Back in Marin in Den Burg, in addition to arranging for Kohler to go to Venice to withdraw money and buy things, he also bought a batch of second-hand Kirk sailboats. Mainly, Marin couldn't wait for the new ship.
Because, Marin decided to launch an attack on East Frisia after the autumn harvest...
Kohler had already taken two warships to Venice, so Marin suddenly lost two large ships. Therefore, Marin had no choice but to send people to the United Kingdom and Denmark to buy several second-hand large ships of more than 100 tons.
These ships are mainly used to load war horses. Unlike pretending to be a person, it is fine for a person to ride in an ordinary boat. But horses are different. Horses are huge and heavy. Ordinary boats cannot carry horses. For some small boats, a small movement of the horse on it can easily cause the boat to capsize.
And this time to attack Texel, Marin was going to land with 400 horses. Although, no horses were needed to attack Emden. However, in order to prevent the leakage of news, Marin decided to bring 400 cavalry to land, mainly to intercept the messenger and delay the time of news leakage.
Although, among the 400 horses, only a few dozen are serious war horses, and the other horses are draft horses. But those draft horses are good horses of the French breed second only to war horses, and they can barely be used as war horses, and they are not used to charge into battle anyway. And the horses that ordinary messengers ride are no better than these horses. Therefore, it is enough to use these horses to intercept the messenger.
You know, there is no shortage of fishers in troubled waters in this world. For example, the last time Marin disabled the Friesian noble republic, the Duke of Saxony got the news, and then the Friesland area was peach-picked.
This time, Marin never wanted to be picked peaches. Therefore, after capturing Emden, he planned to quickly dispatch troops to control the border of East Frisia to prevent people from taking the opportunity to seize the land. Especially in the west, that is the territory of the Duke of Saxony. If this old guy sees Marin doing something, he might send troops to grab food.
Of course, it is said that the nine Frisian nobles have already started planning to cause trouble for the Duke of Saxony. For this reason, Marin thought for a while, and sent a letter to the nine people, suggesting that they send troops to rob food during the autumn harvest.
In the agricultural era, food was an extremely important material and wealth. Even food is the foundation of a country. Whoever robs other countries of food is tantamount to shaking the foundations of other countries.
When the autumn harvest comes together, these nine people will take people to grab grain in southern Friesland, which will inevitably attract the attention of the local Saxon garrison. Those garrisons may not pay attention to the usual harassment.
However, when they came to grab food during the autumn harvest, the Saxon garrison had to come out to stop it. Otherwise, if there is not enough food, it will affect social stability.
When the main force of the Saxon garrison leaves Groningen, which is very close to East Frisia, Marin can safely attack East Frisia.
As for whether those 9 idiots will follow his plan, Marin is sure. Because, those 9 Frisian nobles have no money in their hands now. And they have to feed hundreds of soldiers and horses, and even plan to expand their army. Therefore, it is the best choice to go to southern Friesland to grab grain during the autumn harvest.
At this time, the grain was still in the field and had not been sent to the fortified city, so it was very easy to rob. With food, those 9 goods will be able to feed the army under them and have the opportunity to expand the army. The autumn harvest season is the best opportunity for them to grab grain.
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On Marin's side, he is also starting to arrange the autumn harvest in full swing...
In this era, European food varieties do not seem to work. Whether it's wheat, rye, or barley, the growth cycle seems to be very long.
For example, wheat is usually planted in November of the first year, and then harvested in July and August of the next year (this is true, not fabricated by the author). The growth cycle is as long as eight or nine months.
Marin knew that the growth cycle of winter wheat was indeed longer, because the growth of winter wheat was extremely slow. But he remembered that the wheat in his hometown in his previous life was usually harvested in May, which was more than two months earlier than the wheat in medieval Europe.
The same goes for rye and spring wheat. In Marin's hometown in his previous life, spring wheat was planted in March and April, and harvested in July. However, the rye varieties in Europe in this era were also sown in March and April, but they were not harvested until October...
Such a long growth cycle made it almost impossible for European crops to be harvested twice a year in this era. Even the southern European region, which is most suitable for two crops a year, can only do one crop a year because of crop varieties.
However, Marin knows that after the use of potassium and phosphorus fertilizers, it can promote the growth and flowering of crops. Therefore, the crops in the Wadden Islands, where potassium and phosphorus fertilizers are applied, may be harvested earlier than in other regions.
Sure enough, after mid-September, the rye and oats in the Wadden Islands began to mature. In other parts of Europe at the same time, the rye was still green...
Marin plans to launch an attack on East Frisia after the autumn harvest, but if the autumn harvest ends early on his side and East Frisia ends late, then he will have a great advantage.
Because, during the autumn harvest season, the young and strong in general countries will disperse to their respective farmlands to grab the wheat, instead of gathering in the cities.
Therefore, during the autumn harvest season, even if the Earl of East Frisia was attacked and successfully sent out a message, it would be difficult to gather enough reinforcements in a short period of time. Because the strong men are all scattered in the farmland in the countryside, how can they gather so quickly? When the strong men gathered, the day lily was already cold...
Therefore, Marin decided to finish harvesting the rye and oats of the Wadden Islands as quickly as possible. Then, while the East Frisians were still busy in the field, they quickly dispatched troops to catch him by surprise...
In order to finish harvesting the grain in the field earlier, Marin ordered 6,000 soldiers to go to the field to help harvest the wheat...
These soldiers, except for the trainee knights who came from the lord's family, the rest are from farming families. Because, in this era, the urban population is very small. The soldiers recruited by Marin are basically peasant children. Therefore, harvesting wheat is really familiar to these soldiers...
With the help of 6,000 soldiers, the speed of harvesting wheat fields on the island has been greatly accelerated. Then, just in October, when other areas just started the autumn harvest, all the wheat fields on the Wadden Islands were harvested. Moreover, all rye and oats were dried and put into the granary.
In the end, when the results were counted, everyone was shocked...
It turned out that after using enough potassium and phosphorus fertilizers, plus the manure that originally contained nitrogen, this time, the average yield of rye in the Wadden Islands reached 450 pounds per mu. This is also because many grain fields on the Wadden Islands are newly reclaimed and the land is not fertile enough.
You know, the cultivated land on Texel even has a yield of 600 pounds per mu. And those newly cultivated raw land, the yield per mu is only about 400 pounds. But even so, the yield of 400 pounds per mu is enough to be proud of this era...
(Here, raw land and mature land are informal expressions in the countryside. Generally, the land that has been planted for many years has a lot of decomposed matter, and it is easy to produce high yields. However, the raw land that has just been reclaimed may not be fertile. Even if fertilizer is applied, it is not as good as mature land. High yield. It is not to say that any place can be high-yield once it is reclaimed. Some soils that are too poor may need to be improved for several years or even ten years before they can become fertile soil suitable for cultivation. Generally speaking, the more decomposed substances, the more fertile the land , fertile to a certain extent, it becomes black soil...)
But Marin knew that this was due to the bad food varieties in this era. If the variety is good and the fertilizer is sufficient, it is possible to produce thousands of catties per mu.
Of course, Marin did not study agriculture and did not know how to breed high-quality varieties. Moreover, in terms of the times, the yield of 400 pounds per mu is considered very scary, and there is no need for it to be higher.
In order not to scare others, Marin ordered strict confidentiality of the grain production data on the Wadden Islands and prohibited disclosure. As for the 27 new trainee knights (Bookman went to Cork), Marin didn't let them participate in the autumn harvest, but paid for them to go out for a while. Therefore, they do not know the food production on the island.
Because these people haven't returned to their hearts and are not their own people, how could Marin tell them the secret? Among the 6,000 soldiers, although many may leave in the future, these soldiers were not present at the time of statistics. Therefore, the soldiers can only feel that the Wadden Islands have had a bumper harvest this time. But these illiterates obviously don’t have an intuitive understanding of how much the harvest will be. You know, even for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division within 100, these illiterate soldiers have to pick their fingers for a long time to estimate the yield per mu. It is too difficult to do. they have...
Moreover, as soon as the autumn harvest was over, Marin immediately ordered the army to assemble for the final drill-landing on the beach at night.
The soldiers are already very proficient at landing on the beach, but everyone is not quite used to the final beach landing at night. After all, most people are not used to it at night. Moreover, Marin also banned them from using torches...
However, probably because they eat a lot of fish, none of Marin's 6,000 men has night blindness, which is very convenient for night battles. Marin thought about it, probably because the poor people in ancient China ate rice and wheat and lacked vitamin A. Europeans, on the other hand, eat more meat and fish, and drink milk, so they naturally don't have these problems.
Marin recalled the 27 trainee knights who went to Amsterdam to play, and joined everyone for the final training. Before long, the attack on Emden could be launched. Even Sauer and the reconnaissance troops he led had already been dispatched to East Frisia in advance. Their task was to monitor the Earl of East Frisia's family and prevent them from leaving, causing Marin's army to evacuate. In addition, he also has to monitor the garrison in Groningen. Once they leave Groningen and go south to hunt down the rebels of the Frisian nobles, Marin will have a chance to do it...