Malta is located between Sicily and the coast of North Africa, and can be said to occupy a key strategic position. However, before, Feng Yu only set up a supply station for observation posts and patrol ships here, and did not build a fortress in Malta and stationed heavily. This is because there is no Danshui on this island, and a large number of troops are stationed, so he regularly transports Danshui from Sicily to the island. This requires considerable manpower and material resources. Feng Yu believes that relying on Sicily is enough to guard the central throat of the Mediterranean, and there is no need to spend such a cost to set up a fortress on the island of Malta.

Malta is a very small island, but it is not an isolated island. To the north of the main island with a radius of thirty or forty miles, there is also a sub-island as big as a booger. There are several pin-point islands between the main and secondary islands, ranging from a dozen to more than a hundred battles. After Mallor occupied Malta, he built a solid fortress to accommodate thousands of soldiers on the east side of the main island, and a port terminal was built in the adjacent bay.

On that day, the morning light had just dyed a layer of red glow on the sea surface, and layers of warships appeared on the sea surface in the northwest. These warships and warships lined up, and their layers of sails almost blocked the entire visible sea level line. The observation post on the Malta sub-island first discovered these warships and immediately shouted in horror. The warning red flag was raised to the high flagpole, and the beacon fire was also ignited. At the same time, the main island and the sub-island sounded one after another.

Seventy or eighty gallops anchored in the port of the main island of Malta sailed out of the bay one after another, and set off on the sea to welcome the enemy. Under the leadership of Ganning, the first Sicily fleet, he pushed the hull across and aimed the enemy fleet with dense side crossbows.

However, the people of Malor had obviously heard of the Cyprus naval battle and knew that the opponent's warship was loaded with dense crossbows. They did not rush forward recklessly. Instead, they carefully maintained a distance from the other side. A small number of ships even tried to detour from both wings to attack the head and tail of the Ganning fleet. The bombardment of the crossbows in these two places should be the smallest.

When Gan Ning saw that the other party had learned to be smart, he had to order the ships to start anchoring and turn their heads again and slowly approach the sea between the main island of Malta and the sub-island. This is actually a strategy to force the counterattack fleet to enter relatively narrow waters, so that the advantage of the number of crossbows equipped by his fleet can be used.

The seventy or eighty warships in Malta had to take the opportunity. They spread out as much as possible at the strait between the two islands, and slowly walked towards the Ganning fleet in the state of bows against bows. When the two sides were about seventy or eighty battles apart, the crossbows on their respective ships began to eject stone bombs one after another. Then the fireballs and burning bombs also drew traces of parabolas in the sky.

The large bow of each warship of the Sicilian fleet is generally loaded with two ship-based crossbows, and the smallest forty-alt warship will also load one ship-based crossbow at the bow. Moreover, Ganning's ships are obviously much more than Malta's warships, so even if they face the frontal bombardment, the Sicilian fleet's projectile density is much denser than that of the countermeasures.

A quarter of an hour later, the warships of both sides finally really fought together. The entire sea battlefield was like a bustling, with shuttled stone bombs and fireballs everywhere in the sky, and burning ships were everywhere on the sea surface, and the sound of wood breaking sounds. Some infantry carried by Sicilian warships landed on those palm-sized islands between the two islands and erected crossbows of various sizes on it. They shot violently at the enemy ships fighting against them in the sea.

The number of Malta warships, equipment and even combat skills were at a disadvantage. After only half an hour of fierce battle, they began to evacuate. Soon, only eight or nine burning and sinking abandoned ships were left on the sea. Three of them belonged to the Sicilian fleet.

This made Gan Ning feel extremely smooth. In fact, Malor ordered the naval general stationed in Malta that if the enemy's large number of warships attacked and the warship could not stop landing, it should be withdrawn immediately, rather than just adding to the loss. So when the general found that the opponent was coming in a fierce manner and was really impossible to resist, he ordered to escape and leave the infantry in the fortress on the island to hold on his own.

When Gan Ning faced the escaped Malor ships, he did not pursue them according to Feng Yu's instructions, but immediately sent more than 2,000 troops to the Island of Malta. Soon, except for the fortress in the eastern part of the island, the rest of the area, including the deputy island, were filled with Sicily army flags.

The newly built fortress was also besieged by the Sicilian army. The atmosphere in the camp was very tense, but there was no panic. The commander of the two thousand infantry was Simmons, and his deputy, John Lawrence.

Seeing that Simmons only surrounded him but did not attack, John asked Simmons in confusion: "This camp looks extremely strong, but it was built in a hurry. Therefore, most of the materials used are wood made of local materials. In this way, it is easy for us to break through this camp with fire attack, so why should we wait here?"

Simmons shrugged and said, "This is not my intention, but the Governor. He didn't say the reason, but I guess he wanted to try his best to avoid casualties on our side. There is no freshwater on this island. Even if the enemy stores water, how long can it be stored? They will inevitably surrender after they use up freshwater. We can take off the island without bloodshed."

Simmons guessed right. But this is just one of the reasons why Feng Yu only sieges Malta, and he has another more important reason.

...

In the city of Misina, Crete, in a newly built "Governor General's House", Mallor, who was proclaimed as Governor General, was listening to Lingbing's report. When Lingbing told Mallor that Malta was surrounded, Anthony, who was sitting beside him, said in surprise: "What? Malta is surrounded!?" He immediately said to Mallor: "Brother, Malta is a strategic place. If we lose him, we will cut off our way back to the Western Mediterranean. We must immediately rescue the siege."

But Mallor did not respond directly to his words, but said calmly: "As I expected, the Sicilian navy was still dead and not dead. Today, there are still hundreds of warships. However, these should be all their warships, all concentrated in Malta. In this way, we will take the Cyprus and the Suez Canal when they use all their strength to Malta."

Anthony asked back, "Then Malta doesn't want it?"

"Don't worry, Malta has been guarding for a month or two. I have told them to prepare for a long time to be besieged. They should have saved enough fresh water and food, and their fortifications have been strengthened enough. Besides, it is nothing if they are lost. Although we are going to rush here, if we plan to not return to the Western Mediterranean for the time being, it will make no sense to us if we want to rush."
Chapter completed!