Shaojie came to Tunisia City not to determine whether to provide assistance to Ali, but to determine whether there is still a need for continued support in Tunisia.

And the observations over the past few days made Shaojie think that he would continue to suffer from chaos. Indeed, if he was against his conscience and could report to the higher authorities, Tunisia was still an important force that threatened the rear of European colonists and was still worthy of the imperial investment in funds and material resources.

If he was willing to do this, he would definitely do it. After all, Tunisia did not openly cooperate with European colonists. As the general head of the Mediterranean affairs, he could completely deceive the above, but Shaojie thought he could not do this.

After several days of exploration, Shaojie has discovered that a Tunisian area has formed an interest group headed by Ali and compromised and made peace with European colonists. This interest group is no longer transferred by Ali's will. If Ali continues to compromise, they are willing to support it. If Ali chooses to confront it, these people will definitely resist Ali.

European colonists were also willing to reach a compromise with Tunisia's real power figures and could even provide bribes to them. In Tunisia, Shaojie saw merchants speaking English and French. Many of the industrial civilization equipment and machinery appeared on the streets were produced in Britain and France. Shaojie even believed that Tunisia was already a semi-colonial area of ​​European colonists.

According to the empire's overseas expansion experience, Ali or Ali's successors will choose independence and then sign various unequal treaties with the Europeans.

This is not something the Empire is willing to see, nor is it acceptable to the Empire. What the Empire needs is a Tunisia that is constantly fighting against European colonists, a knife that puts the other party's blood.

And one thing, Shaojie did not tell Ali, that is, he himself had a strong desire to leave Tunisia and seek a position in Pasha, Egypt.

The reason is very simple. Alibaba’s changes over the years are because of his negligence. If another person is changed, his political career will inevitably leave an eternal stain.

Ali was silent for a long time, but still couldn't make up his mind, because his current life was the richest and most comfortable life in most of his life. He really didn't want to give up, but he was even more unwilling to give up the support from the empire.

Ali knew very well why he could occupy this rich land, while the European colonists chose to make peace, largely because of the existence of the power of the empire. Moreover, the position of Pasha in Egypt had an unparalleled temptation to him.

"Come on, let's discuss the matter of Pasha in Egypt." Alis thought about it and said to Shaojie: "How do you plan to make me Pasha in Egypt."

"Do you know the situation in Egypt?" Shaojie asked on his own initiative.

Ali nodded slightly: "I know a little bit, but I may not know much more than you. After all, you came from Suez."

In the early days of European colonists' colonization of North Africa, the Dutch actually dominated because they had originally cooperated with Portugal to acquire a colony, and then Genoa joined the group. But in the middle, after the French intervened, they dominated the colonization of North Africa.

It was also the most lively time when Ali fought with European colonists, until the British dominated and formulated colonial policies.

This is because Britain and France have completely different understandings of colonization. France's colonization model is to change blood. If a certain place is colonized, it will eliminate or assimilate all the upper class as much as possible, and promote French and Catholicism locally, which will lead to local resistance very fierce and the cost of colonization is relatively high.

But there are also benefits, that is, the French colonies are more loyal to France, but this benefit is that the global independence movement emerged after decades or even hundreds of years later, and after decolonization, it was the beginning of clues.

The overseas colonization of Britain is more focused on strategies. Although it also promotes English and Protestantism, it is not mandatory. It also adopts a large-scale banishing policy to win over the upper class of the local indigenous people. Then as the rule time extends and deepens, the colonists' policies are tightened bit by bit, so that the indigenous people can completely surrender. The advantage of this is that the cost of colonization is relatively low, and the local resistance is low, but the disadvantage is that the control over the colonies is relatively small.

During the Spanish War of Succession of the Throne, Britain and France jointly launched overseas colonial activities. They carried out many and in-depth cooperation in overseas colonial expansion and overseas trade, but it was not without contradictions.

While competing for the American colonial market, Britain and France stood firmly together, put pressure on the Spanish government, and fought against the empire. In the Caribbean colonization, the two countries opened their colonies to each other and cooperated in concert.

In the western region of Africa, the two countries compete for the sphere of influence together. After confirming, they divide the colonies and do not interfere with each other and remain in peace.

Only in the North African colonies, although the two sides generally cooperated, they were constantly in a state of struggle. This was mainly because the colonization of North African regions chose the form of colonial companies in order to avoid direct confrontation with the Ottoman Empire at the beginning.

After the establishment of the League of Nations, the two countries felt that if they could not cooperate well, they could not confront the empire, so they negotiated on overseas colonization. The two sides secretly abandoned the Netherlands and directly divided the sphere of influence, that is, Tunisia was used as the center line, France opened westward, and mastered Algeria. The next goal was Morocco, a densely populated and rich resource-rich Morocco. But the problem was that there was an empire between Morocco Ceuta.

Britain took control of Libya and then headed east to seize the Egyptian province of the Ottoman Empire. The two sides agreed that when facing the empire, the two countries would cooperate, and when conducting decisive battles, the two countries' armies would cooperate.

It was after that that the work of dealing with Alibaba was entirely under the responsibility of Britain, which was good at using conspiracies, that Alibaba had the current situation.

After stabilizing Ali, Britain continued to invest in Libya, with the policy of pulling, beating, carrots and sticks, and successfully grasped the local area. It also established in-depth liaison with the powerful and wealthy people in Egypt. Although the British colonial army did not go deep into Egypt, British merchants and commodities had already competed with the empire in Egypt.

In order to counter the imperial pricing power on cotton, the Ottoman Empire secretly cooperated with Britain and France on Egyptian cotton, which was also an important reason for the fact that Britain had a de facto influence in Egypt.

Recently, Britain and France have reached a cooperation again, that is, to work together to explore eastward. The imperial intelligence agency has received news that the French colonial army entered Libya.

In fact, this is easy to understand. France's colonies in North Africa have already bordered the Portuguese colonies. As Portugal began to take a neutral route, no longer chose side stations between the empire and Europe. The result was that Portugal, France and Britain began to open up markets to each other, whether in colonies or local areas.

For example, if Portuguese red wine enters the UK, it can be exempted from tariffs, but in exchange for British textiles can enter the Portuguese mainland.

Although Portugal's colonies in Northwest Africa are not considered public colonies, it is already a sign that France and Britain gradually gained these markets. With good cooperation, France has no need to use force.

Moreover, France and Portugal are still in secret contact and entering deeper cooperation in the colonies.

Portugal's current foreign policy is neutral and conservative. Neutrality lies in that Portugal does not hold a position between the Empire and Europe, is friendly with both sides, but is not an alliance. Conservative lies in that Portugal no longer opens up new colonies, and only Brazil's colonies are still expanding inland. It no longer competes with other European countries in North Africa, West Africa and the Americas.

In fact, it was not only about reaching an agreement with European countries, but also with several countries on the subcontinent that the colonies no longer expanded.

France tried to deepen cooperation with Portugal and proposed two plans. One is that France recognized Morocco as Portugal in exchange for Portugal to open up more markets.

The second is that France tried to buy the Portuguese colony east of Ceuta, so that the colonies between the two sides could be separated by the empire Ceuta, and the two sides completely eliminated the conflicts in North Africa.

Of course, it will take time to confirm whether France is sincere in these two plans. But it is undeniable that Portugal was tempted and the two sides have begun negotiations. It is obvious that with the steady and improving cooperation between the two sides, France should try its best to maintain peace in North Africa. Then, the development of the west must be shelved, and can only cooperate with the British Egyptian plan.

"I really don't know that the French army gathered in Libya. But I do know that the British are going to take action in the direction of Egypt recently. But... the news I got is that it is not a total war with the Ottoman Empire. Shaojie, do you have more accurate information?" Ali hesitated a little.

Assuming it was a total war, Tunisia he had was unable to escape. After all, he was Pasha of the Ottoman Empire, and he had to show some of it in Tunisia. And Ali was also worried that the British would get Egypt, so he would really have no chance.

Shaojie shook his head: "I don't have more accurate information. Although Britain and France are clamoring for war, I think this is an echo of border frictions with the Austrian Empire and the Ottomans. I can tell you the judgment of the empire, that is, there will be no large-scale wars, but small-scale conflicts are inevitable. As for Egypt, the empire also believes that Britain and France do not have the ability to seize Egypt, and there is no plan to seize Egypt this time.

I think this is a kind of war intimidation that allowed the Ottoman Empire to sell more of the interests of the Egyptian region."

Ali nodded slightly: "I think they can most likely do it and get everything they want."

"This is something that the empire does not allow." Shaojie knocked on the table.

After the Spanish throne inheritance war, the foreign colonization of European countries set off a climax. The Empire was a global country. Although many colonies were considered garbage by the imperial government, they were unwilling to sit and watch these places be owned by their opponents.

The loss of North and West Africa is still under the control of the empire, but some things cannot be controlled by the empire. For example, the empire's interests in Egypt are damaged.

For a long time, the empire had mastered the economic lifeline of Egypt. At that time, Egypt planted cotton to provide raw materials to the textile industry in the empire's Xijin provinces and the Nanyang provinces. The food shortage caused by the cultivation of cotton was supplemented by the Xijin area where cotton could not be grown.

But such good days have come to an end, and the textile industry of Western European countries such as Britain and France is also rising rapidly. The Ottoman Empire is not satisfied with the empire's pricing power on cotton, so it continues to use Britain and France on cotton, which actually allows the two countries to obtain relatively sufficient raw cotton supply.

The import of grain into Egypt is not exclusive to the empire. As Russia's small Ukrainian region has developed, it has become a grain producer. The establishment of the Ukrainian Federation has also become a major grain exporter. With the outbreak of productivity and the increase of self-cultivated farmers after France's political reform, France is also exporting wheat.

Unless Egypt is directly controlled by the empire, the interests of the empire will continue to shrink. Fortunately, the empire's industrialization progress has allowed the empire to occupy the Egyptian market in terms of industrial finished products such as steel machinery.

Even if Egypt's interests were lost, the empire could not take any action in the military. Because this land belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Although the Ottoman Empire was not an ally of the empire, it was the most important strategic partner of the empire and an important partner of the empire against Europe. The empire could not harm its relationship with strategic partners such as the Ottoman for a little benefit.

But as long as there is a war in Egypt and conflicts directly with European colonists, the interests of the empire will be even more guaranteed. After all, the only thing that the goods of Britain and France are expelled is the empire.

"So, you want me to go back to Egypt." Ali said with wide eyes: "I am Pasha of Tunisia. Although I am a native emperor in your mouth, I still need to obey Istanbul's orders on such issues."

"I didn't let you go back to Egypt."

"Support the army to Egypt?" Ali asked again.

Shaojie shook his head: "On the contrary, I want you to ask for help from the group of Kopru's laws in Istanbul, not just for funds and materials, but for the army directly."

"But I don't need an army." Ali said, believing that Shaojie also understands his strength.

Ali had tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, more than half of them were cavalry. In the case of secretly reaching peace with the colonists, these troops were enough to protect Tunisia. Ali did not wait for Shaojie to answer, and suddenly realized something. He widened his eyes: "You are asking me to reopen the war with the Europeans."

Shaojie nodded, but Ali shook his head directly: "This is impossible. The generals under my command will not support it. Don't think that I have the final say here. In fact, I will only say forget it when everyone's common interests are infringed. I am Pasha, but I am just the strongest of these people."
Chapter completed!