Malin is not very brave. After all, he is a person who has died once and cherishes his life even more. Moreover, those who have wealth are more cherishing their lives than those who have poor people. Why do poor mountains and rivers produce elite soldiers and troubled people? Because they have nothing and can only play with their lives. But rich people have everything, so they don’t need to fight to the death.
The same is true for Marin. When he first traveled through time, he had nothing, so he naturally had to rely on hard work to gain wealth. For this reason, he designed to ambush 8,000 French knights, and only more than a thousand new recruits under his command. If the French were calmer, he could kill him. But after he succeeded, especially after becoming a prince, there was no need to take too much risk. Only by going to the Ming Dynasty, he took risks because of his obsession.
Therefore, Marin used the excuse of "reconstructing" the Second Legion to pull half of the real Second Legion back, which is actually afraid of death. After all, it is indeed not safe to face more than 40,000 enemy troops in a legion. With 5,000 veterans of the Second Legion, not to mention that they can defeat the enemy, they can at least support the reinforcements.
Moreover, there is another function of "reconstructing" the Second Legion - that is, to make the princes of the Eight Kingdoms more convinced that the original Second Legion and Third Legion did rebel. Otherwise, the Beihai Kingdom would not have to "reconstructing" the Second Legion.
...
As expected by Marin, after learning about the news of the Beihai Kingdom's "reconstruction" of the Second Legion, the eight princes were extremely happy...
"It seems that the other party is poor in skills. This rebuilt Second Legion is said to be basically the strong people who transported grain. What kind of combat effectiveness can they have? We will definitely win this war!" Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbitel, said happily.
"However, I heard that among the 10,000 new men, not all the civilians, there are still 1,000 people, said to be the former straw-hall swordsman, who were the elites of East Friesland. It is said that this army defeated the army of Oldenburg in 1483, forcing the Earl of Oldenburg Gerhard VI of the Earl of Oldenburg to abdicate and give way to his son Adolf." Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
At this time, Charlie, Earl of Gelden (formerly Duke of Gedders) interrupted:
"Mr. Henry, I have heard of this. However, it was not because the Straw Hat Swordsman was too strong, but because East Friesland defeated the Oldenburg Beth after the army of the Bishop of Munster at that time."
"Also, those straw hat swordsmen were elites of the Sexner family. After Marin seized the East Friesland Kingdom, he did not trust them and left them idle. In other words, those straw hat swordsmen had not fought a war for at least 10 years. The former elite is now at least thirty or forty years old, and has already begun to decline."
"What's more, even if they are still at the peak, our Gelden's warriors are not afraid of them. If the Second Legion dares to go out of the city to fight decisively in this battle, our Geldenbo's army will be willing to take the lead in attacking the Second Legion and fight head-on against the straw-hat swordsmen!" Charlie, Earl of Gelden, swore.
In fact, he was also scheming - the real elite of the Beihai Kingdom was the First Legion, and the first Legion was on the front, and there would definitely be heavy casualties. Even if it faced the newly established Second Legion, even if it faced the 1,000 straw hat swordsmen, Count Charles was not a pity. Because the army of the Geldenberg Kingdom learned from Swiss mercenaries and had strong combat power. Although it could not catch up with the serious Swiss mercenaries, it was stronger than ordinary German mercenaries. It was still okay to face the 1,000 straw hat swordsmen head-on.
As long as his 3,000 veterans of Gedes can defeat the 1,000 straw hat swordsmen, then the new recruits from the Second Legion of the Beihai Kingdom will no longer be opponents...
Sure enough, seeing Charlie, Earl of Gelden, take the initiative to ask for the battle, the princes had to agree. The 3,000 elite veterans of Geldenberg took the opportunity to avoid the powerful enemy of the First Legion...
...
Just as the eight princes were discussing how to deal with it, a fleet of ships transported many people on the sea, had already passed through the English Channel and was almost approaching the North Sea...
Where does this fleet come from? Who are the people transported on the ship?
It turned out that this fleet was the transport fleet of Beihai Kingdom. The ones transported on the ship were the mercenaries transported back from Italy...
Italian mercenaries? That's right, they are Italian mercenaries with average combat effectiveness in the legend! Moreover, the number is as high as 10,000!
These 10,000 Italian mercenaries were named by Marin. Of course, it was not to ask them to help defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance, but to prove that the Beihai Kingdom is really "in poverty"...
If there were enough troops, why would the Beihai Kingdom go to Italy to hire a combative Italian mercenary with less combative combat effectiveness than the German mercenaries?
The Beihai Kingdom hired 10,000 Italian mercenaries, which indirectly proved the dilemma of the Beihai Kingdom's lack of soldiers available - whenever there was a chance, which German prince was willing to hire Italian mercenaries with average combat effectiveness?
Therefore, the role of these 10,000 Italian mercenaries is to highlight the desperate situation and helplessness of the Beihai Kingdom...
...
Marin annexed eight hostile vassal states and never worried about war issues. The only thing that made him worry was legal matters.
Therefore, Malin must not let the princes see the fact that the Beihai Kingdom had trapped the eight princes. Otherwise, even if Malin annexed eight princes, the princes in the imperial court could deny the legitimacy of his annexed eight princes on the grounds that he "deliberately trapped and framed his opponents."
For this reason, Malin did not hesitate to play a huge game of chess and used various methods to express the current miserableness of Beihai Kingdom. The more he performed in the early stage, the less flaws the other princes could see.
Therefore, these 10,000 Italian mercenaries are clearly the "extra" invited by Marin from Italy at a huge cost. Their main function is to show the helplessness and despair of Beihai Kingdom. Even people mistakenly think that this is the last "trump card" of Beihai Kingdom...
...
Moreover, since it is used to "show weakness", then these 10,000 Italian mercenaries naturally won't choose any elites, but specially selected the cheapest mercenary group in Italy...
This Italian mercenary is composed of 11 large Italian mercenary groups. And the biggest feature of these 11 Italian mercenary groups is that it is cheap...
In Italy, mercenaries are divided into different levels. The most expensive Italian mercenaries have a commission of 5 Finneys per day. Their combat effectiveness is comparable to that of the medium-sized German mercenaries.
The cheapest mercenaries are some cheap mercenaries with low combat power. These people only have 2.5 Finneys per day, which is cheaper than the 3 Finneys per day for ordinary German mercenaries. As for combat power... they are slightly stronger than militia...
The biggest function of this cheap Italian mercenary is actually to help defend the city. After all, when defending the city, it does not require the strong combat effectiveness of the soldiers, as long as the combat effectiveness is above the average line.
Chapter completed!