But after leaving the Black Forest, Marin found that the prey began to decrease sharply...
why? Because, Marin entered the agricultural area in southern Germany. The southern part of Germany is relatively warmer, and agriculture is more developed than the north. The population here is denser and the degree of development is higher. A high degree of development means fewer natural forests. Then, there are fewer wild animals.
On the way to Vienna, the three of Marin wanted to repeat the same trick. It's a pity that in densely populated areas, there are few wild animals, and the hunting of nearby hunters has caused Marin to no longer be able to hunt prey every day.
Sometimes, it takes two or three days before the three of Marin can catch a prey. Even, the prey might just be a hare, not enough to fit Kahn's teeth...
In order to subsidize the food expenses, Marin began to look for roads close to the forest to walk. After all, southern Germany is a place with more mountains, and there are more wild animals near the mountains and forests.
But this also has disadvantages, that is, the three of Marin were robbed by robbers once. But this group of robbers really couldn't get on the stage. When Marin was brave enough to charge forward with his lance and knocked the bandit leader away, the group of robbers also fled in fright.
Marin, who realized the problem, no longer put all the weapons and armor on the unicycle when he was on the road, but put the breastplate on his body all the time. However, Marin felt that the regular Gothic plate armor's breastplate had too much restraint on the waist, and it was inconvenient to lower down or turn around to avoid the opponent's spear or lance. Because of this, the battles between knights often consist of each holding their lances and colliding with each other like robots, which is very mechanical.
So, he found a blacksmith who was good at making armor, and asked the blacksmith to use the cold forging method to build him a two-thirds breastplate similar to that worn by French cuirassiers during the war.
This kind of breastplate only protects the vital points, not the waist. But at the same time, it also liberates the waist of the knight, allowing him to flexibly bend over and turn around on the horse. Moreover, its structure is also very simple. In fact, it is two cold-forged iron plates, front and rear, strung together with ropes and hung on the shoulders. Then, the place where the hole is perforated below can be tied with a rope.
Then, Marin asked the blacksmith to forge a cavalry knife with a hand guard similar to the later European cavalry. The reason why cavalry knives are built is to deal with emergencies.
Because, Marin's plate armor and lance are usually on a unicycle. When encountering a walking robber, Marin had time to put on his armor and pick up his lance. If he encountered a fast attack from a bandit on horseback, he might not even have this little time to react. Therefore, pulling out the cavalry sword on his waist became the best choice.
The cavalry sword, which adopts the standard cavalry sword style of later generations, has a straighter blade, which can be used for stabbing or chopping, which is more convenient and practical. Moreover, this knife looks very beautiful.
As for Kahn and Kohler, Marin bought them two spears. At critical moments, let them stab the enemy with spears.
What Marin didn't expect was that after Kahn got the spear, he didn't stab the robber, but stabbed a wild boar to death...
One day, when the three of Marin were on their way, they suddenly met a wild boar who didn't know what to do. The wild boar rushed towards Marin's mount quickly, scaring Marin at a loss. Draw a saber, wild boars are short and difficult to cut. It was too late to go to the car to get the pistol.
At the critical moment, Kahn stood up, raised his spear, and stabbed the wild boar vigorously. The first stab was unsuccessful (because the wild boar skin was too thick), so Kahn tried a second time with all his strength. Finally, before the wild boar rammed into the warhorse Karl, he was stabbed to the point by Kahn, and began to roll and howl on the ground.
After reacting, Marin quickly got off his horse, drew out his cavalry knife and stabbed the wild boar... Then, the wild boar was sold for a good price.
In view of Kahn's loyalty to protect the Lord, Marin gritted his teeth and took out 1,800 shillings from his private treasury to buy a strong and big black cow, and then bought the carriage and harness of a small four-wheeled carriage.
In this way, Kahn was honorably promoted from a porter pushing a wheelbarrow to a driver of an ox cart...
Likewise, this robust bull has a temper. Marin repeated his old tricks and tamed the bull with spirits and a copper nose ring. Afterwards, the big black ox named "Li Chen" by Marin became the draft ox that pulled the cart.
Sadly, Kahn doesn't seem to be very good at driving a bullock cart. On the other hand, Kohler, who is skinny, quickly started driving the bullock cart. Kahn then went off to ride the calf. Kohler, on the other hand, began to drive the ox cart. While naming the thick calf, Marin also named it Dallas...
Seeing Kahn's "majestic posture" riding a bull with a spear, Marin suddenly had a bad idea and planned to train Kahn to be a "bull cavalry". He then began to teach Kahn how to use a lance and spear while riding on the back of a "horse".
So, Kahn, who was ignorant, began to learn how to be a "bull knight" according to Marin's deception...
When the three of them arrived in Vienna in early May, Kahn had already learned how to poke people with a spear while riding on the back of a bull. Even the calf Dallas he was riding could launch a trot charge with Kahn in a short period of time...
Under the contemptuous eyes of the guards at the gate of Vienna, Kahn rode an ox, held a spear, and followed Marin into the city of Vienna arrogantly. That rush, it seems that Kahn has become a real knight...
As for Kohler, Master Fan possessed him, whipping the big black bull "Li Chen" with a whip in a low-key manner, driving the bullock cart, and following behind the two...
After entering Vienna and finding a hotel to settle down, Marin excitedly asked about the emperor's recruitment.
But what disappointed Marin was that the emperor had no plans to recruit mercenaries recently...
As early as 1487, Maximilian I had recruited a German mercenary army of 15,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry. Its leader was Frederick II of the Hohenzollern family. Count von Hohenzollern .
However, there is a problem, that is, in this era, almost all the emperors, kings and dukes in Europe were in a bad financial situation.
Even though he was the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I could only rely on Austria controlled by the Habsburg family and the newly controlled Duchy of Burgundy to raise taxes to support his huge family and even larger mercenary corps.
These 15,000 infantry and 1,500 knights have already made Maximilian I's finances relatively tight. In the case that there is no battle to fight for the time being, Maximilian I will not expand the army.
Moreover, the taxes collected by Austria and Burgundy under the control of the Habsburg family were not all used to support the army. A large part of the tax revenue is also used to support the huge group of officials in the two places, as well as nobles of all walks of life. Just the Habsburg family itself has a bunch of collateral noble members to support. Otherwise, the emperor's finances would not be so tight.
In addition, for the Hanseatic commercial cities and other imperial cities in the Holy Roman Empire, the emperor can also temporarily levy war taxes during the war, according to the agreement between the two parties.
Because the independent status of these commercial cities was specially bestowed by the emperor. Therefore, in return, when the emperor launched a war, they were obliged to provide the emperor with a certain amount of military expenses.
However, the money is not so easy to get. If the emperor was fighting a war against foreign enemies (such as the Ottoman Turkish invasion), these cities would not hesitate to provide certain taxes. But if the emperor himself fought an internal war for hegemony, these cities might not be willing to pay taxes. Or, even if the tax is paid, it is still heavily discounted, or it is dilly-dallying when paying the tax. At the same time, during wartime, the emperor could also temporarily increase taxes in Austria and Burgundy under the control of the Habsburg family for war.
However, the daily taxation of Austria and Burgundy is very difficult to support the original mercenary. Before the war, the emperor did not have the financial resources to expand his army.
This is the drawback of the European fiefdom system - taxation does not go to the center, but to the local lords. This led to financial difficulties for the Central Dynasty, and it did not have the money to support too many troops. Unlike the feudal dynasty of China, since the Qin Dynasty, all finances belonged to the imperial court, which made the Huaxia Dynasty have enough financial resources to support hundreds of thousands of troops. It seems that Europe did not begin to establish a stable, unified modern tax system until the end of the 17th century. Then, in the 18th century, European national wars were no longer on the scale of tens of thousands of people, but were aimed at the scale of hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands...
Marin recalled the history learned in his previous life and found that although King Charles VIII of France declared his sovereignty over the Kingdom of Naples at the beginning of the year, he had not assembled enough troops to invade Naples.
It seems that Charles VIII only assembled an army of 37,000 to march into Italy at the end of August this year. At present, the envoy of Charles VIII is probably still recruiting mercenaries in Switzerland.
The news of Charles VIII's army preparations should have reached Vienna, but it is estimated that it will take a long time for Vienna to make a decision to fight. You know, the Holy Roman Empire is a country similar to the aristocratic parliamentary system. Whether to fight the French or not, it is estimated that the Imperial Parliament will have to quarrel for a long time. The main core is that if the emperor wants to go to war, he needs to expand his army. The expansion of the army requires a war tax, and the commercial city needs to temporarily increase the war tax. Even the dukes and earls in various places are also obliged to contribute some money to the emperor during wartime. But just for this little money, it is estimated that there will be no result without arguing for a few months.
Of course, those nobles didn't feel sorry for the little money. They were just afraid that the emperor would become stronger through military expansion, and then clean them up. You know, this has a criminal record. The king of France did this kind of thing. Starting from Philip IV, the king of France began to suppress the princes and even confiscated church property. Philip IV even had a conflict with the pope because of the collection of "tithes", and directly sent people to kidnap the pope to Avignon, France. It is precisely because of this ramming that the pope was kidnapped, and the Renaissance began in Italy without the pope's restraint for a hundred years... Of course, this is far from the truth. In short, if those nobles really supported the emperor with all their strength, they would inevitably get burned in the end and lose the privilege of self-government. After all, emperors are ruthless...
According to memory, the "Holy Alliance" against the French invasion of Italy seems to have been established in March 1495. At that time, the Holy Roman Empire really joined the war.
Therefore, Marin can be sure that it is impossible for the Holy Roman Empire to expand its army recently. Even if the army is expanded, at least it will not expand passively until the French army officially enters Italy in August.
And now it's only the beginning of May, and it is estimated that he will not be able to join the emperor's army for at least three months...