In this era, Europe was full of war and the situation was chaotic. Of course, no matter how chaotic it was, it was not as good as Italy. The French King Louis XII had completed the occupation of the Kingdom of Naples and returned to the court.
Like history, the French did not completely occupy the entire Kingdom of Naples, but jointly occupied the Kingdom of Naples with Spain. Among them, France occupied the northern half of the area, while Spain occupied the southern part of the southern part, which is also the southernmost end of the Apennine Peninsula.
Originally, Louis XII was unwilling to share the fruits of victory with the Spaniards. However, if they did not share the territory with the Spaniards, the Spaniards would support the confrontation between the Kingdom of Naples and France.
You should know that Sicily, which belongs to the Kingdom of Aragon in Spain, is right next to the Kingdom of Naples. It should not be too simple for the Spanish to support Naples. Not only can they use Sicily as a base to support Naples' resisters, but they can also use Sicily as a base for exiles in the Kingdom of Naples. In any case, if Spain does not appease it, the French will not think about it.
In desperation, Louis XII decided to compromise first and divide the southern part of the Kingdom of Naples to Spain. According to the agreement, Spain gave up its protection for the Naples royal family. In the end, King Frederick IV of Naples refused to protect him, which was captured by the French army and brought back to France, and was deposed as the title of King of Naples. Louis XII used the title of French earl to force his Kingdom of Naples. The southern part of Naples obtained by Spain was actually a relatively poor area in Naples. The core area of ​​Naples was still the northern part of the Romagna region centered on the city of Naples.
In fact, whether it was King Louis XII of France or King Ferdinand II of Spain, they all had their own ulterior motives, which also laid the root of disaster for the two countries to turn against each other in the future for Naples.
Of course, it was precisely because the monarchs of the two countries turned against each other for the Kingdom of Naples that in their original history, the Spanish phalanx, which had been rampant in Europe for a hundred years. The emergence of the Spanish phalanx also led to the Spanish defeating the French army with the advantage of knights and taking over the Kingdom of Naples.
However, in this time and space, the appearance of Marin led to the appearance of the Spanish phalanx a few years in advance. What’s even more bizarre is that the Spanish phalanx is no longer called the Spanish phalanx, but is called the "Marin phalanx". What’s more interesting is that the original original creator of the Spanish phalanx, Gonzalo de Cordoba, actually came to learn this "Marin phalanx" from Marin...
To be honest, Marin, a "little devil", met the genuine "Li Kui" Gonzalo. At the beginning, he was very guilty. But over time, Marin's face became thicker and he pointed out the original creator Gonzalo with shameless words...
After Gonzalo de Cordoba learned the "Marin square formation" from Marin, he was also shocked and immediately saw that this square formation could restrain the French knights.
To be honest, if Marin's square formation encounters a vulgar Mongolian archer, he may be abused into a dog. Therefore, Marin specially formed the Blackshirt Knight and Lancer. Because the biggest disadvantage of this square formation is that it lacks attack power and is more suitable for defense.
However, this is not a problem for Spain. Because Spain has many light cavalry, which can completely deal with archers like Mongolian cavalry. Moreover, the main types of troops of the Spanish opponents are plate knights and Swiss spearmen. These two types of troops cannot cause trouble to the Spanish phalanx. Therefore, Gonzalo de Cordoba attached great importance to this phalanx and obtained the authorization of Ferdinand II to form several such phalanxes, supplemented by a large number of hussars (melee light cavalry). Even Gonzalo de Cordoba had already planned to turn against the French when he was proficient in his "Marin phalanx"...
...
In France, Louis XII has also left Paris for a long time. Therefore, he couldn't wait to return to Paris to control the government. After all, the government's power is not at ease in the hands of others for a long time.
Therefore, after leaving some troops to station in the Kingdom of Naples and the Principality of Milan, Louis XII returned to Paris with half of its troops.
In the Principality of Milan, the situation also changed. In history, after the French left Milan and headed south to Naples, the Principality of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, received support from some Swiss mercenaries, received Swiss mercenaries, and recovered the Principality of Milan.
But in this time and space, because the Swiss and Maximilian I had a fight, they were unable to withdraw troops to help Sforza. Therefore, Sforza has not yet found an opportunity to obtain enough mercenaries to counterattack Milan. Of course, this was not his misfortune, but his luck. Because, the Swiss mercenaries who helped him recover Milan in history, after the French sent a large number of Swiss mercenaries to suppress, they actually abandoned him directly using the so-called "Swiss did not fight the Swiss" as an excuse, making him spend so much money in vain, and ended up in a hurry to escape. Therefore, although he did not get the opportunity to counterattack, he did not waste money to hire the Swiss.
After Louis XII returned to Paris, he warmly received Earl Edward and was willing to provide him with mercenaries to help him fight for the British throne with Henry VII.
In order to win over Edward, Louis XII also arranged for Anna, the daughter of a French nobleman, to marry Edward as his wife and get engaged. In this way, if Edward becomes the king of England in the future, his wife will be French...
However, although Louis XII was willing to support Earl Edward with enough money to hire mercenaries and to introduce some French and Swiss mercenaries to him. However, Edward lacked territory and had no place to place troops.
Louis XII was not happy to place the army in France, because that would bring danger to France. You must know that mercenaries are not good things. Wherever they are stationed, God knows what bad things they will do.
To fight against Henry VII, Edward needs to recruit at least 10,000 mercenaries. Wherever he puts it, it will be a huge disaster and may endanger French security.
Therefore, Louis XII asked Earl Edward to recruit mercenaries and then seize the last British stronghold on the mainland, Calais, and then use the Calais region as a springboard to attack Britain.
However, Britain was able to keep Calais from being taken away by France. Obviously, the defense here is very good. Calais Fortress is also a fortress that is difficult to conquer. Moreover, Calais Fortress is by the sea, and the British can easily support Calais Fortress through sea. Therefore, the Calais region is very difficult to conquer. Even if there is a large army of 10,000, it will cost a lot of money and take a long time to conquer.
However, mercenaries are those who fight for money, not Count Earl Edward's loyal subordinates. If the task is too difficult, they may not accept it, or they may not work hard. Especially in the battles of killing such as Calais Fortress, few mercenaries are willing to participate. Because it is thankless to accept such a task.
In fact, Louis XII also wanted to use Earl Edward to make him fight to the death with the British army of the Calais Fortress. When both sides fought to the death, Louis XII might come out to pick peaches. Because the Calais Fortress was the last stronghold of Britain on the European continent. As long as this nail was removed, Britain would become a complete island country and no longer have a springboard to interfere in the European continent.
Earl Edward was obviously not a fool. He knew that Louis XII was trying to use him to attack the Fortress of Calais. Earl Edward was different from Louis XII. Louis XII was the king of France. If he attacked the Calais area, he would be strongly resisted by the local British.
Earl Edward was the only male heir of the York dynasty. In Britain, there were many supporters. Letting him attack the Calais Fortress would make the British who defend the Calais fortress feel complicated and might not defend and resist. If you are lucky, someone might surrender. However, if you are not lucky, it would be hard to say. Even if you take the Calais Fortress, Louis XII may include the Calais Fortress in France in a blink of an eye.
Therefore, for Edward, attacking the Calais Fortress was not cost-effective and a very bad choice. Therefore, Earl Edward was very depressed and found the secret representative of the North Sea Chamber of Commerce that Kohler secretly established to complain.
This secret representative of the North Sea Chamber of Commerce quickly sent the information back to East Friesland. Then Kohler sent the information to the desk of Marin, who had just returned from Wolms...
"So, Earl Edward has no place to gain a foothold now, so he was forced by the King of Dharma to attack the Calais area as his foothold?" Marin asked after reading the information.
"Yes, Master, Earl Edward has now recruited 5,000 mercenaries, including many French and Swiss. They have good combat effectiveness, but they lack a foothold and are difficult to obtain supplies. They can only rely on France."
"This is a problem. If Edward doesn't attack Calais and Louis XII doesn't give him a place to squat, that would be a tragic..."
"That young master, where do you think he should go?"
"Where should I go? It's best to go to England, but that's too dangerous. After all, Edward has been imprisoned for many years and lacks allies in England. If you land rashly on England, you will be defeated soon."
"How about going to Ireland?" Kohler suggested.
"Ireland... Well, it's a good idea. However, the forces on the Ireland Island are not weak... 5,000 people, newly formed, are not skilled in cooperation with each other. If they fight in the wilderness with the princes on the Ireland Island, they may have the upper hand. But if the enemy hides in the city and fights stubbornly, they won't be able to fight... When the British gets news and sends troops to attack, it's over..."
"Or what if we lend him Cork?" Kohler suggested.
Today, Cork, an important port in the southern Ireland, is under the control of Marin. There, with 500 troops, and sent the North Sea Chamber of Commerce there to acquire wool from the Ireland Island and then export it to Flanders.
However, this business seems to have a low profit. Of course, it is not low. On average, Cork Port can provide Marin with several thousand gold coins in taxes every year.
Because there are more than Cork on the Ireland port. For example, Dublin, which is directly controlled by England, is an excellent port. Most of the goods in the northern and eastern regions of Ireland are from the Port of Dublin.
Moreover, even in the southern region, Watford to the east of Cork is an important port. Limerick and Galway on the west coast are both export ports and are competitive with Cork.
The most important thing is that because Marin secretly occupied Cork, it is difficult to openly raise a flag to attract business. If Henry VII's attention and his identity is exposed, he might be attacked by the British army and may trigger a war between the East Frieslander and Britain. If he remained silent, it would be difficult to attract enough merchants. Therefore, Cork City became a useless existence. It did not meet Marin's original expectations, but the profit was not small. Every year, Marin could also provide Marin with a tax of several thousand gold coins. You must know that this tax was left after feeding 500 garrisons and paying the salaries of local administrators.
After thinking about it, Marinth finally decided to give Cork to Earl Edward so that he could have a place to live so that he would not have a base like Liu Bei in the early days.
Edward has 5,000 troops, and even if he has a strong city like Cork, he will not be able to conquer even if tens of thousands of British troops come to attack. It is more certain unless he dispatches 50,000 troops. But is Henry VII rich to hire 50,000 troops? Obviously not... If Edward wins over a few more local states in Ireland, it would be even more perfect. At that time, Edward uses Ireland as a base and fights against Henry VII, Britain will not be able to think of peace. Britain has a strong foundation, and Marin is most afraid of Britain competing for maritime interests with him. With Edward and Henry VII, Britain will waste finances and rise in the continuous civil war, which will be very difficult...
Moreover, the black-hearted Marin plans to act as the "boxing referee" between Henry VII and Edward in the future. Once one side shows strength, Marin will try every means to intervene, help the weak and suppress the strong... In short, it is to make both sides evenly match and fight to the death... Just like what Britain did to France and Germany in history... In this way, Britain will find it difficult to rise...
So Marin ordered that the 500 defenders of Cork City be prepared to withdraw and hand over Cork City to Earl Edward at any time. However, the North Sea Chamber of Commerce's wool acquisition market in Cork City was retained. Although the city control and tax revenue were given up, the North Sea Chamber of Commerce's acquisition of Irish wool in Cork City would not stop.
Chapter completed!