Soon, Marin took 1,000 soldiers, boarded dozens of fishing boats, and under the escort of 3 warships, they sailed across the English Channel to Cork, Ireland.
If it was before, Marin would not dare to walk such a large-scale fleet on the English Channel so arrogantly. However, things are different now.
In the past, ships under Marin's command had to be careful when passing through the English Channel, for fear of attracting the attention of the French and being intercepted. However, right now, the King of France has just passed away, France is in turmoil, and various forces are secretly competing with each other. Who cares about the English Channel
The same is true for Britain. Henry VII just cleaned up the fake Richard last year, and the country is now maintaining stability, so he doesn't care about other things, but the situation is better than France.
Therefore, Marin's fleet sailed in the middle of the English Channel, towards the French side...
However, when passing through the Calais area (occupied by the British), Marin passed at night in order to avoid the attention of the British. Because, the British currently claim the island of Ireland as British territory. If the British knew that they were going to seize Cork, wouldn't that be provoking Henry VII
Fortunately, the journey went smoothly, and what Marin played was the French flag to confuse merchant ships in the English Channel. Sure enough, although the British merchant ships were puzzled by the "French" dispatching such a large-scale fleet, they didn't take it seriously. After all, the British can't control what the French want to do.
As for France, the country is in chaos, and no one has come to verify whether the fleet is really the French fleet...
In this way, more than ten days later, the fleet led by Marin arrived in Cork without any suspicion along the way...
However, Marin's fleet entered the River Lee from Cockle Bay during the day, and happened to be seen by women who were out of town to pick wild vegetables. Therefore, when Marin's troops completed the landing, Cork City had already closed its gates and made a defensive posture.
But Marin did not manage the people in the city for the time being, but sent 100 cavalry to land first, and went to several roads north of Cork City to intercept all people heading north.
Because, Marin was worried that the people in the city would go north and ask Morris, Earl of Desmond, for help. But in fact, the people of Cork City did not trust Morris and did not send anyone north for help. Although no one calling for help was intercepted, Marin still scattered the 100 cavalry on various roads in the north of the city to ensure that the news would not be leaked.
Then, Marin slowly surrounded Cork City with 900 infantry...
The walls of Cork City are tall and strong. Marin looked at it. Even if the defenders are all old men, if he wants to attack by force, he will suffer a lot of losses. After all, if you want to climb the wall, the old men may not be able to beat you, but they can still push you off the wall.
Moreover, once blood bleeds, the relationship between Marin and the city people will be tense. After all, blood feuds are hard to resolve. Marin thought about it and decided to use a milder method...
On the first day, Marin divided the army into three parts, stationed in the north, west and south of the city respectively (the east of the city is Lihe, and the people in the city can't escape without sending troops), and then they buried their heads in repairing the camp. Control the people in the city.
On the top of the city, a hundred local old men looked at each other in blank dismay as they watched the Marin army leisurely building a camp there. It seemed that the other party had come to camp, not to fight.
However, after Marin felt the direction of the wind, he shifted the barracks in the west of the city a little to the south...
Why do you do this? Because, at this time, the southwest wind prevailed in Cork, and Marin placed his main camp in the southwest of Cork City, which is the upper wind of Cork City...
After repairing the camp, Marin ordered the cooking team to set up a cauldron and start cooking...
Obviously, Marin wants to use the aroma of food to lure people in Cork City...
According to the information obtained by Kidd, Cork City has been out of food for several months. Now, people in Cork City are eating wild vegetables, bark, grass roots and the like.
Marin's siege of the city actually cut off the way for the city people to dig wild vegetables and made the city people starve. At this time, he still had people set up a big pot to cook meat at the upper air outlet—clearly trying to greedy the people in the city to death...
Sure enough, when the aroma of the spiced broth wafted in the direction of Cork City, the 100 old men guarding the top of the city swallowed their saliva while inhaling the aroma...
Then, Marin asked everyone to run under the city wall, where the bows and arrows could not shoot, the upper air outlet of Cork City, to eat and drink happily, and let the Cork people on the top of the city see and smell...
Gnawing on the dry wild vegetables in their hands, the eyes of the old men on the top of the city turned red with jealousy... You know, the wild vegetables they ate were dug out by the women in the city and distributed to them...
All was well on the first day, but on the second day, Marin continued to set up the cauldron and boil the broth fiercely. Then, he also found a group of Frisian sailors, let them drink broth, eat bread, and loudly praise the delicious food in Frisian...
However, Marin just didn't attack the city. A siege battle turned Marin into a food show for the hungry people in the city...
On the third day, Marin removed an old-fashioned catapult from a warship (the Frisian warship is an old-fashioned warship, with artillery and a catapult), and placed it under the city...
The old men on the top of the city became nervous, thinking that Marin was finally going to attack the city...
Unexpectedly, instead of firing stone bombs, Marin put a few pieces of black bread into a leather bag and threw them onto the city wall through a catapult...
Looking at the few pieces of black bread in the leather bag, the old men in Cork looked at each other in dismay - what is going on
At this time, the citizens of Cork City were already very hungry. For them, Marin's two-day blockade was equivalent to cutting off wild vegetables for two days. Even the old men guarding the city are given priority to supply wild vegetables, and they can only eat half full...
Looking at the black bread that I thought was unattractive before, the old men surrounded by the leather bag suddenly felt very hungry...
Then, a few pieces of bread were divided among the dozen or so old men who "captured" the leather bag...
Finally, on the fourth day, Marin felt that the people in the city should be very hungry. So he sent someone to use earthen trumpets and began to shout to the city:
"Residents of Cork City, we are your friends, and we are here to discuss cooperation with you. Ladysand folks, open the door, we are good people!"
Marin looked at the sailor shouting in Frisian, and suddenly wanted to laugh. Although, this call was designed by him, but why does it sound so funny? Especially, the last line "we are good people" sounds like sending yourself a good person card...
"Ladysand folks, open the door, as long as you open the door, the meat and bread from our side will be distributed to you, so that your family will be full..."
…
"We don't want to do anything, but you should send a representative to negotiate..."
…
Then, the shouting on the fourth day had no effect. Because the people in the city don't believe that Marin and the others are really good people. If you are a good person, what are you doing with thousands of people besieging the city
However, on the sixth day, the people in the city were already starving... because the wild vegetable reserves were exhausted...
In desperation, the people of Cork City recommended an elder named Locke, put down the hanging basket, and asked him to negotiate in Marin's barracks...
Marin personally received the clan elder, but he was not in a hurry to negotiate, but first treated him to a big bowl of braised pork and a big bowl of pork rib soup...
If Marin hadn't stopped him, this old man, who had been hungry for a few days, might have eaten to death because he couldn't control his mouth...
After starting negotiations, Marin expressed his willingness to take control of Cork City. However, Marin also said that on the surface, Cork is still an autonomous city, and the mayor is also elected by the city people. However, Marin will appoint a government representative. Every document signed by the mayor must be submitted to this government representative for review in advance...
Locke understood that Marin wanted to secretly control Cork City. Locke was educated and a member of the MacKelly family that founded one of the original 15 families. He knew that Marin was interested in the status of Cork City's trade center and wanted to make money through Cork City.
Although, I was very unhappy. However, Locke has nothing to do with it. Because there is no army in Cork City now, it is impossible for those 100 old men to beat Marin's thousands of soldiers. If you resist stubbornly, not to mention that you can't fight well, even if you run out of food, you can starve the city people to death...
Thinking of this, Locke no longer struggled with the question of whether to surrender, but began to strive for greater benefits for the people in the city...
For example, Locke demanded that after Marin's army entered the city, they should not rob the people. Although all of their 15 big families are gone, they still have some family background. If Marin's army was detailed, they would have nothing.
For this, Marin naturally agreed. He originally wanted the port of Cork City, and he didn't care for the little money from the people in the city. Moreover, although the 15 big families still have some wealth, they are not much.
Because, when they followed False Richard, these 15 big families had already used most of their money for many years to fund False Richard, just for the illusory title of Earl...
Therefore, it is not necessary for Marin to grab or not. Moreover, Cork City will be occupied for a long time, and the relationship with the locals is too bad, which is not good, so as not to encounter an uprising in the future.
Marin fully agreed to Locke's request, but he also proposed that not only the mayor will be a puppet in the future, but also the financial officer of Cork City will be directly appointed by him instead of elected by the locals...
This is the core. Once trade resumes in Cork City, the taxes will definitely be huge. Whoever controls the finances controls the core of Cork City...
According to Cork City tradition, the Treasurer is also elected by the citizens. However, Marin is not a fool. I am a conqueror. I don’t want to rob you. If I want to let go of the finances, isn’t that a fool
Although Locke is not happy, there is nothing he can do about it—the situation is better than people...
After returning to the city, Locke convened various elders and announced Marin's conditions. The clan elders were very unhappy at first, but their hearts softened when they saw the hungry and crying children...
Finally, Locke returned outside the city and asked Marin to distribute food to the city people immediately. Marin naturally agreed, because he had already brought a lot of food, and he had already prepared all of this.
But before opening the city gate, several clan elders got down from the hanging basket and began to discuss the last important issue with Marin—the taxation of the citizens in the city...
Marin thought for a while, but didn't answer immediately, but asked how the city collected taxes in the past...
After the elders in the city described the original tax collection method in the city, Marin was a little stunned—it turned out that the residents of the medieval autonomous city (which is very different from the lord city, the taxation of the lord city is set by the lord) basically did not pay much tax. Only a limited municipal maintenance levy is paid. When taxes need to be raised, a municipal council is called to vote on whether to raise taxes. And this kind of tax increase is generally an unconventional tax item such as war tax...
"Nima, it's no wonder that the kings in the Middle Ages were very poor, so they paid this tax, and the autonomous cities basically didn't pay the king... No, this is not in our interest..."
Marin thought for a long time, and finally added a tax item to Cork City - personal income tax...
Of course, this personal income tax has a lower limit. For example, the poor whose daily income does not exceed 2 pence a day do not receive personal income tax. However, once this data is exceeded, the excess part needs to pay 10% personal income tax...
Originally, Marin wanted to set a 20% rate, but now that the taxes in European cities are so low, it will be temporarily forgotten. In fact, European citizens were so spoiled, accustomed to low taxes, that they rebelled when kings demanded higher taxes for war. Both Charles I and Louis XVI were beheaded because of tax increases...
Therefore, Marin does not intend to go to the high tax rate of later generations all at once, but is going to take it slowly. Moreover, he did not formulate a detailed city tax plan.
However, during the negotiations, when Marin proposed this tax request, he was opposed by the elders. Because these clan elders are all from wealthy families, and they are all within the scope of personal income tax.
But Marin did not back down. If he backs down this time and wants to do it next time, it will be difficult...
The clan elders returned to the city angrily, but the people in the city were so hungry that many people began to eat dirt. Even the descendants of the clan elders began to cry from hunger...
After struggling for another day, under the persecution of the people in the city, the clan elders were finally forced to accept Marin's conditions...
As for why they accepted these conditions, it was actually because Marin sent someone to poke the earth horn to shout to the residents of the city. When most people hear it, they have to pay taxes if their daily income is more than 2 pence, and they feel that it has nothing to do with them...
Moreover, Marin also asked his subordinates to explain that as long as an agreement is reached, they will immediately supply meat and bread to the residents of the city to ensure that everyone is full...
So, the hungry people surrounded the homes of several clan elders and forced them to agree to this condition...
In order to survive, people even issued death threats to these elders...
In desperation, several elders from wealthy families had to agree to Marin's conditions. But when signing the agreement, Marin quietly added a clause-the patrol (police) in the city is also in charge of the government representatives he sent. In other words, the local mayor does not have any armed forces in his hands.
In this way, the garrison and patrols in Cork City are all Marin's people. As a puppet mayor, there is no force to resist.
In the future, Marin also plans to vigorously promote the ban on guns in Cork City to prevent citizens from mastering weapons. In this way, the citizens have no strength to resist.
Moreover, Marin had already planned that no locals would be used, whether it was the garrison in the city or the patrolling. In this way, once the people in the city make trouble, there will be no such thing as the army defecting.
Just like the French Revolution, when the citizens of Paris revolutioned, it would be difficult for the citizens to occupy the arsenal if the army refused to shoot and defected.
The garrisons Marin sent to Cork City were basically Germans, and it was impossible for them to rebel with the locals. This way, he doesn't have to worry about being revolutionized...
After signing the agreement, Marin formally took over the authority of Cork City, and temporarily appointed a more educated bookman trainee knight to lead 500 soldiers to station in Cork City to protect the safety of Cork City and be responsible for local security. . At the same time, Bookman, an apprentice knight, also served as the first government representative sent by Marin to Cork City, responsible for supervising the puppet mayor...
As for the tax officer, another appointment is required. In the past two years, Kohler seemed to be on Texel Island, taking in a few disciples and teaching them to calculate accounts. It seemed that there happened to be young Frisians in it. It is more convenient for the Frisians to communicate with the local English-speaking English and Irish in Frisian, and they are sent here to take over the local tax collection.
Although, the kid is only 18 years old, but there is no way, Marin is currently extremely lacking in talents, so he had to let such a young man take the lead...
After holding a simple dedication ceremony, Marin led his troops into Cork City and began to distribute food...
The people in the city were extremely hungry, so they rushed directly to the food distribution point set up by Marin, almost causing a stampede. Fortunately, the army under Marin was strong enough to calm down the scene in time...
After eating and drinking enough, the city quickly settled down. Besides, Marin's army has all entered the city, and the 100 old men in the city can't make waves...
…
In this way, Marin did not use force, and only through the temptation of food, he "conquered" the city of Cork, which was seriously lacking in food, and took control of the largest port in Ireland...