The Ottoman Empire maintained long-term friendly relations with the Ming Empire, maintained periodic friendly relations with France since the 16th century, and had good to bad relations with the Netherlands.
If ranked according to national strength, there is no doubt that the Ming Empire tops the list, France ranks second, and the Netherlands can only rank behind the Ottomans and the Holy Roman Empire.
Being able to maintain trade relations with three countries ranked first, second, and fifth in terms of national power in the world, and still making money every day, is already a very remarkable achievement for Ibrahim.
Originally, the Ottoman national power was inferior to that of the Holy Roman Empire, but due to the opening of the Sudan Canal in recent years, the exploitation of Kuwait's oil fields, and the import and export trade with the Ming Empire.
The Ottomans benefited a lot from it, and the trade volume with the Ming Empire alone reached more than 50 million silver coins.
Although many times it does not involve the trading of precious metals such as gold, silver, and copper, it is just barter trade.
Perhaps using worthless oil in exchange for various commodities produced by the Ming Empire, including weapons and equipment, would be a huge success in itself.
Ibrahim believed that given time, he could exchange oil and refined oil for all commodities, including level 3 ironclad ships...
What he has to do is to work hard to expand the size of the ocean-going fleet.
If the locally built merchant ships are not big enough, they can be bought from the Dutch or French with oil.
Now, Ibrahim has already brought out more than half of his true tyrant character.
As long as the other party is willing to use oil as a barter item, you can sell thousands of barrels of oil.
Although France and the Holy Roman Empire had their own oil fields in their own territories, and oil fields were even discovered in England, the difficulty and cost of exploitation were not comparable to those in the Ottoman Persian Gulf.
Even if it goes around the Persian Gulf, then takes the Sudan Canal, out of the Mediterranean Sea, and reaches Western Europe, the price of kerosene is cheaper than similar local products.
On top of that, local oil company bosses usually wanted cash as workers still needed to be paid, and Ottoman Gulf Oil could barter the full amount.
Gulf Oil Company was a company founded by Ibrahim and a group of nobles, together with Emperor Zhu Cihong of the Ming Empire.
Although it is a private energy company, it can definitely draw on the power of the state from some channels.
The most intuitive aspect is to accept barter trade, because the boss behind it is the talker of the two empires.
There is no need to trade oil or refined oil products to obtain cash, as long as the equivalent is obtained.
Paying wages to workers with silver coins is a piece of cake for the two bosses, and they don't expect to earn interest from it.
It didn’t matter that Ibrahim had no money to pay the workers. The Kisladago gold mine in the Ottoman territory was a gift from Emperor Haojing to Ibrahim.
The gold mine reserves 340 tons, which is calculated based on the profit of mining only 200 tons of gold.
This part is equivalent to 5 million taels of gold, which is 50 million taels of silver, equivalent to 75 million silver coins.
Ibrahim only took 30 million silver coins from it, and distributed the rest to aristocratic shareholders.
On average, for twenty years, the gold mined every year, after being converted into silver coins, would be enough to pay wages to the oil field workers.
As for the various commodities purchased in exchange for petroleum and refined oil products, this is also easy to discount.
As Sultan, Ibrahim himself was the owner of the largest store in the Ottoman Empire.
While making money yourself, you can help the nobles make money, and at the same time, you can make the national treasury richer.
Take care of all three without any delay.
Ibrahim himself doesn’t know how to deal with it, and he can’t resist the fact that there is a good teacher in the east...
It teaches you how to make money from a distance, and also teaches you how to mine, and it doesn’t charge tuition fees. If you don’t know how to learn, you can learn again for free!
Before Ibrahim came into contact with Emperor Haojing, he never thought that there were such kind people in the world in the far east!
Compared with the Western countries that frequently launch eastern expeditions, the Ming Empire is more worthy of friendship.
Emperor Haojing was a true friend of himself and Osman, so he just needed to erect a monument and a biography for him...
Although the national treasury's annual revenue is much higher than before due to buying and selling, it is still not sufficient.
However, the Ming Empire was undergoing large-scale industrialization, requiring one to two million barrels of oil and refined oil products every year, and the demand was still increasing year by year.
Ibrahim, who is responsible for the world's largest oil field, is not afraid that he and the national treasury will run out of money.
There is no money to mine, and there is nothing to buy in exchange for oil.
For Ibrahim, this is a heaven-sent treasure under his feet!
In fact, after the large-scale exploitation of Kuwait's oil fields, Ibrahim wanted to move the royal palace to Baghdad...
The nobles who had long been entangled in Istanbul finally stopped the Sultan's crazy plan.
Everyone is content with the status quo, very satisfied with the huge profits they are getting every year, and no longer wants to go to Baghdad.
Ibrahim was also satisfied with the development in his homeland, but was not very satisfied with the development of the Hungarian battlefield.
Due to Hussein's caution, more than 300,000 imperial troops were dragged there unable to move.
Although this is understandable, when no progress can be made, it is inevitable that some villains will take the opportunity to cause trouble.
Considering that the number of enemy troops was about twice that of his own, Ibrahim had no intention of blaming Hussein.
He was not the emperor of the Ming Empire. He was good at commanding battles, so he could only place his hopes on generals such as Hussein.
Previously, Jamal was able to defeat the enemy with a small number and a large number, which can be regarded as a very classic victory.
I thought it was worth writing about, and the whole process was published in all the major newspapers published in the Ottoman Empire.
This year, Ibrahim also needs to get a victory, and the scale will naturally be bigger than last year.
However, at this point, both sides continued to increase their troops towards Budapest, and it seemed that a strategic decisive battle would take place here.
Ibrahim also planned to continue to increase his troops, reaching at least 500,000 people, plus a bunch of tanks, heavy artillery, and airships, so he felt confident...
Didn’t Hussein say that the enemy had many troops?
This problem is easy to solve!
Throw the Bosnians, Croats, Serbs, and useless Wallachians who have surrendered to the empire, as well as the Hungarians near the battlefield, to the front line.
Five races, if one family pays 50,000, that would be 250,000. With the imperial troops already fighting on the front line, the total strength will not exceed expectations.
Whether these people will win the war, Ibrahim has no obligation, nor will he teach them how to win the war. These are the responsibilities of Hussein and others.
His job is to ask his men to send a sufficient number of soldiers to Hussein. He cannot expect these people to win the battle. It is always okay to embolden his own people, right?
After the spring plowing of the Ottoman territories in Europe was completed, Ibrahim asked his trusted general Okur to go over and warn the soldiers.
Although it is a forced conscription, there are also benefits. As long as you perform meritorious service on the battlefield, you can enjoy full tax exemption in the next two years.
The Bosnian Star-Moon people who already enjoy this treatment can use their military exploits to redeem many commodities from the Ming Empire, with no upper limit.
In June 1677, soldiers recruited from the Balkans, Hungary, Wallachia and other places, led by Okur, together with 10,000 local soldiers, arrived at the battlefield west of the Danube River.
What is amazing is that the two sides are still facing off, and no one is willing to take the lead in attacking.
Previous experience and lessons taught both sides that after trench warfare became popular, whoever attacked first would lose first!
Hussein received the news of the arrival of reinforcements and did not show too much interest.
Because during the previous siege of Vienna, this bunch of rubbish was the first to collapse, leading to their failure.
It's okay for them to fight against the wind, but don't count on this kind of strategic decisive battle, otherwise you will lose if you play it again.
Both sides are now divided into two heavily armed groups. On the Austrian side, Hussein controls an army of nearly 250,000 people, facing Schaumberg's more than 400,000 troops on the east bank of the Danube.
The opponent had been using trench tactics to besiege Pest Castle, and Hussein did not intend to use the method of losing troops to relieve the defenders.
He himself did not have enough troops, so he did not adopt the same strategy of besieging Schaumberg's troops.
If there was no siege, the other party might still be interested in attacking, but it turned out that the other party was smart enough not to be fooled.
Located on the west bank of the Danube, there are 250,000 troops under the direct command of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold.
Previously, the three forces of Jamal, Saleh, and Rahim were confronting him, with a total strength of less than 80,000.
Due to the dual advantages of quantity and quality of tanks and heavy artillery, as well as Leopold's learning of previous lessons, the two sides did not fight.
After Okur arrived with his troops, the Austrian army on the west bank of the Danube suddenly approached 340,000.
The gap in total strength between the two sides has been narrowed, and the anti-Austrian coalition still has a certain strength advantage. Moreover, the two heavily armed groups have their backs to each other on the Danube River, and there are fleets on the river to provide fire cover.
The Austrian army had advantages in land equipment and aerial reconnaissance. Another thing was that the Qing army agreed to send troops again in summer and autumn.
Hussein understood exactly this and was not in a hurry to attack. Whenever the opponent retreated, he would launch an attack.
Emperor Shunji of the Qing Dynasty has agreed to dispatch no less than 300,000 cavalry this time to attack southern Poland, Moravia, Bohemia and other places.
Although the nature is the same as the previous one, mainly looting rather than occupation, doing this once a year can also cause a considerable blow to the local economy.
This is tantamount to saying that the Austrian army restrains the enemy in the front and allows the Qing army to reap the benefits from behind.
Such an allocation of tasks is definitely not fair.
But the war situation is like this, and now is not the time to talk about making more or less.
When the enemy group on the opposite side goes to fight the Qing army, we can also sit down and raise our prices...
Now I can only stay on the outskirts of Budapest and compete with the enemy on the opposite side.
If you want to win the final victory, you must not be in a hurry, otherwise Leopold will be able to make back all he has lost in one go.
Once the main force of the Austrian army is annihilated in Hungary, not only will this territory be lost.
If the enemy takes advantage of their victory and pursues them, they may even lose the entire Balkans.
The matter was so important that Hussein had to become more cautious.
When nothing happened, Leopold kept reflecting on the defeat in last year's battle in his mind.
Not only that, but I also wrote a lot of thoughts, especially things to pay attention to.
It involves one's own tactics, formation, attack time, unit coordination, etc. It is profound enough, but if the coalition does not attack, it will be of little use...
As for trench warfare, the coalition forces have not yet fought it seriously, and the other side has not given their own troops a chance to train.
The more this happened, the more Leopold believed that trench warfare was the best tactic to deal with normal field battles, especially to restrain the advancement of Austrian tanks.
In fact, this was also the case. The Austrian tanks were very afraid of getting stuck in the pit and unable to move, so they did not plan to attack at all.
If the other party is waiting to catch you, since you are a fellow trader, they will definitely not take the bait!
But when Oku came, he conveyed Ibrahim’s latest instructions.
This means that it is impossible not to fight, but at least the requirements of His Majesty the Sultan must be met.
But there is a lot of room for actual operation. Seeing the situation on the other side and the enemy ships in the river, Okur also understood that it would not be easy for his side to win.
So Jamal, Saleh, Rahim, plus him, the four of them discussed for a long time and finally decided to launch a limited attack.
This is a tactic that can control casualties and achieve the best of both worlds.
Specifically - shelling!
Advance the position to a mile away from the opponent, and then use your own heavy artillery to eat away at the opponent's position bit by bit.
If the opponent takes the initiative to attack, they can just use the 500 tactical missiles brought by Oku.
On August 15th, Leopold's exciting moment came.
Seeing that the Austrian army, which had been confronting its own side for a long time, finally began to advance across the board, Leopold could not believe it unless he saw it with his own eyes.
The 250,000 Holy Roman Empire troops on the west bank of the Danube began to become nervous. Fortunately, they still had chariots and trenches as support.
Since the invading enemy troops outnumbered his own, in order to ensure nothing went wrong, Leopold also transferred 30,000 cavalry from the east coast.
The Austrian army advanced very slowly, so that even if it took a long time to cross the bridge, all the cavalry could reach the battlefield on the west bank.
If we can launch a counterattack after the Austrian army attacks the trenches, we can severely damage or annihilate this heavy group.
Then there is a good chance that the army will cross the river and attack Hussein's troops together with the troops on the east bank, and finally achieve a decisive victory.
Of course, this is just Leopold's imagination.
The Austrian army advanced a mile and then stopped. One by one they dug with shovels and began to build trenches. Those tanks that could move on their own seemed to have participated in the excavation work.
Confrontation in trenches at such a close distance?
Leopold rejected the proposal to let his own cavalry attack. Last year, he still vividly remembered the scene in which the Polish hussars were beaten to their knees by such repeating firearms.
This may be a tactic to induce one's own side to take the initiative, and of course one cannot fall for it easily.
But after about an hour, Leopold knew what the other party wanted to do...
Soon, the shells fired by the opponent's heavy artillery fell on our own position one after another.
Due to Leopold's hesitation, our artillery missed the best opportunity to fire.
When the two sides started shooting against each other, the gap was revealed, and the situation was similar to last year.
We can't talk about chivalry here. After all, if a knight is killed, he will have no energy to fight!
