Dragon Stone Island is not named because of the dragon. It is not a magical world, but the earth.

The dragon on Dragonstone Island is named after the Dragon Blood Tree, a tree that does not look like an earth creature at all. This tree not only looks strange, but also produces red gum. It is called dragon blood by Westerners. It is a very precious magic raw material!

Well, there is certainly no magic, but it can be pretended to be magic, so there is a certain market for dragon blood.

In addition to dragon blood trees, there are also stones everywhere on Dragon Stone Island. On islands with a land area of ​​more than 10,000 square miles, there is not much land suitable for reclamation, all of which are occupied by stones.

In addition to Dragon Blood Tree and Stone, there are several very good specialties in Dragon Stone Island and nearby sea areas: frankincense, musk, ambergris, and myrrh (has anti-inflammatory effects and is a very precious medicinal material before antibiotics appear).

After being conquered by the Eastern Song Dynasty, tobacco was introduced from the Americas for cultivation, and the whaling industry was vigorously developed to obtain ambergris and whale oil.

So around 215 years of the Eastern Song Dynasty, this desolate island with unique scenery and harsh climate (drought) had become a very wealthy area.

The residents living on Longshi Island are all mixed races, and are Eastern Song colonists who moved to the island in their early years, merchants from Egypt and India, and descendants of the indigenous people on the island. The official language they use is Jiangning Mandarin, which recognizes the sovereignty of the Eastern Song Dynasty. There is also a governor appointed by the Eastern Song court on the island. However, the power of the governor is limited. The residents of Longshi Island have their own parliament, and the autonomous government elected by the parliament is responsible for the administration of the island.

In the 215th year of Hezhong, the island's population was about 30,000 to 40,000 people. By levitra tax (myrtle is also taxed as spices) and exporting dragon blood (dragon blood is monopolized by the government), millions of taels of silver can be obtained every year!

Moreover, the island's residents also earn considerable income from spices, dragon blood and whaling industries.

Therefore, this Dragon Stone Island is a typical example of being small and rich.

Because there are not many residents on the small and rich Longshi Island, the source of troops is limited. Therefore, the defense of the island has always relied on the small Western fleet of the Eastern Song Dynasty.

There is a small-scale Longshi Island team, which has been stationed in Longshi Port, the main city of Longshi Island for a long time.

There is no natural good port on Longshi Island, and Longshi Harbor is not a good port. Most of the time, there are no warships anchored. Whenever the southwest monsoon rises, the Longshi Island squadron will even move to the nearby port of Aden (all in Egypt).

However, in the spring of Hezhong 215, residents living in Longshi Port saw incredible scenes one morning.

On the blue sea north of the port, there were black warships covered with asphalt! The number must have exceeded 100! Some of them were extremely huge, even larger than the castle in Longshi Harbor...

"It's the Red Dragon Flag!"

"It's my Song Dynasty's navy..."

"So powerful!"

"But what are they doing here?"

"We must deal with Egypt, right? I heard that the Egyptian queen recruited the son of the Wu family of Northern Zhou as her son-in-law..."

"Will that make Northern Zhou a little bit more? Northern Zhou is very powerful!"

The news about Longshi Island is still a bit blocked. The residents on the island do not know that the war has begun between the three heroes of China.

However, Chen Ziyi, the governor of Longshi Island and the admiral of the Navy Dragon Stone Island team, knew the news that the war began to prevent the residents of Longshi Island from panicing, Chen Ziyi blocked the news.

Of course, even if the residents of Longshi Island knew that the country was in danger, they would not stand up to defend the Song Dynasty.

These people have not fought a war for more than 200 years. They are used to being too peaceful and happy, and their combat effectiveness is almost zero.

Moreover, the Great Zhou would not make things difficult for them even if they came. The Great Zhou was not a barbarian, and they were also leaders of the Xia Dynasty and a dignified bourgeois republic. When they came, they were nothing more than Jiangning dialect and Tianjin dialect...

However, for a Song naval officer like Chen Ziyi, fighting for the honor of the Red Dragon Banner is natural.

Chen Ziyi, who was born in Luoyang, Henan Province, was a child of a naval family. He was a descendant of the great naval naval naval master Chen Jiang... The exploration ship commanded by Chen Jiang was missing when exploring the ocean south of the New Song Continent. Later, he was posthumously named the general and entered the Navy Martyrs' Temple, and placed in the most conspicuous position. He was almost the God of the Eastern Song Navy!

Twenty years after Chen Jiang disappeared, his descendants moved from Xingzhou to the pleasant new Kaifeng with many naval children.

Since then, Xin Kaifeng has become the "naval city" of the Eastern Song Dynasty. Many naval officers came from Xin Kaifeng Prefecture. The reason why this happened was that Empress Wu, who was in power at that time, was seeking a retreat for her descendants.

The army of the Eastern Song Dynasty was not mainly "royal", but was a group of fifty states. The funds of the navy came from the finances of the Eastern Song Dynasty court, and naval officers and sailors were mainly recruited from the royal territory of the New Song Dynasty.

Therefore, the Eastern Song Navy was a genuine royal army, and all the people were loyal to the Song Dynasty.

According to the secret destiny left by Empress Wu, if the Eastern Song Dynasty ruled on the Shenzhou Continent collapsed, the descendants of the Zhao family should flee to the New Song Dynasty under the protection of the navy and continue the Song Dynasty.

Wu Meiniang's layout eventually became a reality, and the Zhao Song Dynasty was able to stand for more than a thousand years...

This is all a story later. Anyway, Chen Ziyi doesn't believe that the Eastern Song Dynasty will lose the war at all.

Because good news is coming one after another!

Just three days before the main force of the Eastern Song Dynasty's Nanyang Fleet arrived on Longshi Island, a Shibek reconnaissance ship disguised as a merchant ship (the Eastern Song Dynasty Navy also had many Shibeks) sent good news to Longshi Island.

The Western fleet of the Great Zhou Republic had left Suez Port and was on its way south.

"How many warships are there?"

In the admiral cabin of the first-class battleship "Xin Song", Navy Marshal Pan Wuyang whispered a question while looking at the chart.

"There are more than twenty warships and armed merchant ships," Chen Ziyi said, "including three first-class battleships, two second-class battleships, and five third-class battleships."

"That's great!" Pan Wuyang rubbed his hands, "10 big ships... we have 33! We will definitely win!"

The battleships of this era were also classified as Class 1, 2, 3, and 3, also known as Class A, B, and C.

Basically, it is distinguished by the number of artillery and displacement. The first-class battleship must have three-layer artillery decks, the number of artillery must exceed 100, the crew exceeds 900, and the empty-load displacement exceeds 50,000 stones. It is basically a sea castle!

The cost of this "sea castle" is of course very high, and the cost of a single ship is no less than 1 million taels of silver.

The second-level battleship is slightly smaller than the first-level battleship, and it is also a third-layer gun deck, with the number of artillery being less than 100 and more than 80. The ship is entitled to about 750 people and the displacement is about 40,000 stones.

Of course, the third-level battleship is even smaller, with only two layers of gun decks, with a displacement of between 25,000 stones and 30,000 stones, and a number of guns between 60 and 80.

These third-level sail battleships are the main battleships of the Great Zhou and the Eastern Song Navy! The Great Zhou is equipped with a total of 100 such battleships, while the Eastern Song Navy has only 66 such battleships.

In terms of naval strength, the Great Zhou Republic has a clear advantage!

As for the fourth-level, fifth-level and sixth-level ships below the third-level sail battleship, the navies in other countries are also considered the main force. Even the sixth-level ship has a displacement of 10,000 stones to 12,000 stones, is equipped with a first-level artillery deck, and has 20-28 cannons.

Such ships are quite useful in pursuing pirates and breaking battles at sea.

However, in the face of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the large fleet of the Eastern Song Dynasty was completely inconvenient.

By the way, the Great Egyptian Empire, which is ranked sixth in the world and the Navy can rank third in the world, also has a pretty good navy.

However, the main battlefield of the Egyptian Navy is in the Mediterranean, so their main battleships are all galloping battleships. They cannot be used for ocean combat, and the large galloping battleships of the Egyptian Navy cannot reach the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea, and they cannot help the Great Zhou Republic.

Pan Wuyang thought about it and asked again: "There are only 10 main battleships?"

"Yes, there are only 10 ships!" Chen Ziyi said, "When they entered the Red Sea, they only had 10 large ships, and the whole process was under our surveillance, and there would be no more main ships."

"Okay!" Pan Wuyang nodded, "Good job!" He laughed, "Win this battle, our comparison with Zhou Guo on the main battleship is 66 to 90... on the first-class battleship, it is 6 to 7! We should be able to persist."

"Marson, will there be a fraud?" Yi Chenghu, the stationmaster of the Nanyang Fleet, reminded him.

He paused, "The Zhou navy is too stupid, right? Send 10 precious main ships to the Little Western Ocean and let us block the Red Sea..."

"Haha," Pan Wuyang smiled, "I think so too... But now the facts are obvious. If they weren't stupid, what's the reason? By the way, is there a fleet of Zhou Guo who is moving nearby?"

"No discovery." Chen Ziyi thought for a while and said, "But the number of our reconnaissance ships is limited, and it is impossible to closely monitor large areas of sea areas."

Pan Wuyang was silent for a while and thought, "If there is any fraud, it is the Zhou Kingdom's large fleet coming around from the Atlantic Ocean... If their large fleet goes from the Sanfoqi Strait or the Java Strait, we will definitely know that we can only take the detour in Africa.

But there is no need to worry? The two scattered fleets on the sea are difficult to echo. It only takes a few hours for us to defeat the Xidian fleet of Zhou State, and then we will withdraw back to Guowa County.

So this time, Zhou State miscalculated! They did not expect our large fleet to follow them all the way.

Okay, you don’t have to hesitate, the entire fleet will attack! Intercept the Zhou Kingdom fleet near Longshi Island!"

"Here!"

After listening to Pan Wuyang's analysis, the generals had no objection and agreed.

On the tenth day of the 215th month of the Eastern Song Dynasty, the 215th day of the Eastern Song Dynasty.

The main force of the Eastern Song Navy's Nanyang Fleet gathered on Longshi Island set sail, spreading three columns on the vast ocean, heading towards the trumpet-shaped entrance to the Gulf of Aden.

Because the entrance to the Gulf of Aden is 700 miles wide, it is easy for the Zhou fleet to slip out if you don’t watch it firmly.

Therefore, before the main force of the fleet was dispatched, Pan Wuyang also sent seven reconnaissance teams composed of six-level ships to disperse in front of the main force, forming a search screen.

Behind the search scene is the main force of the fleet that is divided into three columns to attack.

Looking at the vast lineup of his own fleet, the naval officers and soldiers of the Eastern Song Dynasty all felt a little sympathetic to Zhou Guo’s colleagues.

These people are finished and want to feed fish in foreign lands! It’s all because of the corrupt politicians in Zhou State who can’t manage their own country well and want to plunder the wealth of the Song Dynasty through war. It’s so hateful...

...

At the same time, on the sea surface of the Gulf of Aden, hundreds of miles away from the main fleet of the Eastern Song Dynasty, a much smaller Zhou naval fleet under the banner of the blue ten thousand symbols was sailing slowly to the west.

The leader is the flagship "Shenzhou". The huge hull with a displacement of more than 55,000 stones is like a giant beast on the sea, breaking through the waves.

Lieutenant General Hua Wushang, standing on the stern of the Shenzhou ship, looked far away. At this time, he was as confident as his opponent Pan Wuyang.

Because he firmly believed that the upcoming naval battle would end with his own great victory.

Of course, his confidence is not unreasonable. The seemingly extremely unfavorable situation is actually a deliberate creation of the illusion of deceiving the Eastern Song Dynasty.

Just as he led the fleet to Egypt, the main force of the Great Zhou East Ocean Fleet (including four first-class battleships) also left the Puhe Port Naval Base in East Japan Province and entered the vast Pacific Ocean to the east.

According to the plan, they will bypass South America, resupply in the plain province of South America (about the territory of Argentina), then sail eastward, bypass the southern end of the African continent, enter the small Atlantic, and finally head north to Zanzibar.

After the embassy in Zanzibar received the order to start the war, this huge Eastern and Western fleet would rush to Longshi Island and seize the retreat of the main force of the Eastern Song Dynasty Nanyang fleet.

The strength of the East and West Destiny Fleet with 4 first-class battleships, 16 second-class battleships and 25 third-class battleships as the core is far greater than that of the main force of the South China Fleet in the Eastern Song Dynasty. As long as it encounters, it will definitely be able to fight an annihilation battle.

The Egyptian Shibek ship sent by Hua Wushang before was sent to Zanzibar's Great Eastern and Western fleet... and urged them to go north to Longshi Island as soon as possible.

The fleet led by Hua Wushang had to act as bait. After meeting the large fleet of the Eastern Song Dynasty near the entrance of the Gulf of Aden, they immediately turned around and fled to the Red Sea. They tried to attract the Eastern Song fleet to the entrance of the Red Sea, so that it would be difficult for them to escape when the Eastern Atlantic fleet arrived.

As soon as the 33 main battleships of the Eastern Song Fleet were completed, the sea power of the Eastern Song Dynasty would be lost. It was only a matter of time before the Great Zhou blockade.

The United States of the Eastern Song Dynasty, which had lost its overseas market and raw materials, will sooner or later surrender to the Great Zhou Republic.

After taking over the Eastern Song Dynasty, how many years can the Western Song Dynasty last?

As for the issue of "invasion of Egypt's neutrality", of course, it does not exist.
Chapter completed!