Sultan Mehmed IV of Ottoman Turkey was a thirteen-year-old boy.
He was riding on a strong Arabian horse and looked at the 200,000 Ottoman troops arrayed in the desert east of Baghdad.
The young man took a breath and praised: "Prime Minister, this is very good. This is the most powerful army I have ever seen."
Koprulu bowed and said: "Your Majesty the Sultan, this is also the most powerful army that Koprulu has ever seen. No army in the world can defeat this army."
Mohammed IV nodded.
In front of him was an armed force that was ahead of its time.
Two hundred thousand Turkish soldiers all wore red traditional Turkish robes. This is a tight-fitting robe with two sleeves at the shoulders. However, the hem of the robe is very long, reaching to the soldiers' knees. The bottom of the robe is dyed
He was wearing blue pants and short Turkish leather boots.
The soldiers' heads were all covered with white turbans, covering all their hair.
Carrying on the shoulders of the soldiers were various muskets.
Some soldiers still used old-fashioned muskets, but after the Indians sent the Minie rifles, the Turks obviously kept up with the times and converted all the old muskets into flintlock muskets.
Some soldiers were carrying Mini rifles imitated by Türkiye.
The Mini rifle was not technically difficult for Turkey, a powerful country in the seventeenth century. After getting the prototype, the Turks quickly discovered the magic of this simple-structure rifle. In the past two years, the Ottomans organized thousands of craftsmen to imitate it on a large scale.
Minie rifles, 40,000 Minie rifles were produced.
These Turkish-made rifles are now all equipped to the Arab Legion stationed on the border of Iran.
Of course, there are also some rifles that come from Europe and are British goods.
The British have mastered the production of Minie rifles for seven years. There are probably more than 3,000 musket makers in the UK engaged in the production of Minie rifles. Each of these craftsmen can produce one Minie rifle per month, and more than 3,000 people can produce one Minie rifle per year.
Produced 40,000 rifles.
The Mini rifle was regarded by the British as a national weapon that could be used not only for their own use but also for export at a high price. Therefore, they never stopped producing rifles in the past seven years and produced more than 200,000 rifles in seven years.
After the armistice between Britain, the Netherlands and Portugal, Britain no longer maintained wartime mobilization and reduced the size of its army. As a result, a large number of rifles piled up in warehouses. These rifles were not abandoned and rusty, but were quickly sold at high prices.
Ottoman Turkey.
Turkey, eager to build a new army of Minie rifles, purchased 90,000 Minie rifles from the British at a price of 3.5 pounds, which was equivalent to forty taels of silver a piece made in the Ming Dynasty.
The British sold 90,000 rifles for a sky-high price of more than three million taels of silver. Although the British followed the Dutch's national policy of challenging Li Zhi and failed many times, they made a lot of money from this transaction.
However, the Ottomans were not short of silver. In order to obtain Ottoman's support, the princes and nobles of India promised Ottoman a huge reward equivalent to 65 million taels of silver. More than half of these rewards had already arrived in Ottoman Turkey. So the three
More than a million taels of money to buy a gun is nothing to Osman.
With these rifles, the Ottoman Arab Legion was even more powerful and could be said to be one of the most powerful armies of this era.
Of course, along with the Mini rifle came the cannon to the Middle East.
The curved cannon is actually a small mortar with an increased elevation angle. There is no production technology problem for the British. Therefore, 2,600 curved cannons were sold to Turkey this time.
The production level of the British version of the cannon is lower than that of Li Zhi's mortar, so it is heavier. It is a 60-pound copper cannon. Because the cannon is heavy, there are more gunners, and each cannon requires three people to operate.
The artillery fired small four-pound shells.
These more than 2,600 artillery pieces cost the Ottomans more than one million taels of silver.
After Ottoman obtained these artillery pieces, he did a little research and found that he could imitate them with his own technical level. But that was a story for another day.
A smile appeared on Mohammed IV's face.
The emperor of the Ottoman Empire was always precocious, and this thirteen-year-old boy had already understood the significance of the army to the empire. Seeing such an "advanced" armed force, the young man could not help but be very proud.
Koprulu bowed and said: "Great Sultan, according to reports from our scouts in Europe, the French, Spanish and Austrian spies have successfully stolen Formosa rifles and cannons from the Portuguese battlefield.
Start copying. The prices of these equipment will drop rapidly in the future, and the British have ripped us off hard this time."
Muhammad pondered for a moment and asked: "When will the Indians' money be replenished?"
Coprlu replied: "All the remaining silver from the Indians has been transported to the Persian border and is being guarded in a city called Khandfa. As soon as our reinforcements enter India, the Indians will transport all the rewards.
Turkey."
The young Sultan nodded and said: "Koprulu, the greedy British extorted us, but we made money back from the Indians. Koprulu, sometimes we need some money to do big things, as long as we can afford it.
, that’s not a problem.”
Koprulu somewhat admired the spirit of the young Mohammed IV, and bowed and said: "Great Sultan, as long as our army enters the border of Persia, the Persian army of 200,000 will join us and enter India and Persia together.
The army purchased a large number of Formosa rifles and cannons from the Dutch, which have considerable combat effectiveness. In addition, there are 200,000 soldiers from various Indian states fighting alongside us."
"Together, we have an army of 600,000."
The young Sultan asked: "Where did Li Zhi's troops attack?"
Koprulu replied: "Li Zhi's 170,000 troops have entered the eastern border of India. It takes a month for the Indian messenger to reach Baghdad, so we only know the information from a month ago. A month ago, Li Zhi's general
Li Laosi attacked the cities in the Khulna area and raided the countryside. "
"The messenger from India told us that Li Zhi was very vicious this time and robbed all the gold and silver treasures he encountered in the palaces of nobles. The nobles in the easternmost part of India did not dare to fight to the death, so they retreated to the west with their families and troops, waiting for us.
reinforcements."
Mohammed IV thought for a while.
Soon, he nodded and said: "Okay, very good, Koprulu, 600,000 people versus 170,000 people, we have no reason to fail."
"Send troops tomorrow! Let Li Zhi, who wants to conquer the world, know the taste of failure!" 1910
