March of the 43rd year of the Empire.

Li Junwei officially set off from Xijin, took the Imperial Navy's Lone Eagle cruiser and set off back to China. Li Zhaoyu took the train to Baku. His itinerary was to take a train from Xijin to Baku, then cross the Caspian Sea by boat and arrive at Shuanghe Port. From there, you can take a train to cross the entire river, and then ride a horse to Yili, Luntai, and enter Lanzhou first, and then enter Tibet depending on the situation.

On the Lone Eagle, there is a friend of Li Zhaocheng, former attendant of King Yu Shaojie. After serving as the garrison commander of the Rock Fortress for a period of time, he was sent by Li Junwei to serve as the empire's consul in Suez.

The Consul Suez is a special position in the empire. Although it is held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is actually affiliated with the Ministry of Overseas Affairs and has part-time jobs in the navy. It is generally the deputy chief of Aden. It is because the local situation is complicated and the Suez Canal is particularly important to the empire. The person in charge of the Suez region must have the ability to deal with it on the spot.

"This is Rock Fortress..."

In the officer entertainment room on the battleship, Shaojie introduced Li Junwei to the Rock Fortress, and he prepared very richly. He made a model of wood, and it was assembled, which could be disassembled and displayed its internal structure.

At the top of the model, there are several exquisite turrets. Shaojie said: "This is the most important core of the fortress defense. The 305mm heavy artillery, together with the Ceuta's turret, constitutes the crossfire that can completely block the Strait of Gibraltar. These places are lighthouses that cooperate with the turrets, lights and other types."

"Have the cannons been installed in place now?" Li Zhaocheng asked in surprise.

Shaojie shook his head: "No, in order to block the Strait of Gibraltar, we need artillery with a longer range, which requires a longer barrel of the artillery, and it is best to install artillery afterwards. But similar artillery is under development, and it is expected that it will take four years to complete the development, production and equipment.

But the preparations have been completed. During my tenure, the most important thing is to repair the fortress road, and as long as heavy artillery arrives, they can be transported up."

When I lifted the uppermost layer, revealing the low facilities attached to the turret below. When I lifted this layer, there was still room underneath, but most of it was painted with white paint. Shaojie said: "The black part is already built, and white is the planned fortification. You see, there are tunnels that can lead to the top of the mountain, and I arranged for people to store gunpowder on the roads built. Even if a war breaks out now, the Rock Fortress can be put into battle immediately.

The only regret is that it is impossible to block Gibraltar with artillery."

This is what Li Junwei admires Shaojie. This young man is cynical like a noble child, but he is extremely serious in his work, step by step, and is very appropriate.

When passing Istanbul, the Lone Eagle did not dock, but instead moved directly from the fleet. On the contrary, all other ships in the fleet were docked because Li Su, Prince of Empire Rong, held his first state visit during his term of office, which lasted for more than ten days.

The Lone Eagle did not stop in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. With its cruiser's voyage, it did not stop until the Port of Said. Compared with Istanbul, which passed by a few days ago, Said Port seemed very prosperous. A hundred ships were docked at the port. Most of these ships were not engaged in ocean trade, but only from Said Port to its home port.

The reason is very simple. After the Suez Canal was opened, many accidents occurred. Most of the accidents were caused by unpowered sailboats. Although there were towers, as long as a gust of evil wind blew, the sailboat might be stranded and interrupted the shipping of the entire canal.

Therefore, four years ago, the Suez Canal Company stipulated that in its own unpowered sailboat, only large ships with more than three masts could pass through the Suez Canal, and those with less than three masts were not qualified to pass. This injected development momentum into the shipbuilding industry in Xijin, and the empire began to authorize the export of steam-powered merchant ships to several friendly countries.

However, the Lone Eagle was going to stay in Port Said for a while, because the Suez Canal was blocked again, and the one that blocked the canal was a British merchant ship. This newly launched merchant ship was a steam auxiliary power ship. The steam power used was from the Netherlands, which was a Dutch imitated the old style of the empire.

However, when the merchant ship passed the canal, there was a problem with the steam engine. When it lost its speed, the rudder effect failed and hit one side of the canal. It also entered and was half sunk in the canal.

Fortunately, in addition to the canal, there is also the Suez Railway in the Suez area. Because the canal is blocked, the railway became very busy. Fortunately, Amar's subordinates attached importance to King Yu and his party and directly dispatched Pasha's special train to escort Li Junwei south and arrived at Suez City.

Sinai Pasha's residence is in Port Said, but Li Junwei still hopes to live in the Suez region. The reason is that Amal was not in Port Said at this time, but went to Cairo. Unlike the merchants from all over the country gathered in Port Said, which was full of Arab and Europa ethnic groups, the city of Suez is more inclined to the imperial style, and most of the people coming and going in the city are Eastern ethnic groups, especially in the former imperial concession, which was simply a small Chinese city.

"Living here, at least you don't have to endure the Bunker voice every day, it makes my brain hurt." King Yu and his party moved into the consulate. He passed through the Suez Canal many times, so he has great experience in this. The people around him also have similar experience, only Shaojie, who is busy handing over work with his former chief.

William asked, "Uncle Yu, when will Amal Pasha come to visit you?"

Li Junwei said: "Not yet. He is very busy in Cairo. We have to wait for a while. Of course, during this period, you can visit the Suez region with Zhao Cheng. Not only this city, you can also go to the Port of Said and Midway City.

But there is one thing: you can’t leave today, and you have to start tomorrow. I need someone to arrange a guard for you.”

"No need for guards, there's no need. A few thieves can't get close to us. Besides, we're too eye-catching with the guards around us." Li Zhaocheng said confidently.

Li Junwei shook his head: "The guard is a must, because the rich people here have guards, so you won't be eye-catching. In addition, the thieves here are not ordinary thieves. You might as well tell you that your brother Li Su, the first time he killed someone when he was my guard commander."

"Okay, guards are a must." Li Zhaocheng said with his head down. He knew that if he continued to persevere, he might be confined.

For two consecutive days, the group stayed in the consulate and did not go out during this period. After a little understanding of the outside through the newspaper, they realized that the violence in the Sinai area was much more than that in the empire.

Logically speaking, in places like the Sinai Peninsula where economic development is fast, there should be less violent activities, but in fact, the local security situation is not optimistic at all.

This is mainly related to the local governance method. The Sinai Peninsula is between Europe and the East. Christian civilization, Arab civilization and Eastern civilization are gathered here because a canal converges here. After the Amal Reform, the local people showed a strong open attitude. People from different religions, countries and nations came here, and different civilizations and living habits collided here, so it was very difficult to govern.

The Ottoman Empire was another feudal monarchy country, and it was impossible to put the ruling institutions at the grassroots level. So Amal went to another way. Since he could not go deep into the grassroots level, he simply made a big splash.

At the beginning, Amar implemented a law that mainly refines the customary laws of the Tianfang Cult. He found that the laws of the Tianfang Cult themselves were imperfect and were incompatible with Eastern and Western civilizations and habits, restricting foreign merchants. So he imitated the laws of the empire and carried out local regulations. He also found that this required a huge bureaucratic team, and the ruling cost was too high, and the Ottomans and the locals could not provide so many talents.

As a result, Amar vigorously promoted the policy of autonomy, and a large number of autonomous communities that rely on religion and ethnic divisions have emerged to carry out civil management. The local order is also simple. Except for the crime of death, all crimes can be solved by fines. The heavier the crime, the more fines it is.

When conflicts arise between different ethnic and religious religions, they will also adhere to the consultation mechanism, but this kind of consultation is not entirely a sitting down to talk. Of course, this is also a way. A large part of the consultation is bloody negotiation, that is, duels. When two people cannot negotiate to resolve the conflict, they can make duels, cold weapons and hot weapons, but they must report and pay.

Since autonomy is the main local and local form of domination, there is no shortage of violent gangs in the so-called autonomous communities, and even in some ethnic communities, gangs are community organizations.

Shaojie carefully arranged guards for the two, each with two attendants, and arranged locals as guides. One of the locals was actually the small leader of the local Chinese gang, and he had a lot to do with Said Port in the Midway City.

"Shaojie, I found that you have a good idea of ​​interpersonal relationships. After only two days of coming, you have known these many people. The officials here are willing to help you. This is a very powerful skill." Li Junwei praised.

Shaojie smiled and said, "It's just that the fox is just pretending to be a tiger. With you here, everyone wants to give me some face. Moreover, the local military officers are also old acquaintances. They worked with people from the Military Intelligence Bureau in Ceuta."

Li Junwei nodded. Even so, Shaojie was very extraordinary. Shaojie continued: "Amar is in Cairo and will not come back in a short period of time. He hopes to deal with the local church elders and let them support the railway from the middle city to Cairo, but it is obviously not going well. However, Ali is here and hopes to see you."

"He is very well-informed." Li Junwei couldn't help but exclaim.

"Actually it was a coincidence. This guy originally wanted to go to Istanbul to ask for the meeting with His Highness King Rong. He saw you taking Amal's special train in Port Said, so he followed him to Suez and contacted the military officer yesterday." Shaojie said.

Li Junwei said: "Have you seen him?"

Shaojie nodded: "I just met and didn't have a deep conversation. I still couldn't control my strength. I thought you would meet first, so it would be better to take me with you."

"Is it safe to see you in the consulate?" Li Junwei asked.

Shaojie thought for a while and shook his head: "It is not safe. It is said that Amal tried to send someone to sneak into the consulate several times, and it is hard to say that there is no one here."

Considering the time factor, Shaojie arranged the meeting place in a restaurant run by Thais. Shaojie also deliberately made arrangements in advance, and the meeting time was set at 9:00 a.m., and at 11:00, he would meet with the local Chinese gang, so the gang came forward and booked the restaurant directly.

Ali was the secret son of the imperial intelligence agency. He was originally the son-in-law of the Koplulu family. Under the instruction of the Empire, he assisted the Koplulu family in dealing with a rebellion of the imperial guards. Therefore, he became the commander of an Ottoman army in Egypt and was responsible for clearing out the Mamluk forces that fled into Upper Egypt and the Sudan. He has done quite successfully over the years and has his own supporters.

Originally, the empire hoped that Ali could become the Pasha of Egypt, but the problem was that Egypt was too important to the Ottomans. Amal served as Pasha of Egypt, and it was not Ali's turn.

"Ali, I'm sorry, we didn't do what Dan Tai promised you." Li Junwei said to Ali.

On the contrary, Ali looked no angry at all. He said, "No, you have done a good job. I am just a small person. The situation has changed."

Originally, the empire supported him as Pasha, Egypt, but the problem was that last year, a coup broke out in the Ottoman Empire. The coup was not large in scale, and the power struggle within the Ottomans changed Ali's fate.

To put it more accurately, the coup was within the Copruil family. The Great Vizier family had two Vizier, Fazo and Hussein. They were brothers, which led to the reform of the Ottomans and the Kopruil family's control over the Ottomans. But the problem was that the two brothers agreed to serve as Great Vizier alternately, but Fazoer was unwilling to give up power, so he chose to take the lead and imprisoned his brother Hussein.

Ali was the son-in-law of the Copruri family, but he was the son-in-law of Hussein, the loser of the coup. Fortunately, after the empire received the news, he immediately informed Ali, allowing him to stand in the right team again. Fortunately, he was just Hussein's former son-in-law. When Hussein's son served as Pasha in Egypt and Amar as Sinai Pasha, he had a good relationship with both of them.

But Ali also lost the opportunity to compete for Egypt's Pasha, and this important position was taken over by Amal, the son of Great Vizier.

Alibaba is already very satisfied to survive the coup and retain its power.
Chapter completed!