The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 1515 Arrogant at first and respectful at the end

In fact, the agriculture of the Ottoman Empire was still very backward at that time. Eastern Rumelia was almost entirely mountainous and not suitable for farming. The Eastern Thrace region had already been developed. Moreover, due to the changes in the times, the commodity value of grain was plummeting, and the landlords preferred to grow tobacco and fruit to obtain higher profits.

In the Ottoman Empire's plan, they wanted to use these refugees to fill the Anatolian development frontier. But often things did not go as planned, and the refugees were unwilling to accept the arrangements of the Ottoman government.

Of course, in the eyes of the Ottoman government, the wishes of the common people are not important. They have always been like this, and no one has ever stood up to oppose it.

Unfortunately, times have changed, and people have changed with them.

The Ottomans did not have strong national sentiment, but the various ethnic groups in the Balkans had been ignited by wave after wave.

What the Russians did did not extinguish this flame, but instead promoted the further awakening of the peoples in the Balkans.

This was not good news for the Austrian Empire, because among all the great powers, the Austrian Empire was the most affected. After all, the other great powers had more or less a majority ethnic group, and even the majority ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire exceeded 40%.

At this time, due to a series of operations by Franz, the main ethnic group jumped to more than 60%. It is not an exaggeration to say that Franz is the father of the Turkish nation in this world.
But the awakening of Ottoman nationalism in Eastern Thrace at this time alone was not a good thing, because it meant unprecedented chaos.

At this moment, the various ethnic groups of the Ottoman Empire successfully united in Eastern Thrace, and the incompetence of the Ottoman government was fully exposed at this moment.

As per the usual practice, the Ottoman Empire handed all these matters over to Zaputiye.

Zaputie, the main security force in the Ottoman Empire, was described in history books as being between the police and the gendarmerie, but judging from their actions, it would be better to say that they were between the gendarmerie and the thugs.

During the Tanzimat period, the remnants of the Guards were absorbed, and thus some of their traditions were inherited, such as corruption and extortion.

The Zaputie had long been accustomed to the days of being domineering. Although they did not dare to do anything to the British and Russians, they were very capable of dealing with the Ottomans.

Especially for those Balkan refugees who have no backing, Zaputie took the term "sucking the marrow out of their bones" to the extreme.

If it happened in other parts of the Ottoman Empire, Zaptiye would probably force people to death and then be slightly condemned a few hundred years later.

However, this is the Balkans, and while Zaputie was still enjoying his little trial (forcing a few people to death), the people around him had already picked up stones and sticks.

Several notorious Zaptiyas died in unclear circumstances. Their clothes and money were looted, and they themselves became food in the pot.

After all, Zaputie was not a very regular military force. After repeated tragedies, they lost their courage.

Zaputie had no choice but to report the situation to his superiors with exaggeration. Upon learning of this, the Ottoman high-ranking officials in Istanbul immediately decided to send new troops to carry out a bloody suppression.

The Balkan refugees were naturally no match for the Ottoman New Army. Although it was a new army, its methods were still very retro and it still followed the traditions of the Ottoman Guards.

The Ottoman New Army passed through the border like locusts, burning, killing, looting, and doing everything they could. However, they did not only target refugees from the Balkans, but all the people they could see.

Suppression turned into massacre, or massacre was part of repression. In short, this was not uncommon in the history of Ottoman rule. The death of tens of thousands of people was nothing in the past, but this was the 19th century, the era of a nation. The Greek government was the first to protest, and the Greek ambassador directly shoved the letter of credence in the face of the Ottomans.

Although Queen Mother Shefkefza, Orma Pasha and other Ottoman high-ranking officials were very angry, they did not take it to heart. After all, the Greeks were very weak and Otto I would jump from time to time.

However, the Russians soon got involved. Nicholas I directly sent additional troops to the Balkans and threatened that the Ottoman massacre was a provocation against Russia. If the Ottoman Empire continued to provoke Russia, it would bear the consequences.

The meaning is actually very simple, Russia is directly threatening with war. And this time Nicholas I was smarter, he put the blame for provoking the war on the Ottomans.

Nicholas I really wanted to start a war, but the Russian top leaders were a little worried. The situation in Russia was not optimistic at this time. The trauma of the last war had not yet healed, and coupled with the unrest in the Balkans, it had really reached the point of being at the end of its strength.

However, the Ottomans were more afraid than the Russians. Just these few harsh words from Nicholas I were enough to make them lose their minds and hearts.

Queen Mother Shefkefuza immediately found Viscount Stratford, who did not dare to make a decision on his own at this time, so he notified London as soon as possible.

The first thing John Russell thought about when he heard the news was whether he should build a telegram to Istanbul first, otherwise he would be pissed off to death by these idiots sooner or later.

What the Ottomans did was indeed a bit too much. They carried out massacres for no reason. Wasn't this just giving the Russians an excuse for war?

John Russell now had no desire for war and he immediately ordered the Ottomans to stop the genocide.

The Ottomans did not dare to ignore the British attitude, so they immediately clarified that the Ottoman government was not aware of this matter, then symbolically punished some low-level officials and introduced a series of conciliatory policies.

The Ottoman Empire had no good solution to these ethnic issues, so it brought out the millet system established by Mehmed II in 1453.

After a simple modification, it was directly used in Eastern Thrace and Rumelia. Its purpose was to give each ethnic group certain rights and allow them to govern themselves.

This did calm the unrest within the Ottoman Empire in the short term, but it laid the groundwork for greater unrest in the future.

Moreover, the root cause of the unrest was not resolved at all, and the European part of the Ottoman Empire could not accommodate so many people.

At this time, the diplomats of the Austrian Empire came up with a good idea for Queen Mother Shefkefza, which was to send the person to Duke Omar in North Africa.

At this time, Duke Omar was killing people everywhere in North Africa, but the number of French people in North Africa was really limited.

Since Napoleon III came to power and carried out reforms, the situation in France has improved significantly, and no one is willing to take the risk to come to the barren land of Africa.

Duke Omar also tried to attract people from other countries, but most Europeans did not want to live in black Africa, and the few people who came to North Africa mostly had ulterior motives.

In addition, France's long-term policy of massacre has caused population shortages in Algeria and Morocco, so Duke Omar accepted this seemingly unreasonable deal.