Chapter 4002
Chapter 4002
Chapter 4002
"The information our spies gathered here basically confirms the previous rumors: the person who came to Basra is a member of the Ottoman royal family. To be precise, he is a relative of the Queen Mother. It is said that this person has been representing the royal family to tour various places and exercising the powers of an imperial envoy for the past few years."
Takahashi Minami paused, then added, "The governor of Basra, Galle, seems to have been promoted by the Empress Dowager."
Qian Tiandun nodded and said, "So Galar's backer is that Empress Dowager who is ruling from behind the curtain."
The current ruler, Mehmed IV, is the nineteenth Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. However, he was only seven years old when he ascended the throne and naturally lacked the ability to govern, so the power of the country was handed over to the Queen Mother. Although this young Sultan has been on the throne for more than a decade, he is still not yet twenty years old, and his authority is presumably far less than that of his mother.
Takahashi Minami said, "I also received another message: the one who holds real power in the Ottoman court is no longer the Empress Dowager, but the Prime Minister Koprulu."
The position of vizier in the Ottoman Empire was called Grand Vizier, whose power was second only to the Sultan himself. The current vizier, Koprulu, was taking up the position for the first time, but he was extremely politically astute.
The Ottoman Empire spanned three continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe, and its territory was vast. In an era with limited communication, it was inevitable that there would be regions where the imperial court's influence could not reach.
Before Koprulu took office, the Ottoman Empire was embroiled in several local rebellions, which the Empress Dowager was powerless to resolve. Ultimately, she promoted Koprulu, who had served as governor in many places, to the position of prime minister.
Upon assuming office, Koprulu demanded that the Empress Dowager relinquish power to him, not only in charge of political affairs but also in control of the military and personnel appointments, otherwise he would be unable to save the country from its dire straits. Faced with the domestic situation, the Empress Dowager had no choice but to agree to his demands.
Prior to this, the special operations division had not learned much about the prime minister from Basra. This was because the local governor, Galler, was a close associate of the Queen Mother and intended to weaken the prime minister's influence over Basra. Furthermore, after taking office, Koprulu disregarded his advanced age and personally led troops to suppress rebellions in various regions, without making any further adjustments to the existing political system and bureaucratic structure.
Koprulu took office in 1656 and spent the next few years leading troops in battles far from the Mesopotamian region where Basra was located. Given Galer's control over Basra, the prime minister who was quelling the rebellion might not even have known that the Strait of Hormuz had been altered by the arrival of the Haihan people, let alone the transactions between Galer and Qian Tiandun.
Qian Tiandun pondered the complex power struggles involved and found himself in a dilemma. If he wanted to reach a long-term agreement with the Ottoman leadership, should he negotiate with the Empress Dowager's faction or contact the prime minister who held real power?
Or perhaps they should gamble on the fact that the young sultan, who has not yet truly taken power, will be able to reclaim it in the near future and dominate the empire's future.
Prior to this, Qian Tiandun had retrieved some relevant information from the Ministry of National Defense's big data database, but unfortunately, the database server was running out of lifespan and could no longer retrieve this detailed information.
The transcribed written materials currently available do not contain very detailed information about the history of the Ottoman Empire, and in Qian Tiandun's view, their actual reference value is relatively limited.
Qian Tiandun couldn't complain about this, because he was somewhat aware of the situation of copying data from large databases. Most of the resources were used to record the future development blueprint of the technology tree, and for the world history outside of East Asia, most of them only recorded some major historical events and important figures.
The complex relationships and conflicts of interest between a particular Sultan and his vizier in the 17th century Ottoman Empire were clearly not worth wasting precious server lifespan on detailed transcription. After some deliberation, Qian Tiandun decided to stick to the established plan and first contact the Empress Dowager's faction, whom he could currently reach, to see if there was any possibility of further cooperation.
As for the prime minister who is away on campaign, he is probably still thousands of miles away in the depths of the Carpathian Mountains, locked in a fierce battle with the local Romanians. He has no time to consider these "trivial matters" and can be temporarily ignored.
Takahashi Minami continued her report: "When I returned, I ran into Galler's adjutant, who asked us if we had changed our minds. I told him that if we did, we would inform the Governor's Office immediately."
Qian Tiandun smiled and said, "They should be more eager than us in the arms trade. Let's keep delaying and have someone spread some rumors."
Takahashi Minami understood immediately and said, "I've already given the order, and the news will be spread in the next couple of days."
The Ottomans were worried that General Haihan would sell firearms to their arch-enemy, the Persians, so they wanted to sign an exclusive supply agreement with Qian Tiandun. However, this only exposed their weakness, making Qian Tiandun realize that he had leverage over the Ottomans.
Sure enough, rumors circulated in Basra that very day that Persian armed cavalry equipped with muskets had been spotted near the border between the Ottomans and Persia.
Basra was located very close to the Persian-controlled area, only about 200 miles away. In the past battles between the two countries, Basra, as a major city, was almost always inevitably involved in the fighting. Therefore, such news was highly valued locally and quickly reached the governor's office.
Upon hearing this, Galer was naturally alarmed and immediately sent people to verify the information, but they could not trace the source of the news. Those who claimed to have seen the Persian armed cavalry all said, when questioned, that they had heard it from elsewhere.
However, Galer dared not be careless. If even the Persian border cavalry were equipped with firearms, then their level of weaponry was certainly superior to that of the garrison in Basra. Once the enemy launched an invasion, they could reach the walls of Basra in two or three days.
Galler could only order several scout teams to be dispatched immediately to patrol the border region and see if there were any signs that the Persians had amassed a large force.
Besides this, Galar actually had another way of indirectly confirming this. Persia did not have the ability to produce firearms itself, so it must have purchased them from outside, and there were only two sellers in the Persian Gulf.
One party is the Portuguese, who have a long-standing feud with Persia. Arming Persia goes against their stance, so it seems unlikely that they will sell a large amount of weapons to Persia at present.
As for the other group, it is the Haihan people who are currently visiting Basra. They have no enmity with the Persians, so there is naturally no psychological barrier to selling them weapons.
Moreover, the weapons and equipment sold by the Haihan were clearly superior in performance to the secondhand goods sold by the Portuguese. Once the Persians purchased large quantities of Haihan's weaponry, Basra would be in grave danger.