To be honest, Marin was speechless to the princes of the Duchy of Lüneburg, obviously there is such a large grassland, 7,200 square kilometers, and the Shanghai market in later generations will be about 1,000 square kilometers. Such a large grassland, not to mention being reclaimed as fertile land, at least used for grazing, right?

But the dukes of Lüneburg did not, and would rather be deserted than take advantage of it. In later generations, it still retains the title of "Lüneburg Wasteland".

Of course, Lüneburg had salt mines, and there was no shortage of money. Therefore, the dukes of Lüneburg, who did not want to make progress, naturally did not want to develop that prairie well. Like the coal boss of later generations, why should he go to farming if he has a mine at home?

Marin coveted this grassland, not because he wanted to engage in any economic development, but because he regarded it as an important military area.

In this grassland, Marin is mainly used to raise horses. At the same time, large-scale military exercises can also be conducted. It seems that in later generations, NATO troops in Germany often conducted military exercises in this steppe. In particular, a number of tank cluster exercises, which are often held here. After all, the rest of Germany is more developed. If you want to find a place where there are no people to conduct military exercises, it is also difficult to find.

Moreover, the location of the Lüneburg moors is very good. This is the heart of North Germany, which is part of the core area. If the cavalry is stationed here, it can be quickly reached no matter where it attacks or supports northern Germany. After the capture of Lüneburg, the main force of the Cossack cavalry will probably move to the Lüneburg wasteland in the future......

……

Not to mention the military value of the Lüneburg wasteland, Marin is now overseeing the seizure of the property of Lüneburg by his men.

It's just that because Lüneburg was an important member of the Hanseatic League, Marin had to be cautious. This is because Lüneburg was home to many important merchant families of the Hanseatic League.

In dealing with these Hanseatic business families, Marin had to be cautious and could not rob them casually.

As a result, Marin had to take control of most of the merchant families in Lüneburg first. Then, send people to Hamburg and Lübeck and ask them to show a list of those to protect.

Marin's attitude was that all the Lüneburg-Hanseatic merchant families whose allies Hamburg and Lübeck wanted to protect were unmoved. As for Hamburg and Lübeck, they didn't come forward to protect it...... Naturally, it's going to be raided......

In this way, Marin ended up raiding nearly half of the merchant families in Lüneburg. These families were not on good terms with Hamburg and Lübeck, and most of them were vassals of the Welffs. In this way, there is no psychological burden on Marin to snatch it......

Eventually, Marin snatched four million gold coins worth of possessions and food from the Welf family and nearly half of the Lüneburg merchants. However, there are about a million dollars and grain in it, which were originally stolen from the Beihai Kingdom by the alliance of the princes of the Eight Kingdoms. Therefore, what Marin's men actually grabbed in Lüneburg City was only worth more than three million gold coins. But even this number is very scary. After all, in this era, it is very good for ordinary princes to have one hundred or twenty thousand gold coins.

However, there are salt mines in Lüneburg. Salt in Europe in this era, known as "white gold". With salt mines in hand and having been mined for hundreds of years, it is not surprising that the city of Lüneburg has been able to seize so much money. In fact, if the other more than half of the Lüneburg merchant families were to be raided together, the total value would definitely easily exceed 5 million gold coins. However, in order to maintain friendly relations with the Hanseatic League, Marin held back. After all, if you can't bear it, you will make a big plan. Besides, Marin is not very short of money......

The Hanseatic League was a group of cities, and each city had limited strength. However, when the Hanseatic League came together, it was also an important political force to be reckoned with. At the moment, Marin's annexation of eight vassal states requires diplomatic support. Therefore, he could not fight against the Hanseatic League. Moreover, it is not necessary.

So, after the seizure and disposal of the merchant family close to the Welf family, Marin stopped the raid in Lüneburg. Anyway, the money and food seized were enough for him to squander.

……

After completing the seizure of Lüneburg, Marin left only part of his army behind, and then continued south with most of it.

However, this time to the south, Marin no longer gathered the 30,000 troops together and went south. In pursuit of efficiency, Marin divided his army into six parts - he personally continued south with 15,000 men, heading straight for Wolfenthal, the capital of the Duchy of Wolfenthal.

As for the remainder, apart from the remaining 2,000 men who remained in Lüneburg, the rest were divided into five groups - one to Detmold, the capital of Lipper, one to Tecklenburg, the down payment of the Bentheim-Tecklenburg, one to Lefeld, the capital of the Rasbourg Earl, one to Gerdden, the capital of the Gerdan Empire, and one to Rietberg, the capital of the Empire......

Of course, the group that went to Lefeld had another task - to send men to capture the castle of Schaum, the capital of Count Antonios......

However, in addition to Marin, there were many people on the way, and the other five roads, each of which had two or three thousand soldiers and horses. After all, all they went to capture were the capital of the insignificant Xiaobo Kingdom.

Originally, the domestic army of these small countries was brought out by the princes to attack Beihai Kingdom, and those who stayed in their own countries were all crooked melons and cracked dates, and there were three or two kittens. Send two or three thousand men at will, and you can conquer them.

Only Wolfenthal, this important city, because it is the lair of Henry, the leader of the North Sea Alliance, is no less fortified than the city of Lüneburg. It is said that there are also more than 3,000 regular troops guarding the city. In addition to the conscripted people, it is estimated that the number of defenders exceeds 10,000.

Therefore, Marin planned to bring more men and take the main force south to besiege Wolfenthal.

In addition, the Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenthal has a mining city that is very important to Marin, Goslar.

The Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenthal is similar to the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg in that they both made their fortunes from mining. The difference is that the Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg made its fortune mainly by mining salt mines and selling salt, while the Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenthal relied mainly on silver, copper, lead, and gold from the mines of Rammelsberg near Goslar (the Europeans did not know how to refine zinc at this time). As the most important silver-producing region in northern Germany, Goslar has always been a cash cow for the Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenthal. It is said that in order to ensure the safety of Goslar City, not only the capital city of Wolfenthal was replaced with iron gates, but Goslar City was also replaced with iron gates to prevent it from being easily attacked by enemy troops......

I don't know what Duke Henry thinks, it's clear that the Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenthal is strong enough, and he has to provoke the North Sea Kingdom. How can I say that human greed is endless......

……

When Marin was moving south, in the southwest of the city of Geldon, Charles, the Earl of Geldon, who had escaped by chance, was instructing his men to pack up their valuables and load them on ships together, intending to transport them away......

"My lord, why are we running? Can't we wait for Lord Frederick and them to come back and administer justice? One of Earl Charles' guards asked, puzzled.

Charlie, Earl of Geldon, shook his head and said:

"I also want to wait for Lord Frederick and them to come back to support justice, but I'm afraid I won't be able to wait until then......"

His spies had already sent a secret message that the city of Lüneburg had been breached by Marin's army in a special way......

This news made Earl Charles chill. He knew that the rich Duchy of Braunschweig-Lüneburg had specially replaced the city of Lüneburg with heavy cast-iron gates, which were solid. Such a strong iron gate was destroyed by Marin in less than half a day, not to mention the city of Gelden, whose defense is much lower than that of Lüneburg?

Count Charles feared that he would not be able to wait for Frederick III and others to return, and that he himself would be captured by Marin's army and become a prisoner......

Moreover, he was also worried that the coalition of princes composed of Frederick III, the Elector of Saxony, and others might not be able to defeat the army under Marin.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, he simply had the remaining gold and silver treasures of the country of Gerdon loaded on a ship, and planned to go to France for refuge......

Charles, Earl of Geldon, was an ally of the French, and it was with the support of the French that the former Duchy of Guedes was restored and became a prince of the German powers. Later, although the Duchy of Guedes was defeated and had to cede most of the territory, France did not completely abandon him, but said that if the calf was finished, he could take refuge in France......

No, now that the country of Gerdon was almost finished, he remembered this stubble and planned to take refuge in France.

As long as he fled to France, Marin didn't have the courage to send troops to France to arrest him......

……

The day after the Count of Geldon's ships left Gelden, Marin's detachment arrived in the city of Gelden......

As Marin expected, the capitals of these little Bo countries are basically wooden gates. Marin gave the bào pò men to the various troops, first burning the oak gates with mixed gasoline, and then a bào pò, breaching the gates. As for the three or two kittens left in the city, they couldn't cope with two or three thousand enemies, so they could only surrender......

……

And Marin's side is also very smooth. Because, when he was besieging the cities of Wolfenthal and Goslar, he was pleasantly surprised to find that these two cities, like Lüneburg, did not have any bricks, stones, logs and other miscellaneous objects in the gates behind the iron gates. As long as the latch is corroded, the gate can be pushed open directly......

Therefore, Marin's army easily broke through the two cities of Wolfenthal and Goslar, completing the most important occupation of the Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenthal. Moreover, the old bottom accumulated by these two cities for hundreds of years has also made Marin full and almost "eaten" - in these two cities, Marin confiscated more than five million Gulden gold coins......

In this way, the remaining six vassal states were quickly swept away by Marin by dividing his troops into six routes......