Although it was judged that the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg were going to unite to use force against themselves and the two main cities of the Hanseatic League, Marin still did not understand it. According to his judgment, Denmark should have hired these Swiss mercenaries, not the two electors.

In fact, Marin was right. Indeed, it was King Hans of Denmark who planned to hire the 20,000 mercenaries at first. However, while consulting with Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, and Jorkim I, Elector of Brandenburg, King Hans found that it was not easy to bring Swiss mercenaries back to Denmark......

Why? Because the Duchy of Schleswig and Holstein were occupied by Marin and the two main Hanseatic cities. It is difficult to get 20,000 Swiss mercenaries to go overland to Denmark without being detected. In that case, there would be no surprise effect.

As for taking the sea route, it will not work either. Because, the Danish navy was wiped out by the two main cities of the Hanseatic League. Today, the waters off Denmark are dominated by Lübeck and Hamburg. It is also impossible to transport 20,000 troops by sea to Denmark under the noses of two cities.

Therefore, the resourceful Elector Frederick III of Saxony decided that it would be impossible to bring these 20,000 Swiss mercenaries to Denmark. If you want to hide, it is better to put it in the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg.

Anyway, after the war between the two countries, they will gather 30,000 troops to participate in the offensive together. Instead, hide 20,000 Swiss mercenaries in the territory of the two countries and wait until the official start of the war to act with the armies of the two countries.

As for Denmark, a group of Swiss mercenary officers was assigned to help train the 20,000 Danish army. Once the war had begun, the armies of Saxony and Brandenburg would set out northeast of Brandenburg near Lübeck and Hamburg, and pass through the Duchy of Mecklenburg, which had good relations with the Elector of Brandenburg (and was in fact subdued by the Elector's force), and quickly besiege and attack the rich city of Lübeck. The Danish army of 20,000 marched south to raid the Duchy of Schleswig, trying to recapture it.

For the sake of secrecy, since last autumn, Frederick III has come up with the idea of having Swiss mercenaries disguise themselves as caravans and go to Saxony and Brandenburg in batches. Moreover, this method does deceive the vast majority of people. Even, Frederick III, who was thoughtful, asked more than a dozen mercenary captains on the Swiss side to temporarily and secretly arrange their families to a hidden place to avoid being heard.

Unfortunately, he still missed one point, and that is - he did not pay attention to the issue of currency. Because of the deposit to be paid to the Swiss mercenaries, Frederick III and Joakim I naturally chose to use their own coins. And the Swiss mercenaries, after getting this deposit, spent it when they spent it along the way. Then, through the use of coins, Marin deduced the whereabouts of the Swiss......

Of course, this cannot be blamed for Frederick III's lack of rigor. Rather, because the level of espionage in this era was low, no one would deduce useful intelligence from such a ransack.

But Marin's spies are different, they are trained in modern intelligence at the level of Marin's half-ass, and they pay attention to details. As a result, they discovered that the Swiss mercenaries were using the coins of the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg in large quantities, and Marin guessed the truth.

In fact, this deposit should have been paid by King Hans. However, since its defeat by the Four-Nation Alliance, Denmark has been sacked by the Coalition and has suffered serious financial difficulties. King Hans was able to raise an army of 20,000 men, which was already a thousand difficulties, where could he afford to pay the high commissions of Swiss mercenaries?

Therefore, King Hans had no choice but to turn to the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg to pay the deposit on his behalf. That's what happened before.

Moreover, King Hans made it clear that after the victory in this war, he only wanted to take back the Duchy of Holstein, the Duchy of Schleswig, and the Count of Oldenburg, who had saved his family. He doesn't want any other benefits.

The Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg helped Denmark for an important reason, in addition to their alliances by marriage, because they had an excuse to openly sack Lübeck and Hamburg......

You know, Lübeck and Hamburg are the two most commercially developed cities in Germany, and there is no one. In these two cities, there are many wealthy merchants. If these two cities can be breached, it is not surprising that the army has looted tens of millions of gold coins worth of wealth.

It's a rare opportunity for Zhengda to attack Lübeck and Hamburg, and they don't want to miss it. As long as these two cities are captured, the two countries will definitely be "full", and even "eaten......

After all, with the two electoral states, their respective fiscal revenues are only hundreds of thousands of gold coins per year. If you grab a property worth tens of millions of gold coins, then these two countries will definitely make a lot of money......

Moreover, Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, had in mind an ambition that would cause the two cities to lose their position as leaders and vice-leaders of the Hanseatic League. Then, the Hanseatic merchants of the Saxon business district rose up and replaced the two cities as the new leaders......

If the core of the Hanseatic League were to move from Lübeck and Hamburg to the Saxon business district, it would be a huge benefit for the Elector of Saxony.

And the Elector of Brandenburg, Joakim I, did not think so much. Besides, the Elector of Brandenburg ruled by him was quite large, but it was really underdeveloped in commerce and was still an agricultural country. Even if Lübeck and Hamburg declined, the benefits would not have been the turn of the predominantly agricultural Elector of Brandenburg......

In fact, the Electorate of Brandenburg was a vassal state dominated by agriculture and agriculture, but it was also a poor country. At least, it was the poorest vassal state among the seven electors.

Brandenburg really rose to prominence after the succession of East Prussia, that is, after the annexation of the Teutonic state. What is Teutonic State? It was a commercially developed area, with four Hanseatic commercial cities, including Königsberg, with developed industry and commerce, and a lot of taxes...... At the very least, it is richer than the Elector of Brandenburg......

Therefore, after inheriting the Duchy of Prussia, the Elector of Brandenburg simply used the name of the Kingdom of Prussia instead of the Elector of Brandenburg when it was promoted to a kingdom. Because, Prussia was really richer than Brandenburg. Even in later generations, most of the Brandenburg region, with the exception of parts such as the Greater Berlin region and Cottages, was still relatively poor and rural.

Similarly, the early kingdom of Prussia relied on agriculture and the Junker landlord class. It was not until after the war that Prussia gained an economically developed region of Westphalia that the economy began to improve. In particular, the Westphalia region is home to the famous Ruhr region. With the acquisition of the Ruhr area, and just in time for the great development of the steam engine, Prussia became an industrial power.

In short, the current Elector of Brandenburg is still poor. Relying on the relatively large territory, the development of agriculture, relying on the total amount, barely ranked among the ranks of powerful vassal states. Economically, it is not comparable with Saxony.

Don't look at the division of Saxony, but with just over half of Saxony, the Electorate of Saxony has a larger population and more developed commerce than the Electorate of Brandenburg. Therefore, the Electorate of Brandenburg, which had a large territory, was often headed by Frederick III, Elector of Saxony...... In addition to the fact that his brain is indeed inferior to others, his strength is not as good as others, which is also an objective reason......