Since its official founding in 1430, descendants of Badu’s younger brother Tuhua Timur have been ruling the Crimean Peninsula and some grassland areas north of it, and have been more than 200 years.

During these two hundred years, they developed from a governor-general area of ​​the Golden Horde (limited to the inland of the Crimean Peninsula) to a grassland kingdom with vast territory and no less than 100,000 string control men (of course, when fully mobilized, it is generally the limit to dispatching 40,000 to 50,000 cavalry). They defected to the Ottomans, expelled the Genoese colonists, fought with the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and snatched Moscow. They even coveted the throne of the Khanate of the Golden Horde, but these were eventually blown away by the rain and wind, becoming passing clouds. The current Crimean Khanate is just a nomadic kingdom that plays balance between Poland, Russia and the Ottomans. Life is neither good nor bad, but it seems difficult to go further.

Gao Wengang rode a horse and headed towards Bekchisale, the capital of the Crimean Khanate. They came ashore at the port near the small town of Balaclava, which was controlled by the Ottomans and not far from the famous Sevastopol in the later generations. Of course, this place is a wasteland under the control of the Crimean Khanate. Last year, Muhammad Grey Khan designated this as the direct trade place between the East Coast and Crimea to avoid the unbearable taxes of the Kafa Port (here is an Ottoman territory) and promised that all East Coast goods would be exempted from taxes, except for the private tribute they should hand over to the Great Khan.

The East Coast people naturally had no objection to this. They did want to reduce the trade costs. After all, although the Ottomans in Kafa were very low, they had a lot of chaotic levies, which led to many unnecessary expenses. After agreeing to trade directly, the South China Sea Transportation Company, a large state-owned enterprise in the East Coast, naturally obtained the construction and fifty-year operation rights of the Port of Haji (Sevastopol, which commemorated the founding monarch of Crimea) at an astonishing low price of 50,000 yuan. They planned to build a small terminal and merchant station here as a port of import and export for goods and a distribution center for some slaves.

As for why not all slave sales lands were exchanged for Haji Port, isn’t this nonsense? Isn’t it just to take care of the interests of Jewish merchants who have been operating the slave trade in Kafa? You should know that behind these people are many Ottoman masters and cannot be neglected. Therefore, female slaves are still buying here, but prisoners of war produced by the war have to slowly turn to Haji Port. After all, there are not so many messy tax donations here, and the cost is even lower.

Back to the point, this time Gao Wengang was ordered to change the seat with Li Qing from Kafa, that is, Li Qing was transferred to Riga Trading Station to clean up the mess there. Gao Wengang began to host the business from Kafa. As for Ma De, he was transferred back to the local area because he was too high-profile, and the person who replaced him has not yet arrived.

After coming to the Black Sea by boat from the tense Baltic Sea, Gao Wengang originally wanted to go straight to the port of Kafa, but because he still had some business to discuss with the Grek Khan of Crimea, he went ashore in the small port of Balaclava (Balaklava, Sudak, Kafa and Azov on the coast of the Crimean Peninsula, including the territory obtained by the Ottomans to expel the Genoese, and never handed over to the Tatars), and then rode a horse to the Khanate's capital, Bexsachlai, a city built in the 13th century during the Mongol conquest.

"Since the Great Mongolian moved the capital from Khalahelin to Dadu (Beijing), commercial cities such as Bekchisale and Solhard have begun to decline, and goods from the East no longer gather here. Instead, they are endless wars." The speaker was an East Coast official in his thirty years old, named Malati, who graduated from the first phase of the Corps Fort. He was of Tatar descent, and was the eldest son of Zampalini. He grew up on the East Coast. He has refined the Tatar language and Crimean history. He is the famous "Tatar Tong" in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. He has worked at the Kafa Trading Station for more than a year and is deeply appreciated by Li Qing and Ma De.

"But fortunately, the descendants of Turtle eventually ruled the land, and Bekchisale was designated as the capital. Later, the country relied on the power of the Ottoman Turks to get rid of the control of the Golden Horde, and then through a series of wars and changes in the international situation, it obtained a large amount of the Golden Horde's legacy, and its military strength grew rapidly. It has become an important force in the nearby areas. All forces are competing to win over, and the Ottomans are also extremely generous to them, and their control is not as powerful as those of Moldavia and Transylvania. This can be seen from the diplomatic autonomy given to them by the Ottomans that in addition to Poland, the foreign policy of the Crimean Khanate needs to be given to the Ottoman in advance.

In addition to the Empire's report, all the rest of the autonomy is in short, this is a country with great autonomy. Of course, the territory and population are large enough: the Crimean Tatars are no less than 500,000. If the children born to slaves and slaves from various countries captured over the years (these people will eventually become Tatarized), the total population of this country is probably nearly one million, and it should not be underestimated." Malati's statement continued, "Of course, the economy of the Crimean Khanate is extremely primitive, to an outrageous level, and the industrial level of their nominal suzerain Ottoman Empire was also very average, especially the industries related to people's livelihood were even worse, which also gave my country's business community the opportunity..."

Gao Wengang nodded slightly when he heard this. As a senior official on the East Coast in Europe, he naturally has the right to understand the trade data of the East Coast in various commercial stations and even regions. Although the Crimean Khanate's trade territory on the East Coast is not eye-catching and remote, it must not be underestimated. Because this country is really primitive and has extremely low productivity, it is a bit of money, materials and population because of the fortunes (wars in the surrounding areas frequently occur). This makes their purchasing power less

With a small improvement, it has a strong digestive capacity for commodities from the East Coast. Weapons and ammunition, spirits, tobacco, textiles, dyed leather, metal farm tools, sugar, cocoa, coffee, etc. are all things they like to buy. The largest batch of goods imported from them on the East Coast were always slaves (mainly female slaves), followed by livestock and a small amount of artwork and jewelry (looted from Poland, Russia and other countries). In short, the trade between the two sides was extremely complementary. In 1657, the annual trade volume exceeded 1.2 million yuan, which was extremely amazing.

"This time I heard that Grey Khan captured more than 16,000 Transylvanian prisoners of war in Poland. We are expected to eat it at an extremely low price. After all, the Tatars have robbed everywhere in recent years, and the number of slaves on hand is already extremely large. Wouldn't it be strange if the price of this slave does not drop!" Gao Wengang looked at the endless prairie intoxicatedly and said with a smile. He had just seen the outline of Bekchisale City, and a noble man from the Crimean Khanate who accompanied them had also sent his followers to the city to report.

To be fair, Beckiczalai City is not a magnificent city. Needless to mention the cities on the east coast, many small counties in the Ming Dynasty are no less than her, and perhaps they are just lacking in scale. However, under the guidance of the people on the east coast, Grey Khan has made up his mind to update the city defense facilities in various places in recent years. The first step is to start from the capital Beckiczalai City. Gao Wengang and others approached and saw that a deep moat was dug outside the city. The original old city wall was also demolished, renovated, and reinforced. For this reason, Grey Khan conscripted more than 80,000 slaves from Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Moldavia to work. It seems that he was determined to manage his old nest well.

In addition to the capital Beckiczale, Mad also successfully fooled Grey Khan to build a series of castles and forts near the Isthmus of Pilekop in later generations. Although grassland men have always disliked building cities, Grey Khan, who has been repeatedly touched by the enemy's strong city cannons in recent years, was deeply aware of the differences between modern warfare. Therefore, after consulting the price of East Coast City Artillery, Dahan made up his mind to start building a fort near the isthmus. According to the plan, four bastions that are only more than one kilometer apart will be built within a short eight-kilometer isthmus. For this reason, Grey Khan will import up to 96 types of city defense cannons (including spare cannons) and some spare parts, special tools and other things from the east coast. The total contract amount exceeded 125,000 yuan (including the cost of training artillery), which once attracted the attention of the Ottomans.

Of course, the reason why Mohamed Grey Khan agreed to build the isthmus fortress was not entirely fooled by the East Coast people. The reason was mostly because of their concerns about the future of their country. Grey Khan's army over the years has been difficult to gain advantage in both the Russian army and the regular Polish army. Khan himself may not understand the disadvantages of cavalry in the infantry equipped with a large number of firearms, but he knew that the era of Tatar cavalry might have been gone forever, so he agreed to build a fortress near the isthmus, in order to have the ability to resist the enemy's respite in the future.

Gao Wengang and others stayed in Beckiczale City for two days, and then a messenger who came from other places apologized to tell the East Coast that the Khan had summoned the 20,000 cavalry troops on the grassland and would go westward to Transylvania in the past few days (they had already entered Transylvania with the Polish army). The 16,000 Transylvanian prisoners of war they had captured before was a "sad" story.

The Prince of Transylvania led 30,000 people to attack Poland to get a bargain. Later, the war was unfavorable to retreat. As a result, he was intercepted by Tatar cavalry during the retreat. The prince himself led only 300 cavalry back to the country. He was almost wiped out and sold to the East Coast people for discount (35 yuan per person). Of course, they would try their best to collect as many young women in Transylvania and even Hungary. If the East Coast needs it, they could eat it together and deliver it in Haji Port.
Chapter completed!