Everything is so unimaginable.

At least a few years ago, no one could have imagined that one day merchants would support or even instigate a war, even though it was not they who instigated it, but another group of people, but merchants played an unimaginable role in it.

It can even be said that without these businessmen, this war would not have happened at all. Of course, all of this is just a preparation for war.

"The local chambers of commerce plan to provide an initial sum of 2 million taels to finance the Copts, help them buy weapons and train their troops, and at the same time will hire an armed merchant fleet for them to transport troops and assist them in conquering the coastal areas, once they start an uprising, they will be given a loan of about 5 million taels depending on the situation, of course, during this period, the Copts will cede all the land within 30 miles of the Sinai Peninsula and the west side of the canal to the Suez Canal Company......"

Standing in front of His Majesty, Wang Wenbai did not hide his attitude. His attitude was supportive. It can even be said that the reason why this matter is going so smoothly now is due to his support.

Otherwise, it would have been impossible to plan such a big operation with just a group of businessmen.

"The Suez Canal Company will be composed of local chambers of commerce, and of course, when the situation is stable, the company will hand over the canal area to the imperial court, which can get the canal and the Sinai Peninsula without spending a single soldier......"

Wang Wenbai, who is the commander of the army, was also surprised by the "madness" of the plan when he received it, but after careful analysis and found that the plan was indeed feasible, he began to turn from doubt to support.

Then he began to devote all his strength to support this operation, and it was precisely because of his support that the whole operation was carried out in an orderly manner. A large number of old weapons are collected through various channels. Be transported where they are needed. Used to arm those people. Of course, in the end, those businessmen will need to pay for these weapons.

In fact, the role of the businessmen in this matter is that of the fund. There is no funding from them. It's not that easy to get going.

"Hmmm......"

Nodding his head silently, Zhu Mingzhong did not speak, but the more waves set off in his heart, the more shocked he was.

Merchant Wars!

Proxy Wars!

In the 21st century, this kind of thing is common, but in the 17th century, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce unwittingly got involved and became a participant in this game. And unlike its European counterparts in this era, who at best played similar games in some small countries, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce challenged the Ottoman Empire, which was one of the most powerful countries in the world in this era.

But these people have the audacity to challenge the country, to start a rebellion within the country in a special way. Disintegrate the country from within, and then dig out a piece of meat in them.

It's a lot of risk, but there's no denying that the rewards are just as great.

"Is it possible to succeed? If I'm not mistaken, the Pasha, the governor of Egypt, was in charge of Egypt's political, economic, and military affairs, but they did not make any changes to the original Egyptian administrative system, but the central government was always held by Turks. The whole of Egypt was divided into 12 counties, and the county lord Baker was still held by the Mamluks, who recognized the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire and the ruling power of the governor, and paid annual tribute to the state, while the governor had no real control over local affairs, so the Mamukks were still able to maintain a large amount of power, and the local officials dominated one side, organized their own military power in the jurisdiction to maintain rights and local security, and arbitrarily handled political and economic affairs. ”

As the Ming Dynasty became more and more aware of the world, Zhu Mingzhong could also learn about the situation of various countries in this era through the Military Department and other institutions, and of course he also had a certain understanding of the Egyptian province of the Ottoman Empire.

In fact, this understanding is of course based on the premise that it is a meal on the plate, a meat in the mouth. In his opinion, the break between the Ming and Turkey was inevitable. But until then, he didn't think about dismantling the vast empire internally.

Now seems like an opportunity.

"Your Majesty, these twelve counties are not so much the counties under the twelve Egyptian provinces, but the twelve warlords of the Egyptian provinces, since Egypt was seized by the Arab Empire, especially after the Coptic uprising 800 years ago, after the Copts were confiscated land, the Egyptian economy is in a serious recession, water conservancy facilities are in disrepair, bridges and embankments have collapsed, farmland is barren, industry and commerce are depressed, towns and cities are desolate, diseases are prevalent in various places, drought and flood disasters are continuous, and the people are in dire straits and suffering. And the Copts, who are a third-class people, are even more suffering, so after receiving our support, they are extremely willing to start an uprising. ”

"That's the truth!"

Zhu Mingzhong nodded and said. Of course, she did not object to this, and only those who had been enslaved would know the value of freedom. Because of this, he believes that those people will definitely win their freedom at any cost. But that's just the truth. In many cases, even if we yearn for freedom, under brutal rule, it is only a longing, or in the end it is simply a complete drowsing.

"Don't forget that the Mamluks are the best cavalrymen, and they have been trained as cavalry since childhood. And this is also the reason why the Mamluks occupy the ruling class of Egypt. ”

His Majesty's reminder made Wang Wenbai smile.

"Your Majesty, the cavalry of the Mamluks is indeed very good, but, Your Majesty, since last year, that is, in October 1682 of the Western calendar, the Ottoman Empire has begun to mobilize a large number of Mamluks in Egypt, and ordered the Mamluk nobles in twelve counties to gather their troops to accompany the emperor to Vienna, according to the information we have, the Turks have recruited more than 50,000 Mamluks in Egypt, and the reason why they have recruited so many Mamluks, In itself, it was to weaken the Mamluks and strengthen their rule over Egypt by attacking Vienna, so that Egypt's military power was now empty, and it is assumed that in the early days, even the Arab poor would have participated in the revolt, if they were given land. ”

"Distribute land?"

"The land of Egypt, with the exception of the monastic land, was nominally all state-owned, but in reality one-third was owned by the governors and Turkish officials, and two-thirds by the local Mamluks, so that the religious pharaohs, judges, governors, Turkish officials, and Mamluk magistrates became the landlord class that owned all the land. The land there was subject to a tax package system, in which the peasants paid rent in kind, money rent and other taxes to the feudal landlords, the landlords paid a fixed amount of taxes to the state, and the governor paid tribute to the imperial sultan. Because of the alien rule, the Turkish rulers brutally exploited and oppressed the Egyptian people, and were indifferent to economic development. Feudal landlords, large and small, exploited their subjects layer by layer and levied a large number of taxes under various names. ”

Looking at His Majesty, Wang Wenbai said.

"Therefore, our plan was to attract some of the landless and usurious poor Arabs to join the uprising under the pretext of dividing the land, so as to ensure the absolute superiority of the insurrection."

Since the beginning of the plan last year, and now after countless plans, Egypt has already had a complete set of plans for the strategy, and now it just needs to be implemented according to the plan.

"Oh, that's to fight the local tyrants and divide the land."

Nodding slightly, Zhu Mingzhong did not show any special attitude towards this method.

"At the beginning of the uprising, it was appropriate to enlist the support of the overwhelming majority of the population as much as possible, but do not forget that between the Copts and the Egyptians, their differences were differences in religious beliefs, so even cooperation was temporary, and we must understand this, so, if nothing else, after the overthrow of the Ottoman rule, there will still be large-scale conflicts within Egypt, which is a clash of faiths, or the Copts will force the Egyptians to convert, Either the latter forces the former to change, but I prefer the former to change the latter rather than the latter, after all, if we want to master Suez, master it forever, we have to accept and push for this change. ”

Looking at the information about the Copts in the information, Zhu Mingzhong thought for a moment and said.

"As for the uprising in the Balkans, it's good ......"

1683!

Battle of Vienna!

Maybe Wang Wenbai and others don't know what this means, but Zhu Mingzhong knows very well that the Battle of Vienna in 1683 is an extremely crucial battle in the history of Europe. It was a turning point in Europe's recent history, after which European civilization's fear of the Ottomans began to fade......

The result of this battle was not only to cut off the Ottoman ambitions for Europe, but also to plunge the Ottoman Empire's internal troubles into crisis.

This is indeed a good opportunity.

If this opportunity is missed, it will take decades or even hundreds of years to rebuild this opportunity.

A strong Ottoman Empire was not in the interests of the Ming Dynasty. It can even be said that the emergence of any powerful country is not in line with the etiquette of the Ming Dynasty, so for the Ming Dynasty, what is needed now is to disintegrate the country.

Only by disintegrating the Ottoman Empire was the Ming able to dig a piece of flesh from his body. This is exactly the rules of the game in this world, the law of the jungle. Either devour others to strengthen themselves, or they become other people's meals, meat in their mouths.

"For the Ming Dynasty, we can accept the strength of Britain, France and other European countries, because their size can never pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty, but the Ottoman Empire ...... For the Ming Dynasty, it is a potential threat, or in other words, every potential power, for the Ming Dynasty, is a potential threat, since it is a threat, then, we must completely eliminate the threat, but sit back and watch the expansion of the threat, especially ......"

Especially when the development of Western Europe is likely to change because of the rise of the Ming Dynasty, it is impossible for Zhu Mingzhong to risk the rise of a country with such a strong desire for expansion.

Not only to cut off the possibility of his expansion, but also to destroy the country. Destroy them fundamentally, and destroy their powerful possibilities in the end. In this way, he can avoid becoming a threat to Daming.

Sometimes it is best for a country to nip any threat in the bud.

All appeasers pay the price for palliative indulgence. Da Ming has already made a mistake once, and it is impossible to make a second mistake.

"In particular, in the case of a very high probability that he poses a direct threat to us, once the Western Regions are seized, we and them will be separated by the Caspian Sea, almost equal to our neighbors, and before that, they must be plunged into civil strife......"

"The minister understands that the uprising in the Balkans will benefit our actions in Egypt."

Wang Wenbai's answer made Zhu Mingzhong smile, and after a while, he said.

"We don't need to stop the Balkans at the independence of Egypt, we can look deeper, after the Copts establish power, we can use Egypt as a springboard to further support Christians in Greece, the Balkans and other places, give them support, let them continue to revolt, perhaps, we can instigate a "holy war", Egypt is just a piece of Ottoman meat, what we need is to completely disintegrate the Ottomans, only in this way, we can get more benefits from it. ”

Suddenly, Zhu Mingzhong's words paused, and an idea that had never flashed in his mind appeared in his mind, and he really hadn't thought about it before.

"Jihad."

Wang Wenbai looked at His Majesty puzzled, and did not understand the meaning of these two words.

"That's right, it's jihad."

Nodding slightly, Zhu Mingzhong said.

"You don't know the Europeans and the Turks, those who believe in jihad and are willing to die for it, maybe we can think about another way to solve the threat to the Ottoman Empire, and even to Europe in the future. It is to fundamentally break the rule of the Ottoman Empire through a holy war, and then ...... there"

In the deep groan, Zhu Mingzhong did not continue, but thought about the possibility of the implementation of this plan in his mind.

If it can be implemented, perhaps, a buffer zone can be created between China and Europe, and what should this buffer zone look like?

Of course, it is controlled by the Ming Dynasty. Or a country completely controlled by the Ming Dynasty. The state will certainly not be as aggressive as the Ottoman Empire, but it can be a nail in the coffin planted in Europe by the Ming Dynasty.

But is it possible?

Zhu Mingzhong, who thought about all kinds of possibilities repeatedly and felt that he was very sure of realizing all this, finally looked at Wang Wenbai again and said.

"There is one thing that you have to do now, send someone to do it immediately, and this matter is extremely important for the strategy there in the future......"