King of German Mercenaries

Lannett could not make a decision by himself, so he sent three of his men to return to Cliff City non-stop, asking John II for instructions. Soon, John II responded - agreeing to the deal. As a result, Marin won 22 middle-level officers with good disciples, while John II won a large number of craftsmen, which can be said to be a win-win situation. Even, on the surface, John II made some money.

When the personnel exchange started, it was already March, and the spring ploughing in East Friesland officially kicked off...

Using a new type of curved plough, which was driven by a single horse, many serfs were still very uncomfortable in the first few days. But after a few days, everyone got used to this labor-saving and easy-to-use curved plough.

However, in order to serve these uncle horses, Marin imported a lot of oatmeal and eggs, so that these horses can be provided with nutrients in time. Even, because pulling plows will sweat a lot, the horses need to add salt. Therefore, add some salt to the horse's feed.

Just for the sake of thousands of draught horses across the country, Marin will organize the import of baskets of eggs, and Marin plans to plan the chicken raising business. Of course, this has to wait until the end of spring farming.

In this era, the chicken raising business is not easy to scale, because the supply of feed is difficult. Civilians raise chickens, usually free-range, and let the chickens find bugs to eat by themselves. Want to eat food? It's too extravagant, and people don't have enough to eat. In this era, only China, where agriculture is developed and food is very cheap, dares to use food to feed chickens.

In this era in Europe, not only chickens are free-range, but even pigs are free-range. It's not that Europeans don't know that pigs in captivity can be more fattened, but that they need to be fed with food! European food is super expensive, and the black bread people eat is also mixed with a lot of wild vegetables, sawdust, and even stones. Where can there be excess food to feed the pigs? Even wheat bran is mixed in the black bread that ordinary people eat. Only the black bread eaten by nobles has the wheat bran separated.

However, the farmland under Marin's name, because of the use of new fertilizers, can increase production by leaps and bounds, but it is possible to take out some shriveled valleys to feed sheep, chickens, ducks and pigs. However, doing so will definitely cost you money. You know, how high is the price of wheat? How high is the price of meat? Feeding pigs and chickens with grain is definitely a loss.

Therefore, it is better to feed the pigs with nutrient-rich alfalfa grass. As for raising chickens, Marin wondered, is it possible to raise chickens with maggots? According to those online novels I read in my previous life, maggots are highly nutritious and need carrion as a culture medium. But this is not a problem. The price of meat in Europe is relatively cheaper than that in China. It is more cost-effective to get maggots and raise chickens in Europe...

Of course, raising maggots is not that simple. First of all, maggots are the larvae of flies, which need to be controlled well. Before the maggots grow into flies, chickens must eat them, so as not to become flies and harm the environment.

In addition, maggots are prone to produce a variety of germs because of the use of carrion. Therefore, those responsible for feeding maggots must be fully armed, preferably wearing masks, and usually pay attention to disinfection with lime. Otherwise, if you raise maggots to raise disease, it will be a lot of fun.

Of course, none of these issues are currently on Marin's mind. What he is most concerned about now is the issue of spring farming.

Because there are so many horses in the country that need to be raised, Marin has specially planned 5,000 Ugrams of arable land to grow oats to supply the domestic horses' feed needs.

Although 5,000 Ugrams is equivalent to 60,000 mu of land, tens of millions of catties of oats can be harvested. However, these horses are all European heavy horses!

The local horses are mostly tall breeds with a shoulder height of more than 1.6 meters, which are the ancestors of the later famous Frisian horses and Oldenburg horses. The body is tall and the horse is big, and the appetite is naturally large. A day's feed for a horse can reach dozens of kilograms. If, like some luxury nobles, they let Marathon eat oatmeal every year, a horse would consume tens of thousands of catties of oatmeal alone. More than 10 million catties, only enough to raise a thousand horses.

Of course, when ordinary people raise horses, the proportion of oats in the feed is very small.

Especially the draw horses, only a minority. Only when plowing the fields, the physical exertion is large, so I feed more oats.

Even for the knight's war horse, although oatmeal is often fed, it is also mixed with a lot of other cheap feed, and also with a lot of tender grass. Otherwise, feeding whole oats, ordinary knight families can't bear it at all.

The more than ten million catties of oats produced by the 5,000 Eugram oat field, combined with alfalfa, are of high quality even if they are eaten by war horses. To this end, Marin also decided that after the spring ploughing, he would continue to plough some grasses with draught horses to facilitate the planting of alfalfa.

Last autumn, the Wadden Islands harvested a lot of alfalfa seeds, which can be planted on a very large area. According to Marin's plan, a horse farm was specially planned in the open space near the city of Aurich, and alfalfa was planted in it as the main fodder for horses.

The efficiency of the curved plough is not guaranteed. In the past, because the light plow was not effective, and the Saxon heavy plow required several horses to pull together, the spring ploughing efficiency was very low. Often, spring ploughing starts in early March and lasts until mid to late April.

However, after using the curved plough, a plough that originally required 5 horses could be pulled by one horse, and the ploughing effect was similar. This has led to the fact that the efficiency of arable land has been increased several times in the manor that originally used the Saxon heavy plough.

Most of the aristocratic manor houses confiscated by Marin in Lyle County used Saxon heavy plows, and the number of draught horses was relatively large. After using the curved plough, the efficiency is greatly improved. Before the end of March, all the 60,000 Ugram arable land under Marin's name had ended the spring ploughing. The manors of other families are basically over or nearing the end.

At the same time, there is good news from the Wadden Islands. The tens of thousands of Ugram's arable land on the island has also ended the spring plowing. Many of the thousands of draught horses that Marin had seized from France were left on the Wadden Islands for draught use. However, in the autumn, when the large Polish cattle arrived in Silesia, Marin was ready to buy thousands of cattle to replace the draught horses on a large scale. At that time, those high-quality French horses from the Wadden Islands will be arranged to come to the horse farm in Aurich to professionally breed excellent ponies...

After the ploughing was over, Marin sent people to distribute the black fertilizer blocks produced by several fertilizer processing plants to each manor, and arranged for their serfs to be responsible for spreading them into the fields.

As for what this black thing with a strange smell was, Marin didn't explain a word, and didn't want to explain it. Moreover, the people responsible for fertilizing are all the employees of the processing plant that Marin sent to deliver the fertilizer. They are all serfs of Marin's own family.

Even in the manors of Marin's men, as well as those of the local nobles who surrendered to Marin, the fertilizers were spread by those who were sent by Marin.

The fertilizer factory employees sent by Marin uniformly wore masks and used shovels to spread a truckload of fertilizer blocks (unicycles) evenly into the plowed fields, and then immediately stopped work and returned without leaving behind. They ate in those manors and didn't say a word to those people.

This is Marin's special request. If you don't speak, it is impossible to leak the secret. And so is eating. If these people stay in those manors to eat and drink some wine...

Many people are normal before drinking, but talk a lot after drinking. If the secret is accidentally leaked, it will be bad...

Therefore, Marin asked the employees of these fertilizer factories not to talk to outsiders or stay in the local area to eat. After killing the fertilizer, you will go directly to the fertilizer factory for a working meal.

During the spring ploughing period, because he knew that the employees of the fertilizer factory were working hard, Marin also gave him extra meals. From time to time, I cook a few pots of braised pork, which is better than staying in those manors.

You know, the serfs in the manor eat black bread, which can be used as a brick to smash people. However, the black bread eaten by the employees of the fertilizer factory is also mixed, but it will never be mixed with non-food such as stones and sawdust, but only mixed with some wild vegetables and wheat bran. Bread is almost there.

Although, Marin raised 3,000 serfs in several fertilizer processing plants, and the expenses were relatively large. However, as long as the fertilizer is kept secret, what is this investment? The yield per mu has increased by several hundred catties, and the income increase should not be too much...

As for Marin's practice of keeping the fertilizer secret, Schwartz, Franzberg and other subordinates who knew it were also very supportive, and consciously kept it secret. Because, by doing so, they can maintain the advantages of agricultural technology as much as possible.

You must know that although they are far less wealthy than Marin, they still have more than a thousand cultivated fields of Eugram. Other people's rye yields more than 100 pounds per mu, and their own yields hundreds of pounds per mu, so don't feel too cool...

When the last truckload of fertilizer was thrown into the ground by the fertilizer factory employees, Marin knew that his wedding was about to begin...