King of Mercenaries

Chapter 88: Go home for the New Year

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Half an hour later, those women were tired, so they let Columbus go...

These women have little strength and limited lethality. Therefore, Columbus did not receive too heavy crushing critical damage. However, these women are good at tickling. When Columbus got up, his face was covered with bloodstains from being scratched. Anyway, he was scratched...

After getting up, Columbus immediately planned to treat the scars on his face. However, he is penniless now, and all his purses were taken away by the soldiers who ransacked his house.

Fortunately, the clothes on his body were expensive silk aristocratic clothes. Moreover, when the kiln sisters beat him up just now, they just paid attention to their face and didn't tear his clothes.

So, Columbus exchanged the luxurious silk clothes on his body for a gold coin, and hurried to heal the wound on his face...

It's just that, these days, the level of medical care in Europe is extremely low, far inferior to Eastern Chinese medicine. This is mainly because the church is powerful these days, and Europeans are far more superstitious than those in the East, so naturally they don't pay attention to the development of medicine. Even dissection is regarded as an act of blasphemy. European medicine really started to take off after the defeat of Catholicism in the War of Religion. Because at that time, the authority of the Holy See was discredited, and many people stopped believing in God and began to study science, which promoted the development of medicine.

And these days, when many people see a doctor, they go to the half-baked priest to ask for blessings and holy water. This stalk is no different from the fact that Chinese people worship immortals and drink the gray water from talismans. Anyway, it's killing yourself.

Therefore, Columbus could only find a crappy Spanish doctor to treat the wound on his face casually. The end result was that the blood on Columbus's face stopped, but the scars were left permanently. More specifically - Columbus disfigured.

In order to cover up the scars on his face, Columbus bought a simple mask to wear. After taking back his wife and two sons, Columbus quietly withdrew part of his savings at the branch of the Genoa Bank in Cadiz. Then, he bought a bronze mask and changed his name to Anthony. His wife and children went to Portugal on holiday in Tis, hoping that the Portuguese royal family, which values navigation, would support his sailing career.

The reason why Columbus changed his name was not because he was afraid that the Spanish officials would be unfavorable to him. The queen copied Columbus's home, so she will not continue to pay attention to him. But those whores are different. They lost their jobs because Columbus brought back syphilis. Therefore, those who hated Columbus the most were those prostitutes. Basically, if they are recognized, they will "see and scratch" Columbus once. Moreover, Columbus is no longer a Spanish aristocrat, without the protection of guards, he dare not confront those whore legions.

At this time, it was already the end of 1496. Just when Columbus was unlucky, Marin was also preparing to go home for the New Year.

The recruitment of the new Spanish phalanx has been basically completed. However, Marin can completely leave the specific training work to Schwartz and Frundsberg. These two people are also very enthusiastic about training the phalanx. Moreover, before going home, Marin wrapped a big red envelope of 100 gold coins for each of them, which made them happy.

And Marin himself, with several people from Kahn and 20 guards, landed from Den Helder, one man and two horses, and ran all the way to the Hoffman Manor in Bochum, so that they could go home for Christmas.

After a long journey, Marin finally rushed back to Hoffman Manor on Christmas Eve. Back home, Marin was welcomed by his family and "besieged" by his younger siblings. Because Marin's promise to take his younger siblings to live in the castle on the island was not fulfilled.

For this, Marin was also helpless. His aggressive recruitment of Frisian fishermen has offended the Frisian noble republic and may lead to conflict between the two parties. For the sake of safety, he has never picked up his younger siblings to live in the castle on the island. The old Hoffmans and the adult Adler could understand it naturally, but the younger siblings who were still children couldn't understand it. Therefore, after Marin returned home, he was strongly "condemned" by his younger brothers and sisters...

In order to appease his younger siblings, Marin resorted to the trick of "throwing them with gold coins", giving each of his two younger brothers and one younger sister 10 gold coins, instantly extinguishing their anger. You know, it's very rare for younger brothers and sisters to get a few Finney's pocket money. As soon as Marin made a move, it cost 10 gold coins, worth 600 pfennigs, which instantly stunned the three children. Then, they didn't care about condemning Marin, and all went back to hide the gold coins to avoid being confiscated by Mrs. Mary.

The family dinner on Christmas Eve was enjoyable. After the family said their prayers, they began to enjoy delicious roast goose, roast suckling pig, braised pork (feeling so discordant, basically messed in)... as well as boiled apples, raw vegetables... etc. Delicious meal.

Because Marin ordered a large number of coal produced by the manor, the economic situation of Hoffman Manor was very good. After having money, the old Hoffman spent money to repair the house, making the original two country villas into a pattern of four villas plus a tall wall. This layout is somewhat similar to a castle, but the number of rooms is much less than that of a castle. Therefore, this layout is more like an oriental mansion. The wall is high and wide, and people can stand and patrol on the top of the wall, which has military functions. In order to protect the interests of the manor and the coal mine, the Hoffman Manor set up a guard team of 20 people, including 5 attendants each of the old Hoffman and Adler.

"Marin, how is the construction of your island of Texel going?" After the meal, the old Hoffman asked leisurely while picking his teeth.

"It's okay. I plan to invest a huge amount of money next year to build Den Bou into a real military fortress to prevent others from coveting."

"Military fortress? That's not cheap. If it's according to what you said, it can be done without tens of thousands of gold coins!" Old Hoffman said in surprise. The old Hoffmans are obviously not very clear about Marin's financial situation.

"It's nothing, Dad. I use the coal from our manor to cook salt on the island, and the profit is very high. I can earn more than one hundred thousand gold coins in a year." In fact, Marin's annual profit from cooking salt is 21 million gold coins. Even, Marin plans to expand the scale of boiling salt to obtain more profits.

However, he was worried that after his family members heard the news, they would talk too much and reveal the secret. Therefore, he said less, to prevent others from knowing the secret. You know, red eye disease is not limited to Chinese people, Europeans are the same. After the rise of the Spanish colonial empire, the British, out of jealousy, set up pirates to rob Spanish gold ships.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, Marin tried to say as little as possible about the specific profit. But even so, the family members were still shocked...

"More than 100,000 gold coins? One year?" Old Hoffman and Mrs. Mary were extremely shocked. In the blink of an eye, the pride of the old Hoffmans who were proud of the fact that the annual profit of the manor coal mine reached tens of thousands of gold coins was immediately hit...

Relying on the large orders from the Wiggins Chamber of Commerce and Texel Island, the annual income of the Hoffman Manor is only more than 10,000 gold coins from the operation of the coal mine. Compared with the knight lords of those purebred lands, this income is very impressive. But compared with Marin, it's really nothing...

"Father, mother, Marin is a baron. Our family is a knight collar, can it be compared with a baron collar? A baron collar can have more than a dozen knight collars!" Adler was generous and fat. He thinks it is normal for Marin to earn more than 100,000 yuan a year. After all, Marin is a baron, and there are usually more than a dozen knights in the baron.

However, he obviously didn't consider that it would be good for an ordinary knight leader to earn two to three thousand gold coins a year. The annual income of Hoffman Manor is tens of thousands of gold coins, and it is definitely in the leading position among the knights.

"Wow, my brother is so rich! Brother Marin, we want so many good things, can you buy them for us?" Hearing that Marin is so rich, the three little guys, Simon, Albert and Annie, all entangled Marin, start acting like a baby.

"No problem, no problem, you three little guys, I'll take care of the horses and armor for Simon and Albert. I'll pay a lot for Anne's dowry..."

Hearing about the dowry, the little girl Anne couldn't take it anymore. The shy Annie covered her face, said "brother is bad", and ran away blushing.

It was Simon and Albert, who strongly urged Marin to honor the horse and armor in advance...

"Give it to you now? No way. The horses are okay, but the armor is not good. Your height has not yet been finalized, and you are still growing. The armor is customized according to your height. You can't customize the plate armor until your height stops growing. .”

"But, brother Marin, didn't you start to wear armor on the battlefield because you didn't have a fixed height?" Simon retorted.

Indeed, Marin went to the battlefield at the age of 16, wearing half a set of worn-out plate armor. And Marin's height is still growing. However, when actually on the battlefield, Marin didn't wear knight plate armor, but two-thirds breastplate armor and a steel helmet.

"My brother is not wearing knight armor, but a simple armor, the kind Kahn wears."

"That kind of simple armor that can't cover half of your body? You wear that when you go to the battlefield?" Old Hoffman was dissatisfied. As a veteran knight, he believes that Marin's simple plate armor is for ordinary soldiers to wear. Unexpectedly, Marin also wore that kind of low-level armor in his own battles, wasn't he joking with his life...

"Father, I am a commander, not a knight who charges into the battle. What I guard against is only the enemy's arrows. Therefore, that kind of armor is enough. You know, there are thousands of men blocking me in front of me..."

"It's better to wear a full set of plate armor to be safer..." Old Hoffman insisted on this profession.

"But a full set of plate armor is heavy, and I'm not as strong as Adler..."

"Huh?" Old Hoffman was furious, this brat dared to talk back. When his temper came up, the old Hoffman was going to beat Marin up. But thinking that this child is already a baron, after finally thinking about it, he decided to give the child some face...

"By the way, Marin, you said you were going to give it to Simon and Albert. When will you send it back?" Old Hoffman changed the subject.

"In two years, they still have a few years to reach adulthood. It just so happens that my batch of war horses are being bred and cannot be separated for the time being. After two years, I will choose two good horses for them. By the way, I will also choose two stronger ones. Pack horses, give them a ride."

"Also..."

"Actually... Father, Simon and Albert may not need to continue to become knights to fight. Both Adler and I have become knights. The two of them can actually do something else, and there is no need to take risks on the battlefield..."

"How can that be? The Hoffman family has no idiots who are afraid of war. Besides, what can they do if they don't fight?" Old Hoffman stared.

"You can switch to a civilian job..." Marin suggested.

"Civilian? His father is a rough man who can only fight. They can do civil work?" Old Hoffman didn't believe that his child had the ability to be a civil servant.

"Father, have you forgotten your mother? She is a smart woman. It will be no problem for her to teach my two younger brothers and train them to be civil servants. When they are older, I plan to send them to Cologne for university." After hearing this, Mrs. Mary immediately gave Marin a look of "you have a good eye".

"But... they want to be civil servants, who will accept them..." Old Hoffman hesitated.

"My... old man, my barony is in short supply of civil servants. All my subordinates are rough men who command fights and fight to the death, and the only civilian officials who manage politics are missing."

"It's not bad, but, can you wait until they grow up? By the time they grow up, your baronial civil servants will be full, right?"

"That's not necessarily true. Who said that I will only be a baron in the future? When the emperor has new wars to fight in the future, if I make a few more contributions, I may become a viscount (deputy earl) or an earl..."

"Count..." Everyone was silent together. For a knight family, the earl is simply unattainable.

"Marin... the next time you fight, can you take me with you and let me... make a contribution..." Adler stammered.

He is very envious of Marin's success. Adler is 21 years old, but he has not yet become a knight with a title. As for the future, Adler didn't have much ambition. He thought that if he could become an imperial knight, he would be very satisfied. At the very least, the imperial knights were of a higher rank than those of Earl Mark.

"No, you bastard, I won't allow you to go to the battlefield until the eldest son is born!" Old Hoffman was not happy. When the second son went to the battlefield, he had no fiefdom and was forced to make a choice. It was tantamount to sacrificing his life for his future. But the eldest son, who obviously has the manor and the coal mine to inherit, why is he working so hard? It would be bad if you accidentally died on the battlefield. Old Hoffman knew very well that although Adler was good at martial arts, his mind was far behind Marin. Such a heartless guy can easily become cannon fodder on the battlefield. Unlike Marin, who is a monkey and a monkey, and has the ability to calculate the king of France...