Recently the situation on the Great Plain of South Russia has been bad, at least not for the Poles. In that vast and fertile steppe, a man named Bogdan? Khmelnitsky's Cossack leader was born, leading a wave of revolt against the Polish rulers with more than 20,000 Cossacks.

In 1648, they scored two brilliant victories on the territory of Ukraine. The first time was in Kolsun, where Khmelnitsky led more than 20,000 Cossack infantry (mainly infantry) to almost completely annihilate the tens of thousands of Polish troops led by Pototsky and Kalinovsky. In this battle, the Cossacks (registered Cossacks controlled by the Polish government, numbered about 8,000 men), who had been in arrears for more than five years, suddenly rebelled, attacked the accompanying German mercenaries and Polish government troops, and then killed the Ukrainian Cossacks from inside and outside, and after two consecutive victories, completely wiped out the hastily formed Polish army.

The victory in the second battle was much more brilliant than the first. This time in Piriavtsi, the great Polish nobles mobilized a large number of militias, mercenaries, Cossacks and standing armies, with a total strength of about 40,000 men. The Cossacks were assisted by light cavalry sent by the Crimean Khanate this time, and the forces of the two sides were still equal, and the Cossacks had a slight advantage. After the battle began, the elite hussars of the Polish army were blocked by the Cossacks' chariot formations, and then they were bombarded by muskets and artillery, suffering heavy casualties and forced to retreat. The Cossacks pursued the Polish army, which was almost completely annihilated again.

In this campaign, the Cossacks, who were mainly infantry, defeated the Polish army, which was mainly cavalry, which seemed to herald the end of Polish rule in the Ruthenian region. And with the deepening of the war situation. Moscow, Sweden, and the Ottomans have also set their sights on this fertile black land. The weakening Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth resembles a twilight empire. It attracted the coveted gaze of the newly rising power Sweden, the Ottomans, who had just experienced the rise of Murad IV, and Moscow, which had recovered from a series of chaos.

And Made, the diplomatic envoy from the east coast who has been living in the Kafa merchant station recently, has unsurprisingly welcomed waves of guests one after another. The last one to come to the door was Nasukh Pasha, an old friend of the East Coasters and a man who ran the Azov Chamber of Commerce, and this guy, who had recently been unofficial and light, had come to Kaffa by ship, and then sneakily hid in the secret room of the merchant station with Mader to discuss "business".

"I made a fortune this time!" Nasukhpasha almost choked on the first sentence, Nima, are you rich or am I rich? Generally speaking, if you are rich, it means that we are going to bleed profusely, Mader secretly scolded himself, but his face was as bright as a blooming chrysanthemum.

"A lot? No, you probably haven't found enough women this season. The Tatars who went to fight the grass valley should not have set off yet. Did you come from the north? Damn, it can't be Poles, right? Mader said in a speculative tone. The recent outbreak of great battles in the Ruthenian region to the north (i.e., the plains of Ukraine and South Russia) led to the defeat of the Polish government forces, and the Crimean Khanate, which sided with the Cossacks and plundered a large number of people and property as the victors. And as their number one customer, the Azov Chamber of Commerce should have received the opportunity to pick up the "goods".

"Of course it's the Poles." Nasukhpasha blinked, and then said in a ** tone: "There are a large number of Polish nobles and landlords in the Ruthenia region, and there are even more in the city of Kiev. This time the Cossacks won one after another, and many Poles were relegated to slavery by them. ”

In fact. Mader knew that it was the Crimean Tatars who did the most of this kind of thing. And not Cossacks. Otherwise, why do you think they took such a great risk to help the Cossacks win the battle against the Polish government's 40,000-strong army? Is it painful to be idle? People are obviously here to get rich! And he was sure that the supply of goods that Nasukh Pasha was able to contact was also provided by the Crimeans.

"A noble woman with roots? No, it's too dangerous, we don't want this kind of woman! Madder shook his head like a rattle. It is conceivable how many Polish landlords' families were taken captive by the Crimeans in the Ukrainian region this time, and there are definitely not a few aristocratic women scattered among them. Even if some of the Tatar nobles were left in good shape, most of the rest would still be sold in exchange for all kinds of subsistence and production materials.

However, buying aristocratic women in the slave market was also quite a risky business, especially when these women were basically taken away by the enemy by unjust means during the war. These men were generally related to the great Polish nobles of Warsaw, Krakow, Minsk, Danzig, etc., and if the people of the East Coast openly ate Polish women, which could be in the thousands, they would be at great diplomatic risk. By that time, God knew if their trading post at Danzig would be able to continue, and it was not known whether the campaign to recruit Polish veterans would continue.

"The price is very cheap, as long as half the price in the past, 40 yuan per person! And there are a lot of them, at least more than fifteen thousand! As if he didn't see Mader's refusal, Nasukh Pasha continued to throw a bombshell, that is, price and quantity.

"So much?" Ma De was stunned for a moment, and then obviously hesitated. His grandmother actually has so many women, and they are all women from rich families, and a considerable proportion of them may have received a certain amount of cultural education. Thinking of this, Ma De himself became a little excited, and then felt a little hot all over his body.

"Isn't there so many because I kicked out those damn Jewish slave traders!" Nasukh Pasha said with some smugness, "Our business is supported by the Queen Mother Kosem Sultan, the Naval Pasha, the Egyptian Pasha, and the Praetorian Guard Agha, to whom can those Tatars sell their slaves?" Now they may still be secretly going out in the port of Odessa, and when our Black Sea liner company is established next year and monopolizes the Black Sea shipping industry, they will not be able to escape our control. ”

Mader was still hesitating. With such a huge amount and such a sensitive identity, he had no choice but to consider them all, because the political and diplomatic risks involved were quite large.

"What are you hesitating about?" Nasukh Pasha was a little unhappy, only to see him accentuate his tone, and the corners of his mouth were slightly curled up with his neatly trimmed beard: "Eat them all!" What's so scary? Poland is the end of the country, haven't you seen it yet? Recently, the Russians have been contacting you to order weapons, and our intelligence shows that the Russians have been aggressively recruiting and hoarding military funds recently, and it seems that they want to meddle in the war between the Poles and the Zaporozhye Cossacks? And Sweden has recently been on the move, and their emissaries have just arrived in Istanbul - not for the first time, and their aim is obvious, which is to completely occupy the Polish coast and turn the Baltic Sea into their inner lake. Poland is in big trouble, and it's too late for them to beg you, how can they blame you? ”

Hearing Nasukh Pasha say this, Ma De thought for a while before he nodded slowly and said, "What you said makes sense, I personally tend to support this deal now, but the amount of this deal is too large and beyond my authority, I must report to Mr. Mo San for approval." By the way, those 'capable' Tatars not only recruited a large number of women, but there must also be men, and what are they going to do with those men? Sell it to us, our colonies in New China are in great need of able-fit men to work today! Say, make a price, I will write to Mr. Shi in Xinhuagang, and I can make the decision on this matter. ”

"I've been waiting for your words for a long time, horse!" Hearing this, Nasukh Pasha immediately said happily, "Most of these men are Ukrainian serfs, it's ironic, isn't it?" The Crimean Tatars helped them defeat the Polish lords who oppressed them, but at the same time took them away as slaves, and the Cossacks simply could not restrain these Tatars who were bent on getting rich, haha, what a wonderful irony. It is no exaggeration to say that there are no fewer adult male slaves than women today, who are now clustered on the border between Crimea and Poland. However, the Crimeans have not sold male slaves to us before, and the price is difficult to determine, so we will have to negotiate with them again. But in any case, even in the Kaffa slave market, where women sell many times more than men each year, the price of male slaves is more expensive than that of women, and you have to be mentally prepared for this. Of course, as a big customer who can help them eat most of their inventory slaves at once, I don't think they mind a little bit better on the price. ”

"Of course, the cheaper the better." Ma De nodded, and said as a matter of course: "Our funds are not unlimited, of course we want to buy more slaves." You tell them this, that among the captured prisoners of war - including those in the hands of the Cossacks - we will give priority to those who are single and homeless in their hometowns. As for the rest of the ordinary slaves, of course we want them too, but the price will have to be negotiated. ”

The Polish army suffered two successive defeats in field battles, with losses of almost 50,000 men. There were thousands of Cossacks, tens of thousands of German mercenaries, and of course the largest number were Polish soldiers, who could not have all died in battle, and a considerable number of them must have been captured by the Tatars and Cossacks. These people are still more or less valuable to the Eastern Shore Republic, whether they are sent to New China, South Africa or Australia to conquer the natives, or sent to the Far East to serve as cannon fodder, they are a very ideal choice.

Especially those single young soldiers, most of them go out to fight in their hometowns, so they are not like those older soldiers who are married and have family ties to return to their hometowns, so they are actually a good cheap war consumable, very useful for people on the East Coast.

"By the way, you can also help us to convey a message to the Great Khan and the nobles, we pay for the 'goods' in a very diverse way. It can be cash or goods, including arms. They have fought such a large-scale battle, and they must be in great need of replenishing military resources, and we are open to supply. Ma De finally admonished. (To be continued......)