King of Mercenaries

Chapter 74: Recruit Frisian fishermen

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Because he is greedy for the huge profits of the great voyage, Marin absolutely does not want to miss the newly emerging era of the great voyage.

However, he also saw that there were only 200 fishermen in his territory, and only 30 of them were young and strong. If you want to go on a big voyage, you can't get enough sailors for a ship. You know, Columbus's flagship "Santa Maria" has 39 sailors on board.

Moreover, it is impossible for Marin to enlist all the young and strong among the fishermen to become sailors. Otherwise, those old and weak fishermen will starve. Because, the main force of fishing is those young and strong.

After much deliberation, Marin finally decided to recruit Frisian fishermen, enrich the territory, and increase the sailor reserve...

Marin checked the information and found that the nobles exploited the fishermen very heavily these days. Generally speaking, those coastal lords will require fishermen to hand over more than 40% of their catch. Among them, some are fresh sea fish. The rest are marinated salted fish.

But here lies the problem. These days, salted fish need a lot of salt to pickle. The fishermen themselves are very poor, and they have to pay for expensive salt-cured salted fish to give to the lord. All in all, the cost they handed over to the lord reached as much as 60% of the catch. Plus 10% of the catch that needs to be handed over to the church. Therefore, the fishermen's harvest is only about 30% left, so life is very difficult.

If Marin wants to recruit fishermen, he must relax the conditions, otherwise it will not be attractive. So, after thinking about it, Marin decided to only charge 30% of the fisherman's harvest. And, you can come to him to reimburse 30% of the salt needed to marinate salted fish...

In this way, what the fishermen need to hand in, including the church's tithe, only costs about 40% of the harvest, which is nearly half the usual amount. Naturally, the fishermen will have a much better life.

Moreover, as a big local tyrant, Marin decided to set up a special bank to deal with fishermen professionally, provide them with low-interest loans, and encourage fishermen to raise funds collectively to buy larger fishing boats. For example, a ship of more than 100 tons like Columbus's flagship "Santa Maria" is definitely enough to fish in the North Sea.

In fact, there are many fishermen who can be recruited along the North Sea coast. For example, in the Netherlands, there are many Dutch fishermen for recruitment.

However, there is a problem. Those Dutch fishermen served the Netherlands under the control of the emperor. Recruiting those Dutch fishermen actually meant poaching the emperor's corner. Marin needs the support of the emperor, so he can't fight against the emperor yet.

Those Frisian fishermen are different. Frisians currently mainly live in the Frisian aristocratic republic (including the provinces of Friesland and Groningen in the Netherlands), and the East Frisian County where Mrs. Mary was born.

These two forces are not strong. Moreover, the Frisians, although belonging to West Germanic peoples, were excluded from mainstream Germanic society.

In other words, the Germans and the Dutch actually repel the Frisians. In later generations of Germany, there are still many jokes handed down to ridicule the stupidity of the Frisians.

Moreover, no matter whether it is the Frisian Noble Republic or the East Frisian County, the empire does not recognize it. These two countries were regarded by the empire as barbarian forces that "disobeyed discipline".

Marin had read European history in his previous life, and knew that around 1500, Maximilian I would give the Friesian aristocratic republic to Albrecht, Duke of Saxony, as a reward for the Duke of Saxony's help in suppressing the rebellion in the Flanders region of the Netherlands in 1492. Sit.

As for the Counties of East Frisia, it was also around 1515 that the emperor sent a joint army of 24 lords to conquer, but failed (the East Frisian army is quite strong)...

In other words, the two small countries of the Frisian Noble Republic and the East Frisian County were rejected by everyone in Europe. Marin would not have much problem recruiting the Frisians.

The Frisian aristocratic republic across the sea from Texel is not a united and centralized country, but an alliance composed of many aristocratic territories. In such a country, even if Marin offended them, it would be difficult for them to make a decision on military retaliation. Because, if they want to start a war, their noble council will have to quarrel for a long time. By the time they're done arguing, the other side will be ready...

Moreover, the fighting power of the Frisian Noble Republic is not as good as that of the East Frisian Counties. Although, its area is about twice that of East Frisia. However, the military power is relatively scattered, belonging to multiple noble forces, and the command is not unified. It didn't take much for Albrecht, Duke of Saxony, to conquer the Friesian noble republic after receiving the emperor's approval. But the emperor sent troops to attack the Counties of East Frisia, but they failed.

Therefore, Marin is not afraid of the hostility of the Frisian noble republic. And, in a few years' time, the republic will be destroyed by the duke of Saxony. What Marin has to do is to recruit enough Frisian fishermen to prepare for his voyage before the Duke of Saxony occupies the Friesian noble republic... Or, before the Duke of Saxony is not ready, cut off the Hu in advance, Take control of this small country... If there is a conflict, Marin thinks it will be fine. In this way, Marin has an excuse to attack the Friesian noble republic...

Therefore, Marin quietly sent people to the coastal fishing village of the Frisian Noble Republic to conduct propaganda, mobilize Frisian fishermen, and move to Texel Island.

As for the conditions, it is naturally a greatly reduced tax, as well as a loan for them to buy a big ship...

However, although the conditions offered by Marin were good, the German men sent by Marin could not gain the trust of those Frisian fishermen.

Marin thought about it, and hired 20 Frisian fishermen on Texel Island with very good treatment, and asked them to persuade the fishermen along the coast of the Frisian Noble Republic.

Sure enough, using these people to persuade, the effect is much better. Many Frisian fishermen believed it, dragged their families and drove small fishing boats to Texel Island.

Marin warmly welcomed these Frisian fishermen and arranged for people to help them build cheap and practical adobe houses. Later, he helped to renovate the fishermen's wharves in Thorenche and Oderschild to accommodate more fishing boats.

After that, Marin once again hired the eloquent people among the newly relocated Frisian fishermen to let them sneak back and convince more people.

These people were originally residents of the Frisian aristocratic republic, and their persuasion was more convincing than the Frisian fishermen sent by Saissel Island.

As a result, more Frisian fishermen, after being persuaded, brought their families with them and came by boat...