In the nineteenth year of Hongwu, after another year of preparation, the atmosphere of war between the East and the West became more and more intense, and the continuous westward expansion of the Great Jin Dynasty greatly infringed on the interests of Rome and Persia. Originally, the Romans wanted to win over the Arabs, but the Jerusalem issue made cooperation between the two sides impossible.

Before the outbreak of the war, in April, the 19th year of Hongwu, the Arabs, at the instigation of the Great Jin, sent an envoy to Constantinople to meet the Roman emperor and demand that the other side withdraw their troops from Jerusalem and Syria, on the grounds that these two places were the homeland of the Arabs.

Although their rule in both regions was shaky, the Romans still rejected the demands of the Arabs, and everyone knew that refusal was tantamount to war. The Romans immediately mobilized the whole country and informed their allies, the Persian Empire, to prepare for an enemy invasion.

Although the Romans knew that their navy was inferior to that of the Great Jin, they concentrated all their naval forces, including one hundred and fifty gunboats and fifty transports.

At the same time, the Great Jin united with the Arabs to form a combined fleet of 120 ships, of which the main force was the Third Fleet of the Great Jin, that is, the Indian Ocean Fleet. Lin Feng, the commander of the Combined Fleet, had strong leadership skills and considerable strategic vision, and he believed that if the Great Jin could gain control of the Mediterranean, he could strategically cut the Roman Empire into two parts, and the Roman Empire's provinces in Africa and Asia would be separated from the European part.

On July 22, the 19th year of Hongwu, Lin Feng ordered the 7th Detachment to land at Limassol on the island of Cyprus and launched a tentative attack on Nicosia (except for Famagusta). This is the second fortified town on the island). On 9 August, Nicosia was captured and the defenders were slaughtered.

Secondly, the coalition forces laid siege to the city of Famagusta, where there were 7,000 Roman defenders, and because the defenders were extremely determined to resist, they defeated the repeated attacks of the Arab army, so the coalition forces had no choice but to retreat to Port Said. At this stage, there was a powerful Roman fleet, numbering more than two hundred ships. Concentrated in Dry Asia, Crete. However, because of internal disagreements, no offensive was launched against the Great Jin coalition forces.

In the face of the menacing Jin coalition, the Romans concentrated their forces to resist on the one hand, and on the other hand, in order to strengthen their own confidence. They announced their alliance with Persia.

This alliance is permanent. Not only to deal with the Jin people. Arabs will also be targeted. The strength of the alliance was set at 250 galleys, 100 other ships, and 150,000 infantry. 80,000 cavalry, and a large number of artillery.

When the Allied forces were ready, they drove to the Mediterranean coast, and when one side was attacked by the coalition forces, the other side had the obligation to assist in the defense, and each side would bear half of the war costs. All conquered territories were to be divided according to the pre-agreed method, with the exception of the Suez Canal, Tunisia, and Tipoli to be left entirely to Rome. No country could conclude a truce, peace, or alliance treaty with the Great Jin Empire or the Himyar Kingdom without the consent of both sides.

Despite these provisions, there was a conflict between the parties because of their interests. Persia hoped to use the alliance to retake Tocharian and Transoxiana, and as long as the Jin Empire was held back in the eastern Mediterranean by sea, there was no need for a decisive battle with a powerful combined fleet.

However, Emperor Constantine wanted the Allied navy to take the initiative and completely destroy the entire naval force of the Great Jin in the Mediterranean. It can be seen that although the Romans and Persians were allied, there was a huge difference of interest between them. In terms of operational focus, it was clear that the Romans valued the maritime threat more than the land, but the Persians faced a serious threat on land.

Although the two sides were divided, the naval power was dominated by the Romans, so the Romans were finally adopted. Emperor Constantine the Great personally wrote to the generals at the front, asking them to summon up the courage to fight a decisive battle against the Jin army at all costs.

In order to fight for the island of Cyprus, the forces of both sides were rapidly concentrated in the surrounding waters, and Lin Feng had nearly 200 ships of various kinds and 50,000 personnel under his command - of which 30,000 were marines and the Arab army, and 20,000 were navy. The strength of the naval fleet was as follows: 90 battleships of all classes, 50 Fubune transports, and 40 other small ships.

On 10 September, the coalition forces held an operational meeting. Some advocate an immediate attack, while others advocate a further delay. But the commander of the fleet, Lin Feng, had already made up his mind and advocated attacking. So the dice were rolled down - it was a battle to the death. All opposition was over, and then Lin Feng announced that a swearing-in ceremony would be held, encouraging everyone to work hard in the name of the Great Heavenly Venerable.

On September 15, the main force of the fleet sailed out of Port Said, because Lin Feng had received accurate information that the main force of the Allied fleet was concentrated on Crete, so he decided to advance immediately and try to lure the enemy into battle.

This decision was correct, Lin Feng believed that as long as the Roman navy was defeated, the Great Jin would completely grasp the hegemony of the Mediterranean, and would be able to attack the Roman hinterland from all directions from the sea, so that Europe would fall into the feet of the powerful conquerors of Asia.

On September 29, Lin Feng led the main fleet and headed straight for Crete, encountering a small fleet on the way, where it was revealed that a total of 200 warships were anchored through interrogation of prisoners. Hearing this news, Lin Feng did not wait for the seventh detachment to come and converge, he led the other two detachments to march towards Crete at full speed.

On September 27, the Allied fleet was already concentrated on Crete. At this time, the Allied generals held a combat meeting, and according to the scout's report, the Romans had learned that the main force of the Third Fleet of the Great Jin was heading here, so the meeting decided to meet the enemy.

On October 6, before dawn, the lookout on the flagship Han Wu the Great spotted two ships to the northwest, followed by eight more ships emerging from the sea, and then all Allied fleets appeared at sea level. Lin Feng immediately ordered a cannon to be fired, and raised the flag of the coalition army on the flagpole - this was the signal to spot the enemy.

At the sound of the cannons, all the captains cleared the ship and began to prepare for battle. The main commanders all switched to the flagship of the Han Wu Emperor in a small boat to listen to Lin Feng's final orders. Some Arab generals were still opposed to engaging in battle, because fighting far from their bases would result in the destruction of their entire army if they were defeated. But Lin Feng's determination had already been made, and he said to the officers: "Ladies and gentlemen, the time for deliberation has passed, and the time for battle has come. ”

While the Allied fleet was preparing, the Allied fleet was also preparing. The Romans arranged their ships in a giant crescent. The light wind slowly pushed the two huge formations together, and at 11 o'clock in the afternoon, the two sides finally entered the firing range and the artillery battle began.

The Roman commander Antony did not take the initiative to advance, and in the First Mediterranean Naval War, the Romans witnessed the powerful firepower of the well-trained "battle line" tactics of the Great Jin navy, and as a far-sighted naval commander, he also tried to introduce the "battle line" into the Roman fleet.

The artillery stations on both sides lasted for 3 hours, and due to the weak wind, the Roman Alliance fleet was never able to approach the Great Jin Combined Fleet. Soon, the Allied avant-garde fleet gradually approached the allied avant-garde, and Lin Feng was afraid that the avant-garde would be lost, so he immediately went to support. At this moment, the wind direction changed abruptly, Lin Feng's Chinese army and the allied avant-garde took advantage of the wind to successfully surround the Allied avant-garde detachment, so far the allied side has achieved a huge advantage, and the Romans in the rear saw that the situation was not good, and led the Chinese army to support the avant-garde detachment that was suffering from artillery fire on both sides as much as possible. Fierce fighting continued into dusk, with one of the main Roman battleships exploding and one being sunk.

At noon the next day, the battle began again. The two fleets sailed south side by side, with the combined fleet attacking first. From the northwest, a huge line of more than 100 warships slowly pressed towards the Allied fleet, and to the disadvantage of the Romans, the Seventh Detachment of the Great Jin also joined the battle.

The battle lasted from noon to afternoon, after many bombardments of the two fleets, the Roman battleships equipped with only light firepower and protection were gradually overwhelmed by the powerful Dajin battleships, and the battleline tactics effectively curbed the advantage of the Romans in close combat and maneuvering, and also prevented the Romans from using the superb technology of the arson ship (the arson ship is quite the same as the modern lightning ship, operated by more than 10 people, loaded with gunpowder or flammables, quickly rushed to the enemy ship, hooked the side of the ship, set fire, as long as it was entangled by the arsonist ship, Basic one-hit kill).

As can be seen from the results of the battle, almost not a single intact Roman battleship was captured, and all of them were torn apart by heavy artillery. By dusk, 11 Roman ships had been sunk and the rest were seriously wounded, with more than 1,600 casualties.

At the same time, the captains once again reported a dismal news: the reserves of gunpowder were running low. Despite all the odds, the stubborn Romans resisted for four hours, and Antony had no hope of victory, and he could only watch as his ships were sunk or captured by the Combined Fleet.

In this battle, a total of 11 capital warships of the combined fleet were sunk, nine were damaged, and the loss of personnel was as high as 3,000 people. However, the results were equally brilliant, and post-war statistics found that the Combined Fleet sank or damaged a total of 153 enemy ships, captured 30 enemy ships, and only a few dozen warships escaped. In addition to this, the combined fleet killed about 11,000 Romans and Persians.

This battle can be said to have completely established the hegemony of the Great Jin Navy in the Mediterranean, after this battle, the Great Jin advanced by land and water, through the 'frog jump' tactic, successively occupied a large number of islands in the Mediterranean Sea, cut off the Romans' sea transportation lines, and forced the other side to divide troops to garrison various ports to prevent the Great Jin Navy from attacking! (To be continued......)