Dominate the Country

Nanjing Imperial Palace, Qianqing Palace.

When Chen Ming received a letter from Pang Zhenkun and saw through Napoleon's handwriting, it was already late spring.

Jiangnan is a beautiful scenery.

The Qianqing Palace was also lively and lively.

Led by the new cabinet chief minister Wang Qi, several cabinet ministers, several meritorious old ministers, several emperor's trusted ministers, and several princes who aimed at the throne, there were less than 20 people in the Qianqing Palace, and laughter was heard from time to time outside the palace.

"All my dear ministers are important ministers of my dynasty and my right-hand men. I will not hide it from you." Chen Ming held the pointer in his hand and tapped the location of Istanbul on the map. "I do not have good intentions towards the Ottomans." Chen Ming's last four words made everyone in the hall laugh. "A powerful country of Arabia is not in our interests."

Sun Xu, who replaced Zhang Dayong, personally pulled open a map. This was a map of the Eurasian continent, and Africa was also attached.

In addition to the countries marked on the map, there are countless small dots, including the two ends of the Suez Canal. Those present can see clearly that those small dots represent coaling ports.

"The Ottoman territory is large, and the geographical location is even more critical."

"But all the nobles should know that this place has a strong religious atmosphere. Although Selim III is a reform emperor, Selim's eyes are all on the army. It is impossible for the entire Ottoman society to undergo fundamental secular reforms in the short term. Then the gap in national strength between them and the European powers will become larger and larger."

"You all know the power of steam engines. We have vigorously promoted steam engines in recent years, and you all know the effect."

"This is an industrial revolution, a great explosion and development of productivity. We seized this opportunity, and the Europeans also seized this opportunity, but the Arabs could not. They can't keep up with the trend of the times, so they can only be abandoned by the times. Falling behind will be beaten, this is a truth that no one can reverse."

"Why should I give up the Ottomans?"

"Although the geographical location here is critical, the Ottomans who can't keep up with the development of the times will be a huge burden to us once a war with the Europeans breaks out."

"Industry The wars of the times are very different from those of the last hundred years. At that time, the wars would not be a battle of 100,000 or 200,000 people, or a scale of hundreds of thousands of people. Instead, it would be a battle of a million troops, with millions of soldiers on both sides. "

"Don't think I'm exaggerating. Do you know how many troops France has now? Do you know how many troops the British have now? Do you know how many troops Russia has now?"

"The main force of the French army exceeds 400,000, and the weight of the second and third line armies will not be less than 300,000. Adding their navy and coastal defense forces, the number of French troops has exceeded 800,000. They just can't raise such a large transportation capacity to supply enough troops for large-scale assembly and large-scale battles. This is like a child dancing with a sledgehammer, the hammer head is too heavy, so they can only replace the sledgehammer with a small hammer. "Of course, the combat effectiveness of the second and third line armies of the French is really a bit unbearable. Although Napoleon has been powerful in Europe for more than ten years, and the French have been invincible in Europe, this does not mean that the quality of their army is the best in Europe.

In fact, the military quality of the French army can only be said to be average in the whole of Europe. They are more motivated and under the command of Napoleon. In terms of combat effectiveness, the British lobster soldiers are definitely better than the French soldiers. Even the veterans of Napoleon's Guard Corps dare not say that they can defeat the elite lobster soldiers of the same strength. The British are more well-trained than the French. The biggest problem of the former is that they have fewer people. They can't compete with the French.

After the Russian army was reduced to 300,000 or 400,000 people, it has been recovering rapidly in recent years. It dare not say that it can match France, but the infantry, cavalry, artillery and navy are close to 500,000.

The British navy alone has reached more than 200,000 people, which is a pure navy.

Chen Ming used facts to tell everyone present that the war is no longer the scale of 200,000 or 300,000 people as they imagined.

"The future war will be a war of millions." The people below stopped talking, and Chen Ming's eyes swept over each of them. "With the national strength of the Ottoman Empire, can it support an army of one million for two or three years like the last war against Russia?" If there is a real war at that time, Chen Ming does not think that the Ottomans can hold on without China's continuous blood transfusion. But how much benefit can China get from the Ottomans if it continues to support the Ottomans?

This question involves the key point in Chen Ming's mind.

Is it better for the Ottoman Empire to exist or not exist?

Look at Chen Han's development in the world of Arabia in recent years, around the Ottoman Empire, first in Egypt, then in the Arabian Peninsula, then in Persia, the mortal enemy of the Ottoman Empire, and finally on the east coast of Africa. It can be said that without the Ottoman cheese, Chen Han's development in Arabia has almost come to an end.

Except for Afghanistan, which is sandwiched between the current Sikh Kingdom and the Seven Khanates of the North, Chen Han has traveled the entire Arabian world in 30 years. But Chen Ming is obviously not satisfied!

"We don't need to develop power along the Mediterranean coast, as that would seriously irritate the Europeans. The Mediterranean is the Mediterranean of the Europeans. But the entire Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf must belong to China." No one knows the significance of the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf better than Chen Ming.

Wang Qi, Chen Ding and others remained silent. They agreed with Chen Ming's words, but also did not understand them. The Mediterranean Sea is of course the inland sea of ​​Europeans. This is determined by the geographical location, and they understand this very well. Because of the differences in race and belief culture, Europeans cannot accept China as they did Americans in the original time and space, so Chen Ming did not think about building his own "Mediterranean Fleet".

As long as the Suez Canal is guarded, everything will be ok.

But if the Ottomans still exist, how can they give the Suez Canal, a strategically important place, to China?

Thinking about it this way, a divided Ottoman seems to be more in line with China's interests. At least doing so can prevent China from being backfired by the Ottomans.

Moreover, Istanbul has poor control over border provinces, such as Egypt. The identity of the Iram family is changing from Ottoman Pasha to Egyptian Emir, and Istanbul has not made any greater moves.

This has greatly reduced the difficulty of Chen Han's disintegration of the Ottomans.

The Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf are still very important in terms of geographical location. From the map of the Eastern Hemisphere, this peninsula is located in the center of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Although the natural environment is quite harsh, it is indeed very necessary. The most important thing is that this place is adjacent to Persia in the north, Egypt in the south, and India in the east. If Chen Han can take over India and half of the African continent in the future, the Tianfang Peninsula will become a connecting point to closely connect China and Africa.

Wang Qi, Chen Ding and others certainly don’t know what is buried under the Tianfang Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, but they understand the geographical advantage of the Tianfang Peninsula and its extremely important importance.

The Sikh Kingdom has already appeared in the northwest of India. Although they still need to work hard for an outlet to the sea, everyone present believes that the Sikh Kingdom will definitely be able to open up the Indus River with the support of Chen Han. According to the forecast, the southern part of the Sikh Kingdom will border Persia. In fact, the territory of the Sikh Kingdom is roughly equivalent to the Pakistan Iron in later generations.

That is very close to the Tianfang Peninsula. The distance on the sea is no more than 200 nautical miles. Moreover, the Sikh Kingdom and the Tianfang Peninsula are separated by Persia. According to the current bear of Persia, Chen Han may not be unable to obtain several seaports from Persia.

Agha Muhammad Khan had been assassinated thirteen years ago, and his nephew Fath Ali Shah had secured the throne of Persia. The Qajar dynasty did not rise and fall like the Afsharid dynasty and the Zand dynasty. But now Persia is also threatened by Russia. Otherwise, how could they help Chen Han and Ottoman during the Russo-Turkish War, allowing Chen Han to successfully establish the city of "Xihai" on the west coast of the Caspian Sea.

The Russians have always been eyeing Azerbaijan, and Tehran is under great pressure.

Therefore, the Persians helped China in the war between the two enemies of Russia and Turkey. Sure enough, their pressure was greatly reduced after the war. What's even better is that they have established a good relationship with China. Over the years, they have continuously introduced weapons from China, and there are also weapons production lines that can mass-produce rifles and smoothbore cannons, and their military strength has suddenly increased a lot.

However, China's contact with Persia is still in a relatively shallow stage, because Persia's relationship with the Ottomans is fucked up. They belong to two factions of the Muslim religion. As mentioned before, for believers, heretics are more hateful than pagans.

Now the atmosphere of faith in Persia is still quite strong. After a hundred years of war, Persia finally stabilized the situation again after the fall of the Safavid Empire. It is not like the original situation where it relied on the deterrence of military strongmen, and one person rose and fell in one lifetime.

The Qajar dynasty is now politically stable, and the whole country is in a vigorous revival. Population, agriculture, economy, handicrafts, including culture, art, education, etc., unfortunately, there is a deep atmosphere of faith in all of them.

In addition, Chen Han also has to take into account the reaction of the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, over the years, although Chen Han has traded with it more and more frequently, it is like China and Britain before 1840. The trade between the two sides is also very frequent, but there is no official communication in the true sense. Chen Han and Persia are also like this now. The only difference is that the big green fruit was a big British power back then, and the Persians now know very well how powerful China is.

In a simple sentence, China enjoys superior treatment in Persia.

Everyone in the hall believes that Chen Han will definitely get "benefits" along the coast of Persia, and there is no great objection to Chen Han's words. At the same time, they also understood why Chen Ming insisted on abandoning the Ottoman Empire.

Chen Ming will not stop his predatory steps!

Look at the light red area. If India, Persia and most of the Arabian Peninsula become Chen Han's sphere of influence, perhaps the Ottomans will take the initiative to abandon China at that time.

China supports the Ottoman Empire in order to let the Ottoman Empire contain Europe and become a barrier to resist the spread of European power to the east. The Ottomans were not vigilant against Chen Han because Chen Han was thousands of miles away. But if China really swallows up India one day, takes Persia under its control, and takes over the Arabian Peninsula and half of Africa, the Ottomans will be a group of idiots, and they will also be vigilant against China.

The Ottomans will not watch China expand its power in the Arabian world without limit. Perhaps, it really should not continue to exist.

Because whoever blocks the interests of the empire is the enemy of the empire!