Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 728 Diplomatic Risk ([-])

After sending Zheng Yong away, it took Mo San more than a month to rush back to the Ottoman Empire, and it was already the middle and late January of 1649.During the year when Mo San left the Ottoman Empire, a series of earth-shattering events took place in this country.Not only the people on the east coast, but also the French, English, Dutch and even Venetians who also have huge commercial interests in Ottoman are also paying close attention to the development of the situation.

First of all, the Venetians dispatched a fleet to block the Dardanelles in the middle of the year, which caused great panic in Istanbul, and at the same time affected the logistical supplies of the tens of thousands of Ottoman troops fighting on Crete. threaten.Although the Navy Pasha quickly dispatched the battle fleet headed by the "Bayezid" battleship to rescue the siege, so that the Venetians did not besiege this key strait for a month as in history, but this still makes the incumbent Sultan Ibrahim, who was only 8 years old, lost his prestige and his throne was unstable. Many people accused him of recklessly launching a war that put the empire in such a difficult situation.

The irascible, opinionated monarch, who never really had full power, and whose IQ did not seem to be much higher - went so far as to demand too much from the generals and ulema (religious officials) As a result, they could not bear it, so he was eventually deposed under the joint opposition of the Praetorian Guards, religious leaders, and external ministers.He, Grand Vizier Ahmed Pasha and other henchmen were imprisoned in the palace, and were eventually hanged by the Grand Priest.

Newly inaugurated was his six-year-old son, Mehmed IV, and his mother, Turhan Hadik Sultan, a Russian slave-girl queen, shared power with the Aga of the Praetorian Guard.And the Aghas were not united, such as the battle between the Ganishari Legion and the Sipahi Legion, and within the Ganishari Legion there was a faction between Kara Murad and Bektash, which was simply chaos. Seriously affected the operations of the front-line Ottoman army.

But this is not over yet, the Aghas of the Imperial Guard quickly clashed with the remaining court forces, and deposed Grand Vizisov Mehmet Pasha, former Sudanese teacher Xinxi Hauka, etc.Xinsi Hauka was executed, and his property was divided up by the military. Kara Murad Aga became the new Grand Vizier, and Ottoman entered the period of the military government, known as the "Aga Sultan" period in history.

However, there are obviously many forces that do not buy it in the local area. They are very dissatisfied with the domineering behavior of the Praetorian Guards, so they began to obey the orders from Istanbul, and actively joined forces to rescue Sudan and put the country back on the right track.However, in this way, the entire Ottoman country will inevitably be greatly affected, which is not necessarily good news for the east coast, which has great commercial interests here.

"So what adverse effects does this have on us? Just be direct and don't go around the corner." Mo San, who returned to the East Bank Commercial House in Kafa City, frowned and asked Ma De.He had just made a decision that he might have an all-out confrontation with the government of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, but now he heard Made talk about the ups and downs in the Ottoman country in the past year, which made it impossible for a moment to be idle.He decided that once he finished taking care of the affairs here, he would go to the island of Crete to take a vacation for himself, enjoy the sunny beach and the gentleness of the Greek maid in the private villa. Recently, his nerves have been too tense. In desperate need of relaxation.

"The Ottoman government ran out of money, the road project from Edirne to Plovdiv was suspended, a lot of materials and tools we shipped were idle in warehouses; Kara Murad Aga canceled the port of Burgas and Suez The expansion project of the port and the horse-drawn rail train from the Kaffa iron mine to the wharf also require us to reduce the price by more than one-third, otherwise this project may not be able to survive.” Ma De smoked a pipe and said with a sad face: “I am not running the project. Ineffective, it is really that the Ottoman Empire is too chaotic now, the military is monopolizing power, the localities are doing their own things, and the government's fiscal revenue has dropped sharply. Many projects are naturally unsustainable. This time the navy brought 10 flute-shaped transports delivered to the Ottoman Empire government For the boat, it took me a long time to get them to pay the full amount, otherwise they would probably pay on credit."

"This country is messing around, no wonder even the little Venetians can't deal with it. But with the army coming to power, the arms trade we talked about before shouldn't be a big problem, right?" Mo San asked.

"There is no problem with this. The navy sent the first batch of military supplies this time, and the Ottomans urged us to send the second batch as soon as possible. They even said that they could allocate a part of the payment to us first, so that we can send it as quickly as possible." Organize production. Now the situation in Poland has attracted everyone's attention, and Ottoman is no exception. I suspect that some Ajias in the military want to fish in troubled waters and gain some territorial benefits."

Hearing what Ma De said, Mo San was finally relieved a little. He patted his forehead and said, "It's better to take less such large-scale government infrastructure projects in the future. Damn, the risks and uncertainties are too great. .Even if you want to do it, let the local agent do it, and we will concentrate on providing equipment, materials and technical support behind the scenes."

"That's the reason." Made nodded, and said, "But now the Ottomans seem to be looking for ways to increase their financial revenue. The Janissary General Carla Murad, who is now in power, has a good relationship with us. He This time, he was really too poor. You see, he also kept the expansion projects of the Smyrna port and Thessaloniki port under construction, which is already considered good. I heard that some French businessmen can be taken by them this time. It was miserable, a large amount of payment for goods and shipping fees were owed, the amount may have reached 20 ducats. In the end, the Ottomans asked to pay with the high-grade fur in the Sultan’s court, which made the Frenchmen almost crooked their noses.”

"There is no way for Ottoman to continue in such chaos. Political chaos will inevitably lead to a decline in government administrative efficiency, which will eventually lead to a deterioration of the economic situation. I have also had contact with this Kara Murad. He is well educated, isn't he That kind of warrior who only knows how to fight and kill, didn’t he take any measures to revitalize the economy?” Hearing the tragic situation of the French who had the same disease, Mo San smiled lightly: “The only decent state-running expert in the Ottoman Empire in recent years is That Kara Mustafa, unfortunately, was killed by their own people. Now I don’t know who can clean up this mess. To be honest, the Turks are too rough to govern the country, and they can’t play the role of this huge empire. True strength."

"Kara Murad basically inherited the economic policy of Grand Vizisov Mehmet who had been deposed, that is, to reduce the high palace expenses and continue to dismiss most of the supernumerary young palace slaves; Tariffs and strong control of monopoly commodities (such as salt, tobacco, etc.), anyway, they can’t collect a lot of money in terms of their low administrative efficiency. It’s better to entrust the taxpayers (generally Jews and Armenians) To expropriate; in addition, a large number of political enemies were executed and their property was confiscated-this part was mainly used to support the army. In short, just a few tricks back and forth have improved the fiscal revenue, but the effect is not Big. The point is that the governors of many places don’t pay the central government’s account now, and a lot of money can’t be collected. I think the Ganishari Army, which controls the central government, will shift the cleansing target from Istanbul to the localities. Ottomans are still in chaos. It’s a pity. Ah, the civil war in Poland this year was originally an excellent opportunity for them to expand their territory, but they themselves let the opportunity slip away because of the chaotic domestic situation. This makes me, an outsider, feel sorry for them. This kind of opportunity is once in a lifetime. Yes, it seems that it can only be cheaper for the Russians."

"Don't worry about other people!" Mo San lay down on the chair, motioned to Ma De to light a pipe for him, and then said comfortably: "Well, I will go to Istanbul in two days. I will pass by when I come I went there and chatted with some old friends, and the situation there is basically calm now. I am going to go there for activities, well, I will withdraw 5000 yuan from the payment for goods settled this year, and some money should be spent. Osman The empire is now our country's largest trading partner, and these things can't be sloppy. Grandma's, it's a coup d'etat and a big purge every three days. The officials who have just been fed go to the fucking prison in a blink of an eye. It's really depressing. It's depressing. Spend money several times."

"Also, although the Ottoman Empire seems to be calm on the surface recently, no one knows what's going on underneath. Try to keep a low profile and don't get involved in such bad things as factional strife and court battles. Our country's strength is limited. At present We still can’t afford to play this kind of game, otherwise we may face extremely huge diplomatic risks, and the country’s years of operating efforts in Ottoman will be ruined.” Mo San carefully warned, “The business of Polish slaves is safe and bold. Do it, I'll take care of anything. However, male slaves can lower the price and try to recruit young, strong and familyless ones. But it doesn't matter, most of these Poles will be dispatched to the new Chinese colony to develop and plant Garden, and their wives and daughters will be trafficked to the east bank, maybe they will never have the chance to meet again in this life."

After dealing with the official business with Ma De, Mo San went to chat with Nasukh Pasha, who was also handling business here, and finally bumped into Bao, an Astrakhan businessman who had been here last time outside the commercial station. Lisov, so he happily chatted with him about the East Coast Republic of China going to the Arkhangelsk Port of the Grand Duchy of Moscow to open a shop and operate commodity trade.

After finishing all this work, he still has to find a way to contact some French shipping companies, and prepare to charter some ships to transport Polish female slaves. After all, the people on the east coast alone may not be able to transport so many people at once.Thanks to the recklessness of the Ottomans, there are still a lot of French ships that have been idled recently, and the hiring price is not too high, which is quite a bargain.

(End of this chapter)