The Rise of the European Emperor

In the West Frisian region, the Saxon army and the Frisian resistance, aided by reinforcements from the Principality of Gede, fought each other for more than two years.

In general, it was the Saxon army that had the upper hand. The Saxon army not only controlled the Hanseatic city of Groningen and the surrounding area, but also controlled a small half of the western part of West Frisland, and had already invaded the city, often besieging Leeuwarden.

However, the strong walls of Leeuwarden and the fact that the number of defenders was as high as 8,000 made it difficult for the Saxon army to please. In the end, the two wars turned into a confrontation relying on the city of Leeuwarden.

Even, in order to defend, the West Frisian Resistance Army also organized the people, and took advantage of the intermittent armistice period to dig river channels in the south and north of Leeuwarden City, preventing the Saxon army from bypassing Leeuwarden City and attacking westward.

Therefore, now Leeuwarden and the rivers to the north and south have become the "Chu River Han boundary" between the army of the Duchy of Saxony and the West Frisian Resistance Army. Most of the area to the east was under the control of the Saxon army, while a small part of the coast to the west was under the control of the West Frisian Resistance Army.

For a long time, although the two armies had tentative contacts, they were at peace with each other, until...

...

The situation is like this, when Marin led an army of 20,000 to join the army of 10,000 in Lübeck and Hamburg, and swept the county of Oldenburg and Denmark, he invented a very powerful method of siege-that is, using artillery. First blast through the oak city gate and make a hole. Then, stuff the gunpowder keg into the hole and bury it, blow up the city gate...

This wretched and practical tactic, the Danes did not realize the practical defense method of the iron gate until the end of the war. But, it's too late...

However, the war mainly took place in Denmark, and other regions, the details of which are not very clear. However, this does not include Frederick III, Elector of Saxony. After all, he is the brother-in-law of King Hans of Denmark...

So, anyway, the princes who were familiar with this kind of wretched city-breaking tactics through this war all replaced the gates of their cities with iron gates. Worst of all, cast iron plates on the oak city gate to prevent holes from being smashed by the enemy's iron balls...

Coincidentally, George, Duke of Saxony, often returned to his country to deal with government affairs while sending a large army to confront the West Frisian resistance army. When I have nothing to do, I also go to Wittenberg, the capital of the Electoral State of Saxony, as a guest.

George is no longer the Erbi youth he used to be, and the various difficulties after he ascended the throne made him realize that he was not as good as he thought. So, he began to put down his face and began to please his cousin, Frederick III, Elector of Saxony.

Although Frederick III was very dissatisfied that George looked down on himself at the beginning, they were all family after all. Moreover, the national strength of the Duchy of Saxony is not much worse than that of the Electorate of Saxony. If it weren't for the shocking defeat of the Duchy of Saxony in East Frisland before, its national strength would not be under the Electoral State of Saxony at all.

Moreover, although Frederick III became the new leader of the Saxon nobles after the death of Duke Albrecht, there were still a small number of Saxon nobles who continued to follow Duke George. Therefore, Frederick III was also willing to win over his cousin George for his own use.

One day in July, George went to Wittenberg again as a guest, but saw that Wittenberg was changing the city gate, which was very lively. What surprised George even more was that the replaced city gate turned out to be a large iron gate made of pure iron. George was puzzled and asked his cousin Frederick III for advice, so Frederick III told George about the events on the Danish battlefield...

Originally, Duke George listened to it as a joke. However, back in Dresden, after Duke George told the joke to his men, a general named Hus took his heart. So he suggested to George:

"Lord Duke, since Marin's tactics are very useful,

Why don't we learn a lesson? "

"What do you mean?" George was a little puzzled.

"We also have a lot of artillery in Saxony, although they are not as large as those of Marin's. However, if hundreds of artillery fire together and aim at it, it should be no problem to make a hole in the gate of Leeuwarden, right? "

"Indeed..." George seemed to understand, but he was not nearly there. After all, he is not very intelligent. If it were my cousin Frederick III, I would have understood it long ago...

"Then, we will send someone to bury the powder keg in the hole, and then blow up the city gate of Leeuwarden? Then, the army swarmed in..."

It was so straightforward that George understood it. He jumped up excitedly;

"Great, we can finally take Leeuwarden!"

Then, Duke George began to organize domestic blacksmiths, casting a large number of iron balls.

Before, although the Duchy of Saxony had hundreds of artillery pieces, most of them used stone bullets. It's okay to hit people with stone bullets, but if you want to smash the door, the kinetic energy is not enough...

So, George began to order the blacksmiths in the duchy to step up the production of iron ball cannonballs for smashing doors...

In August, George came to Leeuwarden with a team of iron balls...

Although the artillery of the Duchy of Saxony are all small-caliber land guns, it is also very powerful to bombard the east gate of Leeuwarden with hundreds of small-caliber land guns.

After today, under the impact of small iron balls like raindrops, the east gate of Leeuwarden really broke a hole...

Then, Duke George organized a death squad, ran under the city gate at night, and buried two powder kegs in the hole...

With a loud "bang", the east gate of Lufaden collapsed, connecting the bricks and stones piled behind the gate...

Seeing this great opportunity, Duke George quickly commanded the sword and shield soldiers as the vanguard, and rushed into the city first...

The West Frisian Resistance Army, on the other hand, was not prepared because it was night. When the East City Gate made a loud noise and was blown open, many soldiers would go to dinner.

Unprepared, the West Frisian resistance army was beaten by the Saxon army, and retreated from the west gate to the seaside of Harlingen and Zurich...

In this way, in one night, the fortress of Leeuwarden changed hands...

Moreover, tragically, only the former governor Fyskefrijheid and Baron Zettel of Leeuwarden withdrew from Leeuwarden under the desperate protection of the coach Siwager.

As for the other 7 nobles, 4 were killed in the chaos, and 3 became George's prisoners, which was extremely miserable...

Of the 8,000 West Frisian resistance troops originally stationed at Leeuwarden, 1,000 died and 2,500 surrendered. Only about 4,500 people actually escaped. However, there were fewer than 3,000 people who escaped in an orderly manner with the two nobles and Sivag. After the others escaped, they all went away...

In desperation, the Governor of Fyskefrijheid and Baron Zitter had to board a ship at the port of Harlingen and retreated by sea to the Principality of Gedes. With the ship, there are 800 people led by Sivag.

As for the other 2,000 people, they fled south along the seaside road overnight and evacuated to the Principality of Gedes. So far, the operation of the West Frisian Resistance Army has failed...

When Marin learned this information, he was so depressed that he vomited blood. He didn't expect that the pig head of Duke George actually learned to copy the cottage and was very successful...

Marin isn't particularly pessimistic, though. Because, he knew, that old fox, Charles II, Duke of Geddes, would never be proud of George... When this guy jumps from behind the scenes to the front desk and Duke George is just in front, the situation will become more exciting...

"Hey, you're a mantis, I'm a oriole... As for that idiot George, of course it's a cicada... Those idiots in West Frisian are not even a cicada..." Marin smiled slyly, already Settled West Frisland as its own territory.