Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 1001

[Chapter 339]

At dawn, two fast ships sailed out of the port of Palermos, one went to Saros to inform the Third Fleet, and the other went to Minoa to report to King Davos.

Due to the sudden ban from Leotidides, the top officials of Palermos and the commander-in-chief of the Solus reinforcements came nervously to ask the reason.

Especially the general of Solus. He also promised to cooperate with the Dionysians last night to persuade Solus to surrender. Now the Dionysians suddenly announced the blockade of the whole city. To break the contract.

As a result, Leotizides patiently explained the reason to them and asked them to cooperate.

……………………………………

Since the fleet left the port of Lilibe last night, no cargo ship belonging to Lilibe has been seen to return, nor has any news of reinforcements come. , Imisere, the lord of Lilibe, has been worried about their safety.

The officials under his command kept comforting him and said: It is normal to hear no news of reinforcements, because the Dionysians surrounded the city of Palermos, and after the fleet arrived at the port of Palermos with reinforcements, the soldiers waited until the soldiers arrived. They all went ashore, I am afraid it is dawn, those cargo ships will dare to leave the port again, they must wait until tonight to quietly return…

After listening to the words of his subordinates, Imisere received some comfort, plus there were many things during the day, It is necessary to organize labor to deliver supplies to the Carthaginian camp, to send people to the camp to assist in the construction of siege facilities, and to transport some seriously wounded people in the camp back to Lilibe for treatment, so as to avoid staying in the camp and affecting morale… …the busy Imisere put this matter aside for a while.

When the sun went down and night fell, and the people of Lilibe began to fall asleep, a fleet was approaching the port of Lilibe from the west.

By the cold moonlight, the tower guard in the port lighthouse was the first to discover the situation. He immediately lit an oil lamp, stretched it out of the tower, and shook it according to the prescribed movements.

After the port received the signal, patrol boats were dispatched immediately.

When the patrol boat left the port, it moored outside the water gate. After waiting for a while, the fleet arrived at the port. It seemed to be quite large, with about 60 large cargo ships.

The patrol boat immediately approached the large cargo ship with the flag of the city-state of Carthage flying on the mast in front.

The captain of the patrol held high a lighted torch, and by the light of the fire, he could see clearly the situation on the cargo ship: 30 oarsmen, a helmsman, and a captain, all men of Carthaginian or Phoenician appearance; the hull A lot of supplies were stacked in the center, which was a lot higher than the side of the ship,

and was tightly covered with several layers of thick linen.

This scene is no different from the previous few times, the only difference is that he does not know the captain of the team.

Before he could ask questions, the owner of the cargo ship preemptively asked: “Hi, the fleet led by Fipolica delivered military rations to you last night, but they haven’t seen them go back. Their families are very worried, you tell me I, did something happen to them?”

“They have other special missions!” Hearing this, the captain of the patrol boat felt that some people’s speculation that the Lillibee cargo ship had not returned may be correct, because the Carthaginian fleet also He hasn’t returned yet, but he didn’t let his guard down, but shouted and asked: “Who are you?! Why didn’t Tasora, Onis or Thasis lead the team?!”

“Do you think I want to come!” The captain of the cargo ship complained loudly: “If it wasn’t for the Dionysians attacking Africa again and burning down the city of Ogierjiri, the Senate would be angry, and asked the old General Morbar to strengthen the defense of the African coast, and the Senate again Under Morbar’s suggestion, I recruited the experienced old ship owners like Tassola and Onis to be the captains and helmsmen of the newly built new warships, and it is not my turn to transport you. Supplies! Navigating such a long distance in the dark, how dangerous it is! We set off more than an hour earlier, and wanted to take advantage of the weather to go a little longer and reduce some dangers, but we encountered a gust of wind in the middle. In the dark night, there was chaos in the fleet, and several ships sank due to collision with each other…” When he said this, the captain looked sad and indignant.

When the captain of the patrol boat heard this, he didn’t know what to say for a while. He now understood why the fleet arrived earlier than the previous few times. It turned out that the transport fleet was replaced by a group of newbies with little sailing experience. He saw that some sailors were not very natural, and it seemed that they had not been freed from the previous thrills.

The captain of the patrol boat hurriedly changed the subject. He pretended to be surprised: “The Dionysian fleet burned the city of Ogierjili again?!

” We were all terrified, everyone gathered to protest in the Senate, and we also pushed Sophie Taipanlako who came out to advise… Hahaha, these goddamn elders only know how to charge our taxes , but I don’t know how to win, how to protect Carthage… Hey! I heard that the senate held a meeting later, and the old man Ace Yaruba used to firmly support the war with Dionia, but this time he proposed I want to make peace with Dionia…” The

captain said a lot, the names of the familiar and unfamiliar Carthaginian elders and their embarrassing things made the patrol boat captain listen interesting, and the guard in his heart has been removed. Most of them, but after all, this is a strange fleet to him, and the inspection that should be done is still to be done, so he said: “Captain, what is your name?”

“Haka, many people in Carthage City Call me the most talkative Hakkar—”

“Captain Hakkar,” the patrol boat captain interrupted. “I’m going to check your cargo.”

“What?!

” When the team comes, they will accept this kind of inspection!” The captain of the patrol boat said sternly, but in fact, the three people led the team except for the first inspection, and then they did not inspect it again.

“Okay!” Hakkar hesitated for a moment and reminded: “You better hurry up, don’t delay us and hurry back to Carthage!” The

patrol boat approached, the captain got on the cargo ship, and then lifted the thick linen cloth.

The linen was wet, which also confirmed what the other party said before about encountering a strong wind; bags of neatly arranged flour appeared in front of his eyes, and there were no other items, that’s why they were covered with linen. The reason is to prevent the waves from the sea water from falling on the flour. Now it seems that this batch of substances may be bad. It has to be transported to the camp and eaten as bread.

The captain of the patrol boat looked regretful and covered the linen again.

Captain Haka saw it and explained embarrassingly: “The wind and waves are rushing, we are unprepared, but we can definitely eat…” The

captain of the patrol boat did not answer, jumped back to his own ship, and headed for the second cargo ship.

“How many ships to check?! We’re running out of time!” Captain Hakkar shouted from behind.

The captain of the patrol boat did not answer, he quickly checked the second boat, and then rushed to the third boat… Every time he heard Captain Haka urging loudly behind him, he did not respond until he jumped on the fifth boat While on the cargo ship, I heard the angry shout of Captain Haka at the rear: “Every captain pay attention, turn around and go back to Carthage immediately!” The

latter cargo ships that heard the shouting really started to turn around, and the captain of the patrol ship was a little panicked. .

You must know that in the past, the managers of the port of Lilibe had full respect for these Carthaginian fleets. After all, they sailed in the dark and sailed such a long distance. It took great risks to transport materials to Lilibe. Libby ports try to give each other the greatest convenience.

This time it was only because the new crew members came, and now it was during the war. I checked so carefully out of prudence, but if they really offended these shipowners, they would go back to Carthage to publicize, if there were no cargo ships, they would be willing to give Lili. For the sake of delivering supplies, the city lord of Imisere may not be able to spare him.

The captain of the patrol boat hurriedly jumped back to the ship, sailed to the leading cargo ship, and said to Captain Haka, “There is no problem with the inspection, and we can enter the port.”

Captain Haka scolded and stopped the cargo ships from returning.

After the tower guard received the signal from the captain of the patrol boat to enter the port, he notified the personnel at the lower level of the lighthouse, and they collectively turned the winch.

Lilibe’s water gate is composed of three layers of sea-blocking iron chains, each separated by 5 meters, and each layer of iron chains is divided into three upper, middle and lower chains, each of which is hundreds of meters long. The total amount of iron consumed is amazing. , but it is not worth mentioning for Carthage, which is prosperous by mining and metal trade. Under such conditions of heavy obstruction, it is almost impossible for enemy ships to rush into the port.

Haka Shipyard looked at the thick iron chains slowly rising in front of him with a complicated expression.

UU reading www.sonicmtl.com The patrol ship entered the port first, and he commanded the cargo ship to follow.

The main port of Liliba is somewhat similar to the mother state of Carthage. The place it occupies has a long land that stretches out to the sea alone, like a slightly bent wooden stick, the main part of which is almost the same as the opposite coast. Parallel, it is simply a natural breakwater.

On the outside of this “breakwater”, the Lilibis built a 5-meter-high city wall, and there are towers, plus the height of the “breakwater” itself, a total of more than 10 meters above the sea.

At the far end of this “breakwater”, there is a taller building-that is, the lighthouse, which is 15 meters high and cylindrical. There are also multiple windows on the floor for light infantry to shoot arrows outside.

At the same time, there is a special mechanism inside it that can lift and lower the water gate, so it is also a multifunctional fortress.

This lighthouse is nearly 300 meters away from the opposite coast, which is a little far away, so the Lilibi people built an artificial breakwater from the other side, extending over it, with a city wall on it, and finally a tower, more than 100 meters away from the lighthouse. The water gate was built in between, because the control lift chain was on the side of the lighthouse, so when the door was opened, only the side close to the lighthouse could pass the boat.