Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 572 The Prince’s New Teacher
"Zhongxian."
"The servant is here."
"I want to ask you, if you don't have the dividends from Red River Industrial, will you be greedy?"
"Well... Your Majesty, this question really asks me. After thinking about it carefully, I think I will accept the tributes from the eunuchs, the heads of the office, and the bannermen. But I will not abuse my power for personal gain, use false cases to blackmail, or even take money to commit corruption. After all, all of this is given to me by Your Majesty, and I am responsible to Your Majesty first. Under the premise of not delaying Your Majesty's work, it is necessary to get some benefits appropriately. After all, I also like fancy clothes and delicious food."
"It's good that you told me the truth. Well, you are right. Although I have always felt that as an official, since you enjoy such a high social status and various privileges, you can no longer seek a luxurious life. If you want that kind of life, just go into business yourself. But that being said, who lets officials have power? So it is impossible to completely eliminate the abuse of power for personal gain. Over the years, I have turned a blind eye to the use of public funds for eating and drinking, and the officials asking for favors from each other. As long as it is not too excessive, I don't want to care.
But! I cannot tolerate the use of resettlement funds and dam reconstruction funds. Officials colluded with Yangzhou salt merchants and allowed private salt to run rampant, which was also a serious infringement on honest salt merchants. Therefore, although Prince Xin has made officials in Huai'an and even the entire southeast miserable, and local gentry have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction, I will still support Prince Xin. "
"I understand. Your Majesty, please rest assured. I will select the best soldiers and generals to protect Prince Xin."
"Okay. Let's talk about Li Jia next. As I recall, Ci Yi is ten years old this year, right?"
"Your Majesty, the eldest prince was born in February , and will be ten years old next February."
"The children of the royal family must mature earlier. It is not wrong to tell him about the crown prince at this age. Besides, Li Jia did not encourage Ci Yi to have any inappropriate thoughts about the position of crown prince."
"Yes, I understand."
"Well, speaking of which, Zhongxian, it's been almost two years since you left for this trip. How are these two little guys? What do you think?"
With the sound of "thump", Old Wei, who had been able to laugh and laugh in a relaxed manner before, suddenly fell to his knees on the ground: "Your Majesty, how can you ask this kind of thing to me? This is forcing me to die."
"Hey, alright, alright, get up quickly and get out there and do your work."
This guy, is he being too cautious? I am not even thirty years old, and my body is immune to all diseases. I have not even considered the issue of the crown prince, okay?
"Your Majesty?" Fang Zhenghua's voice sounded from behind.
"What is it?"
"His Royal Highness the eldest prince has asked someone to ask the emperor, who will be Mr. Li's teacher after he enters Tibet?"
"Well, there's no rush. If I'm right, his next teacher will be back soon."
…
Thousands of miles away, Istanbul. The Ming Empire's Embassy in the Ottoman Empire.
A young man who was only about 1.6 meters tall, with a low forehead, big eyes, high cheekbones, a flat nose and dark skin, stood with his back to the main entrance of the embassy, facing hundreds of Ottoman Grand Vizier Guards who were neatly dressed, holding breech-loading rifles in their hands, and were generally over 1.7 meters tall.
“I will say it again!” Although the young man was not very good-looking, he had a resolute face and shouted in fluent Turkish: “This is the Ming Dynasty’s embassy. As long as there is a sun and moon flag on the mast, it is Ming Dynasty’s territory. I am responsible for defending the territory and will not tolerate you entering the embassy! If you dare to take another step forward, I will regard it as Ottoman declaration of war on our Ming Dynasty!”
Looking at the short but imposing Chinese man opposite, the leader of the Grand Vizier Guard, Aziz Sokoli, angrily hit his helmet hard with his hand.
It was November 3, 1627, and a year and a half had passed since Europe and Austria signed the armistice agreement.
After the armistice between Europe and Austria, the Ottoman Empire lost all its land in North Africa. But at least, except for Egypt, other places are mainly deserts, and the output is not very high. Therefore, for the entire country, a breath of vitality was preserved.
Facing the full force of the EU's 500,000 modern troops armed to the teeth, it was really not easy for the Ottoman Empire to retain its national vitality . Therefore, after the signing of such a treaty, Ibrahim guided the domestic public opinion a little bit, and still made most of the people and officials in the country accept this reality.
Not only that, because the Hayreddins, who were originally in a semi-independent state, lost Tripoli, they had to move their base to the Aegean Sea, and this semi-independent state disappeared. Then Ibrahim asked this group of North African pirates to cooperate with the Ottoman Navy, and dragged the Sipasis who had lost their land to the southern coast of the Black Sea to open up the black soil of Ukraine, and recruit domestic farmers to settle there. In this way, domestic conflicts were greatly eased, and the reputation of the time travelers actually rose instead of falling.
Moreover, Ibrahim was a material science major. After the end of the Austro-European War, he quickly opened up some daily chemical production technologies to some big businessmen in the country. In just over a year, Ottoman businessmen established factories producing celluloid products, various new clothing materials, building materials, etc. like mushrooms after rain.
Thanks to the bonus of Tianji Star, the arrival of peace has made at least the business in the Ottoman Empire quickly revitalized. In addition, because there were too many prisoners of war in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire made a lot of money after the exchange of prisoners of war between the two sides. So Ibrahim, who had money again, started the plan of the artificial canal connecting the Volga River and the Don River in the old Sokoli.
Of course, Sokoly wanted to use this canal to allow the Ottoman navy to sail directly to the Persian capital of Tabriz through the Caspian Sea instead of crossing the Iranian plateau. Ibrahim's plan to open this canal was to take advantage of the rich oil resources along the Caspian Sea.
Oil is not only a fuel, but also one of the basic raw materials for materials science. Without oil, a top student in materials science would be at least half useless. Therefore, internal combustion engines are still far away, but the construction of oil fields must be put on the agenda immediately.
As for why they didn't develop the oil fields in places like Iraq and Kuwait in later generations: there was no access to Suez, and even if there was, there would be no sea transportation without sea control.
In short, during the one and a half years of the armistice, the Ottomans made a full effort to advance northward, farmers and sipasis had land, factory owners had new products, and business quickly recovered. The whole country, except for some regrets about the lost land, actually showed a look of revival.
However, even when everyone is extremely satisfied, there is always someone who is dissatisfied.
Among the high-ranking officials of the Ottoman Empire, Richelieu was the most dissatisfied.
Your Excellency, the Grand Vizier, how could you do this? Back in Transcaucasia, you were busy building factories and studying technology all day long. I took care of the local people's livelihood and government affairs for you.
The Sultan's personal guard group wanted to take advantage of you, and I taught you how to deal with it. When you were on your way to Constantinople, I helped you connect with the Pashas of various places, and after you ascended to the position of Grand Vizier, you quickly stabilized the domestic situation.
In the European-Austrian War, I commanded the Jerusalem Corps to inflict heavy damage on the Spaniards. I also led troops to recover lost territory in the Balkans, and it seemed that I was about to push back to Vienna: as long as Vienna was taken, the entire European Union would fall apart - who knew that you would stop at such a critical moment!
Don't you know that my lifelong ideal is to restore France? How can I restore France if the EU is not dissolved? You stopped when the dawn of victory had already appeared. This is a betrayal to me!
A person who is obsessed with something is often hard to understand the difficulties of others: at that time, the Ottoman Empire was on the verge of collapse if it did not stop the war. It was clearly on the edge of a cliff, so how could it see the dawn of victory? Not to mention that if the European Union really collapsed at this time, Ibrahim, who had just ascended to the position of Grand Vizier and had not yet completed all his arrangements, would soon be attacked by the powerful people in the country.
Therefore, after this war, an irreparable rift developed between Ipragim and Richelieu, who had previously cooperated closely.
Once this rift occurs, it is almost fatal: as a time traveler, Yiplashin used to be a bit immature. Although he has been working in the political arena for many years and has grown a lot, he is still instinctively unwilling to do things like crossing the river and destroying the bridge.
So, at the beginning, although there was a rift between him and Richelieu, he still did not try to undermine Richelieu's power.
However, Richelieu controlled the civil power of the entire country. Which Ottoman official would not want such great power?
As a result, over the past year, all kinds of rumors and slanders against Richelieu have appeared one after another.
As the saying goes, "many words can melt a person's heart." Even though Iprahin was a time traveler, his attitude towards Richelieu changed due to the day-to-day slander.
Richelieu was such a smart man that he immediately realized that he was in a very dangerous situation. Then he made a quick decision: escape!
Where to escape? The EU? If he returned to Europe, Philippe's hypocrisy probably wouldn't kill him. But if he returned to the EU, how could he revive France? So, after a brief hesitation, he made a decision: escape to the Chinese Embassy!
Then there was the scene where Chen Zizhuang stood outside the embassy, facing the Ottoman soldiers alone.
Aziz Sokoli, the leader of the team, was a young man newly recruited by the Sokoli family. He wanted to kill Richelieu because this guy was ruthless and did not allow the Sokoli family to gain any benefits during his tenure as the head of the civil administration. However, this was the Chinese embassy after all. If he angered the Chinese ambassador here, what if the two countries entered a state of war?
So, facing Chen Zizhuang who was guarding the door alone, he didn't dare to do anything to this guy.
However, this confrontation ended on the third day.
On November 6, 1627, after finishing the inspection of the newly incorporated areas on the northern coast of the Black Sea, Ibrahim returned to Istanbul and conveyed a new order: After all, Mr. Richelieu has made great contributions to our family, so as long as he does not return to Europe, he can go wherever he wants.
After his order came down, Chen Zizhuang also took the opportunity to bid farewell to Yiprahin: Grand Vizier, everyone knows why I came here. But now it seems that your country will not be overthrown in the short term, and there is no point for me to stay here. My emperor has sent an order for me to return home, and our entire delegation has withdrawn except for some liaison personnel.
So, Zhu Youdong originally thought that only Chen Zizhuang was coming back, and was going to let him be the teacher of his eldest son. But unexpectedly, Chen Zizhuang also brought him a gift!
