Chapter 2033: Petersburg

In fact, in addition to Ukrainian farmers, who can be transported to the North Sea by water, even the serfs of the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the future can also be transported by water to the Jutland Peninsula of the North Sea.

Specifically, go west along the Novgorod region, enter the Daugava River Basin that flows from Riga into the Baltic Sea, go out to sea from Riga, and take a boat to the Jutland Peninsula.

But when there is a problem, once the Grand Duchy of Moscow and Lithuania go to war, the Teutons will also take the opportunity to re-annex the Livonia region. As the capital of the Livonian Knights, Riga is naturally full of wars. Passing through there will inevitably encounter dangers and challenges.

Marin is not afraid of fighting, but he is afraid that if time drags on, the immigrants will starve to death because they cannot get food in time. Therefore, this route is not good.

After thinking again and again, Marin wanted to come to the map, and selected the south bank of the Neva River estuary, which currently belongs to the Novgorod region, as the immigration exit. And this place, in later generations, is called St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg is at the mouth of the Neva River, and the Neva River goes inland and connects to the huge Lake Ladoga, and Lake Ladoga is connected to the Volkhov River that leads directly to Novgorod.

If it is not the freezing period in winter, the ships of the North Sea State can enter Lake Ladoga through the Neva River, then enter the Volkhov River, and go directly to Novgorod. Even, you can go upstream and continue southward. In this way, food transportation is more convenient.

And the population walks along this waterway, without worrying about food, they can walk to St. Petersburg at the mouth of the sea smoothly, and then board the ship.

However, St. Petersburg did not begin to build a city until 1703. After all, Peter the Great was not born until 1672. Right now, this is an ordinary seaport, with no important ports.

The main reason is that it is too close to Sweden and belongs to the border area. Later Tsarist Russia, after moving its capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg, annexed Finland, which originally belonged to the Kingdom of Sweden, for the safety of the capital. Therefore, the current St. Petersburg area is basically a place close to the border area, and it is of little value.

The Grand Duchy of Moscow is currently also working on annexing its neighbors. It has not yet discovered the strategic significance of this place, so naturally it has no idea of ​​​​building a port. Russia was truly civilized, but it did not start to change until Peter I traveled around Western Europe, and began to pay attention to the sea. The current Grand Duchy of Moscow is just a tyrannical land turtle, purely relying on numbers and fighting fiercely.

It's just that because of being too poor, although the Grand Duchy of Moscow has a large population, there are too few weapons and armors that can be used to arm soldiers. Therefore, in general wars, only tens of thousands of horses can be mobilized. Once it exceeds 100,000, there will be a serious shortage of weapons and armor. Just like when Ivan III led an army of 200,000 to confront the Ugra River in 1480, why did Ivan III have so many people and was afraid of the 50,000 people of Ahma Khan? In addition to the large number of cavalry in the Golden Horde, most of the army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow did not have weapons, which is also an important reason. At least tens of thousands of Moscow militiamen were conscripted, and what they held were not serious weapons, but agricultural tools such as pitchforks and hoes. Moreover, quite a few of them are not even iron, but simply wooden pitchforks and wooden pickaxes.

At that time, the Moscow army had only 10,000 to 20,000 people with combat effectiveness. The 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers and horses assembled by the lords from other places can be considered to have a little combat power, although they are also motley troops.

The others are all farmers who come to make up for their courage...

Can they fight with pitchforks and wooden hoes? It can hurt people at most. Of course, if the opponent has no armor, he still has a little damage ability.

However, it would be terrifying if they were equipped with real weapons and armor and then trained. Think about it, even if each person is given a spear and stabbed by one person, the lethality is still very impressive. As for the armor, there is no shortage of fur in Eastern Europe. If it is simply sewn, it is a simple low-quality leather armor.

Just like this time, the Teutons helped them purchase weapons and armor for them, and ordered them for the Muscovites. In fact, they were the spearheads that save the most iron. As for the armor, in fact, the Teutons only helped to order the armor for the officers and the main force, and most of them are chain mails that save iron. As for the conscripts formed by the people? Inferior armor made of fur! If you don't wear it, you will fall down, and you will be unlucky if you die...

...

But then again, the military quality of the Grand Duchy of Moscow is not good, and Lithuania is not good either. Parallel imports versus parallel imports, naturally whoever has the most people is the most powerful... Unfortunately, the Grand Duchy of Moscow has a lot of people. They can mobilize 200,000 horses in a confrontation with the Golden Horde, and naturally they can mobilize so many people to fight Lithuania. As long as there are enough weapons, it's easy to beat Lithuania.

Moreover, Vasily III was no mediocrity. According to information obtained by intelligence personnel, Vasily III was preparing to attack the Smolensk region on the one hand, and on the other hand, he recruited a large number of farmers to build a defense line in the southern region to block the Crimean Khanate that might send troops.

He didn't have the money to build a wall to stop the Crimean cavalry, but he let the Moscow serfs dig ditches south of Ryazan...

Of course, he dug ditches instead of digging irrigation canals, but diverting water into the ditches to prevent the Crimean cavalry from going northward smoothly. Vasily III had heard that Marin used three ditches to stop the Saxon knights. Therefore, he also asked people to dig a lot of tunnels and ditches in the southern border area, and even set up a lot of traps for horses. Tatar cavalry.

He wanted to imitate Marin who cast barbed thorns in front of the battle, but that thing was made of iron, it was too expensive, and he couldn't afford it...

...

Kohler's men have estimated that the Grand Duchy of Moscow can currently gather up to 100,000 sets of weapons and armor (the conscripted militia has no armor). Although half of them are worn out, weapons and armor are weapons and armor. If the Teutonic State can help buy another 50,000 sets, the Grand Duchy of Moscow can guarantee that the 100,000 troops will be equipped with weapons and armor. Then, another 50,000 people can have inferior weapons. In this way, an army of 150,000 can be armed. Another 50,000 farmers with forks and hoes...It's like playing Lithuania...

But then again, Marin is really not afraid of such a motley army. He knew very well that as long as he could defeat the most powerful 10,000 people in the front, the army of the Grand Duchy of Moscow would be easily defeated.

Therefore, he expects the Muscovites to launch a war as soon as possible, defeat Lithuania, and then defeat them by himself...

In order to facilitate the transportation of the plundered population, it is necessary to obtain a stable population export port in the Grand Duchy of Moscow. For example, St. Petersburg...

Of course, there is no St. Petersburg yet, but Marin can build one...

After defeating the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Marin intends to let the Grand Duchy of Moscow cede St. Petersburg, the only narrow mouth into the sea, to himself. Then, I built a city here for the export of Maozi serfs... well, a labor export port...

As for the name of the port town, Marin decided to call it Petersburg...

As for why it is called Petersburg? It's not to commemorate Peter the Great who was born innocent, but because Marin's cousin is called Peter...

Cousin Peter was the son of Uncle Jules, about the same age as Simon. Now, Marin has arranged for him to become a baron lord in Beihai. But because he has no credit, he is only a third baron.

But if he can force the Grand Duchy of Moscow to cede the mouth of the Neva River to himself, he can arrange for Peter's cousin to build a port fortress here in the later St. Petersburg, called Petersburg, but there is no holy word. After all, Cousin Peter couldn't afford to...

The Rise of the Emperor