Dominate the Country

In the dark night, there were thunder and lightning, and heavy rain.

The prosperous Nanjing finally had a chance to cleanse itself. This city full of noise and vanity could temporarily become a little quieter, at least it seemed so.

Because of the thunder and lightning, workers were not allowed to turn on the street lights. If a thunder struck when the lights were turned on, it would be bright. Due to the lack of lighting, the streets of the whole city were dark, and only when the thunder and lightning flashed could the ground be barely seen.

In the palace, Chen Ming was holding Liu Wanyun and doing push-ups. A flash of lightning shone through the window into the back hall where only the palace maids were serving, and the dim hall was bright.

Chen Ming was still energetic during the exercise, but his partner's expression seemed to be insufficient.

Recently, good news has been coming in continuously. Although Chen Ming sometimes works for three or five days in a row without stopping. But once he exercises with a woman, he is always energetic.

When the clock struck 11 o'clock, Chen Ming finally fell asleep holding the unconscious Liu Wanyun.

When he woke up, it was dawn the next day.

A very punctual biological clock. Liu Wanyun was still sleeping, but Chen Ming had already gotten up. He strolled in the Imperial Garden in casual clothes, breathing the fresh air after the morning rain, and looking at the crystal dewdrops hanging on the branches and leaves of flowers and plants. People should be refreshed when they are happy. Although he is the ruler of a country and the emperor, he is also a person. There have been continuous happy news these days, and Chen Ming is also refreshed.

North Korea, Myanmar, India, North America, Japan...

Good news is endless.

Even the Southern Ming Dynasty has good news. The second foothold on the east coast has been established. Is that location Sydney?

There are many good places on the Australian continent, but there are not many places that make people feel perfect at a glance. Not only must there be a bay, but there must also be enough fertile land and water sources, and such places are generally occupied by indigenous people. Especially the east coast, which is much more densely populated than the west coast.

It is said that this second settlement, that is, Sydney, has four or five thousand indigenous people, divided into three tribes.

Fortunately, China has no competitors in this desolate area. Not only can it explore the coastline here bit by bit, but it can also continue to build strength bit by bit, and then "upgrade the civilization" of the indigenous people in one fell swoop.

The newly established settlement is in a bay. The bay is very deep, like the horns on the head of a stag, forked to the left and right, each extending inland continuously, and constantly sending out strange branches. There are many beaches along the line, and the scenery is very beautiful. Chen Ming saw the location, isn't it Sydney? There is no such harbor anywhere else.

The settlement faces the sea in the east and is backed by Lanshan in the west. This is the name Zheng Ji gave to the mountain. The name of the settlement is called Gaoping, all named after this mountain.

This Lanshan is different from China's three mountains and five peaks. It has mountains but no peaks. The so-called mountain top is actually just a plateau platform. This is also the origin of the name of the settlement. Standing on the top of the mountain platform and looking into the distance, there are gullies crisscrossed, and the forest in the valley is vast, all eucalyptus trees. Eucalyptus leaves emit eucalyptus oil under the sunlight, forming mist in the air, hence the name of Arashiyama.

Occupying Perth, Melbourne, and Sydney, Australia is already in our hands. Next, we just need to operate slowly, transporting four or five immigrants there a year, and lay a solid foundation before we can seek explosive development.

There are many gold mines in Australia, and Melbourne is a gold mountain. As long as the foundation there is well laid, and then the news of the gold mountain is released, countless people will flock in immediately. This is like the ghost place of Xiangzhou. In such a cold place, aren’t there still a large number of people trying to get there?

In front of gold, distance and hardship have never been obstacles.

Chen Ming thought about it yesterday. He took the memorandum of negotiation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Selim and others, and compared it with the current China and the Ottoman Empire. He felt that the latter was really in dire straits.

The surroundings were bad neighbors, and there was Persia, the mortal enemy behind. How miserable was the situation of the Ottoman Empire. The most tragic thing is that the Ottomans, who were of Turkic origin, had been in Asia Minor for hundreds of years, but they did not seem to have inherited the economic talent of the Muslim merchants at all, and messed up their own domestic economic development.

For hundreds of years, the main ethnic groups of the Ottomans were mainly engaged in animal husbandry and agriculture, and Muslims did not occupy a major position in the city's industry and commerce. Greeks, Armenians and Jews, these pagans, jointly dominated the main economic fields in the city. Greeks and Armenians even controlled a considerable part of the interests in the countryside. For example, Greeks played a role in cotton planting. In addition to the cotton industry, those who were active in the planting and operation of other important cash crops, even if they were not Armenians, were also workers under the millet system.

The power of the Order was very strong. It obtained money from the wealthy ruled class not through legitimate business channels, but more like extortion and protection fees. When the West made great progress due to the expansion of trade, technological improvements, increased production and the influx of silver from North and South America, the Ottoman Empire avoided and resisted this great change due to the closed economy of the Ottoman Empire, which was constrained by the conservative practices of the church and guilds. The result of not keeping up with the times was that the Ottoman Empire suffered a severe blow from the times. The demand for raw materials in European countries continued to increase, and their prices rose accordingly, which led to a large amount of Ottoman wool, red copper and precious metals exported to Europe. The guilds were limited to rigid price regulations and could not compete with European merchants in obtaining raw materials, resulting in a decline in their production. The various restrictions imposed on the guilds made it impossible for them to invest in emerging industries. Therefore, the Ottoman Empire has always had a large trade deficit with the West, which not only devoured the empire's raw materials and primitive industries, but also took away the coins on which the economy depends for normal operation.

This made Chen Ming think of the Song and Liao dynasties in Chinese history.

European traders bought raw materials from the Ottoman Empire, then produced them in Europe, and finally sold the finished products to the Empire, which actually reduced the Ottoman Empire to a vassal of Europe economically.

When the economic advantages of the Westerners gradually turned into military advantages, starting from the Treaty of Karlowitz signed in 1699 after the Ottoman Empire lost the battle with Austria and Russia, almost every peace treaty included the Ottoman Empire's agreement or guarantee of the victorious country's freedom of trade within the empire, and the right to interfere in religious affairs and establish consulates. Not only that, after entering the new century, Western countries and the Ottoman Empire also signed a series of "negotiation treaties", in which extraterritoriality and most-favored-nation treatment were particularly prominent.

Chen Ming suddenly realized that the treaties signed in the history of the Qing Dynasty had been tried on the Ottoman Empire by the Europeans. No wonder the tricks were so skillful, and no wonder China had the nickname of the sick man of East Asia in the late Qing Dynasty. It turned out that there was already a predecessor in the West.

As for the current Ottoman Empire, it is like China after the crow, and has fallen into the semi-colonial stage. Its geographical situation adjacent to Europe determines that it can only choose between innovation and decline. This is because European countries have not yet completed the industrial revolution, and Western civilization has just reached the threshold of power transformation, rather than transforming into a butterfly, otherwise the Ottoman Empire would have been finished long ago.

This is the luck of the Ottomans, but also the great misfortune of the Ottomans.

Fortunately, even if the European countries whose strength has not yet undergone a qualitative change defeated the Ottomans, they could not open their bloody mouths and swallow them directly. They could only cut the meat with a small knife and absorb the vitality of the Ottomans bit by bit. This made the Ottomans feel pain, but they did not have the fear that instantly penetrated their hearts. It's like boiling a frog in warm water.

China, on the other hand, is now in the role of holding the knife handle to slaughter others, which is qualitatively different from the Ottoman Empire.

The status of the Ottoman Empire has dropped another level in Chen Ming's eyes.

Although several important characters of the people brought by Selim were in Nanjing City and were arguing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the entire Ottoman delegation, not counting the escort troops, had nearly a hundred people.

These people have different roles. In the past few days, they not only visited Nanjing City, but also visited many private and state-owned factories and enterprises around Nanjing.

A private enterprise with more than a thousand employees is unimaginable in the Ottoman Empire. Although the Ottomans grow a lot of cotton and sell it to Britain, France, and Austria, they also have to buy a lot of cloth from the British and French every year. What a pain.

The textile factories outside Nanjing are not the largest textile enterprises in China, but in the eyes of many Ottomans who visited, this is already a very spectacular scene.

If the Ottomans want to carry out the "New Deal Reform" and purchase those machines, Chen Ming can sell them to them openly. Including warships, heavy artillery, boring machines, steam engines and other national heavy equipment.

Because of the strong religious flavor in the Ottoman Empire and the decentralized power of the Ottoman Empire, Chen Ming does not believe that the Ottomans can play any tricks.

At most, the future reform of the Ottoman Empire is an enhanced version of "my Qing Dynasty". The Qing Dynasty was like this before the Japanese exposed their true colors in 1894. The Ottomans were just like this at most!

The decline of every great empire was not caused by military force alone, but by the combined effects of politics, economy, military and people's livelihood.

This was true of the Ottoman Empire in history, and it is still true of the Ottoman Empire today.

The existence of Chen Ming and China only gave the Ottomans an object that was more convenient for them to get what they wanted.

Chen Ming did not intend to train the next generation of sultans for the Ottomans, or send people to really change the Ottoman Empire. He just systematically replaced the positions of the original countries such as Britain, France, Prussia and Prussia, and became the supplier of the Ottoman Empire.

In the original history, this role was played by Britain, France, Prussia [Germany] and even Austria, Italy and other countries, but now a more reliable and trustworthy ally-China can largely meet all the needs of the Ottomans' "innovation".

Arms, instructors, equipment...

The Ottomans are now really like the Qing Dynasty in history. They now think that their decline is largely due to the inability of the Janissaries to fight. Many people still focus on the military, but fail to see the whole picture, the whole society.

Selim's performance was good in Chen Ming's opinion, because in addition to the military, he also saw the economy, and to a certain extent, politics.

However, the Ottoman Empire's poor ethnic and religious policies determined the irreconcilability of social contradictions. This is a manifestation of the poor ability to integrate ethnic cultures, and a conflict between the fundamental interests of the main ethnic group and the conquered ethnic group in the Ottoman Empire.

The hidden conflicts between the rulers of the Qing Dynasty and the Han officials in history were far less intense than those in the Ottoman Empire, because there was still a Confucius in China. In a certain sense, the Qing Dynasty practiced the Han system and followed Confucianism.

But under such a premise, the Banner and the Han could not coexist, so how could the Ottoman Empire, where ethnic conflicts were more intense and complicated, succeed?

The decline of each empire has a "destined" cause and effect. When Chen Ming "stayed out of it", the future of the Ottoman Empire was worrying, but as long as the troubles caused by the Ottoman Empire to Europeans were greater than in history, why would Chen Ming care about the life and death of the Ottoman Empire?

Don't forget that in his imagination, the western part of Central Asia to the Ural River and the Don River basin was a vassal state established by the Mongols, which was a green belt.

This nation that was dealt with by the Buddhist Tantric Buddhism should not touch a giant like the Ottoman Empire.

Besides, the future world will inevitably experience an era of oil. If China dominates the Americas and the South Pacific, and then takes over the Arabian World, it will really control the entire world.

Turkestan and the Ottoman Empire are different concepts. Compared with the latter, the political situation of the former is more conducive to China swallowing up the entire Persian Gulf in the future.

"Why are you eating this vinegar-fried potato shreds again? You are addicted to vinegar recently."

Chen Ming just walked back to the back hall and smelled a sour vinegar smell. Liu Wanyun's taste has changed a lot since she came in. If the doctor hadn't seen her and didn't diagnose pregnancy, Chen Ming would have thought she was pregnant.

"I want to eat vinegar-fried cabbage, but there is no cabbage at this time of year." As he was talking, the palace maid who served the meal came up with a tray. There was a big bowl on the tray, with a lid covering the mouth of the bowl, but it didn't bother Chen Ming's nose. "Hot and sour soup!"

"Hurry up and eat. I've prepared tofu pudding for you."

Chen Ming likes to drink tofu pudding, spicy soup, oil tea, and rice foam very much. This is a habit he developed in his previous life. Now that he is rich, he can't change it back.

After eating and drinking, Chen Ming wiped his mouth and went to the Qianqing Palace comfortably. Today he will go to the Central Military Academy with Selim and others.

"Empress, the uncle has asked the wife to come in and urge him. Why don't you..." Take the opportunity to serve the emperor and talk to the emperor.

Liu Wanyun didn't even raise her eyelids, "What's the point of asking for it yourself? The best is the emperor's reward."

"There is also a queen in this palace who is the mother of the country. The legitimate uncle is also sitting in a wheelchair, and the Li family has not made any progress. Why is the Liu family anxious?" Isn't the Li family anxious about establishing a vassal state overseas? Everyone wants to lay a foundation in Jiazhou now.