King of German Mercenaries

Thinking of coal transportation at sea, Marin suddenly thought of the Columbus fleet still bumping on the ocean. Counting the time, Columbus's fleet should be on the coast of West Africa by now.

Originally, Da Gama returned to Lisbon on September 9. And Columbus for not wasting that time in Mombasa and Malindi. Therefore, Marin can be sure that Columbus will be able to return to Europe in August.

The return of Columbus is definitely a good thing for Marin. Because, Columbus will return full of expensive spices, had to exchange for money, Marin will be very rich. At that time, he said that he had the money to start a plan to excavate canals on a large scale in East Friesland and build a large number of Dutch windmills to drain the swamps and turn them into fertile land.

There are too many swamps in East Frisian Country. As long as they can be transformed into arable land, there will be more than a dozen Ugram arable land, equivalent to nearly 1.5 million mu!

However, to fully dig ditches for drainage, and to build a large number of Dutch windmills, the initial investment was very large. In this day and age, the transformation of thousands of square kilometers of swampland was difficult for even a tycoon like the Duke of Saxony to afford. It's not that the Duke of Saxony can't come up with the money, but because he spends the money in a lot of places, he certainly can't put all the money into the swamp for reconstruction.

After several years of development and management of the West Frisian Islands, Marin has deeply realized that the development of wasteland requires great investment.

For example, Marin wants to develop 10 Ugrams (120 acres). First of all, he had to have a population, at least a family of serfs. The West Frisian Islands had no people, so they had to go to the inland areas to recruit.

However, when recruiting a serf from the inland area, Marin can't go into battle in person, can he? Definitely hire someone. If you hire someone, you have to give them money. One day's wages, as well as travel expenses, meals, and lodging, must be reimbursed.

Then, to bring a family of serfs to the archipelago, the travel costs are also high. You recruited people, so you have to pay for the travel expenses yourself? You have to pay for the meal while you are on the road. Even if they were given low-quality black bread as hard as bricks, it would cost a family two pfennigs a day.

In total, sending someone to recruit a family of serfs (5 people) to the West Frisian Islands will cost no less than 5 gold coins. If you recruit 10,000 people, the cost will be tens of thousands of gold coins.

However, this is just the beginning...

After these serfs were recruited to the island, the first thing they did was not to farm the land, but to build houses for them to settle them down. In this era, the cost of building houses is also very high. Whether it is to build a wooden house or a stone house, the cost is very high. Fortunately, Marin knew how to build low-cost adobe houses, saving a lot of money. Otherwise, tens of thousands of gold coins would have to be invested just for the wood and stone materials used to build the houses for those immigrants...

The cost of the house is not high. However, when the serfs were recruited, they must be expected to work. The serfs who had just arrived had no food. Therefore, during the period from the land reclamation to the autumn harvest, Marin needs to pay for his own pockets and get food to support them... This raise is more than half a year... And food is so expensive in Europe right now...

Then, Marin has to equip these serfs with enough iron farming tools; he has to buy livestock for them; he also has to provide seeds after spring ploughing... There are so many things, and the cost of immigration to open up wasteland is staggering...

So, although Marin made a lot of money from the Venetians, he also made a lot of money from selling salt. However, in the process of immigrating 10,000 people to the West Frisian Islands, most of the gold coins were consumed...

Of course, these investments are worthwhile, and in a few years, they will be fully recovered. It's just that in the early days, the investment was too great, and the general nobles couldn't afford it.

Therefore, Marin is also eager to see the return of the Columbus fleet...

However, while looking forward to the return of Columbus,

Marin didn't lose his head. Because, he still has one very important thing to do...

This thing is just throwing the pot...

Marin made the decision to send people to India for trade when his head was hot. However, in retrospect, Marin felt that he was still too hasty.

Because, the route to India, the Portuguese have always regarded it as their own ban, and do not allow others to meddle. If Marin were king of Spain, he might be able to ignore the Portuguese. However, at the time he was just a little baron, and even now, he is only the monarch of a small state with more than 3,000 square kilometers of land and more than 80,000 citizens. Compared with Portugal, which has a population of millions and an area of ​​nearly 100,000 square kilometers, Marin is still too weak.

Although, on land, Marin is not afraid of parallel countries like Portugal. But at sea, the powerful Portuguese fleet can teach Marin how to behave in minutes...

After the Portuguese returned from Da Gama's fleet, they soon learned of the super profits of the great voyage. Therefore, in order to eat alone, Marin can be sure that if the Portuguese knew that Marin also benefited from the great voyage, he would definitely be ruthless, and desperately dispatched a fleet to block the sea and sink every ship of Marin that dared to enter the Atlantic Ocean. In the face of dozens of times of huge profits, the Portuguese must dare to do so.

Therefore, instead of waiting to be chased and intercepted by the Portuguese at sea in the future, Marin might as well throw the blame to Spain now. Then, let the two teeth tear each other...

Moreover, in the face of dozens of times of super profits, Marin is not worried that Spain will not take the bait...

The old horse said that when a businessman is faced with a 100% profit, he dares to trample all human laws; when the profit reaches 300%, he dares to commit any crime, even risking being hanged. Danger……

And 60 times the profit is what percent? That's 6,000 percent... In the face of such huge profits, even if the businessmen will never survive after death, they are still willing to do it...

As for the kings and nobles, although they say it beautifully, they are very noble on the surface. But in the face of interests, they will also reveal their greed and shameless side.

So, tell the King of Spain this 60 times profit, the Spanish king and his wife will definitely tear their faces and tear up the "Treaty of Tordesillas" of the "Papal Meridian"...

Moreover, they are not worried about offending the Holy See. Because the Pope is a Spaniard, and even helps Spain to bully Portugal...

Originally, Spain was deceived by Columbus, thinking that the west was India. Then, within a few years, they occupied Mexico, which is rich in gold and silver. Therefore, Spain has no intention to snatch the huge profits of India's trade with Portugal.

However, now because of Marin's secret help, it has been "exposed" that the American continent is just a "wild continent", not the India that Columbus claimed. As a result, the Spanish kings lost most of their interest in America at once, and only sent people to the islands discovered by Columbus to start planting sugar cane. Then, the follow-up exploration is nothing. Because, after exploring, it is not the "full of gold" India they expected...

At this time, Marin only needs to present the information of the Indian route and let Spain take the blame, what is the problem?

The nautical charts of this era are very precious, because, without advanced instruments, all nautical data are recorded and sorted out by experienced captains themselves. Every nautical chart is no less than the martial arts secrets in martial arts novels. It is like a nautical chart that can travel to India, the spice producing area, and put it into Jin Da's martial arts novels.

Marin's plan was to show Columbus in the Spanish port of Cádiz and throw the blame to Spain, falsely claiming that Spain sent him to explore the Indian route.

Of course, before that, Marin needs to communicate with the Spanish court and negotiate good terms. Moreover, Columbus announced that Spain supported him in his exploration of India. Although he would turn against Portugal, he was very embarrassed for the Spanish royal family. Because, this represents the royal family's "visionary"...

Moreover, the huge profits that can be obtained later are even more crazy. Therefore, Marin does not believe that the Spaniards will not take the bait...

The only thing to consider is that Marin cannot have all four ships dock in Spain. Because, the spices of the four ships docked in Cadiz, maybe it will make the Spaniards malicious to hack the goods. Because these four ships are worth at least millions of gold coins...

Therefore, Marin decided to send the remaining two warships to the Canary Islands to wait for Columbus's fleet. After meeting with Columbus's fleet, Columbus took only one of the ships, and then took some spices as samples to meet the Spanish in Cadiz. In this way, it can also prevent the four ships from being hacked by the Spaniards. And Columbus, too, was able to make his public appearance before Da Gama, earning his title of "first discovery of India"...

This is what Marin promised Columbus at the beginning. However, if Columbus returned directly to the Wadden Islands, the Marin people would be soft-spoken, and they would not be able to claim that Columbus "discovered India first". Because the Portuguese are bigger and more convincing. At that time, if the Portuguese insisted that Da Gama discovered India first, Marin would not be able to say the Portuguese.

And let the Spaniards take the blame and Columbus has the right to discover India recognized by the Spanish royal family. Then, Columbus can easily take the credit for discovering India first. Because Da Gama is still on the way back, at least a month behind Columbus. And Spain is a powerful country, and their recognition is much more effective than the words of the little earl of Marin. Moreover, in order to obtain the right to intervene in the Indian trade route, the Spanish kings will spare no effort to help Columbus earn the title of "first discovering India"...

As for Marin's role in that? Also very simple. Because, after all, Marin still has the title of "Country of the Wilderness of Spain" hanging on his head. Although this title seems useless at ordinary times, at this time, the Spaniards can say that it was the king and his wife who ordered the "Barbarian Count of Spain" Marin to send Columbus's fleet to explore the Indian route... In the end, the credit can still be given. To the king and his wife, and give them an excuse to interfere with the Indian route. Because, in this day and age, it's a priority to discover the colonists of a "Borderland" first. The trade route is also in the play. If the Spaniards "discovered" the Indian route first, even if it is not the sphere of influence of the Spaniards, there is no reason not to take a share of the pie...