Fox of France

Indeed, the Great Fire of London could not have been more terrible than this. Because although the Great Fire of London in 1666 may have been larger in terms of fire area, the Great Fire of London started from a single point of fire. Although the fire could not be controlled, the speed of expansion was not fast, so most people still had time to escape from the fire. Although the entire Great Fire of London burned tens of thousands of buildings, it is said that only five people were burned to death. (Personally, I am very skeptical about this number, and the statistical power of that era is not trustworthy. However, it should be certain that there are not a large number of deaths)

But the fire set by the French is different. The main consideration of the bombardment set in the initial bombardment is how to quickly block the escape route, and the subsequent bombardment is dedicated to burning the fire as quickly as possible. . Under such circumstances, naturally more people were burned to death. There are still many people who are close to the coast who can jump into the sea to escape. Although they will be beaten by the Turks who colluded with heretics, there is still a chance of survival. Besides, even being shot to death is better than being burned to death.

As for those who didn't have time to jump into the sea, there was naturally only a dead end in such a fire. Therefore, although the Tripoli fire was smaller than the London fire, it caused tens of thousands of casualties. Because the fire in Tripoli also burned down the municipal institutions, all kinds of materials were burned. Therefore, the exact number of people in Tripoli at that time became a confusing account, and no one could tell.

Therefore, as to how many people died in the fire, there are only various guesses, but among the various guesses, the least number is more than 10,000.

After the fire, Tripoli's defenses completely collapsed. It's just that the fire is still burning, so the Turks can't land immediately. It took a whole day and a night for the fire to die down, and the Turks waited two hours before they brought some soldiers ashore in small boats.

These soldiers never encountered any resistance anymore, and they quickly occupied several commanding heights in the city along the road full of ashes. After that, more Turkish soldiers boarded the port. They reorganized their team, and under the command of a general, they marched towards Tripoli Pasha's palace.

The Pasha's palace in Tripoli was relatively far from the port area, so it was not affected by the fire. But after the fire at the port, Yusuf Pasha looked at the fire at the port and knew that most of his army was destroyed in the fire, and his power would never be able to compete with the invading Turks and French. up.

Yusuf Pasha was also a person who could afford to let things go. Seeing that nothing could be done, he immediately gathered his guards and brought the belongings he could carry with him, and then set himself on fire. After burning the palace, he took the remaining troops and headed to Tunisia.

Because the port was still in a mess and various dock facilities were burned down, the Turks' fleet could not dock at the port, but could only use small boats to send a group of people ashore, occupying the ruins.

However, Tayip Pasha didn't really care about this level of damage - anyway, according to the agreement between the two parties, this port was originally to be handed over to the French, and it was burned as soon as it was burned, so there was nothing to feel bad about.

Even Turkish warships can't dock, let alone French warships. However, the French also sent a group of soldiers ashore in small boats. These soldiers have two tasks, one is to cooperate with the Turks to control the nearby area as soon as possible. The other is to free the Christian slaves around here.

Tripoli is a nice place even if you don't consider the conditions of the port. The climate is mild and it is an oasis with quite good conditions. Therefore, there are many farms near the city. Many Christian slaves, as well as black slaves, worked on these farms.

Napoleon attached great importance to the emancipation of these slaves who believed in Christ, because rescuing these people could provide more legitimacy for this operation. Since the beginning of the domestic industrial revolution, the output of various commodities has grown steadily, and now the European market has more or less felt a lack of demand. In Joseph's view, it is urgent to open up a new commodity dumping market. Africa and the sick man of West Asia are the markets that the French have recently taken a fancy to.

Because he left in a hurry, Yusuf Pasha did not have much time to manage the affairs of the farms outside the city, and the local farm owners were unlikely to escape with Yousuf Pasha—after all, their property was in the here. And as far as they knew, it wasn't pagans who were calling now, but a team that also held the Xingyue banner and also believed in the true god. What's more, this team is still the team of leaders and patrons of the cult, so why do they have to run? At most, it is just a little bribe to those soldiers, and then they can pay taxes and live as before.

However, to their surprise, besides the soldiers who believed in the true God, there was suddenly a group of pagan soldiers in front of them. They were then told that their Christian slaves were now free. This also meant that those farmers lost their slaves, and slaves were also part of the property, even a very important part. Of course they are dissatisfied, of course they want to protest.

But those Turkish soldiers who believed in the true God like them stood firmly on the side of the heretics. They immediately drew their knives and threatened the devout farmers, declaring that they suspected that the farmers were all rebel accomplices, and They also suspected that rebels were in their house, so they wanted to enter their house and search it.

This kind of behavior is of course impossible in France, at least legally. Because entering someone's house to search or something, theoretically, a search warrant is required. (But in fact, when the law enforcement officers think that there is an urgent need to avoid the danger of evidence being destroyed, they can also search without a search warrant, and only need to add one after the fact.) But for the Turks, I don’t even need this formality. I think you are suspicious and I suspect that there is rebellious gold hidden in your home, so I can search you and confiscate the rebellious gold, and there is no need to issue a ticket.

So Turkish soldiers broke into the homes of these farmers and searched all their valuables on the grounds of "treasonous hidden wealth". Some ignorant farmers tried to resist, and then their heads were chopped off as proof of leadership, and their wives and children, if nothing else, would soon appear as commodities in the Istanbul market .

Of course, there are not many farmers who are strong enough to dare to resist Master Wang. So for the time being, they only lost slaves and gold coins. At least those things that couldn't be moved, such as land and houses, were still in their hands. However, there was even worse news waiting for them immediately: the Turkish officials also landed ashore soon.

As the saying goes, "thieves come like combing soldiers like grates, and officials come like shaving", one of the most important tasks for these officials who have landed is to get enough for the meritorious officials of this war to commend them. loyal land. Of course, this can also be said to be more crowning, that is, to track down the supporters and sympathizers of the rebellion and punish them.

Before going ashore, the officers had been told: "If the farmers have escaped, there is no doubt that they are open and undisguised accomplices of rebellion, and all their wealth-including land, houses and all Everything should be confiscated. If they are still in their farms, then you have to be more vigilant. Because it means that they are the hidden, hidden supporters of the rebellion. Of course, we are more concerned about such poisonous snakes. To be dealt with severely, they should be sent to prison and tried by a judge—of course, we will not wrong a good person, but we cannot let a traitor go..."

As a result, almost all the farmers near Tripoli, except those who had escaped or whose heads had been chopped off before, were arrested and sent to a temporary prison set up by the Turks. Then, the officials They began to try these cases at an astonishing speed, and then chopped off the heads of those farmers at the same speed as Robespierre's revolutionary court, and sold their wives and children to come with them. The slave trader named Eldor.

Now, the most valuable land in the entire outskirts of Tripoli has become a precious unclaimed land. How wonderful it would be. Relying on these precious lands, how much loyalty should Sultan Selim III be able to gain.

Of course, not all of these lands can be rewarded to the loyal subjects of Sultan Selim III, because part of the land will also be distributed to those Christian slaves as compensation for their being kidnapped here.

In fact, most of these Christian slaves are descendants of Christians who were actually robbed back then. In the last hundred years, Barbary pirates and pirates have rarely landed on the northern coast of the Mediterranean Sea (except France) as they did hundreds of years ago, and plundered the coastal inhabitants. Of course there were new Christian slaves, but most of them came from sea raids.

Those Christians who have recently been enslaved are actually quite few. Of course they can go back to Europe after getting a little compensation. But for most Christian slaves, the connection between them and Europe has been completely broken, and even, apart from believing in Catholicism, their other lifestyles and living habits are more like North African pagans .

So they can only stay in North Africa, and France also needs them to stay in North Africa, because they are natural supporters of France. In order for them to continue to live in North Africa, France must fight for them a piece of land sufficient to feed their whole family.