A large army was marching along the coastline of North Africa towards Alexandria, a army that stretched for several miles.

The defenders and residents of Alexandria discovered the overwhelming fleet that appeared in the outer port yesterday. Yesterday's bad weather prevented the fleet from landing from Alexandria, and the fleet disappeared from the outer port.

Even so, some powerful and defenders in Alexandria realized that the war might come, and fled from Alexandria with treasures overnight. When ordinary residents of Alexandria saw many powerful people fleeing, they also realized that something was wrong, and some of their smart people also escaped from Alexandria.

When Sun Chuanting brought more than 10,000 Egyptian expeditionary forces into the city of Alexandria, half of the people inside had fled, and some people had hidden themselves.

They encountered little decent resistance.

There were less than 500 defenders in the declining city of Alexandria. The officers fled in advance with some of their personal soldiers, and there were only less than 300 defenders left. These soldiers only had two ancient bronze cannons, which were the old-style artillery that even the Knights of the Hospital. The poorly equipped defenders even threw stones at Sun Chuanting and their elite troops.

The Expeditionary Force occupied the harbor with a simple charge, and the soldiers who were really unfighted were surrendered.

After occupying this ancient city, which may be nearly 2,000 years old, the soldiers of the Expeditionary Force began to plunder treasures in it, which was also to compensate the Expeditionary Force for its expenses.

"Alexandria does not have the prosperity as expected. It seems that it is indeed a declining harbor. It should have been a very prosperous place a long time ago. It may be an earthquake or a war that made it decline." Sun Chuanting climbed to the fortress in Alexandria.

This fortress extending from Alexandria is like a lighthouse protecting Alexandria, but the old artillery is placed on it. The old artillery made Sun Chuanting feel as a spoil. Even if it is transported back and re-smelted into copper, it will waste transportation capacity.

From here, we can see that the sea surface has returned to calm, and the fleet is continuously delivering artillery, horses, food, and fresh water to the beach.

"Except for the Nile River Basin, most of this place is desert, which is simply deserted!" The Dutch businessman Leit followed Zheng Zhibao to the Alexander's fort. He felt a little uncomfortable when he saw the sparse trees outside Alexander.

He had already changed into the uniforms of the Fourth Fleet naval soldiers.

He was originally a captain of a Dutch merchant ship, but was forcibly taken to the Mediterranean by the Fourth Fleet. He had delayed his chance to make money, so he had to continue to mingle with the people of the Fourth Fleet.

The Fourth Fleet also wanted to train a group of vassals who could help them fight in Europe, otherwise it would cost a lot of money to mobilize troops from the local area. Just like this expedition to Egypt, they only needed to dispatch 2,000 soldiers, and the other 14,000 people came from other forces. If 16,000 soldiers were dispatched from the local area, the annual military expenditure would be extremely terrible.

"So we'll just fight to the richest Cairo. There are still many oasis and arable land in the Nile River Basin, where there are the wealth we want." Zheng Zhibao said.

"No, what we want is not wealth, we need this place." Sun Chuanting held a map in his hand.

Reit came over with shamelessness: "Sir, I really couldn't imagine what good things are there in Egypt besides the Nile River that can bring vitality to this dry land?"

"The land in this section of Egypt separates the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. If the ships can directly enter the Red Sea and Indian Ocean from the Mediterranean, then sailing ships do not need to detour the dangerous horn of African storm. From our east to the city of London, it can be shortened by at least 5,000 kilometers, and to the island of Malta, it can be shortened by 8,000 kilometers, and it does not need to pass through the equatorial windless belt. Do you know what this means?" Sun Chuanting pointed to the connection between Asia and the African continent.

The famous Suez Canal in later generations has not yet appeared!

"You mean digging a Grand Canal, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea directly. Mediterranean ships can enter the Indian Ocean along the canal!" Reit quickly understood Sun Chuanting's thoughts and exclaimed.

"If we dig a Grand Canal, the time we go to the West every year will be greatly reduced, and at the same time, it will save a lot of trade costs." Sun Chuanting said.

"Sir, Venetian merchants have made efforts to communicate the idea of ​​the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. They were jealous of Portugal and Spain gaining huge benefits from the great voyage. They once negotiated with the Mamluk Group and obtained permission to dig the canal." Reit said.

"The Venetian merchants had such an idea so early? What happened later?" Sun Chuanting looked at the Venetians with admiration this time.

This small country with a core population of only a hundred thousand people seems to be a bit powerful.

"In the past, Venice and the Ottoman Empire competed for Mediterranean hegemony. Before the Venetians had time to dig the canal, the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt. The Ottoman Empire was not interested in digging the cloud canal, or was worried that the excavation of the canal would be beneficial to Venice, so they not only imposed heavy taxes on goods passing through Egypt, but also refused to negotiate with the Venetians on the excavation of the canal. The Venetians could only give up this plan." Reuter knew the reasons and explained the complicated inside story to Sun Chuanting and others.

It is hard to imagine what would have been the Mediterranean if the Venetians had successfully dug the Grand Canal.

Sun Chuanting sighed: "It turns out that the Venetian merchants had long been digging the Grand Canal. No wonder they were very interested in conquering Egypt and sent so many soldiers. If they occupied Egypt, they could send Egyptians to build the canal. Their merchant ships would be able to enter direct trade with the East along the canal and avoid heavy taxes from the Ottoman Empire."

"If the Venetians were allowed to dig the canal first, they would set up checkpoints and tax the ships passing through the canal. So we must be ahead." Reut said worriedly.

"It's not necessarily a bad thing to let the Venetians dig canals..." Sun Chuanting thought for a while.

"Why? Ah, I understand. Digging a canal requires a lot of gold and silver, and a large number of workers need to be sacrificed. If the Venetians spare no effort to accomplish this, our fleet can seize control of the canal. By then, the Venetians will lose money and the canal will be lost, and they will also be criticized..." Reuter showed a sudden enlightenment.
Chapter completed!