The Crescent of the Sultan

The first question is, regarding the imperial official system, which of the following countries do you think is closest to it?

A.Britain B.France C.Prussia D.Spain

For the second question, please choose the one suitable for the empire among the following types of taxes.

Question 21: Please comment in detail on the official promotion system of the empire. Write a short paper of about 800 words on this topic. It must be focused, clear and logical.

Question 22: Please comment on Poland’s parliamentary system and use it to analyze the reasons for Poland’s decline.

Question 23: Please analyze the current situation in Poland and point out a way out.

Question 24: Please analyze the "Imperial Edict" in January, point out the benefits of this reform to the empire, and explain its superiority.

Looking at the paper in hand, Selim showed a satisfied smile. If you think Emperor Sai has mixed this stuff with personal goods, then there must be some.

After all, there is no one who praises Emperor Sai on paper. Why did Emperor Sai recruit him? He is so idle that he can give himself some strength to revive the empire, right?

Of course, except for question 24, which is the final question common to all major exam papers, the rest of the questions change with different exams.

The paper that Emperor Sai had in hand was a required paper for all candidates who wanted to serve in the central government. It was also the paper that Leo, who was writing furiously in the examination room, was writing.

In the examination room, Leo had finished solving the previous multiple-choice questions and began to look at the big questions at the back. Although the first three questions and the secret paper did not hit the mark, there were similarities in the core of his thinking.

As for the last question, Leo was almost certain that he could solve it because he had done similar questions countless times on the secret paper.

The same question also appeared on Mihail's test paper. Mihail, who couldn't understand what was being asked in the entire test paper, decisively chose to sleep.

After all, he considers himself a Roman descendant and has no regard for the Ottoman language, so he cannot read the paper.

After going through the first round of required papers, what awaited Leo was the second volume - the Quran.

This was also set up by Selim. He had already figured out that there was no possibility of success in a universal empire.

The Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Mughal Empire, including a certain dynasty that was ruling the East at this time.

They have all tried to construct a new national identity to replace the original ethnic groups, but they have failed.

The deep-seated reason for their failure is that the success of nation-building means the demise of the nation that constitutes the nation.

Taking the Ottoman Empire as an example, the establishment of Ottomanism meant that Turkish Turks and Arabs, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Serbs had to give up their own cultural history and national identity.

It is better to replace the historical memory of all peoples with the establishment of the Ottomans in 1299, rather than the Aegean civilization of 2000 BC.

After all, in the so-called national narrative, the history of various ethnic groups before the establishment of the country is unimportant.

If possible, Ottomanism would do its best to discredit the ancient Greek, Roman, and Armenian civilizations, describing them as the debauched and immoral city of Sodom.

In other words, although Greece, ancient Rome, and Armenia had glorious civilizations, they had internal insurmountable flaws, which were eventually filled by the Turks.

In short, the Turkish conquest was inevitable and progressive.

But this narrative has an inevitable flaw. The main reason is that if there were more advanced conquerors than Turkey, wouldn't the Greeks and Armenians be able to abandon the Ottoman Empire and embrace the new conquerors?

They were all foreign conquerors anyway, couldn't the Greeks choose a better one for themselves?

What's more important is that Ottomanism is just lip service. In reality, the sultans required the Greeks to fulfill their obligations as an Ottoman nation, but also refused to grant them power. They did not even abolish religious taxes and discriminatory policies.

It's not as good as the previous medieval era, when Greeks just paid money and didn't have to conscript soldiers.

And this is also a characteristic of many universal empires, which always harm the interests of some peoples to enrich others.

From the beginning, Yugoslavia relied on harming the interests of the Serbs to win over other ethnic groups. The Soviet Union even treated the Russians as cows, constantly sucking blood and supplying them to Central Asia and the Caucasus.

In addition, a multi-ethnic country often means that there are more diverse national narratives, with heroes on the other side and enemies on mine. Many of the Greeks' national heroes are famous for their resistance to the Ottomans, as are Armenia and Bulgaria.

Under such circumstances, Selim forcibly used the Ottoman national hero to call on the Greeks to defend the Ottomans. What would the Greeks think?

It's like belittling Yue Fei while at the same time elevating the Jin Wushu of the Jin Kingdom, and calling on the Han people to defend the Jin Dynasty like Jin Wushu. Are you sure you're not schizophrenic?

The Qing nationalists in the Manchu Qing Dynasty used to like to brag about the Manchu general Hai Ling during the Qing-British War and call him a national hero. However, when this guy arrived in Zhenjiang, the British slaughtered all the Han people in Zhenjiang before they even saw him. .

During the war, they also tried their best to let the Han Green Camp die as cannon fodder, and even forced Han people to commit suicide.

In such a comparison, the British are almost like masters of kings.

The longer a nation has a long history and a stable inheritance, the harder it is to change its historical memory. Forcibly using administrative power and political correctness to push so-called nationalism will only be counterproductive.

For example, how old are the Greeks? Four thousand years or seven hundred years? How many years of history do the Han people have? Five thousand years or three hundred years?

Just a historical memory is like this, let alone the various ethnic differences in daily life.

In Selim's view, a national identity is like a tree, it must have a trunk and others can serve as branches.

But many so-called universal countries are often more like multiple trunks, which are just forcibly tied together with ropes.

The government may be able to use administrative means and the stick of political correctness to scare people, but it cannot change the reality.

No matter what kind of universal empire it is, it will eventually collapse, sooner or later.

Compared with Byzantium, countries like the Mughal Empire.

The situation faced by Selim was even more difficult. After all, the Ottoman Empire was a country with diverse ethnicities and religions, which could be called a country with two flowers.

Instead of forcibly creating a nondescript universal empire, Selim still agreed more with the methods of the old Indian immortal.

When the Greeks later became independent, they could use religion to forcibly form a restoration army. Why couldn't Selim combine Arabs, Egyptians, and Turks?

Now that he has integrated these Islamists, why can't he make more efforts to increase the coverage of Islam?

This is why he made the Quran compulsory in civil service examinations. The empire used to rely on blood taxes to preach in the Balkans, but because the Sultan looked at the bottom and thought everyone was just a cow, the efficiency was very low.

But this time, Selim’s choice was to brainwash everyone from top to bottom, and continue to use factories to drain the blood of Orthodox Christians in the Balkans, while at the same time moving Muslims to fill their seats.

This was the solution devised by King Sai the Great for the Ottoman Empire after abandoning the illusion of a universal empire.

At this time, Muslims in the Ottoman Empire were close to 60%. The task of Emperor Said in terms of religion and ethnicity was to increase the proportion of Muslims to more than 70%, while strengthening religious identity and weakening national identity.

If this is achieved, the Balkans will not be able to afford any waste.

Thanks to Yi Nian Hua for reading Wei Lin Tian Beggar, Wuhe Xianxi, Dark Wolf Lone King, Little John Kegan and several book friends and readers for their monthly votes, as well as the name of the first reader. I may have typed it wrong, but I I really can't figure out the last few words.