1914 Great Bitter Lake
The Great Bitter Lake is a very important area for ships to recuperate in the Suez Canal, and because the canal is too narrow, only one row of ships can pass at a time, so this lake area has become a resting place waiting in line to enter the canal. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Historically, there was no lake here, and before the canal was dug it was a low-lying saline land and desert, until the canal was dug and seawater poured in, and it became a saltwater lake.
Some people say that the lake is named because of its salty and bitter water, and some people say that tens of thousands of migrant workers gathered here and spent 11 years of long and painful hard labor here, so this lake was named Daku Lake.
The combined fleet gradually entered the Great Bitter Lake from south to north, and it was only after Xiao Letian's vision was covered by the blue water that he truly realized the greatness of this canal.
As far as the eye can see, the lake is densely packed with moored sea vessels, large and small white sails mixed with black smoke from steamships, and there are at least three or four hundred merchant ships of various colors moored as far as the eye can see.
These were all merchant ships waiting to pass through the canal, and because the Combined Fleet had the powerful naval escort of the Empire on which the sun never set, coupled with the coordination of the previous British diplomats, the Combined Fleet had the highest authority.
The French canal authorities, though unhappy, had to empty the channel in advance and try to allow the combined fleet to pass first. In this way, the original schedule will be completely messed up.
The merchant ships of small countries such as Italy, Greece, Holland, Portugal, etc., were driven to the farthest part of the canal entrance, and no matter how the captains jumped their feet and cursed the streets, the French administrators were unmoved.
The British and French merchant ships also had to temporarily get out of the river to make room for the Combined Fleet, and the British had to say a little bit, they all learned from the newspapers the news of the visit of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty and the Chinese Führer, and when they saw the United Fleet and the Zhiyuan, they honked their horns in salute, and the deck was full of waving seamen.
A small number of Prussian merchant ships were even more excited, and they pointed to the mighty warship and shouted, "We built our Prussian warship, long live Prussia, long live Zhiyuan", and the national pride was unprecedentedly high.
Only the merchant ships of the French and Tsarist Russia were silent, and the sailors on the deck looked at the Combined Fleet with complicated eyes, especially the eyes of the Zhiyuan.
"Dead guy, wait for His Majesty the Emperor to clean you up, sooner or later blow up and sink your iron turtle"
Of course, the Chinese people don't care about the clown's abuse, these heroic soldiers, all lined up on the deck with their hands behind their backs, proudly accepting the attention of the merchant ships of the Great Bitter Lake, they are using practical actions to change the Europeans' misunderstanding of China.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty cannot represent China, and those skinny smokers cannot represent the Chinese, so let you see how mighty the Chinese army is and how imposing it is
Although the water surface of the lake is open, there are too many ships that cannot hold the mooring, and the scheduling is a little chaotic, so the speed of the fleet is very slow.
This is also understandable, after all, the canal has only been put into operation this year, and the management personnel are also accumulating experience in their work, and some mistakes can be forgiven, but just two hours after entering the lake area, a dangerous situation occurred in front of the combined fleet.
The idiotic French pilot ship actually led the way, and an Italian brig directly had a serious scraping accident with a Dutch clipper.
The grinding of tooth acid resounded on the surface of the lake, and two merchant ships clawed through the narrow alley of ships rubbed together, and splinters of wood drifted everywhere.
"Hahaha, these French idiots, how can you lead the way, waste" whistles and boos were everywhere on the lake, and in the midst of this chaos, the speed of the Combined Fleet slowed down even more.
Jae-chun leaned on the railing and excitedly watched the quarrel between the two boats in front of him, occasionally he could understand a few simple slang words, and whenever he scolded wonderfully, Jae-soon would laugh out loud.
But Xiang Ying beside him didn't have the heart to watch the excitement, only to see the telescope in his hand kept holding, and the ships in the entire lake area were carefully screened by him.
"Something is wrong, how can this be, master, take a look, the boat on the lake is tired"
Xiao Lotian took the binoculars and looked at it carefully, but didn't find any clues, "What's the matter, I didn't see anything."
"No, Führer, you look carefully at the flags of the ships, why are the French merchant ships concentrated in a fixed area in the northwest, and they are all concentrated as much as possible"
"And the merchant ships of other countries are scattered arrangement, maybe my port side is the Dutch merchant ship, starboard side is the phenomenon that the American merchant ship has never been concentrated in any country, and the merchant ship is not a warship, let alone a fleet of envoys with political tasks, why should it be gathered together?"
"Well, maybe it's the canal authorities that open the back door to their own national ships, after all, this is a canal contracted by the French," Jae-soon said.
"No, Your Majesty, what you think is too simple, merchant ships are moored here and waiting to pass, the minimum principle should be arranged according to time, for example, the ships arriving at No. 1 are all gathered together, and No. 2 is concentrated on the other side."
"How can there be a situation in the world where only one country's merchant ships will enter one day?"
Xiao Lotian frowned tightly and said, "What is your guess, what is the bold statement?"
"It's hard to say, it depends on the madness of the French, is it impossible for them to use force against us, under the heavy protection of the British, the French dare to use force"
"But if they don't use force, why are they concentrating their merchant ships to protest and put pressure on us, I can't judge."
"Since this is the case, then notify the British side and brainstorm ideas" Xiao Le gave the order, and soon the British side received a reminder from the Chinese.
However, the British response was very unimportant, and the flag from the British flagship was very direct: "Under the protection of the British Royal Navy, no country dares to use force against the Combined Fleet, not even the mighty France"
"As long as you don't land rashly, there will never be any accidents, please rest assured"
In the face of the extremely strong self-confidence of the British, the Chinese side was speechless, after all, this is the territory of the Europeans, and under the protection of the other party, they can only cooperate as much as possible.
But Xiao Lotian and the British had no idea that just behind them, on the southern line of the canal that they had just traveled, an Arab horse covered in pure black like satin was galloping forward along the river.
A woman in a white veil rode her horse north, as fast as a bolt of lightning, and behind her two Arab warriors eagerly pursued.
"Miss, please slow down, don't be fast, our horses can't catch up with your Miss, Miss, slow down"