In Europe, cavalry cannot make long-distance raids. The key is that European war horse feed consumes too much. In this era without soybeans, European war horses mainly use oats and barley as war horse feed. Oats are more nutritious, but have lower yields and higher prices. Therefore, in addition to the nobles who love their own war horses, barley is generally chosen for military war horse feed.
According to the French infantry practices during World War I, the daily barley amount of each war horse is 4,800 grams, which is close to 5 kilograms. If 10,000 cavalry and one person and two horses are dispatched, the consumption of barley alone will be 96,000 kilograms per day, which is 211,000 pounds. At this time, the price of barley in Europe is similar to that of rye, and it is about 1 Finney per pound. Therefore, the daily food consumption of 20,000 war horses is worth more than 3,500 gold coins.
This is because the time for sending troops is chosen after spring plowing. At this time, spring returns to the earth, everything revives, and there is no shortage of grass in the wild. Therefore, a lot of horse materials can be saved. If you choose to send troops in winter, it will be fatal. Because you cannot eat grass to assist, the food consumed by war horses every day will be doubled.
Therefore, in this era, nobles generally did not choose to fight in winter. Especially in the army with many cavalry, they could not afford to fight in winter.
European war horses that consume 4.8 kilograms of food every day are obviously not suitable for long-distance raids. Because they cannot bring so much food and grass...
Only war horses that are extremely resistant to rough-feeding can be maintained by eating grass to achieve long-distance raids. The reason why the Mongolian Empire was able to attack Europe in one breath has a lot to do with the quality of Mongolian horses. The reason why Tsarist Russia was able to attack the vast Siberia was because the horses they relied on were descendants of Mongolian horses, which were suitable for long-distance expeditions and were not allowed to bring so much food.
The war horses of farming countries, including Europe, are not good. These horses are used to eating food, and their bodies will collapse if they don’t eat food for a few days. Therefore, the cavalry of farming countries consumes a lot. Even a great empire like the Han Dynasty, due to the repeated conquests of the Huns, they have wiped out the national treasury.
If Marin's army raided Florence from Rome before, it would only take a day or two to run, and just hang a bag around the horse's neck, containing 10 kilograms of oats, barley, etc., it would be solved. If it was farther away, a long-distance raid that spanned most of the Apennines, such as Milan to Naples, would be difficult to do.
After all, it is impossible for war horses to run long distances on their backs with a few sacks of food on their backs. According to cavalry practice, generally long-distance marching, at most 20 kilograms of food are placed in the bags hanging around the neck of the war horse. No matter how much, the war horse's back will not move, which will affect the mobility of the war horse...
In other words, if the cavalry leaves the baggage force, they can only survive alone for more than 4 days at most. Of course, except for those who loot the people in the grain-producing area. However, if a long-distance attack is generally precious, it is impossible to stop the cavalry and grab the grain. Moreover, the cavalry's large amount of food consumed too much, and it is difficult to maintain even if it grabs grain. The reason why Charles VIII blocked the Italian coalition in the Battle of Fornovo was because there was not enough food, so the troops were divided to grab the grain. It delayed the time and was blocked by the Italian coalition, which was mainly infantry.
So Marin arranged for people to store a lot of food halfway through the French cavalry. When the French cavalry passed by, they sold it to them.
Of course, John Rafi, who offered advice to Louis XII, would not say that this was given by Marin, but that he used his relationships when he was doing business in Germany.
John Rafi used to do business in Munster City, so it was normal for him to meet a few business friends.
Louis XII had some doubts about the relationship provided by John Lafite. After all, it was 10,000 cavalry. If the food supply was not available in the middle, it would be over. So he first sent someone to explore the Roman Avenue. As a result, at the point marked by John Lafite, he saw the food linker and the food.
In this way, Louis XII comfortably sent 10,000 cavalry to fight lightly, one man and two horses heading south. Along the way, he used the money he snatched from the city of Milan to buy the barren needed for war horses from grain merchants along the way. The leader of the 10,000 French cavalry was Baron Boman who had competed for favor with John Lafite before...
...
At this time, Marin, far away in Orich, also received a letter from a flying pigeon from Italy. He learned that Ludovico Sforza, the guy who fled without a fight, even gave Louis XII 22,000 cannon fodder soldiers. Marin had ten thousand MMPs in his heart to talk about.
He is indeed supporting France now, but he is just afraid that the French will lose. However, Marin's real intention is to let French and Spanish dogs bite the dog, rather than fully supporting France.
Originally, France had been more stable when it dispatched 60,000 troops. Now, there are 22,000 more people, which is a sure win. But is this the result that Marin wants?
But the matter had already happened, and Marin had no choice but to blame him for missing this before and did not inform Ludovico Sforza in time.
...
Just when Marin got the information and was furious, there was no movement in Spain and no carrier pigeons flew back to the land.
Why is this? Because all the pigeons released by Spanish spies in Milan were intercepted and killed...
What? Can a carrier pigeon be intercepted? Is this a Mongolian Sagittarius? Not...
You know, the Spanish spy released six carrier pigeons in the Principality of Milan. Even if the hero Guo Jing of the Condor Heroes came, he could not guarantee that he could shoot all of these six carrier pigeons. However, since those nurses publicly "requested" Louis XII to send troops to the Kingdom of Naples, some people began to specifically clean up the carrier pigeons flying to the southwest.
What's going on? It turns out that since those nurses publicly "requested" Louis XII to send troops to the Kingdom of Naples, a team originally arranged by Marin near the city of Milan began to clean up all the carrier pigeons flying southwest.
The method of cleaning up the pigeons used by this team is very unique - using a falcon...
This master who uses eagles is also very legendary. This person is named Bai Geri. He was an Ewenki slave bought from the Yehe envoy when Malin bought Laoshanshan envoy from the Yehe envoy in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. He bought it with Bai Geri, and a Haidongqing falcon in Bai Geri's hand.
At that time, Malin saw Bai Geri driving Hai Dongqing to explore the way for Ye He's delegation, and was very envious. So he proposed to buy Hai Dongqing. However, he didn't know how to train eagles. So he simply proposed to buy it together with Bai Geri.
The Yehe tribe envoy disagreed at first, but Marin spent money hard. Then the Yehe tribe envoy agreed. After all, Baigeri was not a member of the Yehe tribe, but just a slave captured by the Yehe tribe from the Ewenki tribe. There are so many such people in the Yehe tribe. The Yehe tribe is close to the Ewenki tribe's activity area, and it is very simple to catch several Ewenki falcons. Moreover, the Jurchens themselves can also train eagles, which is not uncommon in the Northeast. Then, Marin got Baigeri and his Haidongqing Falcon.
Originally, Marin bought Bai Geri and his Haidongqing Falcon purely out of curiosity. After all, Haidongqing is a legendary existence.
At the beginning, Malin just asked Bai Geri to take Hai Dongqing out to hunt with him, using Hai Dongqing as a scout. However, by chance, Malin discovered that Hai Dongqing had hunted a carrier pigeon and got the letter from it. Then, Malin realized that this was such a powerful weapon to intercept the carrier pigeon...
After experiments, Bai Geri and his Haidongqing Falcon intercepted many carrier pigeons that only flew out from Orich and Emden, and learned about several foreign spy dens in the North Sea.
Then, Bai Geri became a pigeon hunter under Marin's profession. For this reason, Marin also equipped him with a service team to ensure his safety.
Chapter completed!