Chapter 6 Riding and Archery Is a Skilled Work

The next morning, Marin got up and finished washing up, grabbed a piece of black bread that didn't contain soil, gnawed on it, simply filled his stomach, and went out for a walk.

Last night, Marin thought about it in the middle of the night, and became more determined to take refuge in the Emperor Maximilian I of Shinra. Because, although Maximilian I was a poor man, as an emperor, he could give himself a high enough position.

As a time traveler, and I have read so many time travel novels, I have a lot of ways to make money in my mind. But in this era when the aristocrats are rampant and domineering, without status, no amount of wealth can be kept.

Therefore, Marin needed to rely on the emperor to obtain a high enough social status to prevent others from coveting his wealth. And how to obtain social status (that is, title)? It's simple, good luck!

As a graduate of the history department, Marin has read Western history and knew that in the "Thirty Years War" in the 17th century, there were two genius military strategists from humble backgrounds who became great nobles by virtue of their military exploits - Wallenstein and Tilly.

These two bosses are all from ordinary declining families of small nobles, not the children of big nobles. However, with the help of commanding the mercenaries to fight for the great nobles, the two bottom gangsters in the aristocratic world were stunned that one became a duke (Wallenstein) and the other became an earl (Tilly).

Marin may not have the same talent as Wallenstein, but there is no problem with Tilly, who only relies on a set of "Spanish phalanx" to play the world. At least, he knows how to play the Spanish square. The original author of the Spanish phalanx, General Córdoba, had to wait until 1503 to find out the prototype of the "Spanish phalanx" that has been running for more than a century. And this tactic, Marin is very clear.

Even, Marin also knows the Dutch Morris phalanx, which is more powerful than the Spanish phalanx, and the Gustav line array, which is close to the modern battle array.

As for the artillery tactics of taking the dwarf, let alone. The tactics after the mid-19th century were useless. Because, there are no such advanced weapons. After all, Marin is a liberal arts student. Although he is also good at science, he is not a major. So, at best he gets a flintlock or something. If he wants to get a rear-loading gun, he can't solve the technique of primer. This technology requires professionals in chemistry to solve...

Of course, the above is purely Marin's YY. If you want to display your "talent", you must first infiltrate the mercenaries recruited by Maximilian I. Otherwise, nothing is possible.

To infiltrate the German mercenary army formed by Maximilian I, you must first arrive at Vienna, the home of the Habsburg family.

After recovering Austria from the Kingdom of Hungary in 1490, Maximilian I moved his office from the Duchy of Burgundy to Vienna. Although the emperor often stayed in Innsbruck in western Austria, many important matters were still handled in Vienna. The big event of recruiting soldiers must also be done in Vienna.

Now, to join the army, you must go to Vienna. However, from Bonn to Vienna, it is about 800 kilometers away, which is more than 1,600 miles.

Marin was now wearing heavy armor and carrying a huge knight's spear. Although Carl is a good war horse, but with such a heavy load, he can only walk more than 100 miles a day at most, and he can stop and go, otherwise he can't bear it.

In fact, ordinary plate knights will bring 5 attendants when they go out to help themselves with armor and knight spears. Before the war, he was also responsible for putting on the plate armor for the knights and helping the knights on the horses. Fortunately, Marin didn't have plate armor pants, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to do it himself. Because plate armor pants, after all, are all metal, they are cumbersome and inconvenient, and they are a great hindrance for the knight to mount a horse.

Marin calculated that it would take at least ten days for him to arrive in Vienna. And the less than 1,000 Finneys left in his hand were simply not enough. Because he lives and eats by himself,

It takes about 15 pfennigs a day (usually about 5 pfennigs are for meals, which is not bad). And the goddamn war horse Karl, who eats more than him, eats 10 pfennig of feed a day.

War horses are very delicate. If the war horses are allowed to eat grass for a month, and if they are not given feed to supplement their bodies, they may not be able to carry knights in heavy armor. Because the fodder for war horses is mainly oats (soybeans were not yet available in Europe at this time, and soybeans were still in East Asia and India, and would not be introduced to Europe until the 18th century), and occasionally they had to beat a few eggs or something. These things were relatively expensive in medieval Europe, where agriculture was backward...

Marin is not a person who makes a ticket and then sits and eats. In order to reach Vienna smoothly, Marin decided to try hunting along the way to improve his life.

After all, Marin in his previous life often took a homemade English longbow to go hunting in the mountains behind his hometown during the holidays, and he had good archery skills.

After making up his mind, Marin began to pay attention to those shops selling bows and arrows when he was shopping in Bonn...

After walking a few streets, Marin soon found a weapons store that sold bows and arrows. Looking at the dazzling array of bows and arrows in the weapons store, Marin frowned.

why? Because the shop does not have the English longbow that Marin is most familiar with. Marin later made an English longbow himself and used it to hunt many times in the mountains behind his hometown. Therefore, for bows and arrows, Marin has only been exposed to one, and only one is proficient - the English longbow. Although Marin did not use yew wood to make the English longbow, but a very common Chinese willow wood, but Marin was used to using the English longbow.

The biggest difference between the English longbow and other bows and arrows is that the bows of other bows and arrows are forcibly bent and fixed, and then heated with fire to forcibly fix the shape. Although this method is more efficient to make, it will damage the tension of the bow body and reduce the range. If you want to get a higher range, you can only use a stiffer bow with a higher pull.

The bow body of the English longbow is bent by "bow taming". The wooden slats used to make the bow are fastened to a bracket, and then the ends of the wooden slats are tied with ropes. Next, the bowmaster would pull the rope and hang it at a node not far away, causing the slats to start to bend slightly. After a while, the slats got used to the bend, and then the bend...and so on, until the slats got used to the bend needed to make the longbow.

In fact, the secret of making the English longbow was, for a long time, a secret unique to England. Because, the English longbowmen are the trump card of the British. It wasn't until around 1596, late in the reign of Elizabeth I, that the British officially abandoned the longbowmen that the British's secret of how to tame the bow became widespread. But by then, Europe was already dominated by muskets.

However, the longbowmen were eliminated not because the longbowmen were incapable of killing, but because the training cost of the longbowmen was too high. An excellent longbow soldier may need to train for more than ten years, and at least a few years.

For example, Marin used the English longbow proficiently in his previous life, and it took seven or eight years for him to gradually become proficient in archery and hunting. At the beginning, Marin's archery was less reliable than the national football shooting. After all, he didn't have the guidance of a famous teacher, and he practiced archery by relying on online moves. Even the production of the English longbow was made by a post I saw on the Internet around 2006, and then I made it according to the steps on the post.

Longbowmen take so much time to train, but what about musketeers? Just a week or two of training will do. On the battle front, no matter how long you have been training, whether you are hit by bows and arrows or spears, you will still be killed or injured.

The British training longbowmen, the cost is very high. Even the longbowmen became the privileged class in Britain after the knight class. And every longbow soldier killed was a huge loss for Britain.

The musketeers were different. Any honest serf, who was caught and trained for a week or two, could use muskets to fight. Even if it is dead, it is convenient to replenish. The musketeers are dead, and the big deal is to get another group of strong men to train for a week or two. But if the longbowmen were destroyed as an organic land, they might not be able to recover for many years.

Moreover, the biggest difference between longbowmen and musketeers is that musketeers can deal with enemies in plate armor. The longbowmen, on the other hand, were somewhat helpless against plate armor. For a variety of reasons, the British eventually abandoned the longbowmen they had been proud of in favor of the musketeers.

However, the muskets shined, in fact, after the emergence of the Spanish phalanx in 1503. It's 1494, and the Musketeers have yet to emerge. Even arquebuses only appeared around 1450.

This year, it is not like later, technology can be promoted as fast. Matchlock guns have appeared for more than 40 years, and no one has noticed the excellent combat effectiveness of matchlock guns. Similarly, flintlock guns appeared in France at the end of the 16th century, but it wasn't until the mid-17th century that flintlock guns slowly became popular.

This is no wonder, you must know that the Middle Ages were still dominated by the church, all scientific knowledge was actually suppressed by the church, and the speed of technology dissemination was very slow. Moreover, new technological knowledge also needs to prove itself.

For example, the arquebus became famous and popularized in Europe after Gonzalo de Cordoba defeated the French army in the battle of Charinola by relying on a phalanx of spears and muskets. In the same way, the flintlock gun was not taken seriously by European countries until it made a big splash in the "Thirty Years War".

In Europe today, arquebuses are still a rarity. Even a city like Bonn has few muskets for sale. There are several shops that sell bows and arrows.

Moreover, the current steel technology in Europe is not good enough, and the manufactured guns always explode. For example, King John II of Scotland died in 1460 because of an artillery blast. It was not until the 16th century, after the further development of European steel technology, that the explosion of guns would be greatly reduced.

Because he didn't have the English longbow he was familiar with, Marin had to settle for the next best thing. He bought a recurve bow with a pull of about 60 pounds and 30 arrows.

In fact, whether it is the later Marin, or the current little Marin, they can all pull a 100-pound bow. Needless to say, Marin of later generations was a strong rural youth who did a lot of farm work, so he was very strong.

In this life, Marin, although only 16 years old, has been trained in martial arts by knights since he was a child.

However, Marin knew that a strong bow like the English longbow was fine for adults. If you draw such a strong bow in your youth, it is easy to cause bending and deformation of the posterior spine. For example, later generations have verified that some medieval English longbowmen had deformed their spines because they were trained to draw strong bows from an early age.

Marin's current body is still a growing 16-year-old boy. He didn't want his spine crooked because he used too many strong bows. Therefore, he chose a regular recurve bow with a 60-pound pull as his hunting weapon.

However, the original Marin did not remember how to use the bow and arrow, and the later Marin was only familiar with the English longbow. So it took Marin several days to get used to the recurve bow.

After testing, the effective range of this recurve bow is within 100 meters. However, the distance that can be aimed is only about 50 meters. It may not be powerful enough for killing enemies, but it is enough for hunting.

After becoming familiar with the use of the recurve bow, Marin left Bonn and started hunting with the recurve bow while rushing towards Vienna...

But what makes Marin extremely depressed is that for a long time, he has not hit his prey...

Why is this? It's very simple, Marin, who wants to learn Mongolian cavalry, come to mount and shoot or something. Then, there are cups...

Speaking of which, Marin's archery, in modern times, is very good. If you can hit the prey in the jungle, the arrows can be considered.

But, that's on the ground...

Moreover, Marin used to hunt, usually with bows and arrows, sneaking into the jungle, and when he saw unsuspecting prey, he made a sneak attack. This is basically equivalent to shooting a fixed target. For high-speed moving prey, Marin's hit rate is actually not high.

And while riding on a horse to shoot arrows... hey, I'm in tears when I talk too much...

Riding on a horse is a completely different concept than sitting in a car in the future. The car has shock absorbers and the road is flat. And riding a horse is a bumpy ride up and down...

Therefore, Marin, who wanted to play riding and shooting, clearly aimed at the prey, but the horses bumped up and down, and the arrows immediately hit the dead...

Moreover, he was riding a horse, and the sound of the horse's hooves inevitably alerted the prey, causing the small animals to flee in advance. On the other hand, Marin is only better at shooting fixed targets, but he is a little helpless when it comes to small animals that move at high speed.

For seven days in a row, Marin failed to hit a single prey with his riding shot. Fortunately, he had some savings from selling red deer before, otherwise, he would definitely starve to death. In the same way, it is precisely because of a little savings that he dares to play like this.

"It's really not easy to ride and shoot!" Marin looked worried.

Think about it, the Huns and Mongolians began to ride sheep and play slingshots at the age of five. When I grow up, it is basically equivalent to practicing riding and shooting for more than ten years. Even so, an "old driver" who has been practicing for more than ten years would not dare to say that he can hit the running prey steadily on the back of a high-speed horse, let alone a novice?

Therefore, although riding and archery are handsome, they can only be mastered by many years of hard training and some talent. For a half-hearted man like Marin, riding and shooting is basically betting on the odds, and the prey he shoots is the unfortunate person who deserves a disaster...

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