King of German Mercenaries

Although it was decided to cultivate oriental medicinal materials in a glass greenhouse, it was not urgent. Because the temperature is very high right now, there is no need to use the greenhouse at all.

Moreover, Marin's side is also under conditions. Because last time he brought back 50 glass craftsmen from Venice. However, he lacked an important raw material for making glass - soda.

Soda is a very important raw material for making glass, because the main material of glass, quartz sand, if not put in soda, the melting temperature is as high as 1700 to 2000 degrees. And if you add soda, it will drop to about 1000 degrees, and you can do it on a wood-fired stove.

Right now, Venetians use wood-fired stoves to burn glass. Actually, this is impossible. Although, coal stoves burn glass, and the temperature is higher. However, there are no coal mines in Italy...

On the British side, there are many coal mines, but the glass industry is underdeveloped, and the benefits of burning glass with coal have not yet been discovered. It was not until the 17th century that the British discovered that it was better to burn glass with coal.

Here in Marin, there is no shortage of coal, and quartz sand can also be purchased. It was soda, which was very lacking. Soda is generally produced in the desert areas of West Asia and North Africa. Because soda is sodium carbonate, which is easily soluble in water. The European climate is humid and naturally lacks natural soda. Only the saline-alkali lakes in the desert area are rich in this stuff. The Phoenicians who first discovered glass were people living in Lebanon on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Where they are, next to the desert, it is not difficult to get natural soda...

Now, because the Venetians dominate the Mediterranean, it is not difficult to buy natural soda in the Middle East. As for other parts of Europe, if you want to make glass, you can only rely on alchemists to extract soda ash from plant ashes.

The Venetians later declined, in addition to being robbed of business by two teeth and blocked by Ottoman Turkey, it was also an important reason.

Ottoman Turkey would occupy Egypt in 20 years, and Egypt is currently an important source of natural soda in Venice. As soon as the Turks blocked it, it was difficult for the Venetians to do business. Later, it was hard to come up with a glass mirror that saved the commercial decline, and the technology was stolen by the French. Therefore, without the technical support, the maritime trade was robbed, and the natural soda production area was occupied by the Turks, and the Venetian business inevitably declined.

As a college student of later generations, Marin also studied chemistry in middle school, and he also knew about the "Hou's combined alkali-making method" - however, this is of no use, because in the Hou's alkali-making method, the most important raw material One gas, ammonia, was unavailable to Marin in large quantities. The synthetic ammonia thing, but the technology of the 20th century, requires top-level industrial equipment to get it.

Lu Branfa and Marin also know it, but using the Lu Bran method requires a lot of investment, and requires specialized chemical talents...

In fact, I am not afraid to invest in Damalin. The most important thing is the lack of chemical talents who can control the reaction. So, this can only be put on hold for the time being.

Of course, that's not to say that Marin doesn't make glass anymore. However, this matter has to wait first. After a while, Marin will send someone to Venice to buy cheap natural soda produced in the Middle East, and buy him a lot at a time, enough for a year or two...

However, that matter is not in a hurry. What Marin is most worried about at the moment is the issue of military training...

The 2,500 fighters before were all trained. However, Marin has recruited 2,500 more people in the past few months, making up 5,000 people. Moreover, the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war captured before, Marin suddenly wanted to cheat, and he did not return it for the time being.

Anyway, the nine Frisian aristocrats who fled to the Principality of Gede Company are now too poor and have no money to support these 1,000 people. Therefore, Marin intends to bring them as cannon fodder and join the team to attack East Friesland.

In this way, Marin will be able to make up an army of 6,000, even if it is just facing East Frisian,

It's no big deal. In particular, among the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war, there were 200 heavy armored swordsmen, who were very good at charging and street fighting, and were suitable for taking the lead.

Of course, there are many problems with this. The main problem was the lack of training for the 2,500 recruits and the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war.

Although it is said that the Frisian prisoners of war are all veterans, they are all veterans of the old feudal army, and their military discipline is very poor. And Marin's army is a new era army with strict military discipline.

Marin is quite confident about training the 2,500 recruits recruited from the German countryside into a new type of army. But Marin lacked confidence in training the 1,000 Friesland prisoners of war.

Because those people are all veterans and have their own set of ideas and war concepts. Marlin goes to train them, they may not hear it.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Marin decided to use strict military law to discipline and restrain the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war. Anyway, under the pressure of 2,500 Texel veterans, that group of people would have to weigh in if they wanted to resist.

As a result, under Marin's arrangement, among the original 2,500 veterans, the most ingenious group was selected to train the 2,500 recruits and 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war.

Among them, the veterans who went to train Frisian prisoners of war were all people with strong aura. Because, in the face of a group of veterans, it is easy to be passive because of insufficient aura.

Moreover, Marin also set up the Military Law Division for the first time, and directly placed the sticks of the Military Law Division on the side of the training ground, ready to hit the military sticks at any time...

The establishment of the Military Law Division has made the already well-behaved recruits more honest, and there is basically no thorns who dare to make trouble. And the 1,000 Frisian veterans came out to resist, but they were quickly stripped of their pants and beaten with a military stick... Even if the group of veterans wanted to make trouble, they had to look at the 2,000 Texels standing beside them. veteran……

Marin arranged for a total of 500 veterans to help with the training, while the other 2,000 stood by, all fully armed, watching from the sidelines. In fact, this group of people came to the scene to guard against the chaos of the group of Frisian veterans.

Seeing the murderous 2000 veterans, the Frisian veterans who only have training sticks in their hands, naturally can only swallow their breath. Even if you want to resist, you have to see if you can beat the 2000 Killing Gods on the side...

The 2,500 recruits were trained differently than the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war. Because of the 2,500 recruits, Marin planned to form two Spanish phalanxes, which required a lot of use of muskets. The 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war were trained according to the requirements of the Cold Weapons Unit. Because they are also the cannon fodder responsible for the charge.

Marin can predict that the battle in Emden, the capital of East Friesland, must be a very brutal street battle. The 1,000 heavy armored swordsmen in East Frisian Country are not vegetarians either.

If you accidentally let the enemy's heavy armored swordsman rush into the musketeers, it would be absolutely bad. In the face of the fierce heavy armored swordsmen, the musketeers who have no melee capabilities will definitely suffer great losses, and may even be in chaos.

The role of the 1,000 Frisian prisoners of war was to allow them to withstand the heavy armored swordsmen of East Frisian. Then, the musketeers under Marin can hide behind them and let loose their cold shots leisurely. Even if the heavy armored swordsman wears chest plate armor, so what? In front of the Mushkert musket, knights in full plate armor also kneel...

Of course, there was a very complicated project that made Marin scratch his head. That is the problem of coordination and unified command of the four large square formations.

Before, Marin only commanded a phalanx, which was naturally simple. If it is replaced by two square arrays, the command is not complicated. Two square arrays, one on the left and one on the right.

But it's a bit more troublesome to replace it with 4 square matrices. Because the formation of the four square formations has become a big problem...

For example, on the battlefield of this era, the battle formation is generally divided into three wings: left, middle and right. If it is three square arrays, it is naturally easy to arrange. But with the extra square, Marin didn't know where to put it. Because, he has never commanded a large corps to fight...

After thinking about it, Marin suddenly thought of the legendary "reserve team". Since the beginning of modern warfare, people seem to be accustomed to using reserves on the battlefield.

The role of the reserve team is huge. For example, if the left flank is defeated by the enemy, if it is not rescued in time, it may be torn open by the enemy, leading to chaos in the formation and a rout of the entire line.

However, neither the right wing nor the main force in the center are very suitable for rescue. Because, as long as the middle part or the right wing sends people to rescue, its own defense power will be greatly reduced, and it may be attacked by the enemy.

Therefore, the best rescue force is actually the reserve team. The reserve team didn't have a mission to begin with, so when you see that it doesn't work, just go and replenish it. Moreover, if the enemy has one wing that can't stand it, the reserve team can also pull out to increase the output and defeat the part of the enemy that can't stand it.

Thinking of this, Marin finally established the arrangement of 4 Spanish phalanxes - the oldest phalanx, commanded by himself, sits in the middle; the second veteran phalanx, commanded by Schwartz, is responsible for the left flank; then, Among the two newly recruited phalanxes, a better phalanx was selected, and Frenzberg was in charge of the right wing; and for the last phalanx, Marin had not yet figured out who to lead. However, that was a reserve team, ready to be used for support.

As for the 1,000 Friesland prisoners of war, Marin only intended to train them in street fighting skills. Because, after the East Frisian fight, Marin intends to return them to the Frisian nobles, let them mess with the Duke of Saxony, and it is best to mess up West Frisian upside down...

UU Reading Books welcomes all book lovers to come and read, the latest, fastest and most popular serial works are all in UU Reading Books! Mobile users, please read.