In September, Schwartz and Woolf Esbrand came to Hamburg and Marin to join forces with the troops stationed in Wittenburg and Berlin. Then, Marin returned to the court with the army.
Before leaving, Marin sent away Jokim I, the Elector of Brandenburg, who had been hostage for a long time, and released some officers of Brandenburg Election, as entourage members of Jokim I's return. In order to make the officers of Brandenburg Election look a little, Marin also returned some weapons and equipment for free. Otherwise, if Marin did not send some weapons and equipment, Jokim I would probably have to tragically bring a group of people back to the country empty-handed.
Moreover, Marin also gave Jokeem I and his group to ride horses. Of course, they were all horses. The price of war horses was high, so Marin would not give them back.
In this way, Jokiem I and his hundreds of officers rode their horses and drove back to Brandenburg's Election State in a miserable way. As for most of the soldiers captured by Brandenburg and Saxony Election State, according to the treaty, they had to wait until the other party paid the compensation before they could be released. The same was true for prisoners of war, including Saxony Election State. Although the compensation from Saxony Election State was transferred to the Principal of Saxony, Marin still insisted on keeping the captured Saxony soldiers, digging a canal for him for a year, and then sending them back. Of course, officers and others must be sent back first.
Because these officers are all nobles, they may not be able to do it if they ask them to dig canals and do coolies. Perhaps, these people will do too much. In addition, there are indeed some bad rules for letting the nobles dig canals and be coolies, which can easily cause dissatisfaction among other nobles. Of course, those ordinary knights, Marin stayed to dig canals. Only the heirs of the Baron and the Baron family are qualified to be released in advance. Moreover, those from the Knight family have good physical strength and strength, and digging canals is a good player...
In addition to these captured regular soldiers and those captured civilians, Malin had no intention of paying back the prisoners. He even asked the two countries to send the families of the strong men. This was also the condition for Malin to reduce the ransom of hundreds of thousands of gold coins to the two countries. Otherwise, if the exemption was not reduced, each family would have to pay a ransom of hundreds of thousands of gold coins...
In Denmark, Marin mainly released the nobles and tens of thousands of veterans, so that they could have the capital to fight against Sweden's annexation. As for the nearly 20,000 new troops, except for the noble officers, they were all pulled to the southern part of the Munster area to dig the canal. With so many strong men to help dig the canal, Marin believed that the canal would be dug soon. At that time, East Friesland could contact the Ruhr area where his hometown Bochum was located through water. Then, Marin took over the Ruhr area, and basically, the core territory was established. As for other places, we could only wait until the Protestant War began before making plans.
As for the German region, Marin believes that the most important area is the Ruhr area. With the Ruhr area, the industrial revolution can be carried out. Although it is a long time, at least you should take the resources into your own hands first.
In addition, potassium salt ore is also very important. After all, potassium salt is an extremely important fertilizer and a guarantee of a bumper harvest. Therefore, potassium ore resources are the second strategic resource that Marin must master.
Although the German region is small, it has very rich potassium salt resources. In later generations, Germany, which had only 350,000 square kilometers, ranked potassium mineral resources second, but higher than the United States.
Among them, an important source of potassium salt in Germany is the Principal of Lüneburg. The Harz Mountains in the south and Hannover are important sources of potassium salt. In fact, many of the ore salts in Lüneburg are potassium salts. If it is KCL, it tastes similar to normal salts and cannot be distinguished at all. The bitter salts are mainly sulfate salts, which may be sodium sulfate (Glauber's salt) or potassium sulfate. It is difficult for ordinary people to distinguish, but Marin knows that using blue cobalt glass imported from Venice, it can be distinguished whether the ore salt contains potassium through a simple flame-colored reaction.
Through this method, Marin has allowed Kohler to acquire several potassium salt mines in the Harz Mountains under the name of an unknown chamber of commerce. In addition, there are also larger potassium salt mines in the Archbishop of Magdeburg.
However, the potassium salt mines in the Harz Mountains and Hannover belong to the Principality of Lüneburg. The Archbishop of Magdeburg was not something that Marin could move.
However, Marin knew that these two vassal states were the first vassal states to turn to Protestantism after Martin Luther launched the Reformation. At that time, as long as Marin held high the banner of maintaining the Catholic Church, he could openly seize the Duchy of Lüneburg and the Archbishop of Magdeburg. Anyway, the Duchy of Lüneburg is now Marin's neighbor, and it is very convenient to send troops to occupy it. The Archbishop of Magdeburg is also close to the Principal of Lüneburg, and it is very convenient to capture...
...
When he returned to his country, Marin's army passed by the Oldenburg area (now not called the Bergian country, because the Oldenburg family is already the ruler of the Bergian country in Iceland). In Oldenburg City, Marin met his elder brother Adler who was standing here.
After years of experience, Adler is no longer the ignorant young man. When he saw his younger brother Marin, Adler was much more restrained and actually saluted Marin first...
Sister-in-law Liv is also here. Liv was specially sent by the old Hoffman and his wife to accompany the eldest son. Because Adler still has only Margaret, a daughter, and has no male heir yet. Therefore, Sister-in-law Liv was ordered to cooperate with Adler to create a villain...
Marin didn't notice it before, but this time he saw it clearly - Liv's belly actually bulged... Obviously, this is a success in creating a villain...
Sister-in-law Liv is still so stingy. If she hadn't been pregnant, she might have put on a plate armor to compete with her brother. Seeing Marin changing into a suit that only her grandfather could wear, she was so outspoken that she envied:
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! "Oh, Marin, you are all grandpa, you are several levels higher than Adler!"
The speaker is unintentional, but the listener is intentional...
Marin suddenly realized that it was time to mention the title to the boss...
Before, Marin himself was an Earl of East Friesland. If he wanted to reward his subordinates, the Viscount was already at its peak. He could not also award him an Earl. Moreover, the title of Viscount was not popular in Germany and was very rare. It only appeared in the Netherlands and the Lombardy region in northern Italy, and its power range generally does not exceed one castle and surrounding areas.
Of course, there were no formal viscounts and viscount lords in the imperial rank system. However, in the Grand Principality of the North Sea in Marin, Marin could establish formal viscount lords.
The reason for setting up viscounts is to imitate the three-level system of the Baron, which is higher than the three-level system of viscount, the deputy viscount and the subordinate viscount, is to facilitate rewarding the soldiers who have been rewarded with meritorious soldiers. Otherwise, if the subordinates have already reached the baron, they cannot jump to the count, right? Therefore, it is best to get a viscount to make a transition...
For example, when the war ended, Schwartz, the highest official baron of the third-level baron, should mention it according to his merits. If he did not realize this title, would he have to mention the Earl? The span was a bit large... Therefore, it is more appropriate to be promoted to Viscount...
But his eldest brother Adler was very different. As the eldest son and his original first heir, according to traditional European practice, even if the Hoffman family inherited the title of Earl of the Brock family, Adler should be preferred. Although Marin successfully made Adler willingly give up the right of inheritance, he could not treat the other party unfairly. Otherwise, he would be criticized.
Just like Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, after abolishing his eldest son, the position of Prince Liu Jiang, without any fault, he also treated him with special preferential treatment and allowed him to be a prince, but he used the emperor's ceremonial guard - because this should have belonged to him...
Although Adler made no contribution to Marin's becoming an earl, his ranking was there. As long as Marin claimed that he inherited East Friesland from his mother, Adler could not be avoided - he was the eldest son.
Chapter completed!