King of Mercenaries

Chapter 25: Artifact straw sandals

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After the establishment of the mercenary group, Marin first went to Vienna to report. This is also normal. Although this is the chaotic Middle Ages, it’s okay for you to travel alone or with a few people carrying weapons, but if you want one hundred and eighty people to carry weapons, if you don’t report them, you will definitely be treated as robbers and exterminated.

The officials in Vienna obviously knew that the emperor would definitely expand his army in the future, so he did not reject Marin. However, after he issued a certificate to Marin, he required that Marin must accept the supervision of the local sheriff in the place where he was stationed, and he must not rob the local people. Otherwise, they will be regarded as bandits and attracted an army to exterminate them.

In order to prove the legitimacy of the mercenary group, Marin paid a huge sum of 1 mark and a bribe of 5 marks, and obtained a document issued by Vienna to prove the legitimacy of his mercenary group. Then, Marin officially launched the banner-Hoffman Mercenary Group.

After obtaining legal status, Marin began to prepare for military training. The first is the choice of location. It's impossible in Vienna. This is the capital of the country. Not to mention that there are many rules here. The high price alone was first excluded by Marin. He feeds 80 strong men with his own money, and in Vienna, where prices are high, he would have to go bankrupt.

At the beginning, he chose the Vienna Woods in the west of Vienna and the northern foothills of the Alps. This forest is very large, covering thousands of square kilometers, relatively quiet, suitable for military camps.

However, just as Marin was about to set up camp, he was driven away by the forest guards...

It turned out that the Vienna Woods was the hunting ground of the Habsburg royal family and belonged to the royal garden, and ordinary people were not allowed to enter or approach it. In particular, Marin is a small army, so it cannot be approached. Because they were afraid that Marin and his group would assassinate the royal family members who came here to hunt.

In desperation, Marin took everyone to continue westward and came to a small town called Robach. To the south of here are the Alps, and there are forests nearby. In addition to low prices, Marin also considered hunting in the mountains to obtain some meat, and at the same time, reduce the cost of living.

Not only that, but when entering Italy in the future, they will definitely have to cross the Alps. Moreover, there are many mountains on the Italian peninsula, and Marin brought everyone here to train everyone's ability to climb mountains and ridges.

During the long march, Marin found to his dismay that many people's shoes were worn out due to walking. However, they are also reluctant to buy a new shoe.

why? It turns out that European shoes, in this era, were mainly leather shoes and clogs. The soles of leather shoes are sewn from multiple layers of cowhide or pigskin, and the body of the shoes is also leather. These shoes feel good and are solid.

But the problem is that leather is expensive. A pair of leather shoes cost up to 3 shillings. The daily salary of ordinary people is only 2 pfennigs. In other words, it takes ordinary people 18 days of labor to afford a pair of leather shoes.

As for clogs, although they are much cheaper, they are not practical in some cases. Clogs are good for walking on plains, but once you walk on rugged rocky mountain roads, the soles will break in minutes...

Of the 80 people Marin recruited, 50 wore relatively cheap clogs. But this kind of shoes, on the way Marin took them on the road, because they walked some mountain roads, the soles of more than 20 people broke...

According to the usual habits, they should go to buy a new pair of shoes. However, this group of poor ghosts who have come to work hard for a living, how can they have money to buy new shoes...

At this time, Marin suddenly remembered many years ago, when he was in the countryside in his previous life, he learned a magic skill from the old people in the village - weaving straw sandals...

Straw sandals are one of the ultimate inventions of ancient Chinese people. They look inconspicuous, but they are very important. Although the ancient Chinese were richer than the ancient Europeans, shoes were also relatively expensive products. For example, although many ordinary people can make cloth shoes with multi-layer cloth soles, cloth shoes are considered decent shoes for ordinary people. Cloth shoes with "thousand-layer bottoms" will only be worn when traveling far away or visiting relatives and need to be decent.

But when you are working in the fields, if you wear cloth shoes or clogs, you are looking for abuse. Because, when working, the feet often exert force. If it is clogs, it is easy to break. And the cloth shoes can't stand the toss.

Therefore, the wise Chinese ancestors thought of a good way - to weave shoes with grass...

Straw sandals are breathable, lightweight, soft, non-slip, and extremely low cost. For poor families, straw sandals are definitely more important than the four great inventions. Because straw sandals are affordable for poor people, and they can be replaced frequently.

For example, if the Red Army walked the 25,000-mile Long March, if they wore special leather shoes, I don’t know how many thousands of pairs of leather shoes would be damaged. The cost is simply unacceptable.

But straw sandals are different. You can make straw sandals on the spot by pulling some tough weeds from the roadside. I broke a pair, and weaved another pair...

Moreover, straw sandals are particularly advantageous for walking on mountain roads, not only because they can be replaced at any time if they are worn out. Moreover, the straw sandals are very non-slip, which can fully prevent people from accidentally falling down the mountain when walking on the mountain road, causing unnecessary deaths and injuries. Clogs, on the other hand, are the least suitable for walking on mountain roads. As for leather shoes, they are too extravagant for walking on mountain roads.

Straw sandals are so practical that they occupy an important position in Chinese history. For example, Uncle Liu Huang, who was famous during the Three Kingdoms period, started his business by weaving straw sandals.

What makes Marin strange is that there seems to be no straw sandal weaving technology in Europe. Many serfs were so poor that they couldn't even afford clogs. Even if you buy relatively cheap clogs, you only wear them when you go out to visit relatives and friends or go to church. And usually work, mostly barefoot. It's okay to walk barefoot in the fields, and it's okay to walk on the Roman road, but it's absolutely impossible to walk on mountain roads. Walking barefoot is afraid of slippery, also afraid of stones poking feet. But wearing wooden shoes on mountain roads is easy to break the bottom, and wearing leather shoes is too extravagant.

Of Marin's 80 poor men, all but 10 of them wore leather shoes. Of the other 70 people, 50 of them wore clogs. As for the remaining 20 people, they simply walked barefoot...

For this, Marin really couldn't stand it. So, after arriving in Robach and setting up the tent, Marin did not rush to train, but asked everyone to get a lot of grass stalks, and began to teach everyone to weave straw sandals...

"Master Marin, grass can also be used to make shoes?" A group of European country bumpkins were very surprised.

However, they saw with their own eyes that under the skillful weaving of Marin's hands, the grass stems were first twisted into thin straw ropes, and then woven into shoe soles and shoe bodies...

This scene made everyone feel very miraculous, and everyone was amazed.

After trying on the straw sandals woven by Marin, everyone felt very comfortable. The straw sandals woven by Marin belong to the winter version, which are relatively thick and cold-proof. It is winter now, wearing thick sandals can effectively resist the cold. Moreover, even thick straw sandals are relatively breathable. Warm and breathable, it feels great to wear.

But what made Marin depressed was that he taught 86 people (including his 6 followers) to weave straw sandals. But after two days of teaching, only 8 people learned in the end, including Kohler...

As for why these 8 people are so "talented", it is because these 7 people (except Kohler) had worked as tailor apprentices or shoemakers before, but they were fired because of poor talent. But even so, their weaving level is sufficient for weaving straw sandals.

In desperation, Marin arranged these eight people to weave straw sandals to supply everyone's needs. In future training, there will definitely be cross-country running. High-intensity training wears too much on the shoes, and only with enough straw sandals to spare can it survive. Marin watched war movies in his previous life, and our soldiers had one or two spare pairs of straw sandals hanging on their backpacks. The Jiefang shoes were all made after liberation. Before liberation, our army's millions of troops all fought in straw sandals...

For this reason, Marin announced that these 8 "technicians" who can weave straw sandals can eat more than others when they eat, and give priority to them if they have meat...

As for Marin's mercenary group, everyone put on light, comfortable and low-cost straw sandals. Even those who wore leather shoes changed into straw sandals one after another. Because leather shoes are precious, if they are worn out during training, the loss outweighs the gain. The straw sandals are really cheap, even if they are worn out, they don't feel bad at all. It can be said that cheap and practical straw sandals are definitely a rare "artifact" for the army with a weak family background...