The second installment of the new year, here is a preview, after showing the current situation and trends of the world pattern through the protagonist's honeymoon journey, the main plot line will skip the golden decade of Europe, and the story behind it will be ...... It should be very much worth looking forward to. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

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In the early spring of 1919, the Irish Navy training ship "Ku-Chulin", which was on a special mission, sailed into the millennium capital of Turkey amid the welcome of people from all walks of life in Constantinople.

The friendly relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Ireland were derived from the close strategic alliance between Germany and Turkey, and the "international relay" of the battlecruiser von der Tann was a good beginning of close cooperation between the two sides. Irish-made ships, planes, and automobiles are used throughout Turkey's military and civilian sectors, and helped Turkey build the country's first modern intercity road; Ireland imports hundreds of millions of marks worth of industrial raw materials and handicraft products from Turkey every year, second only to Germany in terms of import value among the Ottoman Empire's trading partners.

In the Golden Horn, where ships are lined with masts, Natsuki saw the 1,250-ton Project 1916 standard destroyer, the 920-ton U-145 ocean-going submarine and the 560-ton Sabre-type coastal frigate, all three of which are the most popular export ships in the Irish shipbuilding industry, the Ottoman Navy is a big customer of the Irish shipbuilding industry. Since the independence of the Kingdom of Ireland, the Ottoman Navy has contributed to the development of the Irish military shipbuilding industry with a total contract value of more than 45 million marks, and hundreds of Irish naval engineers and naval instructors still serve as consultants in Turkey. Of course, these are just "side dishes" in the eyes of the Ottoman tyrants. The 30,000-ton super-dreadnought HMS Mohammed, which was agreed to replace the von der Tann, has recently been outfitted at the Wiesel shipyard in Bremen. It is equipped with ten 15-inch guns of the same model as the Bavaria-class, and all major performances are close to or equal to the Bavaria-class of the German Navy.

Compared to Natsuki's first visit 12 years ago, Constantinople today has a lot of modern touches, from the lifting equipment at the port docks, to the tram tracks that run through the streets of the city, as well as the clothes worn by the residents and the goods in the shop windows, all of which show the wonderful changes of an ancient country into modern civilization. However, the spring of the dead wood in Ottoman Turkey was not due to political changes or economic reforms, but to the emergence of this new tyrant due to only one thing: oil.

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the industrial exploitation of oil was mainly concentrated in the United States and Russia, and the most productive oil fields at that time were in Baku, at the eastern end of the southern slope of the Caucasus Mountains and on the coast of the Caspian Sea. The oil produced here not only fully satisfied Russia's industrial needs, but also brought huge profits to Russia. For a long time, the Russian government largely relied on oil revenues to cover the deficit in the treasury and thus maintain the shaky rule of the Normanov dynasty.

During the war, the Russian and Turkish armies fought in the Caucasus, and the Russians invested fewer troops than the Ottoman Turks, so they were on the defensive most of the time. The Ottoman army had made very limited progress before the German army was freed up to join the front, but by the time the armistice was signed in Minsk in 1916, the German-Turkish forces had occupied all of the Russian-dependent areas south of the Caucasus Mountains, and the German and Ottoman flags were flying over the city of Baku. According to the armistice agreement, Baku, which was located on the armistice line, was jointly administered by Russia, Germany, and Turkey, and the rest of the oil produced from it was delivered to Germany and Ottoman Turkey as war reparations, and Ottoman Turkey sold most of its oil income. At the same time, the Ottoman Empire reaped a large transfer fee for the vast majority of its oil exploitation rights in the Persian regions occupied by German and Turkish troops. Because of oil, the economically embarrassed Ottoman rulers became rich almost overnight, and the commissioners of the royal family, the government, and the army visited various countries with graceful clothes and luxurious postures, and the magnanimity and boldness of the shots were completely lost from the embarrassment of a few years ago.

This time, Natsuki came to visit as the king of Ireland, and as soon as he and Charlotte came ashore, they received a generous gift from Sultan Mehmed V, and the hospitality they received during their stay in Constantinople was also extravagant, which made the newlyweds, accustomed to a simple life, feel uncomfortable.

Natsuki's friend Fatih Pasha still shoulders the post of chairman of the Ottoman Naval Commission, with his matchmaking, coupled with Natsuki's usual flexible hand, in just a few days for Ireland to get a lucrative order equivalent to tens of millions of marks - the Ottoman Navy decided to order a 6,000-ton standard light cruiser from Ireland, they did not have any special requirements in terms of weapons and equipment, but proposed that the officers' living room should be spacious enough and the dining room facilities should be complete enough, As well as the interior furnishings of all cabins are pre-finished in Turkish style.

Because of the good bilateral relations and close personal contacts, Natsuki expected that the visit to Ottoman Turkey would be a relaxed and enjoyable trip, and the itinerary turned out to be pleasant, but the mood was not light. The history of the Ottoman Empire is marked by wars and killings throughout its ages. In modern times, it has been repeatedly bullied by foreign powers, its territory has been shrinking, and even the small countries in the Balkans have united to carve up its territory, which makes people feel a kind of sigh that the tiger has fallen into Pingyang and been bullied by dogs. The target of its active attack this time is not the small neighboring countries, but Russia, which has been pressing itself for more than 200 years!

After the end of the war, the Caucasus Mountains became the border between Russia and Turkey. In order to occupy a favorable situation of attacking and retreating on this new border, since the armistice, the Ottoman army has been moving continuously in the Caucasus mountains, and they have successively built dozens of new outposts, and upgraded some of them into fortress stations, where artillery is deployed, and many Russian outposts and even towns and villages are placed under their own guns, and some strongholds built in dangerous positions have crossed the armistice line agreed by the two sides. The Russians were so demoralized in the war that they chose to swallow their anger at first, but then they couldn't bear it anymore and repeatedly lodged diplomatic protests to no avail, so they began to resort to countering violence with violence. At the beginning of 1918, fierce military friction broke out between the Russian and Turkish armies in the Caucasus mountains, with casualties among soldiers on both sides, and the garrison troops were tense and almost caused the disaster of war, which was finally terminated under the mediation of Germany.

Now that the revolution in Russia had taken place, the Romanov dynasty had been overthrown, and the new Provisional Government lacked prestige among the people and the army, the Ottoman ruling class decided that the time had come to step up its military deployment in the Caucasus mountains, and even sent troops to occupy two seaside towns on the eastern side of the southern Caucasus Mountains, adjacent to the Black Sea, under the pretext of protecting the Turkish diaspora.

The news of the revolution caught the Russian soldiers stationed on the frontier at a loss, and instead of forcefully blocking the Turkish army's advance as before, they blindly withstood the retreat. But Mehmed V and his ministers were not satisfied, they actually developed greed for the North Caucasus, as if in their eyes, the polar bear with sharp teeth and claws was no longer sick, and the bear's paws and bear skins were cut by the king, and there was absolutely no resistance at all.

The North Caucasus region has developed agriculture, rich mineral deposits, and newly invested in industrial exploitation of oil fields, which can be said to be a treasure land of sunrise gold, which is indeed very attractive, and through the sale of oil and the transfer of exploitation rights, the financial situation of the Ottoman government has been greatly improved in the past two years, military investment has increased a lot compared with before the war, and several elite troops have been forged in successive wars, without the help of the German military advisory group, the Ottoman army can carry out a large-scale occupation operation in the North Caucasus, However, once Russia completes the regime change and the situation is stabilized, it will definitely claim back these areas illegally occupied by the Ottoman Turks, and even take retaliatory military action - even if the Turks are temporarily spared due to the situation, they will definitely find an opportunity to repay the humiliation of today, and it is still unknown whether the Ottoman army will be able to withstand the heavy blow of the woolly bear.

For Natsuki's euphemistic reminder, the Ottoman rulers did not take it to heart at all, and the Guards Regiment with the Star and Moon Banner on a red background drove out of Istanbul, and countless people greeted each other, and everyone was ready to vomit out the evil anger they had suffered for more than 200 years.

Natsuki was not worried about the fate of the Ottoman army and even the ****** empire, but he was concerned about what kind of impact the changes in the international landscape would have on his country. After leaving Constantinople, the "Cu-Chulin" returned to the Mediterranean, sailing as planned to the Suez Canal, and then into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. During the voyage, Natsuki suddenly heard the news that the Russian Soviets had replaced the overthrow of the Provisional Government and seized power by force. Counting on the numbers, the meeting with Nicholas II was less than three months away, and the Soviet revolution was proceeding faster than expected. The abdicated Tsar and his family were exiled to Siberia as they have been in history, and they may not be able to escape their tragic fate, and with the current international situation, it is almost certain that Russia will fall into a civil war, but those who support the old aristocracy against the Soviet power have been replaced by the Central Powers led by Germany.

Now that Germany has a strong military and shares a land border with Russia, it may be possible to carry out large-scale armed intervention against the revolutionary regime. From this point of view, the Ottoman Turkey's invasion of the North Caucasus is just the right time, and in the future it may echo the German army and advance to the Russian hinterland, and the short-term benefits are worth looking forward to, but at this time Russia is no longer the rotten empire under the rule of Nicholas II, the outbreak of the revolution is the result of the long-term development and consolidation of the Bolsheviks among the grassroots workers, after the overthrow of the Romanov dynasty, the Soviet power has been established in most parts of Russia, and replacing the Provisional Government is like an autumn wind sweeping away leaves, Such a Russia, although still very weak, is difficult to defeat.

For the monarchs, the real horror of the revolution was not that it spread like a plague, but that they did not govern the country well, and that the discontent of the people, especially the lower working people, had already provided a breeding ground for revolutionary ideas, and that it would not be possible to rely on military intervention and violent suppression alone, just as the beggars' organizations grew or weakened.

(End of chapter)