Became The Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire [EN]: Chapter 29

#29. Time to Step Up (2)

Along with war, epidemics are a matter of deep concern for any nation.

Even if captured as prisoners of war, the powerful could pay a ransom and be released, but disease was one of the few things that threatened their lives directly.

They valued their lives highly, so they couldn’t help but pay close attention to the threat of disease.

Moreover, epidemics bring enormous financial losses.

A city plagued by an epidemic cannot function properly. Instead of collecting taxes, it requires financial support. Maintaining a lockdown, dispatching doctors, and calming the restless public—all these measures cost a great deal of money.

All these processes are expensive.

‘It would be fortunate if the epidemic remained confined to the city.’

‘Oh, if an epidemic breaks out during the war…’

Any military commander would be horrified at the mere mention of the word epidemic.

During wartime, maintaining hygiene is nearly impossible, and armies traversing the world with unwashed bodies are, quite literally, bundles of germs.

Large-scale armies were always accompanied by all sorts of diseases, and many important wars were lost due to epidemics.

Naturally, the letter from Trabzon went directly to the Divan [the Ottoman Empire’s high council].

“A method to prevent smallpox. Minister of Finance, have you heard of this?”

At the Grand Vizier’s question, posed after reviewing the letter, the Minister of Finance, who was in charge of the Asian region, shook his head.

“As you can see from the proposed method, this is not something that requires significant financial support. It’s something that can be tried sufficiently at the Sanjak [a district in the Ottoman Empire] level.”

Even though the position of Minister of Finance sounds impressive, it wasn’t actually a position with great power.

As long as taxes were paid regularly, there was no way to interfere with the Sanjakbeys [governors of the Sanjaks] who enjoyed considerable autonomy.

“So, none of us knew about this beforehand.”

The Grand Vizier turned to someone who had been specially invited to the meeting.

He was a highly respected scholar and doctor, an old man with pure white hair and beard.

“Onur Efendi, how reliable is the content of this letter?”

Having already received the letter before attending the meeting, Onur began with a negative assessment.

“Smallpox is a disease that one doesn’t get again once infected. So, there have been brief discussions about artificially contracting smallpox to prevent it.”

“And?”

“It was dismissed as nonsense. Getting sick to avoid getting sick is absurd. It’s also a way to kill someone who is perfectly healthy.”

Those gathered at the meeting nodded in agreement.

“In comparison, cowpox is not a dangerous disease, even if a person contracts it. But to think that it can prevent smallpox is unbelievable.”

“So, you mean it’s a lie?”

He expected to hear that it was a lie, but Onur shook his head.

“It’s hard to dismiss it as a lie because it has already been proven in Cherkess [Circassia, a region in the North Caucasus]. The story that they ended the epidemic in just two months clearly means it’s effective, assuming the contents of the letter are true.”

“That’s something we can find out by checking directly.”

That’s what he said, but the possibility of it being a lie was small.

No matter how much the princes do all sorts of things to get the Sultan’s attention, such a lie would only backfire spectacularly.

Those who had thought this far had complicated thoughts.

‘If this is true, people who support Shehzade [Prince] Yusuf might emerge.’

‘Trabzon is too far away, but the Sultan might summon him.’

Everything was still in the prediction stage, but one thing was certain.

That this event would make Yusuf recognized as a proper heir.

That alone was beyond what the Divan council could easily handle.

“This is something that must be brought to the Padishah’s [Sultan’s] attention.”

The Grand Vizier made an immediate decision, and this fact quickly reached the Sultan, who was away at war.

***

The Sultan, who thought he had completely secured victory by capturing Modon and Koron, was in a very uncomfortable state.

Suddenly, Spain intervened and occupied Cephalonia Island, blocking the path to Venice.

The bigger problem was that since Spain had intervened, other Western countries might intervene at any time.

“What do we do with the captured prisoners?”

“Why bother asking about those who couldn’t even fulfill their roles? Leave them be.”

The Sultan, who had no intention of paying ransom for the defeated, replied coldly and reviewed the news from the capital.

Most of it was nothing special.

It started with praise for the Sultan and was mainly filled with general stories that he was tired of hearing even when he was in the palace. There was content that stopped the Sultan’s hand as he was boringly flipping through documents.

“The Shiites who follow a kid named Ismail won the war.”

Just looking at the contents written in the document, it was clear that they had achieved a great victory, but it was hard to believe that they would overthrow the White Sheep Dynasty [Aq Qoyunlu, a Turkoman tribal confederation] as it was.

If Yusuf hadn’t warned him in advance, he wouldn’t have paid much attention.

The Sultan fiddled with the silver coin he had received from Yusuf as a gift.

“I wonder if you’ll be right this time too.”

Although he had been challenged by Spain, at least so far, the Ottomans were gaining the upper hand.

Moreover, as Yusuf said, the Shiites were gaining power in the east, so he couldn’t help but be interested.

Thinking so, the Sultan, who had been flipping through documents, was surprised when another story related to Yusuf came out.

“Can smallpox be prevented?”

It was an amazing achievement, but it was hard to believe. Even the Sultan, who heard all sorts of news, was hearing it for the first time.

Even if it were true, it was content that would shake the succession structure, so it might be better to cover it up.

After thinking for a while, the Sultan’s eyes reached the holed silver coin, and he made a decision.

“There’s no need to stop a child who is struggling to survive.”

It was a small whim.

“Prove that you are right this time too.”

The order to implement it from the outskirts of the empire arrived in the capital, and it was the moment when the prince, who had been out of everyone’s interest, entered the center of the succession war.

***

“That heartless human being. What’s wrong with being an engineer?”

Kadi Ömer Efendi [a judge] was a heartless man.

He said he would rather make his precious son a surgeon than see him become an engineer.

“How can you tell your son to become a surgeon?”

Sinan would have fainted if he had heard that, but when Yusuf saw it, it was a hundred times better to be an engineer than a surgeon.

The main job of surgeons in this era was amputation, and all without anesthetics.

They half-suffocated patients to reduce the pain, or even used alcohol or opium, but the effect was insufficient.

No wonder there were even patients who committed suicide when they heard they needed surgery.

Surgeons who had to wrestle with patients struggling in pain had a hard time doing it with a clear mind.

‘You can tell just by looking at Sinan; he isn’t normal.’

It was out of the question from the start to carry around surgical equipment that was no different from weapons.

Anyway, since he had confirmed that he would send him to study in the capital, making Yaya an engineer was virtually a failure.

Yusuf spread out the blueprints of the guns he had drawn on the desk.

The blueprints he had shown Yaya were only a small part. It was just a matchlock gun.

“Matchlock guns are already out anyway.”

The arquebus, a matchlock gun that was the ancestor of the guns used by Japan, had already been introduced from Hungary.

Honestly, even if only matchlock guns were introduced, they could be used for a hundred years, but compared to the guns that would come out later, there were many inconveniences.

‘You have to carry around a torch so that the fuse doesn’t go out, and when you load it, the priming powder flies away if the wind blows.’

The word matchlock meant fuse, and when going into battle, you had to spin it around so that the fire attached to the fuse didn’t go out.

‘It would be funny if they all did that as a group.’

Because of this inconvenience, the guns that came out after that used flint.

These guns were used for a long time until the American Civil War.

“The problem is that you have to replace the flint after shooting a few dozen times, and flint is damn expensive.”

No wonder even the world’s strongest country at the time, England, couldn’t even do live-fire practice.

Yusuf didn’t even like guns that used flint, but to get away from flint, it was necessary to create various chemical substances.

“I can’t do this. I need to grind down an engineer or a chemist.”

It was best to just throw out the basic sauce and suck out the sweet stuff.

“I wish I could kidnap an alchemist from Europe.”

Alchemy wasn’t just about trying to make gold for money.

Many people believed that if they made the most perfect metal, gold, their souls would also become perfect, and they were persecuted by Christians for being pagans.

There were no people as skilled at mixing materials as alchemists, so it’s no wonder he wanted to kidnap them.
Yusuf tapped the table where the blueprints were placed with his hand.

“I can’t use it when I fight Ismail anyway.”

Even if he ground down the engineers of Trabzon to make guns, it wouldn’t be easy to get gunpowder.

Since the West would be using gunpowder diligently, even if he got gunpowder, the amount that a few dozen people could use would be the limit.

It’s better to shoot arrows than to have only that many people use guns.

Moreover, it could be a headache if Ismail felt the usefulness of gunpowder.

“Guns aren’t for when I fight Ismail.”

He was planning to use it when he was strengthening his brotherhood with his brothers and making them nice.

For an Ottoman prince, a good brother is only a dead brother.

After carefully storing the blueprints and returning to work, Shemsi came to Yusuf.

“There’s a message from the capital.”

Shemsi’s face, who was handing over the paper, was flushed, and Yusuf received the paper that had drawn a change in expression from him, who was the symbol of a poker face.

-According to the Padishah’s order, variolation [an early method of inoculation against smallpox] will be implemented in the outer regions of the empire under the name of Shehzade Yusuf.

The contents of the letter were shocking, but the opaque window that popped up in front of him was also significant.

[Smallpox inoculation implemented, score +30]

…Is the system finally crazy?

It was too many points to give just for implementation. Usually, points for such policies are given separately depending on the results.

With this many points, it wouldn’t be strange if he was destined to die of smallpox.

Seeing Yusuf’s surprise, Shemsi said as if agreeing.

“It’s an unprecedented event. Since the prince’s name has been put on the line, if it succeeds, he will gain great fame, and if it fails, he will have to give up the succession.”

“The method is certain, so there’s no problem.”

There was no need to worry since smallpox was the first disease to be eradicated by human hands.

Whatever he was thinking, it was a good thing that the Sultan had given him a great opportunity.

More than that, he wondered why the system had given him so many points, and after much deliberation, Yusuf realized the reason.

‘Variolation can change not only the population but also the climate.’

You might say, how can smallpox affect climate change, but history, which is more unbelievable than novels, did.

Currently, 60 million people, accounting for 10% of the world’s population, live in the Americas, but after Europe began colonization, the total population decreased to 6 million.

9% of the world’s population disappeared.

As a result, land the size of France’s territory returned to forests or grasslands, and plants increased, reducing carbon dioxide.

Contrary to global warming, the temperature dropped, opening the door to the Little Ice Age.

‘And the disease that killed the most Americans was smallpox.’

Of course, the cause of the Little Ice Age is unknown, and the theory that the Little Ice Age started because of smallpox is just one theory, but it is true that it lowered the temperature.

‘It’s absurd.’

He just spread variolation, but the butterfly effect was unpredictable.

Yusuf burst into laughter.