"What, the Ottoman army is going to carry out another military coup d'état?"

Feng Quanlin, the minister of Qi to the Ottomans, was shouted from his bed at three o'clock in the night by Guo Yunhan, head of the military staff corps stationed in the Ottoman garrison and general (lieutenant general) of the army, hurriedly put on a silk pajamas, and came to a secret room of the legation. After listening to Guo Yunhan's narration, he immediately stood up from his chair in shock.

"Is the information reliable?"

"The message should be reliable." Guo Yunhan said in a deep voice: "At 9 o'clock yesterday night, a Janissaries officer who had studied in our Qi country rushed to the station of our military staff and secretly reported the incident. Some of the staff officers in the Janissaries also noticed that there was a movement in the army, and some of the generals began to distribute weapons and ammunition to the soldiers, and yesterday they went to the city's armory, asked for artillery, and claimed that they were going to conduct a live-fire exercise. However, our entire staff group did not receive any instructions for the exercise at all, and several of the main generals of the corps lost contact with each other yesterday. They were either killed by the soldiers who plotted the coup d'état, or they were placed under house arrest in a military camp, and it can be said that by this time the whole Janissaries were already in a state of leaderlessness. ”

"Who is the principal?" Feng Quanlin took a deep breath and asked softly.

"It should be Patrona Khalil, the commander of the Third Army, well, a senior general of Albanian origin." Guo Yunhan said: "According to the information from all sides, we can preliminarily confirm that he may lead the officers and soldiers of his department to set off a rebellion tomorrow, no later than the day after tomorrow, and involve the entire officers and soldiers of the Janissaries to participate in the uprising. They are ready to kill the Grand Vizi in order to scrap the ongoing military reforms. ”

"We must find a way to stop this man's mutiny in order to maintain the hard-won reforms of the Ottoman Empire." Feng Quanlin paced back and forth in the room, with an anxious look on his face, "Our Qi Army's army in Persia is confronting the Russian army in the Caucasus, although it has repelled the Russian army's advance several times, but it is recruiting a large number of reinforcements in the country, trying to start a large-scale battle with us in the region. Half a month ago, it was difficult to persuade their Sudan and Grand Viqi to requisition the Crimean Khanate to attack the Russian rear in order to relieve our military pressure in the direction of the Caucasus. In addition, teaching the Venetians a lesson also required a strong contribution from the Ottoman Empire. If there is a mutiny, deposing Su Dan, and then killing Da Weiqi, we will not talk about what we are planning, that is, it will cost a lot of useless time and money to establish a relationship with the new Su Dan and Da Weiqi in the future. ”

After the administration of the Grand Vidzi Ibrahim, the social and military reforms were in full swing, and the declining Ottoman Empire was revitalized.

In the first step, he lowered the consumption tax on more than 100 kinds of goods, including tobacco, coffee, tea, hardware, sugar, oilseeds, soap, and glass, in order to restore the country's broken economy and people's livelihood. Previously, because of the war, the tax on these commodities had tripled, driving up the overall price, and the common people were miserable, and it was time to abolish it.

Subsequently, he negotiated with the people of Qi and obtained a loan of 1.5 million yuan, which slightly stabilized the country's ruined financial situation. He also partially exempted the people from the exorbitant taxes owed during the war, so that the peasants dared to return to the land, the merchants dared to return to the market, and the economy of the whole country began to slowly recover.

Economic reform is certainly difficult, but with determination and ability, it can be carried out in a truthful manner. But the reform of the army is different, this is definitely a forbidden area for the previous reforms of the Ottoman Empire, and even a minefield of death, if you are not careful, something big may happen!

But Ibrahim was brave enough to take the famous Janissary legion first with the support of Sultan Muhammad III.

He checked the payroll rolls of the troops, dismissed a large number of officers and soldiers who were unable to perform combat duties, and then recruited a large number of hard-working peasants from the impoverished Anatolian plateau to replace them. In addition, the original system of conscripting craftsmen to serve in the army for temporary service has also been abolished, because there is a large amount of fraud in it, and many so-called craftsmen basically do nothing, and they are purely paid empty salaries.

As a result of these drastic reforms, the total number of the Janissary Legion, which had swelled to 65,000 men in previous wars, fell sharply to less than 30,000 men, almost half of its number. However, the combat effectiveness of the regiments that have been dismantled has increased instead of decreasing, because of the original 60,000 people, it is said that only about 10,000 or 20,000 can really fight, and the others are all waving their flags and shouting to make up the numbers.

The Spacy cavalry was also reorganized, a large number of unqualified personnel were eliminated, and unpaid officers were executed or exiled. Ibrahim asked Sultan to exempt the Spasy cavalry from many taxes, giving them the financial means to recruit retainers and squires. The recruited retainers and attendants were gathered and handed over to Sanjak Beyi for training, during which the expenses were paid by the government.

Ibrahim also specifically demanded that officers of all ranks of the Spathy cavalry not be dismissed for soliciting bribes, a practice that had been so common over the past century that it had been repeatedly rectified but had always been revived.

Ibrahim is also trying to rebuild a weakened navy. Like artillery, this is a relatively modern branch of the army, and the ties with the Qi people are very close, many officers have studied in Hanzhou, and on the whole it is much stronger than the dull army, but it is significantly inferior to the surrounding Venice and the Russian navy (Russia has a crack fleet in the Caspian Sea).

Ibrahim used Crete as collateral to borrow one million yuan from the United Commercial Bank of the Mediterranean in Qi, and in addition to customizing several cutting-edge sail warships from Qi, he also took out part of the funds to reach a joint venture agreement with the Northern Shipyard of Qi to build a new shipyard in Istanbul, and hired a large number of Qi shipbuilding engineers to prepare to build a large number of sail warships suitable for the actual sea conditions of the Mediterranean, so as to replace those increasingly outdated oar-powered warships.

The planned naval fleet will be divided into sub-fleets, each managed by a bey, who will be responsible for commanding the ships under his command, ensuring that everyone receives a salary, receives professional and rigorous training, and that each ship has sufficient supplies of arms and supplies, thus solving several difficult problems that have plagued the navy for decades.

At the strong suggestion of the Qi people, Ibrahim agreed to the creation of the General Staff of the Combined Fleet, and several of the main assistants, senior generals, and chiefs of staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Navy entered this body. Under them, naval affairs were organized by a multi-tiered chain of command, the buying and selling of official positions was strictly prohibited, all vacant positions had to be selected on the basis of merit and experience, and the former parachuting of a layman from another system to serve as a senior officer was no longer permitted.

Finally, Ibrahim Davizi also strengthened the management and elimination of civil officials in the court. For incompetent and stupid officials, as well as officials who were only living by family background and background, the government, after paying them a third of their salaries, ordered them to go home to retire, and young and capable and highly trained officials and scribes were added. He demanded that every government document or decree issued by these officials in the future should be strictly distributed to the specific executive departments and recorded and archived for future affairs evaluation. In this way, we will completely change the loose and procrastinating efficiency of the previous government.

From here, we can see that Ibrahim Davizi's reform efforts are still relatively large, and Qi's advisers also praise him for his unstinting words.

Of course, through this vigorous reform, Qi also gained a lot of benefits from it.

Ibrahim Davizi was confident in the success of the reforms, believing that if the country's merchants, peasants, and intellectuals supported him, as well as the officers and soldiers who received full salaries and pensions, the reform would satisfy everyone and his reputation would be revered by future generations.

But he forgot that the conservative class, corrupt military officers, and aristocratic officials, whose interests had been touched, hated the reforms he was promoting, and rallied against him.

No, the ruffians who are dissatisfied with the reform of the army are going to start manipulating their best tricks again - to launch a mutiny, get rid of this enterprising and reform-insisting on the great viqi, and even His Majesty Su Dan who is standing behind him, they will not let go, and intend to depose him after the success of the mutiny, and support a more "wise" Su Dan.

Speaking of which, it is also speechless. Whenever the Ottoman Empire had a slight improvement in its national situation, it began to toss and turn, either by mutiny in the army, or by usurping power in the court, wantonly depleting the country's already small vitality. If you mess around like this, sooner or later the Ottoman ship will sink yourself, and then I'll see how all of you will be rescued ashore!

"I'll go find Davizi at once." Feng Quanlin instructed the servants to prepare the carriage immediately, and he was to go to Ibrahim's mansion overnight to inform him of the mutiny, so that the brewing conspiracy could be extinguished in advance, "Your military staff must stabilize the entire Janissaries army tomorrow and prevent it from starting early. ”

"Minister Feng, are we going to get involved in the internal affairs of the Ottomans?" Guo Yunhan smiled slightly, and said in a low voice: "You have to think about it, if we get involved, no matter whether we succeed or fail, it will definitely arouse the jealousy of the Ottomans." ”

"So what?" Feng Quanlin took the coat sent by the servant, put it on his body, and shook his head and said: "Not to mention that the Ottomans owe us a debt that our Qi State can never pay off, with their declining state and almost no allies, do they dare to bark their teeth on our Qi State?" ”

——

(End of chapter)