Returning from a long and very difficult campaign, Mishka Lisovin, of course, understood that he would not have to rest for long at home - the prince's favor was not a gift, but a yoke that was hung on him and the whole hundred, but he had the right to at least some rest was hopeful. It didn’t work out: such gifts of fate awaited him at home - at least run back to the campaign. Positional war is just as bloody and cruel as any other, if not worse: it is she who plans all future victims and protects her own. The servile riot that broke out in Ratny in the absence of hundreds cost the lives of many fellow villagers, and Korney, instead of a ceremonial meeting, prepared a “gift” for his grandson - reprisal against the youths from the Junior Guard, whose parents foolishly followed the rebels. To hand the boys over for execution means losing the entire Junior Guard; if you don’t hand them over, you will go into open rebellion against the governor and the centurion. We barely managed to break through to the fortress, bypassing Ratnoe, and there surprises rained down from our neighbor because of the swamp. And we had to deal with all the problems at the same time - with the grandfather, and with those Ratnin residents who were not happy with the young upstart, and with swampy neighbors, and don’t forget about the prince’s affairs. You won’t be able to put off a single game and you won’t have to take extra time to think. So Ratnikov had to play the game on all boards at the same time, and he had to dodge in such a way that he himself would win and so that his playing partners would not lose out.