The next day, Marin published as a document the division of the territory into nine provinces: East Friesland, West Friesland, Oldenburg, Bremen, Schleswig, Jutland, South Münster, North Münster, and Osnabrück.

But, to Marlin's embarrassment, he suddenly realized that West Friesland didn't seem to have gotten his hands on it......

So, Marin, who had not rested for a few days, ordered the army to regroup. Then, an army of 20,000 men, one man and two horses, was selected and prepared to march towards West Friesland.

Of course, Marin was not willing to fight this tough battle. Because, if he wins, why do you have to fight hard? Now the Duchy of Gedes is short of troops. Since the Swiss mercenaries left, only about 7,000 troops remained in the Duchy of Godes.

According to the intelligence, the 7,000 Gedes army was divided into two major parts. Three thousand of them were stationed in Groningen to guard the Hanseatic commercial city, which brought in a lot of tax revenue. The remaining 4,000 men, holding more than 10,000 prisoners of war who had twice defeated the army of the Duchy of Saxony, were engaged in reclamation in West Friesland, preparing to reclaim a large amount of farmland.

West Frisland has a large population, with about 200,000 people, and is one of the more populous places. In addition, the area is not small, and it has always been coveted.

However, with the war in recent years, the population of West Friesland has declined, and it has lost 30,000 to 40,000 people. Some fled, some starved to death, and the labor force was much reduced.

Now the Gedes have more than 10,000 Saxon prisoners of war in their hands, and they wanted to exchange them for money. It's a pity that George's poor man can't come up with the money to ransom people. Even if you can come up with the money, it is estimated that it will be divided over many years.

However, these prisoners of war cannot be kept in vain. Even giving them the worst food, the rations of tens of thousands of prisoners of war, is a big expense.

Therefore, Charles II, Duke of Guedes, decided to learn from Marin, and pulled the prisoners of war over to reclaim the wasteland and open up new farmland, which was owned by Charles II. Or, take out part of the newly cultivated farmland and reward your soldiers.

In this way, in the past half a year, more than 10,000 Saxon prisoners of war actually helped Charles II, Duke of Geddes, to reclaim 10,000 eugrams of arable land in western West Friesland. In fact, part of the cultivated land has been planted with grain, waiting for the autumn harvest in October. Of the 7,000 garrisons stationed in West Friesland, 4,000 were taken to the western part of West Friesland to reclaim the land.

This information was reported back by a spy arranged by Coke in West Friesland. Marin had long coveted West Friesland, so naturally he had long paid attention to sending people there to collect intelligence. So, Marin is now well aware of where the enemy forces are.

Moreover, this invasion of West Friesland is actually only one of the characters. Another important task is to help George recover the more than 10,000 Saxon prisoners of war.

Therefore, the 20,000-strong army sent to West Friesland, divided into two groups - one with 6,000 men a month, surrounded Groningen; Another force of 14,000 men went straight to the western part of West Friesland, surrounding the 4,000 Gedes troops and the more than 10,000 prisoners of war.

Of course, this time Marin didn't plan to fight. The 20,000-strong army was sent just to scare the Geders and force them to obediently hand over the land.

In addition, if force is really used, the Gedse army, which is forced to be in a hurry, is likely to kill prisoners to vent their anger. At that time, his promise to help George solve the prisoner of war problem will be disappointed.

Therefore, this time, Marin intends to use the method of military intimidation, supplemented by negotiation, to solve the problem of West Frisland.

First of all, Marin must send a large army, and it is necessary to send superior forces that make the Gedes feel desperate, so that they will not have the heart to resist. In this way, it will not be too much of a problem to force him to hand over West Frisland.

Secondly, the issue of prisoners of war is also an important issue. According to European custom, prisoners of war were eligible for redemption. However, if the defeated could not pay the ransom, the victors were entitled to deal with the prisoners. The nobles are better, if they are a waste of food, it is still possible to kill a group of civilian prisoners of war. After all, those prisoners of war who were born as serfs were not considered individuals in the eyes of the aristocracy.

The problem was that when George was defeated for the second time, most of his army was sponsored by his allies, including the 4,000 Dutch warriors lent to him by Emperor Maximilian I.

He had to redeem these troops, including the civilian fighters. Otherwise, you won't be able to explain to your allies. Therefore, Marlin had to get the prisoners in their entirety and return them to George. Otherwise, even if Marin did not complete the agreement between the two parties, it may be deemed that the purchase of West Frisland has failed.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, Marin did not plan to use force with the Geddes army at this time, so as to prevent them from jumping over the wall and mass-killing Saxon prisoners of war.

Moreover, Marin had long planned to send troops to the Principality of Gedas after finding evidence of collusion with France. Therefore, there is no need to start a war with the Gedesi people prematurely at this time.

Therefore, Marin's method was - on the one hand, relying on the strong combat effectiveness of the army, to intimidate the Gedes and force them to abandon West Frisland on their own initiative; On the other hand, at a lower price, the more than 10,000 Saxon prisoners of war were forcibly bought......

As long as Mallinken paid for it, the Duke of Guedas would not be so angry that he killed the prisoners to vent his anger. After all, more money and less money are money.

Of the more than 10,000 prisoners of war, Marin planned to bid 300,000 gold coins. In fact, it is 250,000 gold coins from selling second-hand weapons to the emperor, plus a fraction of 50,000 gold coins.

This price may not be comparable to the actual value of more than a million gold coins. However, that's a lot of money.

Whether to hand over the more than 10,000 Saxon prisoners of war in exchange for the 300,000 gold coins, or to kill the prisoners to vent his anger, I believe that Charles II, Duke of Geddes, who is cunning and cunning, still knows how to choose.

Of course, in order to prevent accidents, the main thing was to prevent the Gedesi from transferring prisoners of war. Therefore, Marin specially sent a main force of 14,000 men, one man and two horses, to rush to the western plains of West Friesland to block the road to the south of the Guedes.

The reason for this was that the Gedes army, which supervised the more than 10,000 Saxon prisoners of war, would decisively take the prisoners of war south after learning that Groningen had been attacked. If they had brought those prisoners back to the Principality of Godes, Marin would not have been pleased.

After all, he will have to pretend to be a dove of peace for a long time to come, and try not to make trouble if he can. Moreover, if there is no war, it can fully confuse the Duchy of Lower Gedes and make them think that it is safe. It will be easier for Marin to raid the Duchy of Geddes after he finds the evidence. Spend some money today to redeem the prisoners of war safely. After the evidence of Gedesi's betrayal is really discovered, and then capture Gedesi, that loss can be completely recovered, and more can be gained.

In addition to intimidating the opponent, this dispatch was also to prevent the enemy from killing or transferring those Saxon prisoners of war. Then, for a small amount of money, all the prisoners of war were ransomed. In this way, he would not only occupy West Friesland, but also fulfill his promise to recapture the more than 10,000 Saxon prisoners of war.

Therefore, while excluding the entry of 20,000 troops into West Friesland, Marin also sent a letter to Charles II, Duke of Geddes, to the Duchy of Godes, first telling the other party that he had sent 20,000 troops into West Friesland, and then strongly demanded that the prisoners worth more than one million gold coins be purchased with 300,000 gold coins.

Under the coercion of his own army, I believe that Charles II, Duke of Geddes, still knows how to choose......