Nanjing Imperial Palace, in the Qianqing Palace. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

When Chen Ming got a letter from Pang Zhenkun and saw Napoleon's handwriting thoroughly, time had already reached the twilight of spring.

Gangnam is a good scenery.

The Qianqing Palace also has a light and active breath.

Headed by Wang Qi, the new first and auxiliary minister of the cabinet, several cabinet ministers, several meritorious heroes and elders, several emperor's cronies and important ministers, and a few princes who intend to take the throne, there are less than 20 people in the Qianqing Palace, and laughter spreads outside the palace from time to time.

"All Aiqing are important ministers of my court, and they are my humerus, so I won't hide it from you." Chen Ming tapped the location of Istanbul on the map with the whip in his hand, "I really have bad intentions towards the Ottomans. Chen Ming's last four words made everyone in the hall laugh. A strong heavenly nation is not in our interest. ”

Sun Xu, who took Zhang Dayong's place, personally pulled out a map, which was a map of Eurasia and Africa.

In addition to the one country that is marked, there are countless dots on the map, including the ends of the Suez Canal, and those present can clearly see that they represent coal-filling ports.

"The Ottomans are very large, and the location is even more crucial."

"But everyone should know that this place has a strong atmosphere of faith, don't look at Selim III as a reform emperor, but Selim's eyes are all about the army. Fundamental secularization of the entire Ottoman society was unlikely to take place in the short term. Then the gap in their national power with the European powers will grow wider. ”

"You should all know the power of the steam engine. We have vigorously promoted the steam engine over the years, and you all know how effective it is. ”

"This is an industrial revolution, a big bang of productive forces, a big development, we have seized this opportunity, the Europeans have also seized this opportunity, but the heavenly people can't grasp it. If they can't keep up with the trend of the times, they can only be abandoned by the times. If you fall behind, you will be beaten, and this is a truth that no one can reverse. ”

"Why should I give up on the Ottomans?"

"Although the geographical location is critical, the Ottomans cannot keep up with the development of the times, and if there is a war with the Europeans, it will be a big drag on us."

"The wars of the industrial age are very different from the wars of the last hundred years, and at that time, if there was a war, it would not be a battle of 120,000 people, but a scale of hundreds of thousands. It will be a battle of millions of troops, the scale of millions of soldiers on both sides. ”

"Don't think I'm alarmist. Do you know how many troops there are in France now? Do you know how many troops the British have now? Do you know how many troops Russia has now? ”

"The main army of the French is more than 400,000 people, and the weight of the second- and third-line armies will not be less than 300,000. Together with their naval and shore defense forces, the number of troops of the French has exceeded eight hundred thousand. They just couldn't raise that much transportation power to supply enough troops for large build-ups and general battles. It's like a children's dance sledgehammer, the hammer head is too heavy, and they can only replace the sledgehammer with a small hammer. Of course, the combat effectiveness of the second- and third-line armies of the French is really a little unbearable, don't look at Napoleon's majesty in Europe for more than ten years, and the French are invincible all over Europe, but this does not mean that the quality of their army is the first in Europe.

In fact, the military quality of the French army in the whole of Europe can only be said to be mediocre, and they are mainly motivated, coupled with Napoleon's command. In terms of combat effectiveness alone, the British lobster soldiers are definitely better than the French soldiers, and even the veterans of Napoleon's Guards Corps dare not say that they can defeat the elite lobster soldiers of the same strength. The British were more trained than the French. The biggest problem with the former is just the lack of people. They can't afford to fight the French.

After the Russians' army was once reduced to three or four hundred thousand, it has also recovered rapidly over the years, and I dare not say that it is comparable to France, but the infantry artillery and navy are close to 500,000 together.

And the size of the British navy alone reached more than 200,000 people, which is a pure navy.

Chen Ming spoke with facts and told everyone present that the war was no longer on the scale of two or three hundred thousand people they imagined.

"The wars of the future will be wars of millions." The people below stopped talking, and Chen Ming's eyes swept over each of them. "As far as the Ottoman national strength is concerned, can it support a million-sized army for two or three years like the last war against Russia?" If there is a real big war at that time, if there is no continuous blood transfusion and replenishment of flesh from China, Chen Ming does not think that the Ottomans can support it. But how much benefit can China get from the Ottomans by supporting the Ottomans?

This question involves the key point in Chen Ming's mind.

Is it better for the Ottoman Empire to exist, or is it better not to exist?

Look at Chen Han's development in the Celestial World over the years, surrounding the Ottoman Empire, first in Egypt, then in the Celestial Peninsula, then in Persia, the sworn enemy of the Ottoman Empire, and finally on the east coast of Africa. It can be said that without the Ottoman cheese, Chen Han's development in Tianfang has almost come to an end.

With the exception of Afghanistan, which is sandwiched between the current Sikh Kingdom and the Northern Seven Khanates, Chen Han has spent thirty years traveling through the entire heavenly world. But Chen Ming is obviously not satisfied!

"We don't need to develop our presence on the Mediterranean coast, that would seriously irritate the Europeans. The Mediterranean: That is the Mediterranean for Europeans. But the entire Tianfang Peninsula and the Persian Gulf must belong to China. "No one knows better than Chen Ming what the Celestial Peninsula and the Persian Gulf mean.

Wang Qi, Chen Ding and others were silent, they both agreed with Chen Ming's words, and some did not understand. The Mediterranean, of course, is an inland sea for Europeans, and this is determined by its geographical location, and they understand this very well. Because of the differences in race, belief and culture, it is impossible for Europeans to accept China in the same way that they accepted the Americans in the original time and space, so Chen Ming did not want to build his own 'Mediterranean fleet'.

As long as you hold the Suez Canal, then everything is ok.

But if the Ottomans still existed, how could they have ceded the strategic location of the Suez Canal to China?

When thought of it this way, a divided Ottoman seems to be more in China's interests. At the very least, this will prevent China from being attacked by the Ottomans.

And Istanbul has a poor grip on the border provinces, such as Egypt. The identity of the Elam family is shifting from Osman Pasha to Egyptian emir, and Istanbul is not making a bigger move.

This greatly eased the difficulty of Chen Han's disintegration of the Ottomans.

The Tianfang Peninsula and the Persian Gulf are still geographically important, and from the map of the Eastern Hemisphere, this peninsula is located in the center of the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. Although the natural environment is quite harsh, it is indeed a great necessity. The most important thing is that it is bordered by Persia to the north, Egypt to the south, and India to the east, and if Chen Han can take India and half of the African continent in the future, the Tianfang Peninsula will become a connecting point that closely connects China and Africa.

Of course, Wang Qi and Chen Ding didn't know what was buried under the Tianfang Peninsula and the Persian Gulf, but they knew the geographical superiority of the Tianfang Peninsula and the incomparably important importance.

The Sikh kingdom has emerged in the northwest region of India, and although they still need to work for an outlet to the sea, everyone here believes that the Sikh kingdom will definitely be able to open up the Indus River with the support of Chen Han. It is expected that the southern part of the Sikh Kingdom will be bordered by Persia, and in fact the territory of the Sikh Kingdom is roughly equivalent to that of the later Pakistan Railway.

It's very close to the Celestial Peninsula. The distance at sea is no more than 200 nautical miles. Moreover, the Sikh Kingdom and the Tianfang Peninsula are separated by a Persia, and according to the current bear appearance of Persia, Chen Han may not be able to obtain a few seaports from Persia.

Thirteen years after the assassination of Aga Muhammad Khan, his nephew Fateh Alishah has secured the throne of Persia. The Qajar dynasty did not rise and fall in one lifetime, like the Afshar and Zande dynasties. But now Persia is also threatened by Russia. Otherwise, how could they have helped Chen Han and the Ottomans during the Russo-Turkish War, so that Chen Han could successfully establish the city of 'West Sea' on the west coast of the Caspian Sea.

The Russians have always had their eye on Azerbaijan, and Tehran is under a lot of pressure.

So, the Persians helped China in the war between the two enemies of Russia and Turkey, and sure enough, after the war their pressure was greatly reduced. And what's even better is that it has a good relationship with China, and in recent years, it has continuously introduced weapons from China, as well as weapon production lines, which can mass-produce rifled guns and smoothbore guns, and its military strength has suddenly improved a lot.

But China's contacts with Persia have always been relatively shallow, because Persia's relations with the Ottomans are fucking. They belong to the two factions of the Heavenly Sect, and as it has been said before, heretics are more hateful to believers than heretics.

After the fall of the Safavid Empire, Persia finally re-stabilized the situation, instead of relying only on the deterrence of military strongmen as before.

The Qajar dynasty was now politically stable, and the whole country was in a state of vigorous revival. Population, agriculture, economy, handicrafts, including culture, art, education, etc., unfortunately there is a deep sense of faith in them.

In addition, Chen Han also had to take into account the reaction of the Ottomans, so over the years, although Chen Han and Chen Han had more and more frequent trade with him, this was like China and Britain before 1840, and the trade between the two sides was also very frequent, but there was no official exchange in the real sense at all. The same is true of Chen Han and Persia now. The difference is only that the big green fruit back then was not small to the British, while the current Persians are very aware of the power of China.

In a nutshell, China enjoys superior treatment in Persia.

The people in the main hall believed that Chen Han would definitely gain 'benefits' along the coast of Persia, and they did not have much objection to Chen Han's words. At the same time, they also knew why Chen Ming insisted on abandoning Osman.

Chen Ming will not stop his predation!

Looking at the pale red rendering area, if India, Persia and most of the Tianfang Peninsula became Chen Han's sphere of influence, maybe the Ottomans would take the initiative to abandon China at that time.

China's support for the Ottomans was intended to keep the Ottomans in check and to serve as a barrier against the eastward spread of European power. The Ottomans were also not vigilant against Chen Han because he was thousands of miles away. But if China one day really swallows India, takes Persia under its command, and takes the Celestial Peninsula and half of Africa, the Ottomans are a bunch of brain-dead people, and they will also be wary of China.

The Ottomans would not have watched China expand its power in the Celestial World without limits. Perhaps, it really shouldn't continue to exist.

Because, whoever stands in the way of the interests of the empire is the enemy of the empire!