I also know that I have taken it for granted, since Selim dares to send his son to Daming, he will definitely prevent Daming from using this son to disrupt the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire, so that little guy named Murad may only be an ordinary person in Daming.

A few days later, Zhou Zhong convened the cabinet again in Wenyuan Pavilion to discuss the construction of the Suez Canal with the Ottoman Empire, from the perspective of the Ming Dynasty, in order to build the canal, the Ming not only provided technical officials, but also had to pay half of the construction cost, and in exchange for only the Ming merchant ships through the canal, only need to pay seventy percent of the tax, this condition on the surface, it seems that the Ming Dynasty suffered a loss, but in fact it is not.

The Suez Canal is related to whether the Ming Dynasty can directly trade with Europe, so the economic interests represented by this canal can be said to be very huge, as long as the canal is dug successfully, then the Ming merchant ships can directly reach Europe, at that time can not only break the Portuguese monopoly on the trade between the East and the West, but also can make the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade rise to a higher level again, which represents a huge profit is simply unimaginable.

It is precisely because of the above reasons, so the opening of the Suez Canal for the Ming Dynasty, means another huge financial route, but also broke the Portuguese naval blockade, and when the Portuguese can no longer get huge profits from the trade between the East and the West, the national strength will definitely plummet, and then it will become very difficult to maintain a huge navy, and even force the other party to have to cut some navy, which is naturally a huge good news for the Ming Dynasty.

It can be said that the Suez Canal represents huge economic benefits and military significance to the Ming Dynasty, so Zhou Zhong will not hesitate to contribute money to help the Ottoman Empire build this canal. This was also unanimously supported by the Cabinet. After all, the expansion of the Ming Dynasty's maritime power in recent years. Not only to make the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade more prosperous, but also to rely on the support of domestic industry and commerce, otherwise only relying on the Ming Dynasty and surrounding countries, it is impossible to digest so many commodities produced by the Ming Dynasty.

After reaching an agreement with the cabinet, Zhou Zhong immediately began to prepare the water conservancy officials and the cost of building the canal, which was not very urgent, because the Ming Dynasty needed to send its own water conservancy officials to inspect and measure the entire canal together with the Ottoman officials. Finally, an approximate cost is estimated, which will take at least one or two years, and then the two countries will begin to allocate manpower and property to carry out the real construction of the canal, and this canal is estimated to not be repaired in one or two years, so the cost of construction is also allocated year by year, so that the annual cost is nothing to the Ming Dynasty.

A month later, the Ming mission led by Jiao Huangzhong finally arrived at the port of Guangzhou in the south of the Ming Dynasty, and at the same time. All the water officials of the Ming Dynasty have also been put in place, and these people have all volunteered to go to Egypt. Of course, this is not to say that these people are of noble quality, but because Zhou Zhong gives a very high remuneration, as long as these people can preside over the completion of the Suez Canal, then the imperial court will not only give them a generous salary every year, but also be rewarded with knighthoods afterwards, which is simply an irresistible request for an official, so many water conservancy officials of the Ministry of Industry are rushing to go to Egypt, and it is a big deal to fight for this life, and also to earn a title for the wife and children of the family and the title passed down from generation to generation.

This time, the Ming Dynasty sent a total of thirty technical officials, most of them are experienced water conservancy officials, the leading official is named Zou Tong, who has presided over the cleanup of the Yellow Sea and the Huai River before, but Zou Tong is almost sixty years old this year, and he has already explained the future in advance, after all, it will take at least seven or eight years to build a canal, or even longer, with his age and the long distance, God knows if there is a day when he will not come back?

After another period of time, the fleet led by Jiao Huangzhong finally came to Tianjin Port, this time Zhou Zhong in order to show the grandeur, specially went to Tianjin Port to greet him, in addition to this time with Jiao Huangzhong came back, there is also a small envoy group of the Ottoman Empire, this envoy group first wants to visit the Ming Empire, and the second is to let the Ming Dynasty stamp the emperor's jade seal on the Suez Canal Treaty, and when they leave, the water conservancy officials led by Zou Tong will also go to Egypt with them.

For these envoys from afar, Zhou Chong also expressed a warm welcome to them on behalf of Zhengde, and he also secretly picked up the child Murad, although it is impossible for Daming to use the other party to disturb the political situation of the Ottomans, but he can have a good relationship with Selim, so for Murad's future arrangements, Zhou Zhong also made corresponding arrangements.

Originally, according to Zhou Chong's plan, Murad would be arranged to live in Beijing, taken care of by the servants he brought, and even if the other party was interested, Zhou Chong would arrange for him to enter the Guozijian to study, but what Zhou Chong didn't expect was that Jiao Huangzhong would establish a deep relationship with Murad, but this is just right, and Jiao Huangzhong should study with such a disciple, and the effect should be stronger than that of Guozijian.

In the end, Zhou Zhong arranged Murad's residence next to Jiao's mansion, which also facilitated the movement of their master and apprentice, and Jiao Huang Zhong made such a great achievement, Zhou Zhong finally had a reason to promote him, so after cabinet discussion, Jiao Huangzhong was temporarily promoted to the Ministry of Rites, although the position of the Ministry of Rites is relatively idle, but Jiao Huangzhong is in charge of diplomacy, in recent years, with the expansion of the Ming Dynasty, there are more exchanges with the outside world, diplomacy is one of the functions of the Ministry of Rites, so Jiao Huangzhong's position is also very important, The status is similar to that of later foreign ministers.

The number of Ottoman missions was not large, after all, Selim did not expect to meet the Ming delegation in Damascus, so he only sent a few people in a hurry, and there were some guards, but the gifts were very rich, such as Damascus knives, and a hundred were given out at once, which was a lot of wealth in Daming.

This Ottoman mission did not stay in Beijing for too long, firstly, Zhengde was not here, and it was impossible for them to rush to Liaodong to meet Zhengde, and secondly, Zhou Zhong could also replace Zhengde to stamp the jade seal on the treaty, so that the treaty was officially in force, and those technical officials of the Ming Dynasty were also ready to leave at any time.

So in this case, the Ottoman delegation stayed in Beijing for about half a month, and then went on the road with the technical officials led by Zou Tong, rushed to the port of Tianjin, and left Daming again by boat. Although the Ottoman envoys did not stay in Daming for a long time, they finally had an intuitive understanding of Daming.

In the eyes of the envoys of the Ottoman Empire, the Ming Dynasty is indeed one of the most powerful countries in the world, not only the territory is vast, from south to north it is almost a month to walk by boat, and the ports are also very prosperous, industry and commerce are also extremely developed, these are stronger than their Ottoman Empire, and when they see the capital of the Ming Dynasty, they are also amazed by this huge city, even if they Istanbul, I am afraid it cannot be compared with this city.

Of course, these are the economic strength of the Ming Dynasty, as for the military aspect, it cannot be seen on the surface for the time being, but they also know that the Ming Dynasty is at war with the Tatars of the Mongol descent, and His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty personally led the troops and defeated the Mongols one after another, so it can be seen that the military aspect of the Ming Dynasty will definitely not be weaker than them, after all, the Ming Dynasty also has an emperor who attaches importance to military affairs.

Compared with the Ottoman envoys who only observed the Ming from the economic and military aspects, Murad, a ten-year-old child, and also had a more comprehensive observation of the Ming Dynasty, and even from the moment he entered the Ming Dynasty, Murad was full of strong interest in the Ming Dynasty, everything here is completely different from the Ottoman Empire where he grew up, especially in terms of religion, it is very free, coupled with delicious food and exquisite clothes, which make the young Murad fascinated.

When Murad entered the capital, he had his own mansion, and when he was at home, he was the master, and no one had the right to control him anymore, especially those servants who came with him from Ottoman, and he would no longer forbid him to do anything as before, which made Murad feel a sense of freedom.

However, Murad did not lose himself in this freedom, the harsh education he received before made him unwilling to waste time in this comfortable life, so he would learn from Jiao Huangzhong every day, although Jiao Huangzhong is now busy with government affairs, but Murad's foundation has been laid, and he has also learned a large number of Chinese characters, as long as he is assigned some tasks every day, Murad can complete it by himself, only when he encounters something he does not understand, he will wait until Jiao Huangzhong comes back to ask him for advice.

Jiao Huangzhong is also very concerned about Murad's disciple, not only because of his identity, but also because this child is smart and hard-working, such a disciple is very rare for every teacher, so Jiao Huangzhong also tried his best to teach, and he also knew that Murad had no one to care about since he was a child, so while he was acting as a teacher, he did not forget to care about Murad's life.

Time flies quickly, after Murad stayed in Daming for half a year, he is already very familiar with Daming, not only speaks Chinese very well, but also reads a lot of Confucian classics, which is already good among readers of the same age, which makes Jiao Huangzhong not only very happy, and even he is ready to let his disciple participate in the imperial examination when he grows up, maybe he can become the first Ottoman Jinshi of Daming, but at this time, Murad suddenly made a decision that Jiao Huangzhong did not expect. (To be continued......)