South of Marseilles, France
Wild cheering rose from the north; the Italians thought they had won the day. Nothing could be further from the truth. The over a hundred thousand men of the Caliph stood resolute in their defenses. While the Napolteans had not pressed the attack, they had foolishly remained within artillery range, and the Arazif's guns threw death towards their masses forces.
Coast South of Venice, Naples
As the ten thousand men of the rear guard fought the Italians they began to dig defenses. Rooting them out was supposed to be costly, bloody. The Italians would fill the rivers with the blood of their soldiers. Ten thousand more men had come on shore, these ones with cannons, and they transported the guns inland to the area around Chioggia, where they were set up and began pounding the Italian defenses. More thousands of men marched away to the south, leaving their brethren to fight the Italians. They burned and pillaged as they went, killing any man they saw and setting fire to countless houses, vineyards, and farms. They marched towards Ferrara, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
In the north of Venice, around some unpronounceable Italian township, twenty thousand men of the invasion fought the Italians to a standstill, their guns and artillery pounding the men of Naples. A thousand of the Ottomans had fallen on the beaches, but yet more landing barges made for the blood-soaked sand. Off the shore more Ottoman vessels sailed out of the east and fell upon the dwindling defenders of Venice.
Coast of Jijel, Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman ships continued to harass the landing force, firing salvos into the massed vessels, but with their force now diminishing they only engaged lone enemy vessels.
On the shorelines the inactivity of the Napoletean commander had cost his men dear. The Ottoman forces, ninety nine thousands strong, had surrounded his beach head and were now shelling the massed Italian troops from all sides. As the majority continued to stand on guard to prevent any Italian breakouts others began to dig trenches and emplacements for the cannons and mortars. The Italians would have to hell to pay if they decided to try to go anywhere.
