Chapter 167 Undercurrent
May 20, 1839.
The battle on the Syrian coast was over before it even began.
At the beginning of the war, the Egyptian Navy and the rebellious Ottoman Navy joined forces. Under the bombardment of hundreds of cannons, the Ottoman New Army could only flee in embarrassment.
June 4, 1839.
The Ottoman New Army fled to the small town of Nizip to prepare for a last-ditch fight with the Egyptian army, and the fourth Battle of Nizip broke out.
At the beginning of the battle, the Egyptian army equipped with French weapons had the upper hand.
Although the Egyptian army had only 70,000 troops, it won consecutive victories under the leadership of Ibrahim. At the same time, the training of French instructors also made the Egyptian army closer to modern armies. The morale and discipline were not comparable to those of the Ottoman army.
On the other hand, although the Ottoman army still had 100,000 troops left and occupied a favorable terrain, they were still just a classical army without completing their training.
The Egyptians only had 40 cannons, but they were able to bombard the 100,000-man army and flee in panic. The number of Ottoman soldiers who died in the artillery fire was less than the number of people who died in the trampling.
Ibrahim saw the incompetence of the Ottoman new army. His experience of studying in France made him believe that attack was the true meaning of war.
With Ibrahim's order, the first to launch the charge was the Sudanese slave army "Anubis Army".
Sudan is an African country near Egypt, and Ali sent troops to conquer it.
Some Sudanese worshiped this conqueror and believed that he was the incarnation of the god of death Anubis. They voluntarily joined his army and were called the Death God Army or the Anubis Army by the Egyptians.
After the Anubis Army with shields and scimitars was the Egyptian New Army. They used the latest percussion rifles and had bayonets installed. They were invincible and were not afraid of the Ottoman artillery fire.
On the other hand, Ahmed and his execution squad, even though they had left corpses all over the ground, could not stop the rout of their new army and save their morale, which had sunk to the bottom.
Ahmed's family was still in Istanbul, so he could not surrender. His faith in Islam prevented him from committing suicide, so he fired the last bullet in his gun, then pulled out the scimitar inlaid with jewels and diamonds, and rushed towards the Egyptian army that was coming to kill him.
If the Egyptian new army had seen Ahmed Pasha, they would have tried to capture him alive, after all, it would be a great achievement to capture such a senior general.
With this achievement, they and their families could live a better life.
However, Ahmed Pasha rushed towards the Anubis Legion, and was cut into pieces in an instant.
In this battle, the Ottoman army was defeated, 4,000 people died, countless wounded, and 15,000 captured, of which less than 500 died in the bombardment. Ahmed Pasha died and Davoni Pasha was captured.
Egypt, Manio Palace.
Ali took a sip of the wine glass, slapped the battle report on the table, and shouted "Good!"
The battle went so smoothly that Ali could hardly believe that the Ottoman new army was so vulnerable. He could use this victory to make the Ottoman Empire cede land and pay compensation. He would seize Anatolia and eventually divide the Ottoman Empire with Russia along the Tigris River.
Now what he had to do was to prevent the interference of the great powers, and for this he had to show enough strength.
Muhammad Ali had two choices, one was to fight a blitzkrieg and sign a treaty with the Ottoman Empire before the great powers intervened, and the other was to give a heavy blow to Britain, which had always opposed him, so that the great powers would be afraid of him.
A British naval fleet consisting of three 74-class battleships and five frigates will pass through the Mediterranean and demonstrate in Beirut, which is controlled by Egypt.
If they can be eliminated, the French will definitely stand on their side more firmly, and at the same time let the British know that they are not easy to mess with.
The Ottoman fleet rebelled, the new army collapsed, and could only rely on some miscellaneous troops and militias to support it. Fortunately, Muhammad Ali had a bad reputation, and civilians did not want to accept this brutal ruler, and joined the team to fight against the Egyptian army.
This made Ali's plan to quickly seize Anatolia and force the Ottoman Sultan to sign a humiliating treaty bankrupt.
Now he can only take risks and choose the second way. At the same time, he also believes that this must be the instruction of God.
On the other hand, Metternich convened a meeting of powers based on the Treaty of Muenchengladbach, with the aim of safeguarding the interests of the powers in the Ottoman Empire.
In this historical meeting, Metternich not only squandered his political resources, but also exposed the weak nature of Austria. From then on, the center of European diplomacy shifted from Vienna to London.
But this time is different. The Austrian army has completed the replacement, and the navy has shown that it is fully capable of facing any emergency and giving a devastating blow to the enemy who dares to invade.
In the same period of history, Austria's fiscal revenue was only 140 million florins, while at this time, Austria's fiscal revenue exceeded 200 million florins.
Historically, Hungary, which was not very active, had just experienced a civil strife and was seriously injured. It was also very weak because it missed the two key periods of the German Customs Union and the great development of railways.
Almost at the same time when the Austrian army arrived in Novi Sad, Milos Obrenovic's blood letter arrived in Vienna.
In Milos's blood letter, he first said that he was deceived and believed the Russians' lies, and then said how despicable and shameless the Russians and those Serbian traitors were, and how much the Serbian people were eager for the Austrian soldiers to arrive as soon as possible.
Finally, the signature at the end was Miloš Obrenovich, the most loyal servant of the Habsburg family.
Although Miloš Obrenovich's behavior was disgusting and disgusting, he did provide an excuse for the Austrian Empire.
In Metternich's eyes, as long as Serbia was taken, Austria would no longer have any worries in the Balkans.
But in Franz's eyes, this would put Austria and Russia in a situation of life and death. The Tsar claimed to be the guardian of Orthodoxy, so how could he allow a Slavic country to be annexed by the alien and pagan Austria?
Vienna, Belvedere Palace.
The first owner of this palace was Prince Eugen, who reversed the offensive and defensive situation between Austria and the Ottoman Empire.
Palmerston had no good feelings for Metternich, but he felt that Austria would definitely consider its own interests and stop France's expansion. As long as the French were squeezed out, Britain could carry out economic colonization of Egypt, and then make the entire Near East a dumping ground for British goods and a source of raw materials.
Prussia, on the other hand, was just watching the show, trying to see if it could cause trouble for Austria and France and get some benefits.
France sent people to attend the conference while urging Egypt to sign a peace agreement with the Ottoman Empire.
France was fighting wars everywhere at this time, and its national strength was already a bit overwhelmed. If there was another war now, it might repeat the tragedy of the French Revolution.
Russia has always disliked the joint actions of the great powers, because this would affect Russia's hegemonic rights, but Austria's recent moves in Novi Sad forced the Tsar to send people to test Austria's attitude.
At this time, the Tsar hoped that the Ottomans could sign a humiliating treaty with Egypt, and then take advantage of the Anglo-French war to have another Russo-Turkish war.
After all, the Russo-Turkish war was fun for the Tsar to fight once and for all.
The Tsar was not very interested in trade hegemony, he wanted real land.
I might add more content if I get off work early today