Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 297: Flanking before and after the Sarros naval battle

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"Woo!..." The bugle blew, and two long cloth ribbons, one red and one black, quickly fluttered on the top of the flagship's main mast.

The other warships also saw the warning flags ahead. At this time, the flagship sent out an offensive message. The originally dull fleet suddenly began to lively. Commands from the captain, reminders from watchers, and chants from sailors. The sound was continuously broadcast from various ships, causing the formation of the entire fleet to begin to change.

The third fleet is no longer a column of four-way warships, but quickly expands forward and to the two wings. The space between the ships in the horizontal formation is widened, and the space between the ships in the column is narrowed, and the entire fleet The formation has changed from a long snake to a wild goose spreading its wings. The warships of the Third Fleet, which have been established for nearly a decade, are arranging in an array at an extremely skillful and tacit speed. At the same time, they are constantly shortening and facing each other. The distance of the Carthage fleet.

At this time, the Carthage fleet’s flagship is the Carthage Admiral Annobas. The appearance of the Dionian fleet in this area surprised him: Did the Dionians see through us? Lure the enemy plan? !

"My lord, shall we temporarily avoid it?" the captain of the flagship asked cautiously.

Annobas looked ahead, pondered for a moment, and then decisively said: "Although something is not in line with our plan, the Dionians are still in a disadvantageous situation. As long as we stop them, the final Victory must belong to us!"

"My lord, but Admika, will they be able to arrive in time..." The captain said vaguely.

Annobas understood what he meant, and said in a deep voice: "This naval battle is very important to Carthage! It is also very important to Lord Margo! Admiral must understand its importance, he I will do my best!"

Speaking of this, Annobas gave a loud order: "Round up, prepare to fight!"

After the order was issued, Annobus looked up at the scorching sun above his head with a bit of disgust, and got up and went down into the cabin.

In order to save time and build more warships, the shipyards of Carthage and the allied countries temporarily abandoned the construction of four-layer paddle warships and large flagships, so the flagship that Annobas was riding was only three The layered paddle warship was modified without a ship building, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.

The circular formation is a defensive ship formation. The warships are arranged in a circular shape. The space between the warships is relatively close. Only the bow is outward, and both sides and the rear are protected by your own warships, just like A hedgehog shrunk into a ball with spikes erected, making the attacking enemy ship nowhere to lay its mouth.

Although the circle formation has the disadvantage of slowing the movement of the ships in the formation, its super defensive power is exactly what Annobas needs at the moment. After all, he has experienced the last time with Dionia The great sea battle of the Sicilian Fleet had lingering fears about the attacking power of the Dionian ships, so I wanted to delay the time with the round formation first, in order to wait for the arrival of favorable fighters.

Compared with other ship formations, the round array is not only much more difficult to arrange, but also takes longer. Just when the Carthage ships received orders from their flagships, and under the command of the captains, began to gather towards the Carthage flagships, the Dionian Third Fleet had already launched an offensive.

All the warships of the Third Fleet have lowered their sails, and the raven warships have also been fitted with drawbridges. After hearing the order to attack, all sailors were all excited, and they quickly carried them with them. The ration was stuffed into the mouth, while chewing, while listening to the command of the captain and piper, he manipulated the oars and kept increasing the speed of the oars.

At this moment, the watchman on the main mast of the flagship shouted in panic: "General, there is a warning from the rear warship! Double yellow flags! There are enemy ships, and the number of ships is about the same as ours!"

Midolades's heart tightened, and some doubts in his heart were immediately solved: Why didn't the Carthage merchant ship flee along the coast, but to the dangerous sea? Why these Carthage merchant ships, which seem to be loaded with cargo, can maintain a faster ship speed and possess superb ship handling skills? ...This is the strategy of the Carthage fleet! They had warships lying in ambush in the far seas, using merchant ships to lure us there. When they were at war with us, another fleet came from behind and flanked on both sides. In addition, warships in the far sea were not conducive to the performance of the Raven warship. The Three Fleet is very likely to suffer a disastrous defeat!

Midolades felt terrified, and he was thankful that his last failure kept him vigilant.

"General, what should I do?! Do you want the first squadron behind to turn around and stop?!" the captain asked nervously.

Facing a crisis, perhaps because I was fortunate to have escaped, Midolades's mind was very clear at this moment. He shook his head and said in a deep voice: "The number of enemy ships is nearly twice as many as his own. , The division of forces will only weaken our offensive power... Now the enemy in the rear has just been discovered, at least three miles away from us, and the enemy in front is already close at hand—"

He paused for a while, his eyes became firm, and his tone suddenly became fierce: "Two more red flags are raised! All warships are not allowed to make any stops, rush me all!"

Three red and one black cloth strips are flying on the top of the main mast of the flagship. For the other warships that saw the warning on the rear warship before, it eliminated the hesitation and hesitation in their hearts, and for the warship that was approaching the enemy front. In other words, this is even more of a heart attack: offense! Attack again! Fight to the end!

Inspired by the captain, every sailor's fighting spirit was soaring, and the speed of the oars soared, causing every warship to shoot at the Carthage array like an arrow from the string.

The crow warship was rushing towards the enemy ship. When the two ships were very close, the sailors immediately put away the oars. The warship glide forward by inertia under the control of the helmsman, and the controller on the deck Holding tightly to the axle of the rotating suspension bridge, when the two ships were about to collide, the operator pressed the handle, and the suspension bridge quickly slammed down to the bow of the other party. The sound of the "boom" made the stern of both sides jump up at the same time. The sailors inside were stumbling and falling into one piece.

The infantrymen in the Raven battleship tried their best to control their bodies, rushed from the cabin to the deck, and quickly rushed across the suspension bridge. There were only a few soldiers and archers on the opposing warship. Facing the heavily armed infantry of the fleet, the resistance of the Carthage sailors was destined to be a tragedy.

When the screams came from the front from time to time, Annobas suddenly realized that he had made a huge mistake: The circle formation is indeed the best ship defense formation, but it is for the same control routine. The enemy of the three-tiered paddle warship, and he is now facing the Dionian Navy, which is good at hooking up ships with drawbridges and carrying out gang jump operations. The ships are arranged in a circle and are inconvenient to move and become the target of the opponent's wanton attack.

At this moment, Annobas regretted it, and instead vented his resentment to the captain: "Why didn't you remind me just now?!"

The captain was speechless, because he, like Annobas, had been influenced by traditional naval tactics for a long time. In the case of encountering an enemy just now, he would instinctively choose the most suitable tactics to deal with. That is to say, he just thought that the strategy adopted by Annobas was correct, so he did not express opposition, but he forgot that what they encountered was an enemy that did not follow conventional naval tactics at all. The main reason is that Annobas has only fought with the Dionian Navy once, and they are not very impressed with the tactics of their fleet.

"Quick! Quick! Quickly sound the retreating bugle! Let the warships avoid each other!" Annobas shouted angrily.

The captain was taken aback for a moment: "My lord, shall we stop holding on for a while?! Admika and the others may be here soon!"

"When Admika arrives, our fleet will probably be over!" Annobas roared furiously, forgetting what he had just said before, because of the Dionia fleet in front of him, He didn't know at this time that Admika was heading the fleet hurriedly.

The Carthage navy is not like the Dionian navy. It has developed a complex semaphore system after Davos’s point of reference, which can convey commands in a timely and clear manner. However, the Carthage navy has been at sea for hundreds of years. It also has its own set of methods for communicating orders at sea.

The ten trumpeters on the flagship deck sounded the retreat trumpets at the same time, and the rapid trumpets surged out in all directions.

Although the circle formation of the Carthage fleet has not been completely completed, the warships are moving closer to the flagship, and it happens to be able to hear the horn clearly. But it is impossible to execute this order immediately and make the entire fleet retreat immediately, because this is a circular formation, and the outer warships must retreat first to make room for the inner warships to retreat.

However, the warships of the Dionian 3rd Fleet rushed across the line quickly, and within a short time they were in full contact with half of the periphery of the Carthage circle.

Under the swift and fierce attack of the Dionian warships, it is not easy to retreat smoothly. Now the warships in the forefront see that the friendly ships in front of the battle are successively hooked by the draw bridges of the enemy ships. , And then the soldiers of the Dionian fleet slammed on the deck like wolves, and then screamed. The Carthage crew were all frightened and followed in their footsteps. The sound of the retreat trumpet made them relieved and turned around and retreated. As a result, the internal space of the already narrow circular array became narrower, which affected the speed of the warship's retreat.

At this moment, Annobas, who was regretting it, suddenly stopped complaining, and said uncertainly to the captain of the flagship: "I seem to have heard our offensive horn!"

The captain was taken aback and immediately listened.

At this moment, the looker on the mast shouted loudly: "A fleet has appeared behind the Dionian fleet! It is our fleet! Lord Admika has arrived!"

Annobus swept away the previous depression. The Admika he used to hate and despise became his most welcome object at this moment. He shouted excitedly: "Admika did a good job! Quick! Quick order. All warships stop retreating! Attack the enemy immediately!"