What Madame Mary meant was that she felt that these literate wandering knights were capable of serving as Adler's quartermaster, and then their lives would definitely be worry-free. Although it is certainly not as good as those knights who have obtained fiefs, the future county of Wicklow will definitely be a well-lived official family.

And these wandering knights who can write and calculate, even if they are not good at martial arts, they must have received systematic knight martial arts training and know how to train their children. They themselves may not be able to perform the duties of knights because of their physical fitness. But not necessarily their children.

Like Hoffman Sr.'s four sons, only Adler and Simon were capable of performing the duties of traditional knights as required by knights. And Marin and Albert, strictly speaking, are not too qualified knights. Because, Marin's martial arts are also common among knights. If Marin and Albert encounter this kind of knight tournament, not to mention that they will be eliminated in the first round, they will definitely not make it to the end.

In fact, Marin was favored by Emperor Maximilian I not because he passed the selection of knights, but because he himself raised a team of mercenaries. It just so happened that Maximilian I needed mercenaries to fight for him to go south to Italy, so he took a fancy to Marin, a thin wandering knight who could train soldiers.

Those literate wandering knights may not be strong enough themselves. However, it is also possible for them to give birth to strong sons, as long as they marry a strong wife......

What's more, no matter how weak they are, they are still good at martial arts. Even if you haven't beaten the elite veterans of the Beihai Kingdom, you are better than ordinary soldiers. In addition, they can write and calculate, and can not only serve as quartermasters, but also as infantry commanders. For example, you can be an infantry company captain or something......

In the German mercenary world, many mercenary officers are actually from wandering knights. Many wandering knights will first look for opportunities to become official knights of the Quarry, after all, the knights of the Quarry are considered true nobles.

However, if they run into walls everywhere and feel that there is no hope of becoming a full-fledged knight, many wandering knights will choose to become infantry officers of mercenary regiments. Because, after all, these knights were educated in a certain amount of military command ability and knew how to command a team of men.

And, most importantly, these wandering knights have a certain level of education, can read military orders, and their ability to carry out orders is much stronger than those civilian mercenaries who can't read a single word.

Therefore, Lady Mary suggested that these wandering knights, who were barely educated, should be taken and taken to County Wicklow, Ireland, to serve either as quartermasters or infantry commanders. Even, it can be used to make up the number for civil officials.

……

After the examination, Adler personally invited these dozen wandering knights with a relatively good level of education and invited them to serve as quartermasters or infantry officers in his county. Even, when there is no war, you can serve as a civil official.

And after thinking about it, these dozen or so wandering knights also agreed to Adler's invitation. Because, they also know that their martial arts are too poor, even if they go to other places to find opportunities, they may not be able to become official knights. In this case, it is better to follow Adler to become a quartermaster or infantry officer. Anyway, that's a way out, and it's better than having nothing to do right now. And some of them, already financially strained, need a job to support themselves, including their horses and attendants......

……

After the first round of selection, the next round is the official competition of the second round.

But before the competition, Marin asked the judges to test the basic riding skills of the remaining 1,200 wandering knights, and then score and rate.

Why? The main thing is that Marin wants to get to the bottom and have a general understanding of the strength of each wandering knight, so that it is convenient to group.

Marin intends to divide these wandering knights into four tiers according to the habit of the Champions League group stage in the future. Then, the lottery was broken up and the groups were divided according to the method of 4 people in each group and one person in each of the four grades.

Then, according to the method of the Champions League group stage in later generations, the four people in each group played a foot battle and a horse battle against each other. Among them, horse battles have higher points than foot battles.

In this way, after the group stage, the top two qualify, and then play against the top two of the corresponding group to enter the knockout stage of one of the two.

However, there were more than 1,200 participants, and there were more than 300 groups of 4 people in each group, which was spectacular. Then, more than 600 people who qualified for the tournament will fight against each other and have a knockout game of choosing one of the two.

……

As for how to divide the four gears, the way Marin gave the division is also very simple and rude - in the process of foot combat with ordinary elite veterans of the Beihai Kingdom, while defeating the opponent, the faster the person who ends the battle, the higher the points, and there are also extra points if he is not injured.

Then, in the basic test of horse warfare, they will ride on the war horses and plate armor prepared by the North Sea Kingdom, charge with a horse spear, stab the heads of the 5 straw men along the way, and gain a certain number of points.

Finally, according to the addition of the points of foot combat and the points of the basic test of horse warfare, the total points are obtained, and the grades are divided according to the number of points, and the wandering knights are divided into four grades. Then, the draw will be divided into groups and the top two will qualify.

……

In official knightly jousting, the scores for horse and foot battles are not the same. The points of horse combat are twice as many as those of infantry combat. After all, this is a contest for the selection of knights, not for the selection of infantry. Therefore, the points of horse battles should account for two-thirds of the total number of points.

In this way, in fact, the winning side of the horse war is equivalent to winning.

However, horse battles may not be able to distinguish winners and losers, because horse battles belong to knight hedging operations. But in order to ensure the safety of the knights, hollow riding guns were used. Moreover, Marin forbade attacking the heads of war horses and knights. Moreover, the knight hedge only has 5 chances. After each hedge, the riding gun will be changed once, regardless of whether the riding gun is broken or not. The 5 rushes are over, but if someone falls before the 5 rushes, the winner will be divided. If the 5 rushes are completed and both sides are evenly matched, it depends on the results of the foot battle.

……

The reason why Marin forbade stabbing his opponent in the head during the competition was because he was afraid of casualties. In the original history, King Henry II of France stabbed his Scottish guard in the head in a knightly tournament in 1559, resulting in his death.

In fact, the mounted rifle that stabbed Henry II in the head was also a wooden lance, and a hollow lance made of unsturdy wood. But the problem was that the eye of Henry II's helmet was open, and after the head of his wooden spear of the Scottish chief of guard hit Henry II's helmet and broke, a piece of wood happened to pass through the eye slit of Henry II's helmet, piercing Henry II's eyeball and deep into the brain. Because of the poor medical conditions at that time, the wound was seriously informed, and Henry II not only broke an eyeball, but also suffered from sepsis, and eventually died.

Therefore, even if Marin's Beihai State has disinfection methods such as alcohol, it will not help in the face of that kind of injury. Even in the 21st century, brain damage is difficult to treat.

Therefore, for the sake of safety, Marlin forbade knights to stab their opponents in the head during battles, even if they were protected by helmets. Moreover, even if neither side was knocked off their horses in the cavalry battle, wouldn't there still be infantry combat results......

……

In this way, after dividing the groups and explaining the rules of the competition in detail, the group stage of the second round of the knight tournament officially kicked off......