The climate of the Southern Russian grassland has already had several heavy snowfalls.

Because of the delay in Istanbul for too long, the northern part of the Black Sea was frozen. Li Qing and her group of ships stopped helplessly after arriving in Burgas. After a brief discussion, they sold all the specialties such as olive oil, seedless raisins, wine, etc. on the ship as fast as possible, and then bought some water and horses. Through connections, they hired dozens of Bulgarians to serve as guards, and then headed towards the port of Kajibey.

Walking through the Rumili region of the Ottoman Empire (including the European part of Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, it is the essence of the Ottoman territory), the feeling of the servant country Moldavia is not very beautiful to be honest. Although they hired dozens of smart and capable Bulgarian riders, and although they used many scene relationships along the way, this still cannot be called a pleasant trip. The difficult road, the scarce supplies, and the bad security situation (especially the very turbulent Moldavia recently), all threatening the safety of everyone.

Especially for older people like Li Qing, he really regretted his death. He kept dissuading him in Burgas and insisted on taking the land. At that time, he wanted to arrive at the capital of the Crimean Khanate in winter and finalized some business details with the new Sairim Grey Khan. However, now it seems that he underestimated the difficulties and difficulties along the way and overestimated his tolerance for the harsh environment. Therefore, he now feels that he is simply looking for trouble, and it is better to stay in Burgas for the winter.

But now that things have come to this point, it is useless to regret it anymore. Li Qing had to cheer up and continue to move forward bravely in the wind and snow with everyone, heading towards his first destination, Kajibey. Fortunately, Li is a noble person and everyone takes care of him along the way. Therefore, when he arrived at Kajibey at the end of January (1672), although he had a bad face, his body was still healthy and his luck was pretty good.

The port of Kajibey is a small port city, which is already located on the edge of the Crimean Khanate. Further south is the territory of the Grand Duke of Moldavia. Although the Grand Khan of Crimean and Grand Duke of Moldavia are both ministers of the Ottoman Sultan, they are still two different countries after all, and conflicts in the border areas are also indispensable. Therefore, the security situation here is not very good, except for the cities guarded by heavy troops.

The city of Kajibey is not very large, about 10,000, mainly Tatars, and there are also a large number of Turks, Moldavians, Wallachians, Ukrainians, and Venetians. However, if you count the serfs in many manors in the suburbs, then the ethnic composition will be complicated, because even their masters (Tartar feudal lords) are not very clear about where the slaves in their manors come from.

"To be fair, from the time when I converted to Islam, Bekhan, the Khan of Crimeans were quite tolerant of Christians. They allowed us, of course, to include what I hate, the despicable Honas, who were in their respective jurisdictions, to build churches and hold religious activities, just as their successive Khans were tolerant of Christian residents (the few original slaves who were freed generally made military achievements in war)." Alberto Morosini, who had been officially appointed by the Consul's Palace as the supreme leader of the Kajibey Trading Station, stood on the top floor of the building named St. Mark's Cathedral, looking at the stars and lights in the distant city, and said: "Although the Sharia law replaced the Genghis Khan Code, it was a country established by the grassland people, and the emphasis on religion was always not as good as that of their suzerain kingdom."

The Venetian settlement area is located on a piece of land near the sea of ​​the suburbs. It looks like a thousand people, and it is quite large in scale. About two hundred of them are soldiers, responsible for the safety of the entire "Venice City". Their main targets were horse bandits wandering on the grasslands, and the Muslim conservative forces who were hostile to them. This is not a joke. Zanibe, the son of Bekhan, clashed with the Genas in the city of Cafa. He led a large army to siege the city of Cafa twice, and both were stubbornly repelled by the Genas who were siege by Cafa. At the same time, the coastline was blocked by the Italian fleet. The Mongols were forced to compromise and continued to agree to the Genas in the re-establishment of colonies and commercial stations in the area where the Don River was driven away.

The Venetian strongholds in Kajibey were similar to those in the Genoa-Asian city of Kafa, both located near the estuary of the Genoa-Asian river with convenient sea transportation. The hamlets were also relatively strong, and there were also a certain number of guards. However, Alberto Kajibey also knew that it was not three hundred years ago. Not to mention how big diplomatic disputes would arise if the country's fleet entered the Black Sea. Just talking about the so-called "modernization reform" of the Crimean Khan * team, which had been carrying out many years of so-called "modernization reform", was much stronger than the Golden Hordes of the time. At least, they had many cannons bought from the East Coast people, and it should not be a big problem to bombard the Venetian strongholds. This is actually the main reason why Grey Khan did not care about the Venetians and the Genoa-Asians repairing the merchant station like a fortress.

Of course, the firmly repaired commercial stations does not mean that the Italians are going to cause trouble. On the contrary, they are probably the group that most hopes to live with the Tatars. The Crimean Khanate has the food they need for survival, but they may not necessarily need the goods they transported. Therefore, once the conflict gradually arises and the grain trade is cut off, the establishment of these commercial stations will be less meaningless, and there is no need to continue to stick to it. Just like the Cretan War, if the Venetians could have thought that the Ottoman Empire had "persisted" for 24 years, then they might have ceded the territory and made peace at the beginning, and would not have spent huge manpower and material resources to fight such a meaningless war.

"We must guide the Crimean Khanate to adhere to this tolerant style. I heard that the religious power of their suzerain, the Ottoman Empire, has increased significantly in recent years, and the social status and influence of the Urimas have increased day by day. This is a very unfortunate thing for pagans, including us and the Christian residents in the country. They are discriminated against when entering the country and silence suppression of business. All this is really bad. I have experienced it when I was in Istanbul." Li Qing held a cup of coffee in her hand and said while stirring gently.

"It would be great if you were a Catholic, Mr. Envoy, it was really pleasant to talk to you." Alberto Morosini turned around and stared at Li Qing and sighed softly, "But it doesn't matter, we are all rational merchants. I believe in the Lord, you believe in the Heavenly Lord, but we have not tried to attack each other because of different religious beliefs. That's enough. Well, let's talk about something else. Recently, many Armenian or Jewish merchants who were hosted by the Ottoman nobles came to the Black Sea and began to sell cloth here vigorously, most of which were of various colors of wool, and a small part were silk and cotton. Your country has fixed trading stations in the port of Haji (Sevastopol). You must have heard of this a long time ago?"

The activity of Armenian or Jewish merchants Morosini mentioned began three or four years ago. These were obviously white gloves from the Istanbul upstarts who came to power after the palace coup, mainly engaged in various British textiles, such as woolen velvet produced in the Siledin area, cotton cloth from Manchester, etc., and gradually opened up sales in places that could not be covered by the East Coast of the Black Sea.

To be honest, the East Coast people did not pay much attention to them at first because they felt that the quality of these British goods was not as good as that of the East Coast, but the price was not cheap, so there should be no market. However, they mainly refer to the local diplomacy, business and intelligence, Gao Wengang, the highest person in charge of local diplomacy, business and intelligence, finally underestimated the insatiable desire of Istanbul's upstarts for wealth. With the strong support of these big names, these British goods were distributed in the Rumili area at an astonishing speed, and then gradually spread to the Crimean Khanate, a traditional market for East Coast textiles.

After learning about the situation, Gao Wengang immediately organized a man to conduct an investigation. The results of the investigation were mixed. What was happy is that the quality of these British textiles has improved compared to the past, but they are still not as good as the same products as those of East Coast people; what was worried was that the price advantage of East Coast textiles has shrunk significantly, which seems to be a concentrated reflection of the progress accumulated by the British in textile technology over the years.

By the way, it has been some years since the steam engines flowed into Europe. The only ones who can independently build a steam engine are Britain, the Netherlands, France, Portugal, and Spain, although they are close to the water, they are really not able to support the walls. Especially the Almeida family in Portugal, who first invested in research and development, and thus far, they can only produce a four-dimensional image with extremely low reliability. So many factory owners in the country refuse to use this kind of thing and do not admit that it is a qualified steam engine, which is also drunk.

Now that we have really begun to use the steam engine, a landmark power machine, which is really "large-scale" (this large-scale is actually relatively) on the application of steam engines. In fact, it is just England and Sweden. The latter was introduced by Dutch merchants, mainly used in copper ore and iron ore drainage. Among them, the British used it in a wide and in-depth manner.

Gao Wengang had vaguely heard that the owners of Newcastle's coal mines purchased some steam engines for water pumping. Later, because of the good results, it expanded to Wales' coal mines and lead mines, which made the use of steam engines in the UK more than forty units, and almost formed a trend, attracting more capital and technical personnel to invest in it. Research on how to produce more efficient steam engines, in fact, British investors should not have invested in something uncertain so enthusiastically. However, the lighthouse on the east coast was so bright that everyone knew that steam engines were beneficial, so it was not surprising to devote themselves to research. With the industrial level of Britain leading other European countries at that time, it was not surprising to improve steam engines that were more advanced than other countries.

At present, it is rumored that some factories produced by steam engines have begun to appear in textile industrial areas such as West Laiding and Manchester, which is a big breakthrough. These factories originally used river water as the main source of power for textile machinery, but in the dry season, the water level of many rivers dropped, the flow rate slowed down, and the textile machinery could not be driven. Therefore, some factory owners who were eager to increase production turned their attention to the steam engine and finally achieved success.

When the steam engine succeeded in the mining and textile industries at the same time, the "advanced experience" of the East Coast people was placed in front of it. England had no doubt whether to vigorously promote steam power. After using steam power to improve the utilization rate of equipment during the dry winter and spring, the English's woolen, cotton and linen not only increased their output, but also their costs have dropped a lot. In addition, the accumulated progress in textile technology over the years, the cost of every piece of cloth produced by the British is about half of the time it used to be, with great efficiency and profits also increased!

Although Gao Wengang is not particularly worried that the British would defeat East Coast textiles in the Black Sea by using steam power, it is indeed a matter of vigilance for the British to introduce steam engines into the textile industry. Because it means that the steam engine, which has always given people the impression of being stupid and black, has now got rid of the label of pumping (mines, dock drainage) and can be used in more industries. I believe that in the future, with the continuous improvement of market demand, it will not be too far for England to use steam power on a large scale.

"It is not the first time for British textiles to penetrate into the Black Sea region, nor will it be the last time. The Levant (the British company that mainly deals in Ottoman trade) has very strong strength, and shareholders are also well-known figures in London. When our goods had not yet entered the Black Sea, I remember that the cloth market here has been a paradise for South Netherlands and English textiles for many years, until our goods squeezed over most of the market." Li Qing took a sip of coffee and said comfortably: "Now the English are back, their costs seem to be lower, their quality seems to have improved, and the relationship between the upper level is even more outstanding, which surprised us a little, but so what? The advantages of our goods are unquestionable. As time goes by, English goods will sooner or later be driven out by us as we did in the past."

What is different from what he said is that Li Qing was a little gloomy at this time. He was not worried that some of the market was seized by British textiles, which was not worth it. What he really worried about was that steam power gradually began to be popularized in the UK, although it was slow, but the trend was extremely firm. The latter seemed to be more worthy of the East Coast people's vigilance.
Chapter completed!