Chapter 242 Tinplate

After securing the most powerful figures in the Archbishopric of Cologne, Marin did not go to Munster, the capital of the Archbishopric, to continue bribing the Bishop of Munster, but instead led the team back to China.

Marin felt that at this time, it was better not to let the Bishopric of Munster know the news. If they have bad ideas, getting the news in advance will easily give them time to prepare.

Anyway, his army is ready. When the time comes, the Holy See will order it, and it will suffice to bring the army directly into the Bishopric of Munster.

Unlike the Archbishop of Cologne and the Metropolitan Bishops, this decision of the Holy See is equivalent to depriving the Bishop of Münster of his secular governance and directly affects his interests. However, the Archbishop of Cologne and the Metropolitans did not suffer any direct losses. Therefore, the Archbishop of Cologne and several Metropolitans are easy to be persuaded, while the Bishop of Münster, as the party whose interests have been damaged, is not so easy to say.

Even if he couldn't resist openly, the Bishop of Münster had been in charge of the Bishopric of Münster for many years, secretly stumbling Marin, it was still easy.

Therefore, Marin intends to take a surprise. Wait until the Holy See orders, and directly lead the army into the city of Munster. Wait for the soldiers to come down to the city, and then negotiate. In short, do not give the other party time to react.

In addition, because he had not considered the matter of the Bishopric of Osnabruck before, Marin had never sent his men to the Bishopric of Osnabruck to collect intelligence. At this moment, it is time to send someone to the Bishopric of Osnabrück to collect information, so as to avoid problems due to insufficient information when the army passes by.

The Bishopric of Osnabrück is only a weak bishopric, and it can only exist safely by relying on the prestige of the Holy See and the Archbishop of Cologne. The country is small and weak. If it weren't for the strong backing, they would have been destroyed long ago.

Therefore, the Bishopric of Osnabruck and the Bishopric of Münster are different. Bishop of Münster is a powerful faction. After all, in all of Germany, there are not many with a land area of ​​more than 10,000 square kilometers, just a few. Therefore, the Bishopric of Münster is still relatively difficult.

As for the Bishopric of Osnabruck, as long as it dispatched 10,000 troops to besiege the city, plus it had been abandoned by its backers, it was only a matter of time before it surrendered.

What's more, Marin heard that the total number of troops of the Bishopric of Osnabrück is only seven or eight hundred, and their combat effectiveness is average. The Bishopric of Münster, on the other hand, had a standing army of 5,000, which belonged to a powerful country.

After all, to support 5,000 mercenaries, the salary alone will cost nearly 90,000 gold coins a year. Not any country has so much money to support so many mercenaries. It can be seen that the financial situation of the Bishopric of Münster is quite good.

Of course, the strength of the Bishopric of Munster was not in the eyes of Marin.

If it weren't for the worry that the Electors of Saxony and the Electors of Brandenburg would intervene, and the 5,000 soldiers and horses of the Bishopric of Münster alone, in Marin's eyes, it would be a P. Don't you see, the 20,000-something elite of the Duke of Saxony was defeated by Marin? 5,000 people, what is it?

After returning to East Friesland, Marin asked Schwartz to step up his training of recruits. Due to the urgency of time, this batch of recruits, especially the last 5,000 recruits, may not be able to train for three months as originally planned. Possibly, the training will start after more than a month. Therefore, Schwartz's training task is very heavy.

Fortunately, with the assistance of the 200 young officers who came out of the crash course, these new recruits can form a certain combat effectiveness as soon as possible. After all, the power of example is limitless. There are 200 officers with rich theoretical experience to guide, I don't know how high the combat effectiveness is, but it is definitely much faster to complete the training requirements than without these officers.

In order for recruits to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, these 200 officers with solid theoretical foundations alone are not enough. To this end, Marin transferred 1,200 veterans from the veterans, and replaced 1,200 recruits from the recruits. The new recruits who have been replaced are brought by the veterans, and they naturally get started quickly. As for the recruits, there is one veteran as the squad leader for every ten people on average. Under the leadership of these veterans, the recruits can become familiar with the business more quickly. At the same time, when encountering battles, under the leadership of these veteran squad leaders, they can quickly adapt. After all, new recruits can adapt more quickly with the words and deeds of veterans.

...

Before the expedition, Marin had been thinking about a problem-that is, the issue of domestic security...

After Marin came up with the tactic of shelling + powder keg blasting, the Oak City Gate became a decoration when facing the artillery. The example of George's capture of Leeuwarden tells Marin that cities in his own country may also be conquered by the enemy with the same tricks.

Although it is said that the city of Aurich has been replaced with four large iron gates, it is no longer worried that it will be damaged by the enemy's shelling. However, other cities have not yet. In particular, the Principality of Schleswig may face retaliation from Denmark at any time, which is the most dangerous.

You know, the Danes ate Marin's losses, but obviously also learned Marin's tricks. If the city gate of the Principality of Schleswig was still an oak city gate, it would easily be broken by the Danes using the same trick.

Originally, Marin planned to smelt zinc after the zinc in the Tara lead-zinc mine was in place, to make thick tinplate, and to cover the city gate, so that there was no need to worry about the enemy's artillery bombardment. After all, the artillery shells of this era are all iron balls, and the power of the excitation medicine is not very strong. As long as the city gate is covered with iron, it is difficult for the enemy to break through.

Just like the East China, the city gates are covered with copper skin and painted with red paint, so they are not afraid of the bombardment of ancient smoothbore cannons. However, in Europe, it is very unrealistic to cover the city gate with copper skin. Because the price is too high.

Europe is not the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, the exchange ratio of silver and copper was as high as 1:130 or more, and the price of copper was very cheap. Naturally, there were conditions to use copper skin and copper nails to cover the city gate. But what about this era in Europe? The exchange ratio of silver and copper is 1 to 15. It is definitely something that local tyrants can do to cover such a big city gate with copper skin...

However, it is useless to cover it with ordinary iron sheets. After a few rains, it will rust immediately. The rusted iron sheet is broken when the shell is hit, and it is not useful at all.

However, the Tara lead-zinc mine, which has just been acquired, has not even been explored, and it is too late to manufacture tinplate to the gates of East Friesland, Oldenburg and Schleswig.

And replacing the city gates in these three areas with big iron gates is too expensive, even Marin can't afford it.

An iron city gate weighs at least seven or eight tons, and a city requires several. There are several cities in one country... In short, the consumption of iron is too amazing...

At present, blast furnace ironmaking is not popular in Europe, and ironmaking is simply replaced by ordinary charcoal furnaces, with low output and poor quality, but the price is very high.

Therefore, it is very unreliable to popularize iron gates in cities in three countries...

After thinking about it, Marin suddenly remembered the tinplate commonly used in tin cans in later generations. Just soak the iron sheet in the tin liquid and hot-dip it, and the rust-proof tinplate is easily obtained.

The anti-rust ability of tinplate is very good, the only disadvantage is that the tin layer on the iron sheet cannot be damaged. Otherwise, the damaged tinned point will become the diffusion point of the rust of the iron sheet.

The galvanized tinplate perfectly avoids this disadvantage. Because, even if the galvanized layer is damaged a little, as long as the scope is not large, it is not a big deal, but it can continue to be used. Therefore, Marin will think of using zinc. Moreover, the Tara lead-zinc mine in Ireland has huge reserves of zinc, and it stands at 10% of the ore content. The reserves are very large. If it is extracted, the cost will be very low. At least, a lot lower than tin.

But now, Marin has no time to wait for the Tara lead-zinc mine to produce zinc. Because war can break out at any time. So, after thinking it over and over again, Marin decided to use all the 15 tons of tin in the reserve that was originally intended to be used for counterfeiting coins to make tinplate.

Before the zinc was released from the Tara lead-zinc mine, the city gate was covered with tinplate and held for a while. Wait until the zinc is out, and then replace it with tinplate.

As for the situation where the tin-plated layer of tinplate is prone to problems once it is damaged, Marin also quickly thought of a solution...

Nailing tinplate to the city gate will only cause damage to the tinned layer on the nail hole. Therefore, Marin decided to drive the tin with iron nails out of the holes before tinning. Then, it is put into the tin liquid for hot-dip plating. In this way, when nailing the tinplate to the city gate, as long as the nails are nailed in the holes of the nails, try to be careful, so that the tin-plated layer will not be damaged.

As long as the tinned layer is not damaged, tinplate can be used for a long time. Even if the enemy attacked with artillery, the city gates covered with tinplate and iron sheets could last for a long time.

In fact, Marin urgently made tinplate sheets this time, and distributed them to cities in the control area, that is, to withstand this wave. Once Marin successfully controlled the Bishopric of Münster and the Bishopric of Osnabrück, and the 20,000-strong army was vacated, it didn't matter whether the city gates were covered with tinplate or not. Whoever dares to infringe on their own territory can go back directly...

But while Marin was concentrating on conquering and controlling the Bishopric of Münster and Osnabrück, Marin was not free to take care of anything else during this time. Therefore, it is still necessary to send some tinplate sheets to nail the gates of domestic cities so that they can withstand the enemy's attack for a period of time...