You must know that the salary expenses of an army are definitely a large expense. For example, a soldier in the North Sea Country, with a daily salary of 3 pfennig, has an annual salary of 1095 pfennig, which is equivalent to 18.25 gold coins. If there is an army of 10,000, not counting the high salaries of officers, the salary expenditure of 10,000 soldiers in a year is more than 182,500 gold coins.

If 10,000 troops are stationed overseas, it is estimated that the annual salary expenditure alone will cost more than 200,000 gold coins. But if you use a large number of slave armies of slaves, it is different.

Black slaves have no wood, and if they are fed, they will be gracious, and they still want wages? Are you kidding? The cost of raising 10,000 mercenaries is very different from raising 10,000 black slave servants. You can save a lot of money just on your annual salary.

As for the grain...... Marin felt that the black slave soldiers stationed in the Americas could just eat potatoes produced by the local Indians, and there was no need to transport grain from the mainland. That thing is high-yielding, hungry, and nutritious, making it a good military ration. Don't you see, the soldiers of the early Kingdom of Prussia fought by eating potatoes at the beginning, and they were fierce.

When the time comes, those black servants will be able to meet the army's food needs as long as they drive the local Indians to plant potatoes in large quantities near the barracks.

In this way, Marin can maintain an army of tens of thousands of people at a small cost and control the regions of Mexico and Peru. And don't worry about these black servants standing with the Native Americans. After all, they are different races and do not speak the same language, so it is difficult to collude together. Then, Marin's rule over the Americas became more secure......

As for the problem of the poor combat effectiveness of blacks, it is not a problem either. Just as King Chaka strengthened the combat effectiveness of the Zulu army after reforming the tactics of warfare, as long as the weapons and equipment and tactics of those black slave soldiers were improved, the combat effectiveness could be greatly improved. Not to mention that it can confront European armies, at least there is no problem in suppressing the indigenous Indians.

For cost reasons, Marin did not plan to equip the Black Servants with iron swords, but planned to learn from Chakazulu and equip the Black Servants with short spears with metal spearheads. Then, equipped with another shield.

The shields used by the Zulu army of Chaka were very light Zulu cowhide shields. This shield could withstand the throwing of the earthen javelin of the stone spearhead of the black Africans at that time. However, the protection of the bow and arrow against the metal arrow is relatively weak, and it cannot stop the bullets of the British army.

But Marin felt that using cowhide as a shield seemed to be a bit costly. Moreover, cattle are valuable animals and cannot be slaughtered at will. So, he planned to equip the Black Servants with wicker shields......

The so-called wicker shield is actually woven into the shape of a shield with wicker, which is just a flattened willow basket. Because wicker is cheaper, the cost of the prepared shield is also low, at least lower than the cost of the cowhide shield.

As for the question of whether there is willow in the Americas, it is nothing, it is a big deal to introduce the weeping willow to the Americas. The willow tree is tenacious, and the willow is planted in the shade of the willow unintentionally, which is very easy to plant. When the time came, the Marinites planted willows all over the Americas, and the source of materials for wicker shields was abundant and cheap.

The wicker shield, though unable to hold off muskets, is sufficient to withstand swords and ordinary bows and arrows (except for heavy crossbow arrows), which is sufficient to suppress the resistance of the native Americans. Moreover, it is not as heavy as a wooden shield and is easy to carry. When it's okay, you can still carry it on your back like a willow basket, and it's not heavy.

With a short spear with very little metal and a low-cost wicker shield, this equipment is also quite shabby. But it was enough for the more shabby natives of Indians, who also had no good weapons. And the short spear with the head of the spear open the blood groove is also very easy to use to stab the resistant. And if it is to suppress the people, you can also choose not to use the spearhead, but to use the spear body as a stick to whip the people who are not convinced...... If it escalates into an armed rebellion, it will no longer use the spear to stab, but will instead use the spear to stab......

Marin's plan was to station 1,000 German soldiers and 5,000 servants in the Aztec Empire in Mexico, as did the Inca Empire in Peru. In total, he would need to send 2,000 German mercenaries and 10,000 black servants.

In normal times, German mercenaries were only stationed in the capital or in a critical place like the Potosí silver mines. The black servants, under the command of white officers, dispersed to maintain law and order. At the same time, it supervises the labor production of the indigenous Indians. For example, supervise their mining or something.

Although Marin will not let 8 million Indians die in the Potosi silver mine like the Spaniards in the original history, it will not let the Virgin leave such a large silver mine undeveloped. Therefore, the expropriation of Native American mining is inevitable.

However, Marlin will try to improve the living standards of the miners. In addition, masks and dust-proof eyes will be distributed to the miners to protect their health as much as possible. At the same time, he would set up a mine hospital to treat the miners who were sick. Instead of throwing sick miners away and freezing to death and starving to death, as the Spanish colonists did.

Marin estimated that the Potosi silver mine would need hundreds of thousands of miners by then. At that time, it may be that the black servants alone will need tens of thousands of people. Otherwise, you won't be able to control the field.

In other words, at that time, in addition to the 2,000 native warriors and 10,000 black servants needed to control the local area, the Potosi silver mine and some other silver mines alone will need about 10,000 black servants. Counting, Marin needed more than 20,000 black slaves.

If you buy it with the Portuguese, according to the calculation of 40 gold coins for a black slave, the cost is as high as 800,000 Gulden gold coins, which is simply a sky-high price!

But if you buy slaves directly from the Songhai Empire, it will be so cheap that you will die! In Timbuktu in the Songhai Empire, the price of local black slaves was a little more expensive than in Senegal, but it was also very cheap.

In a "frontier land" like Senegal, a pound of cane sugar or two pounds of salt can be exchanged for a black slave. In Timbuktu, it was a sack (about 112 pounds) of salt for 10 strong prisoners of war, that is, 11 pounds of salt for a slave. The price is more than 5 times more expensive than the Senegalese side, but it's also cheap.

You must know that 11 pounds of salt is worth 22 pfennigh in the Beihai country, which is equivalent to 0.367 gold coins. Compared with the Portuguese price of 40 gold coins and a black slave, it is more than 100 times cheaper......

The black slaves on the Senegalese side were cheaper, but Senegal was only a "frontier land" in West Africa at this time, and the population was very small. Although black slaves were cheaper, they were too few in number. Eschwein used that low price to exchange only a few hundred black slaves from the local area. No way, when the population is like that. Moreover, prisoners of war appeared only after the clash of clans. Moreover, many prisoners of war were killed with unruly medicine, leaving only the honest and obedient part. In this way, Eschwein can exchange for hundreds of black slaves, which is already good. Only the trading center of the Songhai Empire, such as Timbuktu, could be exchanged for thousands of black slaves at one time. If you want to exchange for 20,000 black slaves to train into a servant army, you can only go to Timbuktu. Moreover, the total cost of 20,000 black slaves is more than 7,000 gold coins, which is very cheap......