The combat effectiveness of professional knights is very strong, after all, people have been practicing martial arts since they were children, and they have been practicing for more than ten years. In the face of conscripts, there is no problem with one hitting ten.

But the problem is that we have now transitioned from the era of cold weapons to the era of hot weapons. Faced with the musket, the knight was saddened. And, most importantly, the cost of a professional knight is too high.

In the mercenary sequence, an infantryman is paid 3 pfennigs per day. And a wandering knight from a knightly family earns up to 2 shillings per day, which is equivalent to 24 phennys, which is 8 times that of an infantryman. This is still the lowest rank of wandering knights, those knights with titles, as well as high-ranking officers, are paid more.

Moreover, if a professional knight dies in battle, the loss is too great. After more than ten years of hard training and the accumulation of a large number of resources, once he died in battle, the loss is difficult to measure in money.

Therefore, Marlin has always been reluctant to form a large-scale army of Plate Knights. In addition to the cost issue, there are also some losses that cannot be afforded. You know, these professional knights come from noble families and generally have read books. Not to mention how smart he is, but at least he is literate and more suitable for being a grassroots officer. Instead of letting those professional knights charge as cannon fodder, it is better to arrange for officers to be infantry.

As for the cavalry, Marin had already thought about it - he planned to recruit civilians as the main cavalry force......

Europe is different from East Asia, and in East Asia, except for the northern grasslands, several countries in East Asia are mainly agricultural, and mainly cattle. Although the cost is low, the problem is - it is difficult to find someone who can ride a horse.

In ancient Europe, it was different, because of the popularity of horse farming, many farmers in Europe knew how to raise horses and could ride horses. Therefore, it is much easier to find a farmer who can ride a horse in Europe than in China.

As long as they can ride horses, and then be brave and obey commands, Marin can completely let them put on a cuirass, control the reins in their left hand, and hold a spring cavalry gun in their right hand, and attack the enemy line in a dense wall-like formation.

Unlike the traditional rough benzene riding spear, which requires the knight to have the "unicorn arm" that he has practiced since childhood, the spring riding spear does not require much strength on the right arm of the cavalry, as long as it can be grasped. As for the recoil force, there are springs that remove most of the recoil force. Therefore, ordinary and strong civilians can also hold the new spring cavalry gun. Unlike the traditional bulky riding gun, it cannot be controlled by professional knights who have practiced the "unicorn arm".

Moreover, a cavalryman from a civilian background did not have the courage to ask for such a high salary. While the salary is certainly higher than that of an infantryman, it is definitely not more than eight times higher than that of a professional knight.

In this way, Marin was in a position to form a large-scale cavalry. The main force of tens of thousands of people rushed out of the cavalry, who in Europe could stop it? Belch...... No, it seems that Poland in the 16th century was able to gather one or two thousand hussars...... This also made Poland, which had hussars, from being beaten by the Grand Duchy of Moscow in the 15th century, and later becoming a hundred years of hanging and beating Russia, until there was a Peter I in Russia......

The reason why the Poles were able to explode so many hussars was because Poland was a country with many feudal nobles and a very large knightly class. As a result, there are many knights to form a large hussar.

Marin's country obviously doesn't have that many knight families, and it doesn't need so many knights who have broken their territory. The cuirassiers, composed of peasants who could ride horses, were far inferior to hussars in individual combat, but they were not necessarily unable to hedge against the Polish hussars because they had spring-loaded lances suitable for high-speed charges and wall charges that were more suitable for decisive battles.

Moreover, with spring-loaded lances that could be used repeatedly, these peasant cavalry did not need to be as familiar with the use of sabers as the Polish lancers. Because, because the Polish lancers did not have springs as buffers, the riding guns were often out of their hands, so they needed to be proficient in the use of swords. The peasant cuirassiers under Marin's command did not necessarily need to be proficient in the use of sabers because the spring lance was not easy to get rid of......

What's more, this kind of cuirassier lancers, which are composed of farmers who can ride horses, even if they die in battle, Marin is not very distressed. It's a big deal, let's recruit another batch. Unlike hussars, they all came from Polish aristocratic families, the kind that trained martial arts since childhood. The last batch of deaths is absolutely distressing, and it is painful to replenish in time.

Sometimes, the question of cost can determine the future. Are English longbowmen worse than musketeers? Apparently not. But the cost of training longbowmen is not much cheaper than that of knights. And the musketeers, who take a batch from the peasants and train them, can be sent to the battlefield to be cannon fodder - this is how the bow and crossbow were replaced by muskets...... The training costs of the two sides are completely incomparable......

……

While Marin was racking his brains to plan the future cavalry, a large group of German nobles in Worms, far away in southwest Germany, also convened an imperial conference against Marin under the guidance of Frederick III.

It was an informal imperial council, as it lacked remnants of the aristocracy of Austria and the pro-Austrian Swabian Union, as well as pro-Marin forces such as the East Friesland and the Cleaver Duchy of Marin. Of course, there was also a lack of the Electorate of Brandenburg, where the boss was captured.

Frederick III was a cunning old politician, and in his speech at the extraordinary meeting, he desperately put Marin and Maximilian I together, trying to prove that Marin was a hardcore lackey of Maximilian I, and that Marin was as strong as Maximilian I......

In order to resonate with the princes, Frederick III also enumerated the current misery of the French nobility - empty of position, but without power, all according to the mood and face of King Louis XII......

Sure enough, the German princes, who were instigated by Frederick III, had a kinship. In order to prevent themselves from becoming as nominal as the French aristocracy in the future, they began to hate Marin as they hated Maximilian I, who tried to unify Germany. A good temporary imperial meeting was called an "anti-horse conference...... Frederick III even suggested that they send an army together against Marin......

Of course, not everyone of these summoned German princes listened to Frederick III. At least, Hermann IV, Archbishop of Cologne, was not fooled by Frederick III.

This is because, Hermann IV, from the previous events when the Bishopric of Münster was ceded to Marin, deeply felt the preference of His Holiness the Pope for Marin.

Perhaps, a secular aristocracy like Frederick III could have been less concerned about the influence of the pope. But as a religious figure, Hermann IV had to consider the reaction of the Holy See. Therefore, he refused to support the formation of a coalition to defeat Marin......

Hermann IV's statement represented the attitude of the bishops of northwestern Germany. Soon, the bishops of the Northwest rejected the proposal to unite the use of troops against Marin.

After the bishops of the Archbishop of Cologne vetoed the proposal to use troops against Marin, the religious princes who had calmed down remembered that Marin had a great deal to do with the Pope, the boss of the European Catholic Church......

If he supported the whole of Germany to form a group to beat Marin, he might offend His Holiness the Pope......

His Holiness the Pope may not have much to do with those secular princes, but with religious princes, there are ways. A random excommunication can bring the religious princes to an end. Without Christian status, secular princes were also great nobles with aristocratic blood. As a religious prince, you may fall from heaven to hell in an instant......

As a result, even the Archbishop of Mainz Jacob and the Archbishop of Trier Jacob (both called Jacob, but not the same person) gave up their proposal to support the group beating of Marin......

Relying on the influence of the Pope's father-in-law, Marin unknowingly escaped the fate of being beaten by all the German princes......

When the religious princes were numerous, and they were all opposed to the use of troops against Marin, the matter naturally came to an end.

However, everyone also knows that Marin cannot be allowed to expand aggressively. Otherwise, the alliance of the princes against the emperor may be broken by Marin.

So, although they will not form a group to beat Marin. However, it is still necessary to put pressure on Marin. In addition, the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, which were important members of the opposition to the emperor's unification of Germany, were also to be preserved.

Then, the princes repeatedly consulted about how to exert political pressure on Marin to force him to abandon his occupation of Saxony and Brandenburg......

And all this, Marin, who is in Denmark, does not know...... He didn't know that because of the relationship between the pope's father-in-law, those religious princes had given up their terrible plan to use troops en masse against Marin......