Sometimes Cossacks just needed resources to ensure their subsistence, while on other occasions they were bribed by the Habsburgs to help ease Ottoman pressure on their borders. Also, there was widespread animosity between Cossacks and Tatars, after decades of border clashes and reciprocal looting of estates and villages. Cossacks raided Ottomans territories and their vassals near the Black Sea almost yearly, usually attracting retaliatory Tatar raids (and vice versa). The vicious circle of chaos and retaliations often turned the entire south-eastern Commonwealth border into a low-level warzone. 1593–1595 In 1593, war between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs started. In 1594 a very strong Tatar raid, carried out by about 20,000–30,000 men led by the Khan of Crimea, Ğazı II Giray (Gazi Gerej II), plundered Pokucie and moved to Hungary through mountain passes, in order to plunder Habsburg lands. Commonwealth troops gathered too late to intercept it. The Prince of Transylvania, Sigismund Báthory (Zsigmond Báthory), nephew of former Polish king Stefan Batory (István Báthory), had strengthened Habsburg influence in Moldavia after setting Ștefan Răzvan (Stefan Rozwan) on the Moldavian throne. Ștefan Răzvan was a Roma from Wallachia (his father had been an Ottoman Muslim Roma, therefore not a slave) and had married a Moldavian noblewoman (his story was the basis of a play by 19th-century Romanian writer and historian Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu). A pro-Polish hospodar was mostly tolerated by the Porte when the Commonwealth was anti-Habsburg or neutral. Therefore, when Emperor Rudolf II's forces gained control of Moldavia, Transylvania () and started supporting Mihai Viteazul (), prince of Wallachia, the Ottomans didn't look too favourably at the Commonwealth's meddling. In 1595 Zamoyski, persuaded by Moldavian refugees, decided to intervene. The Commonwealth forces (numbering ~7,000–8,000 soldiers) under hetman Jan Zamoyski crossed the Dniester, defeated local opposition (while Transylvanian troops retreated to their own country) and Ottoman reinforcements, and set Ieremia Movilă on the Moldavian throne as a Commonwealth vassal. This was seen by many as a very dangerous step because the Ottomans were preparing to place their own candidate on the Moldavian throne. Zamoyski contacted grand vizier Sinan Pasha and negotiated with the Ottoman governor on the Black Sea island of Tyahyn (near the Dnieper river) and convinced them of his peaceful intentions and that he did not want to fight with the Ottoman Empire. However, the Khan of Crimea, Ğazı II Giray, reacted and entered Moldavia with about 20,000 men