King of Mercenaries

Outside Den Burg, the Spring Ploughing was being executed at a large scale. By utilizing the bend plows and the 1000 draft horses that Marin already owned, the development speed of the fields was quite quick.

During the times the fields were being plowed and sown, Marin had cultivated 2200 morgens of new farmland, as well as fertilizing with manure and sowing down rye seeds.

Of course, in order to feed the horses, 200 morgens of that land would be planted with oats. Because horses ate a lot of oats (Note: At this point in time, Europe had no soybeans which were better for feeding the horses). One must know, that was a whopping 1030 horses. During this period of time, just to purchase oats had costed Marin a lot of money. The good thing was Marin was wealthy enough, so he didn’t end up bankrupt. If it was some other small Manor-owner, the feed for 1000 horses would definitely bankrupt them.

Under Kohler’s leadership, there was a constant stream of soldiers’ kin arriving. The adobe houses were quite functional, and wouldn’t have problems housing a family. One must know, most serfs in current Europe were living in straw-bale houses that would get blown away when the wind picks up, or start leaking when it rains. The poor people could not afford bricks, neither could they afford wood. In reality, most houses of the poor people were basically propped up with firewood and dried straws, then covering the outside with some mud. Those dilapidated houses were much much worse compared to the standard Adobe houses Marin had constructed.

However, the adobe houses seemed really ordinary, and was very earthy, and it was obviously a place where only poor people lived. Only after painting the exterior with some lime, did it look better.

But what Marin was thinking, besides the adobe houses being more practical, there was also the consideration of cheap costs and quick construction. If it was a standard and official brick-laid house, he had to send someone inland to purchase bricks, hire a bunch of masons, which was a waste of both time and money.

As for Marin himself, who lived in the castle, he actually didn’t find it comfortable at all. The castle was different from the manor, the manor had great natural lighting, the windows were all opened up, with plenty of glass around. As for the castle, due to concerns of security, the windows were really small, akin to lookout holes and shooting slits.

That’s why, the lighting within the castle was very dim, which made things really gloomy. In some places of the castle interior, they needed to have a light or light up a torch in the middle of the day, otherwise they would have trouble seeing.

Luckily, within the main building at the center of the castle, the room on the third floor facing north had good lighting, and the window could be opened quite widely. But what made Marin wonder was, the glass window seemed really odd…

Why did it seem odd? It turns out, although the windowpanes of the window were without a doubt glass, but, from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem that uniform. Because, the windowpanes were pieced together by smaller pieces of glass. Each piece of glass was roughly several palms wide.

After asking about it, it turns out that in this day and age, glassware were all blown out by the glassblowers. And the glassblowers were unable to produce glass plates with a large surface area… A thought suddenly entered Marin’s head, “Rolling Method” was a technique used to produce large and wide glass plates… however, he did not have any ideas of making glass at the moment, neither did he know anybody in that field, that thought was just a brief revelation…

Marin had once promised that he was going divide the farmland to the soldiers under his command. As such, one morning after the Spring Ploughing had ended, Marin ordered Schwartz to gather the soldiers…

“Brothers, before, I had promised to distribute land to all of you. Now that the Spring Ploughing has ended, it is also time for me to deliver my promise!”

Once hearing that, the soldiers underneath his command stared fervently. However, due to strict discipline and habit, they did not make much noise.

“However, all of you must also know this, we do not have much land on this island, even I, the baron, had spent a lot of money to purchase 800 morgens of farmland. Including the new farmland we had just developed, the total only comes up to 3000 morgens…”

“After some consideration, I have decided to distribute 2000 morgens of farmland to all of you, after averaging it down, each family would gain 5 morgens, do you have any complaints about that?” Marin asked.

Once the soldiers received the “At Ease” command, and could answer him, they all shook their heads, to express their lack of complaints. Are you joking? Marin only had a total of 3000 morgens of land, and he was offering them 2000 morgens of it, what could they say about that?

In this day and age, the nobles who were willing to share the loot with their soldiers were already considered the nice ones.

Let alone Marin, who had just split two-thirds of his land to share it among his soldiers, what more could they ask of him? This was in the middle ages, not like the modern age, it was considered a ‘grace’ whenever nobles would share things with their commonfolk counterparts, as that wasn’t something they were supposed to have.

5 morgens, roughly 10 acres each, would come up to about 60 mou of land. After careful calculation, that was not a small area of land. They can’t be ambitious about the land, but it would have no problem feeding a family of people.

One must know, Marin had promised publicly, that those 5 morgens of land were privately owned by the soldiers’ families. Also, whenever the soldiers are mustered, they were exempted from all taxes.

Of course, they still needed to pay their own tithes to the church.

Even after their retirement Marin would only tax them 10% of what they produced. Which also meant that the remaining 80% of profits belonged to themselves. This was completely unimaginable in current Europe.

One must know, Europe in the current times tax serfs and homesteaders really heavily. Forget serfs, whose majority of profits get taken away by their local lords, only left with basic rations and few supplies. Even homesteaders needed to pay land-taxes which went for at least 40% (Refer to German Peasant’s war). That wasn’t all, the Lords (non-serf owners) would sometimes apportion exorbitant taxes, fishing and hunting needed to pay taxes, which were both taxed heavily. That’s why, the hunters in the middle ages actually weren’t that well off. Previously when Marin had been hunting in the Black Forest, that was actually considered poaching. However, since they were on horses, they came and went without a trace, by the time the local Lord heard about their arrival and came chasing for their taxes, they were already long gone. Besides, the several underlings that Marin had brought with him screamed knight however they looked. A small-time Lord would not offend someone like that easily. If they back a wandering knight into a corner, someone would definitely get hurt. And those small-time Lords were also people that preyed on the weak and feared the strong.

60 acres of land, if one acre produced 150 catty of rye, that would be 9000 catty of rye, which would weigh about 10,000 pounds. Keeping 80%, that would be 8000 pounds of rye. 8000 pounds of rye! How many people could that feed? In one whole day, a family of a few people could only consume several pounds of rye, right?

Assuming each family had five members, even if all five of them were all big burly men with large appetites, the maximum one person could consume was 2 pounds of rye, right? In reality, that was nearly impossible, because the rye bread that poor people made contained many different weird things. For example, wild vegetables, wild grass, some even mix dirt and sawdust…

That’s why, the average family would be more than sufficient with a few pounds of rye to make bread, as they would mix in other stuff within. There was 365 days in a year, and that would only be several hundred pounds of rye consumption. What about the eight-nine thousand pounds of rye, how much could they make selling it?

Those burly soldiers started spreading their fingers out and counting, then, they ended up happier the longer they counted. As if they had just seen the infinitely bright future ahead of them.

“It’s too early to be happy soldiers. That 5 morgens of land only belongs to you if you continue to serve me with all your being. If, any of you flee on the battlefield, know that I will be confiscating your land…”

Hearing that, everyone’s heart tightened. If they really wanted that land, then they cannot run away in wars. However, wasn’t the reason why they came selling their lives, was to make their families’ lives better? If their land gets confiscated, how would their family survive?

“Boss, what if I die in battle? What happens to my land?” A soldier asked.

“If you fall in battle, or get crippled in a war you are fighting for me, then this land would belong to your family forever. Also, they would be exempt from Lordship taxes for 20 years. Once 20 years has passed, they would continue paying the 10% of farmland tax, they won’t pay anything more, neither will there be miscellaneous taxes. As for the Church’s tithe, that is not within my jurisdiction. However, if you fall in battle, and your family is temporarily unable to pay the tithes, I will help them pay it…”

“Those… are very good conditions…” Many people were moved. In reality, those who step into the world of mercenaries had long prepared themselves to charge into their deaths, so they were not afraid of it.

Their only fear was, after their death, nobody would look after their families. With Marin’s promise, that had obviously settled their worries.

“Boss, I have a question…” A soldier raised his hand.

“Speak…”

“I don’t actually care if I die, just… just…”

“Just what? Speak your mind!”

“Just that I haven’t gotten meself a wife, and I don’t have any children.” The young men spoke with a blushing face.

“Hahahaha…” Everyone started laughing. However, what that soldier said was good. Back when Marin was selecting his soldiers, he had chosen poor, young men who had not married, or were unable to afford to marry, so everyone was actually ina a similar situation…

“That won’t be a problem, since I did promise to help you guys find wives. How about this, wait until I’ve finished my current tasks, then I’ll think about ways to help you guys find wives…”

“Oh yeah! Long live the Boss!”

“Stop wasting breath, now come on up, it’s time to draw lots for your land!” Marin pulled out a box, inside it were all coded letters, which represented the land that was being marked…