sultan's crescent

Chapter 5 Poor Selim
The sun is rising outside the window, looking out from the Topkapi Palace, a red sun is slowly jumping out of the water from the end of the Golden Horn.

Selim breathed the fresh sea breeze and slowly got up from the bed.

"Paul, my breakfast is here." The valet pushed the door open, "Your Majesty, according to your instructions, the staple food prepared by the imperial chef today is beef noodles and mince pies, the dessert is baklava, and the cold drink is sorbet."

Although the financial situation of the empire has improved a lot under Selim's suggestion and Hamid's implementation, the consumption of a war is still extremely huge, so Selim slightly reduced the palace's expenditure.

Of course, you can't cut too much, otherwise His Majesty the Sultan will be dizzy and difficult to work.

Selim comforted himself while enjoying his breakfast.

However, jokes are jokes, and fiscal revenue still has to find ways to increase.

It is definitely not enough to learn from the great ancestor, the conqueror Mehmed II. Currency devaluation is a trick every day, and the common people are not fools. They will really rebel if they are in a hurry.

As for the church, guess who paid for Selim's war.

Selim stretched his waist, and muttered: "So, I still have to learn from the Guards and do some small business without capital."

While Selim was in a daze, an old man pushed the door in. The person who came was Abraham, the leader of the Jewish Millet, one of the four major Milletts of the Ottoman Empire.

Selim complained in his heart that the other party's name is almost always in the top 10 Jewish names with the same names, while pulling the other party to sit down beside him, he asked with a smile.

"My dear Abraham, how do you think about the proposal of the Jewish nation and the empire to jointly establish the Royal Bank of the Ottoman Empire?"

Abraham naturally understood that the sultan in front of him was not a good stubble, and he might have ambushed fifty swordsmen in any corner. As long as he dared to refuse, Abraham would go to heaven immediately.

Well, Abraham had no intention of rejecting the Sultan.

Marx once commented that capitalists can sell the rope to hang themselves to the proletariat for profit. This sentence is also wonderful when used to describe the Jews.

Selim snickered inwardly, while listening to Abraham's arguments for the bank's shareholding and position distribution.

"Your Majesty, the annual financial revenue of the empire is only 2000 taels of silver, while the reserve fund you requested from the Imperial Bank is as high as 4000 taels of silver.

Then we have to take out 2000 million taels of silver. Do you think we should adjust our shares from 20.00% to 30.00%? "

Looking at Abraham with a sincere face in front of him, Selim thought of Prime Minister Bismarck who later made concessions in front of Rothschild, President Garfield who died at the hands of the Seligman family, and Germany with a piece of bread of 50 marks. The bald man kneeling in front of him.

Selim stood up, brought Abraham to the window, and said with a smile: "Abraham, the life of the entire Jewish community has been difficult these past few years. Compared with you, Britain and France are more willing to let Christian merchants trade with them. "

Abraham suddenly became excited, thinking: "The Sultan must be willing to grant our request, oh, praise God."

However, Selim shattered his illusion the next moment.

"Dear Abraham, look at the Golden Horn in front of you. Countless brigs pass by here every day, and porters and merchants transport countless amounts of silver to the empire to exchange for goods from the empire.

But they will be troubled by the different currencies, and they will regret that they don't have enough money.

Just imagine, my friends, if there was a bank that could exchange money for them, and make loans, what a huge profit would lurk in it.Could this not satisfy my Jewish friends? "

Selim's eyes turned cold, and he turned to look at Abraham and said.

"Or, my dear Jewish friends, want to get even the part that belongs to the Sultan?"

Abraham only felt that he was covered in cold sweat, and fell to his knees directly, and hurriedly argued.

"Your Majesty, we have absolutely no such intentions. You know that the Jews have been loyal to the Empire and to the Sultan since your ancestor Mehmed II the Conqueror. You have no second thoughts, Your Majesty."

Selim smiled and helped Abraham up and said.

"Relax, Abraham, I have always seen your loyalty. How about this, except for the 50.00% belonging to the government, how about we share the remaining shares equally?"

Abraham nodded hastily, as if he was afraid that the Sudan would repent.

"As for the president of the bank, let me be the concurrent president, and you, Abraham, are the vice president. Let you handle the specific business.

I have but one request, that the first installment of the treasury bill is ready to go on sale at the end of April to finance the Empire's war effort. "

Selim then gave instructions to Abraham and asked Paul to send the future vice-president of the Reichsbank out of the palace.

He turned around and lay down on the big soft bed, thinking about the follow-up arrangements.He is too tired to be a sultan for giving face-to-face tips all day long.

Political, military, and economic aspects must be taken care of, as well as his pen pal's diplomatic method.

Selim couldn't help but start to fantasize about the future after the reform was completed, such as a letter like Suleiman the Great, the Pope had to obediently let the Jews go.

Thinking of the Jews, Selim's mood became bad again. When many European countries expelled these gangs of street rats, if it weren't for the help of the Ottoman Empire, the Sephardic Jews would have seen God long ago.

However, Abraham is not yet savvy, and dares to discuss with him about share distribution.Be careful, the Sudan will learn from Adolf one day, come to a crystal night, and remove the oil strongly.Selim thought maliciously.

Time passed quickly, and the examination for Guards officers was about to be held.Selim is still looking forward to it, although the entire guard army mainly focuses on paddling, doing business, and exchanging sultans.

But there are also people with lofty ideals. For example, Comrade Muhammad-Ali, who will become famous in Egypt in the future, was acquired by Selim in advance, and he was sent to the Paris Military Academy by the way.

The young man also worked very hard, successfully graduated after three years, returned to the Guards to do research, and at the same time fooled other paddlers to actively apply for the Paris Army Non-commissioned Officer Academy, contributing to the division within the Guards.

Yes, you read that right, the Guards can indeed split.After all, the Guards also need young blood.

We all know that young people are also the best fools, increasing rewards and promoting patriotism, and the entire Guards eventually became reformers and conservatives.

Although the reformists are single and weak, the Sultan will be sidelined, plus a good comrade like Aladdin Pasha who is actively seeking progress.

Selim can say with certainty: "With the current level of organization of the Guards, let alone rebellion, they can't do business with others.

Even if Ali Pasha's soft-footed shrimp really has a brain twitch, he is not worried about changing the sultan at all. After all, the new army has an independent regiment stationed in Topkapi Palace.

Although the new army already has a certain strength, Selim does not want to cleanse the guards now. First, how much money will Selim have to pay if the battle starts in Istanbul;
The second is that this group of people is still useful. After all, the war is about to start, and Selim's little family property, which he managed to save with great difficulty, naturally needs to be protected more.Therefore, the vanguard of the battlefield can only be handed over to the guards who are loyal to Sudan;

The third thing is that the family background of the Guards is still very strong. If they don't go out, how will Selim make money?Even if they incite Christians to rebel, they won't be able to get money. After all, it's quite easy for a part-time soldier's peddler to beat up a bunch of civilians.

After reconfirming that there is nothing to do today and that he can retreat, Selim took Paul to the naval port.

The "Grand Selim" he ordered from Louis XVI has been practiced by Hassan Pasha for a month, and the Sultan himself has never experienced it.What, you say Selim boasted too much?
No, no, Sultan This is in honor of another great sultan in the history of the empire - Selim I (the grim one), lord of Mesopotamia, nightmare of Persia, conqueror of Egypt, sultan of the Ottoman Empire .

Selim proudly hummed a little song and approached the pier. The "Great Selim" was already waiting for him. Selim made a quick stride to the side of the ship, and then stepped onto the deck.

The "Great Selim" uses the famous "Ocean" class keel, with a total length of 62.23m, a width of 17.6m, and a displacement of nearly 4000 tons.

至于武备方面，底层火炮甲板配有34门32磅加农炮，中层为2门50磅炮加32门32磅加农炮，上层为34门24磅舰炮，艏艉楼甲板共计26门42磅卡隆短炮，整船额定人员1280人。

According to the French warship designer, this ship may be the largest sailing warship in the world.

Selim was naturally very happy about this, after all, caliber is justice.The only downside is that the cost of this battleship is too expensive, 150 million taels of silver makes Selim's heart ache every time he thinks about it.

While Selim was secretly feeling sad, Hassan Pasha had already walked over.

Although the old Pasha is 84 years old, he still looks hale and hearty.

"Your Majesty, are you ready? This time you are traveling with the Empire's First Naval Fleet, the flagship "Selim the Great", the double-decker battleship "Ibrahim Pasha", and the "Koprulu" , "Mustafa" and several warships, a total of 27 ships."

Following Hassan Pasha's order, the warships set sail one after another.

The "Great Selim" took the lead. On the blue waves, the stars guarded the flagship. Hassan waved the command flag. The fleet immediately changed from a cruise formation to a combat formation. Immediately afterwards, all ships launched simultaneously, 50 pounds and 32 pounds The shells set off monstrous waves on the ocean.

This situation reminded Selim of his experience in Assassin's Creed - Black Flag in his previous life, his hands itched immediately, and he hurriedly greeted Hassan.

"Hassan Pasha, I want to try how to fire a cannon." Selim said, "No problem, Your Majesty." Hassan immediately made room for Selim, and our Sultan aimed at the ocean in front of him, immediately Here comes a shot.

Not long after, there was a scream from the "Koprulu" beside him, and the shell fired by Selim grazed the ship's side.Seeing this scene, Selim couldn't help but smiled wryly and said, "Well, it seems that I wasn't very accurate."

　Because the financial information of the Ottoman Empire is really difficult to find, so I will replace it with silver here, which is compared with the fiscal revenue of the Ottoman Empire, because the fiscal revenue of the Ottoman Empire remains at half of the fiscal revenue all the year round.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)