unclear

Chapter 1201 Landmines

"Your Majesty, the wise Emperor, can I make one more small request?" Galas strode to the door of the tent with an expression of uncontrollable joy, suddenly stopped, gritted his teeth, turned around and bowed to the emperor again.

"Speaking……"

"If your majesty allows only Constantine and I to leave, and the others have died in battle, I will be very grateful, and it will be of great help to the peace talks."

When he said this, there was a hint of panic in Galas' eyes, but it was only a flash. The adjutant, guards, and grooms were not reliable, and there was no way to keep them 100% secret unless they were all dead.

"Oh... I was negligent! Please don't worry. Let my aide-de-camp go with you. He will let His Excellency the Marshal see the bodies of the dead in person. Not a single one is missing. Just point out the lucky Constantine to him in advance."

Even though Hong Tao was well-informed and had seen all kinds of people, he was still a little confused when he heard this. How could a person be so shameless, cruel, and selfish? But people are really like this. Since he is not stingy, he should stop pretending to be a good person.

In fact, if it weren't for this marshal who was met by chance, the Army and the Warrior Battalion would have received orders not to take prisoners. If you really think about it, I am not much better than him. We are all politicians who regard human life as worthless.

The lives of thousands of soldiers were nothing more than bargaining chips. The so-called honor of the nobility was nothing more than a higher price.

"Your Majesty, let me say something. This man cannot be trusted!" Not only Hong Tao saw it, but Wang Chengen, who had been standing next to him serving, also saw it. As soon as the honey badger took Galas away, he immediately reminded them.

"The most important thing in their minds is themselves, followed by wealth and power, the rise and fall of the family, and then the country and nation. How can such simple people not be trusted?
If you break your promise, it means that the price you offer them is not good enough or not what they need. It is not their fault, but you are not good at judging people.

I will also teach you a trick. Politicians born in Italy are best at betraying their companions. You must be more careful when you meet them. Don't ask why, just remember it."

Wang Chengen is right that Gallas is not trustworthy. But he is also wrong that Gallas is more trustworthy than many people. The difference is the perspective. From an individual perspective, Gallas is not trustworthy, but from a national perspective, he is trustworthy.

The so-called trust between countries is completely different from the trust between individuals. The former is about interests, while the latter is about character. There are only interests between countries, not character. There are both interests and character between people, and they cannot be confused, otherwise there will be big trouble.

But as he was talking, Hong Tao remembered something else and decided to give Wang Chengen a shot of defense. The Italians' ability to betray their teammates was beyond proof, and the more important the matter, the more ruthless they would betray.

"It would be unfortunate for a soldier to meet a general like this. Your Majesty, I have finished my work. Zhao En sent someone to send him to the swamp. However, I took the initiative to secretly save the lives of the two most senior officials in case of emergency. Do you agree with this?"

Not long after, the flat-headed brother came back, with a look of deep fatigue on his face. He also knew why Galas wanted to kill his men, so he was very depressed and became more cautious.

"Well... just keep it. When I get back, I'll hand it over to the advisory office for a careful review and then assign a suitable job to it. You'll be the one to follow up on this matter."

Hong Tao wanted to say that keeping them was useless and would not be able to restrict Galas too much. But he felt sorry for these followers and decided not to kill them. The empire was so big that it could not afford to kill two people. "Your Majesty, we killed countless enemies in this battle, including many European cavalry. With such a huge loss, will they easily agree to peace talks? Will the Ottomans interfere?"

Wang Chengen did not show much kindness, and even did not care much, but he was very concerned about whether the negotiations could be carried out. In his view, both Europeans and Ottomans were enemies of the Ming Dynasty. If one side wanted to shake off the other side and negotiate with the enemy, it would definitely be difficult.

"That depends on the determination of Ferdinand III and the Pope. As long as they covet the glory of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the benefits that come with it, they will definitely turn against the Ottomans. In fact, they are enemies to begin with. I just gave them a little reminder."

Hong Tao also has this concern, but not much. It is not too difficult to make Christians and Muslims, who are not harmonious to begin with, continue to hate and kill each other for their faith, not to mention the holy city of Jerusalem, which is a particularly useful fuse.

The management cost of this land is too high and does not meet the standards of an overseas territory, so the Ming Empire will not send troops to stay there permanently and does not plan to establish a regime here.

But as the victors, they cannot just withdraw their troops without giving up anything. The talk of punishing the Ottomans on behalf of justice is just fooling the people. Even if there is justice, its implementation cannot be zero-cost. Who should pay for the military expenditure?
Therefore, the Ming Empire had to maintain sufficient influence in this land, such as supporting one or several local governments and indirectly gaining benefits through them.

So the question is, if most of the Ming army withdrew, could these small regimes that were put together temporarily resist the Ottoman Empire's southward advance? The answer must be no, not to mention the Ottoman Empire, even Persia could not stop it.

At this time, a more powerful force that is irreconcilable with the Ottomans is needed to join in, such as European Christians.

Even though they were able to temporarily form an alliance with Murad IV in order to open up a land route from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean, they actually hoped that the Ottoman Empire and the Ming Dynasty would both suffer heavy losses so that they could reap the benefits.

Now the opportunity has come. Not only can we open up the trade route, but we can also restore the glory of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. We must attract the attention of the Europeans, or at least some of them.

As long as the Europeans dared to do this, they would never be able to live in peace with the Ottomans, Arabs, Persians, and Egyptians, and there would be no so-called coalition.

The Arabs and Egyptians supported by the Ming Empire, the Ottomans of Turkic descent, together with European Christians and native Persians, lived together on the same land. They saw each other every day and disliked each other. This was considered a complete group.

From now on, for at least several centuries, this land will never have a peaceful day again. There will be quarrels every three days and fights every five days. Even if some wise people appear, they will not be able to sort out the relationship from the mess, let alone stop the growing hatred.

Then the Ming Empire felt comfortable, hiding in the distance and watching the changes, acting as a mediator and secretly instigating the conflicts, selling weapons to all parties and seizing local resources, and occasionally singing a few high-sounding slogans, asking everyone to restrain themselves, value peace, and jointly develop the economy.

Even though everyone knew that this guy was not a good person, no one could stand up to uphold justice, and they had to win him over against their will. Because no matter which side the Ming Empire stood on, its opponents would face a desperate situation. This was called an open conspiracy, and there was no solution!

(End of this chapter)