Although it was determined that the Electoral State of Saxony and the Electoral State of Brandenburg were to jointly use force against themselves and the Hanseatic Alliance, Marin still didn't quite understand it. According to his judgment, Denmark should have hired these Swiss mercenaries, not the two Electoral State.
In fact, Marin's judgment was correct. Indeed, at the beginning, the Denmark King Hans planned to hire these 20,000 mercenaries. However, when discussing with Saxony Elector Frederick III and Brandenburg Elector Jokiem I, King Hans discovered that it was not easy to bring Swiss mercenaries back to Denmark...
Why? Because the Principality of Schleswig and Holstein were occupied by Marin and the two main Hanseatic cities. It is difficult to get 20,000 Swiss mercenaries to go to Denmark by land without being discovered. In that way, there will be no effect of raids.
As for taking the sea route, it is not feasible. Because the Danish Navy was destroyed by the two main cities of the Hanseatic League. Now, the waters near Denmark are the world of Lubeck and Hamburg. It is impossible to transport 20,000 troops from the sea to Denmark under the eyes of the two cities.
Therefore, the resourceful Saxon Elector Frederick III believed that it was impossible to bring these 20,000 Swiss mercenaries to Denmark. If you want to hide, it would be better to place them in the Saxon Electoral State and the Brandenburg Electoral State.
Anyway, after the war begins, the two countries will have to gather 30,000 troops to participate in the attack. It would be better to hide 20,000 Swiss mercenaries in the territory of the two countries and wait until the war begins to officially start, and act with the two countries' armies.
As for Denmark, a group of Swiss mercenary officers were divided into help train Denmark's 20,000 troops. Once the war began, the troops of Saxony and Brandenburg would set out in the northeast of Brandenburg near Lübeck and Hamburg, and passed the Principality of Mecklenburg, which had a good relationship with the Brandenburg Electoral (actually subdued by the force of Brandenburg Electoral), and quickly surrounded and attacked the extremely wealthy city of Lübeck. Denmark's 20,000 troops went south to raid the Principality of Schleswig and fought to retake the Principality of this Principality.
In order to keep it secret, since last autumn, Frederick III came up with a way to let Swiss mercenaries disguise themselves as caravans to Saxony and Brandenburg in batches. Moreover, this method did deceive most people. Even the meticulous Frederick III asked more than a dozen mercenary commanders in Switzerland to temporarily arrange their families in a hidden place to avoid being heard from.
Unfortunately, he missed one thing, that is, he did not pay attention to the currency issue. Because he wanted to pay a deposit to the Swiss mercenaries, Frederick III and Jokim I naturally chose to use their own coins. After receiving the deposit, the Swiss mercenaries took out the money and spent it along the way. Then, through the use of the coins, Marin speculated about the whereabouts of the Swiss...
Of course, this cannot be blamed for Frederick III for not being rigorous enough. Instead, because the spy level in this era was very low, no one would infer useful information from such a looting.
But the spies under Marin were different. They were trained in Marin's half-baked modern intelligence and paid great attention to details. So they discovered the special situation of the Swiss mercenaries using the coins of the Saxony Electoral and Brandenburg Electoral, and made Marin guess the truth.
In fact, the deposit should have been paid by King Hans. However, since he was defeated by the four-nation coalition, the Denmark was looted by the coalition forces and had serious financial difficulties. It was already a huge difficulty for King Hans to be able to pull up a 20,000 army. Where can I still have money to pay the high commissions for Swiss mercenaries?
Therefore, King Hans could only seek help from the Electoral State of Saxony and the Electoral State of Brandenburg, and asked them to pay the deposit on their behalf. This was the case before.
Moreover, King Hans made it clear that after the victory of this war, he only wanted to take back the Principality of Holstein, the Principality of Schleswig and the Oldenburg-Bern who rescued his family. He did not want any other interests.
In addition to the relationship between the in-laws and the Electoral of Brandenburg, there is an important reason why the Saxony and the Electoral of Brandenburg helped Denmark, is that they have an excuse to publicly loot Lubeck and Hamburg...
You should know that Lübeck and Hamburg are the two most commercially developed cities in Germany, no one. There are many wealthy businessmen in these two cities. It is not surprising that the army can break through these two cities and the army can rob the wealth worth tens of millions of gold coins.
It is rare to have the opportunity to attack Lübeck and Hamburg openly, so they don’t want to miss it. As long as they capture these two cities, the two countries will definitely be "full" and even "full"...
After all, with these two countries with the electoral emperors, their respective fiscal revenues are only hundreds of thousands of gold coins each year. If they grab property worth tens of millions of gold coins, then these two countries will definitely make a big profit and make a lot of money...
Moreover, Frederick III, the Elector of Saxony, had an ambition in his heart, that is, he hoped to severely hit the economy and prestige of Lübeck and Hamburg, causing the two cities to lose their status as the chief and deputy leader of the Hanseatic League. Then, the Hanseatic merchants in the Saxony business district rose, replaced the two cities and became the new leader...
If the core area of ​​the Hanseatic League is transferred from Lübeck and Hamburg to the Saxony business district, it will definitely be a great thing for the Saxony Electoral State to make huge profits.
But Jokiem I, the Brandenburg Elector, didn't think so much about it. Besides, the Brandenburg Electoral State, which he ruled, was quite large, but the business was really underdeveloped, and it was still an agricultural country. Even if Lübeck and Hamburg declined, it would not be the turn of the Brandenburg Electoral State, which was mainly agriculture, to take over...
In fact, the Brandenburg Electoral State is a vassal state dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry, and is also a poor country. At least, it is the poorest vassal state among the seven Electoral State.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! Brandenburg's true rise was after inheriting East Prussia, that is, after the annexation of the Teutonic Kingdom. Where was the Teutonic Kingdom? It was a developed commercial area, with four Hanseatic commercial cities such as Cornisburg. It has developed industry and commerce, and has more taxes...at least, it is richer than the Brandenburg Electoral State...
Therefore, after inheriting the Principal of Prussia, Brandenburg's Electorate simply used the name of the Kingdom of Prussia instead of the Electorate of Brandenburg. Because Prussia was really richer than Brandenburg. Even in later generations, the Brandenburg region, except for the Greater Berlin region and some areas such as Cottbus, most other areas were relatively poor rural areas.
Similarly, the Kingdom of Prussia also relied on agriculture and the Junker landlord class in its early days. It was not until after the war that Prussia obtained the economically developed Westphalia region that the economy began to improve. In particular, the Westphalia region had the famous Ruhr area. It obtained the Ruhr area, and in the era of great development of steam engines, Prussia became an industrial power.
In short, the Brandenburg electorate is still poor now. He relies on his relatively large territory and the development of agriculture and the total amount to barely join the ranks of powerful vassal states. In terms of economy, it is not comparable to Saxony.
Chapter completed!