Bringing the Railway to Daming

Although Zhu Gang looked down on those "small boats" in his heart, he thought about the fact that he would be the head of the family in the future and would have to worry about the finances of the Jin State, so he said, "Well, the more boats we have, the better. Let's let the warships obey Commander Lin."

"Yes."

The messenger left, and soon the four warships including the Jinyang broke away from the Jinfan fleet and joined the South China Sea Navy Squadron, setting up a battle array facing the harbor from a distance of two or three miles...

The power of the Mamluk Kingdom reached its peak in the decades after it defeated the Mongols more than a hundred years ago. In addition to owning what later became Egypt, it not only occupied a large area of ​​territory on the southern coast of the Mediterranean, but also occupied nearly three-quarters of the land on the northeastern coast of the Red Sea in West Asia.

According to the conventions of world history, it would not be an exaggeration to call it the "Mamluk Empire" at that time.

Unfortunately, its heyday was short-lived. The country declined several decades ago. Not only did it lose its rule over the areas where Syria, Palestine and Israel were located in the future, it also lost 90% of its coastal territory in the northeast of the Red Sea.

But no matter how much the Mamluks declined, they were still a kingdom-level power and still controlled the Gulf of Suez.

Although there was no Suez Canal at that time, the Gulf of Suez was still prosperous as a sea route for transportation between Northeast Africa and West Asia.

This can be seen from the ships docked in the harbor - among them, only 20 to 30 large and small warships are the Mamluk "navy" stationed in the port, and the rest are basically merchant ships from Mamluk, several small countries in West Asia and even Persia.

Both the Mamluk navy and the merchants in the port had seen for the first time such a huge fleet and tall warships of three to five thousand tons, not to mention that the warships of the South China Sea navy were all covered with iron armor.

They didn't know what naval guns were, so they were still shocked when they saw the Ming army's warships arranged in a battle line for convenient bombardment. Many people on the dock were even exclaiming in amazement.

"Oh my God, how can there be such a big ship in the world?"

"Where does such a large fleet come from?"

"Look at the flags on these ships. They all seem to be from the same country. My God, how powerful must this country be?"

"I've seen that flag in India before. It seems to be from the mysterious Eastern country of porcelain!"

"···"

After being shocked, the Mamluk navy became nervous and frightened.

The deputy commander of this small naval fleet asked the commander, Karash, "General, this is such a large fleet, including many tall warships. I'm afraid they are coming with hostile intentions. What should we do?"

"Retreat, retreat to the shore first..." Karash said with a dry throat.

However, before he could formally give the order, he saw the ships in the front leaning to the side, revealing strange portholes, followed by bursts of flames and smoke, and he heard a series of "thunderclaps".

Boom boom boom...

As more than a dozen Ming army warships fired together, live bullets fell on the sea surface just a dozen feet away from the merchant ships and warships gathered in the port.

Seeing the splashes of water caused by the stone bullets hitting the water, the merchants who were still on the boats finally panicked and asked their subordinates to row the boats towards the dock and the shore.

The Mamluk naval soldiers did not need Karash's orders. Those who were already on the shore of the harbor were so scared that they abandoned their ships and fled, while those who were still on the sea paddled frantically towards the shore.

In this way, hundreds of merchant ships and warships in the port of Suez were almost abandoned by their owners, and some of the cargoes on the ships were left intact in the port.

The huge Ming army fleet then leisurely entered the port and anchored.

Half an hour later, Zhu Gang brought dozens of guards to the Tonghai (the squadron flagship) where Lin Feng was to discuss matters.

After entering the conference room of the Tonghai, Zhu Gang discovered that in addition to several senior court officers he had met before, such as the fleet commander Lin Feng and the Xihaiwei commander Qin Xu, there was also a Seljuq man with black hair, blue eyes, a hooked nose, and dressed like a foreigner.

When the Seljuq man saw him come in, he was the first to bow and greet him, and he spoke quite standard Mandarin (Nanjing Mandarin).

"Tie Mingyi, the commander of the Bright Guard stationed in Mamluk, pays respect to His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin!"

It turned out to be someone from the Guards of Light.

Zhu Ying suddenly realized.

Come to think of it, there are many Semites in Egypt. If his father wanted to plant spies here, he would definitely choose the Semites from the Ming Dynasty - after the demise of the Yuan Dynasty, there were quite a few Semites left in the Ming Dynasty.

The others also saluted Zhu Gang one after another. After the ceremony, Zhu Gang took a seat and the meeting began.

Tie Mingyi spoke first, "I came to Mamluk two years ago with some of my subordinates disguised as merchants, and I have learned a lot about the country."

As he spoke, he bowed respectfully towards the east and said, "Your Majesty is truly ingenious, allowing His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin and the two commanders to come to Mamluk at this rare and opportune time."

Zhu Ying was delighted when he heard this and asked, "Oh, what do you mean?"

Tie Mingyi said, "The Mamluks were once powerful after defeating the Mongols, but their national power began to decline decades ago. Twenty years ago, a rebellion broke out on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. The original Turkic rule was gradually overthrown, and the Mamluks were plunged into war."

"About seven years ago, the Circassian general Barkuk ascended the throne, officially ending the previous Turkic rule."

"But this year, he was betrayed by several powerful generals and officials and deposed from the throne. However, he was not killed. Instead, he escaped from the royal city of Cairo."

"Barquq rose to prominence through warfare and has many supporters in the military. According to the intelligence we've gathered, he's currently recruiting troops and may well regain the throne."

"But now the Mamluk throne is vacant. Those who usurped it each harbor their own ulterior motives, and Barkuk is rallying his troops, ready to strike back at any moment... In short, the Mamluks are currently engaged in internal strife. This is a godsend opportunity for our Great Ming to destroy their kingdom and seize their territory!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Gang, Lin Feng and Qin Xu looked at each other with surprise.

Honestly speaking, although they knew that the Ming army was hard to beat with its current combat capability, this expedition was after all tens of thousands of miles away, and there was no backup. Zhu Gang was a little worried about whether he could be successfully enfeoffed, and Lin Feng and Qin Xu were a little worried about whether they could complete the emperor's order.

Now, the Mamluks had exhausted their national strength due to decades of rebellion and dynasty changes, and the new dynasty happened to be in civil strife, which gave them more confidence in seizing this place.

Afterwards, Zhu Gang and the other two learned a lot of information they needed from Tie Mingyi.

For example, the deployment of troops in the city of Suez near the port, the specific situation in various parts of the Mamluk Kingdom today, the deployment of troops in its capital Cairo, and so on.

After understanding the situation, Zhu Gang paused for a moment before pointing to the military map on the screen brought by Tie Mingyi and saying, "I believe our next steps can be roughly divided into three steps: the first step is to capture the city of Suez and gain a foothold."

"The second step is to use a surprise attack on Cairo, two hundred and fifty miles away, with a surprise attack. Ideally, we can capture the city by surprise and capture the group that is now nominally in power."

"The third step is to try to eliminate that Balkur and his main force."

"If we can complete these three steps, our goal of conquering the Mamluks will be accomplished. The next step is simply to suppress disobedience in various regions. I will then establish a vassal state, and Commander Qin will establish the Western Sea Guard."

Although one of the main purposes of Zhu Yuanzhang's establishment of the Xihai Guard on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean was to monitor the Jin vassal state, he certainly trusted Zhu Gang more when he sent so many people thousands of miles overseas in the early days - after all, Zhu Gang was his son, while Lin Feng and Qin Xu were not.

Therefore, when the three parties need to take joint action and fight, Zhu Gang is the main person in charge - Lin Feng only has the temporary command authority over navigation and naval battles.

Zhu Xing also had a lot of military experience, and he had received a lot of instruction from Lao Zhu, Liu Kuan and others. Although the "three-step" strategy he just proposed was rough, it was recognized by Lin Feng and Qin Xu, and even Tie Mingyi, who was in charge of intelligence, nodded in agreement.

Qin Xu then made a suggestion.

"Your Highness, Prince Jin, if we want to launch a surprise attack on Cairo, it would be best to send someone inside now, disguised as a merchant caravan, to sneak into the city. If it's too late, Cairo might hear the news from Suez and step up their defenses."

Zhu Gang readily accepted, "I think so too. Then I will send my Iron Guard—the Iron Captain. I will also trouble you, the Bright Guard, to provide cover."

Tie Mingyi clasped his fists and said, "This is my responsibility, and I will do my best."

Zhu Ying nodded and immediately ordered the Iron Guard to set off and continue the meeting.

Lin Feng sighed, "His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin is truly foresighted in forming this Iron Guard. Even though there are only 500 of them, they are more useful here than thousands of soldiers."

"Hahaha," Zhu Gang laughed happily after hearing the flattery, pretending to be modest, "It was with the guidance of my father and the Marquis of Jiangning that I came up with the idea of ​​forming the Iron Guard."

Speaking of which, Zhu Gang's Iron Guard has two major advantages.

One of them is a "mercenary" in nature, which he bought with money and does not count towards his immigration quota, just like the 3,000 Japanese orphan soldiers raised by Zhu Di.

Secondly, the Iron Guards recruited only Ming Dynasty Semu people with families! (End of this chapter)