Save the Bachelor of Heaven

 Chapter 33533355【Drive straight in】

In March of the 29th year of Qianlong's reign, Xiang Nan assembled 600,000 troops and attacked the Ottoman Empire from three directions.

At that time, the Ottoman Empire spanned the European, Asian and African continents, and owned most of the Balkan Peninsula, the Middle East and North Africa. It reached the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf in the east, present-day Austria and Slovenia in the north, and present-day Sudan and Yemen in the south.

 Hsiang Nan's three armies also happened to correspond to the three territories in Europe, Asia and Africa.

 Start all the way from the port and attack Algiers along the Strait of Gibraltar to attack the Ottoman forces in Africa; all the way from Austria to attack the Balkan Peninsula; all the way from Volgograd to attack the Caucasus...

 At that time, the Ottoman Empire was in a period of stagnation. It turned out that with the opening of new sea routes, European merchants could use sea routes to bypass the blockade of the Ottoman Empire, which caused heavy losses to the Ottoman economy.

 Coupled with the development of European navigation technology, it also dealt a heavy blow to the Ottoman Navy. In the Battle of Letoban in 1571, the Ottoman Empire's navy almost suffered a devastating blow and lost control of the Mediterranean.

In the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the originally invincible Ottoman army was defeated by the European coalition forces, and more than 100,000 people died.

Since then, the Ottoman Empire has shifted from expansion to defense, and its national power has also been declining. Like many of its dependent countries in Africa, they were still nominally subordinate to the Ottomans, but in fact they were independent.

 In the eighteenth century, although the monarch Ahmed III had realized that the Ottoman Empire was declining, he wanted to carry out targeted reforms. However, due to the shackles of religious conservatives, the reforms were difficult.

  Comparatively, European countries are making rapid progress. Therefore, comparing the two, the Ottoman strength has lagged far behind.

 Compared with the Qing Dynasty, the gap is even greater.

For example, in the 18th century, Europe had basically given up cold weapons and used matchlocks and cannons to fight. Although they were not as powerful as automatic rifles, machine guns, and rifled cannons, they were still much more powerful than swords and guns.

 But the weapons of the Ottoman Empire were still mainly swords, guns and cavalry. And such an army is simply destined to die when encountering machine guns.

Hence, after the Three Route Army invaded the Ottoman Empire, they simply chopped down melons and vegetables, destroying the dry and decayed.

The Ottoman Empire was originally proud of its invincible cavalry across Asia, Africa and Europe. Facing the fire of artillery and machine guns, it was simply worse than a living target.

Hundreds of machine guns swept over, and the soldiers fell down one after another like mowing grass, dying very quickly.

Just like during World War I in history, the German army equipped with Maxim machine guns killed 60,000 British troops in one day during the Battle of the Somme.

The Ottoman Empire was proud of its cavalry, which only numbered more than 100,000. They lost tens of thousands in one day, which really made the Ottoman Empire extremely heartbroken. The morale of the army also plummeted because of this, and they did not dare to fight against the coalition forces anymore. It collapses at the first touch.

Hence, the coalition forces marched straight in. In May, they had captured the Balkan Peninsula and reached Constantinople.

 …

Constantinople was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in the 330th year. It has a history of more than 1,400 years and has experienced countless wars during this period.

The two most serious ones were the Crusades in 1204. After the capture of Constantinople, the city's wealth, antiques, and merchandise were looted, and the residents of the city were massacred.

The other time was in 1453, when the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople and, as usual, allowed soldiers to massacre the city at will. Although the massacre was called off after one day, half of the citizens were still killed, and the wealth accumulated in the city for hundreds of years was once again looted. After the Ottoman Empire established Constantinople as its capital, it was renovated and quickly became one of the largest cities in the world.

 Face the allied attack, Constantinople is also ready. They set up super cannons at the top of the city. Each cannon weighed several tons, and its shells could fly several miles. They had a very good deterrent effect.

 If it were a European country, faced with such a huge cannon, they would either choose to resist forcefully and fill it with human flesh. Either stay away and don't dare to attack directly.

 But Xiang Nan's coalition forces were different. They brought cannons that could hit twenty or thirty miles. Under such circumstances, the huge cannon on the city of Constantinople was of no use at all.

On the contrary, because it was too large and could not be moved at the top of the city, it became a fixed target and was blown up one after another by the shells fired by the coalition's rifled guns.

Subsequently, as the city gates were blasted and the coalition forces rushed in, Constantinople was captured for the third time.

 …

At the same time, after the Western Route Army invaded Algiers by sea, they also moved eastward to capture Tunisia and Tripoli, and headed straight to Egypt.

The Eastern Route Army crossed the Caucasus Mountains and invaded Asia Minor and Mesopotamia. The Ottoman Empire was attacked from both sides.

After the fall of Constantinople, the monarch Ahmed III originally fled with the nobles of the empire, hoping to make a comeback in other areas.

 As a result, under attack from both sides, he finally fell into Xiang Nan's hands and had to surrender to him. Then Xiang Nan waved his hand and conquered the Tianfang Peninsula.

 Tianfang Peninsula is full of deserts, accounting for one-third of the country’s land area. There are very few areas that can be cultivated, so they basically make a living by nomadic herding.

  But because it is located at the junction of Asia, Africa and Europe, its strategic location is very important, so even if it is a desert, it is still subject to endless battles. From ancient times to the present, this area has never been peaceful.

 It was successively ruled by the Persian Empire, Sasanian Dynasty, Umayyad Dynasty, Abbasid Dynasty, Khorezm Dynasty, Mongol Empire, Ottoman Empire, etc.

As the saying goes, after you sing, I will appear on the stage, and the king's flag will change on the top of the city. Because of this, the Tianfang Peninsula was devastated and its strength was not very strong. Otherwise, we would not have been ravaged by external forces again and again.

 Hence, the coalition forces captured the Tianfang Peninsula without paying a high price.

After taking the Tianfang Peninsula, the Western Route Army also captured Egypt.

Although Egypt was originally the birthplace of ancient civilization, a unified empire had been established in 3200 BC. At that time, China was still in the legendary period of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

However, although Egypt started early, its subsequent development was not satisfactory. In 525 BC, Egypt was captured by the Persian Empire and became a province under its rule.

 After that, the Greek, Roman, and Macedonian empires all conquered Egypt until the seventh century, when it was invaded by Heaven and became a province of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century.

However, the Ottoman Empire's control over it has not been very good, leaving it in a semi-independent state for a long time. But even so, it was still inevitable to be conquered by the coalition forces.

 (End of this chapter)