The Rise of the European Emperor

Chapter 349 English Mercenaries

Although the order to send 2,000 troops was issued, Marin understood that it was impossible for 2,000 people to stop tens of thousands of hungry people without the protection of the castle. After all, the coal mines have sufficient food, which will inevitably attract the attention and coveting of hungry people everywhere.

So Marin prepared to recruit some locals as auxiliary soldiers to guard the coal mine and the wharf together.

Newcastle's coal mines are mainly concentrated near the River Tyne. What Marin needs to guard is mainly the coal mines near the Tyne, and the area from the coal terminal on the Tyne. If the 2000 spearmen are only guarding the coal mine, there is no problem. However, guarding the distance from the coal mine to the wharf was not enough.

Moreover, Marin not only needs to hire the local coal miners to help him dig coal with grain, but also needs to protect the families of those coal miners.

Because Marin gave the coal miners food, they will definitely bring their families to eat together. But here comes the problem. At this time, Newcastle is full of people who are seriously short of food. Seeing that the women and children in the coal miners' homes have food to eat, it is inevitable that young and strong men will have the idea of ​​​​snatching.

Therefore, Marin still needs people to help protect the families of the coal miners. Otherwise, the safety of your family will not be guaranteed. Who has the intention to dig coal for you?

Even the families of the recruited auxiliary soldiers need to be protected together. To this end, Marin plans to use the model of a military camp to build a camp on the banks of the Tyne to house the families of coal miners and auxiliary soldiers.

When all the pits outside the camp were dug and the fences were full of wooden pickets, not to mention the hungry refugees, even the army could not easily break through.

As long as they give food and protect the safety of their families, Marin believes that there are many people willing to dig coal for themselves and protect the safety of coal mines and wharfs.

Even Marin didn't have to pay a salary. As long as those people and their families could have something to eat, they would be able to hire enough people. After all, what Marin lacks the most is food. In the northern counties of England, the most in short supply happens to be food. It is difficult not to take advantage of the things that are most in short supply and the things that are most urgently needed.

Even, Marin intends not to use pure rye bread to supply those Englishmen, but to use the famous "Kohler bread", that is, black bread mixed with 15% straw bran, to supply those who serve themselves. Englishman. Even so, it's much better than those black baguettes that are heavily soiled and can be used as bricks to smash people.

As for adding wild vegetables? Don't be ridiculous, Newcastle at this time belongs to the disaster area with severe shortage of food. It is estimated that the wild vegetables have been dug up by the refugees. If you can find wild vegetables, you are very good...

The transit of refugees is not much worse than that of locusts. Although Marin has never experienced a famine, in his last life he heard old people talk about the great famine of the last century. In those days, let alone wild vegetables, the bark and leaves were almost eaten, and grass roots were more commonly used rations.

In fact, that's not bad. The worst famine is the huge famine that swept the land of North China in the late Ming Dynasty. That was a super natural disaster that swept through half of China and destroyed a powerful dynasty.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, although the Ming Dynasty was weak, the social order was still good. Moreover, the life of the common people is OK. Although the Manchu Qing Dynasty worked hard to blacken the Ming Dynasty, according to the records of the missionaries who came to China to preach at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the life of the people of the Ming Dynasty was still quite good. At least, much stronger than the Europeans at the time. The Ming Dynasty was full of supplies, low prices, and social stability, so that some missionaries did not even want to leave.

Of course, the places where the missionaries set foot belonged to the southeastern coastal areas of Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which were the most prosperous places in the Ming Dynasty, and the northern areas should not be so good. After all, the Southeast region,

That's a good place for two crops a year. At the same time, in most parts of the north, many only had one crop a year, and the yield was much lower than that in the south.

The most important thing is that the hardest hit areas are the two "west" - Xishan and Xishan. The people of these two provinces are very aggressive. Not to mention Xishaan. In the old Qin people's territory, there are many brave people, and it is common for them to fight bravely. Without a way to survive, raising a flag to rebel is not a big deal.

And Xishan Province, that's not bad. In ancient times, there was a legend of "You and Ranger". This "Bing" refers to Bingzhou, which is Xishan Province. Who is a Ranger? That's a thing that draws swords and confronts each other as soon as they disagree. Does it matter?

It is normal for two provinces with such fierce folk customs to suffer large-scale famine and large-scale bandits. The Ming Dynasty deserved to be unlucky, failed to save the two Wests, and then let the people of Xishaan kill the emperor...

Thinking of the bandits in Xishaan, Malin suddenly heard a strong Shaanxi-style song in his mind, "His eldest uncle and his second uncle are his uncles, and the high table and low stools are all wood..."

In fact, the Ming Dynasty should also be unlucky, because the Liaodong Jurchen rebelled, and the Ming Dynasty spent too much military expenditure in Liaodong. When there was a massive famine in the two provinces of Xishaan and Xishan, let alone money and grain to go to disaster relief, even the army's salaries could not be collected. Chongzhen humbly borrowed money from the ministers, but as a result, he did not collect several million taels of military expenses. If I borrow the money for the military expenses, maybe the Ming Dynasty can last a few more years...

As for the dynasty that was also a strong civil servant, the Song Dynasty was financially rich because of its developed economy, mainly commercial development. Where did the disaster happen? No problem, come, send a few officers to recruit troops, and recruit the young and strong among the disaster victims into the forbidden army!

The young and strong of the victims are gone, how to rebel? Rely on the elderly and women and children? wash and sleep...

Therefore, because of the wealth, the Song Dynasty has never been a big problem for the victims. It's just that I finally met Mongolia who was hanging up, but I was helpless gg...

While the same civil servants were in power, the Ming Empire was very poor (mainly because there was no commercial tax), and the Liaodong region spent a lot of money on the Manchu Qing Dynasty, resulting in the country running out of money. The area is everywhere, and then, it was not destroyed by the "invincible Eight Banners" boasted by the later Qing Dynasty, but was destroyed by a group of bandits from Xishaan...

...

"Song Dynasty's method..." Ma Lin's eyes suddenly lit up...

England's life or death, Marin does not care. Even Marin wants England to be as chaotic as possible.

However, Marin is very concerned about the stability of the Newcastle area. Because, it is related to whether he can obtain a stable supply of coal.

Although, there are coal mines in the Ruhr area and Cape Breton Island. However, the large amount of coal shipped out of the Ruhr area will attract the attention of other princes, who will then discover their secrets. And Cape Breton Island is too far away, and it takes three or four months for ships to come and go, so transportation is really inconvenient.

Only coal from Newcastle, England, which is separated by the North Sea, is most suitable for the needs of the salt cooking base and cement plant on Baltrum Island. Not only the quantity is large, but the confidentiality is good. After all, when the collier goes out to sea, God knows where it will go? Want to keep track? I also have to ask Marin's captain whether he agrees with the telescope in his hand...

The only problem is the safety of the coal mines in Newcastle.

Now, Marin has money and food in his hands. Obviously, using the method of the Song Dynasty to recruit the young and strong among the disaster victims as mercenaries is the best way...

These young Englishmen, recruited as mercenaries, could not only be used to protect the safety of Newcastle's coal mines and coal terminals. The number of people is large, and they can also be pulled to Germany to fight. Even if it is not as good as a German mercenary, it is completely okay to be a cannon fodder. No matter how bad it is, training long spearmen is no problem.

Moreover, since Edward III promoted archery throughout England, it has become a fashion for the English to practice archery. Even, in order to give the citizens more time to practice archery, the English court banned people from playing football for a long time, just for fear of people "playing with things and losing their minds" and delaying the practice of archery.

Although there are not many people who meet the requirements of the longbowmen recruited by the king, there are many people in England who are good at archery. Therefore, Marin intends to recruit a group of young men with good archery skills to form an archer unit in England. Its main function is to partially replace the role of the musketeer on rainy days. After all, arquebuses are useless when it rains...

Right now, there are more than 300,000 refugees in the northern counties of England. Among them, it is not a big problem to select tens of thousands of young men who are suitable for war to become English mercenaries. As for recruiting some mercenaries, it will make the refugees less destructive to England, which is not within the scope of Marin's consideration. Ever since he heard that Henry VII ordered the army to block refugees in the Midlands, Marin knew that nothing would go wrong in England. Refugees can't have a big impact on England if they don't arrive near London. Therefore, it is better to recruit some young men from the refugees as mercenaries, so that they can serve as cannon fodder in wars...

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