The Red Sea area was already a little hot in late May. After leaving the coast of Djibouti, the exploration fleet headed north along the Red Sea, and the waves were calm all the way.

On June 5, two ships arrived at a waters only dozens of nautical miles from the Port of Suez of the Ottoman Empire. At this time, four Ottoman naval ships flying star-and-moon flags surrounded. The four ships were not big in size, two of which were traditional small Arab schooners, and two cross-schooners that looked like European Garen ship style. The largest tonnage looked no more than two hundred tons, and the firearms on the ship were even poorer, with only a few 6-pound and 8-pound bronze cannons.

Compared with the standard displacement of the "Free Trade" battleship of 925 tons and the huge combat power of 66 all-steel artillery, these Ottoman naval ships are really weak. Even the "Galicia Flying Fish" used as transport ships are larger than their ships. However, Guo Zili and others dare not neglect. They did not come to fight the Ottoman navy, but on the contrary, they came to negotiate business with friendly sincerity.

Therefore, Guo Zili quickly sent his adjutant to drive towards the Ottoman warships with a white flag and took a small boat, and handed over the Hong Kong entry permit document transferred to them by the Holneysian family before departure, as well as the letter of the President of the Executive Committee of the East Coast Republic to the Ottoman Sultan.

The Ottomans obviously received a warning in advance. After Lieutenant Jiwen took a Turkish Tatan sailor to negotiate with them and handed over a considerable meeting gift, the Ottomans finally recognized the identity of the Navy Exploration Fleet of the East Coast Republic of China and officially accepted their application for entry.

In the afternoon of that day, the fleet was anchored in Suez Port. At this time, the Port of Suez Port was far less prosperous than the later canals. The scattered shore defense forts on the pier, the mixed civil and architectural buildings in groups of three or three, and the population that did not seem to be a large number of people reminded outsiders that this place is just a small town and a small port.

In addition to more than twenty Ottoman naval ships, there are only some fishing boats of local residents left in the port. From the critical perspective of the Navy sailors of the East Coast Republic, most of them are not qualified to go on the battle line to fight against enemy ships, and can only act as offshore patrol ships. Even if they encounter some powerful pirate ships, they are a bit difficult - of course, perhaps the Red Sea pirate ships are even worse.

Frankly speaking, although the Port of Suez was a military port of the Ottoman Empire at this time, its attention was far less than that of the ports along the Black Sea and the Aegean coast of the Ottoman Empire, and even ports such as Tripoli and Algiers in North Africa were more valued than the Port of Suez - because they faced the threat of pagan countries. Perhaps only when Sudan decided to start a war against the Persians would he think of him in the Gulf of Suez on the coast of the Red Sea.

In fact, in addition to pirates, the main combat targets of the Ottoman navy stationed in Suez Port were those heretic Persians who believed in Shiites. Of course, they were only subordinate to the Persians when fighting against the Persians. In the Indian Ocean, the Ottoman Empire had the more powerful naval base, Basra Port. Only when His Majesty the Sultan needed to send envoys to India, Abyssinia, Somalia and other places would they have the opportunity to go out to sea to declare the glory of the empire.

After Guo Zili arranged everything and told the officers of each position not to be careless, he brought some entourage and translator to land with the Ottoman naval officers and entered the small town of Suez. In the city, representatives of the Holnesian family and the special envoy of Pasha, Egypt, had been waiting here for nearly two months. They were eager to discuss with the representatives of the East Coast people who came to visit. Of course, the leader of the local Mamluk feudal lord was also interested in meeting the East Coast people.

Since the Turks defeated the once arrogant Mamluk army in the last century and ended their rule over Egypt, the Mamluk military group has not disappeared from Egypt's power pyramids. In fact, the Turks did not rule Egypt very strictly. Except for cities such as Cairo and Alexander, they did not directly rule other places. To be precise, for the vast Egyptian region, the Ottomans only care about slaves and taxes. The vast rural areas are still in the hands of the Mamluk feudal lords, but they have now changed their bosses - and have changed their loyalty to the Ottoman Turkish Sultan.

It can be seen that the Ottomans attached great importance to the visit of the Navy of the East Coast Republic, which can be seen from the dinner they arranged. Although Suez Port is just a small harbor that is not rich, the local owners still tried their best to prepare a sumptuous dinner: sea bream, grouper, tuna, mackerel and other seafood; grilled camel meat with honey, and roasted whole lamb stuffed with various dried fruits in their belly.

The fragrant dinner was so happy that the guests and guests enjoyed it. After the dinner was removed, the slaves brought some tea drinks from the East. At this time, it was usually time to officially start the negotiations.

With Anthony, the special envoy of Pasha, Egypt, present, the local Mamluk chiefs and naval officers had no room for interruption, only the representative of the Holnisian family - a young man from Armenia, Victor, who also came from Armenia, could occasionally say a few words.

Anthony, the special envoy of Pasha in Egypt, was a Greek who could speak fluent Spanish and French, so there was no linguistic barrier to the conversation between the two sides.

"A honored East Coast guests, after a period of frank conversation, I think we can get to the point." Anthony put down the teacup in his hand and spoke first: "Frankly speaking, you East Coast people performed very well in Smyrna in the second half of last year. The cotton, wool velvet and leather goods you brought have been in a large number of British goods, Dutch goods and Venetian goods that have flowed into our country in recent years. I think you will receive a large order soon. Of course, you and I understand that this is not the focus of our negotiation today. There is only one focus of our negotiation, that is, military cooperation, and to be more precise, we need a large amount of army and naval equipment."

"Wait, you mentioned naval equipment just now?" Guo Zili asked in confusion, "Please forgive me for taking the liberty. I have not been told in advance that your country needs our naval equipment."

"Now you know." Anthony emphasized his tone and said indisputably: "Naval equipment is also important. Not only the Egyptian Pasha, but even in Istanbul, there are many people silently paying attention to the negotiations between us. The Ottoman Empire needed a strong navy, and the basis of a strong navy was advanced warships. The East Coast people, listen to me, now the Spaniards, Venetians, Dutch and English have taken an unfriendly attitude towards us, and they forbidden any advanced ship-building technology to flow into the Islamic world. Although our heroic navy was not at a disadvantage when fighting the enemy in the Mediterranean,

Anyone who is not blind can see that the ships of the Ottoman Navy have gradually begun to have a considerable gap compared to those Western pagans. Our Navy Pasha (Kaptampasha) reported to His Majesty the Sultan that the ships departing from Algiers were completely at a disadvantage when they encountered British ships on the North Atlantic Ocean. In terms of wind and wave resistance, handling, speed, armor, firepower, etc., our ships were completely at a disadvantage. Therefore, we need more advanced warships! And this is also what Lord Pasha of the Navy! People in the East Coast, can you tell me now, can you meet our requirements?"

"Sorry, I'm not authorized to answer such a sensitive question." Guo Zili answered without hesitation, but he quickly asked again: "Is this an additional agreement? If we do not reach an agreement on the naval agreement, will it affect the agreement reached in our commercial aspects?"

"Of course not." Anthony said as a matter of course, then he blinked and looked at Guo Zili and said, "But I am sure this will affect our friendship, especially the view of the Pasha of Egypt and the Pasha of the Navy of the Pasha of your country will drop sharply, and perhaps this will cause some unpredictable things."

Guo Zili was speechless for a moment. The envoy's meaning was clear. Even if you, the East Coast people, have managed some upper-class figures of the empire and can squeeze goods into this supermarket with a population of more than 30 million, if the requirements of the navy and the Egyptian Governor were not met, things might still change. At least the route of Suez Port in Egypt would not be so smooth.

It's such a headache! Guo Zili was a little depressed, so he had to answer perfunctorily: "Okay, I will truthfully report this news to our government. Of course, from a private perspective, I think that the Ottoman Empire, as a regional power, had a good reason to own a warship commensurate with your status."

"Very good." Anthony grinned, "Hasan, in a few days you will follow the East Coast guests back to their country. If their government approves the naval agreement between us, you will live there and urge the construction of new warships. East Coast people, now we can fulfill the business agreement. On behalf of Lord Pasha, I promise to your government that the trade line in Suez will be open for at least one year."

"As for the order." Navy officer Hassan stood up and nodded to Envoy Anthony.

Guo Zili held his forehead and lamented secretly. According to later generations, "I feel a little bad all over my body" - this Ottoman is not a fuel-efficient lamp! (To be continued, please search for astronomy, novels are better, updated and faster!
Chapter completed!