Ottoman!

The name has been a nightmare for Europe since 1453 when Constantinople was captured by the Ottoman Turks, and since then, until now, for two hundred years, this small Turkic tribe originally from Central Asia has been a nightmare for Europeans, and the whole of Europe has been hanging in the shadow of the Ottoman Empire.

As a large country spanning three continents and with a population of tens of millions, it is undoubtedly an extremely terrifying existence for European countries. From the fall of Constantinople to the demise of the Eastern Roman Empire, European countries fell into the trap of the Turks, and Greece, the birthplace of European civilization, and the Bal Peninsula, occupied by the Turks, who have not stopped, they have been expanding.

Moreover, they are still watching Europe, ready to plant the green flag all over Europe.

In September 1682, after a long journey, the envoys of the Ming Dynasty finally arrived at Suez City, an important port of the Ottoman Empire on the Red Sea. This is not the first time that Ming envoys have appeared in the city, in fact, as early as thirteen years ago, the Ming had sent a mission to the Ottoman Empire and set up an embassy in its capital, Istanbul, although the Ottoman Empire was high above Europe, but they also knew that the Ming was a more powerful existence.

The existence of "friendship" between the strong and the strong is always extremely simple, and the strong often only respect each other.

Suez City, as the terminal point of the canal connecting the Nile River and the Red Sea, although it is the most important military port and merchant of Ottoman Turkey in the Red Sea, although the city is still prosperous, but in addition to the prosperity, it still makes the people who first arrived here Tian Jingyuan and his party sigh the decay here, among the ports, there are only a few dozens of rare merchant ships or European-style warships, and then some small Arabian sailing ships, dilapidated and declining, in their opinion, this important port connecting Europe and Asia, should have been extremely prosperous, but now, but it is dilapidated like a small fishing village.

The mission did not stop at Suez, but changed horses directly to Alexandria in the Mediterranean, where they were to change ships and head to Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. And the scene along the way that followed shocked everyone in the entourage. For Tian Jingyuan and his entourage, who had just come here from the Ming Dynasty of Shengping. The province of Egypt presented in front of them was far more dilapidated and depressed than they could have imagined, full of yellow-skinned peasants, beggars everywhere, and as far as the eye could see, it was like a living "picture of the hungry".

Such a scene can't help but remind Tian Jingyuan and others of the scenes that happened on the land of the Central Plains under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. After all, they are only in their thirties, and they have also experienced that period, the oppression of that kind of alien slavery.

Tian Jingyuan, who was sitting in the carriage, frowned and sighed.

"Ahem, there are hungry people and thieves everywhere. Is this the so-called powerful state in the world? ”

In the Ming Dynasty's view of the world, the Ottomans were one of the "world's powers", but they did not expect that the people of this "great power" who had trembled and restless in European countries were so poor.

"Because it's the rule of an alien race."

Suddenly, when his words fell, the guide on the side unexpectedly spoke in Chinese, which was not fluent.

"Do you speak Chinese?"

Looking at the Egyptian guide beside him in surprise, Tian Jingyuan's eyes were full of incredulity.

"Yes, sir, my name is Amway, and I once went to the Zhou country as a businessman, located in the Zhou country of Malacca."

Amway's explanation made Tian Jing far puzzled.

"Merchant? Maritime? In that case, why don't you continue to trade and become a guide? ”

"Because the Governor had decreed that all Copts were not allowed to trade overseas unless they paid higher taxes, and as Copts, because they could not afford the heavy taxes, they had to sell their merchant ships at low prices."

Amway's tone was filled with helplessness.

"Copts?"

Although they knew something about the Ottomans, apparently they did not know much about the Copts.

"Yes, we are Copts, and in the eyes of the governor of Egypt, we are not Egyptians, because we do not believe in the Celestial Religion. But God can testify that the Copts were the real Egyptians, that we are the descendants of the pharaohs, who lived here thousands of years ago, that we were conquered by the Romans, and that Christianity was introduced to Egypt by St. Mark, and that we chose to convert to Christianity as a sign of resistance to the polytheistic Roman rulers. God can testify that we as Christians were particularly persecuted by the Romans at that time. Despite the persecution of the Romans, we remained steadfast in our faith. Later, a thousand years ago, when the Arabs conquered Egypt, a large number of Arabs came here and brought with them the Celestial Sect, and they tried all kinds of methods to force us to convert, and we became "zimi" or "protectorates" in our own country, and we were regarded as second-class subjects, and we had to pay a human tax according to the provisions of the Shari'ah, and in addition to the restrictions of faith, even our lives were also restricted, such as not being allowed to ride horses and camels, not holding public activities on Easter and other holidays, and not being able to build new religious sites at will. Testimony will not be accepted by the judge, etc......"

Amway, who was driving the carriage, revealed a kind of despair in his seemingly calm words.

"My son was killed by an Egyptian, but I can't be a witness, because I'm a Copt, not an Egyptian, and God can testify that the Copts are the real Egyptians, and they're outsiders, and when they came, they forced us to change with butcher's knives, and now, it's in this way that they force us to convert."

Then, Amway said.

"God can testify that I will never change my faith! We resisted the Romans with faith, and we still resist them with faith. ”

The seemingly calm words reveal the sorrow of a nation. Tian Jingyuan, who had been enslaved by foreign races, and Zhang Guoliang all felt the same way, but in addition to sympathy, they were also a little curious.

"They're all Copts?"

Pointing to the yellow-skinned people on the side of the road, Zhang Guoliang asked.

"No, they're Egyptians."

"Egyptians? So why would they be like this? ”

"Yes, since they are Egyptians, why is there still oppression from foreign races?"

Tian Jingyuan and Zhang Guoliang were both puzzled.

"Because the Egyptians were Arabs, and Egypt was only an Ottoman province, they were only of the same faith as the Egyptians, and the Turks were not Arabs in terms of blood. In the Ottomans, the Egyptians, like the Servians and Greeks, were only second-class people, while the Greeks, Servians, and Copts who believed in God were second-class people, but third-class people from the Ottomans. ”

An Yi's answer made Tian Jingyuan and Zhang Guoliang fall into deep thought thoughtfully, none of them spoke, just quietly looked at the people on the side of the road, the complexity of this country seemed to be beyond their imagination.

"Egypt...... Pyramids, pharaohs. Who would have thought that it would be the confinement of the Romans, Arabs and Turks? ”

Looking at those Egyptians who were no different from Amway in appearance, Tian Jingyuan, who couldn't tell what was a Coptic and what was an Egyptian, sighed from the bottom of his heart.

"If Your Majesty hadn't raised troops to drive out the Manchus, perhaps, we would have been Copts under Manchu rule......"

Suddenly, Tian Jingyuan's heart suddenly understood, at the beginning, he once thought that under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Han people were second-class people, but in fact, the Han people were only third-class people, or even fourth-class people, because above the Han people, there were also the so-called Mongolian military flags, Han military flags, and their status was much higher than that of ordinary Han people, and even Han officials.

Finally, perhaps in a few hundred years, China will be like Egypt today, where the Manchus call themselves Chinese, and the original masters, the Han Chinese, are only enslaved. Unworthy of being a symbol of the country, even the culture of the Manchu castration and tampering will be regarded as "Chinese civilization" in a grand manner, their clothing will become Chinese clothing, their language will become Chinese language, their traditions will become Chinese traditions, at least the Han people's clothing, language, and traditions will be forgotten or tampered with.

Thinking of this, while Tian Jingyuan felt sympathy for the Copts, his heart was filled with fear, not only to understand why His Majesty was chasing after the Manchus, but more importantly, to the fear of those believers here.

After arriving in Cairo, Cairo, the capital of Egypt, was undoubtedly more prosperous than the cities along the way, "There are a lot of Copts here. ”

Zhang Guoliang looked at some pedestrians on the road and said. According to the laws of the Celestial Sect, non-Celestial subjects are not allowed to ride horses or carry weapons, and they must wear distinctive clothing to distinguish themselves from true believers. Therefore, it is very easy to distinguish the Copts from the Egyptians here.

"Yes, the vast majority of Copts are concentrated in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities, because according to Shari'ah, Copts cannot buy land, so we are forced to live, we have only two choices, either to change our faith, or to move to the city and do business in the city."

Along the way, Amway had a certain understanding of the diplomatic envoys around him who went to Istanbul to take up their posts, and even found that they were spying on Egypt because of their knowledge of Chinese. As a Copt, he was also a businessman, and he saw an opportunity.

After all, his early business experience made him very clear that the power of the Ming Kingdom should not be underestimated, and even the powerful Turks could not be compared with them.

"If ......"

Deliberately lowering his voice, An said to Tian Jingyuan in a tentative tone.

"You want to get in here, maybe, we can help you somewhat......"

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