Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1326 Take the initiative
"The outpost ship of the Ottoman Empire fleet was discovered!" Several knights got off the Maltese warship and brought back a heavy news, which alarmed the combined fleet stationed on the island of Malta.

Grandmaster Castella immediately ordered the knights who had found out the news to come and report.

The senior leaders of the Fourth Fleet, the Royal Fleet, the Far West Expeditionary Force, and the Knights of Malta temporarily set up a headquarters in the cathedral, and spread out three-party charts to confirm the position of the Ottoman Empire fleet.

"Why do you confirm that it is the outpost of the Ottoman fleet?" Castella asked.

"The Barbary pirates who are active near us are either flying the pirate flag of Tunisia or the pirate flag of Tripoli, and rarely fly the flag of the Empire, but we have seen three ships flying the Empire star in the nearby waters. Ships of the Moon Banner! According to the records of previous grand masters, when the Barbary pirates go to war in the name of the empire, they will be temporarily incorporated into the imperial fleet to participate in the battle!" The knight who went to sea to inquire about information replied.

The high-level leaders of the many joint fleets looked at each other, and it seemed that the Ottoman fleet they had been wanting to fight with had finally arrived.

As long as the fleet of the Ottoman Empire is destroyed, they will have sufficient time to plunder the towns and pirate lairs of the Ottoman Empire along the Mediterranean coast, and then leave the Mediterranean calmly.

"Which area of ​​the sea did you find the three ships flying the flag of the Ottoman Empire?" Castella asked.

The returned knights pointed out the places where they encountered the Ottoman navy in three places on the chart.

Castella, as the head snake here, is very familiar with this place: "If their outpost ships are near here, it is likely that the purpose of sending ships is the same as that of us. We are looking for their traces, and they are also looking for ours. Traces. If my predictions are correct, they should be in this place, Tripoli. Tripoli is one of the three important strongholds of Barbary pirates loyal to the Ottoman Empire. One of the strongholds, Algiers, has been captured by us, and if we If we can defeat the Ottoman navy, we can go to Tripoli and extort gold and silver from them."

"Grand Commander, when we found them, they must have found us, and their fleet may arrive at our island of Malta soon!" The knights were worried.

If the Ottoman navy really took the initiative to attack the island of Malta, then the fear brought about by the Turks 70 years ago will reappear.

"We can take the initiative and burn the flames of war to other places instead of the island of Malta. If we stick to the island of Malta, they may not dare to take the initiative to attack the strong fortress here. Because winter is coming, they will definitely not be able to spend a long time. Siege warfare. When they found the situation in front of them difficult, they had one option to withdraw to Constantinople." Sun Xu stood up to judge the intention of the Ottoman fleet.

He worried that if the United Fleet retreated to the fortress on the island of Malta, the Ottomans would be afraid of attacking the fortress that the Knights Hospitaller had spent decades building.

Sun Xu did not expect that the Grand Vizier and others would be so afraid of the imperial emperor's punishment, and they were eager to find them for a decisive battle.

"You mean that our joint fleet went to Tripoli and took the initiative to challenge their fleet?" Sir Pennington asked.

"Not exactly. For example, we can make a gesture of attacking Tunisia, let the fleet gathered in Tripoli come out, and then we turn around halfway, so that they will rush to meet them without defense, and then smash their fleet in one fell swoop. !" Sun Xu drew a curved line with his finger on the chart.

"At this time, all the pirates in Tunisia should have been conscripted to Tripoli... If we attack Tunisia, they are indeed very likely to support. The capture of Algiers has already disgraced the Ottoman Empire. If Tunisia is also removed, then the Ottoman Empire will completely lose face. It is equivalent to slapping the left and right cheeks of the Ottoman emperor at the same time!" Castella agreed with Sun Xu's plan to lure the enemy.

This naval battle will not spread to the island of Malta, nor can it be in Tripoli, the enemy's home field, then the battlefield will be...

"Tunis Strait! We are here to support the fleet of the Ottoman Empire!" Castella pointed to the huge strait between Italy and North Africa.

"I didn't expect the decisive battle to be approaching so soon. I thought it would take some time to find their fleet. I didn't expect them to arrive in Tripoli, right under our noses. Speaking of which, our Knights of the Hospital have not fought a decent war for a long time. But we have never forgotten that the Ottoman Empire wants to put us to death. We can send 12 ships this time, which is already our limit. The combined number of our knights and the civilians of the island of Malta is only a few thousand people, and we still need There are people staying on the island of Malta." Castella said to his allies in embarrassment.

Among the three forces, the Knights of Malta is the least powerful, only one-third of the area of ​​Hong Kong Island, with a population of several thousand people. It is an organization rather than a country, so it has relatively little say in the joint fleet.Their contribution is more about the judgment of the navigation conditions around the Mediterranean Sea.

"Twelve ships are enough, plus the 12 pirate ships we captured from Algiers, we can barely make up a fleet of close to 10 ships. In this battle, we will abandon some supply ships that are not combat-capable and the last time The ships that were severely damaged by artillery in Algiers reduced the fleet to 50 ships. We need to replenish the fleet within two days. Once the replenishment is complete, we will set off from the island of Malta and expose the opponent's reconnaissance ship Our whereabouts. We are going to fight a beautiful naval battle, and let the coastal towns of the Ottoman Empire fear us!" Sun Xu, as the commander of the Fourth Fleet with one ironclad cruiser and three sailing battleships, naturally became the leader of the joint fleet. Commander of the fleet.

He has the right to make decisions on strategic deployment.

Castella was familiar with the climate and hydrology here, and served as the staff officer of the Combined Fleet.

As for the Royal Navy Fleet, they followed behind them, occasionally making comments, which became completely paddling.

"In order to avoid a direct declaration of war with the Ottoman Empire, we in Britain will lower the flag of our Royal Navy before this naval battle." Sir Pennington said.

"During sea battles, the smoke from the artillery fills the air, and lowering the flag is easy to be accidentally injured by friendly ships. Why don't the ships of your Royal Fleet hang our Chinese flag first to distinguish ourselves from the enemy?" Sun Xu suggested.

"This..." The officers and nobles of the British Royal Navy were silent for a while.Isn't it a little strange to fly the flag of China as a warship of Britain...

(End of this chapter)