85_85536 The mercenary unit of the profession is not easy to mess with, and the standing army units in this country have not yet taken shape. The national mobilization system is even more unknown in the era in which it is located, and the mercenary units almost represent the highest military level of this era. This point, William is naturally very clear.

However, the same William also knew another point. That's the weakness of the mercenary force.

Money.

Yes, one of the biggest weaknesses for mercenaries is "money".

For them, war is not war, war is "buying and selling". They sell their force in exchange for money. Mercenaries in this era are generally not cheap. Fighting a war is a very expensive business. Once the employer's money is spent, the mercenaries who have no integrity in scientific research will not hesitate to turn back.

Other than that, it's loyalty.

There are good mercenaries in this world who abide by the contract, have the spirit of the contract, and will abide by the contract until the death. There are also bad mercenaries who eat the upper house and the lower house.

But all mercenaries, without exception, are loyal to money. They don't have any special affection for their employers. It is very likely that you will stand at Party A's place against Party B in the morning, and stand at Party B's place against Party A in the afternoon. This uncertainty creates mutual distrust between buyers and sellers.

The third point is to preserve strength.

Although in this era, Bern's elite mercenaries can create a terrifying victory with more than 50% casualties on their side. But generally speaking, mercenaries who treat the army as a trading capital will never be able to withstand such high casualties. Yes, as a rule, they do not collapse, but they retreat.

The fourth point is weaponry and combat tactics.

Yes, for the mercenaries who regard war as a business, the "cost" of the transaction is naturally controlled.

Of course, for the members of the mercenary group, a group of old soldiers, they naturally dare not treat them badly. However, on the other hand, in terms of "cost", that is, weapons and equipment, they have done a lot of work.

Mercenaries naturally know that part of their lives are pinned on these weapons and equipment, but at the same time, the inferior nature of being a businessman also makes them extremely reluctant to buy new weapons and equipment, and reject the upgrading of weapons and equipment.

This creates a strange phenomenon. That is, the mercenaries do a very good job in terms of weapon maintenance. At the same time, there is not the slightest interest in buying new weapons.

Today, for example, the Starlight Corps, which is preparing to fight against the new Circassian army, is armed with only 500 arquebuses and two outdated three-pounder bronze cannons without gun carriages and gun carriages, mainly used to attack some civil fortifications, and is not very effective against stone castles. The rest of the main force, most of which were spearmen, was also a cavalry company and about a company of archers and skirmishers.

The backwardness of weapons and equipment indirectly leads to the backwardness of the tactics of the mercenary troops. Unlike William's new army, which used musket salvo tactics. The opponent is still using a phalanx tactic that combines spears and muskets. Compared to the new army, it is an era behind.

This was the reason why William dared not to retreat, and dared to fight against a mercenary force with sufficient combat experience and roughly equal in numbers with a new army that had been trained for less than three months.

He was confident that he would teach these backward, old-fashioned, and extremely well-behaved enemies a lesson that he would never forget.

Therefore, William, who had enough confidence, was naturally very dissatisfied with the panicked shouting of the merchant John, who jumped up and down. At the same time, I feel very harsh and ugly. I thought to myself, "If it's in some buzzing era, I'm absolutely going to blow you up for spreading GM pessimism." ”

But of course, there is not only a gap of hundreds of years between this era and that era, but also a dimension. William couldn't do without the help of this bastard businessman now, so even the necessary beatings and even threats and intimidation were indispensable. But at the same time, William also has to take care of this guy's affection a little.

"No, not at all. William replied. At the same time, the wording was carefully considered - if at this time he was told something like, "My army is very capable of fighting, and the other side is not our opponent at all," then the other side would certainly not accept it.

It's like before this, before he saw William's parade, William would not believe him no matter how much he explained to him that his army was fighting well.

This kind of unimaginative person will not believe in things that have not been proven, or that there are no examples.

So, William gags him with a "proven" answer:

"My father, Baron Otto von Hereford, will be involved in this battle. William said to John, the merchant. Then he was rather upset to see the merchant John with an excited, eager expression on his face, and no longer asked him whether the war would be won. At the same time, he asked William to confirm where Baron Otto was now. At the same time, he said that he hoped to meet this hero of the era of the Great Frontier War immediately.

This made William even more unhappy. The reason has already been said before, similar to the feeling of an adolescent rebellious son who wants to be independent from his parents. But of course, John the merchant is here, and he can't see Baron Otto. The Baron is not here now, he will only show up when the war really starts.

That's it, William stabilized the merchant John with his father, Baron Otto. At the same time, the Red Knight was equally fearful of his enemies, Jelic of Vitra and Perchberg of Sandomitz.

In fact, from the very beginning, Earl Jerich was hesitant to intervene in Baudelaire and make enemies of the Hereford family. Unlike the more aggressive Pelchberg, the more cowardly Count Jerich, one does not want to have too many things, and the other is afraid of Baron Otto.

He had also participated in the Great Frontier War, and had the experience of fighting alongside Baron Otto. In that skirmish, he watched as Baron Otto defeated the group of cowardly centaurs who were theoretically "impossible to defeat" with one sword.

In the end, this group of centaurs who generally possessed knight, quasi-knight-level strength were frightened, scared, and retreated. After paying for nearly fifty lives, the remaining cowardly Xue Jun dropped the weapons in their hands, threw away their helmets, ripped off their armor, and fled as if they were crazy.

And after that legendary battle, facing the blood, it profoundly explains where the title of "Red Knight" came from.

It was after that, like many Mazovian nobles who had fought alongside Baron Otto, that Count Jelic was very conflicted with the red knight.

First of all, because of his knightly education, he recognized Baron Otto, and could even say worship Baron Otto. But at the same time, as a nobleman and an earl, his heart was full of jealousy, suspicion, and fear for the rise of such a powerful figure.

He was afraid of Baron Otto, afraid that one day he would turn his head against himself with his magnificent swordplay, which the centaurs he had once killed could not resist. And when he knew that Baron Otto's final fief was on his side, this fear increased to the limit.

When he first became a neighbor with Baron Otto, he was terrified. He demanded that his knights, and his courtiers, never go north, and never do anything provocative against the Barony of Hereford. He was afraid of angering Baron Otto, giving him an excuse, and then being killed by him like those centaur cowards.

Under such circumstances, the Barony of Hereford remained stable for more than two years.

But, just like William had secretly slandered more than once. His father, Baron Otto, had the appearance and skill of a hero, but he was an incorrigible romantic at heart.

In the years that Barony Hereford had settled, Baron Otto had not shown the slightest hint of aggression or aggression. This made his neighbors breathe a sigh of relief, and at the same time began to have certain unrealistic fantasies.

The first to do it was the "enemy" of the old version of William mentioned earlier. Michael of the Corno family.

Like Baron Otto, the elder Baron Corno, who was canonized for the border war, was a narcissist. Self-righteous believe that there is no difference between a baron and a baron. And you don't need to be afraid of Otto anything.

So, he stupidly started a war, and then as a matter of course, he failed. Losing a large part of the territory and losing face at the same time. If it weren't for Baron Otto's scruples and failure to kill them all, the Corno family would have withdrawn from Mazovia's political stage by now.

And now, this "stupid" and "about to retire from the stage of history" seems to have become Jelic again.

"Why should I listen to you, why should I fight that guy? He's going to cut my head off. The best thing I should do now is to stop this crazy war and apologize to him. The guy is actually a good talker. And I served in the same army as him. I just have to pretend to be pathetic, and he will definitely forgive me. ”

That's it, in the castle, in the barracks, on the march. It doesn't matter if it's someone or nobody, intentionally or not. Count Jerich was always muttering to himself. The appearance of suffering from gains and losses made Pelchberg, who was in the same company, very annoying.......