Six Hundred and Fifty Second Mediterranean War

Excited, calm, calm, excited...

The chaotic welcome lasted for several hours, and by the time everything was back on track, it was already after the dinner with the moon hanging high.

At nine o'clock in the evening, Pierce and Dylan, who had been freshly washed, met and walked into Lorraine's study side by side in their new dresses.

Lorraine is waiting for them. Except for Lorraine, Carmen, Bell, Katerina, Karen, and Favna are all there. There is only one thing for them, and that is to listen to the two-year-long super expedition of the Special Service Fleet formal debriefing.

Such a grand occasion made Pierce and old Dylan visibly cramped.

Lorraine walked to the bar with a smile, picked and poured two glasses of champagne for celebration, and delivered them to the two of them by hand.

Click! The bottom of the cup hit the coffee table with a crisp sound.

Lorraine reached out and squeezed Pierce's arm, and said, "It's dark and strong, but it doesn't seem to be very tall. Why?"

Pierce's face flushed red: "Long... long!"

"Long?"

"Um!"

"How much longer?"

"One...one inch (about 3 centimeters)."

"An inch a year?"

"One inch in total..."

"An inch?"

"It was almost..." Pierce blushed with embarrassment, "Really! It was really only a little short..."

Carmen's eyes were beautiful, and she said with a smile: "It is true that I have grown taller. When I walked, I was 5 feet 7 and a half inches (about 172 centimeters), and now I am a little over 5 feet 8 inches (about 174 centimeters). I am already a real man. gone."

Good-natured laughter...

Probably good intentions? Anyway, except for Favna, everyone laughed happily, and even the awkwardness, nervousness, and strangers they hadn't seen in two years were swept away with this smile.

Lorraine patted Pierce on the shoulder and sat back in his seat: "Let's start, debrief."

"Yes, Mr. President!"

Pierce replied bluntly, and used his title and honorific title without hesitation, which meant that his status was back.

"In November 1785, that is, 24 months ago, because of poor performance in the Miami exercise, the entire secret service formation except Drog Khal, Faramine Snapps, and Sharon Artis was asked to serve as the American branch Escorted by the transoceanic fleet, headed for Europe..."

In November two years ago, Lorraine arranged a direct fleet civil war for the purpose of commercial display in the Miami development. Pierce's special service formation faced Favna's first formation.

In that public exercise, Pierce won the final victory with his superb marksmanship and the dominance of the Lady, but during the process, Favna's command and tactics once completely suppressed the secret service formation, and Pierce Lost two fleet deputy admirals one after another.

This battle made Pierce lose face, especially against the background of the first formation whose ship hardware was relatively weak and the crew treated inferiorly, the special service formation's fighting desire and response before the battle made Lorraine extremely disappointed.

In the form of semi-punishment, the secret service formation was revoked of its vacation and replaced the second formation to participate in the transatlantic escort mission of the American Chamber of Commerce.

After more than 20 days of smooth sailing, the transoceanic fleet arrived in Spain, and Pierce received a strangely over-warm welcome. Before he could figure out why, an order from Ramos, the president of the European Chamber of Commerce, arrived.

[The special service formation went to Southampton for repairs and preparations, waiting for the next order from the direct fleet]...

So,

Pierce had no choice but to take the fleet to Southampton. He waited foolishly for more than two months. He was also arranged to have a one and a half months of high-intensity short-term training with his sailors under the command of Plymouth Sea School and Sir Layton. advanced studies.

It was not until the beginning of March 1786 that Ramos finally solved the mystery. He took Lorraine's warrant and ordered the direct fleet to go to Gibraltar immediately to join the European Chamber of Commerce's Mediterranean trade operation.

Operation Mediterranean Trade...

In Lorraine's study, Pierce looked nostalgic while holding a wine glass.

"On March 16, we anchored in Gibraltar, and we were greeted by the vice president of the European branch, Sir Artest, accompanied by the newly appointed admiral of the Mediterranean caravan, Mr. Artest. By the way, Artest Admiral Ster took office because his previous admiral died in battle."

Sir Thayer is an elite cadre that Ramos met in the 1784 Portuguese incident. He is a native of Toulon, France.

He has a deep friendship with the Rotaseli Chamber of Commerce, which was firmly on the side of Drake in the Portuguese incident, and he also spoke out in the lawsuit against the Queen of Portugal in Lorraine. In fact, his friendship with Ramos was in Madrid Court concluded.

Ramos is not the kind of fierce player who expands the territory, especially after Eddie established his own company in Africa, this important work for the European Chamber of Commerce stagnated for a while.

The think tank advised him to look for a partner in the Mediterranean region, and Ramos thought it was reasonable, so he proposed the development intention of cooperative mergers and acquisitions at the 1785 annual meeting, which was recognized and authorized by the board of directors of the General Chamber of Commerce.

In June 1785, Ramos and Thayer signed a merger agreement in Paris. In August, the European Branch and the French Thayer Chamber of Commerce launched a merger and acquisition case. The price is fully included in the European branch, and Sir Taylor serves as the vice president of the branch and concurrently serves as the manager of the Mediterranean region.

After receiving the full help of Sir Thayer, the European branch was indeed in the Mediterranean for a period of time, and the commercial ports that obtained trade licenses spread all over the two sides of the Mediterranean, and spread all the way to Alexandria in Egypt.

However, the good times didn't last long, Drake's rapid development aroused the dissatisfaction of Ottoman Turkey, under the instruction of this powerful country, North African Barbary pirates began to attack Drake's trading fleet.

It was January 1786, when Ramos and Sir Taylor were at a loss for what to do with the politicians and pirates in Barbary, Pierce came...

...

Barbary pirates, including three pirate organizations in Algiers, Tunisia and Tripoli, covering the Mediterranean coast between the Kingdom of Morocco and Egypt, the leader called [Pasha], is a pirate organization with a complete political structure, also collectively referred to by Europe 【Kingdom of Barbary】.

The Kingdom of Barbary has a glorious history of pirates. In the 15th century, the legendary pirate king Barbarossa Hayreddin fought against the Holy Roman and Spanish empires alone. He was so famous that he was called "hell devil" by Europe at that time. ".

After Hayreddin's death, the unified Barbary was divided into three, and no new legendary figures appeared, but it still played a pivotal role in the Mediterranean order.

They call themselves the Sheriffs of the Mediterranean, and their method of policing the oceans is... a protection fee.

Every chamber of commerce operating in the Mediterranean Sea must take the initiative to register and pay taxes to the three pashas. In general, one of the three pashas will be chosen, and with the tax payment certificate, they will be able to move freely in the Mediterranean Sea.

The white people who claim to be the masters of the world are of course full of complaints about this situation, but the Barbary pirates have become more difficult to deal with since they weakened than they were then. The Mediterranean fleets of Spain, France, Great Britain and Holy Rome cannot destroy them. Once a Mediterranean merchant is found to be evading taxes, the result is often a shipwreck.

People under the eaves had to bow their heads.

Sir Taylor, who has spent half his life in the Mediterranean Sea, is well aware of the fact that little ghosts are difficult to deal with. Drake also pays taxes in the Mediterranean Sea. Because of his large size, he even received a 20% tax discount from the Tunisian Pasha. certificate……

Sir Thayer only missed one thing, that is, now that the trade between Europe and Africa is significantly southerly, and the Venetian merchants are no longer glorious, the size of Drake is too big for the Mediterranean Sea.

Even if the development of Mediterranean trade is only a part of the business of the European Chamber of Commerce under the General Chamber of Commerce, and it is far from expanding to the all-round entry of maritime groups and industrial and mining groups, it still has a huge impact on the Mediterranean trade order.

The first to bear the brunt are the Turkish merchants who occupy a strong position in the current Mediterranean, especially the Eastern Mediterranean.

Relying on strong capital and strong appeal, the Drake Chamber of Commerce and his European allies aggressively entered the Eastern Mediterranean market, squeezed the profit margins of Turkish merchants, and seized their trade share.

They regarded it as another invasion of the belief in God against the belief in Allah. The commercial war quickly escalated into a naval battle, and then turned into a fierce pursuit of Turkish merchants by European merchants led by Drake in just over a month.

This situation is not surprising.

Although the European Chamber of Commerce does not have a large number of warships above Tier 5 like the American Chamber of Commerce, and most of the fleet is an inland sea structure with Brig and Brigantine as the main force and Skuna as the main force, but the ships of Turkish merchants are similar. , which is determined by the Mediterranean environment.

Under similar ship and other conditions, the Drake high-speed ship has an overwhelming advantage over the Arabian fleet, which has been proved as early as 1784 in Muscat.

What's more, Drake also has a long-term sailor employment model and a mature talent training system. The quality of sailors is professional and good at combat. The overall level reaches the second-rate navy, and some subjects even reach the average level of the first-rate navy.

People, people can't, boats, boats can't, Turkish businessmen have found their powerful motherland, and their powerful motherland also feels that it needs to teach this group of new Europeans a lesson, let them know who is the overlord of the Mediterranean.

The Barbary pirates, who took Turkey as their suzerain, took over the important task of teaching businessmen.

The pirates issued a joint espionage to Sir Taylor, demanding that Drake must pay heavy taxes to Tunisia, Algiers and Tripoli at the same time, otherwise Drake's right to sail in the Mediterranean Sea would be revoked.

Negotiations broke down.

The commercial war in the Eastern Mediterranean has shifted to the west, and the opponents of the war have changed from Europe vs. Turkey to Drake vs. Barbary.

All of a sudden, the Drake Chamber of Commerce fought fiercely across the board, and the business road was almost cut off!