Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.

Franz still quite liked this situation, although it seemed tense, but it was actually tentative and bluffing.

However, he was not prepared to play a game of hypocrisy with these people, Franz was ready to do something practical.

He prepared a great gift for both McGid and Nicholas I, while Canning, who was in London, shouted "stupidity"!

Canning had been British ambassador to Ottoman until he became undersecretary of foreign affairs, and even McJid was nominally a "master-apprentice" relationship.

But the former never expected that the "Sultan" he had carefully selected would actually take the initiative to contact the Austrian Empire and do such a stupid thing.

In fact, the reason why the Ottomans sent envoys to contact the Austrian Empire was, on the one hand, because Britain did not do a good job of exchanging information with his "allies", and on the other hand, the things that the world's number one-stirring stick did always gave people a sense of distrust.

At this time, the Ottoman Empire was constantly troubled internally and externally, and the reformers thought that McJid, the leader of the reforms, was not a human being inside and out, the reformists thought he was cowardly and incompetent, and the conservatives thought that he had betrayed his class.

In addition, the Order often leads the congregation to cause trouble, dealing with the Jews today, Armenia tomorrow, and heresy the day after tomorrow.

Almost all the international powers wanted to cut a piece of meat from the Ottoman Empire, the French took Algeria and Morocco, the Austrians took Tripoli, the British took Egypt, and the Russians took a lot of land.

Tripoli was still nominally Ottoman territory, but the governor appointed by Megid had been ousted, and the actual rulers were the Karamanli family, who were behind it by Austria.

The worse news was that Britain and Russia might join forces, and McGid had to prepare an alternative.

And there is another thing that bothers him at home, and that is local uprisings, especially in the Albanian region.

The reforms that McJid carried out are also known as the "Tanchmat reforms", and many of the principles are very good. For example, the establishment of centralized power to replace the feudal system, and the establishment of state financial institutions to replace the rotten Irticham system.

Abolish the feudal military armament of the past, establish a universal compulsory military service system, organize and train a new army, and so on.

But these reforms were completely changed at the local level, and they became the tools of the Pasha and the bureaucracy to accumulate money, and they did not touch the source of corruption.

With the abolition of feudal ownership, the Albanian landlords expanded rapidly, and when the local forces were disarmed, they became the real "tyrants", with complete control over taxes, laws, and security.

These landlords, who were both bureaucrats and capitalists, drove out the peasants, who had abolished feudal obligations, from their lands without any restraints.

And the fate of the mountain people is also miserable, although their land officials and lords do not look down on it, but there is always a way to make money.

Officials have made it possible for the mountaineers to pay not only a "blood tax", but also taxes that they did not have to bear before, such as the livestock tax.

The livestock tax was a poll tax for Christians in the Ottoman Empire, but traditionally mountain dwellers were exempt from other taxes as long as they paid a blood tax.

However, after the reform, the mountain people could not get money for paying the blood tax, and they were overwhelmed by various other heavy burdens.

Unlike the peasants who would only cry and grab the land and starve to death, many of the mountain people were generations of "military households" who did not lack fighting skills or courage.

At the same time, due to the relative backwardness of the mountainous areas, many areas still practice the patriarchal system or the patriarchal system, and these patriarchs and imams have very exaggerated influence, and they can even call on the people to rise up and directly confront the state.

In Kosovo in 1843, in Gegeria in 1844, and in Toskeria in 1845, there were three armed uprisings of tens of thousands of people.

The mountain people banded with the landless peasants to loot and kill the big landowners who were officials, and at first the rebel forces, led by the patriarchs and imams, attacked the local officials.

But as the scale of the uprising grew and the casualties continued to increase, after all, the big landlords had private armies, and the former was no longer limited to the disgraceful landlords and officials.

The rebel army would storm the homes of anyone who had a house to live in, lynch the men, take the women, and loot the goods.

Another version of what happened locally reached McJid's ears was that there were people who opposed the reforms and slaughtered progressives who supported them, even innocent people.

What makes people even more angry is that the people who convert to the "Heavenly Sect" are actually in collusion with those Christians, which is really despicable to the extreme, and it is simply unbearable!

McJid had initially sent people to suppress it, but the Ottoman army was too limited in combat power, and it was necessary to project force into the local areas with taxes and manpower.

At this time, the Ottoman Empire was boiling with popular resentment because of reforms, and there were uprisings everywhere, and it could not afford to pay for an expedition at all.

So McJid could only order the local officials and landlords to raise their own salaries and train the villagers to fight the rebels.

In fact, this method once again acquiesced to the feudal power of the big landowners, and even made it possible for them to go further, that is, to become a feudal town.

This dose of fierce medicine really worked, and many armed forces were instantly pulled up in the local area to defeat the rebel army one after another, and McGid even ordered a reward for this.

But he soon realized that something was wrong, that is, these rebels seemed to be unable to finish their work.

Seeing that the local power was growing stronger day by day, McGid realized that he was drinking to quench his thirst.

It's just that at this time, it's too late to think about the strong man's broken wrist, and the whole of Albania has become a rotten sore on the Ottoman Empire.

In fact, it can also be described as a corrupt tentacle that cannot be cut off, and it will only continue to erode the soul of the Ottoman Empire.

However, Franz was going to give McGid a gift, a sword that could cut off the tentacle.

Austria could help deal with the rebellious hill people in the north, while eliminating separatist forces that might be disloyal to the Sultan.

Macjid was unusually excited when he heard the Austrian envoy's proposal, Albania, although not a rich land, was still an important food producing area for the Ottoman Empire, and could contribute at least 2 million lire a year to the country before the rebellion.

(The Ottoman lira was a very volatile currency, roughly 30 to 1 to the pound, but it quickly depreciated with the Macjid's reforms.) ）

At this time, the Ottoman Empire's annual income was only 150 million Ottoman lira, which was not as much as one of the coastal provinces of the Austrian Empire.

"And at what cost?"

McJid knows very well that such favorable conditions must be accompanied by huge benefits, otherwise no one will take the initiative to take over this mess.

In fact, McJid even considered selling the province to Austria, after all, it was better to sell it and stop the loss than to rot in his hands and disgust himself.

(End of chapter)