Don’t think it’s ridiculous to use milk powder as a military beverage, but in fact, this was the case in Europe at that time. In the absence of other mass-produced beverages instead (milk tea is good, but now the tea is too expensive and too rare, and it is not suitable for military supplies), milk powder is indeed a good drink for officers.
Because at this time, Europe was a society with strict hierarchy. If the treatment of officers and soldiers was the same, it would be like breaking the rules. Not only would it be opposed by the nobles and the officers, but it would also make ordinary soldiers lose their ambitions.
If officers and soldiers were treated similarly, who would have worked hard to make meritorious service, seeking promotion and becoming a military noble? At the beginning, Marin shared the joys and sorrows with his first group of subordinates, eating and living together... That was no problem, because Marin was just a knight at that time. His subordinates were all new recruits, and they didn't think there was anything wrong.
However, with the improvement of status and the large number of noble children becoming officers under Marin's command, if Marin wanted to pursue equality, then the officers under his command were not happy first - we fought hard to become officers, was it because we were to get the same treatment as those big-headed soldiers? The role of officers was very important on the battlefield. Therefore, later Marin gradually changed the view of treating people equally in his previous life and did not eat and live with the soldiers. Those officers were treated differently from ordinary soldiers. For example, ordinary soldiers could occasionally eat some salted fish and meat when eating black bread. However, officers basically ate meat and could drink wine without war. Marin was worried that the soldiers would have any objections, but in the end, they found that the soldiers took this for granted... On the contrary, if the officers and soldiers were treated the same, everyone felt strange...
Marin was unable to challenge the entire social system and finally acknowledged the existence of hierarchy. Besides, he is also a beneficiary of the existence of hierarchy, so why bother with it?
Marin could only describe the lifestyle of nobles and officers in this era in one sentence by Concubine Hua - "Bitches are pretentious." In order to show their status, nobles and officers will wear more shiny armor and clothes to show the difference from ordinary soldiers. In terms of food, they eat meat or salted fish every meal (you can't eat meat during the fasting period, you can only eat fish). Even the drinks are very particular.
For example, even if aristocratic officers drink German national drink - beer, they will definitely drink better beer made with hops, and will never touch the kind of stinky civilian beer. Some more sophisticated aristocratic officers even drink only wine and not beer to show their dignity.
However, in the wartime, in the Malin army, with strict military discipline, drinking alcohol was not allowed. Moreover, drinking raw water was not allowed, but drinking boiled water was uniformly consumed.
This once aroused strong protests from noble officers. Because, in their opinion, drinking boiled water like a big-headed soldier was an indecent act. However, Marin could not find other drinks without alcohol (by the way, Europeans at that time regarded wine and beer as daily drinks and never drank boiled water), so they could only do that first.
This time, Marin developed this milk powder that is very suitable for carrying, cutting and easy to preserve. Although it is a bit inconsistent, Schwartz immediately listed it as a military drink for officers, which can be regarded as a meeting of the officers' needs for privileges.
Sure enough, after the delicious milk powder was released, although those officers may not all like milk powder, they finally felt face-saving. At least, there was no need to drink boiled water with the big head soldiers... that would be too shameless...
Although Marin muttered in his heart, he felt that those guys were too pretentious, but he was unwilling to fight the general trend alone, so he agreed to this situation. Anyway, as long as the officers were satisfied, it was fine. Moreover, the cost of milk powder was not high. As for those big-headed soldiers, they didn't think anything, because, in their opinion, officers should be treated well...
...
As time goes by, time enters March. At this time, spring plowing is also vigorously in the Great Principal of Beihai...
However, there were some problems with spring plowing - East Friesland, Oldenburg, Schleswig and North Münster, which were already controlled by Marin, because they were well prepared and sufficient labor, there was no problem with spring plowing. The main problem was in West Friesland, Bremen and Jutland, which were only included in the ruling area at the end of last year...
Why? Because there is enough land in these three new provinces and there is no shortage of oxen, but there is a serious lack of manpower. Therefore, the spring farming in these three new provinces has been seriously affected.
Without enough people, there is no way to control the oxen. In this case, no matter how much farmland there is in Marin, it will be useless. After all, the oxen will not pull the plow to plow the land by itself. They always have to support the plow and control the direction, and they must be laborers in the middle of the year. Ordinary elderly and women cannot help the plow, which is a physical job. In this era without agricultural machinery, agricultural production and labor determine everything...
Therefore, even though Marin, the three new areas of West Friesland, Bremen and Jutland, have obtained many manors, and their subordinates have also been assigned a lot of new land. However, this year's spring plowing cannot be fully cultivated due to insufficient preparations...
In fact, in the South Münster area, there were tens of thousands of prisoners of war digging canals there. If Marin wanted to, he could bring all the tens of thousands of prisoners of war to spring plow.
However, the problem is that these tens of thousands of prisoners of war, those soldiers, after the canal is dug, will be returned to Switzerland, Brandenburg and Saxony. It is no problem to pull them into spring plows, but the secret of putting nose rings on the cattle and using curved plows will definitely be taken away by these people. This does not conform to the principle of Marin's confidentiality.
Therefore, Marin would rather tolerate the problem of lack of labor than transfer tens of thousands of prisoners of war who dug canals in the South Münster area to help with spring plowing. It was nothing more than to keep advanced agricultural technology confidential...
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! Moreover, the canal in the South Münster area is also extremely important for Marin. Once the canal is dug, Marin's hand can stretch back to his hometown - Ruhr District... and then, it will be convenient to control Ruhr District. At the same time, it is much more convenient to transport coal from Ruhr District.
Therefore, whether from the perspective of confidentiality or strategic considerations, Marin could not call on the tens of thousands of prisoners of war that dug canals in the South Münster area. After all, those prisoners of war were to be returned...
In desperation, Marin and his noble officers could only endure the fact that some of the fiefs had no output this year.
In this way, Marin and his nobles and officers could only focus on the present and first solve the problem of spring plowing in the manors located in East Friesland, Oldenburg and Schleswig (Marin, North Münster, was not granted to his subordinates, because of the small population and low development level). Then, if the spring plowing ends early, people can be sent to the fiefs of the three new provinces to see if they can crane the tail and catch up with the last wave of spring plowing, and how much they can be cultivated.
Moreover, in order to save costs, Marin decided to grant his nobles the power to recruit serfs on their own, and encourage them to send people to the inland German areas to recruit serfs and enrich their fiefdoms...
Anyway, the fiefs of those nobles do not have to be paid taxes. The serfs are also raised by those nobles. Although Marin recruited a large number of people from the inland before, they were divided up by everyone. As a result, his own manpower was not enough.
Since the three new provinces were included, Marin specially enfeoffed many noble fiefs to the Jutland Peninsula. Now, including Marin, all the nobles in East Friesland who have fiefs in the three new provinces are very short of labor.
Among them, as the largest landlord, Marin has many manors that are simply empty, with few people, which is very wasteful. Therefore, Marin is the largest landlord in the Principality of North Sea that lacks the most labor force.
However, when he went to the south to recruit labor, he had to divide it up with his subordinates after he came back, which made Marin feel very tired. Therefore, at Kohler's suggestion, Marin decided to grant the nobles who had fiefs in three new provinces the power to recruit serfs on their own.
After all, one person has a short plan, and many people have a high plan... It is better for everyone to mobilize them than Marin who works hard to recruit people alone, and he has to share with these guys... You know, Marin is the person who lacks serfs the most, so why should he share with everyone?
In this way, as soon as this policy was released, Marin was equivalent to getting rid of a burden. Later, the serfs recruited by Kohler belonged to Marin's own manor. For the other nobles, everyone "eight immortals cross the sea to show their magical powers". Anyway, no matter what means they use, Marin doesn't care. Everyone uses means, and whoever can dig up enough people can develop the newly enfeoffed land of each family...
Of course, Marin drew a red line for them - prohibiting recruiting private soldiers in the name of recruiting serfs... Marin ignored the rest. Even if they cheated people from other vassal states, Marin would pretend not to know. As long as they didn't know, it would be fine. Also, they could not poach people from other manors in China. After all, most of the manors in China are under the name of Marin. Poaching people in China is equivalent to digging Marin's corners...
What Malin didn't expect was that because of his policy, the nobles under his command were fully fired and could do anything to poach people from other vassal states. He even created a gray industrial chain - population trafficking...
Unlike ordinary population abduction, ordinary population abduction is usually targeted by women and children. The population abduction jointly created by Marin's subordinates is actually aimed at young and strong men, which is very strange... But who said that the Great Duchy of Beihai is too short of labor...
Chapter completed!