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Chapter 1171 Persian Gulf Mediterranean Company
Look at what politicians are responsible for: formulating policies, managing public resources, resolving social conflicts, promoting economic development, etc. Each of these is related to human well-being and has no direct relationship with the politicians themselves.

Such a contradictory job will inevitably require practitioners to possess corresponding qualities. If a chess player is reluctant to give up any chess piece, then the game will definitely be lost.

Being willing to give up, when to give up and when to gain, is a course that young officials of the empire urgently need to learn. But this thing cannot be taught in a course, and can only be learned through intuition, and little by little, to be willing to give up, to be able to give up, and to know how to give up, and then talk about how to give less than others and gain more.

Ding Shun, including many imperial officials, had a characteristic of relying too much on group life experience. They were lonely since childhood and only gained friendship and family affection in school, so they were used to judging others by themselves and involuntarily regarded their colleagues, subordinates, soldiers and citizens as members of the group, just like relatives.

This characteristic has a positive side, which makes them more united, more aware of the suffering of the grassroots, and fully reflects this in the formulation of policies and management. But it also has a negative side, as some things are hard to give up.

For ordinary people or middle-level officials, this is not a shortcoming and is not a big deal. But if you want to be a qualified helmsman, it is easy to overlook the key points and eventually make a big mistake with good intentions.

"No need to record it. Remember it in your mind first. When you encounter a similar problem, take it out and think about it before making a decision. Winning this siege is the most important thing now. The Warrior Battalion has almost completed its mission. It's time for the Army to take the field next."

Seeing Ding Shun, who was nearly 40 years old, still writing down his words word for word in a small notebook like he did when he was a child, Hong Tao didn't know whether to be happy or sad. Fortunately, this topic can be put aside for the time being. After the two turtle cars in the north of the city were close to the city wall for a while, they suddenly launched two large sky rockets.

This is a warning signal from the engineering corps, meaning that the explosion is about to begin, reminding nearby friendly forces to move away as quickly as possible or to prepare.

In less than half an hour, without the assistance of modern electric, pneumatic or other tools, is it possible to make a hole large enough in the solid rammed earth wall to place enough explosives?

It would not work just with a steel chisel and a hammer, but the engineering corps at that time already had a way to crack it. They had a training course on weekdays to find a quick way to crack various materials. After years of attempts, they had achieved some results.

If rammed earth buildings are carefully made, they will be very hard and it is difficult to cause major damage with a steel drill in a short period of time. If there are no holes of appropriate depth to fill with explosives, blasting only on the surface will require a lot of explosives, which will not only increase the burden of the troops on the march, but also put the engineers on the battlefield in danger for a long time.

How can you quickly drill holes in rammed earth walls? The answer is strong acid! No need to hammer hard, just apply sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid of appropriate concentration on the surface for a few seconds, and you can easily scrape off a layer.

Repeating this action dozens or hundreds of times can corrode a hole in the hard rammed earth building. The size of the hole has nothing to do with time, but only with the amount of acid used.

There were two cans of concentrated sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid prepared in advance in the turtle car. The engineers attached the turtle car to the city wall, took out specially made large glass syringes and porcelain pieces, and dissolved the rammed earth layer by layer.

Depending on the composition and production process of the rammed earth, a small hole as thick as a thigh and forty centimeters deep can be dug out in it within ten minutes to half an hour.

The ancients said that a thousand-mile long dike can be destroyed by an ant hole.

When the small hole was filled with passivated nitrocellulose developed by the Royal Academy and manufactured by the Royal Gunpowder Factory, with a loud bang, the seven or eight meter thick wall would be blown down to more than ten meters wide. The walls on both sides dozens of meters away would be covered with cracks. Those of slightly poorer quality would fall apart after a few more hits from artillery shells.

If you encounter a particularly thick and solid rammed earth wall, and one hole is not enough to hold the explosives, you can drill two or three holes at the same time. Or use multiple turtle cars to drill holes in the wall dozens of meters apart and detonate them together. Not to mention the wall, even the dam will collapse. The soil near Basra City is taken from the riverbed, and the content of calcium and aluminum ions is relatively high, which is more likely to react with strong acids and dissolve quickly. Only half of the explosives were loaded, and a large area collapsed after a loud bang.

The defenders' walls also collapsed at the same time. Their last bit of courage disappeared with the explosion. When the diffuse dust was blown away by the wind, the figures of the soldiers who were fighting desperately could no longer be seen on the nearby city walls. Only a group of people in camouflage uniforms were left struggling to climb on the ruins.

In the small port of Faw, more than 2 Ottoman Guards and Sipahi cavalry resisted for a day and a night before they evacuated in an orderly manner. The relatively larger city of Basra was defeated in less than half a day after adding more than 4 provincial troops.

After seeing a group of Ming sailboats sailing up the Shatt al-Arab, Tabar Pasha immediately rescinded his order for street fighting and fled out of the west gate with more than 2000 guards. The Sipahi cavalry followed closely, and this time the provincial militia was left behind.

At this time, Lisboa became the busiest and most accomplished person. He really knew the lord of Basra. More than two hours after entering the city, he brought nearly a hundred local nobles to the dock outside the north gate to welcome the army and save the people from disaster.

We cannot say that we are confusing right and wrong and praising the invaders as saviors. For these native Arabs, the Ming army was an invader, and so were the Ottomans. Although a war between invaders is unjust, it is much better than getting beaten up.

Now that the new invaders have driven away the old invaders, as long as there are no additional taxes and corvee labor, life will be no different from before. Why should we fight so hard?
Of course, the necessary procedures still had to be followed. For example, a few unlucky families who were too close to the Ottomans were selected, their property was confiscated, their land was taken away, and their people were exiled. With these people taking the blame, the rest of the people could feel at ease to pledge allegiance to the new invaders.

"I declare that from now on, the Persian Gulf Mediterranean Company can officially open for business, with its headquarters in Basra City, and Mr. Raphael Lisboa will serve as the first chairman!"

For the first time ever, Hong Tao attended the power change meeting held at the dock without being able to guarantee his safety. He sat on the thick Persian carpet with a group of Bayi masters in Basra, eating dates and drinking coffee, and had a cordial conversation.

What are they talking about? On the surface, they are concerned about the future development of Basra as occupiers, but in reality, they are endorsing Lisboa and the newly established company.

Lisboa demonstrated its value with practical actions. It was fake to enter the city to persuade the city lord and a group of nobles to surrender, but the real purpose was to persuade them to join the new company and make a fortune together.

He didn't need to persuade them to surrender to the new occupiers, the outcome would be similar. Every time a more powerful invader demonstrated his military strength, the Baiyi masters here would choose to surrender.

But this kind of submission is only superficial. There is neither blood relationship nor emotional factors, let alone conflicts of interest. It is completely subjugated.

It’s different now. The simple establishment of a new company has dragged in more than a dozen tribal elders present, and they have become grasshoppers on the same rope.

From then on, they were no longer simply agents for the occupiers to collect taxes, provide labor and soldiers, but became a community of interests that worked together, shared together, and made profits together. When the company prospers, everyone benefits; when the company dies, everyone suffers!

(End of this chapter)