Became The Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire [EN]: Chapter 16

#16. Sanjakbey Yusuf (2)

It hadn’t been many days since Yusuf arrived in Trabzon, so no one recognized him as he wandered around the city, allowing Yusuf to observe Trabzon in its raw state.

The Empire of Trebizond, with Trabzon as its capital, had fallen only 40 years ago.

‘The atmosphere isn’t too bad for that.’

One might argue that the transition was less impactful because the average lifespan was low, but the difference in average lifespan compared to modern times is primarily due to the high infant mortality rate.

It’s not like someone with an average lifespan of 20 would suddenly age and be on their deathbed.

The bitterness of a defeated nation and the memory of the emperor and crown prince being beheaded were still alive in some. However, those who grew up listening to stories of the Trebizond era, like veterans sharing tales of the Korean War, didn’t seem overtly dissatisfied under Ottoman rule.

The faces of men busily working showed the fatigue of daily life, but not despair, and it wasn’t difficult to see children running around the streets.

Yusuf waved slightly at a child hiding behind their mother, peeking out.

Yusuf, smiling at the child who quickly hid with a flushed face, turned around.

It was a short time, but he had confirmed everything he wanted to see.

“Prince!!”

The first to greet him upon returning to the castle was Hassan, looking pale.

It seemed like a major problem had erupted in the Hasse [private treasury/estate], but Yusuf reacted calmly.

The guards, servants, and maids working in the castle were people who had been working there before, and could be someone’s eyes and ears.

“Hassan, calm down.”

Hassan flinched at the very calm tone, realizing he had been too agitated with the subtle glances.

It was a clear mistake, but Yusuf didn’t care.

A subordinate’s mistake sometimes makes the superior stand out.

Yusuf led Hassan into the office and sat down.

“It must be something related to the Hasse, right? Did my brother Selim build a cemetery on the farmland or something?”

Hassan quickly shook his head at the thought of such a terrible example.

“It’s not that, but the farmland has many areas where the soil is depleted. As it is, we’ll have to leave most of the farmland fallow [unplanted to recover].”

“And?”

“The livestock was also a big problem. It seems he sold off a lot of the livestock we were raising.”

‘Look at this. Our brotherly love is so strong.’

He went through the trouble of pressing the reset button for the brother who would inherit it, didn’t he?

It’s not like an older brother cleaning and handing over a room when moving out; he neatly organized the fiefdom before leaving, so I could feel the warm brotherly love.

‘Hope you’re doing well, brother. I’ll repay this love a hundredfold later.’

He was criticizing Selim, but he would have done the same.

It actually felt a bit lukewarm.

“That’s a pretty tame thing to do. I would have sprinkled poison or something.”

“Wow, Prince?!”

‘What, why? Brothers can exchange poison, can’t they?’

Yusuf shrugged as if it were a joke to Hassan, who was horrified, and then paused to think.

‘If I think about it calmly, there’s no need to take it too seriously.’

It wasn’t like he made the Hasse unusable land, so it was fine.

“Let’s think lightly. My brother took all the profits from this year’s harvest, and next year’s harvest is ruined. There’s not much livestock left either.”

“That’s right.”

“So, at most, we’ll lose a few thousand ducats [European currency]. Right?”

“…Pardon?”

Hassan was dizzy, hearing him casually mention an amount that could buy him dozens of times over.

It was an amount that would make Yusuf, whose pockets had been filled thanks to the Sultan’s support, flinch, but if you turned it around, that was all it was.

“It’s not like we’ll die because we don’t have that money. It’s just a shame.”

Selim probably didn’t intend to cause a major economic blow with his scheme.

‘He must have been aiming for the mental aspect. It’s like losing a winning lottery ticket.’

It would be a big shock that would leave most people as shut-ins for a while, let alone an 11-year-old brat.

Wandering around in a daze, he would leave a bad impression on key figures and start off on the wrong foot.

He probably thought he could inflict enough damage before meeting him directly.

‘He would have known it was a failure when we met.’

The spirit tempered by repeated threats to his life was not so easily shaken by money, and Selim would have felt that enough after facing him directly.

Moreover, if Selim made one more mistake, it was that Yusuf could sincerely appreciate a fiefdom starting from zero.

Because he was planning to overturn everything anyway.

“If my brother sold off so much livestock, the livestock prices should have dropped, but they haven’t fallen much, have they?”

“That’s right.”

Hassan, who had been rolling around in commerce, seemed to know the reason, and his face darkened.

“The guy who’s in cahoots with my brother must be holding out to get the full price.”

If you investigate, it will be obvious, and you might think, ‘Would they do something to displease the Sanjakbey [governor of a district]?’ but greed makes you lose your nerve.

They might have also ignored him because he was a young prince.

The normal procedure would be to fill the livestock first, but Yusuf just chuckled.

“Don’t buy livestock. Let’s see how long they hold on.”

If they took that much livestock, the other party’s pasture would soon reach its limit, and they would have no choice but to sell the livestock to the surrounding areas or slaughter them to sell the meat.

The former is good because livestock prices go down, and the latter is good because meat prices go down.

It means he doesn’t care either way.

Hassan seemed surprised by this unconventional course of action, but he shouldn’t be surprised yet.

“If they raised a lot of livestock in the Hasse, they must have prepared a separate pasture besides the fallow land. We’ll plow that and plant barley in the spring.”

Since there are no chemical fertilizers in this era, fallowing was essential unless it was blessed land like the area around the Nile River, where the river periodically floods and replenishes nutrients.

The main farming method used is the three-field system: spring planting land, autumn planting land, and fallow land.

They usually raised livestock on fallow land, but since the documents showed a large number of livestock, there must have been a separate pasture.

Hassan understood up to this point, but.

“Plant clover, no, Yonca [Turkish word for clover], in all the land where the soil is depleted.”

“Yonca, you say?”

Hassan’s eyes widened.

Clover was just like a weed, not a plant you would deliberately plant.

It was natural for Yusuf, who knew about the four-field crop rotation and the soil-restoring properties of legumes, but it would be difficult to understand with the common sense of this era.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to rely on future knowledge and stubbornly insist without logic.

“It’s written in an agricultural textbook published during ancient Roman times. Clover restores the soil. It’s such an old and rare book that almost no one knows about it.”

“Is that so? If it’s from an ancient Roman book, then it’s trustworthy.”

You can see it as a similar case to cement.

Turnips, barley planted in spring, clover, and wheat planted in autumn. This four-field crop rotation, which rotates these four crops in four-year cycles, was forgotten after Roman times and only revived in the 16th century.

The four-field crop rotation triggered an agricultural revolution before the Industrial Revolution.

‘It’s essential because it increased productivity by nearly twofold in the countries that introduced it, England and the Netherlands.’

The Ottoman Empire was a country with a small population compared to its land size even in the future, and improving sanitation and agricultural revolution were two things that were essential for population growth.

Of course, the four-field crop rotation was knowledge in his head, so it was necessary to test it before applying it on a large scale, and Selim had set the stage, so he could take advantage of this opportunity.

“I will handle the Hasse as instructed, but are we ending it like this?”

“You’re talking about suing, right?”

He could sue since he had inflicted significant damage on the Hasse, but.

All he would get is ridicule for being a prince who sued over money.

“Forget it. I’ll get it back directly later.”

With his life.

Isn’t this true Ottoman brotherly love?

As Hassan left with a bow, Yusuf lightly stretched his neck.

After becoming the Sanjakbey himself and looking around, there were so many places that needed attention.

He had to introduce the four-field crop rotation and lower the infant mortality rate through sanitation improvements. Moreover, he had to fight Ismail I, so he couldn’t neglect the military.

There were mountains of things to do, but.

“Let’s start with the urgent things slowly.”

Being recognized as the owner of the Sanjak was the priority.

***

A group of people and horses entered Trabzon one after another.

The Sipahi [Ottoman cavalry] on horseback, neighing loudly, were so intimidating that just making eye contact would make you tremble, and the Qadis [Islamic judges] leisurely driving their horses exuded a strong sense of dizziness.

Even though they didn’t cause a commotion within the castle, the atmosphere of the castle was shaken just by their appearance.

Those who gathered at Trabzon Castle complained about the Sanjakbey, who didn’t even show his face despite their arrival.

“Is it because he’s a prince? It’s so hard to see his face.”

“Not all princes are the same. Prince Selim would have welcomed us who came from afar with a happy face.”

Only the warlike and fearless Sipahi directly voiced their dissatisfaction, but the Qadis who remained silent also seemed to agree.

It was only natural that the atmosphere of those gathered in the huge banquet hall became even more grim.

Thirteen Qadis governing 13 Kazas [administrative districts].

Thirteen Subashis [police chiefs], the commanders of the castle and chiefs of police, who could only be Sipahi with Timars [land grants] earning more than 15,000 Akces [Ottoman currency] per year.

Since only those who had reached the pinnacle of literature and military affairs in each castle were gathered, their momentum was quite different.

“Subashi Burak, you have seen the prince directly. What kind of person was he?”

Burak, the Subashi of Trabzon, said in a gruff voice.

“What kind of person is he? He’s only 11 years old.”

“Is that so?”

When the dismissive attitude towards the new Sanjakbey spread due to Burak’s devaluation, a low voice echoed through the banquet hall.

“If you really saw it that way, then your eyes are definitely useless except when you’re cutting with a sword.”

“What?!”

Burak glared at the other person with wide eyes.

“Efendi Ömer. Say it again.”

“I said you have terrible judgment of people.”

Efendi was a title similar to ‘sir’ in English, and Ömer was the Qadi of Trabzon.

The two glared sharply at each other, but no one thought it was strange.

The Sipahi were in charge of military force and had the duty and right to catch criminals, but it was the Qadi who made the judgments.

The conflict between the two was one of the common occurrences.

Squeak-

The door of the banquet hall, which had a grim atmosphere that didn’t suit the name of a banquet, opened with a small sound, and the person everyone was waiting for appeared.

The glistening green eyes were deep, and the etiquette ingrained in his steps was imbued with elegance and dignity.

Yusuf, who crossed the banquet hall in a manner that no one dared to belittle as an 11-year-old, sat in the seat of honor.

Yusuf gave a welcome greeting to the two groups who were staring at him walking as if possessed.

“Nice to meet you all. I am Yusuf, the Sanjakbey of Trabzon.”

It was the young prince’s declaration of intent.