King of German Mercenaries

Schwartz's recruitment work in Hesse and Baden was unimaginably smooth. Several recruitment sites were surrounded by enthusiastic local youths.

When Marin received the news, he was also overwhelmed with emotion. It is hard to imagine the poverty of the Germans in this era. In this era when the yield of rye per mu is only more than 100 catties, there is not much food to eat. And because the Black Death has not broken out on a large scale for a long time, the population has grown a lot.

If it is a noble and rich family, adding a few people may not be a big deal. But in serf families, it was a tragedy. The number of people needed to cultivate the manor land is limited, and the number of people to support is also limited. The serf owners were not philanthropists and would not harm themselves or others. Therefore, except for the eldest son of the serf family who needs to inherit the father's business and continue to be serfs for the serf owner, the other sons will be driven out by the manor owner to make a living when they grow up.

If it is near the Hanseatic commercial city or in areas with developed handicrafts such as Saxony, these surplus laborers may still be able to enter the handicraft workshops and sell the labor force to make a living. However, inland mountainous areas such as Hesse and Baden, there is basically no handicraft industry, and the capacity of cities to carry population is very limited. Therefore, the people here are really poor...

Schwartz's recruitment sites in Hesse and Baden were surrounded by a group of skinny young men. Clearly, most of these young people are hungry.

However, Schwartz is here to recruit soldiers, not to do charity. Since it is recruiting, it naturally needs to pass the assessment...

It's still Marin's old method - you don't need to be strong in martial arts, you just need to be brave enough to not be afraid of pain in the assessment battle.

After all, mercenaries are a dangerous profession with their heads tied to their belts. If you are afraid of being injured or hurt by the opponent's wooden stick, how can you guarantee the courage to fight the enemy on the battlefield?

Of course, in the competition, in addition to being brave and fearless, if you can still have a cool head, such a person will be specially marked on the list and will be trained as a team leader in the future. What soldiers at the bottom need is bravery and fearlessness, and those who serve as grassroots officers need not only bravery and fearlessness, but also a calm heart.

Schwartz originally planned to recruit 9,000 infantry in the Hesse and Baden regions, but, unexpectedly, he selected all the people, and the recruiting point was still surrounded by a large group of local youths, and he was not allowed to go. There was no way, Schwartz had to send people to hurry up, and spare no effort to pass the news back to Aurich.

After receiving the news, Marin pondered for a long time, and then gave a reply - continue to recruit 2,500 people, just to fill the vacancy left by Frenzberg's 2,500 people!

As for the 2,500 people that Frenzberg took away, Marin did not plan to return. After all, he met the emperor once and was supported by the emperor. Otherwise, he would not be able to secure the seat of the earl. Frenzberg and the 2,500 soldiers were regarded as the representatives and assistants of the Marin faction to the emperor.

As for this recruitment, Marin changed his plan to recruit 2,500 more people. In this way, Marin intends to replenish the number of troops in East Frisland to 10,000 people. Then, the Teutonic side also put 10,000 people to train there. Once there is a change in Rome, these 10,000 people will quickly board the ship and accompany the Archbishop of Rovere back to Italy by sea.

However, even if Schwartz recruited another 2,500 people, the enthusiasm of the locals could not be stopped. You must know that Schwartz recruited a total of 11,500 people in the two vassal states, but there were as many as 40,000 young people who came to sign up...

Although they knew that being a mercenary was dangerous, these young people were all poor and scared. In order to be able to eat enough every day, they are willing to gamble with their lives. Moreover, the people who came were not only people from the Hesse and Baden areas. Some impoverished young people from nearby vassal states also came to sign up on foot from various places after hearing the news...

When Schwartz announced that he would stop recruiting, many young people burst into tears. Even, many people shouted, don't pay 3 pfennig a day,

As long as you have enough food every day...

It's no wonder that this year's weather in Germany's inland regions has been abnormal, and many places have failed to harvest food and suffered famine. As it happens, the Hesse and Baden regions are both within the famine range. That's why so many people want to sign up for mercenaries. Otherwise, staying at home is also starving. It's better to be a mercenary, be a full-fledged ghost. If you are lucky, not only will you not die in battle, but you will also make a fortune and go home.

Once, there were several mercenaries from Hesse who had joined Marin's team in the Italian expedition. After Marin sold prisoners of war and horses privately, he distributed a lot of gold coins to each of them. After these people came back, they all built houses, bought land, married wives, and became little winners in life...

Motivated by this rumor, when young people in the Hesse region heard that Marin had sent people to recruit troops, many rushed to sign up. In fact, they don't know that the kind of good things that happened in Italy at the time are hard to come across. But everyone has a fluke mentality, and they always fantasize that the lucky one is themselves. So, young people are very positive. Moreover, even if there is no such good thing as getting dozens or hundreds of gold coins, if you get 3 pfennig's salary every day, you will definitely be able to eat and wear warmly, and you can even save half of the money to subsidize the family. What's more, there is a famine in southern Germany this year. It's not bad to survive. How can you be picky?

Schwartz sent an urgent letter to Marin while sending people to bring these recruits back to East Frisian in batches. Marin had planned to ignore it, but he suddenly remembered that his American colony seemed to need a large population. So Marin changed his mind...

He immediately wrote back, asking Schwartz to come back immediately and take the selected recruits to the Teutonic State. But at the same time, Kohler was sent to these two places and brought a group of subordinates.

Kohler went here, not to recruit soldiers, but to recruit immigrants...

The development of American colonies requires population and labor. Since these young people are too poor to survive, why not recruit some and go to the American colonies to reclaim wasteland?

Kohler brought not only many clerks and guards, but also many bakers who were good at making "cola bread" (that is, adding straw crumbs to bread). Obviously, Kohler wants to use the simple, direct and crude method of "bread pipe enough" to attract these hungry young people...

The operation of loading the recruits to the Teutonic State went smoothly. Marin not only used the 10 200-ton Kirk sailboats he bought back, but also hired more than a dozen idle merchant ships from the Hanseatic League to help transport the people.

Marin had the fleet transport 9,000 men to the Teutonic state, and left another 2,500 men to be added to the army of the Counties of East Friesland.

His large-scale recruitment has once again caused tensions in neighboring countries. However, Marin told the envoys of neighboring countries that this was a mercenary recruited for the Teutonic state. And Chief Philip and John II, Duke of Clifford also came forward to help with the lie, which reassured several neighboring countries.

The recruitment of cavalry in the Teutonic Kingdom was also very smooth. Marin's uncle Jules personally came forward, and most of the wandering knights in the Teutonic Kingdom who were not selected by the Teutonic Knights chose to participate in the selection.

Jules clearly remembered Marin's requirement to recruit only those of good moral character. For those wandering knights who have committed crimes in the Teutonic state, Jules will not admit them. You know, he is the secretary of the head of the Teutonic State, and it is very easy to consult the Teutonic State security files. Whoever committed the crime, who has been honest, will be clear upon investigation. So, he just needs to pick people among those wandering knights who have done nothing wrong.

Moreover, because of their financial constraints, many wandering knights are indeed unable to get along. There were even wandering knights who went to the home of the small landowner in the countryside to act as a nursing home in order not to starve. Marin offered these wandering knights nine pfennigs a day, three times as much as the infantry. With such a salary, there is absolutely no need to worry about food and drink, and war horses can also have money to buy feed. Therefore, these wandering knights are still very enthusiastic to sign up.

When Schwartz arrived in the Teutonic State with 9,000 infantry recruits, Jules had been waiting for a long time with 1,000 cavalry selected...

Marin was drinking with his father-in-law, Archbishop Rovere, when the news of the recruitment was completed and returned to the Royal Palace of Aurich...

"Congratulations, boy, you have more than 20,000 troops, and you are already the king of mercenaries in the German region. There is no such mercenary leader as you, even the Swiss! I am proud of you!" Archbishop Lei raised a glass full of Bordeaux wine and congratulated him.

"Just the king of the German mercenary world..." Marin smiled indisputably. As a traveler, what is there to be proud of when you are the leader of a mercenary?

"My goal is the sea of ​​stars!" Malin silently added in his heart...

(end of book)

(Please continue to pay attention to the sequel to this book - "The Rise of the European Emperor")