Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 239: Stranger fleet

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After Mirtias left, Leotizides immediately said: "Tagru, you should go and inform the troops that are going to rescue immediately to the port."

"Yes, Commander." Taglu received the order and didn't execute it immediately. Instead, he asked with some confusion, "Are the Carthaginians too risky? They sent tens of thousands of troops. , Crossing the mountainous area with inconvenient transportation and inconvenient food transportation, separated from Silinus and Minoa, wanting to capture Agrigento. Once our reinforcements arrive, their attempts will fail. These tens of thousands of Carthage People may not even need us to attack, they will be defeated because the food cannot be supplied in time..."

"Yes, this Carthage commander Margo really dared to take risks. It seems that he believes very much in the capabilities of his army." Leottizides looked at the wooden map hung on the wall, his eyes gleaming: "So our reinforcements must be fast."

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Since the Dionian army occupied Serinus, half of its port was quickly converted into a simple naval port, which not only allowed the ships of the Sicilian fleet to dock for supplies, but also could be pushed ashore for maintenance and repair... …Makes the fleet have a stable and safe foothold in western Sicily, and facilitates its patrol and attack on the western waters.

Now, more than 150 warships of the Sicilian fleet are docked at the pier. Soldiers from Minoa, Agrigento, Gela, Camanlina, Econom and other friendly city-states on the south coast, As well as 1,000 soldiers of the Dionian Reserve Corps, a total of 6,000 soldiers are boarding the battleship in batches.

In order to be able to transport this support army to the port of Agrigento at one time, Mirtias did not even let the fleet soldiers board the Ravens, just to make more space for the ships.

Secrian expressed opposition to this. He believed: The entire fleet cannot be used to transport soldiers, and at least half of the warships must be used as escorts. This is the vigilance that a navy commander must have.

But Mirtias retorted: only half of the warships were freed up, which meant that half of the soldiers had to be transported for the second time. Now the enemy situation is urgent, in case Agrigento is breached due to insufficient troops. , Who will bear this responsibility? Moreover, after the completion of the troop transport, the Sicilian fleet must go to the west for patrol, so there must be no delay.

The two parties broke up again.

Sekrian simply boarded the first Clippers to leave the port, to be out of sight and out of mind.

In order to save time, every warship set off immediately as long as it was loaded with soldiers. Therefore, when Mirtias boarded the last flagship to set off and left the port, the entire fleet spread eastward for four or five miles, showing A single sinuous straight line is drawn, and since each ship is full of soldiers, the sailing speed is slow.

Miltias was also a little anxious about this. He looked frowning at the soldiers lying on the deck, estimating the time it would take to get from Silinus to Agrigento at this speed. I'm afraid that the delivery will be over. It was already afternoon, and it was impossible for the fleet to patrol anymore.

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

And just as he was thinking about it, the looker's exclamation suddenly sounded above his head: "Attention! Attention! There is an enemy in the southeast!!"

Miltias was shocked, and then he was puzzled: Carthage’s warships were all destroyed, where is the enemy in the southeast sea?

When he was confused, the watchman on the mast shouted anxiously again: "The Clippers have raised two blue flags! Two blue flags!"

The blue flag means that it is not the Carthage warship that appears, otherwise the Clippers will raise the yellow flag for the first time, but the two blue flags mean that there is a fleet nearby, and the number is equal to the Sicilian fleet. Regardless of whether it is hostile or not, it poses a considerable threat to the Sicilian fleet.

Mirtias felt flustered. He leaned on the ship's side and looked hard to the southeast, but he could only vaguely see a few small spots on the sea in the distance.

In the command of the four major fleets, neither Mirtias nor Flarios had experience in independently commanding large-scale naval battles. During the Southern Italy War, Mirtias was just the captain of a three-tiered paddle warship. After the establishment of the 4th Fleet, the Ministry of Military Affairs once provided Daves with multiple candidates for fleet commander, their qualifications and achievements. , Abilities are similar, Daves is difficult to choose for a while. In the end, he chose Mirtias because Mirtias once served as the captain of Davers on the ship. Daves still had some impressions of him, and this one gave him extra points.

After becoming the commander of the Fourth Fleet, Mirtias spent most of the time leading the fleet to patrol the Adriatic Sea, fight pirates, and help the army transport its luggage. The only so-called naval battle was to conquer Mesa in Dionia. When Pi and Pucheti attacked the Maple united fleet, they defeated it because the opponent was too weak and hardly needed much effort.

Now when Mirtias may encounter the first naval battle, the situation is so complicated: the opponent is an enemy or a friend, and it is still impossible to distinguish between him and him, so that he cannot suddenly make a decision to fight; his own fleet is not only There is no formation, and every warship is full of soldiers, which slows down the speed and weakens the combat capability. But at this time, the entire fleet is located on the sea near Germe, so it is difficult to retreat. The small and simple port in the small town of Germe cannot accommodate the Sicilian fleet at all.

Under such circumstances, he will inevitably panic. He tried his best to calm himself down, and then issued the first order: "Raise the flag of Apollo and sound the bugle!"

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

The warships in front of the flagship heard the sound of bugles and saw the flying flags.

The slogan of the Apollo Banner is: Focus on the flagship, move closer to it, and shorten the distance between warships and warships to facilitate command and defense.

Mirtias’s thoughts at this time are: Now that the fleet is full of soldiers, it is not conducive to combat, and his flagship is located closer to Silinus, when all the warships approach him, if this unfamiliar If his fleet really launches an offensive, then he can lead the fleet back to Selinus first.

The distance that the Dionian fleet extends over the sea is too long, especially the warship at the front. The watcher can neither see the flag on the rear flagship nor the clippers cruising behind. They can only make corresponding changes after seeing the warship behind them making tactical maneuvers, and the transmission of this kind of news seems a bit slow at this critical moment.

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The Clippers that Sekrian took was the first to go, and it was already a little away from the entire fleet. Since he was sitting on the bow after he got on the ship, the crew saw that he was in a bad mood and no one dared to board. Bother him, the whole ship is very quiet.

At this moment, he suddenly condensed, touched his ears, and asked the captain who was watching the sea conditions: "Did you hear it? There seems to be a bugle."

The captain shook his head blankly, listened for a while, and then answered truthfully: "My lord, I didn't hear it."

The captain's words didn't make Seklyan at ease. He stood up, looked at the rear, and then raised his head and asked, "What's wrong with the warship behind?"

After a while, the looker at the top of the mast replied: "They haven't changed much."

"My lord, you may have heard it wrong." The captain said.

Sekrian was unheard of, there was a kind of anxiety in his heart, perhaps this kind of anxiety was buried when he learned that Mirtias had filled the entire fleet with soldiers without escorting warships, but Now this feeling has become stronger.

He stopped hesitating, and said decisively: "Turn around and drive back to have a look."

The captain complained a bit in his heart for his suspicion, but he did not dare to express his opposition in person. After all, Sekrian was a hero worshipped by the navy commander, the victorious general and the crew, and his prestige was too high.

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Just as the Dionia warships turned around and returned one after another, the fleet was also approaching the Sicilian fleet, and there were many small black spots in Mirtias's vision, which made him feel frightened.

At this moment, he heard the exclaim of the watchman at the top of the mast: "Two yellow flags! Two yellow flags have been raised! It's the enemy! It's the enemy!!..."

The last fluke in Mirtias's heart was shattered, and now the other warships have not fully approached, it is too late to retreat back to Silinus. Fortunately, while waiting, he already has a plan. : "Blow the bugle again, let the warships dock at the nearest beach, lay down the soldiers, and then return to fight!"

Of course, these latter words cannot be expressed in semaphores, so his flagship must set an example and let other warships follow suit, so after giving the order, this flagship sailed straight to the coast.

The Dionian Clippers cruised on the southeast side of the fleet actually didn’t know the incoming fleet, but as the opposing warship continued to approach, the formation slowly spread, the sails lowered, and the oars began to accelerate. Sliding, this is the standard process of preparing the fleet before entering the battle, of course the enemy is undoubtedly.

It turned out that this fleet did not come from Carthage, but from the Phoenician region of the Eastern Mediterranean. Since the storm destroyed the Carthage’s navy, the Carthaginians completely lost their maritime superiority. The Dionian Sicilian fleet was rampant at sea, not only cutting off the connection between Carthage and Sicily, but also beginning to threaten Carthage. The city’s maritime trade. At this time of life and death, while Carthage stepped up to build new warships, he also thought of his motherland.