Chapter 113 The Beggar Emperor

"In history, there are only two people who were born as beggars and eventually became kings of a country. One is Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, and the other is Ali Pasha of Egypt." The new vizier boasted of Ali Pasha's achievements.

Abdul was named vizier by Muhammad Ali because of his successful mission to Russia and signing a secret agreement with Tsar Nicholas I.

The official position of prime minister in Egyptian history is also called vizier, and Ali Pasha's ambition is already obvious. He wants to be the Sultan of Egypt and establish an Arab empire, not a Turkic bastard.

Franz still has some respect for this kind of tycoon who can achieve great dominance with just one bowl at the beginning, but this era does not belong to Egypt.

Ali Pasha understood that victory in the naval battle was just his ticket to participate in the partition of the Ottoman Empire. The real decisive battle was still on land. Since the French refused to sell the formula of mercury fulminate to Egypt, the Egyptians could only make flintlock guns.

Naturally, Ali Pasha would not give in. He ordered his craftsmen to develop percussion guns. However, there was no craftsman in Egypt who could make percussion guns.

As a last resort, Egyptian officials had to spend 10,000 florins to obtain the formula of mercury fulminate and the design drawings of the percussion gun from Tuscany.

The formula for mercury fulminate is actually very simple, but at this time Egyptian chemistry had not yet developed to the level of alchemy in the Middle Ages, so it is not surprising that mercury fulminate could not be made.

Of course, Ali's ambition was not just satisfied by building a few guns, he also needed powerful artillery.

The Austrian M1832 super artillery, a plan that was abandoned by the Austrians, was blown to the sky by the Tuscans.

This super artillery has the longest range, largest caliber, and exaggerated power in the world, but what the Tuscans did not explain to the Egyptians was that the reason why Austria scrapped this weapon program was because of this thing The explosion rate is astonishing.

There was even a miracle of Penta Kill, including gunners, loaders, observers, a general who came to inspect, and the flag bearer responsible for guiding the direction.

In that test firing, due to excessive gunpowder filling, the barrel exploded on the spot. No one around the artillery was spared, and a piece of artillery fragments flew backwards like a meteor and hit a general who came to inspect.

The explosion caused the trajectory of the cannonball to change, and a huge cannonball flew over the flagman's head. Although it did not hit the flagman, it directly took away his soul. When people discovered the abnormality, he was already bleeding from all his orifices and died.

The original intention of the design of the M1832 super artillery was to create the largest and most powerful artillery in the world. However, the artillery manufacturing technology and steel quality at the time could not support the ambitions of the Austrian military. As a result, this artillery had no stability at all, and it was almost impossible to fire. It would explode, so the military had to reluctantly scrap the plan.

100 pounds/50 caliber, this kind of data has almost caught up with the naval guns during World War I. Of course, the Austrians could not build them at this time. Even if they could be built, they could only be placed in fortresses or mounted on warships.

Within the Austrian army, this artillery was called the Hellbringer. However, as soon as this name was translated to the Egyptians, the Egyptians were excited and prepared to name it the ultimate weapon.

Under the strong request of Egypt, Tuscany began to purchase the design drawings of the M1832 artillery from Austria.

The Austrian side did not know what the Tuscans wanted to do. They only felt that this was a failed design and did not want this embarrassing design to be made public, so they rejected the Tuscans' proposal.

However, this aroused the Egyptians' desire to buy. In the end, Austria sold the design drawings of the M1832 artillery because the Egyptians gave too much.

The Austrian military felt they had made a huge profit by selling a completely useless blueprint for 100,000 florins.

The Egyptians bought what they considered to be the ultimate weapon and felt it was a good profit.

As an intermediary, the Tuscans received a 5% commission, which they felt was very profitable.

When Ali Pasha got the design drawing of the M1832, he immediately asked Egyptian craftsmen to copy it. However, with the Egyptian technology, it was impossible to make such a large gun model, and Ali Pasha's order was absolute. Every day after the time limit was exceeded Kill one person and the whole family.

As a last resort, Egyptian craftsmen came up with the oldest method, using clay molds.

It stands to reason that this kind of thing cannot be done at all, but God favored these craftsmen and really allowed them to build a cannon. But the problem came again. The cannon bore made of clay molds was uneven, which weakened the cannon. It is powerful and prone to explosion.

So, they came up with a new method. The inner chamber was leveled with melted iron and the outside was reinforced with iron hoops. As for whether it could be launched and whether it would explode, only God knows.

On the day of the test firing, Ali Pasha looked at the huge cannon in front of him and couldn't help but feel a sense of domineering. He decided not to hit the target he had set before, but instead pointed at a passing merchant ship.

You must know that the artillery of this era may not be able to hit a fixed target. It is simply impossible to hit a moving merchant ship, not to mention whether this artillery can be fired is still a question.

But under Ali Pasha's order, the gunners could only turn their guns and aim at the moving merchant ships.

The craftsmen on the side were even more worried. They were more worried than the gunners, because the gunners were only worried about missing the shot, but they were afraid that the gun would explode. If the gun exploded, their lives would be lost. .

However, good luck favored them again, and the artillery fired successfully. The huge explosion made the gunner's ears bleed.

The cannonball hit the merchant ship without any bias, and something unexpected happened. After the merchant ship was hit, there was a huge explosion, which directly blew the entire ship into pieces.

A bomb containing more than a hundred kilograms of gunpowder is powerful, but it will never blow a merchant ship into pieces.

In fact, this merchant ship was filled with flour, and when the huge explosive bomb exploded in the cabin, the dozens of tons of flour exploded like a bomb, instantly amplifying the power of the explosive bomb dozens of times. hundred times.

The gunners and craftsmen were dumbfounded. They really didn't believe that any artillery could produce such power, but the fact that happened right before their eyes forced them to believe it.

At this time, Abdul was the first to react and knelt down to salute Ali.

"Thank you Allah for giving my Lord the Divine Sword. My Lord will surely restore the glory of the Arab Empire."

All the soldiers and craftsmen around him knelt down. They all believed that this was a miracle, indicating that Ali would become the master of this world, and they would become the sword and shield in the hands of the master.

However, Ali Pasha did not look at the prostrate crowd. He just looked at the bright fireworks with a sinister smile on his face. He named this cannon "Hades" on the spot.

A raging fire burned in his eyes. This fire will burn to the Mediterranean, to Istanbul, to Albania, to London.

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