Chapter 699： Lay down

Henry VII's plan to recruit sailors to the battle was not very smooth, because the plan was too late. Richard Pol was previously sent to the Calais fort to negotiate with the French to discuss the issue of exchanging prisoners of war for the Calais fortress. But Louis XII was not stupid, he would rather pay a ransom to ransom, rather than hand over the Calais fortress. Therefore, Richard Bol was dragged in the Calais for a long time, and he came back to offer this strategy, which was naturally much later than Marin expected.

It is precisely because of this time difference that the attitudes of many big ship owners and sailors in the Five-Port Alliance have become ambiguous. Admittedly, these shipowners knew that if all the experienced sailors of the Five Ports League helped guard London, they might be able to keep London and the Stuart dynasty. However, that has to pay a great price.

More seriously, Marin had threatened in a secret letter written to the big ship owners in the name of Edwards-if the old sailors of the Five Ports League all went to London to help, the army might not be able to capture London, but ran to the sea and won The five port cities are still okay. Moreover, if they provoke them, it is not impossible to kill the city in the five port cities ...

This threat really frightened the big ship owners. They are all people with big businesses, and their businesses are in five port cities. If you work hard to help Henry VII to guard London, the five port cities will be empty immediately. By then, it is inevitable to be defeated by Edward's army. If the other party really slaughtered the city ... those big ship owners would not dare to gamble ...

Anyway, even if London had defended, Henry VII might not win. Because those sailors are not used to land combat. Relying on the tall walls to defend the city is still okay, and the plains are sure to be abused. Therefore, even if Edward cannot beat London, he can occupy other areas outside London, including five port cities. If Edward had been besieging London for a long time, Henry VII would eventually inevitably fail ...

Thinking of this, the big ship owners sent their hearts to the several military ports on the Irish coast, secretly notified the sailors and even the captain, so that they could find a way to get rid of the call of Henry VII. As for excuses ... It seems that Kidd's fleet is still wandering around in this generation, and can leave in the name of chasing enemy ships ...

Then, before Henry VII's order arrived at the military port in the west, the ships prepared enough food and fresh water to go to sea to "hunt" Kidd's fleet ...

This time on the sea, these big ships from the Five Ports Alliance decided-not to return for two months ...

I heard that the west fleet was going to sea, and Henry VII was helpless. Therefore, he had to recruit ordinary sailors outside the Five-Hong Kong League. These sailors also have many people with rich sailing and combat experience, but they are totally unable to compare with the five-port alliance. So, before the arrival of Marin's army, Henry VII recruited 10,000 sailors from the nearby port. In addition, 5,000 farmers were mobilized from several neighboring counties to assist in defending the city. Counting the previous three thousand regular troops, there are also 80,000 armed forces in the city of London at this time. This is not counting the London citizens who serve the army ... but in fact, most of the fighting power of this army is very bad. If it is on the plain, it can be defeated in one round. Fortunately, the city of London is very tall and sturdy. With the strong and strong walls, they can support one or two.

...

Besides the Marin side, after re-boarding the ship in Newcastle, the army arrived in Grimsby Harbour at the mouth of the Humber River a few days later. Then, the army landed and merged with the few troops and civilians left behind.

At this time, according to Marin's order, a large amount of grain was shipped from Emden in the North Sea Principality and stored here. After two days of repairing the army, Marin gathered a large army again and went south into London.

In order to speed up, Marin left most of the captured British soldiers in Grimsby Harbor, and specially built a large number of concentration camps to house them. At the same time, along with the nobles of Scotland, they were also placed here. As for the defense of Port Grimsby, Marin handed over to the navy of the Grand Duchy of the North Sea ...

The North Sea Grand Duchy fleet stationed in Grimsby Port has 10 500-ton warships and 10 250-class armed merchant ships. The total number of sailors on these warships is more than 4,000. Marin asked them to arrange for half of them to land and take care of the prisoners. The rest are left on board. Fearing that there were not enough people, Marin also sent the fleet to return to the country, and sent more people to prevent the prisoners of war from being lost. Among them, the most precious, of course, are James IV and other Scottish noble prisoners of war. These people, but they can get a lot of ransom, gold is very expensive. If it is placed as close to Scotland as Newcastle is, the Scots may try to fight for people. But if you put it in Port Grimsby, it will be fine. With so many powerful warships, and the Humber River blocking, the Scots will not succeed even if the whole country is desperate.

After placing the prisoners of war, Marin took the main force directly, and 50,000 civilians went south with a similar number of civilians of the British army. There are more than 30,000 civilians carrying grain and grass, and the marching process should not be too easy. Www.novelhall.com

By the end of August, the army had passed Lincolnshire, crossed Cambridgeshire and Essex, and arrived near London. While passing Cambridgeshire, Marin also commanded the army and ransacked the almost undefended capital of Cambridgeshire, Cambridge City, but left Cambridge University. Even, Marin suggested that Edward recruit a group of law students who are about to graduate from Cambridge University to serve as a helping hand to govern the country in the future. After all, the overthrow of Henry VII this time requires the killing of a group of senior officials, and there must be a lot of vacancies for officials. Rather than promote the unreliable middle- and low-level officials who originally attached to Henry VII, it is better to train a group of Cambridge university students. Of course, it must be clearly discerned whether there are noble children of Henry VII and one of these people ...

By the time of the 8 Yue 30, Marin's army had officially arrived outside the city of London and began camping ...

The city of London is located on the north side of the Thames, so if you want to attack the city, you can only attack the east, north and west directions. Therefore, Marin set up three large camps in these three directions.

Although the forces were dispersed in this way, Marin gave Henry VII ten guts, and forgive Henry VII not to dare to attack the city. Because at this time there were only three thousand regular troops in the city of London. The rest are either pirate sailors or minzhuang. If they come out, they will definitely give food ...

In fact, Marin had made the North Sea Chamber of Commerce's focus on the Westgate of London. However, in order to confuse Henry VII, Marin deliberately placed the most important artillery unit in the siege north of the city. This makes people seem as if the main direction of attack is north of the city. But in fact, Marin had already prepared to attack Simon.

However, before the siege, Marin has one more thing to do ...