King of Mercenaries

Chapter 111: Surround Leeuwarden

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Early the next morning, after the prisoners in Harlingen were settled, Schwartz and Chigurh began counting the spoils. However, those brave Swiss mercenaries fought bravely, but they were dishonest when counting the spoils. Many of the coins seized in the town were quietly hidden in their pockets.

In this regard, Schwartz, who had been told by Marin a long time ago, pretended not to see it. As far as money is concerned, he knows that their young master is not short at all, not to mention that there are tens of thousands of gold coins left on the island, and there is still a deposit of 750,000 gold coins in Venice.

However, Schwartz attached great importance to the seized grain and agricultural tools. Because food is the foundation of feeding everyone, and farm tools play an important role in the spring plowing that has already started.

In addition, for the more than 800 former Texel fishermen who were originally guarded by Frisian soldiers on the shore, Schwartz immediately gathered them and planned to move back to Texel.

Even Schwartz did not let go of the original 600 fishermen and their fishing boats in the Harlingen fishing port. They gathered them together and planned to take them all to Texel Island.

As for Sauer, he found two energetic horses in the stables behind the town hall, and asked a scout to ride them to report the results of the Marlin battle. Their horses are tired from running, and they need to rest for at least two days to recover. Therefore, we can only borrow Harlingen's horse.

After that, Sauer recruited a group of fishermen from the original Texel Island and asked them to drive a fishing boat and carry a scout leader to Odesschild on the other side of the sea. The scout carried a letter from Marin, in which he asked Frundsberg to immediately lead 1,000 troops across the sea to help lay siege to Leeuwarden. As for the main island, there are more than 200 people left, and some serfs are recruited to help defend it.

At this point in time, there is no second force that poses a threat to Texel Island. Therefore, Marin hopes to gather more people to besiege Leeuwarden together, and strive to capture 9 noble members of Friesland, and call the gate of Groningen to achieve the purpose of annexing Friesland.

Half a day later, the fishing boat arrived in Oderschild. After the scout leader went ashore, he quickly found the horse and rushed to Den Burg to meet Frundsberg.

Frundsberg was also overjoyed when he received Marin's letter. After confirming that it was Marin's personal letter and checking the authenticity of the seal, Frundsberg immediately summoned all the soldiers and horses, and took away all 300 matchlock gunmen and all the gunpowder and lead lumps according to Marin's request.

When Frundsberg arrived at the port of Oderschild with 1,000 men, Schwarz had led all the fishermen and fishing boats that had been snatched by Friesland back to Oderschild, and brought back Killed 600 fishermen and their fishing boats that originally belonged to Frisian rule.

Because Marin treated fishermen better, these fishermen also accepted the recruitment of Texel Island frankly. However, they are also worried about the comeback of the Frisian noble republic. In this regard, Schwartz told them confidently that Texel will win this battle...

With enough fishing boats, Frundsberg's team could easily complete the crossing. So, Frundsberg personally took 500 soldiers, the first batch boarded the ship, and sailed to Harlingen...

By noon the next day, Frundsberg's 1,000 men had all landed in Harlingen. After completing the assembly, Schwartz suddenly remembered that artillery was needed to attack the city. Therefore, he removed the four 6-pound guns on the Frisian warship, and appointed a group of surrendered gunners to follow Frundsberg's team and march towards Leeuwarden...

Harlingen is not far from Leeuwarden. That night, Frundsberg's 1,000 troops arrived at the city of Leeuwarden and joined the Swiss army led by Marin, who arrived two hours earlier. The two sides had a total of nearly 4,000 troops, divided into two parts, the east and the west, and set up camp, and began to besiege Leeuwarden.

Among them, the 1,000 Texel army led by Frundsberg was responsible for defending the west side of Leeuwarden. The Swiss army, on the other hand, was divided into three parts, encircling the east, south and north respectively. Sauer, on the other hand, led 50 light cavalry and scouts, divided into three squads, and kept monitoring the city of Leeuwarden day and night to prevent the enemy from breaking out in the middle of the night.

In order to prevent the enemy from suddenly rushing out of the city on horseback and fleeing, Marin ordered that several trenches be dug outside the gates of Leeuwarden to prevent the enemy from suddenly rushing out on horseback.

Then, the besieging army began to build camps and light fires to cook with peace of mind...

In the city of Leeuwarden, the 9 representatives of the Frisian noble republic were discussing something...

"Your Excellency, I think we should ask the French for help!" said a member of Parliament.

"Do you need to say that? I have sent people to Paris for help. However, Paris is far away from here. It takes a long time for the French to receive a letter of help. In addition, they need to spend time mobilizing the army, and then spend time Hurry up, I'm afraid we won't be able to last until then..."

"How could it be? Your Excellency, the walls of Leeuwarden are tall and strong. No matter how powerful the enemy is, it will take two or three months to break through, right? By then, the French reinforcements should arrive..."

"You're right, Baron Hood, but Leeuwarden's food reserves are not enough..." Leeuwarden's landlord, Baron Zitter, sighed...

"Ah? Then... How long will there be enough food in the city?"

"Only enough for a month..."

"Ah... didn't we grab 700,000 pounds of rye from Texel?"

"It's all in Harlingen. During the day, a courier from Zurich (not Zurich in Switzerland) near Harlingen reported that Harlingen was attacked by the Texel and changed hands. Moreover, our 6 warships also have 5 A ship has been captured..." Governor Fyskefrijheid said gloomily.

"How do people in Zurich know that Harlingen has fallen?" Everyone was very surprised. Zurich is still some distance south of Harlingen.

"When the Texels attacked Harlingen at night, there were people on the warship 'Viking', and they escaped in the 'Viking'. They made a big circle at sea, and then stopped in Zurich, Zurich Only people got the news..."

"Oh—" everyone could only sigh.

"I hope the French move quickly, otherwise, we can only choose to surrender..." Everyone present was speechless...

Early the next morning, more than 20 captured gunners from the Frundsberg formation pulled out four 6-pound bronze Fron cannons, set them up in front of the formation, adjusted the angle, and began bombarding the west gate of Leeuwarden .

In order to keep the shelling going, Malin specially sent Kohler and a team of people back to Texel to get some money, and then took a boat to Antwerp, the largest port city in the lowlands, to buy gunpowder and 6-pound iron ball shells , to ensure continuous shelling. I believe that under the continuous bombardment, no matter how strong the city gate is, it will be smashed open one day...