In fact, in this day and age, there were very few sovereign states that were willing to honestly pay "tithes" to the Holy See. Often, monarchs would secretly collude with their own churches to embezzle the tithes they collected. Then, report a natural or man-made disaster to the Holy See, and deliberately rely on most of the "tithes" that should be paid to the Holy See.

Although the Holy See only requires the churches in various places to hand over half of the "tithes" collected to the Holy See, the churches and the government in various places will collude and covet most of them. Then, they would take out some of the "tithes" and bribe them to the cardinals responsible for the collection of tithes in the region within the Holy See, so that they could help cover them up......

In this way, the local church and government benefited, as well as the cardinals associated with the Holy See, and most of the "tithes" were gone.

The Pope is well aware of this, but successive popes have not dared to do anything about it. Because, the pope is elected by the cardinals. Moreover, the pope often comes from a prominent family, and he still expects his descendants to come out, how dare he lift the lid? Moreover, many popes did this when they were cardinals before they were elected. To be a pope will not be willing to lift this lid either. Because, if you really check it, you have to pay for it......

Cutting off people's financial routes, such as killing parents. The cardinals, who have no real power, live on the bribes of their respective dioceses. If anyone dares to act in their interests, these cardinals will not be able to take risks.

In the end, I am afraid that only the ecclesiastical vassal states in the German region sent a little more "tithes". Because, even if the princes of the church are elected, they must be approved by the pope in order to officially perform their duties. The official hat is in the hands of the Holy See, and he does not dare not cooperate. In most secular countries, only part of the "tithes" are sent to the Holy See. And a rogue state like France that dares to kidnap the Pope, the Holy See does not expect them to be willing to give it at all......

Of course, Marin would have honestly handed over half of his "tithes" to the Holy See. Because, he also needs the support of the Holy See. Even, in the future wars of religion, it is necessary to carry the banner of the Holy See. Therefore, he will not cheat on the payment of "tithes" or something. Otherwise, it will not be possible to borrow the name of the Holy See at that time.

However, Marin was not stupid, and did not honestly pay the "tithe" according to the real yield per mu, but according to the "low standard" of 150 pounds per mu. This standard is considered a very high standard in ordinary countries. This is because the average yield per acre in most countries is less than 150 pounds per acre. But in Beihai Country, this is really a very low yield. The main reason why the Holy See agreed to levy it according to this low standard and set the amount is that the Pope is Marin's father-in-law......

But the "tithes" that the Beihai Kingdom honestly paid frightened the Holy See. Because, after the autumn harvest, Marin shipped 90 million pounds of rye to Rome by half the standard. Of course, it's all stale grain. And these rye are enough for 200,000 people to eat for a year. Combined with the grain converted from the sale of indulgences, the granaries of the Holy See are now full......

……

Just as the North Sea Kingdom began to deliver grain to Rome, the Spaniards also began to land on the northern coast of Italy, and their troops were directed towards the Duchy of Milan.

Gonzalo. Morality. Córdoba took Marin's advice, and at this time, the autumn harvest was over and the city of Milan was filled with grain harvested on the Po Plain. At this time, if you send troops to Milan, you can definitely get a lot of food!

Moreover, in the letter of advice, Marin also implicitly told Gonzalo that Gudendorff, the German mercenary general who controlled the Duchy of Milan at this time, secretly reached a tacit agreement with Maximilian I......

So, the bold Gonzalo. Morality. Córdoba directly advised the Spanish royal family to buy Gudendorff in order to get the operation unobstructed.

You must know that Goodendorff has 16,000 German mercenaries in his hands no matter what, and his strength should not be underestimated. If the other party fights with him, Gonzalo is confident of winning, but the loss will definitely not be small.

Therefore, he simply asked the two kings of Spain to secretly send envoys and secretly bribed Gudendorff with 200,000 gold coins, so that he deliberately turned a blind eye to Gonzalo's military operations......

How did Gonzalo act? In order to quickly advance into the grain-producing areas of the Po Plain, he mobilized 5,000 Spanish bareback cavalry, plus 3,000 light cavalry, and landed in the Lucca area. Then, he rode his horse north and pounced on the city of Milan at great speed while Gudendorff was still leading his troops to attack the Müstair Valley.

On the day the army arrived in Milan, Goodendorff's men quietly opened the city gates in the middle of the night......

Then, 8,000 Spanish cavalry, the next day, forced 20,000 Milanese to drive carriages and carts to transport a large amount of grain to the port of Lucca in the south......

When Goodendorff "learned the bad news" and "led the army back to help", most of the food in Milan was taken away by the Spaniards......

Fortunately, the Spaniards also obeyed the rules and did not take them all. He didn't even do anything to rob the city of Milan, and retreated in a hurry with food and grass.

As a result, Goodendorff's army "just missed" the opportunity to confront the Spanish army. But this army was not without food, because the collection of autumn grain in the Po plain of the Duchy of Milan was still going on. The Spaniards only took most of the food, and a small part was being sent to Milan. So, Goodendorff's army of 16,000 could not starve to death.

……

However, when the news reached Paris, Louis XII felt uncomfortable......

Because Louis XII had planned to rely on the Duchy of Milan for food, and then send a large army to help the Swiss expel the Habsburg army from Switzerland. As a result, Milan's grain was looted, and the idea of the French helping Switzerland was shattered.

To make matters worse, the northeastern part of France was hit by autumn rains and failed to harvest food, requiring a large amount of food relief. Without the food of the Po River Plain in the Duchy of Milan, let alone sending troops to help Switzerland, even disaster relief would be far from enough......

Louis XII was furious, but after his anger passed, he realized the danger – because the Spaniards had struck again......

Originally, the Spaniards were defeated by the French and lost the Kingdom of Naples, and Louis XII knew that they would not be reconciled. However, Louis XII did not expect the Spaniards to counterattack so quickly.

According to Louis XII's assumption, the Spaniards suffered such losses that they should be delayed for a year or two before they counterattacked. After all, in the last war, the Spaniards died quite a few people.

But Louis XII didn't know, because Marin deliberately found someone to leak the effect of the volcanic ash to the Spaniards, so that the Spaniards realized that if they did not organize the French to continue to obtain volcanic ash from the Kingdom of Naples earlier, and wait for the French to reserve enough food and grass, the end of the Spaniards would come......

Therefore, even if they have not fully recovered, the Spaniards will not be able to wait, and they will definitely not allow the French to continue to easily obtain volcanic ash from the Kingdom of Naples. At the very least, before next year's spring planting, the Spaniards will cut off the French access to the ash. At the same time, it seized the volcanic ash production area and dug it back to the country to promote agricultural development.

This time the Spanish sent troops to the Duchy of Milan to loot food, which meant that the Spaniards were ready and began to fight back......