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Chapter 1117 Had to be saved
"...The captain of the guard said that the rebels had a lot of muskets and artillery, and that the military camp and the Pasha's mansion could not hold out for long. He requested the Sultan to send reinforcements as soon as possible to prevent the spread to more areas. I did hear the sound of artillery outside the city, at least more than ten times, and at the time I thought..."

The messenger tried hard to recall the scene at that time and find some useful information from the captain's words. In order to prove that what he said was true, he also vividly described the characteristics of the cannon sound.

"Take him out first, don't go too far..." At this time, Murad IV calmed down. Knowing that he could not get more useful information, he waved his hand and asked the guards to take the messenger out.

"Padi Shah, the city of Suez cannot be lost! If something happens to Hussein Pasha, it will affect all the Mamluk Beys in Egypt." As soon as the soldier who delivered the message left, the Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) immediately made a suggestion. Judging from the overall situation, Egypt is indeed much more important than the city of Baghdad.

"Tabar, we have spent a month under the city of Baghdad and thousands of people have died. What will the Persians think if we withdraw like this? Suez is a big city and Hussein Pasha is very strong. The rebels may not succeed."

After preparing for so long, spending a lot of money and food, and stationing troops outside the city for so long, with such a strong display of military preparedness, the doorbell rang just as he squatted down. Someone outside said that the firewood pile in the yard was on fire.

This made Murad IV very conflicted. If he got up and went out to put out the fire, he would feel uncomfortable with the constipation in his stomach. If he continued to defecate while squatting, he was afraid that the firewood pile would catch fire on the house.

After much thought, I still think that it is more important to pull the fire quickly. The firewood pile is quite large, the wood is not very dry, and there is no wind. As long as I pull it quickly, I should still have time to put out the fire.

"This rebellion is different from the usual ones. Neither the Mamluks nor the Bedouins have ever captured a large city so quickly, and the Pasha's guards are also present. Hussein's letter was simple, but the wording was very urgent. He would not have written it like this if it was not a particularly urgent situation.

Padishah, Suez City cannot be lost. The sea route to the Persian Gulf is now blocked by the Persians. If the Red Sea is lost, the merchant ships of Venice, Britain, and the Netherlands will no longer come to trade, and the empire will suffer great losses. "

As the Grand Vizier, Tabar Ibrahim Pasha considered more and more comprehensively. Attacking Baghdad to squeeze the power of the Persians was also to open up a second trade route, to control the flow of goods between Europe and Asia more in the hands of the empire, and to gain more benefits from it.

But there must be a scale for how much to pay for this, and we cannot just ignore it. If that happens, it is very likely that the passage to the Persian Gulf will not be opened, and the only trade route of the Red Sea will be disrupted.

The Ottoman Empire seemed very powerful, but it was not very stable internally. Murad IV was young, energetic, brave and decisive. After taking power, he did use thunderbolts to intimidate the Guards Corps and Sipahi cavalry of various ethnic groups, and they no longer dared to hold their own troops as before.

However, Murad IV's killing was too heavy, and almost all of the royal brothers and nephews were killed, and there were not many meritorious officials in the military and political fields left. This high-intensity purge played a significant role in the stability of power, but it also caused great damage to the country's strength.

The current situation is that they would rather lose Baghdad than Egypt. Once the most important port on the Mediterranean coast is lost, Europeans will no longer provide muskets and artillery to the Ottomans. By then, let alone fighting the Persians, I am afraid that even Georgia and Turkmenistan in the north will not be able to be saved.

"Show them to me... Where did the Mamluks get so many muskets and cannons?"

Murad IV was able to ascend the throne at the age of 11 and rule the country at the age of 17. He put down the rebellion of the Guards Corps and the Sipahi Cavalry in one fell swoop and killed a number of political opponents. Murad IV relied not only on decisiveness but also on carefulness. After listening to the analysis of the Grand Vizier, he took Hussein Pasha's letter for help and read it carefully twice, and immediately found the corresponding abnormality.

The Mamluk Beys were not incapable of resisting the Ottoman Empire, but they lacked weapons. The leaders of the tribes who were originally slave soldiers were very proficient in using cold weapons, but they could not keep up with the trend and knew nothing about hot weapons. Even the bravest cavalry would suffer a great loss when they encountered muskets and artillery.

Not only the Mamluk warlords in Egypt, but also the Bedouin people, who were more sturdy and could not keep up with the times. Even though they had the advantages of time, place and people, they were still squeezed into the heart of the peninsula and could do nothing.

However, Hussein Pasha's letter and the messenger's oral account revealed that the rebels in Suez had muskets, and there were quite a few of them. This was very unlike the style of the Mamluk Beys. Even if they got a small number of guns from some channel, they should not have such a high combat effectiveness in a short period of time.

A large number of guns? That's even more impossible. Currently, only the British and the Dutch can provide muskets, and they are not only expensive but also in small quantities. Maybe there are also Portuguese. They will definitely not sell guns to the Ottomans, but they may sell them to the Egyptians, but the quantity will still not be too large.

"Two sources..." Tabar Pasha obviously thought more than the Sultan, or was more focused on research in this area. He stretched out two fingers without much thought.

"The Venetians have always wanted to dominate the Mediterranean trade, but they can't gain a foothold on the eastern coast. If they can mess up Egypt, they can take advantage of the situation. This is also in the interests of the Papal States and the Habsburg family, and they will definitely get a lot of assistance."

"...What about the other one?" After a brief thought, Murad IV seemed dissatisfied with this inference and wanted to hear another possibility.

It’s not that the Venetians didn’t want to mess up Egypt, nor that they felt they were incapable, but the Mamluks were not so stupid as to expect support from the Venetians, who were thousands of miles away, to fight against the Ottoman Empire.

Moreover, the Venetians do not have a good reputation in the Mediterranean region. They only care about money and not people. Who would entrust their lives to a group of profit-seeking profiteers?
Even with the secret assistance of the Papal States and the Habsburg family, it is impossible to gather so many muskets and artillery in a short period of time. You know, Europe is currently at war, and even the British, who have always supported the Ottoman Empire, can't produce too many guns.

"The Ming Empire in the east! According to British merchants, a group of Danish merchants seized the port of Hormuz and secretly provided the Persians with a considerable number of muskets and artillery, and also assisted them in training their army.

From the appearance, it can be seen that the source of these guns is definitely not Denmark, but more like the model sold by the Netherlands to the Russians. The Netherlands cannot produce so many guns, the only possibility is that they came from the Ming Empire!
In recent years, the Ming Empire has been slowly encroaching on Muslim lands. I heard that it has snatched the Port of Colombo from the Portuguese and further controlled the trade routes from the East, making it impossible for our merchants to choose freely, causing us great losses.

If they still don't want to stop, the next step will definitely be a direct confrontation with the Empire. Their navy is very strong, and the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea are both good choices.

By financing Persian weapons through the Danes, they can gain a foothold in the Persian Gulf, but also cause trouble for the empire. If they find a foothold on the Red Sea coast, it will directly infringe on the interests of the empire. "

(End of this chapter)