The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 155 Osman is doomed

The Ming landing force destroyed the Ottoman military camp in the Gulf of Suez and quickly established a foothold at the bottom of the bay.

The navy fleet will carry more land forces and deploy them to the land.

The 5,000 riflemen and 5,000 Japanese troops who landed first stationed on the shore of the Suez Bay which had just been captured to meet the other troops and engineering teams that arrived later.

The five thousand riflemen and five thousand Japanese troops who came ashore later attacked northward along the route of the Suez Canal in the previous life on bicycles.

Responsible for opening up a land route between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and beginning to control the area where the canal will be built in the future.

An engineering survey team followed closely behind, surveying the geological conditions of the Isthmus of Suez and planning the route for future canal construction.

However, before building the canal, a simple railway track must be laid first.

It is now used as a fast channel for transporting supplies during wartime, and will later be used as a support route for the construction of the canal.

The 3,000 Ottoman defenders who had just been captured were directly incorporated into the engineering team, responsible for transporting materials for building the railway.

The last 10,000 Japanese soldiers with rifles who came ashore attacked westwards from the Gulf of Suez, aiming for Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

The Gulf of Suez is only 120 kilometers away from Cairo, and the entire route is a desert area with almost no human habitation and no strong defense facilities.

The 20,000 coalition troops marched on bicycles for a whole day, and by the evening of that day, they arrived at a place 30 kilometers away from Cairo.

The troops stayed here for one night to rest and adjust, and arrived five kilometers outside Cairo the next morning.

The Ming Dynasty's reconnaissance troops discovered that the Ottomans had stationed a fairly large army outside Cairo, but the other side's vigilance was obviously not high.

There are scouts around the military camp, but the alert range is not large and the number of people is estimated to be not large. So far, no Ming army has been found approaching.

As people of that era took for granted, the battle in the Gulf of Suez might have lasted for many days.

If the Ming army could be blocked at sea and prevented from landing, then we would only need to fight in the Gulf of Suez, and Cairo might not even have to participate in the war.

At the very least, we have to wait until fighting breaks out in the Gulf of Suez and then raise the alert level of the Cairo military camp.

They could not have imagined that the battle of the Gulf of Suez was now over, and before the news of the end of the battle came, the enemy had already arrived in Cairo.

Liu Biao and other Ming commanders knew that not all prisoners were captured at that time, and sooner or later there would be reports of deserters running back, and the enemy would become alert sooner or later.

So the commander in charge of combat command did not hesitate and immediately ordered an active attack, preparing to capture the Cairo camp before the enemy became alert.

The two Ming army divisions advanced at full speed and marched directly to within less than one kilometer outside the Ottoman camp, setting up artillery positions while deploying their troops.

Bicycle soldiers could not carry artillery that was too large or too heavy, so the Wu State Arsenal specially produced a batch of 80mm shoulder-fired rocket launchers specifically for this type of assault operations.

The scouts around the Ottoman camp finally discovered the suddenly approaching Ming army and were all shocked.

After they reported the news, the officers in the Ottoman camp were also shocked and immediately ordered the army to prepare for battle.

However, the incident happened suddenly and it took time to prepare for the battle. Before they could get into a fighting formation, the Ming army outside had already begun to attack.

The rocket launcher designed by Zhu Jianxuan has a maximum range of only about one kilometer, which is similar to ordinary artillery of this era.

However, the power displayed by picric acid charge is extremely terrifying in this era.

More than one hundred rocket launchers fired at the same time, and a series of exploding fireballs rose up in the Ottoman camp, and the army that had just been organized immediately fell into chaos again.

The riflemen of the Ming Dynasty who were organizing their troops found that it was meaningless to continue organizing their troops.

Since the enemy has been thrown into disarray, all we have to do is charge straight ahead.

During the charge, if you see a suitable enemy in the distance, just stop and fire two shots to kill it.

The hit rate is very high within 200 meters, and it is basically accurate within 100 meters.

While commanding riflemen to fight, the officers of the Ming Dynasty were also thinking about and exploring new combat methods for new infantry.

They have gradually realized that with this weapon that has an extremely fast firing rate and a very long range, it seems that they don't need to form dense formations and conduct concentrated shooting as before.

That was actually a last resort, just to increase the density of firepower and pile up the number of hits with a higher number of shots.

Now the firepower density and hit rate have skyrocketed, so there is no need to stack them specifically.

Waiting for the enemy to line up and rush to your front before concentrating your fire can indeed increase the casualties of the enemy in the first round.

However, once the first line of troops is destroyed, the subsequent enemies will not rush forward and will have organized themselves into teams.

If you advance quickly and attack at the same time before the enemy's troops are organized, you may be able to achieve victory faster.

The number of enemies killed in chaos is not necessarily less than when you wait for them to come up and kill them, and it happens faster.

During the charge, the Ming army seemed to be shooting in a chaotic manner, but they still managed to hit a large number of enemies.

The Ottoman line infantry had no idea how to fight until they were organized into lines.

Using flintlock musket soldiers to disrupt the battle would not cause many casualties. The enemy would only get closer and closer, and their own companions would continue to fall.

This chaos did not last long. The fighting spirit of the Ottoman soldiers and grassroots officers soon collapsed, and then they began to flee aimlessly.

There were also many soldiers who reacted quickly and realized that they might be beaten to death if they ran away, so they just lay on the ground and pretended to be dead.

More officers and soldiers realized that Cairo could not be defended, so they mounted their horses and ran northwest, preparing to leave by ship at Alexandria Port.

But when they finally arrived at the port of Alexandria after two or three days on the road, they were hit head-on by an attack from the sea.

The Ming Dynasty's North American and European escort fleets, totaling more than one hundred warships, are bombarding the port of Alexandria.

Two days ago, on January 1787, 1, they had acted simultaneously with the Red Sea forces, escorting a large number of armed merchant ships carrying 1 American troops to Egypt.

The Ottoman Navy was well prepared, and the two sides met off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, and a continuous naval melee broke out.

The weapons of the Ming escort fleet were no different from those of the Ottoman Navy.

But now when the Ming Dynasty's traditional escort fleet goes out to sea, it will also carry a number of steam sailing ships.

They did not use steam engines during normal navigation, but only used them to transmit orders and messages at critical moments, or to carry out special operations such as raids and encirclements.

This created a huge gap in the command capabilities of the Ming fleet compared to the Ottoman Empire.

The fleets of both sides confronted each other for two days off the coast of Egypt, ultimately resulting in a strategic victory for the Ming fleet.

Although there were not many direct results, the Ottoman naval fleet was forced to retreat.

The Ming escort fleet gained control of the sea and then covered the American army's landing operation.

The U.S. Army did not have riflemen as its vanguard, but the combat effectiveness of these veterans in normal combat was no less than that of the Ottoman defenders.

With the support of naval artillery, they quickly gained a foothold on land.

The Ottoman defenders in Alexandria Port had good will and did not lose in the battle line with the Ming landing troops. They temporarily held this important port.

However, the fleeing soldiers from Cairo brought news that Cairo might fall, causing the morale of the defenders of Alexandria to plummet.

Although the commander of the Ottoman garrison immediately ordered strict restrictions on the spread of related information after receiving the news, the number of fleeing soldiers increased and the news could not be controlled at all.

The news became more and more exaggerated, and some people claimed that the Ming army had asked gods or found the devil for help.

They can use thunder to directly bomb military camps and armies, and can kill opponents directly from hundreds of meters away. Fighting against them means being slaughtered one-sidedly.

At the beginning of a new day, the US Army launched another attack, and the defenders of Alexandria were defeated.

The U.S. Army was a little surprised, but that did not prevent them from instinctively expanding their victory. They quickly captured the military camp and then occupied the entire port.

At the turning point of the Battle of Alexandria, the troops in the east that attacked northward along the Suez Canal route opened up a passage to the Mediterranean in just two days.

The follow-up troops of the Ming Dynasty coalition forces participating in the operation entered the Red Sea one after another, responsible for controlling the designated canal area and the Cairo city area.

The attacking force consisting of two rifled divisions began to occupy the delta area of ​​the lower reaches of the Nile River separately.

At this time, Egypt had a population of more than three million, most of whom were distributed in the delta area below Cairo.

Controlling this delta basically means controlling the key to Egypt.

In the northern border area of ​​the Ottoman Empire, Russia and the Habsburgs also officially declared war on the Ottoman Empire, and more than 200,000 troops launched an attack at the same time.

Russia usually attacks the Romanian region first, and then moves south along the western coastline of the Black Sea. The usual target is the outlet to the Mediterranean Sea, and it would be even better if Constantinople could be captured.

The Habsburgs went straight to Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and other regions, and incorporated these places into the empire.

In the original history, before the start of the Sixth Russo-Austrian War in 1788, many ethnic groups in the Balkans regarded the Habsburgs as liberators.

They believed that by holding off the Ottoman advance, the Habsburg-Austrians could counterattack the Balkans and liberate them from infidel rule.

At this time, when the Habsburgs and Russia launched a full-scale attack on the Balkans, they often received responses and support from local residents.

Therefore, the situation at the beginning of the war was very similar to that in history, and the progress of the two countries was quite smooth.

If there is no forced interference from other external forces, both countries may be able to achieve their goals this time.

Several days after the war broke out, the Ottoman Sultan learned what was happening outside and became furious:
"Damn you Russians! I was planning to avenge what happened ten years ago, but you guys actually took the initiative to attack me. Let's start early!"

The Ottoman Sultan ordered Hasan Pasha to the northern border and command the main force to fight against the Habsburg and Russian armies.

As for the situation in the south, the Sultan was still not very clear. He only knew that the Ming Dynasty had launched an attack, but no one had sent back any specific information.

The Ottoman Sultan naturally assumed that the fighting in Egypt was at a stalemate and that there was nothing to report.

But the reality is that progress on the southern Egyptian battlefield was the fastest.

The Ottoman army in Egypt was quickly defeated by the Ming Dynasty, and a large number of troops and officers were directly captured.

The Ming Navy escort fleet also controlled the sea power, and the normal information reporting channels had been cut off.

In February 1787, the Ming coalition forces basically controlled the Nile Delta region.

Troops from all sides of the Ming coalition were also sent in one after another.

The Wu Kingdom trained a total of ten Japanese legions, leaving a division each in Muscat, Mombasa and Zanzibar to garrison.

At the same time, a special division was left behind to be responsible for the reclamation of warrior farmland in Africa.

Eventually six divisions came to Egypt.

In addition, there were three divisions arranged by the Duke of Min’s Mansion, two special rifled divisions from the Wu Kingdom, and three divisions from North America.

A total of fourteen divisions, totaling more than 120,000 troops, participated in the North African campaign.

The Ming Dynasty, Russia, and the Habsburgs, with a total of nearly 400,000 ground forces, simultaneously attacked the Ottoman Empire.

If nothing unexpected happened, Osman would have no chance of escaping this disaster.

(End of this chapter)