Chapter 516： Duke Alexander's decision

Of course, Marin did not completely passively accept the pressure of the other party. Most of the people who went to Worms to attend the Imperial Conference this time were actually princes of the anti-imperialist faction. These people naturally have no affection for Marin, who has a deep relationship with the emperor.

If negotiations are conducted under the witness of these people, it will definitely be one-sided pressure. Therefore, Marin intends to pull some princes who are close to him to go together to strengthen himself.

For example, the little princes of the imperial city, and John II, Duke of Cliff, and the nobles of the emperor's faction and the nobles of the Swabian League ...

It's just that this time because Marin publicly clarified the relationship with the emperor, it may attract the dissatisfaction of the emperor's aristocracy. Moreover, the emperor could not tell them publicly that Marin sold Switzerland to himself ...

Therefore, the nobles of the emperor's faction may have differences, some will support themselves, and some will oppose themselves. But the emperor himself must have known the truth, so he would certainly support himself. After all, if the emperor does not support himself, Marin may not sell the 180,000 Swiss prisoners of war to the emperor. If the 180,000 people were picked up by the French and other anti-emperor powers and used to deal with the soldiers and horses that changed the land, the harm would be too great.

Although the dozens of imperial cities are all projectiles, because of the existence of the Hanseatic League, although they have less land, they have a lot of wealth. Therefore, they also have a certain right to speak. Of the sixty or seventy imperial cities, apart from the cities in Saxony, most of them must be on the side of Lübeck and Hamburg, that is, on the side of Marin. After all, if Malin is unlucky, Lübeck and Hamburg will also die together.

Moreover, this temporary imperial meeting, Archbishop Mainz did not invite dozens of imperial cities, nor did he invite the princes of the emperor faction. So, strictly speaking, it is an informal meeting. A formal meeting is not until all forces have arrived.

Marin's countermeasures are like this-you have to negotiate under the witness of princes, right? Okay, I called everyone, not all of you ...

In addition, Marin wrote to the pope's father-in-law to send a powerful messenger to witness the negotiation. In this way, when putting pressure on Marin, those religious princes would not dare to let go. After all, they want to give the pope face.

As for those secular princes, they are not all standing on the side of Frederick III. Marin brought the representatives of the emperor faction and the imperial city, as well as the Duke Cliff and several neutral princes, to fight against them. Besides, even those secular princes, Marin will not be afraid. These stupid worldly princes have huge military power, but their combat power is not easy to say, and they are not necessarily their opponents.

The princes of his own group helped to speak, and the Holy See sent people to "look on" to calm down the religious princes. The other party's strength was at least halved. When the time comes, the negotiations will not be too bad.

To this end, Marin sent a messenger to ask the emperor for help, and asked the emperor to lead a group of princes to Worms to help themselves. At the same time, Marin also wrote letters to Lübeck and Hamburg, asking them to use their abilities to call on those imperial cities to come to Worms to help fight. After all, Lubeck and Hamburg are now on the same boat. Moreover, Lübeck and Hamburg are actually representatives of the negotiating parties. It's just that the people of the Imperial Parliament ignored these two cities. Because, in this war, the military of the local side was basically under the command of Marin. Therefore, those princes all recognized Marin's speech.

There is another unexpected advantage of bringing the local tyrants of the Hanseatic League, that is, it can affect the poor nobles who owe the Hanseatic League and take the opportunity to ask them to switch positions. Not to mention, it is very feasible to reduce debts and entice those poor aristocrats to switch positions.

...

Just as the German region was disturbed by this large-scale war, Vilnius, the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Alexander, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, were also having an important dialogue with their brother Prince Ziegmont.

Alexander looked at his brother Prince Siegmont seriously and asked seriously:

"Sigmund, did you really decide to marry the Hoffman family?"

Prince Siegmont nodded and said:

"Yes, brother, I decided!"

"But I heard that although the Marin guy has defeated the Saxons and Brandenburgs on the battlefield, he is very passive in diplomacy! I heard that Frederick III is planning to call Most of the German princes are fighting against Marin. Is it too risky for you to decide to marry the Hoffman family at this time? "Alexander said with concern.

You know, Grand Duke Alexander is not in good health, and his wife is from an enemy country. Therefore, Duke Alexander knew that he would hardly have offspring. Therefore, it is very likely that the seat of Grand Duke of Lithuania and the throne of Poland will be passed on to this younger brother.

In this way, the younger brother can marry his wife, most likely the future Queen of Poland and the Grand Duchess of Lithuania. But if the Malin Hoffman was beaten by the majority of German princes to form a group, so if the territory and title were lost, the Huffman family would become a civilian family. Even if the knighthood before the fortune was preserved, the Anne of the Hoffmans would not be worthy of his brother.

The problem is that European divorce is not easy this year. If the king wants to divorce, the pope must approve himself. His brother, King Vladislas II of Bohemia, had divorced before and met Pope Alexander VI of the Borgia family who was negotiating. If he gave money, he would be sentenced to divorce.

And now Pope Julius II seems to have much integrity in Alexander VI. At that time, my brother just wanted to divorce Anne, and the Pope might not be willing to sentence ... If you can't get away, you'll be in the hands of ...

As for the younger brother, Anne of the Huffman family is very beautiful? so what? In ancient Europe, the wife was never chosen by appearance, but by the marriage of the right family. Blood is the most important thing, beauty is not so important ...

Prince Siegmont certainly understood the concerns of Duke Alexander. However, he answered confidently:

"Brother, please don't worry. Although Marin looks dangerous, in fact, those German religious princes are unlikely to agree to send troops together. And German religious princes account for almost half of the princes, as long as they don't send troops, Frederick The coalition army that III wanted to engage in was first scrapped by half! "

"How do you know those religious princes will not be involved in sending troops?" Alexander Dagon asked suspiciously.

"I learned this when I visited East Friesland. Did you know? When the current Pope returned to Rome, he was followed by the seven thousand soldiers sent by Marin. If this army had not captured the city of Rome Now, His Majesty the Pope may not even be able to enter the city of Rome ... "

"And this thing?" Duke Alexander asked curiously.

"Yes, the current Pope and the former Pope are mortal enemies. After the death of the previous Pope, the current Pope wants to return to Rome and will naturally be rejected. Therefore, the current Pope has simply brought 7,000 soldiers into the city of Rome. The cardinals fell to him ... "Part of this information was revealed to him by Marin. The other part was guessed by myself.

"You mean ... today the Pope Lord came to power through a military coup?" Alexander said in a horrified voice.

"Probably like this, but today the Pope is originally a high-prime bishop of the Holy See. His qualifications are very old, and he does have the qualification to become a pope."

"That is to say, the current Pope will support Marin?"

"Almost like this!" Prince Siegmont nodded.

"However, even if half of the princes do not participate, the remaining half can gather 100,000 troops? Can Marin stop it?"

"Religious princes do not participate, and those secular princes do not all support Frederick III! There are many princes who are actually watching the situation. And even if they have gathered 100,000 troops, they may not be able to fight Marlin ... "

"Can't beat 100,000 people? Is Marin so powerful?" Duke Alexander was a little unbelieving.

"Brother, you think, the former Allied forces of Brandenburg and Saxony were 50,000 elite soldiers! In addition to 30,000 of the main veterans of Brandenburg and Saxony, the remaining 20,000 are the world-famous Switzerland Mercenaries, but haven't they been defeated yet? Do you think that the coalition formed by the secular German princes can beat the 40,000 elite army of Marin? You know, it is 100,000 coalition, but there are really The combat strength is actually the elite of a few, with a total of up to 20,000 or 30,000. The rest are basically mixed. Can such an army beat Malin ’s 40,000 powerful elite? Take another step back Let ’s say that if Marin ’s 40,000 people hid in the city to defend, then 100,000 people want to capture the city.

"It's hard to fail? If they are under siege for a long time? The food consumption of 40,000 people is an astronomical figure!" Dagong Alexander was a little unbelieving.

However, Prince Siegmont knew Marin had advanced fertilizer technology. Therefore, every city in East Friesland is full of food and can't eat it. So he chuckled and said:

"I've been to East Friesland, and the cities Aurich and Emden over there, but they are full of grain. On the edge of Aurich, a small city was built specifically for the purpose of putting grain ..."

Grand Duke Alexander opened his mouth in surprise, saying:

"Don't he have to sell food for money?"

After thinking for a while, Prince Siegmont did not intend to tell his brother the secret of the fertilizer, but said:

"Brother, have you forgotten? Marin is a big salt merchant, selling salt is extremely profitable, and there is no need to sell grain to make money!"

Dagong nodded and expressed his understanding. After all, their brother and Marin, as well as the big trade list of hundreds of thousands of gold coins and salt each year, Marin really does not lack money.

"So, will Marin fail?"

"Yes, at least undefeated! There is so much food and such a strong army, even if it is defending the city, it will be undefeated. Even if those princes have gathered 100,000 troops to go to the siege, it may be that the princes’ coalition first Run out! "Prince Ziegmont said firmly.

After thinking for a long time, Alexander stood up and said:

"That's good! Well, I'm now sending the Foreign Secretary to go to Germany with great fanfare in my name, directly find Marin, openly support him, and raise a kiss to Anne for you!"

"Don't wait and see?"

"Wait no longer, since according to what you said, Marin is hard to fail. Then, let us take advantage of it now! Icing on the cake is not as good as giving in the snow (there is no such idiom in Europe, but that's what it means)! We now support him publicly It is tantamount to helping him a lot, and he has to bear our favors. After all, Poland and Lithuania are both European powers, and our support is relatively deterrent. "

"And if you wait for the results to support, it is icing on the cake, it's nothing!"

"Brother wise!" Prince Siegmont patted a little fart.

The next day, in accordance with the instructions of Grand Duke Alexander, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Bereski set off with great fanfare to Germany under the guard of three thousand plate armoured knights and more knightly servants.

In fact, escorting a foreign minister can't use the three thousand plate armour knights, and such a scale can beat a princely state. But Grand Duke Alexander ’s intention was to show the strong force of Lithuania and Poland, so he did not hesitate to send so many knights ~ www.novelhall.com ~ to show muscles in front of those German princes. Anyway, Lithuania and Poland are knight powers, and there are no shortage of these three or two thousand knights. And this is also a very strong means of support for Marin ...

Besides, he just showed a muscle, and he did n’t say that he would declare war with the German princes. Duke Alexander is timid, but as a monarch of two great powers, he is not without wisdom. This public show of muscle shows his certain political wisdom. Anyway, I sent someone to raise a pro, and did not declare war. At that time, even if Marin is really finished, it's a big deal to regret the marriage. After all, I haven't gotten married yet, just to make an appointment.

In the eyes of outsiders, this is very different-Nima, Marin actually has such a strong ally, and he sent thousands of knights to march ... plus Poland and Lithuania are indeed European powers, and the deterrent is indeed not small. , To help Marin. The most important thing is that Poland and Lithuania have not stated that they want to participate in the war ... the big deal, and finally go back to see if the situation is wrong.

what? You say the dignity of the king? That stuff, Duke Alexander was already beaten up by the Maozi of the Duchy of Moscow. Along with the missing, there was the courage of Duke Alexander. Therefore, although Duke Alexander showed his muscles this time, it was only for the purpose of showing his muscles. It seemed a little difficult to make him really send troops. However, such support is also sufficient. After all, those German princes do n’t know that Alexander the Great is actually not willing to fight ... js3v3