The Rise of the European Emperor

Henry VII's plan to recruit sailors to fight did not go well, because it was implemented too late. Richard Pohl had been sent to the fortress of Calais to negotiate with the French about exchanging prisoners of war for the fortress of Calais. But Louis XII was not stupid, and would rather pay the ransom than the fortress of Calais. Therefore, Richard Boll was dragged in the fortress of Calais for a long time, and he came back to offer this strategy, which was naturally much later than Marin expected.

It is precisely because of this time difference that the attitudes of many large ship owners and sailors in the Five-Port Alliance began to become ambiguous. It is true that these shipowners knew that if all the seasoned sailors of the Five Harbors League had helped to guard London, it might have been possible to keep London, and keep the Stuart dynasty. However, that comes at a huge price.

More seriously, Marin had threatened in a secret letter written in Edward's name to those big shipowners that if the old sailors of the Five Harbors Alliance went to London to help in the battle, the army might not be able to capture London, but they would go to the sea and take it. Five port cities are still fine. Moreover, if you provoke them, it is not impossible to slaughter cities in five port cities...

This threat really frightened the big ship owners. They are all big family people, and their foundations are all in five port cities. If you go all out to help Henry VII guard London, the five port cities will be empty immediately. At that time, it is inevitable to be attacked by Edward's army. If the other party really slaughtered the city... those big ship owners wouldn't dare to gamble...

Anyway, even if London held on, Henry VII might not be able to win. Because those sailors were not used to land warfare. Relying on the tall city wall to defend the city is okay, but when you go down the plain, you will definitely be abused. Therefore, even if Edward cannot defeat London, he can occupy other areas outside London, including the five port cities. If Edward besieged London for a long time, Henry VII would inevitably be defeated in the end...

Thinking of this, those big ship owners sent their henchmen to several military ports on the coast of Ireland, and secretly informed the sailors and even the captains, so that they could find a way to evade Henry VII's summoning order. As for the excuse... It seems that Kidd's fleet is still wandering around this generation, and can leave in the name of chasing the enemy ship...

Then, before Henry VII's order arrived at the military port in the west, these ships prepared enough food and fresh water to go out to sea to "chasing" Kidd's fleet...

This time to go to sea, these big ships from the Five-Port Alliance have decided - not to come back for two months...

Hearing that the fleets from the west had gone to sea, Henry VII was also helpless. Therefore, he had to recruit ordinary sailors outside the Five Harbors Alliance. These sailors also have many people with rich sailing and combat experience, but the scale is completely incomparable with the Five-Port Alliance. So, before Marin's army arrived, Henry VII recruited ten thousand sailors from a nearby port. In addition, 5,000 farmers were mobilized from surrounding counties to assist in defending the city. Counting the previous 3,000 regular troops, there are now 80,000 armed forces in the city of London. And that's not even counting the citizens of London who serve the big army...but in reality, most of the army's combat effectiveness is pretty bad. If it is on the plains, it can be defeated in one turn. Fortunately, the City of London is very tall and sturdy. With the tall and sturdy city walls, they can also support one or two.

...

On the Marin side, after re-boarding at Newcastle, the army arrived at the port of Grimsby at the mouth of the Humber a few days later. Then, the large army landed and joined the small number of troops and people who were left behind.

At this time, according to Marin's order, the Grand Duchy of Beihai brought a large amount of grain from Emden and stored it here. After two days of mending the army, Marin gathered the army again and marched south to London.

In order to speed up, Marin left most of the captured British soldiers in Grimsby Port, and built a large number of concentration camps to house them. At the same time, together with the nobles of Scotland, they were also placed here. As for the defense of the port of Grimsby, Marin was handed over to the navy of the Grand Duchy of the North Sea...

The fleet of the Grand Duchy of the North Sea stationed at the port of Grimsby,

There are 10 500-ton class warships, and 10 250-class armed merchant ships. The total number of sailors on these warships was as high as 4,000. Marin asked them to arrange for half of them to land and be responsible for guarding the prisoners of war. The rest stayed on the boat. Fearing that the number of people would be insufficient, Marin also sent a fleet to return to the country, and sent more people over to avoid the loss of those prisoners of war. Among them, the most expensive are naturally the Scottish aristocratic prisoners of war such as James IV. These people, but can exchange for a large amount of ransom, gold is very expensive. If it were in a place as close to Scotland as Newcastle, the Scots might give it a shot and try to snatch people. But in Port Grimsby, that's fine. With so many powerful warships, and the Humber River blocking it, even if the Scots tried their best, it would be difficult for the Scots to succeed.

After placing the prisoners of war, Marin went south with the main force, 50,000 civilians and a similar number of British civilians. There are more than 30,000 people transporting food and grass, so the marching process should not be too easy. Whether it's transporting food and grass, artillery and ammunition, or tent fences for camping, with so many people, it becomes very easy.

By the end of August, the army had passed through Lincolnshire, through Cambridgeshire and Essex, and arrived near London. When passing through Cambridgeshire, Marin also commanded the army, and by the way sacked the almost undefended capital of Cambridgeshire, Cambridge, but spared the University of Cambridge. Even Marin suggested that Edward recruit a group of graduating law students from Cambridge University to serve as assistants in governing the country in the future. After all, to overthrow Henry VII this time, it is necessary to kill a group of high-ranking officials, and there will definitely be many vacancies in officials. Instead of promoting those unreliable middle and lower-level officials who were originally attached to Henry VII, it is better to train a group of Cambridge University students. Of course, it must be clearly identified whether there are noble children of Henry VII's faction among these people...

By the time of August 30th, Marin's army had officially arrived outside London and began to set up camp...

The City of London is located on the north side of the Thames, so if you want to attack the city, you can only attack in three directions: east, north and west. Therefore, Marin set up three camps in these three directions.

Although the troops were dispersed in this way, Marin gave Henry VII ten courage, and forgive Henry VII that he did not dare to go out of the city to attack. Because, at this time, there were only 3,000 regular troops in the city of London. The rest are either pirate sailors or civilians, and if they come out, they will definitely deliver food...

In fact, Marin had previously let the North Sea Chamber of Commerce focus on raiding the West Gate of London. However, in order to confuse Henry VII, Marin deliberately placed the most important artillery unit to the north of the city. This makes it seem as if the main attack direction is the north of the city. But in fact, Marin has long been ready to attack Simon.

Before the siege, though, Marin has one more thing to do...