Such a congestion of people required appropriate measures, first of all hygienic. Therefore, for each person who was in his subordination, at least three identical sets of clothes were sewn, which he gave before going to bed, getting a new one. The delivered set was washed, dried and left to be ventilated. In addition, every third day, before going to bed, the entire staff, regardless of who he was and what he was doing, went through bath procedures, where he was thoroughly washed and shaved. As for shaving, it was introduced very extensively. Men were shaved head and armpits, and women had armpits and genitals. And this procedure went through all without exception. Water procedures, except for a bath, were used very widely - morning washing, washing of hands and the face before reception of nutrition, washing before a dream. At first, of course, the people whined and yelped from laziness and self-pity, but slowly got involved and after a couple of months considered such behavior a norm, albeit unusual. Of course, so that the comrades did not consider such measures as tyranny, active explanatory work was conducted with them. The same situation was with the food that was organized in the common dining room. There was established a kind of kosher, in particular, before cooking only fresh and thoroughly washed products were allowed, as well as filtered water. The basis of the diet was fresh vegetables and meat in a boiled or well-fried form. And mostly without bread. Every morning an oatmeal served on milk with pieces of fruit was served. Once a week served boiled rice, brought from afar, and therefore very expensive. Drank milk, juices and a weak grape wine. And they lived like that. For those times their food was very chic. Eric did not spare money to bring his people to tone, and nutrition was one of the most important components of this process. It is worth noting that not only soldiers were well-fed, but also servants, who also did not pass the fate of forced sports, so that they would not become obese. Every day he drove them all away for ten miles, true, light and not fast. Strongly load them did not make sense, for they would get tired. And the workers needed him to the extreme, because he developed a stormy activity, including construction and production.

The construction campaign concerned first of all the preparation of a shooting range, where active collective classes will begin at the end of the summer. Production was much more extensive - from sewing underwear to making armor and ammunition. In terms of armor, it was generally something grandiose. In addition to the fact that he himself had eight blacksmiths, he contracted in addition almost all local people who carried out orders for him for certain details. The task he set for himself was to pack all his troops in reliable armor. The simplest solution was the manufacture of brigandine. That the device of this armor was not disclosed, he ordered the foreign smith exclusively details, and the same type, according to the template, and the assembly was already in the yard of the farmstead, far from the eyes of others. For the basis was taken Brigandine type I, which was to be worn on chain mail and aketon. How was it done in conditions of such a low level of technology? Yes, very simply - from the inside of a tightly quilted base of coarse linen cloth riveted large iron lap plates. The belly was covered with six plates running across. The breast was covered with three plates, which stood upright. The back was formed by a group of 16 vertical plates that covered it up to the shoulder blades, and three vertical plates that covered the area between the blades. The thickness of the plates is about a millimeter in average. Nothing complicated, but the scope of work was very respectable - there were about two hundred similar sets to be made. Alas, but this was not limited to the front of the armor work, as it was necessary to make still another type of closed helmets, simple shoulder pads and legguards in large numbers. With a helmet, he did not become wimpy, continuing the production of potchelm, since they are not bad at all. And it was the best, in fact, what can be done from that disgusting material with which to work. The only serious revision was that the helmet was mounted a suspension of the "parachute" type, which is a mesh that is fastened at eight points along the perimeter. This allowed to put the helmet on the balaclava not close to the metal, but holding it on the elastic retainer. Of course, the strap for fixing the chin was introduced. It was necessary, because the experience of exploitation simply required such refinement. Shoulders were not that easy. Actually these were the only parts that had to be pulled into the cup-shaped form. They were made exclusively on the territory of the farmstead. Legguards were tire, that is, long vertical strips are collected by butt on a quilted base. The lower part of the leopard protruded slightly downward, in order to protect the knee. As for ammunition, the campaign was divided into two parts. The first part made crossbow bolts, twisting the poles on a simple, improvised lathe with a drive from the foot. And the second part consisted in a massive contract of local rockets, which, according to the pattern, were to cut diamonds from granite about five centimeters in diameter. The weight of these balls was slightly less than two hundred grams. They were preparing for the training of those hiroballist that will be made closer to winter, and since the work on grinding balls is long, the order was made in advance. It was important to get for each car three hundred - four hundred shots, that is, a thousand - one and a half balls. The price of this round pleasure was obtained in the region of eight marks - per denarius per core. Returning to the bolts, I would like to note that they were ground from dried maple blanks and equipped with a rigid plumage and a trihedral tip, which was fastened to the shaft by means of a rather long bushing. It was impossible to drive the tip, so as not to destroy the shaft, so a channel was drilled under the bushing, in which fixation took place by means of joinery glue. The shaft itself had a kind of spindle-like shape, which in the second part sharply thinened, passing into the feathering zone. Immediately after the end of the basic installation, the raw version was sent for balancing and final polishing. After finishing machining, the bolt was covered with varnish in order to protect it from excessive influence of moisture and temperature. The layer of varnish was applied by two thin layers with intermediate polishing. For the manufacture of bolts, a primitive conveyor with a division of labor was organized, and as a result, 100 highly-executed ammunition, each weighing 50 grams each, were delivered every week to the warehouse. Thus, Erik spent his first two months in Constantinople in works and cares.

In the last days of June, our hero was supposed to happen three important events: presentation to the emperor, the beginning of the cartographic campaign in the straits and the arrival of replenishment, which was collected by Theodore. The first was his emissary, who, strictly at the set time, was able to lead to the gates of the farmstead a group of young people numbering eighty people. Mindful of the pickiness of the gentleman in choosing people, he took more, just in case. Since he selected sensibly, the baron took to his service all, passing under the leadership of Rudolph, who distributed them into groups. Alas, to meet the maximum number of companies according to the statute did not work, so the second company was formed under the leadership of Antonio. In general, of all his old acquaintances, only these two had experience in managing people, including in combat conditions. Formally, they were equal, but in practice the leading commander was the old and wise experience of the late uncle's servant. No special excesses happened - the Slavs perfectly joined the team and began to work on par with the rest. Apparently, they were helped by anger and the hope that they could take revenge on those who sold them into slavery. The next stage was the deployment of a campaign to form accurate maps of both straits: the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Immediately upon arrival in Constantinople, Eric sent Demeter's team to create a map in his usual ways, and the most accurate. Now, when they have coped, and jewelers could fulfill its order, it was possible to send them for specifying and correcting works. The fact is that local jewelers received a bunch of small orders on the same principle as blacksmiths. As a result, when he collected from them the results of painstaking works, assembling a telescope with a high-quality copper body and adjusting the focus, as well as a machine for turning it into a level, turned out to be a matter of a couple of hours. The direct task of this device will be to measure vertical angles from the marks, in order to then calculate the distance by means of the traditional Pythagorean theorem. The work is tedious, but someone will have to do it. In order that they do not measure everything, Eric, on their map drawn a grid and marked the measurement points. At the same time he gave them a compass, which was a primitive dish with water, with a small wooden plank floating there. On one side of this improvised arrow was attached a magnet oriented to the north. The primitive thing. But for the best he did not yet have the time and opportunities - it was necessary to make a drawing of details and place an order with jewelers, but those were already loaded with work for two more levels. In late July, came a batch of Chinese paper. He rejoiced like a child. Finally, he can not write on his clothes! At the end of August, the Grand Master returned, and the baron was introduced at the court. Considering the emperor Alexis III, our hero was perplexed because what is deceptive is the appearance - apparently he is quite a healthy person, but in fact the most damaged by the mind of the ruler of Byzantium. In general, after a long and extremely pathetic ceremony, he was finally able to get out of this crooked and thoroughly hypocritical place, holding the necessary papers in his hands. Now he is the prince of the emperor, who was complaining about the lands of the peninsula, which is in the east of the Crimea, including the cities of Kafa and Korchev. These lands were exempt from taxes and other duties and passed into hereditary possession. Who would have thought - so much noise because of the "six hundred"! Of course, all these possessions had to be taken away, since they were under temporary control of arrogant invaders. Having thus obtained a formal right and becoming a titular nobleman in Byzantium, Eric unfolded, through Theodore, a powerful intelligence-diplomatic campaign. Before his emissary set the following tasks. First, it was necessary to obtain a scheme of fortifications Kafa and Korchev, as well as detailed information on the garrisons and their combat capability. Secondly, he was interested in the Timariots - local feudal lords in the specified area. With them it was necessary to get in touch and find mutual understanding. Thirdly, it was necessary to feel the remnants of the Tmutarakan principality, in terms of its ability to join the struggle against the Kypchaks, that is, to find strong leaders and ways to influence them. Fourth, we needed materials on the Kypchaks themselves: who obeys whom, what forces they have, where they are located, how and where they roam. It was not superfluous to provide technical support for these children. Fifthly, Eric was interested in the Slavic principalities, in particular, in Kiev, Galicia, Pereyaslav and Novgorod-Severnoye. For the success of the whole operation the Polovtsians must be connected elsewhere. In the place, as far as the baron remembered, there was a very solid group of Lukomor Kypchaks, to which the children from Crimea also belonged. So, even if the princes' campaign is not planned closer to the winter of next year - it must be provoked. Or at least create the appearance of preparing for the campaign.