In early 1686, after the end of the Great War I in Istanbul, which shocked Europe, the Ottoman peninsula in Asia Minor, which had initially developed into the Ottoman Empire, was temporarily formed into a ruling parliament to consolidate the remaining power of the Ottoman Empire after the Ottoman Empire's upper echelons were charred along with Istanbul.

It's just that the Ottoman Sultan didn't expect that the Battle of Istanbul would end at the beginning, and none of the royal family members could escape, and all of them were burned to ashes, so there was a fault in the center of power in the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which was absolutely fatal in the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which was centralized and integrated with religious and secular power!

Because of the vast territory of the Ottoman Empire, the officials and soldiers suddenly found themselves without their nominal most effective loyalists......

The most important thing is that those local military commanders and generals have lost the power constraints from the Ottoman Empire!

The huge Ottoman Turkish Empire simply could not find a person qualified to lead the entire empire in a short period of time!

So, of course, careerists surfaced.

In recent years, the prestige of the Ottoman Turkish Empire has repeatedly fallen under the blows of the Taiping Army, and the ethnic contradictions in the Azerbaijani region on the eastern border of the Ottoman Turkish Empire have been constantly attacked.

After Hong Tiancheng razed Istanbul with such a wave of indiscriminate bombings, it was equivalent to resolving Azerbaijan, which had made the most noise about ethnic contradictions.

When the news of the total annihilation of the Ottoman royal family reached Azerbaijan after the destruction of more than 300,000 troops in Istanbul, it is not surprising that Azerbaijan, which often revolts on weekdays, is like a volcanic eruption, and a large number of tribes conquered by the Ottomans took up arms and rushed into the Ottoman cities without a fight!

In just three months, Tabriz, the supreme capital of Azerbaijan, declared its independence!

It was not the Ottoman regime in Tabriz that was overthrown, but a general in Tabriz who joined forces with the rebellious tribal warriors to slaughter and expel the Ottoman officials and establish himself as king!

Immediately after Tabriz declared independence, the whole of Azerbaijan fell into chaotic anarchism, and the rebel armies of various tribes raised their banners and were bustling.

Usually to this point, the Ottoman Turkish Empire will send troops to suppress it, and the suppression will often be successful, anyway, the Ottoman Turkish Empire has done this kind of thing many times.

There are few ethnic regions that were conquered by the Ottomans, after all, the Ottoman Turkish Empire was a slave state!

However, now that even the Ottoman-made peninsula in Asia Minor is facing the peak of the Taiping army, where is the ability to suppress the wave of uprisings in the eastern border province of Azerbaijan?

Even, the Ottoman high-level in Asia Minor was arguing about the question of surrender or peace!

No one knows what Istanbul has become known better than the Ottoman high-level leaders in Asia Minor who did not have the English Channel to intercept the Taiping army, and they never wanted to face the same fate as Istanbul!

Although some people raised the question of whether the Taiping army's bombing of that level could really be used indefinitely, this voice was quickly silenced by other arguments: even if the Taiping army could not use that level of bombing, would the Ottoman army in Asia Minor be able to hold off the Taiping army's artillery and machine guns?

There is only one in Istanbul!

The most important thing is that the surrender conditions offered by the Taiping Army are very generous!

If the Ottoman armies in Asia Minor were willing to surrender, not only could they retain their previous structure, but they could also retain their official positions, allowing them to have a great deal of autonomy, equivalent to an independent vassal.

With such good conditions, the Ottoman high-level leaders in Asia Minor really couldn't find a reason not to surrender, because surrendering he was just a nominal master......

The reason why Hong Tiancheng was so tolerant and did not send troops to directly occupy the entire Ottoman Turkish Empire was simply - insufficient logistics!

The road conditions of the Ottoman Turkish Empire are worse than those in Europe, and the local ethnic composition is much more complicated, Zhang Juzheng has already explained to Hong Tiancheng in detail, relying on the current logistics and transportation capacity, it is simply not enough to supply the war in Asia Minor, the Armenian Plain, the Mesopotamian Plain, Syria, Palestine, the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Tripoli, Tunisia, Algeria, Azerbaijan and other places, not to mention the Persian Sassanid Dynasty attacking Central Asia!

Unless, the Taiping army stabbed all the way with bayonets......

According to the gap between the sea transportation capacity of the Taiping Army and the land transportation capacity of the Taiping Army in this era, Zhang Juzheng listed a detailed table, if you step on the corpse of the Ottoman Turkish Empire all the way from the land, lay down Central Asia, cross the Indian Peninsula, sweep through Southeast Asia, and enter the Manchu Empire, which has just been unified, even if you build another 10,000 military trucks, it will not be enough!

And, first of all, every time the Taiping army laid down a piece of territory, it had to build a road for several years before military trucks could drive through, otherwise they could only rely on manpower and livestock transportation!

This is undoubtedly a nightmare for the Taiping army, which is extremely dependent on ammunition supplies.

The Mongols were able to sweep across Eurasia because they used sabers and war horses, and most of their supplies stayed at the level of food!

If a modern army wants to fly from land to Eurasia, it may not be difficult in the 21st century, but in the 17th century......

Let's wash and sleep......

With that energy, it is better to engage in more efficient sea freight!

Shipping is good, there is no need to consider complex geographical landforms of various shapes, let alone build roads, as long as the ships are large enough, as many supplies and troops can be transported over!

Ocean technology was already well established in the 17th century, Europe had already explored global shipping routes, and the Portuguese sailed to the Manchu Empire!

The Dutch even occupied a large island (Taiwan) there as a stronghold, and the Strait of Malacca became the backyard of Europeans......

If you want to fight the Manchu Empire from land, it will take a year to build logistics and transportation routes just in the Asia Minor Peninsula, not to mention the Central Asian countries where the road conditions are getting worse and worse!

But by sea, at most a year, the fleet will be able to reach the coastline of the Manchu Empire!

With such a clear and unambiguous table comparison in front of Hong Tiancheng, how should he choose, and should he still consider it?

He has a total war system, but the total war system can't open a portal for him to travel through the past!

What Hong Tiancheng needs most now is not the territory, but the population, the population with real centripetal force!

Why is Hong Tiancheng's rule in Europe so difficult, and is it not because of racial incompatibility?

Even the rule of different ethnic groups often leads to riots, not to mention different races, and the reputation of the Taiping Army has been rotten in Europe......