Gilbert Murray stood on the bow deck, surrounded by Chen Huacheng. As a small sergeant, Chen Huacheng's weight was not worth mentioning, but the ship under his feet was made from the Red Sea.

He was one of Zhu Li's lieutenants, while Gilbert Murray was a naturalized Ottoman German. When the Chinese exploration team surveyed the Sinai Peninsula, Gilbert Murray was the representative of the Ottoman side.

At this moment, both of them are holding binoculars and looking ahead. It has been several days since the ship left Jinghai, and it has already reached the coast of Myanmar, and the port of Yangon has arrived.

There were thirteen Ottomans, six Europeans, and the remaining one hundred and ten were Orientals, twenty of whom were Japanese.

"Sergeant Chen, there is an old saying in your China, which says that real gold is not afraid of fire. Now the test is coming. I hope that we will be able to give a satisfactory answer to His Majesty the Great Emperor, and also to His Majesty the Sultan in the near future. God will bless us. ”

Chen Huacheng was silent, his task was not only to deliver news from Europe, but also to the Ottoman canal. For there were indications that the French wanted to attack Egypt, not at the cost of destroying their good relations with the Ottoman Empire, but also to occupy Egypt and seize the access to the sea on the other side of the land, so as to provide the most reliable basis for cutting off the British eastern route in the future.

But is this a real purpose or an illusion?

The French wanted to do something to Egypt, really to point the sword against the British? They are not because of China......

However, Chen Huacheng is still very confident in Egypt's local defense and military force. Because the Ottomans were already vigilant, Ilam Pasha received a notice from the European Office, believing that the troops were now mobilized, and he believed that the Ottomans could withstand the French attack.

It's dusk!

The golden sun shone on the sea, like a golden coat for the egret. Murray was smiling, confident that he would be able to reach Yangon Harbor before nightfall. Then in three days at most, their news will be delivered to Nanjing, to the hands of the Great Emperor of China.

……

The night was dark, and nothing could be heard on the surface of the sea except the sound of the rushing waves. The silver moonlight added a touch of brightness to the darkness, but it seemed too little for the vastness of the ocean.

More than a dozen hilly-shaped warships anchored in the bay of Crete, the waves crashing against the ship's side.

A little dim light can't shine hundreds of meters away, and the light of a wind lantern is difficult to even tens of meters, but the invention of the searchlight made everything possible. It's just that this port city, which belongs to the Ottomans, is not very well guarded.

It was late at night, and the Ottoman fleet, with the exception of a few men on duty, fell asleep. But in the vast sea area outside the more than a dozen Ottoman capital ships, a small Franco-Spanish warship has sailed here.

If Zhu Li, who had already left Crete, was still here, he would definitely recognize this small combined fleet as one of the Franco-Spanish combined fleets that pursued his Li Guang. And the reason why the Ottomans were so indifferent to this small Franco-Spanish fleet not far away was also due to Li Guanghao.

He confused the Ottomans, mistakenly believing that the main purpose of the French and Spaniards was to pursue Li Guanghao.

You must know that since the Chinese warships were repaired, Zhu Li led them to frequent attacks and harass the Spaniards, and after the Spaniards switched to France, this small fleet has appeared many times on the coastline of northern Italy.

Although they never re-entered the French coastline in the western Mediterranean.

……

Thames estuary, London, deep at night.

On a sailing cruise ship, Dong Huan opened his eyes and looked straight at the roof of the room within reach. He now presides over the ECO in his capacity as Deputy Foreign Minister, and now he has a problem.

—Napoleon Bonaparte.

This young man who graduated from China has gone too smoothly and too smoothly.

Since he assumed command of the Italian legion in France last spring, he has won great victories and honors after only one year of fighting thanks to the courage of the French revolutionary soldiers and his own outstanding military command skills.

Of course, it cannot be denied that the European Office gave Napoleon a certain amount of support, especially when Napoleon first arrived, a large number of military supplies helped him stabilize the morale and fighting spirit of the entire Italian legion.

On June 17, 1797, Austria and France formally signed the Treaty of Campo Phomio in a small village northeast of Venice. The treaty stipulated: Austria ceded the Belgian provinces to France, and at the same time ceded the Netherlands, Lombardy, and the left bank of the Rhine, the Republic of Venice was divided into two, which was jointly divided between France and Austria, and some disputed territories in Italy were divided equally between the two sides, and the Austrian government recognized the puppet states such as the Republic of Shannan and the Republic of Liguria supported by the French as independent sovereign states.

With the signing of the Treaty of Campoformio, the French victory on the battlefield was consolidated in the form of a treaty, and the French occupation of Italy was legitimized. In more than a year, the French army captured 150,000 enemies, captured 170 military flags, 550 cannons, 600 field guns, and captured 9 large gunboats, 12 small gunboats, 12 cruisers, and 18 transport ships.

Although all these victories were not won by Napoleon alone, they were closely related to him.

Today's Napoleon is full of ambition, he has achieved great victories rarely seen in history, and he enjoys great prestige among the French and Italian peoples. A general who can win battles will always gain great popularity among the masses. He opened several newspapers that glorified his virtues, and became essentially the ruler of Italy, a military commander, a state activist, a diplomat, and a conqueror and legislator, like a thin sea beast curled up, suddenly spreading its dazzling tentacles when the tide rushed.

Napoleon lived in the luxurious Montebello Castle near Milan and lived a very luxurious life. His interests and activities went far beyond the military sphere, and the young general began to look away from the war, and began to pay attention to the political situation in France as a whole. He had the most powerful army in his hands, and he was surrounded by a group of valiant and warlike generals, who placed great trust in him, and the city administrators of Italy and the nobles of the various states bowed at his feet. Napoleon took his eldest brother Joseph, several siblings, and his mother to share the glory and wealth with him, and he installed some people in positions and established a small court in Montebello.

At the same time, Napoleon's political ambitions swelled dramatically, and he was no longer a general of the victorious republic, but a conqueror who acted on his own will.

Not long ago, in May, Napoleon concocted a political incident, when General Bernadotte of the Italian legion in Trieste claimed to have seized the documents of the royal party Count Entreg, indicating that General Pisgré was preparing for a rebellion, and the political atmosphere in Paris was tense after the news that Pisgradu had a dispute with the consul Barras, who was also Napoleon's closest political ally today, over the choice of Minister of War.

It was from Napoleon that Dong He got the plan of the French to carry out an expedition against Egypt. At first, Dong He didn't believe it, this was too nonsense, and the middle distance was so far. Moreover, Egypt's military force is not only the local Mamluks, but also the garrisons of the Ottoman Empire, and they have the full support of this great power across the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.

Unless Istanbul was willing to lose all of Africa, the Ottomans would have to fight a bloody battle in Egypt against any intruder.

Napoleon's 'reminder', of course, Dong Huan would not take it as a joke. So he informed the Ottomans as quickly as he could. But Dong He doesn't know if the French's 'Arabian Nights' strategy is related to China?

In the past two years, there has been a rumor of Chinese circulating on the road of Europe.

After all, that piece of land in Egypt is a bit too special, and with so many people exploring the ruins of ancient canals along the Sinai Peninsula, it is impossible to completely block the news.

The Ottoman Empire was not monolithic.

Now Dong He is a little suspicious, the French are suddenly going to attack Egypt, is that the French going to block China? The close friendship between Ilampasha and China is known to many, many people.

This is more important than the fact that the French actually sent an expeditionary force on land and sea to attack Egypt.

However, don't look at Napoleon's current scenery, he really can't really get involved in these things. What's more, even if he knew something, he couldn't have confessed everything to OEU.

……

The Vostok's iron-ribbed wood-hulled paddle steamer was one of the two test chamber warships built at the Jiangnan Shipyard. The displacement of 550 tons made him an absolute small point compared to the sail battleship, but this battleship was already the pinnacle of Jiangnan Shipyard at the moment.

200 horsepower, speed of 22 miles / hour, can last more than five hours, downwind can run more than 25 miles / hour, crew 120.

And the proposer of the iron-ribbed wooden shell is undoubtedly Emperor Chen.

Chen Ming didn't know how many years it took Westerners in history to come up with the method of iron ribs and wooden shells, but he remembered it very clearly in his mind.

Some of the all-iron paddle steamers are too advanced and too wasteful. Iron-ribbed wooden shells are good.

As long as you paint it a few more times – there will be serious corrosion between the wood and the pig iron, which will affect the life of the boat, and the problem seems to be in the places where the nails are connected, where the corrosion will start to spread, and the paint will not work. But Chen Ming didn't think about holding on to the iron ribs and wooden shells all the time.

Wait for the next twenty or thirty years, and it will be an all-iron ship.

The captain of the Vostok is named Ruan Yuan, but he is not a soldier, but a research institute of the Ship Research Institute, an academician of the Academy of Natural Sciences.

Don't look at Ruan Yuancai in his thirties, but he studied from Yangzhou famous Confucian Hu Tingsen at the age of eight, and moved to Yangzhou Midosi Lane at the age of nine to learn from Qiao Shuyou. Later, after receiving a new education, he had deep attainments in mathematics, heavenly calculations, earth surveying, and surveying.

After all, the Vostok is still an experimental ship, not a real warship.

The Dongfang sounded its whistle early in the morning today, and as an experimental warship, as a paddle steamer, he was eye-catching in the Huangpu River.

At a quarter past six o'clock in the morning, Wusong Port went to thousands of people to watch the Dongfang slowly accelerate.

When the Vostok, which had not raised its sails, slowly moved, the wharf was full of thunder.

"God, that weird guy is moving." Although this was not the first time that the roar of the machines and the splashing of the waves had confirmed the success of the Vostok, the crews of many European merchant ships on the docks were still surprised to shout.

The Dongfang successfully entered the sea off the mouth of the Yangtze River.