The Great Egyptian Empire, which dominated North Africa and looked over the continent, also developed from a United States (the United States of Sinai). However, because the Komnenos and their followers who ruled the Egyptian Empire were actually outsiders, they faced many challenges in North Africa, so they had to gradually strengthen the power of the monarchy.

Moreover, the "Romans", who were constantly moving to Egypt from Greece and Constantinople, also dreamed of a strong empire, so they were able to tolerate the power of the Komnenos.

As for the local Copts, Saracens, and Berbers in North Africa, they were more tolerant of power than the Romans from outside.

It is worth mentioning that the Copts, Saracens and Berbers of North Africa did not agree in the face of the "Komnenian conquest". They did not rebel against the Komnenos as the united people of the Great Food Empire. The Copts welcomed the Komnenos as liberators. And the Saracens did not resolutely defend the rule of the Fatimids, because the caliphate had long since existed in name only. Before the Komnenian conquest of Egypt, Egypt was ruled by Mamluk slave warriors who actually came from the Kipchak steppes. Only the Berber dynasty of the Murabit and Almohads put up a resolute and long resistance to the Komnenos.

However, the resistance of the Berbers ultimately failed in the face of the Komnenos of Egypt, which was able to continuously profit from the trade between East and West and had access to advanced weapons produced by the Eastern Song and Northern Zhou dynasties.

And in the "Berber Wars" for more than a hundred years, the centralization of power of the Komnenos dynasty was significantly strengthened.

Thus, by the fourteenth century A.D., Egypt was becoming more and more like an empire, and perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it the Third Roman Empire.

Moreover, the Third Roman Empire gained a lot from its colonization of black Africa and Europe, and its internal contradictions were relatively relaxed, and the royal power was naturally very stable.

Therefore, Wu Yuankai's father paid a great price in order to make his son the royal husband of Egypt. The Egyptian Empire's long-term low-interest bonds alone bought more than 20 million taels (taels are now also silver coins). Wu Yuankai himself also pledged to invest in the Suez Canal project, which is being prepared...... This investment will become the property of the Komnenos dynasty in the future.

In addition, the Republic Bank, which was controlled by Wu's descendants, promised to invest in a railway in Egypt to connect Alexandria with Cairo.

Railways are now a rarity, and only the Great Zhou Republic and the Eastern Song Dynasty have lines for trial operation. If the railway is built in the next 10 years, Egypt will become the fifth country in the world to have a railway, after the Great Zhou, the Eastern Song Dynasty, the United States of America, and the New Song Kingdom.

And the significance of the Suez Canal to Egypt cannot be overemphasized.

At such a cost, the samurai's intention was definitely not just to inject his own blood into the Egyptian royal family - the Egyptian empress was not worth that much money.

Because the empresses in the history of the Egyptian Empire were very strong, and they were not at all under the influence of their royal husbands. Except for the eldest son or eldest daughter who had samurai blood, but whose surname was Komnenos, it seemed that the samurai family could hardly get anything in return from Egypt.

Zhao Mian, an official of the Western Song Dynasty, was very familiar with the traditions of the Egyptian Empire and the Komnenian Dynasty, and in fact, he also considered giving his son to Princess Anna. But the asking price of the Komnenos dynasty was too high for the Western Song Dynasty to afford......

"Your Majesty," Yue Xuan said, "as far as the minister knows, the martial family has spent a lot of money on this marriage!" Probably more than 50 million! ”

"50 million!?" Zhao Mian took a cool breath, "This is Zhou Guo trying to win over Egypt!" They want to ...... Is there a war with the Gangnam thieves? ”

Although the "dowry" of 50 million taels was taken out by the samurai, such a large amount of money flowed to Egypt, obviously the national will of the Great Zhou Republic was at work!

So it's not an ordinary family affair, it's an alliance between two countries in this way.

And the purpose of the alliance between the Great Zhou Republic and Egypt must have been aimed at the Eastern Song Dynasty.

Because there is no second country in the world that deserves to do so in the Great Zhou Republic, on which the sun never sets.

Zhao Mian shook his head, "But they and Jiangnan are allies for two hundred years!" ”

"I don't know if Your Majesty has noticed," Yue Xuan said, "Since more than ten years ago, the fortress has been easily captured!" ”

"That's right!" Zhao Mian nodded, "The Great Mongolian Generalissimo (the son of Jochi) broke many of our fortresses during his lifetime......

The era of the invincibility of the fortress was destroyed by the Mongol prince and marshal Yue in the later stages of the Great Mongolian War. Yue of the Jochi family is a top student at the University of Bright in Mongwuburg, proficient in mathematics and architecture. After joining the Mongol army, he gradually grew into an expert in building and besieging cities.

Moreover, he also wrote a book on the blind spots of the fortress, systematically summarizing the weaknesses of the fortress's defense and the methods of breaking through the fortress.

At the same time, advances in firearms technology have made the forts, which were difficult to attack in the early years, more and more fragile.

The advent and mature use of weapons with greater destructive power, such as howitzers, mortars, flowering shells, and hand cannons (hand grenades), coupled with the construction of tunnels specifically aimed at the dead corners of the forts, have turned the forts, which would have required a great deal of cost to occupy, into relatively easy targets to occupy.

Under these circumstances, offensive and field battles began to regain the most effective methods for military strategists to win wars.

Yue Xuan continued: "In addition, the Jiangnan thieves have always been loose and weak, and their country is dependent on trade, and their contacts with the Zhou state are too close. The minister was worried that once the Jiangnan thieves were defeated in the naval battle and the trade routes were cut off, it was very likely that they would surrender without a fight......"

The Western Song Dynasty and the Eastern Song Dynasty struggled for more than 200 years, and naturally they had a very good understanding of the national conditions of the Eastern Song Dynasty. It is known that the weakness of the Eastern Song Dynasty was its looseness and over-reliance on trade.

And the current world trade system is mostly under the control of the Zhou State.

Once Wu Yuankai became the husband of the Egyptian empress, the Great Zhou-Egyptian alliance would be able to take full control of the world trading system.

In this way, the country of the Eastern Song Dynasty will become a fish on the chopping block of the Great Zhou Republic.

"Yue Qing," Zhao Mian frowned, "isn't that the case?" It's been more than 200 years...... It's not going to be unified, is it? ”

"Your Majesty, the reason why the world has been able to divide the world for more than 200 years is entirely because the three countries are evenly matched, and neither of them is capable of defeating the other two. But now the balance of power in the Three Kingdoms is broken, and the population and financial resources of the Zhou State exceed the sum of our country and the Jiangnan thieves! Moreover, the fort of the fortress has also become a thing of the past, and the three kingdoms have a tendency to be unified.

If our country cannot work hard, I am afraid that within 20 years, it will be in danger of annihilation! ”

"Striving for strength?" Zhao Mian's brows furrowed even tighter.

He grew up listening to all kinds of hard work stories, and then slowly grew old in all kinds of hard work.

But his Great Song is undoubtedly weakening a little bit......

Congenital deficiencies, acquired efforts may not be able to make up for it!

"How to be motivated?" Zhao Mian asked.

"The minister thinks ......," Yue Xuan pondered and said, "The only one who can resist the violent Zhou is the alliance of the two songs!" ”

"Two Song Alliance? Do you want me to form an alliance with Jiangnan thieves? ”

"Your Majesty," Yue Xuan said, "now there are only 60 million people in China, and there are more than 10,000 people in Jiangnan. Once Jiangnan enters Zhou, the Zhou state will have a population of nearly 30,000. 60 million against 30,000 ...... How can my Great Song Dynasty be immortal? ”

After the Fortress era was gone, the current mode of warfare was a full-fledged version of the queue shot, which was similar to another moment in the mid-18th century to the early 19th century.

In this era, the number of people is the fighting power!

Of course, this is only if the state has sufficient organizational capacity to use a large population for the war.

As a bourgeois republic, there is no doubt about the organizational ability of the Great Zhou Republic.

If the Great Zhou Republic can amend the Citizenship Law, all civilians will be converted into citizens. Then the mobilization capacity of the country will reach the level of millions and tens of millions.

Moreover, the Great Zhou Republic, which had already begun the industrial revolution and had the wealth of the Americas, also had enough capacity to arm an army of millions of people.

Therefore, once the Great Zhou Dynasty entered a state of war, the two Song Dynasty could not afford it, especially the Eastern Song Dynasty was still very dependent on the guano provided by the sea trade and the Great Zhou......

Therefore, forming an alliance has become the only means of survival for the two songs!

The same truth is also known in Jiangning, and now Zhao Hao, the emperor of the Eastern Song Dynasty, is also discussing countermeasures with Prime Minister Wen Daosheng.

What gave the two of them a headache was not the marriage of Wu Yuankai and the eldest princess Anna, but the big problem with the supply of guano.

"How so? Why is there no more? It's always been there, why is it suddenly gone? Is it a question of price? The price is negotiable...... It's a big deal that the imperial court will give some subsidies! ”

Zhao Hao's face was full of anxiety, he was now facing the biggest crisis since he ascended the throne for 20 years - the guano crisis!

The export of guano in the Great Zhou Dynasty has always been subject to a quota system, which is not available to anyone, but follows the policy of giving priority to China, and only the Eastern Song Dynasty and Western Song Dynasty are eligible to apply for purchase.

Of course, the Western Song Dynasty will not buy it because there is no money...... Guano is not cheap, and the price of a thousand catties has reached twenty taels of silver. This is still the arrival price of Jiangnan port, if you include the transshipment costs of the Jingjiang, Hanjiang, Chuanjiang, and Xiangjiang rivers and the taxes that need to be paid along the way, as well as the profits of distributors in the Western Song Dynasty. 1,000 catties of guano can be delivered to the peasants, at least more than 50 taels.

And fifty taels of silver is a lot of money in the Western Song Dynasty, which lacks precious metals!

In the countryside of the Western Song Dynasty, in normal times, one stone of white rice is worth half a piece of silver coins, and 50 silver coins can buy 100 stone of white rice. Moreover, the white rice that could be traded for half a silver coin and one stone accounted for only a very small part of the rice grain produced in the rural areas of the Western Song Dynasty.

Most of the rice and grain produced in the rural areas of the Western Song Dynasty did not enter the market. They were either used to support people, or to pay tenant taxes, or to exchange them directly for handicrafts.

It can be said that most of the peasants in the Western Song Dynasty had never seen a tael of silver coins issued by the Great Zhou Bank and the Great Song Bank (the central bank of the Eastern Song Dynasty) in their lives, and they had never even seen silver used for circulation!

Therefore, guano and new agricultural tools used to increase agricultural production could not be sold in the Western Song Dynasty......

However, these things were not a problem at all for the wealthy rural areas of the Eastern Song Dynasty, where there were a large number of export products that could be exchanged for gold and silver, and there were also huge gold mines on the New Song continent.

Therefore, for more than 100 years, the Eastern Song Dynasty court has been buying a large number of South American guano and then selling it to farmers at a low price. In order to ensure high production and low prices of grain.

At the same time, farmers in the Eastern Song Dynasty also had enough purchasing power to purchase guano and advanced farming tools.

Because the current rural areas of the Eastern Song Dynasty have long been no longer the way of small-scale peasant economy, but the rich peasant route based on family farms of dozens of acres.

According to the statistics of the Eastern Song Dynasty, the Eastern Song Dynasty had nearly 400 million mu of cultivated land. There were only a little more than 10 million households engaged in agricultural production in the Eastern Song Dynasty - the Eastern Song Dynasty has now entered the era of the industrial revolution, the urbanization rate has increased rapidly, and the proportion of agricultural population has been less than 50%.

In other words, on average, an Eastern Song Dynasty farmer owns 40 acres of land, and most of it is paddy fields.

If a farmer owns all paddy fields, and all of them are used to grow rice. According to the calculation of six stones in one season, 40 acres of paddy fields can harvest 240 stones of rice, and there are also 160-170 stones of white rice.

The price of rice in the Eastern Song Dynasty was high, and the purchase price of a stone of white rice in the countryside was at least one and a half silver coins. 160 stone of white rice can be sold for at least 240 silver coins. As a result, most farmers have the financial resources to purchase guano, grains and high-quality tools to increase production.

By the way, this Eastern Song Dynasty imperialist agriculture looks very beautiful on the surface. The countryside was a comfortable pastoral scene, there were not many big landlords who collected rents and lent usury, and the poor middle peasants were almost extinct, and most of them were rich peasants with dozens of acres of acres per household. Moreover, the agricultural tax was extremely low, and a rich peasant family could earn 200 taels of silver when he was young and easy, and his life was far more comfortable than that of the proletariat in the cities.

But beneath the surface of the landscape, there is also a crisis.

The crisis was that the rich peasants of the Eastern Song Dynasty were "too lazy" and relied too much on improved seeds, guano and high-quality agricultural tools, as well as irrigation facilities. There is basically no one to reclaim the sloping land that has no way to irrigate - what is the purpose of cultivating that? How tired are you? And there isn't that much work. There are a total of 10 million farmers, 20 million strong laborers in the sky, and 400 million acres of land are barely planted.

But what if there is not enough food?

There are colonies! It's just imported, and it doesn't cost a few bucks.

Moreover, the farmers of the Eastern Song Dynasty only considered economic benefits in farming, and they were not interested in the two-season or three-season rice with large inputs and the output of unpalatable white rice.

The white rice of the Eastern Song Dynasty is all one-season rice, or green food, and the cooked rice is called a fragrant! If you smell it, you will know that it is for imperialism.

However, the food security of the Eastern Song Dynasty was completely based on the guano provided by the Great Zhou Republic and the guarantee of maritime trade.

As soon as the Great Zhou refused to provide guano and blocked trade with a navy, the Eastern Song United States would immediately fall into crisis.

.。 m.