The Rise of the European Emperor

After receiving the transfer order, Gonzalo de Cordoba was stunned. Afterwards, he stayed alone in the tent for a long time, and finally let out a long sigh:

"Your Majesty, you still don't trust the old minister after all!"

Yes, Gonzalo de Cordoba is not a direct descendant of Ferdinand II. Strictly speaking, he is a Castilian, and he was also single-handedly promoted by Queen Isabella I. Although he later led troops to fight in the Kingdom of Naples, the territory laid down by the Kingdom of Aragon, and became the coach, he was not Ferdinand II's man after all.

Therefore, after the death of Queen Isabella I, Gonzalo de Cordoba's status was a bit embarrassing. Fortunately, he does not have the prestige in history, because he learned his phalanx tactics from Marin. In addition, the Kingdom of Aragon did not have a more powerful general, so Ferdinand II did not replace him, but entrusted him with important tasks.

Speaking of which, although Ferdinand II had a high level of political struggle, his vision was really not very good. At least, far inferior to his wife Isabella I. During the Spanish voyage, Isabella I sponsored it out of his own pocket, and peerless famous generals like Gonzalo de Cordoba were also promoted by Isabella I. In terms of vision, Ferdinand II seems to be much worse.

Of course, he cannot be blamed for the replacement of Gonzalo de Cordoba. Because, it was too coincidental. Originally, Ferdinand II planned to withstand the pressure and continue to let Gonzalo de Cordoba lead the army. But a sudden serious illness made Ferdinand II realize that he was old and could die at any time. After all, he is 62 years old. This age, among the European monarchs of this era, can be considered a long life. Therefore, he has to worry.

Ferdinand II knew exactly what level his son was. Probably because he was too well protected when he was a child, and he was not exposed to the dark side much, which made Juan III a little naive. And innocence is not a good quality for a monarch.

But he ignored the ability of Juan III's wife, Margaret. Margaret grew up in the court of Netherland Ghent, who was fighting endlessly, and had rich experience in fighting. But Ferdinand II has a characteristic-extremely patriarchal! Historically, when his son Juan died, he kept his son's corpse in agony regardless of the risk of being infected by tuberculosis. But after his daughter Juana became the queen of Castile, he imprisoned her on the grounds that her daughter was crazy so that he could be regent of Castile for him, and he had no family affection at all.

Therefore, he didn't think much of his daughter-in-law's level of "a female generation", and he also ignored her daughter-in-law's help to his son. It just so happened that the actions of the Spanish army in the Kingdom of Naples were led by the Kingdom of Aragon, and Juan III usually listened to his father more. Therefore, when Ferdinand II ordered the replacement of Gonzalo de Cordoba, Juan III's wife, Margaret of Austria, could not change anything despite her opposition.

In this way, Gonzalo de Cordoba handed over the military power full of depression,

Go to Morocco and command those Italian mercenaries.

Recently, the remnants of the Watas dynasty in Morocco and the Arab cavalry of the Saad tribe, supported by Venice and France, have indeed caused great trouble to the Spanish garrison in Morocco.

Today, with the withdrawal of the main force of Spain and the departure of the famous general Gonzalo de Cordoba, the remnants of the Huatas dynasty and the Arab cavalry of the Saad tribe have been rampant in the Spanish-occupied area of ​​northern Morocco.

Those Italian mercenaries were able to defend the city, but they did not dare to go out of the city to fight against the Berber cavalry of the Vatas dynasty and the Arab cavalry of the Saad tribe. They could only hide in the city and watch the two cavalry ravages the wilds of northern Morocco.

Now, only cities close to the sea, such as Melilla and Tetouan, can be successfully controlled by Spain. Because these cities are very convenient to replenish from the sea. As for the famous inland city of Fez, the supply line has been cut off by the cavalry of the Vatas dynasty. The reason why Ferdinand II transferred Gonzalo de Cordoba this time was to let him lead troops to break the siege of Fez and open up the supply line. After all, the city of Fez is the capital of the Vatas Dynasty, and its political significance is extremely important. If it is lost, it will not only seriously affect the morale of the Spaniards, but also lose control of the inland areas of Morocco.

...

However, in this transfer order, it was only mentioned that Gonzalo de Cordoba was transferred to command the Moroccan army, but he did not say that he would take anyone there. But if he only relied on the more than 10,000 people guarding Morocco, Gonzalo de Cordova would not have the confidence to fight the Moroccan counterattack. After all, there are 20,000 to 30,000 cavalry in Morocco.

Therefore, before leaving, Gonzalo de Cordoba made a request-he wanted to take away a group of officers, some musketeers and pick 10,000 civilians to take away!

Gonzalo de Cordoba knew that it would be unwise to divide and take away from the 50,000 troops at the front. After all, the French are not vegetarians. Once there are too few troops, it is easy to be defeated by the French.

However, if he only commanded more than 10,000 Italian mercenaries in Morocco, he would have no confidence in defeating the enemy. So, he thought of starting a new stove by himself and training a group of recruits.

He had gone to Beihai State for advanced studies, and he knew that Marin fought the war at the beginning, relying on the group of recruits he specially trained. Although the North Sea State kept many core secrets, Gonzalo de Cordova still learned a lot of military training methods.

For example, when the Beihai Kingdom selected soldiers, they gave priority to the brave mountain people. What's more, when choosing, you have to compete and observe to choose the winner...

In fact, at this point, Gonzalo de Cordova was fooled. He inquired about the details of the competition and selection from the soldiers of the North Sea State in private, and had never seen it himself. And Marin's unique selection criteria are - people who are not afraid of being injured in the competition and who go forward bravely, not winners.

But the soldiers who were asked about this matter wanted to save face, and they didn't understand that the criterion for recruiting soldiers was bravery, so they thought they had performed well. So, no matter whether they lost or won the contest, they all bragged to Gonzalo de Cordoba——I won the contest back then... They would never admit that they lost...

Therefore, Gonzalo de Cordoba was also deceived and chose the wrong standard when it came to the contest. Of course, this standard is not bad. After all, those who can win the competition are those with strong combat effectiveness.

Moreover, the trait of bravery and fearlessness is not a problem at all when the army does not suffer major setbacks. If there is a smooth battle, it is right to choose those who win the competition. Because their personal abilities are stronger.

Only when fighting against the wind, the trait of bravery and fearlessness will show its importance. Generally speaking, if the army casualties exceed 10%, it will be easy to retreat. However, the ones selected by Marin by means of martial arts competitions are all brave and fearless fools. Even if they encounter adversity, they will not retreat easily. Because, when the soldiers were first selected, they were specially selected for their "comparatively stupid" feature. After all, as the old saying goes - "Be ruthless and be afraid of being stunned". A ruthless person is only ruthless when he has an advantage, but he is not sure when he encounters adversity. And the fool doesn't care, even in adversity, he will fight with you to the death...

Therefore, if you don't fight against the wind, you can't see the advantage of the stupid soldiers at all...

Gonzalo de Córdoba used a wrong method but in line with the mainstream thinking. Through martial arts competitions, he selected 10,000 strong men who were more capable of fighting from the 60,000 Spanish men who accompanied the army, and took them on a boat to Morocco. , intending to train these 10,000 strong and brave civilians into an army like the Beihai Kingdom. Then, it was used against Moroccan scimitar cavalry.

At the same time, he also took away a group of officers (for training), 1,500 musketeers, and 1,000 Yu Dayou unicycles modified from unicycles...

When fighting against the French heavy cavalry before, Yu Dayou's unicycle played a major role in blocking the impact of the French cavalry on the flanks of the Spanish infantry phalanx. This made Gonzalo de Cordoba realize that in the Moroccan battlefield, this kind of chariot that can withstand the impact of cavalry will still be very useful. After all, Moroccan cavalry are scimitar cavalry who can only fight in close combat...