"With your leadership and guidance, our great Sultan, our Ottoman Empire will surely become as powerful as the Ming Empire!"
When Ibrahim heard this, he quickly flattered him.
"Ha ha!"
"I hope so too, but there is still a long way to go."
"The gap between us and the people of the Ming Dynasty is really too big, and we have never seriously faced this matter and learned from the people of the Ming Dynasty, so we have missed the golden catch-up period for a long time."
When Suleiman heard this, he immediately laughed.
The whole person was also filled with emotion.
Only by truly understanding the Ming Empire can you know how powerful and terrifying the Ming Empire is!
This is an unprecedentedly powerful empire!
With an unprecedentedly large territory, an incomparably huge population, terrifying military strength, and powerful technological and industrial capabilities, such a powerful empire will only make you despair when you truly understand it comprehensively.
To be honest, Suleiman didn't understand where his grandfather had the courage to take the initiative to attack the Ming people's Hezhong area and provoke this terrible enemy.
In the end, the Ming Empire's 200,000-strong army swept in from east to west, slaughtered hundreds of cities in the Ottoman Empire, robbed the Caucasus region, bombarded the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and forced the Ottoman Empire to sign an unequal treaty that was humiliating and humiliating.
In the end, I didn't really understand this huge empire at the beginning.
It was different from any other country around it and was not something the Ottoman Empire should mess with at all.
It would be understandable to say that my grandfather did not know or understand the power of the Ming Empire at that time, so he provoked the Ming people.
Then his father, Suleiman, didn't understand. After being severely punished by the Ming people, he should have understood how powerful the Ming Empire was.
However, they went to provoke the Ming Dynasty again. In a big war, the Ottoman Empire was defeated by the Ming Dynasty again, and lost a large number of islands in the Aegean Sea. The previous war reparations were not paid off and there were new war reparations.
To this day, I am still paying for the mistakes and stupidities of my grandfather and father.
Suleiman fully realized the power of the Ming Empire, and was determined to learn from the Ming Empire. He also found one of the roots of the Ming Empire's strength: industrialization. Suleiman has been doing this since he came to power.
Make preparations in all aspects.
Textile factories, cement factories, and steel factories were introduced from the Ming Empire in order to initially establish the industrial foundation of the Ottoman Empire.
"The great Sultan!"
"I believe that under your leadership, we will become stronger!"
Ibrahim flattered him again.
"Ha ha!"
After Suleiman heard this, he immediately laughed happily, saying that he could never flatter anyone.
"By the way, did you investigate clearly when you went to the Danube area this time?"
Soon, Suleiman also asked about Ibrahim's trip to the Danube River Basin to investigate the declining grain production over the years.
"The great Sultan!"
"What's going on is that there are almost no people growing food in the Danube Basin area, so we can't collect food at all in these places."
Ibrahim also quickly reported in detail.
“Since everyone doesn’t farm, why should they raise sheep?”
"What do you want to eat?"
Suleiman frowned after hearing this.
The Danube River Basin area was the large granary of the Ottoman Empire. Now no one is growing food. If this continues, what will the Ottoman Empire have to eat?
“All the food everyone eats is imported from the Ming Empire.”
"The food of the Ming people is very cheap. Even if it is shipped to our Ottoman Empire, the price is still very cheap. It is cheaper than the food we grow ourselves, and the quality is also higher than our food."
"The income from farming is very small, and raising sheep is more cost-effective, so everyone is raising sheep, shearing the sheep and selling them to the Ming Dynasty people, and then exchanging them for grain in the hands of the Ming Dynasty people, and they can make a fortune from it."
"The nobles and lords in Constantinople and other areas now make a lot of money by raising sheep and shearing sheep. It is much better than farming before. This is the reason why no one is farming."
Ibrahim continued.
"But if the Ming people don't sell food to us, won't we starve to death?"
Suleiman thought for a while and raised a key question.
"Governor Constant has studied this."
"He explained that the people of the Ming Dynasty would not stop selling grain to us. The grain cultivation of the Ming Dynasty people has already been mechanized. A farmer can cultivate thousands or tens of thousands of acres of huge arable land, and the yield is very amazing."
"The grain grown in the Ming Empire in one year was enough to feed the entire Ming people for several years. They had so much grain that they couldn't sell it or use it up. So even though the farmers had a good harvest, they couldn't sell it and had no income.
.”
"That's why the Ming Dynasty sold us at a very low price, and also sold it to the Persians, Europeans, Egyptians, etc., because the food was sold, which was equivalent to protecting their farmers and allowing the Ming Empire's
Farmers have income."
"If the Ming people don't sell grain to us, their farmers will have no income, and their grain will just rot in the warehouse and be of no use."
"So it's not that we have to eat the food of the Ming people, but that the people of the Ming Dynasty cannot do without our market and need us to buy their food."
"In addition, this also involves a global integration."
Ibrahim also told Suleiman what Governor Constant said in detail.
"Having said that, if we are at odds with the Ming Empire and the Ming Dynasty does not export food to us, they can directly strangle us. By then we will not be able to grow food ourselves, and we will starve."
After Suleiman listened carefully, he immediately discovered the key to the problem.
After hearing Suleiman's words, Ibrahim suddenly found the key to the problem that he had never been able to figure out. It turned out that the most critical part was right here.
Although this means that the people of the Ming Dynasty wanted to sell grain so that farmers could earn income, but once something happened, the people of the Ming Dynasty would at most be farmers without any income, but there would not be any other problems.
However, once the Ming Empire strangles the Ottoman Empire in terms of food, and if they do not grow food themselves, then the entire country will fall into famine, and the problem will be huge.
As expected of Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent, his vision and thinking were different, and he was able to discover the key to the problem at once.
"Then what should we do?"
Ibrahim immediately panicked and said quickly.
"This is a very important matter. Food must be in our own hands."
"You have drawn up an order here, requiring that all land in the country must give priority to the cultivation of food, especially in the Danube granary. It cannot be stocked anymore and all the land must be planted with food."
"In addition, we will purchase grain from the Ming Dynasty people on a large scale through the treasury, learn from the Ming Dynasty people, and establish a grain reserve system. Anyway, grain is cheap, so we should reserve more. If anything happens, we can still rely on the grain reserve to survive.
.”
Suleiman thought for a while and gave two orders.
"It is feasible to establish a reserve. Anyway, the Ming people's food is cheap and there is too much to sell. They will definitely be willing to buy us in large quantities."
"But if we are not allowed to raise sheep, grow cotton, and grow food as we should, I'm afraid the nobles and lords will not agree."
"Because the gap between growing grain, raising sheep, and growing cotton is really too big."
"With the same piece of land, growing grain can hardly generate much income, but raising sheep and growing cotton are different. The income is quite good."
Ibrahim thought for a while and said.
"You have to do it even if you don't, especially here in important food-producing areas. We must not let the fields turn into pasture. We must take our food security into our own hands."
"At least, we need to have a certain proportion of our own food output, so that we won't be completely choked by others."
Suleiman said very firmly.
He doesn't want to have to look at the faces of the Ming people in the future. This food is all in the hands of the Ming people. If this continues, he will have to look at the faces of the Ming people in the future.
"yes!"
Ibrahim quickly nodded solemnly and replied.
Then he thought about it and said, "It seems that our treasury is running out of money. If we need to purchase grain reserves on a large scale, we will at least need some money."
"Are you out of money again?"
When Suleiman heard this, he immediately became unhappy.
I am really poor now, I can't do anything, and I always have no money.
I originally wanted to build a power plant to light up Istanbul with electric lights, but I still had no money and couldn't build it. Now I have no money to build a grain reserve.
"The great Sultan!"
"The textile factory in front of us, as well as the cement factory and steel factory under construction, have exhausted all our money. We really don't have much money left."
Ibrahim nodded helplessly and said.
The Ottoman Empire was originally very wealthy, but it lost two consecutive wars to the Ming Empire and paid a large amount of war reparations. It is still a heavy burden on the Ottoman Empire to this day.
In addition, there are perennial wars with Europe, Persia, and Egypt, which also seriously drag down the finances of the Ottoman Empire, leaving the Ottoman Empire always without money.
If slaves could not be continuously plundered and sold in Europe to subsidize the Ming Dynasty, the Ottoman Empire would have gone bankrupt long ago and could not survive.
But over the years, an agreement has been reached with Europe, and the two sides have basically maintained peace. This also means that a large number of sources of slave income have been lost, and the situation has become even worse.
"What about this side of Mesopotamia?"
"Didn't you say that a large amount of oil was discovered somewhere?"
“Where’s the silver for this oil?”
When Suleiman heard this, he thought for a while and asked about the oil in the Mesopotamia.
