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Chapter 1147: Battle of Fau Harbor

"What's the matter?" Tabar Pasha, who was standing on the roof staring at the twinkling torches outside the city, was startled by the footsteps behind him and became a little impatient.

This was a completely unnecessary war with an uncertain outcome. The unknown was always what people feared the most and were most reluctant to face. The decision to stop the peace talks and detain the Sun and Moon Bank representatives came from Murad IV. As the Grand Vizier of the Empire, he argued for it, but it didn't work.

The Sultan of the Empire was completely convinced by Ferdinand III's envoys and planned to stop military operations on the European side and withdraw most of the Empire's forces back to Asia. While attacking the Persians, he would strengthen his control over the Mesopotamia region and obtain more fiscal revenue by levying taxes on goods traveling between the two continents.

This idea was correct, as it was precisely aimed at the current financial difficulties of the empire. However, it was too hasty, and at the same time, it placed too much trust in the Holy Roman Emperor's promise to redistribute the power in the Mediterranean.

Even if Ferdinand III could really persuade the Venetians to give up some of their interests and coexist peacefully with the Ottoman Empire, it is questionable whether it was worthwhile to offend another great empire for this.

Simply controlling Mesopotamia and Egypt would, on the surface, have strangled the throat of commodity exchange between Europe and Asia and would have enabled the acquisition of a large amount of wealth.

But that is all history. If you listen carefully to the demands of Ottoman merchants, you will find that the pattern of business exchanges between Europe and Asia has been quietly changing in recent years.

Goods that were once extremely dependent on road transportation have begun to shift more to sea transportation. The number of Dutch ships sailing between Europe and Asia around the African continent has increased every year. Some of the goods from eastern Asia enter Persia through Bukhara and Kazakhstan, and are then transported north to Russia by Persian merchants.

With these two trade routes, the Ming Empire, which controlled the source of goods, became more and more proactive, while the Ottoman Empire, which controlled the traditional trade routes, became more and more passive.

In order to collect more commercial taxes, the tax rate had to be raised, and then it became a vicious cycle. The higher the commercial taxes, the less goods were transported through the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Merchants were very shrewd and calculating. They were willing to take the risk of switching to sea transportation just to make a dirham.

The continuous wars between European countries also weakened the power of the Venetians, who could no longer control the flow of European goods. Many markets were divided up by the Dutch, Portuguese, British and Danes.

All of these countries are maritime powers. The Netherlands alone has more than 10,000 ocean-going merchant ships, which are located in almost every open port in Asia. They will do any business that makes money, regardless of race, language or religion.

If this continues, the two golden trade routes of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf controlled by the Ottoman Empire will become like date palm trees without water, withering year by year and producing fewer and fewer fruits.

The Sun-Moon Bank representative named Pianjiabuliu was right. Whoever controls the goods controls the initiative. If the Empire could cooperate with it and use the financial resources and technology of the Sun-Moon Bank to build some factories in Egypt and even Mesopotamia, and control the initiative of some goods, it could more or less reverse the decline.

Now, not only did he not get any advantage, he had to turn around and offend another great empire for his mortal enemy. Ferdinand III was obviously shifting the blame, but Murad IV, who wanted to restore the glory of his ancestors, had found himself in a dead end. In his heart, he regarded the Ming Empire as a stumbling block on his way forward, and he had to get rid of it as soon as possible.

"Grand Vizier, it's late at night." The man whispered softly, walked forward and put a cloak on his shoulders.

"My Ali, we are in big trouble... Never mind, you don't understand, go to sleep first."

Without turning around, Tabar knew who the person was. He had a strong body and a handsome face, and he was gentle as water in bed. Unfortunately, he really didn't have the heart to experience tenderness at this time, and he couldn't discuss the highest level of the empire with him. "Don't worry, sir, Allah will bless us and punish the infidels!"

The man called Ali wore a black robe, but the leather boots on his feet revealed his identity, an officer of the Guards Corps. He did not sympathize with the Grand Vizier's worries, and did not know why he was worried.

Since Osman I founded the empire, he had never been defeated by any infidels on his homeland, and it was obviously even less likely this time. Murad IV was a rare powerful sultan who held military and political power and had made outstanding military achievements.

"Yes, Allah is with us. Let's go back and sleep together!" But Tabar was persuaded and stopped thinking about the troubles that he could never control. He put his arm around Ali's shoulder and walked towards the tent affectionately like a couple.

If Hong Tao saw all this, he would immediately jump up in anger. Well, he dared to let a dead glass to command the battle, this is definitely not treating himself as a human! I didn't want to kill people in the first place, but now I have to kill them all.

You have a glass commander, so you can't tell them apart anyway, so just treat them all as the same. Don't even give them the chance to be arrested and sent back to do hard labor, so as to prevent them from leading others astray.

"Oh, this river isn't very wide!"

Although he could not see the two big men who entered the tent with their arms around each other, he could see the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab River clearly in the still bright moonlight. The mouth of the river in the telescope was only about one kilometer, which was similar to the information provided by the Navy Statistics Department, which was bad news.

"Your Majesty, the Advisory Office has first-hand measurement data. It shows that although this river is not wide, the water flow is still abundant and the flow rate is not fast. As long as the wind is right, it is not difficult to go upstream."

Wang Datou was trapped in the enemy camp and his life or death was uncertain, but the emperor was personally leading the army, and the Royal Intelligence System Advisory Office must accompany him. The person who spoke was the second-in-command of the Advisory Office, Jin Gui.

Compared with Wang Datou, who has very distinctive appearance, Jin Gui is at the other extreme, extremely ordinary, and no one would even look at him twice if he were thrown into a crowd of people. No matter what he wears, he can't hide his vulgarity. To put it in a big way, he looks like a shopkeeper, and to put it in a small way, he looks like a street vendor.

But whoever ignores him will be in trouble soon. The Joseon King Yi Hun suffered this loss in the past, and he never figured out who instigated the palace coup until his death.

Wang Datou is a man who has a wide range of friends, is involved in the game, is bold and careful, is good at taking the initiative, and specializes in high-end routes. Jin Gui is like an invisible man who will not show up unless the emperor asks him to. Even in the advisory office, some staff members who joined later are only known by name but not seen.

Although the intelligence network he controls cannot be said to cover the entire world, it certainly includes Asia. He is like a giant spider, hiding in the shadows and spinning silk and weaving a web.

As long as they discovered a valuable city or port, it wouldn't take long for them to lay an egg in the local area, including taverns, inns, brothels, coffee shops, and even temples and nunneries.

In addition, this guy is also a financial expert. All the businesses under the name of the consulting office, from the largest brothel in Tongzhou to a roadside noodle stall, rarely do not make money, providing a large amount of activity funds for the consulting office every year.

(End of this chapter)