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The Earl's ManChapter 16 free porn video
I had to chuckle. It’s so easy to tell when Baha is excited by something. The way he came bounding out of the Palace in Baghdad to meet us with a huge grin on his face was a definite clue. Almost as an afterthought, he skidded to a halt and performed the perfunctory bow. An older couple exiting the palace at a much more leisurely pace was aghast at his behavior, having just witnessed his “bow.”
As excited as he was, he was glad to find us safe. We had spread the story that Emir Fadil’s bandits had attacked us and that was the reason I had him executed. It was a flimsy story, but the fact that Baha heard it and bought it made me feel better. I didn’t want to give any advance warning of my intentions to those Emirs who encouraged piracy.
Baha introduced the older couple, his parents from Samarra, which was a two-day ride from Baghdad. After seeing that I wasn’t upset with their son’s lack of proper decorum they exclaimed about how proud they were of their son and thanked me repeatedly.
Baha had been busy in the short time he’d been here. As he predicted, the citizens of Baghdad and the surrounding area were jubilant that I had made Baghdad my capital. Most of the urgent repairs to the city had already been completed during the last decade, well before Baha got here. Word that I intended to establish a temporary library until a new one was built had been met with celebration and several empty buildings were offered to choose from. Baha chose the temporary site within a week. Books turned in by those who had safeguarded them for nearly forty years already half-filled the temporary library. Even in the short time since Baha arrived, the population of the city had quickly grown with the news that we intended to restore Baghdad. Baghdad had once been the biggest and most prestigious city outside of China. It was currently only a shell of its former self after the Mongols sacked, looted, and destroyed the city, killing upwards of 100,000 of its citizens.
Finding out that Baha was the new Emir added further to their excitement. Aside from knowing that he was “one of them,” he was widely known and respected from his time spent here as my trading agent and was considered an honest trader and the representative of an equally honest ruler.
I was surprised to learn that Baha and Braka knew each other. He had known Omar, her owner, and had purchased copper from him on many occasions. He was saddened to hear of Omar’s death in the attack by the bandits. I saw the spark between them and suggested that Braka might want to stay and work with Baha, overseeing work at Omar’s former mines, as well as generally supervising mining in the region. With her knowledge of mining and connections to the Saxon miners of Eastern Europe, I hoped she could convince some of them to work in our mines.
From what I’d learned from her, miners had abandoned many mines after the Mongols invaded, and the Saxon miners had returned to the relative safety of Europe. At least in Europe they were mostly unaffected by local wars. Even when there was a war, the victors were always eager to retain the miners and the profit they produced.
Braka knew that local villagers worked some of the mines periodically during the winter months to supplement their income, but they only spent a few days each month mining, fearful that bandits might learn about what they were doing. Omar had located several locations he thought were suitable for new mines if he could find enough help.
Like the villagers, miners were constantly concerned about bandit raids. I hoped the miners would return when they learned we would protect the mines. Once we removed Emirs who allowed the bandits and pirates to operate in their territory and then captured or killed the bandits and pirates, it would help stabilize things even more. Braka had Omar’s extensive list of villages producing small quantities of gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, arsenic, and mercury. I was seriously considering using any captured bandits and pirates as slave labor in the mines.
Within a week of our arrival, the population of the city had almost doubled from what it was when Baha had first arrived. People from all over the area wanted to buy property for farming or business. Knowing the reputation Rouen enjoyed, they hoped to witness Baghdad regain its former glory and become the Rouen of the East. I added to their excitement by publicly announcing my intention to build a new House of Wisdom to replace the destroyed one. It would be bigger than the original and would include a secular university like the one in Rouen, as well as a library and a scriptorium where books would be translated into many languages. After some discussion, we decided to rebuild on the site of the former House of Wisdom to honor and commemorate the original.
The bandit village’s stash of valuables was sent downriver where our trading agent would send ships to the various slave trading posts along the east coast of Africa to buy as many slaves as he could. Our ships would bring them to Baghdad to dig up the complex system of irrigation canals the Mongols had buried, then to replant the irrigated areas once water was flowing again. Other slaves would repair the roads leading in every direction from the city, which had once been a major trading hub, and was slowly becoming one again.
We would build and staff way stations for travelers every two days’ walk, radiating out from Baghdad until good roads and way stations finally linked the entire territory. Each Emir would be responsible for repairing and maintaining roads in his territory and for building, staffing, and maintaining way stations--just like in my other territories.
One of the local troops rushed into the palace the afternoon of our eighth day there. An emissary from Chaghati Khan had arrived at the city and sought an audience with the new Khan. I instructed the guards to show him in immediately and to extend every courtesy to him.
Klara translated for me as the Emissary began. “Greetings Khan Michael, the Demon Khan, Grand Duke of Normandy, Lancaster, and York, Duke of Granada, Sultan of Maghreb and Ifriqiya, and Emir of Tumilat Province. I am Sartaq, Emissary of Chaghati Khan. My original mission was to contact Nogai Khan and Ghazan Khan to deliver these messages insisting that they not follow through with their planned attacks, as well as to inform them that they would receive no aid from the other Khans if they went through with their plan. Obviously, the warnings arrived too late, but I offer them to show that Chaghati Khan had no part in the attacks. Chaghati Khan wishes instead to direct his efforts towards building up that territory we have already gained.”
Baha confirmed that there was no way the emissary could possibly have arrived here from the Mongol capital, Yining, in the short time since we first landed near Constantinople. It would take four months for word to travel to Yining and for an emissary to travel back here. He also confirmed that the seal on the two documents was the Royal Seal. Klara translated and confirmed the contents of the two messages.
“Please tell Chaghati Khan that I have no ambitions to expand my borders further, but I will arm every man available in every one of my territories and use them to defend every square foot of the territory I now rule, and to protect every person living in those territories if need be. Remind him that I have never attacked anyone who didn’t attack one of my allies or me. Let him know that I hope to be able to trade with your people, and that we will be repairing all major trade routes through our territory to facilitate peaceful trade with everyone. But then I suspect he already knew that,” I added.
Sartaq grinned, realizing that I knew how much he already knew. Just the fact that he could recite each of my titles (except Byzantium) told me a lot about him. “You are free to travel anywhere in my territory that you wish. You will see no troops being readied for a major invasion. At most, there may be a few skirmishes inside our borders if I have nobles unwilling to serve me in the manner I require.
“My goal here is the same as in each of my other territories. I wish to improve the lives of those I rule so they may grow and prosper in peace. In so doing, I reap the benefit of their increased prosperity as well as their loyalty. I have already sent orders to bring slaves here to rebuild this city and rebuild the House of Wisdom into a University, library, and scriptorium to rival Rouen. The people here are already excitedly calling Baghdad the Rouen of the East. Your Khan is invited to send people to attend the University if he wishes, here or in Rouen.”
“As you surmise, I did know that already. I simply wanted to hear the words from your mouth. I already suspected as much even before coming here. The Mongols all the way to the far borders of China know of your reputation. Having you in control of the former territories of the Kipchak Khanate and the Ilkhanate may actually be a good thing for all.
“You have eliminated two rogue Khans, and you will serve as a neutral buffer between Europe and the rest of the Mongol Empire. That should encourage trade on a much larger scale than before and increase the wealth of all involved. I am sure Chaghati Khan will be excited by the possibility and will likewise commit to repairing the trade routes and building way stations like yours to protect merchants and to facilitate communication between us. I am honored to have met you and I will pass your message of peace and prosperity to my Khan.”
His entourage of fifty Mongol troops spent the next day resupplying and talking with our Mongol troops. They left the following day and we left two days later, bound first for Maragha. Baha had given me the names of five Emirs who had pirated shipping in the Black Sea, even boldly seizing an occasional ship right in their harbor if they felt the cargo was valuable enough. He included the names of two Emirs he had reports on who allowed bandits to operate in their territory.
Of the fifteen former slaves, only Braka and Klara continued with us. In the short time that we’d been in Baghdad, each of the women had found suitors, even knowing that they had been slaves before. I had a feeling that Braka and Baha would end up together as soon as she returned from Europe.
----.----
It was late March before we saw Rouen again and I was as glad to be home as I was sad. I’m always glad to be home again after a long absence but I’d traveled through considerably less than a quarter of the former Ilkhanate territory, which looked on maps to be only half the size of the Northern territory of the former Kipchak Khanate. I planned to visit there later this year, after the boundaries with Europe were formally established.
We visited Maragha and Tabriz, the former Mongol capitals, and reassured the citizens there. We sent the former Mongol advisors in the two cities to Baghdad to work with Baha. They were somewhat surprised that I was willing to keep them as advisors but were grateful for the chance to keep their position. I did warn them that there were several changes in store, most notably that I would spend more on improvements for the common peasants and much less on luxuries for nobles and advisors.
Braka showed me (roughly) the area where Omar had concentrated his ore trading. It was wedged between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, an area roughly two hundred miles north to south and four hundred miles east to west. There were untold smaller mines in the area just waiting for mining expertise to expand beyond surface digging. The sites included gold, silver, copper, tin, lead, iron, mercury, arsenic, and coal. With enough workers and security, the area could easily produce more wealth than trade with the Mali Empire provided us. We replaced nine Emirs, sending a clear message that I wouldn’t condone pirates or bandits and would quickly execute and replace any noble who allowed such activity in his territory.
We gave the pirates and bandits working for those Emirs one chance to turn themselves in and serve a sentence of only eight years as slaves before earning their freedom. Those who didn’t turn themselves in, if they survived, became slaves for the rest of their lives. Nearly a thousand slaves were led away in shackles to work for eight years in ten gold mines Braka chose. Two hundred Mongol troops went to each mine to guard both the slaves and the mines.
Richard was excited to see us when we finally made it back to Constantinople. Knowing that we now controlled the entire shore of the Black Sea and the major trading ports and cities, merchants from Europe as well as the area we had just conquered were sure it would be safe to travel and were clamoring for dock space and warehouse space. He had already begun the first of what he predicted would be many phases to extend the offshore breakwater and build more stone piers and warehouses. He was even including a few underground icehouses, although they would need to import the ice each winter from farther north.
He had to put the Venetians and Genoese at opposite ends of the city warning them that any public disruptions between them would result in everyone involved being arrested and forced to spend at least a year working as a slave. Agreeing with his father’s assessment that there would be a war between them shortly, Richard had sent word to both sides that any ships involved in naval warfare within sight of our ports or anywhere in the Black Sea would be captured and confiscated, or sunk, and their crews sold into slavery. If there were hostilities between their countries, any armed troops that accidentally ended up in our territory due to a ship sinking or being blown off course (or any other reason) would be disarmed and required to walk home unarmed--or at least walk until they were out of our territory and could find a ship in another country’s port.
On our way to Rouen, we dropped Braka and fifty Demons off in Venice, led by Captain Gaudet. They would make their way north from there to the mining area of central Europe. We sailed immediately, having been warned by our agent that the Doge, Pietro Gradenigo, would summon me to discuss either “trade arrangements” or Richard’s edict as soon as he heard we were in port. The agent there did everything he could to keep our arrival quiet for as long as possible but I saw someone waving frantically at us as we departed the GRTC docks. We didn’t even wait for the next high tide before sailing.
Since we’d been gone for so long, when we got back to Rouen there was a larger than usual backlog of things to deal with before turning our attention to the newly captured European territory. As usual, everyone had done an excellent job managing things in my absence. We brought back a sheaf of maps and documents from former advisors to Nogai Khan that showed the territory he had claimed as well as listing each of his vassal states. The pile of sealed documents addressed to and awaiting the Duchesses of Normandy was huge. Wooden crates half-filled one room with thousands of such documents.
For a week, my wives, concubines, and trusted slaves sorted the messages into five piles: Kipchak Khanate territory (all nobles in that territory or nobles of vassal states), Europe (everything west of Mongol territory), Ilkhanate territory (all nobles in that territory), Asia (everything east of our Mongol territory), and Africa. The first two piles were the largest, each requiring a separate room and several tables. Carpenters quickly filled three walls in each room with shelving to hold the messages for current and future reference. The last three piles all went into one room, one wall assigned to each area.
Mara
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