Although it has been determined to use glass greenhouses to cultivate oriental medicinal materials, there is no rush. Because the temperature is quite high right now, there is no need to use a greenhouse.
Moreover, Marin's side is also insufficient. Because last time he brought back 50 glass craftsmen from Venice. However, he lacked an important raw material for making glass-soda.
Soda is a very important raw material for making glass, because the main material of glass, quartz sand, if no soda is added, the melting temperature is as high as 1700 to 2000 degrees. And if soda is added, it will drop to about 1000 degrees, and the wood stove can also be used.
These days, the Venetians burn glass in wood-fired stoves. In fact, this is also impossible. Although, the coal stove burns glass and the temperature is higher. However, there are no coal mines in Italy...
In Britain, there are many coal mines, but the glass industry is underdeveloped, and the benefits of using coal to burn glass have not yet been discovered. It took until the 17th century for the British to discover that it was better to burn glass with coal.
On Marin's side, there is no shortage of coal, and quartz sand can also be bought. Just soda, very lacking. Soda is generally produced in the deserts of West Asia and North Africa. Because soda is sodium carbonate, which is easily soluble in water. Europe has a humid climate and a natural lack of natural soda. Only the saline-alkali lakes in the desert are rich in this stuff. The Phoenicians who discovered glass for the first time lived in Lebanon on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. In their place, next to the desert, it is not difficult to get natural soda...
Now, because of the hegemony of the Venetian in the Mediterranean, it is not difficult to buy natural soda in the Middle East. As for the rest of Europe, if you want to make glass, you can only rely on alchemists to extract soda ash from plant ash. Not only is the amount small, but the price is high, which also leads to high glass manufacturing costs and cannot increase the scale.
The later decline of the Venetians was not only because of the business being robbed by two teeth, but also the blockade by Ottoman Turkey, which was also an important reason.
Ottoman Turkey will occupy Egypt 20 years later, and Egypt is currently an important source of natural soda for Venice. Once the Turks blockade, the Venetian business will be difficult. Later, it was hard to come up with a glass mirror to save the business, and the technology was stolen by the French. Therefore, without technical support, maritime trade was robbed, and the natural soda production area was occupied by the Turks, Venice's commerce inevitably declined.
As a college student of later generations, Marin also studied chemistry in middle school, and also knew the "Hou's combined soda making method"-however, this was of no use, because, in Hou's soda making method, one of the most important raw materials One ammonia gas, Marin can't get it in large quantities. Synthetic ammonia is a technology of the 20th century, and it needs top-level industrial equipment to produce it.
Marin also knows the Lublin method, but using the Lublan method requires a lot of investment, and it requires specialized chemical talents...
In fact, it is not afraid to invest in Marlin. The most important thing is the lack of chemical talents who can control the reaction. Therefore, this can only be shelved temporarily.
Of course, it doesn't mean that Marin doesn't make glass anymore. Instead, we have to wait for this matter first. After a while, Marin will send people to Venice to buy cheap natural soda produced in the Middle East, and buy a lot of him at a time, enough for a year or two...
However, that matter is not in a hurry. What Marin is most anxious about now is the issue of military training...
The 2,500 fighters before have all trained. However, Marin has recruited another 2,500 people in the past few months, making up 5,000 people. Moreover, Marin suddenly wanted to play tricks on the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war captured before, so he will not return them for the time being.
Anyway, the nine Frisian nobles who fled to the Principality of Gedes are now too poor and have no money to support the 1,000 people. Therefore, Marin intends to take them as cannon fodder and join the team attacking East Frisia.
In this way, Marin was able to gather an army of 6,000, and even if he had just faced East Frisia, there would be no major problems. In particular, among the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war, there were 200 heavy armored swordsmen, who were very good at charging and street fighting, and were suitable for leading the battle.
Of course, there are many problems with this. One of the main problems is that the 2,500 recruits and 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war lack training.
Although it is said that the Friesian prisoners of war are all veterans, they are all veterans of the old feudal army, and their military discipline is very bad. Marin's army is an army of the new era with strict military discipline.
Marin is full of confidence in training the 2,500 recruits recruited from the German countryside into a new army. But Marin lacked confidence in training the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war.
Because those people are all veterans and have their own set of ideas and war concepts. Marin went to train them, but they might not listen.
Therefore, after much deliberation, Marin decided to use strict military laws to discipline and restrain the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war. Anyway, under the pressure of 2,500 Texel veterans, those people have to weigh up if they want to resist.
Therefore, under the arrangement of Marin, among the original 2,500 veterans, the smartest group was selected to train the 2,500 recruits and 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war.
Among them, the veterans who went to train the Frisian prisoners of war were all people with strong aura. Because, facing a group of veterans, they lack aura and are easily passive.
Moreover, Marin also set up the Military Law Department for the first time, and directly placed the sticks of the Military Law Department on the side of the training field, ready to hit the military stick at any time...
The establishment of the Military Law Department made the already obedient recruits more honest, and there were basically no thorns to dare to make trouble. As for the 1,000 Friesian veterans, some thorns came out to resist, but they were quickly stripped of their pants and beaten with military sticks... Even if the group of veterans wanted to make trouble, they had to look at the 2,000 Texel veterans standing beside them …
Marin arranged a total of 500 veterans to help with the training, while the other 2,000 people stood on the sidelines, all armed, watching with cold eyes. In fact, this group of people came to guard the place, to prevent the group of Frisian veterans from making trouble.
Seeing the murderous 2,000 veterans, the Frisian veterans who only had training sticks in their hands, naturally they could only swallow their anger. Even if you want to resist, you have to see if you can beat the 2,000 killing gods next to you...
The 2,500 recruits were trained differently from the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war. Because, for the 2,500 recruits, Marin planned to form two Spanish phalanxes, which required extensive use of muskets. And the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war were trained in accordance with the requirements of the cold weapon force. Because they are also the cannon fodder soldiers responsible for the charge.
Marin can predict that the battle in Emden, the capital of East Frisia, must be a very brutal street battle. The 1,000 heavily armored swordsmen in East Frisia were not vegetarians either.
If the enemy's heavy armored swordsman accidentally rushed into the musketeer crowd, it would be absolutely terrible. In the face of fierce heavy armored swordsmen, musketeers with little melee ability will definitely suffer big losses, and may even lose their positions.
The role of the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war was to allow them to withstand the heavily armored swordsmen of East Frisia. Then, Marin's musketeers could hide behind and take a leisurely shot. Even if the heavy armor swordsman wears breastplate armor, so what? In front of the musket guns, knights in full plate armor also kneel...
Of course, there is another very complicated project that makes Marin scratch his head. That is the problem of the coordination and unified command of the four large phalanxes.
Before, Marin only commanded a phalanx, which was naturally simple. Switching to two phalanxes, the command is not complicated. Two phalanxes, one left and one right will do.
But changing to 4 phalanxes would be a bit more troublesome. Because, the arrangement of the four phalanxes has become a big problem...
For example, on the battlefield of this era, the battle formation is generally divided into three wings: left, center, and right. If there are three phalanxes, it is naturally easy to arrange. But for the extra phalanx, Marin didn't know where to put it. Because, he has never commanded a large army to fight...
After much deliberation, Marin suddenly thought of the legendary "reserve team". Since modern warfare, people seem to be accustomed to using reserves on the battlefield.
The role of the reserve team is huge. For example, if the left wing of your side is defeated by the enemy, if you don't rescue it in time, it may be torn apart by the enemy, causing chaos in the formation, and leading to a rout across the board.
However, whether it is the right wing or the main force in the middle, it is not very suitable for rescue. Because, as long as the middle part or the right wing send people to rescue, their own defense power will be greatly reduced, and the enemy may take the opportunity to break through.
Therefore, the best rescue force is actually the reserve team. The reserve team doesn't have any missions, so if you see something that's not working, just add it. Moreover, if one wing of the enemy can't stand it anymore, the reserve team can also be pulled out to increase output and defeat the part of the enemy that can't stand it.
Thinking of this, Marin finally established the arrangement of four Spanish phalanxes—the oldest phalanx, commanded by himself, sitting in the middle; the second veteran phalanx, commanded by Schwartz, was in charge of the left wing; Among the two phalanxes recruited, a better phalanx was selected and let Frundsberg command and take charge of the right wing; and for the last phalanx, Marin hadn't figured out who to lead. However, that is a reserve team, ready for support.
As for the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war, Marin only planned to train them in street fighting. Because, after defeating East Frisia, Marin planned to return them to the Frisian nobles and let them mess with the Duke of Saxony. It would be best to turn West Frisia upside down...