King of Mercenaries

Chapter 115: Buy the Isle and Baron Varden

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On the island of Texel, after the Frisians retreated, the mayor of Den Burg, Heidel Lermann, had already begun to organize his people to get all the horses in the city out of the city. At the same time, the horse manure left by the more than a thousand horses was sent out of the city with a cart, and began to be piled up in the pit, where nitrate was formed and fertilized at the same time.

After Schwartz returned all the farm tools that the Frisians had robbed, the spring plowing on the island officially began. Although it is a bit late, it is still too late to catch up. Malin's 500 Yugram winter wheat was completely destroyed, so it was plowed again to plant rye.

After the signing of the armistice agreement, Marin sent troops to escort the 1,000 soldiers back to Texel Island to supervise them to do rough and heavy work in spring plowing, so as to speed up the progress.

Because in the armistice agreement, Friesland allowed Marin to openly recruit Frisian fishermen, so Marin sent people to the coast of Friesland to recruit fishermen.

However, the recruitment was not very smooth, not everyone was willing to leave the old fishing village they were accustomed to. In a rage, Marin no longer sent lobbyists to recruit, but instead sent the army to...

In this way, Marin roguely used the method of semi-kidnapping to kidnap fishermen from many fishing villages on the Frisian seaside. At the time of the final statistics, Marin "recruited" a total of more than 3,000 fishermen from more than a dozen fishing villages...

Regarding Marin's rogue behavior, the Frisian Noble Republic endured it. Anyway, in a few months, when the French army arrives, Marin will be able to spit out everything he eats...

Thinking that the two large islands of Terschelling and Freeland in the West Frisian Islands were not in his own hands, Marin decided to buy these two islands from the emperor. At the same time, it also established the fact that it actually occupied the entire West Frisian Islands as a legal fact.

You know, because the entire Frisian noble republic is not recognized by the empire. Logically speaking, the empire did not necessarily recognize the agreement reached between himself and the Friesian noble republic. It would be bad if one day someone else made a fuss about this and competed with him for the territory. Therefore, while Marin planned to buy the island with the emperor, he simply bought the legal right to rule the rest of the islands.

For this reason, Marin sent people to investigate the two islands of Terschelling and Freeland under the control of the emperor. It was found that the development of these two islands is very low.

Needless to say, Freeland Island lacks fresh water resources, and only the northeast part of the island has relatively sufficient fresh water resources. Therefore, in later generations, there was only one village in East Freeland on Freeland Island. But now, on Freeland Island, there is only a small seaside fishing village in East Freeland, and no one is cultivating farmland on the island.

The natural conditions of Terschelling Island are much better. With an area of 88.1 square kilometers, it is not a small town in the plain area of later generations. The fresh water resources on the island are quite sufficient, and several villages can be reclaimed.

However, in this era, the traffic on Terschelling was very inconvenient. Because it is far away from the land, everything on the island (except salted fish) is much more expensive than on the land. Therefore, the life of the residents on the island is very difficult. There are only more than one hundred fishermen and dozens of farmers living on the island. The officials of the Earl of the Netherlands are not very concerned about these two small islands. Because these two islands are too poor, there is no oil and water. Therefore, except for sending people to the island to collect dried salted fish every year after the fish season, at other times, no officials are willing to go to such remote areas.

In this era, the population of the Netherlands was only one million, unlike the tens of millions in later generations. The land on the Dutch land has not yet been developed, and there is no need to develop islands. Therefore, like West Frisia, the attractiveness of people is very low. The reason why the West Frisian Islands were developed in later generations was because the population of the Netherlands was too large, and every inch of land could only be used. Now, the West Frisian Islands, except for Texel, the other islands are completely dispensable and poor areas. Moreover, people in this era feel that these islands are tasteless, tasteless to eat, and it is a pity to discard them.

Only small lords like Marin, because of their weak strength, dare not make land claims, so they can only set their sights on these islands with relatively high development potential.

After understanding the situation, Marin took a team of people and took the gold and silver to buy the island to Innsbruck, a small Austrian city where the emperor was resident.

Half a month later, Marin appeared in Innsbruck and met Maximilian I. At this time, Maximilian I was working with his plate armor craftsman Konla Zosenhof to develop the armor that is famous for later generations - Maximilian armor...

"Good day Your Majesty, Marin Hoffmann, Baron of Texel, salutes you, hello, Holy Rome!" Marin immediately stood up straight when he saw Maximilian I, and an ancient Roman military salute was formed.

"Baron Marin, sit down, this time you come to Austria, what can I do for you?" Maximilian I was busy designing new plate armor these days, and he didn't have much time to greet Marin, so he went straight to the point.

"Yes, Your Majesty, Chen just fought a battle with the Frisian noble republic on the other side..."

"What? You fought a war? You came to ask for help?" Friesland was on the side of the mountain high road in Austria, and Maximilian I had not received the information there.

"Uh... Your Majesty, I didn't come here to ask for help. I won the battle..."

"Ah? That's not a small country. You, a small Barony of Texel, can beat them?" Maximilian I became interested.

"Chen... Chen hired other soldiers and horses, helped them defeat them, and even robbed them of several islands..." Marin hesitated. Because, the Habsburgs and the Swiss are enemies. Marin hired the Swiss, and he didn't know if it would make Maximilian I dissatisfied.

"What? You defeated the Frisians? Where did you hire soldiers and horses? So powerful? I'm even a little interested..."

"It's Swiss..." Marin whispered. The emperor will receive news of this kind of thing soon, there is no need to lie.

"Swiss? Are those people reliable?" Maximilian I frowned as expected.

"It's just unreliable, Your Majesty! I have already besieged the Frisians in Leeuwarden with the troops from the island and the Swiss. It is only a matter of time before the city is broken. As long as Leeuwarden is broken, I can completely occupy Frisia." As a result, as soon as the French came and said a few words, the Swiss broke the contract and ran away... I was so angry... "

"I see... the Swiss are really not good people..." Maximilian I nodded in agreement.

"Later, the French came to mediate, but in desperation, the minister could only ask to cut off a few small islands controlled by the Frisians..."

"Then why did you travel thousands of miles to find me?"

"Please look, Your Majesty..." Marin took out the prepared parchment map and pointed it to Maximilian I.

"The islands of Ameland and Schiermonnick ceded to the minister by the Frisians, not to mention other islands, are too small to be worth developing."

"Well... then what?"

"Between your Isle of Texel and Ameland, there are two large islands—Vlieland and Terschelling, both of which are under His Majesty's control..."

"Do you want these two islands with me?" Maximilian I's mind turned faster.

"Well, without these two islands, the connection between Texel, Ameland and Schiermonnick would be inconvenient for development..."

"Then what are you going to pay for? You know, these two islands are not small in size. Together, they are not much smaller than your Texel Island..."

"The minister is willing to pay 5,000 gold coins..." Marin began to bid, but the bid was not high.

"It's a little less, Baron Marlin, those two islands, I can use them to confer another baron..."

"Your Majesty, the subject is also poor..."

"You are poor and can afford to hire Swiss mercenaries? Their commissions are very expensive..."

"It was Chen and the Wiggins Chamber of Commerce of the Hanseatic League who borrowed a large sum of money as a deposit before they were hired..."

"What about the final payment? How do you pay?"

"As long as the Friesians are defeated, they can pay back the final payment... Anyway, the Swiss will definitely defeat the Frisians... Moreover, because the Swiss mercenaries defaulted on the contract, I don't even have to pay the final payment."

"Hehe... You are really good at calculating, but 5,000 gold coins just want to take those two big islands, which is a bit beautiful..."

"Your Majesty, there is nothing wrong with those two islands. Freeland Island lacks fresh water, and there is only a small fishing village in East Freeland. On Terschelling Island, there is only a small fishing village and a small farm. 5000 gold coins is not too little... "

"Really?" Maximilian I really didn't understand the local situation.

"I swear in the name of God that what you say is true!"

"Well, even so, 5,000 gold coins is a little low. If you are willing to pay 10,000 gold coins, I can sign a document and authorize you to rule the entire West Frisian Islands!"

"Kechen has already occupied other islands besides those two islands..."

"Without my authorization, it is illegal for you to occupy it, and you are not protected by the laws of the empire. If others attack other islands except Texel Island, it is not illegal..."

Maximilian I was right, but this was also in Marin's calculations. This time I came to Maximilian I for this reason.

"Ten thousand gold coins... This time, I only got 10,000 gold coins as compensation from the Frisians..."

"That's just right!" Maximilian I was very happy, for his financial situation has always been bad, he attaches great importance to money. Although he still has a lot of money in his hand, the more the better...

"Okay..." Marin looked frustrated, but he was actually very happy.

Ever since, Marin only spent 10,000 gold coins to obtain a legal document issued by the emperor, and obtained the legal right to rule the entire West Frisian Islands...

Because the entire West Frisian Islands surrounded the entire Wadden Sea, the title of Baron Texel of Marin was simply replaced by the Baron Wadden by the emperor. The West Frisian Islands were also renamed the Wadden Islands according to the Dutch custom...

Although the name was changed to Baron Wadden, the status of the barony remained unchanged, and it was still a tax-free empire barony, responsible only to the emperor himself...