28 March 1726, Istanbul.

In the past 100 years, the Ottoman Empire has undergone several rounds of social changes, the reason for which is that after successive defeats at the hands of enemies that they despised, in order to survive, the national crisis caused by the impact of Europe was taken as an opportunity, thus setting off the curtain of the historical process of social change, and under the banner of reform, it had to import a large number of advanced weapons from Qi State, and at the same time, at the military and economic level, it also hired some advisers of Qi State, and no matter how reluctant, It was also necessary to allow the introduction of all the new ideas and systems that formed the basis of the modern state and army.

In addition, as a model of oriental civilization, the Han continent provided the Ottoman Empire with many secularization theories that could be selected by others, such as religious freedom of thought, patriotism, scientific theory, and nationalism, all of which deeply influenced the scholars, diplomatic envoys, and military attaches of the Ottoman Empire who went to explore the oriental civilization.

Over time, these ideas and observations from the East collided violently with European civilizations, and there was a path to change in the Ottoman Empire, which gave new impetus and direction to the Ottoman officials, and led to a series of social changes and revolutions.

The political alliance for social change in the early Ottoman Empire was relatively weak, and it did not widely mobilize the active participation of all segments of society, relying only on a few enlightened figures in the last years of the heyday.

In addition, the social and economic environment of the Ottoman Empire was also relatively poor, which was manifested in the relative lack of resources, backward science and technology, underdeveloped industry, serious official corruption, and extremely poor international business competitiveness.

In particular, the traditional culture of the True God Religion, with its tenacious vitality, plays a two-way function. Some of its elements, such as antiquism, cultural centrism, pan-moralism, and theocratic traditions, advanced each other and formed a strong line of defense against social change in the Ottoman Empire. The other part of the content, such as the consciousness of change, the consciousness of self-improvement, and the people-oriented, combined with the early social changes in the form of direct or indirect forms, became an extremely important driving force for social progress.

From the perspective of the historical process of social change in the Ottoman Empire, in the early days, it was intertwined with Western culture, with learning from Western society as the main content, and was an inseparable part of the development process of modern society in the Ottoman Empire.

More than 60 years ago, with the rapid rise of Qi and the subsequent establishment of hegemony over the Indian Ocean, the Ottoman Empire couldn't help but look to the East, and began to learn from this quasi-ally, who had always supported itself, to learn from and refer to how they developed and grew stronger, and how to achieve a rich country and a strong army. Reflected in the ruling class of the empire, it was manifested as a series of attempts at social reform with oriental cultural overtones.

In the early social reform of the Ottoman Empire, the rulers of the Ottoman Empire tried to establish a well-trained and modernly equipped army and administrative institution through social change, learn from the advanced experience of Europe, and attach importance to science and technology that can produce modern weapons, and finally realize the plan of military, economic and political modernization based on European knowledge and technology.

However, several unsuccessful reforms not only did not restore the decline of the empire in the slightest, but in the face of the attacks of the European coalition forces, it was defeated again and again, and gradually lost its military superiority over European countries, so that the empire was in a strategic defensive posture in an all-round way.

Later, the rulers of the Ottoman Empire began to try to turn to Qi, bringing in teachers and schools from Hanzhou, and sending a small number of foreign students, mainly military, to Hanzhou to study language, science, and politics, and they set up translation bureaus to translate books from the East. The end result of this was the creation of a new class and a new social class in the Ottoman Empire that were modernly educated and pro-Oriental.

It should be emphasized that the social reforms of the early Ottoman Empire had great limitations. It was primarily intended to respond to the challenges posed by the European countries and the threat posed to the interests and position of the ruling circles of the empire, rather than to alleviate the social pressures accumulated by the long period of feudal theocracy and to develop the national industry in an all-round way.

In other words, this kind of reform is utilitarian, not institutional, whether it is learning from Europe, or from the exploration and borrowing of Han Zhou, only to learn their advanced utensils, not to learn the other party's social system. The height of this thought, in turn, determined the height of social reform in the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, the social changes in the early Ottoman Empire had inevitable limitations.

Reflection is often a by-product of a disaster. Whenever a major military defeat was along, the Ottoman statesmen always had a lot of reflection, always commenting on the decay of the empire and the incompetence of the army with unrelenting frankness.

In particular, after the defeat in Belgrade, the loss of a large amount of European territory caused many people with lofty ideals in the empire to learn from the pain and make a lot of discussions, and made some people in the ruling group of the empire realize that it is difficult to revive the Ottoman Empire with only the glorious traditions of the Ottoman Empire and the true god civilization.

Historically, the Ottomans had learned and imitated some of the advanced technologies of the West in military and navigation, and they also borrowed from the West in the fields of natural sciences such as geography and medicine. However, their ability to learn and absorb gradually declined after the 15th century as their territory expanded, especially in terms of social values and cultural innovation.

In this century, despite the military support and assistance of the Qi state, the gap between the Ottomans and the West is wider than ever. That is to say, on the one hand, there is a gap between the Ottomans and Europe in science and technology, culture, and psychology, and the gap between them is concretely manifested in the political, economic, scientific and technological progress in Europe, and the development of rational concepts, while the Ottomans are relatively stagnant.

On the other hand, the two sides had close military, diplomatic, and commercial contacts with each other, which was manifested in the fact that European countries could establish troops on the borders of the Ottoman Empire, and that Europeans could exert increasing political and economic influence within the Ottoman Empire not only with the help of maritime transport and wealth, but also with the help of trade treaties.

Social reforms in the history of the Ottoman Empire can be divided into early and late periods according to the main content of the reforms. The early reformers of the Ottoman Empire were mainly concerned with the weaknesses within the empire that had been exposed by the decay of the institutions of the glorious era, so their reform practice was only focused on the past, and they tried to restore those institutions to their original state, that is, to restore the old ruling order of the past and revive the glory that the Ottoman Empire had lost.

For example, Sultan Murad IV, who ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1646, and the Grand Vidzi Mohammad Koprulu, who ruled from 1656 to 1661, were armed with the broadsword of the executioner and the confiscation of ill-gotten property.

However, with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the war with the European alliances, especially after the signing of the Treaty of Karlovice in 1699 and the humiliating treaties of Basharowitz in 1718, the Ottomans saw the military superiority of Europe from the defeat and the lesson, gradually realized the urgency and importance of modernizing the army, and began to turn their attention to the East for social reform.

Therefore, it can be assumed that the social reforms of the late Ottoman Empire were initiated from attempts to modernize the army. For example, the fact that the Ottoman Empire suffered two humiliating defeats at the hands of Austria and Russia, and the fact that Qi quickly rose from a small and weak state to defeat the Dutch and the English in succession, quickly rose to become the hegemon of the Indian Ocean, and easily won the war against the Mughal Empire.

Thus, after Ibrahim came to power in 1718 and became the Grand Vizi, in June of the same year he presented to Sultan Muhammad III a copy of the paper on the need for military reform to catch up with the development of military technology in Europe and to carry out an attempt at social reform.

He first ordered the establishment of imperial consulates in Jianye, Daxing, Linzi and other cities of Qi in 1719, and appointed Chelebi Muhammad, a famous statesman who was keen on the social reform of the Ottoman Empire, as the ambassador with plenipotentiary powers, and led a large delegation to conduct an all-round investigation and study of Qi State, requiring him to study in detail the measures of Qi State concerning civilization and education, and to report in a timely manner the contents that can be applied to the social reform of the Ottoman Empire, one of which is very important. It is the military school training system of Qi State.

As early as 1708, Zhang Zhaoxun, then the head of the Qi State Staff Corps in the Ottoman Empire, once proposed to the central government of the empire a plan to establish a foreign soldier officer corps in the Ottoman army, but to no avail. In 1715, the state of Qi suggested that the empire send more military students to Hanzhou for further study and further study, so as to effectively master advanced military concepts and combat methods.

After taking office, Davizi Ibrahim immediately put the above-mentioned proposal, which had been vetoed by his predecessor, on the agenda, and soon put it into practice, and four groups of more than 300 outstanding young officers went to Hanzhou by boat. At the same time, in the imperial army, there are more professional soldiers of the Qi State serving as the chief officer of the army, and no longer just as an ordinary staff officer.

Some officers who had studied in Hanzhou made a comprehensive analysis of the Qi army, as well as the training, organization, discipline, combat methods, and military laws of these troops, and clearly pointed out that the superiority of the Qi army lies in their well-trained, strict military discipline, and mastery of more advanced weapons, so the Ottoman army should learn from them in an all-round way, which is the only way and an important means to get out of the predicament.

During this period, one of the major non-military reforms of the Ottoman Empire during Ibrahim's reign can be regarded as the adoption of the printing press.

As we all know, as early as the middle of the 8th century, the True God Cultists had embraced Chinese papermaking and passed it to the West through the Silk Road, promoting the development of True God culture and Western Christian culture, but they had turned their noses up at the printing press, which was closely related to the progress of human civilization, and had always rejected it.

They believe that the printing of true theological books is detrimental to its sacredness. Thus, for a long time, the prohibition of the use of printing became a tradition in the true god state, despite the absence of any credible religious inscriptions to support it.

During this period, whether it was the Eastern continent or the Western countries of Europe, the printing industry was already quite developed, and all the documents and books of the Ottoman Empire had to be copied by hand, and its speed and efficiency were obvious, which was extremely incompatible with the requirements of the development of the times.

In order to change this backward situation, the central government of the Ottoman Empire decided to adopt the advanced printing technology of the Qi State, but in view of the strong opposition of religious conservatives and scribes in the empire, it was forced to impose many strict restrictions on the scope of printing technology. For example, the general decree issued by Abdullah, the Imam of the Cult of the True God of the Empire, stipulated that the use of printing was limited to the printing of Turkic books on subjects other than those of the Cult.

In June 1722, Sudan ordered the establishment of the first printing office in Turkic in Istanbul, the capital of the empire, and published various books in Turkic under the guidance of Qi technicians.

Although the adoption of the printing press was conditional in the Ottoman Empire at this time, it marked the great progress of the Ottoman Empire in terms of social civilization through reforms. In particular, once the printing press was adopted, it showed its great superiority and tenacious vitality in promoting the social reform of the Ottoman Empire, and had a great impact on promoting the transformation of the traditional values of the Ottoman Empire.

During this period, in the process of learning and communicating with the East, Qi also had some subtle influence on the culture of the Ottoman Empire and the life of Duhui. The upper class of the Ottoman Empire became enthusiastic about drinking tea and enjoying the cabaret performances of oriental theater.

For the Qi scholars who traveled in the territory of the Ottoman Empire, they vied with them to invite them to have extensive exchanges and discussions, and they were even fascinated by the oriental landscape ink paintings and oriental-style architecture. The construction of oriental-style parks, the use of oriental-style furniture, and the imitation of oriental interior decoration became an alternative fashion in the imperial court circles.

Even Sutan Muhammad III himself built a palace outside his palace gate, which at first glance is an oriental classical style palace. In order to learn more about the Orient and learn from it, many important officials of the empire during this period were sent to Han as envoys to investigate the culture, institutions, science, and technology of the Qi Kingdom, and to see what valuable things could be used by the Ottomans.

After they returned to China, they all reported on the scientific research, industrial production, and even the prosperous market culture of Qi in a tone of almost approving curiosity and surprise.

After the Battle of Belgrade, the Ottoman Empire belonged to a period of relative peace, and those attempts at military and social reform with modernity, with the influence of Qi and the help of those hired Qi people, brought some life to the military and social life of the Ottoman Empire.

Last year, however, the Austrians abruptly broke the contract signed between the two sides and launched a brazen invasion of the Empire, interrupting the ongoing reform process.

While the Empire was mobilizing more troops to go to Wallachia to engage in an armed confrontation with the Austrians, Istanbul was still in a state of singing and dancing, Sultan Mehmed III was busy with the upcoming spring celebrations (i.e., Tulip Celebrations) in the Grand Saraquirio Palace, Grand Vidzi Ibrahim was pondering which officials would pay too few tributes and mercilessly replaced them, and the soldiers of the Janissaries (Ottoman Guards) in the city were dismissed. Hook up shoulder to shoulder and go to some underground tavern to vent wildly.

And behind this glitz, there is a deep crisis, and a huge conspiracy is also brewing and fermenting. Countless people are getting agitated, tired of this disturbing change, and trying to change it.

In the night, a young Janissary officer stood outside the gate of the Qi State Military Staff Corps for a long time, and his heart was in a fierce struggle. Finally, he gritted his teeth and walked into the door with a resolute expression, finding the head of the Qi State Staff Committee.

"The Janissaries are planning a coup d'état, they want to kill the Grand Vizi and depose His Majesty Sudan."

The Janissaries officer held a cup of hot tea in his hand, looked up at several Qi officers present, and said with a worried face.

——

(End of chapter)