Mediterranean islands, luxurious sea view villas, warm sunshine, soft beaches, blonde beauty, what do you think of all this? What? A leisurely and comfortable vacation? A beautiful and romantic encounter? No, you are a scene of the 21st century. In the midsummer of the 46th year in the first half of the 17th century, most of the here are just killing and destruction!

As the earliest city on Crete to be breached by the Ottomans, the Port of Chania was counterattacked by the Venetians last year. Although the 12,000 Ottoman soldiers who stayed at the port were in a hurry, they easily defeated the Venetians' counterattack, which was destined to be unable to succeed, and firmly defended their stronghold on Crete.

However, when most of the 100,000 troops retreated to Anatolia for the winter, the Ottoman army stayed on the island was quite difficult. They were still advancing vigorously before winter, but after winter came, they could only be passively beaten. Many small Venetian towns that had been captured were also recovered by the counterattack Venetians. Some ships transporting supplies to the island were repeatedly ravaged by the Venetian fleet, and they even lost a fast cruise ship imported from the east coast. It seemed that the situation was quite bad.

By the beginning of this year (46), the Venetian army had already attacked the periphery of the Port of Chania, but at this time they were at the end of their strength. After fighting with the panicked Ottomans for a few days, they gradually retreated, and then began a long confrontation and siege.

After the spring, before the Ottomans could regroup, major changes occurred in their front-line army: many front-line commanders who participated in the previous battle were suddenly dismissed and executed on the spot. Their public charge was that the ineffective combat was caused. However, the rumors circulated in private were that Sultan Ibrahim was deeply furious that the front-line generals were unable to seize enough spoils for him, so he found a gap to execute some generals to express his dissatisfaction. Of course, some people mysteriously said that these people were killed because of factions - this involved the political struggle between the Queen Mother Sultan Kosem and Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Sultan, and perhaps there was also a mixture of disputes between different factions between the Ghanishari Guards. In short, it was a mess and full of fog. Perhaps no one could figure out the truth about the murder of these military generals.

Mo San was also not sure why these generals were executed, and he was not interested - nor did he dare to be interested - to figure out the cause of these people's death. They were basically middle and senior generals, and some of them had drunk coffee with Mo San and received gifts from Mo San, which was considered a common friend. But now Mo San only wants to completely separate his relationship with them. The political struggle is too terrible. The majestic imperial generals killed him as the majestic general. The Ottoman style is really bold. It is said that every time the Ottomans' imperial power changes are accompanied by bloody storms, and the current reign of Ibrahim Sultan is the only surviving male direct blood relative to inherit the throne, which shows the cruelty of the Ottoman Empire's political struggle.

At this time, Mosan was nesting in a manor villa near the dock at the Port of Hania. He was urgently invited by former Vizisaimin Mohammed Pasha, who was recently the supreme commander of the Ottoman army. The incompetent commander, who was known for flattery in Istanbul, gave Mosan a big gift. He clearly told Mosan that he planned to demote all the Greeks on Crete who had secretly provided assistance to the Venetians last winter to slaves. He heard that the East Coast people urgently needed various labor or women of childbearing age during the land development operation in the New World, then he could make the decision to sell all these people to the East Coast - and at a fairly favorable price, provided that the East Coast people need all the money within six months.

After knowing the meaning of Saimin and Mohammed Pasha, Mosan was shocked and happy. In order to promote this business, the other party also gave Mosan a confiscated island aristocratic manor to Mosan and his entourage for temporary residence. He also gave him some beautiful Greek maids. It seemed that if Mosan agreed to his conditions, there would be more benefits to him.

Mo San has heard of Saimin Mohammed several times. This lord had served as the Great Vizi in the Empire before and was a puppet of the "Imperial Master" Cinthy Hauka. This time he was brought to Crete to be the commander of the Ottoman army. I don't know how many fierce confrontations and political exchanges were done behind him. Because after the Ottoman Empire restarted the offensive against the Venetians on Crete, most people could predict that as long as the Ottomans were not stupid, the Venetians' defeat was only a matter of time, and the Ottoman officers at all levels on the front also believed so.

In such a situation, the Ottomans have been quite scattered and unorganized since the first half of the year. After confirming that the Venetians on the island once again retracted their capital, Gandiya, when facing tens of thousands of Ottoman troops, the Ottomans slowly "recovered" the other towns on the island that were abandoned by the Venetians, while plundering trophy, the Greek residents on the island were immediately in an extremely miserable situation.

The Ottomans' persistence in trophies is understandable, because if the group of executed officers offered enough trophies to Sultan of Ibrahim a few months ago, they might not be executed. And the later generations of course took them as a warning, so in such a situation, countless Greek residents of Crete were detained on the charge of "cooperating with the enemy", and their property was confiscated, becoming the trophies of Ottoman officers at all levels.

In this way, countless gold and silver goods fell into the pockets of the Ottoman soldiers, and countless Greek residents who had welcomed the Ottomans to "liberate" them from the Venetian colonists were immediately reduced to slaves, while the operation to attack the city of Gandiya, the capital defended by the Venetians was delayed indefinitely. Only a few unlucky troops were sent to monitor the Venetians who seemed to be striving to build forts and artillery positions, and the others were happily looting other parts of the island.

It is mid-to-late August, and the main force of the Ottoman army is still unable to advance to the city of Gandiya, which the Venetians are defending. Many officers who have made a fortune were transferred after celebrating their superiors and the Sultan, and then another group of people have changed to continue to make a fortune. As for their commander, Saimmede Pasha, still stayed steadily at the port of Chania without moving. During this period, not only did not gather the army and formulate a plan to attack Gandiya, but instead discussed business information with Mo San, the plenipotentiary of the East Coast to the Ottoman Empire. This is really weird.

Sometimes Mo San wants to ask these Ottoman officers, when will they continue this war? You should know that the coastline of the Adriatic Sea is being ruthlessly attacked by the Venetian fleet, many villages are turned into ruins, and many people have become slaves. Venice's economy has been greatly restored from the Great Depression a few years ago. They have also received material and even personnel funding from the Pope and other Christian countries, so their naval strength has recovered very quickly. After defeating an Ottoman supply fleet near Naxos last year, a Ottoman naval squadron was eliminated in the Adriatic Sea this year. How can you ignore the rapid rise of such a rapid momentum?

However, Mo San was too lazy to care about so many things. He had been in the Ottoman Empire for two years. In the past two years, he had seen many strange things. Although this country looks like flowers and is in its heyday like a fire and cooking oil, it is actually in its twilight and chaotic state, and has been on the downhill for a long time.

He didn't care about how the Ottoman Empire would be next. He only cared about how to fulfill his mission. He now acted as a plenipotentiary diplomatic envoy in the Ottoman Empire, but in fact he often played the role of arms brokers, slave traders, import and export merchants, and dealed with all kinds of people in the political arena of the Ottoman Empire: there were court eunuchs, imperial guards, ministers from all walks of life, empress dowagers, charlatans, Jewish merchants, and local warlords. For these people, he usually only had one big move that was invincible - that was to give gifts. This move was indeed difficult to "defend", so he was very happy in the Ottomans.

In June of the first half of this year, a merchant ship coming from the local area brought him an unexpected news that the local executive committee had approved the export of the "Bayerzid" battleship to the Ottoman Empire, and asked him to implement the originally promised open trade ports, infrastructure construction and other projects with the Ottomans as soon as possible, and form a treaty document as soon as possible. In addition, he should pay attention to collecting more materials and populations. After the procedures are improved, he can temporarily withdraw the payment for goods for sale in China to purchase copper, lead, tin, mercury and other minerals in the Ottoman; livestock such as Turkmen horses and Raschekmas; hire Tatar herders to fight in the Far East, Mamluk, etc. in Egypt.

In addition, there is the most important task, which is to find a way to collect more people. The Executive Committee has already told him that the relationship with Spain is very tense now, and a war may break out, so that he can collect more people when the shipping is open to the mainland. It is best to mainly women and children, and adult men should not be too many.

Since the superiors have given him the power to act cheaply, Mo San no longer hesitated. He planned to eat all the more than 2,500 women and children in Saimin Mohammed Pasha's hands, and the total price was only more than 110,000 yuan, which was really a big profit. As for the remaining more than 1,600 adult men, Mo San planned to wait a little longer to see how much money he had left after purchasing the copper, lead, tin and other minerals that were urgently needed in China before making a decision. Perhaps by then, the Ottomans might have lowered the price again.

After leaving several entourages to squat in Hanya Port to handle affairs, Mosan hurried to Istanbul on Ottoman ships and prepared to start his business negotiation journey.
Chapter completed!