The Rise of the European Emperor

As a result, the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt and some princes of India, including Ottoman Turkey, began to connect, intending to deal with this arrogant Spanish-Portuguese alliance and fleet together.

But the strange thing is that Venice, whose interests have suffered the most, is a little silent, and continues to dig rivers there...

The Egyptians approached Venetian representatives and asked them to join the operation against the Spanish-Portuguese fleet, but they were refused. The reason for the Venetians is because the Venetian warships cannot enter the Red Sea and cannot compete with the Spanish-Portuguese combined fleet. Want revenge? When we're done digging the canal, we'll blast the boats to kill them...

In fact, the Venetians do think so. And, it did so. The reason for this is the fact that Venice is afraid of getting involved in the dispute too early, not only will it not be able to strike Spain and Portugal, but also the fact that it will cause war with Spain and Portugal.

Although Venice may not be afraid of Spain and Portugal, it is afraid that the other party will interfere with Venice's digging of the Suez Canal. The sooner the Suez Canal is opened, the sooner it will generate benefits. Therefore, for Venice, holding back and waiting for the future is the best choice.

Of course, Venice is also happy to see Spain and Portugal unlucky. To this end, the Venetian Parliament specially approved a fund of 300,000 ducats to support the Mamluk dynasty of Egypt, to support the Egyptians to buy ships and recruit people, and to expand their maritime strength, so as to join forces with Spain and Portugal. Anyway, it's going to cause some trouble for both countries...

Marin is busy preparing manpower and materials to build Panama City, and naturally he doesn't know what's going on on this side of the Indian Ocean. However, even if he knew, Marin would directly judge that the Spanish-Portuguese coalition would win. Why? This is proven by history...

Originally, in the Battle of Diu that broke out in 1509, the Portuguese, relying on 18 ships and 1,800 sailors, defeated the coalition’s 2,000 ships and more than 20,000 sailors.

And this Spanish-Portuguese United and Fleet is more powerful than the Portuguese fleet in the original history. Although there are only 8 more ships, all of them are large ships. The Portuguese fleet in the original Battle of Diu consisted of 5 large Clark sailing ships, 4 small Clark sailing ships, 6 Caravel sailing ships and 3 small boats.

Not only that, but under the influence of Marin's naval warfare ideas, the Spanish fleet is generally equipped with a large number of rear-mounted bronze artillery, that is, Fran cannons, mainly 6-pounder guns and 3-pounder guns, and a small number of 10-pounder "heavy guns". ". Maybe the caliber is not very large, but it also depends on what the opponent is...

This action by the Egyptians was strongly supported by Ottoman Turkey. why? Because of the maritime actions of Spain and Portugal, it has affected Turkey's maritime timber transportation!

Most of the areas under Turkish control are relatively arid regions with less timber. Therefore, it is more dependent on importing high-quality wood from India and Southeast Asia.

Even, Turkey's navy fleet is still being formed, the main sources of wood are India and Southeast Asia.

But the Spanish-Portuguese Union and the fleet's domination of the Arabian Sea seriously affected Ottoman Turkey's timber acquisition. Therefore, in order to combat the arrogance of Spain and Portugal, Ottoman Turkey originally intended to provide Egypt with a number of large Mediterranean-style row oar ships and Greek sailors for combat (Greece is currently occupied by Turkey, and the people are also driven by Turkey) .

However, when the Suez Canal has not yet opened, how to transport these platoon oar ships to the Red Sea is a difficult problem.

So, the Venetians took the initiative to stand up - we helped you dismantle the ships, and then send them to the Red Sea coast south of the Sinai Peninsula for reassembly... For this reason, the Venetians urgently mobilized a large number of shipbuilders from the mainland...

The problem is that the Mediterranean-style galleys provided by these Turks can only place a small number of artillery pieces in the bow and stern. As for the broadside, the guns could not be placed because of the need for oars...

Therefore, the large ships sent by the Turks to Egypt are actually not very capable of naval warfare...

However, neither the Egyptians nor the Turks know that the times have changed-they are still stuck in the old-fashioned naval warfare thinking of jumping boats and gangs, and they don't know that artillery warfare has risen...

Therefore, before this naval battle was fought, the defeat of the Egyptians was doomed. Because, the ships of the Egyptian fleet are either large Mediterranean-style rowboats or single-masted Arabian dhows. The former can only mount a small amount of artillery at both ends of the head, while the latter cannot mount artillery at all. As a result, bow shooting became the main attack method of the fleet. And the fleet of the Egyptians' Indian allies, Maharajas, is about the same level, or even worse...

Although the large platoon oars provided by Turkey are not powerful enough, they are relatively durable. But those small dhows are really hard to beat. Even if the main guns of the Spanish and Portuguese fleets are 6-pounder rear-mounted bronze guns, they are enough to deal with these small Arabian dhows. As for those Turkish ships that are more durable, the number is too small and the attack power is too poor, so they can't occupy it at all...

However, the Venetians, who should have actively participated in the war, were reminded by Marin and soberly aware of the gap between the two sides at the strategic and tactical level. However, the Venetians did not intend to remind the Egyptians. why? Because the Venetians don't want to see Egypt being strong at sea...

In the Venetian plan, once the Suez Canal is opened, it is time for Venice to dominate or even monopolize the Indian Ocean. But Egypt is an ally, and Venice is not good at destroying the sea power of the Egyptians by itself. Therefore, it was the best outcome for the Venetians to let Spain and Portugal destroy the Egyptian sea power.

Moreover, once the sea power is destroyed, the Egyptian Mamluk dynasty will rely more on the Venetians. It will even provide more support for the excavation of Venice's canals. Because the Mamluks definitely hope that Venice can avenge them...

So, don't look at the Venetians who paid for it and helped to dismantle and assemble the ship, but in my heart, I wish Egypt would lose as badly as possible...

In the camp against Spain and Portugal, Venice, the strongest, immersed herself in the water and did not do much work, while Turkey only provided a few old boats. The remaining princes of Egypt and India were low in strength and backward in tactical thinking. Therefore, this naval battle has not yet started, but the ending is already doomed...

But in any case, some princes of Egypt and India will not be willing to withdraw from the stage of history after all. Therefore, they will make a last-ditch effort to get a turnaround. After all, no one is willing to give up the huge fat meat that is so lucrative as the spice trade. For the sake of profit, everyone has to fight after all. Until the end, no one is willing to let go and quit easily...