Dominate the Country

When Chen Zhan and his party went to Europe, they passed through Tianfang. Although they did not stay for long, they finally reported the latest decision of the court to the Chinese envoy to the Ottoman Empire.

—— Selim bin Mohammed Murad had a deal with Chen Han, and Chen Han approved the export of a first-class sailing battleship to the Ottoman Empire, which was expected. The maritime pressure faced by the National Defense Force is very small now, because of the existence of the Strait of Malacca, Ceylon and Jinghai, no one can threaten the security of China's domestic sea borders.

Europeans can also transfer their warships to America, but from the east coast of America to the west coast, and then travel thousands of miles across the ocean to China, haha, can that still pose a threat to China's sea borders?

So it is normal for the Chinese government to export a first-class sailing battleship that had not been allowed to be exported to the Ottoman Empire.

As for whether this will cause protests from Western powers, Chen Ming is really not afraid.

And he has an absolutely reasonable excuse for doing so.

Just when the Sixth Russo-Turkish War was about to end, Selim, the Ottoman envoy in Nanjing, had received the "note" from Chen Han's cabinet.

Note is a unique term in Chinese diplomacy. It is a very important diplomatic means and diplomatic etiquette on the part of Chen Han. The use and content of the note reflects Chen Han's position. It involves relations between countries and must be treated with caution.

Chen Han will regard the other party's political attitude based on the treatment of the "note" request he issued, whether the other party handles it in a timely manner, whether it is signed or rejected, replied or ignored, and whether it is handled in a timely manner or delayed.

It has special significance and great significance.

Even Chen Han's cabinet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do not use this method easily. But this time Chen Ming let it be used because he was "seeking" the Suez Canal.

It is naturally not too cautious.

Historically, Europeans' research and survey of the Suez Isthmus did not start until the French occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Napoleon himself also studied the remains of the ancient canal.

But it will take another 30 or 40 years to enter the exploration stage.

Chen Ming didn't want to wait any longer. If he didn't take advantage of the internal strife among the Europeans to explore the Suez Canal, and wait until the Europeans recovered before exploring, there would be a lot of unnecessary trouble.

As for the differences in times and technology, Chen Ming didn't care much.

Of course, the 19th century was a century of rapid progress in human science. But the technological content of the Suez Canal doesn't seem to be too high.

You know, the Egyptians started to dig the ancient Suez Canal three or four thousand years ago. This fact gave Chen Ming great encouragement.

The Nile River is the mother river of the Egyptians. Relying on the Nile River, the Egyptians not only obtained the enviable output from the lower reaches of the Nile River (Upper Egypt) and the fan-shaped Nile Delta (Lower Egypt), but also opened up the waterway between Egypt and other parts of the Mediterranean. However, the Egyptians are not without regrets: First, the Nile River has four waterfalls distributed downward from the border between Egypt and Sudan today. The first waterfall in the northernmost part is just south of the present-day Aswan Dam; secondly, although the Red Sea is within easy reach, there is no waterway connecting it. In view of this, Egypt will be greatly restricted whether it expands southward or conducts maritime trade with the Indian Ocean region.

In the end, the Egyptians found a way to solve these two problems. In the late 19th century BC, not only was the "Ancient Suez Canal" dug, but the canal that bypassed the "First Falls of the Nile" was also opened during this period. Of course, the so-called "Ancient Suez Canal" and the Suez Canal seen by humans in the 21st century are not exactly the same in route. The Suez Canal we see today is a north-south canal that starts from the Red Sea (Port Suez) and ends at the Mediterranean Sea (Port Said), completely separating the Sinai Peninsula from Africa. During the construction of this modern canal, a series of lakes, especially the "Great Bitter Lake" in the south, which has a natural waterway connecting to the Red Sea, helped the construction methodists save a lot of engineering work.

The Ancient Suez Canal also used the Great Bitter Lake (then called "Lake Kamorit"). But the Egyptians' plan was to build an east-west waterway about 80 kilometers long between the Great Bitter River and the easternmost tributary of the Nile Delta to facilitate the entry of ships from the Red Sea into the Nile (located between the Egyptian cities of Ismailia and Zagazig). Since the canal was originally built by the Egyptian pharaoh, we can also call it the "Pharaoh Canal". However, this is not a one-time job. The biggest problem is that the river needs to be dredged frequently.

If the canal can generate enough commercial benefits, the maintenance of such water conservancy facilities itself is not a technical problem. For a canal, whether there is enough cargo volume is the key. Similar problems are also reflected in the "Grand Canal" in the East. Because the Central Plains dynasty needed such a canal to connect the south and connect the economy and politics of the north and the south, the Grand Canal was able to be continuously maintained for a thousand years because of this "rigid need". In the new era, after the shipping function of the canal was replaced by railways, roads and sea transportation, the Grand Canal can only be protected as a "cultural heritage".

In comparison, the ancient Egyptian canals were in much greater trouble. We know that most of Egypt and Sudan are covered by the Sahara Desert. The Nile River is in a desert and has alluvialized a green corridor. This also means that the canal is actually dug into the desert, and what blocks the canal is not the soil washed down from the upstream, but the quicksand on both sides of the canal. This also makes the ancient Suez Canal more vulnerable to the elements. Accordingly, if Egypt's rulers could not gain more benefits from Red Sea trade, the canal could easily be abandoned.

It was dug again in Persian times, but was abandoned again in the eighth century.

If the news of the Suez Canal spread throughout Europe, the British and the French would definitely understand why China sold the Ottoman Empire a first-class sailing battleship, a national weapon.

Compared with the interests of colluding waterways between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, a first-class sailing battleship is not much heavier than a feather.

When Selim heard that China hoped to launch a large-scale survey and exploration of the Suez Isthmus and hoped to build a golden waterway connecting the two oceans, the Suez Canal, it was not prepared to leave the Ottoman Empire aside and even allow the Ottoman Empire to control this canal. Canal, just need enough financial return. The shock and shock in his heart almost made him go to see the true God.

This is simply a more important victory than winning the war with Russia.

If the Ottoman Empire controlled a waterway connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, how significant would the annual benefits be? The strategic significance is even greater and cannot be explained.

And imagine that at the beginning, Ottoman merchants picked up Chinese goods from the east side of the Sinai Peninsula, and used camels to transport them to the west side of the Sinai Peninsula for shipment. They only followed an entrepot trade, just like before the advent of the Age of Discovery. The Tianfang merchants did the same thing, but they were jointly sanctioned and pressured by the British and French, so that the Ottoman Empire had to give up such a way to make money.

But now, in this transaction, Ottoman is accompanied by China. In this way, the pressure on Britain and France will be much less. What's more, the British are fighting fiercely with the French. How can they come together to put pressure on the Ottomans?

This is why as soon as Chen Zhan arrived in Crete, the Ottomans hurriedly gave him a big gift. Moreover, the Chinese envoy in Istanbul has already received a business deal, and the Ottomans want to order another batch of fleets from China.

It is estimated that there will be around twelve ships, including one first-class sailing battleship, one second-class sailing battleship, four third-class sailing battleships, and three fourth-class and fifth-class sailing battleships.

In this way, the total cost of this business reached 20 million yuan. And the profit is more than half.

The Ottomans were returning a gift to China.

This also brought the Ottoman trade deficit with China to reach 40 million silver dollars this year.

There is really no way, the Ottomans have too many things that need to be imported from China. The goods they can export on a large scale include minerals such as copper, lead, tin, and mercury, and livestock such as Arabian horses, Turkmen horses, and Raschek horses.

China does not lack these at all. There are no copper mines in the country, but a super large copper mine has been discovered in North Korea. Many copper mines have also been discovered in Luzon, and the copper production in these places is sufficient for domestic use.

Previous items such as wool are no longer very competitive because China's fine-wool sheep and long-wool sheep have been bred.

In addition to the above goods, the only things the Ottomans could export to China in large quantities were white slaves.

And if the Chinese did not accept white adult men, the Ottoman trade deficit with China could be reduced further.

The thousand men in Alemdar Mustafa's hands varied in age, but in general there were not many over the age of twenty. His offer for Chen Zhan was only five hundred thousand.

That means five hundred Chinese yuan each.

This is definitely a discount, it’s almost free of charge.

After Chen Zhan flipped this business, he wanted to put an extra one to two million yuan in his pocket.

After his father adopted an Ottoman princess, the price and market of this white slave girl became even more popular in China.

But with the arrival of the new year, Chen Zhan, who had stayed in Crete for more than two months, finally left. But instead of going back to London, he went to Egypt, to Cairo.

Today's Egyptian Pasha is China's old friend Ilam, and the Bey of Suez Port back then.

For Ilam Pasha, the Chinese were his great blessings and were destined to be entangled with him.

The reason why he was noticed by Istanbul in the remote port of Suez in his early years was that the Chinese mission landed here. It was from that time that Ilam started doing business with the Chinese. In the beginning, their business was mainly limited to arms. The power of the Ottoman Empire's warlords was not strong, but deeply rooted. Whoever holds the army in his hands will not necessarily have the first target of allegiance to the Sultan of Istanbul.

The same is true for the Ottoman soldiers in Port Suez. This group of soldiers belonging to the Macedonian Legion has until now been an important force in Elam's intimidation of the Mamluk nobles in Egypt.

Although the number is less than 5,000, they are well-equipped and have received strict training from Chinese instructors early on. Their combat effectiveness cannot be boasted. In the previous Russo-Turkish war, Elam's direct troops had already proven their combat effectiveness in the war.

But this is all beside the point. After the initial mutual distrust, Iram's business with China soon expanded to various textiles, dyed leather goods, hardware products, metal utensils, etc., and the scale of business was getting bigger and bigger. Iram took the opportunity to make a fortune before Istanbul reacted.

After China and Austria reached a complete military alliance, Iram's business with China had gradually stabilized in textiles, and he gradually withdrew from the trade of other types of goods. Because the big men in Istanbul began to intervene on a large scale. Even the textile business that Iram retained could only be sold in Egypt and Sudan.

However, after Iram changed from the Bey of Suez Port to the Pasha of Egypt, the scale of business between the two sides climbed to a new level again.

This is just like Napoleon's rank became a major general, and then he was qualified to be "invested" by the Chinese. Iram was also qualified to start further cooperation with China after he became the Pasha of Egypt.

Iram knew very well that China's investment in him would be taken back sooner or later. But he didn't care!

The strength in his hands now is the most reliable, and the future is a mirage.

Moreover, in many years of friendship, China has never cheated him once. Now he is the Pasha of Egypt and one of the main generals of the Macedonian Legion. All these are inseparable from China.

And what are China's requirements for him?

Protect the interests of Chinese businessmen in Egypt and help China enter Sudan, where there are many tribes.

In the 21st century, there are still hundreds of tribes of all sizes in Sudan. This is even more so in this era.

But these are all easy for Iram. The Chinese neither let Iram betray the Ottomans nor let Iram be a puppet.

China has no land claims on Sudan, and even Sudan's rich metal minerals cannot arouse China's absolute interest.

China's entry into Sudan at this time is just to do "data backup", pre-investment, or even to find a suitable agent.

At the same time, Sudan, as the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire, is not a region like Egypt that has established a provincial system. It is Istanbul's blind spot, which is very suitable for Iram to hide his strength and train troops.

Chen Ming does not necessarily have to instigate Iram or his descendants to "independence". But things are unpredictable. If the Suez Canal is really dug and built successfully, the future of this piece of land is really unpredictable. Therefore, Iram and his family are China's back-up plan just in case.

If Osman gets stupid at that time, Chen Han can also turn the table over.

As for the possibility that Iram and his family will not follow China at that time, this is impossible.

Iram's army is full of Chinese instructors, and Egypt's police force, tax department, and judicial department also have Chinese advisers, who have great power. Chinese instructors can replace regular officers and command and dispatch troops when necessary. Even his attendants have two Chinese.

His three sons are close friends of Chinese businessmen, and he has two grandsons who went to study in China eight years ago when they were just 12 years old.

Among them, the outstanding young man is likely to marry a Chinese girl named Chen. Iram and his family can't jump off the Chinese ship...