King of German Mercenaries

Marin and Prince Philip were informed that at the end of December, before Christmas, all the official Teutonic knights would gather in Königsberg for a congress of Teutonic knights to elect a new Teutonic Grand Master on the spot. Then, on New Year's Day, 1498, the new Grand Master was officially sworn in.

And now, it's early December. Although Marin spent a lot of money, he has already won a lot of people. However, many people are still full of uncertainty.

Because, in the election of the head of the delegation, people will be short-handed with your money. However, as a Teutonic knight, they still hope to have a capable leader to lead the Teutonic Knights.

Because, the situation of the Teutonic Knights is not very good at the moment. To the south they were the mighty Poland, and to the east was the mighty Lithuania. To the north, the Livonian Knights who disobeyed their orders.

Therefore, even if the interests are related, they are not willing to choose an incompetent person to serve as their chief. Because if they choose a straw bag and lose the Teutonic state, everything they have will be lost.

Therefore, many neutrals also value the ability of the head of the army. At the very least, the new chief should have the ability and determination to protect the interests of the Teutonic state.

On December 23, all candidates will address all official Teutonic knights in the square of the Königsberg Cathedral, expounding their justice, courage, and agenda. Among them, the policy agenda is the most important.

Because, the policy program represents the direction of the Teutonic Knights in the years after the new Grand Commander takes office. Therefore, even if many knights are not good at reading, they will take it seriously.

Also, not all Teutonic knights are bad at reading. After all, all knights read books. Among the more than 800 knights, there are many knights who read well and have agile minds.

And a good policy program will also impress those wise Teutonic knights. These clever Teutonic knights, despite their own political affiliations and positions. However, when deciding the future of the Teutonic Knights, the future of the country must be considered extremely carefully.

If a candidate's policy platform is too good and far surpasses other competitors, those smart knights, even from the opposite camp, are likely to vote. Because a strong candidate is good for all Teutonic knights, even if the big commander is from a hostile camp.

After all, the so-called hostile camps are actually just different views. At most, they want to fight when they meet, not to fight when they meet. But once the Teutonic Knights state declines, the Teutonic Knights may be killed by the combined Polish and Lithuanian forces.

Therefore, the campaign platform used to speak at the election convention is very important. This campaign platform will directly reflect the candidates' plans and directions in the future, and it will also allow those wise Teutonic knights to see clearly the level and ability of the candidates and influence the final votes.

Therefore, even if they secretly canvassed votes, Marin and Philip also attach great importance to this campaign platform.

Prince Philip's ability is not very good, but he has an advantage, that is, he can listen to other people's suggestions. For a prince who has been a monk since he was a child and has never learned the strategy of running a country to come up with his own campaign platform, it is as difficult as heaven.

In fact, among the previous Teutonic leaders, very few were particularly wise. Otherwise, the Teutonic Knights would not have been bullied so badly by Poland and Lithuania.

This is because the previous chiefs were generally born in noble families, but they were trained as monks since childhood. These people are very religious and brave in battle. However, when it comes to strategy and vision, it is basically very common. Because, they were trained as monks since childhood and rarely learned the strategy of governing the country. However, they were also knights since childhood, and their military literacy was good once they were young. At least, commanding thousands of troops will not cause any big trouble.

Prince Philip, for example, is both a monk and a knight. Since I was a child, although I didn't learn the strategy of running a country like my two older brothers,

But the basic knowledge of military command is to learn a complete set. Of course, their little military command knowledge is very low-end in Marin's view. Basically, people who have learned these things have a basic understanding of what to do on the battlefield, but they don't know why they do it, and how to do it better...

The Teutonic Knights are now in crisis, and the Teutonic Knights also hope to have a powerful leader who can make a difference. Therefore, the exposition of the campaign platform in the campaign speech is very important. If it is too bad, it may be abandoned by the original allies. Because, even after receiving your favor, those knights would prefer someone who has done something to lead them.

Marin and Prince Philip spent a lot of time studying this campaign platform and speech...

Marin believes that because the audience of the prince's speech is a group of knights with strong muscles and relatively simple minds. Therefore, gorgeous rhetoric and citations are unnecessary. Instead, the words should be plain and simple, but they must express exactly what they want to say. It's so mysterious that the big knights can't understand it...

Also, the knights must be moved around two core issues...

Of these two core issues, the first one is of course interests. In fact, from the 14th century, the Knights began to pay more and more attention to commerce. In addition, several cities in the state of the Knights joined the Hanseatic League, which brought huge profits to the state of the Knights. Many knights were keen to participate in commercial trade and earn profits. As for the valiant and warlike traditions of knights, they were gradually discarded.

This is one of the important reasons why the Knights lost to Poland at the Battle of Tannenberg. Because, the knights gradually degenerated into merchants, and they are busy making money. Who still has the heart to fight?

Like the Battle of Tannenberg, the Teutonic Knights hired a large number of mercenaries, and even hired some English longbowmen. At that time, the combat effectiveness of the knights had been greatly reduced.

It can be said that many Teutonic knights have degenerated into the existence of half-merchant and half-knight. When it comes to combat power, it is far inferior to the German and French knights.

Therefore, they will absorb a large number of wandering knights from the German region to ensure that the knights still have combat effectiveness. Generally speaking, a formal Teutonic knight will often bring a group of apprentice knights with him. Those with a higher status will also bring a few official knights (not Teutonic knights). For example, Kiesling and Jules under Amsau's subordinates are both official titled knights, but not Teutonic knights with voting rights. Up to now, they are only official knights, preparing Teutonic knights.

However, these Teutonic knights who have degenerated into half-merchant merchants value their interests very much. Therefore, Marin throws a lot of money and can definitely help Prince Philip buy a lot of people.

However, this is only one of them. It is tempting to spend cash, but your policy agenda is to make their business better and make more money. That way, they'll be more willing to vote for you.

To this end, Marin's opinion is to vigorously support the commercial development of the Teutonic Knights, and give those Teutonic knights the green light to do business in order to please them and gain votes.

The second core issue is that of national security. Under the combined attack of Poland and Lithuania, the Teutonic Knights lost a large area of ​​their territory and the country was in danger.

Therefore, the Teutonic knights also hope that there will be a big head who can strengthen the military and ensure national security. So, militarily, candidates must also come up with solutions that satisfy the Teutonic knights.

For this, Marin has long thought about it. Marin believes that the Teutonic Knights themselves have been greatly reduced in combat effectiveness, and they are not the opponents of the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth at all.

Therefore, in terms of national security, the Livonian Knights who are not very obedient should be drawn together to warm up and help each other. Also, look for allies against Poland and Lithuania, or one of them, to relieve the pressure on the Knights themselves.

Finally, on the basis of vigorously developing business, obtain more funds and hire a group of Swiss mercenaries to help the Teutonic Knights against external pressure.

The current Swiss mercenaries are the hottest mercenaries in Europe, with strong combat effectiveness. Also, the Swiss were very good at dealing with knights and cavalry. Coincidentally, the Polish and Lithuanian armies were dominated by heavy cavalry. Hiring Swiss mercenaries is just enough to suppress the heavy cavalry of the two countries.

Even the Polish winged cavalry, who were known to be good at attacking infantry phalanxes, were only good at striking infantry phalanxes with bayonets and rifles with spears. If it were Swiss spearmen with spears several meters long, would you let them try? Whose weapon is longer? Who pokes whom first? At a glance...

Marin's operational advice was to have Swiss mercenaries confront Polish and Lithuanian cavalry head-on. The knights of the Teutonic Knights attacked the Poles and Lithuanians from the flanks or behind. Of course, this was the arrangement after the outbreak of the war. But when it comes to campaigning, you have to make it clear, tell the Teutonic knights that you know how to beat the Poles and Lithuanians who might invade...

Although Prince Philip could not think of these things himself, he was very convinced of these views of Marin and decided to copy them all. Because, Marin proved his vision and ability with facts-Texel Island has a developed economy (otherwise Marin wouldn't be able to get so many gold coins), and its military strength is not bad. Moreover, Marin also used three or four thousand ordinary infantry to defeat the most elite 8,000 French knights...

Therefore, Prince Philip, who believed in Marin, decided to copy Marin's ideas completely, and then read directly from Marin's prepared manuscript on the day of the election. The above ideas of Marin are also all reflected in Prince Philip's campaign platform...

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