After becoming the acting phalanx leader, Marin was extremely excited. A phalanx with more than a thousand people is equivalent to a regiment. In other words, Marin became a mid-level officer equivalent to the head of the regiment. Before that, Marin was just a poor wandering knight with no ancestral property to inherit.
You know, according to the ranking algorithm of later generations of Huaxia, the head of the regiment is on the same level as the county magistrate. This made Marin, who had never been a middle school monitor in his previous life, very excited.
But he soon learned that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Soon, His Majesty the Emperor and Count Hohenzollern came to add sand to his phalanx...
Marin's phalanx is composed of 4 companies, each company has between 250 and 300 people. And the captain of the company is not something that civilians can be. However, under Marin, there were no knights suitable for this level of position. Therefore, the emperor "kindly" sent two knights from Austria, which were directly under the Habsburg family, to serve as company captains. At the same time, Frederick II, Earl of Hohenzollern, also sent a knight from his county to serve as company captain...
In other words, the captains of the 4 companies, the emperor and the earl will leave 3, leaving only one for Marin himself. In fact, doing so is already giving Marin face. If you don't give face, none of the positions of captains of the four companies will be reserved for Marin. The emperor, in order to show his support, allowed Marin to use punishment if the company captain did not obey the order. Of course, if you want to remove or execute, you must discuss with the Habsburg family.
In fact, the emperor and the earl did not intend to control this small phalanx. Instead, the two big brothers were very interested in how Marin trained a group of untouchables in a decent manner for more than a month. They sent people here, in fact, to "steal teachers."
You know, there are as many untouchables in the empire. If there is a training method like Marin's, once the war requires tens of thousands of people to be trained to be like the 100 people under Marin's men, who can compete with the empire
Marin thought about it all night, and seemed to have figured out the truth. So, he decided to keep it for the time being. Now that the Spanish phalanx has been brought out, there is no need to hide it. As for discipline training, just watch and see. Anyway, people in this era are not so strict about the requirements for discipline. They pay more attention to personal martial arts, similar to ancient China. After all, the benefits of strict discipline can only be seen on the battlefield. And personal bravery can be seen in martial arts competitions.
As for the company captain that the emperor left for Marin himself, Marin thought about it and decided to give it to Schwartz. Schwartz is a descendant of an aristocrat with a surname. Although he is no longer an aristocrat, he is still a Junker with a surname. Unlike serfs, they only had first names and no surnames.
Moreover, Schwartz himself is good at martial arts, and under his own training, he has learned riding and horse fighting. Now, Schwartz's horse fighting ability is no longer inferior to Marin's. It is said that he is a knight, and almost no one doubts it. Because the knight didn't blow it out by himself. A knight must first have good martial arts skills. If a commoner wants to pretend to be a knight, he will be exposed in a martial arts competition.
In addition, the most important thing is that Schwartz is a man of culture. As a descendant of knights, although Schwartz has no horses and no background in horse warfare, he has also received cultural education from his family since he was a child. He even received some basic theoretical education in simple military command. And this is something that Marin's other subordinates do not have.
For this reason, Marin declared that Schwartz was a knight apprentice recruited by himself and belonged to an apprentice knight. Then, Marin paid for it himself, bought a set of half-used plate armor, and equipped it for Schwartz. As for the horses, Schwartz still rode a draft horse. Anyway, Marin asked him to be the captain of the infantry company, not to let him be the cavalry. The problem of the horse will not be noticed.
Marin secretly and Schwartz canceled the servant agreement and changed it to an apprentice agreement. At the same time, Schwartz swore allegiance to Marin and signed the document (Marin, as a modern person, does not believe in empty words, but believes in contracts and contracts).
After arranging Schwartz's identity, Marin announced that the company captain of his first company in the phalanx was Schwartz Lange. Then, Marin successively appointed Bowen Gardner, Height Basque, and Jason Cheers sent by the emperor as the company captains of the second, third, and fourth companies.
As for the team leaders below (25 people in each team, more than 40 teams in the entire phalanx), Marin is also nepotism, selecting 25 outstanding guys from the previous 100 men. All but 10 squad leaders belonged to Schwartz's 1st Company. The remaining 15 people were mixed into other companies. Basically, the other three company captains can only appoint half of the small captains.
This method can not only ensure that the other three companies will not be out of their control, but also allow these experienced "old men" to help the newly formed company complete the training work. After all, these 25 people are already very familiar with the "Martens training method".
In addition, with the phalanx, it is necessary to elect a standard bearer. The flag bearer is very important on the battlefield, otherwise, there would be no such thing as "kill the general and capture the flag" in ancient times.
Marin originally planned to let Kahn, a fool, be the standard bearer, but Kahn himself was not happy. He said that the mace made it easy. If you hold a flag that cannot hit people, he will feel itchy.
In desperation, Marin had no choice but to choose the honest and robust attendant Garland as the flag bearer of the phalanx. Several of Marin's servants, Schwartz became the company captain, Saul became the scout, Tara became the squad leader of the cooking squad, and Kahn was going to fight, so Garland had nothing to do. Moreover, although Garland's conditions are not outstanding, he is honest and reliable. Moreover, this guy is also courageous. Moreover, during the previous training, Garland played the standard bearer many times. Therefore, it is just right for him to be the standard bearer. As for the second-hand Kahn, Marin thought about it and decided to stay by his side as a bodyguard. This guy is very capable in foot combat, and Schwartz can't stand it when he swings a mace. If someone comes to besiege him, this guy will be right in front of him. Specifically, he can be defined as something similar to Dian Wei beside Cao Cao...
As for the quartermaster of the phalanx, it was naturally Comrade Kohler. For others, mathematics is not enough. And my mathematics has reached a very high level, but I have to settle the accounts myself, a little bit of a loss...
After completing the personnel arrangements, Marin then went to the recruitment site to select the soldiers himself. Of course, as a junior, those veteran imperial officers must choose fighters before him.
In desperation, Marin had no choice but to follow the previous method and select those brave young people who "defeat is glorious", are not afraid of getting hurt, and do not easily admit defeat.
Marin first selected 800 people, and then he planned to choose archers. But what made him depressed was that last time many archers came happily and returned disappointed, but not many hunters came this time. Even if he is the leader of the phalanx and is an official official, he still only recruited 80 archers in total. Count the original 20 people. In other words, Marin only has 100 archers...
He was also helpless, even if he went to Earl Hohenzollern, it was useless. Because there are not many archers in Germany. Orion, who is good at archery, can fully support his family, so there is no need to be a soldier. And there are not many young people with average shooting skills who apply for the recruitment. After all, they were disappointed last time, and they will not come again this time. And the emperor, it is impossible to issue another edict just because Marin, the mere phalanx leader, wants archers. Therefore, Marin can only make do with the 100 archers.
Then, Marin went to the martial arts field again, selected more than 200 people, and added the number of people in the phalanx to 1,100 people.
After the number of people was replenished, Marin summoned four company captains to divide up the soldiers together. Starting with Schwartz's 1st Company, several company captains went to select soldiers one by one. Of course, because Schwartz was the first to pick someone, he naturally took advantage and picked the best one. Although the other three were unhappy, they were subordinates in name, so it was hard to say anything.
As for the 100 archers, a separate bow and arrow brigade was established, with one of the best Orion named Kovacs as the captain, also known as the Master Chief. The reason for such an arrangement is that there are very few nobles who have refined archery. Only those hunters are proficient in this way.
After the team was built, Marin applied for a batch of white cloth from the emperor's quartermaster, all of which were made into vests with a square black cross painted on them. In this way, the black cross and white vest has become the biggest feature of Marin's phalanx. And Marin's phalanx was later called the "Black Cross phalanx".
After all the second batch of mercenaries were recruited, all the phalanxes lined up, and a grand oath of allegiance ceremony was held on the South Gate Square in Vienna. Everyone used the oath made by Marin to flatter the emperor before, and completed the oath of allegiance ceremony in front of the emperor.
After the ceremony, according to the arrangement, Marin came to station in the mountains south of Vienna and conducted training. Just wait for the emperor to discuss with other countries, and all will march into Italy...