The discipline required by Marin is very strict, basically reaching the level of the modern army. But this also made many mercenaries dissatisfied, but Marin told them that if they didn't work hard, they might not be able to pass the emperor's selection. If you can't pass the emperor's selection, you can't get a salary, let alone go to Italy to make a fortune.
The men refrained from the prospect of robbery in rich Italy. They have heard of some half-truths and half-false legends of senior mercenaries, for example, when a certain mercenary captured a certain city in a certain Italian city-state, he rushed into the home of a certain rich Italian businessman, robbed a lot of property, and put everything in his pocket. It is a gold coin.
And Marin, also using the imagination of an online writer, tried his best to fool them and fabricated many legends in the mercenary world. According to the legend, a certain mercenary group captured a big city in Italy, everyone became rich, got a beautiful woman, and reached the pinnacle of life...
These fake news made these novice mercenaries who had never seen the world excited. In fact, they have no way of judging whether the news is true or false. After all, this year is the Middle Ages, and information is extremely blocked. They couldn't verify the truth of what Marin said. Therefore, they were all limped by Marin, and then they worked hard to receive Marin's abuse-like training...
It took 20 days just for battle formation and steering training. After that, Marin, the "demon", started to toss them in the middle of the night, doing some "emergency assembly". A whistle sounded in the middle of the night, representing the enemy's night attack. All personnel must put on their clothes and weapons within 5 minutes, and gather in front of the barracks. Moreover, no one is allowed to make noise during this process, except the officer who shouted the password. Otherwise, the military law will serve.
The reason for this is to train soldiers to deal with enemy night attacks. In the middle of the night, the barracks is most taboo to be noisy. If one is not done well, a camp roar may occur.
The roar of the camp is very terrifying. In many battles, there will be night attacks by small-scale troops, causing serious confusion and even collapse of the attacked army.
The reason is actually very simple - in the middle of the night, everyone can't see the situation in the distance clearly. Once attacked, everyone doesn't know how many enemies there are, or even who the enemies are and in which direction. Once panicked, fear spreads. Once the fear spreads, it may cause the army's morale to collapse, and then the soldiers will simply flee in all directions, or even trample on each other, no matter how many enemy troops there are.
Therefore, Marin requested that even if he was attacked at night, it is absolutely forbidden to make loud noises and make noise to avoid the spread of fear. Everyone was silent, and it was easy to calm down. Moreover, everyone is silent, and it is easy for officers to speak out and command. Once the battle formation is formed, the morale of the army will stabilize, and it will be able to fight back.
However, this made the mercenaries really unbearable. Often, they were soundly asleep, and then the whistle suddenly remembered. When they heard the whistle, they had to get up from the warm quilt and get dressed quickly, then took up their weapons and went to the barracks door to combine. If it is slow, it will be a beating.
As mercenaries who are not afraid of death, they are full of resentment, but every time Marin beats up the disobedient guy, he immediately tells them about the wealth of Italy and the bright prospect of robbery... Then, everyone fell into YY and forgot about their dissatisfaction …
For this, Schwartz, who aspired to become an officer, admired him immensely. Secretly, Schwartz began to learn and imitate everything about Marin. He found that although Marin was not as tall and strong as himself, he was not even as good at martial arts. But that head—Schwartz is ashamed...
Marin also made adjustments to the situation at night. According to the practice of Europeans in the Middle Ages, the so-called night watch is to arrange several sentries to stand guard at the gate of the camp, usually in a 4-hour rotation.
Such a mechanism, Marin knew deeply, was full of loopholes. Among other things, in the many war movies I watched in my previous life, there would be a few extremely skilled people who would kill the sentry with a dagger while the sentry was dozing off at night. Then, the whole barracks was in tragedy...
In modern times, in addition to the clear whistle at the gate, several hidden secret whistles are usually set up near the camp gate. The reason why the hidden whistle is set up is that it is afraid that someone will touch the bright whistle and it will be too late to warn.
For this reason, Marin selected a few soldiers and ambushed in a tent near the gate of the camp. Without lighting the lights, he only left a gap to observe outside, and the guards changed every 4 hours.
The soldiers naturally complained about this, but Schwartz tried his best to write down these methods in a small notebook with reverence. If there is no diary and ballpoint pen, maybe Schwartz will write it down on the spot. After all, what I use now is still a quill pen, and I have to dip it into the ink bottle to suck it before I can write a few words.
…
When everyone's queue was trained until everyone could maintain the formation and move forward quickly, Marin finally began to train the specific battle formation.
Originally, the formation chosen by Marin was the Spanish square - which is the most suitable for the current conditions. However, the number of people in his hands is too small to form a square formation at all.
After much deliberation, Marlin decided to use the 100 people in the Spanish phalanx, but instead of building a complete phalanx, he only trained the first two or three rows of the phalanx...
20 archers, Marin did not divide them into several rows. Because the archer has no reloading time, if it is not aimed and killed, but just "barrage strike", the archer can quickly shoot out a barrel of arrows (30) in one breath. Of course, most people will experience a period of loss of strength afterward. But after a short break, you can continue.
Because of the fast shooting speed of bows and arrows, Marin put 20 archers in the middle of the first row. The distance between each archer is about 30 cm. Unlike arquebus shooters, you can't get too close. Because the matchlock of the matchlock shooter is tied to the arm. If they are too close to each other, their own fire rope may burn to the gunpowder bag on the side, which is likely to cause a major safety accident. Therefore, the Spanish phalanx generally has a horizontal interval of 1 meter between soldiers. Archers, on the other hand, have no such danger and can stand closer to each other. As long as you don't squeeze each other, keep a certain gap.
After experimenting, it was found that the power of 20 archers shooting arrows together is very good. Of course, due to the limited number of people, it is impossible to form the effect of "arrows raining down". However, if it is used to deal with hundreds of opponents, it can definitely cause a lot of damage.
However, after fighting in groups, Marin also discovered a problem-that is, if the enemy rushed to the front, the archers were quite vulnerable, and basically they could only be slaughtered by the opponent's spearmen.
For this reason, Marin thought about it, and then he thought of a way-he lined up two rows of spearmen in front of the archers. When fighting, the two rows of spearmen in front of the archers sit on the ground first, so as not to block the sight of the archers.
And when the archers finished shooting and shot all the 30 arrows in the quiver, the commander gave an order, and the spearmen in front of the archers stood up again and formed a spear formation to block possible enemy attacks.
In this way, the enemy's idea of using spearmen to slaughter archers in close quarters will be defeated. Moreover, if the archer hiding behind the spearman recovers his strength, he can take a few steps back, face forward at 45 degrees, and shoot with a bow and arrow, hitting the enemy's spear array from above.
After Marin's research, Marin arranged 80 spearmen in two rows, 40 in each row. And behind the 20 people in the middle, there are 20 archers in a row.
The archers are responsible for shooting out the arrows in the quiver before the enemy rushes up, but if the opponent's army charges too fast, it is too close to the main formation. Then the officer will order the archers to stop shooting arrows in time, and the two rows of spearmen in front of the archers, a total of 40 people, will stand up under the order. Put the spear on the shoulders of the first row of people to defend against the enemy's attack.
Then, the archer took a few steps back, estimated the position of the enemy's formation, and shot arrows in the air ahead to strike the enemy's formation, causing damage. The longer the spearmen in the front line are on top, the more damage the archers can bring. If it takes a long time, the enemy army will definitely either retreat or collapse due to excessive casualties. Of course, the premise is that the spearmen in the front row must withstand the impact of the enemy without being torn apart.
For this reason, Marin hired a blacksmith in the town and built him 40 engineering shovels, which were specially used to dig trenches in front of the battle formation to block the impact of the enemy, especially the cavalry.
In order to prevent the possible attack of the enemy cavalry, the trenches dug by Marin in front of the formation are generally divided into two, and the distance between the two trenches is only 2 meters. If the enemy crosses the first trench, it will appear in a 2-meter-wide strip. And in this area, it was within the attack range of the front row spearmen. Whether it is the enemy's horses or infantry, they must have lost their footing just after crossing the first trench. At this time, the spearman in the front row thrust out his spear, which would definitely make the opponent unable to resist.
Moreover, in order to guard against enemy shelling, the soil dug out of the trenches will be piled into a rectangular mound behind the two trenches.
Once the enemy shells first, everyone lies on the ground and hides behind the mound to guard against shelling. The artillery these days are all fired with solid ammunition, and most of the infantry artillery is used for flat fire. As long as you lie behind the mound, you will basically not be hit by shells.
Moreover, on the mound in front of the battle, Marin also imitated the English and filled it with pickets to block the enemy's impact. Even if it is too late to dig trenches, Marin will quickly insert pickets in front of the formation to block the impact of the enemy, especially the impact of the enemy cavalry.
Of course, this is just a remnant formation. Because there are not enough people, Marin can only line up two rows of pikemen. In fact, such a thickness is insufficient. Because, in a truly brutal battle, the first two rows of spearmen are easily consumed, and more rows of spearmen are needed to supplement them.
But the problem is that Marin currently has no one in hand. Therefore, he could only make a remnant formation first, as a sample, and show it to the officer in charge of recruiting troops. Moreover, the main thing to look at is his absolute control over the team, as well as the team's strict discipline and efficient ability to execute orders. In general, it's just for show now, and it may not be very good on the battlefield, but it can be used to show off and show off, which will definitely attract attention.