In order to avoid attracting the attention of the Portuguese, Marin's troop transport ships went south and did not take routes close to the coast of Portugal, but instead deviated several hundred kilometers westward. In this way, without a telescope, the Portuguese could not find traces of the troop transport fleet.
When passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, the chance of being discovered was very small because the Spanish naval generals were bribed in advance and chose to pass through the Strait at night.
Of course, Marin was not afraid that Spain would know about his troops transporting. After all, there is no conflict between Beihai and Spain now.
However, Marin sent troops to help the Pope fight this time, and Spain and the Pope were very unhappy because of the ownership of the Kingdom of Naples. Therefore, Marin was worried that after the Spaniards learned the news, they deliberately made trouble for the Pope and informed Siena. In that case, the purpose of the sneak attack would not be achieved. Perhaps, they would be attacked by their opponents against the sneak attack and suffered heavy losses.
Fortunately, the Spanish court was very corrupt. Carkin, the current commander of the Gibraltar fleet, was famously greedy for money. Therefore, Marin planned to bribe Carkin 10,000 gold coins to make it convenient. Moreover, the problem should not be big. After all, 10,000 gold coins are a large amount.
However, in order to transport troops, Marin took out all the merchant ships under his name, which led to the tight shipping of Beihai Country and severely lacking ships. For this reason, Clayman, the general manager of Beihai Shipping Company, went to Marin to protest. Of course, this was the reason why Marin did not tell Klayman about the purpose of the ship.
Kleman is the younger brother of Kahn and Kohler. When he met Kahn's family in Black Forest, Kleman was only about 12 years old. Now 14 years have passed, Kleman is also 26 years old. With the relationship between his two brothers, Kleman served as the general manager of North Sea Shipping Company. Unfortunately, Kleman is average and his mouth is not strict enough, otherwise he will definitely be reused by Marin.
Because Kleiman loves to brag and is not strict, Marin dares not tell him the truth about the transport of troops, but he just tells him that he has an important purpose. But Kleiman is not happy because, after receiving some shipping orders, if they cannot be shipped within the specified time, the North Sea Shipping will be charged double the cost. In desperation, Marin only asks Kleiman to go to Hamburg to hire the Hanseatic Alliance merchant ships to help support them for a while. After all, he now has 25,000 troops plus 7,000 strong men to transport, and he really can't draw out any extra ships to carry out shipping. Therefore, he simply subcontracted the shipping business and let the Hanseatic Alliance merchant ships earn these freight fees. The British transportation business is subcontracted to British merchant ships for transportation.
After arranging this, Kleimanque refused to leave, and he looked like he wanted to speak but stopped.
Marin was very curious. Kleiman relied on the power of his two brothers to be afraid of the Beihai Kingdom. Even in front of Marin, he was never restrained. Because Marin was indeed very nice to the Kahn family. Kleiman's two brothers Kahn and Kohler were also loyal to Marin. During festivals, Marin often brought Kahn's family to the backyard of the palace to eat together to show his favor. At present, the treatment of this kind is probably only the Schwartz family and the Shawer family, etc., which is not a relationship between superiors and subordinates, but a friendship between families. Kleiman, who has been a little naughty since childhood, has never restrained him in front of Marin. So Marin was curious - this little bastard is embarrassed? Could it be that he fell in love with the daughter of a noble family? No, it is said that his second brother Kohler has helped him find the daughter of a baron family...
"Boy, what else do you have?" Marin asked curiously.
Kleman thought about it and spoke:
"That's right, Your Highness, when I was reading the shipping company's business report recently, I discovered something that was very unfavorable to us..."
"It's not good for us? Is there anyone who dares to attack our fleet? Don't want to mess around?" Marin thought that there was a bad guy trying to rob the merchant ship of the North Sea Shipping Company.
"No, we have competitors!" Clayman said worriedly.
"Competrator? You say the Hanseatic League? Haven't that always been the leader in the shipping industry?" Marin thought Kleiman was talking about the Hanseatic League. After all, in terms of shipping scale, the Beihai Kingdom really cannot be compared with the Hanseatic League.
Kleman shook his head and said:
"It's not the Hanseatic League, it's the Dutch!"
"Dutchman? Shipping competitor?" Marin's original casual expression suddenly became a little nervous.
Marin suddenly remembered the famous "sea coachman" in history, the fear of the 15,000 merchant ships dominating the world's seas...
"No, the Dutch voyage seemed to have only started to take off after independence from Spain in 1581. What the hell is it that jumped out now?" Marin thought in wonder.
So he asked Kleiman:
"Find out who is competing with us? The handsome King Philip?" Marin was most worried about Philip jumping out to compete with him. Because Philip is the son of his boss Maximilian I. Even if this guy competes with him, he will not be able to do anything to him. After all, in name, Prince Philip is his "young master". However, didn't the Habsburg family focus on continental Europe, and when did they become interested in sailing?
Kleman shook his head and said:
"It's not His Highness Philip, but a group of wealthy Dutch merchants in Amsterdam!"
Marin breathed a sigh of relief. It would be difficult for Philip to deal with it. In addition to his sensitive identity, the Habsburg family also had a strong appeal. Although the Habsburg family was poor and had no money, as long as the Habsburg family wanted to do any business, some consortiums were willing to lend them money. For example, the Fuger family.
"Tell me carefully!" Marin was very alert to the future "sea coachman" of the Netherlands.
"His Highness Philip is not interested in sailing. He is in Ghent and is only interested in Flander's wool industry. However, because the British now restrict wool exports and Flander's wool imports are insufficient, many wool workshops have stopped working, which makes His Highness Philip very worried..."
"Fail wool?" Marin suddenly remembered the plan he planned to support Egypt. One of them was to acquire Egypt's wool. However, it seemed that Egypt's wool was thicker and of average quality...
"By the way, you send someone to ask His Highness Philip if you want the Egyptian rough wool Flanders Wool Spinning Factory. If they want, we will help with the shipping and only charge the cost."
"Why is this?" Kleman was a little surprised. Such a thankless thing was not Marin's style...
He didn't know that Marin was worried that due to the decline of Flander's wool industry, the handsome King Philip would turn his attention to the voyage. Therefore, it would be better to maintain Flander's wool industry. Moreover, it could support the Egyptians' finances in disguise. Besides, low-end wool textiles are not profitable. Even if Flander makes the low-end wool spinning large in scale, it won't make much money, but instead drags down a lot of labor and energy.
As long as the powerful Habsburg family is held back, as for the rich Dutch merchants in Amsterdam...
Chapter completed!