PS: Today, I went to four other Spanish travel novels to sweep the tombs, but none of them were updated, which is quite sad after the death of (T_T) the predecessors......

At a time when Ferdinand's idea of imperialism with Spanish characteristics in the new era was widely supported, enthusiastically responded to, actively supported, and implemented by Niedhogg's intelligence officers, the proposer of this great idea and theory had to be busy dealing with various practical problems.

"Alas...... It's been an eventful Christmas this year! ”

On the second day of Christmas, December 26, 1495, Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had bad news about the streets.

A change from across the Mediterranean.

"The Berbers of the Vatas dynasty in Morocco sent troops to attack the city of Melilla......" Queen Isabella was not in a very good mood when she got the news.

"The good news is that the garrison there withstood the first offensive of the Moroccans. The bad news is that they have suffered heavy casualties, with only 866 able-bodied soldiers left and 180 alive wounded......" Ferdinand shook his head and sighed.

"If there are no strong reinforcements, Melilla will be lost!" Queen Isabella once again recalls the pacifist nightmare that haunted her since she was a child, against which she has fought all her life, and now it seems that this struggle is far from over.

The crumbling city of Melilla is a sign that the threat of pacifism has never been far from Spain.

"Looks like we're going to have to send more troops to Melilla! Fortunately, the French have been beaten to the point where they have no power to recover......" Ferdinand mused.

"This time I transferred 3,000 people from Sardinia to the city of Melilla! We must strengthen enough troops to deal a severe blow to the Berbers! This stronghold will not allow them to be intruded! ”

The city of Melilla was captured in 1492 by the Spanish kings after completely conquering the Kingdom of Granada on the Iberian Peninsula, crossing the Strait of Gibraltar and fighting the Vatas dynasty of Morocco.

Later Ferdinand inadvertently investigated the time of the Spanish conquest of Melilla, and the first data he obtained was in 1492 – that is, a collateral follow-up to the Spanish expulsion of the Moors from the country.

In the current timeline, Ferdinand sent the Aragon fleet to open Tunisia's doorstep in 1493, forcing the Khafs dynasty of Tunisia to become a vassal state, which is seen as a follow-up to the Reconquista.

Of course, the main purpose of Ferdinand's action was to obtain phosphate rock. But it is undeniable that Tunisia, which is across the sea from Sicily and Malta, is also an important bulwark against pirates supported by the pacifist world, especially the Ottoman Turkish Empire and its fleet.

……

However, in an article about Spanish operations in North Africa, this date is shown as 1497. However, if the Spanish army had only captured Melilla in 1497, Queen Isabella would not have been able to allow the French to use one of the bases in North Africa in a letter to Charles VIII during the First Italian War.

One possible explanation is that during the First Italian War, the Moroccan Wattas dynasty re-attacked the city of Melilla and captured it. After the First Italian War, the Spanish army recaptured the city of Melilla, which it occupies to this day.

The news received now confirms Ferdinand's speculation in later generations.

Now, thanks to the active involvement of the Aragonese army in the war, Sardinia has built a strong military-agricultural base, and the garrison of Castile and Aragon in the city of Melilla has increased—after all, Ferdinand has certainly strengthened the defense of Melilla, since he has this suspicion, the Spaniards have barely resisted the surprise attack of the Moroccans.

But it was really reluctant, counting the wounded, only more than a thousand soldiers were saved.

However, the casualties of such a strong attack by the Moroccans were not small. As the Spaniards were armed with more and more advanced Mushtec arquebuses, Moroccan casualties amounted to five thousand four hundred, three times that of the Spanish army. Again, this was due to the fact that the equipment of the Spanish army was not improved and strengthened more fully.

……

The Berber world of Northwest Africa, historically linked to the peaceful religion of the Iberian Peninsula in Southwest Europe, after the Arab Empire conquered Northwest Africa, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and destroyed the Visigothic Kingdom and ruled the Iberian Peninsula. The Strait of Gibraltar was not a political boundary for hundreds of years.

The Moors of Spain and the Berbers of Northwest Africa are basically the same people.

Immediately after the elimination of the Moorish regime in the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish kings also launched an attack on the Berber world. The historical timeline of the offensive is –

In 1492, the first capture of Melilla.

In 1497, Melilla was completely occupied.

In 1505, the port of Kebir was occupied.

In 1508, the Belez battery was captured.

In 1509, Oran was occupied.

In 1510, it captured Mustaganeim, Teremsen, Tenais, and the future Algerian capital, Algiers.

This war, which had a certain continuity, can be called the "Berber War".

Ferdinand's request to the Pope for the right to confer the priesthood was therefore justified, since the Spaniards did not stop at the occupation of Granada, but considered themselves heroes of the Catholic world, and they were still taking one stronghold after another from the Berbers of Northwest Africa.

The seizure of the Eastern Mediterranean, the reconquest of Jerusalem, or the invasion of Egypt are all unrealistic pipe dreams...... Of course, it is a pity that Ferdinand and Isabella in history, and even Charles V later, had such illusions.

Ferdinand was completely hopeless about such fantasies, and he had no intention of interfering in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. But his attitude towards Northwest Africa is different. Because Northwest Africa is the gateway to the Western Mediterranean, and Spain itself is located in the Western Mediterranean. The coastline of Aragon is located on the west coast of the western Mediterranean.

What's more, Sardinia, the "pearl of modern times" in Ferdinand's hands, which took three years to build, floats on the sea surface of the western Mediterranean, and Corsica, a potential base in the north, is also the darling of the western Mediterranean. All their connection to Aragon is inseparable from the Western Mediterranean, and Sicily and Malta are simply the boundary and gateway between the Eastern and Western Mediterraneans.

Therefore, Ferdinand had to ensure that the sea power in the western Mediterranean was firmly in the hands of Spain.

At the time, the Spanish duo were facing a great opportunity that would never happen again in history. The Berbers, who were able to thwart the Mongol Empire's westward expeditionary forces in Ayinzarut (of course, it was only by striking more and fighting less) are now in decline and decaying.

The three Maghreb countries are entangled in each other's wars, and their domestic problems are becoming more and more serious.

The Wattas dynasty still had a certain amount of force, and the Zayanid dynasty and the Hafs dynasty, which ruled Algeria and Tunisia, had fallen to the extreme after eating a little more French invasion and Aragonese raids.

The Hafs dynasty, decades ahead of its history, became a vassal state of Aragon.

……