Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 727: The Three Kingdoms of Chicken
"Welcome back to Istanbul, Your Excellency the Grand Vizier. Did your trip to Baghdad go smoothly?"
"It's OK. You know, I'm not very familiar with religious doctrines. Fortunately, the imams didn't make things difficult for me."
"Haha, you are being modest. Over the years, your new interpretations and developments of the doctrines have always been able to enlighten us. How can you say that you are not very proficient in the doctrines?"
On May 10, after nearly 20 days on the road, Ibrahim finally returned to Istanbul. His cousin, Aziz Sokoly, led a large group of Ottoman dignitaries to greet him outside the city gate.
The reason why Aziz took the lead was, of course, because two years ago, Ibrahim's father, the former Ottoman Grand Vizier, old Sokoly, had died due to age.
Compared with the stable partnership of Philip and Osvalles for thirty years, and the endless number of civil affairs experts around Zhu Youdong, Ibrahim has not been able to find a civil affairs chief that satisfies him completely since Richelieu left. It's not that there are no civil affairs experts in such a large country as the Ottoman Empire, but as a powerful minister, his range of choices is naturally too small.
Therefore, after the death of his old father, who he had never been satisfied with but was absolutely at ease with, he thought again and again and decided to promote his cousin Aziz to assist him as the chief of civil affairs. This cousin was far inferior to his father in terms of talent, but he was obedient and loyal enough, and was a very good tool.
Everyone gathered around him and he entered a palace in Topkapi Palace that was used exclusively by the Grand Vizier. After they sat down, Ibrahim said, "It took us nine months to go from Pakistan to Persia, then to Baghdad, and back to Istanbul. Tell me, how was our income and expenditure last year?"
"Yes." Aziz stood up. "In February of this year, the imperial government completed the calculation of last year's revenue and expenditure. In general, our income has increased significantly after obtaining Pakistan. Last year's total revenue reached an unprecedented 260 million. However, due to the expansion of the army, the construction of a new fleet for the navy, and the huge investment in scientific research, the government's expenditure last year also reached 240 million."
"Is that so?" Yiprahin bowed his head, and after the attendant behind him lit a cigarette for him, he indicated to the ministers present that they could smoke as they pleased. Then he said, "This income is not enough. You must know that our army's standing army is only 300,000 now. According to my idea, in order to ensure that we can respond promptly to any incidents in the vast territory of the empire, we must prepare at least 500,000 standing troops. At the same time, our current navy is still mainly composed of sailing warships, and daily training and maintenance of warships do not cost much. But in five or six years, when our navy is updated to an ironclad fleet, the daily maintenance costs will become a heavy burden on the treasury. Therefore, in the next five or six years, we must find ways to increase the national fiscal revenue."
"Sir." Aziz stood up. "There are two main reasons why the imperial government's revenue has not met expectations. The first is the ice age problem you mentioned before. At present, our animal husbandry on the Anatolian Plateau is still fine. But in the newly opened farms on the black soil of Ukraine, natural disasters are still very frequent in recent years. So much so that we have to use a large amount of reserves to buy wheat from Europe after reducing local agricultural taxes.
The second problem is the slow growth of commercial taxes. Although we have promoted steam engines to the public and are also raising funds to build thermal power plants, our merchants have to sell the products they produce. The plastic products that used to create a trade surplus for us can no longer be sold in Europe because the technology has been shared with the European Union. Although the Persians have a market of 20 million people, several big warlords there desperately squeeze the people in their jurisdiction and spend every copper coin to buy guns and cannons. Although our arsenal makes a lot of money, but...please forgive me for being frank, the little money earned by the arsenal has almost made more than 20 million Persians lose the ability to consume our light industrial products.
As for the newly incorporated Pakistan? Oh God, it's too far away. If you go by land, you have to cross the Persian Plateau where the war is endless . Yes, several big warlords in Persia never dare to attack our Ottoman caravans. But those scattered bandits and refugees don't care that if they annoy us Ottomans, they will be retaliated by us. This long journey and poor public security make our products have to be sold at a sky-high price in Pakistan to make a profit - but such a high price, few locals can afford it. "
Listening to Aziz's complaints, Yiplash smoked even more.
In the past, the Ottoman Empire had Egypt as its granary. Even so, historically speaking, it still required a considerable amount of labor to be invested in agriculture to ensure food supply.
But now, Egypt's big granary is gone. Industry and the military have taken away a large number of young and strong laborers. Ukraine's black soil was originally planned to be the new granary, but it was hit by the Little Ice Age...
In order to better control Persia, the Ottomans consciously supported four or five major warlords in Persia. However, as Aziz said, the warlords fought each other, and the country's arms sold well. However, the local market of more than 20 million people was completely sluggish.
"I see. That is, if we need to reverse all this. In addition to the agricultural aspect, which depends on God's favor, in terms of business, we need a stable Persia, right?"
"Yes, sir. Persia should restore peace and stability as soon as possible, so that the local people will have money to buy our products. Our engineers can safely and efficiently build the railway from Baghdad through Tehran to Lahore. In this way, Pakistan can be truly unified by us."
"Well, after you go down, choose one of the major warlords in Persia that is easiest to control and support him. Let him unify at least most of Persia and restore local order, so as to ensure that our engineers can smoothly build the planned Star-Moon Railway. Of course, you must also pay attention to protecting the remaining small warlords. Don't let the one who dominates the market wipe them all out when we are not paying attention."
"As you command, sir. We will report the specific plan to you as soon as we have selected it."
"As for building the Star-Moon Railway to connect to Pakistan, huh, I guess the Imperial Government doesn't have enough money, right?"
"Uh, I'm very sorry, sir. If we want to build the Star-Crescent Railway from Baghdad to Lahore, we absolutely cannot do it without 200 million. But the imperial government cannot take out this money now. We can only wait until Persia restores order and accumulate it slowly through the new tax increase provided by Persia."
"Time is the most precious thing to me. I can't wait that long for it to accumulate naturally."
"Well, sir, we really... You know, although the European market is not closed to us, they . Although the African market is small, we have also tried it. But on the other side of the Red Sea, our merchants have encountered all kinds of difficulties from the British and French there. As for the Russians on the East European plains? Ugh, they are too barbaric and too poor. I really can't think of anyone other than the Persians and Pakistanis who can quickly provide us with new profit growth points so that our merchants can pay more commercial taxes."
"Well..." After extinguishing the cigarette, Yiprahin waved his hand and asked his personal attendant to hand him a briefcase-like leather bag. Then he took out a thick book, which had become frayed due to repeated reading, and threw it in the middle of the conference table.
Everyone took a closer look: On the cover of the book, it was clearly written "ücülke Hikaye".
"A Tale of Three Countries? Your Excellency, what book is this?"
"This is a novel from China. It tells the story of the rulers of three countries after the Chinese mainland split into three countries about 1,400 years ago. The strategies, military and political skills in it are very worthy of our reference. Especially in today's world, when there are obviously only three powerful countries. I recommend that you all read it carefully and repeatedly..."
That night, Yiprahin sat in his study and carefully wrote another handwritten letter to Zhu Youdong.
"Your Majesty, the Emperor of China... Currently, our country has encountered some difficulties in its development... At the same time, I should be able to guess some of the difficulties your country is facing. For example, Spain, relying on its naval superiority, cut off trade between China and Europe. As a result, the export of silk, porcelain and tea in your country has been severely hindered...
To this end, I suggest that we unite again and work together to seize the Europeans' silver.
My plan is to reopen the Silk Road. You can transport your silk, porcelain and tea to the Pamir Mountains, and I will have my people eat up all the goods there. Then I will resell these things to Europe.
China has a long border with the European Union, and silk, porcelain and tea are rigid needs for Europeans. Therefore, if China presides over this resale trade, Philip cannot completely ban it by administrative or military means. In this way, the problem of unsalable silk, porcelain and tea in your country will be solved, and commercial taxes will increase greatly. And I can also benefit from it and get considerable transit fees. Why not do it?
Of course, you may also want to say, why do you need me as a middleman to make a profit from the price difference? Wouldn’t it be better for you to have complete control over the Silk Road?
Well, yes. Thanks to the powerful attacks of your generals, the Uzbeks and Turkmens in Central Asia are now dying and are terrified of your army. Your merchants' trade routes in Central Asia are definitely safe. But no matter what, if they want to sell their goods to Europe by land, they must pass through Persia. And Persia? Without my cooperation, your caravan can't go far.
So, please cooperate with me. Let's make money in Europe together to achieve our respective goals faster.
If you agree with my suggestion, after receiving your reply, I will immediately start to stabilize the order of the Persian and Central Asian trade routes, and invest heavily in building railways to facilitate the transportation of goods. At the same time, I also hope that you can allow the two countries to jointly build a road across the Pamir Mountains, or even a railway, based on the goodwill of mutual trust...
I have recently read your country's classic book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" carefully and benefited a lot. In my opinion, in the short term, Osman may be more suitable to play the role of Wu. As for who is Cao Cao and who is Liu Bei between you and Philip, that is not my concern. What I care about is that when I take the initiative to extend my hand of friendship, will you hold my hand, or will you push me to Philip's side? "
