Our man in deep enemy territory. The Russian “popadanets” Ivan Fyodorovich finds himself in the body of a young Baron Johann von der Zaitsev—right in the heart of Livonia, among the Teutonic knights, on the eve of the Battle of Grunwald. The story around him falls apart: the Order suffers defeat, Tatars, Lithuanians, Samogitians, and greedy merchants tear one another apart—and he knows history only superficially.
But he knows how to fight, trade, build, improvise, and survive. Soap, paintings, a bank, pistol(s), catamarans, trophies, settlers, and the dream of the New World—this is how Baron von der Zaitsev tries to rewrite the past to suit himself. But the further he goes, the clearer it becomes: you can’t outplay the past alone, and for every victory you have to pay.