The Sun and the Lion

Also in the summer of 1499, the Eastern Mediterranean, thousands of kilometers away from Kabul, became a battlefield like the mountains of Afghanistan.

At this time, the Republic of Venice still had a large number of colonies in the Eastern Mediterranean. They were scattered everywhere and connected by sea routes. They were the lifeblood of Venice's maritime empire.

But for Ottoman, these Venetian strongholds were "a sore on the beautiful face of the White Sea."

Bayezid was determined to wipe out Venetian rule in Greece. His father, Fatih Sultan, had already captured Negroponte. It was Bayezid who conquered fortresses such as Modon, Coloni, and Lepanto. What to do next.

Since the beginning of the year, the Ottoman army has been preparing for this war, and it is difficult to conceal the movement of craftsmen and supplies to manufacture ordnance. Until April and May, Ottoman was still trying to paralyze the Venetians, making them believe that Ottoman would maintain peace between the two countries, and the next offensive would turn to the Mamluks.

But by June, all the Venetian merchants in Kostantiniya were arrested. At the end of the month, a huge fleet led by Kemal Reis crossed the Dardanelles. At the same time, the Ottoman army set out across the mountains of Greece and besieged Le At Bando Fortress, it was obvious what the Sultan's goal was.

However, Venice was not completely unprepared. The Republic appointed a new naval commander-Antonio Grimani in March and prepared for war. Both countries were preparing for war while promoting peace.

Grimani, a wealthy merchant, armed ten galleys at his own expense when the state's finances were tight, and loaned sixteen thousand ducats to the Republic - using the proceeds of the state's salt trade as collateral - to obtain this from the Senate. Appointment of positions.

The Grimani commander showed great prowess after gaining public office. By July, he assembled one of the largest fleets in the history of the Republic at Modon - a total of 95 galleys and carracks. It carried nearly 25,000 sailors.

Because of its control of such a powerful military force and its previous legendary business success, public opinion in the city immediately boasted that Grimani was "another Alexander and Caesar."

After reading the reports sent back by the spies, he had a general understanding of the enemy's composition and general movements and was determined to win. The Venetian fleet had far more carracks and heavy galleys than the Ottoman fleet.

The Ottoman fleet led by Kemal Reis had about 260 warships and carried more than 30,000 sailors, but the heavy warships only included 20 karaks and 3 heavy galleys.

So before setting off, he wrote to the Senate: "Fellow senators, by the grace of the Lord, the Venetian fleet will once again bring glorious victory to the Republic."

By the end of July, Grimani was tracking the Ottoman fleet, and both fleets were sailing along the Greek coast.

It's just that Grimani has never seized any combat opportunities. The Ottoman fleet is not interested in a decisive battle with the Venetian fleet behind them. Their primary goal is to support the army besieging Lepanto.

Only a few small-scale battles broke out between the Venetian fleet and the Ottoman fleet. The Ottomans won a small victory, which damaged Grimani's face.

It was not until at Zonzio Bay that an onshore wind hit the Greek coast that Grimani finally got a chance to compete with the Ottomans. He immediately arranged his troops according to the traditional formation. All the heavy ships were arranged as the vanguard to break through the enemy's line, while the mobile and flexible light ships followed closely behind and rushed into the disrupted enemy fleet to fight.

He planned to implement decapitation tactics, deploying the two largest Karak sailing ships to specifically deal with the two largest Karak sailing ships in the Ottoman fleet. One of them still flew the flag of Sultan Bayezid, and he was convinced that it was the flagship.

At the same time, he also received unexpected reinforcements. Andrea Loredan, who was supposed to guard Corfu, came uninvited with his fleet, which seriously violated military discipline.

Loredan boarded the flagship intending to participate in the discussion of formulating the battle plan, but Grimani immediately threatened: "You should fulfill your duties in Corfu now and don't let me report this to the Senate."

But Loredan was so popular in the navy that even Grimani, who was appointed by the Senate, was annoyed with him for leaving his post and stealing the limelight, and eventually appointed him to command one of the assault carracks.

Loredan was so inspired that he participated in many battles to eliminate Muslim pirates before the outbreak of the war. Kemal Reis, the pirate leader, was his repeated target.

However, there was no harmony within the Venetian fleet. After the meeting, various lower-level commanders either believed that Grimani's orders were unreasonable and "full of loopholes", or they deliberately distorted the commander-in-chief's orders.

In order to prepare for war, the Commander-in-Chief ordered the requisition of a large number of galleys from the Republic. These state-owned commercial galleys had been contracted to various merchants through auctions. Merchant ships that were supposed to be in Egypt or the Levant were forcibly requisitioned, and the bidders Was given the title of captain.

This naturally aroused dissatisfaction among the draftees. Even though Venetian law stipulated that disobedient bidders would be fined and expelled from Venice for five years, some people still refused to obey Grimani.

The recruitment of merchant ships also led to the suspension of Venice's foreign trade, and the price of goods that should have been imported from the Levant and Egypt soared.

Under everyone's gaze, the two Karak sailing ships took the lead in breaking away from the large force and rushing towards the Ottoman fleet. Even ordinary sailors and oarsmen shouted: "Loredan! Victory!"

A large group of Ottoman galleys immediately stepped forward to intercept them. The Karak sailboats on both sides opened their side gun windows. The terrifying bombardment of the heavy artillery made many nearby sailors scared. At the same time, the deck and the observation platform of the mast were crowded with sailors. They fired lead bullets and arrows at each other and tried to engage in gang fighting.

The tragedy of the battle on the front line seemed to frighten the commanders, and they were almost indifferent when Grimani raised the cross to convey the attack order to the subordinate commanders.

Alvis Marcello, who was in command of all Karak galleys, captured only one Ottoman galley before retreating. The performance of heavy-duty galleys is no less impressive. Find Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan. com Only one of them joined the fierce battle and withdrew after repelling the attacks of several Ottoman galleys.

The heavy ships arranged at the front almost ignored Grimani's orders. They neither moved forward nor retreated. The light galleys deployed to the rear continued to urge the heavy ships in front of them to advance, but until the end of the battle, the only light ships participating in the battle were those from Corfu, and they did not join the formation.

But even so, Loredan still showed bravery. The Venetian sailors killed the Ottoman sailors and retreated steadily, forcing Braque Reis, who commanded the giant ship flying the Sudanese flag, to commit suicide after transferring the flag. Destroy the two Venetian carracks.

The burning sight of the giant ship frightened the Venetians out of their last courage. They just watched the Ottoman light galleys running around this huge flame pyramid, rescuing many of their own soldiers and killing Venetians.

Faced with this situation, Grimani was powerless. He could not deal with more than four-fifths of the captains in accordance with military law, so he had to order the fleet to retreat to the open sea and let the victors sail to Lepanto. After seeing this situation, the French fleet that came to support Venice refused to participate in the war and severely humiliated Grimani: "Your fleet looks magnificent, but no one expects you to do anything useful." matter."

Inside the fortress, the isolated Venetian garrison had repelled several attacks by the Ottomans. When they saw the sails on the sea in the distance, they rang the church bells with joy and their morale was boosted.

But as the Ottoman fleet approached, they were surprised to find that the flags flying on the ships were crescents instead of the Lion of St. Mark. Less than an hour after Kemal Reis led his fleet into Lepanto, the defenders quickly surrendered.