"Those hateful Venetians dare to insult us in letters and fight with us!"

As the son-in-law of the Ottoman Emperor, Yusuf Pasha was furious when he received a letter of challenge from the coalition forces.

The Venetians have been intriguing with them for two hundred years and know them well enough to easily anger them.

"Our spies found them on the beach with a large number of ships, and our fleet did not stop them from landing on Crete because of their cowardice. The subordinates were worried that our sea supply lines would be cut off by the enemy. Our fresh water and food would need to be transported here from Constantinople and Greek islands. If the sea supply lines were cut off, we would be trapped in famine and plague."

There are many outstanding generals in the Ottoman Empire, and their ability to fear Europe for a long time is naturally outstanding.

They realized that with the emergence of the Anti-Ottoman Alliance, they were facing not only Venetian warships, but half of the Mediterranean navy and naval blockade from outside the Mediterranean.

Their 50,000 troops landed on Crete are likely to be trapped on the island.

Thinking of this, Yusuf Pasha couldn't help but shivered.

"The Chinese, the English, they are again! When they entered the Mediterranean last time, Baylan Pasha was defeated and executed. Am I going to repeat the same mistake?!"

Yusuf Pasha and a group of Ottoman generals suddenly became at a loss, and the Chinese were their nightmare.

"We should not accept their challenges for the time being. We can't hold on to our supplies before fighting with them." Yusuf always had a premonition of being unconfident.

Although the generals of the Ottoman Empire wanted to capture all the Venetians as slaves after receiving the letter of war, their battle-torn intuition told them that accepting challenges might be what the other party would most like to see.

On the other side, a blockade fleet consisting of two steam iron armored ships, 17 armed sailing ships and 19 galleys came to Thenedos Island in the Sea of ​​Haiqin to guard the Dardanelles.

They easily occupied this island with few defenders. Opposite the island of Thenedos is a coastal defense fort built by the Turks.

If it weren't for these annoying coastal defense turrets and galleys active in many islands in the Mediterranean, Sun Xu would have directly led the blockade fleet through the Dardanelles and directly attacked Constantinople.

It is not very difficult to block the Dardanelles. You only need to send ships to patrol outside the strait.

The cunning Venetian merchant set up a spy in Constantinople, and news came to the island as soon as there was a stir.

"The scene here is so calm that it doesn't seem like a war." Zheng Chenggong came to this island and looked at the blue sky, which was completely different from the imagined war.

He originally thought that the maritime war would be a nerve-wracking gun, but in fact, the fleet spent most of its time finding enemies and blocking ports.

The real victory or defeat is often divided in a few days or even a hasty battle.

"We are actually only three or four hundred kilometers away from Constantinople. Through the Strait of Dardanelles, there is a place that scares the kings of Europe." Hannah wore a naval uniform and used a telescope to observe the nearby sea and terrain.

"Is the Ottoman Empire really as powerful as you said? Why do I think their strength is average?" Zheng Chenggong had heard of the Fourth Fleet Joint Royal Fleet and the Knights of the Hospital defeated the Ottoman fleet in the Tunisian Strait. Seeing that European countries blew the Ottoman Empire to the sky, they couldn't help but feel strange.

"It's not that the Ottoman Empire is not powerful, but that you are even stronger, so you have the illusion. In the past, the Ottoman Empire occupied Asia Minor, the Balkans, Greece, Egypt, Levant, North Africa, the Mesopotamia, and the Arabian Peninsula, and almost conquered Vienna. I don't know why your technology is so advanced, and even the Ottoman Empire seems to be insignificant in front of you." Hannah said.

"So we are too strong..." Zheng Chenggong muttered.

Sun Xu, the commander of the blockade fleet, found Zheng Zhihu and gave him an order: "Our mission is to block the Dardanelles and prevent the reinforcements from Constantinople from entering the Mediterranean. However, we still need to patrol the nearby coasts and islands. Once the other party's warships or merchant ships are found, they will be destroyed immediately. We have received information from Venetian spies that a Turkish merchant fleet is operating in the waters of Chios. Your team and Colonel Black are heading to the waters near Chios."

"Yes!" Zheng Zhihu responded.

The teams that went to Chios Island to track Turkish merchant ships include three sailing warships from the Royal Navy, four armed sailing ships led by Zheng Zhihu, seven galleys from the Knights of the Hospital, and a total of 14 warships.

"Young men, we are ready to go out to patrol the sea! In this strange sea, we are hunters, hunters who make the enemy scared. If they see prey, they will pounce on them and destroy them!" Zheng Zhihu summoned the captains and crew of the four armed sailboats he led and informed them that they were about to go to the waters of Chios Island to track a fleet of Turkish merchant ships.

The Eight-Nation Alliance fleet has launched a hunting game in the Mediterranean with Ottoman warships, merchant ships and ports hidden in various islands.

Steam iron armored ships, armed sailing ships, and Venetian galleys cruising around the Mediterranean in the form of a squadron, like hunters looking for prey in the Mediterranean. War is not only an attack on the other side's warships, but also a good way to force the other side to surrender or cause losses to the other side.

The crew of the Zheng He was overjoyed when they received the mission of going to sea to track the Turkish merchant ship fleet and hoped to successfully capture the enemy ships in this tracking mission.

"Those young people from China are really energetic, but the battle on the sea is not that simple. Being too careless will pay a heavy price." The officers of the Royal Fleet noticed that the Zheng He was almost a group of young crew members under the age of twenty, and they were not very optimistic about this group of little kids.

"I hope you old sailors don't forget your enthusiasm when you were young, and not come here for a meager salary." Colonel Black said angrily.

This fleet that went out to hunt was sent to patrol the waters of Chios, which was considered safer.

All the naval interns of the Zheng He, including the temporary captain Zheng Chenggong, were full of expectations for this patrol mission.
Chapter completed!