CHAPTER 522: CHAPTER 514: APPORTIONMENT AND BANDIT SUPPRESSION

With the cooperation of Mayor Kasina Cheyev, the French Empire no longer needed to waste the ironclad’s shells to intimidate the town, so the two ironclads returned to Kalamat Bay.

The troopship directly docked at the pier of Yevpatoria Town, and wooden stairs gradually lowered from the troopship to the port dock.

The residents of the town all ran to their rooftops and balconies to watch the unveiling of the Zouave Corps soldiers at the port. With the sound of a loud trumpet from inside the troopship, soldiers of the Zouave Battalion, dressed in traditional blue and white French Army attire, followed their unit leaders down the wooden stairs.

It took nearly an hour and a half for all 2,900 men from the three battalions to disembark. Looking at these elite soldiers before him, Mayor Kasina Cheyev couldn’t help but feel relieved about his decision.

For a town with over 9,000 households and more than 100 militiamen (some of whom were previously wounded soldiers retired from the battlefield), surrender was undoubtedly a wise choice.

Just as Kasina Cheyev was secretly feeling fortunate, Brigadier General MacMahon’s tall figure appeared before them.

Seeing this, Kasina Cheyev quickly introduced himself, "Respected Brigadier General, I am the mayor of this town, Kasina Cheyev!"

"Mayor Kasina Cheyev, from now on your town is occupied by the French Empire! I hope you can cooperate well with our operations, so as not to embarrass both sides! I’m a straightforward person; when someone treats me well, I reciprocate double! But if there’s duplicity..." Brigadier General MacMahon coldly smiled as he frankly told Kasina Cheyev.

"Naturally cooperate! Naturally cooperate!" Mayor Kasina Cheyev nodded repeatedly.

After that, Mayor Kasina Cheyev introduced his son to Brigadier General MacMahon, "Your Excellency the Brigadier, this is my son Nicolai Ivanovitch Kasina Cheyev, who is now the military commander of this town!"

"Your Excellency the Brigadier, hello!" Ivanov bowed and nodded to Brigadier General MacMahon.

MacMahon glanced up and down at Ivanov, then merely said "Hmm," and turned to ask Kasina Cheyev through a translator, "How many households are there in your town?"

Upon hearing Brigadier General MacMahon’s question, Mayor Kasina Cheyev’s heart skipped a beat, knowing that the French levy was about to come.

Kasina Cheyev had already heard about the French Army’s levies while he was with the Russian Imperial Army.

Whenever the French Army passed through a place, they used their cheap certificates to exchange for all the goods they needed.

If the other party was unwilling to comply, then the occupied churches would be looted.

"Your Excellency the Brigadier, our town has over 9,000 households in total!" Kasina Cheyev dared not hide anything and said to Brigadier General MacMahon.

"Over 9,000 households? Approximately how many of them are well-off?" Brigadier General MacMahon asked again.

"Around 1,000 people!" Kasina Cheyev replied to MacMahon.

"Your town is quite the hidden gem!" MacMahon said, looking at Kasina Cheyev’s town in surprise.

"Because our town is close to the coast, the peninsula’s grains are processed here! Naturally, a lot of wealthy people have gathered!" Kasina Cheyev truthfully answered.

"Very good! I’ll be direct then! Your town has a total of 9,000 people, each commoner must pay a town ransom of 100 francs to us, and each wealthy person must pay 500 francs! That means your town needs to give us 1.8 million francs!" Brigadier General MacMahon said to Kasina Cheyev.

When the translator finished explaining Brigadier General MacMahon’s words in Russian to Kasina Cheyev, his heart sank.

1.8 million francs is not a trifling sum for a town with a population of over 9,000; this was practically a death sentence for them.

"Your Excellency the Brigadier, can the deadline be extended a bit?" Kasina Cheyev pleaded to Brigadier General MacMahon, "Our town truly doesn’t have that much money! A lot of money has already been invested into this land!"

"That’s not within my consideration!" Brigadier General MacMahon first shook his head, then suggested to Kasina Cheyev, "If you really don’t have money, you could also hand over some essential goods as collateral!"

MacMahon’s speech made Kasina Cheyev even more aware of the nature of the French Army; aside from not wantonly killing and torturing, they were no different from the Russian Imperial Army.

It’s just that when the Russian Empire robbed, they always did it in a swarm. The French Army’s plundering was much more civilized and orderly.

"Even so, we have no way to gather it in a short time!" Kasina Cheyev continued to plead poverty to MacMahon.

"Then what do you suggest? I can’t let my soldiers return without success!" Brigadier General MacMahon said a bit harshly to Kasina Cheyev, "Either you come up with the money, or I’ll lead my army to search house to house! When I deploy the army, the amount you’ll need to submit won’t just be this!"

"I understand! I will gather the 1.8 million francs as soon as possible" Kasina Cheyev eventually yielded.

At that moment, Ivanov, standing next to Kasina Cheyev, spoke up, "Your Excellency the Brigadier, I think rather than looting the poor, you should go after those who truly have money!"

"Oh? Are there even wealthier people in this town?" Brigadier General MacMahon looked at Ivanov with interest.

"Yes!" Ivanov, gathering courage from who knows where, provocatively told Brigadier General MacMahon, "It just depends on whether you dare make a move!"

"Ivanov, how dare you speak to the Brigadier General like that!" Mayor Kasina Cheyev quickly reprimanded his son from the series, then apologized to Brigadier General MacMahon: "Your Excellency, please don’t take it to heart!"

"I was not offended," MacMahon replied dispassionately, then asked Ivanov again, "Tell me who’s the richest here, and why should I make a move!"

"Your Excellency!" Ivanov straightened up and spoke eloquently to Brigadier General MacMahon: "Actually, on this peninsula, the richest aren’t us, it’s the Tatar bandits entrenched near our town!"

"Why are they so wealthy?" Brigadier General MacMahon pressed further.

"Because they loot goods! Four out of ten shipments from inland to here get robbed by them! Imagine the profit margins involved!" Ivanov said to Brigadier General MacMahon.

"Then why don’t you round them up?" Brigadier General MacMahon asked again.

"We’re simply no match for them!" Ivanov responded dejectedly to Brigadier General MacMahon, "Their equipment is far superior to ours!"

"I reckon there must be a significant number of regular army troops on this island! Why haven’t they been deployed?" Brigadier General MacMahon asked, puzzled.

"Because those bandits share part of their loot with the Sevastopol Fortress, so..." Ivanov explained the reason.

"Ah, so they’re a gang with connections!" Brigadier General MacMahon remarked with a smile to Ivanov.

"Yes!" Ivanov urged MacMahon, "Your Excellency, if you could lead your troops to eliminate this band of bandits, then all their assets would become your resources."

"If I defeat them, the spoils naturally are ours. It has little to do with the town!" MacMahon replied to Ivanov.

"Your Excellency!" Ivanov gritted his teeth and said to Brigadier General MacMahon, "If I can lead you to the bandits’ lair, I hope you can reduce the town’s ransom by one million francs! I wonder if you agree to this deal?"

"You have no right to bargain with me!" Brigadier General MacMahon said coldly.

"I know I have no right, but I hope Your Excellency can be a bit magnanimous!" Ivanov said with a face full of sincerity to Brigadier General MacMahon.

After pondering for a long time, MacMahon pulled out his pocket watch. It was already 5:42 in the afternoon, and the distant sun was gradually moving towards the sea horizon. He then said, "I agree to your terms!"

"Thank you very much!" Ivanov bowed and saluted Brigadier General MacMahon.

Early the next morning, at 6 a.m., a Zouave Battalion set out under Brigadier General MacMahon’s leadership, running all the way to a place 6 kilometers from the town, at the foot of a Highland Mountain.

"Just... just come here!" Ivanov panted as he pointed to a makeshift camp on the high ground and said to MacMahon.

MacMahon, who remained unruffled after the long march, picked up his binoculars and looked at the camp on the high ground. The camp had wooden fences and trenches outside, resembling the semblance of a military camp.

However, compared to the standard layout of a military camp, it was still somewhat too rudimentary.

"Interesting!" MacMahon murmured with a half-smile.

Following MacMahon’s orders, a squad from the Zouave quietly bypassed the trenches and sneaked into the camp. By the time the bandits on night watch discovered them, the Zouave soldiers had already slit their throats with daggers.

The Zouave squad, having silently taken out the guards, immediately opened the camp’s gates. Seeing this, MacMahon immediately ordered the battalion leader to lead two companies to storm in.

Following that, tens of gunshots were heard from within the camp, and the French tricolor flag was hoisted above the camp.

"You can go up now!" Brigadier General MacMahon told the stupefied Ivanov.

As Ivanov entered the camp, the sight before him almost made him vomit his dinner from the previous night. The bandits’ corpses were laid out by the Zouave Battalion in front of Ivanov, totaling about 300.

"Did you kill everyone in the camp?" Ivanov asked MacMahon in a trembling voice.

"Of course!" Brigadier General MacMahon replied calmly, "These people are examples for daring to resist our French Empire!"

After dealing with all the bandits (stripping them of everything they had previously), Brigadier General MacMahon counted his troop’s casualties and achievements.

Except for five soldiers who were lightly wounded, there were no other casualties in the entire unit.

And the materials and money they obtained, including flour, honey, fruit wine, and rubles, totaled over 100,000 francs in value.

This was just one bandit hideout; there are dozens of bandit hideouts in the area.

If all are cleared, the yield would far exceed looting the town.