Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 740

[Chapter 86 The Battle of Cerro Diham (1)]

After receiving orders from Hasdrubal, the Iberian infantry, carrying rations and weapons, began to climb the mountains south.

Hasdrubal, on the other hand, continued to attack Cerrodiham to attract the attention of the defenders.

The Iberian infantry climbed over the mountains and made a big circle. In the early morning of the third day, they appeared at the mountain pass behind the city of Cerrodiem. The Cerrodiem defense camp in the mountain pass was neglected. It was quickly lost under the rapid attack of the Iberians, and then the Iberians quickly approached the east of Cerrodiham.

The Cerrodiham people quickly learned the news that “the enemy has appeared in the rear” and were very panicked.

Because after being reminded by the Dionysians, they only concentrated their manpower to reinforce the western city wall within a limited time. As for the eastern city wall, they only had time to make simple repairs. Do any defense facilities, but they took luck and thought that this direction could not be attacked by the Carthaginians for the time being. After all, this is already in the sphere of influence of the friendly city-states of Dionia, and they may receive reinforcements from the Dionias at any time. , if the Carthaginians want to land here, they will take great risks. As for the Carthaginians wanting to climb over the mountains, those towering mountains are not so easy to climb, and the Carthaginians are not so good in this regard. not good at.

But they didn’t expect that what they were most worried about happened precisely.

At this time, Hasdruba’s army also launched a strong attack on the city wall of Cerrodieam in the west at the same time. All citizens who could fight were sent to the city for defense, and they also sent people to the port to take a fast boat to Messina for help. In addition, they also arranged for the people in the city to start retreating to the port.

In fact, on the sea near Cerro Diham City, Dionia’s Clippers were patrolling and observing the battle every day.

When they saw the army of Carthage appearing to the east of Cerrodieum, they realized that the situation was not good and returned to Messina. Messina’s administrator, Amicris, has organized a fleet to set out for rescue.

Along with it was the Third Fleet.

After the Carthaginians divided the army into two parts and attacked from the north and south coasts to the east at the same time, Seikelian had to divide the Sicilian fleet he was in charge of also into two parts, the first fleet was in Catania, the third The Third Fleet was in Messina, and as the war progressed, most of the ships of the First Fleet were later stationed in the naval port of Gera, in order to prevent the Carthaginian fleet in time to assist the Army on both coasts and to circumnavigate Going to the rear of the friendly city-states of Dionia to land, at the same time, it can also protect the fleet of transporting baggage or refugees in time, and this time the third fleet is obviously dispatched for the purpose behind.

When Dionia’s fleet arrived at the sea near the city of Cerrodiem, the defense of the east wall of Cerrodiem had been broken by the Iberian infantry, and the citizens had to give up the defense of the city wall. Some retreat to the garrison, some retreat to the port.

Fortunately, when Cerrodieum was originally built, although the port was included in the city, it was separated by a city wall. The original purpose was to prevent slaves and freemen from the port from entering and leaving the city at will,

and disturbing the city .

order, and now it plays a key role.

The Cerrodieum civic soldiers had deployed the port city wall in advance, and also destroyed the stone stairs of the upper city wall, blocking the entrance to the port. After all, the city wall was mainly to prevent the enemies of the port from entering the city. They only hoped to be able to protect the people from Port escape buys time.

After the ships that were originally staying in the port were filled with the people of Cerrodieum, they quickly departed one by one. The people picked it up, and some ships from Tyndares, Caleacte, and Haluntium also came to the rescue. Things happened, but at this moment, all the Greek city-state sailors on the north coast were working together to rescue, and there was only one thought in their hearts: to rescue the people of Cerrodieum as soon as possible to avoid being slaughtered by the Carthaginians.

Cerrodieum is not a big city, and its population is not large. Soon all the old, young, women and children boarded the ship and began to load the citizens who rushed to the dock…

The ships of the Third Fleet were displayed on the sea west of the port to protect against a surprise attack from the Carthaginian fleet.

The fast ship came and reported to the third fleet commander Flarios on the flagship: “All the people of Cerrodieum in the port have boarded the ship.”

Flarios nodded and said he knew, there is nothing for this. The risky escort mission, he couldn’t bring up much energy. It’s not that he didn’t think about letting the fleet infantry on the crow warship land in the port to assist the Cerrodiem people in defending the port, but after understanding the actual battle situation, he gave up this Thought, he didn’t think that 4,000 fleet infantry could stop the attack of 20,000 enemies who were about to break through the city only with the weak city wall. It was not worth it to damage the fleet infantry that had been trained with great difficulty in this unimportant place.

“After the fleet has left, we will return.” Frinios just finished the order.

Suddenly, the watchman on the mast shouted loudly: “General, there is an enemy ahead!”

Flarios’s heart tightened, he raised his head and stared into the distance, passing through the gap between many warships, only to see the westernmost warship. Two yellow flags flew from the top of the mast.

It is the fleet of Carthage, and the number of warships is similar to ours… Flarios immediately made a judgment based on the semaphore (a yellow flag means that there is an enemy situation, a yellow flag means that the number of enemy fleets is less than that of Dionia, two A yellow flag means that the two sides are approximately equal in number, three yellow flags indicate that the enemy ships outnumber the Dionysian fleet, and four yellow flags indicate that the enemy ships are far outnumbered).

Flarioston was in high spirits, and he immediately changed his order: “Blow the bugle, raise the black flag!”

Above the flagship, five trumpeters blew the curved bronze horns simultaneously, resounding across the sea, A long black flag was also flying high on the mast.

“Under the dark night, there must be many stars.” The starry sky is the most typical tactic of the Dionysian navy, which can maximize the power of the crow warship. Only defeated the mighty Syracuse navy.

But after ten years of development, due to the change in the composition of the fleet’s warships, this tactic has undergone new changes, and he needs a big battle to verify its effectiveness.

The captains and crews of all warships were immediately excited after receiving the order: the deck operator began to lift the drawbridge resting on the deck to the foremast for placement; the helmsman adjusted the direction of the warship and began to arrange the formation; the sailors They began to swallow their rations and greased the seat cushions; the infantrymen sitting in the aisle of the bottom warehouse began to wear armor… Everyone was gearing up and anxiously awaiting the arrival of this naval battle.

…………………………………………

The fleet from the west came from Iberia, and to be precise, it belonged to the governor of Iberia, Marco.

The terrain along the coast of Africa is flat, but there are no tall and sturdy trees. A famous seafaring race like Carthage used the Iberian Peninsula as an important resource base a long time ago, not only because of its rich gold and silver mines, but also because of its rich gold and silver mines. Because of the abundant timber resources there, most of Carthage’s marine timber comes from Iberia.

After Marco served as the governor of Iberia, at first he did not have the right to command the fleet. In fact, in the process of conquering southern Iberia, the fleet was not used for most of the time. However, Marco considered the future and wanted to use the army. When fighting in other places, it will be a big trouble to transport troops by sea without the protection of the fleet, and if you want to mobilize the Carthaginian fleet to come to Iberia, it will definitely be obstructed by the Senate headed by Hanno, so he I decided to use the money I earned in Iberia and Iberian trees to build a fleet of my own.

A few years later, an Iberian fleet consisting of 120 three-tier oars, plus small and medium-sized warships, a total of 180 warships, was established. Its commander was Admika of the Margonid family. The sailors had Half were from the Phoenician city-states, the rest were from Numibia and Mauritania, and none were Carthaginians.

The fleet soon traversed the Iberian coast and near the Pillars of Hercules.

After Hanno knew about it, he was very afraid of it. So this time, when the fleet escorted Hasdruba’s army to Lilibe, Sicily, Hanno instructed Carthage. Fleet Commander Annobas wants to incorporate it.

This was firmly opposed by Admika, who said: “Master Margo only agreed to let the army troops be under the command of Monte Adeno, and did not say that the fleet should also be under the command of the Carthaginian navy.”

And Annuba Sis retorted: “Since they are all Carthaginian troops, of course they must be under unified command, which is beneficial to the battle! It is beneficial to Carthage!”

Admika refused to obey, and the two sides almost clashed.

In the end, the lawsuit hit the Senate, and the Senate had to send someone to discuss with Marco again, which started a tedious negotiation.

And the two fleets, one docked in Carthage and the other docked in Lillibe, are deadlocked with each other, which is why Monte Ardeno has never seen a Carthaginian fleet appearing on the sea near the south coast of Sicily for its The reason for the troop escort.

Until Hasdruba knew about this, he asked the fleet to help him on the grounds that he was about to capture the city of Cerro Diham and prevent the enemy from escaping from the sea. This is why the Iberian fleet happened to appear here. s reason.