With his men, Marin rode his horse and sneaked all the way. In Poland, there was still an identity. Because he is an ally of the Teutonic Knights, so naturally he is not on the same side as Poland.
In fact, the knights in the German region generally would not take the route of Poland when they went to the Teutonic Knights. Many people chose to go to the Teutonic Knights by boat. Because the Poles are afraid that the Knights will grow stronger, and when they see wandering knights who go to join them, they will often stop them or even detain them.
It's just that, in order to rush for time (riding a horse is faster than taking a boat), Marin hastily led the team to hurry on the road. Because of the large number of people, many people still have one person and two horses, plus a carriage. Therefore, it is also difficult to find a suitable vessel for shipment. Unlike those wandering knights who defected to the Knights, there were only one person or a few people, even with horses and armor, it was easier to find a boat.
As a last resort, Marin led the team and rushed back from the vicinity of the previous route. In fact, when they crossed the border before, like a gust of wind, they specifically avoided major towns. Therefore, the Poles could not interrogate and intercept them.
On this return journey, Marin also specially changed the route, which was close to the previous route, but it was another route. This decision saved the entire team. Because the Poles had discovered their marching route to the Teutonic Knights before, so they sent people to intercept them.
However, because Marin and the others had two horses and no full-body armor, they marched so fast that the Poles couldn't catch up at all.
The return trip was the same this time, and Marin happened to avoid the interception of the Poles. When the Poles sent troops to intercept, Marin's team had already gone far...
After entering the territory of Germany, Marin did not go directly to the Principality of Cliff, but made a detour to Lübeck first...
As the capital of the Hanseatic League, Lübeck is naturally extremely prosperous. In fact, the Hanseatic merchants in Lübeck have always been the overlord of the Baltic Sea. In the Baltic Sea region, except for the Teutonic Knights, there are merchant groups to fight against them. Many other regions, such as Poland and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, rely on Lübeck's merchant ships to transport salt and other urgent supplies. Even the Hanseatic merchants of the Teutonic Knights often rely on Lübeck's merchant ships to help transport goods. After all, not every Hanseatic merchant had the money to buy and operate merchant ships for maritime transport.
In Lübeck, there are more than a dozen shipyards alone, and a large number of Kirk sailboats are launched every year and put into the shipping business. Marin came this time to order a sailboat.
Malinte ordered two Kirk sailing ships from two powerful shipyards in Lübeck. The requirements of the two sailing boats, Marin, are both more than 200 tons of displacement, which is considered relatively large in the Kirk sailing boat.
In fact, Marin is also ordering a larger sailboat, and the Lübeck shipyard can also build it. However, as a novice in the nautical world, Marin naturally had to keep a low profile. It would be bad if you get too big a boat and attract the attention of Lübeck and give yourself a black hand. You know, the total number of Kirk sailing ships in Lübeck is as high as thousands, which is much more than that in Hamburg. If the people of Lübeck are angered, they may send dozens of armed merchant ships to siege them...
Therefore, Marin chose a size that was neither small nor too conspicuous—more than 200 tons, and its loading capacity was also quite large, but it was not so particularly conspicuous. Moreover, in the future, when Marin walks on the Baltic Sea, the flag of Königsberg will be hung, and most of the heroes on the sea will give face. If Marin's own flag was hung, it would have been beaten and sunk by people...
After booking the ship, Marin led the people to continue west by south to the Principality of Cliff...
After arriving in the Principality of Cleaver, Marin hurried to see John II, Duke of Cleaver. Unexpectedly, Marin discovered that Emperor Maximilian I was also a guest here...
It turned out that Maximilian I also dropped by here. The handsome king Philip, the only son of Maximilian I, ruled independently in the Netherlands since he was very young. From 1492, when Philip was only 14 years old, he began to manage the Netherlands alone. Since then, Maximilian I, who was originally regent of the Netherlands, moved back to Austria because of the recovery of WYN.
Since then, the father and son have been living in WYN or Innsbruck in Austria all the year round, and the other is living in Ghent, the capital of the Netherlands...
Ghent is the largest city in the Netherlands and the fourth largest city in the Holy Roman Empire after Milan, Prague and Genoa. Moreover, Ghent is located in Flanders, the most developed region of the Netherlands, and is also the capital of Flanders.
Not only Philip is resident here, the Dutch Parliament is also resident in Ghent...
Just after the New Year in 1498, Maximilian I missed his son very much, so he simply planned to go to the Netherlands to see his son.
As for Prince Philip, because he was separated from his father since he was a child, he is not very attached to his father. Therefore, it is basically impossible to expect Duke Philip (the handsome man Philip has already succeeded to the Duke of Burgundy) to take the initiative to visit the emperor Lao Tzu.
Moreover, Philip, newlywed, was still obsessed with his wife at this time—the "mad Juana" who hadn't gone crazy yet. The young couple love each other, who still remembers the old man Maximilian I (even though Maximilian I was only 39 years old)
Therefore, in desperation, Maximilian I, who missed his son, had to condescend to visit his son...
If this were in Huaxia, Wan Fu would have accused his son of being so unfilial. But in the West, they don't pay much attention to this. Regardless of Philip's young age, he is about the same age as Marin. However, he is the legal heir of the Principality of Burgundy, and he is already considered a powerful prince. Therefore, he is not even less confident than Maximilian I...
Maximilian I traveled all the way, and when he passed through Criver, the capital of the Duchy of Criver, the emperor stopped on a whim and visited John II...
The emperor's generals, as courtiers, although they do not belong to the emperor's faction, they still have to be warmly entertained on the surface. So John II warmly entertained Maximilian I. Maximilian I also stayed at Cleaver for two days. Before the emperor left, it happened that Marin also arrived at Clive and brought John II the news that Prince Philip had been successfully elected as the head of the Teutonic Knights.
John II was overjoyed, and accidentally revealed to the emperor the news that Marin helped Prince Philip run for the head of the regiment...
John II also knew that he had made a slip of the tongue, but the news had already been revealed to the emperor who was here as a guest, and it was irreversible. Fortunately, the emperor didn't know that Marin brought 100,000 gold coins to help Prince Philip, otherwise, the emperor would have to strangle Marin to death in anger.
You know, the Duke of Saxony is the emperor's cousin and ally, and Marin is the emperor's man. Marin's help to Prince Philip, the younger brother of the Duke of Cliver, is already a bit of "eating inside and outside".
But the matter has come to this point, and the emperor can't change the result. In order not to make the Duke of Saxony unhappy, the emperor even had to help Marin cover up.
However, in order to vent his anger, the emperor decided to call Marin to his residence to have a good spray...
However, Marin is very clever, how can he give the emperor a chance to spray wildly
When the emperor opened his mouth to spray Marin, Marin quickly defended:
"Your Majesty, I'm doing it for your own good..."
The emperor was stunned, but then he became even angrier - dare to quibble
"Tell me, how did you do me a favor by helping Prince Philip become the head of the regiment?"
"Your Majesty, what do you think is your number one confidant's trouble in terms of the army?"
"Of course it's the French army!" Maximilian I said without thinking.
"Be more specific?"
"It's the Swiss mercenaries in the French army..." Maximilian I thought for a while and said.
"Yes, this time, I have helped His Majesty in this regard..."
"How did you help me?"
"I think the new head of the regiment, His Royal Highness Philip, suggested that the Teutonic Knights can hire a large number of Swiss mercenaries to fight against Poland and Lithuania..."
"What does this have to do with helping me?" the emperor was puzzled.
Marin said mysteriously:
"Your Majesty, what do you think, Switzerland has such a small population, and its military strength is always limited?"
"Well, that's right."
"The minister suggested that the Teutonic Knights should hire a large number of Swiss mercenaries. Did they send a large number of Swiss mercenaries away?"
"What do you mean?" Maximilian I seemed to think of something.
"What I mean is that the Teutonic state has hired a large number of Swiss mercenaries, so if the French want to fight you, they will not be able to hire enough Swiss mercenaries..."
"Well... this... it's really like this..."
"So, the minister also weakened the strength of the French army in a disguised form..."
"It does seem to make sense..."
In fact, there are so many mercenaries in Switzerland that the French cannot hire them all. Because the salary of Swiss mercenaries is double that of ordinary mercenaries, not many countries can afford to hire them.
Marin just used the simple method of secretly changing the concept to make the emperor think that he had indeed weakened the strength of the French army...
In addition, Marin also said to the emperor:
"Your Majesty, I know that you and the Duke of Saxony are allies. However, in the final analysis, the Duke of Saxony is also a powerful independent prince who refuses to submit to the central government. He is no different from other principalities because the current Duke and you are cousins. , I became close to you. If several generations have passed, it is impossible to say that the Duke of Saxony and your descendants are still on the same side... "
"So, the fact that the Principality of Saxony is strong may not be a good thing for His Majesty. Moreover, the Principality of Saxony is already strong enough. If we make it stronger, will there be another contender for the throne?"
Marin's last sentence deeply touched the emperor. You know, until now, the election of the Shinra throne is still the system of seven electors. Originally, in history, Charles V, the grandson of Maximilian I, spent a total of 850,000 Gulden gold coins to buy the throne. Moreover, the money was borrowed from the Fugger family...
Therefore, the throne of the Habsburg family is actually not very stable...
After thinking about it, the emperor still felt that what Marin said was right, so he stopped blaming Marin, and took the initiative to help Marin cover up the matter...