The Strait of Gibraltar is located between the southernmost part of Spain and northwest Africa. It is an important gateway connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The narrowest point of the Strait is only 13 kilometers, and the sea current flowing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar is four kilometers per hour.

In the early years, it was used by Atlantic navigators, and expedition fleets from countries along the Mediterranean Sea frequently passed here to reach the Atlantic Ocean. Today, the Strait of Gibraltar is still an important waterway from the Atlantic Ocean to southern Europe, North Africa and West Asia.

The British have been stationing troops here since they defeated the Armada. Spain, with its weak national power, has no way to compete with the British and can only pay lip service to it.

After occupying Gibraltar for decades, the British have not been idle. They have been building various fortifications, thinking of occupying this important waterway forever!

In particular, the emergence of firearms directly raised Gibraltar's defense level to several levels. Wu Sangui once built two 360mm artillery pieces in Bombay, but they were brought to Gibraltar for defense.

The 360mm shells can be fired directly from Europe to Africa. The entire ship passing through the Strait of Gibraltar shivered under the black muzzle.

Including ironclad ships, as long as one hit by a 360mm cannon is enough to cause fatal damage. As for those wooden sailing ships, as long as one shell is enough to penetrate the soul, the ship and its people will all be turned into pieces.

Li Xiao's plan is to occupy important international waterways. Now the American continent is extremely weak. The original British North American territory is now divided into thirteen small countries.

They are not even a unified country. The thirteen autonomous territories govern their own affairs, which suits Li Xiao's taste very much.

The last time Washington came to the capital, Li Xiao told Washington the secret of the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, which was freedom.

As long as your country is sensitive enough and free enough, your country will definitely prosper. If you don't believe it, look at the people of the Ming Dynasty. Everyone is a free person.

Only free people can create a harmonious society and create an economic miracle like the Ming Dynasty.

Washington was flattered and proud to know this amazing secret. After thanking Li Xiao profusely, he actually went to the capital to conduct social surveys among the people.

"Freedom? What is freedom? Oh, just do whatever you want! That's right, in the Forty-Nine Cities here, there were a lot of rules when there was an emperor.

If there is a funeral in the country, the people will not even be allowed to sing in public gatherings. All theaters will be closed. Look at how many rules the court has now.

As long as you have money, you can go to the theater if you want to. If you don’t want to go to the theater, you can go to the theater and teahouse. Take a look...!"

"Freedom? Of course we are free, but those who are in prison are not free. Life is so good now, when there was an emperor...!"

"Our country is very free. As long as you don't break the law, you can do whatever you want."

"Our country is the freest place. Even if you say something bad about the handsome man, no one will bother you. We are handsome and generous, and anyone can comment on us."

Washington felt that he had mastered the secret of national prosperity and decided to return home immediately to bring the successful experience of the Ming Dynasty back to the North American territory.

Let the hard-working and kind-hearted people living there quickly get rid of poverty and become rich.

What Washington didn't know was that the people he had just asked during the day were standing in the office of Xiao Zhan, the director of the Department of Supervision, at night, reporting on everything they said during the day.

"You believe this kind of nonsense, and your brain is wet. We all discuss everything. What you can accomplish in one year, you will not be able to accomplish in ten years." Xiao Zhan felt how stupid these yellow-haired monsters are.

Only then can you fall into such evil trap as the commander-in-chief.

The prosperous days of the Ming Dynasty have never depended on anything. The commander-in-chief used a whip to drive everyone towards a good life.

In the Ming Dynasty, whoever dares to make up a commander-in-chief sentence will definitely have someone stand up and slap him. If you don't accept it and go to the official, you will only be beaten worse.

The knowledge of the common people is shallow. They cannot consider the important matters of their family, country and world. They can only look at the one-third of an acre of land in front of them.

There are even some people who are the kind of people who don’t care about the floods as long as they are good to me.

Letting these people participate in the decision-making of national affairs can only be a disaster for the country. Besides, many elderly people cannot read a single word. They even have to ask others which side is male and female when going to the toilet. Do you expect this?

Anyone knowledgeable?

The future of the country needs to be left in the hands of those who have a broad mind and can lead the entire Ming Dynasty forward. For example, the Marshal is that kind of person. At least the fact that Xiao Zhan sees is that the Ming Dynasty owes its existence to the Marshal's blessing.

Washington returned to the North American territories with good advice for governing the country, and the local parliament quickly organized a parliament. Washington creatively invented the separation of legislative, executive, and judicial powers of state power that restrained each other.

Li Xiao didn't know what Washington was tinkering with. He just wanted to see if Virginia could do it well. In Li Xiao's view, this was just a test field.

In today's Ming Dynasty, there are a hundred ways to plunge Virginia under Washington into disaster.

Since North America no longer needs to be considered, what we need to guard against now is only Europe. The main card is Gibraltar, which controls Malta, Crete and other islands, plus the Suez Canal Zone and Ceylon.

The entire Eurasian maritime trade route was completely controlled by the Ming Dynasty. As long as it controlled trade, it controlled the flow of materials. Every year, the Ming Dynasty was able to capture a large amount of profits in Eurasia, which was used to fill domestic infrastructure construction.

The better the Ming Dynasty's infrastructure, the lower the production costs. The lower the production costs, the higher the profits. It becomes increasingly difficult for foreign factories to catch up with the development of the Ming Dynasty.

This is a virtuous cycle. As long as no major accidents occur, this virtuous cycle can continue until Li Xiao's grandson is eighty years old.

All waterways are now controlled by the Ming Dynasty, with the only exception being Gibraltar, and this ghost place is still controlled by the British. This makes the Ming Dynasty feel at ease.

The moonlight shines on the sea, and the waves of the tide hit the huge rocks of Gibraltar with white spray.

The British soldiers in the sentry on the top of the mountain looked down at the entire strait with their guns on their backs. In such weather, you can see the outline of the African coast without a telescope.

It's so peaceful, as it has been for decades. The sentinels have been serving here for three years and will be able to return to the UK to visit relatives in two months.

I missed my hometown so much that Mary couldn't wait any longer. She decided to get married when she returned home, and she would be discharged from the army and return home in another year.

Compared with those who went to Belgium to fight life and death, I was lucky. A letter from home said that Mark had been drafted into the army again, and this time he didn't know if he would survive until the end of the war.

Life in Spain is so good. Look at the moon in the sky, enjoy the warm sea breeze, and safely receive subsidies from the government. These subsidies should be enough to marry Mary! It should be enough! It must be enough!

Put the gun on the sentry tower, lean against the sentry tower and imagine a happy life of visiting relatives.

What he didn't see was that dozens of black shadows quietly appeared on the north side of the mountain. These shadows quickly climbed along the smooth stone wall. He didn't know what tools they used, but they could actually climb on such a smooth stone wall.

Same climb.

When the first soldier with oil paint on his face stuck his head out with a dagger in his mouth, the sentry was still thinking. The black shadow crept up quietly and crawled forward quietly against the grass. He only wore a pair of underpants.

He had a pistol and grenades on his waist, and the only weapon he had was the dagger in his hand.

The black shadow felt that he was close enough, so he swooped over as lightly as a civet cat, covered the sentry's mouth with one hand, and stabbed the sentry's third rib accurately with the dagger.

Slightly upward along the third rib, you can smoothly cut into the heart. With the dagger stabbed and twisted, you felt the sentry in your arms violently twitching, and the black shadow hugged the sentry tightly. He didn't let go until he could no longer feel the sentry's struggle.

hand.

The sentry tilted his neck and fell to the ground.

He waved his hand to the bottom of the cliff, and soon two black figures carrying ropes climbed up.

In addition to the rope, the black shadow also carried two huge steel drills on his back.

With the sound of the waves, whenever the waves hit the rocks, the hammer hit the steel drill, and slowly, the steel drill was firmly embedded in the ground.

I pulled hard with my hands, but the steel drill didn't move at all.

The rope was picked up and thrown under the cliff, and soon dozens of black figures climbed up along the rope. Then, weapons and ammunition were hoisted up from the small boat under the cliff.

After everything was ready, it was almost dawn.

A touch of fish belly white appeared on the horizon, and the dark shadows disappeared in the hazy background light.

They followed the tunnel and slowly moved forward. When they encountered sentries along the way, they would use daggers to kill their opponents. They were all elites in the Ming army. Years of training and actual combat had long since trained them to kill.

Good skill.

When they met two purebred Scotch dogs, one of the big men showed a smile. He was standing upwind, holding a small bag and shaking it in the wind. The Scotch dog that had just barked twice was so frightened that he immediately peed.

, got into the doghouse and never came out.

The lifeblood of a fierce lion is to be useful. No matter how ferocious the dog is, it will frighten him to urinate when he smells this smell.

When the sun was about to rise, the commandos finally reached the gun emplacement.

The 360mm cannon looked really scary, and the commando leader was even worried about whether he had enough explosives.

Fortress Commander Rogge opened his eyes and glanced at the rising sun.

Belgium now has a large army and may start a fight with the French at any time. Thinking that he would not have to enter the human meat grinder, Rogge felt that it was wise to ask to be transferred to Gibraltar as the commander.

As a minor nobleman, being able to reach the rank of colonel is considered an anomaly. It would be better for him to survive until he retires and pass on the responsibility of further improving the family status to his son.

I have been working hard for decades, and now I need to take a good rest and enjoy a good life. I am really tired of the boring military camp life.

"Orderly!" Roger shouted, and the orderly immediately opened the door and walked in with ironed clothes.

"Boom!" "Boom!" There were two explosions in succession, and Rogge felt his head "buzzing" and "buzzing". His body also bounced twice on the bed, and the dust that fell from the beams seemed to be floating in front of his eyes.

A cloud of smoke rises.

The orderly fell directly to the ground, and Roger could only see his mouth opening and closing.

With many years of military experience, Rogge immediately realized that it was the sound of an explosion. His fortress had been attacked. Who was so bold as to dare to attack the territory of the British Empire?

Not caring about getting dressed, Roger jumped out naked and wearing underpants. Soon he saw Captain Spencer who was also in a mess. Roger grabbed Captain Spencer's arm and said, "Go and gather the people.

Find out where the explosion occurred.

Catch those damn troublemakers and hang them!"

For decades, Gibraltar has been as calm as a lake. But I didn't expect that something like this would happen on my watch.

Rogge's first reaction was that this was the fault of the restless Spaniards.

Those cowards have always wanted to take back Gibraltar from the British. But the cowardly Spanish government did not have the guts to declare war on England.

With no other choice, some Spanish nationalists have been thinking about causing trouble with the British. For this reason, England has hanged several Spaniards who broke into forbidden areas without permission.

Perhaps, what happened today was the Spanish's revenge.

In just ten minutes, Captain Spencer brought shocking news. The fort on the top of the mountain was actually occupied, and the people who occupied the top of the mountain had fierce firepower.

A platoon of British soldiers had just approached more than a hundred meters when they were beaten into pieces by bullets fired from the mountain.

"The fort is occupied? Take it back, no matter what the cost, take it back for me!" Colonel Rogge roared crazily.

The hilltop fort controls the entire Strait of Gibraltar and cannot be lost.

Now Rogge felt that something was wrong. Ordinary Spanish mobs did not have such powerful firepower.

"Mr. Colonel, I feel something is wrong. The sound of shooting on the mountain is very similar to the Ming Dynasty's general machine gun. I have been in India and can hear this sound." Captain Spencer's face turned pale.

"A Ming man?" Rogge's voice changed.

Everyone knows that the Ming Dynasty is the most powerful country in the world. If they want to attack Gibraltar, they will not be able to stop it with their own strength.

Moreover, Ming's weapons have always been powerful.

"Prepare the anti-aircraft guns. If you find Ming airships, beat them down immediately. Organize troops immediately to recapture the fort!" When the Ming army attacks, the first thing is to bombard them with airships. Rogge's first reaction is to kill the Ming airships first.

Otherwise, if this thing starts to wreak havoc, there will be no way to fight this battle.

"Mr. Colonel, this is the second thing I want to report. The two explosions you just heard seemed to be the sound of the Ming army blowing up cannons." Spencer's voice trembled.
Chapter completed!