Previously, in the war with the coalition forces of the eight kingdoms, Malin captured a total of 70,000 prisoners of war, including 30,000 civilians. In addition, more than 20,000 soldiers were recruited.

But in addition to these more than 50,000 people, there were about 16,000 mercenary prisoners. Originally, the coalition of the eight-nation princes recruited a total of more than 21,000 mercenaries. Later, five thousand people were lost in the war, and the remaining 16,000 sound prisoners of war became Marin's prisoners of war.

Now it is late February of 1513. It is about to enter March, and then April. Once April enters, spring plowing will be fully launched. At that time, all the captured civilians and recruited soldiers will be sent back to participate in spring plowing. After all, now the eight vassal states have become Malin's territory, and there is no reason not to engage in spring plowing.

However, the remaining 16,000 mercenary prisoners of war were different. They were all professional soldiers and had long been out of business and no longer cultivated land. In other words, these people were all surplus labor.

Logically, after a defeat, these mercenaries should be redeemed by the defeated employer. Or simply surrender to the captive side and fight for Marin.

However, now that the eight vassal states have been destroyed, naturally no one will give them ransoms. And Marin's Beihai Kingdom did not care about these German mercenaries with low military qualities and would not be willing to hire them. Therefore, Marin had never thought about how to resettle them before.

Now, when Marin was planning the city of Bremen, he suddenly thought of digging a small canal connecting the Wies and the Ames River, and naturally he remembered these 16,000 mercenary prisoners of war.

So Marin made a decision - to send troops to escort the 16,000 mercenary prisoners of war to help him dig a canal connecting the Leda River and the Hunter River.

After all, it is just a small canal less than 10 kilometers, and it does not require much depth or width. Even if the 16,000 labor force only digs 100 meters a day, 100 days will be enough to dig this canal. Once this canal is opened, Marin will be equivalent to connecting the three major rivers of the Rhine, the Ames and the Wesser River, which is very conducive to inland shipping.

In fact, because of the construction of this small canal, anyone with a discerning eye can see the great economic development of the North Sea Kingdom in the future. Haider even suggested moving to Bremen, or Oldenburg. Because once the canal is completed, Bremen and Oldenburg City beside the canal will become busy inland shipping centers.

But Marin firmly rejected the proposal...

Why? Because as a military leader, Marin instinctively refused to build the capital by the river. After all, in ancient Chinese history, there were too many examples of large cities relying on rivers being flooded.

For example, in the Battle of Jinyang where the three families divided Jin, the Zhi family Jin army and the Han, Zhao and Wei coalition forces used the water flooding Jinyang and the water flooding Zhi camp respectively, laying the foundation for the three families to divide Jin.

Later, when Qin destroyed the six kingdoms, Wang Ben besieged the capital of Wei Daliang (Kaifeng), and also dug the Yellow River to flood Daliang City, and annexed the Wei Kingdom in one fell swoop.

With these examples first, how could Marin dare to put the capital by the river? Although Europeans are relatively backward now and do not understand the method of flooding. However, Marin thinks they will know sooner or later. Moreover, he may use this trick in the future. In this way, if others learn it, what if they use it to deal with their capital?

Therefore, Marin insisted on putting the capital in Orich, which had no big river around, instead of the port Emden, for fear that people would flood his capital. His wife and children were all placed in the capital. If they were drowned by others, then his struggle would have no meaning...

...

After arranging the relevant matters for the excavation of the canal, Marin returned to Orich. At this time, Kohler and others had calculated all the military merits in the war. When Marin returned, he naturally gave the meritorious soldiers a lot of military merits.

The military medal was also the "invention" of Marin. Although there were medals in Europe in this era, only those who were awarded were qualified to be awarded. The lowest medal must also be knight medals such as the Knights of the Garder Order and the Golden Wool Knights.

The knights are obviously nobles, so in this era, only nobles were qualified to wear medals.

But Marin could not only award medals to soldiers who received the title, because this was not conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of the soldiers of the entire army. Therefore, Marin "invented" military medals to reward all brave soldiers who fought.

Among them, the lowest-level military medal is made of oak, called the "Warrior Medal". All brave soldiers who fight on the battlefield, even the lowest-level soldiers, may obtain it. Of course, the conditions for soldiers to obtain the "Warrior Medal". For example, only by taking the lead in attacking the enemy camp and taking the lead in the enemy's city can we be qualified to obtain such medals.

The surface of this oak medal is painted with paint to ensure corrosion resistance. A hero is carved on the wooden sign, representing courage.

Any soldier who receives the Warrior Medal will immediately become different. For example, in the manor, the family status of ordinary soldiers is a little higher than that of ordinary serfs and enjoys a little priority. But if they receive the Warrior Medal, then the treatment of this family is equivalent to the management of the manor, and the treatment should be given priority, which is very useful.

As for officers, Malin also set up military medals, but more advanced. The military medals of officers are made of metal and are engraved with eagles. However, according to the material, they can be divided into three types: copper, silver and gold. Among them, the bronze eagle medal is mainly rewarded to lower-level officers; while the silver medal is mainly rewarded to middle-level officers; the gold eagle medal is naturally rewarded to senior generals.

The Oak Warrior Medal is rougher in workmanship, larger in workmanship, and is also very rough in hanging - it is hung directly on the neck like a work sign. The Officer's Eagle Medal is much more refined and smaller in workmanship, so it is convenient to hang on the chest. As long as you have an extra copper button on the chest, you can hang it.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! Taking advantage of the opportunity to withdraw from the military medal, Marin also took the opportunity to introduce a military rank system. Among them, soldiers are divided into three levels - Private, Private and Private.

Among them, the new recruits are privates. Those who serve for more than one year are privates. Then, the new recruits or privates who receive the Warriors Medal are promoted to privates.

If a first-class privateer receives the Warrior Medal, he will be promoted to a non-commissioned officer. A non-commissioned officer is divided into four levels - corporal, sergeant, sergeant and sergeant chief.

However, non-commissioned officers belong to the civilian class can only be the squad leader (a team of 25 people). When the non-commissioned officers go up, they will naturally be lieutenants, and that will be the officers of the aristocratic class.

Needless to say, the lieutenant officer is divided into three levels: second lieutenant, lieutenant and captain, and there is no captain. On the way up, there is a school official, divided into four levels: major, lieutenant, colonel, colonel and colonel.

Among them, the second lieutenant and the lieutenant correspond to the deputy company captain (250-person company), the captain corresponds to the company captain. The major and the lieutenant colonel correspond to the deputy matrix leader, and the colonel corresponds to the matrix leader.

However, although the colonel is also within the category of school officials, Marin does not intend to use it as a frontline officer, but rather to grant future staff and civilian officers. Now, Marin's army is an illiterate concentration camp, and there is no such thing as staff and civilian officers.

Then, when you go up, you will be the general. The brigade general and the major general were awarded the deputy commander, and the lieutenant general was naturally the rank of the commander of the corps. As for the general, Marin generally did not award it. Because the largest organization in the Beihai Kingdom now is the 10,000 army, which is only equivalent to one division in later generations. Only when there is a system similar to the army in later generations, that is, a 30,000 to 50,000 people, will the general take it out and award the rank.

As for now, Marin only granted himself the rank of one general. Schwartz and several others were all lieutenant generals. As for the more advanced generals and marshals... Marin stipulated that only the emperor or the crown prince was qualified to become marshal; only the king was qualified to become general... And Marin is now the throne, and can only grant the rank of generals...

...

While creating military ranks and medals, Marin also promoted the titles of Schwartz, Stad and others - Earl...

Of course, Marin added the rank of the earl - the earl is also divided into three levels, the lowest is the earl, then the deputy earl, and finally the earl. Schwartz, Stad, Kohler and Kahn and others were naturally the lowest rank of earl. Otherwise, they would not be able to be upgraded in the future...

As for the newly promoted legion commanders such as Wagner and Heinx, they were awarded the title of Viscount. After all, their starting point was low. For example, Heinx is still only the follower of the third-class viscount. Steindorf was upgraded to the first-class viscount, and the next time he was promoted, he could be promoted to the follower of the Earl...
Chapter completed!