You should know that the salary expenses of an army are definitely a big expense. For example, the North Sea soldiers have a daily salary of 3 Finneys, and the annual salary is 1,095 Finneys, equivalent to 1825 gold coins. If the army is ten thousand, it is not considered the high salary of the officers, and the annual salary expense of 10,000 soldiers is more than 182,500 gold coins.

If you station 10,000 troops overseas, you will probably cost more than 200,000 gold coins every year. But if you use a large number of servants composed of black slaves, it will be different.

There is no one to do anything about black slaves. Even if you give them a full meal, you still want a salary? What a joke? Raising a 10,000 mercenaries is very different from raising a 10,000 mercenaries to join the army. Just the annual salary expenditure can save a lot of money.

As for food... Marin felt that the black slave soldiers stationed in the Americas could eat potatoes produced by the local Indians, and they didn't need to transport food from the local area. The thing was high-yield, hungry, and sufficient nutrition, and was a good military ration. Don't you see that the early soldiers of the Prussian Kingdom fought by eating potatoes, and they were even more frightening.

At that time, the black minions would be able to solve the military's military ration needs by driving local Indians to plant a large number of potatoes near the barracks.

In this way, Marin could spend a small cost to maintain an army of tens of thousands of people, controlling Mexico and Peru. Moreover, there is no need to worry that these black servants stood together with the native Indians. After all, they were of different races and could not understand the language, so it was difficult to collude together. Then, Marin's rule over the Americas became more and more stable...

As for the poor combat effectiveness of blacks, it is not a problem. Just like King Chaka reformed the tactics and strengthened the combat effectiveness of the Zulu army, as long as the weapons and tactics of those black slave soldiers are improved, the combat effectiveness can be greatly improved. Not to mention being able to confront European troops, at least there is no problem in suppressing Indian natives.

For cost considerations, Marin did not intend to equip the black servants with iron swords, but instead planned to learn from Chakazulu and equip the black servants with a short spear with a metal spearhead. Then, a shield was equipped.

The shield used by the Zulu army in Chaka was a very light Zulu cowhide shield. This shield could withstand the throwing of earth javelins of stone spearheads of black Africans at that time. However, the protection of bows and arrows against metal arrows was relatively weak and could not stop the British bullets.

But Marin felt that using cowhide as a shield seemed to be a bit expensive. Moreover, cows were precious animal power and could not be slaughtered at will. Therefore, he planned to equip the black servants with wicker shields...

The so-called willow shield is actually woven into the shape of a shield with willow branches, which is just a flat willow basket. Because willow branches are cheap, the cost of woven shields is also low, at least the cost is lower than that of a cowhide shield.

As for whether there are willow branches in the Americas, it doesn’t matter. At most, it’s impossible to introduce weeping willows into the Americas. Willow trees are tenacious and willows are unintentionally planted, making them very easy to plant. At that time, Marin will send people to plant willows everywhere in the Americas, and the material source of the willow shield will be sufficient and very cheap.

Although the willow shield cannot block muskets, it can withstand swords and ordinary bows and arrows (except heavy crossbow arrows), which is completely enough to suppress the resistance of the Indian natives. Moreover, it is not as heavy as the wooden shield and is easy to carry. When it is okay, it can still be carried behind the back like a willow basket, and it is not heavy.

Using short spears with very little metal and low-cost Willow Shield, the equipment is also very shabby. However, it is enough to use the shabby Indian natives who also have no good weapons. It is also easy to use the short spear with blood troughs to stab and kill the rebels. If you suppress the people, you can choose not to use the spear, but use the spear body as a stick to beat the unsubmissive people... If it is upgraded to an armed rebellion, you will no longer use the spear body to beat, but instead use the spear body to kill...

Marin's plan was to station 1,000 German soldiers and 5,000 servants in the Aztec Empire in Mexico, and the same was true for the former land of the Inca Empire in Peru. In this way, he needed to station a total of 2,000 German mercenaries and 10,000 black servants.

Usually, the German mercenaries only need to be stationed in key places like the capital or the Potosi Silver Mine. The black Servant Army, under the command of white officers, dispersed all over the place to maintain public order. At the same time, supervised the labor and production of Indian indigenous people. For example, supervised their mining or something.

Although Marin would not have let 8 million Indians die in the Potosi silver mine like the Spanish in history, he would not have put such a large silver mine in order to not develop it. Therefore, it is inevitable to recruit Indian indigenous mining.

However, Marin will try to improve the living standards of miners. In addition, he will give the miners masks and dust-proof eyes to protect their health as much as possible. At the same time, he will set up a mining hospital to treat the sick miners. Instead of throwing away the sick miners like the Spanish colonists, he will freeze and starve them to death.

Marin estimated that by then the Potosi Silver Mine would probably need hundreds of thousands of miners. At that time, perhaps the black servants alone would need tens of thousands of people. Otherwise, the place would not be conquered.

In other words, at that time, in addition to controlling the 2,000 local soldiers and 10,000 black servants needed in the local area, the Potosi silver mine and some other silver mines alone would still need about 10,000 black servants. In short, Marin needed more than 20,000 black slaves.

If you buy it from the Portuguese, it will cost up to 800,000 Gulden gold coins per black slave, which is simply a sky-high price!

But if you buy slaves directly from the Sanghai Empire, it will be very cheap! In Timbaktu, the local black slaves are more expensive than in Senegal, but they are also very cheap.

In a "frontier place" like Senegal, a pound of cane sugar or 2 pounds of salt can be exchanged for a black slave. In Timbuktu, a sack of salt (about 112 pounds) of salt is exchanged for 10 strong prisoners of war slaves, that is, 11 pounds of salt are exchanged for a black slave. The price is more than 5 times more expensive than in Senegal, but it is also very cheap.

You should know that 11 pounds of salt are worth 22 Finney in the North Sea Kingdom, which is equivalent to 0.367 gold coins. Compared with the price of 40 gold coins per black slave in the Portuguese, it is more than 100 times cheaper...
Chapter completed!