The Ming fleet continued to show off its might on the Baltic Sea, slowly sailing outside the coastal ports, but without entering any of them, they sailed like dragons from the east, spitting black snorts, sailing on this untouched sea, even declaring the majesty of the empire with their terrifying cannons, and finally reaching the end of the voyage, Helsinki. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

There was no St. Petersburg at this time.

Originally, after Peter I captured the mouth of the Neva River, he built the city, but this time he was a loser in the Great Northern War, so it was still in the hands of Charles XII, Charles, of course, was not interested in building an outlet to the sea there, Sweden needed an outlet to the sea, it was everywhere, so the easternmost city on the Baltic Sea became Helsinki.

When they turned around in the snowflakes of the Baltic Sea under the horrified eyes of the inhabitants of this small castle with only a few thousand people, the whole of Europe trembled, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Baltic Sea, the entire coast of Europe was under the terrifying seven-inch cannon of the Ming army, and in just thirty years, the Europeans who once dominated almost every sea in the world found that they had lost control of even their own shores, and the conquerors from the far east had knocked on the door of their homeland.

From Southern Europe to Northern Europe, from Western Europe to Eastern Europe.

No one was spared.

All the ports of Europe, all the people of the coasts of Europe, had to accept this terrible reality, no matter how far away they were, they had to bear the terrible wrath of the Oriental monarch when he was angry, and there was no ability to resist, and then the monarchs of the European countries silently disbanded their navies, abandoned their warships, moved all their guns to land, and all sailors landed and became armies.

They don't need the Navy anymore.

Although they have almost exhausted their financial resources for these warships, and even caused the country to be in turmoil and public resentment, they now have to throw away these treasures built with a lot of money as garbage, these warships cannot win the steel warships of the Ming army in naval battles, they will only become the coffins of thousands of naval officers and soldiers, and the maintenance of these warships also requires a huge amount of financial investment, abandon them, and then save money and soldiers, maybe you can defend a few more cities.

As for their shores......

Open the door and let you pick it up!

"They're smart!"

Yang Feng said with a smile.

He didn't expect that this voyage actually directly disarmed the maritime armament of European countries, in addition to Britain still retained some warships, mainly for the control of the North American colonies, Philip V, Charles XII, Charles VI and even Venice, the Netherlands and other countries, in fact, abandoned the navy, only symbolically reserved a few warships to maintain face, most of the warships were abandoned in the harbor and then sailors landed with cannons, incorporated into the army's combat units for the defense of the city.

This should be considered a good thing, after all, when the Ming army landed in Europe, there was no need to bother to fight any naval battles, of course, there was also a pity, that is, he could not see the spectacular scene of the quasi-dreadnought ravaging the sail battleship.

This is indeed regrettable.

"Your Majesty, we don't have enough time to return to Dragon City!"

His chief attendant said cautiously.

At this time, His Majesty the Emperor is standing on the wall of Fengsheng Palace, although this is only a palace, but still in strict accordance with the system, not only has a circle of city walls surrounding, but also divided into the outer city and the palace city, because there can be no external attack, but it is not designed as a fortress, the outer city of the entire Fengsheng Palace is a standard Chinese-style castle of two miles by two miles, and outside the city is the rushing river, and less than a hundred miles to the north is the mouth of the river.

This is actually the original historical Russian Rabetnanji, and Yang Feng deliberately built a palace here.

No matter how the people of the Ming Dynasty choose to immigrate, it is impossible to choose this kind of place, this kind of permafrost on the Arctic Circle is only suitable for human life for half a year, and the rest of the time is all ice and snow, and it is basically a dead end for people to go out when they go out at the coldest time, and there are countless good places to immigrate to the Ming people, how can they run here, even the heavens are stronger than here!

Yang Feng, who was helpless, could only play this kind of game.

Not only here, but also on the vast Siberian wilderness and the bitterly cold coast of the Arctic Ocean, he has several palaces, and even a place at the mouth of the Yeseny River, which hovers at 70 degrees north latitude and freezing even in June, where he plans to stay for a few days next year.

Since it is his palace, it must be built according to the standards of the palace, that is to say, a city must be built, this city can be small, but it must be perfect, and these cities must have garrisons and palace managers, these can be few, but it cannot be without, even if this kind of palace is laborious and costly, he decrees that it must be built, even if he only lives for one day in his life, then the future generations will definitely not be able to abandon him.

That's the palace.

And it is the palace of the God Emperor.

So in this way, these places have become real cities, if valuable resources are found, then the city will begin to prosper, only enough interests no one will care about the cold of minus 30 degrees, and minus 30 degrees is winter, these cities still have half a year of good weather? It's a big deal to stay for half a year and leave for half a year, as long as it is profitable, difficulties can be overcome, and Yang Feng's palace is definitely very profitable. For example, there is a large diamond mine in this frozen wasteland where the Fengsheng Palace is located, and the Yeseny estuary can reach minus 58 degrees in winter, which is the secret administrative region of Russia in later generations, because the production of palladium there accounts for nearly 70% of the world, as well as countless nickel, copper, gold and platinum.

What about minus 58 degrees?

Can minus 58 degrees stop the population of 170,000 in Norilsk?

"If you can't go back, stay here for the winter!"

Yang Feng said casually.

"Your Majesty, it is said that it can reach minus forty degrees in winter here."

The chief attendant said cautiously.

"Then prepare more coal and firewood for heating, and make the fire more prosperous when the time comes!"

Yang Feng said.

Well, just like that, he decided the fate of his entourage, these noble sons and ladies from the bustling city of Yingtian will have to follow His Majesty the Emperor, in the severe cold of sixty degrees north latitude, suffering for half a year of almost completely closed life, if even they can survive, then the severe cold here does not seem to be so terrible, at least for those adventurers who are desperate for Long Yuan, they can try life here.

While His Majesty the Emperor was enjoying the blizzard of the Arctic Ocean with a roaring fire burning in the palace of Bongseong, through several layers of thick glass, his empire and his army were still carrying out his will in order. After three months of bloody fighting, especially the opening of the Anhua Canal and the steady flow of supplies, the Second Army finally conquered Damascus, and after enough time to recuperate, the Fourth Army also began to march towards Mosul, while the Fifth Army on the northern route captured Tbilisi and occupied the port of Batumi, advancing the Ming control area to the Black Sea, but because it was far away from the railway, their offensive began to be limited.

In this way, the opening of the Black Sea route has become an urgent task.

"Istanbul, I'm back!"

Xu Fu stood on the deck and looked at the devastated city in the distance, raising his arms exaggeratedly and shouting.

He's back.

Came back as a host.

The current identity of the former head of the Istanbul branch of the Imperial Bank is the governor of the Western Qin Province of the Ming Empire, and the capital of the Western Qin Province is located in Istanbul or the new name of the new Qin, and the jurisdiction of this province includes the entire Balkans, of course, after the occupation of the Balkans, as for the Anatolian Plateau, it has become a feudal state of Yang Feng's three daughters.

Of course, he didn't come back on his own.

At his feet was the battleship Dingyuan, behind him the old battleships of the original Mediterranean Fleet were riding the wind and waves, behind these old battleships, there were countless small warships, which were as dense as a school of fish, these warships were very small, even the largest was only a dozen zhang long, and those cruiser battleships suitable for high-speed sailing, they all looked very fat, and the bow was round, and in the bow you could even see something that seemed to have a large patch.

"Governor Xu, it's all up to you later!"

A vice admiral beside him said with a smile.

"No problem, who has money and who doesn't have money in this Istanbul, it can be said that there is no better than me, see? This is Istanbul's luxury consumption ledger, we don't need to do anything else, just clean up one by one according to this ledger! ”

Xu Fu said proudly.

Then he and the lieutenant general burst out laughing.

At this time, all the battleships and cruisers of the Ming army had lined up and began to bombard the fortress of Istanbul, and at the same time the seaplanes also flew to the city to provide calibration for the warships on the sea, and the battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet came to the city I don't know how many times, and knew its defense system well, and only less than an hour later, all the fortresses and batteries of the Ottomans were all leveled, and then the vice admiral waved his hand, and with the order from the Dingyuan, the small warships behind began to rush straight to the beach.

Under the stunned gaze of the remnants of the Ottoman defenders on the shore, the first of these small warships rushed headlong into shallow water less than ten yards from the shore, and then ran aground there, and then the patch-like part of the bow was pushed open like a gate, and at the same time a gangplank protruded from it, and the front end was directly on the soft sand, and a group of Ming soldiers in red uniforms rushed out of the boat with rifles with bayonets on them, and rushed to the beach like a red rapid

Immediately after that, more and more of the same warships washed into the beach in the same way, and thousands of Ming soldiers set foot on the land of the Ottoman Empire.

At this time, the Ottomans woke up from the shock, and then frantically launched a counterattack against the Ming army, but unfortunately since these small warships were battleships, it could not be unarmed, just when the remnants of the Ottoman army were pouring from all over the bunkers, holding bayonet rifles and preparing to drive these invaders into the sea, a rapid-fire gun on those small battleships spewed flames, and then the courage of the Ottomans disappeared in the explosion of a stormy inch of cannonballs.

This is Yang Feng's landing ship.

In addition to not having that set of water injection and retreat technology, the gap between other modern landing ships is not large, but in order to ensure that the draft is not more than one meter, so the tonnage is not large, even if it is only a thousand tons by the Ming standard, the highest is only a thousand tons, these small boats have poor endurance and poor seaworthiness, and it is impossible to drive around the Cape of Good Hope to the Mediterranean, so they can only wait for the Anhua Canal to be navigable, and now is the time for them to show their strength.

A full 300 landing ships, loaded with all the officers and men of the First Marine Corps of the Ming Dynasty and their equipment, easily completed the landing in Istanbul.

And then all that's left is to flood the city.

"This is called domineering!"

Xu Fu said with emotion.

In front of him, the landing ships that had unloaded their soldiers were falling back into the deep water because of their reduced weight, while the landing ships at sea were rushing forward quickly, and the Ming troops who had completed the landing were rushing towards Istanbul and constantly shooting down the remnants of the enemy, and the naval guns that provided cover for them were constantly shelling the Ottomans, and the whole landing operation was as smooth as a high-speed machine.

As for Istanbul......

The city can already be said to have been conquered.

After Mahmud I moved the capital, there were only a small number of soldiers guarding here, and the main force of the Ottoman army was in the south to prepare for the Ming army to land on the Gallipoli Peninsula, but after the Ming army bombarded the Ottoman batteries built at great cost on both sides of the Dardanelles, they did not land there as normal, but went directly to Istanbul. The Ming fleet sailed at a speed of ten knots, about the same speed as the Ottoman stagecoaches, and even if the latter kept changing horses for a day and a night, the distance they ran was not as good as that of the Ming warships sailing for a day and a night, not to mention that the Ming warships walked in a straight line and they had to go around the Sea of Marmara. It is estimated that at this time, Mahmud I had just learned that the Ming army had crossed the Dardanelles, and by the time he mobilized the troops from all over the country and those troops arrived here, the Ming army would have already settled the battle in Istanbul and built a defensive line.

And a Ming army with a defensive line and sufficient logistics can completely make all attackers despair.

And the task of their trip is to control Istanbul, which is equivalent to opening up the Black Sea route, and then a steady stream of supplies can be sent to the port of Baku by sea, directly to the Ming army that has occupied it, instead of being transported from Tehran to the front line by horse-drawn carriage and braving guerrilla attacks.

This is the true meaning of the capture of Istanbul, and as for the attack on the Balkans from here, this is not in the task of this landing operation.

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