While the scouts of the North Sea Kingdom were carefully removing the sentinels of the Duchy of Gedus, the area of the Lower Geddes. The members of the "mission" of the North Sea Kingdom are also conspiring......

In fact, many of these so-called "missions" of the Grand Duchy of the North Sea were all spies under Kohler. And the "civilian officials" who took the lead were all spies. Since Marin set up a spy school, several batches of spies have been trained, totaling three or four hundred. Except for the first batch of spies who graduated in a hurry due to the great war with the Bossa coalition army, the other batches were all trained and allowed to graduate. Moreover, the first batch of spies who graduated later returned to school to make up for many of the shortcomings caused by the hasty graduation before.

Today, with the exception of more than 20 people who died or became disabled due to failed missions (espionage is a dangerous profession with a high casualty rate), the rest are growing up.

The Lower Guedes region was very prosperous, and in those days, agriculture was the core of the economy. And if agriculture is prosperous, large-scale estates will be formed. Then, on the basis of the manor, the market town will automatically appear. And when there are more market towns, there will be cities......

The lower Rhine region of the Lower Rhine is obviously very prosperous, with a total of 12 cities, including Dousburg, Duttingheim, Heronlo, Lochm, Elburg, Haldwijk, Hatem, Wageningen, Hunt, Masbomer, Tyre, and Zaltebomer.

You must know that 12 cities are very enviable for the nobility of this era. Because, having a city means having taxes......

In this era when agricultural taxes and poll taxes could not be levied, commercial taxes and road taxes were the economic lifeblood of the lords. Commerce took place mainly in urban areas, so the more cities a nobleman ruled, the more commercial taxes he could collect, and the richer he became. There are 12 important cities in the Principality of Gedes in the Lower Geddes region alone, which shows that a lot of commercial taxes must have been collected, otherwise there would be no confidence to compete with the Duchy of Saxony for West Frisian land before. Including the 6 cities of Gerdon, Ekrenz, Goch, Niustatt, Venlo and Straren in the Upper Geddes, there are 18 cities in the entire Duchy of Gedus. Therefore, the Principality of Geddes was able to develop in a short period of time after the restoration of the country and become a powerful country again.

In addition, the Nizhny Guedes region controlled the outlet to the Rhine, and the Duchy of Geedes could set up a barrage in the lower reaches of the Rhine estuary to collect tolls, which was also a considerable wealth.

One of the important reasons why John II, Duke of Cleaver, was willing to replace the Geddes region with the Mark, in addition to the 12 cities there, could block the mouth of the Rhine River and collect a ship toll. Coal was not marketable until the steam engine was developed and the briquette furnace was invented. But the fertility and prosperity of the delta region of the Rhine estuary, as well as the convenience of setting up a card to collect taxes at the mouth of the Rhine, were superior to the Ruhr coal of the Markberg kingdom in this era.

The fragmentation of the German region is very detrimental to the history of economic development. In later generations, in the early days of Prussia's unification in the 19th century, it began with the establishment of the German Customs Union. Because, before that, the same goods were transported from the north of Germany to the south, and they passed through many countries by land, and they had to be subject to customs duties many times. The same is true for the waterways, where the entrance to the Rhine is levied once by the Zerlander kingdom of the Austrian Netherlands, and then by the Lower Guedes, which is also taxed. Then came the Duchy of Cleaver, then the Archbishopric of Cologne and the Duchy of Berg...... In other words, goods transported from the mouth of the Rhine to the city of Cologne were taxed 5 times...... If it continues to the upper reaches of the Rhine, the tax will be more expensive...... As a result, the cost of transportation is much higher, and the price of goods naturally rises, which also seriously affects the economic development of the German region......

The Nizhny Guedes region, which is located near the mouth of the Rhine River, is an insurmountable obstacle for shipping in the Rhine Basin. If you want to pass through here, you will be taxed twice if you go back and forth twice.

It is precisely for this reason that Marin was ruthlessly digging a canal connecting the rivers Lipper and Ames. Otherwise, even if Marin gets the Ruhr area of the Marin kingdom, and the coal wants to be transported to East Friesland, it will have to be taxed four or five times, which is not cost-effective. And after digging this canal yourself, you don't have to pay taxes to others to transport coal......

……

There are 12 cities in the Lower Guedes region, and Marin's plan is to take them quickly and before the other princes react. Therefore, this requires the ability to quickly break through the enemy's defenses.

However, the cities of Europe were walled with stones, which were easy to defend and difficult to attack. If it is according to the normal way of fighting, even if Schwartz brings more than 20,000 troops, even if most of the troops of the Duchy of Gedes are concentrated in the Upper Gedes area, it will take a long time to take all 12 cities in the Lower Gedes area.

Therefore, before leaving, Marin discussed a clever plan with Kohler - in the name of taking over the Lower Guedes area, he sent a "diplomatic mission" into these 12 cities, and put on a posture of wanting to take over this place.

Moreover, because Charles II, Duke of Guedes, had promised to cede the region of Lower Guedes to Marin. Therefore, it is reasonable that the Marin delegation has prepared to take over in the past, and there is nothing to doubt about it.

The only thing that the Duchy of Gedes did not expect was probably the high combat effectiveness of these "delegations". With the exception of the leading few "civilian representatives" who were disguised as spies who had graduated from spy schools, the rest were special combatants disguised as ordinary retinues or escorts. Even those spies have been trained by brutal agents, and their combat effectiveness is not weak.

The task of these "delegations" was to surprise the enemy's flank after the arrival of Schwarz's army, and to forcibly seize and open the gates of the city to welcome Schwarz's army into the city......

After all, the 20,000 troops led by Schwartz this time were all dressed in the uniforms of the Duchy of Cleaver army and holding the flag of the Duchy of Cleaver. Therefore, the small number of defenders of the Duchy of Gedes in the city would not have thought that the diplomatic team of the North Sea Kingdom, which had planned to "come to take over" the area of the Lower Geddes, would attack them from behind...... As soon as the gates were raided and opened, Schwarz's army would be quick and swift in occupying the Nizhny Guedes area, and the other German princes would have no time to react. By the time they reacted, the entire Lower Gedes region had already been eaten by the North Sea State. In this way, even the other German princes would have reacted too late. With those letters as evidence, the other princes couldn't say anything more......

To this end, Kohler sent 12 "diplomatic teams" to 12 cities in the lower Gordes region. Then, there were about sixty or seventy people in each team. And now that the Duchy of Gedesi has gathered most of its troops in the area of Upper Guedes, it is inevitable that the defense in the area of Lower Guedes will be negligent. In this way, it was relatively simple for the city to arrange sixty or seventy men as an internal response, seize the city gates, and put the army inside......