The Rise of the European Emperor

In Europe, cavalry cannot do long-distance raids. The key is that European war horses consume too much feed. In this era without soybeans, European war horses mainly used oats and barley as their feed. Oats have better nutrition, but the yield is lower and the price is higher. Therefore, barley is generally selected as feed for military horses, except for the nobles who love their horses very much.

Calculated according to the infantry drill code of the French army during World War I, the daily ration of barley for each horse was 4,800 grams, which was close to 5 kilograms. And if 10,000 cavalry are dispatched, with one man and two horses, the daily consumption of barley alone will be 960,000 kilograms, or 2.11 million pounds. At this time, the price of barley in Europe was about the same as that of rye, about 1 pfennig per pound. Therefore, the daily food consumption of 20,000 war horses is worth more than 3,500 gold coins.

This is because the time to send troops is chosen after spring plowing. At this time, spring returns to the earth, everything recovers, and there is no shortage of grass in the wild. Therefore, a lot of horse feed can be saved. If you choose to send troops in winter, you will die. Because they cannot eat grass to assist them, the food consumed by war horses will double every day.

Therefore, in this era, nobles generally do not choose to fight in winter. Especially an army with a lot of cavalry can't afford to fight in winter.

And European war horses, which consume 48 kilograms of food every day, are obviously not suitable for long-distance raids. Because, I can't bring so much food and grass...

Only war horses such as Mongolian horses, which are extremely resistant to rough feeding, can be maintained by grazing, so that they can run long distances. The reason why the Mongol Empire was able to hit Europe in one go has a lot to do with the quality of Mongolian horses. The reason why Tsarist Russia was able to attack the vast and active Siberia below was also because the horses they relied on the Cossack cavalry were descendants of Mongolian horses, suitable for long-distance expeditions, and they were not allowed to bring so much food.

However, war horses in farming countries including Europe are not good. These horses are used to eating food, and their bodies will collapse if they do not eat food for a few days. Because of this, the cavalry of farming countries is extremely consumed. Even a big empire like the Han Dynasty emptied the treasury because of the many conquests against the Huns.

If it is like Marin's army raided Florence from Rome before, it only needs to run wildly for a day or two. You only need to hang a saddle around the horse's neck, which contains 10 kilograms of oats, barley, etc., and it will be solved. If it is farther away, it will be difficult to do a long-distance raid that spans more than half of the Apennine Peninsula, such as from Milan to Naples.

After all, it is impossible for a war horse to carry a few sacks of grain on its back and run long distances. According to the cavalry drill code, for general long-distance marches, a maximum of 20 kilograms of grain can be put in the girdle hung around the horse's neck. No matter how much, the horse can't move its back, which will affect the horse's mobility...

In other words, if the cavalry left the supply unit, they could only survive alone for more than 4 days at most. Of course, except for looting people in grain-producing areas. However, in the case of long-distance raids, time is generally precious, and it is impossible to stop the large cavalry troops to grab food. Moreover, large cavalry troops consume too much food, and it is difficult to maintain even if they grab food. The reason why Charles VIII was blocked by the Northern Italian coalition forces in the Battle of Fornovo was because there was not enough food, and the troops were divided to grab food, and it was delayed before being blocked by the infantry-based Italian coalition forces.

Therefore, Marin arranged for people to store a lot of food halfway through the French cavalry. When the French cavalry pass by, sell them.

Of course, John Lafite, who offered advice to Louis XII, would not say that it was given by Marin, but that he got it by using his previous business relationship in Germany.

John Lafite used to do business in Münster City, and it was normal to know a few business friends.

Louis XII had some doubts about the relationship provided by John Lafite. After all, it was 10,000 cavalry. If the food supply is not available halfway, it will be over. Therefore, he first sent someone to explore along the Roman Avenue. As a result, at the point marked by John Lafite, he really saw the connector who sold the grain, and also saw the grain.

In this way, Louis XII sent 10,000 cavalry to battle lightly,

One person and two horses go south. Along the way, use the money robbed from Milan to buy the barley needed for war horses from grain merchants along the way. And the leader of the 10,000 French cavalry was Baron Borman, who had previously competed for favor with John Lafite...

...

At this time, Marin, who was far away in Aurich, also received a letter from the pigeons from Italy. Knowing that Ludovico Sforza fled without a fight, and sent 220,000 cannon fodder soldiers to Louis XII, Marin had 10,000 MMPs to talk about.

He is indeed supporting France now, but he is just afraid that the French will lose. However, Marin's real intention is to let France and Spain bite dogs, rather than fully support France.

Originally, it was relatively stable for France to dispatch an army of 60,000. It's all right now, with an additional 220,000 people, it's a sure win. However, is this the result Marin wants?

But things have already happened, and Marin has nothing to do. If you want to blame, you can only blame yourself for missing this one before, and not notifying Ludovico Sforza in time.

...

Just when Marin was furious after getting the information, there was no movement on the Spanish side, and no pigeons flew back to the mainland.

Why is this? Because the pigeons released by the Spanish spies in Milan were all intercepted...

What? Can carrier pigeons still intercept? Is this a Mongolian sculpture archer invited? not...

You know, the Spanish spies released 6 carrier pigeons in the Principality of Milan. Even if Guo Jing, the hero of the eagle shooting, came, there was no guarantee that he would be able to shoot all six pigeons. However, from the time when those thorers publicly "requested" Louis XII to send troops to the Kingdom of Naples, some people began to clean up the homing pigeons flying southwest.

What's going on here? It turned out that from the public "request" of Louis XII to send troops to the Kingdom of Naples, a small team originally arranged by Marin near the city of Milan began to clean up all the homing pigeons flying southwest.

And the method used by this team to clean up the pigeons is very unique - using falcons...

And the master of this eagle is also very legendary-this person is called Bai Geri, and it was Ewenki that Marin bought from the Yehe tribe's tribute envoys when Marin bought old mountain ginseng from the Yehe tribe's tribute envoys in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. slaves. I bought it together with Bai Geri, and there is also a sea dongqing falcon in Bai Geri's hand.

At that time, Marin was very envious when he saw Baigeri driving Haidongqing to explore the way for the Yehe mission. Therefore, it was proposed to buy Costin. However, he doesn't know how to train eagles. Therefore, he simply proposed to buy it together with Baigeri.

The envoy of Ye Hebu disagreed at first, but Marin threw money hard. Then, the envoy of Ye Hebu agreed. After all, Baigeri was not from the Yehe tribe, but just a slave captured by the Yehe tribe from the Ewenki tribe. There are a lot of people like this in the Yehe tribe. The Yehe tribe was originally close to the area where the Ewenki people were active, so it was very easy to catch a few Ewenki falconers. Moreover, the Jurchens themselves also know how to train eagles, which is not uncommon in the Northeast. Then, Marin got Baigeri and his Costin Falcon.

Originally, Marin bought Baigeri and his Costin Falcon purely out of curiosity. After all, Costin is a legendary existence.

At first, Marin just asked Bai Geri to take Hai Dongqing to go hunting with him, using Hai Dongqing as a scout. However, later by chance, Marin discovered that Hai Dongqing had killed a carrier pigeon and obtained the above-mentioned biography. Then, Marin realized—what the hell is such a sharp weapon for killing homing pigeons...

After experiments, Bai Geri and his Costin Falcon intercepted and killed many carrier pigeons flying out from Aurich and Emden, and learned about several foreign spy dens in Beihai.

Then, Baigeri became a professional pigeon hunter under Marin's command. For this reason, Marin also equipped him with a service team to ensure his safety.

This time, the team was sent to Italy by Marin to hunt any pigeons that flew towards Spain. Then, the message from the Spaniards was slow. It was not until the city of Naples was besieged for a period of time that the news was received. But by then, it was too late...