After returning to Aurich, Marin first received a report from Steindorf, asking Malindo to buy war horses.
This time Marin went south, but he did not bring Steindorf, the commander of the black shirt knight, because this guy went back to his hometown to pick up his family. He is from Alsace, and he used to just make a living in the Marlin Army. But after being promoted to the commander of the black shirt knights this time, he felt that he should settle down in East Frisia. So, when Marin led the team to the south, he returned to his hometown and took all his family members to Aurich.
In fact, this is also encouraged by Marin. For the families of the important officers under his command, Marin built a mansion for them in Aurich for free. First, it is to facilitate the reunion of officers and their families. Secondly, there is also the hidden purpose of the family members of the officers as hostages. Such methods were very common in ancient China. When the general goes to war, his family members must stay in the capital. If you dare to rebel, the whole family will be killed...
Steindorf is also relatively dedicated. He found that the newly formed "Knights in Black Shirts" lacked good horses. Although black-shirted knights belong to light cavalry, they don't wear full-body armor or horse armor. However, the black-shirted knight still wore a breastplate and a helmet, and the weight of 5 carbines was no lighter than plate armor trousers. In real terms, compared with plate armor knights, black shirt knights only lost the weight of horse armor and lance. Therefore, the requirements for horses are still quite high.
But now, among the 200 black-shirted knights, there are only 100 horses. The other 100 were still served by excellent French draft horses. Although the quality of the French draft horse is second only to the war horse, it is not yet a war horse.
In addition, the horse farm that Marin planned to build when he was in Texel has only added 500 ponies after three years. Then, these horses are too small, although there are many good seedlings in them, but because they are too immature, they can't be pulled directly into the battlefield.
You should know that no matter how good the pedigree is, it usually takes 2 years of age before it can be saddled and started training. Now, the new stud farm outside Aurich on the peninsula has just begun to train the first batch of born ponies, and the best of these horses will not be put into use until a year later.
It is very difficult for a horse to become a war horse. Generally, from the age of 2, they will start training on the saddle. Then, the horses began a brutal process of elimination. Horses with poor explosive power will be eliminated first. Because the war horse needs to sprint, without explosive power, obviously not. Then, those with poor stamina were also eliminated. After that, it is a test of courage.
Generally speaking, the requirement for a war horse is not to be surprised. At this stage, the horse trainer will arrange for people to scare the ponies and observe their reactions. If a horse is too easily startled, it must be eliminated decisively.
A horse like a knight in black has higher requirements for the courage of the horse. Because the black shirt knights are going to fire their guns. The sound of a huge volley of guns requires more courage from the horses.
For example, when Marin went south this time, when training the black-shirted knights, some horses were frightened and almost hurt people. For this reason, when I came back this time, it happened that Steindorff asked to buy a war horse, so Marin considered this issue very seriously.
Since Steindorf was so concerned about this, Marin simply handed over the job of buying horses to him. Let him go to the horse farms of various southern vassal states to choose suitable war horses.
In fact, Steindorf found that among the war horses, the least startling ones are the geldings, which are castrated stallions. This kind of horse has no desires and desires, and has the weakest temper. Unlike uncastrated stallions, they are too violent and difficult to discipline. The mare is very obedient, but timid. In the face of loud gunshots, mares are less able to bear than stallions. Of course, this is only in general. There are actually quite a few brave mares. To be selected from a group of horses as a war horse is not a small amount of courage. However, if you are courageous enough and relatively easy to control, the gelding is the best.
So Steindorf asked to buy more geldings. Moreover, in this era, the price of a gelding is not high, about the same as that of a mares, only about 100 gold coins. The price of a stallion war horse that has not been castrated is relatively high, and can be sold for about 120 gold coins.
The reason for this is not to say how good the stallion is, but that the knights want to save face. For example, if a knight rides a mare, he will be ridiculed as "very bitch". If you ride a gelding, you are easy to be ridiculed for your incompetence.
In the early and middle ages, this phenomenon was very serious. As a result, the prices of stallions, mares, and geldings varied greatly at that time. But in the Renaissance period, people paid more attention to practicality, so the application of gelding horses and mares increased. But because of traditional concepts, many knights still prefer to ride stallions, even though stallions are more difficult to control.
However, saving face is also a matter for knight gentlemen. For the poorer knights and heavy cavalry, there is no such idea. For them, having a good horse to ride is not bad, so where else can they choose
Just like the French war horses captured by Marin last time, there were many mares and geldings. The reason is that the French pay more and more attention to practicality. Moreover, among the 8,000 knights, only a small half are official knights. The other half are apprentice knights. The economic conditions of trainee knights are poor, so how can they be picky
And mercenaries of civilian origin like Steindorf don't pay much attention to face. Let them all ride geldings, and no one thinks there is anything wrong with it. They are not knight lords, they don't have much face, and they don't pay attention to face, they only talk about practicality.
After thinking about it, Marin approved Steindorf's request to buy a gelding. However, he also requested that half of the horses be mares. Because, mares and war horses can also be used to breed excellent ponies. Although the gelding is good, it can't breed new horses, only one generation can be used.
Marin already had a plan in mind to breed new excellent horse breeds. He planned to use excellent local mares, and then introduce excellent Arabian stallions to breed new war horses. For this reason, Marin planned to arrange for Kohler to contact those Jewish businessmen and ask them to find a way to introduce excellent Arabian stallions from the Middle East. These Jewish businessmen are willing to do anything as long as they are given enough money. Moreover, Jews in the Middle East are not as hostile to Arabs as Christians are. Even, when the Spanish kings began to expel the Jews in 1492, the Turks sent ships to Spain to pick up the Jews. It is right to leave the purchase of Arabian horses to the Jews. Of course, be careful not to be fooled by them. After all, Jewish profiteers often do shoddy things.
Before setting off, Marin thought about it, and told Steindorf, not to mention choosing war horses for East Frisia. It is helpless to say, because the Saxony family, as one of the seven major German electors, has a great influence in the German region.
This time, the Duke of Saxony said that to engage Marin, many nobles deliberately kept a distance from Marin. When Marin returned from Italy, he found that he had received a cold reception.
Although, the emperor has publicly recognized his earl status. However, among the countries along the way, except for the ally, the Principality of Cleaver, none of the princes from other countries had warmly entertained him.
In fact, this is also a simple problem of standing in line. Marin has just taken control of East Frisia, and in everyone's opinion, the foundation is not stable.
At this time, Marin encountered a super hostile force like the Duke of Saxony. In the eyes of most princes, Marin's failure was almost certain.
Therefore, many princes deliberately kept a distance from Marin. If Steindorf used the banner of the County of East Frisia to buy war horses, some princes might choose not to sell war horses to East Frisia in order to please the Duke of Saxony.
Although it is said that many war horse sellers are not official from the vassal states. However, most of those engaged in the war horse trade have official backgrounds. As long as the officials of the vassal states let it go, they may choose to refuse to sell war horses.
Therefore, in desperation, Marin had no choice but to let Steindorf go out to buy war horses, not in the name of the Earl of East Frisia, but in another name, so as not to be troubled.
This is also something that can't be helped. Who told Marin that his reputation is not well-known now, and he is looked down upon by most people. That's why Marin made up his mind to defeat the Saxon army upright this time to make a name for himself so as not to continue to be isolated in the future. After all, no matter in this era or later generations, strong countries are full of friends, and weak countries are ignored...