Daming 1805

Chapter 169 Barbary Pirates

Zhu Jingyuan asked about the situation at the scene, and after thinking about it for a while, he ordered:

"Order the patrol fleet to find a place to guard the opponent's ship and the things on board separately.

"Escort the other side's envoy responsible for liaison alone, and come to see me with the letter from the so-called Tripoli Pasha."

Zhu Jingyuan was slightly interested in the Tripoli people.

Because this group of people Zhu Jingyuan had a very close relationship with the world's number one navy in his previous life.

If the United States were the protagonists of a web novel, they would be the first villains to pretend to be aggressive in front of the protagonist, and then slapped in the face after the protagonist broke out.

The rulers of Tripoli, Tunisia, and Algeria are not separatist forces in the conventional sense.

They are actually a pirate gang that surrendered to Ottoman, collectively known as the Barbary pirates, and parts of Morocco were once occupied by them.

Before the industrial age, these pirates had occupied the Daqin Sea, the northern coastal area of ​​the Mozhou Continent, for a long time.

Collect protection fees for passing ships, attack ships that have not paid protection fees, capture and trade slaves of various ethnic groups in Thailand and West, and extort ransom.

Their life has lasted for at least 200 years, and all countries in Thailand and the West have become accustomed to their existence.

By the [-]th century, the scale and organizational capabilities of the British and French navies continued to develop, and they were no longer something the Barbary pirates could compete with.

In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, the Barbary pirates decided not to attack British and French merchant ships, and the two sides continued to live in peace for a long time.

But America became independent in 1783.

After American independence, merchant ships could no longer fly the British flag.

As a result, in 1785, just two years after American independence, two American merchant ships were captured by Tripoli pirates.

The Tripoli Pasha demanded a ransom of $66 from the United States.

Affected by isolationism and decentralization, the U.S. Federal Navy had only one gunboat of less than [-] tons at that time, and it was maintained at Washington's own expense.

Therefore, the United States had no way to use force to take back the captives at that time, so it could only choose to forbear and give in, trying to solve the problem through diplomatic means.

As a result, the pirates continued to rob more and more American merchant ships, captured more crew members, and increased the ransom.

The Americans worked hard for ten years, and finally paid a ransom of $100 million in exchange for the release of the American crew by the Barbary pirates.

This figure was almost one-sixth of the U.S. budget at the time.

At the same time, the United States will pay an annual protection fee of more than 2 US dollars in exchange for the Barbary pirates' guarantee that they will no longer rob American merchant ships.

This humiliation made the Americans learn from the painful experience. While enduring the humiliation, they formally established the Ministry of the Navy and made great efforts to build the federal naval fleet.

The famous USS Constitution in the United States, the self-built first-generation Enterprise, and the first-generation Constellation were all approved for construction.

The first task of the Federal Fleet is to prevent pirates from attacking American ships, and choose the opportunity to refuse to continue paying protection fees to the pirates in Mexico.

These things indirectly led to the increase of the federal president's power and the power to command the navy's overseas activities.

In 1801, when Jefferson became the president of the United States, Yusuf Karamani, the Pasha of Tripoli, informed the new president that the annual protection fee should be increased to ten times the original one.

The Americans have spent more than ten years trying their best, waiting for the day when they will defeat their opponents.

Jefferson refused Yusef's request, and Yusef immediately declared war on the United States and began to allow pirates to plunder American ships.

For the first time in the history of the United States, a foreign war led by the navy broke out.

The theoretical war time is from 1801 to 1805, which means it should have just ended now.

In the end, the United States won a small victory and spent [-] US dollars to redeem the captives. The Barbary pirates exempted the United States from protection fees and signed a most-favored-nation treaty.

This treaty became "the most favorable peace treaty signed between the Western civilized countries and the Barbary countries in a hundred years."

In the original history, the navies of the Thai and Western countries before the industrial revolution had gradually formed an advantage over the Barbary pirates.

However, there is still no absolute advantage on land, and they are unable to directly land and occupy the homeland of the Baba pirates.

At the same time, the Thai and Western countries, where the traditional aristocrats hold the power of the court, are not very motivated to exterminate these pirates.

On the contrary, the United States, where the real bourgeoisie is in power, has extremely low tolerance for pirates who rob their merchant ships and demand ransom and protection money.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the bourgeoisie of various countries in Thailand and the West came to power one after another.

During the 1830 years from 1850 to 20, the French gradually occupied the whole of Algeria.

In the frenzy to carve up Mexico after the Industrial Revolution, the French further occupied the surrounding Morocco and Tunisia.

The lairs of the Barbary pirates on land were destroyed one after another, and they completely lost their ability to harm the countries of Thailand and the West.

Although Tripoli continued to exist until the twentieth century, it could only survive in the face of the fully industrialized countries of Thailand and the West.

Finally in 1912, Tripoli became an Italian colony.

In this world, the industrialization of the motherland of Ming and Taixi has been completed, but the previous world war gave the Barbary pirates some breathing room.

Now that the world war is over, Mingyu has conquered Egypt, and Tripoli is adjacent to Tripoli on land.

As long as the countries in Thailand and the West don't get in the way, it's only a matter of time before Ming destroys the lairs of these pirates.

It is estimated that this is also the real fundamental reason why the other party came to Zhu Jingyuan to give gifts.

Zhu Jingyuan considered the current situation and the relationship between the three visitors, and arranged for them to arrive at similar times.

On the same day, on November 34th, [-]th year of Daming Taiping, Zhu Jingyuan met with people from three aspects in turn.

First up was Grand Vizier Zayedin, who directly brought in a group of young girls.

After the simple greeting etiquette, Zayedin said very directly:
"His Royal Highness Prince Dashi, on behalf of His Majesty the Ottoman Sultan, I would like to express my highest and sincere thanks to His Highness for his support at the League of Nations meeting."

Zhu Jingyuan smiled and nodded in response:

"Don't be so polite."

Zayedin bowed again and continued to explain his intention:
"His Majesty the Sultan wishes to give His Highness His Highness Irene, the most beautiful Princess, as your maid.

"And Rhodes Island, which is located in the Great Qin Sea, and sixteen carefully selected female slaves of various ethnic groups will be used as dowry gifts.

"Your Highness, please accept it with a smile."

Ottomans were already popular with slavery.

The Barbary pirates in Tripoli and other places, as well as the Tatar vassal states along the Black Sea coast, have long captured slaves in Western and Thai countries.

The main way to deal with these slaves is to sell them to the nobles of the Ottoman Empire.

However, after industrialization, the arresting ability of Barbary pirates was greatly reduced, and Lucia annexed the Tatars along the Black Sea coast.

The Ottomans had lost their main source of white slaves.

However, Ottoman has accumulated a large number of slaves of various ethnic groups, and these slaves have reproduced a large number of offspring in the native land.

In many places in the Ottoman country, the nominal Taixi slave population exceeded one-tenth, or even more than one-third.

So there may be very few newly captured slaves, but there are still many second-generation or even third-generation domesticated slaves.

It's not a big deal to select a group of outstanding ones to give gifts.

As for sending the princesses to Zhu Jingyuan's handmaidens, there was no pressure on the Ottoman Sultan.

The status of Ottoman men and women was very different. The Ottoman Sultan himself had a large number of wives and concubines, and there were also a large number of slaves who could give birth to offspring.

Ottoman's princess status cannot be compared with other countries at all.

The Ottoman princess herself might feel lucky to be sent to the court of Daming to be a maidservant for Prince Zhu Jingyuan.

The real gift of the Ottoman sultan was land ownership of the island.

Rhode Island covers an area of ​​1398 square kilometers, at the foot of the Asia Minor Peninsula, on the edge of the Aegean Sea.

It is now 1805, and all the islands in the entire Aegean Sea belong to Ottomans.

Of course, what Osman gave to Zhu Jingyuan was private land ownership.

It is the same as the land around Baku that Zhu Jingyuan acquired in Persia.

Zhu Jingyuan can be used to farm, build houses, and open factories, but the jurisdiction still belongs to Ottoman.

Imagining the location of Rhodes Island, Zhu Jingyuan seemed a little unhappy and said:

"This king has felt the heart of the sultan, and this king is indeed interested in obtaining a private island in the Great Qin Sea.

"However, compared to Rhode Island, this king actually prefers Crete. I wonder if the Sultan can give up his love?"

Crete is the fifth largest island in the entire Daqin Sea.

The total land area is 8236 square kilometers, more than five times that of Rhodes Island in front.

The key is the location of Crete Island, which is far superior to Rhodes Island.

It is located in the middle of the west of the Great Qinhai Sea.

It is more than 100 kilometers away from the Peloponnese Peninsula, more than 200 kilometers away from the Asia Minor Peninsula, and [-] kilometers away from the north of Mexico.

It is not too far from the three places, but it has a certain degree of independence.

Rhode Island is only twenty kilometers away from the Ottoman mainland.

If Osman gave Zhu Jingyuan Rhodes Island, it would be basically impossible for Zhu Jingyuan to go there for vacation.

You have to arrange people to manage the business, and the key is that you don't care about the benefits. If it develops well, it will also benefit Ottoman, so it's rather tasteless.

If the island of Crete was sent to Zhu Jingyuan, then you can go there to see it when the situation is stable.

But that's all, it's just an island in the Great Qin Sea, Zhu Jingyuan couldn't possibly attach much importance to it.

Zhu Jingyuan made such a direct request because he didn't want to waste time on this matter, and there are two groups of people who will meet later.

Urge the Ottomans to go directly to the bargaining session, and quickly express their thoughts other than thanking them.

Zayatin was also obviously taken aback, and then he also keenly sensed Zhu Jingyuan's intentions.

So Zayedin didn't hesitate at all, and directly agreed to Zhu Jingyuan's request, and at the same time made Osman's request:
"Since Prince Dashi likes Crete, His Majesty the Sultan should not be stingy with these lands, and I will try my best to convince His Majesty the Sultan.

"It's just that His Majesty the Sultan has these few requests, and I hope Prince Dashi and Daming can agree to them.

"First of all, I hope that Ming can continue to help Ottoman build a naval fleet, and guide and help Ottoman build ports and naval bases in Morocco and Congo.

"Secondly, after the Ming Dynasty wiped out the separatist forces in Yemen, Tripoli, Tunisia, Algeria and other places, they handed over the local population to the Ottomans.

"Then, after the Ming Dynasty has wiped out the rebels in the above areas, it can set aside part of the land for the Ottomans to build ports in the coastal areas of Tunisia or Algeria.

"Finally, allow Ottoman to send troops on his own to destroy and conquer some of the rebels in these areas, and take back some of the land..."

(End of this chapter)