King of German Mercenaries

In the southwestern border area of ​​West Frisian, troops are stationed here to guard against the troops of the former Frisian nobles who have escaped not long ago. Several former Frisian nobles were not stupid. They heard that the enemy had mobilized 4,000 troops to come, and without thinking about it, they agreed with Marin's original suggestion - run away.

When the Saxon army rushed to the southwest frontier, the 2,000 soldiers and horses of the former Frisian nobles all withdrew into the territory of the Gede company, and also took away a large amount of food and livestock. However, they also emptied the local people's food and property, leaving a group of local people with nothing.

After the Saxon army arrived at the border, they wanted to collect grain on the spot according to the rules of the Middle Ages, but there was no shadow of the grain, and the local people were digging wild vegetables and fishing from the freshwater river...

In desperation, Prince George had to send someone to collect food elsewhere. Now, the autumn harvest has just ended, and the granaries everywhere are full, and it is easy to levy.

At the same time, Prince George is not stupid. He realized that the enemy might have escaped into the territory of the company of Gerd. However, the Principality of Gerd is not a weak country, and if Saxony is fully mobilized, it will certainly be able to stabilize the Principality of Gerd. However, West Friesland was too far from Saxony to mobilize enough troops to suppress the Gedes duchy. It was the tens of thousands of troops who attacked West Frisland last time, or the Elector of Saxony borrowed thousands of talents to make it up.

Usually, in West Frisland, George can use up to 5,000 soldiers and horses to fight. Therefore, in the face of Gede Corporation, George is also under pressure.

Therefore, he did not easily chase into the Principality of Gedes, but excluded the messenger, sent an envoy to the Principality of Gedes, and asked the other party to allow him to bring troops into the Principality of Gedes to exterminate the fleeing rebels.

But when he was waiting for the reply from the Principality of Gede, there was a sudden burst of extremely exciting news from the east—the country of East Frisian had changed hands...

Marin blocked Emden for ten days, but Emden was a busy commercial port after all. So, ten days later, Marin realized that the blockade was no longer enough, so he lifted the blockade. Then, the news began to spread slowly. When the Saxon officials in Groningen heard the news, they first sent people to Emden to inquire about the news, and then sent people to report to George on the front line.

"Tell me, what's going on?"

"It's like this. At the end of last month, someone found that the trade in Emden Port seemed to be suspended. I don't know what happened. A few days ago, when the merchants went to Emden to trade, they had already found the head of Emden City. The flag has changed..."

"Changed? Which noble did it? Have you seen it clearly?"

"Not a foreign aristocrat, but someone from within East Frisland."

"The people inside? Could it be a rebellion?"

"It's not a rebellion either, Your Highness, have you heard of the Brock family of East Frisian?"

"The Blok family? Heard, wasn't that the family that ruled East Frisland more than sixty years ago?"

"Yes, it was the descendants of that family who fought back. It is said that all the descendants of the nobles who participated in the rebellion were killed, and the whole Emden was bloodied..."

"Okay, what's the name of the earl now?"

"Your Highness, you may not even think who he is..."

"Stop talking nonsense, who is it? I'll send someone to beat you!"

"Yes, that person is Baron Wadden, Marin..."

"What? It's him? Isn't his surname Hoffman? How did he become the heir to the Bullock family?"

"That's right, Marin Hoffman's mother was the granddaughter of the last Earl of Bullock back then. And only his mother remains in the main line of the Bullock family. So, Marin Hoffman is indeed The heir to the Bullock family."

"Impossible, Marin Hoffman was born as a wandering knight. In other words, he has an elder brother in his family. Even if his mother is the heir, it is impossible for Marin Hoffman to inherit the title."

"You are right,

He does have a big brother. However, his eldest brother has signed the instrument to renounce the right of inheritance! "

"I see... But East Frisian is a place that the old man has long been interested in. This kid dares to snatch food with our Weiting family..."

"By the way, how many soldiers does this kid have? How long did it take to shoot Emden?" Prince George suddenly thought of an important question. The Duke of Saxony had taken a fancy to East Friesland before, and planned to find an opportunity to annex East Friesland in the future. However, East Friesland suddenly changed hands, and Prince George wanted to know how strong Marin was and whether it would be easy to annex...

"This... the villain doesn't know the specific strength of Marin Hoffman. However, there were 1,400 defenders in Emden before. 1,000 of them were still very effective straw hat swordsmen. Therefore, Marin Hoffman The strength of the army should be more than 3,000. Otherwise, it will not be able to defeat Emden..."

"With 3,000 people, we still have a chance to take East Friesland. Now, we can take advantage of his unsteady footing and mobilize a large army from the homeland to grab East Friesland. However, if there are more troops, then trouble..."

"Hatch (Prince George's adjutant), you continue to stay at the border with 2,000 people and wait for Duke Geddes' reply. I'll take 2,000 people back and go to the East Frisian border to see..."

"His Royal Highness, what are you doing? 2,000 men are not enough to attack East Friesland!"

"I know, I'm just taking people to the East Frisian border to intimidate the other side. By the way, frighten Marin, and then, most importantly, see how many troops it can mobilize to confront me..." George is confident said.

"How many soldiers and horses to mobilize?"

"Yes, now that my army is overwhelmed, the opponent will be nervous and will dispatch the main force to guard against it. At that time, we will be able to see the size of the opponent's main force and the appearance of the army at a glance. Whether it is a strong army, we will know at a glance." Prince George Not stupid. Therefore, he decided to use a very simple trick to test the current strength of East Frisian and the speed of the opponent's reaction...

If East Friesland is weak, then, the Duchy of Saxony, doesn't mind sending troops once more and taking large tracts of territory. But if the opponent is strong, it may have to give up first. After all, the Wei Ting family would not do anything that could not be taken advantage of.

A few days later, Prince George appeared outside the western border of East Frisian with 2,000 troops and began to camp...

When the news reached Aurich, Marin was taken aback:

"What? Saxon army? Are you sure? How many?"

"There are only 2,000 people, but the team is led by Prince George, the head coach of the Duchy of Saxony in Friesland."

"And, oddly enough, Prince George didn't attack and seemed to be waiting for something..."

"Waiting for reinforcements? No, there are only more than 5,000 soldiers and horses in Saxony here... Do we need to mobilize soldiers and horses from Saxony? But that's not right... There's no need for this bastard to send people to the west to fight grass and startle snakes..."

After thinking for a long time, Marin patted his head:

"I understand, he is peeping at our reality!"

Now that he understood this truth, Marin decided to be rude. He is now unwilling to go to war with the Duchy of Saxony. So, he decided to take out the strength of the bottom of the box and show his muscles to Prince George...

"Jeffrey, how many troops can be mobilized in the entire country of East Frisian Land, the fastest speed!"

"Ah? Lord Count, is there going to be another war?" Jeffrey was a civil servant, and he was most afraid of wars.

"No, the Saxons in the west are provocative at the border. I am going to gather enough troops to scare them!"

"I see..." Jeffrey patted his chest and breathed a sigh of relief.

"My lord, of the 6,000 troops you accepted, 1,250 went to the east and 1,250 went to the south. There are also 1,250 troops in the west..."

"In other words, I still have more than 2,000 people to mobilize?"

"That's not what you said. You must know that there is a phalanx on the western border. If you bring more than 2,000 people there, isn't that 3,000 troops? Also, don't forget, there are still 600 straw hat swords. What about the soldiers and the more than 2,000 prisoners of war who participated in the rebellion of the rural nobles who have not yet been cast. Originally, you planned to release them after a period of time..."

"600 straw hat swordsmen... more than 2,000 prisoners... The 600 straw hat swordsmen must be elite, but it's not very reassuring... As for the 2,000 prisoners, it can be counted..."

"By the way, if you mobilize additionally, how much can you mobilize?"

"In the whole of East Frisian, five or six thousand people can still be mobilized. However, it will take half a month..."

"Why weren't these people mobilized to fight against me before?"

"Sir, you need to be commanded by officers when you are mobilized. Did you know? The commanders of these mobilized troops are all among the original 1,000 straw hat swordsmen. These 1,000 straw hat swordsmen are both elite soldiers and grass-roots officers! There is no officer command. , mobilizing troops is useless even if they are mobilized..."

"Then continue to detain the 600 straw hat swordsmen, and the other 2000 prisoners will move with the army!"

"This is?"

"Since these guys are all officers. If you let them get in touch with those mobilized soldiers, wouldn't they be able to get started right away? It's too dangerous, these guys can't be let go now. Wait until they stabilize."

"Also, Geoffrey, use your fastest speed to mobilize strong men to gather in the nearby area, and give you two days. You can mobilize as many as you can. In two days, I will take the army to the western border..."

"Yes!"

Two days later, Marin left 300 men to guard Aurich. He took 2,000 original main forces, 2,000 prisoners, and 1,700 mobilized troops to the western border...

On the Ems River, Marin's men gathered enough boats to make a few pontoon bridges on the river, allowing the army to cross the river...

To the west of the Ems, an area of ​​approximately 200 square kilometers belongs to East Friesland. At this time, the original garrison, under the command of Frenzberg, who had arrived earlier, had all crossed the river and faced off against the Saxon army outside the border.

When Prince George of Saxony, who was looking into the distance, saw thousands of troops pouring over from the other side of the river, your face changed greatly:

"Where does this bastard have so many troops? By the way, this guy is a mercenary, isn't it all hired? But this guy has so much money to support so many people?"

Marin's main force crossed the river very quickly and in an orderly manner. However, with more than 3,000 East Frisian native troops in the back, crossing the river was a bit messy and the efficiency was relatively low.

Marin ignored those mobilized troops with low combat power. After arranging some people to coordinate and command, he brought 2,000 main troops forward and formed the formation together with the original phalanx...

Marin's main force has been strictly trained. Therefore, they formed very quickly, and soon reached the border, forming a very tight line of defense together with Frenzberg's men. That speed, that discipline, made Prince George sweat cold...

"As expected of a man who can defeat the king of France, the training is really good! But what happened to the army behind? Crossing the river is so slow... I understand, those are conscripts..."

"That is to say, there are more than 3,000 of the elite troops of the other party, including more than 1,000 people before, and more than 3,000 conscripts... There are more than 6,000 people? Mad, too many..." George Swallowed.

This is not enough, three days later, the fourth phalanx of the southern border was also transferred. In their place was a levy. Because there is no hostile state with the Bishop of Munster. So, using levies is enough.

Seeing that Marin mobilized another elite phalanx, George continued to swallow, and his hands were shaking...

A week later, the eastern front troops also came, and 2000 conscripts took their place in defense...

Seeing five or six thousand elite troops lined up in front of them, plus more than three thousand conscripts, the total number is almost tens of thousands. Prince George's legs were weak with fright. If you really want to fight, more than 5,000 people under your own are not opponents...

Fortunately, Marin was also afraid of the powerful strength of the Saxony Department, so he did not take the initiative to attack, but only demonstrated. Otherwise, Prince George and his 2,000 people will all be doomed.

Prince George also understood this, so he withdrew his men in embarrassment, but took away a large psychological shadow. And Marin, after achieving the goal of frightening his opponent, also returned home with the army class division...