"Your Majesty, it's all Kleiman's recklessness! If he had been able to take out the manpower in batches and not let the silver mine production fluctuate, there would not have been this ......," Kohler said with some shame.

Marin was indeed a little unhappy, but he also knew that there was no point in pursuing responsibility at this time. Moreover, in terms of process, Kleiman is actually not very wrong, at most he is not secret. But the problem is that I didn't tell him to keep it a secret before......

Therefore, Kleiman's matter is really impossible to pursue. If you want to be held accountable, you have it. Of course, although he is not held responsible, Kleiman's credit this time is gone.

After learning of Marin's attitude, Kohler was also relieved. Kleiman is his younger brother after all, and it doesn't matter if the credit is gone, he and Karn will help him with the credit in the future. But if you are punished, you will be affected. If you leave a bad stain on the file, even if you make meritorious service in the future, it will be easy to be questioned. A cold treatment like Marlin is actually a good ending for Kleiman.

In fact, Marin didn't pursue it because of Karn and Kohler's face for helping him live and die. After all, Kleiman didn't make mistakes on purpose, either. What if someone else was trying? Even if it's right, you have to take the blame for the monarch. is like Qin Hui, who carried the black cauldron for Song Gaozong for 800 years......

If Beihai is a country that intends to close its doors and play its own games, Marin can actually ignore these rumors completely. Anyway, with the support of the Holy See, no one can do anything to him. In the final analysis, only the Holy See has the right to punish or condemn anyone who violates canon rules or something. No matter how much the others jump, it's useless.

However, Marin's Beihai country needed to recruit immigrants from all over the country, as well as mountain people from the southern region to serve as soldiers. Therefore, Marin cannot ignore this smear and must take countermeasures. In later words, this is called "crisis public relations". This kind of public relations is generally common after celebrities are exposed to black material, and is generally completed by a professional team.

Of course, crisis public relations in this era is not so complicated, and there are not so convenient channels. The easiest way to deal with it is to put on a legal and reasonable "coat" for the capture of the Taíno labor, and then hype it up.

For this reason, Ma Lin summoned all the civil and military generals under his command who were relatively good at making brains to discuss countermeasures together. On the civilian side, Prime Minister Geoffrey, Vice Minister Mikel (former Danish Prime Minister), Crown Minister and Governor of Oldenburg Heidel, and Governor Machiavelli, who was in charge of the Münster region recruited from Italy, were also invited by Marin because they were not far from Aurich. In terms of officers, Schwarz, Stade and Wagner were the main ones. In addition, Kohler and Sauer, who were in charge of intelligence, were also present, plus Karn, who was the mascot......

At the meeting, Jeffrey spoke first:

"There's nothing to talk about, just say that it's a solicitation of territorial peasants (a glorified name for serfs), and resolutely deny that it's a slave capture!"

Mikel shook his head and said:

"If you say this, I'm afraid that others won't believe it, but it will cause more criticism."

As the former prime minister of the Kingdom of Denmark, Mikel has a lot of experience in dealing with similar matters. He knew that a unilateral explanation for such rumors was useless. Once someone doubts you, they won't listen to you at all. Unless, there is an official certificate that proves that the matter is fine.

But in later generations, even official refutation of rumors is useless. Those conspiracy theorists will always find all kinds of strange reasons to say that it is a cover-up or something. In short, Kuroko is black all his life and will never listen to your explanation.

Fortunately, there is no such brainless sunspot in this era. Moreover, there is no extralegal place like the Internet for sunspots to play. Basically, as long as there is an official investigation, the rumors can be refuted.

But the question is, how do you get the results of an official investigation?

"Or, let the Holy See send an investigation team to investigate this matter is a rumor?" Schwartz suggested.

Machiavelli shook his head and said:

"The Holy See's unilateral investigation may not be convincing either. After all, everyone knows the close relationship between His Majesty and His Holiness the Pope. If it is a unilateral investigation by the Holy See, I am afraid it will be difficult to convince the public. ”

"Then invite envoys from other countries to the island of Haiti to participate in the investigation?" Jeffrey suggested.

"No way!" Marin directly stood up and vetoed it. He said resolutely:

"You should know that I have been describing the horrors of the Americas, but I don't want to let people know about the riches of the Americas. If the envoys of such great powers as France and Spain were to set foot on the soil of the Americas, and see the fertile soil there, it is hard to guarantee that they will have the desire to rob them! ”

The island of Haiti is not big, but it is not small. With an area of 76,000 square kilometers, it is a little larger than the Kingdom of Naples. Not to mention the Spanish side, if the French, who are extremely greedy for land, see it, and still fight the idea of that side?

Therefore, Marin extremely did not want the French envoy to go to Haiti to participate in the investigation, and he was not happy at all!

Kohler had been silent beside him, and at this time, he suddenly said:

"Since Your Majesty does not want the emissaries of France and Spain to come, it is better not to invite them over......

"If you don't invite them, you're not convincing...... Wagner said.

Kohler thought for a moment and explained:

"Having said that, but, as far as I know, these rumors smearing the North Sea Kingdom have nothing to do with France and Spain, but are only rumors made up by some princes in Germany who are dissatisfied and jealous. In that case, why don't we directly target these rumor-mongers and ask them to send emissaries to oversee the investigation? ”

"Your Majesty fears that France and Spain will be greedy when they see the lands of America, because France and Spain are powerful and have great seafaring potential. But what if we invite the emissaries of the landlocked German states who spread rumors to oversee them, even if they see the vastness of America? They are small landlocked states, and even if they covet those lands, they can't afford to send ships to grab ......."

"Great idea!" Marin slammed the table on the table.

Indeed, the small states that spread rumors and smeared Marin were all small landlocked states in southern Germany. Even if they send an envoy to the island of Haiti to see it, it will be nothing. In any case, there was no possibility of developing navigation in those small states. After all, who calls them landlocked?

Even if they were to see the enormity of the island of Haiti, there would be nothing they could do. Of course, in order to prevent them from spreading the goodness of the American colonies. Therefore, Marin decided to take the mission only to the small coastal castle of Santo Domingo, which was besieged by the natives, and not to the colony of Havana, Cuba, which had been developed into fertile land.

Even, when the investigation team went, Santo Domingo had to pretend that there was a shortage of supplies. For example, the usual good food is changed to only sweet potatoes, and sweet potatoes are eaten three times a day. At most, send a boat out to sea to catch some fish. Then, find a cook with bad cooking skills to cook some seawater boiled fish, even if it is a meal to entertain the investigation team.

Compared to the poor life of the investigation team, which had seen sweet potato rice every day and boiled fish in the sea, after the envoys of the German states returned to improve their diet, they would certainly preach it. In this way, it fits the theme of Marin's deliberate smearing of the Americas in the past.

Of course, you can't just take them to visit the besieged city of Santo Domingo, you can also take them to visit the island of Lower Cuba. However, it cannot be the colony of Havana in the west of the island of Cuba, nor the colony of Moa in the northeast where mining is exploited.

In the spirit of proximity, Marin planned to temporarily build a fake Cuban colony on the island of Cuba in an undeveloped area and invited a delegation to visit it.

This fake Cuban colony must have a certain degree of development, and it must have castles and farmland. However, the conditions must not be so good that the superiority of the island of Cuba cannot be seen.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Marin finally came up with an idea - to choose a place on the southeast coast of the island of Cuba closest to the island of Haiti, and build a fake colony like the later generations built the set, so as to fool the envoys of other countries of the investigation team.

And this place was chosen by Marin in a very, very famous place in Cuba in the future - Guantanamo!

Guantanamo is an excellent harbor on the southeast coast of Cuba, but Guantanamo is not a well-known city or harbor. The real fame is the "Guantanamo Prison" on the east bank of the exit of this harbor.

That is what Lao Mei used to detain a terrorist, and there was also a scandal of prisoner abuse, which is famous all over the world. And the place where Marin wanted to build a deceptive "set" was in the Guantánamo Bay prison in the future, an area of about 117 square kilometers.

Marin was going to build a small castle on that land and garrison two hundred soldiers. Then, the men and horses were mobilized to reclaim a large area of sugar cane around the castle, creating the illusion that "this place has been cultivated for a long time".

This is secondary, Marin also plans to dispatch 1,000 of the 2,000 indigenous "puppet army" of the Havana colony in Cuba, disguised as savage indigenous warriors, and deliberately come to besiege the castle when the investigation team visits the Guantanamo Castle, creating the false impression that "this place is dangerous". Then, through the mouths of those onlookers, it was transmitted back to Europe, so that everyone could see the "terrible" of colonization in the Americas......

As soon as he said it, Marin immediately mobilized a large number of engineering personnel, carried a large number of supplies, and moved to Guantanamo to build a castle. At the same time, he also ordered Tara to send 10,000 indigenous Cuban serfs to the Guantanamo area, cut down trees and fields, and get a sugar cane field out to fool the people of the investigation team......

It can be said that Marin is equivalent to building a huge set at Guantanamo. The effect is not to make a film, but to act and fool the bystander envoys of those vassal states in the investigation team......

Although the cost of building such a large set is a little high. However, if the "terrible" of the Americas is propagated through the mouths of those unfriendly envoys, this investment is still worth it. At the very least, within a certain period of time, it can dispel the coveting of those powerful competitors......