When Marin arrived in Vienna once again, it was already late November.
In fact, if Marin had wanted to arrive earlier, it would have only taken a dozen days.
After all, there were no foot soldiers in their group; everyone was riding horses or driving carts.
However, during the journey, Marin often led his team into the forest to hunt wild boars, which wasted a lot of time.
As a result, when Marin and his party of seven arrived in Vienna, it was already late November.
In other words, from departure to reaching their destination, they spent over a month.
After entering the city, Marin began searching for accommodation.
To his surprise, almost all the inns in Vienna were completely full at this time…
Upon inquiring carefully, he discovered that Emperor Maximilian I had indeed started recruiting mercenaries.
Consequently, warriors from all over the country flocked to offer their services to the emperor.
This led to the inns in Vienna being packed with business.
In this era, Vienna was a city of just over 20,000 people.
Compared to the same period in the Ming Dynasty, this population would be equivalent to a prefecture or provincial capital.
However, in medieval Europe, this was considered a large city.
How many inns could a small town of over 20,000 people have?
So, when thousands of young men volunteering to be mercenaries flooded into Vienna, the inns couldn’t accommodate everyone.
Many who couldn’t find a place in an inn even bought tents and set up camp directly in the city.
Marin and his party of seven, along with six horses and a cow, naturally couldn’t just find a place to settle.
To address this, Marin specifically interacted with the city residents, renting a small courtyard and temporarily hiring the owner of the courtyard to help purchase fodder for the cattle and horses.
Once settled, Marin continued to go to taverns in the city to gather information…
The situation was not much different from what Marin had anticipated, and was even worse.
Originally, Marin believed that although it would be difficult for His Majesty the Emperor to secure funds from the Imperial Diet, he could still smoothly collect war taxes in his own territories of Austria and Burgundy.
But the actual situation was that tax collection in Austria was not a problem.
After all, the Habsburg family had ruled here for a long time and maintained good control.
However, the Duchy of Burgundy was inherited by Maximilian I through marriage to the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, “Bold Charles.” Strictly speaking, Maximilian I was currently only the regent of the Duchy of Burgundy.
The true master of the Duchy of Burgundy was Maximilian I’s son—”Handsome Philip.” Of course, this was Philip’s later nickname; at present, Philip was still a minor young boy about the same age as Marin.
In the Duchy of Burgundy, there was its own noble council.
This council held authority over local taxation.
Even if the duke wanted to levy taxes, he had to obtain the council’s consent.
Unfortunately, the Burgundy council was very antagonistic towards Maximilian I.
There was a time when Maximilian I was even placed under house arrest by the Burgundy council in the Burgundian palace.
It was only his father, Frederick III, who sent troops to rescue him.
Therefore, Maximilian I’s control over the Duchy of Burgundy was not as strong as Marin thought.
The difficulty of Maximilian I in levying war taxes in the Duchy of Burgundy was no less than his difficulty in obtaining authorization to raise war taxes from the Imperial Diet.
Thus, at present, Maximilian I had only collected a batch of war taxes in Austria.
The amount was limited, and so was the number of troops that could be supported.
To expand the army on a large scale, he would at least have to wait until both the Imperial Diet and the Burgundy Council agreed to authorize him to raise more war taxes.
At present, with limited funds, the emperor could only recruit part of the army.
However, upon hearing about the emperor’s recruitment drive, the enthusiasm of the people across the nation was high.
After all, fighting for the emperor and receiving a salary was secondary; being elevated to nobility was the most enticing aspect.
What is an emperor?
The emperor is the highest noble appointor in the Holy Roman Empire.
As long as the emperor wishes, he can promote an earl to a duke, a duke to a king, and even ennoble ordinary people to nobility.
As long as a noble title can be bestowed, even without a salary, plenty of people would eagerly come forward to join.
So, upon hearing that the emperor was recruiting soldiers, people of all kinds from all over the country flocked to Vienna.
Among them were sons from noble families without inheritance rights, such as wandering knights; bankrupt farmers and artisans; and even ruffians and beggars.
They all shared the same dream of wealth and prestige, gathering together in Vienna.
Among them, the most favored by the emperor were the wandering knights.
Wandering knights came from knightly families, each possessing martial skills and combat abilities far superior to ordinary people.
Moreover, wandering knights generally came equipped with their own warhorses, armor, and weapons.
As long as the wandering knights were organized into squads and given some basic training, they could be deployed as a formidable force in the war.
At the same time, Maximilian I was actually a fanatic of plate armor, particularly enamored with Gothic-style plate armor.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have personally designed the famous Maximilian armor a few years later.
However, for Maximilian I, there was a significant issue—maintaining knights was very costly.
Generally speaking, recruiting an infantryman required only a daily wage of 3 pfennigs, and during wartime, soldiers were provided with free rations, which were the kind of black bread that could serve as bricks to crush people.
However, recruiting a knight was different.
Recruiting a knight required a daily wage as high as 2 florins (24 pfennigs).
Additionally, while the costs for the knight’s five retainers were borne by the knight himself, the emperor had to cover the expenses for the knight and his retainers, as well as the feed for their livestock.
Therefore, the cost of recruiting knights was exorbitant.
Furthermore, after the Battle of Nancy, the emergence of Swiss pikemen who countered plate-armored knights led to a decline in the status of knights.
Maximilian I, emulating the Swiss mercenaries, began recruiting civilians within the German territories to serve as pikemen, adopting the Swiss tactics.
Of course, knights still played a significant role.
Besides Maximilian I’s fondness for plate-armored knights, on the battlefield, once the enemy’s pikemen formation was breached, knights were needed to launch charges to capitalize on the breakthrough.
In the Anglo-French wars, the French were initially overwhelmed by the English longbowmen, but as they began to heavily utilize cannons in the latter stages, they gradually turned the tide of the war and ultimately drove the English out of France.
Cannons devastated pikemen lined in dense formations.
The incredibly formidable Napoleon later relied on large numbers of cannons arranged in lines to crush the opposing infantry lines.
However, at that time, the French army used shrapnel that caused massive casualties, whereas nowadays, cannons still use solid shots or even stone projectiles.
This time, the information Marin gathered was that the emperor had decided to first use Austria’s tax revenues to recruit 500 knights and 5,000 pikemen.
Upon hearing that the emperor was only recruiting 500 knights, Marin felt uneasy.
You have to understand, the German regions were dotted with small states and knightly domains everywhere.
Therefore, wandering knights were ubiquitous across the German territories.
Now, with the emperor recruiting soldiers, it’s estimated that tens of thousands of wandering knights would come forward to enlist.
However, the emperor only needed 500, which was extremely challenging.
The difficulty was much greater than taking the college entrance examination; it was comparable to trying to get into a prestigious university…
In reality, the emperor was recruiting these 500 knights to serve as officers.
In Europe, military officers were generally nobles.
For example, the commander of the emperor’s army was currently Count Hohenzollern of the Swabian line.
However, a military unit, besides high-ranking officers, also had lower-ranking officers.
Commoners could not serve as officers; even lower-ranking officers had to be noble.
At most, commoners could only become non-commissioned officers.
Therefore, lower-ranking officers were typically made up of knights, at the very least, wandering knights from knightly families.
Because in this era, commoners had virtually no military education.
Only noble families taught military skills and tactics.
Thus, these 500 knights were essentially being prepared by the emperor to serve as lower-ranking officers for his future large army.
Reality proved Marin’s instincts were correct.
Upon the announcement, Vienna’s population instantly surged.
To prevent some fearless mercenaries from causing trouble in the city, Maximilian I arranged for the infantry recruitment to take place outside the city of Vienna, leaving the city itself responsible only for recruiting knights.
But what greatly surprised Marin was that the city was already gathering three to four thousand wandering knights.
Moreover, wandering knights continued to arrive from all over…
Finally, by the end of December, Maximilian I announced the commencement of a jousting tournament to select knights through competition.
The tournament adopted an elimination system; those eliminated in the first round would not have another chance.
Those who passed the first round were given one more opportunity to challenge.
The formal competition was divided into three stages.
After drawing lots to determine their opponent, the first stage was not the joust itself, but rather the verification of the knight’s warhorse, armor, and weapons by the organizers.
Particularly, warhorses could not be substituted with draft horses.
To ensure this, professional horse appraisers were present to inspect the knights’ warhorses.
After all, the emperor was recruiting ready-to-deploy mercenaries who needed to provide their own warhorses and armor.
Preparing warhorses by the emperor himself would be too costly.
Therefore, only knights who passed the verification of their warhorses and armor could proceed to the second round—foot combat.
After foot combat concluded, the competition would move to mounted combat.
Marin was unlucky; in the first round, he drew a very strong knight.
Judging by his appearance, he was probably around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, which is the peak period for a knight.
Meanwhile, Marin was only sixteen years old, still not fully developed.
The first round of verifying warhorses and armor was naturally without issue.
The plate armor legs and boots that Marin had originally been missing were already reassembled while at the Hoffman manor.
In the second round, the foot combat, Marin and that knight fought using wooden two-handed swords.
Although Marin wasn’t very strong, both the previous Marin and the time-traveling Marin possessed rich combat skills.
Moreover, the time-traveling Marin also understood the Tai Chi principle of “using a small force to move a large weight.”
So, during foot combat, despite having much less strength than his opponent, Marin often used the “small force moving a large weight” technique to deflect his opponent’s fiercely swinging wooden sword, rendering the opponent’s aggressive attacks ineffective.
European knights’ martial arts were not as fluid or step-focused as Eastern martial arts.
Even in foot combat, knights wore full plate armor that restricted movement, making lateral maneuvers difficult.
Therefore, in foot combat between knights, they generally used two-handed swords or battle axes to violently slash or strike each other.
Because both parties wore thick armor, without sufficient force, one could not break through the other’s plate armor.
Marin was not afraid of violent exchanges.
Although his strength was much less than his opponent’s, he had knowledge of a bit of Tai Chi swordsmanship.
Even when using a two-handed sword, he could deflect his opponent’s slashes.
However, Tai Chi swordsmanship emphasizes defense and is not adept at offense.
He could swing away his opponent’s wooden sword but couldn’t knock the opponent down.
This was because the knight he was fighting had a very stable stance; even if his wooden sword was deflected, the knight wouldn’t lose balance.
As a result, the foot combat duel between Marin and the knight lasted for a long time.
Unlike other knights’ foot combat tournaments, where typically after one or two bursts of action, one person would be defeated.
In the end, the judges grew impatient and declared the foot combat a tie between the two…
Subsequently, the two entered the mounted combat phase.
The mounted joust took place on a rectangular field.
In the middle of the field, there was a wooden barrier.
Each knight stood on one side of the barrier, with the barrier on the right side in their forward direction.
Once the joust began, both knights rode their warhorses, started to accelerate, and raised their lances with their right hands, engaging in intense collisions above the wooden barrier.
Additionally, the rules of the competition stipulated that only the opponent’s chest could be targeted, with strikes to the head and the warhorses prohibited, in order to minimize casualties as much as possible. Visit novelping(.)com for the full chapter.
These numerous restrictions prevented Marin from fully letting loose.
In a head-on confrontation, Marin was clearly not as strong as his opponent.
Moreover, when wearing full plate armor, it was difficult for him to make dodging maneuvers on horseback.
As expected, after the first collision, Marin deeply felt the advantage of his opponent’s strength.
Although Marin dodged his opponent’s lance thrust and deflected his opponent’s lance with his own, this round of collisions caused his arms to go numb, and his lance was nearly dislodged from his hand.
After barely withstanding two rounds, Marin felt like his arms were almost no longer his own.
Finally, during the third collision, the opposing knight seemed to have adapted to Marin’s blocking style; he feinted a strike, dodged Marin’s lance deflection, and then swiftly thrust his lance into Marin’s chest armor, unseating Marin from his horse…
The speed of the horses in this knightly joust was much higher than when he had fought at home against Kahn and Schwarz, the two rookies.
Moreover, the ground was not specially laid with grass but was regular grassland.
As a result, after being thrown from his horse, Marin couldn’t get up for quite a while.
Eventually, with the help of his retainers, he was carried back to Kohler’s driven ox cart.
However, according to the single-elimination principle, Marin had been eliminated from this knight selection and did not qualify for any further challenges.
Thus, lying on the ox cart, Marin was seriously injured.
Not only was his body hurt, but he was also deeply saddened…
“As a time traveler, shouldn’t I be the protagonist? Why is it that I couldn’t even pass the first round of this knight selection competition? If I can’t become the emperor’s knight, how can I stand out to become an officer? Do I have to become a pikeman, the kind of cannon fodder?” lying on the bed, Marin thought sadly…
In fact, the most important reason Marin was trying to enlist as a knight recruited by the emperor was for his identity.
Although Marin’s equipment was no different from other knights, in reality, he was not a true knight.
At least, the authorities did not recognize him as an official knight.
Individuals like Marin, who possessed the resources and capabilities of a knight but had not yet received official recognition, had a specific designation—”apprentice knight.”
Apprentice knights could only be considered as preparatory knights; they were not official knights.
It should be noted that those with officially recognized knightly status were all nobles.
Before being officially ennobled, apprentice knights could only be regarded as commoners.
At best, they were considered noble offspring.
Alternatively, they were also referred to as “Rongke” (Junker) (容克).
Knights were categorized into three types.
The first type was the most esteemed knights, known as “landed knights.” These knights were typically granted knighthood by high-ranking lords or kings after achieving notable military achievements and were rewarded with fiefs (landed estates).
A knight’s fief could be inherited, provided that the knight’s family supplied a fully armed knight to serve the ennobling lord in every generation.
If the family lacked a knight capable of serving the lord, the fief could be reclaimed.
However, some fiefs were not subject to reclamation, depending on the disposition of the lord to whom the knight family owed allegiance.
For example, the Hoffman family was a landed knightly family in Marck County.
The eldest son of each generation in the Hoffman family was required to don plate armor, mount his warhorse, and fight for Count Marck when summoned.
Beneath the landed knights were “house knights.” These knights generally came from noble families, including knightly families, as younger sons without inheritance rights.
Non-heir sons of knightly families even lost their noble status.
To become nobles, these individuals, aspiring to be the “elite among people,” rigorously trained in martial skills and cavalry combat from a young age.
Since they did not possess any fiefs, these non-heir sons from noble families (generally lower nobility) had to seek employment with high-ranking nobles, becoming the high nobles’ house knights.
Like mercenaries, they were stationed long-term in the high nobles’ castles to protect the noble families and the safety of their castle properties.
In return, the king or high-ranking nobles would grant these house knights formal knightly titles.
From then on, these individuals became nobles, enjoying numerous privileges.
As for apprentice knights, before being officially ennobled, they were still ordinary people and not considered nobles.
Although their combat abilities were not necessarily inferior to those of official knights.
Marin was determined to apply for the emperor’s knightly ranks in order to obtain a formal knightly title and achieve the lowest level of noble status.
With the façade of noble identity, Marin would no longer be treated as mere fodder by the influential figures and would not be killed at their whim.
In fact, besides recruiting knights, the emperor was also recruiting heavy cavalry.
Heavy cavalry were almost identical to knights, wearing plate armor and wielding lances, charging alongside the knights.
Moreover, these heavy cavalry were also mostly drawn from knightly families.
However, Marin did not wish to become any kind of heavy cavalry.
Because even if he became a heavy cavalryman, he could not obtain a knightly title.
Without a title, he could not become a noble.
Furthermore, in combat, those with official knightly titles were naturally officers, while those without knightly titles were naturally frontline soldiers, at best having a higher status than infantrymen…
In medieval Europe, noble status was like the scholar-official identity in the Ming Dynasty—it was a universal pass.
In the Ming Dynasty, scholars could travel the world freely without restrictions.
However, ordinary people, when traveling more than a hundred miles away from their hometown, had to have official permission to open the way; otherwise, it was considered illegal travel…
Similarly, in Europe, it was the same.
Nobles could roam the land with impunity and were even exempt from city entry taxes.
However, commoners had to pay entry taxes when entering a city and various taxes when passing through checkpoints.
Additionally, sometimes they would encounter abusive tax officials who would impose extra taxes or extort them, leaving them helpless.
But for nobles, such officials had no authority to do so.
Even if a noble killed someone, they would not be sentenced to death; at most, they would be required to pay a fine.
Unless they killed another noble.
In short, nobles in medieval Europe operated above the law, as long as they did not encounter a more powerful noble.
This is why Marin wanted to obtain a noble status: at least, once he became a noble, he would not be left without recourse if someone killed him.
If he had traveled to the Eastern Ming Dynasty at the same time period, Marin would have definitely taken the imperial examinations to obtain an official title as a kind of protective amulet first…