Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1822 Europa Universalis ([-])

The current situation in the Black Sea area is indeed a bit critical!This crisis is not only for the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate, but also for "Little Rus and Ukrainian Duke", Western Ukrainian Hetman Yuri Khmelnytsky!

This man, who was troubled both internally and externally, was really in decline recently. He used part of the poor property that his master, the Ottoman Sultan, gave him, begged his grandpa to sue his grandma, and took advantage of his father's little remaining influence to finally piece together a The Cossack troops, with the cooperation of some Crimean Tatar cavalry, swore to the east and invaded the left bank of the Dnieper River in an attempt to realize the dream of unifying Ukraine.

But how ridiculous is this sweet dream of little Khmelnytsky!The number of his troops is small, the morale of his troops is not high, the equipment of his troops is not complete, the intelligence of his troops is unknown, and the allies of the Tatars are only thinking of going to Eastern Ukraine to plunder, which is completely unreliable. Therefore, this so-called It is natural that the Eastern Expedition suffered a shameful failure: his old opponent Samoilovich was leading an army with the Russians to suppress the grassland national riots in the territory (it is worth mentioning that this is the first time that the Ukrainian Cossacks Once hired by the tsar on a large scale and became an executioner who opened up territories or suppressed uprisings), there was only one partial division led by his son in Eastern Ukraine. When the troops Linitsky pieced together, they actually won the battle.At this time, the cunning Tatar cavalry saw that the situation was not right, so they looted a wave of gold, silver, food, men, women, children, and then went south to return to the territory of the Crimean Khanate ahead of their "ally" in Western Ukraine It made little Khmelnytsky very annoyed.

But what annoyed him more was yet to come.After the young Samoilovich won the field battle, he quickly contacted the supreme commander of the Russian garrison, Duke Romodanovsky, and his father. After obtaining the permission of the two, he took more than 1 Cossacks and crossed the river to the west, and entered the west. Ukraine, followed by a series of offensives like wind and clouds, not only defeated the troops organized by the West Ukraine, but also captured a large number of West Ukraine people and forced them to move to East Ukraine to settle, which reduced many towns to ruins, The already dilapidated land of Western Ukraine is even worse.

There is no doubt that the Ottomans were extremely annoyed by this situation.It is said that Sultan Mehmet IV has lost patience with this "Little Rus and Ukrainian Duke", because it was his incompetence that caused the Ottoman Empire to continuously increase its troops to the right bank of the Dnieper River, which cost a lot of money and ended up with nothing. Dry consumption has already affected other battlefields-the anxious situation in Ukraine was one of the main reasons why the Ottoman Empire hurriedly ceased war with Poland.

After the failure of crossing the east of the river, Sultan Muhammad had to accept the opinion of his new Grand Vizikara Mustafa Pasha, and continued to send 8 more troops to Western Ukraine, making the Ottoman army stationed in his place reach the As many as [-] people were killed, surpassing the number of Russian troops led by Duke Romodanovsky.

But the consumption of the [-] army is not a small amount. Western Ukraine is broken, so naturally they can't provide any supplies. It is good that they can feed the Cossacks under Khmelnytsky, so the consumption of these troops still depends on the Ottomans The empire provides, at best, a part of the Crimean Khanate, which has become a little richer in recent years, but it can't be too much, because the independence of this country is still not low, unlike Moldavia and Transy The servant forces such as Vania and Hungary are roughly similar to the Lake Mamluks in Egypt.

Here we additionally mention Kara Mustafa, the new grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire, also from the Koprulu family.The prime minister who was born as a military general is now highly valued by the Sudan, and at the same time he is also under a lot of pressure.The Geinkoprulu family has controlled the government of the Ottoman Empire for more than [-] years. There are countless people who have offended them. The Sheikh and Bayi lords (dissatisfied with the land clearance and tax increase), in short, the Koprulu family is currently as brilliant as flowers blooming and cooking oil, but once it shows signs of decline, it will be attacked by enemies from all directions to share the food Extinction is not impossible.

Kara Mustafa succeeds his elder brother and his eldest brother-in-law (Karla Mustafa is the adopted son of the Koprulu family) Fashir Ahmed.The latter took over the position of his old father Koprulu. He also held power for many years. During his tenure, he led the army to defeat Poland, forced Poland to cede land and pay tribute, and at the same time took West Ukraine as a slave state. There are still many achievements, but it is a pity that he was in power later Alcoholism is like life (so the rules and regulations have always been prepared for the lower class people, even if you are a Moor, if you have a high enough status, drinking is not a problem, as is the case with the grand vizier, and the desert princes who hold private receptions in modern society are also If so), the body quickly collapsed, and finally died of various complications, which was also tragic.

The situation faced by Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa after taking office is more complicated, that is, the energy of the Ottoman Empire has been greatly involved in other aspects.Although they have signed a peace agreement with the Poles, there is still a certain size of troops stationed on the border, which cannot be moved lightly; secondly, the continued increase of troops to West Ukraine has become a major worry for the empire. It cost countless resources, but still could not settle the situation, and faced the risk of an all-out war with Russia; finally, as the parties to the "Eno Peace Treaty" successively signed treaties, the great enemy of the West, the Kingdom of Austria, began to draw out its energy and send more Power has been invested in the struggle for Hungary. This can be seen from the rumors that the Austrians are about to transfer their battle-hardened troops from the Rhine Valley on the west front to the east. The growing strength of the Ottomans and several victories in the border wars against the Ottomans greatly enhanced their self-confidence. The Habsburg dynasty no longer feared the Ottomans like a tiger, and even dared to stroke their beards.

Faced with this situation, after weighing the pros and cons, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa found that the best option was to end the conflict with the Russians and devote all his energy to the Western Front to compete with the Austrians.This decision is not difficult to make. Just look at whether the Balkans are important to Ottomans or Ukraine: the Balkans have a population of about 1500 million, accounting for half of the Ottoman Empire. They produce a large amount of food and various materials. The most essential part; compared with it, Ukraine is relatively tasteless. In its heyday, there were only more than 200 million people, and now it is only more than [-] million, and the Russians have divided half of it, wanting to occupy Ukraine If it is to face hundreds of thousands of Russian troops, it is worthless to invest huge sums of money in this direction, and it may also affect other investments.In this way, it is not difficult to judge how the upper echelons of the Ottoman Empire will choose. Now they are just waiting for an opportunity to quickly draw a border with the Russians.

Therefore, this time Khmelnytsky Jr. led his troops across the river to march, which was the last attempt of the Ottoman Empire to unify the two sides of the Dnieper River. As a result, Khmelnytsky was defeated and returned.In addition, many Cossack leaders in Western Ukraine complained to the officials of the Ottoman Empire that they were irritable and irritable, beat and scolded their subordinates in front of the soldiers, and were cruel. Khmelnytsky's future fate does not look very optimistic, and it might end up being decapitated.

As Malati, the ambassador to Istanbul who has worked in the Ottoman Empire for decades, he has always kept the closest attention to the movements of this country.As early as last month (September 1680), he also took the time to go to the Crimea Peninsula, and had a long talk with the newly ascended Great Khan Murad Glai, and finally mastered many The first-hand news was written as a situation report and sent to Gao Wengang in Amsterdam.

Malati's main concern is no longer trade.The current behavior of the Ottoman Empire is that the domestic currency is scarce, and the money shortage is spreading day by day. The business has dropped a lot compared to before. Except for some military products that are still imported, the others have been greatly reduced. For example, the sales in the Ottoman Empire were quite strong a few years ago. Dyeing cloth has fallen sharply for several years in a row. For example, this year the Ottoman Empire canceled the order for about 40 heavy-duty Eastern-style freight wagons, even without a deposit, which is enough to show how much the country has been dragged down by the war—— The Ottoman Empire suffered about [-] casualties and the Crete War, which lasted for many years, was to blame.

What Ambassador Marathi is most concerned about now is the strategic choice and national security of the Ottoman Empire.He has lived in Ottoman for many years, and he is very clear about the changes in the combat effectiveness of the imperial army today.Take the core forces of the empire, the Ganishari Army and the Spasi Army, for example. The large-scale cleansing that lasted for decades has broken the soul of this army. Although the trade with the east coast has improved their equipment, the enemy's equipment is also the same. The improvement in terms of enhancement and combat effectiveness should not be underestimated-taking the Battle of the Ladu River as a turning point, since then the Ottoman army has no advantage over the Austrians, and even has a slight disadvantage. Under such circumstances, Ambassador Marathi was very worried about the warnings that people in the Ottoman Empire often talked about not to ignore the Austrians, and to march into Hungary in an all-round way, worrying that this would turn into a big war that had a bearing on the overall situation.

Obviously, in a major battle of this scale, Malati worried that the Ottoman Empire would suffer a heavy military blow, which would lead to a series of unpredictable reactions.You know, their western territories are all Christian-inhabited areas, and there is a natural sense of estrangement between them and the center of the empire. Once the illusion of the Ottoman Empire's impressive martial arts is punctured, it is hard to believe that these people will not have any dissent.But when that time comes, the trouble will be big!

Therefore, the best countermeasure for the Ottoman Empire is to keep calm and engage in low-intensity competition with the Kingdom of Austria in Hungary, try to avoid main battles, and at the same time focus on training reserve talents and reshaping the soul of the army, rather than relying on their own numbers It's a gamble, and as long as it's a gamble, there will be a high possibility of failure—of course Malati doesn't know, he has very accurate judgments on the combat effectiveness of the Ottoman army. Taking advantage of the main force of the Austrian army to fight against the French on the western front, a large army was assembled and invaded the extremely empty territory of Austria, and arrived at the city of Vienna almost without any fighting.But under this fortified city, the Ottomans had nothing to do with the inferior second-line troops assembled by the Habsburg dynasty, and suffered heavy casualties under the enemy's continuous counterattack. They all failed, which greatly affected the morale of the troops, which shows how weak their combat effectiveness is.

Malati knew very well that the East Bank had been friends with Ottomans for many years, but had no special friendship with the Kingdom of Austria, and it was difficult to gain their trust, so he still had to do his best to help the Ottoman Empire.For this reason, he plans to visit Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa in the near future. At the same time, he will also send a letter to Special Envoy Gao Wengang and the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting cooperation from China—the purpose of visiting Grand Vizier Mustafa It is to persuade the Ottomans not to start wars lightly, and focus on analyzing the severe economic situation within the empire and the chaotic situation of the army. If this does not work, then the next best thing is to let the Ottomans take the lead in this possible outbreak of war. Just accept it when you see it, and stop it if you occupy Hungary. Don’t be fooled by the main fighters in the country or the French (Historically, Mustafa planned to accept it when the main force of the Austrian army had not yet returned, but the French The envoy used his three-inch tongue to persuade Ottoman to attack the Austrian mainland), which would lead to a possible major defeat; in addition, Marathi also asked the local to provide part of the artillery to the Turkish army even if it was on credit, and used all resources to demand that The Rimian Khanate dispatched cavalry to invade Poland to relieve the flank pressure of the Ottoman Empire.

Such a two-pronged approach can increase the chances of winning for the Ottoman Empire, and continue to retain the largest bridgehead on the East Coast in the White Sea and Black Sea, allowing the East Coast Republic to operate for many years and invest heavily (the Mara track parallel to the Suez Canal and some ports) Not in vain.Of course, the most important thing is to keep this market with a population of more than [-] million. Although they are facing a money shortage and the various trades between the two countries have shrunk a lot, how do you know that it will not recover in the future?Even thinking about it is impossible!

(End of this chapter)