While the scouts of Beihai Country carefully removed the sentry detectives from the Principality of Gedes, members of the "commissioned delegation" in the Lower Gedes Region were also conspiring to...
In fact, the so-called "commissions" of these North Sea Grand Duchy were all spies under Kohler. The "civilian officials" who took the lead were all spies. Since Marin established the spy school, he has trained several groups of spies in total. Except for the first group of spies who have graduated rushingly due to the battle with the Bossa coalition, the other groups have trained them to graduate. Moreover, the first group of spies who graduated later returned to school to make up for the course, making up for many of the defects caused by hasty graduation.
Nowadays, except for more than 20 people who died or were disabled due to mission failures (spy is a dangerous profession with high casualties), the rest are gradually growing.
Xiagedesi area is very prosperous. In this era, the core of the economy was agriculture. If agriculture was prosperous, large-scale manors would be formed. Then, on the basis of manors, market towns would automatically appear. If there were too many market towns, cities would appear...
The Lower Gedes area in the lower reaches of the Rhine River is obviously very prosperous, with 12 cities including Dusburg, Dutinghem, Heronlo, Lochem, Elberg, Halderweck, Hatm, Wageningen, Hunter, Masbomer, Tyr, Zaltbomer.
You should know that the 12 cities are very enviable for the nobles of this era. Because having cities means taxes...
In this era when agricultural taxes and poll taxes cannot be collected, commercial taxes and pass taxes are the economic lifelines of the lords. Business mainly occurs in urban areas, so the more cities under the rule of any aristocrat, the more commercial taxes it can be collected, and the richer it will be. The Gedes Principality has 12 important cities in the Xiagedes region alone, which shows that the commercial taxes must have been collected a lot, otherwise there would have been no confidence to compete with the Saxony Principality for West Friesland. Including the six cities of Gedes, Gelden, Ekrenz, Goch, Niustat, Venlo and Stralen of the Gedes, there are 18 cities in the entire Gedes Principality. Therefore, the Gedes Principality can develop in a short time after its restoration and become a powerful country again.
In addition, the Lower Gedes area controls the estuary of the Rhine River. The Principality of Gedes can set up checkpoints and stop ships in the downstream section near the Rhine River estuary to collect tolls, which is also a considerable asset.
The reason why John II, Duke of Cliver, replacing the Gedes region with Markbourg was that in addition to the 12 cities there, could block the Rhine estuary to impose ship pass tax. Coal had no sales before the steam engine was developed and before the coal ball furnace was invented. However, the fertility and prosperity of the Rhine Estuary Delta, and the convenience of setting up a card to collect taxes at the Rhine Estuary, were superior to the Ruhr coal in the Markbourg region in this era.
The fragmentation of the German region was very unfavorable to the history of economic development. In later generations, that is, in the early days when Prussia initiated unification in the 19th century, it first started with the establishment of the German Customs Alliance. Because, before that, a cargo was transported from the north of Germany to the south, passing through many countries on land, and had to be charged many tariffs. The same is true for waterways. If you want to enter the Rhine River, you must first be levied to the toll of Zelanderb, the Austrian Netherlands, and then the Lower Gedes region, and it will also be taxed. Then the Principality of Cliver, then the Archbishop of Cologne and the Principality of Berg... In other words, the goods transported from the estuary of the Rhine River to Cologne City will be taxed 5 times... If you continue to transport to the upper reaches of the Rhine River, the taxes will be more... In this way, the transportation cost will be much higher, and the prices will naturally rise, which will seriously affect the economic development of the German region...
The Xiagudes area near the mouth of the Rhine River is an unavoidable obstacle for shipping in the Rhine River Basin. If you want to pass here and go back and forth twice, you will be taxed twice.
It is precisely because of this that Marin is making up his mind to dig the canal connecting the Lipper River and the Ames River. Otherwise, even if Marin gets the Ruhr area of ​​Markbour, if coal wants to be transported to East Friesland, it will be taxed four or five times, which is not cost-effective. After digging this canal by himself, he will not have to pay taxes to others for transporting coal...
...
There are 12 cities in the Xiagedesi area, and Marin's plan is to fight quickly and take down these 12 cities before the other princes react. Therefore, this requires that they can quickly break through the enemy's defense line.
However, European cities are built with stone walls, which are easy to defend and difficult to attack. If we follow the normal fighting method, even if Schwartz led more than 20,000 troops, even if most of the Duchy Guedes army were concentrated in the Shanggedes area, it would take a long time to capture all 12 cities in the Xiagedes area.
Therefore, before leaving, Marin discussed a pleasing solution with Kohler - in the name of taking over the Xiagedes area, he sent a "diplomacy mission" to these 12 cities, and posed as if he wanted to take over the place.
Moreover, because Charles II, Duke of Geders, promised to ced the Lower Geders to Marin. Therefore, it was reasonable for Marin to send a delegation to take over and there was nothing to doubt.
The only thing that the Principality of Gedes did not expect was that these "delegates" had very high combat effectiveness. Except for the leading "civilian representatives" who were disguised as spies who graduated from spies, the rest were special combatants disguised as ordinary minions or guards. Even those spies were trained by cruel agents and their combat effectiveness was not weak.
The mission of these "delegations" is to suddenly attack the enemy's side and rear after Schwarz's army arrived, forcibly seize and open the city gates to welcome Schwarz's army into the city...
After all, the 20,000 troops led by Schwartz this time were all wearing the clothes of the Duchy of Clifford and holding the flag of the Duchy of Clifford. Therefore, the small number of Duchy of Gedes in the city would not have thought that the Beihai diplomatic team, who had been preparing to "come to take over" the Xiagudes area, would attack them from behind... and as long as the city gates were raided and opened, Schwartz's army occupied the Xiagudes area would become fast and swift, and other German princes would not have time to react. When they reacted, the entire Xiagudes area had been eaten by the Beihai Kingdom. In this way, even the other German princes would react late. With those letters as evidence, it would be hard for the other princes to say anything else...
Chapter completed!