April 5, 1686, at Harji Port, light rain.

In a primary school in the suburbs, a group of students are taking physical education classes. There are not many students, only more than ten, and they are generally between 10 and 12 years old. They are working hard to practice subjects such as long jump to improve physical fitness.

Strictly speaking, this basic education institution called Haji Primary School is the first (and perhaps the only) modern complete primary school in the Black Sea region, which is completely different from the Mengtong education institution spontaneously established by the Ottomans and other countries. Haji Primary School currently has more than ten faculty and staff, with nearly a hundred students. The school has five grades, from first to fifth grade, with only one class in each grade, with more than ten students in each class. Most of them are children of the East Coast nationals who live in Haji Port. At the same time, they also admire (or are curious) the East Coast school education system and specially come to learn from the Crimean Khanate.

The textbooks and teaching aids used by Haji Wan Primary School are shipped from local sources, and most of the teachers are hired from local high salaries, which is very difficult. However, in order not to make people blame the people of the east coast of Haji Port, which has become increasingly popular, the state-owned South China Sea Transportation Company responsible for operating the entire port city can only make Haji merchant station make a fixed proportion of profit every year to support the construction and daily maintenance of Haji Wan Primary School.

Speaking of this, we have to mention that with the continuous expansion of Black Sea trade and the continuous heating of special relations between the East Coast and the Crimean Khanate, the area of ​​Haji Port, currently controlled by the East Coast people, is becoming larger and larger, with a total area of ​​more than 1,500 square kilometers, living with two or three thousand East Coast merchants and civilians. At the same time, there are more Tatars, Poles and Ukrainians.

Haji Port has developed from a wild land to today, and it can no longer be referred to as a port or commercial station. It is obvious that now it is a city, a special city with government agencies, commercial institutions, religious institutions, schools, hospitals, workshops and military camps. Its status must be clarified.

To this end, a few months ago, Gao Gang, the plenipotentiary of the East Coast to Europe, the Ambassador to Istanbul, Malati, personally negotiated with the Crimean Khanate, and clarified the status of the Haji Port. The Crimean Khan is also easy to speak nonsense. The situation is tense now, so how can it be difficult to speak? In the past, they only verbally agreed to rent these wastelands to the East Coast people, but the specific boundaries are a bit blurry, and the deadline has never been discussed, which seems very irregular. Therefore, after careful consideration, he also agreed to sign a formal agreement between the two sides to the East Coast Republic to lease Haji Port and some surrounding land to the East Coast Republic in exchange for some other interests.

Malati was very interested in these things and immediately sent the Clippers to Cadiz to report to Gao Gang. Gao Gang immediately gave Malati greater autonomy and instructed him to seize the opportunity to negotiate with Grey Khan to clarify the status of Haji Port. In this way, with both sides' intentions, the matter of leasing Haji Port was soon negotiated: the East Coast Republic of China rented the city for 5,000 yuan per year for 100 years, but the rent required a lump sum and could be offset with various materials. The area of ​​the leased land was expanded compared to the past, including all the city of Sevastopol in later generations and some sparsely populated mountainous areas along the southern coast of the peninsula. The total area of ​​the total area exceeds 1,800 square kilometers, which is much larger than that of Hong Kong, which is quite good.

At present, the lease agreement of Haji Port has been sent to the local government for approval, which is not a big problem. Although the government is now in debt due to military investment, spending 500,000 yuan to obtain a reasonable and legal naval and army military base in the Black Sea. This transaction is still very cost-effective. When it can be approved as soon as possible and then handed over to Crimea.

The big head of the delivery (i.e., the rental fee) is undoubtedly military supplies! Given that the strongest Crimeans were their cavalry across the fourth field, the cavalry equipment provided by the East Coast people accounted for more than half of the "rental fee" provided by the people of the East Coast, including tens of thousands of pieces of high-quality sabers, lightweight cavalry breastplates, carburized cavalry spearheads, etc. In addition, there are some saddles, spurs, horseshoes, military kettles, and leather armor items. The cost is very low due to mass production. Although the Tatars could produce them themselves, they still ordered a considerable amount to stock up, because God knows how long the war with the Russians will last.

In addition to these materials, it was the turn to get infantry equipment. Although Grey Khan has attached more and more importance to the new army infantry in recent years, the most important force of this country is still coming and going like the wind, the fierce and light Tatar cavalry. At least at this stage, this is true. These equipment mainly consists of spare barrels, cannons, tents, engineer shovels, bayonets, military boots, medicine and other things, mainly supplying the 30,000 new army.

According to the payment plan agreed upon by both parties, the equipment of the 30,000 New Army was unloaded in the port of Murato (that is, Khlsong, a port city newly emerging due to the Black Sea trade), and handed over to the trusted officers of the Khan, and immediately distributed to the New Army's combat readiness warehouse. As for the cavalry equipment, it will be temporarily stored in the warehouse of the Haji Port and temporarily kept by the East Coast people. Once needed in the future, Grey Khan only needs to send someone to collect it with a check until all the supplies are collected.

From this we can see that the relationship between the Crimean Khanate and the East Coast Republic is too close now, so close that the Ottoman Empire may not have so much exchange with it. I wonder if Istanbul will be "jealous". However, no matter what, the purpose of the East Coast and the Ottoman is always the same, that is, to improve the strength of the Crimean Khanate as much as possible and to do everything possible to curb the Russian ambitions for Ukraine.

"It's been the past few years since Haji established a county?" Wu Yifei, the commander of Haji's security, sitting on the second floor of the teahouse, said to himself. He held the teacup and looked at the students who were taking physical education classes not far away in front of him with great interest. Because the students were very nutritious, both men and women looked very strong, which was delightful to see.

As for the teahouse he is now in, it is called the Wancun Teahouse. The owner is a descendant of the former Ming Dynasty famous scholar Lu Liuliang. The main body of the Lu family is currently assisting the King of Lu in Taizhou, but some tribes are not very optimistic about the King of Lu, and they travel across the ocean to the east coast to make a living. The descendant of the Lu family who opened a teahouse in Haji Port in front of him is quite magical, and can only be attributed to their favorite to travel around and experience different transformations.

There is a carved couplet hanging in front of the teahouse in the evening village. It is the couplet that "Although the breeze is so fine that it can't blow me, the bright moon shines on others" that caused inquisition in the history of the Qing Dynasty. However, in the place where Haji is not shining, let alone this couplet, if you hang a poem that scolds the 18th generation ancestors of Aisinjueluo family, who cares about you!

Of course, the Lu family not only opened teahouses in Haji Port. In fact, although their family only has more than ten people, they also hired people to run some business transactions. At the same time, they also invested privately in the city to run a primary school. Compulsory education for children of appropriate age in China is also very awesome.

Wu Yifei once sent a license to this school and knew that there were about twenty students here, and the teaching content was not much different from ancient China. It was always enlightenment books such as "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Characters", which made people amazed. If you consider that most of the people who came to study were "deer-headed and rat-headed" who were greedy for cheap (no tuition fees) and who became a local official, it would make Wu Yifei laugh and cry.

However, the Lu Primary School objectively is also helping the government assimilation work. The students taught are not to say anything else, but at least they can read the word. That's fine, at least they can do a lot of work, which is also a contribution. Besides, the population of Haji Port is increasing, with a population of almost 70,000 or 80,000 people, and their lives are stable. In the future, there will only be more and more children of school age each year, but there are only three primary schools (i.e., the government-run Haji Primary School and two primary schools funded by the Taoist Federation). This is definitely not enough. Now the Lu family is willing to assume certain social obligations, which is naturally undesirable for the government.

"Commander, Haji is afraid that he will have to move backwards to establish a county. The local big men now have empty wallets, so they have to send people to pay when they build a county. It's okay to send people, but they are just some cadres. They are all short of nothing these days, but they are not short of people willing to be officials, but it's difficult to give money. Haji Port is not small in size and has a large population. Once the county is established, a large amount of funds will be allocated every year to improve various infrastructure. Many people are afraid that this is not happy and they try every means to drag it back." A subordinate carefully lit a cigarette for Wu Yifei, and then said: "Instead of relying on those guys who fell into the eyes of money in the State Development Administration, we might as well rely on those old masters with money. They are rich and are more interested in the spread of faith. Haji's construction depends on them."

Wu Yifei and several of his subordinates are Buddhist believers, so they do not have as strong awe of Taoism as ordinary people. However, they also admit that Taoism has a stable status on the East Coast National Church, and the number of government grants and private donations it receives every year is scary, so they can spread faith in various places with great wealth, even the remote Diwu Island, Djibouti and Haji Port are no exception.

The Crimean Khanate is very friendly to the East Coast and gives the East Coast people a lot of privileges. For example, the East Coast people need to spend a lot of energy to negotiate the right of religious freedom when negotiating with Spain and the Kingdom of Portugal. For example, the East Coast merchants can participate in Taoist religious rituals when they are doing business in Spain or Portugal. This is not easy to do in Catholic countries. The Crimeans agree very generously without thinking. The reason for this is probably related to the fact that the country itself is not very strong. Although the descendants of these nomadic peoples now naturalize the Green Church, they have a lot of things that violate the precepts such as open drinking and rarely participate in religious activities. How pious can you expect them to be?

There are so many Taoist temples in Haji Port today, as many as seven or eight. The number of believers is even larger. Every year during the Christmas Day of the Three Qing Dynasties, the cigarettes ignited from the incense burners at the doors of each Taoist temple can make people feel that a fire is breaking out. In addition to the people of the East Coast, there are also many escaped Polish and Ukrainian slaves, and even Tatars grazing in the countryside who believe in Taoism and become believers of the Heavenly Venerable, although this has caused some dissatisfaction among the Green Sect’s Mullahs.

In short, Taoism has a very high status in Haji Port now, and the finances of various Taoist temples are also very abundant. Therefore, they naturally assume considerable social obligations, such as donating funds to support education, setting up hospitals, disaster relief, and persuading people to be kind. In short, it is an important stabilizer of society and is very popular among local officials.

"Hehe, it's this. Haji's county is probably going to be delayed for a few years, but the root of it is because he has no money." Wu Yifei took a few puffs of cigarettes and said with a smile: "By the way, third brother, our security team is now led by Portugal. Commander Mao Jun and Mao wrote a letter a while ago to ask me if there are any signs of a war in the Russians recently, and how do you think I should reply to him?"

"The news that the Russians are going to start a war is probably everyone knows? What else can I say? I will directly show to Commander Mao that this battle is inevitable. If you don't fight this year, you will have to fight next year. The Russians are going crazy if they want to obtain a port in the warm water area. Now the mouth of the Dnieper River is in the hands of the Crimean Khanate, and the mouth of the Don River is in the hands of the Ottoman army. They tried their best to eat East Ukraine, but they didn't even have an inch of the coastline. How could they be willing to do this? This battle is almost a must-fight, and the current actions of the Russians also indicate that they are preparing for war. What else can I say? Hurry up and send troops to protect the overseas interests of our country."

In fact, as Wu Yifei and the others talked about at the moment. The Russians are now desperately trying to obtain an outlet in the Black Sea area, but the first thing they have to face is the alliance between the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire. The Russians now own half of Ukraine, but all of them are inland areas. The coastal areas are either controlled by the Crimean Khanate or controlled by the Ottoman Empire garrisons, such as the Azov Fortress at the mouth of the Don River. As for the Caucasus region, I’m sorry, the locals basically surrendered to the Ottoman Empire, which belongs to its peripheral territory and servant forces. If you want to obtain the coastline in the Caucasus region, you also have to ask whether the Ottomans agree or not.

In short, if the Russians want to make a breakthrough in the Black Sea and Azov areas in the south, they cannot avoid the Ottoman Empire, just as they want to obtain the sea port in the West and cannot avoid Sweden. So you can see how the Russian Empire was ecstatic after the Ottoman Empire fell into a tough battle with the Austrians and began to prepare for the southward Black Sea. This is exactly what Wu Yifei and others are worried about, and once the Russian army heads south, how can the interests of the people on the east coast be guaranteed.
Chapter completed!