1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 380 Donbass Coalfield

The vast black land was covered with white snow. The dark clouds finally dispersed, and the pale sun shone on the snowy field, making the whole land dazzlingly white.

This is the southern Russian steppe, located between the Donets River and the Sea of ​​Azov, and is the territory of the Don Cossacks.

Due to the lack of support from the Ottomans, the Crimean Khanate, which originally occupied the southern Russian steppes, failed to survive until the 18th century as it did in the original time and space. The Eastern Roman Prince Justinian relied on Cossack cavalry and Circassian warriors to destroy this country established by the Tatars in one fell swoop when the Khanate fell into civil war.

In the following years, the Cossack cavalry continued to eliminate the remnants of the Tatar forces on the northern shore of the Black Sea, basically clearing out the Tatar tribes from the Dnieper River to the Don River, and driving them in all directions. Some people chose to become Cossacks, some chose to swear allegiance to Poland and Lithuania, and many Tatars defected to Khan Ahmad, who was also a descendant of the Golden Horde.

Because the Cossack cavalry was fierce and brutal, Justinian did not want to set too many frameworks for this group of freedom-loving steppe men. They often carried out large-scale looting after breaking through the Tatar camp. After the expansion of the territory of the Cossack Kingdom, the level of civilization of the entire southern Russian steppe declined, the population decreased rapidly, and economic development seriously regressed.

However, the success of the Cossack Kingdom and Justinian's "liberal" governance policy inspired the Rus serfs in Lithuania. The Eastern Roman Empire's urgent need for labor also provided them with more opportunities. A large number of Rus serfs began to escape from the control of the Lithuanians. Those who longed for peace and tranquility often chose to enter the Eastern Roman Empire, while those who yearned for war and adventure would become Cossacks.

This organized and premeditated large-scale defection obviously had a behind-the-scenes force. Casimir IV, who was both the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, was well aware of this and sent harshly worded letters to Constantinople and Constantine on the Don, arguing that Southwestern Rus was an integral part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and that he was the sole monarch of Southwestern Rus. He demanded that the two countries immediately stop supporting the defection of serfs, otherwise they would take countermeasures.

At that time, the conflict in the Western Mediterranean was at its peak. Both emperors were fighting in the West. The Crown Prince Constantine and Queen Leonor, who were in charge of the Eastern Roman Empire, only wrote a bland response to Casimir IV, saying that they knew about it but would not change it.

As for the Cossack Kingdom, their actions were even more violent. The high-level Hetmans were either converted Tatars or escaped slaves from Lithuania. They had no good feelings towards Casimir IV.

Nevertheless, after consulting Crown Prince Constantine, Timur Tash, the Grand Hetman, convened a meeting to allow the priests and hetmans to express their opinions.

At the meeting, the Orthodox priests believed that Casimir IV's forceful rule over the Russian Orthodox Christians was illegal and that the wishes of the Russian escaped slaves should be respected. The Hetmans cursed the Poles and Lithuanians at the meeting, insulting and mocking them.

Finally, the Great Hetman who could write Latin was responsible for writing the reply, while the other Hetmans happily composed the content of the reply, calling Casimir IV "Cain's evil beast, Typhon's lackey, the product of Jörmungandr and Hydra's intercourse, Baba Yaga and Mephisto's blood relative", and believing that he was more arrogant than Lucifer, more jealous than Leviathan, lazier than Belial, and more greedy than Mammon...

In short, the Cossacks believed that Casimir IV, a "Babylonian bitch, a Macedonian coachman, a Jerusalem horse urine seller and a Tatar pedophile", had no right to manage Cossack affairs, and that he should be drowned in a tunnel soaked in pig urine and horse manure as soon as possible.

So, when this "Letter from the Zaporozhian, Don and Kuban Cossacks to the King of Poland and Lithuania" was presented to Casimir IV, this usually good-tempered monarch was furious and could not eat for three days. He accused Emperor Isaac of the Eastern Roman Empire of being a "barbarian in civilized clothes" and said that Justinian was "the Khan of the barbarians, a Mongol in purple clothes", even though neither of them knew anything about this.

Of course, even if they knew about it afterwards, they would definitely not punish their subordinates in exchange for the goodwill of a monarch with whom they were already on bad terms.

However, despite all the scolding, Casimir IV could do nothing about it and could only stay in the royal palace in Krakow or Vilnius and sulk.

After successfully defeating the Teutonic Knights and taking over large tracts of fertile land, if the vassals were included, Poland and Lithuania at this time already had a population of nearly nine million, making them the undoubted overlords of Eastern Europe in terms of population and land area. However, both Poland and Lithuania had very poor political systems, and their national strength could not be fully utilized. Not to mention the Eastern Roman Empire, even the Kingdom of Hungary under the rule of Matthias could suppress them.

At first, perhaps for the sake of his own monarchical dignity, or perhaps simply because he was too angry, Casimir IV was indeed prepared to teach a lesson to the Cossack Kingdom on the southeastern border, but after holding a meeting, he was very depressed to find that not many nobles were willing to support his military action.

Since the promulgation of the "Regulations of Niešawa" in 1454, the Polish monarchy forcibly promoted by the great monarch Casimir III further weakened, and the aristocracy of the Kingdom of Poland obtained a large number of privileges. The regulations restricted the Polish king's supreme military power, supreme taxation power and supreme judicial power. Without the consent of nobles and the permission of the Parliament of Eighteen Provinces, the Polish king could basically not recruit any troops sufficient for a large-scale war, and even if he did, he would definitely not be able to support them.

As for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the situation in this country is even worse than that of Poland.

Furthermore, the victory in the Thirteen Years' War did solve the Teutonic Knights, a major concern for the Poles, but it also brought a series of subsequent troubles. Due to the obstruction of the Holy See, the Teutonic Knights never pledged allegiance to the Kingdom of Poland, and some areas were plagued by perennial conflicts over the right of appointment of bishops. Casimir IV took East Prussia, but was unable to gain much monetary benefit from it for the time being, and instead owed a large amount of debt.

The Polish and Lithuanian nobles also analyzed the situation very objectively and believed that even if they were willing to support the king in a border war, it would hardly have any effect, as the Cossack Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were separated by the wide Dnieper River.

During the navigable period, the Eastern Roman Navy was of course the dominant force here. During the frozen period, the ice surface in the lower reaches of the Dnieper River was not enough to support the army crossing the river.

The nobles believed that instead of engaging in military conflict with the Eastern Roman Empire over some Russian fugitives, it would be better to reach an agreement with the Vatican on the issue of the Teutonic Knights as soon as possible, resolve local conflicts as soon as possible, and then think about curbing the rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.

After all, the Eastern Roman Empire was unlikely to make a large-scale inroad into the core territories of Poland and Lithuania and pose a threat to their fundamental interests, but the same could not be said for the rapidly rising Grand Duchy of Moscow.

In the end, Casimir IV only advised the nobles of Kiev province to pay attention to restraining their serfs. After all, these people were not his "property" and he could only "suggest" but could not even give orders or make requests.

As a result, the number of Russian fugitives continued to increase, and the number of Eastern Roman ships smuggling Russian fugitives through the Black Sea and the Dnieper River also increased. Entire villages of Russians fled to the south or east because they could not bear the heavy taxes and cruel exploitation, and even formed an industry.

Against this background, the population of the Cossack Kingdom expanded rapidly. By the beginning of 1477, there were more than registered Cossacks, nearly one-third of whom were Tatar converts, and the remaining two-thirds were Russians.

The increase in population allowed a large amount of vacant land in the Cossack Kingdom to be developed to a certain extent. The rich forestry and mineral resources also attracted many Eastern Roman capitalists. The "steppe capital" Constantine on the Don River was finally no longer a wooden castle. After nearly ten years of construction, it has improved slightly. New castles and towns have also been built in some important and resource-rich places.

On the snowy plain, a horse team was heading northwards. The people walking in the middle were obviously high-ranking officials and nobles. The soldiers responsible for guarding them were riding steppe ponies. The red and green double-headed eagle badge on their chests was interspersed with snowflake symbols, indicating their identity - the First Rus Snow Regiment of the Eastern Roman Foreign Legion.

This legion was formed not long ago, and Zosbafe, the legion commander and commander of the First Rus Snow Regiment, brought them to the cold Cossack Kingdom in the north for training. This time, this small team took on the responsibility of guarding.

In the center of the cavalry, Justinian, wearing a scarlet woolen windbreaker, rode on a tall horse with high spirits. He looked around from time to time and talked loudly with the two people on his left and right.

The horse under Justinian seemed to be very adapted to the environment of the snowy grassland. It also strode forward with its head held high, neighing loudly from time to time. The other horses in the team did not dare to approach at all.

The rider on the left is wearing a thick leather coat and is very handsome. Under the woolen hat is a delicate face. On his chest is a silver badge. Under the double-headed eagle element on the badge, there is a black and gold galloping horse.

This is Nicodamus Notaras, the eldest son of the late Prime Minister Lucas Notaras. He is 38 years old and has a son and a daughter. He is also a well-known figure in Constantinople.

The Notaras family was one of the major families in the Eastern Roman Empire. Avilon Notaras, the nephew of Prime Minister Lucas, participated in the Battle of Galata in the Battle of Constantinople, and was later awarded the title of count for his merits. He served as the military commander of the North Macedonia Military District and the Albania Military District. Many young talents in the family also chose to join the army to guard the border for the country.

In terms of political power, Notaras is not as good as Sfrancis; in terms of total wealth, Notaras is not as good as Fugger and Mavro, but in terms of the number of noble titles, these families combined are not as good as Notaras.

However, unlike his cousin Avilon, Nicodamus, although a direct descendant, did not engage in military or political affairs, but chose to manage the family business.

As he had served as an attendant to Prime Minister Isurte, Nicodamus had a long-term vision and rented the family land to agricultural capitalists at an early stage at the emperor's call. After breaking free from the constraints of farmland, the Notaras family began to enter various industries. They also attached great importance to cultivating talents and owned the Notaras Family School in Thrace. In addition to providing primary education for family members, it also recruited some poor students with outstanding talents, allowing them to work and study part-time to inject fresh blood into the family.

The late Grand Duke Lucas loved horses and built a large horse farm on his own land. He also funded the construction of a horse racing arena for Constantinople. Notaras had an outstanding talent for horse breeding, and their family's war horses and racehorses were all first-class quality.

More than 20 years ago, Isaac decided to develop the horse industry within the empire. The Suse Racecourse in North Africa and the Larissa Racecourse in the Balkans were established successively. Nicodamus, against all odds, decided to contribute two-thirds of his family's top stallions to the two racecourses to help the empire's horse industry take off.

Isaac was of course overjoyed, but he did not let them give them away for free. Instead, he spent more than the market price to buy these stallions and promised to return them a hundredfold.

More than 20 years later, the horse management of the Eastern Roman Empire gradually got on the right track under the intervention and guidance of Isaac. The pedigree registration book originating from Iberia gradually became a rigid demand for official and private horse farms. Various types of horses were no longer mixed together. Horse farm workers would record the paternal and maternal bloodlines of excellent horses in detail, and select the professional horses they wanted through generations of hybridization and improvement.

As a person of later generations, Isaac had some knowledge about horses and knew the bloodline composition of some good horses. He could provide some suggestions to the stable staff, but that was all. He knew nothing about the specific operating and breeding methods.

However, in the late 15th century, this industry did not require too many technological barriers and could rely on the experience of horse farm workers. With some valuable "inspiration", the breeding process could avoid many detours.

In addition, Isaac would allocate a large amount of funds to the two stables every year for them to purchase, smuggle or steal various famous horses from the Mediterranean world for breeding research.

The two major horse farms have different focuses. The Sousse Horse Farm mainly uses Barbour horses, Arabian horses and Andalusian horses to breed drought-resistant horses that can adapt to grasslands and desert areas, focusing on military use. The Larissa Horse Farm breeds cold-resistant horses suitable for mountains and hills, forests and snowfields, and swamps and wetlands, and also breeds racehorses, focusing on civilian use.

In August 1476, the Larissa Racecourse submitted a report to the central government of the empire, stating that they had finally bred a top-quality racehorse with relatively stable genetic traits. The maternal lineage of this horse came from local English horses, while the paternal lineage was a mixture of Arabian horses, Barb horses and Anatolian horses. This horse was easily excited, could run very fast in a short period of time, was tall and strong, and had a very noble temperament.

Even though the various indicators of this kind of racehorse were far from reaching the heights of later generations, and its genetic traits were not yet completely stable due to the short period of time and would require a longer period of breeding, Isaac was still very happy. He made a special entry for this kind of racehorse and asked the Larissa Racecourse to conduct a quick study.

Isaac named this racehorse the English Thoroughbred and selected it as the special horse for the horse racing events in the Olympic Games.

At that time, horses were still one of the most important livestock for mankind and there were large numbers of them, far from being as rare as "endangered" in later generations. Horse racing was just a very common sport that was not only popular among the people but also brought in a lot of profits. There would definitely be nobles and wealthy businessmen willing to invest.

More than 20 years of horse management brought a leap forward in the quantity and quality of military and civilian horses in the Eastern Roman Empire. The North African army selected high-quality Barb horses, while the Balkans and Anatolia used Anatolian horses mixed with Arabian horse bloodlines. Which horses were suitable for pulling carts, which horses were suitable for plowing, and which horses were suitable for riding... The research on horses developed steadily, and the selection of horses was no longer chaotic.

Of course, the reason why the Eastern Roman Empire was able to use war horses exclusively was mainly because there were not too many cavalry in the Eastern Roman army, and the demand for war horses was not as great as that in Hungary and France.

In the Iberian War that just ended not long ago, the Eastern Roman Empire also gained a lot of hidden benefits. It successfully brought a large number of Andalusian horses and many professional horse breeding talents from the Iberian Peninsula, and took the opportunity to open the third official horse farm in western Anatolia - Balıkesir Horse Farm.

The continuous development of the imperial horse policy has also brought rich rewards to the Notaras family, who have always supported it. Their family's horses can get better breeding opportunities from official horse farms and can also share research results. Among the graduates of the newly established horse breeding major at Larissa University, about a quarter will choose to serve Notaras.

The Notaras family has its own unique recipe for horse breeding. They know how to estimate the growth qualities of horses when they are still young, how to treat various diseases of horses, and what methods to use to prolong the estrus period of stallions. Nicodamus has been dealing with horses since he was a child. He is not only an excellent breeder, but also an excellent racehorse rider.

In the winter of 1476, the Eastern Roman government continued to expand. Although most of the new staff were lower-level officials in order to limit the power of government departments, Isaac still added two cabinet positions. The position of Minister of Horse Affairs fell to Nicodamus, who was proficient in horse breeding. He would represent the emperor in managing the three major government-run horse farms and a number of private horse farms, and also take charge of horse racing matters.

In the original time and space, due to Nicodamus' handsome appearance, after the Battle of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II fell in love with him at the age of 14, and ordered Grand Duke Lucas to send him to the Sultan's court as a male lover. Grand Duke Lucas would rather die than surrender, and both father and son were killed. Now, they have a good ending.

To the right of Justinian is a middle-aged man wearing nose glasses. His accent has a strong German flavor. On his chest is also a silver badge. Under the double-headed eagle element on the badge are two crossed pickaxes.

This is another new cabinet member, Gustavo from the Electorate of Saxony in the German Empire. He is well-versed in mining exploration and mining metallurgy. He once led a team to Johannesburg in New Thrace to explore fluorite mines. Because of his strong technical skills, rigid thinking, and only caring about minerals, coupled with his lack of connections, he is the only choice for the important position of Minister of Mines.

At first, the Fugger family and several other large families also recommended some mining talents to Isaac, but either their skills were too poor, or they had too close connections with the aristocratic families. The Minister of Mining had too much money, so it was hard to say what would happen in the future. At least, they could not all be handed over to the aristocratic families now.

This time, the two of them followed Justinian to the Cossack Kingdom, also carrying their own missions.

"Your Majesty, you seem to be in a very good mood recently."

Unlike the taciturn Gustavo, Nicodamus was very willing to talk to Justinian.

"Of course, my wife gave birth to a child."

Justinian said happily.

"It's a girl. I finally have a daughter."

On February 1477, 2, in the midst of heavy snow, Isabella gave birth to a daughter in the Grand Palace. Because the birth time was a little earlier than the doctor had expected, everyone was very worried at first, but the baby girl cried very loudly and kicked around in the midwife's arms.

Justinian believed that the child was destined to be full of vitality. As Isabella became pregnant around the time of the victory of the Iberian War, he decided to name her "Victoria" after the goddess of victory in ancient Roman mythology, which means "VENI, VEDI, VECI" of Caesar the Great.

Victoria's birth brought special good news to Constantinople in winter. Prince João of Portugal immediately proposed marriage for his son Alfonso the Younger in an attempt to deepen the relationship between the two countries.

With the strong support of Queen Leonor, the marriage plan was finally approved. Prince Alfonso and Princess Victoria will hold an engagement ceremony in two years and get married after they come of age.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty. This must be a very smart little princess."

Nicodamus quickly complimented him, pretending to hear the news for the first time.

"I was busy running a horse farm in Sousse for the past few months, and then I took a boat directly north to Mariupol, so I was unable to catch up with the princess's baptism banquet."

"Several excellent foals have recently been born in our family's horse farm. They are all purebred Andalusian noble horses with gentle personalities. They are perfect to be given to Princess Victoria."

"Haha, it's said to be quite expensive, right?"

Justinian glanced at Nicodamus with a half-smile.

"Don't worry, you can choose any of the three horse farms that the Cossack Kingdom is going to allocate for you to contract."

Justinian looked out at the vast land.

"However, the horse farm must provide the Cossack Kingdom with a large number of military horses every year. I hope that the Notaras family can use their horse breeding technology without reservation. The land of the horse farm must not be left idle, otherwise there will be a high idle tax. Don't blame me for not reminding you."

"Also, I noticed that all the way here, you kept glancing at my mount from time to time. This kind of horse is also a good horse that was recently bred at the Larissa Horse Farm. It took my father a lot of effort, but it has not yet reached a large scale. I will share it with you in the future."

"Thank you for your trust, Your Majesty. I will do my best!"

Nicodamus nodded immediately.

He knew that although Justinian paid more attention to relationships and emotions than his father, he was still a very shrewd monarch. Many Eastern Roman capitalists who were willing to invest in real estate in the Cossack Kingdom had already felt this deeply.

Want to mine large shallow veins to make money? Of course you can, but Justinian will not only ask them to build roads and cities, but also take the opportunity to contract out some small mines that are not so easy to mine. If you don't want to mine, of course you can pay the idle tax that increases with time and idleness.

"Also, you may not know that I have renamed several cities in this area. My father said that these cities will surely grow and prosper, and they deserve better names."

Justinian continued.

In recent years, due to the relatively cold weather, the heating demand in large cities in the northern part of the Eastern Roman Empire has increased year by year. After the Constantinople government banned the arbitrary logging of nearby trees, the charcoal industry gradually became a sunset industry, and was replaced by the rapidly developing coal industry based on Eastern technology.

In the first ten years, the coal mines in Thrace mainly came from the Macedonian coalfields, but the coal produced in Macedonia was of poor quality and the output was not large. Since there was no way to use river or sea transportation, the transportation cost was even higher.

Therefore, in recent years, the Eastern Roman Empire began to seek new coal fields, and several exploration teams, under the guidance of Isaac, came to the Don River area of ​​the Cossack Kingdom to explore coal fields.

Facts have proved that there are indeed extremely rich coal resources buried here. Exploration teams have found mineable coal mines throughout the area. Some scholars estimate that the underground coal fields here are likely to be connected. If the speculation is true, this discovery will be extremely shocking.

While searching for coal mines, the exploration team also discovered a number of iron ores, copper mines and a large amount of forestry resources, and the value of the region continued to rise.

Although the Ukrainian Great Plains, as later generations call it, is very vast, its essence is the eastern region of Ukraine, which accounts for less than one-fifth of the total area, especially Donetsk and Luhansk. It has the largest coalfield, the largest lithium mine, the largest uranium mine and the largest rare earth mine in Europe. The Donbas coalfield covers an area of ​​up to 2.3 square kilometers, which is approximately equal to Thrace regions.

Unfortunately, due to the backward nature of the nomadic people, the Crimean Khanate in the original time and space did not conduct any exploration and development of this large coalfield. The few records of coal use among the people did not attract the attention of the Tatar princes. It was not until the occupation by Tsarist Russia that the coal mining industry here really started.

Justinian was overjoyed and immediately determined that there must be a giant coal field here. He named it the "Donbas Coalfield" and decided to give priority to the development of the Donbas region and build it into a "cash cow" for the Cossack Kingdom.

In fact, the burial depth of the Donbass coalfield is not too shallow. The mining technology at the end of the 15th century could only mine a small part of it, but the Donbass coalfield is so large that it is completely sufficient to mine only the surface coal.

Furthermore, compared with the Macedonian coalfields located deep in the mountains and forests, Donbass coal is not only of excellent quality, but also easy to transport. In the summer, the mined coal can be transported to the southern port of the Sea of ​​Azov via inland rivers, and then shipped to Constantinople via the Black Sea.

For such bulk commodities, even after the advent of railways, the cost of water transportation is still far lower than that of land transportation.

For a coal-poor country like the Eastern Roman Empire, Donbass represented the future.

When the exploration of the Donbas coalfield had just begun, Justinian signed an agreement with the Hetmans to establish the Donbas Joint-Stock Mining Company, with the Palaiologos royal family holding 51% of the shares and the remaining shares being shared equally by the Cossacks, so that everyone would share the dividends and achieve common prosperity.

Subsequently, Justinian listed the Donbas Mining Company on the Constantinople Stock Exchange and began to raise funds for large-scale development.

Before the start of the Iberian War, Justinian had received 20,000 solidus from his father, and raised more than 80,000 solidus by selling private property, contracting mining and securities trading. He gave the money to his son Constantine, organized a development team for him, and opened an era of great construction in Donbass.

A few years later, only half of the development funds were left. The development of Donbass was very rapid. Eastern Roman capitalists came here, hired Cossacks as mine managers and foremen, and bought a large number of Saracen slaves from Bilinchi and Kaffa, forcing them to enter the bottomless mines.

The rapid decline in coal prices has allowed this new heating and metallurgical fuel to spread beyond Thrace. Now, black smoke has begun to billow from many coastal and riverine cities in Bulgaria, and Constanta's coal purchases have surpassed Trebizond, making it the fourth largest in the country.

The so-called industrial revolution began with large-scale burning of coal for heating.

Today, the Donbas region has two cities built on mining. One is Donetsk, located in the northern mining area on the banks of the Kalimius River, and the other is Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of ​​Azov at the mouth of the Kalimius River.

These names all came from local geographical terms, which Justinian was not very satisfied with. After his daughter was born, he changed the name of Donetsk to Carlosburg and Mariupol to Victoria Port. Together with the capital of the Cossack Kingdom, Constantine on the Don, they formed a very beautiful triangular city circle, which corresponded exactly to his three children.

Justinian's trip to the Cossack Kingdom was for the following reasons: firstly, to contact the Hetmans whom he had not seen for several years and strengthen the sense of monarch and subject; secondly, to discuss horse administration and mining; and thirdly, to discuss the disputes on the steppes of East Europe and the next military plan.

Justinian remembered that before leaving, his father called him into the study, pointed to the map and told him that the Donbass coalfield was related to future generations and must not be lost. He must increase the population of Donbass as soon as possible, strengthen the defense of Donbass, expand the Cossack military force, cultivate a sense of loyalty, and turn this place into the absolute core of the Cossack Kingdom.

Isaac also told Justinian that since the military alliance of Poland, Lithuania and Jochil Ulus was stronger than the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Cossack Kingdom had to stand on the side of Moscow for the time being. Once Moscow rose to a certain level, it would have to immediately change its diplomatic policy, suppress their territorial expansion, and even continue to move north to create a "military buffer zone."

Justinian understood that because the Greek-Romans were too valuable and the climatic conditions in the southern Russian steppes were not very good, the Cossack Kingdom would still be dominated by Orthodox Cossacks in the future. However, he had to create a barrier between the Cossacks and the Muscovites to make them a pro-Roman nation.

Justinian was thinking about something while the cavalry continued to move forward. A mining city on the river appeared in front of them. This was the second largest city in the Cossack Kingdom, Donetsk, Carlosburg.

(End of this chapter)