Mader recently had a dream about a movie he had seen before, called Lord of War.

Although the details of the film are somewhat blurred over the past two decades, this does not prevent Madder from revisiting the feeling of chasing the smell of war. And the reason why he has this dream is actually inseparable from what he is doing so far. Yes, he's been a warmonger lately, too! Not only a warmonger, but also a slave trader! Like the vulture of the Pampas, who followed the smell of carrion, he used his keen sense of smell to travel to and from the war-torn areas, negotiating with the steppe chiefs and Cossack chiefs about the sale of weapons and military supplies, and buying captives, women, and all sorts of gadgets that could be used on the east coast - such as livestock.

"So, Chief Zaheer, these four hundred muskets and twenty carts of military supplies are yours." Dressed in a thick woolen coat, Mader stood on the soft grass outside Kaffa, lifted the chin of a dodgy Polish woman with his hand, and said nonchalantly: "These things can arm many steppe warriors, and at the same time support you in battle for a long time, enough for you to cope with the errand assigned by the Great Khan." ”

There were more than 50 retinues behind Mader, all of whom had been collected by the intelligence officers of the eastern coast of the Kaffa merchant station over the years, including Cossacks who had come from exile, poor herdsmen who could not survive on the steppe, retired Ottoman soldiers, and guards recommended by the Azov Chamber of Commerce. Although these people cannot be entrusted with confidential matters, they are more than enough to do ordinary preservation work.

Recruited from the East Bank, they were stationed in a trading post that had been built into a fortress by the East Coast - the city of Kaffa was not always safe, and Cossacks often came by ship to attack them - and were equipped with sophisticated weapons made on the East Bank. Acts as a guard. And when going out of the city to trade with the Tatars, Cossacks. These men generally act as coachmen and guards. At this time, these people stood beside the cart, their guns in their hands, faintly alert to the grassland men opposite.

Although it was still a perimeter of Kaffa City, and Ottoman soldiers patrolled the area, that wasn't a reason for Mader to let his guard down. These Tatars, accustomed to a life of burning, killing and looting, are very special, and God knows what they will do next, and it is not a bad thing to be more prepared.

"Thick glass military kettle with cushioning!" A veteran who was not too old lifted the canvas that covered the cart. "It's very easy to use, and it won't break on a long-term bumpy horse, and it's much better than drinking water from a cowhide bladder that always has a peculiar smell." The Ottoman army was already armed with no more than 12,000 men, and it would not be wrong to win the praise of the picky men of the Ganishari legion. ”

"The hemostatic cotton bandages are much better than the dirty linen bandages you use. Oh, I forgot, you don't even have enough burlap bandages now. Listen to me, friend, and give up all the sackcloth that flows from Bohemia. Using the latest cotton bandages, it's great! The Tatar-born veteran also seems to have a flair for business. Just listen to him in his own language to these Crimeans people.

"Very good quality saber, well, you need to go back and strike yourself. As a prairie man, it is incredible not to have a saber at hand. Hmm, you're shy? Hehehe, lad, there's nothing to be shy about. Uncle, I was as poor as you back then, until I went to Transylvania to make a vote. Go, take out the courage of the steppe man, go and rob the Poles, rob the Ukrainians, haha! ”

"It's a sapper's shovel, a pickaxe - well, I don't know why I called it ......" The Tatar veteran pronounced out the names of the two Chinese syllables in a slurred language (since there is no special term, foreigners can only use foreign words from the East Coast), and then continued to say in an exaggerated tone: "It's a pity that you didn't take part in the great battle two years ago." In the Battle of Piriavtsi, the Poles and Ukrainians dug trenches, traps and earthen walls on the battlefield of an astonishing length, but they didn't dig as fast as your Great Khan! Any idea what the reason is? Yes, because you used digging tools from the East Coast, that's it! Well, and the shovels, haha, you also need to go back and drive the strikers yourself, it's just a small job. ”

And while the entourage was "bragging" with the Crimeans people, Mader was also carefully looking at the "goods" standing in front of him - 255 slave girls from Poland. The fact that these women were young and good--well, and that the Tatars had taken good care of them during this time proved that the Tatars had indeed made the slave trade a long-term business, and that they had a sense of brand, and that they were very attentive to the quality and appearance of their goods.

These slave girls were the "payment" paid by the Tatars for this batch of military funds, and both sides took what they needed, and both sides were happy. The production of all kinds of military resources and weapons was a very easy task for the people of the East Coast, but these things were quite valuable strategic materials for the Cossacks and Tatars, who lacked an industrial base - especially when they were mired in war; In the same way, female slaves were an invaluable strategic resource for the East Coast, especially when the Executive Committee was more inclined to emigrate to Ming men (because men were an important source of labor, workers, and soldiers), and women had to settle nearby, which undoubtedly contributed to the thriving slave trade with the Tatars.

In 1648 and 1649, conservative estimates estimated that the Tatars had taken more than 200,000 slaves from Ukraine, including Poles and Ukrainians, as well as nearly 10,000 German mercenaries. These greedy steppe people not only catch the Poles, but also the Ukrainian people who fight with them, there is no lower limit. But because of this, it is cheap enough to buy slaves from them, and the supply is large enough!

These people were not producing—or very little, and most of them were produced by slaves who had been brought back from captivity—but they were fond of pleasure, and were very fond of all kinds of consumer goods, and had no great concept of money, and were excellent traders for trade. Prior to this, their business was dominated by Jews, and the patrons of these Jewish merchants were the Empress Dowager Kosem, the Sultan of Kosem, and the Emperor Sinsi. Haoka is the mainstay. Now that their patrons have either fallen and been executed by the Agas or have lost most of their power, they are at their weakest moments, and the profits of the Easterners should not be underestimated if they can seize the opportunity to take the place of these Jewish merchants and firmly hold the market of the Crimean Khanate's population of hundreds of thousands.

But I'm afraid this can't be done by the people of the East Coast alone! There are also many people who are staring at this piece of fat, and there are still some powerful Jewish merchants and Armenian merchants in the Ottoman Empire, and it is quite difficult to compete with them. However, the people on the eastern coast need not be discouraged, with the influence of the Azov Chamber of Commerce in the Black Sea region, it is not very difficult to eat part of it, even if it cannot fully occupy the Crimean market. If you have money, everyone earns it together, but eating alone is a very dangerous behavior!

Judging from the so-called "new European trade order" that Mo San has recently worked on with painstakingly contemplating, the Crimean Khanate, southern Moscow (the destroyed Astrakhan Khanate), and the new Cossack hetmanship (including present-day central Ukraine and Russia's Bryansk Oblast) should be—and must be—markets for the Eastern Republics. These regions are areas worthy of great development due to their weak industrial base, limited by historical, diplomatic or transportation factors, long exposure to Black Sea trade, weak links with other places and largely inland, and largely costly.

Even if they are relatively poor in these places, the population base of millions is there, and there will always be some consumers. Not to mention when will the East Coasters need their precious metals? As long as they could provide a steady supply of livestock, slaves, and other primary products, the trade would be sustainable in the long run.

Similarly, there is the Moscow and Livonian market, Livonia aside, the influence of the East Coast people here is not weak, just the Grand Duchy of Moscow, a large country with a population of more than 16 million, is worth the time of the East Coast people to take the time to run it. Now a group of people sent by Zheng Yong, led by Schneider, the former head of the Danzig trading station, have successfully opened an east coast trading station in Arkhangel, and have begun to contact local Russian officials and merchants, preparing to make a big effort.

The Russians welcomed their arrival, and having lost access to the Baltic Sea, Muscovy today is in great need of money, technology, markets, and goods from the West. But they now only have a window to the port of Arkhangel, which is frozen for almost half of the year, and occasionally ships from England and Holland come to trade, and are almost in a forgotten corner of the civilized world.

In such a situation, when they heard that merchants from the East Coast Republic of China were going to open a trading post here, and at the same time there might be a fixed trade route, one can imagine how happy they were, and this undoubtedly contributed to the rapid opening of the East Coast trading station, and at the same time, there was also the first batch of agents, which can be described as rapid progress.

If the Polish market that has been lost is regained in the future, then the new European trade order planned by Mo San will be roughly formed. In the "post-French era" where the French market has been lost, it has become an extremely important thing to open up new markets, develop new customers, and adjust the market layout, and this is exactly what Mo San, Ma De and Zheng Yong are working towards. (To be continued......)