The Rise of the European Emperor

The news of Persia's defeat soon spread to neighboring Egypt. At this time, the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt controlled the Syrian area, and the Syrian area bordered Persia. The news of Persia's defeat naturally spread to Egypt soon.

Then, the Egyptian Mamluk dynasty immediately reassessed the balance of power between Turkey and Persia. Originally, the Egyptians believed that the Persians had a slight upper hand. But they did not expect that after the First World War, Persia lost even the capital Tabriz.

During the war, the Persians' description of artillery also shocked the Egyptians. Therefore, the Egyptian Mamluk Sultan Garigul stepped up the construction of firearms troops.

At this time, Guci, the North Sea trade representative who had been selling firearms to the Cairo court, asked to see him again. This time, Gary Gul Sultan, who had been ignoring Gutz before, was finally willing to negotiate with Gutz.

Gutz negotiated with Egypt on behalf of Marin, and the conditions offered were also very generous. On behalf of the North Sea State, Guci agreed to sell the artillery and Lumi arquebus at the most favorable price. And what Egypt needs to pay is not cash, but ordinary agricultural products in Egypt, and even worthless things like camels.

In addition, Gutz also represented Marin and suggested that Gary Gul and Persia reconcile and join forces. Because the Portuguese and the Spaniards had cut off the maritime trade routes between Egypt and India. At this time, the Egyptians had to go overland if they wanted to contact India. But the land routes are all under the control of the Persian Safavid Empire, but Egypt and the Safavid Empire have been at loggerheads due to sectarian differences. You must know that Egypt controls the Hejaz area including Mecca, and also controls the puppet caliphate. It claims to be protected by the Sunnis and has a high prestige in the Middle East. And Persia is the only Shiite country, so naturally it can't pee in the same pot as the Mamluk dynasty.

If Gutz dared to make this suggestion before, he would probably be hacked to death by the Egyptians. However, it is different now. The defeat of Persia made Egypt re-understand the situation in the Middle East. Egypt, on the other hand, had financial difficulties because the Portuguese and Spaniards blocked the sea trade routes. For Gutz's suggestion, Gary Gul was listening.

So, while agreeing to purchase a large amount of artillery and Lumi arquebus from the North Sea State, Gary Gul also began to tentatively send envoys to Persia...

In the past, because of the mutual hatred between the sects, it is estimated that the Persian side either killed the Egyptian envoy or blasted the envoy away. But this time, Shah Ismail I of Persia, who realized that he was not as good as Turkey, received the Egyptian envoy calmly.

The Egyptians came here for spices, and now the maritime trade line has been cut off by the Portuguese and the Spaniards, and the only hope is the land line.

Although it is said that the cost of land transportation is much higher than that of sea transportation, it cannot stand the huge profits of the spice trade!

Before, Marin's fleet even considered that transporting spices directly from India back to Europe had a huge profit of up to 60 times. If you go by land, even if the transportation cost is increased several times, there will still be a lot of huge profits. Although the middleman in Venice has to make a lot of profits, the Egyptians are also very profitable. Moreover, if the spice trade goes overland, Persia can also extract taxes from it.

As a result, the two countries that were originally hostile to each other quietly came together for their own interests, but they did not make it public...

The two parties agreed that Egypt would send a camel team to start from Syria, pass through Baghdad, then turn to Isfahan in the southeast, continue to the Baluchistan area in the southeast, and then enter India through the Sindh area of ​​the later Pakistan Railway Gujarat in the northwest - this is also a very important trade center on the west coast of India.

Before, Egyptian merchant ships often came to buy. Today, the sea route is cut off by the Portuguese and the Spaniards. If the Persians allow it, the Egyptians can still contact here by land.

Although it is said that a camel can only carry about 300 pounds of spices. However, if there are enough camels, there will be a lot of cargo capacity. For example, sending 100 camels can bring back more than 30,000 pounds of spices, and the profit is also considerable. Send a few more camel teams, and the profits will come up.

As for Portugal and Spain, although they are very horizontal at sea, they really have nothing to do on land. In the face of large-scale scimitar cavalry, the Portuguese and Spaniards will be more timid. Although Spain can fight, the problem is that they cannot ship a large number of troops to Central Asia to fight. Therefore, the Egyptians went by land, and they had nothing to do.

Of course, the Portuguese and Spaniards could threaten the Indian states along the coast to prevent them from trading spices with the Egyptians. But India is not only the coastal states that produce spices, but the inland states also sell spices. At most, they can't buy the cinnamon from Ceylon and the cloves and nutmeg from the Spice Islands. The pepper that is native to India, the Egyptians still buy it...

...

In fact, even if Gutz did not make suggestions, the Egyptians would have chosen to ally with the Persians in their original history. Because, in cooperation with Persia, not only can you buy spices by land, but you can also purchase cheap Persian war horses from Persia.

However, the Egyptians in the original history were very unlucky. After they formed an alliance with the Persians, before they began to enjoy the benefits, the Battle of Dabik Prairie broke out with Turkey. In that battle, the Egyptian Sultan Galigour died on the spot. The next year, Turkey eliminated the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt.

But this time and space is different. Under the suggestion of Gutz, the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt had contact with Persia earlier, and also purchased a large number of guns from the North Sea State at a low price. History, obviously, has been greatly changed...

But Marin suspects that the Egyptians may still not be able to beat Turkey. Because the change of the Egyptians was forced, not voluntary. Guns are still new to the Egyptian army, and they probably have a long way to go to adapt. You know, the hardest thing to change is people's notions. The Turkish army blasted Constantinople with cannons a long time ago, and they are very familiar with firearms. The army of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt, however, has only been exposed to firearms for a short time.

However, fortunately, because of Marin's intervention, the army of the Persian Safavid Empire did not suffer too much loss. As long as the Egyptian army and the Persian army join forces, even Turkey has no good solution. With the containment of Persia and Egypt behind it, Turkey can no longer concentrate on invading Europe. After all, they are also afraid that Persia and Egypt will take advantage of the emptiness of their homeland to stab their backs...

...

The Persians were in favor of the Egyptians' proposal to purchase war horses from Persia. After all, there was no market for Persian war horses. Surrounded by horse breeding countries, who will sell it to? Only Egypt, a country with many deserts, is somewhat short of horses. Before that, Egypt still imported Mawari horses from India as war horses for the imperial army.

Nowadays, it is possible to purchase war horses from Persia, not to mention whether there are Indian Mawari horses, and the freight alone can raise a lot of money. Moreover, the price also avoids India's cheapness. After all, Persia borders Egypt and can drive large herds of horses directly from land into Syria.

Finally, the Egyptians and Persians talked about the slave trade...

...

The slave trade has always been the core issue of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt. The word Mamluk means "slave". Most of the most elite Mamluk cavalry of the Mamluk dynasty were Circassian slaves. Circassian slaves, on the other hand, had been transported from the Black Sea region to Egypt by Venetian and Genoese merchants for sale.

However, starting in the 1470s, in order to weaken the Egyptian Mamluk dynasty, Turkey prohibited the Italians from selling Circassian slaves to Egypt from the Black Sea region. In this way, the largest source of soldiers of the Mamluk dynasty in Egypt has been cut off by the Turks for decades. The current Mamluk cavalry can only be selected locally, and the scale is not as good as it was then.

The Egyptian Mamluk dynasty urgently needed new Circassian slave soldiers, but the way to introduce Circassian slaves by sea was strangled by the Turks, and the Egyptians had no choice.

However, the Black Sea coast area in the western Caucasus, where the Circassians lived, happened to border the Persian Safavid Empire. If the Persians agree, the Egyptians can still introduce Circassian juvenile slaves from the land, and then continue to train elite Mamluk cavalry through cruel training.

Therefore, for Egypt, it is more important to continue to buy Circassian juvenile slaves than to buy war horses from Persia.

Ismail I thought for a long time, and finally agreed to the Egyptians' request. However, he limited the number of Circassian slaves purchased by the Egyptians, and stipulated that only how many places could be traded each year. In this way, Persia can also control the expansion of the power of the Egyptian Mamluk dynasty.

At the same time, Ismail I also had the idea of ​​​​establishing a Mamluk cavalry Janissary army. After all, Persia is next to the residence of the Circassians, so it is more convenient to form Mamluk cavalry...