The Ottoman Empire welcomed the arrival of Representative Liu very much.

While the Egyptian Governor was warmly entertained, he quickly reported to Istanbul. The Ottoman Sultan immediately invited him to the capital for a meeting.

So Liu Zhengqi took Ottoman galleys in Alexandria and arrived in Istanbul at the entrance of the Black Sea. In the majestic visit hall of the Burtopkapi Palace, he met with Turkish Sultan and Murad I, as well as his mother, the most powerful woman in the world today, and no less, the Sultan Queen Mother Nurbanu.

This legendary woman, respected as the Sultan of Nurbanu, is a serious Venetian noble lady.

Her father was the lord of Paros Island. During the war in 1537 AD, the Ottomans captured Paros Island and took Cecilia to the Istanbul palace, renamed Nurbanu, meaning "clever girl".

This beautiful and elegant 14-year-old girl soon became the favorite concubine of the Sultan who was still the prince at that time. After the Sultan ascended the throne in 1566, she was appointed as the Sultan Queen and gave birth to the future Sultan Murad III.

But because of her background, she did not get the power that the empire queen should have and was always suppressed by her elder sister Mihlima Sultan.

Until 1574 AD, in the second year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, he died. Nurbanu secretly refused to die and hid his body in an ice coffin for twelve years. Until her son Murad returned from another place twelve days later and successfully succeeded as Sultan.

Because of the Turkic tradition, Nurbanu, who became the Empress Dowager, became the regent of the Empire with legitimate reasons. It was during her regent that the Ottomans and Venice made separate peace, the sacred alliance collapsed, and the relationship between the Ottomans and Europe eased.

Under the rule of the Empress Dowager who was flowing with the blood of Venetian merchants in her body, the pace of the Ottoman conquest slowed down, and the empire attached unprecedented importance to internal affairs and commercial interests.

Therefore, the reconstruction of the Red Sea commercial road in the Mediterranean was put on the agenda.

Another history book in time and space says that the Ottoman Empire controlled the Eastern Mediterranean and blocked the trade route to the East, forcing the Portuguese and the Spaniards to find new routes, thus opening a great voyage.

This statement is wrong. It is purely to regard the Ottoman as a barbarian. But even the barbarians will not ruin their jobs. Especially after controlling Egypt, I wonder how happy the business was between the Ottomans, Venice and Genoa.

In fact, it is the two teeth of the Iberian Peninsula, which are excluded from the Far East trade by Mediterranean countries. They are anxious to see that they can’t eat fat, so they want to find a new route to China.

The result was really found by the Portuguese. They bypassed Africa and traveled thousands of miles to the Indian Ocean. With their superb navy, the Portuguese brazenly challenged the Ottomans' hegemony in the Arabian Sea and broke their monopoly on the Far East trade.

Of course, the arrogant Ottomans could not agree. But although they had an absolute advantage in their military strength, the naval battle was not land battles, and the generation gap was difficult to fill with the advantage of quantity. As a result, the Portuguese were invincible and the Ottomans' status in the Indian Ocean was soon in danger.

Venice, Genoa, and Greece also sent fleets to support the Ottomans. They drove the Calais warships to Alexandria, where the shipmakers sent by Venice disintegrated, then transported them to Suez and reassembled them. Help the pagans attack the Catholic countries...

So faith is nothing, interests are the fundamental ones.

However, whether it is the Calais warships or Arab sailboats in the Mediterranean, they are seriously insufficient firepower, and as a result, they are still defeated by ten times the enemy's strength, and they are completely deprived of the hegemony of the Indian Ocean by the Portuguese.

The Portuguese were incredible for a while and had a great appetite. They not only wanted to control the Indian Ocean coast, but also hoped to control the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, completely block the "Mediterranean Red Sea" route, and monopolize the Far East trade.

And they really achieved their goal. The two sides have been fighting in the Indian Ocean for a hundred years, and fierce battles have occurred dozens of times. Portugal has blocked the Oriental trade between the Mediterranean countries and the Ottomans with its insufficient military strength.

It is precisely because they can't make money together that the Ottomans and Mediterranean countries will be brain-filled in the next few decades.

Empress Dowager Nurbanu was determined to change all this, so that Ottoman and his motherland would not fight to death, but would make a happy profit together. Unfortunately, the alliance was easy to make, and the enemy was hard to get rid of.

Now the Ottoman Asian Navy has used all its strength to protect the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.

The low emotional intelligence statement is that they were divided and blocked in these two bays by the Portuguese Indian fleet. They could not get out of the sea at all...

So when a force that can defeat the Portuguese will naturally attract the attention of the Ottomans after it rises in the east. Especially this force also monopolizes the foreign trade of the Ming Dynasty. It is not surprising that the Ottoman Queen Mother regarded Liu Zhengqi as a guest of honor.

After treating Representative Liu with the highest specifications, Nurbanu tentatively asked whether the two sides could directly establish a trade relationship?

Liu Zhengqi followed Zhao Hao's instructions and said: "We firmly believe that mutually beneficial trade is the foundation of friendship, and we are honored to lay the foundation for friendship with your country!"

The Empress Dowager was overjoyed when she heard this. This was too much for the Venetians.

Because this set of rhetoric was specially tailored for her by Mr. Zhao. Unfortunately, although she is a widow, she is a little older... she is already fifty. Otherwise, Mr. Zhao might have performed in person.

Nurbanu asked again: "But what should we do if someone stops us from establishing a friendship?"

"Then let's work together to move it away." Liu Zhengqi said according to the script: "How can two great empires be blocked by small countries outside the territory?"

"Okay!" The Empress Dowager exclaimed and said, "It's a real hero!"

"In addition, large-scale projects are the specialty of our group!" Liu Zhengqi also struck the railway for the Empress Dowager while it was hot: "The Group is willing to help your country dig a canal that leads directly to the Red Sea from the Mediterranean Sea!"

"Great!" The Empress Dowager became more and more excited when she heard this. She stayed in the palace that night and discussed it with him in an easy-to-understand way all night.

Three days later, the palace issued an order to make Liu Zhengqi the Earl of Suez, ranking first as ambassadors of various countries. Liu Yuanwai, who became the favorite minister of the empress dowager, was once very popular in the Ottomans. This was the fundamental reason why the governors of various walks of life and Pasha competed for him.

Of course, in telling whom, Liu Zhengqi skipped his personal relationship with the empress dowager and only talked about official affairs...

"So these three have been agreed upon?" asked the man with his hands in his mouth.

"Well, the trade agreement between the group and the Ottomans and the military alliance have been signed." Liu Zhengqi nodded and said, "But the third one, the Ottomans have some concerns about digging the canal."

"What, I think the young master is crazy?" asked the other person.

"That's not, the young master said that a canal was dug between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea two thousand years ago. After that, it has been improved and rebuilt intermittently for more than a thousand years, and it was not completely abandoned until seven hundred years ago. After we got ashore, we can still see many traces of the abandoned canal. And it is said that the Ottomans thought about reopening this canal decades ago."

Liu Zhengqi sighed: "But there is a lot of resistance. Many ministers are worried that once the canal is opened, it will cut off the land ties between West Asia and North Africa, so that the empire's already weak rule in North Africa will be completely disintegrated. This worry is not an unreasonable worry. For example, when I am stationed in Egypt, the nominal governor is the highest military and political chief, but in fact, the previous royal family, Mamluk tribe, has the final say. The situation in Tunisia is similar."

"That's it." The man nodded and comforted him: "How can you do your best? Just do your best."

"But the young master of this canal is determined to win." Liu Zhengqi smiled bitterly and said, "He said that the day when this canal is opened is the time when my old Liu returns to China. So I have to find a way to do it. Alas, I may not be able to go back in this life..."

No one knew how to comfort him, so he put it in for a long time and wrote four words:

"Good luck."

The next voyage was very pleasant.

With the Ottoman Navy escorted, neither the pirates in the Mediterranean nor the Venetian navy dared to make up their minds, and the journey was very peaceful.

When the supply rest is berthed at the ports in North Africa, they will be warmly welcomed by local princes and nobles without exception, which makes the task force impressed by Representative Liu's communication skills. Little did they know that this was all exchanged for hundreds of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of yuan.

As the saying goes, "I make honey all day long, physical and mental labor, who knows the joys and sorrows in this?"

When October came, the Mediterranean began to blew westward winds, and the speed of the sailboat suddenly increased. Finally, at the end of October, he arrived in Egypt.

Liu Zhengqi's face here is even greater, because the local Mamluk aristocratic group wanted to dig a canal, not for shipping, but just to separate from the Ottoman land. So they regarded Liu Zhengqi as their ancestor and wanted to persuade him to bypass Istanbul, take action first and then start construction...

So they specifically allowed these three foreign armed ships to sail into the Nile River, and the fleet went upstream to reach Cairo, the true center of the Arab world.

Then Liu Zhengqi brags about Boyi and let them see the Miracle of Luluo's boating in the dry land.

The team members rested there for a month, waiting for the miracle to happen, and also went to see the pyramids and the Sphinx.

When they saw the magnificent pyramid, exactly as described in the textbook compiled by Gongzi, the team members were excited and believed that the Egyptians could create miracles.

But a month later, Liu Zhengqi's cowhide was blown away. Because when the Mamluks recruited the people and the huge trees that were sailing on the dry land were prepared, the craftsmen realized a serious problem. These three sea boats were sharp-bottomed, not flat-bottomed boats like the Mediterranean. They were still sailing on the dry land, and they were afraid that after they got ashore, they would have to overturn once they were removed...

Lao Liu had no choice but to discuss with them, why don’t we change it? You can go back on the boat I left in the Red Sea, and these three boats will be left for me...
Chapter completed!