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Chapter 1354 Landing in Egypt
The sky over Alexandria was dark as the waves lapped against the coast of North Africa.

The sea wind blew one of the sailor's hats away, and the sailor chased it all the way to the edge of the deck. Seeing that the hat had fallen on the sea surface, with the strong wind and waves surging, he had to sigh and gave up trying to recover the sailor's hat.

"Remember to bring the streamer!" Zheng Zhibao was on the deck. When the fleet arrived near the port of Alexandria, there was a sudden strong wind. He looked at the coast of North Africa anxiously.

If the weather is calm, their fleet can easily enter Alexandria and start marching towards Cairo.However……

"Captain, aren't we going to enter Alexandria?!" Li Jinde walked out of the cabin against the sea breeze.

At this time, the wind was strong, and the sea water was turning black. The shallow water gunboats around the ironclad ship were bouncing up and down with the waves, and some small boats were in danger of overturning.

The fleet has stayed outside Alexandria for an hour without any movement, making many people wonder what the fleet is waiting for.

"Under normal circumstances, we can swagger into Alexandria, but the waterway at the entrance of Alexandria is difficult. One of our sentry ships hit a rock and sank when we went to investigate. We are weighing how to land." Zheng Zhibao pointed to the main ships flagpole.

The main ships in the joint fleet communicated through semaphore, and finally the Shuhan raised the final order.

"Sail west of Alexandria." Zheng Zhibao ordered the ship to turn after receiving the order.

It is also difficult for soldiers to turn more than 200 ships. They must avoid hitting their own ships in strong winds and waves.

The Combined Fleet sailed about 12 kilometers west along the coast of North Africa and landed on a beach.

It was noon when the fleet started to land, and they could only rely on small boats to avoid hidden reefs and transport soldiers to the shore.Moreover, since the coalition forces are generally equipped with muskets and gunpowder, they are afraid that these things will be soaked in seawater when they land, and the landing action appears to be slow.

The slow landing lasted until night, and everyone was wet, tired and hungry. Some soldiers collected branches, leaves and trees from the coast to light a fire, which barely maintained their morale.

There are also military horses, cannons, a large amount of food and fresh water that cannot be transported ashore here due to bad weather.

The beach was crowded with 16000 soldiers and handymen, and the place was so noisy that a few soldiers could not even find their own troops.

"Damn the weather, I hope it doesn't rain as soon as we get to the beach." Castella took the Knights of the Hospitaller Order to occupy an open space, and they set up several bonfires in the middle of the open space, and everyone gathered around the bonfire Sit on the ground.

They were gnawing on the dark and hard bread. This kind of black bread was not really delicious, but it could barely fill their stomachs.

"Our horses are still on the boat. I don't know if the weather will reduce the wind and waves tomorrow. I see our horses are stumbling around on the boat. Maybe they will lose the ability to fight in the next few days." The knights were full of worries about their mounts.

"You don't need artillery and war horses to capture the city of Alexandria. It's already in decline, and the Egyptian Pasha won't deploy many soldiers there. If I didn't have full confidence in our expeditionary force, I wouldn't be able to take you on an expedition to Egypt." Stella said.

"Brother, are the Mamluk cavalry really as powerful as the rumors say?" Hannah asked.

"They are very scary. They have learned professional combat skills since they were young. They have good horses, are good at riding horses, and have complete weapons. They defeated the Crusaders, the Mongolian army, and established their own dynasty until they were conquered by the Turkish army who was good at firearms. They began to be loyal to their new masters. The Turks wanted to rule Egypt, so they supported a new group of Mamluk nobles, and the Mamluk cavalry got a lot of new firearms from the Turks, and became even more powerful." Custer Ra said.

Hannah raised her eyebrows: "Won't the emperor of the Ottoman Empire worry that the Mamluk cavalry would rebel against his rule after being equipped with new firearms?"

"So the Egyptian Pasha had a Turkish guard of 5000 people, and they divided Egypt into 24 regions, each of which was managed by a Mamluk nobleman. When there was a war outside, the 24 Mamluk nobles The nobles will work together to fight under the command of the Pasha. When there are no foreign enemies, they will fight openly and secretly, and may fight for population, territory, and wealth. At this time, the Egyptian Pasha needs to coordinate. The Ottoman Empire used this simple methods to manipulate the Mamluks in Egypt," Castella said.

"Will the 24 Mamluk nobles unite to expel Pasha?" Hannah asked again.

"First of all, they must have a motive for doing this. If Pasha is driven away, who will sit on the throne of Sultan for them? What if the Ottoman Empire comes to attack them in the future and execute all rebels to death? What?" Castella said.

After listening to her brother's explanation, Hannah nodded with a vague understanding.

She gnawed on the black bread, and caught a glimpse of the soldiers of the Far West Dispatch Army not far from their Knights Hospitaller, and saw one of them. She only felt a dull pain in her chest, and then shifted her gaze to the jumping bonfire .

"My lords, our camera is still on the ship. We have to find a way to move it down. We want to record this great expedition!" A videographer from the capital also came along with the army.

He came with the Fourth Fleet, but the sea battle was too dangerous, so he, his assistants, and the bulky camera were all left on the island of Malta.

This time I heard that there is an ancient Great Pyramid in Egypt. The cameraman strongly requested to participate in the expedition, and wanted to leave the first precious video data for the Great Pyramid.

"Didn't I tell you to stay on the boat? Why did you run off without permission? Wait until we capture Cairo and make sure it's safe before we release you to take pictures." Seeing the cameraman disembarking with the infantry privately, Sun Chuanting couldn't help scolding.

"My lord, don't I want to take pictures of the officers and soldiers' heroic gestures when they marched towards Cairo? You allow us to follow the officers and soldiers with cameras all the way!" said the cameraman.

At this time, Zheng Zhibao recruited two soldiers: "Send this big brother to the iron-clad ship and guard it strictly. After the war is over, they will be allowed to disembark with the camera."

The cameraman was carried away from the beach by Zheng Zhibao's own soldiers, and Zheng Zhibao said to Sun Chuanting: "Master Sun, don't be angry, those who have been on the battlefield just don't think it's a big deal, how can they know that we are leading the battle on the front line at the risk of being strayed?" There is no room for a grain of sand in someone's eyes."

Sun Chuanting sat down again, grabbed a big cake and bit it: "This time we command the infantry of the other five factions to carry out an expedition. If we succeed, we will achieve our goal of establishing prestige. If the expedition fails, we will lose face. We Set out at dawn tomorrow morning and attack Alexandria without artillery."

(End of this chapter)