Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 240: East Phoenician Fleet

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Carthage’s mother, Tyre, received help from the Carthage’s messenger, and did not neglect, and quickly contacted other nearby Phoenician city-states, such as Sidon, Akka, and Awadi, and they finally agreed to help Carthage, after all, the Phoenicians under Persian rule over the past few years have been able to live more comfortably, one of the main reasons is that they worship a large amount of gold and silver to the Persian royal court every year, and these gold and silver are mainly It was traded to them by Carthage at a lower price.

Don’t look at the Phoenician city-states to which the Persian Kingdom belongs, and the territory is small, but they have hundreds of warships. Because the Persians are inland and are not good at sailing, their navy is made up of foreign races. The people provided were mainly from the Phoenicians and Greeks in Asia Minor. In recent years, the Persian king has been determined to retake Egypt and has been preparing for war. The Phoenicians are the main force of the Persian navy and do not lack training.

But there is an important question. The Phoenician city-states in the Eastern Mediterranean were under Persian rule, and their warships belonged to the Persian Navy. Of course, it was impossible for them to leave privately and go to the Western Mediterranean, so Tyre, Sidon... Envoys must also be sent to the Persian royal court to obtain permission from the Persian king Artaxerxes.

Since the signing of the Great King’s contract, Persia’s greatest enemy, the Greek city-states, has not only ceased to be enemies of Persia, but instead allowed Persia to act as an arbitrator to mediate conflicts and disputes between the Greek city-states, which is equivalent to expressing surrender to Persia. Artaxerxes consciously achieved great feats that the great kings failed to achieve. In addition, at this time, the political situation in Persia was stable, and his throne was very stable. Therefore, he was full of ambitions and thought quietly. Moved and ordered an attack on Egypt. Although it suffered a small setback, it did not hurt.

Under his order, the kingdom is making more preparations to attack Egypt.

Tyl's messenger met Artaxerxes and conveyed to him the Phoenician request.

This is not the first time Artaxerxes has heard the name "Dionia". Although the two countries are separated by thousands of miles, the prosperous sea trade in the Mediterranean also makes the news spread very quickly. The magical story of the rapid rise of the Kingdom of Asia is also widely spread in Asia Minor, and naturally also in Persia.

The Persian king Artaxerxes began to pay attention to this newly emerging kingdom in the far west because his intelligence agency discovered that Dionia was originally a country established by the Greek mercenaries who followed the rebellion of Cyrus. After all, the story of the Greek mercenaries who fought for thousands of miles in Persia and finally escaped smoothly is popular in Greece and spread in Asia Minor, but it is a shame for Artaxerxes and his Persian army.

Under the further investigation of the royal intelligence department, Artaxerxes learned more. For example, he knew that the Kingdom of Dionian was more tolerant to foreign gods and religions like Persia; he knew Dionian Like Persia, the kingdom exercised stricter control over the conquered land; he even knew that Dionian and Egypt had formed a military alliance not long ago... So in the heart of Artaxerxes, the kingdom of Dionian It's the enemy of Persia, but the country is too far apart and its strength is too insignificant (Altaxerxes and many Persian officials think so), so I didn't take it too seriously in the past.

But now that there is something involving Dionia, Artaxerxes is of course willing to make some trouble for it, so he did not think much about it, and agreed to "the Phoenicians send a fleet to assist Carthage." One thing, and generously allowed them to play the Persian banner if necessary.

With the promise of the King of Persia, the Eastern Phoenicians quickly dispatched a fleet of 130 large and small warships, including 90 three-layer paddle warships and 30 cargo ships carrying food supplies. Under the banner of the Persian Navy, the fleet traveled unimpeded along the coast of Asia Minor all the way west. Seeing the Greek city-states of this fleet along the way, they felt a little nervous, and they all speculated in secret: What major military operations did the Persians have?

The most nervous one is undoubtedly the Athenians, because at this time it is uniting with Thebes against Sparta, and the Persian fleet is sailing westward at this time. They can’t help but panic: Does Persia want to support Sparta? , Join the war? If so, the outlook for Athens will be very bad!

The East Phoenician fleet is like a stone falling into a water bottle, causing waves, but it has not attracted much attention from the Dionians, because Dionians are doing their best to deal with several wars. For the time being, there is no energy to focus on the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Dionians believe that it is impossible for the Persian fleet to attack the Western Mediterranean. Let them disturb the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean as much as possible.

Furthermore, it is approaching autumn, and the farmland in Dionia is about to receive a bumper harvest. The merchants of the kingdom no longer buy food from the Eastern Mediterranean, but instead mobilize a lot of manpower to flock to the Latium region of central Italy in an attempt Obtaining new business opportunities and gaining more profits in this kingdom’s newly conquered land. Naturally, the number of Dionian merchant ships that shuttled through the trade routes of the Eastern Mediterranean was greatly reduced. This also enabled the Ministry of Military Affairs to obtain information about this Persian fleet. Not much information.

Later, the westbound East Phoenician fleet called at the port of Kydonia on the island of Crete, which made the Athenians nervous, because the city-states of Crete were allies of Sparta. Kadonia is closer to the mainland side of Greece.

But a few days later, the Athenians got the news that "this Persian fleet has disappeared in Crete", which puzzled them, but then it was true that no one saw the fleet on the coast of mainland Greece. .

In fact, after the East Phoenician fleet was rehabilitated in Kedonia, it took advantage of the strong north wind blowing on the sea one day and quietly sailed out of the port to the southwest, avoiding the usual routes frequented by Greek merchant ships. , Arrived at Sparta’s son Bonsirenaica, and then along the coast of Africa, continued westward to the easternmost colonial city of Phoenicians in the African colony of Leptis (leptis).

After arriving here and receiving a warm welcome from the townspeople, the crew of the Phoenician fleet relaxed. The fleet continued westward and finally reached Hadrumetum.

This Phoenician city-state attached to Carthage is just south of Carthage, but few foreign merchant ships visit it. After the Phoenician fleet stays in the port, it doesn’t go west anymore because of its shrewdness. After talking with their compatriots along the way, the Eastern Phoenicians realized that the Dionian navy they were about to fight with was strong, so they refused to enter the city of Carthage to avoid being unable to shirk the pleading of the Carthaginians. Forced to confront the Carthage navy head-on, but wanted to choose the timing of the attack.

Of course, there is one more reason not to say. Although the East Phoenicians have close business and trade relations with Carthage, for decades, the two sides have rarely conducted high-level political and military exchanges. On the one hand, Because of Persia, on the other hand, the Eastern Phoenicians (especially the Tyre nobles) have always cared about Carthage, which had taken away all their colonial trading points in the Western Mediterranean, and did not want to enter Carthage— -This city is called "the center of the Siphonian".

Later, the Eastern Phoenician fleet staying at Hadrummetum refused to provide escorts for the Carthage army to land in Sicily, because that would inevitably mean that they would withstand the crazy attack of the Dionian Navy.

Until the Carthage army ventured to land in Sicily, the attention of the Dionian Navy was focused on western Sicily. At the suggestion of the Carthage commander-in-chief Margo, the Carthage Senate and the Eastern Phoenician fleet passed by After discussion, they finally agreed to Margot's plan.

The fleet quietly left Hadrummetum, sailed north, and barely moved into kossyra.

Kosula is a small island affiliated with Carthage. There is a Carthage town with about 2,000 people and a small port located in the south of the island. This island is located between Sicily and Carthage, facing the city of Serinus to the north.

The Eastern Phoenician fleet was crowded on the island of Corsula. After a few days, the Clippers sent out to investigate brought back the news. As Margo expected, Dionian’s warship was leaving the port with a full load of soldiers. !

How did the Eastern Phoenician fleet miss this great opportunity to destroy the enemy, so the warship left the port, raised its sails, sailed north by the weak south wind, and finally caught up with the Dionia fleet in time .

The Eastern Phoenician warship lowered its sails and began to accelerate the speed of the paddle. The entire fleet gradually spread to both sides as they advanced, but they did not implement any special tactics. The situation of the Dionian fleet ahead was not worth it. They waste time arranging tactics. They just try to increase the number of front ships as much as possible, striving to sink enough enemy ships in the first impact.

The Dionian Clippers, currently in the outer guard position, have raised two yellow flags one by one from west to east. Rough information about the enemy's situation has spread throughout the team, near the flagship of Mirtias. It has already begun to retreat to the coast, but the easternmost warship has just received the signal to "close to the flagship". The entire fleet is organized in chaos, unable to coordinate, and the warship has almost lost combat capability, making the crew panicked and demoralized. .

…………………………………………

At this moment, Sekrian, who had already known the enemy's situation, commanded the Clippers to catch up with a three-tiered paddle warship that was returning, and then he anxiously ordered: The Clippers approached immediately.

Then, standing on the bow, he shouted: "I am Sekrian, who is the captain of this ship?!"

As soon as his voice fell, a noisy exclamation sounded in the cabin of the opposite warship: "Did you hear it? It's Master Sekrian's voice!"