In order to prevent being robbed by enemies or allies, Marin was very worried. You should know that his team of 1,100 people, carrying thousands of horses and thousands of sets of armor, would definitely blind people and dogs.

This is not counting the ransom of the 4,000 French Knights. Kohler calculated the accounts and thought that these 4,000 prisoners could be exchanged for at least 2 million Ducat gold coins.

Knights are not cheaper than horses. War horses are easy to train, and they will achieve results in three to five years. And it takes more than ten years to cultivate a knight and it is huge.

Therefore, the ransom of a knight costs at least 500 gold coins. 4,000 knights can cost at least 2 million gold coins. This is not considered the "premium" of those nobles...

"I'll be nice, 2 million gold coins!" All that was left in Marin's eyes!

"But, young master, if you bring all these prisoners back, His Majesty the Emperor will definitely not give you so much money. Because the Emperor himself is very poor!" Kohler said.

"What?" Marin was angry. However, he was right to think about it. The emperor could not give him so much money. Because he was fighting for the emperor, and the spoils should be handed over the head to the emperor.

However, if he wanted to get a title, he had to have a large number of prisoners. Especially those noble prisoners. After thinking for a long time, Marin decided to compromise. Because what he needed most was the title.

As for the horse armor, Marin decided to keep it privately so that it could be exchanged for money.

However, this wealth was too huge, and he had no confidence to protect it. So he decided to expand his army...

"Expansion?" Schwartz didn't quite understand.

"It's just temporary, I can't afford to support too many troops. I want to recruit some troops, but in fact I just want to scare others to avoid being robbed by others...

Now Schwartz understood, it turned out to be a fool...

How much does it need to be expanded?

"3,000 people... Schwartz, you take people to Italian villages to catch the people and make an agreement with them. After you arrive in Venice, you will let them come back, and at the same time, you will 'borrow' some food with the owners..."

The so-called "borrowing grain" actually means robbing grain. Marin originally had only 1,100 people, which was easy to solve the food problem. But now there are 4,000 more prisoners and 1,000 Italian people strong, so the food is not enough.

Fortunately, in the valley, before leaving, some butcher-born mercenaries killed and injured horses and took them to the road. Otherwise, there would be no food to eat.

However, these horse meats are prone to break in summer. In desperation, Marin sent troops to rob several towns near Piacenza and grabbed a lot of salt to marinate these horse meats.

Ten days later, Marin's team had expanded to more than 8,000 people, which was extremely spectacular. Schwarz did capture 3,000 Italian Minzhuang to make up the numbers. However, the Minzhuang riot that night, 1,000 people ran away. So, Marin only 3,000 Italian Minzhuang gave him the storefront, including the previous 1,000 Minzhuang.

Marin stopped to repair it for a few days in a remote area within the Duchy of Milan. By the way, he simply trained the 3,000 Italian people. At least, they learned to distinguish left and right and march in formation. Moreover, Marin also made a simple black cross white vest for them. The uninformed people looked at it and thought that these 3,000 people were also soldiers. At least, they looked very neat...

As for the weapons of this group of people, Marin directly sent them to the wooden stick, which was a sharpened wooden spear tip. He brushed it with the snatched paint. It looked like a metal spear tip, but it was actually made of wooden...

Then, Marin took 4,000 "army" and escorted 4,000 French prisoners, and walked towards the Imperial Legion in Venice...

At the same time, the Italian coalition was still pursuing the remaining 3,000 Swiss mercenaries. Unfortunately, the Italians were afraid of being beaten by the Swiss, and they only dared to hang the Swiss from afar and did not dare to launch an attack. Moreover, they did not know where the 8,000 French knights were going.

Last night they heard the sound of the battle here, but they did not dare to send troops in the middle of the night. Because they had never experienced fighting in the middle of the night. Not to mention them, even the 3,000 Swiss mercenaries did not dare to send troops in the middle of the night. Only Marin's men, after training, dared to fight at night.

The Swiss retreated on the Roman Avenue by the river, and did not walk on that mountain road. When they retreated, the river embankment dug by Marin had almost flowed, and a lot of water was soaked in the fields.

The Swiss mountain people were all wild and were not afraid of wading. They took off their shoes and wade through the road flooded by the river barefoot. The Italian coalition was not as hard-working as the Swiss. The Duke of Mandova first recruited farmers and blocked the river embankment. When the water receded the next day, the coalition forces passed through this area. Then, they continued to hang behind the Swiss...

After Marin brought his army into Venice, he originally planned to do business with the Italians. At first, he planned to send people to contact the Italian coalition. After all, if he brought people into the military base of the Shinra Empire, the right to dispose of the prisoners would not belong to him.

However, he was afraid that the Italians would be ill-fight. So, he did not send anyone to find the coalition forces, but directly sent people to Venice to find the Venetian Republic government and negotiate with them...

"What? You said that a Holy Roman Empire officer captured 1,000 French knights?" The Governor of Venice was stunned. Then, he urgently summoned the bigwigs of the Republic of Venice to negotiate...

"What does this person mean? Why did he tell us this news?" Someone was puzzled.

"Is this a question necessary? I want to exchange money for us..." A business aristocrat told Marin's motive in one sentence.

"Exchange money?"

"Yes, the ransom for a knight is at least 500 Dukat. This guy is doing business with us..."

"Then why didn't he go and ask the French for it?"

"You're stupid, Tony, he's just a middle-level officer of Shinra, who seems to be a commander of the legion (Marin bragging). The prisoners in his hands must be handed over to Emperor Shinra. Who was Maximilian I? That was a poor emperor. When the prisoners were captured, what's the matter with the ransom?" The Venetian MP said with a sharp tongue.
Chapter completed!