When Chen Zhan and his entourage went to Europe, they passed through the heavens, and although they did not stop for long, they finally sent the Chinese envoy to the Ottoman envoy the latest decision of the imperial court.

Selim bin Muhammad Murad negotiated with Chen Han, who approved the export of the first class sail battleship to the Ottoman Empire, which was expected. The maritime pressure that the Defence Forces face today is very small, because the existence of the Strait of Malacca, because of the existence of Ceylon and the Jinghai Sea, no one can threaten the security of China's own maritime frontiers.

Europeans can also transfer their warships to the Americas, but if they fight the east coast of the Americas and come to the west coast, and then travel thousands of miles to China, hehe, can that still pose a threat to China's maritime borders?

Therefore, it is normal for the Chinese government to export to the Ottoman Empire the first-class sail battleships, which have not been allowed to be exported before.

As for whether this will cause protests from the Western powers, Chen Ming is really not afraid.

And in doing so, he has absolutely justifiable excuses.

At the end of the Sixth Russo-Turkish War, Selim, the Ottoman envoy in Nanjing, had already received a 'note' from Chen Han's cabinet.

The use of the note and its content reflect Chen Han's position, which involves inter-state relations and must be treated with caution.

Chen Hanhui will regard it as a political attitude of the other party based on the handling of the 'note' request he sent, whether the other party handled it in a timely manner, whether it signed or rejected it, replied or did not give it to him, and handled it in a timely manner or delayed.

The significance is special and significant.

Even Chen Han's cabinet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not use this method. But this time, Chen Ming gave it up, because what he was 'seeking' was the Suez Canal.

Naturally, it can't be too cautious.

Historically, the study and survey of the Isthmus of Suez by Europeans was not carried out until the French occupation of Egypt (1798-1801). Napoleon himself also studied the remains of the ancient canal.

But to really enter the exploration stage, it will have to wait for thirty or forty years.

Chen Ming didn't want to wait, if he didn't take advantage of the Europeans' infighting to find out the Suez Canal, and wait until the Europeans came to their senses before exploring, there would be a lot of unnecessary trouble.

As for the difference in times and the difference in technology, Chen Ming doesn't care very much.

It is true that the 19th century was a century of rapid progress in human science. But the Suez Canal doesn't seem to be too high-tech.

You know, three or four thousand years ago, the Egyptians began to dig the ancient Suez Canal. This fact gave Chen Ming a lot of encouragement.

The Nile is the mother river of the Egyptians. Relying on the Nile, the Egyptians not only obtained the enviable output from the lower Nile (Upper Egypt), as well as the fan-shaped Nile Delta (Lower Egypt), but also opened up water access between Egypt and the rest of the Mediterranean. However, the Egyptians are not without regrets: first, the Nile River has four waterfalls from the border between Egypt and Sudan today. The first waterfall in the northernmost part of the river is just south of the present-day Aswan Dam; Second, although the Red Sea is close at hand, there is no waterway connected to it. In view of this, Egypt's expansion to the south and its maritime trade with the Indian Ocean region will be greatly restricted.

Eventually, the Egyptians found a solution to these two problems. In the late 19th century BC, not only the "Ancient Suez Canal" was excavated, but also the canal that bypassed the "First Waterfall of the Nile" was also opened during this period. Of course, the so-called "ancient Suez Canal" is not the same as the Suez Canal seen by humans in the 21st century. The Suez Canal as we see it today is a north-south canal that runs from the Red Sea (Port Suez) to the Mediterranean Sea (Port Said), completely separating the Sinai Peninsula from Africa. During the construction of this modern canal, a series of lakes, especially the "Great Bitter Lake" in the south, which has a natural waterway connecting with the Red Sea, helped the construction method to save a lot of work.

The ancient Suez Canal also made use of the Great Bitter Lake (then known as "Kamorit Lake"). The Egyptians, however, planned to build an east-west waterway about 80 kilometers long between the Great Bitter and the easternmost tributary of the Nile Delta, so that ships from the Red Sea could enter the Nile (between the Egyptian cities of Ismailia and Zajazig). Since the canal was originally built by the Egyptian pharaohs, we can also call it the "Pharaonic Canal". It's not a one-and-done job, though. The biggest problem is that the river needs to be desilted frequently.

If the canal can generate sufficient commercial benefits, there is no technical problem in maintaining such water facilities themselves. For a canal, whether there is enough freight is the key. A similar problem is also reflected in the "Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal" in the east. Because the Central Plains Dynasty needed such a canal to communicate with the south, connecting the economy and politics of the north and the south, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal could be continuously maintained because of this "rigid need" in the long river of thousands of years. With the advent of the new era, after the canal's shipping function was replaced by railways, highways and shipping, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal could only be protected as a "cultural heritage".

In contrast, the canals of ancient Egypt were in much more trouble. We know that most of Egypt and Sudan are covered by the Sahara Desert, and the Nile River is a green corridor in the middle of a desert. This also means that the canal is actually dug in the desert, and it is not the mud washed down from the upstream that silts up the canal, but the quicksand on both sides of the canal. This also makes the Gusuez Canal more susceptible to natural factors. Correspondingly, if Egypt's rulers could not get more out of the Red Sea trade, the canal could easily be abandoned.

There was a re-excavation in the Persian era, but it was abandoned again in the eighth century.

If the news of the Suez Canal spreads all over Europe, both the British and the French will surely understand why China would sell the Ottoman first-class sail battleship.

Compared with the collusion of the interests of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean waterways, a first-class sail battleship is not much heavier than a feather.

And when Selim heard that the Chinese side wanted to carry out large-scale surveys and explorations on the Suez Isthmus, hoping to build a golden waterway connecting the two oceans - the Suez Canal, and was not prepared to leave the Ottoman Empire, or even allow the Ottoman Empire to control the canal, only need sufficient economic returns. The shock and shock in his heart almost made him go to see the true God.

This is simply a more significant victory than winning the war against Russia.

If the Ottoman Empire had taken control of a waterway connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, how great would the annual benefits be? The strategic significance is even greater.

And imagine that at the beginning, the Ottoman merchants received Chinese goods from the east of the Sinai Peninsula, and transported them to the west of the Sinai Peninsula with camels to load ships, just taking an entrepot trade, just like what the Age of Discovery did for the heavenly merchants before the advent of the Age of Discovery, which was sanctioned and pressured by the British and the French, so that the Ottoman Empire had to give up such a way to make money.

But now the Ottomans have China as a companion to this deal. In this way, there will be much less pressure on Britain and France. What's more, the British are fighting with the French now, how can the two countries come together to put pressure on the Ottomans?

This is also why Chen Zhan just came to Crete, and the Ottomans hurriedly gave him a big gift. And the Chinese envoy in Istanbul had already received an order for the Ottomans to order another fleet from China.

It is expected to be around twelve, including one first-class sail battleship, one second-class sail battleship, four third-class sail battleships, and three fourth- and fifth-class sail battleships.

In this way, the total cost of this single business reached 20 million Chinese dollars. And the profit is more than half.

The Ottomans are giving China a gift in return.

This also brought the trade deficit of the Ottoman trade with China to 40 million silver dollars that year.

There is really no way, the Ottomans have too many things to import from China. And the goods that they can export on a large scale are minerals such as copper, lead, tin, and mercury, as well as livestock such as Arabian horses, Turkmen horses, and Rascek horses.

And China has no shortage of these now, copper mines, there are no in China, but in North Korea there is a super large copper mine. A lot of copper was also found in Luzon, and the copper production in these places was sufficient for domestic use.

The wool and other items that used to be no longer too competitive are now too competitive, because China's fine-haired sheep and long-haired sheep have been bred.

In addition to the above goods, the only ones that the Ottomans were able to export to China in large quantities were white slaves.

And if it weren't for the fact that the Chinese did not accept white adult men, the Ottoman trade deficit with China could have shrunk even more.

The 1,000 in Alemdal Mustafa's hands were of different ages, but in general, there were not many who were over twenty years old, and his offer for Chen Zhan was only 500,000.

That is to say, 500 Chinese dollars a piece.

It's definitely a discount on a discount, and it's almost a matter of money.

After Chen Zhan dumped this business, he said that he would have an extra one or two million yuan in his pocket.

After his father accepted an Ottoman princess, the price and market price of this Caucasian slave girl became more popular in China.

It's just that with the arrival of the new year, Chen Zhan, who has been in Crete for more than two months, finally left. But instead of going back to London, he went to Egypt, to Cairo.

Today's Egyptian Pasha is China's old friend Ilam, and the former Bey of the Port of Suez.

For Ilam Pasha, the Chinese are his great fortune stars and are destined to be entangled with him.

In his early years, he was noticed by Istanbul in the remote port of Suez because the Chinese mission landed on him. It was then that Elam began to do business with the Chinese. In the beginning, their business was mainly limited to arms, and the power of the Ottoman warlords was not strong, but entrenched. Whoever holds the army in his hands will not necessarily be the Sultan of Istanbul whose first target of allegiance will be.

The same was true of the Ottoman soldiers at the port of Suez, who were part of the Macedonian legion and were to this day an important force for the Ilam to terrorize the Mamluk nobility in Egypt proper.

Although the number of people is less than 5,000, they are now armed and have been strictly trained by Chinese instructors at an early stage, and their combat effectiveness is not boastful. In the previous Russo-Turkish war, Ilam's descendants had already proven their combat effectiveness in the war.

But that's all foreign words. After experiencing the initial mutual anxiety, Ilam's business with China soon expanded to all kinds of textiles, dyed leather goods, hardware products, metal utensils, etc., and the scale of the business is also getting bigger and bigger, and Ilam took the opportunity to make a fortune before Istanbul reacted.

By the time China and Austria had reached a complete military alliance, Ilam's trade with China had gradually stabilized on textiles, and he had gradually withdrawn from trade in other goods. Because the bigwigs of Istanbul began to intervene on a large scale. Even the textile business retained by Elam could only be sold in Egypt and Sudan.

It's just that after Ilam changed from the port of Suez Bey to the Egyptian Pasha, the scale of business between the two sides has climbed to a new level.

This is the same as Napoleon's military rank became major general, and then he had the qualification to be 'invested' by the Chinese. It was only after he became the Egyptian Pasha that Ilam was qualified to cooperate further with China.

Ilam is well aware that China's investment in him will be recouped sooner or later. But he didn't care!

The strength in your hands now is the most reliable, and the future will be a mirage.

And for many years of intersection, the Chinese side has never cheated him once, and now he is the Pasha of Egypt and one of the main generals of the Macedonian army, which is inseparable from China.

And what is China's demand for him?

Protect the interests of Chinese merchants in Egypt and help China enter the tribal Sudan.

In the 21st century, there are still hundreds of tribes, large and small, in Sudan. This is especially true in this day and age.

But all of this is a gesture for Ilam. The Chinese did not let Ilam betray the Ottomans, nor did they let Ilam become a puppet.

China has no land claims to Sudan, and even Sudan's abundant metal minerals do not arouse China's absolute interest.

When China entered Sudan at this time, it was just doing 'data backup', investing in advance, and even looking for a suitable agent.

At the same time, the Sultan, as the sphere of influence of the Ottoman Empire, is not a region like Egypt that has established a provincial system, which is a blind spot in Istanbul, which is very suitable for Ilam to hide its strength and train its troops.

Chen Ming does not necessarily want to instigate 'independence' for Elam or his descendants. But the world is unpredictable, if the Suez Canal is really excavated and successfully built, the prospect of this piece of land is really unpredictable. Therefore, Elam and his family are even more of a trick for China just in case.

If Osman was stupid at that time, Chen Han would also be able to flip the table.

As for the fact that Elam and his family will most likely not follow China at that time, this is impossible.

The army in Iraq is full of Chinese instructors, and Egypt's police force, tax department, and judicial department also have Chinese advisers, and these people have a lot of power. When necessary, Chinese instructors can replace full-time officers and command and dispatch troops. Even among his attendants were two Chinese.

His three sons were close friends of Chinese businessmen, and he had two grandsons who went to China eight years ago, when they were just 12 years old.

The young man who performed well in one of them was likely to marry a Chinese girl surnamed Chen. Elam and his family couldn't jump off the Chinese boat......