Chapter 171 Speech in the Flower Hall

Grand Sarakirio Palace, Flower Hall.

This was originally the place where the Ottoman court pastry chef prepared rose preserves, so it was planted with beautiful roses, and the sweet fragrance filled the entire flower hall.

This time, not only Ottoman officials came to listen to the imperial edict, but also foreign envoys and journalists (usually they would not be invited to participate in such ceremonies).

Soon, those Western envoys and journalists saw for the first time the rumored "fragile" Sultan.

The sixteen-year-old Mejid looked thin and non-aggressive, which won him the favor of some people. After all, the Ottomans were once a monster across the Eurasian continent, and even indirectly led to the advent of the Age of Discovery.

It may be a good thing for everyone that such a harmless boy leads this empire that once made the world fearful.

The boy spoke, his voice was very soft, and every sentence was spoken in Ottoman first and then repeated in English.

This made many people see a learned Sultan, and British Ambassador Canning even called him a "civilized man" in the Eastern world.

Magid felt that Britain was the most powerful country in the world at that time. He dressed in a suit instead of a military uniform to show goodwill to the West and show that he was different from the past rulers.

But he spoke English instead of other languages, which made some officials feel that they were being slighted.

The Flower Hall Edict was essentially a continuation and extension of Mahmud II's reforms. It carried Mahmud II's various plans and ideas, and added more Western elements and Magid's own understanding.

Rather than saying that it was a public edict, it was better to say that it was a constitution. In fact, this Flower Hall Edict was considered to be the earliest constitution in the East.

Finally, Magid himself swore an oath to the fundamental concept of the Flower Hall Edict and the resolution made by the deliberative body, which further verified this view, except that the witness was finally changed from God to Allah.

The Flower Hall Edict established that the life, honor and property, as well as the freedom and security of the Ottoman people were protected by law.

In the economy, the backward tax farming system was replaced by a fixed taxation system. Most European countries abolished this system during the French Revolution, while Austria reformed it during the reign of Queen Theresa and restored it in the late Joseph II.

In the military, the idea of ​​training a new army was proposed again, and a normal conscription process was established, the length of service for soldiers was clarified, and universal conscription was implemented in imitation of Prussia.

In the judiciary, fair and open trials were required, and relevant laws were enacted to punish those who punished without legal trials.

Among them, the most radical and eye-catching reform was:

All subjects of the Ottoman Empire, regardless of race and belief, enjoyed the same rights.

This sentence can be understood as a policy of national assimilation, or it can be understood as eliminating the differences between Muslims, Orthodox Christians, and Catholics.

In theory, all citizens of the Ottoman Empire have the same rights in law, taxation, property, education, and selection in the military and government departments.

In fact, the first Armenian genocide will soon come. This genocide is aimed at Catholics in the Armenian region.

The reason was that the Armenian sheep ate the crops of the Turks and polluted the rivers with feces.

Until the complete disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the Armenians did not obtain the so-called equal rights.

So Franz was not worried at all that the reforms of the Ottoman Empire would really bring it back to its peak.

The ambassadors and reporters present praised Magid as a benevolent and enlightened monarch. For a time, the headlines of major European newspapers all published the flower hall edict.

People speculated whether the Ottoman Empire would become the next Britain or France and become a civilized country.

The name Magid spread throughout Europe overnight. In this era of reform, a monarch who is determined to reform is indeed more easily accepted by Europeans.

The flower hall edict even overshadowed the ongoing Spanish Civil War and the Turkish-Egyptian War, making people forget that the monarch's rule was in jeopardy.

But in the eyes of the Tsar, the flower hall edict was just a successful performance. The Ottomans would not choose peace, let alone fulfill their promises.

Countless Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire are still in urgent need of the Tsar's rescue.

For the deal proposed by Austria, the Tsar felt that it was inevitable to sacrifice the interests of a small number of people in order to save more Slavs.

And as long as Russia is strong enough, it can save the Slavs trapped in the Austrian Empire in the future.

Based on Austria's terms of the deal, the Tsar judged that they did not seem to want to get involved in the Balkans, but wanted to use Serbia as a barrier between Austria and the Ottoman Empire.

In addition, the Apennine Customs Union, which the Austrians had just established not long ago, is not difficult to judge that Austria's focus is on Italy at this time.

After all, the Habsburg family has ruled Italy for hundreds of years, and the Italians there are easier to rule.

When Nicholas I was young, he visited Austria. The Austrian army left a deep impression on him. He had never seen such a difficult-to-control army.

The Russian army has always been known for its complex composition, but compared with the Austrian army, it is simply a small witch compared to a big witch.

Austrian soldiers spoke a variety of languages, and even when they spoke German, they spoke with all kinds of strange accents. He had seen with his own eyes that a Bohemian chef asked a Saxon volunteer to get potatoes.

Then the soldier looked at the chef with some doubts, and finally climbed up the fruit tree next to him and picked an apple under the repeated urging of the other party.

Note: Austria did not have the word potato at first, they were more accustomed to calling potatoes apples on the ground.

In battle, Austrian soldiers were accustomed to watching what the people around them did instead of listening to orders.

This also caused the entire army to make mistakes once a soldier made a mistake. Many times, Austrian officers had to use sticks, stones, and even whips to make soldiers obey orders.

But even so, command confusion still troubled the Austrians, because their officers often came from different regions and used different languages ​​or dialects.

Nicholas I was not afraid of such an army, because they would collapse in front of pure Slavs.

Palmerston and Canning praised Magid's reforms.

Without the support of the great powers, they could only hope for the support of the domestic people for the war. After all, Her Majesty the Queen was so unpredictable. If the Queen opposed the war, Britain's Near East strategy would become a mess.

Before things get worse, they must come up with a countermeasure, otherwise it will be endless like the Spanish Civil War.

Britain must gain hegemony in the Near East, and France and Russia are obstacles.

Historically, the British first united with the French to exclude the Russians, then won the Austrians to exclude the French, and finally won the victory in the Sinai Peninsula with an invincible posture.

In this battle, Britain not only killed Russia, but also killed France, completed a double kill of Egypt and the Ottoman Empire in the Near East, and successfully marginalized Austria.

Palmerston's five kills came too easily, so he became more arrogant, and he did not restrain himself until he was dismissed by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria.