Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1798 Europa Universalis ([-])

On May 1679, 5, Gao Wengang and his party, who called at the port of Kajibei (now the port of Odessa), finally arrived at the port on the left bank of the Transnistria after being escorted by a team of Spasi cavalry. A camp where Kara Mustafaaga was waiting for him.

The left bank of the Transnistria has now become a large camp. I am afraid that there must be tens of thousands of people stationed there. Among them are the world-famous Ganishari Army and Spasi Army, as well as ordinary soldiers from the Ottoman Empire. There are even more servant soldiers everywhere: Serbs, Hungarians, Albanians, Bosnians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Greeks, Arabs, Caucasians, Tatars, etc., everything you can imagine There are ethnic groups in the Balkans or Asia Minor.

These people do not understand the language, have different equipment, and have very different training levels. Even many middle and senior military officers are confused about how many people they have under their command.The Ottomans also lacked a good coordination mechanism, and their commands were simple and rough. This seemed to be fine in the past, but now that the war is becoming more and more sophisticated, it seems that there is such a thing that does not conform to the trend.

Of course, we cannot ignore the fierce ethnic and religious conflicts in this huge army. Christian soldiers and Communist soldiers dislike each other, and there are also conflicts among Christians who believe in Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity, not to mention the Communist Party. The conflicts among the various sects are already extremely sharp, but they are too disharmonious. Fights and fights happen frequently. In many cases, even middle-level officers will participate, but there is no one.

These hodgepodge-like soldiers can at best fight a smooth battle. Once they encounter adversity, God knows what will happen!For example, during the Chinese Liberation War in later generations, the bloody drama under the chairman's command was almost common in the 20 army of the Ottoman Empire.Go dreaming!

Therefore, when the Ottomans fought, what they could really rely on was the army they brought out.As for the servant army, it requires certain skills to use it. It can barely be used as cannon fodder, and it is quite qualified to be an occupying army. The main combat force and so on, it is likely to suffer.

Kara Mustafaaga is a veteran who has marched and fought for many years. He is very clear about the virtues of each part of the army under his command. Therefore, his garrison is actually very interesting, that is, with the Ganishari Army as the core, and the surrounding It is the ordinary army of the Ottoman Empire, and the outer periphery is the servant army from all over the place, and the garrison has been strictly divided, and pickets are assigned to patrol around, fearing that these people will cause conflicts and hurt the harmony.As for the Spasi Legion and the Crimean Tatar cavalry, they maneuvered on the periphery where they were good for departure. At the same time, they were assigned to command some troops sent by the Egyptian lake horse Muruk.

Kara Mustafa was a typical Ottoman soldier, rude, uninhibited, and informal, which made Gao Wengang, who had never liked Qiu Ba very much, feel a little displeased.However, Mustafa is a nobleman from the Koprulu family, and his education level cannot be as low as those of the junior officers. Therefore, when talking with Gao Wengang, he restrained many wild and rude postures, and became a little bit Like a nobleman.

It was only when he came to Kajibei Port that Gao Wen just received an urgent report from a businessman (actually an agent of the National Intelligence Agency) who opened a commodity wholesale company here, and learned that the current incumbent Fasher Ahmad Kopruludavizi is seriously ill and appears to be beyond recovery.As the adopted son of the Koprulu family, Kara Mustafa Koprulu, who has been leading the army all year round, is likely to be selected as one of the heirs of the grand vizier.

This important information suddenly changed Gao Wengang's preset attitude, making him more polite when facing Kara Mustafaaga. At the same time, he also felt that his trip north to Moldavia seemed to be for By the way, getting in touch with a possible grand vizier in advance is a good thing no matter how you look at it.Of course, he still doesn't understand why the adopted son of the Koprulu family like Mustafa can be listed as the heir, and it seems that the order is not low. Do you guys pay attention?It seems that it can only be explained in this way.

Kara Mustafa invited many officers to a banquet. At this banquet, infidels can drink openly. It can be seen that the religious tolerance of the Ottoman Empire is still very high (according to gossip, the Sultan himself even had alcohol Addiction, as expected, the rules and regulations are aimed at the lower classes), at least it is much better than the Catholics who will send you to the stake or fight the 30-year war if you disagree.However, Gao Wengang did not choose wine like those Greek and Serbian generals. What he drank was coffee, a drink that was sometimes banned and sometimes lifted in the Ottoman Empire.

"Friends from the New World, have you seen our situation in Poland and Ukraine? Soldiers lack good weapons to fight the enemy, so that there are many unnecessary casualties. Why don't you help us, it's been a long time Ships full of weapons and military supplies have arrived in the Black Sea, and I think this is very bad." At the middle of the banquet, Kara Mustafaaga suddenly asked Gao Wengang.

As he asked questions, many generals around him also turned their attention, especially the officers of the second-line troops. They used to use the tents, ammunition packs, kettles, shovels, engineering shovels, sabers, Spears, muskets and even cannons have suddenly stopped these things and replaced them with some substitutes produced by the Ottoman Empire, and both the quality and quantity are not satisfactory (the only advantage is that it can reduce the loss of precious metals), how can this be possible? Satisfy them?

Among other things, take the sabers exported by the people on the east coast as an example. Their durability and sharpness are quite good, and they have always been widely loved by cavalry brothers.But now, because the country has no money, it can only reduce imports (equipment to the Spaci troops), and replace them with self-produced inferior machetes, and call it "return to tradition". Isn't this fooling people? !

"Because your country still has a large amount of payments for weapons and military supplies that have not been settled, and the earliest payments have been in arrears for four years. We have encountered great difficulties. In fact, we certainly understand your country's desire for our high-quality military resources, but please forgive me, it is very difficult for us when the accumulated debt of more than [-] yuan has not been paid. We can continue to deliver goods." Gao Wengang replied: "Our military enterprises also have their own troubles, and they cannot overcome the above-mentioned financial difficulties."

In fact, what he said was rather tactful. As far as the two large domestic military manufacturing companies are concerned, their factory leaders have already spoken. In the future, the Ottoman Empire will purchase military supplies. In addition to the down payment, the rest of the installment payment needs to be found. Reputable merchants or bank guarantees, otherwise they would rather not do business in this country, lest they put their own business in trouble.

Of course, it is definitely inappropriate, let alone unnecessary, to say such words on this occasion.Gao Wen just realized the degree of financial difficulties of the Ottoman Empire (the economies of France, Venice, and the United Provinces, which were important export destinations in the past, are also in recession), and he is afraid that they will no longer be able to purchase large quantities of equipment from the east coast as before. It can be seen from the self-production system.

After all, Kara Mustafa is also a member of the Koprulu family, and he understands the plight of the empire more or less.Therefore, when he heard the "financial difficulties" Gao Wengang mentioned, he suddenly seemed a little irritable.He stood up, walked back and forth behind the desk, and said after a while: "If we hand over some spoils of war to you, can you..."

"Honorable Aga, you can't support 20 troops with war." Gao Wengang reminded.

And this did not accidentally make Kara Mustafa a little annoyed. He only heard him say: "Don't you need people? Ukrainians? Poles? Even Russians, no problem. My army can give you what you want What you do is continue to provide us with military funding, just like you have provided Baker Chisale."

"Considering the domestic population policy, the financial situation of our business stations in your country, and the limitation of ship capacity, it is impossible for us to open up the introduction of the above-mentioned laborers without restriction. These are all fixed amounts, because it may Change to our country's population structure." Gao Wengang continued to answer unhurriedly.

This answer really made Kara Mustafa a little angry. He had contacted Li Qing, the special envoy of the East Coast people before.That cunning guy, even if he disagrees with you, he will speak very tactfully, and he rarely refuses the request of the grand vizier or the sultan directly.But this Gao Wengang is really, how should I put it, his direct and tough words make people feel angry!That is to say, the people on the east bank dared to do this. Mustafa Agha felt that if the Grand Duke of Moldavia stood in front of him and said such words, he would probably have been kicked out by him!

"We have great difficulties in Ukraine. The Russians demanded the Dnieper River as a border and did not hesitate to resort to war for it. Moreover, the Habsburg Austrians are now persecuting the Hungarians who accepted the sultan's asylum. The risk of triggering a new war. We need to hoard a large amount of war materials in advance to deal with a war that may break out at any time, so you must help us and cooperate with us." Kara Mustafa raised his voice, and his face changed significantly. It seemed that if Gao Wengang didn't know how to agree, he would offend this nobleman who was likely to be selected by the Sultan as Grand Vizier.

As soon as Gao Wen heard it, he groaned in his heart.It was not because of Mustafa Agha's unreasonable demands, but because of the risk of a full-scale war breaking out in Hungary between the Austrians and the Turks.He doesn't know whether there are factors of the French's instigation (the possibility is not low given the current close relationship between Ottoman and France), but the French must have good reasons to do so, so the people on the east coast must do a good job of Ottoman. The empire is preparing to fight three wars at the same time.

And once the Ottomans really do this, will the East Coast people want to intervene?If Gein does not provide real money to support, the Ottomans operating in the third line are likely to play collapse (even if they really spend their money to support Ottoman to play collapse), and it is very likely that they will not get any commercial benefits. the benefits of!In the final analysis, the Ottoman Empire maintained a stable and peaceful state, and it was in the best interests of the East Bank not to go out and force the state treasury to the bottom, and to provide a relatively stable market and a source of slave cannon fodder for the East China Republic.

Based on this consideration, once the Ottomans really go to war with the Russians, Austrians, and Poles at the same time, in order to prevent the previously operated capital, business network, and other interests from being wiped out, the East Bank really has to spend money on sponsorship. There is no other way!Of course, the most ideal situation is to first find a way to persuade the Ottomans to conclude a peace treaty with Russia, to clear up the mess in Ukraine, to solve their worries, and then to figure out how to face the threats of Poland and Austria.

It is impossible for the Ottoman Empire to return the southeastern territory ceded by Poland, so the hatred of Poland cannot be solved.In the same way, the Ottoman Empire will not give up its ambitions for Hungary, so the struggle with Austria is inevitable. What's more, the truce period of the peace treaty signed by the two countries is about to expire. It is estimated that the Sultan of Istanbul also has this idea in mind , that is, once ready, attack immediately and swallow Hungary.

Gao Wen just couldn't judge whether the idea of ​​the Ottomans was right or wrong.He just believes from a military point of view that the current Ottoman Empire has no advantage over the Austrians.Although the number of the Austrian army is not large, tens of thousands of elites can still be gathered, and they have accumulated a lot of experience in many confrontations with the French army. The combat effectiveness is not weak at all. The Austrian army was actually no match for the Austrian army when it had the same number, but everyone didn't pay attention to it at the time.

Now that there is a threat from the Polish flank, Gao Wengang only hopes that if the Turks really want to enter Hungary, it is best to accept it as soon as it is good and not to fight, otherwise they may encounter unpredictable crises.Of course, it would be even better if the French could contain the Austrians on the Western Front at the same time, although that is probably just a luxury.

Thinking of this, Gao Wengang probably already knew how to respond to Kara Mustafaaga. At the same time, he also planned to write a diplomatic email as soon as possible and send it back to the mainland to report in detail to Li Qing, the executive committee member in charge of foreign affairs and trade work. How to adjust the policy towards the Ottoman Empire at this stage, he thinks this is very critical.

(End of this chapter)