Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1743 Negotiations
"It is said that this is an ancient city, and it is said that it existed in the Spring and Autumn Period. They claim to have assembled 10 troops on the opposite side to defend the imperial city, but I estimate that there are less than 5 combat-ready soldiers among them."

Huang Degong, Qin Zuoming and other officers held binoculars and observed the defense of the Persian imperial city Isfahan on a high ground outside the city.

From the binoculars, you can see the Persian cavalry coming and going. There are countless people in their camp, and their flags are flying.

The frontier legions of the Persian Empire have gone south. Like other agricultural empires, they have a large army, but their mobility is poor. In order to resist foreign enemies, they generally gather their troops at the border.

When the frontier army arrived, the expeditionary force had already arrived, and they could only retreat to the imperial city.

"Give them an ultimatum. If they don't respond, we will launch a general attack on their imperial city." Huang Degong said.

Although a large number of Persian troops were assembled near Isfahan, in Huang Degong's view, the defense line built by the Persian Frontier Corps was also useless.

"The Persian envoy begs to see you!"

"Tell them to meet our ambassador."

Just as the expeditionary force was deployed and ready to launch a general offensive, the Persian royal court could not bear the pressure and sent ambassadors to negotiate peace.

A few nobles entered the camp of the expeditionary army with awe and fear. They saw all kinds of soldiers and costumes here, including Indians, Portuguese, Malays, etc., who were obviously summoned by the Chinese to carry out the expedition .

There are more than a dozen artillery pieces lined up in the camp.This kind of artillery can be partially disassembled and reassembled when needed to obtain higher mobility.

"Even the Portuguese who attacked our coast before and the English who helped us have become the opponent's thugs. This is a nightmare." The Persian nobles always felt dizzy when they saw soldiers from all over the expeditionary army camp.

They soon met the envoy of the Ministry of Rites who had come to Isfahan as a guest.

"We have three demands. One is that the Persian Empire establishes a communication with China, allowing us to establish an embassy in Isfar to ensure the personal safety of our ambassador. At the same time, our Chinese merchants are free to set up business stations in coastal ports. "

"Secondly, send envoys to our capital to participate in the World Expo every ten years."

"Thirdly, we can build fortresses within 100 kilometers along the coast of the Persian Gulf. The Persian Empire is willing to grant us the monopoly right to exploit oil within its territory, and not to tax the oil we exploit," said the envoy of the Ministry of Rites. make their demands.

The Persian nobles were at a loss: "Oil, what is that?"

"It's this kind of thing." The envoy of the Ministry of Rites had long thought of explaining to the Persians what he wanted, so he specially brought a small barrel of oil samples over.

The Persian nobles sniffed the smell of oil, and someone recognized what it was: "Is this oil? We sometimes mix this with lime, ignite it and shoot long distances with bows and arrows, or throw it with our hands, trying to ignite the enemy's fire." Ships can also be used to treat skin diseases in camels."

"Since you know this kind of thing, then we can easily say that if we want to obtain the right to mine this kind of material anywhere in your territory, we only need to pay the land lease fee, and the lease fee is up to us. "The envoy of the Ministry of Rites said.

"I don't understand. Although oil is useful as a combustible material, it is not an important thing. Why do you have to obtain the right to exploit this material alone?" The Persian nobleman did not understand.

Petroleum has been known to people for a long time. However, before the technology of petroleum distillation, cracking, reforming, and isomerization matured, and before internal combustion engines became popular, the usefulness of petroleum was very limited.Petroleum was used in this era to treat skin diseases in livestock or for a small amount of military use, and was later used to extract kerosene, which was later used in internal combustion engines and to produce other chemical products such as lubricants.

"Because we need oil, but you don't need it very much, so there shouldn't be any problem with you handing over the oil to us, right?" said the ambassador of the Ministry of Rites.

Several Persian aristocrats who entered the camp of the expeditionary army communicated in private, and said to the envoys of the Ministry of Rites: "It is possible to establish diplomatic relations with commerce, but your merchants can only live and trade in seaside ports at most. We can also send them every ten years. The envoys went to the Eastern capital, but you are not allowed to build fortresses in our territory, this is absolutely not allowed."

"We need to build forts to protect our oil workers here, so we think it is necessary to build forts along the coast of the Persian Gulf. We can promise that the existence of the forts will not be as long as the work of oil extraction is not damaged or affected. Any impact on your empire." The ambassador of the Ministry of Rites insisted on building the fortress.

If you want to control the oil in the Persian Gulf, you need to have permanent fortresses and garrisons here to protect the oil fields and drive out other competitors at any time.

However, from the perspective of the Persian Empire, when others build fortresses in their own territory, this is a manifestation of the gradual loss of sovereignty. They do not allow the proud Persian Empire to have garrisons and fortresses from other countries. It's like a fish stalk in the throat.

Oil is not important to them, what is important is to maintain the majesty of the empire.

"You are absolutely not allowed to build fortresses along the coast. We can guarantee the safety of your personnel here." The Persian noble insisted.

"When your empire falls into civil strife or foreign enemies invade, I don't think you have the ability to protect the safety of our personnel and oil fields. We need to protect ourselves. It is absolutely necessary to build a fortress and let us control it!" Ambassador Ribu also insisted.

"What if we disagree?"

"Then there is only one battle!"

The ambassadors of the two countries quarreled in the camp of the expeditionary force. The focus of the two sides was not on oil, but on building fortresses and garrisoning troops.

The Persian nobles returned to the city in anger and reported the request of the ambassador of the Ministry of Rites to the prime minister of the Persian Empire, which aroused the anger of other Persian nobles.

The request to build a fortress in the Persian Gulf was unacceptable to the Persian nobles.

"Why do they pay so much attention to such a non-essential thing as oil? They still need to build fortresses and send troops to protect the mines? Or is it just a vain exploration of oil, in fact, so that they can intervene in our Persian affairs at any time in the future?" Persia The prime minister didn't think that mere oil was worth the trouble of the Huaxia People's Congress, so he specially dispatched troops for expeditions and garrisons.

"My lord, please reject their impolite request. Our new Persian army has the strength to fight. Isfahan has 60 residents standing behind us as supplies. In any case, we can defeat the barbarians overseas." Back from the frontier said the Persian commander.

(End of this chapter)