Chapter 995 If You Fall Behind, You Will Be Beaten!

The gap between China and the Ottoman Empire is a comprehensive difference in culture, thought, belief, social structure, social system, and social consciousness.

The Ottoman Empire's decadent political system and dull social "customs" are like solid iron chains, woven into a solid cage that deprives people of any freedom. This reminds Pang Zhenkun of the Qing Dynasty fifty years ago.

At that time, the Qing Dynasty was still in the "Qianlong Prosperity" period, and Pang Zhenkun at that time naturally did not think that there was anything abnormal in the "world". Although at that time, officials all over the world were corrupt, the administration was turbid, the Eight Banners were noble, and the clan power in the countryside was firm and unshakable, everything was so logical. Everything in the whole society, everything that existed, seemed natural to Pang Zhenkun at that time.

But now looking back, looking back at the past years, Pang Zhenkun will have a dull sense of depression in his heart. It was a breath of pressure from every corner of the society, making him feel suffocated and unable to breathe a breath of fresh air.

This is of course because Pang Zhenkun's thoughts have changed.

The way Pang Zhenkun looks at things now and the thoughts in his mind are very different from those of Pang Zhenkun back then. He is already a "Han Chinese" instead of a "Qing Dynasty". Comparing the current viewpoint with the Qianlong Dynasty back then, wouldn't it make people feel suffocated and unable to breathe?

The Ottoman society, the rules and regulations here, made Pang Zhenkun experience this feeling again. Of course, this is because Pang Zhenkun is really considering the future for Ottoman, not like the French who are full of nonsense.

Selim III and his friends certainly didn't know that when Napoleon sent a special envoy to Ottoman, Napoleon and his wife Josephine Beauharnais had officially divorced. Because they had been married for more than ten years, Josephine Beauharnais had never left Napoleon with a child, which was not Napoleon's problem. Napoleon had two illegitimate children, so it was obvious that there was nothing wrong with his body.

In 1804, Napoleon met a girl who specialized in reading newspapers in his sister Carolina's palace. The girl's name was Iliano. She was only 18 years old, tall and slender, with a pair of beautiful black and shiny eyes. Napoleon was fascinated by her graceful demeanor, and Iliano soon became the emperor's mistress. Soon, she became pregnant and gave birth to a beautiful boy. Napoleon was very happy, that was his first child, but Iliano thought that she could improve her status by giving birth to a son for the emperor. Without Napoleon's permission, she came to the palace to meet the emperor with her son without authorization, which made Napoleon furious. From then on, she lost Napoleon's favor and the child was handed over to someone else to raise.

In 1807 in Warsaw, Poland, Napoleon met another woman who made him fall in love. Although the latter already had a husband. But Napoleon still "pursued" her. This woman named Marie Laszynska often had trysts with Napoleon and traveled with him all over the country, leaving her old husband in Warsaw. Just before the Fifth Coalition War, Marie Laczynska became pregnant with Napoleon's child.

Napoleon sent her back to Paris, bought her a beautiful house, and then she gave birth to a son when the Austrians surrendered. This made Napoleon very happy, and the omen was very auspicious.

However, although the mistress gave birth to two sons for Napoleon, it was not legitimate. According to European tradition, illegitimate children had no inheritance rights, and his powerful empire must have an heir, and the fact that he had no heirs had always troubled him. He had wanted to adopt his brother Louis's son, but soon the news came that the little prince had died, and Napoleon was very sad. Perhaps he had the idea of ​​divorce at that time.

Istanbul definitely didn't know that Napoleon sent a special envoy to Russia at the same time as he sent a special envoy to the Ottoman Empire. Napoleon's first target was Princess Catherine of Russia.

This is the skill of a politician.

Although Napoleon wanted to conquer Russia, he obviously had no confidence and no intention to completely wipe out the Romanov dynasty. He just wanted Russia to surrender and weaken Russia at the same time. Napoleon's ultimate enemy was China, and the liar who had a deep hatred for the Chinese would obviously be his powerful arm.

So he hoped that the relationship between France and Russia would develop further. The two sides became relatives, and this was also to better confuse Russia.

At the same time, this also well reflected Napoleon's intention to communicate with the Ottomans from another aspect. It was indeed against Austria, not Russia. Although this was all an illusion, Napoleon played it very beautifully.

Unfortunately, Napoleon met an extraordinary Tsar-Alexander I. That was a monarch who had a super brother-sister relationship with his sister.

Princess Catherine was Alexander's elder sister. They were of the same age and grew up together. The years of living together made them develop feelings beyond siblings. When Alexander's marriage was in name only, the relationship between the two reached its peak. They often sat alone, talked all night long, and sometimes acted too intimately. They all lived in the palace, but they had to communicate every day. If Alexander I went out for inspection or visited abroad, the correspondence between the brother and sister would be more frequent. Alexander wrote in a letter to his sister: "Knowing that you love me is the source of my happiness, because you are one of the most perfect beauties in the world", "I love you like a madman!... Seeing you, I am so happy that I am crazy. I am like a possessed person, running around, hoping to relax sweetly in your arms." Those two people are really crazy!

Napoleon, who was powerful in Europe, suddenly proposed to Princess Catherine, which made Alexander very unhappy. He couldn't bear to marry his beloved sister to the "cannibal monster" of France. Yes, Alexander I described Napoleon like this.

However, the already sensitive Franco-Russian relationship undoubtedly took another big step towards a breakup because of this incident.

At this time, Austria's new Foreign Minister Metternich stood up.

The Treaty of Vienna placed a heavy burden on Austria, with 150 million francs in war reparations, the cession of a large area of ​​territory, and the loss of 3.5 million people, which greatly weakened Austria's national strength.

As a skilled diplomat, Metternich, in order to safeguard Austria's interests, took the first step after taking office, which was to personally promote the marriage of Austrian Princess Maria Louise and Napoleon, thus easing the tension between France and Austria.

France and Russia once formed an alliance to combat the expansion of British power, but the Tsarist Russian government was extremely dissatisfied with France's "continental blockade" policy, because it seriously affected trade between Russia and Britain, making it impossible for Russia to dump agricultural products in Britain. In order to break France's "blockade of the continent" policy, Russia, regardless of its alliance agreement with France, unilaterally announced the resumption of trade with Britain. The relationship between France and Russia has begun to become tense, and Alexander I also emotionally refused to marry Napoleon, which Napoleon has always been upset about.

Metternich was very keen to capture the subtle changes in the relationship between France and Russia, so he played a double-faced trick, trying to weaken France's hostility towards Austria and reduce the threat to Austria. On the one hand, he verbally declared "active support" for France, but on the other hand, he secretly promised Russia to give France as little support as possible in order to avoid damage to Russia as much as possible. The emergence of Metternich has changed the diplomatic landscape in Europe, but the Ottomans still know nothing about it.

Pang Zhenkun also received the urgent report from the European Office three days after the dinner that day. Knowing Napoleon's "true feelings" for Russia, Pang Zhenkun applauded Napoleon's methods after receiving the urgent report from the European Office. This is really confusing!

However, the more this happened, the more Pang Zhenkun believed that Osman would not wake up. Since he could not wake up, the country would be very worrying.

This was not because Pang Zhenkun underestimated Osman. It was really that Emperor Chen's idea was too insidious.

The time when Chen Han and Osman actually launched the war against Russia was not when Napoleon attacked Russia. When Napoleon's army began to wage war against Russia, the armies of China and Osman would only continue to devour the land abandoned by the Russian army after its troops were empty. For example, the Black Sea, such as the Volga River Basin.

And when Napoleon was defeated by the cold winter, that was the beginning of the war between China and Osman against Russia.

Of course, all these calculations were based on the premise that Napoleon would launch a war against Russia and that Napoleon would be defeated by the cold winter in Russia.

Pang Zhenkun felt that such a war should not be very difficult, and for the current Osman, it could be fully supported. But as Chen Han's former prime minister, Pang Zhenkun had heard a word from Chen Ming thirty years ago-the Industrial Revolution.

What is the Industrial Revolution?

It refers to the qualitative change process of capitalist industrialization, that is, the stage when capitalist production completes the transition from workshop handicraft to machine industry. The Industrial Revolution is a production and technological revolution that replaces manpower with machines and replaces individual workshop manual production with large-scale factory production.

This change first appeared in Britain in Europe. Just before Chen Ming started his army, the British had already had this sign. The emergence of the steam engine gave this change a pair of wings. Fortunately, because of Chen Ming's persistence, China paid attention to steam power earlier than the British.

Although it was 10 to 20 years later than the British, and it was much more difficult for such a huge country to promote steam power than the British, but now, China's "steamization" is not inferior to that of the British, but even better. And specifically reflected in the growth of national strength, the national strength of such a huge country is far superior to that of the British.

Although the annual fiscal revenue of the British can catch up with half of that of China, the British were in wartime, and they collected wartime additional taxes, and these taxes were to be reduced in the post-war peacetime. And China's normal fiscal revenue in peacetime.

Pang Zhenkun had been a senior official of the Chen Han for many years, and had served as the Prime Minister for ten years. He was very clear about the effect of steamization on productivity and economy. Of course, the Chen Han was not afraid of Europe, but what about the Ottoman Empire?

The current Ottoman Empire is not even as good as Austria's industrial system, and European countries can easily get in touch with steam. As long as countries see the effectiveness of steam engines, France, Austria, Prussia and other countries will quickly introduce them into their own countries. It can be predicted that in twenty or thirty years, the national strength of European powers will increase significantly, and the Ottoman Empire is in its current state. What can they use to continue to maintain their national strength growth rate?

If you can't keep up with the trend, you will be left behind, and the final result will inevitably be a beating. Falling behind will be beaten!

The troubles of the Ottoman Empire are still to come.