.On a global scale, the existence of the Principality of Hesse seems to be absent. The country never openly declares war, but its mercenaries have appeared in many wars.
The strategy of Duke Karl I of Hesse is very simple and pragmatic, that is, while maintaining neutrality, he provides his own mercenaries to both sides!
Neither side is offended, and you can make money from both sides! Even Emperor Hao Jing was impressed by this routine. In future generations, Karl I would definitely be a top arms dealer!
Since the Ming Empire needed to bring in a large number of mercenaries, Karl I helped a lot, and of course he made a lot of money.
But the important thing is that the mercenaries provided are of high quality, they can come when called upon, they can fight when they come, and they can also attack the braided army.
In the end, it became one of the reasons why the Ming Empire defeated the Braided Army, which made Emperor Haojing Longyan very happy. To this day, the two countries still maintain very friendly relations, and the two heads of state also have a very good personal relationship.
Like the No. 8 tank,
Advanced weapons such as the "Black-footed Albatross" fighter jets can be seen in the army under the Duke of Hesse.
just
Emperor Haojing sold as many as one hundred "Black-footed Albatross" fighter jets to Karl I at a friendly price.
Although these second-hand fighters have unpleasant names, they are only for outsiders, and the actual maintenance condition is very good.
If the Principality of Hesse does not get involved in the European War, it will last for many years. The same is true for other weapons and equipment, which means that Emperor Haojing used these weapons to gradually repay the debt of gratitude.
In order to reduce personnel, increase efficiency, and save money, the standing army of the Principality of Hesse only has 5,000 people, organized into ten battalions.
Among them, there are four tank battalions, four cavalry battalions, two artillery battalions, and none pure infantry battalions.
It's not that Karl I didn't pay attention to the construction of infantry troops, but because of his own reasons, there was no need at all.
Most of the men in the Principality of Hesse are employed as mercenaries. The men who stay in the country only need to receive military training for one month every year, and can spend the rest of their time on their own.
Once the principality was invaded by an enemy, Karl I could mobilize an army of about 100,000 people in one day by using telegraphs, telephones, and airplanes to deliver orders.
Those who can stay in the standing army of the Principality of Hesse can, at worst, become platoon-level officers in the armies of many countries.
Karl I was also very good at increasing revenue and reducing expenditure. Most of the weapons and equipment used by his army were second-hand goods imported from the Ming Empire.
Although it is not brand new, it is cheaper and has better performance than the same type of weapons made by ourselves.
After so many years of accumulation, the total military expenditure saved can exceed 10 million silver coins. This is while continuing to increase the combat effectiveness of the army.
The Ming Empire still trains 500 officers and non-commissioned officers for free every year for Karl I in order to increase the exchanges between the two armies and improve the combat capabilities of the Hessian army.
Before being invaded by the Qing army, the Hessian army owned 588 tanks, 329 fighter planes, 862 armored trucks, and 425 heavy artillery pieces.
The inventory of light weapons includes more than 1,000 machine guns, more than 10,000 submachine guns, and more than 500,000 grenades. Many castles in the territory also have complete offensives.
This was all thanks to the Qing army's invasion of the Principality of Hesse thirty years ago. Karl I learned from the painful experience and decided to upgrade the defense level nationwide.
It is unwise to engage in a field battle with the Tatar cavalry. The other party will hit and run, and if you insist on pursuing, you will not only enter the territory of other countries, but may also be ambushed by the enemy.
Therefore, fortifying the country's major cities has become a top priority. After twenty years of hard work, this huge plan has been completed.
The arable land area of the Principality of Hesse is not large, and part of the food rations need to be imported from neighboring countries. Due to overseas remittances every year, the left-behind family members are basically not short of money.
Karl I concentrated them into several towns for easy protection and management, and was the first in the Holy Roman Empire to implement tax exemption for immigrants.
Regardless of whether they are citizens of their own country or other countries, they can enjoy tax-free treatment as long as they move to designated settlements.
So can the Hessian treasury still have annual revenue? Definitely! The first is import commodity tax! The Duchy of Hesse has a 20% tariff, and merchants who evade taxes will be severely punished.
The second is the passport tax of Yimin! The main reason for people moving to Hesse is definitely to save money, but the prerequisite is to become a Hessian.
The third is the corporate registration tax! This is the case in Yimin. If foreign companies want to operate in Hessen, they will naturally have to pay a sum of money.
This trick was given to King Karl I by a friend from the East, and the method was the same as that used in Monaco and the Cayman Islands.
It doesn't matter that Hesse has a small population. After using this trick, you can easily and happily absorb the population of surrounding countries.
For example, if you make money in France, you can spend it in Hesse. As long as a Frenchman spends money to buy a passport, he can enjoy life in Hesse.
Later, Karl I had the magic weapon of visa in his hand, and naturally there was more money in the treasury... In the previous twenty years, the transfer of coins to the Principality of Hesse exceeded one million, and the original coins of Hesse were returned. Less than this number.
Of course, it is impossible for all of them to be rich. In fact, most of them are poor. The strength of the Principality of Hesse is that its service industry is extremely developed. As long as the sponsor gives you money, it can really go through fire and water for you!
For example, in Kassel, Frankfurt, Mainz, Wiesbaden and other places, there are many hotels, shopping malls, casinos, amusement parks, cinemas, opera houses, pawn shops, stadiums, arenas, and libraries.
Many of the consumption facilities of the Ming Empire can be seen in the major cities of Hesse, and the service level has long been close to that of the Eastern world, allowing patrons to feel at home.
As for Karl I himself, he had consumer industries in many cities and could make a fortune every day.
The Principality of Hesse is the first country among many electorate states that can maintain a good financial situation for a long time without relying on agriculture.
Of course, it does not mean that industry should not be developed, especially military industry. There are arsenals in major cities. It is just that the research and development capabilities are much inferior to those of France, the Netherlands, Sweden and other countries.
But that doesn't matter, as long as you import finished weapons and equipment from the Ming Empire, buy the finished products, and introduce some technology, you can copy them successfully.
So much so that some people commented that the development model of the Principality of Hesse is simply the Venice of the north! The Principality of Venice is outstanding in the financial industry, and it also stimulates other industries.
In addition to agriculture, the Principality of Hesse has developed relatively well in other industries. The only thing that is inferior to the former is that the Principality of Hesse has no coastline, so it has no navy!
There is the Wera River in the north and the Rhine River in the south. They are not very big rivers, and the navy can only be regarded as a river fleet.
Of course it was enough, and few neighboring countries dared to attack the Principality of Hesse, which was favored by the Emperor of the Ming Empire.
Even if a fight breaks out, there are many mixed descendants of Ming Empire merchants and mercenaries in the Hessen Principality.
Once these people make mistakes, it will be difficult to explain to the consul of the Ming Empire. If you want to take the risk, you have to kill the consul, and declare war directly on the Ming Empire... Before preparing for the worst, even Leopold and his son did not dare to annex the Principality of Hesse.
The Qing army that invaded here suffered unexpected losses. The Principality of Hesse ranks first in urbanization among other countries, and its land is barren, which means there are not many people in the countryside.
The Qing cavalry wanted to attack the city, but they still lacked heavy weapons. If they were to attack a town, the opponent would still have trenches, bunkers and gun towers waiting for them.
When telephone and telegraph lines were cut off, each city had direct aircraft to communicate with them, and armored trains could also be dispatched.
The roads and railways in the Principality of Hesse are well constructed, which is very conducive to the troops' intercity mobile operations during wartime.
In addition, all the people were soldiers, there were sufficient weapons reserves, and the defenses of each city and town were not weak. As a result, the Qing army continued to lose troops and generals in Hesse.
During the month of fighting in the Hessian Principality, the Qing army's losses reached an astonishing 20,000 people!
Most of them were not killed, just injured, but they were still terrifying. This is directly related to the fact that the previous battle was too smooth. Suddenly, when encountering an expert, he suddenly suffered a big loss.
The total number of air raids suffered alone reached hundreds in a month. The heaviest loss was when more than a thousand people were killed and injured by Hessian fighter jets.
In Bavaria, the Qing army had never suffered such heavy losses. The reason is simple. The Bavarian army was taught by the Habsburg army.
Almost all the officers and soldiers of the Hessian air force, army, and river fleet had received systematic training in the Ming Empire.
All pilots must be trained in the Ming Empire before they can take up the job with a certificate, otherwise it will be a waste of fighter planes.
Emperor Haojing can guarantee that the per capita quality and combat power of Hessian pilots even exceed that of the French Air Force.
Famous teachers produce great disciples! Nowadays, there are so many live targets to test the training level!
After receiving a request from King Karl I for a new round of military assistance, Jiexuan took the lead in sending fifty
The "Black-footed Albatross" was delivered to Kassel. All fighters flew directly to their destinations from the Deutsche Bay off the coast of Bremen that year, and the Hessian Air Force, which had already been equipped with this fighter, did not need to run in.
After some inspections, the bombs can be mounted and launched into the air for combat. The Ming Empire's high efficiency made Karl I extremely satisfied.
At the same time, a ship's ammunition was transferred to Bremerhaven and transferred to a river merchant ship. It is expected to arrive in Kassel within five days.
Including twenty Panzer VII tanks, twenty Panzer VIII tanks, one hundred armored vehicles, two hundred machine guns, five thousand submachine guns, as well as supporting parts and ammunition.
This batch of arms can arm a mechanized infantry brigade and be able to repel the attack of at least 20,000 Qing cavalry.
The Ming Empire had already announced that many electorate states in the Holy Roman Empire could move eastward, but only the Principality of Hesse could not be touched.
If the Qing army dared to take risks, then the Ming Dynasty could not turn a blind eye. While Jiexuan sent fighter planes for support, he also sent people to send personal letters.
The main content is that in an emergency, the Ming Navy will first send fighter planes to join the battle. It may not be possible to deploy too many pilots, but it is still possible to deploy a hundred pilots to support the same number of fighters.
It seems that the support is not very strong, but these are one hundred experienced pilots who have been tested in actual combat.
Paired with a machine gunner, you can use one
The "Black-footed Albatross" fighter planes suppressed five to six hundred enemy cavalry on the ground. After calculation, it is equivalent to offset the threat of 50,000 to 60,000 Qing cavalry to the Principality of Hessen.
After this news was communicated to various cities, the morale of the defenders was greatly boosted, and the number of Qing army casualties increased again.
The Qing army, which was constantly losing money, struggled in Hesse for more than a month, and wanted to take revenge on the defenders. Unexpectedly, the air strikes against them were stronger than before, and the frequency of fighter jets was also further increased.
A tank battalion that was previously in various cities has been transformed into an armored brigade after adding a large number of armored trucks.
Once a mechanized combat unit of thousands of people appears in the wild, with fighter planes overhead providing fire support, it will be no longer something that the Qing cavalry can withstand.
Even two to thirty thousand people could not defeat the opponent, let alone Hesse's mobile troops coming out from several major cities at the same time to carry out large-scale raids.
The Principality of Hesse was not very large in area. After receiving reinforcements, King Karl I ordered the dispatch of five armored brigades, supplemented by more than 300 fighter planes and 20,000 cavalry.
For a time, the Qing army was like a rat crossing the street, being beaten by the opponent's mixed troops and running away, with cavalry chasing behind them.
The day after the counterattack began, twelve aircraft sent by Zhang Huangyan
The "air gunship" flew to Kassel Airport. With this thing, the Hessian army became even more powerful.
The Qing cavalry troops finally tasted the wonderful taste of the legendary disaster.
With "air gunships" circling overhead, they had nowhere to escape. Even if they rush into the forest, the opponent can use machine guns to clear out the forest. Then fighter jets swarm in, beating the Qing cavalry to death... In desperation, the Qing army can only fight to the surrounding areas. In Hesse The robbery operation within the territory ended in failure, otherwise we would have to continue to suffer unnecessary losses.
Looking back, entering Hesse to fight was a huge mistake. The gadgets I grabbed couldn't offset the huge losses!
In less than two months, nearly 40,000 men were lost in Hesse. Accounting for about one-tenth of the total troops dispatched, some Jia La were almost completely wiped out by the opponent.
The important thing is that we have not been able to report the losses, and we dare not seek compensation from His Majesty the Sultan. Because the Hessian Principality had clearly stipulated in advance that no attack was allowed, all losses could only be regarded as bad luck... Fortunately, the opponent did not pursue the enemy over a long distance, otherwise the scale of the loss of troops would be far more than what it is now.
Karl I asked his soldiers to prove with actions that the Principality of Hesse was not afraid of the Tatars back then, and this is still the case now!
If the size of the standing army was not relatively small, our counterattack time could be further advanced.
With the clear support of the Ming Empire, Karl I was no longer afraid of possible retaliatory actions by the other party.
It's best to send more cavalry over and kill them all at once! Before the summer came, there were not many Tatar cavalry left in Hesse.
Again
The consequence of "getting lost" is that you have to make permanent manure for local farmers...
