53 Corruption

Well, I couldn't help it, abortion these days was limited to herbal infusions and a long needle ... unless I pushed her down the stairs to make her miscarry... Yet even I had a conscience, though not used often, but on the other hand, it might save her from gaining weight.

The next months passed and the winter came to an end ... I divided my time into training, working and writing two more books ... the first one I had planned for a long time was the novel by Alexandre Dumas "The Count of Monte Cristo". The second was "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe... I decided not to intervene in the war with Sweden, at least this year.

I was also waiting for the arrival of Cossacks and merchants from Crimea, if Khan Mehmed believed in Saddata's message ... there were also many small matters that required my attention. One of them was the captain's position on my galleon, so I wrote to Konstantin Ferber to hire Arend Dijckman on my behalf and that the costs are not important. In two years he will be appointed admiral of the royal fleet, and a few days later he will die due to friendly fire at the Battle of Oliwa. I was going to stop the Swedish troops sooner, so Dijckman's future was not yet finally sealed.

The matters related to production and trade went according to my plan, people of the Grand Marshal of the Crown came to Jazłowiec, I ordered secretary Kowalski to take care of them and that they would not lack anything. If I manage to open manufactories, my cannon-building capacity will increase and my costs will decrease. In the city also began to appear, previously hard-to-find products, although merchants were not always satisfied, they could not ignore ius stapulae.

I was not satisfied with the position of castellan, but I decided to use it and legal loopholes to increase my fortune ... like any normal politician.

As a castellan, I had access to various types of documents, court judgments and tax books, I knew who has what debts, how many unpaid taxes. Once I had this knowledge, one of my servants would go to the debtor and make him offers to buy his land for the appropriate amount of ducats. If the debtor still resisted or refused, I ordered the arrest or forcible seizure of the property. Unfortunately, in the latter case, I did not get anything. It was not ethical, but it allowed me to buy a dozen or so land estates in Podolia.

Of course, not only did I make money from it, but sometimes I also had the pleasure, if one of the parties in the case was a woman I liked, she obtained a favorable sentence in exchange for s.e.x.

Surprisingly, it made my popularity rise, especially among the townspeople and peasants. Here they had a castellan who helped a widow, a married woman whose husbands were sick ... People used to say that when a woman was in a difficult situation, it was best to go to the castellan because he has a soft heart for women ... my heart may have been soft, but something else was hard... Sometimes someone has to be on the side of the weakest.

At the beginning of May, merchants from Crimea came to Jazłowiec, I was not sure of their intentions and who exactly they were, so I sent Saddat to investigate the situation ... they could be Khan's people, but just as well someone completely random and I did not want to give such people a chest of gold, muskets and gunpowder. It turned out that Khan's brother, Shahin Giray, himself arrived in the disguise of a merchant. The Tatars set up their tents and stalls in front of Jazłowiec's walls, so under the guise of checking the goods and their intentions, I went to their camp.

Saddat immediately led me to Shahin's tent, and after the usual greetings, we proceeded to talking.

"Prince, you want to give us weapons and gold, but you don't want to follow us against the Turks, are you afraid?"

Of course, I knew that he would want to investigate me and even provoke, for the Tatars as for many other militant peoples, accusing someone of cowardice was one of the greatest insults.

"The spoken word is like released arrow. I am here alone in a camp full of Tatars. In a similar situation, Khan Temir lost his head ... with this saber." (MC)

"Are you threatening me?" (Shahin Giray)

"If you're afraid of wolves, don't go to the forest. Can we talk seriously now?" (MC)

Shahin didn't answer so I continued.

"Your brother Khan has to do two things, strengthen his power over all the hordes and free himself from the Ottomans ... when you chase two hares, you won't catch a single one. Therefore, I advise you to consolidate power and then fight the Turks." (MC)

"I understand and I will pass it on to my brother. So how can you help us?" (Shahin Giray)

"Now I will give you 50,000 ducats, 500 muskets and a dozen barrels of gunpowder ... in the future I will also have more of these things for you, in addition to grain and maybe people that you can keep or sell to Ottoman. High Porta also has spies in the Crimea among high families." (MC)

"When I return to the Crimea, we will get rid of a few families, for example ..." (Shahin Giray)

"No, don't. The Turks may start to suspect something, if I have the names of these traitors, I will let you know." (MC)

"You don't do it out of the goodness of your heart, you want something in return." (Shahin Giray)

"If the Sultan orders you to attack Poland, do it, although I don't like it, it will be safer ... but I would like you to start frequent attacks on Muscovy lands. Murder, destroy, burn, rob... no matter how, but the earth is to be red with blood and fire." (MC)

Our talks lasted another hour ... we not only talked about the war, but also about ways to earn extra gold. I promised Jazłowiec will be open to Crimean merchants, and taxes will not be too high ... and for the evening I organized transport of the promised things to the Tatar camp.

The days grew longer and warmer, May turned into June, and spring turned into summer ... The Swedes will attack in a few days.