"Then please send him a letter for me. I ask him to come outside Cairo to discuss dispatching the Navy of the Republic of Genoa. In the letter, I will tell him that Ming Dynasty is willing to pay a price of one hundred cannons.
, hire the navy of the Republic of Genoa to assist in attacking Kailuo City." Wen Di said.
Hearing this, Alfonso was obviously stunned for a moment, and quickly lowered his head to prevent Wen Di from seeing his expression. After a while, he raised his head and said, "I can deliver this letter to the Genoese for you.
However, is the price of hiring them too high? One hundred artillery pieces, even if they are short-range and small-caliber artillery pieces, is too much. I think you only need to pay for twenty, no, ten artillery pieces as
For a reward, you can hire Genoese to help attack Kairo City. After all, the Mamluk Sultanate's navy has been almost wiped out, so there is no risk in helping to attack Kairo City."
"Moreover, paying artillery as a reward is completely different from paying money as a reward." Alfonso continued: "Artillery is a very advanced and expensive weapon. There are not many artillery in the whole of Europe. If the Genoese get too much
More artillery will affect the situation in the Mediterranean and the maritime order will become chaotic. This is detrimental to Ming Dynasty's trade with European countries. So I think that even if you want to hire the Genoese navy to assist in attacking Cairo City, you should not
Pay with artillery."
'Huh?' Questions popped up in Wen Di's mind. Of course he would not really give the Genoese a hundred artillery pieces. This was just a way to stimulate Alfonso and make him agree to send Castile's navy to fight.
But Alfonso did object to him paying such a high price to hire the navy of the Republic of Genoa, but he did not take the initiative to send out the navy of the Republic of Castile instead. He only suggested that he reduce the compensation to the Genoese.' What on earth was he doing?
What are you thinking?'
'You will marry my sister and become the king of Egypt in the future. How could you really give the Genoese so many artillery pieces?' Alfonso thought. In fact, the two countries of Castile and Aragon
The rulers of the country have figured out the basic outline of the Ming Dynasty's European policy: with the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon as the most important partners, while also leaving a certain amount of space for the two old maritime powers, Genoa and the Republic of Venice.
interests, it does not exclude countries such as the Republic of Florence and the Kingdom of England from joining, so as to maintain the order of the West and ensure the commercial interests of the Ming Dynasty.
Ferdinand I and Queen Catherine didn't know the reason why Ming Dynasty did this. They could only guess that one of the reasons was that the Kingdom of Castile had the most powerful navy in the Mediterranean at the time. Some people thought that the other reason was that Ming Dynasty was also a monarch.
The monarchy is more willing to form an alliance with the Kingdom of Castile, which is also a monarchy. There are no other reasons to guess; but this does not prevent them from taking advantage of the Ming Dynasty’s policy. Since the Ming Dynasty regards the Kingdom of Castile as its most important cooperation
Partner, then you will definitely not give the Genoese so many artillery pieces. I know for sure that Alfonso is several years older than Wen Di and has more experience, so of course he will not be fooled by him.
Wen Di talked to Alfonso for a while, and saw that Alfonso only said this all the time. He was not very old, and being able to calm down and fight with Alfonso for so long was the result of preparation in advance;
Now that he had finished all the words he had prepared in advance, he had lost his patience and said with a slightly impatient tone: "Alfonso, since you said that giving so many artillery pieces to the navy of the Republic of Genoa will affect the situation in the Mediterranean and disrupt order.
, then I use artillery to hire naval forces from Castile and Aragon to assist in attacking Cairo City, what do you think?"
"Well, of course my father and I are willing to get artillery, but the navies of the Kingdom of Castile and Aragon did suffer a lot in the previous naval battle outside Alexandria. I'm afraid it will be difficult to send many ships to assist in the siege."
Fang Suo felt happy, but he did not immediately change his tone, but said this.
"Whatever you have, the Mamluks don't have many artillery, and the trebuchets are far less useful than the artillery. It doesn't matter if there are fewer battleships. However, since there are fewer battleships, the number of artillery for you will naturally be reduced," Wen Di said.
.
"In this case, I promised to dispatch the navies of the Kingdom of Castile and Aragon to this area through the Nile River to assist in the attack on Cairo City. I immediately sent people back to Alexandria to send a message, informing them to dispatch warships, and asking if they could dispatch
How many battleships and how many cannons are there on these battleships?" Alfonso finally agreed to the matter.
After all, Wen Di, the seventh son of the Ming Dynasty, is still a young man and is not a scheming person. It seems that he will infiltrate Egypt in the future and slowly make this country's relationship with the Kingdom of Castile and Aragon very close.
It's very difficult.' Alfonso thought to himself again. Since he thought so, his face showed a little.
'He still succeeded.' Although Wen Di was not as calm as Alfonso, he noticed his expression, realized this, and secretly said something angrily in his heart. It took him a lot of effort to suppress it.
He controlled his anger and chatted and laughed with Alfonso.
After lunch, the two of them talked for a while. Two quarters of an hour later, Wen Di said goodbye to him on the pretext that he wanted to take a nap and returned to the military camp. When he returned to his tent, Wen Di first asked Cao Xing and Li Jiqian how they were with Fu today.
The noble said something, and then couldn't help but talk about the battle of wits and courage between himself and Alfonso today, and finally said with some frustration: "It seems that I can't beat Alfonso. And he is only twenty-one years old this year.
, is only six years older than Gu, and can’t even fight against him, let alone the cunning King Ferdinand I and the Queen of Castile. I’m afraid Gu won’t be able to do what my father has entrusted to me in the future.”
After the anger, Wen Di became depressed. Alfonso was six years older than him and was of the same generation, but he was eaten to death by Alfonso today. He didn't know that the Castilians had already
He guessed that Ming was weak and confident, and thought that he could not compare with Alfonso; Egypt was too far away from Ming and could not borrow much strength, so he felt that he might never be able to defeat Alfonso in the future; if his father had any influence on him
I'm afraid I can't do whatever I'm told.
"How can your Highness think so? Even though His Highness is not as good as His Highness Alfonso of Aragon now, His Highness is very smart and will definitely be above him in the future." Cao Xing said with relief.
However, his words of relief had no effect, and Wen Di became even more depressed after hearing this. Wen Di knew that Cao Xing had always been like this, and could not force him. He turned his head and looked at Li Jiqian, hoping to hear words that could really comfort him.
But after hearing what he said, Li Jiqian was about to speak when he suddenly thought of something and lowered his head in thought. After a while, he raised his head and saw Wen Di and Cao Xing both looking at him, and said hurriedly: "Your Highness, Brother Cao
, I just remembered something, so I lowered my head and pondered."
"What did you think of?" Wen Di asked.
"Your Highness, the imperial edict that I saw a few months ago, as well as the instructions that Your Majesty gave to me and others before leaving the capital, I feel that although the Ming Dynasty and the Castilian coalition forces captured Egypt, this country will suffer.
On the surface it looks like you are getting a big advantage, but in reality you are probably going to suffer a big loss." Li Jiqian said.
"A big loss? What loss?" Wen Di asked.
"I don't understand. After all, your Majesty is a wise master, and I cannot guess what your Majesty is thinking. But the country of Castile will definitely suffer a big loss." Li Jiqian answered vaguely.
"In this case, Gu feels much better." Wen Di did not ask further questions and said with a smile. "Just wait and see, Castile and Aragon will suffer a big loss."
…
…
In the next few days, as they were waiting for the navy to arrive from Alexandria, there was little movement between the Ming and Fu soldiers. Basically, they scattered a few soldiers and horses every day to search for money and food. When the Ming army went to India, they brought
We bought several hundred horses, and bought some more horses one after another in Abyssinia. In addition to the horses captured along the way and bought from the Allied Forces, we collected 4,000 horses to equip the cavalry of Jinwu's rearguard.
Let them search for food on horseback every day, and at the same time, they also forcibly conscripted the young and strong people in the villages they found to be civilians. Alfonso felt that the Ming army recruiting so many civilians was a waste of food. There were more coalition forces than the Ming army, but the civilians
There were only one-third of the Ming army. But the Ming army was willing to do this. He persuaded Wen Di twice and didn't listen.
Twelve days later, part of the warships of the combined fleets of the two kingdoms of Castile and Aragon arrived at Bassus, north of Cairo. They anchored here for a day and paid the Ming army thirty dollars in advance.
The cannons were transported to the warships. The Ming army not only paid all the rewards in advance, but also sent gunners to instruct Castilian gunners on how to use these artillery. Of course, the guidance was not free. In addition to paying the gunners personal wages, Alfang
Suo also presented Wendi with fifty war horses.
On the second day, these warships sailed near Cairo and fired at the city under the guidance of Ming army gunners. Of course, the Mamluks also had artillery, and each general secretly copied a few. But the craftsmen of Castile had been close to
I have seen the artillery of the Ming army at a distance (saw it when I pretended to be Jijano's entourage on an envoy to the Ming Dynasty), and the imitations are certainly much better than those of the Mamluks; plus thirty real Ming artillery pieces and Ming Dynasty artillery pieces
The gunner's guidance was far more powerful than the Mamluks' artillery. After three days of bombardment, most of the cannons on the top of Cairo's city were destroyed, and the remaining ones were withdrawn and no longer dared to be placed on the city's top.
After knocking out the Mamluks' cannons and destroying most of the trebuchets, Cao Xing began to organize his troops to land in the Delta. But just when he had finished all the preparations and was about to lead his troops to land, a piece of news came.