Chapter 1636 What is the King?

What that person expected was correct. Portugal seriously lacked experience in large-scale expeditions and the organizational work was a mess.

But this cannot be entirely blamed on the king and his commanders' lack of experience, because the composition of this crusade is also maddening. In addition to the army, there are tens of thousands of accompanying personnel, bishops, servants, women, boys and slaves. These unorganized and undisciplined guys naturally seriously hindered the army.

In addition, the baggage load was also incredible. In addition to the military supplies needed by 25,000 troops and 36 semi-cannons, there were also movable royal and noble tents, chapels, court bands, royal choirs, and a large number of chefs to cook delicious food... These were necessities for the daily entertainment of the princes and nobles.

Without music and good food, their souls would dry up. Without the church to absolve them of sins at any time, they would soon be devoured by guilt…

Macron and his friends were stunned. They thought they had seen the world in the Moroccan palace, but compared with these Portuguese princes, Abu and his princes were just a bunch of beggars.

But this was completely beyond the transportation capacity of the baggage train, and they had to collect hundreds of horse-drawn carriages from the local area, gathering a total of 1,000 baggage wagons to barely load all these damn things onto the wagons.

It took the Portuguese army nearly two months to complete its preparations for the march. Macarons were almost growing hair from waiting...

But waiting is not all bad. In mid-July, the tribes loyal to King Abu finally gathered 6,000 camel soldiers at his call and came to help in the battle.

This boosted the morale that had been very low due to the long wait. His Majesty the King was also very happy and became more confident of victory.

On July 29, 1578, Sebastian finally led the coalition forces and left Asilah in a mighty force, heading south along the coastal plain!

Not long after the army set out, three Ming warships also quietly left the port of Asilah.

In the past two months, Macron and his friends have become Sebastian's guests of honor through the introduction of King Abu.

At this time, the legendary story of the "Flying Henan Man" had spread throughout Europe. Sebastian heard that they were subordinates of the legendary red-haired female pirate and had saved King Abu on the battlefield, so he immediately favored them. Despite his subordinates' dissuasion, he wanted to incorporate these brave and warlike Ming people into his guards.

Therefore, the three Ming warships left Asilah very smoothly and then went their separate ways. The Yixing and Dianshanhu sailed to Ceuta for ocean-going supplies, while the Ningbo followed the Portuguese army southwards, ready to meet the task force at any time.

~~

On the other hand, King Abu's second uncle, Malik, who had been the Sultan of Morocco for almost two years, had also led his army from Marrakech.

In mid-June, he received news that the Crusade organized by Portugal was unprecedentedly powerful in Tangier and Essaouira.

Malik Sultan is 40 years old this year, in the prime of life. Twenty-two years ago, he fled Morocco with his eight-year-old brother Mansour and wandered in a foreign land for twenty years.

For twenty years, the two brothers have never forgotten their homeland and vowed to take back Morocco. Their firm belief made them selflessly hone themselves and finally grow into outstanding all-round talents.

In order to attract the attention of the Ottoman high-ranking officials, Malik and his brother participated in the world-renowned Battle of Lepanto. Although the Ottomans lost the war, the brothers performed very well. Then they volunteered to participate in the battle to retake Tunisia, which finally won the favor of Ottoman Sultan Murad III.

Murad III summoned the brothers to the palace in Istanbul. After Malik promised to pay 15 tons of gold after the success and leased the good port of Larache on the Atlantic coast to the Ottoman fleet as a base, the Turks provided them with troops and military supplies and helped them fight back to Morocco.

The two brothers led the way and fought bravely. Finally, they won three battles and drove their nephew Abu out of Morocco. Twenty years later, Malik finally got his long-cherished wish and regained the throne.

In order to rally the people, he publicly vowed to keep Morocco's territory and sovereignty intact and recapture all occupied cities. No one, including the Ottomans, would bully the Moroccans anymore!

This tough declaration immediately received strong support from the people of Morocco, which had suffered from the oppression of the great powers. Moreover, Malik was not only good at making bold statements, but also very capable. He labeled the former king Abu, who was in exile in Portugal, as a traitor who colluded with infidels and attempted to give Morocco to Portugal.

This move had an immediate effect, and he immediately transformed himself from a usurper into a defender of the country who led the Moroccan people to resist aggression. Now the former king's loyal supporters became traitors who were hated by everyone, and immediately won the hearts of the people over.

Then he quickly cleaned up the situation, put the country back on track, and implemented many popular policies, bringing most Moroccans together around him.

In order to resist this inevitable invasion, Malik had done everything he could in the past eighteen months. He used his relationship with the Ottoman Empire and used the West African gold mines that were not yet in his hands as collateral to purchase a large number of advanced firearms... In addition to matchlock guns, there were also swivel cannons that could be mounted on camels.

Malik also made peace with the Berbers, who had always been hostile to the Saads, and promised them equal treatment as long as they followed him to repel the invaders. Out of their enthusiasm for defending their country, the Berbers, the original rulers of Morocco, finally agreed to send troops to join the war.

In addition, Malik took in a large number of apostates who had fled from Europe. He used these nobles and officers who were tired of the endless killings on the European battlefield to simulate the Portuguese army and serve as sparring partners for his men, so that they could learn how to deal with the Spanish phalanx.

So when the Portuguese landed in Morocco, Malik had already completed all preparations for war, and was gathering his strength, ready for the battle!

He immediately summoned all the departments in the country and asked them to fight to the end to defend their homeland, their families and their beliefs! They had to fight to the last man to win this battle of independence that would transform Morocco!

The king's declaration successfully aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of the Moroccans. All tribes put aside their grievances and actively responded to the Sultan's call. All the warriors brought their own dry food, weapons and horses and gathered in Marrakech from all directions.

Thanks to the slow action of the Portuguese, Malik was able to gather warriors from all over the country and provide them with necessary training - mainly unified commands, so that they understood their respective positions in the formation and did not rush forward when they encountered the enemy as they had done in the past.

That is outdated. In this era of rapid development of military technology, we must use formations to counter formations in order to give full play to the advantages of military strength and defeat the powerful enemies in Europe!

Upon learning that the Portuguese had set out from Asilah, Malik also set out with his well-rested and trained army.

At the same time, his third brother Mansur, who served as the governor of Fez, the birthplace of the Assad dynasty, also led the powerful Assad dragoons and met his second brother in the northwest of Kerala.

At this time, Malik's army exceeded 50,000, nearly twice the strength of the Portuguese. In addition to the Assad dragoons, there were also elite Turkish Janissary Guards and the Berber light cavalry who were good at fighting. This army not only had an advantage in numbers, but was also well-equipped and had strong combat effectiveness. Its equipment and training level were not much inferior to those of the Portuguese!

Malik's men finally had the confidence to win the battle for independence!

This is really valuable, because Morocco has been under the shadow of Portugal and Spain for more than a hundred years. For more than a hundred years, Europeans have repeatedly defeated the Moroccan army with fewer troops and occupied all their coastal ports, and razed the coastal cities that they could not occupy, and trampled the self-esteem of the Moroccans into pieces.

This is the fundamental reason why Morocco, despite having an excellent geographical location and good population and resource endowments, has been sluggish and at the mercy of others for a long time.

Today, Malik vowed to put an end to it all!

However, God seemed to be testing the ambitious Sultan to see if he had the willpower to accomplish this great feat. On the night when the two brothers met, Malik fell ill.

Moreover, the onset was very rapid. Malik soon developed many symptoms such as chills, high fever, severe headache, muscle pain all over the body, facial flushing, bloodshot eyes, etc.

The highly skilled Jewish doctor who had followed him for many years diagnosed him with "camp fever."

The so-called "camp fever" is typhus, an acute infectious disease transmitted by fleas. Because soldiers camping on the battlefield often get infected with this disease, it is also called "war typhus."

Although people at that time were not aware of the cause of the disease, it did not prevent them from realizing that the disease was terrible. If not treated in time, it would be life-threatening!

This was a bolt from the blue for brothers Malik and Mansour.

The shrewd and strong Mansur quickly calmed down and ordered the Jewish doctor to immediately use the most advanced medical techniques in Europe to perform bloodletting treatment on his second brother.

Because Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, believed that people get sick because there is impurity in the body, so the disease will be cured as long as the impurity is discharged.

At this time, European doctors believed this without a doubt. So when a patient got sick, they gave him an enema to induce vomiting to help him expel the impurities in his body. What if it still didn't work? Then they would bleed him. What if the disease still didn't get cured after bleeding? That must be because the bleeding was not enough, so they would continue to bleed until it was all gone...

Fortunately, when the Jewish doctor took out a sharp knife, Malik woke up in time and stopped him from bleeding himself.

Malik also understood medicine and knew that bloodletting therapy could cure the disease. Whether it was effective or not was another matter, but after bloodletting the patient would become extremely weak, or even unconscious for a long time, and would be unable to fight at all.

Now that the war is imminent, as a king, how can he remain ill and bedridden?

What awaits the Moroccans is only failure and the destruction of their country...

(End of this chapter)