Schwartz's recruiting work in the Hesse and Baden regions went unimaginably smoothly, and several recruiting points were surrounded by enthusiastic local youths.
When Marin received the news, he was also filled with emotion. It is hard to imagine the poverty of the Germans in this era. In this era when the yield of rye per mu was only over 100 catties, there was not enough food to eat. And because the Black Death has not erupted on a large scale for a long time, the population has increased a lot.
If it is a noble and rich family, it may not be a big deal to add a few people. But in serf families, that was a tragedy. The population needed to cultivate the manor land is limited, and the number of people to support is also limited. Serf owners are not philanthropists, and they will not benefit others at the expense of themselves. Therefore, except for the eldest son of a serf family who needs to inherit his father’s business and continue to work as a serf for the serf owner, the other sons will be driven out by the manor owner to fend for themselves when they grow up.
If it is near the Hanseatic commercial city or in an area with developed handicrafts such as Saxony, these surplus laborers may still be able to enter handicraft workshops and sell their labor to make a living. However, in inland mountainous areas such as Hesse and Baden, there is basically no handicraft industry, and the city's population carrying capacity is also very limited. Therefore, the people here are really poor...
Schwartz was surrounded by a group of thin young men at the recruitment sites in Hessen and Baden. Obviously, most of these young people do not have enough to eat.
However, Schwartz came to recruit soldiers, not to do charity. Since it is recruiting soldiers, it naturally needs to pass the assessment...
It's still Marin's old way - you don't need to be very skilled in martial arts, you just need to be brave enough and not afraid of pain during the assessment and battle.
After all, mercenary is a dangerous profession with your head tied to your belt. If you are afraid of being injured or hurt by the opponent's stick, how can you guarantee the courage to fight the enemy desperately on the battlefield
Of course, in the competition, in addition to being brave and fearless, if you can also have a calm mind, such a person will be specially marked on the list and will be trained as a team leader in the future. Soldiers at the bottom need to be brave and fearless, and those who serve as officers at the bottom need not only bravery and fearlessness, but also a calm heart.
Schwartz originally planned to recruit 9,000 infantry in the Hesse and Baden regions, but unexpectedly, he had finished selecting all the soldiers, and the recruitment site was still surrounded by a large group of local youths, who would not let him go. No way, Schwartz had no choice but to send someone to hurry up and send the news back to Aurich without hesitation.
After Marin got the news, he pondered for a long time, and then gave a reply—continue to recruit 2,500 people, just to fill the vacancy left by Frundsberg's 2,500 people!
As for the 2,500 people taken away by Frundsberg, Marin didn't plan to come back. After all, he met the emperor once, and was supported by the emperor. Otherwise, he would not be able to secure the earl's seat. Frundsberg and the 2,500 soldiers are the representatives and helpers of the Marin faction to the emperor.
As for this recruitment, Marin changed his plan and planned to recruit 2,500 more people. In this way, Marin intends to replenish the number of troops in East Frisia to 10,000. Then, the Teutonic side also put 10,000 people there for training. Once there is a change in Rome, these 10,000 people will quickly board the ship and accompany Archbishop Rovere to return to Italy by sea.
However, even if Schwartz recruited another 2,500 people, he still couldn't stop the enthusiasm of the locals. You know, Schwartz recruited a total of 11,500 people in the two vassal states, but the number of young people who came to sign up was as many as 40,000...
Although they knew that it was dangerous to be a mercenary, these young people were afraid of poverty. In order to be able to have enough food every day, they are willing to gamble with their lives. Moreover, the people who came were not only from Hesse and Baden. After hearing the news, poor young people from some neighboring kingdoms came from all over the country to sign up...
When Schwartz announced that he would stop recruiting, many young people cried anxiously. Even, many people shouted, don’t pay a salary of 3 pfennigs a day, as long as you have enough food every day...
It is no wonder that the weather in the inland areas of Germany is abnormal this year, and food harvests in many places have failed and there has been famine. Fittingly, the regions of Hesse and Baden were within famine range. That's why so many people want to sign up for mercenaries. Otherwise, staying at home is also starving to death. It's better to be a mercenary, a full-fledged ghost. If you are lucky, not only will you not die in battle, but you will also get rich and go home.
Once, several mercenaries from Hesse had joined Marin's team in Italy. After Marin sold the prisoners of war and horses privately, he distributed a lot of gold coins to each person. After these people came back, they all built houses, bought land, married wives, and became small winners in life...
Inspired by this rumor, when young people in the Hesse area heard that Marin sent people to recruit soldiers, many people rushed to sign up. In fact, they don't know that the kind of good things that happened in Italy are very difficult to come across. But people have a fluke mentality, and they always imagine that they are the ones who are lucky. So, young people are very active. Moreover, even if there is no good thing like getting dozens or hundreds of gold coins, if you get a salary of 3 Finneys a day, you will definitely be able to eat and clothe yourself warmly, and even save half of the money to subsidize your family. What's more, there is a famine in southern Germany this year, and it's not bad to survive, so how dare you be picky
While Schwartz sent people to bring these recruits back to East Frisia in batches, he sent an urgent letter to Marin. Marin originally planned to ignore it, but he suddenly remembered that his American colony seemed to need a large population. So Marin changed his mind...
He immediately wrote back, asking Schwartz to come back immediately and take the selected recruits to the Teutonic country. But at the same time, Kohler was sent to these two places and brought a group of subordinates with him.
Kohler went here, but not to recruit soldiers, but to recruit immigrants...
Developing the American colonies requires population and labor. Since these young people are too poor to survive, why not recruit some and go to the American colonies to reclaim wasteland
Kohler not only brought many clerks and guards, but also brought many bakers who were good at making "Coke bread" (that is, adding grass chaff to the bread). Obviously, Kohler wants to use the simple, direct and brutal method of "bread is enough" to attract these hungry young people...
The operation of shipping the recruits to the Teutonic state went smoothly. Marin not only used the 10 200-ton Kirk sailing ships originally bought, but also hired more than a dozen idle merchant ships from the Hanseatic League to help transport people.
Marin asked the fleet to transport 9,000 people to the Teutonic Kingdom, leaving another 2,500 people to supplement the East Frisian Army.
His large-scale recruitment of troops has once again aroused tension among neighboring countries. However, Marin told the envoys of neighboring countries that this was a mercenary recruited for the Teutonic state. The Grand Leader Philip and John II, Duke of Cleaver also came forward to help spread the lie, which reassured several neighboring countries.
The recruitment of cavalry in the Teutonic country was also very smooth. Marin's uncle Yule personally came forward, and most of the wandering knights in the Teutonic country who were not selected by the Teutonic Knights chose to participate in the selection.
Yu Le clearly remembered Marin's recruitment requirements, and only recruited people with good moral character. Yule would not admit any wandering knights who had committed crimes in the Teutonic state. You know, he is the clerk of the head of the Teutonic State Congress, and it is very easy to check the security files of the Teutonic State. Who has committed crimes and who has been honest, it will be clear after an investigation. Therefore, he only needs to pick someone among the wandering knights who have not committed any crimes.
Moreover, because of the financial constraints, many wandering knights are indeed somewhat unable to get along. There were even wandering knights who went to the homes of small landlords in the countryside to act as nurses in order not to be hungry. Marin paid these wandering knights a salary of 9 Finneys a day, three times that of infantry. With such a salary, there is absolutely no need to worry about food and drink, and the war horses can also have money to buy feed. Therefore, these wandering knights still enthusiastically signed up.
When Schwartz arrived in the Teutonic State with 9,000 infantry recruits, Yule had been waiting for a long time with the selected 1,000 cavalry...
When the news of the completion of the recruitment was sent back to the Palace of Aurich, Marin was drinking with his father-in-law, Archbishop Rovere...
"Congratulations, boy, you have more than 20,000 troops, and you are already the king of mercenaries in Germany. There is no mercenary leader with as many troops as you, not even the Swiss! I am proud of you!" Luo Wei Archbishop Lei raised his glass full of Bordeaux wine and congratulated.
"Is it just the king of the German mercenary world..." Marin smiled irrefutably. As a time traveler, as a mercenary boss, what is there to be proud of
"My goal is the sea of stars!" Marin added silently in his heart...
(end of book)