Make France Great Again

In terms of the existing material and financial resources of the Ottoman Empire, not to mention supporting the combined British and French troops, even if only supporting the 150,000 French expeditionary forces in Jerome Bonaparte's mouth, that is an impossible task. .

"If the Ottoman Empire cannot guarantee the logistical supply of the expeditionary force, then the French Empire will not be able to guarantee that it can defeat the Russian Empire!" Jerome Bonaparte rubbed his fingers lightly and said bluntly to Rifat Pasha. He replied: "Presumably you should know that the victory of a war depends not only on the front, but also on the rear.

If the Ottoman Empire can't guarantee even this, I can't convince my soldiers to go to war in a country that can't even guarantee logistics! "

"However, the French Empire..." Rifat Pasha, who saw Jerome Bonaparte trying to withdraw from the Near East, couldn't sit still.

After all, the Ottoman Empire had no way to fight against the Russian Empire with its own strength. They had to cling to the thighs of Britain and France to survive in the Near East.

It can be said that the continued survival of the Ottoman Empire depends on the help of the imperialist powers.

At this point, Rifat Pasha could only say to Jerome Bonaparte in a low voice: "Although the Ottoman Empire cannot fully protect the interests of the expeditionary forces, we will try our best to give the expeditionary forces everything they need. …”

Before Rifat Pasha finished speaking, Jerome Bonaparte raised his hand and interrupted Rifat Pasha: "Forgive me, the current financial situation of the Ottoman Empire can really support the same financial situation. Battle of the Russian Empire?"

Rifat Pasha immediately pursed his lips and was speechless.

According to the current financial situation of the Ottoman Empire, it simply cannot afford to fight a protracted war, let alone support the French Empire.

Once the war with the Russian Empire forms a stalemate, the only way that awaits the Ottoman Empire is financial collapse.

What if you get away with winning the Russian Empire? The greedy tsar will never pay compensation for this war, and all the bitter consequences will be borne by the Ottoman Empire itself.

Thinking of this, Rifat Pasha's heart became even heavier.

After a while, Rifat Pasha said with difficulty: "There are indeed some fluctuations in the empire's finances, but this fluctuation is only a temporary crisis. It won't take long for the Ottoman Empire to ease!"

"A short-term crisis?" Jerome Bonaparte spread his hands and said bluntly: "How many years will the short-term crisis last? 10 years? 20 years? Does it mean that the Ottoman Empire needs to wait for 20 years before the Is it possible to declare war on the Russian Empire?

Of course, I don't mean to look down on the Ottoman Empire. However, I think the Ottoman Empire should first consider the trade-offs. "

"I'm just a diplomat, and I only know a little about the imperial finances. However, I believe that the imperial finance department of the empire will definitely think of a solution to this problem." Rifat Pasha could only return the problem to the finance department, and then Then he assured Jerome Bonaparte: "However, I can assure you that even if the empire is facing financial difficulties now, I will do my best to provide high-quality service to the army of the French Empire, so that the army of the French Empire will be able to enjoy the peace of mind. Get the most complete logistics."

"Guarantee?" Jerome Bonaparte shook his head and said to Rifat Pasha: "Mr Rifat, what I need is not your guarantee! Guarantee is the most useless thing in this world, I need it. See what the Ottoman Empire really is capable of delivering on what it says it promises!

If the Ottoman Empire is not even capable of this, then it is very difficult for me to convince the legislature and the citizens of France to support the Empire in the war against the Russian Empire.

In the French Empire, the legislature and all French citizens have far greater rights than I, the emperor. The French citizen has given me this power, which I must exercise properly. "

"Your Majesty, we..." Rifat Pasha lightly bit his lip and was speechless.

"Mr. Rifatte, think about it!" Jerome Bonaparte patted Rifatte on the shoulder, then turned and left.

After Jerome Bonaparte left the castle, De Ruiz, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the French Empire, appeared in front of Rifat Pasha.

"Mr. Rifat, your conversation with His Majesty..." De Ruiz looked at Rifat Pasha with a puzzled face. Judging from his expression, he didn't seem to know the content of the conversation just now.

"Alas!" Rifat Pasha shook his head and responded to De Luiz.

"Can you tell me what happened?!" De Luis asked with concern.

"His Majesty the Emperor, just told me..." Rifat Pasha repeated what Jerome Bonaparte had just said to De Luis.

De Luiz, who was about to come in with a white face, suddenly felt a headache after hearing Rifat Pasha's description.

The current De Luiz really doesn't know whether to praise Jerome Bonaparte for playing a red-faced character, or to complain about the emperor's "excessive force".

Diplomacy itself is a place that leaves room for both sides to turn around. Such a diplomatic strategy of directly ripping off each other's leggings is probably something that only the first empire at the time could do.

In a way, Jerome Bonaparte did inherit some of his uncle's "fine" diplomatic traditions.

Thinking of this, De Luiz hurriedly remedied: "Mr. Rifat, I think Your Majesty should hope that the Ottoman Empire and France will cooperate more closely!"

"What do you mean?" Rifat Pasha looked at De Luiz and asked.

"The finances of the Ottoman Empire itself is not a big problem, it only needs to use some means to alleviate it!" Faye Luiz proposed a solution to Rifat Pasha: "The Ottoman Empire itself is an excellent asset, many of our country's The bankers wanted to have a deep exchange with the Ottoman Empire."

The translation of De Luiz's words is that as long as the Ottoman Empire issues bonds, then the French Empire can take over the Ottoman Empire's bonds.

"But the Ottoman Empire itself has accumulated a lot of external debt!" Rifat Pasha replied to De Luiz.

In order to implement the Tanzimat reform as soon as possible, the Ottoman Empire was forced to borrow from the British Kingdom. Under the instructions of the British government, Barings Bank, one of the banking giants in Britain, "happily" accepted the debt issued by the Ottoman Empire and put it on the secondary market.

As the "reforms" progressed, the old and new bureaucrats were more and more involved, and the Ottoman Empire's debts became so high that they were simply unable to repay the debts they owed.

As for Rifat's Pasha's response, De Luis obviously expected it long ago. He immediately shook his head and replied: "Mr. Rifat, in fact, the Ottoman Empire's possessions are a wealth in themselves. As long as the Ottoman Empire is willing to pay At some cost, our country's bankers are still very willing to pay for the debt of the Ottoman Empire!"

"You want us to cede the land? No, absolutely not!" Rifat Pasha understood what De Luiz meant, he immediately shook his head and said to De Luiz in panic, "If I agree On your terms, those guys in Constantinople will never let me go."

The people Rifat Pasha spoke of were those imams of extreme teachings.

"Humph!" De Luis snorted coldly, with a look of disdain on his face: "Those are all guys who don't understand the difficulties of the country. As long as you are a little tougher on them, they won't dare to say anything!"

Afterwards, a sneer appeared on the corner of De Luiz's mouth: "Don't those guys claim to love the Ottoman Empire and are willing to die for the Ottoman Empire! Then send them to the front line and die for the Ottoman Empire."

De Luiz's method is not without poison. In Constantinople, the vast majority of those with some extreme nationalism and jihadist fanaticism are middle-class/imams in Constantinople, and sending them to the battlefield is completely interrupted The Ottoman Empire had just had some rising democratic winds, returning the Ottoman Empire to the ranks of barbaric dictatorships.

"This..." Rifat Pasha had some intentions.

"Mr. Rifat, the most important thing now is to defeat the Russian Empire! If the soldiers of the Russian Empire enter Constantinople, then the situation that the entire Ottoman Empire will face, I don't need to go into too much detail!" De Lu Iss once again played up the "Russian threat theory" in front of Rifat, "In the eyes of those Balkan nations, the Ottoman Empire is an evil empire that has oppressed them for hundreds of years! Knowing that they will not move a massacre against Constantinople~www.readwn.com~ By then, the whole of Constantinople will probably become a ghost town."

"The Russian Empire shouldn't do this! They are a country that has entered the ranks of civilization!" Rifat Pasha was even more shaken.

"The Russian Empire can't do anything at all! They just need to take over an empty city! Those people in the Balkans must be happy to do some shady deeds for the Russian Empire!" De Luiz reminded vaguely.

Rifat Pasha's face was very ugly.

There is no doubt that De Luiz's intimidation has worked. Rifat Pasha did not dare to bet that without France, the strength of Ino (Ottoman) alone could withstand the attack of the Russian Empire.

Not to mention, there is also an Austrian Empire that is also eyeing.

If France is holding a grudge behind its back, the Ottoman Empire may really face the risk of order collapse.

In this friendship between the great powers, the Ottoman Empire has no bargaining power at all.