"Okay," Luo Jizhi stood up and hung behind him a large map of about two meters long and wide. The map was still made of silk cloth, with blue oceans, green rivers, gray-brown castles and passes, and gray-yellow roads all clearly expressed. Different areas were also processed in different colors according to the height of the altitude.

This map is the result of the Grey-Clothed Guard led by Adrian in the past five years, including the entire Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, the Sea of ​​Azov and its surrounding areas.

Luo Jizhi hesitated for a while. He knew that Huangfu Duan had come here just for the sake of the situation, but he was still ready to tell the ideas he had discussed with Harhatu - this person was a confidant of the future emperor.

"Sir Zhan, please see, this is the Crimean Peninsula. It is located in the north of it across an isthmus and faces the governor's jurisdiction. This place was originally the second line of defense between the Crimeans and the Poles and the Cossacks. They are all natural lowlands. Usually, there are intermittent ditches in most places. Even if there are no ditches, there will be swamps. If it were before, this swamp area, which is about two hundred miles long and forty miles wide, is basically difficult to cross."

"After our country occupied the land north of the isthmus, the Crimean Khanate panicked and immediately mobilized white slaves in the territory to excavate the entire isthmus. At present, the isthmus has actually formed a strait about two hundred miles long. They are very cunning. The sea water is very shallow at both ends of the strait, and the ships cannot rely on the strait at all, but at least ten meters deep inside the strait. In addition, this strait is not a straight line, but is connected by several small straits about twenty miles wide and intermittent, deep and twisty. Even if you transport the ships here from land, it will be useless."

"To the west of the peninsula is part of the northern coastline of the Black Sea, but there are many deep waters and many ports. However, due to the severe siltation of the Dnieper River Delta, our country did not make any decisions there at the beginning. Instead, it set the port to the new Tianjin Port in the Sea of ​​Azov, so we wanted to attack the west side of the peninsula, and our country had no ships available."

"Besides, there is a strait in the east that faces the mainland, called the Kerch Strait, which can drive our own sea boats. However, the eastern part of the peninsula is mostly mountainous, and it can only land in Kerch Port. On the south coast of the Sea of ​​Azov or the north coast of the peninsula, there are silted shallows everywhere, and large ships cannot get close to it at all."

"Therefore, our army had to take down the Kerch Port near the Kerch Strait, on the east side of the Kerch Strait, you see, this is the North Caucasus controlled by the Turgut Mongols, but they did not completely control the entire place. This is the Kuban River, located in the North Caucasus, but near the Kerch Strait, the west of the Kuban River is still occupied by the Crimeans."

"In other words, if you want to establish a stronghold in the eastern continent of the peninsula, you also need to fight. This is also a peninsula called the Taman Peninsula. The Ottomans have Taman Castle here, which is far away from Kerch Port. There are only less than forty miles between the two, and the sailboat will arrive in two hours. Of course, according to the ability of our country's sailboats, if the two steam engines are fully opened, it will arrive in half an hour at the fastest."

"Like Azov, the Taman Peninsula is also occupied by the Ottomans. I guess I know that the Ottoman is also a huge empire. Turgut stopped when he fought here. Of course, there must be other factors in it."

Everyone present understood Luo Jizhi's words. Although the Turkuts were allies of the Daxia Kingdom, they were still in the situation where there was an old empire on the side. As a local force, it would be the most advantageous to keep the Taman Peninsula, and it was understandable from their standpoint.

"This is Kafa City. The port here can only be docked by flat-bottomed boats. This is Yalta City, which can be docked by large sea boats. However, its port is small, and the distance between the castle and the port is only 30 meters. The cannons on the city are directly facing the port, so it is difficult to land."

"Then it is Se Port, which is a super port with a length of ten miles. However, this is the focus of the Crimeans' defense. In addition to Se Castle, many small fortresses have been built on both sides of the port in recent years, and it is not easy to capture."

"There were ports left on the entire southwestern coastline of the peninsula, but after Crimea occupied this place, it was obvious that for the sake of defense that all the ports here were destroyed, leaving only the ports in the southeast. The port that could be used by our army was Kerch Port, but Kerch Port just said that there was an enemy Taman City opposite and a fleet of twenty large galleys."

"Kerchi City is also built only a hundred meters away from the port, and it is within the range of cannons. If you want to land, you must enter the port. If you want to enter the port, you must endure the threat of artillery fire at the top of the city, and you must always face the harassment of port paddles and sailboats and the sudden appearance of squadrons on the other side. What's more, even if we successfully arrive at Kerchi Port, in addition to the threat of artillery fire at the top of the city and the threat of reinforcements from Kafa City, we also have to face the threat of reinforcements from Taman City."

"The enemy also realized the key point. Five thousand elite infantry troops were stored in Kerchi City. There were about 10,000 young and strong people in the city who could be mobilized at any time. The city walls were all made of large stones, up to fifteen meters thick and ten meters high. It was too difficult to break through."

"But if our army wants to break through the peninsula and have a forward stronghold on the peninsula, we must take down Kerch City. After taking this city, we can sweep the entire peninsula to the west, cross the strait east, and take down the Taman Peninsula, which can threaten the Ottoman Castle along the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus Mountains, or attract them to come for rescue or take the initiative, which is very convenient."

"The Kerch Strait is where our navy must pass to the Black Sea. If we give up controlling this place, even if we lucky enough to take over the Port of Seit, we will not be able to open up the supply line with the local area."

Huangfu Duan stared at the Kechi Strait for a long time before saying, "So that's the case, Kechi City must be taken down?"

Seeing that Luo Jizhi wanted to speak but stopped, he asked Adrian: "You have been operating here for ten years. Haven't you developed some insiders in the Crimean Khanate?"

Before Adrian answered, Luo Jizhi took the initiative to take over the sentence: "It's not that there is no effort, but the Tatars have taken over this place for more than two hundred years. In these two hundred years, the Mongols, Alans, Nogas, Cossacks, and Dacians have formed a tribe, namely the Crimeans. What remains are the slaves captured in the past twenty years. Half of them have basically been steadily integrated into the Khanate system. In this section, the former General Jenicheri Adrian knew the most."

Adrian quickly said: "It is true. After capturing the white people, they included young and strong people in the slave system and tried their best to exploit them. If these people give up Christianity and convert to the Tianfang religion, they will naturally become civilians on the peninsula. Those who do not want to convert can only be slaves, and most of them will die of labor within ten years."

"Their focus is on children. They train these children since childhood, either as professional soldiers or as professional craftsmen. When these children grow up, they basically forget their previous lives. I will not hide it from Master Zhan, I am such a child."

"What's more, in the past decade, because our country has occupied the land north of the isthmus, their usual practice of going north to rob the Poles, the Russians stopped, and most of the remaining people are loyal to this country..."

"Then there is no way, I can only attack Kerchi City?"

Luo Jizhi said: "Of course not. You see, this is the territory of the Bulgarians. His Majesty marked this place as Bulgaria. The port facing the Black Sea is called Varna. The Ottomans gathered a large number of warships here. According to Adrian's information, they basically transferred the warships in Istanbul here."

"They were in Smyrna, and somehow, His Majesty marked Izmir. No matter what, they were the important military port facing the Aegean Sea, and there were about two hundred warships, and their main enemy was the Venetians. However, after our country occupied Heraklion, the fighting spirit of both sides seemed to have subsided. They could transfer the warships to Istanbul at any time."

"It is not easy to enter Istanbul from the Aegean Sea. This is the Dardanelles, this is the Marmara Sea, this is the Bosphorus. It is a good place given to the Ottomans. Both straits are extremely narrow and long, very conducive to defense, so the Marmara Sea has become their inland sea, and their training base is here."

"Sorry, I'm going to go far. I mean, according to the voyage of our military sailboat, there is an albatross supply ship that can travel 5,000 kilometers in a row without replenishing coal. It is only 1,000 kilometers from New Tianjin Port to Constanta Port in Romania. King Andre established facilities for replenishing coal and freshwater in the morning according to our requirements."

"So, our army, regardless of the solid castles on the Crimean Peninsula, directly looked for the Ottomans. The main Crimean fleet fought a decisive battle and annihilated it in one battle. Without the support of warships, the army could not drive to the peninsula. Then, relying on the Port of Constanta to take the initiative to attack the 200,000 troops placed in Bulgaria. If these 200,000 people were defeated or annihilated, we could basically talk to the Ottomans about the ownership of the Crimean Peninsula."

Huangfu Duan asked: "Although Crimea is a vassal state of the Ottomans, they are also a Khanate after all. How could they agree to give up their territory under such circumstances?"

Luo Jizhi smiled and said, "The Ottoman ruled places like Crimea, naturally not like our country. They directly governed by the Lifanyuan. Because Crimea involves the security of their northern border, after the last time the Crimeans were defeated by our army, Sultan Gret III died soon after, and he was only forty years old when he died."

"oh?"

"Haha, he has a younger brother, the current Grey IV. After the death of Khan, he originally appointed Grey IV to succeed the throne. This person had been in office for several years, but was overthrown by Grey III in the fourth year of Dongxiao. Grey III wanted to kill the fourth, but was stopped by the Ottomans and took the fourth to Istanbul. This action made the third generation, cough cough, the third generation was called *** and the fourth generation was called Muhammad. *** was very dissatisfied. This was also one of the main reasons why the Ottomans did not immediately launch a large army to fight our country."

"After ***, his son Adil was originally succeeded to the throne, but the Ottomans sent Mohammed back to succeed the throne, but they also divided Azov, Kerch, and Taman Peninsula into Adil's name. Naturally, they still had the same game as the division and conquer."

"If the Ottomans do this, they can still play around without our country. However, with our country's intervention, it may not be necessary. Master, the Ministry of Justice thinks this way. If you can convince Mohammed and Adil to join our country, our country will only obtain the Port of Seychelles, Kafa City, and Kerch City as a naval base, is it okay?"
Chapter completed!