Istanbul, Topkapi Palace, Second Courtyard, Domed Assembly Hall.
Grand Vizier Ahmed Koprulu, who was in his seventies and seemed to be about to go to see Allah, stood up from the sofa unsteadily with the support of his brother-in-law Mustafa Kara and walked in In the room where Sultan Mohammed IV was, he saw a sad-looking Sultan.
"Your Majesty the Great Sultan, the Emir of India has heard your call, and together with his son-in-law, the Emperor of China, has sent a large army to support our holy war, and he has also provided us with a huge amount of military aid. , up to 20 million rupees... This is the will of Allah! This time, we will definitely be able to capture Vienna! His Majesty’s six-horse tail flag will definitely be planted on the Grand Palace in Vienna!”
Listening to the old man's eloquent words, Sultan Muhammad IV prayed to God in his heart: God, for the sake of me still serving as the caliph, please spare me and stop this thing that hasn't happened yet. War... I really don't want Vienna! I am a peace loving Sudan!
I was thinking about it in my heart, but I didn't dare to say it with my mouth.
Because Muhammad IV was originally a coward. He had been the sultan for more than 20 years, but he had never really held power for a day. At the beginning, he was young, and his grandmother and mother were in power successively. Later, in view of the fact that most of the queen mothers who had been in power before had no good end, his mother simply found an old man in his 80s, Mohammed Koprulu, to be the Grand Vizier. He organized the Guards internally and fought against Christianity externally, but it allowed Mohammed IV to live. Many years of comfortable life...
And he is different from those sultans who are ambitious and want to regain power and become the master of their own country. I just want to lie still and be a comfortable Sultan of Peace. Therefore, after Muhammad Koprulu died, he asked Ahmed Koprulu, the son of Muhammad Koprulu, to take over as Grand Vizier.
The Grand Vizier has become hereditary! Moreover, Muhammad IV did not look at Ahmed for long, and actually wanted his son or brother to continue his efforts... If this trend continues, in the future, the Grand Vizier can be changed to "The Grand Vizier of Europe" General" forget it.
But the problem is that Ahmed Koprulu just refuses to live a peaceful life! How old are you? He is almost 80 years old, and he is still struggling to conquer Vienna.
That's Vienna! The center of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg Empire... and quite possibly the strongest fortress in all of Europe!
If it cannot be defeated, the losses will be heavy... If it is defeated, the trouble will be even greater. Because in today's Europe, the Holy Roman Empire is just in a miserable state of affairs. France, to the west of HRE, is a great and powerful country that is growing day by day.
Once Vienna falls into the hands of the Ottoman Empire, France will definitely seize this golden opportunity to integrate Italy and the Rhineland... these two territories will most likely become part of France.
And France, with Italy and the Rhineland, is likely to be upgraded to Western Rome!
Killing the dying Holy Roman Empire in exchange for a powerful Western Rome... Muhammad IV was just weak, not a fool!
"Grand Vizier, has the time really come? Should we wait and see?" Muhammad IV did not dare to refuse Ahmed directly...because he knew that now not only the old man Ahmed De Koprulu wanted to fight, and all the people in the Janissaries (Guards) were eager for a war that would bring them wealth, honor, and power.
And...the Ottoman Empire itself also needed to develop through expansion!
The Ottoman Empire has always followed the development path of "it is better to build than to buy, and it is better to rob than to buy"!
What a country like this fears most is that there is nothing left to grab...and the Ottoman Empire is now facing such a situation! The easier places to rob have been seized by the Ottoman Empire, and now the route eastward to rob India is blocked by the naval forces of Britain, France, the Netherlands and Portugal!
The route south to rob Africa is blocked by the desert!
To the north, he encountered Poland and Rakshasa, two enemies who were difficult to rob and did not have much wealth.
To the west...the sea route was blocked by Spain-Venice, making it difficult to open up. And now the maritime powers of France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom have entered the Mediterranean.
With the small navy of the Ottoman Empire, it can barely cope with Venice and Spain. If it wants to fight against Britain, France and the Netherlands, it is pure courting death!
Taking the land route to the west, they ran into the Holy Roman Empire led by the Habsburg Dynasty... Compared with dealing with the navies of Britain, France and the Netherlands, Mohammed IV's Yenicery Army was more willing to take the land route to fight Vienna.
As for what to do after Vienna is captured...that is not something that their generation needs to consider.
"Your Majesty the Sultan," Ahmed Koprulu said, "there is no need to wait any longer, the time has come... Recently, news has come from Western Europe that the French, Dutch, and Spanish have encountered conflicts in America. A major setback! Their navy suffered a crushing defeat in the Pacific, and their army suffered setbacks in both New Spain and New France.
Especially on the Great Plains of New France, the French encountered as many as 200,000 Mongolian nomadic legions! "
"What? 200,000 Mongolians arrived in America...how did they get there?" Muhammad IV was stunned again and again. He had seen a globe, and the Americas and Mongolia on it didn't seem to be connected together.
"It's not important," Ahmed Koprulu said. Things he doesn't know are not important. If it's important, he couldn't possibly not know it. He paused, "What's important now is the French, the Dutch, and the Spanish." is recruiting mercenaries all over Europe... By the end of this year, 40,000 to 50,000 people will be sent to the Americas, most of them from Germany, which will greatly weaken Leopold I in emergencies. mobilization capabilities.”
There is no compulsory military service system in Europe these days. If you want to form an army, you have to spend money to hire... This is a matter of two aspects. One is that the king must be rich! Second, there must be enough high-level mercenaries.
Cannon fodder is easy to find, but cavalry, officers, non-commissioned officers, and excellent artillery are all scarce resources in the mercenary world. The impoverished Emperor Shinra obviously did not have the ability to compete with the wealthy Netherlands and New Spain for resources in this area.
France, the Netherlands, and New Spain are now recruiting mercenaries on a large scale, which will definitely lead to an increase in the market for high-level mercenaries.
But today the Holy Roman Empire is a poor man, and the debts from the Thirty Years War have not yet been paid off!
Grand Vizier Ahmed Koprulu continued: "Once the elite mercenaries are sent to America, they will not be able to come back for a while! So we can start making plans now, and we will be ready by next spring Start the attack. If all goes well, by the time next autumn comes, His Majesty will be sleeping in the Grand Palace in Vienna."
Is it possible to sleep in the Grand Palace in Vienna? The Ottoman Sultan still felt frightened!
After he captured Vienna, it was time for the 50,000 people recruited by France, the Netherlands, and New Spain to return! Moreover, France has maintained a standing army of hundreds of thousands of people for a long time. As soon as Louis XIV was elected Roman Emperor, he led 200,000 people to counterattack... Thinking about it makes people desperate!
"Your Majesty the Sultan!" Grand Vizier Ahmed Koprulu understood the Sultan's thoughts, so he smiled and comforted him: "You don't have to worry about the French counterattack... because it won't happen soon. Coming! As long as Louis XIV cannot become the emperor of Western Rome, he will not send troops to regain Vienna.
And as long as we win Vienna, we will have many political and diplomatic means to play with. For example, we can copy an emperor of the Holy Roman Empire ourselves... In short, as long as Vienna is in hand, we have the initiative! "
"Well, in that case, then I agree with your suggestion," Mohammed IV sighed, "Start preparing for war... officially march to Vienna next spring! This will be a war that determines the fate of the Ottoman Empire!"
