There is an old saying in China, "It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but it is difficult to go from extravagance to frugality." Malin asked his subordinates to instruct his agents to invite the young and strong mountain people to banquet every few days, and this is also the case.

It is difficult for young people to avoid the temptation of "drinking a big bowl of wine and eating meat in large pieces". Before this, although these mountain people could eat meat frequently, because of the lack of salt, they all ate unsalted barbecue or boiled meat without salt, and the taste was not a little bit bad. In order to make salt, many mountain people would collect rock salt and extract the salty flavor. However, rock salt has many impurities and is mostly poisonous. Therefore, they should not eat too much.

Moreover, these poor young mountain people probably never sing the sweetness of sugar in their lives. After all, in this era, sugar sugar in Europe was very scarce. Although honey was also produced in Europe, it was all the lords and ordinary people could not enjoy it. In the Middle Ages, sometimes for a few boxes of bees, the two lords would even bring people to make appointments just to compete for honey resources.

However, if you join the Beihai Army, sugar is a common military material. Even milk candy that combines sucrose and milk powder will become a common military material in the future. What's more, there is a big killer in the Beihai Army - braised pork in a washbasin.

As long as these young people enter the army of Beihai, eat braised pork and various stir-fried dishes, and eat a few pieces of white rabbit milk candy every now and then... Most of the young people who are used to being poor are afraid that their feet will take root and will not want to leave. Those who are willing to leave are also those who are afraid of death, and Beihai does not need them. Maybe there are those who are not greedy, but few are.

People who have never experienced the lack of materials will never understand people's love for oil, water and sweets. For example, in the past life of Marin, in the early 1990s, people had a strong desire for meat, oil, water and sugar in the rural areas. How strong is it? It is so strong that a child will drool when eating candy, other children will drool. Kind children will also give everyone a piece of candy to lick each of them... That's unhygienic... But the children are very happy. The adults also have a virtue. At that time, the rural banquets, braised pork, big meat balls and big elbows and other hard dishes with oil and water were served on the table, and the elders took the lead and started, they would be swept away quickly. As long as they were slower, they would not be able to eat...

It was not until the late 1990s that the economic level improved that people became much more reserved and no longer snatched meat at banquets. In the 1970s and 1980s and early 1990s, when people were generally short of oil and water, meat and sugar were very popular. At that time, sugar tobacco and alcohol companies were a super hot unit. The positions in sugar tobacco and alcohol companies were the most popular. It was not until the 21st century that there were more diabetes and the positions in sugar tobacco and alcohol companies were coldly treated. Then, the tobacco and alcohol department became awesome.

But in this era, Bitamo China was still miserable in the 1970s and 1980s. Because, even if the people in the 1970s and 1980s were not full and lacked oil and water, they could still get some sugar and pork during festivals, but the amount was very small.

Europeans in this era, especially ordinary people, have no sugar at all. Most people may not be able to eat a bite of sugar in their entire lives.

Therefore, Marin was very confident that the soldiers of Beihai Kingdom could eat braised pork, stir-fried vegetables and sugar. Such treatment was definitely very attractive to ordinary people, especially mountain people who were having a difficult life.

According to many soldiers from the mountainous areas of southern Germany, they said that although they could hunt for meat in the mountainous areas of southern Germany, in addition to lacking salt, the success rate of hunting was also a big problem. After all, the mountainous areas of southern Germany are densely populated and there are many hunters in the mountains. It is also difficult to catch prey every day. If you don’t catch prey one day, you may have to eat grass. Or, use the leftover wild boar skin, deer skin and other soup that you had before hunting to taste some meat flavor.

Nowadays, most German princes are hostile to Marin and prevent the mountain people under his command from joining the Beihai Kingdom to join the army. Otherwise, it would be too easy for Marin to recruit tens of thousands of people. There is no need to pay high salaries. As long as the soldiers are willing to eat and drink enough every day, they can recruit a large number of mountain people to join the army.

Moreover, Kohler's spies also conducted a questionnaire among agents in the southern mountainous areas. What was the investigation? They first asked them to eat the powder of fried fish chunks and baked with rye flour that the North Sea country withdrew, and added sucrose and salt, and then asked them if they could accept eating this kind of biscuit often. The results showed that all the agents were satisfied with this kind of biscuit that tasted very good.

In fact, Marin was wrong. He always put it into the thoughts of modern people. Modern people will get greasy when eating a food every day because modern supplies are too rich and people have many choices. For the European poor in this era, it is good to be full. It is so hard that it can be used as a brick and mixed with a lot of soil and stones. Many people can't eat it. Not to mention that this kind of biscuit that tastes very good and is nutritious.

After receiving the feedback, Malin was both happy and depressed. What he was happy was that the military ration he had produced was low in cost, but it was very popular. But what was depressed was that most of the princes were very disrespectful and actually hindered him from recruiting troops.

But he didn't think about it. He was so capable of fighting, and letting him recruit tens of thousands of troops, which was to unify the rhythm of Germany... Even the princes who had no bad relationship with Marin had to consider the serious consequences of allowing Marin to recruit soldiers. Although these princes were limited by the times and had little vision, they were not fools. Even the emperor Maximillion I, who had a good relationship with Marin, would be worried that Marin was too powerful.

...

Just as His Majesty the Emperor was proudly leading the army step by step and marched towards Bern in a steady manner, a group of Italian mercenaries were passing through the Piedmont region, preparing to cross the Pass of St. Bernard and enter the Swiss region to help defend Bern. Obviously, this was the Italian mercenaries employed by the German princes to raise money to arrive...

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! "Italian mercenaries? Can they beat Austrian knights?" King François, who received the news, said in surprise.

At this moment, Charlie, Earl of Nantes, had a lit up and said:

"What a good idea, I can solve the urgent problem now!"

François I didn't quite understand:

"My dear, what's so good about this? Everyone knows that Italian mercenaries have average combat effectiveness, but they can't beat our French warriors, and they can't beat German mercenaries..."

Earl Charlie nodded, but said excitedly:

"Your Majesty is right, but that's what it means to be a field battle. Italian mercenaries are indeed not as good as French warriors, nor are they as good as German mercenaries. But there's no problem in defending the city!"

"Even if the combat power is weaker and the tall city walls are used as a support, this difference in combat power will be offset! I remembered that it seemed that Frederick's election had informed us before, saying that he would hire Italians to help defend Switzerland. At that time, we didn't agree. But now it seems that this is a great move!"

"The German mercenaries were stopped and could not come. Although the French warriors could fight, they would not wear plate armor and their combat effectiveness would be greatly reduced. After all, flesh and blood could not resist swords and firearms. The Italian mercenaries were different. As long as there were enough people, they could resist the siege of the Austrians!"

After hearing this, François I and other French ministers suddenly realized...

Indeed, before the French monarchs and ministers instinctively looked down on Italian mercenaries, but they forgot that in this battle, the Italians did not need to force the Austrian knights head-on. No matter how fierce your knight is, you cannot fly to the city wall. Without a horse, the knight's combat effectiveness will be reduced by half. It is difficult to climb the city wall in plate armor...

On the contrary, Italian mercenaries waited for their leisure on the city wall, and only needed to push the Austrians down the city wall...

"That's how these Italian mercenaries are still very useful!" François I said happily.

If you can use Italian mercenaries as cannon fodder and fight against the Austrians, you can also send fewer French warriors to fight against the Austrians. If the city is broken, those French knights will be in danger. Because they are pretending to be Swiss to defend the city, those French knights cannot indicate the identity of French knights and let the French kingdom redeem them. Once caught, there will be more danger. And Italian mercenaries will not be considered by the French monarchs and ministers.

"However, it seems that Bern does not have enough food to support so many troops, right?" John Lafite questioned.

"It's okay, I will send people to transport food to Bern, including a batch of weapons and armor. The longer the Swiss defended, the tighter the Austrians' finances will be. Over time, the Austrian's finances will collapse on their own, and we don't need to take action." François said proudly.

"But, how much does it cost for tens of thousands of people? Food is so expensive..." John Rafi knew Marin's plan, and still planned to make trouble for the Swiss.

Charlie, Earl of Nantes, smiled:

"John, don't worry, we won't be foolish in sending them pure grain. We can mix wood chips into the flour and save a lot of grain. Moreover, I heard that 30% of the Kohler bread in the North Sea is grass bran made of grated rye straw. We can also learn this trick, mixing enough wood chips, grass bran, and wild vegetables into the flour. In this way, we can save a lot of grain."

"Good idea!" French monarchs and ministers praised...

In this way, while the Italian mercenaries were still rushing, a bread that imitated Kohler's bread, mixed with a lot of grass bran, wood chips and wild vegetables, was made in France and bagged and then shipped to Bern, Switzerland.

Because it is for Italian mercenaries, the French don't care about the quality. Although the bread is not mixed with soil and stones, the flour content is still the same as baguette, and the flour content only accounts for a small part. Fortunately, because grass bran replaces soil and stones, the bread is not that hard, without tooth chewing, and the taste is much better.
Chapter completed!