Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece - Chapter 892

[Chapter 239 Strange Fleet]

After Myrtias left, Leotidides immediately said: “Tagru, hurry up and inform the troops to be rescued to go to the port immediately.”

“Yes, Commander.” Taglu received the order , did not execute it immediately, but asked with some doubts: “Are the Carthaginians too adventurous? They sent an army of tens of thousands of people to cross the mountainous area with inconvenient transportation and food transportation. And Minoa, want to take Agrigento, once our reinforcements arrive and let their attempts fail, these tens of thousands of Carthaginians may not even need us to attack, they will be defeated because the food cannot be supplied in time …”

“Yes, this Carthaginian commander Marco really dares to take risks. It seems that he believes in the ability of his army very much.” Leotizides looked at the wooden map hanging on the wall, and his eyes flashed: “So our reinforcements must be fast.”

………………………………

Since the Dionian army occupied Serinus, half of its port was quickly converted into a rudimentary naval port , not only allows the warships of the Sicilian fleet to dock for supplies, but also can be pushed ashore for maintenance and repairs… The fleet has a stable and safe foothold in western Sicily, providing convenience for its patrols and attacks on the western waters.

Now, more than 150 warships of the Sicilian fleet are docked at the docks, soldiers from Minoa, Agrigento, Gera, Camerina, Exonome and other friendly city-states on the south coast, as well as 1,000 soldiers Soldiers of the Dionysian Reserve Corps, a total of 6,000 soldiers, are boarding the battleship in batches.

In order to be able to transport the support army to the port of Agrigento at one time, Myrtias did not even let the fleet soldiers board the crow warship, just to free up more space for the warship.

In this regard, Sekelian expressed his objection. He believed that the entire fleet could not be used to transport soldiers, and at least half of the warships needed to be used as escorts. This is the vigilance that a naval commander must have.

Miltias retorted: Only half of the warships are freed, which means that half of the soldiers must be transported for the second time. Now the enemy is urgent, in case Agrigento is defeated due to insufficient troops, this responsibility Who will take the blame?

And after the completion of the troop delivery, the Sicilian fleet must also cruise to the west, so there should be no delay.

The two sides broke up again.

Sekelian simply boarded the first clipper to leave the port, out of sight and out of mind.

In order to save time, every warship was loaded with soldiers and set off immediately, so when Myrtias boarded the last flagship and left the port, the entire fleet spread as much as four or five miles east, showing a curve A single, crooked line, with each ship full of soldiers, traveled slowly.

Myrtias was also a little anxious about this. He frowned at the soldiers lying on the deck, and estimated the time it would take to get from Serinus to Agrigento at such a speed. By the time the delivery was over, it might be in the afternoon. , the fleet can no longer go to patrol.

At this moment, he hopes that there will be a relatively strong northwesterly wind like the day the Carthaginian army landed, so that the sailing time can be greatly shortened.

And just when he was thinking about it, the exclamation of the watcher

suddenly sounded above his head: “Attention! Attention! There is an enemy in the southeast!!”

The ships are all destroyed, where is the enemy in the sea to the southeast?

When he was confused, the watchman on the

mast shouted anxiously again: “The clipper has raised two blue flags! Two blue flags!

” The yellow flag will be raised for the first time, but the two blue flags mean that there is a fleet nearby, and the number is comparable to the Sicilian fleet. Regardless of whether it is hostile or not, it poses a considerable threat to the Sicilian fleet.

Miltias felt flustered. He clawed on the side of the ship and tried to look southeast, but he could only vaguely see a few small spots on the sea in the distance.

Among the four fleet commanders, neither Myrtias nor Flarios had the experience of commanding large-scale naval battles independently.

During the South-Italian War, Myrtias was only the captain of a three-tiered oar, and after the establishment of the 4th Fleet, the Ministry of War once provided Davos with a number of candidates for fleet command, their qualifications, record , and their abilities are similar, Davos was having a hard time deciding.

In the end, he chose Miltias because Miltias once served as the captain of Davos’ ship, and Davos still had some impressions of him, which added points to him.

After becoming the commander of the Fourth Fleet, Myrtias spent most of his time leading the fleet to cruise the Adriatic Sea, fighting pirates, and helping the army transport luggage. When Chetty attacked the Maple Combined Fleet, because the opponent was too weak, it took little effort to defeat it.

Now when Myrtias may encounter the first sea battle, the situation is so complicated: the opponent is an enemy and a friend, and it is still impossible to distinguish, so that he cannot suddenly make a decision to fight; his own fleet is not only out of formation , and each warship was full of soldiers, which slowed down the speed and weakened the ability to fight; at this time, the entire fleet was located on the sea near Germes, so it was difficult to retreat. As a small town, The small and humble port of Germes simply could not accommodate the Sicilian fleet.

Under such circumstances, he was inevitably a little flustered. He tried his best to calm himself down, and then issued the first order: “Raise the flag of Apollo and blow the bugle!”

With the sound of the bugle, the golden yellow The flag rose to the top of the mast and fluttered in the wind.

The warships in front of the flagship heard the sound of the bugle and saw the flying flag, and turned their bows one after another to approach the ship of Myrtias.

The slogan of the Apollo flag is: take the flagship as the center, move closer to it, and the distance between warships and warships is shortened, which is convenient for command and defense.

Myrtias’ thinking at this time is: now the fleet is full of soldiers, which is not conducive to combat, and his flagship is located closer to Serinus, when all the warships are approaching him, if this strange fleet is really attack, then he can lead the fleet back to Serinus first.

The Dionysian Fleet stretched too far on the sea, especially the warships at the front. Looking at the hand, he could neither see the flags on the last flagship nor the signals from the clippers cruising in the rear. , they can only make corresponding changes after seeing the warships in the rear make tactical maneuvers, and the transmission of this kind of news seems a bit slow at this critical moment.

……………………………………

The fast ship that Sekelian took was the first to leave the entire fleet. Since he sat on the bow of the ship, the crew Seeing that he was in a bad mood, no one dared to come forward to disturb him, and the whole ship was very quiet.

At this moment, his expression suddenly froze, he touched his ears, and asked the captain who was watching the sea, “Did you hear it? It sounds like a bugle sounded.” The

captain shook his head blankly, and listened for a while. , and then answered truthfully: “Sir, I didn’t hear it.” The

captain’s words did not reassure Sekelian. He stood up, looked at the rear, and then raised his head to ask: “What happened to the warship behind?”

After a while, the watchman at the top of the mast replied: “They haven’t changed.”

“Perhaps you have misheard, my lord,” said the captain.

As if he had never heard of it, Cykrian felt a sense of unease in his heart. Perhaps this uneasiness had been buried when he learned that Myrtias had filled the entire fleet with soldiers without escorting warships, but now this kind of unease was The feeling became stronger.

He no longer hesitated, and said decisively: “Turn around and go back and have a look.” The

captain complained a little in his heart that he was suspicious, but he didn’t dare to express his objection in person. After all, Sekelian was once the admiral of the admiral, the victorious general and the crew. Hero, prestige is too high.

……………………………………

Just as the Dionian warships turned back and forth one after another, this fleet was also approaching the Sicilian fleet, and in Myrtia There were already many small black dots in his field of vision, which made his heart skip a beat.

At this moment, he heard the exclamation of the

watchman at the top of the mast: “Two yellow flags! Raised two yellow flags! It’s the enemy! It’s the enemy!!…”

The other warships have not fully approached, and it is too late to retreat to Serinus, but fortunately in the process of waiting, he already has a prepared plan: “Blow the bugle again, and let the warships be at a distance from each other. The nearest beach is docked, put down the soldiers, and then return to fight!”

Of course, these latter words cannot be expressed in semaphore, so his flagship must take the lead in setting an example, so that other warships can follow the example, so after giving the order After that, the flagship sailed straight to the coast.

The Dionysian Clipper, which was cruising and exploring on the southeast side of the fleet, did not know the approaching fleet. However, the preparation process of the standard fleet before entering the battle, of course, is the enemy.

It turned out that the fleet was not from Carthage, but from the Phoenician region of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Since the storm destroyed Carthage’s navy, the Carthaginians completely lost their maritime superiority. The Dionysian Sicilian fleet ran rampant at sea, not only cutting off the connection between Carthage and Sicily, but also beginning to threaten Carthage. sea trade in the city.

At this time of life and death, Carthage also thought of its mother state while stepping up the construction of new warships.