Li Junwei read the letter from Zaporoze to the merchants from the Ottomans, but it was not just that. For a feudal country like the Ottomans with a strong remnant of slavery, merchants, especially foreign merchants, were just vassals. They might be able to set off a frenzy of public opinion, but they might not be able to let the Sultan know.

But the merchants could not refuse the preferential trade terms offered by Li Junwei, and one of the Jewish merchants promised to deliver the letter to the hands of the Coplulu family.

Although the Sudan prevented the third hereditary of the Koplulu family, it did not expel the family from the core of power. There were many ambitious people in the Koplulu family who wanted to take their brother-in-law or brother-in-law off the horse. Obviously, they were willing to make this big. There was never a lack of behaviors of throwing dirty water on political enemies and embarrassing political enemies in the political struggle. Li Junwei just provided them with a shell with great power.

Next, Li Junwei and Shahni and other Cossack generals patrolled the two sides of the Ural River. It was still messy and full of violent acts. The imperial military operation to combat the Kazakhs continued, but the Cossacks became the main force, and the Cossacks, especially the Cossacks from the Don River, were devout believers and never feared waving their sabers to the pagans. The army under the Dingbian General's Mansion and Li Junwei were still trying to distinguish the differences between the Kazakhs and other tribes, and the Cossacks started war against all the Tianfang believers.

The Kazakhs, Nogai, Tatars and Bashkirs sometimes even affected the Turkut tribe, the ally the empire wanted to fight for, so it was effective to delineate the border as soon as possible, but the grassland people never had a border, only the sphere of influence. After several consultations with the representative of the Turkut, Chelingduan Duobu, the son of Ayuqi Khan, it was finally determined that the Cossack cavalry could not cross the Ural River to conduct military operations, and could not attack the Turkut tribe, that's all.

However, there are Turkuts and Cossacks living on both sides of the Urals, so the Ural River cannot be used as a border.

Li Junwei was unwilling to stay around the Ural River for too long. It was too dangerous. God knew if anyone would shoot him if he didn't like him. The night before he was about to leave, Shahni and Grigori came to Li Junwei's blue tent.

"Your Highness, I'm very presumptuous. Are you preparing for a war against the Tsar?" Shahni asked timidly.

But Li Junwei answered sincerely: "Yes, Shahni. I know that fighting with the Tsar will fight against the Cossacks and fighting with the Slavs. It is always difficult for people to swing their swords to those who speak the same language and flow with the same blood, right? But war is inevitable. Even if I don't start a war with the Tsar, do you think the Tsar will sit by and watch us occupy this grassland? This grassland can belong to anyone, but it cannot belong to the empire. A powerful country like the Ottomans can only stop a greater war."

"Do we Cossacks also participate?" Shahni asked another question.

Li Junwei shook his head: "Of course, we need a guide. There must be Cossacks in the army. Even if it is not your Cossacks, there will be other Cossacks. As for you and Grigori, I don't want to force you. Your entire army will only be four or five thousand. In the future war, it will not occupy the ability to change balance, so if you don't want to participate, I can send you to other directions."

"Is your goal to conquer Russia?" Grigori asked.

"I think, but I don't have this strength. Maybe my descendants have this plan, but it makes no sense to me. When I was young, my father said, don't try to conquer a great country with civilization, national concepts and extreme religions. I think Russia belongs to what my father said, mainly Slavic, has hundreds of years of civilization, believes in Orthodoxism, and has a population of more than 6 million." Li Junwei shook his head and said.

But for Shahni and the others, this is very important. If Li Junwei aims to conquer Russia, no matter whether he can do it or not, the Cossacks must do their best to participate in the war. However, if Li Junwei's goal is not to conquer, the Cossacks can participate with reservations.

Li Junwei smiled and said to the two generals: "Actually, you are very conflicted, right? You both want to stay in this land and attract more Cossacks, but you don't want to start a war against people of the same race and belief."

Seeing that Li Junwei told their thoughts in his heart, the two of them were no longer shy and admitted directly. Li Junwei understood their thoughts very well. People were like this. When they were extremely poor, they could start a war against everyone for survival and money. However, when they gained a certain status, there would be more investigations, politically, faith and psychologically. The Cossacks were not not fighting Cossacks. On the contrary, they often fought intra-combat, but there was never a war between Cossacks. Most of the struggles between Cossacks broke out in wars between countries.

But Shahni and Grigori knew that the general trend was uncontrollable. The Cossacks could only go with the flow, either joining the empire or surrendering to the Tsar, becoming a lackey of the Ottoman Sultan, or becoming a serf of the Poles and a slave to the Tatars. For hundreds of years, the Cossacks have grown stronger, but the Cossacks have long been no longer a Cossack. You should know that the three words Cossacks are fighting for freedom, and there is no truly free Cossack on this grass.

Looking at Shahni and Grigori's sad and complicated expressions, Li Junwei shook his head slightly: "Okay, okay, Shahni, I am the most shameful person, and you have helped me. In this way, I will give you a clear path. Although it cannot solve the current dilemma, one day in the future, Cossacks will find a balanced survival mode between Russia and the Empire."

"Really, Your Highness?"

Li Junwei shrugged and opened the map. The light blue area inside represents the vast Caspian Sea. Li Junwei said: "Although the Cossacks are not good at sailing, the Caspian Sea is not a sea, it is just a big lake. You can use a boat to enter the Caspian Sea from the Ural River, cross the sea to the west of the Caspian Sea, and to the North Caucasus region.

As far as I know, there are also Cossacks there, called Glebian Cossacks. There are not many people, but they are also a local force. The North Caucasus region has fertile land and wide grasslands, which is no less than the land under your feet. If you want to avoid the long-term war between the Empire and the Tsar in the future, and want to serve in the Empire and enjoy wealth forever, then go to explore the North Caucasus for the Empire. Except for the Cossacks, all of them are the people of the Tianfang Cult, Tatars, Chechens, Georgians, etc. You have no psychological, faith or national burden to deal with them."

Shahni saw the map, nodded slightly, and asked, "Will the Empire open up this area in the future?"

Li Junwei said: "I can tell you that it's certain. I may not do it this time, but the latecomers will definitely do it. This makes the empire more moved than conquering Russia. You Cossacks are not sailing nations, and you don't know the importance of the Black Sea estuary to a country. If the Tsar wants one, the empire will also want one, but the Black Sea is now the Ottomans' inland sea.

Moreover, the Caucasus is the territory between Persia and the Ottomans. If you have the North Caucasus, you will have a bridgehead to intervene in West Asia. The Empire will launch a war there sooner or later, and you will not lose money when you go there."

"So when will we go?" Grigori asked.

Li Junwei smiled: "Whatever you guys, if you have a boat, you can go now."

"No, the villain means......" Grigori is a little confused, but Shahni said: "Grigori, you don't need to ask, I already understand what Your Highness means."

Shahni Bigrigori knew that the North Caucasus was the sphere of influence of the Crimean Tatars, that is, the Ottoman sphere of influence. Now Li Junwei's strategy is to unite the Ottoman to defeat the Russians and seize more land, so it is impossible to openly explore the North Caucasus region. However, Li Junwei also mentioned that obtaining a Black Sea estuary was the strategic goal of the empire, but that was unacceptable to the Ottomans. Perhaps one day, the empire united Russia to launch a war against the Ottomans.

And fighting against opponents like Ottomans and Persia is not something the Cossacks would refuse. Survival, nation, belief or hatred. All countries of the Tianfang Sect are the best enemies of the Cossacks. The Cossacks are also happy with a powerful country like the Empire.

But Shahni and Grigori could not understand the strategic significance of a Black Sea estuary to the empire. Rather than saying that the Black Sea estuary is open to Europe, the Black Sea leads to the Mediterranean and then to Europe. Participating in Mediterranean trade has always been the greatest wish of the imperial merchants. When such an estuary is obtained, the empire will have no resistance to expand the direction of the mainland. At least there will be no resistance in the country.

More than two hundred years ago, the Ottoman Sultan and Muhammad II captured Byzantium, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, and used this magnificent city as the new capital of the Ottomans. He personally chose a high ground to curb the strait as his palace. The Sultan's palace extended from this commanding height to the Strait of Bosphorus. In the following hundreds of years, successive Sultans carried out reconstruction and expansion, but one thing was eternal, that is, entering the palace had to pass through a gate of the Sultan, also known as the gate of the emperor.

When Hei Mustafa arrived at the palace gate, the guards looked at him with a strange look. Mustafa keenly captured this point and felt a slight difference. In the past, the imperial guards looked at him with admiration, pleasing and fear, but today, there was more fun. Is there any change?

But unlike the others who needed to go in and out of here, Mustafa still entered it smoothly. The black eunuch around Sultan took him through the marble corridor, passed the second courtyard where the guards were stationed and gathered too many horses, and entered the inner palace where the Sultan lived through the gate of the auspicious omen. This beautiful garden is the Sultan's paradise, full of beauties, a treasury full of treasures, and a library that has not been visited for a long time.

Mustafa walked into the dome conference room, which was where the Viziers wanted the Sultan to report state affairs. There were four people sitting inside. Mustafa habitually walked to the front and sat on the main chair. He knew that the Sultan would not appear. The conference room had two floors, surrounded by cubicles, totaling sixteen. The Sultan appeared in a certain compartment from time to time, attending the state meeting, but never interrupted. After the meeting, the Great Vizier would summarize the opinions of the group of Vizier and report to the Sultan.

Mustafa sat down and was about to preside over the meeting when he suddenly realized something was wrong, because the Vizier, who was sitting on his left, had changed. He was no longer his confidant, but a person he had not seen for a long time, his brother-in-law, Copru Lufaz.

"Fazo, why are you here?" Mustafa asked in surprise, and said, "This is a State Council, only Vizier can attend. Where is Ibrahima?"

"Fazo will replace the lies-filled donkey Ibrahi from today." A voice sounded from the compartment behind Mustafa's butt, but when the sentence was finished, the voice was already coming from the compartment on the left, and the footsteps still did not stop. Mustafa didn't know where the Sultan had gone now.

Fazo smiled: "Yesterday, His Majesty asked Ibrahim what about the Cossacks on the Dnepr? Ibrahim said, humble and obedient, he deceived His Majesty, Great Vizier, you know that."

"It must be that damn letter!" Mustafa thought viciously in his heart.

Fazo said again: "Your Majesty said that he would reconsider the alliance proposals made by the brothers of the Peach Blossom Stone."

"Yes, it is to be reconsidered and measured. His Majesty's decision was wise. The last time we faced that messenger, we did not express any decision because the great Sultan needed to learn more about the East, so I have been sending people to Crimea, Suez and Kazakhstan to re-understand the new player on the grassland for the past few months.

My suggestion is to form an alliance with them. Although they are pagans, they can help us defeat Christian pagans!" Mustafa sorted out his mood and clearly expressed his meaning.

He made this decision sincerely. First, the 20,000 gold coins from Dukat sent by Li Junwei touched his heart. Secondly, the Sultan had to reconsider, which meant that the war would continue, because there was no victory in two years. The Sultan had no thoughts about victory, but was worried about failure, so he never wanted to continue.
Chapter completed!