Chapter 741: Emperor Zhu, Let's Be Friends!

The aging Grand Vizier Ahmed Melek Pasha and the somewhat younger Foreign Minister Muhammad Gürcü Pasha walked one after the other into the Sultan's audience hall, bowed toward the female Sultan seated upright on a sofa, and then took their seats on another sofa.

These two high officials of the Ottoman Empire, like Kösem Sultan herself, were not Turks, but foreigners who had come from the Sultan's own Janissary corps.

Although later historians, whenever they mention the stagnation and decline of the Ottoman Empire, always drag out the Ottoman Janissary system for a round of criticism,

in reality, anyone able to rise step by step from the Janissary boy-soldier camps to a high position such as a member of the Imperial Council was bound to be a figure of considerable distinction in both military and political affairs. The fact that the Ottoman Empire could maintain its strength for so long shows that this system of selecting talent from among the "outside monks" of the Janissary camps was a success.

What other method could be used to select talent?

Select talent from the decadent Ottoman nobility? Or learn from China and select talent through imperial examinations? And what would they be examined on?

Of course, a relatively good system for selecting talent did not mean the decline of the Ottoman Empire could be avoided.

Because the Ottoman Empire was a state that had to keep expanding militarily in order to remain powerful — its geographical position and the limited resources and land of its Anatolian heartland meant the empire had to keep acquiring new wealth simply to sustain itself.

And constantly acquiring new wealth meant the Ottoman Empire was bound to make enemies everywhere!

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire's enemies would also band together for warmth and unite against this most powerful empire in the world.

In Europe, the birth of the Habsburg Empire was to a great extent driven by the need to resist the Ottoman Empire.

And in the Indian Ocean to the east, no matter how fiercely the Dutch, Portuguese, English, and Spanish fought among themselves, excluding the Ottoman Empire from the world trading system was their common consensus.

At the same time, the Mongol empires of Iran and India were no friends of the Ottoman Empire either. Although they all believed in the same true God, Iran followed the Shia branch while the Ottomans were Sunni, so naturally they were as incompatible as fire and water. As for the Mongol empire in India, it guarded a cornucopia that could never be exhausted, so of course it had to guard against the Ottoman Empire coming to snatch a share.

So this Ottoman Empire, looking around the entire globe, actually had not a single friend. Getting itself into such a state was no easy feat!

And the Great Ming Empire, which had suddenly turned toward the sea, seemed to have the potential to become a friend of the Ottoman Empire!

"Do you think the Emperor of China can become a friend of the Sultan?" the female Sultan asked.

"He can, Your Majesty." Grand Vizier Ahmed Melek Pasha gave an affirmative reply. "I believe there is no conflict of interest whatsoever between us and China."

A great power in this world with no conflict of interest with the Ottoman Empire was truly a rare thing!

Foreign Minister Gürcü also said, "Your Majesty the Sultan, my view is the same as the Grand Vizier's. China is, after all, a great power. If they truly are willing to go out to sea and engage with the world, then they will inevitably come into conflict with the Christians. For the Empire, that can only be to our advantage."

The female Sultan nodded lightly. "Who should be sent to Basra to receive the Chinese mission, and by the way discuss the matter of making friends?"

"Your Majesty, Muhammad Köprülü could be sent to make the trip," Gürcü said.

"He must be seventy-five by now?" the female Sultan said with a smile. "Can he still get around?"

Muhammad Köprülü would, a few years later, become Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, and would personally usher in an era of Ottoman revival.

But right now he was at home playing with his grandchildren. A seventy-five-year-old man in the seventeenth century did not, by any stretch, look like someone who could come out and work for the Sultan.

"His health is not a problem," Gürcü said. "He is healthier than most middle-aged men, and he is ready at any time to serve Your Majesty the Sultan."

"Very well then, let him make a trip to Basra." The female Sultan approved Gürcü's suggestion. She knew this Muhammad Köprülü's abilities — he was a bureaucrat who could produce results no matter where he was placed. Had he not been so advanced in age, the female Sultan would have wanted to make him Grand Vizier.

The world is complicated. There are no eternal enemies and no eternal friends — only eternal interests.

Because China is tucked away in the eastern part of the Eurasian continent, it is not easily drawn into fierce international struggles, and it also possesses silk and porcelain, two trade goods highly popular internationally, so it is relatively easy for it to make friends.

And the Ottoman Empire was a friend that Great Ming absolutely had to make, at least for the present, because Ji Kun and Li Shaoyou, after living in Basra for a period of time, discovered that the place was full of the fine horses Great Ming urgently needed!

Although the Great Ming Empire had already begun importing Indian Marwari horses, the quantity imported had never reached expectations.

Zhu Cilang had originally planned to increase the import volume year by year, bringing in at least two or three hundred stallions and strong mares annually, so as to establish a breeding population as quickly as possible.

But in reality, the number imported could not be increased year by year; instead it declined year by year, and the quality was also unsatisfactory.

The reason for this was that Great Ming had no direct contact with the Timurid Empire of Hindustan — the Timurid Empire of Hindustan was a member of the "Mongol world," and with Great Ming, an "anti-Mongol" state, it was ultimately hostile.

Moreover, the Timurid Empire of Hindustan was not short of money at all!

In this era, gold flowed into India and silver flowed into China. Did Shah Jahan and his military nobles need to sell horses to raise money?

They did not sell many horses, and the Portuguese and Dutch merchants had nowhere to obtain more Marwari horses either!

The Ottoman Empire, excluded from the international trading system by the Westerners, had Arabian horses in abundance, and very much needed Great Ming's porcelain, silk, and the lacquerware produced in Japan.

But Muhammad Köprülü, who had served the Ottoman Empire for more than sixty years, knew very well that trade between the Ottoman Empire and Great Ming would be very difficult to carry out.

Great Ming had closed its doors to the outside world, while the Ottoman Empire had always been open. If this trade were easy, Ottoman merchants would have started doing it long ago!

"No, no, Arabian horses are not for sale." In a luxurious mansion inside the increasingly desolate port of Basra, Muhammad Köprülü, his beard and eyebrows already white, said to Ji Kun and Li Shaoyou, who had just put forward a request to buy horses.

He spoke in Turkish. There were two interpreters present: one was an Arab, who translated the Turkish into Portuguese, and the other was a Portuguese hired from Macau, who translated the Portuguese into Chinese.

Ji Kun was somewhat disappointed, but looking at the expression of the imposing, tall old man before him, he could tell the other still had more to say, so he fixed his gaze on Köprülü.

Köprülü said, "If two great monarchs become friends, then they should exchange gifts with one another, not engage in trade."

"Pasha," Ji Kun asked, "do you mean that His Majesty the Sultan wishes to make friends with the Emperor of Great Ming?"

"Is that not the very purpose for which you have traveled ten thousand li to the Ottoman Empire?" Köprülü said with a smile. "As long as the Emperor of China and His Majesty the Sultan become friends, then the two sides can exchange gifts. For example, His Majesty the Sultan might present the Emperor of China with one thousand Arabian horses, and the Emperor of China could give in return silk and porcelain of equal value."

The old man paused. "Even the most savage of Christians would not go so far as to intercept, on the Indian Ocean, gifts sent by the Sultan to the Emperor of Great Ming, would they?"

The Ottoman Empire, the strongest in the world, was stifled enough on the Indian Ocean! Its own trading fleets could hardly get out, its trading ports were growing more desolate by the day, and it could not even join forces with the Timurid Empire of India to contend with the Westerners — how could the Ottomans possibly ally with the Timurids? It was impossible!

So the old man had devised this method of trade through the mutual exchange of gifts between monarchs.

(End of Chapter)