At the end of the month, not long after the new tax law was enacted, the key financial officials of Theodosia were all amazed by the significantly higher tax revenue for July compared to previous months.
Of course, those familiar with current affairs knew that their esteemed Crown Prince had, once again, taken the opportunity to deal with several outspoken lord who had caused trouble during the tax collection process.
Regardless, this tax reform had, relatively speaking, landed smoothly. But Manuel had no intention of ending things there.
With these extra ducats, he decided to repeat a trick on a not-insignificant scale.
By the end of July, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was preparing to deeply intervene in the affairs of the Golden Horde, was surprised to find that the border regions with Haji Giray's territory had a significantly larger number of Tatars than before.
These Tatars acted very fiercely, not only robbing property but also abducting, burning, and killing Christians on Lithuanian land, regardless of whether these Christians belonged to the Catholic or orthodox Church.
This caused considerable headaches for the local Slavic lords and nobles, who repeatedly wrote to the Grand Duke, requesting some punishment for Haji Giray and his territory, to make him actively control the pagan Tatar nomads on his land.
At the same time, Haji Giray was also deeply troubled by an important matter on the border: in recent days, many orthodox serfs from Lithuania had fled to his territory.
This was originally a common occurrence; it was very common for runaway Slavic serfs to roam all over the southern Eastern European Great Plains at that time.
But in recent months, the number of Slavic serfs fleeing from Lithuania into his territory had, for some unknown reason, surged significantly, with some even forming loosely structured but relatively well-organized groups.
These organizations all adopted the Tatar-Turk term "freemen" as their self-designation.
And these Slavic "freemen," for their own survival, began to compete with the Tatars for fishing and hunting resources and pasture land, causing many weak Tatar tribal members to suffer immensely and complain to the prince, who was known as "melek" (Tatar for angel), who ruled over them.
Giray, on his side, also had unspeakable difficulties.
Although these Slavs mainly gathered in the Zaporozhye region and not in his core territory, their activities had already caused considerable impact on the Tatars.
Yet, even so, Grand Duke Vytautas of Lithuania stubbornly insisted that Giray help him drive these runaway serfs back to Lithuania, rather than killing them on the spot.
Therefore, in dealing with this group of Slavic exiles, he had to be extremely cautious, like walking a tightrope, for fear of offending either Lithuania or his own subjects.
"Could there be a mastermind behind all of this?" One night, as Haji Giray was sitting in his palace in Bakhchysarai, troubled by these Tatars and Slavs, he suddenly thought of this possibility.
Soon after, following careful consideration, he dispatched his trusted subordinates to investigate neighboring countries, namely Theodoro and the Golden Horde of Sarai, to see if they were secretly playing any tricks.
Some time later, when his trusted subordinates returned with their reports, Haji Giray was disappointed with the results of the investigation: according to their detailed findings, while the Tatars and Slavic runaway serfs were rampant in Crimea and Lithuania, the Principality of Theodoro had also suffered several not-insignificant invasions by Tatar groups.
Although Theodoro's losses were minimal due to its well-established border defenses, the impact caused by the Tatars was already so severe that Theodoro was constantly complaining to Lithuania and Sarai.
As for other parts of the Golden Horde, they were already in a state of chaotic warfare among Tatar princes, and the harm caused by the Tatars, no matter how much, was less than that caused by the chaotic warfare itself.
"It seems I was too suspicious," Giray thought.
"Speaking of which, Theodoro is now much closer to Lithuania than before."
Based on his previous impression, although the Principality of Theodoro had already subtly connected with Lithuania, he now realized that they might even be on the verge of changing allegiance.
Believing he had clarified the truth, Haji Giray had no choice but to try to stop the Tatars who were raiding from his territory.
After some more time, through a combination of firm and gentle methods, many of the Tatars from Crimea were restrained.
However, along with the reduction in Tatars, many of his own Tatar subjects in his territory also decreased.
"What is Girai Khan doing? Isn't it just going out to raid?"
"Yeah, the pasture harvest this year was already mediocre, and now they won't let us go out. How are we supposed to live?"
"Exactly! Before, there were rumors that the infidels were foolish and rich, and I was half-skeptical, but now, there's not even a chance to verify it."
Such remarks were endless in Crimea, and the territory, which had been reshaped under Haji Giray's gentle methods, began to show subtle signs of separation.
Meanwhile, at dusk on a certain day around the end of July, while Giray had sent people to investigate outside his territory, Manuel was contentedly reading the Dark Department's report on their operations in Crimea in Theodosia's temporary palace.
He then smiled with satisfaction and deliberately threw the confidential report into the fireplace, burning it to ashes.
"Border conflicts are a good reason; as long as we confirm Lithuania's true attitude, everything will fall into place."
Just as he was confidently muttering to himself, Barbara, who was helping him organize files, looked up at him somewhat nervously and asked, "Manuel, can I ask you something important?"
"Sure," Manuel replied indifferently.
Then he saw her glance at the attendants and servants in the room, and at the same time, she winked her left eye at Manuel.
Manuel understood and dismissed everyone.
Once only the two of them remained in the room, Manuel turned and sat opposite her, asking with a puzzled expression, "Barbara, what do you want to ask?"
Barbara cleared her throat twice, then looked directly at him, her face slightly flushed, and asked, "Um, when are we getting married?"
"Huh?"