Marin is not very bold, after all, he is a person who has died once, and he is even more desperate for his life. Moreover, those who have wealth and wealth also spare their lives more than those who are poor. Why do the poor mountains and bad waters produce elite soldiers and people? Because they have nothing but to play with their lives. But rich people don't need to work hard when they have everything.

The same is true for Marin, when he first crossed over, he had nothing, so he naturally had to rely on hard work to win wealth. To this end, he designed an ambush of 8,000 French knights, with only a little more than a thousand recruits under his command. If the French had calmed down, they could have killed him. But after he succeeded, especially after becoming a prince, there was no need to take too many risks. Only when I went to Daming was because of the obsession in my heart, I took the risk.

Therefore, Marin used the excuse of "rebuilding" the Second Army Corps to pull half of the real Second Army back, but he was actually afraid of death. After all, a legion facing more than 40,000 enemy troops is indeed not very safe. With 5,000 veterans of the Second Legion, not to mention being able to defeat the enemy, at least support it until reinforcements arrive.

Moreover, the "reconstruction" of the Second Army has another effect - that is, to make the princes of the Eight Kingdoms more convinced that the original Second Army and the Third Army have indeed defected. Otherwise, the North Sea State would not have had to "rebuild" the Second Army.

……

Sure enough, as Ma Lin expected, after learning the news of the "reconstruction" of the Second Army in the Beihai Kingdom, the eight princes were overjoyed......

"It seems that the other party's skills are exhausted, this rebuilt second legion, it is said that it is basically the people who originally transported grain, what combat effectiveness can it have? We have won this war! Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttle, was delighted.

"However, I have heard that among the 10,000 people recruited by this new recruitment, not all of them are people, but there are also 1,000 people, who are said to be former straw hat swordsmen, who were once the elite of East Friesland. It is said that this army defeated the forces of the Count of Oldenburg in 1483, forcing Gerhard VI, Count of Oldenburg, to abdicate in favor of his son Adolf. Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

At this time, Charlie, Earl of Geldon (formerly Charlie, Duke of Guedes), interjected:

"Lord Henry, I've heard about it. However, it was not because the Straw Hat Swordsmen were too strong, but because East Friesland had united the army of the Bishopric of Münster to defeat the Earl of Oldenburg. ”

"Moreover, those straw hat swordsmen are the elite of the Syksner family, and after Marin seized the East Friesian Lamber, he did not trust them and left them idle. In other words, those straw hat swordsmen haven't fought in at least 10 years. The once strong ones are now at least thirty or forty years old, and they have long since begun to decline. ”

"What's more, even if they are still at their peak, our Gerdon warriors are not afraid of them. If the Second Legion dares to go out of the city for a decisive battle in this battle, our army of the Elder Count Kingdom is willing to take the lead in attacking this Second Legion and confront those straw hat swordsmen head-on! Charlie, Earl of Geldon, swore by it.

In fact, he was also scheming - the real elite of the Beihai Kingdom is the First Legion, and the First Legion is just frontal, and there must be heavy casualties. And against the newly established Second Legion, even against the 1,000 straw hat swordsmen, Count Charles is not worthy. Because, the army of the Gerden Count is learned from Swiss mercenaries, and its combat effectiveness is strong. Although it can't catch up with the Swiss mercenaries in the middle of nowhere, it is stronger than the average German mercenary. It's still no problem to fight those 1,000 straw hat swordsmen head-on.

As long as his 3,000 veterans of Gedes can defeat those 1,000 straw hat swordsmen, then those recruits of the Second Legion of the North Sea Kingdom are no opponents at all......

Sure enough, seeing that Charles, Earl of Geldon, took the initiative to ask for battle, the princes had no choice but to agree. And the 3,000 elite veterans of the Gerdon Nation also took the opportunity to avoid the strong enemy of the First Legion......

……

While the eight princes were deliberating on how to deal with it, a fleet of ships carrying many people on the sea had already crossed the English Channel and was approaching the mainland of the North Sea Country......

Where did this fleet come from? Who is on board?

It turned out that this fleet was the transport fleet of the Beihai State. The ship was loaded with mercenaries who had been brought back from Italy......

Italian mercenaries? That's right, it's the legendary Italian mercenary with average combat effectiveness! Moreover, the number of people is as high as 10,000!

These 10,000 Italian mercenaries were named by Malinte. Of course, it was not to invite them to help defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance, but as a group performance to prove that Beihai was really "poor in donkey skills"......

If there were enough soldiers and horses, why did the North Sea Kingdom go to Italy to hire Italian mercenaries whose combat effectiveness was worse than that of the German mercenaries?

The Beihai Kingdom hired 10,000 Italian mercenaries, which just proves the dilemma of the Beihai State having no soldiers to use - if there is an opportunity, which German prince is willing to hire Italian mercenaries with average combat effectiveness?

Therefore, the role of these 10,000 Italian mercenaries is to set off the desperate situation and helplessness of the Beihai Kingdom......

……

Marin annexed 8 rival vassal states and never worried about war. The only thing that worries him is the legal matter.

Therefore, Marin must not let the princes see the fact that the Beihai Kingdom has set up the eight princes. Otherwise, even if Marin annexed the 8 vassal states, the princes of the Imperial Princes' Court could deny the legitimacy of his annexation of the 8 vassal states on the grounds that he "deliberately framed his opponents".

For this reason, Marin did not hesitate to play a big game of chess, using various methods to show the current misery of Beihai Kingdom. The worse the performance in the early stage, the less the other princes could see the flaws.

Therefore, these 10,000 Italian mercenaries are clearly the "group performances" that Marin invited from Italy at a great cost. Their main role is to show the helplessness and despair of the North Sea Kingdom. Even, people mistakenly think that this is the last "hole card" of Beihai Kingdom......

……

Moreover, since it is used to "show weakness". Then, these 10,000 Italian mercenaries will naturally not choose any elites, but specially select the cheapest mercenary groups in Italy......

This Italian mercenary force is composed of 11 large Italian mercenary groups. And the biggest feature of these 11 Italian mercenary groups is that they are cheap......

In Italy, mercenaries are also divided into three, six, nine and so on. The most expensive Italian mercenaries had a commission of 5 puffines per person per day. Its combat effectiveness is also comparable to that of German mercenaries in the upper middle range.

And the cheapest mercenaries are some cheap mercenaries with low combat effectiveness. These people's commission is only 2.5 pfennig per day, which is cheaper than the 3 pfennig per day of the average German mercenary. As for combat effectiveness...... It's slightly stronger than the militia......

The biggest role of this cheap Italian mercenary is actually to help defend the city. After all, when defending the city, it is not necessary for the soldiers to have strong combat effectiveness, as long as the combat effectiveness is above the average.

Moreover, while Marin hired this group of Italian mercenaries with low combat effectiveness, he would also deliberately leak the details of this group of Italian mercenaries to the princes of the eight countries, so as to make them more confident and arrogant......