Once, Marin worked in sales for a while.
Although he wasn’t particularly outstanding, he did manage to develop a smooth-talking, persuasive way of speaking.
Medieval Europe was a society where information was minimal.
Even the clever Lady Mary was only considerably smarter than the average person, but she still wasn’t a match for Marin, who had been exposed to vast amounts of information.
In the story Marin made up, he portrayed himself as a youth with “extraordinary talents” and a protagonist-like aura.
He was immediately noticed by a learned and wise monk named Einstein (sweat…).
After a simple test, this great sage named Einstein passed all of his knowledge and wisdom onto Marin in one go…
“You mean to say that this great sage taught you everything in just one month?”
“Yes!” Marin really wanted to say it took two or three months, but he had taken on those two fools, Kahn and Kohler, only a month after leaving home.
The two fools knew what had happened after that, so it was hard to make up more lies…
“In just one month, what could you have learned?” Lady Mary wasn’t that easy to fool.
“Uh… Lord Einstein taught me a lot of things, and I’m still digesting them. I’ve only absorbed part of it so far.”
“The things you just talked about, are they part of what you’ve absorbed?”
“Far from it! What I just mentioned was merely some anecdotes. There’s a lot of useful scientific knowledge too!” Marin put on a proud expression because that’s exactly how a 16-year-old boy should act.
“Give an example?” Old Hoffman interjected.
“Well, take the issue of draft oxen, for instance.”
“Draft oxen?” Old Hoffman was puzzled.
“Yes, exactly. We know that in Europe, most people use horses for plowing instead of oxen. The main reason is that oxen have bad tempers. The young, energetic bulls are too unruly to be driven to plow. If a bull throws a fit while plowing, it’s impossible to keep working. Only some older or female oxen, because of their milder temperaments, can be used for plowing…”
“That’s right. While the cost of raising oxen is lower, their tempers are too bad to be tamed for plowing. Horses, on the other hand, are docile and obey commands, so even though horses are more expensive to raise than oxen, people still prefer using horses to plow fields. If you get three out of ten oxen suitable for plowing, you’re lucky,” Old Hoffman agreed.
This was indeed true.
Europeans didn’t know about using nose rings to tame unruly young bulls, and oxen were stubborn.
Even the mild-mannered ones could sometimes be uncooperative.
Only a very strong knight could pull an obstinate ox back in line.
But things were different in the East.
The Chinese had come up with the idea of using nose rings to control oxen as far back as the Warring States period, forcing even the most unruly oxen to obey.
Thanks to this, the Chinese could easily control oxen, making them ideal for plowing.
This led to the widespread use of oxen for agriculture in the East.
In contrast, Europeans, unable to find an effective way to tame oxen, had no choice but to rely on horses.
Only a few mild-tempered oxen were used for plowing.
After all, oxen mainly fed on grass and didn’t require as much care as horses, which needed regular feeding and maintenance, driving up their costs.
This difference also had another consequence: Europeans raised more horses and placed less value on oxen, often keeping them only for meat or dairy.
In the East, because of the lower cost of raising oxen, people valued them highly and even considered them precious.
In ancient China, it was forbidden to slaughter healthy oxen, with violators facing imprisonment.
However, the reliance on oxen meant fewer horses were raised, which in turn led to a shortage of cavalry, leaving the Chinese unable to effectively combat the nomadic horsemen from the north.
They had to rely on defense rather than counterattack.
But raising horses was incredibly expensive.
Warhorses needed constant feeding, and even draft horses required regular care.
Oxen, on the other hand, only needed a bit of extra feed, like beans or eggs, during plowing season when their energy was depleted.
The rest of the time, they could simply graze, even in winter when dry hay sufficed.
Thus, the cost of raising oxen was much lower than that of horses.
Take the Hoffman estate, for example.
To farm 1,200 acres, they had to keep 25 draft horses, incurring massive costs.
Feeding these horses alone cost over 100 pfennigs a day, not to mention the five warhorses that required even better treatment.
“But I heard from my teacher that in the distant East, nearly every household raises oxen to plow fields…”
“How is that possible? You know how unruly oxen can be! The Iberians (Spaniards) even hold bullfights to show how difficult they are to tame. Out of 10 oxen, only three might be fit for plowing. The rest are either slaughtered for meat or kept for milk, or they’re too young,” Hoffman said incredulously.
“That’s how it is in Europe, but my teacher traveled to the distant ‘Ming’ Empire in the East, where he learned a simple method to make oxen obedient. This method allows most adult oxen, except for those extremely unruly bulls—though even they become docile after castration—to plow fields easily.”
“Is there really such a miraculous method?” Old Hoffman was intrigued.
The cost of feeding 30 horses on his estate was enormous, with draft horses alone costing two to three hundred marks a year (each draft horse consumed about 4 pfennigs a day, and each warhorse consumed 10 pfennigs).
The estate’s annual income was only about 600 marks, and after accounting for household expenses, there was little left.
If they could replace most of the horses with oxen, leaving only a few horses for pulling carriages, they could save at least a couple hundred marks a year in feed costs.
In fact, the high cost of feeding draft horses had been a major issue for farmers across Europe.
Horses required grain, which was expensive, making the economics of horse farming unviable.
Not only was Old Hoffman moved, but even Lady Mary, who handled the family’s finances, was breathing a little faster.
“Marin, do you really know this method?” Lady Mary, as the family’s financial manager, was particularly sensitive to costs.
“Of course! If you don’t believe me, take a look at the ox cart and the oxen my servants have been handling. Those two oxen have been fitted with nose rings using the Eastern method and have been obedient throughout the journey.”
“Nose rings? What’s that?” Old Hoffman and Mary asked in unison.
“It’s a small device that makes oxen obedient. The nose is very sensitive, and when you tug on the ring, the ox feels pain and has no choice but to obey.”
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go take a look!” Old Hoffman immediately stood up, grabbed the skinny Marin like a chick, and headed for the livestock pen.
Mary and the other children quickly followed.
When they arrived at the pen, everyone eagerly gathered around the two oxen with nose rings.
Old Hoffman even pulled the rope attached to the nose ring.
The big black ox, “Li Chen,” mooed twice in dissatisfaction, but with its nose in Old Hoffman’s grip, it had no choice but to comply.
“Look, this ox is glaring at me like it’s unhappy, but it still has to listen to me!” Old Hoffman exclaimed joyfully.
“Marin, how did you manage to pierce the ox’s nose for the ring? Oxen have quite a temper, and if you hurt them, wouldn’t they gore you with their horns?” Adler asked from the side.
He had once wrestled with an ox and knew how difficult they were to handle when angry.
Even with his strength, he had almost been injured by an ox.
Given Marin’s slight build, it seemed impossible for him to restrain a big black ox like “Li Chen.”
“Oh, it’s simple. You mix some strong liquor into the ox’s feed, get it drunk, tie it up, and then it’s easy to pierce its nose.”
“You can do that?” Adler and the others were stunned.
“Of course! You can’t possibly do it by force unless you want to get gored!”
“That’s true knowledge passed down from a great sage—how impressive!” Lady Mary exclaimed in admiration.
Previously, the sharp-witted Lady Mary had doubted the truth of Marin’s story.
But after seeing the well-behaved black ox “Li Chen” and the smaller ox “Dallas” obediently following orders with their nose rings, she had no choice but to believe that Marin had indeed received knowledge from a wise master.
After all, she had watched Marin grow up and knew his capabilities.
Such a “brilliant” method could only have been taught by a great teacher.
And so, Marin’s reputation as a “disciple of the great sage” was firmly established on the Hoffman estate…