The Island of Malta is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, where the Knights of the Hospital are stationed. At this time, it rained 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 hide from the harbor of Valletta.

The cathedral was temporarily changed to the headquarters of the Joint Fleet, where senior officials of the coalition forces would gather and discuss the targets of the robbery from time to time.

The Ottoman Empire's gateway to the Mediterranean Sea was wide open, and many coastal towns were within the plunder of the coalition forces.

Because of the successful emergency landing in Tunisia, the coalition forces had a prosperous winter this time.

The Knights of the Hospital obtained more than 500,000 taels of silver in gold and silver treasures from the robbery, which was a considerable fortune for the thousands of people of the Knights, enough for them to spend several years.

Also because of the benefits gained by participating in the coalition, the Knights of the Hospital have improved their attitude towards people with neutral beliefs from the East and treated them as people of their own camp.

In winter, they pointed the robbery arrows at the Egyptian province of the Ottoman Empire.

The Egyptian province has a very ancient history, with some quite prosperous towns along the Mediterranean coast.

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

Egyptian provinces are definitely richer than other pirate strongholds. After all, the wealth of pirate ports comes from looting coasts and passing merchant ships in the Mediterranean, while Egyptian provinces come from the production of millions of people and slaves.

"We originally wanted to ask for 1.5 million silver compensation from Pasha, Egypt, but Pasha seemed to be fearless and did not intend to pay 1.5 million silver to us. The people who went to the ultimatum twice were driven back by them." Castella, the chief of the Knights of the Hospital, drank the white wine from the Fourth Fleet from the East, while mentioning the progress of claiming compensation from the Egyptian province.

"After all, the Egyptian province 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 troops, and it is normal that they are unwilling to pay protection fees to us." said Count Strafford.

They had blackmailed pirates before, but after they blackmailed them, they were facing the real Ottoman provinces, which had a population of hundreds of thousands and millions. They were more resistant to foreign enemies and had enough population to withstand the war.

"How is the reaction of towns in the Livante area?" Sun Xu asked.

"Except for the two small towns willing to pay 20,000 silver each, the other towns are still waiting and watching," said Castella.

They divided the coastal towns of Levant into three levels: large, medium and small. The big towns charge 100,000 taels of protection, medium towns charge 50,000 taels of protection, and small towns charge 20,000 silver. The Knights Order, the hospital as a local tyrant, was responsible for going to the ultimatum.

The coalition forces were already addicted to blackmail, and it was too fast to extort Ottoman towns along the way.

"If we can make the Egyptian province surrender to us, it is estimated that the towns and towns in the Livant region will fall in sight," said Sun Chuanting.

The joint fleet has always used a strategy of shaking mountains and shaking tigers!

The destruction of the Imperial fleet successfully deterred the pirates in Tunisia and Tripoli, avoiding the long siege, and this time they targeted the thorny Egyptian provinces, trying to deter the towns of Levant by defeating the Egyptian provinces.

"The Egyptian provinces are apparently ruled by the Ottoman Empire, but the real power is still in the hands of the Mamluk nobles. This is why they are still unwilling to submit protection fees even when they see their empire fleet defeated," said Castella.

"Who is the Mamluk Group?" asked Sun Chuanting.

"They were originally a group of slave soldiers. They ruled Egypt before the Ottoman Empire turned Egypt into one of their provinces. Later, the Turks attacked Egypt, and they had to rely on the Mamluk group to rule Egypt. Now Egypt has two military forces, one is Pasha of the Ottoman Empire, with about 5,000 guards under his command. The other is the Mamluk cavalry group, with 24 Mamluk leaders, and their army had more than 10,000 people. They would not be afraid of any land war, and even the Mongols were defeated by the Mamluk cavalry at the time." Kasrat said.

"No wonder they don't accept our threats. They can hardly fear us on land." Sun Chuanting said.

There are more than 10,000 cavalry and thousands of musketeers in the Egyptian province. It is not necessary that they cannot be defeated on land, but that they are afraid that the losses will be too heavy and the gains will not be worth the loss.

Napoleon's expedition to Egypt said that two Mamluk soldiers can definitely defeat three French soldiers, one hundred French soldiers and one hundred Mamluk soldiers are evenly matched; most of the three hundred French soldiers can defeat three hundred Mamluk soldiers, and one thousand French soldiers can always defeat one thousand five hundred Mamluk soldiers. It can be seen that the Mamluk soldiers in Egypt have considerable strength.

"Not only that, they can also gather Turkish and Arab infantry. When they really engage in war, their combat forces can reach 20,000 to 30,000." Castella highly praised the strength of the Egyptian province.

"The current question is whether we want to attack Luo, and if we want to fight, how can we fight?" said the officer of the Royal Fleet.

"It's too difficult to defeat Cairo. 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, it takes water to advance together, and we have to fight the Mamluk cavalry near the pyramids. Our coalition forces cannot defeat the Mamluk cavalry." Castella of the Hospital Knights said with a head shaken.

"Let's count the troops. We can send about 4,000 shore troops and ensure the logistics of 4,000 people. This is indeed a difficult problem. The 4,000 people's troops are used to deal with the Egyptian army of tens of thousands of people, of which the Egyptian army has more than 10,000 cavalry." Sun Chuanting compared the troops and felt that it was not very optimistic.

If the Egyptian province dares to refuse to pay compensation, then he will definitely be fearless.

"Give up the attack and open up the idea of ​​Luo. Capturing Cairo requires a powerful army, at least a joint force of 10,000 infantry and artillery. Our current forces can only be used to plunder in the coastal areas. Our goal is not to occupy Egypt, but to make them feel scared, so our goal is to capture the port of the Egyptian province, Alexandria. If Pasha, Egypt, does not hand over the 1.5 million silver we need, we will kidnap all the population of Alexandria and loot all the people." Sun Xu said.
Chapter completed!