Chapter Ninety-Three: The Envoy Almost Gave His Life to Persuade the Monarch and the Minister**

The Ottoman mission, these people were dragged out by the soldiers, and they felt too wronged. In particular, this envoy felt that it was a pity to die, and after a lot of hard work, he finally got things done like this, and he was really unwilling to die here today. He kept shouting along the way: "I am an envoy of the Ottoman Empire, you stupid things, kill me, the sultan of our empire will not forgive you!" Your whole country will pay the price! ”

The shouts of the envoy happened to be heard by a passing general, who ordered one of his attendants: "Go and see who is shouting there!" ”

The entourage went for a while and came back and said: "I caught a group of spies, went to the execution ground to behead them, and they shouted that they were envoys, nothing happened!" ”

"What? Will there be a batch of spies? You idiot! The spy will still say that he is a minister? The general felt that something was wrong with the situation, he knew that many Persian Empire soldiers had coveted the caravans for a long time, and the caravans were too fat, but the empire strictly ordered to protect the caravans, and the officers and soldiers did not dare to make a mistake despite their greed. Now that the army is pressing the border and blocking the trade routes, it is likely that these bold guys are taking the opportunity to make trouble and seize other people's goods.

The general waved his hand and said, "Let's go to the execution ground and have a look!" ”

When they arrived at the execution ground, the Ottoman mission had already been tied to the pillars, and they were afraid that they would shout again, and their mouths were gagged, and they were about to be beheaded.

The officer, who was preparing to be executed, saw a general coming, and fearing that things would not be good, immediately ordered: "Execution!" ”

The executioner was about to swing his sword and slash when the general shouted: "Stop! The executioner did not dare to cut down with his knife.

The officer commanding the execution stood up and said, "Your Excellency, we are executing several spies here. In extraordinary times, everything is simple, please don't interfere with the general! ”

"I don't interfere with your execution of spies, I have a few words to ask these spies, is it okay?"

"This, this? General, this sinister matter is not your business. Please don't interfere with it, General! ”

"I shouldn't care about this, but about the military situation, let me ask the spies, it's okay anyway, right?" Saying that, the general didn't care whether the officer agreed or not, but went straight to the richly dressed envoy and reached out to take the rag that was gagged in his mouth.

When the envoy was already desperate, he heard the conversation between the general and the officer, and thanked Allah a hundred times in his heart. As soon as the rags were removed from his mouth, the envoy cried and said, "Your Excellency, we are the Ottoman Empire's mission, and you must not do anything that damages the relations between our two countries!" I am an envoy to the Ming Dynasty sent by the Ottoman Sultan, and if you do this, it will greatly hurt the relationship between our two countries! ”

The general was frightened when he heard this, these people were not ordinary merchants, if they were killed today, the Ottoman Empire would know, and the Persian Empire would be finished, and the current Persian Empire was not an opponent of the Ottoman Empire at all.

Without waiting for the general to speak, the officer over there said: "General, don't believe their lies, they are spies bought by the Ming army, and they must not be left behind!" Someone, hurry up and execute it! "The officer knows that if these people don't die today, they will have to die.

"Bold! Someone's coming! Catch this daring fanatic! The general began to wonder how to settle the matter before him, and turned to the envoy, "Do you have anything to prove what you said?" ”

"Yes, yes! We had the seal of our Imperial Sultan in our luggage. There are also letters from the emperor of the Ming Dynasty to our sultans, and there are many things we bought in the Ming Dynasty to testify. And the mark we made the last time we passed through your Persian checkpoint! These can be proven! As soon as the envoy said this, his hope was even greater.

"Untie!" The general said, "Let's go back to the big tent and talk!" ”

When he returned to the Great Tent, the general asked the other members of the mission to wait outside the tent, and the envoy and the officer were brought into the Great Tent.

The general gave up a seat to the envoy and asked the officer, "Where is their luggage?" ”

"No, I didn't see their luggage!" The officer replied with his head bowed.

"Didn't they bring anything?"

"When we caught them, we didn't see anything!" This one can only quibble.

"No, in order to hurry back to the empire and restore our lives, each of us is two fast horses, and we all ride one and the other with luggage!" The envoy said from the side.

"That's good! I ask you, who of you has caught them with your own hands? ”

"Yes, it was sent by the outpost!" Knowing that he couldn't deny it today, he immediately knelt down and said, "General, for the sake of the upcoming war, you can spare us!" It's me who was confused! ”

"Humph!" The general snorted, "What about their stuff?" ”

"Some of it is in my tent, and the rest is divided among the brothers!"

"You go and get me all the stuff back right now!"

After the officer had been escorted out, the general stood up and saluted the envoy and said, "Please forgive me!" These officers and soldiers knew that a big battle was about to take place, and they did not know whether to live or die. Please forgive me for doing such a foolish thing! We'll give you an explanation! ”

At this time, the envoy wanted to leave this nightmare place as soon as possible, and said: "We have a very important mission, we must meet our Sultan as soon as possible, please salute our horses, and we will hurry at once!" By the way, we've been hungry for a long time, get us some gruel! ”

"Good! We'll arrange it right away! The general went out to arrange these things, and immediately reported them to the commander-in-chief of their Persian Empire.

Here, it is easy to divide the things carried by the mission, but it is not easy to collect them. Until the end, it was confiscated in full.

The commander-in-chief of the Persian Empire was busy transferring troops and transporting grain and grass, he was an important minister sent by the empire, and when he heard that something like this had happened, he had always been calm, and he was so frightened that the quill in his hand fell on the table, "Oh my God! What did you say? Is this true? ”

"It's true! My lord, if I hadn't happened to be passing by, it would have been a big mistake! ”

"It's a big mistake! We are about to fight the Ming army, and war is about to break out. If the Ottomans declare war on us again, we will be destroyed! The commander-in-chief, who had turned around twice, said: "Prepare the car, I will personally apologize to them!" ”

Although the general who handled this matter knew that the matter was too serious, he did not expect that he would personally go to apologize to the envoys.

When they arrived at the tent where the mission was resting, the members of the mission and the envoys had already finished drinking porridge and were resting on the side one by one. The commander-in-chief hastened to salute and make amends to them. At this time, the Ottoman envoy had regained his former majesty, and although his body was very dirty, his tone was very tough: "My lord! We have the important mission of our imperial sultan, please return our horses to us, we will hurry at once! ”

The general said, "Many of your salutes have been lost and are still being gathered!" Can you please take a break and wait? ”

"Yes! We also have to give an explanation to the adults! The commander-in-chief also said tremblingly.

"Huh! Lost! The envoy smiled and said, "I don't want any luggage, just give us the box we have for the letters." ”

"The box containing the letter is still there, and nothing has been touched. Adults, let's wait first, we will find your luggage for you a lot. We will also give a fixed compensation! The commander-in-chief also said beside him. Although he was also an important minister of the Persian Empire, he had to speak carefully at this time.

"Thank you, sir! We really have a very important mission, and we can't delay it any longer! Give us back the horses and things! If we can, we're going right away! The envoy said in a firm tone.

The commander-in-chief knew that if the mission left like this, there would be endless trouble, so he immediately agreed and handed over to them all the things he had recovered. At the same time, they were given a few more horses, and at once they were given a lot of gold and silver treasures as compensation.

When the mission mounted the horses, the commander-in-chief personally rode them off. Along the way, he continued to make amends, so that the envoy felt a little uneasy, and when he parted, the envoy said to him: "For the sake of your sincerity, I will say a few more words!" ”

"My lord, please advise!" The commander-in-chief arched his hand and said.

"When we came out of the camp of the Ming army, they General Ningde asked me to bring a message to you. They said that they did not want to be an enemy of the Persian Empire, and they did not set foot in the Persian Empire after solving the Yue that is, others. This is their sincerity! They don't want to go to war with you now, and soon, their army will be farther away from the borders as a sign of goodwill! Here are the words they asked me to bring! ”

"Thank you, sir!" Said the commander-in-chief.

"Also, I will send you a few words, we have just returned from the Ming Dynasty, and we can see very clearly that you are not the opponent of the Ming army in the war. Even if our Ottoman Empire and your Persian Empire join forces, they can't defeat the Ming army. The gap is just too big! That's one of the reasons why we're in a hurry to get back. Well, farewell! "The Ottoman mission is gone.

The envoy's words made the former enemy commander-in-chief of the Persian Empire very worried.

They returned to their camp and tied up all the officers and soldiers who had participated in the distribution of goods and goods to the court of law. It was ordered that the residences of the officers and soldiers be searched again, and that those who had been found to be hiding the belongings of the Ottoman mission were tied up. There are really people who sacrifice their lives and money, and the whole camp is in turmoil, and there are still people who hide things and don't hand them over. As a result, they were all killed together this time.

However, the Persian army did not fully believe the advice of the Ottoman envoys, and besides, the Persian Empire had launched the war machine of the entire country, and it was impossible to stop it. This is not something that the former commander-in-chief of the enemy can say. Also, they knew that the Ming army on the shores of the Caspian Sea, plus the Mongols, was less than 100,000 people. Although they also knew that the Ming army's firearms and artillery were very powerful, the Persian Empire was still very confident in its cavalry. Many imperial officers and soldiers, including ordinary officials, wanted to have a victory to revive the Persian Empire's former glory.

Ningde moved the camp away from the border, and the Persian Empire thought they were cowardly.

The Ottoman delegation rushed back to Istanbul in the dust, and the envoys did not stop and drove straight to Topkapi Palace.

The sultan, who was anxiously waiting, heard that the envoy to the Ming Dynasty had returned, and regardless of etiquette, he greeted him directly, and when he saw the tired envoy, he took his hand and asked first: "Musket!" How's that going with the muskets! ”

"Your Majesty, I've got you done with the musket! There's a lot to talk about! ”

"Anyway, it's good to get it done, we get the information, the Russians have got a lot of muskets, I'm so worried." The Sultan took the envoy's hand and walked towards the Topkapi Palace.

"I heard about this in the Ming Dynasty!"

"Oh! You have heard about it in the Ming Dynasty, could it be that the Ming Dynasty really openly sold muskets to the Russians? ”

"No, it was some businessmen and officials who were driven by huge interests to do this quietly, and I saw the emperor of the Ming Dynasty talk about it, and their emperor was very angry and ordered a thorough investigation of this matter. Their Ming Dynasty is really too big, and this kind of thing is not a big deal on their side. It is estimated that when their court is done, the war between us and the Russians will also be over! ”

The Sultan sat down with the envoy and asked, "Tell me how they agreed to sell us muskets?" ”

"Their court did not agree, their emperor resolutely did not take sides between us and the Russians, he said that the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire were friendly countries of the Ming Dynasty, and he resolutely did not sell us muskets." The envoy said, "The shopkeeper who went back with us, through his personal connections, let me meet their lord who was in charge of the goods and business, and they knew that the musket had a very deep background in the business, and they knew that there were five thousand muskets in a place called Hami, which was closer to our side, with a million rounds of ammunition, ** one and a half million. That was ready to be sold to the Russians. The lord used his influence to keep the musket in Hami and did not dare to carry it away. We rushed to Hami and kept these muskets, otherwise these muskets would have been shipped to Russia. ”

"No, no, you're saying that this batch is 5,000?"

"Yes, five thousand!"

"Do you know how much silver a gun is?"

"When I left the empire, I knew how much money the Russians had spent on guns. We bought these muskets at the price they sold to the Russians! ”

"Oh my God! Do you know how much silver it costs? ”

"I know," said the envoy, taking out a copy of the agreement, and handing it to the Sultan, "plus the freight, and the benefits of the kiln man, it is fourteen million and three thousand taels. ”

"What? Are you crazy? One, fourteen,300,000 taels of silver? Do you want to hollow out the empire? "The Sultan almost didn't jump.

The envoy had long thought of the Sultan as such, and asked unhurriedly: "If we do not keep these muskets, but are sent to the Russians, how much gold and silver we have are not all Russians?" ”

"You, don't think that we in the Ottoman Empire can't beat the Russians without muskets! This business is definitely not good! ”

The relationship between being sent by the Sultan as an envoy and the Sultan is definitely not ordinary, he deliberately said lazily: "I have signed the agreement, and now that we have transported all the weapons to the east of the Caspian Sea, Your Majesty should prepare the silver and go and bring the weapons back!" ”

"We're not going to pay that much!" The Sultan said firmly, "We didn't pay anyway!" ”

"Huh! Your Majesty, if I have time, I will introduce you to the Ming Dynasty and the people of the Ming Dynasty. Now what I want to tell Your Majesty is that they are very clever and never lose money in business! ”

"Huh! They didn't get the money, and they had to send people to guard these dangerous goods, so they wouldn't suffer? ”

"Your Majesty, they are very smart, in the future, we will deal with them, don't be clever with them, it's best to see each other with sincerity!" The envoy said, "Tell you! If we don't pick up the goods within a month, they will ship them away. Now we've been delayed for some time on our way. By the way, I didn't have time to tell Your Majesty that we were on the border of the Persian Empire, and we were detained by them for a few days and almost killed. ”

"What? How dare they be so impudent? The Sultan's eyes widened.

"There's no urgency, we can talk slowly, let's talk about the musket in front of us!"

"Yes, what do you mean they mean they're going to take the muskets away?"

"It's not understandable, we don't keep our promises, they just happened to send muskets to Russia."

"No! They must not be allowed to transport these muskets to Russia! The Sultan said firmly.

"Yes! Your Majesty, I am faced with this dilemma in Hami, to buy these weapons, our empire will not agree, the total value is too high. But people don't open and sell it at all, they just deliberately embarrass me and force me to let go. However, if they did not buy it, they watched them ship the muskets to Russia. Now I leave this dilemma to you, Your Majesty! ”

The Ottomans were very good at accumulating money, and they waged wars and captured a lot of money, which was also one of the motivations for them to start wars. The Ottoman Empire could take out these ** gold and silver, but it was drained by the Ming Dynasty at once, and it was really unwilling. The Sultan summoned a meeting of his ministers to discuss the matter, and as soon as the Sultan had finished speaking, one of the ministers said: "Take out the man who signed such an agreement and burn him to death!" The person who can sign such an agreement must be the devil! ”

"That's right! Burn him! ”

“”

Such an agreement provoked outrage. The envoy was prepared for this, and when everyone had vented for a while, he stood up and said to the minister who was about to burn him: "My lord, you just said that you would burn me because of this agreement. However, if I didn't sign this agreement, these 5,000 muskets and a million rounds of ammunition will be sent to Russia. ”

This adult can't answer this question!

The envoy asked, "Your Excellency, please answer my question in front of the Sultan and the Imperial Lords?" ”

"This, this, these weapons can't be sent to Russia, but you can't sign such an agreement!"

"My lord, when you are faced with these two dilemmas, which one do you choose?"

"This, it's not my thing!" The adult couldn't answer.

"I think it's you who should be burned, you irresponsible guys!" The envoy was furious.

He looked around and saw that all the adults were silent, and said, "The choice we face today is to buy these weapons back, defeat the Russians, and make them pay for these weapons, or let these weapons fall into the hands of the Russians, and they will defeat us and take away our gold and silver?" Everyone chooses, right? ”

The envoy's carefully prepared words were said just right, and the result was, of course, to buy them back.

However, the Sultan issued an urgent decree requiring all feudal lords to contribute a portion of the silver according to the amount of land. At the same time, an envoy was sent to the Caspian Sea again, telling him to keep an eye on the weapons and not to transport them away, and the Ottomans raised gold and silver to pick up the goods. At the same time, a lot of grain was collected, which was to be transported to the west shore of the Caspian Sea and transported by ship to the camp of the Yaogang people on the east coast, where it could be converted into silver.

This time, the Sultan used gold ingots that had been turned into large chunks. Because gold ingots are easier to transport than silver.

Before leaving, the envoy carefully reported to the Sultan and his ministers what had happened to them on the borders of the Persian Empire. At this moment, the ministers were enraged. They demanded that the Sultan seek back the Persian Empire. The envoy said that it was not time to be angry, and that we would have to wait until we brought back the muskets.

However, when the envoy left, he asked the Sultan to send a group of excellent officers to accompany him, and to bring more gold and silver, and to ask the kiln officers to train them. The Sultan, of course, agreed to this request.

But it was such a thing that almost caused the Ottoman Empire to pay a lot of gold and silver, and still did not get back the firearms.