Between countries, the word comes first. The reason why the Teutonic states wanted to regain control of Livonia was because of Moscow's huge market.

Over the years, although in the process of cooperation with Marin, the Teutonic Knights completely controlled the salt trade of the Teutonic Nation, and were able to export coarse wool from Eastern Europe to Marin. However, these profits are still a little low, and they are not as profitable as Livonia's salt trade. After all, Livonia was the main salt import route for the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which had a population of more than 10 million. Even if they don't trade in salt, the salt transit tax alone can make the Livonians rich.

And what about the Teutonic States? Now it has a population of just over 300,000, only one-third of the population in its heyday. Its land area has also shrunk from 150,000 or 60,000 square kilometers to more than 30,000 square kilometers.

The most depressing thing is that the territory of the Teutonic state is still surrounded by Lithuania for the most part, separated from the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which has the same interests. Obviously, the Lithuanians would not allow the Teutons to do business in their country, especially in the lucrative salt trade. At most, some businesses with very low margins will agree to them to take over.

The Livonian Confederation to the north of the Teutonic state, on the other hand, is connected to the Pskov Republic and can be connected to the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The salt trade of the Grand Duchy of Moscow was also imported through the two countries.

Although the Grand Duchy of Moscow, having conquered the Novgorod Republic, gained the narrow entrance to the sea in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, which was later St. Petersburg. Muscovites, however, had no connections in Western Europe. If you want to import salt, you can only rely on the merchants of the Hanseatic League. Muscovite merchants wanted their own merchant ships to go to sea to buy salt, and they were afraid that they would be "killed" at sea by the merchants of the Hanseatic League. So, even with a small outlet to the sea, Muscovites were still very dependent on the Hanseatic League for salt imports. The main process of importing salt was that it was transported to Livonia by Hanseatic merchants from Germany, then to Pskov and then to the territory of the Grand Duchy of Moscow......

It is worth mentioning that the salt shipped to Livonia by Hanseatic merchants was mainly purchased from Lüneburg, the "salt capital". And now, the salt mines in Lüneburg are under the control of Marin, who personally owns more than half of the shares. Therefore, the salt trade of the Grand Duchy of Moscow also had the interest of Marin.

It's just that the price at which the Hanseatic merchants took the goods in Lüneburg was lower, just the price of salt in Germany. And they transported salt to Livonia, and the profit was at least several times greater.

The reason why Marin supported the Teutonian attack on Livonia this time was not only the relationship with his uncle Hule, but also the reason why the Teutonic state promised to let Marin's merchant ships transport the salt sold to Moscow to Livonia in the future.

In this way, several times the profit from the transportation of salt from Lüneburg to Livonia, will be made by Marin. As for the incident with the original salt carrier, the Teutonic State said that it was up to them to do it, and not let Marin be this villain. After all, Marin and the Hanseatic League are still allies.

It was for this reason that Marin did not hesitate to provide artillery to the Teutonic states to support their attack on Livonia. After all, it's good for him.

……

On the other hand, Muscovites also know the importance of the Pskov Republic. Therefore, the Muscovites used force and economic means as early as the time of Ivan III to force Pskov to submit to him. Even, when Vasily III was a prince, the nominal fief was Pskov.

At present, within Pskov, there are a large number of nobles of the pro-Moscow faction. In the event of a fight, the Pskovs would have to suppress the pro-Moscow faction within before they could confront the Moscow army. Of course, in general, in order to ensure independence, most of the Pskov nobility was closer to Lithuania. Because, Lithuania is relatively weak and will not seek to annex Pskov.

Of course, Pskov's affiliation has nothing to do with the Teutonic state. However, the affairs of the Livonian Federation are closely related to the Teutonian state. After all, a few decades ago, Livonia was subordinate to the Teutons. Now, it is independent, but it is bigger and richer than the original suzerain.

Fortunately, the power of the Livonian Commonwealth was numerous, and the interests were dispersed among the local churches, nobles, merchants, and Teutonic knights. Compared with the Teutonic state, the Livonian Confederation has a large amount of trade, but its financial resources are scattered among different forces, and it is not as centralized as the Teutonian state.

In addition, since the Knights lost control of Livonia in 1435, the wandering knights of Western European countries such as Germany and France were not very happy to go to Livonia, and more chose to go to Teutonia with a higher knightly status.

This is very important, as it means that the Teutonic kingdom can get more powerful wandering knights. And the wandering knights who go to the Livonian Federation are more likely to do business. After all, there are more business opportunities there.

In this way, the Teutonic kingdom has the confidence to gather more knights for national warfare. In the Livonian Commonwealth, there are fewer knights who can gather. Moreover, they are not on the same page as the Livonian Federation. After all, from being the master of the region to being one of the masters, the members of the Livonian Knights must be uncomfortable. You know, before 1435, although the Livonian Knights were subordinate to the Teutonic Order, they had to pay taxes to the Teutonic Order. However, at that time, it was the knights of the Livonian Order who controlled the Livonian region. The Teutonic state, on the other hand, does not send people to take care of things, but only needs to receive enough taxes.

The protagonists, nobles and merchants, as well as the burghers, who rose up against the Teutonic state and deprived the Livonian Order of absolute control over the Livonian region, happened to be the Lithuanians.

Therefore, this time, even if the Teutonic state smashes the pot and sells iron, it will help the Muscovites to purchase enough weapons and armor, so that the Muscovites can defeat the backstage of the "rebels" who rebelled against the Knights in Livonia. In this way, the Teutonic states sent troops to retake Livonia, and no one interfered.

……

However, 50,000 sets of weapons and armor are really expensive. If you purchase knight-level equipment, a set of Gothic plate armor will cost dozens of gold coins. A knight's sword also costs a few gold coins. It is estimated that it will cost more than 2 million gold coins to buy 50,000 sets in this way. And the money that the Teutonic countries have accumulated over the years is not that much at all.

So, after thinking twice, Lev abandoned the idea of buying 50,000 sets of knightly weapons and armor for Muscovites, and instead purchased weapons and armor for ordinary soldiers. Specifically, ordinary leather armor, ordinary spears with less iron, etc., as well as ordinary iron knives and crossbows. In this way, a set down, but a dozen gold coins. 50,000 sets, no more than 1 million gold coins.

In fact, the reason why the Teutonic countries chose to purchase weapons and armor from Marin was not only because of the high quality of the weapons and armor of the North Sea Kingdom, but also because they originally planned to pay only part of the money to Marin, and the rest would be paid after the war was over. After all, if the Grand Duchy of Moscow annexed the wealthy Pskov Republic and looted it, there would be no money to pay the balance.

But Marin knew their intentions and refused to sell weapons to Muscovites. Therefore, Lev was also helpless, so he could only lower the grade of his weapons and armor.

Fortunately, even with ordinary iron knives, spears and crossbows, the level of craftsmanship in Germany is higher than in Eastern Europe. The Moscow army used it, and it was not bad. At least, no worse than what the Lithuanian army used. Moreover, the Moscow army has a numerical superiority. This extra army equipped with good quality weapons and armor is definitely overwhelming for Lithuania, which has only tens of thousands of soldiers and horses.

If it is single-handed, the current strength of the Grand Duchy of Moscow is enough to defeat Lithuania to the north. But Lithuania had the support of the Kingdom of Poland behind it, and the two countries could join forces to barely resist the pressure of the Muscovites.

But now, under the influence of Marin, the Poles made the Polish hussars in advance, which made the forces of the two sides a little unbalanced.

At present, Zygmunt I had built up a 5,000-strong Polish hussar army, and it was still a standing army. This army, in addition to participating in the suppression of the Hungarian peasant uprising, was later transferred to the Lithuanian border to fight the Muscovites once, and easily ate a thousand Muscovites cavalry, much to the surprise of Vasily III.

Therefore, the reason why the Muscovites asked the Teutonic state to help purchase 50,000 sets of weapons and armor this time was actually to fight against the Polish hussars.

Of these, 5,000 were leather armor, chain mail and sabers used by cavalry. Another 45,000 sets, all for infantry, included 5,000 crossbowmen.

Vasily III's plan was to use 5,000 light cavalry, 5,000 crossbowmen and 40,000 spearmen against 5,000 Polish hussals. After all, the hussars wore only half armor, and the horses were not yet armoured, so the protection was not good. Vasily III did not want to defeat the Polish hussars, as long as the 50,000 men could withstand the onslaught of the Polish hussasars. Among them, the existence of 5,000 crossbowmen is specially used to shoot the war horses of the winged cavalry.

Even, in order to fight against the heavy cavalry of the Poles, the Teutonic state secretly sent several Swiss mercenary officers who were originally employed by the Teutonic state to Moscow to help train the militia units in Moscow. Of course, it was impossible to train the Moscow peasants into brave Swiss mercenaries. The main task of these Swiss mercenary officers was to teach the Moscow militia how to resist the onslaught of cavalry. After all, Swiss mercenaries started by defeating the Plate Knights. Although the Polish hussars were more slender than the knights' spears, they were still a little too short in front of the Swiss spears that were five or six meters long. When used well, spearmen could withstand the onslaught of Polish hussars.

But just as Lev was wandering around the handicraft cities of Nuremberg, Frankfurt and other handicraft cities in southern Germany, he suddenly came from the west with explosive news - the French had made a big deal......