A midsummer dawn.

Built by the Greeks, rebuilt by the Romans, and expanded by the Ottomans, the chaotic ancient city formerly known as Kagibey and the Slavs called it Odessa woke up from its slumber.

This city originally belonged to the Crimean Khanate, but after several Russian-Turkish wars, the Ottomans realized the importance and convenience of sea transportation and used this place as a forward base to fight against the Russians.
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In the Greek and Roman times, this was a frontier land, and no one was willing to spend a lot of effort on city construction. In the Ottoman Empire, this was a place where the Crimean Khanate and white Europeans fought against each other. The Khanate had neither

He has no ability and no intention to rebuild it.

As a result, an old earth and stone city of the Greeks, a stone city of the Romans, and a wooden city of the Tatars were arranged in a chaotic manner on the west coast of the Black Sea.

After the latest Russo-Turkish war, the Ottomans tightened their control over the Crimean Khanate and transferred a large amount of their power to the northern shore of the Black Sea. They also used this place as the residence of Odessa Pasha to control the Crimean Khanate.

Rimea, Sea of ​​Azov, Black Sea area.

They rely on Akhtar (Akhtarsk Primorye) and Kerch on the Azov Sea, Kaffa on the Black Sea, Rossi (Novorossiysk), Odessa, and Nikolaev.

Occupying the sea route advantage on the northern coast of the Black Sea.

Among them, Odessa was naturally chosen as the location of the Pasha's residence because it relied on its colonial Moldova, which was rich in grain.

At the moment, Odessa, the Greek earth and stone city, the ancient Roman city, and the Tatar wooden city spread out from south to north along the coast. Looking at it, the earth and stone city is khaki, the Roman city is gray-white, and the Tatar city is blue-black.

, when you come here from the outside, you can tell which city it is without carefully distinguishing it.

Nowadays, Osman Pasha, the Sultan's brother-in-law, is stationed in the central stone city with three thousand elite soldiers of the empire. The wooden city in the north and the earth and stone city in the south have become his barriers.

Since it is a Tatar city, most of the people living there are the nobles of the Bugaknogai people. Although they also have houses in Bunarei (Tatar Bunarei) where the Great Khan's tent is located, most of the time they are there.

Living here - who doesn't want to have a convenient and superior life?

Of course, most of the Alans, Mamluks, and Circassians who call themselves Nogai also live here.

Businessmen from Europe, including Jews, lived in large numbers in the Greek earth and stone cities near the sea.

The earth and stone city was built on a highland about fifty meters above sea level. There is a long stone step to walk from the dock to the castle. Just like the Chongqing Bangbang Army in later generations, a large number of black and white slaves moved the materials on the ship from here.

Transport the main force to the castle above.

The pier is about one mile wide and very grand. Various ships of Ottoman, French (which had the best relations with the Ottomans at this time), Italian, Greek, and Barbary merchants controlled by the Ottomans are moored in the port. There are Galenic, Karak, and

There are also the latest Dutch flat-bottomed merchant ships, as well as large galleys that have existed since the Roman era.

"Woo..."

As soon as the city woke up, there was a sound of horns from the sea, warning that a ship had arrived.

Not long after, a huge flat-bottomed merchant ship emerged from the morning light.

The ship was flying a flag issued by the Ottoman Sultan to big merchants to protect them from being plundered by Barbary pirates. It looked like it came from southern Europe.

There is also a flag representing the identity of the businessman.

After seeing this flag, the pilots and stick soldiers on the dock became commotion.

Thanos!

Thanos, the largest Jewish merchant in the Adriatic, because his ships can dock freely in Tirana, Venice, Genoa, Marseille, Valencia, and Tunisia, he can transport items from Europe, North Africa, and West Asia to

Where needed.

There is obviously something to this.

At this time, Spain was the most anti-Semitic, but Thanos donated money to the king to build a naval fleet and gave him constant loans. Therefore, he was the only one who could openly and openly pretend to be a Jew in eastern Spain.

A big businessman on the coast.

Of course, Thanos must have registered a new nominally Christian-owned company in Valencia.

Thanos only brought a large flat-bottomed merchant ship with him this time. Normally, given his position, he would be able to strategize in Tirana, and there was no need for him to follow the ship personally, but this time he came anyway.

The purpose of his visit was obviously not because the items near the Black Sea were so important that he had to go there in person, but because of the stainless steel products and high-quality and low-priced textiles that were already selling well in Europe.

He had to make a trip. When passing through Istanbul, he visited Yesimu, the ambassador of the Kingdom of Truqin in Istanbul. Yesimu generally agreed to his application to become an agent for Truqin products on the Mediterranean coast, but he had to

You have to go to Yeisk to discuss with the king in person.

It is impossible for Thanos to just take a small boat and go directly to the Kingdom of Truchen. At this time, the relationship between European countries is very complicated and they are all wary of each other. What about countries like Truchen and Ottoman, which have complicated relations?

Tirana was where the Albanian Pasha of the Ottoman Empire was stationed, where Thanos could transport a large number of European industrial products to West Asia for sale. Tirana also had a large military factory in the empire, and a considerable amount of military supplies were also shipped through merchant ships licensed by the Sudan.

To the Black Sea region.

It is a very natural reason for Thanos to transport these materials to Odessa, and then go to Yeisk Port to transport the stainless steel products and textiles from the Truchen Kingdom back.

Thanos is fifty-nine years old, with gray beard and hair, but he is still energetic. He is wearing a gray-white robe from ancient Greece and ancient Rome, with half of his arms exposed. There are two young black slaves beside him. After the ship docks, Thanos

North stepped onto the dock with their support.

Behind him was a muscular Albanian Islamist, who seemed to be his personal bodyguard, following closely behind him.

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The guard was followed by his butler.

As soon as Thanos stepped onto the dock, a large number of black and white slaves rushed up.

Among the slaves in the Ottoman Empire, slaves like them who could make money by selling their coolies were pretty good. Although they were still controlled by their masters, they could still earn some money themselves.

A large number of slaves on ships, factories, mines, and farms are real slaves. They have no personal freedom at all. Life, old age, illness, and death, and marriage all depend on the face of their masters.

The fate of the Ottoman Empire is closely related to black and white slaves. Before the War in Vienna and the rise of the Russians, they were able to obtain a large number of white slaves at a very small cost, and their national strength was also booming. However, since the defeat of the War in Vienna and the rise of the Russians, their decline has

It’s unstoppable.

Any big empire is extremely xenophobic. Although at this time, in order to deal with the Russians, the French did not hesitate to risk offending the entire European world to form an alliance with the Ottomans, and were willing to support their industry and mining, and train new armies, but

Just like the struggles of Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua and others in the late Ming Dynasty, it was all in vain.

The Turkic aristocrats still rule the secular world, while the Sipassi and Yenicheri military aristocrats rule the military world. It is more difficult to get a piece of the pie from them than to reach the sky.

Therefore, although the sultans in the past hundred years have wanted to forge ahead, most of them have given up.

Every declining dynasty is similar regardless of culture or religion. At this time, in order to prevent the military from becoming bigger, the Ottomans also pursued the policy of letting civilian officials command professional soldiers. The fate of the army can be imagined.<

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However, such a background is still beneficial to businessmen. The more decadent and declining it is, the better it is for them. Although businessmen have no status, they have money and can calmly settle everything with their hands.

Relatively speaking, the Ottoman Empire was quite tolerant of the Jews, which gave the Jewish merchants who once made a splash in Europe a foothold.

If the huge land area and population are the foundation for the Ottoman Empire to sustain, then the Jewish merchants are the ginseng and snow lotus in their mouths, constantly hanging on for the empire.

The Ottoman Empire did not open up the law like the Ming Dynasty, but it was still possible to serve the country and obtain documents and flags for free travel to various parts of the empire.

The royal flags awarded to them by the Sultan (sometimes auctioned) were the salt flags in the hands of Ming merchants.

As soon as Thanos appeared in this extremely simple outfit, even the usually arrogant and domineering pilots and customs managers looked at him politely.

In the Greek city of Odessa, Thanos was also among the top three big shots, but he still wore civilian-like clothes and walked up the stone steps himself.

However, not everyone thinks so.

Zhivkov is one of them.

Zhivkov happened to be on the dock as well, and he immediately became angry when he saw Thanos holding the moon in front of the stars.

"Stop!"

He shouted, and Thanos stood still.

Zhivkov, a new Yenicheri nobleman from Bulgaria, was the commander of the Yenicheri legion under Odessa Pasha and the commander of the Odessa fleet.

This was too rare, although the Ottomans at this time attached great importance to the Albanians and Bulgarians who had converted to Islam (mainly Bulgarian Turks, but taking the name of the Slavs, which was a compromise between the former Bulgar Khanate and the Europeans

results).

Because at this time, most of the Ottoman Empire's navy came from Barbary pirates, and a few came from Europe. But letting a Bulgarian become the dual commander of Yeniceri and the navy can only explain one problem.

That means Zhivkov once was a pirate!

Not only that, he also served as an army general in the Barbary Kingdom (centered on Tunisia, spanning Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya), the kingdom of Barbary pirates.

In the Pasha District of Odessa, Zhivkov ranked third, second only to Pasha Aladdin and Clerk Koprulu (from a noble family second only to the Sultan).

He has just been transferred here from Egypt and obviously doesn’t know everything about Thanos.

Thanos turned around with a humble smile on his face - he saw the coat of arms on Zhivkov's military uniform and knew that this man was an imperial military noble.

"Your Majesty General, what are your orders?"

Zhivkov is in his thirties, a powerful man. He once served as a cavalry general in Egypt. He also captured a large number of black slaves from Ethiopia. Nowadays, they are all over the Mediterranean. The black slaves in the Black Sea area are more or less like him.

For some reasons, he was like a devil in the eyes of black slaves.

Zhivkov glanced sideways at Thanos, "Don't you see a real Islamic nobleman here? How dare you step up the steps first?"

Thanos still had a warm smile, "Dear General, I am old and my eyes are dim. I really can't see. I will come down right away."

As he said this, he broke away from the support of the two black slaves, walked down on his own, walked to the flat ground on the dock, and bent down to make a gesture of invitation.
Chapter completed!