The more Wang Baobao thought about it, the more he felt that he could not easily entrust his security to unfamiliar people.

He decided to see for himself how well Paul Gale's Roman navy was fighting.

Two days later.

Wang Baobao led his own personal guards from Salai City to Wuyun City next to the Black Sea.

Wuyun City is a Mongol name based on the original meaning of the local Kipchak language.

Because the waters of the Black Sea are very dark, like dark clouds in the sky, drifting back and forth on the seashore.

Therefore, after the Golden Horde established a port here, it named it the Cloud City.

The Roman navy under Paul Gale was now docked in the harbor of Cloudcast.

Wang Baobao took out 500,000 Roman silver coins and bought this fleet.

From top to bottom, this navy was full of curiosity about the Mongols who were about to go to Constantinople to become emperor of John V.

The Roman navy was now loyal to the Mongols, all for the sake of money.

Truth be told, although these Roman soldiers looked down on Emperor John V, they were relatively less fond of the Mongols who came from the Far East.

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After all, ordinary Roman soldiers think more about their own security, and whatever religious beliefs are still after the security issue.

The Mongols had slaughtered more than 100,000 people in Poland not so long ago.

In any case, this is a very scary number.

The Romans, fearing that the Mongols would not be pleased, killed them all.

After all, in Christendom's perception, the Romans were civilized and the Mongols were savages.

Whining!

Woooooo

With the sound of a loud bull's horn, a well-equipped cavalry appeared outside the Dark Cloud City.

The local Mongol garrison immediately sent someone to inform Paul Gale and asked him to greet His Royal Highness King Paul John Kokotimur, the Great Mongol Auxiliary Prince, the protector of the Rus' Orthodox Church.

Paul Gale didn't dare to slack off.

After all, John Timur was not only his own benefactor, but also the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, Alexios, who personally demanded his allegiance.

Paul Gale led several of his admirals to the outside of the Cloud City and participated in the arrival of 'John Timur'.

After seeing John Timur, Paul Gale couldn't help but be a little surprised.

Because the John Timur in front of him does not match the legendary image at all.

In the legend of the Eastern Romans, these came to the Mongols from the East and had a brutal leader, John Timur.

They all rumored that John Timur had a fierce face and an air like rotting flesh, that he could roar like a lion when he spoke with one mouth, that he could eat ten pounds of raw meat a day, and that he could tear a leopard apart with his hands!

Anyway, in the legends of the Eastern Roman people, Wang Baobao is more like a monster than like a normal person.

But now that Paul Gale saw Wang Baobao himself, he felt that this Oriental man was handsome, very young, and full of an aristocratic temperament that people could not despise.

That's right, it's the aristocratic temperament of the superior.

Paul Gale was joined by the other Mongol generals in saluting John Timur.

After Wang Baobao saw Paul Gale, he was not polite to him, and directly asked to go to the port to check the training and combat of the Roman navy.

Paul Gale immediately took Wang Baobao and other Mongolian generals to Wuyun Port.

After entering the port, Wang Baobao finally saw the Roman navy that he had bought for 500,000 Eastern Roman silver coins.

There were a total of twenty ships, large and small.

Of these, ten were large ships capable of carrying five or six hundred people, five large merchant ships capable of carrying three or four hundred people, and the rest were small fast warships with triangular sails.

In any case, Wang Baobao felt that this Roman navy was really not powerful.

He had seen the navy of the Great Yuan Dynasty or the Red Turban Army in the Central Plains.

The scale of any water army has to start with hundreds!

And the navy of the Eastern Roman Empire turned out to be the largest naval force in the Mediterranean, but it only had a pitiful dozen warships.

Wang Baobao's face was full of disappointment, and he didn't hide it at all.

Paul Gale looked at John Timur's expression from the side, and was slightly unconvinced.

He hurriedly said: "Your Royal Highness, our navy originally had a lot of ships, but for some reason they did not participate in this voyage, so the number was smaller than the original, and when we fought with the Gennajanians, our warships also suffered some losses!" The original fleet size was more than fifty warships. ”

Paul Gale's explanation made Wang Baobao not react at all.

To be honest, even the Roman naval fleet was fully equipped, but it was really not powerful in the eyes of Wang Baobao.

Guessing more than 50 ships in a full state, this really makes people laugh off.

However, for Wang Baobao now, having such a fleet is better than nothing.

Subsequently, Wang Baobao ordered Paul Gale to lead his Roman navy to practice how to fight at sea.

Paul Gale knew that this John Timur had a lot of money, and if he could do well, he would definitely be able to get his extra reward.

At the same time, in order to save some face for himself, Paul Gale immediately went to direct the arrangement in person.

The Roman navy began its maneuvers with the sound of trumpets and drums, and the battleships began to maneuver in battle formations on the sea in the harbor.

The main methods of combat of the Roman navy were nothing more than two.

One is to use the sharp ramming angle of the ship's head to ram the enemy's warship, so as to smash the enemy's warship and make it incapacitated.

Another method was to engage in gang fighting, in which Roman naval soldiers would fire crossbow arrows at the enemy when they were in close proximity to the enemy's ships, and then the soldiers with short knives would jump into the enemy's ships for hand-to-hand combat.

In addition to these two main methods of warfare, the Roman navy would use Greek fire to burn enemy ships at long distances.

They also use ranged weapons such as scorpion crossbows and ballistas to destroy enemy sails and hulls.

It's just that these ballista weapons are limited in power, and in many cases their accuracy is not good, making it difficult to achieve effective results.

After watching Wang Baobao for most of the day, the expression of disappointment on his face became even worse.

He now felt that the Roman navy was really weak!

If the lives of the Great Yuan soldiers are really entrusted to them, once they are intercepted by the Genoese navy, I am afraid that they will only have to jump into the sea to feed the fish.

Wang Baobao calculated that according to the carrying capacity of the Roman navy, each voyage could only carry more than 10,000 people, far less than 20,000 people.

If you want to go to Constantinople to seize the Roman throne, it is not enough to bring such a few people.

Therefore, after watching the exercises of the Roman navy, Wang Baobao had already made up his mind in his heart.

He decided to do two things first, and then go to Constantinople to fight for the throne of the Roman emperor.

The first thing was to completely improve the Roman navy in front of them, not only to win their hearts and minds under their own command and make them completely obey their commands, but also to change their combat methods, so that their combat effectiveness could be greatly improved, so as to ensure the safety of navigation of the Mongol warriors.

The second is to rapidly expand the number of the "Great Mongolian Navy" to have at least 40,000 ships carrying 40,000 people at a time!

Wang Baobao estimated that 40,000 people would be able to completely control the internal and external defense and daily management order of a large city like Constantinople.

Otherwise, if the number of people falls below this number, there will be loopholes in many parts of Constantinople.

Wang Baobao is very cautious in his work and does not allow the slightest mistake.

Moreover, in addition to these changes to his own strength, there is also the external environment Wang Baobao also needs to seize the time to change.

This external environment naturally refers to the city of Kaffa on the Crimean Peninsula.

One of the main reasons why the Genoese were able to monopolize the shipping routes in the Black Sea was because of the presence of the base port of Kaffa on the Crimean Peninsula.

The Genoese were able to mend ships, stock up on food, and train sailors.

Let them advance and retreat freely on the Black Sea, and no one can snatch their maritime power.

In order to expel the Genoese, Wang Baobao must conquer the city of Kaffa.

This Genoese naval base on the Black Sea, Wang Baobao is determined to win!

Wang Baobao first ordered Paul Gale to gather all the Roman naval soldiers ashore.

How to completely subdue these Roman naval soldiers, Wang Bao kept his own means.

Wang Baobao directly ordered people to take out gold and silver treasures worth 300,000 Eastern Roman silver coins and distribute them to these Roman soldiers on the spot.

When the Roman naval soldiers saw that the Mongols were so generous, the xenophobia in their hearts suddenly disappeared.

One by one, they cheered in unison after receiving the gold and silver treasures, cheering for the forgiveness of John Timur, the protector of the Orthodox Church, and praising John Timur for his wisdom in appreciating them.

Among the jubilant Roman admirals, Paul Gale was the one who cheered the hardest, because Paul Gale received the most rewards.

He was the commander of the Roman fleet, and Wang Baobao directly rewarded him with ten pounds of gold at one time!

In addition, there were ten tall Volga war horses.

The ten pounds of gold were a huge sum of money that Paul Gale had never earned in his life.

Paul Gale and the Roman soldiers were easily and completely taken down by Wang Baobao's money offensive.

In this way, Wang Baobao has no need to show his tough wrists.

In fact, even if the Mongols did not show their toughness, the Roman soldiers did not dare to resist at will.

One hundred thousand Polish souls have just gone to meet God, all the work of the Mongols.

They didn't want to be corpses under the Mongol butcher's knife.

Among the Roman naval soldiers who received the reward, Wang Baobao saw that the number seemed to be somewhat small.

Most of the Roman warships were galleys, but Wang Baobao did not see a single oarsman who had come to receive his reward.

After questioning Paul Gale, Wang Baobao learned that the slaves who rowed in the Roman navy were not members of the Roman navy at all.

The position of the slave oarsman on the warship was about the same as the tools of the sails and ropes, and they were just a group of talking animals, not human beings at all, let alone soldiers of the Roman navy.

After Wang Baobao heard this, he immediately shook his head.

He ordered Paul Gale to summon all the slave oarsmen ashore.

Paul Gale had no reason to refuse the order of his new master, anyway, Wang Baobao would have full command of this fleet in the future, and how to treat these slave oarsmen, Paul Gale did not want to conflict with Wang Baobao because of this.

In a short time, about two thousand ragged and emaciated slave oarsmen were summoned to the shore of the harbor.

The life of these slaves on the ship was very miserable, and most of them often lived only three to five years after serving as slave oarsmen, and then lost their lives in endless torment.

Death was not so terrible compared to their daily lives, and they ate the nasty moldy bread of the battleship, drank the foul water, and had to do the most heavy work of paddling.

When the slaves came to the shore, they were all terrified.

They didn't know what the fierce Mongols and Roman navy soldiers around them would do to them.

Many of them have already become numb.

Even if they were killed immediately, they didn't seem to have any intention of resisting, and death was a relief compared to the life of slaves on ships.

However, then the Mongols made a move that surprised them.

Wang Baobao ordered that ten silver coins of the Eastern Roman Empire were distributed to each slave oarsman.

Then he asked the Roman naval commander Paul Gale to tell these slaves that from this day on they were full members of the Great Mongolian Navy, and all of them were no longer slaves, but a noble Mongolian naval warrior!

After three years of service, each of them received a good reward, as well as a piece of land next to the Black Sea, and henceforth they were treated exactly like ordinary Roman soldiers on ships, without having to eat moldy black bread and foul-smelling water.

As soon as this act was made, all the slaves wept bitterly, fell to their knees, and chanted the gods in various languages, praising Wang Baobao, the merciful and merciful new master!

The last thing Wang Baobao lacks now is money and land.

Much of the vast land left by the Golden Horde was unexplored.

What he lacks now is population.

Whether it is a farmer and herdsman who cultivates and grazes, or a merchant who pays taxes, or a soldier who kills the enemy and fights, Wang Baobao will not refuse to come.

These thousands of skilled paddling slaves must be allowed to play a greater role in warfare!

How can a slave have the courage to fight to the end in battle?

Only a noble warrior would fight for honor and reward.

Wang Baobao's move in Wuyun City immediately gave the Roman navy a new glow.

Subsequently, after communicating with Paul Gale, Wang Baobao knew that if he wanted to expand the size of the Great Mongolian Navy, there were two main ways.

One is the construction of new warships.

The other is to rob the ships of other forces.

If a new warship is built, it will take more than a year at the earliest, otherwise it will definitely not be completed.

According to the scale required by Wang Baobao, such a huge ship construction project, just the preparatory work in the early stage, it will take an additional half a year, and without two years, the "Great Mongolian Navy" will definitely not reach the scale required by Wang Baobao.

Then the only way left is to snatch the warships of other forces.

The most suitable target was none other than the Genoese.