Originally, Marin had planned to send one of the three strongest legions on home to Scotland to help in the war. However, the plan could not keep up with the change, and the Pope also needed people to attack Siena, and about 15,000 men were also needed.

As a result, the number of troops that need to be mobilized has reached 25,000. But the territory can't be guarded without enough soldiers and horses, otherwise, what if there is an enemy to attack? Although Marin trained more than 10,000 militiamen, the militia was only a militia in the end, and could not replace the regular army.

So, after thinking about it, Malin decided to revise the plan - he decided to hand over the task of landing in Edinburgh to the Fourth Army of Saqqara, which was currently stationed in Newcastle.

In conjunction with Edward's army to attack southern Scotland, Marin asked Saqqara to find 10,000 strong men among the tens of thousands of refugees in Northumberland.

Anyway, England's attack on the Scottish border is actually a feint, and it doesn't need too many main battle troops. Sivarg's Fifth Legion was to go with Edward's army. In addition, Edward would assemble a pure England army of 10,000 men to act together. Counting a fake 10,000-strong army on Newcastle's side, the total number of troops reached 30,000. Counting the people, it will be fifty or sixty thousand.

But in the end, when the real main battle force will become Sivarg's Fifth Army. Edward's pure English legion, on the other hand, will become an auxiliary force. As for the 10,000 fake troops prepared by Newcastle, they are completely soy sauce and are responsible for shouting "666" throughout the whole process......

In addition, Sivarg's Fifth Army will not be fully dispatched. Because, Edward feared that there would be remnants of the previous dynasty in London who would take the opportunity to launch a rebellion. Therefore, the 10,000 men of the Fifth Legion will leave 3,000 elites stationed in London to protect the safety of Edward's family. And this decision did save the lives of Edward's family......

In this way, the main attack is actually the 7,000 soldiers of the Fifth Army, supplemented by 10,000 pure English legions and 10,000 "cheerleaders" from Newcastle.

If you start a war with Scotland under normal circumstances, this is looking for death, and it is easy to be defeated by the Scottish elite.

But now it is different, because the Scottish elite has long been captured or killed in the war the year before. Now there are only 2000 Praetorian guards left in Scotland. The others were second-line troops or simply militias, and their combat effectiveness was even weaker than this "ragtag army" made up by England. Moreover, the number will never exceed ten thousand.

Moreover, the main task of the English army this time was to feint to attract the main Scottish force to defend, and to cover the Fourth Army's sea-crossing operation. Therefore, they don't need to be too strong in combat, as long as they are strong enough.

Under their cover, Saqqara's Fourth Regiment could take the opportunity to board a ship from Newcastle Harbour and land in a port near Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and then surprise Edinburgh, capture the Scottish core high-top, and end the war.

……

However, Saqqara's Fourth Regiment seemed to lack firearms. Because, at the beginning, what Marin valued was the long-range striking ability of the English archers in the Fourth Legion.

However, the archer's long-range striking ability is useless in siege warfare. So, Marin would send 20 heavy guns to the Fourth Army. This batch of heavy guns is the infantry version of the Karen naval gun newly developed by the Beihai State Artillery Foundry, and it is a 32-pounder gun.

However, compared to the original 19th-century British Cullen gun, this infantry version of the Cullen gun is a bit heavier. The genuine Cullen naval gun is 32-pound and weighs only 771.8 kilograms. The 32-pound Karen naval gun produced by the Beihai State Artillery Foundry weighed one ton, which was nearly 230 kilograms heavier than the genuine Karen naval gun.

But this can't be helped, after all, the current level of science and technology in the North Sea Kingdom is much worse than that of Britain in the 19th century. Moreover, it is already a miracle to be able to make a 32-pounder Cullen naval gun. Because, the current steel technology is too backward. It was also Marin who made carbon steel to cast such a light heavy cannon from medium and low carbon steel. If it is replaced with mature iron, it is estimated that it will weigh two tons to be safe. Otherwise, it is easy to blow up.

The 32-pound iron ball cannonball, which smashed on the city gate and city wall, was quite heavy. The most important thing is - according to intelligence, Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, was not replaced by an iron gate. With the 32-pounder Cullen guns, it was possible to break through the gates.

It's no wonder that Scotland is, after all, a poor backcountry in Europe, and it takes a long time for many popular things to reach Scotland. Moreover, to the south of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, there is a large area of mountainous hills, which forms a natural barrier against the British army. If the southern mountains could not stop the British army, it would not make much sense for Edinburgh to replace the iron gate.

It's just that the Scots didn't expect that Marin would actually think of attacking the Scottish capital by means of a large-scale landing battle.

In normal times, Scotland would normally have a few thousand main troops stationed in the capital, but they were not afraid of Marlin landing 10,000 troops. After all, the defenders of the city have a natural geographical advantage. But now, most of the main Scottish troops have been captured, and only a few crooked melons and cracked dates remain, and most of them have to be sent to the southern border to defend England. In this way, there must not be many troops left behind in Edinburgh, and their combat effectiveness is limited. At this time, Ma Lin suddenly sent 10,000 elite soldiers to engage in a landing battle, and it would be strange if the other party could stop it......

The only problem is that the consumption of gunpowder is extremely alarming for such large-caliber artillery. In general, the ratio of gunpowder consumption to shell weight is 1 to 3. In other words, a 32-pound iron ball shell may require about 10 pounds of gunpowder. If it was a 20-shot salvo, it would consume 200 pounds of gunpowder in one round. If you make 100 rounds, you need 20,000 pounds of gunpowder...... However, saltpeter is so scarce and expensive in Europe today...... So, the heavy artillery can't afford it......

Fortunately, the Cullen naval gun is a short-barreled gun, and the weight of the charge only needs 1/8 of the weight of the shell, that is, the 32-pounder Cullen naval gun only needs 4 pounds of charge. And 20 Karen naval guns fired a salvo and consumed only 80 pounds of gunpowder. But it's also a big drain. It is estimated that more than 100 rounds of gunpowder will be required to break through the heavy gates, which means that it will cost more than 8,000 pounds of gunpowder, which is definitely a big consumption.

For Marin, now there is no shortage of warships and artillery in the North Sea State. The only thing missing was gunpowder (mainly saltpeter).

The army's consumption of gunpowder is still light, and the naval guns are the real consumers of gunpowder and gold-swallowing monsters. Today, the price of gunpowder in Europe is extremely high, reaching a high price of 1 to 2 shillings. Even at the lowest of 1 shilling, 8,000 pounds of gunpowder cost 8,000 shillings, worth 1,600 gold coins.

If it were changed to the navy, a salvo of 20 naval guns on a ship, and a salvo of 1,000 naval guns on 50 warships - even a few thousand pounds or even tens of thousands of pounds of gunpowder would be gone. If you fight a naval battle for a day...... Few monarchs in Europe have survived without going bankrupt......

Saltpeter is cheap in India, but unfortunately after buying it twice, Marin not only bought up the stock there, but also attracted the attention of Spain and Portugal. Nowadays, these two countries have also started buying saltpeter in India. Unfortunately, India now supplies only 100 tons of saltpeter a year. Now, it is necessary to supply the North Sea State, Spain and Portugal, so the amount that Marin can buy is definitely not enough to support the North Sea State warships to open up and fight.

Of course, there is enough saltpeter on the Indian side, and now that saltpeter is so easy to sell, the Indians will definitely increase production. But where can Marin afford to wait?

So, the best way is to find another way.

For Marin, there are two other sources of saltpeter - one is purchased from the Ming Empire, but this is full of uncertainty, after all, who knows if the Ming Dynasty officials will one day be unable to supply it.

Therefore, the safest source is to develop Chilean saltpeter.

But although there is a lot of saltpeter in Chile, there is also a big trouble - saltpeter is in the tropical desert of northern Chile, and if you want to mine it, you must go deep into the hot and dry tropical desert......

However, few of Marin's subjects of the North Sea Kingdom and those of England were able to adapt to the tropical desert climate. So, this plan has been put on hold for the time being.

However, during this time, when he was thinking about going to Senegal to buy rhino skins, Marin suddenly thought that those bearded people in North Africa seemed to be very adapted to the desert climate......

After all, the bearded Arab white-robes of North Africa have always lived in arid and water-scarce desert areas, and they have long been accustomed to that kind of climate.

So, Marin thought - could he buy a group of slaves from North Africa who were adapted to the tropical desert climate and go to Chile to mine saltpeter?

At the same time, Marin also plans to buy a batch of "Ship of the Desert" camels from North Africa to transport saltpeter from the deep desert of northern Chile to coastal ports......

To this end, Marin decided to send someone to Egypt, contact the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt, buy docile slaves adapted to the desert climate, and a herd of camels for the development of saltpeter mines in the desert of northern Chile...... And, the sooner this thing happens, the better......