King of Mercenaries Chapter 201

Published at 14th of June 2023 05:21:41 AM

Back at Marin in Denborg, in addition to arranging Kohler to go to Venice to collect money, he also bought a batch of second-hand Kirk sailing boats. Mainly, Marin couldn't wait for the new ship.

Because, Marin decided to launch an attack on East Friesland after the autumn harvest ...

Kohler had already taken two warships to Venice, so Marin suddenly lost two big ships. Therefore, Marin had no choice but to send someone to the United Kingdom and Denmark to buy several second-hand ships of more than 100 tons.

These ships are mainly used to load war horses. Unlike pretending to be a person, people are fine in an ordinary boat. But horses are different. Horses are huge and heavy. An ordinary boat cannot carry horses. Some boats and war horses move a little on the top, which will easily cause capsizes.

In this attack on Texel, Marin is preparing to land with 400 horses. Although, horses are not required to attack Emden. However, in order to prevent leakage of news, Marin decided to bring 400 cavalry to land, mainly used to intercept messengers and delay the time of news leakage.

Although, of these 400 horses, only a few dozen are serious war horses, and the other horses are all horses. But those horses, which are the second best horses of the French breed after the war horses, are barely used as war horses, anyway, they are not for charge. And the horses that ordinary messengers ride are no better than these horses. Therefore, using these horses to intercept messengers is enough.

You know, in this world, there is no shortage of muddy water fishers. For example, the last time Marin maimed the Frisian aristocratic republic, let the Duke of Saxony get the news, and then the Frisian region was picked.

This time, Marin never wanted to be picked. Therefore, after intending to capture Emden, he quickly dispatched troops to control the East Frisian border to prevent people from taking the land. Especially to the west, it is the site of the Duke of Saxony. If this old product sees Marin in action, he may send troops to grab food.

Of course, it is said that the nine Frisian nobles have begun to trouble the Duke of Saxony. To this end, Marin thought about it and sent a letter to the nine people, suggesting that they send troops and horses to grab food during the autumn harvest.

In the agricultural era, food was an extremely important material and wealth. Even food is fundamental to a country. Whoever robs another country's food is tantamount to shaking the national base of another country.

When the autumn harvest comes together, these nine goods will take people to grab food in southern Friesland, which will certainly attract the attention of the local Saxony garrison. The usual harassment is not necessarily ignored by those garrisons.

However, during the autumn harvest season to grab food, the Saxony garrison had to come out to stop it. Otherwise, if there is insufficient food, it will affect social stability.

When the main Saxony garrison leaves Groningen, a place close to East Friesland, Marin can safely attack East Friesland.

As for whether the nine idiots will obey his plan, Marin can be sure. Because the nine Frisian nobles have little money now. And they have to feed hundreds of soldiers and horses, and even plan to expand their army. Therefore, grabbing food in southern Friesland during the autumn harvest is the best option.

At this time, the grain was still in the field and was not sent to the solid city, which was very easy to snatch. With grain, those nine goods were able to support their army and had the opportunity to expand. The autumn harvest season is their best opportunity to grab food.

...

Marin also started to arrange the autumn harvest in full swing ...

In this era, European food varieties seem to be inadequate. Regardless of wheat, rye or barley, it seems that the growth cycle is very long.

For example, wheat is generally planted in November of the first year, and then harvested in July and August of the following year (this is true, not by the author). Growth cycle, up to months.

Marin knows that the growth cycle of winter wheat is indeed longer because winter wheat grows extremely slowly. But he remembered that the wheat in his previous home was generally harvested in May, and it was more than two months earlier than the medieval European wheat.

Rye and spring wheat are also the same. The previous home of Marin, spring wheat was planted in March and April, and harvested in July. However, the rye varieties of Europe in this era were also planted in March and April, but they were not harvested until October ...

Such a long growth cycle makes it almost impossible for European crops to grow twice in one year. Even in southern Europe, which is best suited for two crops a year, it can only be done once a year because of crop varieties.

However, Marin knew that the use of potash and phosphate could promote crop growth and flowering. Therefore, crops in the Wadden Islands to which potassium and phosphate fertilizers are applied may have earlier harvests than other regions.

Sure enough, after mid-September, rye and oats in the Wadden Islands began to mature. In other parts of Europe in the same period, rye was still young ...

Marin intends to launch an attack on East Friesland after the autumn harvest, but if the autumn harvest ends early on his own side and the autumn harvest ends late, there will be a great advantage.

Because in the autumn harvest season, the young and strong in the general country will be scattered in their respective farmland to harvest wheat instead of gathering in the city.

Therefore, in the autumn harvest season, even if the Count of East Frisian is attacked and successfully sends a message, it is difficult to gather enough reinforcements in a short time. Because the young men are scattered in the farmland in the countryside, how can they gather so quickly? By the time the young men gather, the daylily is cold ...

Therefore, Marin decided to grab the rye and oats from the Wadden Islands as quickly as possible. Then, while the East Frisian was still alive in the field, he quickly sent troops and hit him unexpectedly ...

In order to grab the grain in the field earlier, Marin ordered 6000 soldiers to go down to help harvest wheat ...

These soldiers, except those who were apprentice knights from the grandfather's family, were all farmers. Because in this era, the urban population was small. The soldiers recruited by Marin are basically farmers' children. Therefore, harvesting wheat is very familiar to these soldiers ...

With the help of 6,000 soldiers, the harvesting speed of the wheat fields on the island was greatly accelerated. Then, just in October, when other areas were just beginning to harvest, the wheat fields on the Wadden Islands were all harvested. Also, all rye and oats are dried in the granary.

Finally, a statistical result scared everyone ...

It turned out that after using enough potassium and phosphate fertilizers, plus the original nitrogen-containing manure, this time, the average acre yield of rye in the Wadden Islands reached 450 pounds. This is also because many grain fields on the Wadden Islands are newly reclaimed and the land is not fertile enough.

You know, the cultivated land on Texel Island has even reached 600 pounds per mu. For those newly cultivated habitats, the yield per mu is only about 400 pounds. But even so, the 400-pound yield is enough to be proud of this era ...

(The raw land and mature land here is an informal saying in the countryside. Generally, the land that has been planted for many years has a lot of rotting material and is easy to grow. The newly cultivated land may not be fertile. High yield. Not to say that high yield can be achieved as soon as it is cultivated. Some overly barren soils may need to be improved for years or even decades to become fertile soils suitable for cultivation. Generally speaking, the more rotting materials, the more fertile the land. To a certain extent, it becomes black soil ...)

But Marin knows that this is the reason for the poor variety of food in this era. If the variety is good and the fertilizer is sufficient, it can produce thousands of pounds per mu.

Of course, Marin is not a student of agriculture and does not know how to cultivate high-quality varieties. Moreover, for the times, the yield of 400 pounds per mu is very scary, and it does not need to be higher.

And in order not to scare others, Marin ordered strict confidentiality and banned disclosure of food production data on the Wadden Islands. And the 27 (Burkman went to Cork) new trainee knights, Marin did not let them participate in the autumn harvest, but paid for them to go out for a lap. Therefore, they do not know the grain production on the island.

Because these people haven't returned to their hearts yet, aren't they their own, would Marin tell them the secret? Among the 6000 soldiers, although many people may leave in the future, these soldiers were not present at the time of statistics. Therefore, the soldiers could only feel that the Wadden Islands had a bumper harvest this time. But to what extent did Feng receive these illiterates, UU reads www. uukanshu.com obviously does not have an intuitive understanding ... You know, even if the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of less than 100, these illiterate soldiers have to pick their fingers for half a day and let them estimate the yield per mu, it is too difficult for them ...

Moreover, as soon as the autumn harvest was over, Marin immediately ordered the army to assemble for the final drill-landing on the beach at night.

Landing on the beach, the soldiers are already very skilled, but land landing on the beach at night, and everyone is not very comfortable. After all, most people are not used to it at night. Moreover, Marin banned them from using torches ...

However, probably because of eating too much fish, no one in Marin's 6000 has night blindness, but it is very convenient for night battles. Marin thought about it. It is probably that the poor people in ancient China ate rice and wheat and lacked vitamin A. Europeans eat more meat and fish, and drink milk, naturally they do not have these problems.

Marin recalled the 27 trainee knights who went to Amsterdam for a final training with everyone. It won't be long before they can launch an attack on Emden. Even Sauer and the reconnaissance troops led by him have been sent to East Friesland in advance. Their task was to monitor the Counts of East Frisian and prevent them from leaving, which caused Marin's army to fall into the air. In addition, he will monitor the garrison in Groningen. Once they leave Groningen and hunt the Frisian aristocracy's rebels south, the opportunity for Marin to come ...

Chapter end