In Germany, where there are many princes, no country should try to stand alone against the other powers of the empire. Pen, Fun, Pavilion www.biquge.info Therefore, the small princes should hold a group, or find the big princes as backers. And the big princes also need to find a group of younger brothers as allies to enhance their strength.

Therefore, there seem to be more than 200 large and small princes in the German region, but in fact, there are only a few forces. The main thing is that the emperor faction headed by the Habsburg family, and the various local powerful factions led by the seven electors. Of course, there are also some wealthy and powerful countries that do not need to be dependent on others and become one on their own. For example, the Duchy of Gedes, which provoked the conflict in the Friesland region, was able to stand on its own because of its fertile location in the lower Rhine, its good finances, and the ease of freight.

In addition, John II, Duke of Cleaver, can also be self-contained. Because, he has not only the Duchy of Cleaver in his name, but also the country of Macbeth. The two countries are not small, and together they can be regarded as the number one force. What's more, Engelbert, the second brother of John II, who is also the earl of the Earl of Nevers, is also one of these forces. What's more, Philip, the third brother of John II, also became the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

In addition, some quasi-powerful countries will also form a force. The representative of this is the Swabian League. This is a group of nobles in the Swabian region who are neither strong nor weak, forming a force for self-preservation. However, this force took refuge in the Habsburgs of Maximilian I.

The reason why Marin wanted to enter the Imperial Council was not only to obtain an equal diplomatic status with other princes, but also to gain allies by participating in the Imperial Council and avoid becoming a loner in the future.

Just like Prussia, which later agreed to Little Germany, in addition to its military strength, diplomatic efforts were also very important. Even, the importance of diplomacy is not inferior to military efforts.

Who was Bismarck, Chancellor of the First German Reich? He was a diplomat. It was thanks to his efforts that in the conflict between Germany and France, neither Britain nor Russia pulled Germany back, and even secretly supported it. Therefore, Prussia defeated France, the great power in Europe at that time, and achieved a new great power status. This is inseparable from Bismarck's superb diplomacy.

Throughout Bismarck's life, he stressed the importance of maintaining good relations with Russia. Because Bismarck knew very well that Tsarist Russia had a huge land area, a very strong mobilization capacity, and was also very resilient. Therefore, during Bismarck's administration, he always chose to win over Tsarist Russia. In this way, not only did it avoid a strong opponent who was stubbornly stalked, but it also ensured the stability of the territory on the Eastern Front, so that Prussia had enough energy to fight France alone.

But by the time of Wilhelm II, this fool not only offended Britain and France in the west, but also tore his face with Russia, and as a result, Germany was caught between the east and the west. Even if the German army was strong, it could not resist the alliance of two fronts and three major empires. Its chosen allies are also Austria and Italy, two comic countries.

Therefore, the success or failure of diplomacy is directly related to whether the expansion process is smooth or not.

It should be pointed out that the reason why Prussia was able to rise in the 19th century was not only to engage in militarism, but also to promote the "German Customs Union" led by Prussia in 1834. Through this customs union, Prussia united most of the princes of northern Germany (with the exception of a few states in the south, such as Bavaria), into a close union of trade and interests, and succeeded in excluding Austria from Lesser Germany.

Through this customs union, Prussia issued a large number of Taylor silver coins engraved with the heads of the Prussian kings, which circulated them in the German states. The subjects of the various states, accustomed to the use of Prussian Taylor, had little rejection of submitting to the German leadership. After all, they used silver coins engraved with the heads of the Prussian kings every day......

Marin would have liked to have a similar organization like the "German Customs Union" to unify the markets of northern Germany. However, this is a dream......

Because, the productivity of this era is completely different from that of the 19th century. In the 19th century, the world had entered the era of industrialization, and commodities were very abundant and naturally circulated. At that time, customs duties became almost a very important part of the country's fiscal revenue. Some small states live on the division of the Customs Union. Prussia was able to become the leader of the Customs Union by including the Ruhr region into its sphere of influence after the war, vigorously developing industry, and becoming the strongest industrial country in the Customs Union.

If we were to change countries, if our industry was not developed, even the first initiator of the Customs Union would not be able to become the leader of the Customs Union.

In this era, not to mention industry, even agriculture, it is also backward, and the circulation of commodities is extremely underdeveloped. In fact, most of the commercial channels in Germany were in the hands of the Hanseatic League. The princes basically lived on land rent. Because of poverty, it was necessary to often borrow usury from large merchants or the Hanseatic League. If you can't afford it, you can use your privileges to pay off your debts, or use mines to pay off your debts.

The Fugger family, the first financial family of this era, was the main lender of the Habsburgs. Charles V was elected Holy Roman Emperor because the Fugger family provided 850,000 gold coins for the election. In return, Charles V mortgaged many of the copper mines in Austria and Bohemia to the Fugger family.

However, the rulers of the Fugger family did not expect in any case that there was a super-large copper mine in Sweden's Faylen. Not long after the Fugger family acquired many copper mines, Fa Yilun's super-large copper mine began to be developed on a large scale...... Then, the price of copper plummeted, and the Fugger family's investments shrank significantly, and then, it declined......

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Around July, a new Imperial Diet will be convened. The Emperor informed Marin that he intended to recommend Marin to the Imperial Council at this Imperial Council. The nobles in the Habsburg family's sphere of influence on the emperor's side, the emperor greeted him, including the Swabian League, and they all supported Marin to enter the imperial parliament.

Previously, at the behest of the Emperor, Marin had also bribed the other 5 Electors except for the Elector of Saxony and the King of Bohemia, the Emperor's sworn enemy. The bribery effect is still good. Marin can rest assured that these five electors who have received money will call on their younger brothers to help Marin vote.

It's just that Marin has overlooked one class before, and that is the Imperial Free City......

The Imperial Free Cities were a special group of people, usually authorized by the Emperor, and in the 13th and 14th centuries they were separated from some episcopal states or aristocratic domains and had independent judicial powers. They did not have to pay any obligations to their lords in peacetime, except for paying taxes to the emperor in times of war, which required a resolution of the Imperial Diet.

The most bizarre thing is the city of Cologne. Although, the city of Cologne is the legal capital of the Archbishopric of Cologne. But in reality, the city of Cologne is an imperial free city, not under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Cologne. The actual residence of the Archbishop of Cologne was in Bonn, south of Cologne, the first city Marin had just entered. Of course, Bonn was also the seat of the West German government for a long time after World War II.

In addition to Bonn, there are also Worms (where the Reichstag was held), Augsburg, Strasbourg, Basel and Mainz (although it was a free city of the Reich, the Archbishop of Mainz was also in the city......

Imperial Free Cities are different from ordinary Free Cities, which are not eligible to participate in the Imperial Diet. The free cities of the Empire, on the other hand, were able to send representatives to the Imperial Parliament.

Previously, Marin had forgotten to curry favor with these free cities of the Empire that had votes, and the Emperor had forgotten about it. Now, the Emperor has sent someone to inform Marin not to forget to bribe the representatives of these free cities of the Empire.

After receiving the emperor's notice, Marin immediately sent men to bribe the representatives of the free cities of the empire. Bribing representatives of the free cities of the empire is different from bribing those big nobles, bribing big nobles, which can be done semi-openly. Because, these big nobles, in their own territory, are all about their word. The representatives of the Imperial Free Cities are only the spokespersons elected by the local councils of the Imperial Free Cities, and cannot speak in their respective cities. It's just that whether Marin is elected as a member of the Imperial Council or not, their voice is still very important.

In fact, the citizens of the free cities of the Reich did not care whether Marin was elected to the Imperial Diet or not. Therefore, the local parliament will not vote, let the deputies to the Reichstag make what to choose. What's more, the emperor's proposal was not made public, and most of the people in the free cities of the empire did not know about it.

In this case, Marin only needs to get the representatives of the free cities of the empire to participate in the imperial parliament, and it will be fine. However, because these people are only elected representatives, bribing them must be done secretly. Otherwise, if the council of the Imperial Free City where they are located is known, they may be deposed.

Therefore, Marin used some secret forces controlled by Kohler, quietly contacted these people, and sent gold coins...... Then, that's it...... After all, there are few European aristocrats and officials in this era who are not greedy......

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And because the emperor and the new Duke of Saxony George, made an agreement, George would choose to support Marin in the Imperial Diet. Then, in this way, the nobles of the Saxon department may not be able to stop themselves.

However, George is no longer the leader of the Saxon aristocracy. Therefore, George's opinion can only represent the opinion of the Duchy of Saxony, and no longer has the ability to influence the other dozen or so nobles of the Saxon aristocratic circle.

Therefore, Marin also needs to send people to bribe these people. Therefore, Marin once again sent men to bribe these Saxon nobles, asking them not to trouble themselves in the Imperial Assembly. Now, the Duchy of Saxony, with whom they have the greatest grudges, no longer embarrass themselves, and there is no reason for them to be difficult with them anymore. Of course, if they don't give some benefits, they may not choose to support their election like George. After all, George, that's because of the exchange of interests. The other Saxon nobles have little conflict of interest with themselves, but if they give them "benefits" (bribes), they have no need to fight with themselves.

However, Marin knew very well that once George resolved the West Frisian War and no longer needed to look at his own face, then George would immediately turn his face and no longer support himself. Therefore, this opportunity is also rare. It's also good to be able to use a Saxon noble.

Moreover, Marin didn't think that George would be able to get the Duchy of Gedes quickly. Because, the Principality of Geddes is clearly a hidden BOSS, strong, but low-key. George didn't know the severity, and he still regarded it as a soft persimmon, and he would suffer it in the future......

But Marin didn't care what happened to George, what he had to do now was to enlist all the allies he could win over and help him qualify as a member of the Imperial Council. With this qualification, he has the status of being equal to other big nobles and big forces. Then, we can slowly choose allies and engage in "vertical and horizontal" ...... On the road to supremacy, Marin needs allies......