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On October 29, 699 in the mainland Gregorian calendar, Ling Tianfang, director of the Western Xinjiang Military Affairs Administration, who had stayed in the Kingdom of Milan for six days, boarded a ship and quietly headed south from the port of Taranto, and sailed directly to the Great South Sea along the coastline of the Great Eastern Ocean through the waters of the two principalities of Mahad and Andako, preparing to go to Western Xinjiang and obtain a foothold in the middle of the Great South Ocean -- Egret Island in the middle of the Marbun Islands, to inspect the construction of the Egret Island Military Port. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Just when the entire northern continent has entered the deep autumn season, in the southern part of the Great Eastern Ocean into the northern waters of the Great Southern Ocean, it seems that there is not much autumn, the sun is shining, and the warm sunlight sprinkled on the deck makes the whole ship look more antique, in fact, the ship is not long, but only three years, but it has been bumpy in the wind and waves for a long time, which also makes the ship a little more vicissitudes.

This is a medium-sized dhow passenger ship that looks very ordinary, no more than 20 meters long, plus only two floors under the board, and the passengers are only thirty or forty people at most, but this ship has been chartered by guests, and there are only a few passengers on the whole ship, but the charter fee is a lot and a half, which also makes the owner very happy, these seem to be yellow people from the northern Tang River Empire seem to be very rich, and there is no bargaining when negotiating rent, which is quite refreshing.

Departing from Taranto to Heron Island in the Marvon Islands, although the distance is farther, but this sea route is quite quiet, unlike going to the north and having to worry about the attack of those ronin wanderers in the Japanese land, the south is the patrol range of the Triple Alliance Navy, the Japanese generally do not dare to come here to spread wild, and then the south is the territory of the Nanyang Alliance, although the navy of the Nanyang Alliance does not come out to patrol for much time, but the armed merchant ships that come and go frequently can be seen everywhere, and the Japanese people also dare not come to these places to show their faces.

What makes the owner a little strange is the place where these people go, although the owner of the heron island also knows the direction according to the nautical chart and the experience of sailing, but as far as he knows, it is a desert island that not many people live, at most it is some local aborigines who make a living from fishing, but I heard that now the people of the South Sea Alliance have assigned that island to the Tang River people, and the Tang River people are developing on that island, I don't know if these Tang River people are also going to develop it. The people of Tanghe are too wealthy, and they are even interested in these little-known islands, I really don't know what they think.

Gently pushed open the porthole, put the porthole up, a touch of sunlight poured in, and the slightly warm airflow rushed in to make Ling Tian feel relieved and became a little more relaxed, closed the page, took out a stack of papers from the book bag he carried, and a delicate quill was also pulled out casually, Ling Tianfang did not like the traditional brush of the Tanghe people, but the brush was just as competent for him, when dealing with official business, he still used the brush more, but when making his own personal records, such as writing notes, he preferred the quill from the Western Continent。

Sitting at the desk behind the porthole, Ling Tianfang raised his head and looked at the blue sea in a daze, and after a while, he seemed to remember something and began to bow his head.

"This guy named Alfred Thayer Mahan is really a natural genius, and he can actually write such a strange book, so it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a strange book, I dare to assert that there will be no more than five people in the entire Eastern Continent who can read this book, I don't know how His Royal Highness King Qin got this book, and judging from the writing time of this book, it should have been written ten years ago, ten years, I don't know how many of those monarchs and nobles in the Western Continent have accepted the views of this book, if they really accept the views of this book, then we are too far away from them. ”

Raising his head and contemplating for a while, Ling Tianfang lowered his head again and continued his daily fixed work: " The concept of sea power is still only in a corner of our words or thoughts many times, and even more is used as a more fashionable term, there are not many people who really understand the meaning of this word, even I can only say that I have a roughly vague concept after reading this book, but I am very relieved, at least I know that I have stepped into the threshold of a new era, in the Eastern Continent, I believe that there are very few people who have crossed this threshold, and even fewer people who can really realize the important surname of sea power and start to take action, but His Royal Highness King Qin should be one of them。 ”

"Although many people do not yet understand the meaning of sea power systematically, it does not mean that they ignore the important surname of sea power in reality, at least this is the case with our neighbors Wa, Milanese, Mahad and Andako, and even some people in the South Seas Alliance are aware of this. ”

"I envy the keen surnames of the Milanese, perhaps stimulated by the excessive arrogance of the Japanese in the Great Eastern Ocean, the naval power of the Milanese has increased rapidly, although they may not have increased much in numbers, but it is clear that their warships and weapons are already being upgraded. The huge recoil effect of the catapult launch is said to have been overcome by them, and the development of fireproof coatings has made a breakthrough, and I have not been able to see their most advanced warships, and it is said that they have begun to absorb the advantages of the sailing ships from the Western Continent and improve the number of sails and masts, and I do not know what effect this improvement will have on the speed and agility of the warship. ”

"What's more important is that I heard that they are also experimenting with a weapon like the dragon cannon developed by us in the western Xinjiang for use on ships, if this weapon is produced and used in practice, it is simply a revolution that can turn the entire war at sea upside down, I just don't want to believe this, but the reality tells me that we have to think about things worse, maybe the scholars and experts of our science and technology department should also consider the possibility of moving the dragon cannon to the warship, if it can really solve the technical problems that are bothering us now, then the fire crossbow and catapult and broadside warfare will become history and be buried。 I hope that the information provided to me by the Military Intelligence about the development of new weapons by the Milanese is wrong, but I know that I am deceiving myself. ”

Writing this, Ling Tianfang couldn't help but put down his pen and sighed, the speed of the Milanese's naval strength improvement is simply surprising, originally thought that the expansion of the Japanese people's strength may have overwhelmed the Milanese, but now it seems that although the Japanese have swelled greatly in the size of the navy, but the Milanese are constantly improving in technology, one is increasing in quantity, and the other is improving in quality, it is difficult to say which of the two is stronger, but no matter which party's strength is greatly improved, it does not seem to be a good thing for the Tanghe people, who are also the masters of the Great Eastern Ocean, but now the strength of the Milanese's naval strength is still more beneficial to their own side for the time being, for a long timeLing Tianfang believed that Western Xinjiang still needed to maintain relatively good relations with the Triple Alliance.

"The military strength of the Milanese is not only reflected in the navy, the MIA reflects that their army strength is also constantly expanding, the strength of the three legions seems to be unable to meet the security needs of the Milanese, it seems that His Majesty King Louis seems to have a plan to expand another legion army, I wonder if it is the threat of the Machihans that makes them uneasy or our land forces are too strong to make them faintly uneasy? Even both Mahad and Andako have the idea of significantly increasing their defense budgets, can the Triple Alliance and us really form a stable strategic alliance?"

"This trip to Milan was really rewarding, not only because the alliance we made with the Milanese will continue, but I think my ideas and opinions were very shaken by the Milan trip. The riches of Milan are unimaginable, and even at the height of the empire's Jiangnan region I estimate to be roughly the same as Milan today, and the Milanese have made full use of their maritime advantages, with as many as six ports along the coast of the mainland, plus two port cities on the Northern Pearl Islands, and their entire economy can be said to be based on shipping trade. However, the fact that the long coastline of our empire has only six ports, and they are extremely inefficient, cannot but say that we are far behind the Milanese in this regard. ”

"Looking at the number of merchants from the Central and Western continents in the city of Naples, you can imagine how developed the trade economy of the Milanese people is, from Yuhang to Quanzhou to Naples, from Naples to Taranto and now in the sea area where I travel on this ship, the ships that come and go freely have almost never completely disappeared from my eyes, and I will always see one or several sail shadows in a corner of the seaside sky, and these ships are almost flying the flag of San Marco of the Kingdom of Milan, and the rest are also the flags of Andaco or Mahad, and the flag of our Don River Empire is almost rarely seen。 These merchants from all over the continent provided huge sums of money for the Milanese treasury and supported the Milanese's powerful navy and growing army. ”

"Why do these merchants from all over prefer to fly the flag of the Kingdom of Milan? No, because the Milanese navy has considerable influence in both the Eastern and Southern Seas, and it can give the merchants a sense of security, which is the symbol of sea power, and it is only when the merchants think that a regime can protect them and give them absolute security, the sea power of this regime can be fully manifested, I think so, maybe it is a little shallow, but I intend to read the book again. The Influence of Sea Power on History".

November 3, 699. ”

(To be continued)