During her time in Marseille, Emma had a very comfortable life.

Every day with Zhao Hongyu and them to go hunting, or play poker with these relatives of Sarah, Emma is really a little happy.

It's just that the prey here is not as big as in the Americas, except for the hares that are hares, and at most I see a few pheasants or quails, which makes Emma a little disappointed.

The days passed like this, and Zhao Hongyu was waiting for Queen Mary to arrive.

Everything is going smoothly according to Zhao Hongyu's expectations, and if there is no accident, then the Spaniards will definitely be unlucky.

Now that the war is raging in the Netherlands, the Spaniards are completely caught up in it.

Originally, the Holy Roman Empire had promised to send a large army to help, but Spain was waiting for reinforcements.

This annoyed the Spaniards.

In the eyes of the Spaniards, if the Holy Roman Empire had an army to join in, the enemy would have been easily defeated.

Even if the enemy's tactics are now novel.

Yes, the enemy and the Dutch in the Netherlands now used a new tactic, using muskets as their main weapon and firing in five formations to fight the Spaniards.

This made the old empire, which originally relied on the Spanish phalanx, really suffer enough.

Every time they fought the enemy, the Spaniards lost thousands of lives, and now the Spanish front-line soldiers have begun to feel panic and war-weariness.

And that's not even the worst news.

The worst news is that soldiers on the Spanish front are risking their lives to fight, but they haven't been paid for five months.

Fighting with one's own life, but not getting money, one can imagine what kind of consequences such news will be when it spreads on the front line.

Madrid's aristocrats are still drunk and dreaming of death, or vying for power.

Caring people see the hidden crisis under the glitz, but they can't do anything about it.

The nobles in power. Their attention wasn't on that at all.

They were still intoxicated by the illusion of imperial splendor and were not aware of the slightest crisis.

In the eyes of those nobles, the unfavorable news from the front was also temporary, and the strength of Spain was undoubted, and this war would surely count Spain, long live Spain.

But the fact is that now the front-line grassroots officers and soldiers have begun to disobey orders, and they always disobey the orders of their superiors.

Although the commanders punished these disobedient with harsh punishments, it was in the hearts of the front-line soldiers and junior officers. The seeds of resentment were sown.

This kind of dissatisfaction has been suppressed by everyone in the bottom of their hearts, but there will always be a critical point that cannot be supported, and it will explode after the worst.

It's just that no one knows when this outbreak will be.

The smarter officers began to mingle with the soldiers, trying not to add pressure and resentment to them.

But some people in high positions, and officers with aristocratic status, still treated these soldiers with the same attitude.

In addition, the Netherlands was a Swiss mercenary hired by the Spaniards. It's already starting to make trouble.

They fought for money, but now they can't get it, and this is something they can't bear.

Besides, they're not Spaniards. So there is not much psychological burden.

In short, there is no war without money.

There were even mercenaries who kidnapped certain Spanish officials and asked their families to ransom them.

Bad events happened one after another. Bad news keeps coming back to Madrid.

But these messages were suppressed by some people, or even if they were presented to the royal family, they just looked at it and discarded it.

Netherlands, Holstein region. The Spaniards confronted the Protestant coalition forces on the front line.

The distance between the two battle lines was no more than a mile, and standing on a small hillside, you could clearly see each other's activities.

At this time, the Spaniards had just made a small tentative attack, but after paying the price of 200 casualties, the Spaniards finally withdrew in defeat.

The Spaniards had carried out dozens of attacks like this, but each time they were largely unsuccessful.

They simply couldn't fill it, not even within fifty yards of the enemy.

"Hell, we can't crack this new tactic at all, who came up with the musket rotation, it's just a hellish tactic!"

Standing on the hill of Torles, the commander of the Spanish legion, Asolny, put down the monoculars in his hand and said hatefully.

"Yes, we use the Spanish phalanx for this tactic, and there is no way to fight against it. Now it seems that our Spanish phalanx has lagged behind the enemy. ", echoed Colonel Carlos, who was standing behind Asolny.

"Isn't there any news from Madrid yet? We need salaries to stabilize the morale of the army, and at the same time we need a lot of reinforcements, and now the enemy's logistics can't keep up so they can't attack yet, but I'm sure the enemy is increasing the logistics supply, and when they are well supplied, what awaits us is destruction. ”

Azolny's face was pale.

Yes, they had been fighting the Protestant coalition here for months, during which time the Spaniards had paid a great price, almost filling the situation with human lives.

If it weren't for the constant attack of the soldiers below by Azolny, which consumed a lot of ammunition of the Protestant coalition army, the Spanish legion would have been defeated a long time ago.

Originally, Assolny's plan was to drag the Protestant coalition army here, then Madrid to give him reinforcements and soldiers, and then the Holy Roman Empire to attack from the east at the same time, so that they still had a chance to win the war.

But to Asorny's disappointment, Madrid has been ignoring his news for so long.

The Holy Roman Empire, on the other hand, did not react either.

This frustrated Azolny's plans completely.

"My lord, what now? The soldiers have not been paid for five months, and now many of them have deserted and even begun to disobey orders, and if this situation continues, I don't think we will have to wait for the Protestant coalition to attack us, and we will collapse. ”

Colonel Carlos' analysis was accurate, and Azolni was aware of the situation.

But what could he do?

He really can't do anything about it.

He didn't have a penny for military pay, and at the same time no reinforcements were sent to Madrid.

It's fine if he's the king of Spain, but the problem is he's not the king of Spain.

"Keep sending people to Madrid and report the fragrance here, and I don't believe those damn guys are really going to let us fail here." You must know that if the Dao fails here, the foundation of the empire's rule will also be shaken. ”

After thinking about it, Azolny ordered Colonel Carlos.

Colonel Carlos nodded, knowing that there was nothing he and Assolny could do to change the situation, and all they could do was to keep sending people to Madrid to report the situation here.

I really don't know what their future will look like, and are all those people in Madrid really brain-dead?

Carlos couldn't help but think to himself in his heart.

While Asolny and Carlos were worried about this, the soldiers were constantly complaining in front of the Spanish line below the hill.

"Oh my God, it's so unfair that we're working hard here, and those aristocrats and gentlemen in Madrid are eating and drinking." A dirty Spanish soldier with rags wrapped around his head whispered hatefully to his companions.

"That is, the war has been fought to such an extent that it is clear that we should admit defeat. But the commanders told us to persevere, and every day we had to charge the enemy to their deaths, and the third team of the charge just now killed twelve people, one of whom was from the same village as me. ”

Such whining words were abundant among the Spanish soldiers.

But in general, they are only talking in private, at most they are disobeying the order or something, and the Spanish Legion as a whole is still maintained.

Compared to them, the mercenaries, who numbered about 2,000 people, would not be so easy to talk to.

The Spanish Count, who commanded the mercenary legion, has now been captured by the mercenaries and locked up in a freshly dug pit.

He hadn't eaten for four days, and he had to be tortured by the mercenaries every day, making him feel like he was in hell.

"Master Sokro, we are mercenaries who pay for our lives, and it is only natural that you give us money and we will fight for you. Even if we die in battle, it's our bad luck, and it has nothing to do with you. But now that we are helping you Spain to fight the war, we have not obtained a single copper plate so far, is it a bit too much for you to say this? ”

The temporary leader of this mercenary legion, the Norwegian One-Eyed Buck, crouched on the edge of the pit and looked at Count Socrow with bad intentions.

His voice was so eerie that Count Socro's body trembled involuntarily.

In the past few days, he has been tortured by these mercenaries.

A lot of the torture methods were come up with by this guy named Buck.

"Lord Barker, it's not that I owe you money, it's that the adults in power in Madrid didn't sow the money. Honestly, this has nothing to do with me. ”

Socro explained in a trembling voice.

"Nope! No! No! One-eyed Buck cocked up and shook his fingers, "You were the one who hired us in the first place, so now we have to ask you for money too, and as for the Spanish or Madrid nobles or something, that's your business." (To be continued.) )