Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 215 The Pasha of Baghdad
In June 1613, when Western European countries were preparing for a war, in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, in the Sultan's palace.
"I, the servant of Allah, the Sultan of the Empire, Ahmed I, hereby appoint you, Ibrahim Ali Sokoli, as the Governor of Baghdad and grant you the title of Pasha."
"I accept this position with honor, my Sultan. I will devote all my loyalty and talents to you!"
After the brief appointment ceremony, the time traveler returned to his home with a heavy face and quickly met his father in this life, the current Grand Vizikumar Sokoli.
The Sokoli family is a top political family in this country. Their ancestor, Mehmed Sokoli, served as Grand Vizier for fourteen years. After Suleiman the Magnificent, he continued to lead the Ottoman Empire's army to expand everywhere, incorporating Cyprus, Georgia, Tunisia, Yemen and other places into the empire's territory for the first and last time. After him, the largest territory of the Ottoman Empire in the historical plane was just the addition of Crete on the basis of what he had laid.
He also planned to build two artificial canals, one of which was the famous Suez Canal, and the other was a canal connecting the Don River and the Volga River. The significance of the former is self-evident. If the latter was realized, the invincible Ottoman navy at that time would be able to appear in the Caspian Sea through the Volga River, and bypass the western Iranian plateau through the Caspian Sea and directly enter the hinterland of Iran!
Unfortunately, this forward-looking opinion was not implemented.
Limited by many objective factors such as the large number of ethnic groups and complex religious situations in the ruled areas, and the great differences in the economic and cultural development levels of various regions. The Ottoman Empire implemented a military aristocratic fief system. In other words, the state granted a piece of land together with the peasants on this land to a certain officer. In times of war, this officer was responsible for relying on the output of this land to recruit corresponding soldiers and lead the army to fight for the Sultan. Legally speaking, this piece of land cannot be inherited, and an officer is not allowed to own fiefs in multiple places. The Ottoman Empire, which relied on this system as the foundation of the country, had to expand everywhere to gain more land and people to maintain the prosperity of the country. Using a large amount of manpower and material resources used for military expansion to build canals? This is contrary to the foundation of the empire.
Therefore, even someone as strong as Mohammed Sokoli, who can openly overturn the decision of the current Sultan, will end up with regrets for the rest of his life.
However, no matter what , the Sokoli family was an extremely powerful political family in the Ottoman Empire. Although the position of Grand Vizier was not hereditary, only five or six years after the death of Mehmed Sokoli, another member of the Sokoli family ascended to the position of Grand Vizier.
"Dad, why the Pasha of Baghdad? Didn't we agree at the beginning? I want to be the Pasha of Egypt!"
"Oh, my Ibrahim, I knew you would be angry. I agreed to go to Egypt at first, but who would have thought that the war situation in Baghdad was already so terrible? At this time, as the Grand Vizier of the country, I must put state affairs first. Therefore, I must send my extremely intelligent son to save our country's precarious eastern front. This is what I must do."
"Dad, the Persians may seem very powerful now, but their national strength is limited. They will never pose a fatal threat to our country. On the contrary, the Habsburgs are our mortal enemies! I asked to go to Egypt to be a Pasha for the long-term future of the country."
"Hahaha, my good son, don't be angry. Going to a rich place like Egypt to be a Pasha is something that many families dream of. You are only thirteen years old this year. Although your father is the Grand Vizier, he cannot ignore the reactions of other dignitaries. Baghdad is different. Although that place is also very rich, the Persians have won many times in a row. Now no dignitaries in Istanbul are willing to go there to be a Pasha. If you go there, you can not only play to your strengths, but also easily make achievements and establish a career, and it will not cause dissatisfaction among other dignitaries. On the contrary, they will praise me, your father, for being selfless and make concessions on the policies that you want to implement. You see? How good is it? When you catch Abbas and bring him back to Istanbul to present your victory to His Majesty the Sultan, let alone the Pasha of Egypt, it is not impossible to immediately succeed your father as the Grand Vizier."
Although he was very dissatisfied, Yiplash knew that the result could not be changed.
The Ottoman Empire, which had been strong for more than 200 years, was now increasingly facing a bottleneck. The national policy of the military fiefdom system determined that the country had to expand continuously in order to develop. But now the country's expansion has reached its limit: in the west, European technology has gradually surpassed the Ottomans, and the Poles and the Habsburg royal family have both resisted and even fought back against the expansion of the empire. In the east, the Safavid dynasty on the Iranian plateau was in its heyday, and the great ruler Abbas I defeated the previously invincible Ottoman army many times. The Armenia and Azerbaijan regions that the empire previously controlled have been lost. The Baghdad Governorate still exists, but many places within its jurisdiction have been taken over by the Persians.
Therefore, the cessation of expansion naturally led to the unsustainability of the military fiefdom system. What's worse, the world was already in the Age of Exploration at that time, and Europeans expanded their trade routes to the sea. The Ottoman Empire, which was once known as the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa, suddenly became sluggish in commerce. In addition, the Spaniards obtained a large amount of silver from the Americas, and then this silver flowed into Europe, causing currency depreciation, and the Ottoman economy suffered a heavy blow!
The sluggish economy and military, coupled with the de facto abolition of the Sudanese succession law - although the country still maintained a certain strength by relying on past inertia, people of insight clearly felt that the sun of the empire had begun to set!
As for the Sokoli family, they were only rulers, not sultanates, and this position could not be inherited. In fact, many Ottoman nobles were waiting to see the Sokoli family make a fool of themselves: if the situation on the Eastern Front was irreversible, the Grand Vizier of the Sokoli family would have no choice but to step down in disgrace, right?
Therefore, the current Grand Vizier had no choice but to send his twelve-year-old son to Baghdad for a last-ditch effort: if he could not repel or even defeat the attack of the Safavid Dynasty, his family would decline! In a situation where many nobles could not trust him, this son who had been extremely intelligent since childhood was his only support.
"Huh~" After a long sigh, Yiplash said helplessly: "Okay, Dad, I'm going to Baghdad. So, what support can you give me?"
"Haha, this is my fearless son. Well, I will give you all the 3,000 new soldiers you trained in our manor. In addition, I will give you 20,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 500 Sipahis (similar to European knights). As for artillery, I will also give you all the 20 cannons that you personally supervised to build."
"Where's the money and food?"
"Hahaha, my son, you are going to the East to fight against those shameless heretics in Persia who have abandoned their faith and dared to ally with the Habsburgs. You don't have to worry about money and food. As the Grand Vizier, your father will make sure you have enough!"
"We have formed an alliance with the Protestant countries in Europe to fight against the Habsburgs... In short, when it comes to national interests, all ethnic groups and religions must take second place."
After secretly complaining in his heart, Yiprahin finally had a smile on his face: "Okay, my father, then I will go to meet Abbas. Before I leave, I have one last suggestion."
"My clever son never fails to offer advice, you say."
"Dad, please tell the current Hayreddin and Kaptem Pasha in advance that a war is about to break out in Western Europe. If necessary, our navy needs to intervene to help France resist the Spanish attack."
"Well, my son, it is a tradition of our Sokoli family to make life difficult for the Habsburgs."
Hey... helplessly looking up to the west, Yiplahim felt sad: Richelieu, Aziz, you have to work hard! If you can't stand the Spanish twins this time, my life will be difficult!
But he quickly cheered up again: Abbas the Great! It would be interesting to have a great leader like this for me to fight with!
