Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2255 Effendi

On October 1694, 10, in Haji Port, Cai Zhenguo, the special envoy of the East Coast Republic of China to Europe, casually twisted a minted silver dinar coin and looked at it.

Silver coins were minted by the Haji Mint.This mint is not large in scale, but it is one of the three major overseas mints specially authorized by the State Administration of Precious Metals (the other two are the Dabo Mint and the Diu Mint). It mints legal east coast gold and silver coins, and can also undertake the coinage business of foreign governments.The Haji Mint has not minted legal tender on the east coast since its establishment, but it has minted a lot of dinars, the new currency of the Ottoman Empire, with a total of 700 million, and the business volume can be regarded as very large.

The weight and fineness of the Dinar and the East Coast Dollar are the same, and they can be exchanged one to one. At present, the currency value of the Ottoman Empire is still very strong. Officials, businessmen, soldiers, and farmers are very fond of it. Once received, they are hidden at home. It is not a last resort. It will never be used, so that the market is still full of all kinds of currencies of different colors, which makes people very speechless.

Regardless of the denomination or size of the dinar silver coins, the head of Suleiman the Great is uniformly engraved on the front, which seems to indicate the strong desire of the Turks to re-emerge.However, now it seems that their wish is difficult to achieve, and the empire is still declining irresistibly.What you can do now is not to rejuvenate it, but how to slow down its decline.

Cai Zhenguo arrived at Haji Port by boat three days ago, in order to understand the current situation of the Ottoman Empire. After all, many things cannot be clearly seen from the report, so it is better to make a field trip.

In the past few years, the Ottoman Empire has lost two sultans one after another.First, Suleiman II died of illness, the cause of death was pulmonary edema, and was succeeded by his third brother Ahmed II after his death.But this guy is also unlucky. He has only been a sultan for two or three years, and he is worried to death because of the cruel situation at home and abroad (this king only died in 1695 in history).Mustafa II, who is now inheriting the throne of Sultan, has just turned 30 this year, but he doesn't seem to be in good health.

The death of two consecutive sultans has brought great trouble to the East Coast people.Especially after the death of Suleiman II, the successor Ahmed II was a very suspicious person. He often changed the officials and eunuchs around him to prevent them from planning any conspiracy against him.The changes in these upper-level officials inevitably affected the purge of middle- and lower-level officials, leading to the resignation of many officials who had been friendly with the East Bank, which affected the economic and political interests of the East Bank people.For this reason, even Cai Zhenguo had to stand up and speak out, advising the Ottoman Empire that enough was enough, otherwise they would reconsider the issuance of the next dinar loan.

It should be said that the big stick of economic sanctions is quite easy to use.No matter how impatient Ahmed II was, he still listened to the opinions of the people on the east bank, although he rejected the proposal from the people on the east bank to choose another member of the Koprulu family as Grand Vizier to make up for Fache who passed away unfortunately. Grand Vizier Mustafa’s vacant practice—In the war with the Austrians, Grand Vizier Mustafa left the fortified Belgrade rashly without waiting for the arrival of Tatar reinforcements, and crossed the river to pursue the Austrian army. It is a pity to die in ambush.

The death of Grand Vizier Mustafa marked the end of the counter-offensive launched by the Turks taking advantage of the Austrian main force falling on the Western Front.After that, even though the Turks repeatedly dispatched troops, they were always unable to make a breakthrough. The two sides fought many times on the Danube line, but each won and lost, and the situation basically fell into a stalemate.

Cai Zhenguo was very depressed about the death of Grand Vizier Mustafa.In his view, this prime minister of a well-born family is a rare understanding person in the Ottoman Empire, and at the same time he is constantly promoting reforms.For example, in order to stabilize the hearts of many people in the Balkans who had just recovered, he ordered the returning Christians not to retaliate against the local Serbs. It can be said that the repair of the houses destroyed by the war is quite good. You must know that the Serbs are pagans.However, this will obviously arouse the dissatisfaction of the majority of the Christian class in the country, but for the sake of the united front, there is no other way.

For another example, in order to solve the bad habit of gift-giving, Grand Vizier Mustafa forbade senior officials from offering gifts to the Sudan, hoping to set an example in this way and encourage lower-level officials not to give gifts to senior officials.Not surprisingly, this caused dissatisfaction among many officials, including the Sudan, although the grand vizier's original intention was to eliminate corruption in official circles and improve the administrative efficiency of the government.

Grand Vizier Mustafa also did not forget to carry out reforms in the economic and military fields.Reforms in the economic field mainly rely on the people from the East Coast and the enlightened officials trained by the people from the East Coast. Needless to say, with the help of loans from the East Coast, certain results have been achieved.The reform in the military field is mainly to eliminate a large number of officials who entered the military system through nepotism and promote capable young officers. For this reason, many schools for training military personnel have also been established.

The reform of the military factory is also the key point. With the help of the people on the east coast, Grand Vizier Mustafa successfully established the Imperial Military Factory on the Marmara Seaside in the suburbs of Istanbul. Branch factories were established in Cairo, Belgrade, Izmir and other important cities of the empire.Except for the main factory, all branch factories were handed over to local businessmen for contracting and operation, and the businessmen were responsible for manufacturing arms for the empire, and at the same time obtaining military benefits for themselves.It should be said that this method has greatly improved the production efficiency of military factories, the quality of military products has also improved, and the financial expenditure of the empire has been reduced a lot, which can be said to serve multiple purposes.But inevitably, this kind of reform has also angered many vested interests. They dare not say what they will do to the Mustafa Grand Vizier who is supported by the army, but they still have the ability to sabotage secretly, which makes the reform The dividend has been eroded quite a bit.

But no matter what, Mustafa Grand Vizier’s drastic reforms in many aspects such as national unity, economic production, army building and administrative system still played a big role, and severely continued the dying Ottoman Empire. A wave of life.Moreover, this kind of reform has created two brand-new powerful classes, that is, the class of educated young officers and the class of imperial military contractors. This is a new class of vested interests. The Grand Vizier of Staffa is gone, and the dividends of reform will not disappear.Not to mention, a large number of pagans who believed in Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity in the empire also had a good impression of Dawei Qixin, thinking that he could protect their own interests.

From these cases, it can be seen that Grand Vizier Fasher Mustafa is really a sensible person. He has insight into the inside information of the empire, cares about the interests of farmers, and is very tough. Many people who obstructed his reforms were arrested. He executed or imprisoned.But like most reformers in the world, Mustafa, a rare and sensible person, died in the war.Cai Zhenguo was very puzzled. The Austrians had already suffered a defeat in the city of Belgrade and retreated. How could they set up an ambush to kill Mustafa when he led the army to pursue him?It is said that Grand Vizier was shot to the head at close range and died. The time and place of Nima are too accurate, and it is not that there are no soldiers around Daweiqi, but he has not discovered the enemy's conspiracy. It is really shocking. angry!

After the death of Vizi Mustafa, Sultan Ahmed II did not select someone from the Koprulu family to replace him, but appointed himself.It's a pity that the people he likes are all idiots, and none of them can cope with the complicated situation of internal and external troubles. Therefore, four prime ministers have been changed in two years, but no one can solve the problem.

The personnel turmoil at the top of the empire quickly spread to the bottom, local centrifugal forces began to appear, and the control of the central government continued to weaken. Before Mustafa died, it could be said that there was a heaven and an underground.Places like North Africa, where the sky is high and the emperor is far away, have basically fallen into a state of local autonomy. The local army cannot receive the military pay from the central government of the empire, so they simply figured out their own way and formed a large-scale pirate fleet to plunder everywhere. Merchant ships seriously threatened the trade order in the Mediterranean.As a last resort, the people on the east coast persuaded the navies of Spain, Portugal, and Northern Italy to unite and punish these lawless pirates severely, but they only temporarily subdued them and did not fundamentally solve the problem.

The Mamluks who controlled Egypt became more and more arrogant.People from the east coast now operate the light rail line that connects the White Sea and the Red Sea, and the business is booming.The Mamluks actually came to the door, saying that the tax paid to the Egyptian pasha before was not to be paid, and it was handed over to them instead.For this reason, they can provide better protection, and at the same time help people on the east coast expand their market.The officials in charge of managing the railway reported the situation to Cai Zhenguo. While Cai Zhenguo instructed him not to agree easily, he reported the situation to the country and asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give guidance.

There are many others like this, such as the Christian lords and warlords in Transylvania, Wallachia, Bessarabia, Moldavia and other places. These people gradually began to have their own thoughts, Small thoughts, undercurrents are surging within the entire empire, and the situation is extremely complicated.

Cai Zhenguo also realized that something was wrong, so he hurried over and made a series of visits.He first met with the Sultan and Grand Vizier in Istanbul, and was very disappointed.Grand Vizier is not considered stupid, and he knows that reforms are impossible, but his ability and courage are not good enough to steer the big ship Ottoman.Mustafa II, who replaced Sultan Ahmed II, who died of excessive indulgence (declared to be worried about state affairs, died of depression), was also of average level. He had the ambition to revive the empire, but he had no Received a formal imperial education, always hang out with priests, and is very familiar with religious classics, but this is of no use to governing the country.

Faced with such a situation, Cai Zhenguo was also helpless.The ruler of the Ottoman Empire is really not as good as a crab. Suleiman II's level is not bad, but when his younger brother Ahmed II was relatively poor, let's look at Musta who is now enthroned. Fa II, that is simply a second-generation ancestor—either from a young age, he either followed Fezullah Effendi to learn the Islamic teaching method (this king is now the Grand Master), or participated in various equestrian, music and cocktail parties (magical ?) activities, they simply don’t know anything about governing the country.

It took Cai Zhenguo a lot of effort to learn through his connections that the current ruler of the empire is actually Grand Master Fezullah Effendi, so he managed to meet him again.Surprisingly, this grand dean has a quick mind, is much smarter than ordinary people, and has a broad vision. Many things can be known as soon as they are mentioned. This strengthens Cai Zhenguo's view that there are no fools in the upper class, they are all geniuses. Well, those who have problems with their brains are the middle and lower classes, the kind who are sold and still count the money.

The grand patriarch is very clear about the purpose of Cai Zhenguo looking for him, and he is also very clear that the stability of the country today cannot be separated from the help of the people on the east coast, so he straightforwardly proposed that he is willing to protect the various interests of the people on the east coast in the Ottoman Empire. He is willing to cooperate with the people on the east bank to carry out limited reforms, on the condition that the people on the east bank help him "launch a holy war" and regain the lost land north of the Danube.

Cai Zhenguo really felt a little headache at this time.The patriarch taught Sudan all kinds of homework since he was a child, and he is also good at learning. At the same time, he is worried about inserting relatives into government departments. He doesn't love money. He sounds like a saint.But Cai Zhenguo knows very well that this kind of person is often the most difficult to deal with, because what they pursue is higher and more difficult to satisfy.Just like this Imam Effendi, he doesn't love money, but he loves jihad!Even in order to ensure the success of the jihad, he is willing to violate some of his principles and make deals and compromises with all kinds of people, which is even more terrifying!

Cai Zhenguo and Effendi did not talk about anything big in the end.The only success is probably to confirm that the investment in the East Bank can be guaranteed.But he is still very worried. Now that the Ottoman Empire is suffering from internal and external troubles, it is time to recuperate and start a large-scale foreign war rashly. Even if it wins, it will consume a lot of national power, and it is unimaginable to lose. Losing business.But Effendi ignored it, and his determination to launch a jihad was very strong. This made Cai Zhenguo very worried, worried that it would affect the strategic layout of the East Coast people in the Near East.

"If it's really not possible, withhold the 200 million dinar loans that have not yet been issued to the Turks, so that they cannot start the war due to technical reasons?" After throwing the "Suleiman the Magnificent" in his hand into the box, Cai Zhenguo sighed again, and said: "Think about how wise and powerful Emperor Suleiman was in those days, but his descendants are not as good as one. Today, the country is still in a situation where the foundation of the country is shaken and the future is unpredictable. Poor, what a pity!"

(End of this chapter)