At the beginning of December, on the construction site of the Eurasian Canal between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, all the construction crews began to leave the canal valley one after another, and all the ploughing dragons had been hoisted onto the riverbank.

The Eurasian Canal is actually dug in two sections, because there is a big bitter lake in the middle of the north-south direction that is tens of miles long, if you can use this section of the Great Bitter Lake, the construction period can be shortened by at least one-sixth, so when the canal was excavated, the officials of the Ministry of Industry planned and divided the canal into two sections, one from the Red Sea to the Great Bitter Lake, and the other from the Great Bitter Lake to the Mediterranean.

At this time, the embankments at both ends of the Great Bitter Lake and the embankments at the mouth of the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Canal were full of people, a large part of them were prisoners of the canal, some were soldiers of the Dingliao army, and the rest were basically civilians from all over the country who came to see the excitement.

Why are so many people coming to see the excitement? Because it is impossible to dig the dam by manpower, the canal can be 20 meters deep, if people dig the dam, once the sea water rushes in, the person who digs the dam will die!

This water-blocking embankment can only be blown up with explosives, and it can't be blown up all at once, only the middle can be blown up first, and the embankments on both sides can only be washed by the water first, and then send people to bite the long pipe and slowly dive below to clean it up.

The 20-meter-high retaining levee must have been spectacular when it exploded, so civilians from near and far who heard the news rushed over.

There are a total of four embankments to hold back water in the two sections of the canal, Qin Gongming is in charge of the one at the entrance of the Red Sea, it is close to noon, he stands at the top of a fortress closest to the canal, staring closely at the sundial in front of him, and it has been agreed everywhere that the embankment will be blown up at the same time at noon today.

Underneath the embankment, a group of soldiers was standing near the embankment with their torches facing away from the fortress, while another group of soldiers was facing them, standing closer to the embankment, each of them holding in his hand a twine-thick lead, each of which was dozens of meters long, zigzag and stretched to the middle of the water-retaining embankment.

The hands of the sundial coincided with the noon scale, and Qin Gongming immediately said aloud: "Ignition." ”

The herald beside him waved the command flag, and the soldiers holding the lead immediately raised the lead in their hands together, and the soldier holding the torch on the opposite side immediately waved down the torch and lit the lead, and all the lead began to emit green smoke, and the soldier holding the lead immediately gently put the light lead on the ground, and quickly left the embankment with the soldier holding the torch.

The wires were of the same length to ensure that they could light all the explosives at the same time, and the middle section of the embankment was now less than three meters wide at the top, and only five or six meters at the bottom, and many holes were dug in it, and each hole was stuffed with an arm-long tube of explosives.

As the lead slowly ignited towards the explosive tube, the two banks of the canal, which were still full of people, slowly became silent, the twenty-meter-high embankment, how spectacular it was, what was the scene when it exploded?

Almost everyone stared at the middle section of the embankment with puffed eyes, for fear of missing out on this once-in-a-lifetime spectacle.

Finally, all the leads burned to the end almost at the same time, and there was an earth-shattering loud bang, the embankment was interrupted, and the mud splashed everywhere, and the turbulent sea water rushed into the canal, and the huge water pressure continued to wash the embankment about ten meters wide on both sides, and the inlet became wider and wider.

Qin Gongming couldn't help clenching his fists when he saw this scene, and waved a few times excitedly, and then, the two sides of the strait remembered countless cheers, although most of them didn't understand the meaning of this canal, but the scene just now was so spectacular that people couldn't help but want to cheer for it.

The embankment was blown up, and the canal was about to be completed, but Qin Gongming's wish to go back for the New Year could not be realized, because the canal still had to be garrisoned, and now twelve fortresses were also built on both sides of the canal, two on the left and right of the Red Sea estuary, two on the left and right at the north end of the Great Bitter Lake, and two on the left and right at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, and these forts were almost twice as large as the forts built in the Strait of Dover, that is, 10,000 soldiers must be stationed in each fort.

According to the original agreement, the four fortresses in the Red Sea were garrisoned by the Ming Empire, and the Spanish and Portuguese troops were not very abundant, so they could only send people to guard the four fortresses at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, and the four fortresses at the north end of the Great Bitter Lake could only be garrisoned by the Ming Empire.

In addition, ports, forts, and castles have to be built at the estuaries at both ends, and the embankments on both sides have to be reinforced with cement, and the Ministry of Engineering has to be assisted in building bridges over the canal, and the telegraph network of the two sections of the canal has to be erected.

The stretch from the Red Sea to the Great Bitter Lake is actually more than 100 miles long, so after about an hour, the entire canal is almost filled with water, and the water flow at the mouth of the sea gradually becomes calmer.

Qin Gongming looked at the embankment that was still nearly half left, and ordered: "Order, go up 50,000 captives at each end, bring ropes, suction pipes, shovels, and frames, and immediately go into the water to dig, 5,000 people at each end, one round every half an hour." “

The herald took the order and left, while Qin Gongming dragged his tired body to the temporary bedroom and rested.

Five days later, the four dikes were finally cleared, and the canal was now fully connected, Qin Gongming notified the warships of the South China Sea Fleet to enter the canal for sea trials, and at the same time sent a speedboat to Goa to telegraph to the emperor.

Such a major event must be held with a grand celebration, will the emperor personally preside over it?

Zhu Cijiong was naturally overjoyed when he received the news, and the voyage between Europe and Asia will be shortened by more than half, and if the ship sails at full speed, it will only take more than half a month to rush from the Daming East Camp to the port of Valencia in Spain, and it will not even take a week to rush from Mumbai or Goa in western South Asia to the port of Valencia in Spain!

This will bring a huge impetus to the trade between Europe and Asia, and the economy of the Ming Dynasty will thus step onto a new level, and the Spanish, Portuguese, Ottoman and Persian empires at both ends of the canal will benefit immensely.

Of course, this may not be good news for the anti-Habsburg Alliance, because the canal is controlled by the Ming Empire, Spain, and Portugal, and if they annoy the Triple Alliance, the Triple Alliance can completely prevent any of their ships from passing through the canal, in which case, they will suffer a lot of money.

As for the issue of the celebration, seeing that the New Year Festival was approaching, Zhu Cijiong didn't want to go on this trip, so he directly sent a telegram to the Nanyang Governor's Palace, asking Zheng Zhilong, the king of Zhennan, to preside over the celebration for him.

Zheng Zhilong is quite enthusiastic about this kind of activity, he not only brought all the warships of the South China Sea Naval Division, the South China Sea Fleet, and the North Sea Fleet, but also contacted the four major merchants of the Ming royal family and thousands of cargo ships of the Ming Portuguese Trading Company, and came to the entrance of the south end of the canal together and organized a grand navigation ceremony.

The scene was a spectacular one, with no less than a thousand warships on the sea, no less than a thousand merchant ships, and hundreds of thousands of people crowded on both sides of the canal.

Portugal's Prime Minister, Fernando Svera, also came;

Admiral Oquindo of Spain came;

and the Portuguese Viceroy in Goa, Conde;

and Suiman Pasha of the Ottoman Empire;

and the Ottoman governor in Egypt, Rester Pasha;

Even the Persian Empire sent envoys to celebrate.

There was a noise of gongs and drums, another burst of artillery and firecrackers, and then thousands of warships and thousands of merchant ships began to sail side by side into the canal, and the Eurasian Grand Canal was now navigable!