King of German Mercenaries

On December 23, 1497, two days before Christmas, on the square of the Königsberg Cathedral, a total of 820 Teutonic knights from the Teutonic Order gathered together to vote here to elect a new chief. .

After several former senior deacons announced the election rules, a total of three candidates began to speak on stage one after another...

The first to come to power was Prince Frederick. After Prince Frederick came to power, he talked about the strength of the Duchy of Saxony, and said that the powerful Duchy of Saxony would ally with the Teutonic Knights to help fight against Poland. Moreover, he kept suggesting that an alliance with prosperous Saxony would bring great trade benefits.

Marin pouted below, and to be honest, Prince Frederick's speech was not bad, very deceiving. However, it's just very deceiving. Sounds good, but it's actually not the case at all.

Because, Marin knew that the Duchy of Saxony would fall into the quagmire of the resistance of the Frisian people in the future, and could not take care of itself, how could it be able to support the Teutonic Knights?

As for trade interests? In the Hanseatic League, the Saxony business district is stronger than the Prussian-Livonian business district. What's more, the Teutonic Knights currently only have 4 Hanseatic cities left. Combining the two, it is clear at a glance who dominates. It can be said that once the Saxony business circle and the four Hanseatic cities of Teutonic are combined, it will be the Saxony and Hanseatic businessmen who will benefit. Teutonic Hanseatic merchants, it is not bad to have a drink of soup.

After thinking about it, Marin wrote these thoughts down on paper and handed them to Prince Philip...

"You are this?"

"When I'm going to give a speech, I'll pierce his hide and expose the truth."

"Will this ... offend the Saxons?" Prince Philip hesitated. Because the Principality of Clifford and the Counties of Mark together are far less than the Principality of Saxony.

"What are you afraid of, the Saxons are about to fall into the quagmire of Friesland's revolt. Moreover, the mighty Geddes duchy is also eyeing Friesland. As long as the Duke of Saxony is not brainless, he will not offend your family. So, say with confidence, Tell everyone that the Saxon army will be trapped in Friesland and will be targeted by the Duchy of Geddes. Therefore, it is impossible for them to be able to help the Teutonic Knights..."

"Okay!" Prince Philip nodded...

...

Here, Prince Frederick's speech really touched a lot of people, especially some neutrals. The Teutonic knights of the Saxony system even applauded vigorously, cheering for their young master.

The second candidate was from Switzerland, but he abstained outright. Although I signed up before, I did not attend. Because, this person saw that even if he ran for election, few people would vote for him...

Then, the third person didn't come...

The fourth person was William of Austria, who was bought by Marin. Surprisingly, this guy is quite capable of speaking. After this product came to power, the badge of the Habsburg family was first lit up, calming the scene...

The Habsburg family, although boycotted by nobles everywhere. However, the Swabian region and the Saxony region really did not resist, because these two regions were allies with the Habsburg family. Moreover, some Franconian nobles became friends with the Habsburgs. Of course, the knights of Saxony, even if they did not oppose the Habsburg family, could not vote for others when their prince was present.

However, the knights in the Swabian region were a little tangled...

Because they first agreed to vote for Frederick, Prince of Saxony. However, later William stepped out and whispered to move some people to vote for him instead.

Of course, even if the money is thrown, William's speech must be convincing to a certain extent, proving that he is competent for the work of the Grand Commander, otherwise, those Swabian knights who have made an appointment may also go back.

William is very clever, and he first revealed his identity as a member of the Habsburg family.

Although, it would lose the support of most of the knights of the vassal states that were against the Habsburg family, but those knights in the areas of the emperor's allies began to hesitate.

Most of the knights of the Teutonic Order were from Germany. Therefore, the Teutonic Knights have developed to this day and can be called the German Knights.

In any case, Wilhelm was a member of the Habsburg family, although the emperor probably did not know about his collateral. However, some knights of the emperor's allies in the vassal countries had to think about it.

Because their family members will be mixed with other vassal states. Therefore, they must be careful not to fight against the princes of their hometown.

Moreover, with the help of "Master of Counterfeiting" Marin, William also showed some people the emperor's personal introduction letter. With the "recommendation of the emperor", the Teutonic knights in the Swabian region and some Franconian regions will have to weigh up...

What confuses these people is that the prince of Saxony also told the Teutonic knights in Swabian that the emperor supported him. So, some Swabian knights started to get lost.

In fact, the Emperor did support Prince Frederick. Because, Saxony is now an important ally of the emperor. However, the emperor did not issue a "letter of introduction" to Prince Frederick. However, William brought a forged letter of introduction from the emperor. Therefore, some Swabian knights were really persuaded. Plus, William also gave a favor...

William did not speak well about economic construction issues, but he also clearly expressed his intention to support business development and encourage everyone to make money.

In the military, William trumpeted the power of the Habsburgs. Moreover, the key point is that William told everyone that if he chose the Habsburg family, then the emperor could, in the name of the German family, warn Poland to restrain them and not bully the Teutonic Knights...

Speaking of which, Marin couldn't help but applaud William. Speaking of which, Maximilian I was also the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The emperor came forward to negotiate with Poland, and Poland did need to weigh up. Moreover, as the emperor, he can indeed give legal support to the Teutonic Knights.

Of course, these promises seem good, but they are all false. Moreover, William was not a representative sent by the Habsburg family...

But others don't know. Especially those Teutonic knights in Swabian, caught in a tangle...

When William went down, two more candidates were bye-bye—and he abstained. Finally, it was Prince Philip who came to power.

After Prince Philip came to power, he opened the speech that Marin had prepared for him. As soon as he came to power, Philip fired at Prince Frederick:

"Just now, after listening to the speeches of the first two people, I was deeply moved. Of course, I also have some different views on what the first two people said..."

"For example, what Prince Frederick said, the Duchy of Saxony can provide military support for the Teutonic Knights, I don't agree with it..."

"As far as I know, after the Principality of Saxony conquered the Friesland Republic a while ago, it did not capture the nine members of the original Friesland, but let them run away. In this way, in the days to come, these nine original The Frisian aristocrats of the monarchy may continue to incite the local people to rebel. Therefore, I conclude that it is difficult for Saxony to mobilize troops to support the Teutonic state..."

This time Prince Frederick was not happy, he stood up and retorted loudly:

"The resistance of the Frisians is not worth mentioning. In front of the army of tens of thousands of Saxons, they are vulnerable!"

Prince Philip glanced at the competitor and said unhurriedly:

"Of course, the nine local nobles of Saxony are not afraid, but I heard that the Geddes principality in the south of Friesland has long been eyeing the Friesland region. If these nine people go to the Geddes principality, What about getting the support of the Duke of Geddes? I think it is very likely that this will happen. Therefore, in the future, Friesland will have a stable life. And the Duchy of Saxony has to put a lot of energy there. , it is impossible to have the energy to help the Teutonic Knights!"

Prince Philip said with certainty, and all of a sudden, some centrists who originally supported Prince Frederick became a little hesitant.

Then, Prince Philip continued to spray:

"Let's talk about this economic policy. Prince Frederick said he would cooperate with the Hanseatic merchants of Saxony. However, it is not unknown to everyone what is going on now."

"At the moment, there are only 4 Hanseatic cities left in the Teutonic Knights, and the business has shrunk dramatically. Compared with the Hanseatic merchants in the Saxony business circle, our merchants are completely unable to compete with them."

"If the two sides communicated on an equal footing, that would be great. But I am afraid that the Hanseatic merchants in Saxony will take advantage of our weakness to annex our market and eat into the interests of the Teutonic merchants... After all, they are too powerful now. And we are a little weak..." After speaking, Prince Philip also gave Prince Frederick a malicious glance according to the "script" provided by Marin.

"Boom--" The Teutonic knights below discussed one after another. Before, they only thought about the benefits brought by trade with Saxon merchants, but they never thought that Saxon merchants might annex them and eat away their interests. Now that I think about it, it's pretty scary...

Prince Frederick was so angry that his eyes were burning, and he wanted to go forward and cut Prince Philip. These two points about Prince Philip's blackness of him are indeed very impressive to those Teutonic knights. However, the Teutonic knights were moved, and Prince Frederick was about to be greatly affected.

Then, Prince Philip began to read his speech and explain his campaign platform...

Prince Philip's economic moves haven't been great. However, Prince Philip has repeatedly emphasized that in order to be financially independent, he must give priority to "own family" in any good thing. This is very much in line with the taste of many Teutonic knights in business.

As for military measures, the proposal to hire Swiss mercenaries is also more acceptable. In contrast, this move is much better than that of Prince Frederick.

Because it is better to count on an ally like Saxony to become stronger. Because your allies may or may not save you when you are unlucky, it is completely uncertain. Moreover, the Teutons were in trouble, and Saxony was far away. When Saxony gathers a large army to come to the rescue, maybe the Teutonic state is over...

Prince Philip also improvised to illustrate the point. Prince Philip believes that only the strength of his own army is the most practical. The ally's army, which the Teutonic state cannot mobilize and is difficult to influence, is far less reliable than its own army.

Moreover, Marin also helped Prince Philip to point out in the speech that the Swiss mercenaries were very good at dealing with heavy cavalry. In Poland and Lithuania, the most important fighting force was the heavy cavalry. Therefore, the use of Swiss mercenaries can completely suppress the opponent. In order to strengthen his persuasion, Philip also took the Battle of Nancy, in which Charles the Bold died, as an example, and told the Teutonic knights.

Although, telling the stories of the knights being defeated by the infantry made the Teutonic knights sound harsh. But they also know it's a fact.

...

In the end, Prince Philip's speech was a great success. Those centrists who had received money but were worried that Prince Philip's speech was too unsuccessful and his ability was too poor also made up their minds and were determined to support Prince Philip.

Finally, voting begins...

There is no doubt that the knights of Saxony must have voted for Prince Frederick. The knights of the Westphalian-Rhineland alliance also voted for Prince Philip.

As for the centrist knights, a different story emerged. Most of them were bought by Marin, and Prince Philip gave a wonderful speech. So, these people voted for Prince Philip.

However, a small number of them, mainly 10 Austrian knights, voted for William because of his status as a member of William's Habsburg family...

William is also confused - I'm just here to make soy sauce, okay? Why did you vote for me? I have never seen you before...

This is also the negligence of Marin and William. Other areas are fine, the Austrian area is the home of the Habsburg family! These Teutonic knights from Austria, dare not vote for the people introduced by the emperor? Fortunately, most of the Austrian knights were digested by the Habsburg family, and not many came to the Teutonic Knights to seek a living. Otherwise, there will be more William tickets...

The most surprising is the Franconian-Swabian alliance, among them, the Franconian knights of course voted for Prince Frederick. But among the Swabian knights, differences emerged.

Due to the emperor's face and the gold coins that Marin gave William to help, some Swabian knights actually voted for William...

Moreover, there were quite a few Swabian knights who voted for William, about 30 in total. Although this ratio is not high among the hundreds of Teutonic knights in Swabia, it has won a lot of votes from Prince Frederick...

In the end, Prince Philip got exactly 390 votes. And Prince Frederick, with 388 votes, narrowly lost to Prince Philip by a narrow margin of 2 votes. As for the remaining 42 votes, they were all taken by William...

Seeing the final result, both Prince Philip and Marin breathed a sigh of relief. Unexpectedly, William went out and not only took away a batch of votes from Swabia, but also shared some votes from the neutral faction, and Prince Philip almost lost.

But in the end, Prince Philip still won the election and was successfully elected as the new head of the group. He will be officially sworn in after the new year...

Seeing that the dust had settled, Marin's tense nerves could finally relax. Next, what Marin has to plan is how to recover the cost...

In this election, Marin helped Prince Philip drop more than 80,000 gold coins, which is a huge investment. You must know that many counts of the counties do not necessarily have so much annual financial income. This time, Marin really made a lot of money.

So, next, Marin needs to discuss with Prince Philip how to make him provide more convenience, so that he can earn back his investment...

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