But after leaving the Black Forest, Marin discovered that prey began to decrease sharply...

Why? Because Marin entered the agricultural area in southern Germany. The southern part of Germany is relatively warm and the agriculture is also developed than the northern part. The population here is denser and has a higher degree of development. Higher development means that there are fewer natural forests and fewer wild animals.

On the way to Vienna, Marin and the other two wanted to repeat the same trick. Unfortunately, in the densely populated area, there were few wild animals, and the hunting of nearby hunters made Marin no longer able to catch prey every day.

Sometimes, it takes two or three days before Marin and the other two can catch a prey. Even this prey may be just a hare, not enough to make a living between Kahn's teeth...

In order to subsidize food expenses, Marin began to find roads close to mountains and forests. After all, the southern German area is a place with more mountains and more wild animals.

But this also has its disadvantage, which is that it caused the three of Marin to be robbed by a robber. But these robbers really couldn't get on the table. When Marin plucked up his courage and charged over with a rifle and picked the robber's head away, the robbers were so scared that they ran away.

Marin, who realized the problem, no longer put all the weapons and armor on the wheelbarrow when he was rushing, but put his breastplate on his body. But Marin felt that the regular Gothic plate armor breastplate was too restricted to the waist, which was not convenient to bend down or turn around, avoid the other party's spear or rifle. Because of this, the battle between knights often had their own rifle, colliding with each other like robots, which was very mechanical.

So he found a blacksmith who was good at making armor and asked the blacksmith to use cold forging to create a piece of two-thirds of the breastplate worn by the French breastplate cavalry during the War.

This type of breastplate only protects the key points and does not protect the waist. But at the same time, it also frees the knight's waist and can bend over and turn around and move flexibly. Moreover, its structure is also very simple. In fact, it is two cold-forged and strong iron plates in front and back, strung together with ropes and hung on the shoulders. Then, the piercing area below is tied with a rope.

Then, Marin asked the blacksmith to create a cavalry knife with handguards similar to that used by European cavalry later. The reason for creating a cavalry knife was to deal with emergencies.

Because Marin's plate armor and rifle are usually on a wheelbarrow. When encountering a walking robber, Marin still has time to put on his armor and pick up his rifle. If he encounters a quick impact from a bandit riding horse, he may not even have this reaction time. Therefore, pulling out the cavalry knife at his waist becomes the best choice.

The cavalry sword that adopts the standard cavalry knife style in later generations has a straight blade, which can be assassinated or chopped, which is more convenient and practical. Moreover, this knife also looks very beautiful.

As for Kahn and Kohler, Marin bought them two spears. At the critical moment, they asked them to stab the enemy with the spear.

But Marin didn't expect that after Kahn got the spear, he did not stab the robber, but stabbed a wild boar to death...

One day, while on the way, Malin and the other two suddenly encountered a wild boar that had no idea what kind of nerves were. The wild boar rushed towards Malin's mount quickly, which scared Malin a little at a loss. Just pull the saber, the wild boar's chassis is short and it is difficult to cut. It is too late to go to the car to get a rifle.

At the critical moment, Kahn stood up, raised his spear, and stabbed the wild boar hard. Once he failed (because the wild boar skin was too thick), Kahn stabbed it hard for the second time. Finally, before the wild boar hit Makar, Kahn was stabbed into the vital part of the battle, and began to roll and wail on the ground.

After reacting, Malin quickly dismounted and pulled out the cavalry knife to finish the boar... Then, the boar was sold for a good price.

Given that Kahn was loyal to protecting the master, Marin gritted his teeth and took out 1,800 shillings from his private vault, bought a strong big black cow, and then bought the carriage and rigs of a small four-wheeled carriage.

In this way, Kahn has become a ox cart driver from a porter who promotes a wheelbarrow...

Similarly, this strong bull has a big temper. Marin used the same trick again and tamed the strong bull with strong liquor and copper nose ring. Later, this big black bull named "Li Chen" by Marin became a cart-pulling cow.

Sadly, Kahn seemed not very good at driving a ox cart. However, the thin Kohler quickly got started driving a ox cart. Then Kahn went to ride a ox cart. Kohler began to drive the ox cart. While Marin named the big black calf, he also named it Dallas in a bad way...

Seeing Kahn riding a bull with a spear, Marin suddenly had a bad idea and planned to train Kahn into a "Cow Cavalry". Then, he began to teach Kahn how to ride on the back of a "horse" with a rifle and a spear.

So, the confused Kahn began to learn how to be a "bullock knight" based on Marin's trick...

When the three of them arrived in Vienna on May, Kahn had learned to ride on the back of a cow and use a spear to poke people. Even the calves he rode Dallas could cooperate with Kahn to launch a trot charge in a short time...

In the contemptuous look of the guards of the Vienna city gate, Kahn rode a cow, holding a spear, and followed Marin into the city of Vienna with a proud look. That was like he Kahn had become a real knight...

As for Kohler, Fan Ye possessed him and whipped the big black bull "Li Chen" in a low-key manner, drove the ox cart, and followed the two of them...

After entering Vienna and finding a hotel to settle down, Marin excitedly asked about the emperor's recruitment.

But what disappointed Marin was that the emperor had no plans to recruit mercenaries recently...

As early as 1487, Maximilian I recruited a German mercenary of 15,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry. His leader was Frederick II von Hohenzollern's family.

However, there is a problem with this, that is, in this era, almost all emperors, kings and dukes in Europe were in a bad financial situation.

Even if he was the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I could only rely on Austria controlled by the Habsburg family and the newly controlled Principality of Burgundy to collect taxes to support the huge family and even larger mercenary corps.

These 15,000 infantry and 1,500 knights have already made Maximilian I's finances tight. With no war yet, Maximilian I will not expand his army.

Moreover, Austria and Burgundy, under the control of the Habsburg family, received not all taxes to support the army. A large part of the taxes were also used to support the huge group of officials in both places and nobles of all classes. The Habsburg family itself alone had a bunch of members of the aristocratic family to support. Otherwise, the emperor's finances would not be so tight.

In addition, for Hanseatic commercial cities and other imperial cities within the Holy Roman Empire, the emperor could temporarily impose war taxes according to the agreement between the two sides during the war.

Because the independent status of these commercial cities was specially granted by the emperor. Therefore, in return, when the emperor launched a war, they were obliged to provide the emperor with certain military expenses.

However, this money is not that easy to get. If the emperor fought a war against foreign invasions (such as the Ottoman Turkish invasion), these cities would provide certain taxes without hesitation. However, if the emperor fought an internal hegemony war, these cities might not be willing to pay taxes. Or, even if the tax is paid, they would still be discounted, or they would be slow to pay taxes. At the same time, during war, the emperor could temporarily increase taxes in Austria and Burgundy under the control of the Habsburg family for war.

But the daily taxes in Austria and Burgundy were difficult to support this mercenary. Before the war, the emperor had no financial resources to expand his army.

This is the drawback of the European fief system - taxation does not belong to the central government, but to the lords of various places. This makes the central dynasty more difficult and there is no money to support too many troops. Unlike the feudal dynasty in China, all finances were returned to the court since the Qin Dynasty, which gave the Chinese dynasty enough financial resources to support hundreds of thousands of troops. It seems that Europe did not start to establish a stable and unified modern tax system until the end of the 17th century. Then, by the 18th century, the European national war was no longer a small scale of tens of thousands, but a large scale of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands...

Marin recalled the history he learned in his previous life and found that although King Charles VIII declared sovereignty over the Kingdom of Naples at the beginning of the year, he had not assembled enough troops to invade Naples.

It seems that Charles VIII only assembled 37,000 troops to enter Italy at the end of August this year. At present, Charles VIII's envoy is probably still recruiting mercenaries in Switzerland.

The news of Charles VIII's preparation for the military should have reached Vienna, but it will probably take a long time for Vienna to make a decision to respond to the war. You should know that the Holy Roman Empire was a country similar to the aristocratic parliamentary system. Whether to fight with the French is probably a long time to argue with the imperial parliamentary. The main core is that if the emperor wants to fight, he needs to expand his army. To expand the army, war tax is required, commercial cities need to temporarily impose war taxes, and even the dukes and earls from all over the country are obliged to contribute some money to the emperor during the war. But for this little money, it is estimated that there will be no result if there is no argument for a few months.

Of course, those nobles did not feel sorry for the money. They were just afraid that the emperor would become stronger by expanding the army and then deal with them. You know, this is a criminal record. The French king had done such a thing. Since Philip IV, the French king began to suppress the princes and even confiscate the church property. Philip IV, the money was even in conflict with the Pope because of the "tith tax" collection issue, and directly sent people to kidnap the Pope to Avignon, France. It was precisely because this money had kidnapped the Pope away, and Italy had no constraints on the Pope within a hundred years that the Renaissance began... Of course, this is far-reaching. In short, if those nobles really support the emperor, they will inevitably get angry in the end and will lose the privilege of autonomy. After all, the emperors are ruthless...

According to memory, the "Sacred Alliance" that opposed France's invasion of Italy seemed to be established in March 1495. At that time, the Holy Roman Empire really joined the war.

Therefore, Marin can be sure that the Holy Roman Empire is unlikely to expand its army recently. Even if it expands its army, at least it will only passively expand its army after the French army officially entered Italy in August.
Chapter completed!