When approaching the Ottoman-controlled border (later Kandibine), a small fort with a distinct Islamic style appeared before them.

Wobaxi once again asked Deng Ce to raise the banner.

However, unexpectedly, this time was not as smooth as in Ukrainian City. The soldiers wearing black cylindrical hats not only did not open the city gate to let them in, but instead fired guns to warn them.

This made Obasi nervous.

Deng Ce, who came here many times under the banner of Truqin, also frowned.

After a while, he said: "It's probably because of the Ottomans who have changed Pasha. The Ottoman rules are changed every five to eight years. The ex-Paxa took office eight years ago, and it's time to leave."

Wobasi said: "But the Ottoman Sultan should be the same person right now."

Deng Ce shook his head, "This is the reason. Mahmoud I, who has been friendly to our country a few years ago, died. After his death, his younger brother Ottoman III succeeded to the throne and died of illness last year."

"The one who succeeded the throne is Ottoman III's cousin Mustafa III. When he held the ceremony of succession, our country also sent people to participate, but at that time Mustafa III was relatively cold to our country."

"But he still sent someone to pass on the message, saying that the national policy set by Mahmoud I remained unchanged."

"As soon as he succeeded to the throne, he immediately replaced Pasha in the core area. Odessa is a border area. It is estimated that it was because of stability factors and it was not replaced this year."

"So, the new Odessa Pasha should be the confidant of this Mustafa III."

"That's for sure. Now the Ottoman national strength has been greatly reduced, and he has been defeated by the Tsarist Russian Empire in succession. Most of the domestic troops are also placed in the Danube River Basin. There are estimated to be 50,000 troops in the area of ​​Kishnau-Odessa-Mecklef."

“There are at least 30,000 horses in Melitopol, north of the Crimean Khanate.”

"If Pasha is replaced suddenly, it will inevitably affect the stable situation in this area. Unlike our country, Pasha is monopolizing. Odessa and North Crimea are both food and mining areas. In addition, Mecklef is their largest shipyard in the Black Sea, and the oil and water behind it is extremely rich."

"Shipyard?"

“Yes, Mecklef is on the northern shore of the Black Sea, the lower reaches of the South Bug River, just north of an inland peninsula.”

"There are many sudden winds in the northern part of the Black Sea and the waves are very large. It is still unfavorable to build sails on the coast, but there is no such concern in the depths of the inland river."

"The Southbug River near Mecklef is extremely wide, and the largest sea boats can also sail in. It is surrounded by oak and birch forests, which is a great place to set up a boat house."

"But their naval base is still located in Odessa, and there are also warships in the area of ​​Khlson they control."

"At present, the pressure in Central and Southern Europe has been reduced a lot, and the main energy is devoted to Eastern Europe, mainly the Tsarist Russian Empire."

"In the Mediterranean, there is a Barbary Kingdom, which is like an autonomous province of the Ottoman Empire. They have the largest fleet of ships on the Mediterranean sea and the largest pirate gang in the Mediterranean. They are the main source of the Ottoman Navy."

"Fifty years ago, even the British and French fleets had to pay protection fees to them. Later, as the maritime strength of these two countries gradually grew, the Ottoman Barbary talent exempted the protection fees from these two countries, but other countries still needed to pay."

"They occupy the vast land of southern and eastern Europe, and naturally have a large number of boatmen and sailors. At present, the shipwrecks in Mecklef are said to have been transferred from Albania and Greece..."

"why is that?"

"Haha, about ten years ago, the Russian Navy set out from St. Petersburg, headed south along the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean, entered the Mediterranean, and then broke through and blocked the Ottoman-controlled Bosphorus Strait, echoing the army's attack on the Crimean Khanate."

"After this battle, the Ottomans attached importance to the Black Sea Fleet. In the entire Azov Sea, the Black Sea area, that is, Mecklef, there is the most wood, and it is deep on land, so you are not afraid of the destruction of the Russian fleet."

"The current level of European warships is naturally far higher than that of the Ottomans, and it is reasonable for them to transfer Europeans to build warships."

Wobasi nodded. He knew that Yesmu, the commander of the Caspian branch of the Intelligence Division who had been stationed in Lagan Port, had been transferred to Istanbul ambassador. Yesmu, who looked like a Turkic person, was doing well there. I guess these news were all conveyed by him.

Both of them spoke in Mongolian, which made Kazimiri, who was determined to participate, scratch his head anxiously.

In fact, for the Poles, the Ottomans brought them far more pain than the Russians. Many years ago, the Ottomans kept sending cavalry to the two sides of the Dnieper River to capture white slaves.

At that time, Western Ukraine was actually controlled by the Poles, while Eastern Ukraine was controlled by the Lithuanians. The captured prisoners were naturally theirs.

It can be said that the rise of the Ottoman Empire was based on a large number of white prisoners. Except for the Europeans captured by the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean, the most were the Ukrainians.

Although the Ukrainians are very dissatisfied with Russia at the moment, it is still tolerated compared to the Ottomans. After all, what Russia endangers the interests of the nobles and has nothing to do with the vast number of serfs.

Therefore, although Kazimiri was also full of confidence, he changed into Truchen's clothes after arriving at the Ottoman border.

As we were chatting, we heard a "crunch" sound, and the gate of the border castle finally opened.

An Ottoman officer with a red feather on the edge of a black cylinder hat rushed over with more than ten cavalry.

Unlike the city lord Krasinsky of Uman City who took the initiative to dismount, the officer with a black beard still rode on the horse casually and pointed at them with a saber.

"Are you Truchen's mission?"

"That's right." This person has never seen Deng Ce before. It can be seen that after the new Pasha took office, he even changed the officers of the small fortress on the border.

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading!

Wobasi stood up.

"I am the brother of Tengjis Bogdasaiyin Khan of Truchen Khan, I would like to ask..."

Wobaxi speaks Turkic. For the Turkic people, it is necessary to know some Turkic and Russian, even herders, not to mention how many years he attended school?

As soon as these words came out, the officer's face changed suddenly, but he still did not dismount. He just took away the sabers and asked carelessly: "Why are you coming from the south?"

"Obassie replied: "My country has a consulate in Kiev, the Kingdom of Poland, and coming from there is nothing."

Then the man was a little reluctant to get off his horse and saluted in front of Wobaxi, "Watch with His Highness the Prince."

Wobaxi didn't care, so he gave the gift openly and signaled Deng Ce to give the prepared gift.

Deng Ce handed him a beautifully decorated small wooden box, "Is Yousuf Pasha still here?"

Yousuf is the name of Pasha in the past.

The man took the box and stuffed it into his arms with lightning speed, and then said, "Yousof has been transferred away. Now the person in charge of Odessa and the entire Crimean Khanate is the Sultan's brother-in-law, Lord Aladdin."

"Oh, is Aladdin Pasha in Odessa, or in Crimea?"

"No, no, no, you have good luck, he's in Mecklef"

......

Mecklef, shipyard.

A young man wearing a turban wrapped in various colors of silk, and a robe with gold and silver embroidered silk was scolding an old Albanian man.

"Half a year has passed, and you have only taken out two ships!"

The old man from Albania is the director of the shipyard here. He has a large group of craftsmen from Albania, Greece, Genoa, and Venice. It is naturally the masterpiece of the Barbary pirates.

A hundred years ago, there was a period when the Ottoman Empire was ruled by Great Vizier. At that time, Great Vizier was the Kopruli family, and Kopruli was an Albanian who converted to Islamic Buddhism and once served as the Albanian Pasha.

As the saying goes, one person has achieved enlightenment and the chickens and dogs have ascended to heaven. Later, although the Kopruri family declined, the Islamic people in Albania were spread throughout the Ottoman Empire and held important positions in various places.

The old man was obviously a little dissatisfied with Aladdin's reprimand.

"Pasha, you need to ask how much money the boat shop still has."

Aladdin was about to curse, but one of the people around him quickly grabbed him and said softly in his ear: "Pasha, the funds of the shipyard are distributed every three months. Although Yousuf is a bit famous in the military, he is known for his corruption."

"I'm afraid he has already greedy for a lot of funds from the shipyard. When he leaves office, he counts all the remaining funds on the list of 'issued'. He has been in Egypt and Barbary one after another, and it's like this every time."

Aladdin then calmed his anger a little.

"How much more will it take to complete the construction of the remaining three large ships?"

"Pasha, let's make up for the salary of our craftsmen first. They have been unable to get rid of the blame for two months. As for the big ship, it is still the previous cost, about 10,000 Ottoman gold coins."

(PS: At this time, the Ottoman silver coins depreciated significantly due to various factors and were not valuable at all. The general one was gold coins. Although they were also heavily injected with water, they had some uses in the end)

Aladdin couldn't help but gasp.

"I promised the Sultan, saying that the Russian fleet would not be able to leave the Kerch Strait within three years. The focus was on the west coast. It would take half a year for a large ship, and three more. That would be a year and a half?"

He asked the people around him again, "How much is there in the warehouse?"

The man also replied in a low voice: "There are only a few thousand gold coins, but there are still a lot of food, cloth and other things."

Aladdin's face turned pale and he said to the old man after a while: "Since you can't take it out, please send someone to the warehouse to collect some food and fabric."

"What about the money for starting work?"

Aladdin naturally didn't want to put all the remaining thousands of gold coins on the boat shop at once. He had more jurisdiction and more places to use money, so he said, "I'll give you a thousand gold coins first, let's do it first, the remaining money will be back soon."

After he left the shipyard, the people around him asked, "Pasha, the remaining money..."

"Then you need to ask, it used to be because it was close to the hateful Russia, so the number of people in the pagans was reduced. Now it's not possible..."

"But Yousuf has already paid the cap tax for five years..."

"Then restore all the taxes that were previously cancelled, such as chicken tax, cattle tax, sheep tax, horse tax, new population tax, marriage tax, burial tax, and then increase the commercial tax by 10%"
Chapter completed!