Mediterranean Hegemon of Ancient Greece Chapter 86: The Battle of Cerro Diham (1)

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After receiving the order of Hasdruba, the Iberian infantry carried rations and weapons and began to cross the mountains to the south. And Hasdruba continued to attack Cerro Diham to attract the attention of the defenders.

The Iberian infantry crossed the mountains and circled a large circle. In the early morning of the third day, they appeared at the mountain pass behind the city of Cerro Diham. The Leah infantry quickly fell under the attack, and then the Iberians quickly approached the east of Cerro Diham.

The Cerro Diam people quickly learned the news that "the enemy appeared behind" and were very panicked. Because they were reminded by the Dionians, they only concentrated their hands on strengthening the west wall within a limited time. For the east wall, they only had time to make simple repairs. The wall was not only short, but also not outside the city. Do any defensive facilities, but they are lucky and think that it is impossible to be attacked by the Carthaginians in this direction. After all, this is already in the sphere of influence of the friendly city-state of Dionians, and they may be reinforced by the Dionians at any time. , If the Carthaginians want to land here, they will take a great risk. As for the Carthaginians, if they want to climb over the mountains, the towering mountains are not so easy to climb, and the Carthaginians are not in this respect. not good at. But they didn't expect that their most worried thing happened.

At this time, Hasdruba’s army also launched a strong offensive against the Cerro Diham wall in the west. The Cerro Diham defenders immediately appeared to be under-strengthened, and they had a premonition of a critical situation. They hurriedly organized all the citizens who were able to fight to defend the city. At the same time, they sent people to the port to take a fast boat and rushed 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, Dionian Clippers are patrolling and observing the battle every day. When they saw Carthage’s army appearing to the east of Cerro Diham, they realized that the situation was not good and immediately returned to Messina. So when the messenger of Cerro Diham came to ask for help, The chief executive of Messina, Ami Kris, has organized the fleet to set off for rescue.

Along with the Third Fleet. After the Carthaginians divided the army into two parts and attacked eastward from the north and south coasts at the same time, Sekrian had to divide his Sicilian fleet into two parts. The first fleet was in Catania and the second The Three Fleet was in Messina. As the war progressed, most of the ships of the First Fleet later moved into the naval port of Gela. This was done to prevent the Carthage’s fleet from assisting the army on the two coasts in time. Landing behind the friendly city-state of Dionia can also protect the fleet of luggage or refugees in time. This time the Third Fleet was dispatched for a later purpose.

When Dionia's fleet rushed to the sea near Cerro Diham, the defense of the eastern wall of Cerro Diham was broken by the Iberian infantry, and the citizens had to abandon the wall. Some of the defenses retreated to guard the city, and some retreated to the port.

Fortunately, when Cerro Diham was built, although the port was included in the city, it was separated by a wall. The original purpose was to prevent slaves and free citizens from entering and leaving the city at will. It disrupted the order in the city, and now it plays a key role.

Sero Diham civic soldiers deployed the port city wall in advance, and also destroyed the stone ladder on the upper city wall, blocking the entrance and exit of the port. After all, this city wall mainly prevents the enemy from the port from entering the city. They only hope to be able to Buy time for the people to escape from the port.

After the ships that originally stayed in the port were full of Cerro Diham people, they left quickly one after another, and Dionia's fleet also quickly entered the port and continued to stay at the pier, The panicked people picked it up, and some ships from Tindaris, Caleacte, and Haluntium also came to the rescue, although the scene was a bit chaotic, and there were even ships colliding. , The overthrow happened, but at this moment, all the sailors of the Greek city-states on the north coast were working together to rescue. There was only one thought in their minds: to rescue the people of Cerro Diam as soon as possible to avoid being affected by the Carthaginians. Slaughter.

Serodiham is not a big city, and the population is not large. Soon the old, young, women and children got on the boat and began to load the citizens who arrived at the dock...

The warships of the Third Fleet are displayed on the sea west of the port to prevent the sudden attack of the Carthage Fleet. The Clippers arrived and reported to the third Fleet Commander Flarios on the flagship: "The people of Cerro Diham in the port have all boarded."

Flarius nodded and said that he knew that he couldn’t bring up much energy for such a risk-free **** mission. It was not that he had not considered letting the fleet of infantry on the Raven ship land in the port to assist Cerrodia. The Mu defended the port, but after understanding the actual situation, he gave up this idea. He did not think that the 4000 infantrymen of the fleet could block the attack of the 20,000 enemies who were about to break through the city only by relying on the weak wall. The loss of the infantry in the fleet is not worth it in this unimportant place.

"After the fleet has left, we will return." Frinhos had just delivered the order.

Suddenly, the looker on the mast shouted: "General, there is an enemy ahead!"

Flarios felt tight and looked up into the distance, passing through the gaps of multiple warships, and saw two yellow flags floating on the top of the mast of the most western warship.

It’s Carthage’s fleet, the number of ships is about the same as ours...Flarius immediately made a judgment based on the flag (a yellow flag means there is an enemy, a yellow flag means that the number of enemy fleets is less than Dionia On one side, two yellow flags indicate that the number of both sides is approximately equal, three yellow flags indicate that there are more enemy ships than the Dionian fleet, and four yellow flags indicate that the number of enemy ships far exceeds).

Flarioston was energetic, and he immediately changed his order: "Blow the bugle and raise the black flag!"

Above the flagship, five trumpeters simultaneously blew the curved bronze horns, resounding across this sea area, and long black flags fluttered high on the masts.

"Under the dark night, there must be stars." The gypsophila is the most typical tactic of the Dionian Navy, which can maximize the power of the Raven ship. The built navy defeated the mighty Syracuse navy. But after ten years of development, this tactic has undergone new changes due to the change in the composition of the fleet of warships, and he is in need of a big battle to verify its effectiveness.

The captains and crews of all warships were immediately excited after receiving the instructions: the deck operator began to lift the suspension bridge on the deck to the fore mast for placement; the helmsman adjusted the direction of the warship and began to line up Formation; the sailors began to swallow rations and grease the cushions; the infantrymen sitting in the aisle of the bottom bin began to wear armor...Everyone was gearing up, waiting anxiously for the arrival of this naval battle.

……………………………………………

The fleet coming from the west is from Iberia, and to be precise, it is under the jurisdiction of Iberian Governor Margo.

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

After Margo became the governor of Iberia, he did not have the right to rule the fleet at first. In fact, in the process of conquering southern Iberia, most of the time was not spent on the fleet, but Margo considered the future, When the army is used for combat in other places, it will be a big trouble to transport troops by sea without the protection of the fleet. However, if you want to mobilize the Carthage fleet to Iberia, it will definitely be blocked by the Senate headed by Hanno. , So he decided to use the money he earned in Iberia and Iberian trees to build his own fleet.

A few years later, an Iberian fleet consisting of 120 three-layer paddle warships, plus small and medium-sized warships, and a total of 180 warships was established. Its commander was Admika of the Magonid family. Half of the sailors came from the Phoenician city-states, and the rest came from Numibia and Mauritania. None of them were from Carthage. The fleet soon crisscrossed the Iberian coast and near the Pillar of Hercules.

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

This was strongly opposed by Admica. He said: "Master Margot just agreed to let the army units accept the command of Monte Adeno, and did not say that the fleet should also accept the command of the Carthage Navy."

And Annobas retorted: "Since they are all Carthage's armies, of course they must be under unified command. This is good for the battle! It is good for Carthage!"

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

In the end, the lawsuit reached the Senate, and the Senate had to send someone to discuss with Margo again, and tedious negotiations started again. The two fleets, one docked at Carthage and the other docked at Lilibo, are in a stalemate. This is why Monte Adeno has never seen a Carthage fleet appearing on the sea near the south coast of Sicily. The reason for the troop escort.

Until Hasdruba learned of this, he asked the fleet to come and help him on the grounds that he was about to capture the city of Cerro Diam to prevent the enemy from escaping from the sea. This is why the Iberian fleet happened to The reason for appearing here.