Became The Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire [EN]: Chapter 198

The Vicious Ones (2)

In the aftermath of the defeat, Spain was in utter chaos.

It wasn’t just the weakening grip of the royal family due to continuous misgovernment; a major problem was the rise of Moorish bandits, who practiced Islam, after Malaga and Gibraltar became Ottoman territories.

Sending troops to suppress the bandits was futile, as they would simply flee to Malaga and Gibraltar. Even attempting to blockade them was met with resistance.

“Blocking the route to the port is a violation of the agreement! Do you intend to break the truce?”

The Ottoman forces, charging with guns, forced the lifting of the blockade, and the bandits became even more rampant.

Gradually, the south turned into a lawless zone, and people were rapidly migrating to Ottoman territories where they wouldn’t have to worry about bandits.

Considering the rapidly increasing population of Malaga and Gibraltar, the prospect of ever reclaiming those territories seemed daunting, making it hard to breathe. The news of Barbary pirates in the New World was something that couldn’t be ignored.

Charles V suppressed his anger and said,

“Are you certain it’s the Barbary pirates?”

“The circumstances strongly suggest it is.”

It was unbelievable that Barbary pirates, who used to roam the Mediterranean, had reached the New World in such a short time.

Unless someone was pulling strings.

“That damned Yusuf! With so little time left, he should have just stepped down quietly! Bring me the letter that came from Ferdinand recently!”

“Understood.”

Charles unfolded the letter brought by the chamberlain and tapped the desk with his fingers.

The letter contained conversations with Prince Kasim, the Grand Vizier’s visit to Buda, and the need for money.

When he first received it, he scoffed. Considering the money he had been forced to give up due to the truce negotiations, he would wake up in anger even in his sleep. Now, he was being asked to support an Ottoman prince with money.

It sounded insane, but his thoughts had changed.

“The next one in charge needs to be someone I can talk to.”

If someone like Yusuf were to follow him, he wouldn’t live to see his days. He had no choice.

He decided to provide financial support to Kasim, but that wasn’t the immediate concern.

“Before the Barbary pirates increase, we will launch a pirate suppression campaign. We must cut them off at the root before they can even set foot in the New World.”

***

Taking a handful of bright yellow fruit, sweet juice flowed down.

As Dragut chewed on one of the fruits commonly found on the surrounding islands, he heard footsteps.

“Captain! We’ve gathered all the prisoners whose ‘fermentation’ is complete!”

Dragut spat out the fruit’s seeds and followed his subordinate.

Ships were docked at the coast, which had a natural breakwater formed by rocks, and temporary wooden houses lined the beach.

It was an impressive base considering it had been built in less than half a year. Dragut pushed through the bustling crowd and looked down at those kneeling on the sand.

“Nice to meet you all. Some of you are familiar faces, and some are not. Though I doubt the familiar ones are happy to see me.”

The roughly 200 prisoners looked fearfully at Dragut, who was twirling a pistol and smiling.

The ferocity they had when they were first captured? After a month of barely eating and watching their comrades die from festering wounds, all they wanted was to live.

This process of breaking their spirit was called ‘fermentation,’ and Dragut smiled kindly at the well-‘fermented’ prisoners.

“There’s no need to be so afraid. If I intended to kill you, I would have done so long ago. I was the captain here. Raise your hand if that’s you.”

Of course, no one raised their hand.

The first thing they did upon capture was to throw the captain to the sharks.

“No one, huh? Then let’s talk frankly. See these gold coins? This is a portion of the gold coins taken from your ships. What did you get for risking your lives to transport this?”

“If we were lucky, we’d get a few scraps of gold. The higher-ups took it all, so how much could we possibly get?”

A pirate surrounding the prisoners answered. He was someone who had become a pirate through the same process.

“Not even being able to drink clean water, constantly adjusting the sails with every change in the wind, barely getting any sleep. The result? Dying of illness before you even reach forty. So, this is an opportunity.”

Dragut tossed a pouch of clinking gold coins in front of the prisoners.

“You too can live comfortably on a ship. That’s because we distribute the loot fairly. Of course, those in special positions like the captain and helmsman receive more, but it’s only double.”

“R-Really?”

As a prisoner voiced his greed through his fear, Dragut nodded.

“Why would I lie about something that would be exposed so quickly? Ah, you should know this. A portion of the loot must be offered to the Padishah [Ottoman Sultan].”

“Why do we have to do that?”

Most of the captured sailors were born in Spain and had no respect for the Ottoman Padishah.

They hadn’t even touched the money yet, but their faces showed dissatisfaction at having to give up a portion of it.

“Tsk, think about it. Where do you think you’ll get the weapons and gunpowder you need? Do you think there’s anywhere else to get them besides the Ottomans? And if you save up all your money and retire, where do you plan to go? Back to your homeland?”

They would be executed as soon as it was discovered that they had been pirates.

“The only place you can retire and live in peace is the Ottoman Empire.”

“But…”

“I know. You’re worried about living in a place where you don’t speak the language and the culture is different. If that’s the case, you can live in Malaga or Gibraltar, which have become part of the Empire. The Empire has many places for you to choose from.”

Having said all that, Dragut put the pistol he was holding into his belt.

“I’ve said everything I need to say. Those who want to become pirates with us, stand up from your seats.”

At these words, the prisoners slowly rose from their seats, and when even those who were hesitant stood up, no one was left sitting.

“Excellent! Since we have new comrades, today is a feast!”

The pirates approached the newly joined prisoners, untied their ropes, and moved away with their arms around each other’s shoulders.

Having drunk a mouthful of strong rum and become excited, the pirates began to mingle, chattering and building camaraderie.

Having successfully completed the job fair, Dragut turned around with a hardened expression.

“Don’t let your guard down for a while, and if you see any suspicious movements, execute them as an example.”

“Is this the first time we’ve done this? You don’t have to worry.”

Dragut patted the shoulder of the subordinate who answered confidently a few times and looked at the docks.

The pirate fleet, which started with four ships, had already grown to ten. That meant they had already captured six ships.

“They must be starting to notice.”

“With the increasing number of ships that don’t return, they’d have to be fools not to. Besides, there was also the ship that escaped recently, wasn’t there?”

Since there was a ship that had sacrificed a ship sailing with them and escaped, it was only a matter of time before a punitive force came.

He wasn’t afraid. If he was afraid of a punitive force, he couldn’t be a pirate.

“Let’s start moving in earnest too. The gifts for our friends must be ready, right?”

“The muskets and gunpowder to be given as gifts have already been loaded.”

“I hope our indigenous friends like our gifts.”

And preferably the Spanish bastards too.

***

The reason Yusuf’s name first became known during his time as a prince was thanks to the smallpox vaccination.

Although there was no technology to properly culture the virus like in modern times, it was possible to artificially induce the disease in animals such as cows and horses and then inoculate it, so it was not difficult to widely administer the vaccination.

Following Bayezid II’s decision, smallpox vaccination was implemented throughout the Ottoman Empire, and the West, having confirmed its effectiveness, quickly spread the vaccination.

No country was unafraid of infectious diseases, and this butterfly effect eventually reached the New World.

‘Fewer indigenous people are dying from disease than in history.’

Of course, even without smallpox, infectious diseases such as measles and typhus were still prevalent, as the Spanish, living chemical weapons, had landed.

But it was also true that the damage was significantly reduced without smallpox.

‘That means there are just as many indigenous people who want to take revenge on Spain.’

Yusuf asked Hassan,

“The enemy fleet has moved to the New World?”

“Yes, a fleet of about fifteen ships has departed from Cadiz to the New World. The Portuguese fleet probably moved from Lisbon as well.”

“Portugal, huh? They must be desperate too.”

The Eastern sea route was blocked, and Portugal, having suffered significant damage from the earthquake, had no other way to survive but the New World.

It was only natural that they would move in a frenzy when the Barbary pirates were added to their hopes.

“I sent them off with plenty of weapons to win over the indigenous people, so all I can do now is trust Dragut.”

“The captains of the Eastern Fleet, including Barbarossa Oruç, were confident, so they should be able to escape and return in the worst-case scenario.”

“Yes, not dying is important. If not dying is the goal, they won’t be caught either.”

Even if the Spanish and Portuguese fleets combined, they wouldn’t amount to more than thirty ships, which was hardly enough to suppress them.

‘There’s a reason why the Caribbean became the center of pirates.’

There were countless small islands that the navy couldn’t possibly monitor, and the good weather made it easy to obtain food like fruit.

It was the perfect place to play hide-and-seek, so suppression was out of the question; they might even be attacked in reverse.

To properly suppress them, they would have to pour in more forces than they have now, but adding forces to the New World wasn’t bad for future plans.

“Let’s end this conversation here. Grand Vizier, did you enjoy your long trip abroad?”

“I enjoyed it so much that I wish I could have stayed in Buda longer.”

“If you had, you would have seen even more accumulated documents than you do now.”

Shemsi sighed deeply.

He had a mountain of documents to deal with, and he was constantly fueled by coffee.

“It feels like the longest eight years of my life.”

“No matter how slow it seems to go, time always flows. Before you know it, the end will be right around the corner. Then, let’s have a cup of kahwa [Ottoman coffee] together in peace.”

“I hope that day comes before the day I go to Allah’s side.”

Yusuf gave a small smile to Shemsi, who was always making weak remarks, and got to the point.

“Is that Kasim doing well?”

“Don’t you know Prince Kasim well? I don’t think you have to worry.”

“Well, if he weren’t a prince, he would have become a con artist.”

At these words, Shemsi stared blankly, and Yusuf raised his eyebrows.

“Your gaze is quite impure. Oh well, it’s fine. A son takes after his father, who else would he take after? Isn’t that right, Hassan?”

“…May I step down now? Padishah.”

It was a conversation that even Hassan, notorious for his satanic tongue, couldn’t carelessly wag his tongue about.

Yusuf, who had mischievously teased Hassan, tapped the armrest with his hand.

“That Kasim will be squeezing a lot of money from the West, but that Murat squeezed a lot of money from me. Don’t you think that’s outrageous?”

“Isn’t that because you told him not to worry about support?”

“Who would have known that a son wouldn’t think about his aging father’s retirement funds and just take them all?”

He was complaining about Murat, but the smile on his lips showed that he was enjoying the situation.

“Hassan, if any new information about Murat and the New World comes in, report it to me immediately.”

“Understood, Padishah.”

Yusuf, having given the order, rose from his seat.

It seemed like he wouldn’t be bored for a while.

***

The land that Columbus, who set out to find India, first arrived at.

A roar echoed on the island of Hispaniola, the second largest island in the Caribbean.

-Taang! Tang!

“W-What’s going on?!”

The Spaniards, who had been sleeping with Taino women, jumped up at the sound of gunfire and rushed outside.

The Spaniards, seeing the enemy through the flames spurting from the gun muzzles along with the gunshots, screamed in shock.

“It’s an attack! The Indians are attacking!”

It seemed unrealistic that the indigenous people, who had not been able to put up any significant resistance for the past few decades, were attacking the settlements with guns, but it was clearly reality.

What prevented the Spaniards from taking up arms to fight back were the indigenous women they had been using as tools.

“Let go, you bitch!”

The Spaniard, screaming and beating the woman who was grabbing and clinging to him, was greeted by a cold bayonet as he went outside the building.

The Spanish settlement was set ablaze by the attack of the indigenous people who had been holding back their anger for years.

Dragut, watching the red flames and black smoke illuminating the night sky from afar, turned around.

“There are still many places to go. Let’s move diligently.”

Starting from this day, indigenous rebellions began throughout the Caribbean.

It was the declaration of war issued by the Barbary pirates before the punitive force arrived.