After everyone put on the straw sandals, Marin finally planned to start formal training.
For training, Marin spent a few days writing the training outline. In his previous life, Marin had never been a soldier, and his only military-related experience was the half-month military training when he was just in college.
Of course, as a history and military enthusiast, Marin often visits forums to discuss the origin of modern armies—modern European armies. After consulting a lot of information and having many debates with netizens, Marin's level of European military history has also risen sharply.
Among other things, the Spanish phalanx must be known. Others, such as the Morris phalanx, Gustav line, and Napoleon's artillery tactics, are slightly understood.
If possible, Marin would like to use Napoleon's tactics. But that is unrealistic. You must know that European artillery is still in the age of bronze guns. Equipped with a small bronze cannon, the cost is very high. Because, at present, the price ratio of silver and copper in Europe is about 1:15, and the price of copper is too high. A dick like Marin couldn't afford a small copper cannon, let alone hundreds of cannons lined up like Napoleon.
Moreover, let alone Napoleon's artillery tactics, even Gustav's line array, he has no conditions to engage in it. Because, the Gustav line used a lot of musketeers, and they were flintlock musketeers.
At present, the flintlock gun has not been invented yet, and even the matchlock gun has only been invented for a few decades, and it is still a rare thing. It is really very difficult to gather a few rows of musketeers.
Moreover, in Europe in the 15th century, iron smelting technology was very poor, and it was difficult to manufacture a light and powerful musket. Because, if the steel technology is not good enough, if the barrel is too thin, it is easy to explode.
Even in the 16th century, when the Spanish phalanx began to rise, the Spaniards also used musket guns weighing 20 catties. In addition to the powerful musket gun, its bulky barrel is not easy to explode, which is also an important reason.
As far as the German region is concerned, although some hunters began to use matchlock guns for hunting, they did not dare to load too much gunpowder in order to prevent the bomb from exploding, resulting in mediocre power.
In other words, Marin can't find a few qualified matchlock guns now, and it is also a dream to build a musket line array. So, Marin thought about it, since there is no condition, let's train the spear phalanx first, and stab the Swiss...
The spear phalanx requires high discipline and courage. In terms of courage, Marin is not worried. The people he recruited were all bastards who dared to exchange their lives for money. It's just that he is a little worried about discipline.
So, he started training these 80 idiots with the queue training he had during his university military training. To say that they are stupid is just an adjective that Marin despised them before. But after the real start of queue training, Marin felt that calling them idiots was all praise for them. To say they are idiots is a true and reasonable adjective...
"All of them are there, look to the left!" Marin shouted.
But the situation after that made Marin very crazy, and the sound of "Looking to the left" caused chaos. Some people look left, others look right. Then, the people in the line began to "look affectionately" at each other. Some people who are not confident, see that the direction of the people next to them is opposite, and immediately change the direction. But the sad thing is that many people started to look in the right direction, but under the misleading of the people around them, they turned their heads to look to the right...
What is even more tragic is the turning training. When Marin yelled "Turn left", it was also a mess. Someone turned left, someone turned right, and the scene was noisy. Someone saw that the person next to him was turning in the opposite direction, so he turned back 180 degrees, which was extremely funny...
"Damn it, you idiots, don't you know the left and the right?" Marin was angry, but everyone looked at him blankly...
Marin was also defeated. Few of his classmates made mistakes with such simple commands as turning left and turning right. Why come to this group of idiots, and they are in such a state
But Marin himself didn't think about it. His former classmates were all college students with high IQs. Not to mention college students, even junior high school students and high school students are cultural people who have received compulsory education. In physical education class, elementary school began to teach simple queues.
But what about the idiots in the Middle Ages? Those who are basically illiterate, and no one can teach them to distinguish left and right. They were born so humble that they could only work like slaves. The nobles, on the other hand, regarded them as animals walking on two legs, and didn't even look at them.
Therefore, these country bumpkins with undeveloped brains are definitely gifted if they can distinguish between left and right...
After training for three days in a row, many people still couldn't tell the left from the right. Even though Marin used corporal punishment with batons and whips, it still didn't have much effect.
Marin was so anxious that he wanted to vomit blood. Seeing that the emperor's second recruiting time was not far away, if he didn't train well, he would have no chance at all...
Finally, one day, when Marin was blowing the birch whistle, he saw a bastard who came to gather in a hurry. It was probably too hasty, and he didn't even have time to put on his right shoe, so he came to gather.
"Wear a shoe..." Marin began to think, as if he had seen this before...
"By the way, isn't the British 'Red Shirt Army' just using a shoe to help recruits train and distinguish left and right!" Marin became excited. In the past, he seemed to have heard it mentioned on the forum that the quality of British soldiers in the 19th century was also very poor. When they first trained, many recruits couldn't tell the left from the right. In order to let the recruits distinguish between the left and the right, someone later thought of a way to let the recruits take off their right shoes and only let them wear shoes on their left feet. In this way, when training, turn left and call "shoes" directly, and turn right and call "feet" directly. As a result, the recruits quickly distinguished left and right. After that, slowly replace the passwords of "shoes" and "feet" with left and right.
In fact, until the early 19th century, the literacy rate of the British was very low. Basically, the recruits recruited by force are illiterate. Those who can read and write, as long as they behave well, most of them can become officers and non-commissioned officers. Uneducated people tend to be a little slow in listening to passwords, and it is difficult to immediately distinguish between left and right. In other words, the quality of British recruits in the first half of the 19th century was similar to that of novice mercenaries in the Middle Ages.
Sure enough, after asking everyone to take off a shoe, the situation immediately improved a lot. After all, you can still tell if you are wearing shoes or not, as long as you are not demented.
But there is also a problem with this, that is, it is a bit cold in winter, and bare feet are very uncomfortable.
For this reason, Marin took everyone to a sheltered valley and spread a lot of hay on the ground to prevent everyone from freezing their feet. Moreover, everyone's right foot is not considered barefoot, and Marin asked them to wear double socks. Not only that, but left and right training is generally done during the day when the temperature is high. At other times, I still wear good shoes for training. For example, when it is cold in the morning and evening, everyone trains to run to exercise their physical fitness.
In this way, within a few days, these idiots finally separated all left and right. After distinguishing between left and right, Marin began to use "left" and "right" instead of "shoes" and "feet" as much as possible, while formally starting to train simple queues such as walking in unison, turning left, and turning right.
After that, Marin took time out every day to let Schwartz, who is better at spear skills, train everyone how to use spears. Originally, Schwartz was going to teach everyone a lot of spear fighting skills and simple tactics. However, Marin only asked everyone to practice three simple movements of "dial", "pick" and "stab".
"Master, why is that?" Schwartz was puzzled.
"In the army, please call me commander." Marin looked serious.
"Okay, Captain, why is that?"
"Schwartz, do these guys understand the tactical explanations you mentioned?"
"This..." Schwartz thought for a while, but still shook his head.
"So, with their brains, they can't remember so many tricks. We might as well teach them the three most basic routines. Moreover, fighting depends on battle formations, not personal martial arts." Marin has read many posts and articles of. He knew that for those low-level soldiers with low intelligence, they wouldn't know anything that was too complicated. After all, they are not soldiers who generally received nine years of compulsory education in later generations. Therefore, teaching them the most basic and simple and practical movements is the best choice.
In order to cultivate the soldiers' brave thoughts, Marin brainwashed the soldiers every day. Every day, during training, Marin would yell:
"Meeting on a narrow road—"
"—The brave wins! The brave wins!" The soldiers would reflexively shout in unison, and anyone who didn't shout would be whipped.
In this way, in daily training, Marin took the phrase "Meeting on a narrow road and the brave wins" that Liu Shuai liked to say as the slogan and purpose of the "Hoffman Mercenary Corps". Of course, the slogan translated into German.