Chapter 4024
Chapter 4024
Chapter 4024
With both the Queen Mother and the Sultan having made their stance clear, Arif naturally dared not voice his opposition. In his view, since the conditions proposed by the Haihan people were not good enough, leading the higher-ups to believe that the risks outweighed the benefits, their rejection was to be expected.
Moreover, with the meager tax revenue from the Suez region, there's not much point in all the fuss. It's much more profitable to simply transport goods from the Persian Gulf to Basra, where the profits will undoubtedly be far greater than from Suez.
Of course, they had no idea at this time that the Haihan people's true plan was to dig a large canal in the Suez region connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and to permanently control this crucial area linking Asia, Africa, and Europe. The enormous benefits that would result were beyond the comprehension of people of that era.
Even if Qian Tiandun had told the Ottomans about the canal plan outright, they would probably have thought it was a fantasy fabricated by the Haihan people.
In this era, how much manpower, material resources, and financial resources would be required to dig an artificial canal that is 400 miles long and can accommodate large ocean-going ships?
The Egyptians ruled that region for thousands of years, and their most radical and daring idea was nothing more than digging an east-west canal connecting the Nile River and the Red Sea. Although many people in later generations wanted to revive this plan, it was ultimately abandoned due to objective limitations.
The large north-south canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea would undoubtedly be an unprecedented mega-project, one that no one in history has ever been able to implement.
Qian Tiandun's goal was to bring this canal, which was currently only in the planning stage, to life two hundred years ahead of schedule, so that Haihan could control the complete waterway connecting the East and West and become a true maritime hegemon.
At that time, many of the time travelers should still be alive, and they may even have the opportunity to personally travel through the canal to the Mediterranean and Europe.
Of course, the Haihan Fleet, renowned for its powerful firepower, will also operate in the Mediterranean and even the Atlantic Ocean under the guise of escorting merchant ships. Those once-arrogant Western colonial powers will have the opportunity to see their counterparts from the East on their doorstep.
However, the Ottoman royal family, limited by their understanding, clearly could not have anticipated that Haihan had such a grand long-term plan. Their consideration of Haihan's proposed cooperation was largely based on their own national security needs, rather than weighing the pros and cons within a broader perspective.
Before rejecting the Haihan people, Arif still had to remind his superior that the Haihan people were not some kind-hearted businessmen.
“Rejecting the Haihan people is certainly an option, but we must be careful, as this might bring the Haihan people closer to the Persians. During my inspection of Basra, I received a warning from the border that a Persian army equipped with a large number of firearms had appeared. According to the judgment of the Basra governor, Galler, the firearms they are using may have come from the Haihan.”
"The ports established by the Haihan people in the Strait of Hormuz are very close to the Persian Empire, so it is not surprising that they have some secret transactions. But we should be extra careful about this."
Arif was very careful with his words, even shifting some of the blame onto Galer. If the rumors later proved false, it would be Galer's fault; Arif was merely a middleman relaying the message.
Turhan frowned and asked, "Are the firearms produced by Haihan very powerful?" Arif replied, "Many of the firearms that Galar bought from the Portuguese were actually produced by Haihan. Moreover, according to the Haihan people who visited Basra, most of what they sold to the Portuguese were secondhand goods, not the most powerful weapons."
"The Haihan people also said that if we could reach a cooperation agreement with our country on the Suez issue, then in exchange they would promise not to sell advanced weapons to Persia, thus guaranteeing our country's dominant position in the Persian Gulf region."
Turhan sneered, "If no agreement is reached and we don't hand over Suez to them, they will sell weapons to Persia without restraint and use this method to put pressure on us. Is that correct?"
Turhan, after all, was a woman who had lived in the capital for a long time and did not have a clear understanding of the power of Haihan's weapons, but she could understand Haihan's purpose in proposing such an exchange.
The young Sultan, however, felt that his mother had not grasped the key point and whispered a reminder: "Mother, if Persia gains the support of the Han, or even forms some kind of alliance, it will be a great threat to us!"
Turhan shook his head and said, "Our Ottoman Empire has been established for more than three hundred years. Haven't we encountered many powerful opponents? Byzantium, Bulgaria, Egypt, Serbia, Persia, Hungary... which one was weak? Back then, those seemingly invincible opponents were all defeated by us one by one. Besides, the homeland of the Haihan people is thousands of miles away in the east. How much of a ripple can they make in the Persian Gulf?"
Arif quickly agreed: "Even if the Persians can buy some weapons and equipment from Haihan, it's only to bolster their courage. If they really want to fight us, they're just courting death!"
Regarding the cooperation between Haihan and Persia, the governor of Basra, Galer, was clearly more worried. After all, his territory bordered Persia, and he would be the first to be affected in the event of war. Moreover, Galer had purchased some equipment from Haihan, and his knowledge of Haihan's weapons was much better than that of Arif, a complete novice.
Unfortunately, Galer did not return to Istanbul with Arif. The border near Basra had been somewhat unstable recently, and as regent, he needed to remain there. This resulted in Arif's reports to the Queen Mother and the young Sultan lacking objective assessments, particularly regarding the strength of the Haihan army, which directly influenced the decision-makers' understanding.
In the Empress Dowager's view, the Haihan people were no different from the Portuguese people she had dealt with before. They were both powerful maritime nations that had come from afar. Relying on their strong ships and powerful cannons, they would occupy a place with a small force, build a small port, and then conduct maritime trade with neighboring countries. They would also sell some weapons and equipment that were said to be very advanced.
These armed merchants' ambitions were merely to establish more colonies and make more money locally; they could not hinder the Ottoman Empire's expansion and had extremely limited influence on the regional situation.
But if Galle were present, he would certainly have told the two important figures without hesitation that the Haihan people were not so simple. The situation that the Portuguese had spent over a century building in the Persian Gulf was achieved by the Haihan people in just a few years; the strength of the two countries was incomparable.
Persia has long coveted the Mesopotamian plain and has waged war against it more than once in history. If Haihan were to form an alliance with Persia, Basra, the first pass from the Persian Gulf into the Mesopotamian plain, would be in grave danger.