April 5, 1686, Haji Port, light rain.

In a suburban elementary school, a group of students are in physical education class. There are only about 10 students in number, and they are generally 10-12 years old, and they are working hard to practice subjects such as long jump to improve their physical fitness.

Strictly speaking, this basic education institution, called Haji Primary School, is the first (and perhaps only) modern primary school in the entire Black Sea region, which is completely different from the self-initiated Mongolian education institutions in countries such as the Ottomans. At present, Haji Primary School has more than 10 teachers and staff, and the number of students is close to 100. The school has five grades, from the first grade to the fifth grade, each grade has only one class, and each class has more than ten students, most of whom are the children of the East Coast nationals who live in Haji Port, and there are also some children of the Crimean Khanate's school-age who admire (or are curious) about the East Coast school education system and come to study.

The teaching materials and teaching aids used by Haji Wan Primary School are all transported from local ships, and most of the teachers are also hired from local high-paying salaries, which is not easy. However, in order to avoid the accusations of the people on the east coast of Haji Port, which is already populating, the state-owned Nanhai Transport Company, which runs the entire port city, can only make the Haji Commercial Station allocate a fixed percentage of its profits every year to support the construction and daily maintenance of Haji.

Speaking of which, it has to be mentioned that with the continuous expansion of trade in the Black Sea and the continuous warming of the special relations between the East Bank and the Crimean Khanate, the area of the port of Haji, which is currently controlled by the East Coasters, has also become larger, with more than 1,500 square kilometers, inhabited by two or three thousand merchants on the East Bank, and a larger number of Tatars, Poles and Ukrainians.

The port of Haji has developed from a wild land to today, and can no longer be referred to as a port or trading station. Obviously, now it is a city, a special city with government institutions, commercial institutions, religious institutions, schools, hospitals, workshops and military camps, and its status must be clarified.

To this end, a few months ago, at the behest of the East Coast's Special Envoy to Europe, Gao Wengang, Ambassador to Istanbul Marati personally negotiated with the Great Khan of the Crimean Khanate to clarify the status of the port of Haji. The Great Khan of Crimea is also very good at talking nonsense, and now the situation is tense, can it be difficult to speak, in the past, they only verbally agreed to lease these wastelands to the people on the east coast, but the specific boundaries are a little blurred, and the deadline has never been discussed, which seems very irregular. Therefore, after careful consideration, he also agreed to sign a formal agreement between the two sides in black and white to lease the port of Haji and some of the surrounding land to the East Bank Republic in exchange for some other benefits.

Marati was very interested in this, and immediately sent a clipper to Cadiz to report to Gao Wengang, who then immediately gave Marati greater autonomy, instructing him to seize the opportunity to negotiate with the Great Khan of Gelai to clarify the status of Haji port. In this way, with the intention of both sides, the matter of leasing the port of Haji was soon negotiated: the Republic of the East Coast of China leased the city for 100 years at a price of 5,000 yuan per year, but the rent had to be paid in a lump sum and could be offset with various materials. The area of the leased land has expanded more than before, including the whole of the city of Sevastopol and some sparsely populated mountainous areas along the southern coast of the peninsula, with a total area of more than 1,800 square kilometers, which is much larger than the area of Hong Kong, which is quite good.

At present, the lease agreement of Haji Port has been sent to the mainland for government approval, so it is not much of a problem. Although the government is now heavily indebted for military investment, it is still very cost-effective to spend 500,000 yuan to obtain a reasonable and legal naval and army military base in the Black Sea, and when it can be approved as soon as possible, and then the Crimean side will be settled.

The bulk of the delivered materials (i.e., Lend-Lease fees) are undoubtedly military supplies! In view of the fact that the strongest cavalry of the Crimeans was their cavalry, the "Lend-Lease Fee" provided by the East Coast accounted for more than half of the cavalry equipment, including tens of thousands of high-quality sabers, light cavalry cuirass, carburized cavalry spearheads, etc. In addition to this, there were some saddles, spurs, horseshoes, military kettles, leather armor, which were produced in large quantities at a very low cost, and the Tatars, although they could produce them themselves, still ordered a considerable amount and hoarded them, because God knows how long the war with the Russians would last.

In addition to these materials, it is the turn to get infantry equipment Don't look at the fact that the Great Khan has paid more and more attention to the infantry of the new army over the years, but in the final analysis, the country's main force is still the Tatar cavalry that comes and goes, fierce and light, at least at this stage, yes, these equipment are mainly spare barrels, cannon barrels, tents, sapper shovels, bayonets, military boots, medicines and other things, mainly for the supply of the 30,000 new troops.

According to the payment plan agreed by the two sides, the equipment of the 30,000 Forces nouvelles was unloaded at the port of Mulato (later Kherson, a port city that had sprung up as a result of the Black Sea trade), and was handed over to the Khan's close officers for immediate distribution to the Forces nouvelles' combat warehouses. As for the cavalry equipment, it was temporarily stored in the warehouse in the port of Haji, and was temporarily kept by the people on the east coast. In the future, if needed, the Great Khan only had to send someone to come and withdraw it with the ticket, until all the supplies had been collected.

From here, it can be seen that the relationship between the Crimean Khanate and the Eastern Bank Republic is too close today, so close that the Ottoman Empire may not have so much communication with it, and I wonder if Istanbul will be "jealous". In any case, the purpose of the East Bank and the Ottomans is always the same, which is to increase the strength of the Crimean Khanate as much as possible and do everything possible to curb the Russian ambitions for Ukraine.

"Haji County has only been established in the past few years, right?" Wu Yifei, the commander of the Haji garrison, who was sitting on the second floor of the teahouse, said to himself. Holding a teacup, he looked with interest at the students who were in physical education class not far ahead, and those students were very strong because of their good nutrition, both men and women, and it was delightful to look at.

As for the teahouse where he is now, it is called the Evening Village Teahouse, and the proprietor is a descendant of Lu Liuliang, a famous scholar of the former Ming Dynasty. The main cadre of the Lu family is currently assisting King Lu in Taizhou, but there are also some tribes who are not very optimistic about King Lu and have crossed the ocean to the east coast to seek a living. And the descendants of the Lu family who opened a teahouse in Haji Port in front of him are also quite magical, which can only be attributed to his love of traveling around and experiencing different cultures.

There is a pair of carved couplets hanging in front of the Evening Village Teahouse, which is the couplet that has caused a literary prison in the history of the Qing Dynasty, although the breeze is fine and difficult to, the bright moon does not shine on people. But in Haji, a place where birds don't, don't talk about this couplet, what if you just hang up the poems that scold the eighteenth generation ancestors of Ai Xinjue Luo, who cares about you!

Of course, the Lu family not only opened a teahouse in Haji Port, in fact, although their family only has more than ten people here, they also hire people to run some commodity trading businesses, and at the same time, they also privately funded a Mongolian school in the city, and compulsory education of school-age children in traditional Chinese culture is also too bad.

Wu Yifei once sent a permit to this school, knowing that there are probably less than 20 students here, and the teaching content is not much different from ancient China, and it is always enlightenment books such as "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Text", which makes people look at it amazingly. If you take into account that most of the people who come to study are the sons of local non-nationals who are greedy for cheap (no tuition required), it will make Wu Yifei feel even more ridiculous.

However, this Lu's primary school is objectively also helping the government to carry out assimilation work, and the students taught are not anything else, at least literate and hyphenation? That's fine, at least you can do a lot of work, and you can say that there is merit. Besides, the population of Haji Port is increasing, almost seven or eight thousand, and the life is stable, and in the future, there will only be more and more school-age children entering school every year, but there are only three primary schools (that is, the government-run Haji Wan Primary School, and the two primary schools funded by the Taoist Association), which is certainly far from enough, and now the Lu family is willing to undertake certain social obligations, which is naturally undesirable for the government.

"Commander, I'm afraid Hajijian County will have to move back. The local big men are now empty, and they have to send people to send money after the county is built. It's okay to say that this faction is just a few cadres on the left and right, and there is no shortage of anything these days, that is, there is no shortage of people who are willing to be officials, but it is difficult to send money. Haji Port is not small in area, the population is also quite large, once the county is established, it is bound to allocate a large amount of money every year to improve the infrastructure, this is afraid that many people are not happy, do everything possible to think about delaying it. A subordinate cautiously lit a cigarette for Wu Yifei, and then said: "Instead of counting on the guys who fell into the eyes of money from the State Development Administration, we should count on those bull-nosed veterans, they have money, and they are more interested in spreading faith, and the construction of Haji still depends on them." ”

Wu Yifei and several of his subordinates are all Buddhists, so their reverence for the Taoist Association is not as strong as that of ordinary people. They acknowledged, however, that Taoism's position as the state religion on the eastern coast was as secure as Mount Tai's, and that the number of government grants and private donations it received each year was terrifying, so it could spread the faith in a wealthy way, even on the remote islands of Diu, Djibouti, and the port of Haji.

The Crimean Khanate was very friendly to the East Bank, and the privileges given to the East Bank were also very numerous. For example, the right to religious freedom that the people of the East Coast had to negotiate with the Kingdom of Spain and Portugal with great effort, for example, when the merchants of the East Coast were doing business or staying in Spain or Portugal, they could participate in Taoist religious ceremonies, which was not very easy to achieve in Catholic countries, and the Crimeans generously agreed to it almost without much thought. The reason for this is probably related to the fact that the beliefs of the country itself are not very strong, the descendants of these nomads, although they are now naturalized by the Green Religion, but there are a lot of things that violate the precepts such as openly drinking, and they rarely participate in religious activities, how religious can you expect them to be?

In today's Haji Port, the number of Taoist temples is really too much, as many as seven or eight. The number of believers is even larger, and every year at the time of Sanqing Christmas, the incense burner at the entrance of each temple can make people feel as if a fire is breaking out. In addition to the East Coast nationals, there were also many Polish and Ukrainian slaves who had fled, and even the Tatars grazing in the countryside believed in Taoism and became believers in Tianzun, although this caused some dissatisfaction among the Green Mullahs.

All in all, the status of Taoism in Haji Port is very high, and the finances of various Taoist temples are also very rich, so they naturally undertake considerable social obligations, such as donating money to schools, building hospitals, disaster relief, persuading people to do good, etc., in short, they are important social stabilizers, and are very popular with local officials.

"Hehe, that's the reason, I'm afraid that Haji County will have to drag on for a few years, and the root cause is still because of lack of money." Wu Yifei took two puffs of cigarette and said with a smile: "By the way, third brother, our garrison is now under the leadership of the Portuguese side, Commander Mao Jun Mao also wrote to me a while ago to ask me, if the Russians have any signs of a major war recently, how do you think I should reply to him?" ”

"The news that the Russians are going to start a war is probably everyone's knowledge, right? What else is there to say, just show it to Commander Mao, this battle is inevitable. If you don't fight this year, you have to fight next year, and the Russians are going crazy to get a port in the warm water zone. Now the mouth of the Dnieper is in the hands of the Crimean Khanate, and the mouth of the Don is in the hands of the Ottoman army. They tried their best to eat Eastern Ukraine, but they didn't even have an inch of coastline, how can they be willing? This battle is almost inevitable, and the current behavior of the Russians also shows that they are preparing for war, what else is there to say, hurry up and send troops to protect our country's overseas interests. ”

Actually, just as Wu Yifei and the two are talking about at the moment. The Russians are now desperately trying to gain access to the Black Sea, but the first thing they have to do is face with the alliance of the Crimean Khanate with the Ottoman Empire. The Russians now hold half of Ukraine, but all of it is landlocked, and the coastal strip is either controlled by the Crimean Khanate or controlled by Ottoman garrisons, such as the Azov fortress at the mouth of the Don River. As for the Caucasus, I'm sorry, but the locals are basically subordinate to the Ottoman Empire, and belong to its peripheral territories and vassal powers. If you want to get a coastline in the Caucasus, you have to ask the Ottomans if they agree.

In short, if the Russians want to make a breakthrough in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov in the south, they cannot bypass the Ottoman Empire, just as they cannot get an outlet to the sea in the west without Sweden. So you can see how the Russian Empire was ecstatic when the Ottoman Empire was locked in a bitter war with the Austrians, and began to prepare for its southward march to the Black Sea. And this is exactly what Wu Yifei and others are worried about, once the Russian army moves south, how can the interests of the people on the east coast be guaranteed.

"I can only take one step at a time." Wu Yifei sighed when he heard this, and said: "I see what Commander Mao meant, he wants to transfer the Portuguese garrison to the east, but I don't know if Gao Wengang's envoy agrees or not." ”