King of German Mercenaries

After solving the problem of fertilizer, Marin suddenly remembered another very important problem - the problem of ploughing...

Although the Wadden Islands, under the promotion of Marin, all used more efficient curved ploughs. But nowhere else. All over Europe, the Wadden Islands and the Hoffmann estate, curved ploughs were used, and nose rings were used to control cattle.

If the old-fashioned light plows or the Saxon heavy plows are left to the East Frisian region, the ploughing effect will be greatly reduced. Because light ploughing is shallow, it is not conducive to the development of the root system of crops. The heavy plow is too waste of animal power, only a few horses or a few cattle use one plow, the efficiency is too low. Therefore, it is necessary to promote the use of curved ploughs.

As for the secrecy of Quyuanli, Marin just wanted to, but couldn't do it. Because the farming effect of the curved plough can be seen at a glance, and it is very simple to imitate. Therefore, Marin simply and generously took out the Quyuan plow and promoted it nationwide. Then, take part of the credit for the fertilizer, and simply put it on the curved plough to fool others...

Thinking of this, Marin immediately signed the sheepskin document and ordered the blacksmiths and carpenters in the country to start building the curved plough in accordance with the official drawings in preparation for spring ploughing.

Marin's own newly added 60,000 Ugram arable land is naturally no problem, just order it to be used directly. As landowners and rulers of the country, how dare the serfs object? Anyway, when you use it, you will know the effect. Once the effect comes out, everyone has to support it.

As for the others, such as Marin's men, they had seen the benefits of the curved plough as early as in the Wadden Islands. So, it goes without saying.

Only the remaining serf owners had never seen the Quyuan Plough and might still have doubts. Although, when the curved plough is used, the effect will come out immediately. However, Marin was reluctant to wait for the problem to appear before giving them a curved plough. Because there is not enough time.

Although it is said that these serf owners do not have to pay taxes for the past three years. However, Marin hopes to increase his prestige and ability to make overall arrangements through the promotion of Quyuan Plough. And let these little nobles form the habit of obeying themselves. Therefore, Marin also sent an official letter to them, requesting the compulsory promotion of the Quyuan Plough.

Sure enough, at the beginning, many small nobles were very disgusted with Marin's interference in what kind of plough they used. Also, they don't believe Marin's claim that a plough that can be pulled by a cow/horse is about as effective as a Saxon heavy plow.

Marin is no nonsense. After the first batch of Quyuan ploughs were built, before the spring ploughing, Marin gathered all the local minor nobles together, and on a test field, they showed Quyuan ploughs and Saxon heavyweight ploughs on the spot. The effect of plows and light plows on tilling the land...

After watching it for a day, these little nobles were finally convinced and agreed to use the curved plough in their manor. And Marin didn't make any money from them either, and provided them with curved ploughs at the cost price.

After that, Marin began to consider replacing half of the horses with oxen...

This method is mainly implemented on their own land. The reason for doing this is mainly to save the cost of feeding. At the same time, free up the half of the draught horses and use them all for transportation.

For example, Marin decided to promote a developed postal system nationwide. In this day and age, there are apparently no locomotives for transporting mail and cargo. So, you can only use horses and carts.

In his manor, the land of 60,000 Eugrams has at least 5,000 or 6,000 draught horses. If half of them are taken out, there are two or three thousand.

These horses, Marin decided to eliminate the old, the weak, the sick and the sick, leaving only 2,000 horses. After that, take out 500 horses,

It is used in the national postal system and the station system to facilitate message delivery.

In addition, between towns and towns, Marin also intends to promote "bus and carriage." Taking into account the income of the residents, Marin decided to set the price of the bus and carriage at 0.2 pfennig. Passengers can take out a penny, go to the bus company, and exchange for 5 bus tickets. Then, use one for each carriage ride. Of course, within a small town, or within an urban area, one ticket is one stop at the end. If you go out of the town, you will get one extra ticket for each street sign (5 kilometers).

This price is rather expensive. Because later generations earn more than 100 yuan a day, but only one or two yuan by bus is less than one-fifth of their income.

However, that is the case in later generations. In addition to the greatly increased income of people, lower transportation costs are also one of the important reasons. After all, the cost of using a horse-drawn carriage for transportation is actually higher. First, the cost of raising horses is relatively high; secondly, the number of people in the carriage is also limited, so the cost cannot be reduced.

You know, in the Victorian era, the price of renting a carriage was as high as 1 shilling per mile, which was so expensive. However, considering that it is a bus, if it is crowded, it can carry five or six people at a time. Running a few more times a day will definitely recover the cost, and there is still a lot of surplus.

Not only that, considering that the price of food in East Friesland must have fallen after the use of fertilizers. At that time, the cost of raising horses will be greatly reduced, so it is even more impossible to lose money. It's just that, when it comes to making money, it won't make much money. The most important thing is to consider the convenience of the people.

Moreover, Marin also considered picking out some inferior horses, crossbreeding them with donkeys, and cultivating a large number of mules. Mules eat less than horses, but have better strength and endurance, making them more suitable for pulling carts.

In the future, Marin decided to replace the buses with mule carts for the most part. And those inferior horses are specially used to crossbreed with donkeys to breed mules. Then, the mules are put into public transportation, or sold to the common people.

A mule eats less, is less likely to get sick, and is better served than a horse. It can be said that the mule is the most cost-effective transportation force in the age of animal power. However, the success rate of mule breeding is low, and even if a horse and a donkey are bred together, it may not be able to give birth. Therefore, Marin decided to set up a large-scale breeding center to cultivate civilian mules.

According to Marin's plan, all the horses that were eliminated and were not suitable for breeding would be bred with donkeys, and many mules would be born for civilian use.

And those excellent horses are used for war horses, or are specially used for breeding. In this way, the breed of horses was improved. However, those horses that were eliminated did not lose their value. After all, they also have the duty of breeding mules.

It's just that Marin is also full of guilt and feels disharmonious when these horses are bred with mules that are obviously not of the same race... They are just not good enough, but Marin is forcing them to do something with aliens. It feels so bad...

It's just that Marin intends to replace his usual draught horses with cows, and there must be enough cows for him to buy. As far as Germany is concerned, it is really not an easy thing for Marin to buy two or three thousand heads.

However, this problem is not really a big problem. Because, although it is difficult to buy large herds of cattle in Western Europe, Eastern Europe can buy it...

Eastern Europe has vast grasslands and very developed animal husbandry. Countries like Poland and Lithuania export about 50,000 head of cattle to Germany and Italy every year through land routes from Silesia (see "Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth" in the encyclopedia)...

And some of these cows were bought as farming cattle, and some were directly bought by the Germans to kill and eat beef...

Poland exports so many cattle every year, and Marin is obviously very eager. Because Europeans don't know how to use nose rings, they can't control the bulls that are often stubborn, but Marin can take care of these bulls... As long as it's not a mad cow or a particularly aggressive bull, putting a nose ring on is completely fine. tame.

And, there are 5,000 cows. As long as Marin chooses in advance, he can choose the right cattle.

In fact, when these cattle were first transported from Poland to the German region, they would be selected in the Silesia region to select suitable cattle for farming. However, the standard of the Europeans of this era, Aoxuan, was not strength, but tameness. Cattle with a big temper are not suitable for farming cattle in Europe in this era, even if they are a little bigger. Because, Europeans don't use nose rings.

For Marin, it's a completely different story. When he chooses cattle, he can choose according to the standard of strength, not gentleness. Because a cow with a bigger temper can be restrained with a nose ring. The kind of cattle that are too grumpy, the Poles will not sell them. Because it is very inconvenient to drive cattle with too much temper, and there is no way to drive long distances from Poland. The cattle that are too temperamental are usually slaughtered locally by the Poles and sold in the form of beef. A cow that can be driven thousands of miles can be subdued with a nose ring even if it is a little temperamental. Therefore, Marin can confidently select the most robust cattle to use as farming cattle.

However, this year Marin was too late to buy Polish cattle. Because, Poles sell cattle, usually after the end of the autumn harvest. At this time, after the feeding of fertile grass in spring, summer and early autumn, it is the time when the cows have fat. As it happens, winter feed is also difficult to supply. Therefore, Poles generally choose to drive cattle to Germany and Italy to sell in October.

At this time, it happened that people in the agricultural area had just harvested grain and had a lot of money in their hands. As it happened, when I saw the big herd driven by the Poles, I bought one. Commoners buy cattle for the purpose of farming cattle, while nobles buy cattle and kill them directly for beef...

Therefore, if Marin wants to buy cattle, he will have to wait until autumn. At that time, Poles would drive a herd of 50,000 cattle across the border between Poland and Germany, and sell them in a centralized manner. In this spring ploughing, Marin still has to rely mainly on pulling horses to cultivate the land...