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Chapter 1345 Expedition to Egypt

The island of Malta is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, where the Knights Hospitaller is stationed.At this time, it was raining heavily in the waters near the island of Malta, and merchant ships and fishing boats on the island hid in the port.

The warships of the United Fleet sheltered from the wind and rain in the harbor of Valletta.

The cathedral was temporarily converted into the headquarters of the United Fleet. The high-level leaders of the coalition forces would meet here from time to time to discuss and discuss the objects of looting.

The Ottoman Empire opened its doors in the Mediterranean, and many towns along the coast were within the range of the coalition forces.

Because they successfully forced to land in Tunisia and Tripoli, two strongholds ruled by Barbary pirates, the coalition forces had a prosperous winter this time.

The Hospital Knights obtained more than 50 taels of gold and silver treasures from the looting operations. For the thousands of members of their Knights, this is a lot of wealth, enough for them to squander a few years.

Also because of the benefits gained from participating in the coalition, the Knights Hospitaller's attitude towards people with neutral beliefs from the East has improved, and they treat them as people from their own camp.

They directed their raiding arrows at the Ottoman provinces of Egypt during the winter.

The province of Egypt has a very old history, and there are some fairly prosperous towns along the Mediterranean coast.

The three strongholds of Barbary pirates in Algiers, Tunisia, and Tripoli all compromised with the combined fleet, but the Egyptian governor appointed by the Ottoman Empire did not sell the face of the combined fleet and refused to surrender.

Compared with other pirate strongholds, the Egyptian province must be richer. After all, the wealth of the pirate port comes from plundering the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and passing merchant ships, while the Egyptian province comes from the production of millions of people and slaves.

"We originally wanted to ask the Egyptian Pasha for 150 million silver in compensation, but the Egyptian Pasha seemed confident and did not intend to pay us the 150 million silver. The people we went to give an ultimatum twice were driven back by them." Castella, the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, mentioned the progress of the claim to the Egyptian province while drinking the white wine that the Fourth Fleet had arrived from the east.

"After all, the province of Egypt is a large province with millions of people. It is different from other pirate ports with only tens of thousands of people. They have a vast hinterland to avoid our soldiers. It is normal for them not to pay us protection fees. ’ said the Earl of Stratford.

They blackmailed pirates before, and after the pirates blackmailed them again, they faced the real provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The provinces with a population of hundreds of thousands or millions are more resistant to foreign enemies and have enough population to bear the war.

"How did the towns in the Levant respond?" Sun Xu asked.

"Except for two small towns that are willing to pay [-] silver each, the other towns are still waiting to see." Castella said.

They divided the coastal towns in the Levant into three grades: large, medium, and small. Large towns charged 10 taels of protection fees, medium towns received 5 taels of protection fees, and small towns charged 2 taels of silver.The hospital knights who are responsible for the ultimatum are the local snakes.

The allies had become addicted to extortion, extorting money from Ottoman towns along the way too quickly.

"If we can get the Egyptian provinces to surrender to us, it is estimated that the towns in the Levant area that are waiting will surrender." Sun Chuanting said.

The United Fleet has always used the strategy of knocking mountains and shaking tigers!
The destruction of the Imperial fleet had successfully deterred the pirates in Tunisia and Tripoli, avoiding a lengthy siege, and this time they targeted the difficult Egyptian province, hoping to deter the towns of the Levant by defeating the Egyptian province.

"The province of Egypt is apparently ruled by the Ottoman Empire, but the real power is still in the hands of the Mamluk aristocratic group. This is why they are still unwilling to submit protection fees even after seeing their empire's fleet defeated," Castella said.

"What kind of people is the Mamluk group?" Sun Chuanting asked.

"They were originally a group of slave soldiers who ruled Egypt before the Ottoman Empire made Egypt a province of theirs. Then the Turks invaded Egypt, and they relied on the Mamluks to rule Egypt. Now Egypt has two military forces , one is Pasha of the Ottoman Empire, he has about 5000 guards under him. The other is the Mamluk cavalry group, 24 Mamluk leaders, and their army has more than 10000 people. They will not fear any Even the Mongols were defeated by the Mamluk cavalry at the time.” Kaslat said.

"No wonder they don't accept our threat. They can hardly avoid us on land," Sun Chuanting said.

There are more than [-] cavalry and thousands of musketeers in the Egyptian province, and it is impossible to win with the combined fleet.It's not necessarily that they can't be defeated on land, but because they are afraid that the losses will be too heavy, and the gains outweigh the losses.

Napoleon's expedition to Egypt said that two Mamluk soldiers can definitely defeat three French soldiers, and one hundred French soldiers are evenly matched with one hundred Mamluk soldiers; three hundred French soldiers can easily defeat three hundred Mamluk soldiers. And [-] French soldiers can always defeat [-] Mamluk soldiers.It can be seen that the Mamluk soldiers in Egypt have considerable strength.

"Not only that, but they can also assemble Turkish and Arab infantry. When they actually go to war, their combat strength can reach 3 to [-]." Castella highly praised the strength of the Egyptian province.

"Then the question now is whether we should attack Cairo, and if so, how should we fight?" said the officer of the Royal Fleet.

"Taking Cairo is too difficult. We are unable to fight a decisive battle with tens of thousands of soldiers on the shore. Although Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is located on the banks of the Nile River, to occupy Cairo requires both waterways and a decisive battle with the Mamluk cavalry near the pyramids. It is impossible for our coalition forces Defeat the Mamluk cavalry." Castella of the Knights Hospitaller shook his head.

"Let's count the troops. We can send about 4000 troops on the shore, and we have to guarantee the logistics for 4000 people. This is indeed a difficult problem. The 4000 troops are against the tens of thousands of Egyptian troops. Thousands of cavalry." Sun Chuanting compared the strength of the troops and felt that he was not very optimistic.

If the Egyptian province dared to refuse to pay compensation, it must have nothing to fear.

"Give up the idea of ​​​​taking Cairo. Taking Cairo requires a strong army, at least a combined force of 10000 infantry and artillery. Our current forces can only loot the coastal areas. Our goal is not to occupy Egypt. It is to make them feel scared, so our goal is to capture the port of the Egyptian province - Alexandria. If the Egyptian Pasha does not hand over the 150 million silver we need, we will take all the population of Alexandria into captivity Let's go, loot everything," Sun Xu said.

(End of this chapter)