sultan's crescent

Chapter 92 The People of Egypt

Since we want to carry out comprehensive reform, we must have a good pilot area, which must have enough room for development, must have important strategic value, and preferably have outstanding cultural significance.Egypt is such a "chosen place" among the Ottoman provinces.

In Selim's plan, the Egyptian region is the first to be repaired. This is related to whether he can revitalize the entire Ottoman Empire. An Egypt that is first activated will drive the recovery of the Ottoman economy.

But before that, Selim had to ensure the agricultural issues in Egypt.

This is also the reason why Selim sent Haji Pasha there. The other party has served in several governorships and has made outstanding achievements, so he is suitable to govern Egypt.

Considering the complex composition of the Mamluks in Egypt, Selim chose to use thunder to eliminate the opponent.

This has indeed reduced resistance to a large extent, after all, almost two-thirds of the land in Egypt is in the hands of Mamluks.

But the other third of the land did not belong to Egyptian farmers, but to religious elders.

This group is similar to the Islamic jurists of the Ottoman Empire, but compared with the Islamic jurists, the quality of these Egyptian religious elders is much lower. The former can indeed be said to be pious. Try one by one and play with your heartbeat.

But religion, especially for the hard-working people, this kind of mental paralysis coupled with unknown information makes them not only do not raise objections to the life of the religious elders, but respect them instead.

Although the Egyptian people rebelled every now and then, the banner they played every time was to overthrow the Mamluks rather than the religious elders.

Again, everything depends on comparison.

When the Egyptians have been living under the oppression of Mamluks and religious elders, the latter will not find them because of the aura brought by religion.

After all, there are Mamluk bastards blocking the front, and what are these bastards doing, squeezing No.1.

But once the Mamluks were wiped out, Haji Pasha completed the redistribution of Mamluk land with the help of the Sultan's "Imperial Edict", and reclaimed wasteland and built water conservancy facilities.

The Egyptians living under the rule of the Haji Pasha and the Egyptian serfs living under the rule of the religious elders became two species.

Let’s take a look at Haji Pasha’s restoration of the ecological environment in Egypt under the guidance of Se the Great.

The first is the fallow of some areas. Although the Nile River floods every year, only the areas along the Nile River are nourished.

And what is the Mamluk farming method, that is, grabbing a field and plowing it to death, either the field is rotten, or the people are exhausted.

This has caused the fertility of most of Egypt's cultivated land to drop to an outrageous level, and his grain output is not even comparable to that of the Fatimid Dynasty in the tenth century.

Therefore, the implementation of the fallow system is imperative. How to develop agriculture without restoring fertility, and there is no chemical fertilizer these days.

The second is to reclaim wasteland. Even if the usable land in Egypt is only counted in Lower Egypt, it is far from being developed at this time.

Haji Pasha has reclaimed a lot of land with the help of the policy of land reclamation and granting land, which is also the capital for the future development of Egypt.

The last is the construction of water conservancy facilities. Before agricultural technology has not pointed out high-tech breeding and chemical fertilizers, there is only one way to increase land production on a large scale-water conservancy facilities.

Although Haji Pasha has indeed promulgated a bunch of policies, it has nothing to do with the Egyptian serfs under the rule of the religious elders.

Yes, the serfs. Although Emperor Sai the Great had promulgated the "Imperial Edict" to abolish serfdom, there were still remnants in Egypt.

To put it bluntly, Selim was playing tricks on these idiots. Sultan could indeed use force to deal with the Mamluks, after all, the other party was indeed unpopular.

But in the face of the religious elders, facing this class held up by the Egyptian people, the one-size-fits-all approach seems too rough. What Selim wants to do is to provoke the Egyptian people to resist the religious elders through this comparison.

Facts have proved that these gangsters are indeed hopeless. Selim just didn't let Haji Pasha enforce it, and these gangsters have already understood that they will not implement it.

It is easy to destroy the gods in the temple, but difficult to destroy the gods in the heart.

The shackles forged by the Egyptian people themselves will naturally be smashed by them themselves.

Facts have proved that the Egyptian people still have the spirit of resistance.

After several appeals were rejected and protests were suppressed, the Egyptian people finally woke up, and they spontaneously organized a petition to Haji Pasha, hoping that the other party would uphold justice.

Haji Pasha was naturally very happy about this, and he immediately ordered that there would be no more serfs in Egypt, and the land of all religious elders should be immediately taken over by the government and distributed to the newly freed farmers.

This naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the religious elders. They rushed to the governor's mansion to accuse the governor of their oppression, and threatened to help the Mamluks rule Egypt again.

Haji Pasha was very confused by this. These people are not Mamluks, and they have almost no military power except for the guards.

Besides, in this land, who is oppressing whom? Do these people really not understand?

This made Haji Pasha really confused, where did they get the face and confidence to dare to shout at him?
But Haji Pasha didn't plan to send troops. His Majesty's instructions were very clear, and the Egyptians were to kill them themselves, so it was Haji Pasha's countermeasure to arrange spies to fight on both sides.

When the religious elders protested in front of the Governor's Mansion again, the spies arranged by Haji Pasha had already brought the Egyptians here. The Egyptians who heard the religious elders' accusations were particularly angry, and the contemptuous attitude of the other party made them even more angry. Many Egyptian people were upset, and a quarrel ensued between the two sides.

The atmosphere intensified, and many people crowded around these religious elders, trying to teach them a lesson.

The scene was extremely chaotic, and the guards of the religious elders had to protect them and retreat.

At this moment, gunshots rang out from the guards of the religious elders, and the bullets shot out from the muzzle, piercing the head of an Egyptian rushing forward, and the other party fell in response, splashing blood on the Egyptian behind For a while, the audience fell into a deathly silence.

The next moment, the Egyptian people broke out. They shouted Allah and rushed towards each other. A massacre began. Although the guards had guns, their numbers were so small that none of the religious elders who came to protest returned alive. .

The red-eyed Egyptians not only killed the guys who came to protest, but also slaughtered the remnants who stayed at home.

This class, which was held up by the Egyptian people, was eventually destroyed by it.

This is the power of the people, without the support of the people there will be no victory.

And the basic platform that Emperor Se the Great wants to build is the people of the Ottoman Empire who benefited from the reforms. Who can be the enemy when the monarch and the people are united?
(End of this chapter)