The German princes in Basel knew very well that they could still have hope of fighting Marin if they were blocked by the walls. After all, they had 37,000 men in their hands, and although they couldn't defeat the Beihai army in the wild, they could survive by holding the city walls.

However, once the city is broken, then the role of the city wall is lost. When the time comes, it will be up to the actual combat effectiveness. The alliance of princes knows this very well and knows that the coalition army is definitely not an opponent. What's more, there are 20,000 Habsburg troops in the south of the city.

In desperation, Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, had no choice but to take all the princes out of the city through the bombed north gate and come to Marin again to ask for peace talks. Of course, to say that it is peace talks, in fact, is to seek peace.

Looking at the dozens of princes present, Marin had an urge to tie up these people as meat tickets. However, he still suppressed the idea.

If he really did that, those church princes couldn't even turn their faces if they wanted to. In addition, the French will definitely stop the Italian plan and settle him first.

At this time, Marin was not able to fight against the union of the French and German princes. Even if Marin survives the enemy's frantic counterattack, I'm afraid he won't be able to eat those vassal states. When the time comes, maybe the Habsburgs will be cheaper. After all, Maximilian I held the position of emperor and had an advantage over Marin. In addition, Frentzberg also learned the training methods of the North Sea State, and once he had enough money and food to expand the army, he could make the Habsburgs a fierce rival of Marin......

Therefore, Marin forcibly suppressed the ambition in his heart and greeted the princes politely with a spring breeze on his face......

"Alas, what a peerless genius! It's a pity that it's not our people......" Looking at Marin with a warm smile on his face, Frederick III sighed in his heart.

After the two sides had settled down, the Elector of Brandenburg, Joakim I, suddenly asked:

"Grand Duke Marin, I would like to know how you destroyed the North City Gate. We had tinplate on the city gates, and it was difficult to solve the shelling. Also, how could the city gates be burned down so easily? ”

The Hohenzollern family had always been martial, and Joakim I was puzzled by how quickly the North Gate was breached, so he simply asked directly before the negotiations began.

Marin rolled his eyes when he heard this-you are a second, this kind of secret, I will tell you?

So, Marin gave a fake answer......

"Well...... Probably the tinplate covering the north gate is too thin. I sent men to the gate of the city under the cover of a cart with a tin roof, and chiseled the iron sheet from the gate with a pickaxe. Then, with flammable weeds, oil, and ......"

"Brimstone, huh? We all smell it! Joakim I said firmly. After all, sulfur smells great when burned. Standing on the top of the city, you can smell it from afar.

Marin nodded, but his heart blossomed with joy - this "assist" is good, I just want you to pay attention to the sulfur and ignore the "oil" variety. Of course, I don't tell the truth...... As for the nonsense of "chiseling iron sheets with a mining pick", Marin is not worried about being exposed. Because, after the city gate was destroyed by fire, those tinplate sheets had long been deformed under the high temperature, and it was impossible to see how they were destroyed before. Even if the princes wanted to verify, it would be difficult to do so......

Subsequently, in order to further fool the princes, Marin said with a fluke look:

"Maybe it's luck, you know, it's winter, it's drier. After the iron sheet on the gate was chiseled, the gate was burned out because of the fire. Actually, I didn't expect to actually burn down the city gates. Perhaps, the quality of the wood of this gate is not good...... Originally, I planned to burn it for a while, and then use artillery to bombard the city gates. Wait for the hole to blow out and then stuff the powder keg to blow up the door, I didn't expect ......"

The dozens of princes present suddenly had their noses crooked - paralyzed, we were really unlucky......

Then they thought again—it seems that the gates will have to be thickened in the future, otherwise it will not be easy to be chiseled open...... They don't know that no matter how thick the iron sheet is, it is useless, and the pure iron door is useless. In front of Wang Shui, all metals are floating clouds......

……

Next, the negotiation is much easier. Because they were afraid of being wiped out by Marin, the princes didn't dare to pretend this time. As for Marin's desire to annex the 8 vassal states, they only symbolically protested for a while, and then there was no follow-up. After all, "Dead Friends Don't Die Poor" is just as common in Europe.

Of course, Marin promised not to abolish the titles of the eight princes and retain their status as great nobles. It's just that their feudal kingdom will have nothing to do with them in the future.

Then, it's time to fight for treatment. According to the agreement, Marin was willing to give only a small amount of money to support the big nobles at first. That amount of money, it is estimated that the expenses of the average baron family are not enough.

At this time, Frederick III, as the leader of the princes, "stepped forward" and argued with Marin. In the end, Marin was impressed by Frederick III's "righteousness" and agreed to increase the salary tenfold, so that the eight princes who had lost their rights could continue to spend their days and drinks in the future. Of course, their range of activities will definitely be limited, lest they get into trouble later.

There was only one exception – Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, brother-in-law of Frederick III.

After discussing the treatment of the eight princes, Frederick III suddenly proposed to buy the land of the former Gerden Count for 200,000 gold coins, which was used to settle the family of his brother-in-law, Duke Henry, who had lost the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg. Moreover, it was the kingdom of Gherden, which was not controlled by Marin's North Sea State......

Marin pretended to be unhappy at first, but after being persuaded by Frederick III's "bitter words", he finally agreed to hand over control of the Earl of Gerdon to Duke Henry for 300,000 gold coins.

Some of the other princes originally wanted to intercede with the other 7 captured princes, after all, the nobles married each other, and the other 7 princes also had many in-laws princes. However, when they saw that they wanted so much money, they all flinched. You must know that the reason why Frederick III was able to become the leader of the princes was that in addition to his status as an elector, the Electorate of Saxony was commercially prosperous and relatively wealthy, which was also an important reason. They don't have that much money to help their relatives buy fiefs, so they can only secretly bless their unlucky relatives...... Of course, they didn't know that Marin would not take Frederick III's money at all in private......

……

After the two sides agreed, Marin left the army, led a group of nobles, under the protection of 1,000 lancers, and rode north to Worms to participate in the impromptu imperial council convened by Urle, the archbishop of Mainz, to discuss the annexation of the eight vassal states by the North Sea State. Of course, since Frederick III helped his brother-in-law buy the kingdom of Gelldon, it is now a matter of Marin's annexation of the 7 countries......

Because they were all discussed, there were naturally no waves in this meeting. Even the secular princes who opposed Marin compromised, what else can the neutral church princes say? As for the Imperial Free Cities Commonwealth (the most important of which is the Hanseatic League), which belongs to a third party, its main and secondary allies are allies of the North Sea State, how can they oppose it? Even though there were a few Hanseatic cities such as Bremen who opposed it, most of the Imperial cities supported Marin......

Then, at the Imperial Council of Winter, held in the winter of 1512, the princes approved by a vote of more than two-thirds the fiefdom of Marin over the other seven princes except for the kingdom of Gerdon (7 princes, 8 vassals). Because, the Count of Antonios had both the Count of Schaumburg and the Count of Ravensburg). Moreover, Duke Henry, who obtained the Earl of Gelden, was also paid 300,000 gold coins by Frederick III, Elector of Saxony......

After obtaining the approval of the Imperial Diet, Marin was able to truly complete the annexation of the eight feudal states of the 7 princes. In the future, if anyone is looking for trouble, Marin can take the written document recognized by the Imperial Diet to talk about the matter.

After the goal was achieved, Marin did not talk nonsense, and began to withdraw his troops after returning to Basel. Next, Marin's first task is to complete the digestion and absorption of the eight vassal states and make them an inseparable part of the Beihai State.

And the retreat at the same time as the North Sea army was the 20,000 men of the Habsburgs south of Basel - without the North Sea army, these people would not be able to defeat the 37,000 troops of the princes' coalition anyway, so it is better to retreat to Arau......

.。 m.