King of German Mercenaries

But after leaving the Black Forest, Marin found that the prey began to decrease sharply...

why? Because, Marin entered the agricultural area of ​​southern Germany. The southern part of Germany is relatively warm and agriculture is more developed than in the north. It is more densely populated and more developed. A high degree of development means that there are fewer natural forests. Then, there are fewer wild animals.

On the way to Vienna, the three Marin wanted to repeat the old trick. Unfortunately, in densely populated areas, there are already few wild animals, and with the hunting of nearby hunters, Marin can no longer catch prey every day.

Sometimes, it took two or three days before the three of Marin could hit a prey. Even, this prey may just be a hare, which is not enough for Kahn's teeth...

In order to subsidize food expenses, Marin began to find roads close to the mountains and forests to walk. After all, the southern part of Germany is a place with more mountains, and places close to the mountains and forests have more wild animals.

But this also has a disadvantage, that is, the three Marin were robbed by a robber. But this group of robbers really couldn't make it to the top. When Marin had the courage to charge over with a lance and flew the leader of the robbers, the group of robbers also fled in fright.

Marin, who was aware of the problem, no longer put all the weapons and armor on the unicycle when he was on his way, but wore the breastplate all the time. But Marin felt that the breastplate of the regular Gothic plate armor was too restrictive to the waist, and it was inconvenient to lower down or turn around to avoid the opponent's spear or lance. Because of this, the battles between knights are often carried out with their spears and collided with each other like robots, which is very mechanical.

So, he found a blacksmith who was good at making armor, and asked the blacksmith to use cold forging to make him a two-thirds breastplate similar to the one worn by the French cuirassiers during the war.

This kind of breastplate only protects the vital points, not the waist. But at the same time, it also freed the knight's waist, allowing him to flexibly bend and turn around on the horse. Moreover, its structure is also very simple. In fact, it consists of two cold-forged and strong iron plates in the front and rear, which are strung with ropes and hung on the shoulders. Then, tie the hole at the bottom with a rope.

Then, Marin asked the blacksmiths to build a cavalry knife with guards similar to the later European cavalry. The reason why cavalry knives are built is to deal with emergencies.

Because, Marlin's plate armor and lance are generally on the wheelbarrow. When confronted by robbers on foot, Marin had time to put on his armor and pick up his lance. If he encounters the rapid impact of the bandits on horseback, he may not even have the time to react. Therefore, pulling out the cavalry sword at the waist became the best choice.

The cavalry sword, which adopts the standard cavalry sword style of later generations, has a straight blade, which can be stabbed or chopped, which is more convenient and practical. Also, this knife looks beautiful too.

As for Kahn and Kohler, Marin bought them two spears. At critical moments, let them stab the enemy with a spear.

What Marin didn't expect was that after Kahn got the spear, he didn't stab the robber, but killed a wild boar...

One day, when the three of Marin were on their way, they suddenly encountered a wild boar who didn't know what to do. The wild boar rushed towards Marin's mount quickly, so scared that Marin was a little overwhelmed. Take a saber, the wild boar has a low chassis and is difficult to cut. It's too late to get a gun in the car.

At a critical moment, Kahn stood up, raised his spear, and stabbed the wild boar vigorously. The first time was unsuccessful (because the boar's skin was too thick), and Kahn tried hard for the second time. Finally, the wild boar was stabbed by Kahn before it collided with the warhorse Karl, and began to roll on the ground and howl.

After reacting, Marin quickly dismounted, pulled out a cavalry knife to make up for the wild boar... Then, the wild boar was sold for a good price.

In view of Kahn's loyal patronage, Marin gritted his teeth and took out 1,800 shillings from his private vault to buy a sturdy black bull, and then bought the carriage and harness of the small wagon.

In this way, Kahn went from a wheelbarrow to a ox-cart driver...

Likewise, this sturdy bull is not short-tempered. Marin repeated his old tricks, using spirits and a copper nose ring to tame the strong bull. After that, the big black bull, named "Li Chen" by Marin, became the bull that pulled the cart.

Sadly, Kahn doesn't seem to be very good at driving bullock carts. It was a skinny Kohler who quickly started to drive an ox cart. Then Kahn went to ride the calf. Kohler, on the other hand, began to drive ox carts. That very honest calf, while Marin named the big black calf, he also named it Dallas in a bad way...

Seeing Kahn's "majestic figure" holding a spear and riding a bull, Marin suddenly had a bad taste and planned to train Kahn to be a "bull cavalry". He then proceeded to teach Kahn how to use lances and spears on the back of a "horse".

So, Kahn, who was ignorant, began to learn how to be a "bull rider" according to Marin's flickering...

By the time the three arrived in Vienna in early May, Kahn had already learned to use a spear to stab people on the back of an ox. Even the calf Dallas he rides can cooperate with Kahn to launch a trot charge in a short period of time...

Under the contemptuous eyes of the guards at the gate of Vienna, Kahn rode an ox, held a spear, and followed Marin into the city of Vienna arrogantly. That rush, as if he Kahn has become a real knight...

As for Kohler, Fan Ye possessed the body, beat the big black bull "Li Chen" with a whip in a low-key manner, drove the bullock cart, and followed behind the two...

After entering Vienna and finding a hotel to settle down, Marin excitedly inquired about the emperor's recruitment.

But what disappointed Marin was that the emperor had no plans to recruit mercenaries recently...

As early as 1487, Maximilian I had recruited a German mercenary army of 15,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry, whose leader was Frederick II of the Hohenzollern family. Count von Hohenzollern. .

However, there is a problem with this, and that is that in this era, almost all emperors, kings and dukes in Europe were in terrible financial shape.

Even if he is the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I can only rely on Austria controlled by the Habsburg family and the newly controlled Duchy of Burgundy to raise taxes to support a huge family and a larger mercenary army.

These 15,000 infantrymen and 1,500 knights have made Maximilian I's finances relatively tight. In the case of temporarily no battle, Maximilian I will not expand the army.

Moreover, Austria and Burgundy under the control of the Habsburg family did not all receive taxes to support the army. A large part of the tax revenue is also used to support the huge group of officials in the two places and the nobles of all classes. Just the Habsburg family itself has a bunch of collateral aristocratic members to support. Otherwise, the emperor's finances would not be so tight.

In addition, for the Hanseatic commercial cities and other imperial cities in the Holy Roman Empire, the emperor can temporarily collect war taxes according to the agreement of the two parties during the war.

Because the independent status of these commercial cities was specially bestowed by the emperor. So, in return, when the emperor launched a war, they were obliged to provide a certain amount of military expenses for the emperor.

However, this money is not so easy to get. If the emperor is fighting a war against foreign invasions (such as the Ottoman Turkish invasion), these cities will not hesitate to provide certain taxes. But if the emperor himself fights internal hegemony wars, these cities may not be willing to pay taxes. Or, even if the tax is paid, it is heavily discounted, or the tax payment is slow. At the same time, during the war, the emperor can also temporarily increase taxes in Austria and Burgundy under the control of the Habsburg family for the war.

But the daily taxes of Austria and Burgundy made it difficult to feed the mercenaries. Before the war, the emperor did not have the financial resources to expand his army.

This is the drawback of the European fief system - the tax is not collected by the center, but by the lords everywhere. This led to the financial difficulties of the central dynasty, and there was no money to support too many troops. Unlike the feudal dynasties in China, from the Qin Dynasty onwards, all the finances belonged to the imperial court, so that the Huaxia Dynasty had enough financial resources to support hundreds of thousands of troops. Europe does not seem to have established a stable, unified modern tax system until the end of the 17th century. Then, in the 18th century, European national wars were no longer on the scale of tens of thousands of people, but on a large scale of hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands...

Marin recalled the history he had learned in his previous life and found that although the French King Charles VIII declared his sovereignty over the Kingdom of Naples at the beginning of the year, he had not assembled enough troops to invade Naples.

It seems that Charles VIII only assembled 37,000 troops to march into Italy at the end of August this year. At present, the messenger of Charles VIII is still recruiting mercenaries in Switzerland.

The news of Charles VIII's preparations for war should have also reached Vienna, but it is convenient for Vienna to make a decision to fight, and it is estimated that it will take a long time. You know, the Holy Roman Empire is a country similar to the aristocratic parliamentary system. Whether to go to war with the French, it is estimated that the imperial parliament will quarrel for a long time. The main core is that if the emperor wants to go to war, he needs to expand his army. The expansion of the army requires the collection of war taxes, commercial cities must temporarily impose war taxes, and even the dukes and earls of various places are obliged to contribute some money to the emperor during the war. But just for this amount of money, it is estimated that there will be no results without arguing for a few months.

Of course, those nobles didn't feel bad about the money. They were just afraid that the emperor would get stronger by expanding his army and then pack them up. You know, this is a precedent. The French kings have done this kind of thing. From Philip IV, the French kings began to suppress the princes and even confiscated church property. Philip IV even had a conflict with the Pope because of the collection of "tithing", and directly sent someone to kidnap the Pope to Avignon, France. It is precisely because of this smuggling that the Pope was kidnapped, and Italy has been freed from the constraints of the Pope within a hundred years, and the Renaissance has begun... Of course, this is too far. In short, if those nobles really support the emperor with all their strength, they will inevitably get burned in the end, and they will lose the privilege of self-government. After all, emperors are ruthless...

According to memory, the "Holy League" against the French invasion of Italy seems to have been established only in March 1495. At that time, the Holy Roman Empire really joined the war.

Therefore, Marin can be sure that the Holy Roman Empire is unlikely to expand its military recently. Even if the army is expanded, at least it will be passively expanded after the French army officially enters Italy in August.

And now it's only the beginning of May, it is estimated that he will not be able to join the emperor's army for at least three months...

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