In the age of sails, it was also a long war.

The Ming Empire initially lost all its colonies in Europe and was also driven out of the African continent in a very unfavorable form. However, the Ming Empire has an extremely deep heritage, and hundreds of years of ocean journeys have completely changed everyone's perception of the ocean. Everyone knows that the future is on the sea.

After mobilizing the vast heritage of the empire, the war began to take a turn. After several decisive naval and land battles, the power of the Ming Empire returned to Europe.

With seaports blocked, maritime trade cut off, and cities shelled, the exhausted European countries were forced to sign a humiliating and humiliating treaty with the Ming Empire. The Ming Empire established colonies in almost all countries in Europe. The Second Global War ended with a resounding victory for the Ming Empire.

At the peak of this war, the Ming Empire had more than 10,000 sail warships! There are millions of regular troops armed with advanced muskets! A strong military force is the solid foundation for victory.

In the more than 100 years after the war. The overseas colonies of the Ming Empire are all over the world, and every moment on the earth, the sun and moon golden dragon flags of the Ming Empire are raised that can bathe in the sun. The Ming Empire has become a veritable empire on which the sun never sets.

Like all countries that flourished and declined, the Ming Empire soon fell into decline without rivals. Conservative forces prevailed in the country, and the colonies became increasingly unstable. When all countries in Europe are working hard to quickly climb the technology tree and regroup. The Ming Empire lay on the merits and lived a leisurely life. Completely ignore the defeated countries who worked hard to catch up after the defeat.

Just like the battle that Zhang Cheng participated in at this time. The reason was only that the Governor of Milan of the Ming Empire was attacked by the tenants on his own estate.

"Where?" Zhang Cheng, who only showed his eyes, held his breath and carefully observed the battlefield, trying to find the sharpshooter on the opposite side.

"Smack!" Another mercenary, who had just been pushed to the machine gun point by the captain, was shot in the head. Zhang Cheng, who was not far away, had more bloodshot in his eyes.

In any case, these mercenaries are the same Huaxia people as him. And they got along well during this time, watching them die in front of him one by one, Zhang Cheng felt that his heart began to burn.

"The wind, the angle of the sun, the shooting surface, the perspective have found you!" Zhang Cheng's eyes lit up suddenly, and he finally found an extremely stable rifle sticking out of the barren grass next to a slightly raised mound of earth on the other side of the river!

"Whew~~~" Zhang Cheng took a deep breath and devoted all his attention to the crosshairs.

As the spear on the opposite side slowly moved, the muzzle was pointed at the machine gun point on the other side of the mercenary position. The sharpshooter, who had already shot several mercenaries, was stunned to find that the muzzle of a rifle in the trench opposite seemed to be pointed at his side!

"Bang!" Before the sharpshooter, whose heart contracted suddenly, could react, a bullet with an initial velocity of more than 750 meters pierced his head in less than a few tenths of a second!

"Huh~~~" Zhang Cheng immediately turned around and shrank down against the trench after confirming that the rifle on the opposite side had fallen, and let out a long sigh of relief.

Raising his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, Zhang Cheng made a successful gesture to the captain who was looking at him anxiously.

'Knock knock~~~' The dense bursts of heavy machine guns on the mercenary position finally began to exert their formidable power. The Sardinians on the other side quickly fell in the face of this constant and dense fire.

Under the suppression of the heavy machine guns, the charge of the enemy troops on the opposite side suddenly stopped. However, the quality of the enemy was excellent, and they quickly turned their heavy machine guns to shoot at the mercenaries. Then, taking advantage of this opportunity, hundreds of enemy troops chanted in unison "Viva L'Italia!" ”

Zhang Cheng has not been in vain in Milan during this time, at least he can still understand a few words of simple Italian. The words shouted by the Sardinians on the other side were heard almost every day in Milan, and the shouts in the Tuscan dialect were Long live Italy!

Zhang Cheng came to a time when Italy was just a geographical name, not a country yet.

After a resounding victory in the Second Global War. The Ming Empire seized several colonies in Italy.

The biggest, of course, was the Viceroyalty of Milan in the north. Then there is Naples in the center, and Palermo on the island of Sicily in the south. The Taranto military port in Taranto Bay belongs to the navy, and at this time it is hot more than ten kilometers away. The heavy cruiser Yancheng, which provided heavy artillery support to the mercenaries in Naya Bay, sailed from the port of Taranto.

The northern satrapy of Milan was ceded from the HRE Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia. Naples and Palermo, as well as Taranto, were snatched from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Over the years, regardless of the kingdom to which they belonged, these Italians never gave up their dream of unifying Italy.

It's a pity that neither the mass riot of the Charcoal Burners nor Garibaldi's expedition of the Red Shirts. These Italians, in the broad sense of the word, launched a series of attempts to unify Italy, but all of them were unsurprisingly suppressed by the powerful Ming Empire.

Almost every year, a large number of radical Italians are arrested and shot by the Doge's Palace, but this does not stop the rising national sentiment of the Italians. Of course, there must be a French shadow behind this.

The Sardinians on the other side were visibly in high spirits. They dragged out more than a dozen wooden boats from the wild grass and pushed them into the river in a frenzy against the rain of bullets and bullets on the opposite side.

The Sardinians, shouting slogans, jumped into the wooden boats and rowed their rifles as oars to the other side.

In the short time that the boat was lifted out and into the river, dozens of Sardinians were knocked to the ground, to say the least. But they all seemed to have fallen into an inexplicable frenzy, completely ignoring the huge casualties and the stray bullets flying around them, and roared and rushed to the mercenary trenches on the other side of the river.

"This Nima is really Italian?!" Zhang Cheng was stunned as he watched the extremely brave Sardinians on the opposite side frantically launch a charge across the river, muttering in disbelief.

Didn't the legendary Italian army only like spaghetti and not like to fight? Isn't the legendary Italian army even unable to defeat the indigenous Africans, and still have to release poison gas? Didn't the legendary Italian army itself knock its own air marshal out of the sky, and a division could be captured by a company of the enemy?

"I'll rub!" Zhang Cheng's personal experience of the battle completely turned his view of the Italian army upside down. If all the Italian soldiers had this courage not to fear death, then the powerful Germany in the north would not dare to despise them!

"Fire! Fire! The captain, with a hideous wound on his face, roared and ordered the mercenaries in the trenches to open fire and fight back, and under no circumstances could the Sardinians be allowed to come ashore.

My family knows my own business. The captain knew very well in his heart that most of these mercenaries were civilians and outlaws who couldn't get along, but as a Chinese who came to be mercenaries, he knew how miserable they were. Although these Huaxia people are not lacking in courage, once these mercenaries, who have almost no training, fall into close combat, it will inevitably be the result of total collapse.

The mercenary company stationed at this position was only one hundred or seventy or eighty men, including the reserves. All the heavy firepower is only two Maxims. Although he won the battle with the opposite Makqin and successfully destroyed the heavy machine gun on the opposite side, he also lost one on his side. The suppressive fire was immediately reduced by half.

"Muzzle down! Aim to hit! The captain's face was full of anger and anxiety. Most of these mercenaries have poor marksmanship, and they are barely able to shoot in normal times. At this moment, on the fierce battlefield where bullets are flying sideways and the smoke of gunpowder is filled, the nervous mood directly leads to the already rotten level to decline even more.

"Captain!" Zhang Cheng rushed over and grabbed the anxious captain, stared directly into his anxious eyes, and said in a solemn voice: "This can't be done, when those Sardinians come ashore, this side will not be able to hold it!" ”

"What can you do?" The captain calmed down a little and looked at Zhang Cheng with a calm face.

The captain could tell that the young man in front of him was definitely not an ordinary mercenary. Judging by his marksmanship and performance on the battlefield, he must have had military experience, and he has also been on the battlefield!

"Counter-assault, blow up and sink all the boats with grenades before they come to shore!" Zhang Cheng said his opinion categorically.

The mercenaries are not good at marksmanship, but throwing grenades is no problem. Moreover, although the river in front of me is not very wide, the current is not slow at all, and it is also very deep. If a person sinks, it is not easy to float again. In addition, the Maxim on the other side of the bank has been destroyed, and the threat to the soldiers is not very great.

"Good!" The captain only understood what Zhang Cheng meant after a little thought, and immediately nodded in agreement.

"I'll give you a platoon, and you will command!" The captain also gave this task to Zhang Cheng.

Zhang Cheng didn't say anything, just nodded vigorously. What kind of caution is there to play on this kind of battlefield, thinking that if you send you to death, you are looking for your own death. War is a collective movement, and once defeated, Zhang Cheng does not think that he can be alone!

The company's reserves were quickly assembled, and the captain didn't say any nonsense at all, designated Zhang Cheng as the commander, and after arranging the general task, he waved his hand, "Attack!" ”

"Running with a hunched body! Everything else is up to you! Before jumping out of the trench, Zhang Cheng said.

The mercenaries counterattacked by a surprise to the Sardinians on the other side.

The Sardinians who fought were not the tenants of the manor who started the rebellion. They are all regular troops of the Kingdom of Sardinia!

As the only country with an Italian predominant, the Kingdom of Sardinia never gave up on the idea of unifying Italy for many years. For this reason, they even did not hesitate to go to war with the extremely powerful empire on which the sun never sets! But the end result was defeat and a large part of the territory ceded! Even so, the Sardinians never gave up their desire to dominate Italy.