Chapter 594 Do something practical
Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace.
Franz quite liked this situation. Although it seemed tense, it was actually testing and bluffing.
But he wasn't going to play a frivolous game with these people. Franz was going to do something real.
He prepared a large gift for both Magid and Nicholas I. At the same time, Canning in London shouted "Foolish!"
Canning had been the British ambassador to the Ottomans before becoming Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and even Magid had a nominal "master-apprentice" relationship.
But the former never expected that the "Sultan" he carefully selected would actually contact the Austrian Empire and do such a stupid thing.
In fact, the reason why the Ottomans sent envoys to contact the Austrian Empire was because, on the one hand, Britain did not do a good job of exchanging intelligence with its "allies", and on the other hand, the things the world's number one troublemaker always did made people feel uncomfortable. A sense of distrust.
At this time, the Ottoman Empire was experiencing constant internal and external troubles. Although it had been changed but not completely changed, Magid, the leader of the reform, was not a human being inside and out. The reformers believed that he was cowardly and incompetent, while the conservatives believed that he had betrayed his own class.
In addition, the sect often leads its members to cause trouble, dealing with Jews today, Armenians tomorrow, and heretical sects the day after tomorrow.
Almost all the great powers in the world wanted to cut off a piece of flesh from the Ottoman Empire. The French took away Algeria and Morocco, the Austrians took away Tripoli, the British took away Egypt, and Russia took away too many lands to mention.
Tripoli is still nominally Ottoman territory, but the governor appointed by Meguid has been expelled. The actual rulers are the Karamanli family, and the boss behind them is Austria.
The worse news at this time is that Britain and Russia may join forces, so Magid has to prepare an alternative.
There is another thing that gives him a headache at home, and that is local uprisings, especially in Albania.
The reforms carried out by Megied are also called "Tanchimat Reforms", and many of the principles are very good. For example, centralization was established to replace the feudal system, and national financial institutions were established to replace the decadent Ilticham system.
Abolish the feudal military armed forces of the past, establish a universal compulsory military service system, organize and train new armies, etc.
But these reforms changed completely when they reached the local level. They became a money-making tool for pashas and bureaucrats, and they did not touch the source of corruption.
At the same time that feudal ownership was abolished, Albania's landowners expanded rapidly, and after local disarmament was disarmed, they became true "local overlords" with complete control over taxation, law, and security.
These landowners were both bureaucrats and capitalists, driving peasants who had abolished feudal obligations from their lands with absolutely no restraints.
The fate of the mountain people is also miserable. Although their land officials look down upon them, there are always ways to make money.
Officials cleverly created a name for the mountain people not only to pay "blood tax", but also to bear taxes that they did not have to bear before, such as livestock tax.
The cattle tax was a poll tax imposed by the Ottoman Empire on Christians, but traditionally mountain people were exempt from other taxes as long as they paid the blood tax.
However, after the reform, the mountain residents could not get any money for paying the blood tax, and various other heavy burdens made them overwhelmed.
Unlike those farmers in the plains who just cry and fight for the land and starve to death, many of the mountain people are "military households" for generations. They do not lack fighting skills or courage.
At the same time, because mountainous areas are relatively backward, many areas still implement the system of patriarchs or imams. These patriarchs and imams have very exaggerated influence. They can even call on the people to rise up and directly fight against the country.
Three armed uprisings involving tens of thousands of people occurred in Kosovo in 1843, in Gegeliya in 1844, and in Tuscailia in 1845.
The mountain people and the peasants who had lost their land joined forces to rob and kill the big landowners who were officials. At first, under the leadership of the patriarchs and imams, the rebel troops attacked local officials.
But as the scale of the uprising expanded and casualties continued to increase, after all, those big landowners had private armed forces, and the targets of the former were no longer limited to those landowners and officials with bad reputations.
The rebel army would storm into the homes of anyone who had a house to live in, lynching the men, taking away the women, and looting all the belongings.
Another version of local events reached Magid's ears, that is, some people opposed the reform and massacred progressive people who supported the reform, and even massacred innocent people.
What makes people even more angry is that people who have converted to the "Tianfang Sect" actually collude with those Christians. It is really despicable to the extreme and is simply intolerable!
Magid also sent people to suppress it at first, but the combat effectiveness of the new Ottoman army was really limited, and if you want to project force to local areas, you need tax and manpower support.
At this time, the Ottoman Empire was filled with public dissatisfaction due to reforms and uprisings everywhere, and it could not afford the cost of an expedition.
So Magid could only order local officials and landowners to raise their own military salaries and train rural warriors to fight against the rebels.
This method actually once again acquiesced to the feudal power of the big landowners, and even made it possible for them to go further, that is, to become a separatist vassal town.
This strong dose of medicine really worked. The local area immediately mobilized a lot of armed forces and beat the rebels back steadily. Magid even ordered a reward for this.
But soon he discovered something was wrong, that is, it seemed that these rebels could never be wiped out.
Seeing the local power growing day by day, Magid realized that he was drinking poison to quench his thirst.
But at this time it was too late to think about breaking the strong man's wrist, and the whole of Albania became a sore on the Ottoman Empire.
In fact, it can also be described as a tentacle of corruption that cannot be cut off. It will only continue to erode the soul of the Ottoman Empire.
But Franz is going to give Magid a gift, which is a sword that can cut off this tentacle.
Austria could help deal with the rebellious mountaineers in the north and eliminate any separatist forces that might be disloyal to the Sultan.
Magid was extremely excited when he heard the Austrian envoy's proposal. Although Albania was not a wealthy land, it was still an important food-producing area in the Ottoman Empire, and before the rebellion, it could contribute to the country at least once a year. 2 million lire.
(The Ottoman lira was a very unstable currency, trading almost 30 to 1 against the British pound, but it rapidly depreciated under Megid's reforms.)
At this time, the Ottoman Empire's annual income was only 150 million Ottoman lire, which was not as much as a coastal province of the Austrian Empire.
"So what's the price?"
Magid knew very well that such favorable conditions must be accompanied by huge benefits, otherwise no one would take the initiative to take over this mess.
In fact, Magid even considered selling this province to Austria. After all, instead of letting it rot in his hands and disgusting himself, it would be better to sell it and stop the loss.