Deep in my mind, Marin remembered the famous Earl of Tilly during the "Thirty Years' War". This guy relied on the Spanish phalanx he learned in Spain to fight all over Europe and "eat all over the world with one move". In the end, he actually relied on this move to get the title of Earl of the Empire.

If he hadn't finally met Gustav II, the "original originator of modern army" and was killed, this guy might have become a duke.

Tilli did not become a knight, and in the 17th century, the knight had completely declined. This guy relied on the infantry tactics of the Spanish phalanx and grew from a small mercenary leader to a famous European boss.

In fact, Marin had long since emulated the idea of ​​Count Tilley. However, before, he considered that even the smallest Spanish square had more than a thousand people.

In the Emperor's army, he was qualified to command more than a thousand people - even infantry, the minimum requirement was a noble. But Marin is currently just an apprentice knight, not a knight, not a nobleman. Therefore, he had never thought about building a team before, but planned to become a nobleman first.

Because, German mercenaries have just emerged, and all officers must be nobles. In the army, civilians can at most be non-commissioned officers, that is, positions between officers and soldiers.

The mercenaries before the emperor were actually relied on the men summoned by some local nobles for him. To be more precise, the emperor's greatest military reliance was the Swabian League (the great and small princes of the Swabian region, including the Württemberg State, etc.).

In other words, the current generals in the emperor's army are mainly large and small nobles of the Swabian clan. As for officers from other regions, only a few are involved.

This is also impossible. At the beginning, the former emperor Frederick was very stingy and fought with Hungary. As a result, most of his nest Austria was lost, and Vienna was lost. Therefore, not many people were willing to support the incompetent Habsburg family at that time. When Maximilian I, who took over the position of emperor, had few great nobles supported him when he ascended the throne. Even many electoral princes and their supporters wanted to restore the election system and break the Habsburg family's monopoly on the throne.

The Swabian League stood firmly on the side of Maximilian I at the most difficult moment. Even Maximilian I formed the German mercenary for the first time, and was also a nobleman of the Swabian system, who strongly supported and responded first.

For example, Frederick II, Earl of Hohenzollen of the Swabian League, responded most actively to Maximilian I. Even later, this guy became the emperor's best friend, and Maximilian I also trusted him very much and handed over all the power of the government to him. Now, this count is the supreme commander of the army controlled by the Habsburg family.

Because of this, most of the emperor's early army were in the Swabian generals. The mercenaries in other places had not yet developed. It would not take until the 16th century that mercenaries in other parts of Germany would develop.

But no matter what, in Germany, mercenaries were still a new group and had not yet formed a fixed habit. That is to say, at this moment, Marin could completely lead the trend, rather than follow the trend. Because the trend has not yet been formed.

Although, according to the unspoken rules of ancient Europe, officers should be nobles. However, although Marin is not a noble, he is also a descendant of the nobles. Therefore, he can barely be considered a "person" of the nobles. If he set up a team by himself, and he is the lowest-level infantry team, no one will make things difficult for him. If he was a serf and wanted to set up a team by himself, he would definitely not be recognized by the aristocratic class. This is ancient Europe.

After discussing with his two smart subordinates, Kohler and Schwartz, Marin decided to recruit the young people who were not elected under the name of the official knight. Of course, they were the best among them.

The reason why I lied to be a formal knight was to win the trust of others. In ancient Europe, the prestige of aristocrats was very high, although there were many scum among them. When aristocrats recruited troops, everyone must think that they were doing serious business, and they should be to defend their country.

If a civilian went to set up a team, it might be considered by the officials to form a robber team and then directly sent troops to suppress it...

For this reason, Marin cast the Hoffman family's badge - a shield, a knight carrying a black cross flag...

In medieval Europe, there was no national flag, but every aristocratic family had its own emblem. Only aristocratic families had emblems that represented the identity of the family. A clan emblem like the Hoffman family meant that this was a knight family. And those royal families often had a crown stamped on the emblem.

In fact, as a wandering knight who was expelled from his family, Marin should not be allowed to cast the original family's clan emblem. Because from the moment he was expelled from his house, he should have started a new job and no longer belonged to the Hoffman Manor on the Ruhr River.

But now, in order to show convincing power, it is okay to borrow the family emblem. Moreover, he is indeed from this family. Even if Old Hoffman and Adler know, they will not say anything. Besides, he just intends to deceive the civilians from the bottom of society and do not deceive the nobles, so he does not have to bear any legal responsibility.

...

Next, Marin took the title of Hoffman family fief knight and began to fool the unlucky guys who were not lucky but had good strength but were actually very good at being eliminated.

For this reason, Marin personally chose at the competition venue. Because only one hundred people could choose, Marin alone.

The criteria for choosing Marin is different from those of ordinary people. First of all, he naturally needs a stronger person. However, strength is not the only standard. For example, those losers, Marin's requirements for martial arts are not the most important.

What Marin values ​​most is the spiritual manifestation of those losers in the competition. For example, an indomitable fighting spirit...

Marin knew that on the battlefield, you can’t just have good martial arts skills. Psychological tolerance and courage are also very important. Those with poor psychological quality can easily collapse when encountering disadvantages.

But it is difficult to judge whether the psychological quality is good or bad. Generally speaking, for a winner, you cannot tell the quality of his psychological quality. It depends on the quality of a person, mainly when the person fails.

Only when people encounter failure can they show their fragility and unbearable side. Those who are unwilling to fail and those who face failure calmly can meet their psychological qualities.

For the army, the most rare quality is to have a spirit of not giving up when failing. If you look at it from a erotic perspective, you can also think that such people are brave and fierce.

Of course, while being brave and fierce, he also maintains obedience to discipline, which is the best soldier. Otherwise, those who are not obeying discipline and fighting bravely are not soldiers, but robbers.

...

For several days, Marin selected more than 200 young people who were unwilling to give up after failing. Moreover, these people all had a spirit of moving forward in the duel and were not afraid of being hurt.

Then, Marin asked Kohler and others to invite them to the small courtyard they rented to talk to...

Marin told these people that after the emperor's second batch of funds was in place, the army would definitely expand again. After all, the French had an army of 60,000. If the emperor wanted to fight against the French, he would have to recruit at least tens of thousands of people.

It would be a pity for these people who failed to apply for the election to go home now. Marin, in the name of the Hoffman family, planned to form a mercenary group on his own, stay near Vienna first, and concentrate on training and improvement. After the second batch of emperors began to recruit soldiers, he would apply for the job in the name of a whole to increase the chance of being selected.

"Mr. Hoffman, why should we listen to you?" a rebellious young man questioned.

Marin was not angry, but said with a smile:

"Because I came from a noble family, I learned how to command the army!"

"This..." No one immediately said anything.

You should know that these spearmen who come to the conquest are basically from poor families and basically have no education, let alone know how to command wars. In front of these rough people, Marin can show off his cultural level, and the other party is powerless to refute...

"What about this salary?"

"I'm not an emperor, so I don't have that much money..."

"Then you still recruit us? You still want to command us if you don't give us money?"

"I don't have the money to pay my salary, but before the emperor recruits the second time, I can provide you with food for free. I believe that everyone comes from a civilian family and has no money. Staying in Vienna for a long time is also a lot of expenses. I can pay for the meal on my behalf..."

...

"Okay, just do what you said. You train us with military command methods that only nobles understand, but you have to take care of *******..."

In the end, 80 people surrendered. The remaining one hundred or dozens were either rebellious and disobeying the small temple of Malin and refused to surrender.
Chapter completed!