Marin was very dissatisfied with this pure spear formation. Because, when facing the line of muskets, the formation of spears has obviously become a living target.
However, for now, it is very difficult to find a group of musketeers in the German region. Not to mention the danger of using muskets and the high price of gunpowder.
When he went hunting in the forest once, Marin thought—is it possible to replace the musketeers in the Spanish phalanx with archers first
You know, the trump card in the French army is the Swiss spearman. The Swiss spearman is a pure melee unit without long-range strike capabilities. More importantly, Swiss spearmen are basically poor people, and most of them have no money to buy expensive plate armor to protect bows and arrows.
As far as this era is concerned, bows and arrows may have lost their effect on French knights wearing plate armor, but for those Swiss spearmen in strange costumes, they have no strength to equip plate armor. Moreover, infantry can't walk in plate armor.
Thinking of this, Marin summoned all the mercenaries and asked:
"Are any of you good at archery?"
Everyone, you look at me and I look at you, but no one responds. But a mercenary raised his hand and called out:
"Report!"
"speak!"
"Master, I don't know how to shoot arrows, but I know people who shoot arrows!"
"Where?"
"Just outside Vienna, many Orion-born people also came to apply for infantry."
"Orion is applying for infantry?"
"Yes, some people don't know the news. They don't know that the empire only needs spearmen, so they think they recruit archers. There are also people who directly plan to change their careers to become spearmen."
"Very good, thank you for your news, I will add some meat to you tonight." Marin said with satisfaction, and ordered the cooking class supervisor Tara (one of Marin's attendants, more talented in cooking, taught by Marin I gave him a few hands to make him good at cooking big pot dishes) and added a braised venison to the guy who gave the information.
Afterwards, Marin took Kohler and Sauer, rode back to the recruitment point outside Vienna, and began to scout around. Then, Marin simply raised the flag and openly recruited archers...
But at this time, the recruitment of infantry has ended, and only a small number of people stay here. Many hunters actually went home after seeing that the empire did not recruit archers. Marin worked hard and only recruited 8 archers near the recruitment point in the west of Vienna. Then, he rushed to the east and south of the city, and after exhausting his efforts, he recruited 12 more people.
In the end, Marin only recruited 20 archers. As a last resort, Marin could only take the 20 people back to the resident in Robach Town angrily. In fact, there were far more than 20 people outside Vienna who knew how to shoot arrows at this time. It's just that most people don't believe the hairy kid Marin. Only these 20 people are easier to fool, believe in Marin, and are willing to go with him.
After returning to the station, Marin first arranged for people to wear straw sandals for the 20 people, and arranged for these people to take a bath and change clothes (in the mercenary group, Marin forced everyone to take a bath and wash clothes).
After that, Marin formed another team and asked Sauer to train this group of people with ready-made methods. First of all, of course, let them take off their right shoes and teach them to distinguish left and right.
Then, there is physical training and shooting training. These hunters all bring their own bows and arrows. Because, the principle of mercenaries these days is to bring their own equipment.
What surprised Marin was that with these hunters, the mercenary group needed meat without having to go out by themselves. As long as you bring a few hunters into the mountain, and cooperate with each other, you can bring enough meat to the mercenary group. It can not only improve food for everyone, but also save a lot of food money.
As for the local tax officials, they might come to extort money when they meet ordinary hunters. But Marin No. 100 is stationed here, and there are documents recognized by the empire, and the local sheriffs and tax officials dare not fart. Not to mention that there are no nobles in this town, only a few jazz (the status is equivalent to a knight, a kind of squire, but has little combat power), even an ordinary baron dare not say anything when facing a mercenary group of 100 people .
Because mercenaries are popular to rob these days, no different from the Liuma gang. Now, everyone in the small town of Robach is praying that the "Hoffman Mercenary Group" will not go to the town to rob, how dare they offend the mercenary group
Fortunately, Marin pays great attention to military discipline, and strictly prohibits mercenaries from doing sneaky things, otherwise they will be dealt with by military law. Of course, Marin promised that when he hit Italy in the future, he could carry out some robberies with his permission.
You know, those who are willing to be mercenaries these days are not only for making a living, but also for making a fortune. Because it is common for mercenaries to rob.
Moreover, in the Middle Ages, agriculture in Italy was the most developed. This also makes the economy of the Italian region generally better than that of the German region.
Not only that, Italians are good at doing business, and there are many wealthy businessmen there. Going to Italy to fight, many people have been looking forward to it for a long time. Because, there are many rich Italians waiting for them to rob...
Marin knew that those who were willing to be mercenaries were not good at anything. I am not a king, if I forcibly suppress their idea of robbery, I may be betrayed. Therefore, Marin had no choice but to promise to agree to their robbery in Italy.
But at the same time, he asked—robbing is okay, killing people casually is not allowed. In addition, the poor are not allowed to be oppressed, and the food of ordinary people is not allowed to be glorified. Because, if they rob the poor of their food, they might starve to death. They are mercenaries, not demons.
Because the No. 100 people who defected to Marin are basically novices, not veterans who are used to being mercenaries, and their consciences have not yet died out. Therefore, they also deeply agreed with Marin's request. Besides, if you want food, you can get enough by robbing big households. It's not necessary to rob common people's food. Moreover, there is too much food, and there is no way to take it all away.
In the days that followed, the training progress of the archers gradually caught up with that of the spearmen. So, Marin began to try, mixed the spearman and the archer, and began to try to change...