After arriving in the mountains south of Vienna, Marin immediately sent people to cut wood and set up tents. Then, Marin repeated his tricks and began to promote straw sandals in the whole phalanx...
When they heard that withered grass could weave city shoes, all the newcomers who had just joined the "Black Cross Phalanx" were very curious. When the comfortable and light straw sandals were put on, many people felt fine, except the three knights. After all, he is a knight lord from a powerful background, and some of them wear leather shoes, so naturally they don't wear straw sandals like those ordinary people.
After weaving the straw sandals, it is natural to queue up for training. Marin didn't hide his secrets, and directly divided the entire phalanx into four groups according to the weaving of four companies (the archers were also grouped separately) for queue training. The first requirement of queue training is to let soldiers distinguish between left and right. Then, the recruits were surprised to find that the veterans asked them to take off the straw sandals on their right feet...
"Shoes!" The squad leaders shouted one after another, and then the recruits stretched out their left feet one after another.
"Foot!" The recruits hurriedly retracted their left feet and stretched out their bare right feet...
After so many repetitions, it took only 3 days for everyone to have a deep understanding of left and right. Of course, Marin asked the team leaders to gradually begin to use "left" and "right" to replace commands like "shoes" and "feet". For a period of time at the beginning, it still needs to be mixed.
The sand mixed by the emperor and the earl was not mixed in vain. After the recruits had completely distinguished the left and right, reports on the quick training method for distinguishing the left and right were sent to the desks of the emperor and the earl respectively...
"This Marin is still very smart. He even came up with such a strange idea, and it seems to work well..." Maximilian I was quite interested. So, he printed this method into a pamphlet and distributed it to officers who were born in the territory of the Habsburg family.
And Earl Hohenzollern was also in admiration:
"I didn't expect such a small change to make those stupid pig-like untouchables so quickly distinguish between left and right? Ordinary military officers may not be able to do it after spending a month." In this middle age where the level of education was generally low It is not an easy task for ordinary people to distinguish between left and right so simply.
In fact, the problem of distinguishing between left and right seems to be a small problem. But the outbreak of war is full of suddenness. If a group of recruits is recruited, it will waste a month of time just to distinguish between left and right, which will greatly delay the fighting opportunity.
You must know that during the Napoleonic Wars, the French army mobilized soldiers, and the average training time was only about two weeks before they would be pulled into the battlefield. If it takes a month to distinguish between the left and the right, then the day lily will have been cold for a long time...
Now that the team has been mixed with sand, Marin doesn't intend to expose all his knowledge. So, he gave up the motivational speeches and flicks he gave every day when he first trained the 100 people, and changed to driving with sticks.
Anyway, he is now a genuine imperial officer, and it's okay to be a recruit. Unlike in the past, he just summoned 100 people temporarily. If those people are dissatisfied, they can leave at any time, so they can only be coaxed. And these imperial recruits, even if they were beaten, these people generally would not leave.
With the demonstration and help of the 100 veterans trained by Marin before, these recruits also made rapid progress. After all, the power of role models is infinite. Marin himself had never trained soldiers before. The days when he trained those 100 veterans were difficult, and he relied on groping for everything. At this moment, Schwartz and the 25 squad leaders are all familiar with training. Moreover, Marin's training requirements have also been reduced. Before, those 100 people had to run two 5-kilometer trails every day, but now, these recruits only need one 5-kilometer run every day.
Therefore, the three knights sent by the emperor and the earl saw that Marin's old subordinates were beating and abusing the recruits...
Moreover, even if those recruits want to resist, Marin is not afraid. His 100 veterans are much more cunning than these novices. Under Marin's training, these veterans quickly formed a fight, and initially learned the "cheats" of dividing and encircling before group fighting. And even if the recruits make trouble, they won't make trouble together, and most of them are dissatisfied. And these people can't get over the waves at all.
In this way, Marin spent the entire month of March watching the old subordinates beating the recruits. But Tara and the cooking squad led by him brought many surprises to the soldiers.
Even the cauldron that Marin couldn't bear to look down on was very delicious among the recruits, including the three knights. Tara and the others were exaggerating in their cooking. They directly used the engineer shovel to cook, which made Marin's teeth ache. But fortunately, under Marin's strict requirements, Tara washed the engineer shovel before cooking. Moreover, engineer shovels that have shoveled horse manure are absolutely not allowed to be used for cooking.
And Marin, in order to convince everyone, also ate big pot dishes with everyone. Moreover, Marin trains the queue with everyone every morning. He would be lazy only during the 5km cross-country in the afternoon.
Every day during the day, this group of recruits was tortured to death. And in the middle of the night, they were also not relaxed. Once the birch whistle sounded, they must quietly gather at the gate of the barracks as quickly as possible and line up. So, everyone is complaining.
However, the group of veterans who have long been accustomed to being abused by Marin are accustomed to it. Even when they undressed, they only took off their coats, and some didn't take off at all. As soon as the whistle was heard, they put on their shoes, coats and waistcoats, and were ready to assemble, spears in hand.
What makes Marin strange is that night blindness seems to be relatively rare in Europe. But thinking of the European recipes, Marin was relieved. Europeans eat more meat, and often drink milk and eat cheese. And these are rich in vitamin A. Therefore, Europeans are less likely to suffer from night blindness. Therefore, it was not too much of a problem to gather urgently in the middle of the night.
The intelligence of Marin's training was continuously sent to the desks of the emperor and the earl. The two bosses commented on Marin as a brutal officer who liked to abuse soldiers. However, he is very clever and can invent a way to quickly distinguish the left and right directions...
In addition, the straw sandals "invented" by Marin aroused the emperor's great interest. Because, the emperor found that straw sandals are very economical. For a poor emperor like him, saving money is definitely very attractive to him. Earl Hohenzollern, on the other hand, is a pure officer, not so sensitive to the role of straw sandals.
And when Marin abused the recruits, the Italian side also exploded. The French pushed all the way across the Apennine Peninsula and directly occupied Naples, one of the five major powers in Italy (the Papal State, the Republic of Venice, Florence, the Duchy of Milan, and the Kingdom of Naples), without encountering much resistance.
The crushing gesture of the French frightened the Italian states. Headed by Venice, the Papal State, and the Duchy of Milan (Florence was also made into a vassal state by France) powerful Italian rulers. You know, Florence and Naples are both one of the five great powers in Italy. Unexpectedly, these two Italian powers were destroyed by the French.
And, to the pope's disgrace, French troops marched into Rome to coerce the pope into crowning Charles VIII king of Naples. Obviously, this was a forceful persecution, not a voluntary one by the pope.
In the whole of Italy, only two powerful countries, Venice and Milan, were not invaded by the French army. In fact, this is also because the French had a clear goal and went directly south, ignoring the Principality of Milan and the Republic of Venice.
In order to prevent the French from destroying themselves next, Venice, the Papal State and the Duchy of Milan formed a self-protection alliance on March 31, 1495 - the "Holy Alliance".
While forming an alliance, the three countries also sent envoys to invite the traditional enemies of the French, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, to join the alliance.
In fact, whether it is the Holy Roman Empire or Spain, they are very dissatisfied and worried about the French annexing the Kingdom of Naples and controlling Florence.
France itself is very strong. If Italy, which is the richest in Europe (Italy's agriculture and commerce, ranks first in Europe at this time), has more sufficient financial blood transfusions, Shinra and Spain will face the threat of being beaten by France. dilemma.
To this end, both Shinra and Spain responded positively. However, Shinra's poor emperor Maximilian I had a half-hearted attitude because of lack of money. But seeing that the French had successfully controlled Naples without any casualties, Maximilian I let go of his reserve, and soon joined Spain with the "Holy Alliance" aimed at opposing France's invasion of Italy.
By April, the Holy Roman Empire gathered 1,000 heavy cavalry and 10,000 infantry, including Marin's "Black Cross Phalanx", and began to cross the Alps Mountains, headed to Venice, Italy, and joined the Venetians.
And Venice, the Duchy of Milan and the Papal States also began to recruit native Italian mercenaries, as well as some Swiss mercenaries. The ruler of Spain, Ferdinand II (King of Aragon, husband of Queen Isabella of Castile), also began to raise troops in the country.
Spain is the least prepared of the several countries, because they are the furthest from Italy. Moreover, Spain is divided into two countries - Aragon and Castile. The Kingdom of Aragon, which is close to Italy, is very active in getting involved in the Italian war. Because, King Ferdinand II of Aragon was more far-sighted and knew that he could not sit back and watch the French become stronger. However, the nobles of the Kingdom of Castile are more opposed to tearing up with France. They worried that if the intervention failed, the flames of war might be spread to the western and French borders. But Ferdinand II insisted that with so many countries together, the failure of the French is certain, and they will no longer have the ability to fight back.
Moreover, not only the five countries participating in the alliance, but also the other Italian states, seeing the strength of the "Holy Alliance", also followed the wind and joined it, expressing their willingness to send troops to participate in the war. It seems that the situation is very good.
But Marin, who is familiar with history, doesn't think much of this patchwork of coalition forces...