After setting a plan to expand the army by 10,000, in addition to selecting 200 young people in the country to be trained as reserve officers, Marin also sent Schwartz, 50 experienced squad leaders and 10 reserve force company leaders ( They are all wandering knights), who are responsible for the training of the new army.
However, Schwartz and others did not rush directly to the Teutonic country, but went south first to recruit troops in southern Germany...
Because it is difficult to raise an army of 10,000 in the Teutonic State with a population of only 300,000. Moreover, the Teutonic state is a relatively wealthy Hanseatic commercial state. In such a country, it is very difficult to recruit 10,000 mercenaries who dare to bet their lives.
Of course, the Teutonic Kingdom also has its advantages, that is - there are many wandering knights there. Because the Teutonic Knights are one of the three famous knight orders in the Christian world, there are many young German wandering knights who come to seek refuge every year, with an average of hundreds of them every year.
Therefore, the Teutonic Kingdom has never lacked knights. There are as many as 800 Teutonic knights with status and the title of "Teutonic Knights". There must be thousands of knights without the title of "Teutonic Knight". In the "Battle of Grunwald" (also known as the Battle of Tannenberg) that led to the decline of the Teutonic Kingdom, among the 27,000 troops of the Teutonic Kingdom, there were more than 10,000 plate knights alone. people. Of course, their enemies, the Polish and Lithuanian coalition forces, had more troops.
After the failure of the Battle of Grunwald, the Teutonic Kingdom began to decline, and could no longer maintain the scale of the plate armored heavy cavalry of more than 10,000 people. But in any case, the scale of five thousand plate armor heavy cavalry can still be maintained. Among them, there are more than 800 Teutonic knights with titles alone.
Due to the decline of national power, the Teutonic state could not hire enough wandering knights. Therefore, now the Teutonic Kingdom can only select outstanding ones from the hundreds of wandering knights who come over every year, and add them to the Teutonic Army. Most of the wandering knights actually couldn't find a chance.
Many young wandering knights came to the Teutonic Kingdom with dreams, but after a few years, many of them would be disappointed to find that they could not join the Teutonic Knights. As a result, many wandering knights who are older will give up their dreams and return to the German region to find a nobleman to serve. Even some wandering knights went directly to Poland or Lithuania. Some of them will go to the nominally affiliated state of the Teutonic State, the State of the Livonian Knights, to look for opportunities.
Therefore, Marin's recruitment this time only intends to recruit 9,000 infantry and artillery in the German region. Then, leave 1,000 positions for local recruitment of cavalry in the Teutonic state.
You know, there are thousands of wandering knights who can't wait for the opportunity in the Teutonic country. Before, the head of the Philip group paid for the recruitment of 1,000 people because he had a stake in Marin's salt trade. However, Grandmaster Philip estimated that there were still two or three thousand wandering knights who hadn't waited for the opportunity. In the Teutonic country, Marin had no problem selecting 1,000 wandering knights.
Although these wandering knights may not be smart, their knight martial arts are not as good as those picked away by the Teutonic Kingdom. However, after all, they were born in a knight family, and their horse fighting ability was at least much stronger than those civilians who had not been trained. You know, these wandering knights have been trained for at least ten years, and their martial arts skills will definitely not be bad immediately. By organizing these eliminated wandering knights and weeding out the scum of bad character, it is possible to form an elite cavalry.
Moreover, Marin has made plans, instead of forming pure plate armor knights, he decided to transform them into half-armored heavy cavalry similar to Polish wing cavalry.
This kind of cavalry, the cavalry only wears half armor, and the horse does not wear armor. Its impact is stronger than that of light cavalry and weaker than that of heavy cavalry. However, their speed and endurance are better than those of plate armor knights. It can be said that the hussars are a compromise between plate armor knights and light cavalry. During the war, they were called Lancers...
Marin intends to select a 1,000-man cavalry cavalry to test its power. Moreover, Marin also chose a tactic for these Lancers-"Wall Charge".
This tactic is extremely powerful against cavalry in the skirmish line. Because, the dense cavalry formation can allow more spears to stab the enemy. No matter how good the enemy's martial arts skills are, facing the multiple spears poking at him, even if he is not killed, he will be stabbed off his horse, and then trampled by local war horses in turn...
If the opponent is a light cavalry, let alone poke him to death, and if he dies, he will fall to the ground and be trampled by the horse...
Of course, this tactic is also suitable for fighting European cavalry and Arab cavalry. Because, whether it is European cavalry or Arab cavalry, they are used to solving problems in close combat.
But if the "wall charge" is taken to East Asia and Central Asia, it will definitely be abused by the Mongol and Tatar horse archers. Because the overall speed of "Wall Charge" is not fast. If the lightly loaded cavalry archers turned around and shot arrows while running away, they would definitely kill these heavy cavalry who launched the "wall charge". After all, their horses and lower bodies have no armor, so they cannot withstand bows and arrows...
However, Marin never thought of using Lancers and wall charges in Asia. After all, Marin's current opponents are basically Europeans. European cavalry are accustomed to close combat, either using lances or sabers, but they are not accustomed to using bows and arrows or muskets. At present, the only cavalry unit in Europe that uses muskets is Marin's "Black Shirt Knight"...
As for the 9,000 infantry, Schwartz will take his men to recruit in poor countries in southern Germany. However, when Schwartz took his men to Württemberg and Alsace, he found that there were not many young people who met the recruitment requirements...
It's no wonder that Marin had recruited 10,000 troops in these two places before, so that these two areas lacked poor young people who could recruit and dare to fight.
In desperation, Schwartz sent someone to send an urgent letter to Marin, explaining the situation...
Marin thought for a while, and felt that the sources of soldiers in the two places were indeed insufficient. So, he wrote back to Schwartz, asking him to move to the two vassal states of Baden and Hesse around Württemberg to recruit recruits.
Both the Baden region and the Hesse region are mountainous areas with many mountain people and the economy is not good. Therefore, it is still very easy to recruit poor mountain people in these two countries. What's more, Marin knew that Hesse in later generations was a famous country of mercenaries. During the North American War of Independence, the United Kingdom hired a large number of Hessian mercenaries to suppress the North American militias because of the inability of the army. If it weren't for the forcible intervention of the French army and Washington's use of land to seduce poor Hessian mercenaries (Washington promised that each Hessian mercenary who deserted would get 50 acres of land), the British could completely use Hessian mercenaries to suppress North American independence movement.
In this way, under Marin's instructions, Schwartz transferred the recruiting agency to the Hessen and Baden regions, and began to recruit local poor and aggressive mountain people as new mercenary fighters.
It just so happened that the men sent by Marin to Lübeck and other places to buy merchant ships also came back, and brought back 10 200-ton Kirk sailing ships. Just wait for the 9,000 infantry to arrive in East Frisia in batches by land, and ship them directly to the Teutonic country, where they will undergo rigorous training...