Ottoman, Istanbul.

The Royal Palace of the Grand Saraquillio, on the top floor of a minaret, overlooking the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus.

The Ottoman Grand Vizier, Fer Chak, was kneeling on the ground, waiting for their guests with Sultan Mahmud II.

They were notorious traitors in history, with Algeria being occupied by France, Tunisia becoming independent, Greece becoming independent, Serbia becoming a state within a state, Egypt's Muhammad Ali becoming independent and conquering Syria, and Wallachia and Moldavia becoming Russian protectorates.

The crushing defeat of the Eighth Russian-Turkish War, the fiasco of the First Turkish-Egyptian War, the fiasco of the Battle of Navarino, the crushing defeat of the Greek War of Independence, and the overwhelming unequal treaties firmly nailed them to the pillar of shame in history.

The Treaty of Winkar-Iskelesi contained a secret clause stipulating that Turkey would blockade the Dardanelles Strait and not allow warships of any other country to pass through if Russia demanded it, making the Ottoman Empire a watchdog for Russia.

They had a lot of agreements with European countries, and Europeans could enjoy a variety of privileges in the Ottoman Empire.

However, these two men were in fact the forerunners of the Ottoman reforms, and even the Kemal reforms of later generations borrowed from the reforms of Mahmud II.

As soon as Mahmud II ascended the throne, he took out the Guards, one of the main culprits in the turmoil in the Ottoman Empire.

Once the Ottoman Guards were the backbone of the Empire, they are now the most formidable enemies within the Empire. They are against all reforms, and they are strong enough to prevent them, and they cannot be reformed without destroying them.

The Ottoman Guards also once killed, the father of the former Sultan Mahmud II, who had learned his father's lesson and made adequate preparations for the complete elimination of the Guards.

When the Ottoman guards turned the camp pot upside down again, they also pronounced their own death sentences.

The camp pot is upside down, which means rebellion.

The Ottoman Guards intended to rush into the Colosseum again, as they did in 1807, and then marched murderously to the Sultan's palace, demanding the heads of the Sultan's reformist ministers and repeating the old drama of the mutiny.

However, Mahmoud was not his father, and the walls of the Grand Saraquirio Palace were filled with new artillery and heavily loaded soldiers.

In just half an hour, this army, which has made Europe and the world tremble for five centuries, has come to an end.

Then there is the drama that the Ottoman Empire has been playing out for hundreds of years - massacres.

Mahmud II completely wiped out the remnants of the Guards and the Ulema system, which had been in league with the Guards for centuries.

Mahmud II, who eliminated the Guards, was in high spirits and immediately began to reform the army.

Instead of choosing an Anglo-French instructor, Mahmud II chose a young lieutenant of the Prussian Army, Helmut Karl Bernhardt von Moltke, as an adviser to the Ottoman Army.

This young lieutenant was the "old Moltke" who later became famous in Europe.

Later, the Ottoman Empire and Prussia also exchanged cadets and officers for exchange studies, and the Ottoman Army moved towards the road of Prussianization.

Mahmud II abolished the backward tima system and the tax package system, and greatly strengthened the centralization of power and Ottoman fiscal revenues.

At the same time, Mahmud II also promulgated a new legal code that abolished clerical authority and encouraged industry and commerce.

Beginning in 1824, the Ottoman Empire began to implement compulsory education, restored many closed universities, and sent students to Britain, France, Prussia and other countries to learn advanced culture and technology.

Austria had a feud with Russia and the Ottomans, so it did not send students directly.

In addition, he founded two military schools, the Ottoman Academy of Military Sciences, modeled after Napoleon, and the Imperial Conservatory, which specialized in training drummers and musicians.

Mahmud II even followed the example of Peter the Great, objected to the beards of his ministers, and gave heavy rewards to those who were willing to cut off their beards, abandoned the traditional Ottoman robes and wore Western-style military uniforms and breeches, and even invented the fez hat in order to change the Ottoman habit of tying turbans.

The fes, a felt hat in the shape of a cylinder, usually carries a string of tassels, if a soldier or official has a crescent moon embroidered on it.

After 1834, Mahmoud II reinstated the ambassadorial system and founded the first newspaper in the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Monitor.

After the defeat of Muhammad Ali in the First Turkish-Egyptian War, Mahmud II quickly rebuilt the Ottoman navy and even built the Mahmoud, the world's largest sail battleship at the time.

It also followed the example of the West in establishing arsenals, developing new types of guns and cannons, and encouraging the development of industry and commerce.

However, as Mahmud II's reforms deepened, he encountered increasing resistance, and some orders encouraged the magistrates to revolt, and even sent people to assassinate the Sultan and his important ministers.

At the same time, with the introduction of Western ideas and the increasing national crisis of the Ottoman Empire, the national consciousness of all ethnic groups in the country also began to awaken.

The complexity of the Ottoman Empire's domestic ethnic problems was not inferior to that of the Austrian Empire, especially because of internal and external troubles, which made Mahmud II's reforms difficult.

Several orders within the Celestial Sect also openly opposed Mahmud II's reforms, as they touched the interests of too many orders.

Although the Ottoman Empire was repeatedly defeated in international wars, the common people only felt that the Sultan was incompetent.

The people still looked down on Europeans very much, and some even paid high prices for white slaves to enhance the prestige of the Ottoman state.

In the eyes of the Ottomans, Albanians = stinking water sellers, Dutch = cheesemongers, French = unfaithful guys, Austrians = blasphemous pagans, Russians = crazy pagans, Englishmen = fools who don't believe in gods, Italians = descendants of slaves, Spaniards = lazy pigs, Poles = arrogant pagans.

With the Austrian Empire to the west and the crazy Russians to the north, these two countries made the Ottoman Empire have had to shed blood on the frontier for hundreds of years.

The first thing every tsar does when he takes office is to start a Russo-Turkish war.

The Austrian Empire, on the other hand, has always regarded the Ottoman Empire as a major problem, although there has been no large-scale war between the two sides, but the small friction has never been interrupted, and the provinces adjacent to the Austrian Empire are all negative areas for the Ottoman Empire.

Britain and France have been digging into the corners of the Ottomans, Greece, Algeria, is their masterpiece.

And now the British Foreign Secretary Palmerston has claimed to protect the Egyptians in the Ottoman Empire and is ready to establish a state for them.

Palmerston's plan was like this: people, everyone out, land, Ottoman out.

Mahmud II was eager to cut off the infidel and throw him into the Red Sea to feed the fish.

Within the Ottoman Empire, there was also Muhammad Ali, the black sheep.

"Am I a sinner?" Mahmud II asked.

"No, you are the greatest Sultan in the world, and I am willing to follow you to the death." Fair Chuck replied.

"No, I want you alive! I may not be able to witness the day when the Ottoman Empire will re-emerge, but you must assist my descendants in continuing my reforms. Revive the Ottoman Empire, and one day kill all the infidels and build our world. ”

(End of chapter)