Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 531: Ming Army Joins the War (I)
"Hurry, hurry, hurry and gather all the things. The sun is about to set, and it will be troublesome to load the ship in the dark."
"In the desert, it will be very cold once the sun goes down. Tell the brothers not to work in single clothes anymore, but to put on a coat."
This is the village of Rumana at the northern tip of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in July 1625. After the Ottomans voluntarily gave up their control of the eastern Mediterranean in October last year, a small port was urgently built here. The Ming Dynasty's aid materials were unloaded in Sudr in the middle of the peninsula, crossed half of the Sinai Peninsula, and gathered here, and then transported to Istanbul by sea.
In order to improve efficiency, Ibrahim laid two railroad tracks between Sudr and Rumanai: just railroad tracks, no steam locomotives. The entire Sinai Peninsula is basically a large desert with very flat terrain. As long as there are railroad tracks, human power can also be very efficient in pulling baggage vehicles.
After all, the Ottoman Empire had been in power for too short a time, and the production capacity of various heavy factories was seriously insufficient. Therefore , this rail transportation line was, in a sense, the lifeline of the Ottoman Empire. Therefore, at the beginning, the defenders of this transportation line were an elite sipasi.
But now, it is the Sixth Division of the Ming Army that controls and guards this transportation line.
Since receiving Zhu Youdong's order to withdraw troops in April this year, the entire Sixth Division, from the division commander Zhao Lushio down, has been somewhat reluctant.
From a big picture perspective, the Ming Dynasty and the Ottoman Empire were allies at this time, while the Spanish were the enemies that sold opium to the Ming Dynasty and caused heavy casualties to the Ming Dynasty in Manila. Therefore, the officers and soldiers of the entire Sixth Division did not feel awkward at all to help the Ottoman Empire fight the Spanish.
Personally speaking, the Sixth Division had been stationed in the Ottoman Empire for more than a year, and except for not being able to eat pork and drink alcohol, it was generally a pleasant experience. Now that the war has come, the emperor actually asked us to withdraw? Wouldn't we be shameless people who abandoned our friends before the war?
But the emperor's order must be carried out. So Zhao Lujiao discussed with Chen Zizhuang, the Ming ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, and decided to relocate the entire army - at first they were really planning to stay in Istanbul and fight street battles with the European coalition forces after the six front lines were breached.
Where to move to? Sinai Peninsula. Since this is where the Ming Dynasty's aid materials landed, it is also where the Ming Dynasty's army will retreat: if they really want to retreat.
In fact, Chen Zizhuang and Zhao Lujiao had jointly submitted a memorial to Zhu Youdong: Your Majesty, it is better for us not to withdraw. If you are really worried about our casualties, then we should stay in the Sinai Peninsula. In this way, the Ming Dynasty's assistance to the Ottoman Empire is guaranteed, and if the Ottoman Empire is really about to collapse, it will be convenient for us to retreat.
Of course, due to the distance, the memorial is still on the way. But the Sixth Division did move to the Sinai Peninsula as a whole.
After the Sixth Division arrived here, it not only liberated the thousands of Sipasis originally stationed here, but also greatly increased the speed of material transportation here. However, after all, they lost control of the sea, so the Ottoman fleet could only sneak out of the Aegean Sea the night before, hide in Beirut or Gaza during the day, enter Rumanai to load cargo around dusk, and then leave at night.
In general, the transportation in the past few months has been relatively smooth. But that was only because the European coalition forces, especially the southern front, made a big mistake. Now, when Morris took over the command of the southern front and gradually straightened out the relationship between all parties...
On this day, as the sun gradually set and the sky gradually darkened, in the originally busy but generally orderly atmosphere of Rumanai Village, a series of shrill alarms suddenly rang out!
"Deputy Division Commander, the Third Battalion on guard on the west side of the port has sent a warning message that a large number of masts and a column of black smoke were found more than ten miles northwest of our location."
"TMD, this is a Spanish ironclad ship! How did they find this place?" The person in charge of Roumanai at the moment is Luo Xiong, the deputy commander of the Sixth Division and commander of the First Regiment: The Sixth Division is stationed in the entire Sinai Peninsula, and Zhao Lujiao would not be so stupid as to place the entire division in a small village like Roumanai - it wouldn't be able to accommodate it.
Even the so-called First Regiment stationed in Roumanai only had a battalion and a regimental headquarters in the village.
As for how the Spaniards found this place, it was of course because the Ottoman side also had guides.
As a commander who had been fighting against a larger force with a smaller force in his early years, Morris paid great attention to intelligence. In the past, without accurate intelligence, his small force of more than 10,000 people had been swallowed up by Albrecht and Spinola's large forces countless times. Therefore, after taking over the command of the southern line, in addition to commanding the main force to continue to bombard the Alexandria defense line repeatedly and advance slowly, he also contacted the natives on the ground in Egypt everywhere: work for us, there will be plenty of money and food.
For most people, faith always comes after bread. So, after spreading money and food, Morris had countless eyes and ears in this land.
Then, of course, news came: there were railway tracks along the Isthmus of Suez in the Sinai Peninsula, and a large amount of supplies were unloaded from the northern end of the Red Sea and transported north by sea.
Morris was overjoyed when he got the news, and immediately notified the navy to send out a fleet to search. Then at dusk that day, the Spanish fleet finally touched the periphery of this material transfer point.
However, the Spanish were searching, while the Ming army was always on high alert. Therefore, the Ming army discovered the Spanish first.
"Notify the fleet outside the port. No matter how much is loaded, withdraw immediately!"
"yes!"
"Gather the troops and retreat at least two kilometers south along the railway track."
"Yes, sir!"
"Notify the second battalion at the rear to move into the machine gun positions."
"yes!"
As an experienced officer who fought from Siam to Japan and then to Manila, Luo Xiong immediately issued various orders one after another. The well-trained officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty also began to implement these orders one by one in a tense and orderly manner.
…
“God, what do I see?”
More than half an hour later, the Spanish fleet approached the village of Roumanai. On the new Castile, the commander of the squadron, Duke Alva, was surprised to see a port of considerable size through his telescope.
On a mast in the center of the harbor, a fiery red flag with the sun and the moon side by side was fluttering in the wind.
"Damn it! They're Chinese! They actually have a port here!"
"Sir, I have heard that the Chinese have been assisting the Ottomans over the years. Now it seems to be true."
"Humph!" As the Duke of Alva, who was taught a lesson by Li Guozhu in Manila, did not have the idea that ordinary Europeans were forced to believe by newspapers such as Marca in recent years, such as that the Chinese were demons spreading viruses. On the contrary, he respected this powerful opponent very much. However, such a powerful opponent actually supported the Ottomans on a large scale?
"Order, the fastest second-class battleship detachment in our fleet to advance northeast immediately. If I guess correctly, there must be a fleeing transport fleet ahead. If you really catch them, don't sink them all. I want to see what the Chinese have sent to the Ottomans."
"yes!"
"Yes." After giving the order, Alva raised the telescope and carefully observed the port: "It seems that the enemy on the ground is retreating. How long will it take for our transport ships to catch up?"
"Sir, the fleet has been keeping its speed at around four knots to ensure that we are not too far away from those slow transport ships. So, they will be able to approach us in twenty minutes at most."
"As I recall, these transport ships carry a regiment, right?"
"Yes, sir. The 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 17th Division. However, they only have light weapons, no heavy artillery."
"That's okay. Notify the transport ships in the rear. When they come up, send the infantry regiment ashore and then conduct reconnaissance to the south!"
…
As an army trained by Rudolf himself, this Spanish infantry regiment was naturally well-trained. After the transport ship put them on shore, they quickly completed the deployment and reorganization. However, this infantry regiment only had 3,000 people, so when all these tasks were completed, the sun had completely sunk into the horizon and the sky quickly darkened.
"Hurry, hurry, build a simple machine gun fortification immediately. Where are the bags? Fill them with sand and pile them up."
The commander of this infantry regiment was a Basque named Garcia. As one of the earliest young officers to follow Rudolf, his military accomplishment was beyond doubt. After landing and roughly observing the terrain and the weather, he immediately corrected the Duke of Alva's order: What's the point of reconnaissance at this time! Who knows how many people the enemy has? It's better to consolidate our landing position first and wait until tomorrow when it's bright.
However, he has the basic qualities of an officer, and so does Luo Xiong on the opposite side.
Luo Xiong's initial retreat was due to his fear of the enemy's naval guns: the 150mm naval guns on the Ming's own ironclad ships could fire five kilometers away. Now that the enemy's ironclad ships were coming, it would be better to retreat a little further.
However, when the sun sets and night falls, his thoughts change again.
"Shall we pull up all the guns of our regiment?"
"Captain, three 75mm cannons and ten mortars, pull them all up."
"Well, what a pity, the artillery regiment is not here, and we still have too few artillery of our own. No matter what, let's set up the artillery first. As for the coordinates, haha, we just evacuated from the village! Order our artillerymen to fire at the center of the village!"
