The Rise of the European Emperor

There is an old Chinese saying, "It is easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal." Marin asked his subordinates to instruct the agent to entertain the young and strong mountain people every now and then, which also had this consideration.

For young people, it is hard not to be tempted by the life of "drinking in a big bowl and eating a big piece of meat". Before that, although these mountain people could often eat meat, because of the lack of salt, what they ate were unpalatable unsalted barbecue or unsalted boiled meat, and the taste was not a bit bad. Even, for the sake of salt, many mountain people will collect rock salt to extract the salty taste. However, rock salt has many impurities, most of which are poisonous. So, don't eat too much.

Moreover, these poor mountain youths have probably never sang about the sweetness of sucrose in their entire lives. After all, in this era, sugar was scarce throughout Europe. Although honey is also produced in Europe, it belongs to the lords, and ordinary people cannot enjoy it. In the Middle Ages, sometimes for a few boxes of bees, two lords would even bring people to fight, just to compete for honey resources.

However, if you join the army of the North Sea State, sucrose is a common armament. Even toffee, which combines sucrose and milk powder into one, will become a common armament material in the future. What's more, there is still a big killer in the Beihai Navy-braised pork in a washbasin.

As long as these young people enter the army of the Beihai Kingdom, eat braised pork and all kinds of stir-fried vegetables, and eat a few pieces of white rabbit toffee every now and then... such a good day, most of the young people who are used to being poor, may be The soles of my feet took root, and I didn't want to leave. Those who are willing to leave are also those who are afraid of death, and the North Sea country does not need them. There may be some who are not gluttonous, but relatively few.

People who have not experienced the era of expensive and scarce materials will never understand people's love for oil, water and sweets. For example, in Marin's previous life, in the countryside in the early 1990s, people's desire for meat, oil, water and sugar was very strong. How strong is it? So strong that if one child eats candy, other children will drool. A child who is loyal will give everyone a piece of candy to lick...that is unhygienic...but the children are very happy. And the adults also have the same virtue. At that time, when there were banquets in the countryside, braised pork, big meatballs, big elbows and other oily and hard dishes, as long as they were served on the table, the elders took the lead and would be quickly swept away. As long as you slow down, you won't be able to eat...

It wasn't until the late 1990s, when the economic level improved, that everyone became more reserved and stopped robbing the meat on the banquet. In the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, when people generally lacked oil and water, meat and sugar were very popular. At that time, the Sugar, Tobacco and Liquor Company was a very hot company. The position in charge of sugar sales in sugar, tobacco and alcohol companies is the most popular. It wasn't until the 21st century, when there were more diabetes, that the positions responsible for sugar were treated coldly. Then, the tobacco and alcohol department was bullish.

But in Europe in this era, it is worse than China in the 1970s and 1980s. Because, the common people in China in the 1970s and 1980s, even if they didn't have enough food and lacked oil and water, they could still get some sugar and pork during the festivals, but the amount was very small.

In this era, Europeans, especially ordinary people, simply have no sugar to eat. Most people may never eat a bite of sucrose in their entire lives.

Therefore, Marin is very confident that the soldiers of the Beihai Kingdom can eat braised pork, stir-fried vegetables and sugar. This kind of treatment is definitely very attractive to ordinary people. Especially, the mountain people whose life is very difficult.

According to many Beihai soldiers from the mountains in southern Germany, they used to be in the mountains of southern Germany. Although they could hunt for meat, in addition to lack of salt, the success rate of hunting was also a big problem. After all, the mountains in southern Germany are densely populated and there are many hunters in the mountains. It is also very difficult to hunt prey every day. If I don't catch any prey one day, I'm afraid I will have to eat grass. Or, use the leftover wild boar skin, deerskin, etc. from the previous hunting to make soup and drink it to taste some meat.

It is now that most of the German princes are hostile to Marin and prevent the mountain people under his rule from going to the Beihai Kingdom to serve as soldiers. Otherwise, Marin should not be too easy if he wants to recruit tens of thousands of people. There is no need to pay high salaries, as long as the soldiers are willing to eat and drink enough every day,

A large number of mountain people can be recruited to serve as soldiers.

Moreover, the spies under Kohler also conducted questionnaire surveys among the agents in the southern mountains. What are you investigating? It is to first let them eat the army ration biscuits that are baked with powder of fried fish nuggets withdrawn from the North Sea and rye flour, and added sucrose and salt, and then ask them whether they can accept eating such biscuits frequently. The results showed that all the agents were satisfied with the biscuits which tasted good.

In fact, Marin was wrong, he always substituted the thinking of modern people. Modern people get tired of eating one kind of food every day because modern materials are too abundant and people have more choices. For the European poor in this era, it is not bad to be able to eat enough. Many people can't eat the black baguette that is so hard that it can be used as a brick and mixed with a lot of earth and stones, let alone this kind of biscuit that tastes good and is rich in nutrition.

After receiving the feedback, Marin was both happy and depressed. What he is happy about is that the military rations he produced are low in cost, but they are very popular. What is depressing is that most of the princes are so disrespectful that they actually hinder him from recruiting troops.

But he doesn't think about it, he is so good at fighting, and let him recruit tens of thousands of troops, this is the rhythm of unifying Germany... Even the princes who have a good relationship with Marin must consider the consequences brought by Marin's recruitment Serious consequences. Although these princes are limited by the times and their vision is not wide enough, they are not fools. Even His Majesty Maximilian I, who had a good relationship with Marin, would worry that Marin was too powerful.

...

Just when His Majesty the Emperor was content to lead the army at every step and marched steadily towards Berne, a group of Italian mercenaries in the Alps were passing through the Piedmont region, preparing to cross the St. Bernard Pass and enter the Swiss region to help defend Berne. . Obviously, this is the arrival of the Italian mercenaries hired by the German princes...

"Italian mercenaries? Can they beat Austrian knights?" King Francois I of France, who received the news, was stunned.

At this time, Charlie, Earl of Nantes' eyes lit up, and said:

"It's a good idea, this can be regarded as a solution to the urgent need!"

Francois I didn't quite understand:

"Ai Qing, what's so good about this? Everyone knows that Italian mercenaries are average in combat effectiveness. They can't beat my French warriors, nor can they beat German mercenaries..."

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Earl Charlie nodded, but excitedly said:

"Your Majesty is right, but that is about field battles. Italian mercenaries are indeed inferior to French warriors and German mercenaries in field battles. However, defending the city is no problem!"

"Even if the combat power is weaker, with the tall city walls as the backing, this difference in combat power will be offset! I remembered that Elector Frederick had informed us before that he would hire Italians to help Defending Switzerland. At the time, we didn't think so. But now it looks like a brilliant move!"

"German mercenaries can't get through if they are stopped. Although French warriors can fight, they don't wear plate armor, and their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced. After all, flesh and blood can hardly resist swords and firearms. Italian mercenaries are different. As long as there are enough people There are many, and it can withstand the siege of the Austrians!"

After hearing this, Francois I and other French ministers suddenly realized...

Indeed, the French monarchs and ministers instinctively looked down on Italian mercenaries before, but they forgot that in this battle, the Italians did not need to confront the Austrian knights head-on. No matter how fierce your knight is, you can't fly up the city wall on horseback. Without horses, the combat effectiveness of knights would be reduced by more than half. And wearing plate armor to climb the city wall, that is difficult...

On the contrary, the Italian mercenaries are waiting for work on the city wall, and only need to push the Austrians off the city wall...

"In this way, these Italian mercenaries are still very useful!" Francois I said happily.

You can use Italian mercenaries as cannon fodder to fight the Austrians to the death, and you can also send fewer French warriors to fight the Austrians to the death. If the city is broken, those French knights will be in danger. Because they were pretending to be Swiss guards, none of the French knights could show their identities as French knights and let the Kingdom of France redeem them. Once caught, bad luck. As for the Italian mercenaries, life and death are not within the consideration of the French monarchs and ministers.

"However, Berne doesn't seem to have enough food to feed so many troops, right?" John Lafite questioned.

"It doesn't matter, I will send people to send food to Bern, including a batch of weapons and armor. The longer the Swiss guard, the tighter the Austrians' finances will be. After a long time, Austria's finances will collapse on their own, and we don't need to take action." François Wa I said proudly.

"However, food for tens of thousands of people... How much does it cost? Food is so expensive..." John Lafite knew what Marin was planning, and he still planned to make trouble for the Swiss.

Charlie, Earl of Nantes smiled and said:

"John, don't worry, we won't send them pure food. We can mix wood chips in the flour, which can save a lot of food. Besides, I heard that 30% of the Kohler bread in Beihai is made of rye straw. Grass chaff made from crushed grass. We can also learn this trick, mixing enough sawdust, grass chaff, and wild vegetables into the flour. In this way, we can save a lot of food.”

"Great idea!" French monarchs praised...

In this way, while the Italian mercenaries were still on their way, a kind of bread that imitated Kohler bread mixed with a lot of grass bran, sawdust and wild vegetables was made and bagged in France, and then shipped to Bern, Switzerland.

Because it is for Italian mercenaries, the French don't care about the quality. Although the bread is not mixed with soil and stones, the flour content is still the same as that of baguette, and the flour content is only a small amount. Fortunately, because the soil and stones are replaced by grass bran, the bread is not so hard, and the taste is much better.

However, after all, it is bread with a large proportion of grass chaff and sawdust. This kind of bread has a bad taste, just like the classic coarse grain cob noodles mixed with corn cobs. Therefore, the Italian mercenaries who ate this kind of bread for a long time later hated to call this kind of bread-"French grass and sawdust cake"...

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