The next thing is to discuss the boring details, and for this reason, Mo San specially called several of his assistants over to bargain with each other. The Ottomans were not very sure of the type and quantity of arms they needed, or rather their ability to pay. But it didn't matter, Mo San had time to carry out this long and boring negotiation, and after arranging his assistants, he started another action of his own, that is, diplomatic public relations - commonly known as gift-giving relations.

While meeting with old relations such as Nasukh Pasha in Istanbul, he sharpened his head to meet other powerful people. For example, Ibrahim Sultan's teacher Cinsy . Hauka, the current Grand Vitsie Ahmed Pasha, the Empress Dowager Kosam Sultan, and the Grand Eunuch of the Imperial Court, Lala. Suleiman Aga and many more. However, these big names either don't look down on Mo San yet, or they are very busy, and only the palace eunuch Lala. Suleiman took the time to meet Mo San, which made him very happy.

Lesbian. Suleiman Aga was a young eunuch who was in charge of many of the eunuchs, guards, and slave men in the Sultan's court, and maintained a good relationship with the Queen Mother Kosem Sultan and the biological mother of Mehmed, the heir of Ibrahim Sultan, a former slave girl from Russia. Of course, Mo San, who was born in later China, was very aware of the energy of the great eunuch of the palace, so he gave Suleiman Aga a large gift, and Suleiman Aga also accepted it with a smile on his face, and the two sides seemed to be really harmonious on the surface.

Some people may say that Suleiman is a eunuch with status, how can he accept gifts the first time they meet. In fact, if you know the level of corruption in the Ottoman Empire at this time, there is no doubt that most Ottoman officials had to give large sums of money to their superiors and authorities when they took office. Its nature is the same as that of donating silver in the late Qing Dynasty. One can imagine what such officials who spend money to buy official positions will do when they take office. The expenses they spend on running for office and buying official positions will inevitably be passed on to ordinary people in the end. This will undoubtedly increase the resentment in the Ottoman country.

Therefore, it can be said that at this time, it was a common practice to receive gifts in the Ottoman country, from the Great Viqi (prime minister), the guard Aga (commander), down to the local Pasha (governor), Sheikh (lord, chief, patriarch), Bayi (lord, low-level petty bureaucrats), almost no one did not receive gifts or give gifts, which almost became an officialdom culture and unspoken rule of the Ottoman Empire at this time. In contrast, Lala. Suleiman, the eunuch Aga, received Mo San's gold and silver coins worth more than 1,000 yuan, twenty precious furs, and some Dongzhu and other things that he got back from the savage Jurchen. It's really nothing to say.

The days continued until 24 June, when Sultan Ibrahim's army began to land on Crete, and the first battle was the siege of Hanya, the port of the Venetians. After all, Sultan Ibrahim did not personally lead a large army against the Persians like his father Murad IV, and he did not have the courage to do so, so he decided to hand over the command of the army to the Agamnes at the front, and it was better for him to turn his attention back to the concubines in the harem. As long as the Agams handed over the loot to him, he didn't bother to care about anything else. I heard that the hateful Christian pirates hid all the treasure they had plundered over the years, and that the Venetians had built a large supply base on the island, so there should be no shortage of loot.

The 100,000 troops have begun to land on the island to fight, and the people behind are still slowly arguing with the people on the east coast about the types, quantities and prices of weapons to procure. This impromptu gun purchase is really fucked up, and it is almost the same as the later Iraqi government in the Middle East when it faced ISIS. Maybe it's ridiculous. Kara of the Garni Shari Legion. Murad Aga couldn't take it anymore and consulted with Bektash Agha, Sultan Ibrahim, Queen Mother Kosem, and Sinsi. Hauka finally decided to start speeding up the negotiation process, discarding some details that didn't need to be too entangled, and directly having face-to-face conversations with the East Coasters on the core issues of the types and quantities of weapons, as well as the payment methods.

At this time, Mo San could no longer wander around the outside, and he also returned to the venue and engaged in a verbal confrontation with the Ottomans. At the beginning of August, when the lengthy negotiations between the two sides had been going on for more than a month, an Ottoman supply fleet was routed near the island of Naxos, and according to those who had fled, with the help of the Pope, the Venetians had received great sympathy and help from the Christian community, and they had formed a new combined Christian fleet to begin the struggle with the Ottomans for sea supremacy in the Eastern Mediterranean.

This bad news finally exhausted the last patience of the Ottomans, and they transferred all the warships docked in the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, and at the same time reached an initial agreement with the East Coasters as quickly as possible. The main contents of the agreement were: the East Coasters sold to the Ottoman Empire at a preferential price 5,000 32-C flintlock rifles (the additional standard accessories were a 41-year steel bayonet, an iron throughbar, and a rifle strap), 5,000 pairs of cowhide military boots, 10,000 cowhide ammunition packs, 10,000 armed belts, 10,000 cowhide water bladders, 6,000 spears, 1,000 collar armor, a collection of binoculars and artillery measuring instruments, and 40 guns of various types and ammunition in the warehouse in Xinhua Port on the island of Madagascar. All the above goods are valued at 125,000 East Coast dollars. The Ottomans were to pay in full in cash, on the condition that the people on the east coast immediately organize the delivery of the goods. If there is an additional order for armaments in the future, the price and payment method will be discussed separately.

Many Ottoman soldiers were trained to use flintlock muskets, but they still used old arquebuses. At a time when arquebuses had been phased out in Western Europe, the Ottomans were undoubtedly lagging behind in armament. Moreover, the Ottoman army still maintained a large number of cold-armed troops at this time, which was in sharp contrast to the number of spearmen in the European infantry phalanx, which showed that the composition and combat philosophy of the Ottoman army were gradually outdated. The difficulty of such an aging Ottoman Empire crossing the sea to attack the Venetians' well-guarded fortresses without having an absolute naval superiority is not ordinary.

This battle may take a long time! Mo San suddenly had such a realization in his heart, but he quickly shook his head and smiled, fighting for a long time is good for the East Coast talents. The longer it dragged on, the greater the demand for Ottoman arms purchases, and the more money the East Coasters would make. The production capacity of those military factories in China has not reached the maximum over the years, let's see if the more than 100,000 troops of the Ottoman Empire can keep the domestic military factory bulls busy and complaining.

And the longer this battle is fought, there is another benefit. That is, as one of the competitors of the East Coast people in the cotton cloth, the Venetian has been creating a lot of trouble for the East Coast people in the Italian market, if this battle can drag them down and fight the poor, this small Mediterranean country that has just recovered from the economic depression for a long time, maybe it will completely withdraw from the competition with the East Coast people in the cotton cloth market because of the lack of money to update equipment and the decline in influence, which is definitely a major positive for the sales of East Coast cotton cloth in the Italian market. Not to mention the fact that this may also involve part of the energy of the two living treasures, Austria and Spain, which will inevitably reduce the various pressures faced by the Eastern Republic in the New World.

After the agreement was reached, Mo San was not ambiguous, he immediately asked two assistants to carry his handwritten letter and a copy of the agreement to the port of Suez as soon as possible, and then took a ship directly to Xinhua Port to find the director of the Xinhua Port National Material Depot to deliver the goods. As the plenipotentiary envoy of the Eastern Republic to the Ottoman Empire, he was already extremely powerful, and the signing of "proper" commercial agreements with foreign governments happened to be within his purview, so it was not a big problem to let Xinhua Port ship goods.

After Mo San's assistants departed, as if to celebrate the agreement between the two sides, on August 19, the Ottoman army captured the port of Chania and captured a large amount of supplies and some artillery left behind by the Venetians. The news was quickly transmitted back to Istanbul, and Sultan Ibrahim was so happy that he finally had time to step away from the harem and meet with some of the agas who had returned to report the good news. His Majesty the Sultan encouraged them to continue their brave fight, but at the same time tactfully expressed his dissatisfaction with the low amount of loot, and asked the commanders at the front to focus more on collecting the loot than on conquering the city.

The poor Greeks of Crete welcomed the Ottoman army from the first day they set foot on the island, welcoming them to rescue the Greeks from the harsh Venetian rule, but how did they know how much better the Ottoman army would be than the Venetians? Although the Greeks accounted for a considerable proportion of the Ottoman army of 100,000, they did not have the slightest pity for the so-called compatriots on Crete, and there was no shortage of those who should be killed and robbed.

After the capture of the port of Chania, the Ottoman army slowed down the pace of the offensive due to supply difficulties. The Venetian navy frequently launched attacks in the eastern Mediterranean, and the Ottomans suffered considerable losses, and even a fast cruiser purchased from the east coast was burned by the Venetian arsonist ship in the engagement, so the supply of war materials to the front line was somewhat restricted. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the main Venetian forces on the island gathered in the capital city of Candia City, and after receiving a vital supply of supplies and personnel, they began to repair the fortifications and set up artillery in preparation for a long confrontation with the Ottomans. (To be continued......)