Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1427 The Big Winner ([-])

When Samir Yusuf received the news and arrived from Istanbul, it was already March 3, more than ten days later.

It is said that since the mission to the East Bank two years ago and successfully signed a series of agreements, this upstart who rose in the second Salari rebellion (military coup) is even more favored by Grand Vizier Fasher Ahmad De Coprulu's value is very important. At present, this guy has been appointed as a naval pasha to comprehensively organize the logistics transportation and reinforcements to Crete to ensure that the Ottoman Empire can successfully win this siege. I don't know how many years. Eastern Mediterranean islands.

Samir Yusuf took his new task very seriously because he knew that after the war with Austria in 1664 did not produce the desired results, Fashir Ahmed Pasha put the straw at the end of his life. In order to seize the island of Crete—just last month, Grand Vizier Ahmed held a military meeting and decided to focus on solving the Crete issue from 1666, and Grand Vizier himself will also go to Crete in person. On Ritter Island, he commanded a large army to besiege the city of Gandia, the last stronghold of the Venetians on the island, just as he led nearly 1664 troops to attack Austrian Hungary in 20.

It is worth mentioning that in 1664, when the Ottoman and Austrian wars were raging, Samir Yusuf sent a large number of captives from Austria, Hungary, and Transylvania to the east bank by exchanging captives for weapons. (In fact, quite a few are civilians, because there are even women and children.) "Export" to the east bank, and then return a large number of muskets, cannons, military kettles, riding spears, saddles, ammunition bags, armor, medicines from the east bank Waiting for military supplies.

Due to the low administrative efficiency of the Ottoman Empire and the unexpected end of the war (the war was over when Yusuf himself returned to Ottoman), the agreement was delayed until the first batch of transactions in the second half of last year, when five east coast merchant ships arrived A large amount of military funds was collected, and then more than [-] Transylvanian prisoners of war were brought back. For this reason, they also took the risk of offending the Austrians.However, there seems to be nothing on the east coast that is afraid of being sanctioned by Austria, except for the branch of the Bank of La Plata in Austria, but there are Genoese people in charge of putting out the fire, so it should not be a big problem.

The unexpected end of the war made it impossible to use the large number of weapons shipped to the Ottomans, and it seemed that they could only be temporarily rusted in warehouses.However, the Grand Vizier himself quickly found a new use for these weapons, which is the attack on Crete we mentioned earlier.Just failed in the Battle of the Rab River - this is the first time that Austria has defeated the 20 Ottoman army with inferior forces, and successfully forced the Ottomans to sign a 20-year truce peace treaty - Grand Fasher Ahmed Vizier, although he managed to retain Ottoman's suzerainty over Transylvania, he was extremely angry and decided to vent this evil fire on the Venetians, and by taking all the achievements of Crete, he would promote the next generation. His prestige has declined slightly.

As Ahmed Pasha's confidant, Samir Yusuf has been busy with these things during this time: mainly transporting a large amount of military supplies to many small coastal ports in southern Anatolia, and then transporting them to On Crete, the Venetians could not effectively block the sea transportation of the Ottomans because of the limited number of ships and the island was too close to the shore, so they could only passively strengthen their defenses. The war will enter a new climax in 1666-but it seems that there is no harm to the East Coast. On the contrary, they can also become economic winners by selling a large amount of military funds to the Ottoman Empire, right?

"Honorable Samir Yusuf Pasha, thank you very much for your kindness and help to our country. The officials of my country's Xinhua Island wrote to me that the export of coffee has resumed unimpeded last year, and sales have reached a new level. Step, thank you very much for your help. If it were not for the care of you and the Grand Vizier himself, perhaps our businessmen have already suffered a lot of losses." Li Qing held Samir Yusuf's hands and expressed gratitude Said in a tone: "Our government will remember every friend of ours, Yusuf Pasha, thank you very much."

"You have also helped me a lot." Yusuf smiled, took off the Turkish tall felt hat on his head, and said: "You have also seen that a large number of goods are piled up in the port, and many of them are war materials. This was used to attack the island of Crete. Ahmed Pasha made up his mind and decided to adjust the focus of his strategy starting this year, investing all his elite troops on the island of Crete, and strive to solve this problem within one to two years. big trouble."

"Good luck to you, Yusuf Pasha. But to be honest, your strategic focus seems to be too much. I count, Ukraine, Transylvania, Hungary, Crete , and fought against the French in Algiers before, oh my god, are you busy?" Li Qing said to Samir Youssef in a joking tone.

"It is indeed a lot, but fortunately it is over. Although we failed to achieve the expected results and retreated in the Battle of the Rab River, the Austrians did not dare to pursue our army and recognized our country's defense of Transylvania. Suzerainty, and finally signed the "Fort Wash" truce for 20 years, which is enough to make us stable in one direction for a long time. Now it's time to solve the problem of Crete. The Venetians spent many years with us. I don't believe it They can persist when we deal with it with all our strength, they are all businessmen, you know, they will not do things without much profit for nothing." Samir Yousuf said: "So, at this time, you shipped Your siege guns and mortars will do the trick, thank you, East Coasters, your friendship will be remembered by the Ottoman Empire."

"Those who remember our friendship have died countless times in the political strife. I hope you can live long enough, otherwise our capital will be for nothing." Li Qing nodded with a smile while slandering in her heart.

"The friendship between the East Coast Republic of China and the Ottoman Empire is naturally needless to say, and it has been proven by history. Yusuf Pasha, thanks to the generosity of Sultan Muhammad and Grand Vizier Ahmed, The Chinese government has officially accepted Djibouti, which has further deepened the friendship between the two countries. Rest assured, the Chinese navy will increase its patrols in the Red Sea in the future, and will never let pirates interfere with the normal commercial order." Li Qing invited Samir Yusuf Pasha to have a rest in the east bank commercial station, and said: "In the future, if your country has any interests in the East African coast or the Arabian Peninsula, our government will also pay attention to it, because this is Things that friends should do."

In other words, after Samir Yusuf Pasha returned to Istanbul, the Sultan and Grand Vizier himself ratified the agreement he reached with the people on the east coast, which included the transfer of Djibouti (the border demarcation is also relatively vague, anyway, the Ottomans also never No actual rule has been established there) to the rule of the East Coast Republic of China, because the Ottomans think that place has no value at all, and the local native chiefs only obey the orders of the Ottoman Sultan in name, so they still It's better to be a favor to the people on the east coast in exchange for their full support for the Ottoman Empire in the attack on Crete-in the form of weapons and military resources.

People on the east coast are also very satisfied with obtaining Djibouti. In fact, they also know that Ottoman's so-called rule over this place has always remained in name only.However, Ottoman is the largest trading partner of the people on the east coast. Without touching the principle, it is necessary to take care of the emotions of the Ottoman people. In exchange for a name, a name that can continue to develop and colonize Djibouti and even neighboring Ethiopia. Anyway, on this planet, no one thinks it has any value.

And after gaining the right to rule Djibouti, there is no doubt that the people on the east coast will set up a small settlement here, which has at least a so-so ship repair yard, an agricultural product supply base, and a well-equipped coastal and land defense fort system to provide supplies to and from merchant ships and fleets.And when the people on the east coast start to gain a firm foothold here, the development of the large area of ​​saline-alkali land and salt lake on the west bank of the adjacent Gebert Lake will also be included in the agenda.You know, there is a huge reserve of natural potassium salt here, which is extremely critical to the development of the domestic agriculture and chemical industries on the east coast, especially the so-called safe potash that Weng Guangan and others have been studying and have produced. Match items.

Furthermore, in view of Djibouti's role in controlling the Red Sea channel, the role of this base will become more apparent later on, especially when people on the east coast are trying their best to persuade the Ottoman Empire to build a horse-drawn wagon track in Egypt .

Well, to put it simply, the people on the east coast hope to build a wooden iron-clad track from the port of Suez on the Red Sea to the seaside area of ​​the White Sea, so that the heavy-duty freight horse-drawn railcars made by the east coast can run, because this can greatly improve the Improve the efficiency of material transportation between the two places.Moreover, because the track is made of wood and iron, the climate in Egypt is relatively dry (this means that the track has a long service life). The transportation and maintenance costs of this track are not high, so it is worth doing.

However, at present, the Ottoman Empire is still hesitant. On the one hand, they don’t care much about it, and the politics are relatively chaotic.In fact, this wooden iron-clad track with a total length of no more than 200 kilometers, even if the one-time investment of vehicles is included, will never exceed 150 million yuan. The Ottoman Empire spends millions of yuan on the army every year. But he couldn't get the money, and he was drunk, especially when the people on the east coast said that they could contribute part of the construction funds (of course, they must also obtain a certain amount of equity). At that time, there was no other way. The Ottomans are dead-brained.

Yousuf and Li Qing then discussed some other matters in the commercial station, and then left. He left with him, and there was a whole carriage full of various gifts.For those who sincerely help themselves, Dong'an people have never been stingy with spending money!

On March 3, after dealing with the backlog of major affairs in a few days, Li Qing boarded the ship again, headed for the Black Sea and arrived at the Haji Port of the Crimean Khanate, a port invested by the South China Sea Transportation Company and The Black Sea Commercial Port has been granted 22-year operating rights.

The person in charge of the Haji Commercial Station has now become Malati, an official from the East Bank of Tatar descent. Extremely loyal.Therefore, after many years of investigation, he was appointed to host the Hadji Port Commercial Station, and at the same time, the Kafa Commercial Station was also managed by him. It can almost be said that he is the highest person in charge of the East Bank Republic in the Crimean Khanate. Bit height weight.

Li Qing came to Crimea this time mainly to meet with the Great Khan and deal with some commercial and political affairs, such as the follow-up of the "Tatar Trench" fortress (the Crimeans requested the import of long-range Heavy artillery, just approved by the east coast government), such as technical assistance for the Kaffa iron mine and the northern saltworks (this is also part of the technology diffusion on the east coast), and the most critical issue about the slave trade.

To be honest, the slave trade has now become a heart disease between the Crimean Khanate and the east coast.Earlier, because the people on the east coast could not eat the prisoners of war and female slaves provided by the Crimeans, they tried to guide the feudal lords of the khanate to start grain plantations on the fertile black land on the south coast of the Black Sea, and even found Italian and Spanish food for them. market.As a result, due to the frequent wars in the Black Sea and the Balkans in the past ten years, tens of thousands of armored cavalry in Crimea frequently mobilized and plundered too many slaves, so that the number of slaves in the country has never decreased, and the east coast had to suspend restrictions on the introduction of slaves. The policy continued to eat slaves from Ukraine, Poland, Moldavia, Transylvania and even Hungary to balance the trade between Ottoman, Crimea and the East Coast.

However, this abnormal state of trade is likely to come to an end, because from 1664, the situation in Eastern Europe, which had been disturbed for more than ten years, gradually subsided.First, Ottoman and Austria signed the "Washburg Peace Treaty" to strictly restrict their respective cross-border plundering behaviors, and Transylvania and Hungary gained stability; secondly, the Polish-Russian War is gradually coming to an end. It is said that the two sides have been negotiating intermittently After a long time, Ukraine is likely to be divided along the Dnieper River, and Kiev and Smolensk are likely to be ceded to Russia by Poland.

Once these wars are over, the tens of thousands of cavalry in the Crimean Khanate are likely to face "unemployment", because its suzerain Ottoman Empire no longer needs it to send troops to attack the enemy, and this will undoubtedly lose the opportunity to plunder the enemy , This is a big blow to the economy of the Khanate, and it is unknown where the trade with the east coast will go in the future-because of the Black Sea trade zone planned by the people on the east coast, and because of the increasing friction between the two empires of Ottoman and Russia , and suffered a great setback, the Don River was abolished all the way, and half of the Dnieper River was abolished. Now all we can count on is the Danube.However, when Li Qing thought of the numerous feudal lords and the complicated terrain in the Danube River Basin, she felt a headache. Fortunately, these were all entrusted to the agent, otherwise she didn't know how to start.

On April 4th, Li Qing got bad news. Gelai Dahan felt unwell when he went out to win over the grassland peoples in southern Russia. He has returned to the capital city of Bekchisalay to recuperate and has not seen any visitors for the time being.This made Li Qing very disappointed. At the same time, she also realized that her trip to the Black Sea might end in vain.

(End of this chapter)