January 10, 1666.

The fleet led by His Royal Highness himself finally arrived in Suez. During this period, he encountered no resistance. In fact, before they arrived in Suez, Du Yuanwei ordered the cleaning of the cities and strongholds of the Ottoman Empire along the Red Sea coast. Those cities and strongholds were obviously unable to withstand the Ming army's artillery bombardment. A few ships also turned into piles of bonfires on the sea in the fierce artillery fire of the Ming army.

When the Crown Prince's fleet arrived at the Red Sea, except for a few pirates, the Red Sea was completely the world of the Ming Dynasty.

Like in the past, Li Fulin, who walked out of the tent, looked up outside. Although it had already entered the twelfth lunar month, the weather in Suez was still as warm as spring. The white clouds like cotton floated in the sky. The sun brought sunlight and warmth to the earth without any obstacles. The sea breeze blowing from the Red Sea brought the atmosphere of the sea. The soft warm breeze blew across the date palm trees on the coast. Behind the dense date palm trees was a low earth house. Occasionally, several beautiful dome buildings were exposed in the yellow earth houses, and most of those buildings were Islamic temples.

This is Suez! The southernmost port of the Sinai Peninsula is not a complete bay, but an open coast. At this time, ships of all sizes are parked on the sea outside this coast. Looking around, the sea is connected by sail forests, which is a grand view. There are hundreds of warships and merchant ships, and the tall sail forests even block people's sight, making people unable to see the sea.

There are cargo warehouses everywhere on the coast that stretches for miles, and all kinds of supplies are piled up in the warehouse. Field guns are arranged on the coast. The shiny cannons emit metallic light under the sunlight. Ammunition boxes, canned boxes and various supplies are piled up into hills. Above boxes several meters high, soldiers holding guns are standing guarded.

The carriages pulled by horses were constantly traveling between the coast and the inland. The coachman raised his whip and shouted from time to time. The coast was full of chaos, and it was like a market. Countless soldiers walked around the supplies and advanced towards the inland. The steel "flying saucer helmets" on the soldiers' heads reflected dazzling light under the scorching sun. Behind the soldiers, thousands of sampans were driving out of warships and paddled towards the shore. Thousands of soldiers climbed onto the land with this sampan.

Faced with this strange land, these Ming soldiers wearing "Ultrashelf" kept marching in front of them, heading inland, while the empty sampan took back again, and there were more soldiers on the boat waiting to land.

Cars are scattered, horses are scattered!

As soon as a team of people were rectified in the camp near Suez City, a messenger came to convey the order. The soldiers who had not adapted to the land immediately set off to the north. Even though the long sea journey made them feel a little tired, the soldiers still advanced happily towards the north.

On the side of the road, many children were laughing and watching these Chinese people. The women wrapped in black robes were surrounded by the roadside, curiously looking at these Chinese people who came from afar, watching them singing strange tunes and moving forward.

This was the troops heading north to reinforce Lumanet. According to the Crown Prince's plan, three Ming troops were sent to Lumanet. The Ming troops in the two towns remained between Suez and Lumanet. In addition to being responsible for the safety of traffic lines along the way and maintaining public security, these Ming troops also had to build roads.

While the troops were constantly moving northward, in Suez City, Zhu Heyu, who had just arrived here, met with Du Yuanwei, Xu Mingxin and other generals, then recruited dozens of engineers who accompanied the army. Among these engineers, Sun Zhongyue, the highest rank, was not only a major general of the army, but also a director of the Royal Society of Engineers. His father was Sun Lin, the assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue. In addition to this identity, he was also the nephew of the cabinet minister Fang Yizhi. His mother was Fang Yizhi's relative sister, and was also a relative with the second assistant Zhang Bingwen. Zhang Bingwen was the father-in-law of Fang Yizhi's younger brother, the Shaanxi Governor Fang Qiyi.

The officialdom of the Holy Dynasty is actually quite simple. Many of the relationship networks are not complicated, but officials in the area always have some relatives, especially among local famous families.

In Tongcheng, like the Zhang family and Fang family, the Sun family is also a prominent local family. However, as Sun Lin's only son, Sun Zhongyue did not enter the officialdom, but entered the army and became an engineer. At any time, war is inseparable from engineers.

"railway!"

Sun Zhongyue, who was standing in front of the map, pointed to the marker drawn on the pencil and said.

"In order to ensure military transportation and the logistics supply of hundreds of thousands of troops, the only option is to build a railway. The railway from Suez to Lumanet. Once the railway is built, our army can not only transport materials to Lumanet through the railway, but also build shipyards in Lumanet. The fleet can rest and recuperate locally. The Bayerdeville Lagoon where it is located is a natural port with an area of ​​thousands of square miles."

As an engineer, Sun Zhongyue has even made a plan to make the fortification of Rumanet. In his plan, the railway connected Rumanet with Suez, and Rumanet was the base for the Ming Dynasty to attack Turkey.

"Of course, the significance of this railway is not just now. At least before the canal is built in the future, this railway will play the role of a continental bridge. Merchants can dock directly in Suez, and the materials on the ship can be directly ashore. It can be transported from land to Rumanet via the railway, which can shorten the voyage of at least two months..."

The construction of canals in Suez has long reached a consensus within the military. Even in their plan, they have listed plans for how to build canals. To be precise, how to use the labor force in the occupied areas to build canals. In the military plan, there are corresponding plans for how much manpower the canal needs to be spent and how to ensure the supply of labor. As for how much money it costs... it is not within the scope of their plan at all.

“How long does it take to build a railway?”

In fact, time is not important to him at all, one year, two years... If necessary, he can even stay here for ten years. After all, the conquest of this land is not a matter of three years or two years. Moreover, conquest is very simple, the key is to digest it after conquest. Ten years have just begun.

Of course, the faster the railway is built, the more conducive it will be to conquer Turkey. Moreover, after the railway is built, it will also be conducive to developing trade with Europe through railways and making up for military expenditures.

After discussing the railway construction project for a while, Zhu Heyu asked again.

"Have Zheng Sen arrived?"

Li Dingguo, the Marquis of Xining, heard the words of His Royal Highness, and hurriedly said.

"The messenger sent by Zheng Sen said that Zheng Sen had led the fleet away from Rumanet two days ago, and the current whereabouts are still unknown."

"Don't know..."

Zhu Heyu laughed.

"Mr. Xining, if Gu had expected it was OK, Zheng Sen would definitely want to give Gu a big gift. Now you are under pressure."

The prince's words made Li Dingguo laugh.

"It's a great thing for Zheng Sen to give the prince a big gift. I'm not too late to be happy. Besides, the most taboo thing about military affairs is impatient. I'm not anxious and there's no pressure."

The Marquis of Xining, Li Dingguo, was the deputy commander chosen by Zhu Guoqiang for his son. Why did he choose Li Dingguo? It is not that there were no other generals in the Ming Dynasty except him. The reason for choosing Li Dingguo is to put it bluntly that he wanted to give him a military merit. Perhaps in this time and space, Li Dingguo could not become the King of Jin. But it does not mean that he could not become the Duke of Jin of the Ming Dynasty.

However, if Li Dingguo did not have enough military merits, it would be obvious that it would not be appropriate to grant him the Duke of Jin. Originally, in Zhu Guoqiang's plan, when he was expeditioning Dorgon in the future, Li Dingguo would definitely be the commander-in-chief of the road. By then, he would be the title of Duke of Jin. But now the war with Turkey will allow Zhu Guoqiang to advance the plan a little.
Chapter completed!