27 July 1725, Port Damietta, Egypt.

Located at the mouth of the Nile, Port Damietta is one of the oldest ports in Egypt. More than 800 years ago (853), the Byzantine Empire, in order to combat the power of the Arab Empire in Egypt, sent a naval raid on Damietta, captured it and burned it. Since then, this thriving port has been abandoned and reduced to a small and inconspicuous fishing port.

In the second year of the Han Dynasty (1671), the Ottoman Empire handed over this small fishing port and five kilometers of surrounding land to Qi in the form of lease because it needed a large loan from Qi, and gave Qi merchants the right to collect taxes on their behalf. When the 30-year lease expired, Qi renewed the lease with the Ottoman Empire for another 30 years, increasing the annual rent from 5,000 yuan to 60,000 yuan.

After 50 years of development and construction, Damietta has built a relatively complete wharf, berth, storage, loading and unloading and other advanced facilities, and at the same time, in order to facilitate the repair and maintenance of merchant ships traveling to and from the Mediterranean, the Qi people also built a ship repair shop on the south side of the wharf. Hundreds of ships enter and leave the port every year, and the goods transported from the Red Sea are continuously transported to the countries and regions along the Mediterranean coast, becoming the most important commodity distribution center in the region.

In order to maintain the security of the port and to keep an eye on the Qi people, the Ottoman governor in Cairo stationed an army of more than 1,000 men, half of which were fierce Mamluk cavalry, near the port of Damietta. In Damietta City, there is also a Qi State Trading Company escort force of more than 400 people to maintain law and order in the entire port city. Together with several forts and batteries located at the mouth of the Nile, it was enough to ensure the safety of the port.

It can be said that relying on such a powerful escort force, not to mention that the unscrupulous pirates do not dare to come to fight the autumn breeze easily, even if the surrounding maritime forces are not weak, Venice, Genoa, the Kingdom of Sardinia and other countries may not dare to send troops to attack.

And in the past few days, flat-bottomed transports have been coming down the river from Cairo to the port of Mieta. In addition to carrying a large number of Qi goods, these merchant ships also carried groups of heavily armed Qi soldiers and a large number of military supplies. These soldiers ranged from the regular army of the homeland, garrisons drawn from India, and mercenary cavalry recruited locally in Arabia and Egypt, totaling about 3,500 or so soldiers.

This is the first time in the 200 years since the Ottoman conquest of Egypt that a foreign army has set foot on the land. Of course, for this kind of thing to happen, the Imperial Sudan and the Great Viqi in Istanbul knew about it, and they acquiesced in it - the reason why it was acquiesced was naturally to maintain the face of the empire, and it was impossible to issue official documents to the localities, which after all, undermined the authority of the empire.

"What? The Ottomans wanted us to transfer some of the war materiel they had hoarded here to Istanbul so that they could cope with the Austrian attack? After hearing the words of Yan Yanhong, the commander of the Western Route of the Qi Expeditionary Force and General Guangwei (Major General), his face immediately sank, "Don't they know that we are in a state of war with England, and the war materials hoarded here will be transported to Morocco with the troops at any time?" ”

"General Du, the Ottomans claim that the Austrians have gathered a hundred thousand troops in Belgrade and are preparing to attack Wallachia." Yan Yanhong had a little helplessness on his face, and said with a bitter face: "In order to resist the attack of the Austrians, the Ottoman Empire is also-for-tat, and a large number of troops are drawn from all over the country to deal with it. However, when the army was drawn to the front line, it faced the problem of insufficient follow-up ordnance materials. At the same time, they also fear that the war will sink into a state of long-term confrontation and attrition. So, they want to ......"

"They want to requisition our war materiel, and we will obediently send it to them?" Du Xiping glared at Yan Yanhong with a blank expression, "Then if our army is short of war materials, do you want our army to send his sons and daughters to death in front of the English?" ”

"General Du, the Ottomans didn't say that they would transport all the supplies here, they just hoped that we could give out some of them." Yan Yanhong spread his hands and said, "In addition, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Ottoman Department has also sent us an order, ordering our trading company to ensure that the Ottomans provide sufficient and necessary transportation capacity for the transportation of military supplies and food. You say, what can I do? ”

"Hmph, I only have a military order issued by the General Staff here, assemble at the port of Damietta, and wait for the next instruction from the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary task force, General Wan." Du Xiping said indifferently: "As for the instructions sent by the minister in Ottoman, I will not accept it!" ”

"Well, if that is the case, I will report the situation to the minister. What do you call this? Let's go to war with England, what kind of excitement did the Austrians make and suddenly send troops to attack the Ottomans? …… However, I need to kindly remind General Du that this war with England will not end in a short time. Our Qi expeditionary fleet will inevitably use a lot of Ottomans in the future, so we must not offend them, so as not to produce disagreements between the two countries and miss the major military affairs of our Qi country. ”

"Huh?" When Du Xiping heard this, his heart moved.

It really happened that as soon as our Qi country declared war on England, the Austrians over there began to attack the Ottomans, and in the Caucasus, the Russians, who had been pushed down two years ago, were ready to move again, constantly mobilizing troops and converging towards the Persian border, so that the Persian expeditionary force that was originally preparing to evacuate had to continue to stop at Isfahan and Tabriz to deal with the possible invasion of the Russians.

Under these circumstances, many of the military supplies that were supposed to be destined for the port of Suez were diverted to the port of Bushehr to support Qi's military operations in Persia.

Hey, isn't this a ghost made by the English, instigating Russia and Austria to make some trouble for our country?

In this way, the political and diplomatic methods of the English are extremely clever!

I don't know, apart from Austria and Russia, which other countries they secretly instigated against our country? ——

On July 29, a tense sea chase was taking place 30 kilometers north of Crete.

Six or seven galleons with a displacement of 500 tons quickly rowed across the water, and in a half-moon formation, they outflanked the two fleeing three-masted galleons ahead, trying to intercept them with great speed.

The galley was originally used by the Venetians as a commercial galley for transporting luxury goods (spices, silk, porcelain, myrrh, etc.) and sailed through the eastern Mediterranean. However, with the shrinking trade of the eastern Mediterranean in the 16th century and the frequent battles with the Ottomans, the Venetians had no choice but to transform it into a warship for use in the war with the Ottomans, and in 1571 at the Battle of Lepanto.

As a vessel that uses a hybrid drive of sail oars, the Calaise relies more on sails than Calais because it is larger and heavier, and it can maintain high speeds with a large number of oarsmen in light or windless conditions. The guns were usually concentrated at the bow and stern ends, and in the early days of the Galese there were only about 20 guns - mainly conventional guns capable of destroying the hulls of enemy ships, and by the middle of the last century, the Venetians had strengthened them to 30-40 guns to gain a firepower advantage over the Ottoman navy.

That's right, these Galese warships were under the navy of the Republic of Venice, cruising the Aegean Sea and attacking Ottoman merchant ships.

However, there were several yellow dragon flags hanging on the masts of the two three-masted galleons, which obviously belonged to the merchant ships of Qi nationality. It stands to reason that the Venetian navy should not attack the ships of a third party, because such a move would likely provoke a conflict with the Qi state.

But that's what the Venetians did!

In fact, as early as forty or fifty years ago, as the political and commercial power of Qi penetrated into the Mediterranean region, it was inevitable that there would be great contradictions with the Venetians.

As we all know, the main external threat to Venice came from the Ottomans, with whom the Ottomans fought naval battles for more than 200 years after the capture of Constantinople in 1453. Under the continued onslaught of the Ottomans, Venice lost almost all of its colonial possessions in the Balkans and the Mediterranean.

And after the rapid rise of the Qi State located in the depths of the ocean, I don't know why, it actually hooked up with the Ottomans, and with the help of their influence, broke headlong into the Mediterranean.

To say that Qi spared no effort to support the Ottoman Empire financially and militarily would be nothing more than to add a little military pressure to the Republic of Venice, but with the support of Austrians and other Catholic partners, it was able to barely cope with the Ottoman Empire's military attacks again and again.

However, in addition to supporting the Ottoman Empire, the Qi people also used their strong industrial productivity and rapidly weaving commercial networks to squeeze the Venetians' commercial power and eat away at their trade interests in the Mediterranean.

You must know that Venice itself does not rely on industrial production for its survival, but is engaged in the resale trade, mainly transporting oriental peppers, cinnamon, cloves, cane sugar, precious stones, silk fabrics, etc. to various parts of Western Europe and selling them at high prices, and its total trade amounted to hundreds of thousands of ducats every year. Coupled with Venice's unique glass-making technology, they have earned a lot of wealth, counting money and cramping their hands.

It is precisely because of the country's wealth and abundant financial resources that the small Venice has been able to resist the huge Ottoman Empire for more than 200 years, and has always stood tall.

But now, those money-making oriental goods are controlled by the merchants of the Qi Kingdom, and the merchants of Venice are completely beaten with their surging trade volume and extensive commercial network. The glass industry, which once relied on huge profits, made the people of Qi a "big road goods" and bankrupted countless Venetian glass factories and craftsmen.

As a result, the Venetian Republic was immediately in a difficult financial situation, and it was somewhat unable to invest in military affairs. Otherwise, it would not have been beaten by the Ottomans in recent decades, losing Morden, Cologne, Navarino, Morea (present-day Peloponnese in Greece) and all the nearby islands.

Stealing people's business, such as killing parents! Not to mention, the "hostile behavior" and economic expansion of the Qi people have seriously threatened the survival of Venice.

However, due to the constant military pressure of the Ottoman Empire, the Venetians have been holding back, but they are also waiting for the right opportunity to take revenge on the Qi state.

Half a year ago, England had been sending envoys to persuade the Venetians to side with them in the impending Anglo-Qi War. Of course, the English did not expect Venice's declining navy to sail out of the Mediterranean and join forces with the Royal Anglas Navy to attack the Qi navy.

The English suggested that the Venetians could mobilize a large number of naval ships in the Aegean Sea and the Ottoman coast to intercept and attack Qi merchant ships once the Anglo-Qi War broke out and the main fleet of the Qi navy was pinned down by the English navy. On the one hand, it can hit the Mediterranean trade of Qi and slightly reverse the decline of the Venetian merchants; The two could cut off the Ottoman Empire's access to supplies from Egypt and other North African regions, creating favorable conditions for the Habsburg Empire's attack.

As we all know, the Ottoman navy declined and withered after the Battle of Lepanto, and could no longer fully control the sea dominance in the Mediterranean, and could only maintain the defense of the coastal area.

As a result, the Ottomans handed over a large amount of Mediterranean transportation to foreigners more than a hundred years ago. First the French, then the Dutch, the English, and some Arabs. After the Qi people came, with the close relationship between the two sides, the Ottoman Empire handed over the transportation of goods and people to and from the Mediterranean to the Qi people.

In less than 50 years, Qi merchant ships almost monopolized more than 60% of the Ottoman Empire's maritime traffic, and the Mediterranean Sea was full of Qi merchant ships flying the Yellow Dragon Flag. Let the Venetians see it, and they can't help but go crazy with jealousy.

Therefore, Venice was quite moved by the advice of the English. After the outbreak of the war, five or six warships deployed by Qi in the Mediterranean region sailed to Morocco one after another, which suddenly made many Qi merchant ships lose their military protection, like fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

As a result, the Venetian navy began to frequently intercept and attack Qi merchant ships passing through the Aegean Sea in July, and harvested a lot, capturing four Qi merchant ships full of goods.

The Galese battleship's tactics are simple and effective, quickly closing the distance between the target prey, the first to intimidate and weaken the enemy with powerful firepower, and then even using the huge metal ramming angle to ram the enemy's hull. If neither of these strikes is effective, you can also try to get close to the enemy ship, engage it, and send a large number of armed men on board the ship to give the enemy the final blow with swords and muskets.

The two three-masted galleons, in order to reduce the weight of their hulls, began to continuously abandon their cargo into the sea in order to escape the pursuit of the Venetians. Probably following the example of Dutch merchant ships, many of the merchant ships of the Qi Kingdom were not only equipped with a small number of guns (generally no more than twelve), but also did not have many sailors, and could only have a slight resistance to those pirate ships with weak forces and thin ships.

But to face the powerful Venetian naval warships, I am afraid it will not be enough. What's more, the opponent still has an absolute advantage in numbers, and if it can't quickly get rid of the pursuit and avoid the Ottoman coastal ports in time, the consequences will inevitably be more than lucky.

Despite exhausting all means and adopting the strategy of fleeing separately, after most of the day's pursuit, the Venetians finally succeeded in capturing a Qi merchant ship, and looked at the boatload full of cotton, grain, steel bars, as well as a large number of manufactured goods and ordnance materials, the Venetians burst into enthusiastic cheers.

(End of chapter)