwise, we can't help the artillery bombardment..."

"Master is wise!" Schwartz said respectfully. In fact, Schwartz was also intimidated by the power of the 18-pound short-barreled Karen. Although it consumes a lot more gunpowder than the Cohoun mortar, it is also more powerful. No matter how strong the city gate is, under the continuous bombardment of more than a dozen 18-pounder guns, it will inevitably be penetrated. Oak Gate, in front of heavy artillery, should really be eliminated...

In fact, the city gates in the east of the same era, and the city gates of many large cities, were covered with bronze skins and covered with bronze nails to enhance the strength of the city gates.

However, European copper is too expensive. At this time, even a wealthy Hanseatic city was not luxurious enough to cover its gates with copper skins. However, Marin used heavy artillery to easily blast open the city gate, which will prompt countries to coat the city gate with metal. If you don't pack it, if you encounter artillery in the future, it will be just around the corner...

Because he had already made up his mind to make a good deal with the Hanseatic League, Marin no longer went to those cities that had declared surrender to search for official money. To this end, Malin specially notified Lübeck and Hamburg, and asked them to send people to receive these cities. As for himself, he led the army to continue northward and marched in the direction of the Principality of Schleswig.

...

On the other side of Kiel City, Lübeck's 5,000 army also moved very smoothly. Because Kilburn is a Hanseatic city, although King Hans of Denmark sent troops and nobles to manage the city, the Hanseatic merchants in the city are still very powerful. While Marin was staying in Glückstadt, Lübeck's army attacked the city of Kiel.

The Hanseatic Big Brother's army came over, how can the Hanseatic merchants in the city have any reason to resist? Even, at night, there were several Hanseatic merchants who sent all the guards to attack and open the city gates to welcome the Lübeck army into the city...

Although Kiel's defenders resisted stubbornly, there were only a few hundred regular troops in the city, and the city gates were also opened. Under the attack of 5,000 Lübeck troops, the defenders in the city were completely wiped out. In this way, Lübeck easily controlled the Hanseatic commercial city of Kiel.

When Marin's army conquered Neumünster, the Lübeck army that captured Kiel, after leaving a few hundred defenders, followed and joined Marin's army. By the way, let's talk about the ownership of Neumünster.

Of course, Lübeck wanted to negotiate with Hamburg over the partition of the Principality of Holstein, and Marin could not get involved.

At present, the Principality of Holstein has 6 major cities, namely - Kiel, Glückstadt, Neumünster, Itzehoe, Bad Oldesloh and Heide.

Among them, Glückstadt is the capital, but because of its proximity to Hamburg, it is obviously to be classified as Hamburg. Kiel is on the east coast and is obviously also under the jurisdiction of Lübeck. And Hyde, although nominally under the jurisdiction of the Principality of Holstein, is now the territory of the self-governing Dietmarschen people, and does not belong to Denmark.

Strictly speaking, the reason why King Hans of Denmark was so unfortunate was that the Dittmarschen were unlucky. Because, through the "Battle of Hemmingstedt", the Dietmarschen people dug up the reservoir dam and flooded the Danish army, causing the Danish king Hans, who sent tens of thousands of troops and led the expedition, to lose most of the elite, and only brought escaped with the few survivors. Afterwards, seeing the Danish people's setbacks, the Swedish regent, Sten Sturley, dared to raise troops again to declare Sweden's independence.

It is precisely because of Sweden's independence that the Quartet Alliance took advantage of the emptiness behind Denmark to join forces and stab Denmark.

Therefore, the three companies involved in sending troops on land—East Friesland, Lübeck and Hamburg—do not know what to do with Dietmarschen.

According to the geographical location, the Dietmarschen area, together with the capital Heide, should be assigned to Hamburg. However, burgers are not happy. Because, the Dittmarshen people are too rebellious. If Dittmarschen is assigned, it is equivalent to taking over a huge trouble.

To this end, Hamburg demanded that the Dittmarschen region be separated from the Holstein Principality region, and then the remaining cities be divided up with Lübeck. But Lübeck disagreed. They felt that Hyde was a city on the west coast, and should be a Hamburg. Then, the city of Neumünster, located a little bit east of the middle, should belong to Lübeck. As for Hamburg, they feel that the Dietmarschen area is not under the jurisdiction of the Principality of Holstein and should not be classified as Hamburg. At the same time, they also want Neumünster...

In this way, the representatives of the two cities quarreled on the spot and refused to give in to each other...

Marin didn't care where Neumünster belonged, and it wasn't his territory anyway. However, if the representatives of Lübeck and Hamburg are allowed to quarrel like this, it will delay the fighter. So he said to Weizmann for Hamburg and Hermann for Lübeck:

"Two, the issue of the ownership of New Münster should be left to the two speakers to negotiate and negotiate. The two are just army commanders, so it doesn't count..."

As soon as Marin's words came out, the representatives of Lübeck and Hamburg responded - yes, they were only representatives of the troops sent by their respective parliaments. The real power is still in the hands of their respective parliaments. As a result, Lübeck military representative Hermann and Hamburg representative Weizmann put aside their prejudices, temporarily surrounded Marin, continued northward, and attacked the Principality of Schleswig as planned...

However, after taking Rendsburg at the junction of the Principality of Holstein and the Principality of Schleswig, all three were in trouble. Because the ownership of the city has become a big problem.

The process of capturing Rendsburg was uneventful, nothing more than that Marin sent artillery to blast a hole in the city gate, and then blasters went up to blow up the city gate. Then, the large shield soldiers led a group of mercenaries into the city to clear up the rebels... But the ownership of Rendsburg, an important Hanseatic commercial city, is somewhat unclear...

Originally, Rendsburg was a city belonging to the Duchy of Holstein. However, after Christian I of the Oldenburg family became Duke of Holstein and Duke of Schleswig in 1460, he placed Rendsburg under the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Schleswig.

The traditional dividing line between the Principality of Holstein and the Principality of Schleswig is the Eide River, the largest river in the region. But Rendsburg happened to be on the edge of the River Eide, and it was unclear whether it was on the south bank or the north bank of Rendsburg.

According to tradition, Rendsburg should belong to the Duchy of Holstein. But according to the current situation, it is under the jurisdiction of the Principality of Schleswig. Marin naturally wanted Rendsburg to belong to Schleswig, but Hamburg felt that Rendsburg should belong to Holstein. Best, divide Heide from Holstein and divide Rendsburg to Hamburg. Because, Hamburg is not willing to take over the Ditmarschen area that is still in the rebellion, so as not to fall into the pit of the rebellion.

Even, in order to get Rendsburg, Hamburg was willing to give up the sovereignty of the Dietmarschen area (later Ditmarschen County), and exchanged it with Marin for the control of Rendsburg.

Marin is a little confused - Nima, although Rendsburg is prosperous, it is just a city. The people of Hamburg are actually willing to use a place as big as Dietmarschen County for a city. In the long run, it's definitely worth it...

Although the rebellion in Dietmarschen continues, and the people of Hamburg are afraid of rebellion, who is Marin? Afraid of this? The big deal is to kill more insurgents...

You know, Ditmarschen County has more than 1,000 square kilometers. If it is reclaimed, there will be a lot of arable land...

So Marin was not afraid of trouble and agreed to take Rendsburg, a prosperous commercial city, in exchange for Dietmarschen, an area that was still in rebellion. Of course, Weizmann could not call the shots. In the end, it is up to the Hamburg parliament to decide this matter.

However, Weizmann felt that the Hamburg parliament would definitely agree...

Because, Rendsburg is a Hanseatic commercial city, more prosperous. Also, its proximity to Kiel and the River Ide with the North Sea to the west has great commercial prospects.

What is a hamburger? It was a Hanseatic commercial city. The most important thing for businessmen is the area with developed trade. As for the land? They don't rely on land for food, but they don't care as much as Marin.

In fact, Marin clearly remembered that Rendsburg, just beside the famous Kiel Canal in later generations, was indeed a very important place. Business development is really good.

But at the same time, Marin also remembered that the Kiel Canal in later generations, near the North Sea, was also the junction of Dietmarschen County and Steinburg County (the capital of Itzehoe). Even if you lose control of Rendsburg, you can still use the Kiel Canal as long as you take the entire territory of Dittmarschen County. Of course, the premise is that Lübeck and Hamburg are willing to dig canals according to the planning of the later Kiel Canal.

In fact, it was not without reason why the German authorities later chose to dig a canal here. Because, along the route of the later Kiel Canal, there were originally many natural rivers. To dig the Kiel Canal, just connect these rivers together, and then widen and dig deep.

But Marin's field investigation found that if the canal was dug, it would be more convenient to make good use of the existing Eide River. Because, the Eide River is just east of Rendsburg. And Rendsburg is only twenty or thirty kilometers away from Kiel. Not only that, but to the east of Rendsburg, there is a big river called Ober-Eider, which extends for a long distance to the east. If you dig a dozen or 20 kilometers eastward along this river, you can connect to the port of Kiel.

The reason why the Kiel Canal in later generations did not choose to connect the Eide River, but chose to dig down, is probably also because Hamburg is below. Because, when the canal was built, Hamburg was the largest port city in Germany. Since the canal is being dug, it is natural to consider the Hamburg side.

Although the Eide River is more convenient to open a canal, its western estuary, Tenning, is also far from Hamburg. More importantly, the Ed River is not straight, it is curved. It is a waste of time to use it for sailing.

Moreover, if the river is not straight, it will be very inconvenient for those long boats that are more than 100 meters long to walk on the tortuous river. If one is not careful, it may be stranded. Therefore, it is still straight, and the canal leading to the largest port, Hamburg, is more conducive to transportation.

However, this has to take into account the age issue. In this era, there are no ships with a length of more than 100 meters, and there are very few ships with a length of more than 30 meters. It is more practical to use the Ide River to dig a canal on the spot. Because the distance that needs to be excavated is much smaller than the amount of work for the later Kiel Canal.

There are no machines in this era, whether it is digging rivers or pumping water, it is completely dependent on manpower. Therefore, it is better to reduce the amount of engineering as much as possible. Excavating a distance of ten or twenty kilometers, even if it is purely manual, only takes three to five years. If you excavate dozens of kilometers, you will not be able to do it for more than ten years. At the end of the 19th century, with the help of steam engines, it took 8 years to dig through the power of all Germany. With the current technological strength, it is estimated that it will take more than ten years to dig. But if it is replaced by direct use of the Eide River to connect. Then, even if there is no machine to help, it can be dug through in three to five years.

Of course, in the long run, the Ide River was meandering in the past, and it is indeed not suitable as a navigable canal. However, the most important thing at the moment is to solve the problem of having and not having, not the problem of good or bad. Therefore, Marin believes that the canal should be created by using the Ide River to connect Kiel first. As for the issue of the non-straight river channel, we can dig a canal channel directly connected to Hamburg in the future while navigating. When the new channel is dug, it will not be too late to block and abandon the Ide River, and connect and activate the new channel.

So, Marin drew the plan with drawings, and wrote down a large paragraph of text notes to put forward his own opinions. Then, he first copied the same copy, and then through Weizmann and Hermann, entrusted them to send the drawings to the parliaments of Lübeck and Hamburg to express his views, and suggested to use the Eide River first, excavation to connect Kiel's river, let's get the canal up first. In this way, you don't have to look at Denmark's face in the future...