The Sun and the Lion

Ibrahim spent the winter leisurely in Baghdad, and Selim and Suleiman welcomed 1512 in a state of anxiety. The aftermath of the humiliating defeat in Ankara could not be dealt with in a short time. Finished.

Throughout the winter, Padishah was busy reorganizing the shattered army. Kapikulu, which was directly under the monarch, suffered the most heavy losses, especially the most important unit, Yeniceri. In order to replenish the troops, a new batch of recruiting officers Sent to places to double recruit children. Several batches of Greek, Albanian, Bulgarian and Serbian children collected from the local area and Ruthenians, Circassians and Georgians bought from the slave market were concentrated in the palace schools in Edirne and Kostantinye Get training.

Generally speaking, the recruitment of children from Christian families of all ethnic groups is about once every five years, but Selim, who was already starving to reorganize the army, decided to recruit children once a year, and officially included some Muslim families in the recruitment scope.

Fortunately, all the previous recruits had graduated in advance and were urgently recruited to Yenicherry to reorganize the legions. Otherwise, the palace schools in both places combined would not be able to accept so many new students.

It looks like it will only take a few years for Jenichery to return to its former glory.

The artillery foundry in Kostantinye was ordered to work overtime to cast new artillery. The lost gunners had to be retrained. Fortunately, there were a batch of old cannons and gunpowder in the warehouse and artillery range of the artillery foundry, which was sufficient for training.

In order to reduce financial pressure, all Sipaxi who had narrowly escaped death in Asia Minor were deported and returned to their fiefs. The properties that were left ownerless because their owners died in the war were immediately redistributed. The families of the original owners only received depreciated Akche currency as a reward. Symbolic compensation.

The hostility with the Safavids caused the Ottomans to lose the tax revenue paid by the provinces of Asia Minor. Rumelia's commercial connections with Iran also had to go through Italian merchants as intermediaries, which undoubtedly pushed up trade costs and strengthened the other party's bargaining power.

In an environment of financial constraints caused by reduced taxes and shrinking trade, if it were not for the support of precious metal mines such as the Trepka Silver Mine in Serbia, Selim would really have no choice but to turn to Italian financial institutions. The family took out a loan to tide over the financial difficulties.

Even with the income from the silver mine, Gaomen still needs to cut other expenses, and Selim even wants to take advantage of Waqf.

Financial constraints undoubtedly made Selim more sensitive to domestic and foreign affairs. Since his defeat, although Padishah's prestige has been greatly damaged, Selim's side is really the only one who can sit in Topkapi Palace at this moment. Ahmed, Murad and his son have surrendered to the enemy, and Korku His exile in Egypt is tantamount to treason. In addition, before and during the expedition, Padishah and the regent placed the trusted staff brought from Trabzon into key positions one by one. He is still able to maintain control over the high gate and the army. The throne is still for him. Stable.

Moreover, there has not yet been large-scale unrest against him in Sanjak of Rumelia and the two vassals of Wallachia and Moldavia. The stable internal environment allows him to act more freely. At present, the most important thing to worry about is external pressure.

He knew that Mingli Glei bypassed him and secretly contacted and negotiated with the Safavids. Today's Crimean Tatars have an ambiguous attitude, but they cannot forcefully assert the authority of the suzerainty, lest even the nominal monarchs and ministers If it fails, Azov and Kaffa may also be taken away.

Selim looked at the matter as positively as possible. After all, he was responsible for the defeat, and the protons sent by the Khan were lost because of him. Now it is understandable that the Crimean Tatars want to redeem the prince on their own. If the Crimean Khan can successfully negotiate with the Persians, it can also serve as a diplomatic intermediary between the Ottomans and the Safavids. It will be beneficial and harmless to have such a reliable middleman to help mediate relations between the two countries in the future.

According to intelligence reports from spies, the European Christian world has roughly known the news of the Ottoman defeat. Apart from the religious parades celebrating the defeat of Turkey, there are already voices among the people organizing a new crusade, but there is currently no movement from Hungary or the Holy See.

It is understandable that the Holy See is silent. Pope Julius is currently busy driving the French army out of Italy and cannot immediately react to the changes in the east. But King Wladyslaw II of Hungary has shown no signs of preparing for war so far. Does he not want to take a bite out of Serbia and Bosnia ruled by the Ottomans?

After instructing Bey of Smederevo to monitor the direction of Belgrade, and releasing more irregular cavalry to ravage the border areas, turning the countryside into scorched earth to create an impassable isolation zone between the two countries, Padishah turned his attention to on the Mediterranean Sea in the south.

The only one currently active militarily is the Knights Hospitaller. Apart from harassing shipping, the fleet from Rhodes Island turned its attention to the Aegean islands ruled by the Ottomans after being frustrated in Izmir. Find Shuyuan www.zhaｏshuyuan.com For example, Lesbos Island.

The beys stationed on each island reported bad news about attacks in their jurisdictions this winter, and the battles were won and lost. On the island, the Hospitallers showed off their pirate style, plundering and enslaving the Muslim residents of the island, and trying to replace Ottoman rule.

Nowadays, there is no news about several small islands. It can be assumed that the Ottoman rule has been completely disintegrated by the Hospital Knights. Although these small islands are not as rich as Rhode Island, they are still suitable as temporary bases for pirates to rest and rest, and can be used for hospitals. The more islands the knights use, the greater their range of activities, and the threat to shipping and coastal areas is even greater.

If Pirires hadn't led the fleet to cruise in the Aegean Sea, the warships of the Knights Hospitaller would have even dared to sail to a port in Morea, Salonika or Gallibolu!

Due to the rampant pirates, Hesekzad Pasha, who had just returned to Kostantiniya, put down his work as Grand Vizier at Selim's instruction and inspected the navy's combat readiness as Kapudan Pasha.

Huh, if you can't defeat the Persian heretics, why can't I deal with you?

But the one that can really challenge the Ottoman sea power is the Republic of Venice. With the support of Ibrahim, a good ally, they may take the opportunity to claim previously lost territory, demand lower tariffs, and even grant trade privileges.

Fortunately, Venice is currently also trapped in the Italian War and cannot pose a substantial threat to the Ottomans for the time being. However, due to possible threats in the future, according to the usual thinking, it should be on the line with the Republic of Genoa to fight against Venice. But also because of the Italian War, Genoa is currently occupied by France, which makes the strategy of finding foreign aid to check Venice in vain.

He needs time. As long as the army is reorganized, the Eternal Kingdom will be far away from falling into a dead situation.