King of German Mercenaries

After arriving in the mountains south of Vienna, Marin immediately sent people to cut wood and set up tents. Then, Marin repeated his old trick and began to promote straw sandals in the entire square...

When they heard that withered grass can weave city shoes, all the newcomers who just joined the "Black Cross Square" were very curious. When comfortable and light straw sandals were put on, many people felt fine, except for the three knights. After all, he was a knight from a great power, and some wore leather shoes, so naturally he wouldn't wear straw sandals like those commoners.

After the straw shoes are woven, it is naturally a queue training. Marin did not hide his secrets, so he directly divided the entire phalanx into four groups according to the weaving of four companies (the archers were grouped separately) for training in formation. The first requirement of formation training is to let the soldiers know the difference between left and right. Then, the recruits were surprised to find that the veterans asked them to take off the straw sandals on their right feet...

"Shoes!" each squad leader shouted, and then the recruits stretched their left feet forward.

"Foot!" The recruits hurriedly retracted their left foot and stretched out their bare right foot...

It took only 3 days to repeat this process, and everyone had a deep understanding of left and right. Of course, Marin asked those squad leaders to gradually start using "left" and "right" instead of "shoes" and "feet" commands. At the beginning of a period of time, it still needs to be mixed.

The sand mixed with the emperor and the earl was not mixed in vain. When the recruits completely distinguished the left and right, the report on the quick training method to distinguish the left and the right was sent to the desk of the emperor and the earl respectively...

"This Marin is still very smart. He came up with such a strange idea, and it seems to work well..." Maximilian I was quite interested. So he printed this method as a pamphlet and distributed it to officers from the Habsburg domain.

And the Earl of Hohenzollern was also amazed:

"I didn't expect such a small change to make the group of untouchables who are as stupid as pigs to distinguish between them so quickly? It may not take a few months for an ordinary officer to do it." It is not easy for the common people to distinguish between left and right so easily.

In fact, the problem of distinguishing left and right seems to be a small problem. But the outbreak of war is full of suddenness. If a group of recruits is recruited, it will waste a month's time just to distinguish between left and right, which will greatly delay the fighter.

You must know that during the Napoleonic Wars, the French mobilized soldiers, with an average training time of only about two weeks, would be pulled into the battlefield. If it takes a month to distinguish between the left and right, then the daylily will be cold long ago...

Since the team was mixed with sand, Marin didn't plan to reveal all of his knowledge. So, he gave up the daily agitation speech and flickering that he made when he first started training the 100 people, and switched to stick driving instead.

Anyway, he is now a genuine imperial officer, and it doesn't matter if he is a recruit. Unlike at the beginning, he just summoned 100 people temporarily. If those people are dissatisfied, they can leave at any time, they can only coax. And these imperial recruits, even if they are beaten, these people generally won't leave.

With the demonstration and help of the 100 veterans Marin trained before, these recruits have also progressed rapidly. After all, the power of example is limitless. Marin had never practiced soldiers before, and the days when he trained the 100 veterans were difficult, and everything depended on groping. At this moment, Schwartz and the 25 team leaders are all skilled in training. Also, Marin training requirements have been reduced. Before, those 100 people had to run two 5-kilometer trails every day. Now, these recruits only need one 5-kilometer a day.

Therefore, the three knights sent by the emperor and the earl saw that the old men of Marin were beating and abusing the recruits...

And, even if the recruits wanted to resist, Marin wasn't afraid. His 100 veterans are much more cunning than these newbies. Under the guidance of Marlin,

These veterans, fights are formed quickly, and they have initially learned the "secrets" of splitting and encircling them and then fighting in groups. And even if the recruits make trouble, they will not make trouble together, and most people are dissatisfied. And these people can't turn the waves at all.

In this way, Marin spent the entire month of March watching his old men beat up new recruits. But Tara and the cooking team he led brought many surprises to the soldiers.

Even the cauldron dish that Marin disliked was very delicious among the recruits, including the three knights. Tara and the others were very exaggerated in their cooking. They used a sapper to stir-fry the vegetables, which made Marin's teeth hurt. But fortunately, under Marin's strict request, Tara washed the sapper shovel clean before cooking. Moreover, the engineer shovel that has shoveled horse manure is absolutely not allowed to be used for cooking.

And Marin, in order to convince everyone, also eat a big pot of dishes with everyone. And, every morning, Marin trains the queue with everyone. Only in the afternoon 5 kilometers off-road, he will be lazy.

Every day, this group of recruits was tossed to the death. And in the middle of the night, they are also not easy. Once the birch whistle sounded, they had to gather in line at the gate of the barracks as quickly as possible. So, everyone is complaining.

However, the group of veterans who had long been accustomed to being abused by Marin took it for granted. Even when they take off their clothes, they only take off their coats, and some do not take off at all. Once they heard the whistle, they put on their shoes, coats and waistcoats, and were ready to assemble with their spears in hand.

What makes Marin strange is that night blindness seems to be relatively rare in Europe. But thinking of European recipes, Marin was relieved. Europeans eat more meat and often drink milk and cheese. And these are rich in vitamin A. Therefore, Europeans suffer from night blindness even less. Therefore, the emergency gathering in the middle of the night was not a problem.

Information about Marin's training was continuously sent to the desks of the emperor and the earl. The two bosses' evaluation of Marin is - a brutal officer who likes to abuse soldiers. However, he is very smart and can invent a way to quickly distinguish left and right directions...

In addition, the straw sandals "invented" by Marin aroused the emperor's great interest. Because, the emperor found that straw sandals are very economical. For a poor ghost emperor like him, saving money is definitely attractive to him. The Earl of Hohenzollern, who was a pure officer, was not so sensitive to the effect of straw sandals.

When Marin abused the recruits, the Italian side also exploded. The French pushed horizontally all the way on the Apennine Peninsula and directly occupied Naples, one of the five major powers in Italy (the Papal State, the Republic of Venice, Florence, the Principality of Milan and the Kingdom of Naples), without encountering much resistance.

The crushing posture of the French frightened the Italian states. The powerful rulers of Italy headed by Venice, the Papal States and the Duchy of Milan (Florence was also turned into a vassal state by France). You know, both Florence and Naples are one of the five great powers in Italy. Unexpectedly, these two Italian powers were destroyed by the French.

And, to the Pope's disgrace, French troops marched into Rome to coerce the Pope to crown Charles VIII King of Naples. It was clear that this was a forceful persecution and not of the Pope's will.

In the whole of Italy, only two powerful countries, Venice and Milan, were not invaded by the French army. In fact, this is also because the French have a clear goal and go directly south, ignoring the Principality of Milan and the Republic of Venice.

In order to prevent the French from destroying themselves next, Venice, the Papal State and the Duchy of Milan formed a self-preserving alliance - the "Holy Alliance" on March 31, 1495.

At the same time as the alliance, the three countries also sent envoys to invite the traditional enemies of the French, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, to join the alliance.

In fact, both the Holy Roman Empire and Spain are very dissatisfied and worried about the French annexation of the Kingdom of Naples and control of Florence.

France itself is very powerful. If Italy, which is the richest in Europe (Italy's agriculture and business, at this time ranked first in Europe), has a more adequate financial blood transfusion, Shinra and Spain will face being beaten by France. predicament.

To this end, both Shinra and Spain responded positively. However, the poor emperor of Shinra, Maximilian I, was half-hearted due to lack of money. Seeing that the French successfully controlled Naples without any casualties, Maximilian I also let go of his restraint and soon joined Spain in the "Holy Alliance" aimed at opposing the French invasion of Italy.

In April, the Holy Roman Empire assembled 1,000 heavy cavalry and 10,000 infantry, including Marin's "Black Cross Phalanx", and began to climb the Albis Mountains to Venice, Italy, to join the Venetians.

Venice, the Principality of Milan and the Papal States also began to recruit local Italian mercenaries, as well as some Swiss mercenaries. Ferdinand II, the ruler of Spain (king of Aragon and husband of Isabella, Queen of Castile), also began raising troops at home.

Spain is the least prepared of the few countries because they are the farthest from Italy. Also, Spain is divided into two countries - Aragon and Castile. The Kingdom of Aragon, which is close to Italy, is very active in blending into the Italian war. Because, King Ferdinand II of Aragon was more far-sighted and knew that he could not sit back and watch the French become stronger. However, the nobles of the Kingdom of Castile were more opposed to breaking up with France. They worry that if the intervention fails, the war may be brought to the border between Spain and France. But Ferdinand II insisted that with so many countries together, the French were certain to fail and would no longer have the ability to fight back.

Moreover, not only the five countries participating in the alliance, but also other Italian states, seeing the strength of the "Holy Alliance", also saw the wind and the rudder, joined it, and expressed their willingness to send troops to participate in the war. It seems that things are going well.

But Marin, who is familiar with history, doesn't really look down on this patchwork coalition...

UU Reading Books welcomes all book lovers to come and read, the latest, fastest and most popular serial works are all in UU Reading Books! Mobile users, please read.