Professional knights have very strong combat power. After all, they have been practicing martial arts since they were young, and they have been practicing for more than ten years. When facing recruiting soldiers, there is no problem with one fight ten.
But the problem is that it has now transitioned from the age of cold weapons to the age of hot weapons. Facing muskets, the knights are sad. And, most importantly, the cost of professional knights is too high.
In the mercenary sequence, an infantryman's salary per day is 3 Finneys. A Wanderer from the Knights' family's salary per day is as high as 2 shillings, equivalent to 24 Finneys, 8 times that of the infantry. This is still the lowest-level Wanderer, those with titles and senior officers, have higher salaries.
Moreover, if a professional knight dies in battle, the loss will be too great. After more than ten years of hard training and a large amount of resources, once you die in battle, the loss will be difficult to measure with money.
Therefore, Marin has always been reluctant to form a large-scale plate-armored knight army. In addition to the cost issue, there are also some losses. You should know that these professional knights come from noble families and have generally read books. Not to mention how smart they are, but at least they are literate, they are more suitable for being grassroots officers. Instead of letting those professional knights charge as cannon fodder, it is better to arrange for infantry officers.
As for the cavalry, Marin had already thought about it - he planned to recruit civilians as the main force of the cavalry...
Europe and East Asia are different. In the East Asia region, except for the northern grasslands, several countries in East Asia are mainly farming, and mainly ox plowing. Although the cost is low, the problem is that it is difficult to find horse riding.
In ancient Europe, it was different because horse farming was popular. Many European farmers knew how to raise horses and could ride horses. Therefore, it was much easier to find a farmer who could ride horses in Europe than in China.
As long as they can ride horses, then be brave and obey commands, Marin can completely let them put on their breastplate, control the reins with their left hand, and ride a rifle with a spring in their right hand, and launch an attack on the enemy's formation with a dense wall-like formation.
Unlike the traditional "Qilin Arm" that the knight needs to have since childhood, the spring-mounted rifle does not require high strength on the right arm of the cavalry, as long as it can be held tightly, it is enough. As for the recoil force, there is a spring to remove most of the recoil force. Therefore, ordinary civilians with stronger points can also hold the new spring-mounted rifle. Unlike the traditional bulky rifle, professional knights who have practiced the "Qilin Arm" cannot control it.
Moreover, cavalrymen from civilian origins do not have the courage to get such high salaries. Although their salaries will definitely be higher than infantry, they are definitely less than eight times higher than professional knights.
In this way, Marin had the conditions to form a large-scale cavalry. The main force of tens of thousands of people rushed out. Who can stop it in Europe? Uh... it's not right. It seems that Poland in the 16th century could gather 10,000 or 20,000 winged cavalry... This also made Poland, which had winged cavalry, beaten from being beaten by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the 15th century, and later became beaten by Russia for a hundred years, until the emergence of Peter I in Russia...
The reason why the Poles were able to explode so many winged cavalry was because Poland was a country with many feudal aristocrats and the knight class was very large. Therefore, it had many knights to form a huge winged cavalry.
The country of Marin obviously does not have so many knight families, nor does it need so many knights who have boundaries and cracks. Although the personal combat effectiveness of the lancers composed of horse-riding farmers is far less than that of the winged cavalry, it may not be impossible to hedge against the Polish winged cavalry because of its spring cavalry that is suitable for high-speed charges and wall-type charges that are more suitable for decisive battles.
Moreover, with the spring-mounted lances that can be used repeatedly, these peasants do not need to be familiar with the use of sabers like the Polish lancers. Because the Polish lancers often take off their hands because they do not have springs as buffers, they need to be proficient in the use of sabers. And the peasant breastplate lancers under Marin’s command are not easy to take off their hands because of the spring-mounted lances, and they may not necessarily need to be proficient in the use of sabers...
More importantly, even if this kind of breastplate lancer, composed of farmers who can ride horses, will not feel much distress even if they die in battle. At worst, you can recruit another group. Unlike the winged cavalry, they all come from Polish noble families and practice martial arts since childhood. If you die a group, you will definitely feel distressed, and it will be a damaging thing and difficult to replenish in time.
Sometimes, cost issues can determine the future. Are the English longbowmen worse than musketeers? Obviously not. But the training cost of longbowmen is not much cheaper than knights. Musketeers, just grab a group from the farmer and train, and can be sent to the battlefield as cannon fodder - this is how the crossbows were replaced by musketeers... The training cost of both sides is incomparable...
...
Just as Marin was racking his brains to plan for the future cavalry, Wolms, far southwest of Germany, a large group of German nobles also held an imperial conference against Marin under the guidance of Frederick III.
This was an informal imperial meeting, because the meeting lacked the remnants of the nobles such as Austrian and the pro-Austrian Swabian Union, as well as the pro-Marin power such as the East Friesland and the Principality of Cliffrey. Of course, there was also the electorate of Brandenburg, whose eldest was captured.
Frederick III is worthy of being a cunning old politician. In his speech at the interim meeting, he desperately put Marin and Maximilian I together, trying to prove that Marin was a hard-core lackey of Maximilian I. Marin's strength is equivalent to Maximilian I's strength...
In order to resonate with the princes, Frederick III also listed the current miserable situation of the French nobles - having only status but no power, everything depends on the mood and expression of King Louis XII...
Sure enough, the German princes inspired by Frederick III were worried. In order to prevent themselves from becoming like French nobles in the future, they began to hate Marin like Maximilian I, who was trying to unify Germany. A temporary imperial meeting was held as an "anti-Marriage Congress"... Frederick III even suggested that we send troops to attack Marin together...
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! Of course, not everyone of these gathered German princes listened to Frederick III's foolings. At least, Archbishop Hermann IV of Cologne was not fooled by Frederick III.
This is because Herman IV, from the previous incident in which the Bishop of Munster was ceded to Marin, deeply felt the Pope's preference for Marin.
Perhaps, secular nobles like Frederick III don’t have to pay much attention to the influence of the pope. But as a religious person, Hermann IV had to consider the reaction of the Holy See. Therefore, he refused to support the formation of a coalition to attack Marin...
Hermann IV's statement represented the attitudes of various bishops in the northwest of Germany. Soon, the bishops in the northwest of Germany all rejected the joint proposal to use Marin's army.
After the bishops of the Archbishop of Cologne rejected the proposal to use Marin's military, the calm religious princes remembered that it seemed that Marin had a close relationship with the eldest Pope of the European Catholic Church...
If you support the whole German group to beat Marin, you might offend the Pope...
The Pope may not have many ways to deal with the secular princes, but there are some ways to deal with the religious princes. Any punishment can make the religious princes doom. Without the identity of a Christian, the secular princes are also great nobles with aristocratic blood. As a religious prince, they may instantly fall from heaven to hell...
So even Archbishop of Mainz and Archbishop of Trier (both called Jacob, but not the same person), gave up their proposal to support the group to beat Marin...
Relying on the influence of the Pope's father-in-law, Marin unknowingly escaped the fate of being beaten by all German princes...
The number of religious princes was very large, and after they all opposed the use of military force against Malin, the matter was naturally left alone.
However, everyone knows that Marin cannot allow him to expand widely. Otherwise, the alliance between the princes and the emperor may be defeated by Marin.
Therefore, although we will not form a group to beat Marin, it is still necessary to put pressure on Marin. In addition, the Saxony Electoral State and Brandenburg Electoral State, which were important members of the emperor's unification of Germany, must also be preserved.
Then, the princes held repeated consultations on how to put political pressure on Marin to force Marin to abandon the occupation of Saxony and Brandenburg...
Chapter completed!