The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 112 Venetian Revenge

July 1725, 7, Port of Damietta, Egypt.

Damietta Port is located at the mouth of the Nile River and is one of the oldest ports in Egypt. More than 800 years ago (853), in order to combat the influence of the Arab Empire in Egypt, the Byzantine Empire sent a navy to raid Damietta, capture and burn it.Since then, this prosperous port has been abandoned and reduced to an inconspicuous small fishing port.

In the second year of the Han Dynasty (1671), the Ottoman Empire needed a large loan from Qi State, so it leased this small fishing port and the surrounding five kilometers of land to Qi State for operation and construction, and gave Qi State merchants agency The right to tax.When the 30-year lease period expired, Qi extended the lease with the Ottoman Empire for another 30 years and increased the annual rent from 5000 yuan to 6 yuan.

After 50 years of development and construction, Damietta has built relatively complete terminals, berths, warehousing, loading and unloading and other advanced facilities. 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 pier on the south side of the pier. A ship repair shop.Hundreds of ships enter and leave the port every year, transporting Qi's commodities from the Red Sea to countries and regions along the Mediterranean Sea, making it the most important commodity distribution center in the region.

In order to maintain the security of this port and also for the purpose of monitoring the Qi people, the Ottoman Empire's governor in Cairo stationed an army of more than a thousand people near the port of Damietta, half of which were powerful Mamluk cavalry. .In Damietta City, there is also a Qi Guo Trading Company Guard Team with more than 400 people to maintain law and order in the entire port city.Coupled with several fortresses and forts 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 guard force, not to mention the unscrupulous pirates who dare not come to attack Qiufeng easily, even the surrounding countries such as Venice, Genoa, and the Kingdom of Sardinia, which have strong maritime power, may not dare to send troops to attack.

In the past few days, flat-bottomed transport ships have continued to flow down the river from Cairo and arrived at the port of Mietta.In addition to carrying a large amount of Qi goods, these merchant ships also carried groups of fully armed Qi soldiers and numerous military supplies.These soldiers include regular army troops from the mainland, garrison troops drawn from India, and mercenary cavalry recruited locally in Arabia and Egypt. The total number is about [-].

This is the first time in 200 years since the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt that foreign troops have set foot on this land.Of course, the Sultan and the Grand Vizier of the Empire in Istanbul were aware of the occurrence of this kind of thing, and had their tacit approval. The reason for this tacit approval was naturally to maintain the empire's face and not to issue formal orders. After all, documents were issued to various places, which undermined the authority of the empire.

"What? The Ottomans want us to transfer some of the combat supplies we have hoarded here to Istanbul so that they can deal with the Austrian attack?" Du Xiping, commander of the Western Route of the Qi Expeditionary Force and Guangwei General (Major General), heard that the Ottoman Trading Company was stationed in After the words of Yan Yanhong, the chief shopkeeper of Damietta Port, his face immediately darkened, "Don't they know that we are in a state of war with England, and the combat materials stored 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 said with a bit of helplessness on his face, saying with a grimace: "In order to resist the Austrian attack, the Ottoman Empire It is also tit-for-tat, and a large number of troops are mobilized from various places to deal with it. However, when the army moves to the front line, it faces the problem of insufficient follow-up ordnance supplies. At the same time, they are also worried that the war will fall into a state of long-term confrontation and consumption. Therefore, they hope..."

"They want to requisition our combat supplies, so we will obediently send them over?" Du Xiping glared at Yan Yanhong with a look of confusion on his face, "Then if our army is short of combat supplies, do we have to have our eldest son lie in front of the English?" Are you going to die?"

"General Du, the Ottomans didn't say anything about transporting all the supplies here. They just hope that we can spare some." Yan Yanhong spread his hands and said: "In addition, the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Ottomans also sent us He issued an order and ordered our trading company to ensure sufficient and necessary transportation capacity for transporting military supplies and food to the Ottomans. What can I do?"

"Humph, I only have military orders from the General Staff here. We are gathering at Damietta Port and waiting for the next instructions from General Wan, Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Task Force." Du Xiping said indifferently: "As for the instructions from the Minister to the Ottomans , forgive me for not accepting it!”

"Well, in that case, I will report the situation to the minister. What do you think this is? Our country is at war with England. Why are the Austrians joining in the fun and suddenly sending troops to attack the Ottomans?...But, I need I would like to kindly remind General Du that this war with England will not be over in a short time. Our Qi expedition fleet will definitely use a lot of Ottomans in the future. We must not offend them to avoid creating discord between the two countries. , and missed the important military and national affairs of our Qi State."

"Huh?" Du Xiping's heart moved when he heard this.

What a coincidence. As soon as our country Qi declared war on England, the Austrians started to attack the Ottomans over there. In the Caucasus, the Russians who were suppressed two years ago were ready to move again. They continued to mobilize their troops and gathered towards the Persian border. As a result, the Persian Expeditionary Force, which was originally preparing to withdraw, had to continue to be stationed in Isfahan and Tabriz to deal with possible Russian invasion.

Under this situation, many military supplies that were supposed to be shipped to the Port of Suez were diverted to the Port of Bushehr to support Qi's military operations in Persia.

Hiss, could this be the fault of the English, inciting Russia and Austria to cause some trouble for Qi?
From this point of view, the English's political and diplomatic methods are extremely clever!

I don’t know, besides Austria and Russia, which other countries have they secretly encouraged to oppose our Qi State? ——
On July 7, a tense sea chase was taking place in the sea thirty kilometers north of Crete.

Six or seven Galese galleys with a displacement of 500 tons quickly rowed across the water, forming a half-moon formation and outflanking the two fleeing three-masted sailing ships in front, trying to intercept them with their rapid speed.

The Galese galley was first used by the Venetians as a commercial galley to transport luxury goods (spice, silk, porcelain, myrrh, etc.) and traveled in the eastern Mediterranean.However, with the shrinkage of trade in the eastern Mediterranean in the 16th century and the frequent wars with the Ottomans, it became "useless". In desperation, the Venetians transformed it into a battleship and used it in the war with the Ottomans, and in 1571 In the naval battle of Lepanto in [-], he showed great success.

As a vessel that uses a mixture of sails and oars for propulsion, the Calaisian boat relies more on sails than the Calaisian boat because its hull is larger and heavier. At the same time, it relies on its numerous oars in light or calm sea conditions. By hand, you can still maintain a high speed.The artillery installed is usually concentrated at the bow and stern of the ship. The early ship-borne artillery of Galese only had more than 20 pieces - mainly conventional artillery that can damage the hull of enemy ships. By the middle of the last century, the Venetians strengthened it to 30-40 doors to gain firepower advantage over the Ottoman navy.

Yes, these Galese warships belong to the Navy of the Republic of Venice, cruising in the Aegean Sea and attacking Ottoman merchant ships.

However, there were several yellow dragon flags hanging on the masts of the two three-masted sailboats, which were obviously merchant ships of Qi nationality.It stands to reason that the Venetian navy should not attack third-party ships, because such a move is likely to trigger a conflict with Qi.But that’s exactly what the Venetians did!
In fact, as early as 50 to [-] years ago, as the political and commercial power of Qi penetrated into the Mediterranean region, it inevitably had huge conflicts with the Venetians.

As we all know, Venice's main external threat comes from the Ottomans. After the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453, they engaged in naval battles with Venice that lasted for more than [-] years.Under continued attacks by the Ottomans, Venice lost almost all of its colonial territories in the Balkans and the Mediterranean.

After the rapid rise of the Qi State located deep in the ocean, for some unknown reason, it actually hooked up with the Ottomans and used their influence to break into the Mediterranean Sea.

To say that the State of Qi spared no effort to support the Ottoman Empire financially and militarily, that would be fine. It was nothing more than adding a little military pressure to the Republic of Venice. However, with the support of the Austrians and other Catholic partners, it could barely cope with it. The Ottoman Empire launched military offensives again and again.

However, while the Qi people were fully supporting the Ottoman Empire, they also relied on their strong industrial productivity and rapidly established commercial networks to continuously squeeze the commercial power of the Venetians and erode their trade interests in the Mediterranean region.

You must know that Venice itself does not rely on industrial production to survive. All it engages in is resale trade. It mainly transports pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cane sugar, gems, silk fabrics, etc. from the East to various parts of Western Europe for sale at high prices. Its total trade volume reaches up to [-] yuan every year. Hundreds of thousands of ducats.Coupled with Venice's unique glass manufacturing technology, it allowed them to earn huge amounts of wealth, and their hands cramped counting the money.

It is precisely because the country is rich and has abundant financial resources that small Venice has been able to resist the huge Ottoman Empire for more than two hundred years and has always stood firm.

But now, those profitable Eastern commodities are all in the hands of Qi merchants, and their surging trade volume and extensive business network have beaten the Venetian merchants to pieces.The glass industry, which once relied on huge profits, has turned Qi people into "bulk goods" and caused countless Venetian glass factories and handicraftsmen to go bankrupt.

As a result, the Republic of Venice's finances were immediately in trouble, and its military investment was somewhat insufficient.Otherwise, it would not have been beaten by the Ottomans one after another in recent decades, and they successively lost Morden, Coron, Navarino, Morea (today's Peloponnese Peninsula in Greece) and all nearby islands.

Stealing someone’s business is like killing your parents!Not to mention, the Qi people's "behavior of capitalizing on the enemy" and economic expansion have seriously threatened Venice's survival.

However, due to the military pressure they have been facing from the Ottoman Empire, the Venetians have been holding back, but they are also waiting for the right opportunity to retaliate against Qi.

Six months ago, England had been sending envoys to lobby the Venetians, asking them to stand on their side in the upcoming Anglo-Qiyi war.Of course, the English did not expect Venice's declining navy to sail out of the Mediterranean and join forces with the British Royal Navy to attack the Chinese navy.

The English suggested to the Venetians that once the Anglo-Qi war breaks out and the main fleet of the Qi navy is restrained by the English navy, they can mobilize a large number of naval ships in the Aegean Sea and the Ottoman coastal areas to intercept and attack Qi merchant ships.First, it can attack Qi's Mediterranean trade and slightly reverse the decline of Venetian merchants; second, it can cut off the Ottoman Empire's access to material imports from Egypt and other North African regions, creating favorable conditions for the Habsburg dynasty's offensive.

As we all know, the Ottoman Navy declined and withered after the Battle of Lepanto. It was no longer able to fully control the sea in the Mediterranean and could only maintain the defense of coastal areas. Facing the aggressive offensive posture of the Venetian Navy, it could only retreat to the port and rely on shore fire defense. Cannon cover to resist their attack.

Therefore, the Ottomans handed over a large amount of Mediterranean transportation work to foreigners more than 100 years ago.First the French, then the Dutch, English, and some Arabs.After the Qi people came, relying on 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 [-]% of the Ottoman Empire's maritime transportation volume. Qi merchant ships flying the Yellow Dragon flag were everywhere in the Mediterranean.When the Venetians saw it, they couldn't help but become crazy with jealousy.

Therefore, Venice was quite moved by the English suggestions.After the war broke out, Qi's five or six warships deployed in the Mediterranean region sailed to Morocco one after another, immediately causing many Qi merchant ships to lose the protection of force, like fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

Therefore, starting from July, the Venetian navy began to frequently intercept and attack Qi merchant ships passing through the Aegean Sea, and gained a lot, capturing four Qi merchant ships loaded with cargo.

The Galese warship's tactics are simple and effective. After quickly closing the distance to its target prey, it takes the lead in striking the enemy ship with powerful firepower to intimidate and weaken the enemy. Then it can even use its huge metal ram to ram the opponent's hull.If these two attack methods are ineffective, you can also try to get close to the enemy ship, connect with it, and send a large number of armed personnel on the ship to board the enemy ship and use swords and muskets to give the enemy a final blow.

In order to reduce the weight of the ship, the two three-masted sailing ships began to continuously abandon the cargo on the ship into the sea, hoping to escape the pursuit of the Venetians.Perhaps they were modeled after the Dutch merchant ships. Many of Qi's merchant ships were not only equipped with a small number of cannons (generally no more than twelve), but also did not have many sailors. They could only deal with pirate ships with weak weapons and thin ships. resistance.

But facing the powerful Venetian naval battleships, I'm afraid it won't be enough.What's more, the opponent still has an absolute advantage in numbers. If they can't get rid of the pursuit quickly and avoid the Ottoman coastal ports in time, the consequences will be disastrous.

Although they exhausted all means and adopted the strategy of splitting up and escaping, after most of a day's pursuit, the Venetians finally succeeded in capturing a Qi merchant ship. They looked at the ship full of cotton cloth, grain, steel bars, and more. There were a large number of industrial products and ordnance supplies, and the Venetians burst into cheers.

(End of this chapter)