Marin is not a stingy person. He heard that everyone only gets more than 80 gold coins per person on average (the officers get more), and he feels sorry for everyone. So, he took out 30,000 gold coins and divided them up again, so that everyone could get 100 gold coins.
In fact, the reason why the money was distributed was also to appease the morale of the army. After all, the fact that this group of people followed him and captured 4,000 people is clear to everyone. Of course, Marin can also fabricate lies to put them off. However, if you don't give some benefits that satisfy everyone, maybe some people will think too much. Once someone is unhappy and spreads news that is not good for Marin, it will be over. Therefore, take out part of the money and let everyone rate it, and first use the money to make these bumpkins foolish, and they will be immersed in joy and have no energy to think about it. After all, this group of mercenaries, who were mostly from serf families, rarely even saw gold coins before...
But Marin is also worried that these guys will run away when they get the money. So, he had to do ideological work for everyone and tell them not to run around. Because it is very dangerous for a person to go on the road with 100 gold coins and is easy to be robbed.
At the same time, Marin promised that after the war, when he returned to the country, he would agree to those who wanted to leave. This group of big and rough people didn't know where the missing captives and horses went, nor how much they sold them for. And educated military officers who could roughly estimate their value were all bought. So, no one made trouble.
This is also due to the fact that they have little culture and do not know how to calculate. Otherwise, if they knew that Marin had received the great benefit of 1.25 million gold coins, this group of people might "make a fuss"...
As for how the money came from, Marin had already thought about it, saying that it was the spoils he got by the way when he captured the French. Even, Marin insisted that the Venetians cooperated with them to complete the ambush against the French. Although, everyone seems to have not seen the Venetian army appear. But the big leader Marin said so, and the other four company captains also said the same, which made the big soldiers believe it suspiciously. From their point of view, the Venetians were probably out of their sight, cooperating with everyone to complete the ambush...
In the days that followed, Marin brainwashed everyone with these two lies every day. After telling a lie 100 times, everyone believed it to be true, not to mention that Marin said it dozens of times every day. Even Marin himself almost believed the lies he made up and was brainwashed by himself...
However, some unhappiness happened in the middle. For example, the knights sent by the three emperors and earls seemed to be dissatisfied with the 30,000 gold coins. They approached Marin privately and asked for more benefits.
Marin was also worried that they had slipped their mouths, but when they traded with the Venetian before, Marin kept an eye out. For example, when communicating privately with these three guys, Marin lied that the prisoners and weapons and armor were sold at low prices. In this regard, the three of them have no doubts. Because stolen goods are generally sold at very low prices. However, they didn't know, because the significance of this batch of "goods" was too great, and the Venetians were eager to get them, so they didn't suppress the price too hard. Therefore, the three people's valuation of the "goods" was only three to four hundred thousand gold coins. Because this is also the tradition of medieval thieves selling stolen goods. Moreover, they are just educated warriors, and they don't quite understand the strategic value of this batch of goods, so they only treat them as ordinary thieves...
In order to appease the three of them, Marin "grit his teeth" and added another 10,000 gold coins to each of them. So, the three of them were also satisfied. After all, the three of them won a total of 120,000 gold coins. Combined with their own estimate of the "total value" of 300,000 to 400,000 gold coins, they also think that Marin has done more kindly. Because, Marin has already taken out 130,000 gold coins to share equally. Counting the 120,000 gold coins they got, Marin himself estimated that they could only get tens of thousands of gold coins, not more than 100,000 at most. But Marin was the biggest officer in this operation, and they were only allocated "so much", and they couldn't ask for more. Therefore, after the "secondary distribution of spoils", hidden dangers within the army were eliminated.
After dividing up the loot, Marin planned to rush back to the imperial army's station...
With a huge team of 6,000 people, he moved slowly towards Earl Alfred's residence. At the same time, after hearing about the outbreak of war in Italy, Emperor Maximilian I hurried to Italy from Worms, where the Imperial Parliament was held.
Maximilian I was a visionary. He knew very well that if France became stronger, then the Holy Roman Empire as a neighbor would definitely become the target of the French. Especially the Principality of Burgundy under his control will inevitably become the target of the French.
Therefore, his idea is to unite with the Italians to completely defeat the French army, and it is best to capture Charles VIII. In this way, the arrogance of the French can be defeated, and the French can also be weakened. For example, Charles VIII can be exchanged for a large amount of ransom. Even, it can be exchanged for the Principality of Burgundy, which was taken by the French.
In addition, the Kingdom of Naples had better be taken from the French. If you can get it in your own hands, it will be perfect... Maximilian I was on his way, while YY arrived...
In short, Maximilian I's strategic goal is to drive the French out of Italy and weaken France's strength as much as possible...
Shortly after he arrived at Earl Alfred's residence, Marin's large troops also rushed back to the residence...
"Stop coming!" The guards on duty of the Shinra army were shocked when they saw five or six thousand people rushing towards the imperial army's garrison. They shouted in a hurry and warned the inside of the camp. As for Maximilian I, he even thought that the French had come to attack him, probably because he knew he was here...
But when the team approached, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Because the characteristics of Marin's subordinates are too distinctive—they all wear black cross and white vests...
"No, isn't there only more than 1,000 people in the Black Cross phalanx? Why are there three or four thousand people wearing black cross vests in this group?" Earl Alfred, who was standing on the tower watching, was a little puzzled.
"Then be on guard first, and ask questions when you get close."
After the team arrived at the camp, Marin stepped forward and talked to Earl Alfred on the high wall:
"Master Earl, I'm back! Ah, His Majesty the Emperor is here? I have seen His Majesty the Emperor!" Marin hurriedly dismounted, took off his hat, and bowed to Maximilian I.
"Captain Marin, what's going on? Why are there so many people behind you?" Earl Alfred asked cautiously.
"This, it's very simple. I temporarily hired 1,000 mercenaries in Italy, and then took them, together with about 2,000 Venetian soldiers, to ambush the French king's army and captured 2,000 French prisoners..."
"What? Didn't you say that the coalition forces drew a tie with the French army in the Battle of Fornovo?" Emperor Maximilian I asked suspiciously. He was informed that the French had been repulsed at the Battle of Fornovo. But the emperor knew better that the Italians had 2,000 casualties, and the French had 1,000 casualties. Obviously, the Italians are bragging, they are at best a tie with the French.
"Oh, that's true. However, after we assembled a Venetian army, we ambushed the retreating French army south of Piacenza and captured 2,000 French knights. Unfortunately, we let Charles VIII go..." Ma Lin's tone was full of pity.
But it was this tone that made Maximilian I gasp. Capture the king, how big is that? In particular, Charles VIII was accompanied by 8,000 French knights. He knew that this was quite difficult, at least, the emperor asked himself that it was basically impossible for him to do it.
However, the knight in front of him was so brazen. However, the captives they were escorting, the thousands of horses, and the plate armor loaded in a row of carts proved that this was true. Because the emperor knew the origin of Marin very well. It is impossible for this poor knight to have so many horses and armors. Even if the civilians plundered in Italy, they could only get money, not horses and armor...
Then, the emperor ordered someone to let Marin in. As for the others, the emperor was very cautious and asked them to camp outside the camp for the time being.
"Tell me quickly, what's going on?"
Marin's ambush of the French, because there was no publicity, everyone basically didn't know the situation.
So, Marin added fuel to the publicity of the ambush. The rest of the plot is fine, but Marin adds something. For example, he encountered 2,000 troops from Venice on his way south. Their commander Paciano (a real person who came to the imperial camp with the team) seemed to admire Marin very much, so he went on the road with him and cooperated with Marin to complete the beautiful ambush—this is In order to respect Marin's military exploits, the Governor of Venice specifically recognized Marin's leadership...
"What? Captured 4,000 French knights, what about the other 2,000?" The emperor stood up excitedly. This is definitely a big thing. Capturing 4,000 French knights is usually only done by tens of thousands of troops. In Marin's mouth, they only used a few thousand people.
"It was taken away by the Venetians. We agreed before the war that the spoils will be shared equally..." Marin said innocently.
"Why do you have so many people under your command?"
"Oh, they were recruited temporarily. In addition, 1,000 people were lent to me by the Venetians. They were under the command of Commander Paciano. After the captives came back, Commander Paciano had to take them back to Venice. Well..." Marin discussed with Agostino Barbarigo that Paciano would represent Venice and bring back the 1,000 Italian peasants who had trained the queue, and let them pretend to be heroes to prevent their lies from being exposed.
"How are these Italian soldiers fighting?" The emperor was also a little tempted, thinking that the Italians were very powerful, otherwise how could they defeat the French...
"Your Majesty, with all due respect, the fighting power of the Italians cannot match that of the Germans..."
"Then didn't you defeat the 8,000 knights of the French?"
"Your Majesty, it was a sneak attack! It was a night attack! The French were eager to escape, so we ambushed halfway and threw stones down the mountain, killing many Frenchmen. Otherwise, if it was on the flat ground, I might have been killed. The French killed the…”
"It's... okay?"
"Yes, this is the oriental tactic my teacher taught me!" Einstein came out to take the blame again...
"East? That great empire?"
"Yes, the ancient military tactics of that powerful Eastern Empire."
"So powerful?" Maximilian I was very tempted.
"Your Majesty, it's actually not too powerful. The main reason is that the timing was too coincidental. The French escaped in the middle of the night and happened to crash into the ambush circle of the minister... After all, it is difficult for them to detect the ambush of the minister in the middle of the night..."
"That's true..." Maximilian I was not someone who didn't understand military affairs. He knew that the French army who ran away in the middle of the night had indeed suffered eight lifetimes of bad luck, so that the little knight in front of him caught the loophole and launched a beautiful ambush. On another occasion, the French would never be so unlucky. Even, it may kill Marin as the little knight said...
"But, how did you know that the French would run away from you?" Maximilian I was not a fool, and felt the problem.
"Uh... Actually... I'm not sure, I just thought the French would not love to fight. So, I laid an ambush casually. I thought the French would retreat the next day, but I didn't expect to come in the middle of the night. I also rushed to fight, but the French People are more hasty, and they were obviously frightened by our army's ambush, so they were defeated..." Marin specifically pointed out that this was a coincidence in order to describe it reasonably. Otherwise, he couldn't explain how he knew the French would flee in the middle of the night...
"This... Marlin Knight... your luck... is really against the sky..." Maximilian I opened his mouth wide, trying to say something, but he didn't know how to say it. As for Marin's prediction that the French would escape in the middle of the night, Maximilian I did not believe it either. Because it was more reasonable for Marin to ambush the French by chance...
"Your Majesty, this time the minister's harvest is the biggest. Among the 2,000 captives, there is a French earl, 6 barons, and 200 fief knights. The others are all landless knights, but they are also French royal knights..." Marin didn't want the emperor to be entangled in this unanswerable question, so he began to change the subject.
"Count...you caught the count?" The emperor was stunned...