Alexandria. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

What was once a hub of trade between East and West has long since transformed into a humble city with a population of less than 10,000.

"Ladies and gentlemen."

In a very inconspicuous house, Chen Ping said with a wine glass.

"We are so far away from Egypt that it would take months for our speedy ships to sail here, and we are separated by a vast sea and two whole empires, and we have no idea of the land here, we just want a shipping lane, a shipping lane that will allow our merchant ships to sail away from the Cape of Good Hope and directly into the Mediterranean. We don't need you to invest a penny in this canal, you only need to provide the workers, and we will pay you directly for the workers, and in the end it is not up to us how much you give them.

After the canal was opened, we collected half of the tolls.

The canal company will give half of the profits to the future kingdom of Egypt, as for how you distribute it, this also has nothing to do with us, we pay for the canal, we pay for the maintenance of the canal, we also give you half of the money we earn, is there anyone more generous than us in this world? ”

Then he added.

Of course, after digging the canal, whether the Ming army will hang the ropes in front of him and dry them together, there is no need to say this kind of thing.

'But we need to bleed!'

In front of him, a beard with a large wrap on his head, wearing a silk robe, and a small scimitar pinned to his waist, said.

A dozen of the same bearded men near him looked at them with blank expressions.

These were the Mamluk warlords, or the Beys everywhere, who were in control of Egypt, and Ahmet III, the titular ruler of Egypt, had only one governor in Cairo with 5,000 troops. But these beys ruled their own cities, and in these cities they were the masters, and the whole of Egypt was divided into twenty-four provinces, a total of twenty-four beys, and these people were the descendants of the slave legions of the past. At first, Mamluk was a slave, but as they grew bigger, they even reached the point where they could be bullied by slaves, and of course it was impossible to do anything anymore, and eventually these people multiplied and became military aristocrats.

Native Egyptians who were not descendants of slaves were not eligible to join the group.

Although the Ottomans had conquered Egypt two hundred years earlier, they had to tolerate the continued existence of these Mamluks because they were too capable of fighting, and the price to pay to eliminate them far exceeded the benefits that the Ottomans could gain from Egypt, and it was better to appoint them as local officials and then collect taxes from the empire. In this way, despite the demise of the Mamluk dynasty, the Mamluks continued to live at large, controlling almost all the farmland in Egypt through the tax system, and continuing to oppress the native Egyptians. In the end, they gradually overthrew the governor appointed by the Ottoman Emperor, that is, the Pasha, and even worse, they often killed the Pasha and elected the Pasha themselves, and even the Pasha they elected came to fight the rebellion on behalf of His Majesty the Emperor......

Well, the emperor who is rebellious or not rebellious does not say it counts.

Even His Majesty the Emperor had to accompany him with a smile and beg him to receive supernatural powers!

Well, the man's name is Muhammad. Ali.

"Bloodshed? Of course, you have to pay if you want to get it, Mudrabeyi, is Mamluk now afraid of bloodshed? ”

Chen Ping said with a sneer.

"Watch your words!"

Mudra snapped.

"There is no free lunch in this world, if you want to get it, you have to pay, if you want to get the wealth of tens of millions of silver coins every year, then you have to exchange it for blood, if you don't want to shed blood, then be an honest spectator, tomorrow I can leave for Istanbul, I believe that His Majesty the Ottoman Emperor will like a business that can bring him tens of millions of silver coins every year."

Chen Ping said with a sneer.

"Your Excellency, with what you have done in the East, do you still think that Istanbul will welcome you?"

The other Bey sneered.

"In front of 10 million silver coins, nothing is impossible, let alone 10 million silver coins a year, and faith has to retreat in the face of wealth, don't you believe it? Would you like me to give it a try? But have you ever thought about what it means to you if I succeed? Egypt will be garrisoned not by 5,000 imperial guards, but by 50,000, what is the reason for your good days? Isn't Egypt not valuable enough for Istanbul to focus the emperors there? But ten million silver coins a year, I think that's worth enough, so, from the moment we planned to dig this canal, you were doomed to bleed.

It's just that one streams meaningfully.

You can exchange your blood for a fortune of ten million silver coins, and ten million a year, and then each of you can live in luxury like the Sultan of Istanbul, and you can also have a fully established state, restore the glory of the Mamluk dynasty, and even bring the whole of North Africa under your feet.

But the other one flowed meaninglessly.

With our help, the Ottoman army will easily destroy you, and then decapitate you and all the people in your family one by one, and hang them on banners to dry.

And we won't have anything to lose, we can still get our canals. ”

Chen Ping said.

In silence, he continued: "Now everything is very simple, cooperate with us, you will get our help, you will get more rifled guns and rifled guns, and then you will easily defeat the Ottomans." If you don't cooperate with us, then we will go with Istanbul, and then you will have to face more rifled guns and rifled guns, and the Ottomans will easily defeat you. So which one would you like to choose? ”

The Beys were silent.

They know very well that the sultan of Istanbul will not refuse a huge fortune of tens of millions of silver coins a year, although it is a bit exaggerated to say that 10 million, but three or five million is estimated to be no problem, and it is still three or five million silver coins a year, to be honest, it is really useless in front of so much gold and silver. So far, Istanbul has only verbally banned Ming merchant ships from entering the Red Sea, and in fact no action has been taken at all, and those Ming merchant ships can not only still dock in Basra, but even the port of Jeddah will not refuse them. The Ottoman merchants still traded with the Ming merchants at will, buying all kinds of goods from them and selling slaves and horses.

In the face of tangible benefits, faith is really useless.

But if they choose to cooperate with the Ming, then they will have to make a big gamble, a big gamble that will stake their lives and the entire Mamluk class, they need an uprising against the Ottomans, if they win everything and if they lose everything they lose.

But if they don't choose to cooperate with the Ming Dynasty, Ahmet III will definitely not tolerate it, a canal that can bring him millions of silver coins every year, but it is controlled by a group of people he does not trust, as Chen Ping said, at that time, the imperial guards stationed in Egypt were not 5,000, but 50,000, and Ahmet III would unceremoniously sweep them into the garbage heap.

The Beys couldn't help but smile bitterly.

However, at this time......

It was like the thunder before a summer rainstorm, and a series of dull loud noises suddenly entered this small room.

"Where's the sound of the cannon?"

Mudra exclaimed subconsciously.

Everyone, including Chen Ping, was awakened by this sound, and then rushed out and climbed onto the roof as fast as possible, looking at the sea in the distance, and almost all the roofs around were like them, and soon they were full of people watching the excitement, and the direction of their eyes was focused, three battleships with British flags were billowing smoke and rushing westward, and there was even a large battleship with three decks.

"It's the British interceptor fleet!"

Mudra immediately recognized their identities.

Suddenly, the sea was blazing, and one of the British battleships was shattered in a huge explosion, turning into countless burning pieces of wood and rising into the sky, but the other two battleships did not even stop, and continued to flee westward at full speed, as if a group of monsters were chasing after them.

"It's a French battleship!"

Suddenly, a Bey with a telescope shouted.

Indeed, it was the French battleships, and in the distance on the sea, four of the same large battleships were riding the wind and waves, and through the telescope the flair of the fleur-de-lis, representing the Bourbons, could be seen flying high on the mast.

"Apparently the Mediterranean has changed owners!"

Chen Ping said indifferently.

Indeed, the Mediterranean changed masters, and with a ship of rifled guns and white phosphorus shells that had been brought back to Toulon with great difficulty, the French fleet under the command of the Count of Tauraus finally broke out of the harbor that had been dormant for many years, and in the naval battle inflicted heavy losses on the Anglo-Dutch fleet led by Admiral Xavier. In the three-hundred-meter battle line duel between the two sides at sea, although the British still smashed the French battleships with their flowering shells, it was a pity that the French could turn their battleships into blazing torches with a single shell. In the decisive naval battle between England and France outside the port of Toulon, the British smashed ten French battleships, while the French reduced a full twenty Anglo-Dutch battleships to ashes.

Just as the Anglo-Dutch fleet had beaten the French fleet to the Touloon port, the current French fleet has also blocked the Anglo-Dutch fleet in Gibraltar and could not retreat.

"So, now we can trade as much as we want."

Two hours later, De. Count Weir said proudly standing in front of Chen Ping.

Behind him were ten French merchant ships waiting to be loaded.

And in the distance, the four French battleships were quietly moored.

The British warships that were fleeing westward were originally patrolling outside Alexandria to prevent the French from continuing to buy arms from the Ming Dynasty, and the first batch had already been sent to the port of Toulon because of the speed of information transmission. In order to prevent Louis XIV from continuing to obtain new weapons from Yang Feng, the British cruised here with six battleships, and in the naval battle not long ago, the French sank four with the loss of two battleships, and the remaining two were wounded and fled, and the route to France was already unimpeded.

As for the Ottoman Navy......

The latter ignored all this, and the bloodletting of Europeans was also a cause for Ahmet III to celebrate, especially when France's enemies were still his mortal enemies, and he would have been more than happy to see Yang Feng give arms to Louis XIV.

He pretended not to see everything.

"That's really good news."

Chen Ping said with a smile.

He still hoarded several ships of arms in the port of Suez, and the Ming cruiser fleet is still parked there, and Ahmet III refused to allow the Ming merchant ships to enter the Red Sea just to warn Yang Feng, but compared with Yang Feng giving Mamluk some arms by the way, he actually expected Yang Feng to give more arms to the French.

So that he could watch with great pleasure as the Austrians bleed.

Therefore, although he nominally forbade those Ming merchant ships to enter the Red Sea, in fact he pretended not to see anything at all, after all, compared with religious feelings, practical interests are the most important.

The Javanese who were killed by Yang Fengtu only believed in the same gods as him, and they did not pay him a penny in taxes.

Of course, the main thing is that he can't manage it if he wants to.

Although the Ming army sailed into the Red Sea is only a cruiser fleet, but it is not the Ottoman navy in the east can compete, in fact, this fleet is easy to destroy the Ottoman navy in the east, and the five thousand guards of Egypt are stationed on land, and the Bey who can't stop the port of Suez opened the door to welcome the Ming fleet, the latter has relied on trade with the Ming Dynasty all these years to live a rich and rival life, if His Majesty the Emperor does not allow him to do it, he may really make an irrational reaction.

So the Ming merchant ships, laden with goods, still sail the Red Sea unimpeded, bringing spices, sugar, cotton, silk, porcelain and all kinds of luxury goods to the ports of Jeddah, Aqaba and Suez.

Of course, there is also something that is becoming more and more popular.

Cigarette.

Real cigarettes.

Standing on the background of the French battleship in the distance, Chen Ping took out a cigarette case with a camel pattern on it, took out a white cigarette roll from it and put it in his mouth, then took out a lighter and lit it, took a beautiful puff and said with a smile: "Everyone, this is the reward for being our friend." ”

The ad worked really well.

Everyone knows that a few years ago, the French Navy was beaten into a dog by the Anglo-Dutch fleet, and there were no French ships to be seen in the entire Mediterranean. In the same way, the Ming arms can allow Louis to complete the counterattack, and naturally it can also allow the Mamluks to fight against the Ottoman Empire, and now it is time to make a decision, whether to drink wine and eat meat in the future or continue to crawl and tremble at the feet of the Ottoman emperor, only a simple choice is needed.

Mudra and the other Beys looked at each other. (To be continued.) )