July 18, 1725, Gate of Heaven (present-day Ceuta, North Africa, Spain).

"The Moroccans have just heard that the eastern Shayang (present-day Melilla, a city in North Africa, Spain) had been seized by the English six days earlier. Except for a dozen or so who escaped to Nador, all the officials and residents of the city were captured by them. Tan Zhongchang, commander of the second battalion of the 11th Regiment of the Qi Army and captain (major) of Xuanjie, climbed the fort of Tianmen Mountain (that is, Hazhuo Mountain in the territory of Ceuta), came behind Zhu Yuanxian, the governor of the strait, and said softly.

"Shayang was able to hold out for more than two months with less than 200 people, which is not easy. Now that it has been broken by the English, it is also in our imagination. Zhu Yuanxian put down the binoculars, then handed them to the guards beside him, and stretched out his hand to point to the sea in the distance, "However, as long as we can firmly hold the gate of heaven, we can always threaten Gibraltar across the channel, and force the English Navy to divide its forces and maintain a large fleet in the area in case we blockade the Mediterranean." At that time, when our expeditionary fleet arrives in Europe, whether it is to attack England mainland or their Atlantic routes, it will be impossible for them to draw their fleet here to support other places. ”

"Actually, the best option for our navy is to cooperate with the Spaniards and seize Gibraltar. In this way, our expeditionary fleet would have unimpeded access to the Mediterranean, whether to Egypt or to the Ottomans, and would be able to obtain sufficient supplies to sustain our long war with England. Qiu Hongmo, commander of the Mediterranean Squadron and Captain Zhaoxin (colonel) who was standing next to him, took over and said confidently.

"What is the purpose of the English attacking the Gate of Heaven twice, and then giving up and besieging and blockading it for a long time?" Tan Zhongchang glanced at Qiu Hongmo and asked rhetorically.

"It's just a siege and a reinforcement." Qiu Hongmo smiled and said, "The English want to fight a quick victory, so that the war will not be prolonged and their finances will be bankrupt. Therefore, they deliberately left the gate of heaven and surrounded it without fighting, hoping that our expeditionary fleet would come to our rescue in a big way, and then start a decisive battle with us at sea near the strait. ”

"Yes, I guess the English have gathered no less than seventy or eighty warships near the strait, hoping that our Qi expeditionary fleet will come to the rescue of Tianmen. They may not expect to annihilate our fleet in a single battle, but most of the time they do so with the aim of inflicting heavy damage and weakening the expeditionary fleet, so that we cannot threaten their English mainland and the Atlantic maritime trade routes. An island country like England, if it has no foreign trade and a large amount of material imports, it will not survive for two years at most, and it will have to give in to us. Zhu Yuanxian nodded, agreeing with Qiu Hongmo's guess.

"I wonder when the Spaniards will move on the English and retake Gibraltar and Menorca, so that the English will have no place near the Channel."

"Hehe......" Zhu Yuanxian chuckled twice, shook his head and said: "As long as the war between us and England does not have a substantial result, they will not end easily." You see, as soon as we inflict heavy damage on the English navy at sea, or the English weaken the defenses of Gibraltar, the Spaniards will definitely act against them at the first opportunity. Rather than thinking about when the Spaniards will attack England, though, I'm now more worried about the attitude of the Moroccans. In the past six months, they have clearly begun to erect all kinds of obstacles to the import of food and other materials into us, and the price has also tripled. ”

"In the past two months, the English have attacked Moroccan coastal towns such as Tangier, Aishra, Lara, Rabat, etc." Tan Zhongchang said: "This has caused a lot of dissent in Morocco, believing that it was our Qi country that involved them in this war and suffered an unjustified disaster. It is said that the court of Fez sent emissaries to the English, intent on removing Morocco from the war and avoiding further attacks by the English navy. ”

"Hmph, in the past 40 years, the Moroccans have received millions of money and material aid from our Qi country, how can they just take themselves out? …… Their king Sultan is now old and has long since lost his prime. ”

"I think they may want to take advantage of this war to try their best to eliminate the influence of our Qi country. After all, the entire economy of Morocco is almost controlled by our Qi businessmen, and there are too many spokesmen of our Qi country in the court. For the sake of the long-term stability of the kingdom and the survival of the dynasty, they don't want our Qi country to be dominant. Qiu Hongmo said.

"Joke! If we are not allowed to dominate the Qi country, can they introduce the French to exclude our Qi power from Morocco? Zhu Yuanxian sneered, shook his head and said: "Barbarians, most of them don't know what is called long-distance and close attack. France is so close to Morocco that it is not afraid of a wolf who will come and swallow its territory? ”

"The Moroccans are just trying to weaken our influence as much as possible in the ......name of razing and razing, oh no, for the purpose of using the law to weaken our influence so that it will not be completely tied to our country in the future. Well, for such a small country, it is also understandable to do so. ”

Zhu and Qiu listened to it, looked at each other, and couldn't help but have a grotesque feeling at the same time. Supposedly, among the people who have a great desire for expansion in the country, apart from those greedy overseas trade merchants, it is the army. Why, in the words of this army captain, there was also a faint hint of sympathy and understanding for the Moroccans.

By the way, where do you sit on your ass? ——

Gibraltar, 21 July.

Of all the problems that have existed between England and Spain in the last decade, the most important and unavoidable are Gibraltar and Menorca. These two territories, which originally belonged to the Kingdom of Spain, were occupied by England during the War of the Succession more than a decade ago. Even after the war, the Anglo-Spanish Armistice was signed, but the English still held both possessions and refused to return them to the Spaniards.

However, the territorial dispute is not the only point of contention between the two countries, and there are other struggles on both sides of the Atlantic. In Spain, English merchants and seafarers were often tried and plundered by the Inquisition, and were even forcibly conscripted into the army to serve in Spanish America. British ships supplying food to Gibraltar were often intercepted and harassed by Spanish warships.

In the Americas, the two countries are at loggerheads over spheres of influence and borders, over timber harvesting rights, and over other issues. But the most important of these disputes was the disgusting but lucrative smuggling trade between the British colony of Jamaica and the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean, which illegally usurped their commercial interests and infuriated the Spaniards.

In this situation, the outbreak of war between Britain and Spain may only be a matter of time, and when the Spaniards can bear it any longer, it is likely that they will "pick up" and launch a counterattack against England.

"Therefore, we must build Gibraltar into a fortress that will never fall, able to withstand any attack from the mainland before the Spaniards turn their backs." Viscount Dylan Sampson, the Governor of England in Gibraltar, stood on a towering rocky peak, looked in the direction of Spain, and said worriedly: "During our war with Qi, the Spaniards will not let go of this opportunity. Once our Royal Navy suffers a defeat, I am sure they will not hesitate to pounce and tear us to shreds. ”

"No, our Royal Navy will not be defeated." Admiral Nicholas Haddock, commander of the Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy of England, said firmly: "We will defeat the navy of Qi in the Mediterranean, and we will also achieve a brilliant victory under the watchful eyes of the Spaniards." I believe that as long as the expeditionary fleet of Qi is defeated, then the Spaniards will continue to shrink their heads in Iberia, and do not dare to have any intention of challenging our kingdom of England. ”

"What if the people of Qi don't want to fight us?" Viscount Dilan Sampson shook his head and said with a wry smile: "You must know that the Qi Kingdom has crossed tens of thousands of miles to Europe, and its combat ships must be carefully selected, and the number is also limited, so it will not be easily consumed with us." I fear that they will break up their fleets and attack our merchant and fishing vessels in the Mediterranean, the North Sea, and even the Atlantic, in order to cut off our trade and cut off our supply channels. As in our first war with the United Provinces seventy years ago, we cut off the Dutch sea trade routes with precision, bringing all their trade to a near halt and finally forcing them to submit. ”

"We are not the same as the United Provinces we were back then." Admiral Hadolph said: "Do you know, half a month ago, the people of Qi also declared war on Portugal. We have thus gained a firm ally with easy access to supplies in Portuguese ports, thus enabling us to more effectively control the Strait of Gibraltar and block the passage of our navy through the Mediterranean. As a result, the Qi expeditionary fleet could only rely on the barren Morocco if it wanted to obtain the necessary supplies. In this way, it will be very easy to be intercepted by our main fleet, and thus a decisive battle at sea will be fought with it. ”

"The Portuguese must have been full of reluctance and resentment at being forced to get involved in this war." Viscount Dilan Sampson sighed and said, "Their many colonial territories located overseas will inevitably be attacked by the Qi people. Moreover, there is a high probability that India, Mozambique, and Angola will be lost. In order to defend their Portuguese mainland and the nearby islands of Madeira and Azores, the Portuguese refused to put their fleet under our command. At the same time, they also demanded urgent aid from England of one million to one hundred and fifty pounds sterling to recruit and arm more troops to deal with a possible invasion by the Qi people. However, the Royal Government encountered difficulties in raising funds for the war, and the first tranche of the special bond of two million pounds was received by the market coldly, raising less than 600,000 pounds. Oh God, this war has just started less than four months! ”

"Lord Sampson, as long as our Royal Navy wins a victory on the battlefield, I am sure that the financiers in London will be eager to snap up war bonds." Admiral Haddock said confidently: "All the difficulties we are facing now are temporary, and our Kingdom of England has survived the most difficult moments of the Great Fire of London and the Netherlands storming the Thames more than sixty years ago. God will bless us and will surely defeat the Qi Kingdom! ”

"General, news of the advance fleet from Canary Island." A naval lieutenant officer hurried up to the rock peak and handed Admiral Haddock the report of the battle brought back by the liaison clipper.

“…… In the early morning of 5 July, the advance fleet of the Royal Navy stationed in Cape Verde launched an attack on the expeditionary fleet of the Qi Navy that had arrived in the area. After two hours of fierce fighting, the advance fleet retreated all the way to Canary Island after giving effective casualties to the Qi navy. During the battle, 7 warships of the Royal Navy were killed, 3 were seriously damaged, and they sank at sea during the journey, and more than 700 officers and men of the fleet commander, Admiral Fisher, and below were killed. After completely destroying the island's ancillary facilities, the support fleet stationed on Canary Island was evacuated on 7 July under the leadership of General Grant and was about to come to Gibraltar to join the main fleet. ”

"The people of Qi are here!" Admiral Hadolph handed the report to Viscount Sampson, then turned and walked towards Rock Peak.

In the following days, two detachments sailed from the Canary Islands and Lisbon, bringing the number of warships of the Royal Navy of England gathered in Gibraltar to 105, of which more than 80 could be put into battle.

The small port of Gibraltar also flooded in with more than 20,000 officers and soldiers of the navy and army and logistics support personnel in a short period of time, causing complaints from more than 1,000 local residents.

At this time, European countries, including the British, did not have a tradition of establishing barracks for soldiers, and when they did not officially enter the war, officers and soldiers usually lived with the local population, which made the population extremely dissatisfied with this and had a bad attitude towards these soldiers.

Of course, the soldiers were not very good, and while living in civilian houses, harassment of housewives, stealing chickens and dogs, damaging houses and furniture, and fighting and brawls were also common.

In order to prevent Spain from taking advantage of the war to attack Gibraltar, the British mobilized 3,000 army soldiers from the mainland to garrison Gibraltar and began to build various forts and fortifications. However, the morale of the soldiers does not seem to be high, and their makeshift camps are overcrowded, unhygienic and unpleasant.

In addition, the soldiers' salaries, which were already small, were still in arrears for more than two months when they were mobilized and transferred to Gibraltar, which made the soldiers complain. To be more comfortable in a bad camp, they have to pay part of their own food, accommodation and facilities. Since there were more than 20,000 officers and soldiers on land and sea, each soldier was supposed to receive very little rations, usually hard, moldy bread, a small amount of cheese, meat or animal fat, and a very small amount of red wine or beer.

If you look at Gibraltar from above, you will find it like a huge refugee camp, full of soldiers in rags (at this time, European countries rarely had uniform uniforms), messy shacks and wooden houses, and deep trenches dug out of it.

On July 24, several reconnaissance speedboats sent back information that the Qi expeditionary fleet had arrived in the Moroccan port of Tangier, a stone's throw away from Gibraltar.

The curtain of the war is slowly opening.

(End of chapter)