The West Friesland war has been fighting for several months, affecting the local farming and autumn harvest. Fortunately, both sides of the war were not dependent on local agricultural production, otherwise the army would be hungry.
After the autumn harvest began, both sides suspended their military operations. At present, under the leadership of Sivague, the West Friesian Resistance Army occupied the largest city in western West Friesian, Leeuwarden, and based on the strong city walls, resisted the attack of the Saxony army.
As for the areas east of Leeuwarden, they were all under the control of Duke George. However, due to the shortage of food, the two sides are currently temporarily truce. Duke George left a large army to station in the east of the city of Leeuwarden, and himself brought some people back to the Principal of Saxony to supervise the autumn harvest and collect military rations. After all, there were tens of thousands of troops and many cavalry, and the food was consumed very much.
The Friesian Resistance Army also sent people to the Principality of Gedes for help. As a country in the plains of the lower Rhine River, Gedes was naturally rich in food. Therefore, neither army on both sides would be short of food.
However, the local people in Friesland have suffered. Because of the war, it has brought a devastating blow to local agricultural production. West Friesland, with a population of 200,000, has reduced by 20,000. Moreover, because of this year's war, 40,000 refugees have been generated. If food is not available, most of these 40,000 refugees will starve to death.
Marin regarded these Friesians as their own people, so naturally they could not sit idly by and starve to death. So Marin ordered the sentry of Sauer's subordinates to sneak into Friesland and mingle with the local victims, spreading news that East Friesland state owned food. If he fled and was willing to accept employment in the manor (become a serf), he would get enough food.
So, the refugees were in a state of excitement...
Under the guidance of the sentry detectives under Saul, the refugees avoided the battlefield area and rushed eastward from the southern border...
Duke George's men also discovered this, but they wanted to monitor the Friesian resistance army in the city of Leeuwarden and could not withdraw their hands to stop it. Besides, why should we stop it? The army itself was short of food, so would it give food to refugees? So, in the end, they turned a blind eye.
During the truce, the Friesian Resistance Army was not idle either. At present, the area controlled by the Friesian Resistance Army was not large, only the area west of Leeuwarden. However, the section from Leeuwarden to the western fishing port Haringen is the most important supply route for the Friesian Resistance Army.
Now, the Saxon army is on standby and stops the attack. The supply line is very smooth. So, the commander of the Friesian Resistance Army, Sivag, quietly left Leeuwarden through the supply line, and boarded the ship to Emden at Harlingen...
On the third day, Siwag arrived at Orich, the capital of Marin, and met Marin...
"Sivag, you are not commanding the army on the front line, why are you here? Are you planning to give up on the side and hang out with me?" Marin joked. Sivag stayed in Marin for a long time and had some friendship with Marin.
"Sir, I'm asking for help from you!" Sivag said with a wry smile.
"Ask for help? What do you want? Let me first say that I can't borrow troops. This matter is too sensitive!" Marin said seriously.
"It's not about borrowing soldiers, I want to... borrowing guns!"
"What?" Marin was surprised - what are you borrowing? You have to borrow a gun. Is this going to violate the gun management regulations? However, Marin quickly realized that he was not in China in his previous life...
"Yes, borrow a gun! Lord Earl, before, our army fought a battle with the Saxony army outside the city of Leeuwarden. As a result, we lost..."
"This is not normal..." Marin curled his lips. Saxon's foundation is still very strong. Speaking of which, in the battle of Lyle County, although he defeated the Saxon army, he did not kill many people, and most of them were prisoners. After all, he did not have the courage to kill 400,000 people in Bai Qi... After these prisoners were redeemed by the Principal of Saxon, they had combat effectiveness. Therefore, except for some knights who were hammered on the spot, most of the Saxon regular troops were still there. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of Saxon's army did not decrease much, but was destroyed by the financial resources because of the compensation.
"The strength of our infantry is actually not bad. After all, I have learned some methods to train infantry from you. However, we cannot resist the impact of the Saxon Knights... If we hadn't used the method of digging holes learned from you, our army might have been defeated by the Saxon Knights..." Sivag said with lingering fear.
The defensive methods of Marin's second pit and inclined wooden pickets are very good at resisting the charge of the knights. In that battle, Sivag commanded his Friesian resistance army, dug two pits and inserted them into the inclined wooden pickets.
However, the command power of the 5,000 troops sent by the Principality of Gedes was not in his hands. The people of Gedes did not learn to dig holes by Sivag, so their troops were destroyed by the Saxon Knights and almost destroyed.
Fortunately, Siwag and his men fought to save each other and finally protected the soldiers of Gedes. However, during the attack, Gedes lost 5,000 troops and 800 people...
Fortunately, they were not far from the city of Leuwarden. Then, Sivag led his army and quickly fled back to Leuwarden and began to defend according to the city...
However, the defense is not easy, and the Saxon Knights are too brave. They climb the city walls and are also fierce. Crushing to the city will also cause great casualties to the defenders.
Just so happened that during this period, Sivag heard from the Danish merchants who were docking in Harlingen that the Swedes used 1,000 muskets to cause huge casualties to the Danish army besieging Stockholm. So he was moved...
Sivag knew that in Marin's army, there were at least more than 2,000 musketeers in the 10,000 army equipped with musketeers. So he also wanted to borrow guns to attack the Saxon Knights in plate armor...
Therefore, Sivag personally rushed to East Friesland, hoping to borrow 1,000 combs from Marin from the friendship between the two sides, or hundreds of them become...
Marin thought for a long time and weighed the pros and cons in his mind...
However, he eventually refused to lend the active Mushket musket to the Friesland Resistance Army. Because this was too characteristic of East Friesland. At that time, the Principality of Saxony could tell at a glance that this was Marin's gun. After all, the Saxony army had suffered a great loss under the Mushket musket before.
At that time, if George Duke of Saxony starts to make trouble in the Imperial Parliament, he will not be able to take advantage of it. He may be impeached by the Saxony people and lose his position as a member of the Imperial Parliament...
Therefore, Marin could not lend the muskets of the active musketeers to the Friesian Resistance Army. However, it could create a batch of muskets of different calibers for the Friesian Resistance Army, just like the ones supporting the Swedes...
However, these muskets cannot emerge for no reason. After all, West Friesland is just next to East Friesland, which is too sensitive.
So Marin asked Siwag to send some representatives to the big cities where outstanding craftsmen gathered in the south, such as Cologne and Nuremberg, to openly buy combs and gunpowder and lead blocks... Marin would help with this money. For this reason, Marin directly sponsored 30,000 gold coins...
In fact, Marin asked Sivager to do this to clear his suspicion - you see, the muskets he bought in Cologne and Nuremberg, have nothing to do with me...
Moreover, Nuremberg of this era is indeed a gathering place for wise craftsmen. It is said that the world's first practical rifled rifle was born in Nuremberg in 1520...
So, it is not surprising to buy a batch of mesh guns in Nuremberg and Cologne, which has many big craftsmen...
Now, there are nearly a thousand craftsmen in the musket factory under Marin. They are all experienced musket making and can produce hundreds of muskets every day. Even if the Friesian Resistance Army is designed and produced a new caliber match-rope gun, the manufacturing speed will decrease and one or two hundred are produced a day, there is no problem.
Finally, Siwag left with satisfaction and immediately sent people to Nuremberg and Cologne to openly acquire muskets to cover Marin's support.
Chapter completed!