King of Mercenaries - Chapter 72: Wide-spread Reputation

The dissemination of information was very slow in the Middle Ages, because this was an underdeveloped period where “your feet is your vehicle, messages were given through shouting. getting warm is dependent on shivering”.

Several months has passed since Marin has made his “outstanding reputation” in Italy’s battlefield, did it spread to the Northern parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Currently, Marin had finally become the number one “celebrity” within the Empire…

The Nobles of the North within the Holy Roman Empire were basically the Opposition of the Crown. These Nobles, naturally would not cooperate with the Emperor’s propaganda. Because, advertising Marin was the same as advertising the “many benefits of serving the Crown”.

And if they had done that, it was no different than pushing the young and brave warriors into the Emperor’s embrace. Just as what the Emperor’s Ambassador stationed in Vienna saw, many Austrians and Swabian young men emulated Marin, and gathered to join the the Emperor’s army, or attempting to join. And that was something the local feudal lords who opposed the Emperor wished to avoid. That’s why, even if these Lords did not openly oppose the act of advertising Marin, they still pulled a lot of strings behind the shadows to sabotage that.

As such, only after several months did Marin’s reputation spread across the entire Holy Roman Empire, which had incited a passionate rage…

“What an impressive knight, he had accrued so many war exploits at the age of 17 years old, and he was even bestowed the title of a Baron!” Some young knight-errants immediately idolized Marin.

Because Marin’s backstory was too similar to theirs, and was really “down to earth”, which made it easy to resonate with them. Marin’s exploits were also extremely inspirational. For those young knight-errants with tough-luck, hope was abysmal. But Marin’s exploits had given them a frame of reference — why don’t I imitate Marin?

What they don’t know was, the reason behind why Marin was able to achieve such dashing results, was based on him being a transmigrator. When he defeated the French, he clearly utilized the strong advantage of “information asymmetry”, and bullied the fleeing Charles VIII.

If it was a head-on clash, how could Marin’s 1100 greenhorns compare with French knights who had trained their martial prowess for dozens of years?

However, that was unimportant, people always like to ignore their own shortcomings, placing more emphasis on their own strengths. Sometimes even thinking up unwarranted strengths for themselves when there was none (this is what makes narcissists).

That’s why, nobody cared that Marin won his victory with trickery. Also, when the Emperor was spreading the propaganda, he did not specifically mention that Marin won because of an ambush, instead, he said the two armies “encountered each other coincidentally”.

As such, all the young men had this feeling — if I serve the Crown, even if I wasn’t as lucky as Marin to become a Baron, it would still be possible to aim for the title of the Empire’s knight…

And that, was precisely what the cunning Maximillian the First wished to see. Within the Holy Roman Empire, the House of Habsburg only had a good amount of prestige in Austria (as they had just taken over Burgundy, they did not hold much influence), but in other places, due to the malicious anti-propaganda, their reputation wasn’t too great.

As such, warriors of Deutsche Germany who were willing to serve the Crown were quite lacking. Marin was born in the County of Mark, though John II the Count of Mark did not oppose the Emperor, but he definitely wasn’t friends with the Emperor. Because, the Emperor had been devoted to emulating the French since always, intending to impose a common tax, to fund the needs of the Central Empire.

However, Maximillian the First’s idea was opposed by nearly all the independent Rulers. Because if the Emperor imposed a common tax throughout the Empire, that was equivalent to touching their money bag. Besides, once the financial power of the Emperor improves, and he gained enough might, and had the intention to wipe out them nobles, what should they do?

Marin was born in a non-Empire controlled region, and was quite the unlucky knight-errant. A character like that was really representative.

Because, within the Empire borders, there are countless Knight Families. And usually a Knight Family would never give birth to one sole heir. That’s why there are plenty of knight-errants.

And under the anti-propaganda of these feudal lords, many knight-errants had never even thought about serving the crown. Because, under the private rumormongering of these feudal lords, the Emperor was described as a really greedy and selfish bastard. Rumor has it that you wouldn’t get paid serving the Crown, because the Emperor was really poor (that wasn’t entirely untrue though).

Besides, the Emperor was unwilling to bestow noble titles to people who were in his service…

That’s why, many knight-errants born in the domains of the feudal lords would rather be unemployed and wander the lands, doing the occasional contract, than to serve that “greedy and selfish” Emperor.

However, Marin’s emergence had suddenly overturned the malicious propaganda of the feudal lords, which made many knight-errants realize that there was a promising future if they served the Crown.

These knight-errants, the moment they first heard of Marin’s, they most likely did not believe it, because Marin’s exploits were too “legendary”. However, many knight-errants near the County of Mark simply rode their horses and rushed to Hoffman’s manor in Bochum, to verify the validity of those stories from Old Hoffman.

Old Hoffman as the newly promoted “Lord Baron’s Father”, naturally sworn that everything spoken were real, even using God and the honor of knights to vow that he would take responsibility for every word he spoke…

Then, many knight-errants were informed that the news they had heard was entirely true, and had been verified. Next, the verified news started spreading within the Holy Empire borders. Everybody finally believed that the Emperor was not lying…

As such, Marin became famous, while the young knight-errants became excited.

Then, plenty of young knights confident that “they were not inferior to Marin”, with dreams in mind, urgently rushed to Vienna, begging for the Emperor to take them in…

The Emperor was clearly “painfully happy”, he was currently preoccupied with obtaining ransom from the French, how would he have the spare effort to humor these young people?

Besides, if he doesn’t get the ransom money, he would have no money to keep so many people fed. On top of that, this current period was a temporary ceasefire, so there was no demand to recruit anybody. That’s why, among the many knight-errants gathered in Vienna, only a small portion of exceptionally outstanding ones were taken in by the Emperor.

As for the remaining majority, could do nothing but linger in Vienna…

Meanwhile, a good amount of knight-errants who had been on the road for too long, were used to the ‘chivalric’ way of robbery, which caused the public security of Vienna to plummet.

But the Emperor dared not suppress the behaviors of these knight-errants, because if he used violence to dismiss these knight-errants, it would likely cause the reputation he had built while spreading Marin’s exploits to plummet once again.

Because, these ‘suppressed’ knight-errants would definitely speak bad about him after returning home. And the knights in the Middle Ages basically held the power of discourse amongst the lower class, and were usually highly credible…

That’s why, Maximillian the First could only attempt to soothe those irritable knight-errants, making empty promises in an attempt to send them home…

But on the other hand, having so many knight-errants visiting to swear their services to him, the Emperor could only be secretly delighted

…

That’s why the Emperor was currently “painfully happy”…

As for Marin the “superstar” who was being strongly promoted by the Emperor, had also turned into a superidol who was equivalent to “Andy Lau” in the eyes of the Empire’s young people.